Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 06, 2024

06/06 Links Pt2: The Middle East’s fateful moment; The Attempt to Deny the Legal, Historical, and National Rights of the Jewish People; The Child Soldiers of Portlandia

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Middle East’s fateful moment

The West refused to see that the Palestinian cause was the principal means by which the Islamists realized they could destroy Israel and conquer the free world for Islam. The Palestinian cause has accordingly brought together the Sunni Muslim Brotherhood—whose military wing consists of Hamas, Al-Qaeda and ISIS—and the Shi’ite fanatics of Iran.

The most lethal component of this infernal alliance is Iran because it has become a regional hegemon. And it is America that has enabled that to happen.

As president, Obama viewed Iran as an essential component of a new Middle East order. The aim was apparently a balance of powers in the region which would ensure that everyone was forced to rub along with each other.

The strategy of taming Iran by bringing it in from the cold led to the 2015 nuclear deal which, falsely claiming to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, explicitly legitimized such a development after only a few years delay and funneled billions in sanctions relief into Tehran’s war chest.

This was the equivalent not only of giving a box of matches to an arsonist but providing the kerosene and the dry tinder as well.

The Biden administration has continued with the kumbaya liberal fantasy that genocidal fanaticism can be neutralized by negotiated concessions. In practice, this appeasement of the implacable and unconscionable means letting Israel swing in the murderous winds of the Palestinian and Iranian agendas.

Virtually none of this is understood by the Western public whose media and leaders, in cahoots with the Hamas-compliant international human rights and humanitarian establishment, have instead demonized Israel and incited hatred of the Jews with malicious falsehoods about Israel’s conduct in Gaza.

People in the West have been indoctrinated by the BBC, The New York Times and others that Israel is the reason for the war in Gaza, Israel is the problem and this crisis is all Israel’s fault.

They have heard virtually nothing about Hezbollah’s daily rocket and missile attacks. They are told nothing about the plight of tens of thousands of Israelis who have been displaced from their homes in northern Israel by the war and been made refugees in their own country. They saw almost no reports at all of the fires that consumed northern Israel this week.

Consequently, when Israel goes to war in Lebanon to defend its people against annihilation it will be vilified and demonized even more intensely as the region’s aggressor.

But it is in fact Biden and Obama’s America, whose delusional fantasies facilitated the Oct. 7 pogrom, empowered the enemies of civilization and are hanging Israel out to dry, that is now leading the world into a terrible war.

Bassam Tawil: Palestinian Libels Against Jews: No Difference Between Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas

The only problem is: the claim [that Jews are trying to take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque] is not true. Of course, there are no such plans. These plans only exist in the deranged imaginations of the Palestinian leaders fabricating the accusations against the Jews. In fact, it was Israel's Defense Minister Moshe Dayan who gave control over the Temple Mount to the Islamic Wakf authorities in 1967.

In reality, Arafat had agreed that non-Muslims may, at certain times, tour the exterior of the Al-Aqsa Mosque -- the gardens and patios -- as long as they do not go inside and pray there.

Abbas and his media nevertheless continue to portray the peaceful visits by Jews to the Temple Mount as violent incursions. On June 5, 2024, Abbas's official news agency Wafa reported: "Hundreds of Israeli colonists today broke into the compound of Al-Aqsa Mosque...[they] raided the holy Islamic Mosque from al-Maghariba Gate and took provocative tours in its compounds."

Needless to say, Abbas is again lying: no Jew had "raided" or "broken into" the mosque.

The Biden administration and some European countries that want to give the Palestinians a state fail to recognize that, when it comes to rejecting Israel's right to exist as the homeland of the Jewish people and denying any Jewish link to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount, there is no real difference between Abbas and Hamas. If anyone is desecrating the Al-Aqsa Mosque, it is Palestinians who are using it to justify murder -- of Jews.

How Israel Remains Sane under Pressure

In the past decade, U.S. political discourse has become increasingly shrill, while social cohesion appears to be fraying. By contrast, Israel—part of which is literally on fire—has been fighting its longest and most harrowing war since 1948, yet society seems to be functioning quite well. Cole Aronson makes the case that Israel is the “saner” of two countries.

The Iranian fusillade in the early hours of April 14 was Israel’s scariest moment since October 7. . . . But ten hours later, the two large supermarkets near my apartment were full of diapers, milk, bread, and eggs. The mall had four floors of squealing kids. No surge in crime, no looting, no riots. The largest missile and drone launch in history, and Israel didn’t even have to muddle through. It could just carry on.

While some of its detractors have tried to portray Israel as a “nation gone mad,” Aronson notes that this is not at all so:

Israelis are brusque and they are sometimes even frantic. But they deal rationally with danger, which is to say they can distinguish real threats and harms from fake ones. The industriousness with which coastal Americans manufacture and perform grievances is not a habit of Israel’s public character. Israelis resent hypocrisy and they grumble about their elites. But revolution is not popularly demanded, statues aren’t torn down, memorials aren’t desecrated, the nation’s founders aren’t contemned. Israelis pay dearly to govern themselves, and so can’t afford civic disdain.

Americans live free from armed invaders under a masterful, basically peaceful constitutional system. Things have been good for a long time. The republic’s achievements seem commonplace, so commonplace they aren’t even recognized as achievements. . . . America has responded to its generous inheritance with a listless hysteria.

06/06 Links Pt1: Who's Really Prolonging the Gaza War?; Israel’s Two-Front Crisis; IDF says 20-30 terrorists were in targeted UNRWA school

From Ian:

WSJ Editorial: Who's Really Prolonging the Gaza War?

After Oct. 7, President Biden told Israel to scale down its ground invasion of Gaza. Then he supported Egypt's decision to trap Gazans in the war zone. When the Israelis defeated Hamas in northern Gaza, he pressured Israel to "shift to the next phase" by sending most troops home and fighting with less firepower in southern Gaza. Israel did so, and it very slowly won in Khan Yunis.

Next, Mr. Biden tried to stop Israel from invading Rafah. He cut off weapons as leverage. Israel eventually invaded Rafah, but with fewer troops to satisfy the President. That means a slower operation. His decision to pressure Israel, while going soft on mediators Egypt and Qatar, has also given Hamas reason to draw out hostage talks and continue the war.

John Podhoretz: Israel’s Two-Front Crisis

Joe Biden did something extraordinarily beneficial at the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war: He moved two aircraft carriers to the Mediterranean and parked them right off the shores of Lebanon. The purpose was unmistakable. America was telling Hezbollah to keep quiet and stay out of it while Israel went to war with Hamas down south. It didn’t quite work, since intermittent rocketry still led Israel to evacuate much of its northernmost population. But it worked well enough.

Something happened quietly a few months ago. The carriers left. The USS Gerald Ford returned to Norfolk. The USS Eisenhower was redeployed to the Red Sea to deal with the shipping crisis. And guess what? Without American deterrence, Hezbollah has been emboldened, the more so as time has gone on.

Another 70,000 Israelis have been newly evacuated from the North as bombardments from Lebanon have become extraordinarily savage. The town of Kiryat Shmoneh is on fire. A Druze village was unmercifully attacked. Israel is wracked with uncertainty. It cannot allow Hezbollah’s depradations to continue. It must respond. It must restore deterrence by raising the cost to Hezbollah of its actions. But it’s still got Rafah to finish. And it’s still trying to navigate the weird situation of the past two weeks, in which an “Israeli proposal” for a ceasefire and hostage release created a new sense of urgency for negotiations with Hamas—a proposal offered and re-offered that Hamas has, by my count, now rejected five different times.

Joe Biden made this all public with his strange speech “accepting” Israel’s proposal to which he then doodled a conclusion on top that said “end of war end of war” like Annette Funicello in a beach party movie writing “Mrs Frankie Avalon” over and over on her chemistry notebook. For nearly two weeks now, America has said the ball is in Hamas’ court because the Israeli proposal is so good (while Biden and others say Bibi wants to keep the war going because he’s mean or something). Hamas has replied, in effect, “well, if it’s in our court, we’re keeping the ball. Drop dead.” And still the Bidenites keep on, insisting if Hamas wants a good future for the Palestinian people it will accept the deal. What does Hamas have to do to convince these supposed experts that it has no interest in a “good future for the Palestinian people”—that what it wants are dead Jews and a crippled Israel on its way to destruction?

No matter. The tattered coat upon a stick who resides in the White House has grabbed onto this “proposal” like a walker and will not let go. And the fact that Biden and his people are doing what they can to prevent Israel from finishing its work has given Hezbollah the opportunity to open what appears to be a second front against Israel in this proxy war whose real master is in Tehran.

Daniel Henninger (WSJ): Don't Blame Israel First

As reports come out of the Biden administration about ceasefire talks between Israel and Hamas, bear in mind that the goal of one side in the discussions remains the elimination of the sovereign nation of Israel.

Ali Khamenei, supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, whose wealth subsidizes Hamas's military operations, has said, "The perpetual subject of Iran is the elimination of Israel from the region."

The debate over the terms of the current Israel-Hamas ceasefire proposals turns mainly on whether a stop to the fighting would be permanent or temporary, following a hostage and prisoner exchange.

The Biden administration's proposal for a six-week ceasefire includes the withdrawal of Israeli forces from populated areas in Gaza. Such a departure surely would be interpreted as a victory for Hamas.

Hamas's military leader, Yahya Sinwar, the primary architect of the Oct. 7 invasion, apparently believes he has Israel bogged down in a quagmire and that international opinion has turned the Jewish state into a pariah, pushing the Israelis toward a settlement on his terms.

A belief has emerged in what passes for world opinion that if Mr. Netanyahu can be forced out of office, a "moderate" Israeli leadership will emerge, and somehow the war will end. Yet the assumption that any successor Israeli government would allow the Sinwar-led Hamas to emerge intact in Gaza is incredible.

The debate over the Israel-Hamas war has fallen deeply into a moral imbalance. The conflict has little hope of changing until the statements of foreign leaders, analysts, the media and Mr. Biden begin to impose serious political and moral pressure on the man who put this horror in motion: Hamas commander Yahya Sinwar. Blame him first.

Australian Green Party leader Adam Bandt:

Failed American Floating Pier Polling Ahead Of All Knesset Parties, Candidates (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Ashdod, June 6 - A Biden administration public relations boondoggle that failed in its stated purpose and would up drifting away from its intended zone amid poor planning and poorer execution still proves more popular among Israeli voters than the existing legislative factions and lawmakers, recent surveys confirmed today.

The floating pier that White House and State Department officials touted in March to relive humanitarian suffering in the Gaza Strip, operated only briefly until several weeks ago when tidal and other weather forces severed its moorings and send it floating north. Recovery and reinstallation on the Gaza shore could take several more days. Despite the debacle, the facility - which could only supply a fraction of the aid already entering the coastal territory from Israel by truck - still enjoys more popular support from voters than any of the parties or legislators in the Knesset. It was fully operational for a mere ten days.

Polls by Geocartographia, Bar-Ilan University, and Channel 14, among others, in the last three weeks have shown consistent favorability among Israelis for the failed floating pier, at 45%, while no single party, Member of Knesset, or government minister has garnered anything higher than 30%.

Respondents cited multiple reasons for their dislike of the politicians, and their preference for the Biden Boondoggle. Self-identified leftists disliked the right, as expected, but even figures from the center and the left itself attracted opprobrium for failing to exploit Prime Minister Netanyahu's continued political weakness. Centrists showed displeasure with the more radical elements of both camps, but also with the stalwarts of the "centrist" factions in the Knesset, for doing little other than shore up support for a historically unpopular government. Right-wing voters suspect all non-right-wingers of dangerous weakness on security matters, but also showed their disappointment with the prime minister, his allies, and the smaller right-wing parties, who, in their view, have fumbled repeated opportunities to implement an actual right-wing agenda.

The pier on the other hand, despite its high-profile failure, bears no responsibility in the public perception for the security lapses and conceptual rigidity that allowed the October 7 massacre to occur.

Unconfirmed reports had multiple parties developing plans to recruit the floating pier to their ranks. Polling remains unclear whether agreeing to any such overtures will dampen the Israeli electorate's positive opinion of the facility.

If the pier reinstallation proceeds without mishap, analysts believe its relative favorability will wane. The researchers noted that the likelihood of a mishap-free reinstallation remains low, but the history of Hamas firing on the pier might still generate sympathy from Israelis facing the same threat.

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20,000 Gazans need lifesaving treatment abroad, but Egypt refuses to let them leave

Earlier, I posted an infographic from the Hamas ministry of health showing alleged injuries and deaths in Gaza.

Here's the detail about injuries:

On the bottom right is says that 19.6% of those injured (and they mean of the 54,802 number, not the fictional 82.777 number) were referred for treatment abroad. The wording is misleading.

In a more detailed report released today, the ministry wrote, "The total number of requests for treatment abroad reached 25,000, while the number of those allowed to travel reached 4,895." That is the 19.6% the graphic is referring to - the number of injured Gazans requiring treatment abroad who were permitted to travel.

Over 20,000 injured Gazans who needed lifesaving treatment abroad could not leave Gaza - either before Israel's takeover of the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing on May 7, or afterwards.

This is a decision Egypt makes. Not Israel, not Qatar, not the PA - Egypt alone decides that they prefer thousands of injured and sick Gazans stay in Gaza, presumably to die.

And they continue to maintain that position today. Egypt could open up Rafah today for the injured if it wanted - and it refuses.

Where are the articles and UN resolutions and human rights reports about the tens of thousands of Gazans who cannot leave for critical treatment because Egypt would prefer that they die?

They don't care.

If this war has proven anything, it is that the "pro-Palestinian" community really doesn't give a damn about Palestinians. Like Hamas, they use them as pawns to attack Israel, which has always been their real aim.

(h/t Irene)

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It has now been two weeks since the UN Protection Cluster reported that aid workers and others in Gaza are forcing women into prostitution, presumably in exchange for food.

[I]nsufficient and unreliable aid, distributed under conditions of insecurity that do not allow adequate targeting, expose vulnerable groups to violence, exploitation and abuse, trafficking and forced prostitution, including by aid workers. Specific risks observed in Gaza associated with aid include the presence of unofficial humanitarian workers without identification [in] mixed distribution lines for men and women. There are reports of individuals adopting harmful coping mechanisms, such as reducing food and liquid intake, to minimise such risks.

This has been reported by exactly no one besides this site.

The report also mentioned that Gaza women prefer to go without food rather than stand in line together with men for food, because they know they will be sexually harassed,.

And that young girls are being raped and married off to older men in the camps.

And that disabled girls are especially vulnerable to being raped in shelters.

This isn't "Zionist propaganda." This is the UN. They buried the information in the report but it is there, and if anything, they are downplaying the extent of the problem.

Where is the outrage? Where's the media? Where are the NGOs? Where are the politicians?

Apparently, all eyes aren't really on Rafah.

And this makes it clear that when self-declared humanitarians are reporting about Gaza, they are really only looking for new ways to slander Israel, not to protect Palestinians.

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Hamas' health ministry inflates number of injuries in Gaza even more than deaths

Here is an infographic by Gaza's Hamas-run health ministry.

As we've been mentioning for months, the health ministry shows that there are about 10,000 alleged deaths with incomplete documentation, to align with Hamas' Media Office claims, inflating the number of deaths they have evidence for (and those self-reported) by some 38%.

NGOs pretend that the 10,000 difference are for legitimate deaths that for whatever reason do not have complete information like day of birth or ID numbers, even though even thousands of the victims they claim do have complete information are in fact incomplete or fictional.

But another proof that the 10,000 deaths are imaginary comes from the statistic beneath it, on injuries.

The ministry claims there have been 82,777 injuries, of whom only 54,802 are "recognized" with complete data.

That's nearly 28,000 undocumented injuries, or 51% above the ones they have documentation on.

For the documented injuries, they break it down into men, women and children, but not for the "incomplete documentation" injuries.

As with the "deaths," the "injuries" statistics come straight from the Hamas media office. The health ministry, not wanting to contradict their bosses, pretend to square away the numbers that they directly counted with the fictional numbers claimed by Hamas by saying they have "incomplete documentation" on the pretend victims Hamas made up.

But the injured aren't dead - anyone can see their gender, their ages, and the vast majority would be conscious and they could ask their ID numbers and names.

It is obvious that 28,000 of the injured are fictional, numbers taken out of thin air by Hamas' propaganda arm. There is zero documentation on them. And if that is how the health ministry reports on the injured, when the high level statistics of age and gender would be readily available, then that must also be how the health ministry reports on deaths as well - by pretending that the extra 10,000 are real.

Any news media that continues to report on "Gaza health officials" statistics without mentioning that they have no credibility is actively collaborating with Hamas, which regards propaganda as a critical part of its war effort.

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Human Rights Watch issued another report accusing Israel of violating international law by using white phosphorus in Lebanese towns.

White phosphorus is a chemical substance dispersed in artillery shells, bombs, and rockets that ignites when exposed to oxygen. Its incendiary effects inflict death or cruel injuries that result in lifelong suffering. It can set homes, agricultural areas, and other civilian objects on fire. Under international humanitarian law, the use of airburst white phosphorus is unlawfully indiscriminate in populated areas and otherwise does not meet the legal requirement to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian harm.

... Lebanon should promptly file a declaration with the International Criminal Court (ICC), enabling the investigation and prosecution of grave international crimes within the court’s jurisdiction on Lebanese territory since October 2023.

The wording is carefully chosen . WP is not an incendiary weapon nor is it a chemical weapon, which have very specific definitions under international law. It is a legal weapon used by major militaries including the US. But HRW makes sure to use the words "incendiary" and "chemical" to give the impression that white phosphorus is an illegal weapon.

HRW counts 17 alleged incidents of Israel using WP in populated areas. Yet, it admits, "Human Rights Watch did not obtain evidence of any burn injuries resulting from the use of white phosphorus munitions but heard accounts indicating possible respiratory damage."

If white phosphorus' main problem is that it can burn people, and not one case of anyone being burned was found, then it appears that Israel is using the weapon responsibly (if indeed this is white phosphorus and not a similar smokescreen.)

Unlike Human Rights Watch, the Lieber Institute at West Point goes into detail on the legality of using white phosphorus, and finds that it is quite legal, as long as it is not used to violate other laws of war like the principle of proportionality.. In fact, its legal use is far more expansive than HRW claims. Israel uses it for smokescreen and marking; but international law allows it to be used to directly attack enemy militants.

There is no per se prohibition on the use of white phosphorous. For instance, a March 2009 HRW report notes that “[w]hen used properly in open areas, white phosphorous munitions are not illegal.” A 2017 article in the New York Times likewise noted that “it is not illegal under international law for militaries to possess and use white phosphorus.” The military manuals of several States indicate that it may be used lawfully, even as an anti-personnel weapon, in certain circumstances (e.g., United States (§ 6.14.2.1), Canada (para. 521.3.), France (p. 20-21), Germany (paras. 453-458), and Australia (paras. 4.30-31)). The question, then, is whether the use of white phosphorous munitions is restricted by weapons treaty law or the law of armed conflict rules governing the conduct of hostilities.

....[E]ven if white phosphorous munitions did qualify as “incendiary weapons,” Protocol III would not ban their use. Rather, it regulates the use of incendiary weapons by parties to the instrument for the purpose of protecting civilians.

The US Army War Manual says "[W]hite phosphorus may be used as an antipersonnel weapon. However, such use must comply with the general rules for the conduct of hostilities, including the principles of discrimination and proportionality.In addition, feasible precautions to reduce the risk of harm to civilians must be taken."

Israel says it only uses shells with WP in urban areas under very specific (undisclosed) circumstances that have been approved by Israel's High Court. While the specific use cases are secret, we could get some clues from the footnotes in the US Army Manual, which says the army used white phosphorus in urban areas in Fallujah directly against terrorists: "We used it for screening missions at two breeches and, later in the fight, as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes when we could not get effects on them with HE [High Explosive]. We fired ‘shake and bake’ missions at the insurgents, using WP to flush them out and HE to take them out.”

The Lieber article quotes the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Incendiary Weapons, which says that even as an incendiary weapon, it is permitted "when such military objective is clearly separated from the concentration of civilians and all feasible precautions are taken with a view to limiting the incendiary effects to the military objective and to avoiding, and in any event to minimizing, incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians and damage to civilian objects.

The Lieber article concludes, "The application of the law of armed conflict to the use of white phosphorus munitions must be done on a case-by-case basis. Like the use of any munition in combat, whether the use of white phosphorous munitions is lawful depends on the attendant circumstances." HRW cannot point to any illegal use of WP in Lebanon, and says that it does not know if there were any Hezbollah military targets in the areas where it was used. Even the implication that Israel would use WP without any Hezbollah targets - meaning, aiming it at civilians or using it indiscriminately - is slanderous and nonsensical, not to mention that it shows that HRW knows nothing about the layers of review the IDF goes through in making decisions on types of weapons used in targeting.

HRW's report can be summarized as "we cannot find that Israel did anything wrong, but it's Israel, so they must have."

There is a further irony here. The same day that HRW released this report, there are major forest fires in Israel's north sparked by Hezbollah weapons. If Hezbollah deliberately tried to set these fires and used munitions designed for that purpose, they would be violating the same prohibition on incendiary weapons HRW pretends Israel is violating. The same Protocol mentioned earlier says, "It is prohibited to make forests or other kinds of plant cover the object of attack by incendiary weapons except when such natural elements are used to cover, conceal or camouflage combatants or other military objectives, or are themselves military objectives."

Palestinians have deliberately set Israeli forests and fields on fire from the 1920s to today.. Some believe the current wildfires were purposefully set. The amount of damage to civilian property in Israel from fires dwarfs that from WP in Lebanon.

But you can be very sure that Human Rights Watch is not going to write a report accusing Hezbollah of violating the same protocol they accuse Israel of violating.

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

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06/05 Links Pt2: Can Contemporary International Law Cope with Today's Terror?; Nothing Is Ever the Palestinians' Fault; Columbia’s Separate-But-Equal Doctrine

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: Can Contemporary International Law Cope with Today's Terror?

The war between Israel, Hamas, and other terror organizations has heightened the awareness of the question of whether today's international law is capable of addressing armed conflict between a state and terror organizations. How is a sovereign state, obligated by the conventional rules of international humanitarian law and the laws of armed conflict, expected to engage in asymmetrical war with terror organizations that distinctly, and by definition, do not consider themselves bound by such rules?

The international community lacks practical and legal means, as well as the basic desire and capability, of obliging such terror groups to abide by the rules. It is questionable whether the law of armed conflict as it exists today is capable of providing legal as well as operative answers to the practical issues arising out of today's struggle against terror.

In light of the biased and partisan reaction of the international community and its automatic accusations against Israel of committing war crimes and even genocide, it is high time that responsible states come to terms with the fact that modern-day terror undermines and abuses accepted humanitarian norms and standards. This must be dealt with both militarily and legally.

Seth Mandel: How the Anti-Israel Propaganda Ecosystem Works

In the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, these NGOs are extremely powerful, because their perceived authority magnifies their voices above those who may know much more about the issues but who don’t have the megaphone or the credibility lent to the European-funded activist groups masquerading as “humanitarians.” Throughout the current war, polls of American public opinion have never demonstrated that the progressive pro-Hamas rump on college campuses or among city protest groups should be catered to. In Israel vs Hamas, Americans don’t hesitate to side with Israel. Even the “ceasefire at any cost” crowd is smaller than it looks and sounds. A Marist poll last week put their share of the public at 25 percent. Yet they have nudged President Biden’s policies in their direction.

How? The protests on college campuses showed not just the organizing power of the left but the role of the media in amplifying their grievances and whitewashing their violence and lawbreaking. And it works in the other direction too: In many cases the media plays a key role in feeding the wildfire of misinformation that fuels the protests before turning around and reporting on them.

UN groups have been uncritically parroting the obviously inaccurate Hamas-produced death tolls. So have the media. In explaining why the Washington Post trusts Hamas propaganda enough to report it as fact, the paper quoted Omar Shakir in Hamas’s defense. Shakir is the Israel/Palestine director of Human Rights Watch and someone who was expelled from Israel over his support for BDS-affiliated groups that seek Israel’s destruction. In other words, if you switched the staffing of the Hamas Health Ministry and Human Rights Watch, the output of both organizations would likely be unchanged.

Employees of the UN’s Palestinian agency, UNRWA, have been credibly accused of taking and holding one or more hostages during the current conflict and of participating in the Oct. 7 attack. UNRWA was caught sharing space and resources with Hamas commanders, and its schools have reliably been found to host Hamas weapons and tunnel entrances. Yet high-level officials and directors at UNRWA, this clear adjunct of Hamas, go on to leadership positions at the International Committee of the Red Cross (and vice versa). Despite the Red Cross’s clear pro-Hamas orientation during this conflict, journalists quote it as if it speaks in the voice of God.

All of which, as we have seen, feeds the hysteria of the crowds organized by Palestinian groups. That hysteria, in turn, is reported on by the same journalists who’d whipped those protesters into a lather by using Omar Shakir or a Red Cross official on loan from a Hamas-linked UN agency.

In 2013, Karim Khan explained clearly how all of this creates a weighted narrative that influences supposedly objective processes. Now, a decade later, Khan is using that same system to his benefit just so he can nail the Israelis with bogus smears. Those charges will then get reported ad nauseum in the press, and the cycle continues from there.

Though he didn’t intend it at the time, Khan was shining a light on the entire squalid ecosystem of institutional corruption, unethical journalism, and incestuous melding of propaganda outfits that are often funded by governments that then justify their policies toward Israel by citing that very propaganda. If you can’t beat ’em, Khan decided, might as well join ’em.

What’s everyone else’s excuse?

Biden’s mixed messaging on Israel confuses friends and foes alike

On Tuesday morning, Time magazine published the full transcript of its recent Oval Office interview with President Joe Biden, conducted a week prior. One line quickly went viral among Middle East experts: When asked whether Biden believes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is prolonging the country’s war with Hamas to further his own political survival, Biden said the answer might be yes. “There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion,” the president responded.

Hours later, Biden appeared to reverse himself on that sentiment. A reporter shouted a question at Biden as he left an event: Is Netanyahu “playing politics” with the war? “I don’t think so. He’s trying to work out a serious problem he has,” Biden said.

That Biden’s public reversal took place in a single day made the incident especially notable, even for an 81-year-old gaffe-prone president known for speaking off-the-cuff (much to the chagrin of his staffers). But it was not the first time onlookers were confused by his comments on the Middle East.

The White House’s pattern of contradicting itself over Israel’s war against Hamas has become a regular occurrence since October. Interpreting what the administration’s precise policy is at any given moment can take Talmudic levels of parsing, and clarifying whether Biden’s often-vague language reflects a change in message, or is simply a function of misspeaking, is a frequent challenge for journalists.

Stakeholders and experts describe a White House approach rooted in a desire to appease divergent and at times conflicting constituencies, stemming from difficult political realities at home and a fear that the bloody conflict in Gaza will still be raging as Election Day approaches. But trying to make everyone happy is often a self-defeating strategy in Washington, especially on one of the most divisive issues in politics.

“There’s a big danger that the Biden team faces in trying to be everything to everyone and all people at once, that you may end up risking being nothing meaningful,” said Brian Katulis, a senior fellow at the Middle East Institute.

Biden has tried to chart a course that maintains U.S. support for Israel, leaning on his longtime self-identification as a Zionist, while also criticizing Israel for not doing enough to protect civilians in Gaza. The farthest he has gone was a threat last month to withhold some U.S.-made offensive weapons depending on Israel’s actions in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.

Yet his frequent criticism of Israel’s military tactics does not go far enough to appease left-wing Democrats unhappy with Biden’s overall support for Israel; meanwhile, his outreach to the anti-Israel segment of the party irritates Jewish voters and pro-Israel moderates. And Biden’s frequent admonitions of Israel risk hampering the country’s war effort, in the view of many of its supporters. (A National Security Council spokesperson declined to comment.)

Biden’s occasionally harsh rhetoric toward Israel amid the mounting death toll in Gaza is “an indication of real anger and frustration, without actually being willing to confront or be identified fully, to make real what [he] feels, so you get a policy that is conflicted,” said Aaron David Miller, a former longtime State Department employee and a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. “I think the reason they’re conflicted is because he’s got these constituencies that he certainly isn’t going to satisfy. He can try to manage them.”

Behind closed doors, the messaging differs depending on whom the White House is addressing — and who is delivering the message. Biden’s closest advisers on the Middle East are National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan; Sullivan’s deputy, Jon Finer; and Brett McGurk, White House coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa. Each of them takes a slightly different approach to the unfolding conflict.

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

The Jpost Jack Lew interview had me at the title, “'Two-states is a defeat for Hamas,' US envoy Lew says, touting Saudi deal.” Had me fuming, that is, at Lew’s attempt to pull the wool over our eyes. “Court Jew,” I thought. “Jino,” I muttered (though naturally Lew self-defines as orthodox).

Yup. Lew’s message came through loud and clear, a script to which he, Lew, would stick without deviation:

👉🏻Two states for two peoples is a defeat for Hamas because it allows for a Jewish state to exist. And since Hamas wants Israel gone, two states would not serve its purpose.

No matter that the missive is a study in illogic, no matter how skewed, this is the message that Lew needs us to hear and absorb. That only two states can solve this problem, that two states for two people are the only way to beat Hamas—because fighting won’t do it, sez Lew.

He could say this lie once, Lew, and it would be enough for the masses. But he will say it here many times, to ensure the memo leaks into public discourse and soaks into our little public brains.

Happily, the interviewer of Lew, Tovah Lazaroff, doesn’t make the reader wait long for the first phase of the indoctrination to begin. The talking points we are meant to parrot are already there in the second paragraph:

“I don’t think Hamas wants two states,” Lew said. “The only time they indicate they want two states is when they’re trying to put a little bit of a patina of legitimacy around their real strategy, which is the elimination of the State of Israel.”

Missing here is the fact that the two-state solution is a win for no one. Not for Hamas of course, but also not for Israel, Gaza, or the people who live under the thumb of Abbas’ Palestinian Authority (clever name, that). No. Not one of the regional actors who would be a party to the two-state solution, actually want it. And that’s a fact, Jack.

Just as Hamas wants that “little bit” of legitimacy around its real strategy of exterminating the Jews, so too the people of Gaza, who continue to support Hamas, and the people who live under Abbas (who also support Hamas). They say they want a two-state solution because that’s how they get a foot in the door that is Jewish territory. It’s what they do. Then once they have a state on Jewish land, they carve away at the rest of Israel until whoops! Israel is gone. (Won’t happen.)

Then again, Israel also doesn’t want a two-state solution. Why on earth would we give this enemy any part of our (holy, indigenous) soil? What other nation would have this “solution” imposed on them? Must France cede Paris to Morocco? Must Canada cede Toronto to the United States of America?

I think not!

No. Only Israel, tiny Israel, is required to give up its land, holy to its Jewish inhabitants since before Mohammed was born—holy to the Jews whose presence the Holy Land was never lacking even when it meant they were forced to live hidden out of sight, in caves.

(photo: Judean Rose, with AI)

Aside from being compelled to “give up” land that will, by right, continue to belong to the Jewish people for all subsequent generations, the TSS asks us to legitimize the barbarians already installed alongside us, and embedded among us in our hills. It would be a gift to the evildoers—a gift that would leave Israelis far less safe than they were on October 7.

That’s all it is, the two-state solution. Not a defeat, a gift. A gift to Hamas, a gift to the PA, and a gift to all the people who voted them in. Two states mean more land for the Islamic caliphate—and Jewish land, at that—a seeming win for Islam over Judaism. (Won’t happen.)

Lew can flap his gums all he likes as the court Jew that he apparently is, but no one with a semblance of a brain will believe him. Not that it matters to the echo chamber. Chambers don’t have brains.

(photo: more Judean Rose AI experimentation.)

Still, the echo chamber is soaking it all in as Lew continues to argue that the opposite of the truth is the truth, that the TSS is a defeat only for Hamas; that red is green; and big, old Brussels sprouts don’t smell when boiled at length:

[Netanyahu] has balked at talk of Palestinian statehood particularly in the aftermath of October 7. Both he and his government believe Palestinian statehood rewards terrorism and legitimizes that brutal style of attack in which people were raped, dismembered, and burned alive.

Lew said he believed that the opposite is true, particularly if Palestinian statehood is achieved through the framework of a larger Saudi deal, which would place Israel within a regional alliance against Iran.

“I think it’s a defeat for Hamas to talk about a two-state solution, which is why I think even out of the pain of October 7, there is a way to have this conversation, but it takes leadership,” Lew said.

Well, Jack Lew, Court Jew, maybe the echo chamber is fooled by your rhetoric, but thinking people are not. A rape victim, out of the pain of rape, will not give up half her bedroom to her rapist. The family of executed Jewish hostages, out of the pain, will not welcome an Arab state on their doorstep. And they don’t have to. None of us have to—no matter how many resolutions are issued by the talking heads at the antisemitic UN. And no matter how much Jack Lew insults Israel's duly elected leadership.

Of course, lest you question the efficacy of the TSS, let it be known to the echo chamber that Lew’s creds are impeccable. He alone knows what’s best for the Jews and the Arabs, because he’s served in three (count 'em) administrations that believed they knew what was best for Jews and Arabs. (They didn’t):

The United States has long believed that two states is the correct resolution to the conflict, Lew said, adding that “this is the third administration I’ve served that’s believe that. So it’s not a new idea.” He clarified that such a state would be a demilitarized one.

Note that last part. The Arabs won’t actually have a state, because Lew won’t let them have an army. In Lew’s Arab dreamland, there will be no terrorists and no army. And of course, by extension, no more weapons to the Jews, either:

Imagine there's no countries

It isn't hard to do

Nothing to kill or die for

And no religion too

Imagine all the people living life in peace

(photo: yet MORE Judean Rose AI experimentation)

Here, Lew inserts the knife—peace? Never mind what Dr. Edy Cohen calls “the consistent and enduring Palestinian rejection of any and all peace initiatives with Israel, most recently the ‘Deal of the Century,’” It’s all up to the Jews who, at the moment, have closed their minds off to the idea sleeping well at night:

No one expects Israel “to decide on two states next week or next month,” but it has to be open to the conversation, he said.

In other words, Lew wants you to know on behalf of the Biden administration, as the court Jew he is, that the Jews are completely closed up in their own little selfish Jewish mindsets crying, “Ours. All ours!” totally unable to think outside the box; to be creative; to share nicely what they have with “others,” barbarians who swear they will perpetrate endless October 7ths. (Won’t happen.)

“The basic orientation” should be: is this “a win or a loss for Hamas? Is it a win or a loss for Iran?” Lew said.

How kind of Lew to orient us all, in particular the Jews, who after all are oriental. Thanks to Lew’s largesse of spirit, we now understand that the elimination of Hamas depends solely on Israel’s retreat from Gaza. If only Israel will only stop killing the terrorists and talk to them instead—give them land—peace will reign over the entire region:

[To] arrive at a deal, Lew said, there must be a cessation of hostilities between Hamas and Israel, particularly given that the war has entered a phase, where success might better be achieved through diplomacy than on the battlefield.

Never mind that there was a ceasefire on October 7, and that it was Hamas who broke it; clearly it is only Israel’s close-mindedness, its unwillingness to compromise that prevents peace, now. That is, if you don’t count the more than 8,000 Jews expelled from Gaza—which apparently, Lew does not.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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06/05 Links Pt1: Biden Tries To Take Victory Off the Table; The Policies That Are Killing Israeli Soldiers; Melanie Phillips: Wake up, Americans!

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Biden Tries To Take Victory Off the Table

President Biden made clear in a speech today that he wants the war in Gaza to end without Hamas’s eradication. Unveiling the outline of a ceasefire agreement, Biden said that “the people of Israel should know they can make this offer without any further risk to their own security because they have devastated Hamas forces over the past eight months. At this point Hamas no longer is capable of carrying out another October 7.”

Thus have the goals shifted, although that process began in December with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments that the U.S. “will continue to support Israel’s efforts to do everything possible to ensure that Hamas cannot repeat the horrors of October 7. And that means, among other things, that Hamas cannot remain responsible for governance in Gaza and it cannot retain the capacity to repeat those attacks.”

This was the Biden administration’s way of telling the public what it had told Israeli leaders earlier that day in December: The U.S. would no longer support the original goal of Hamas’s eradication.

Today, President Biden made that point himself. “Indefinite war in pursuit of an unidentified notion of total victory will only bog down Israel in Gaza,” the president admonished, “draining the economic, military, and human resources and furthering Israel’s isolation in the world.”

According to Biden, Israel’s long-professed characterization of victory isn’t possible. Continuing its operations in Gaza “will not bring an enduring defeat of Hamas.” He described a path that instead would see Israel out of Gaza and becoming part of “a regional security network” that ideally would include Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile Gaza will be rebuilt with the help of the international community “in a manner that does not allow Hamas to rearm.” So, again, the president envisions Hamas continuing to exist. Of course, “Israel will always have the right to defend itself against threats to security and to bring those responsible for October 7 to justice.” Translation: If at some point in the future Yahya Sinwar turns up at the Super-Pharm in Tel Aviv to pick up some Advil, go ahead and arrest him.

Jonathan Schanzer: The Policies That Are Killing Israeli Soldiers

Biden Administration policies have put Israeli soldiers in greater danger. On the eve of the Muslim holiday of Ramadan, in March, the White House warned Israel to halt its military advance on Rafah as the IDF was on the cusp of destroying Hamas, defying the predictions of most Middle East experts. When Ramadan was over, the White House moved the goal posts.

The U.S. 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. Never mind that Israel had kept the civilian to militant casualty count lower than any of America's previous engagements in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Then, in mid-May, a major lawfare campaign against Israel kicked into high gear. The International Court of Justice (ICJ) charges of siege warfare leveled at Israel would likely have never been aired had the State Department not first suggested it was occurring in the first place.

The cumulative effect of all of this over the last three months has prompted the IDF to halt its advance in Rafah, and to move much slower than it originally anticipated. These three months of relative quiet afforded Hamas the time to prepare the lethal booby traps and IEDs that are now killing Israeli soldiers.

Melanie Phillips: Wake up, Americans!

This sustained Hezbollah onslaught shows that the war against Israel is not being waged merely by Hamas terrorists in Gaza. It’s a war of extermination against Israel by Iran and its proxies on no fewer than seven fronts. The attacks by Hezbollah and the threat of far worse from those forces are intolerable.

But if you’re reading this in Britain or America, the chances are you’ll have read virtually nothing about any of this. I can’t see any coverage of these terrible fires in any mainstream media outlets other than a solitary mention today by CNN.

The escalation means that Israel will have to deal with this once and for all. Israelis are bracing for an imminent major war against Hezbollah in Lebanon. Until now, Israel’s defence forces have been responding to these attacks in limited fashion in order to avoid a major escalation, which could see thousands of Israeli civilians killed. But no country can live like this, and Israel has done so for eight months.

Yet if it now takes the gloves off in Lebanon, stand by for hysterical condemnation by the western media which has paid virtually no attention to the months of Hezbollah attacks — and consequently will viciously defame Israel once again as the aggressive warmonger, in yet another big lie designed to demonise, delegitimise and destroy it. While Israel fights for its life, the western media carries out the strategy designed to annihilate it by the enemies of humanity.

The carnage in northern Israel must also be laid at the door of the Biden administration. Shortly after the October 7 pogrom in southern Israel, following which Hezbollah started attacking the north, Israel was about to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Iranian backed “Party of God” to neutralise the fearsome threat from Lebanon — but the Biden administration forced it to abort that mission.

Since then, the US has persistently undermined Israel’s attempt to neutralise Hamas in Gaza. The perfidy of the Biden administration in its attempt to ensure that Hamas survives and Israel is left unable to defend itself against genocidal attack has now reached yet another crescendo.

Uh-oh!

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor wrote in April, "It is estimated that Israel has dropped more than 70,000 tons of explosives on the Gaza Strip ."

This little factoid has been suddenly picked up by anti-Israel media in the past couple couple of days.

If this is true, and if you accept the Hamas claims of 36,000 Gazans killed during the war, that means that Israel has dropped nearly two tons of bombs - 4,000 pounds - for every single person killed.

That's an SUV filled with explosives dropped on the head of every dead Gazan.

While making the argument that Israel is engaging in "genocide," the NGO is in fact proving the opposite. While they do not indicate their source for the 70,000 ton statistic, if true, it indicates a stunningly poor aim for a country that is practicing "genocide."

Put it another way, that is 70 pounds of explosives for every Gazan man, woman and child. A hand grenade, which can kill several people, weighs about a pound.

That is a hell of an inefficient genocide.

The source of the statistic is not mentioned. And Euro-Med is known to lie, constantly. Even in that same article, they said that Israel had killed 10,000 more people than even Hamas claimed at the time.

Which means that their source is either Hamas or a random number generator.

(h/t kweansmom)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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The settlement of the Columbia University lawsuit does not make Jews safer

From The Washington Post:

Columbia University officials agreed on Tuesday to provide safe passage for students on campus in a settlement reached with a Jewish student who sued on behalf of those who switched to online learning in April in the midst of intense pro-Palestinian protests.

The school is creating a “Safe Passage Liaison” who will have authority to open alternative entrances and exits to students with existing 24-hour security escorts, if needed, under the terms of the settlement.

“We think peaceful protest is a constructive way to solve situations,” said Jay Edelson, an attorney for the plaintiff, but recently extremists have tried to take over campuses, and “push out, figuratively and literally, people who they deem are on the wrong side.” That has created situations that have turned frightening, he said.

As protests intensified, some Jewish students at Columbia complained they were the targets of antisemitic threats, according to the settlement and interviews with students.

“We got a focused security monitor who’s going to be able to serve as the eyes, ears and voice for anyone on campus who feels unsafe,” Edelson said. “That is a major win.”

No, this is a travesty.

Jews who want to feel safe need to call up a hotline and get escorted to alternative building entrances to not be attacked? That is considered a win?

Imagine if black children who want to attend integrated schools still needed to be accompanied by escorts of US Marshals, like Ruby Bridges in 1960, for their safety today.

It was a necessary stage to integrate the school at the time, to normalize the idea of a black child having equal rights. But if people of color required escorts today to go to class, everyone would recognize that as racism and unacceptable.

A year ago, Jewish students at Columbia had free access to the entire campus. Now they don't. Forcing them to have to change their way of life to protest those who are attacking them is not progress; it is pandering to the antisemitic mob.

An escort might make things slightly better for individuals who need help at the moment, but it misses the entire point of what equal rights actually means.

I cannot believe I need to say this, but: All students should have the right to use every space on campus, every entrance to buildings, equally. Any protest that limits those rights is not, by definition, "peaceful protest" or "free speech" - it is intimidation.

The protesters who are shutting parts of campus off to people they don't like are the ones who need to be forced to change their actions to make the campus safe for all, not the victims.

Not to mention what would happen when this is implemented. Some students would resent this public "protection" of Jews, saying that the Jews are being treated better than everyone else. Some Palestinian students might performatively call the escorts to go into Hillel to intimidate Jewish or Zionist events.

Any supposed solution that enforces unequal treatment of some students is, by definition, discriminatory. It is the campus environment that must change, not the habits of those who are being attacked.

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!

Keffiyeh-clad Australian counterprotesters attacked and terrified elderly and disabled Jews en route to rally against antisemitism in Australia

We've become almost inured to stories about anti-Israel rallies worldwide and how the protesters abuse Jews who pass nearby. However, this story that flew under the radar in Melbourne, Australia, that went largely unreported, is beyond appalling.

On May 19, there was a rally against antisemitism, called "No Hate, Mate," held in Melbourne attended by thousands of Jews and others.

There was a counterprotest of about 150 people with keffiyehs and signs calling for "intifada."

Yes, they were protesting a demonstration against antisemitism.

The Australian (paywalled) reports that while police tried to separate the two groups, elderly attendees, those in wheelchairs and parents with prams couldn't climb the stairs from a train station near the rally and had to pass through the haters from a different route from the north.

One woman described her fellow elderly female friend being surrounded by pro-Palestine protesters, who had their faces covered, “and kicked with great force repeatedly in her calves, punched in her shoulders and abused using the foulest of language.”

The woman said her friend was “spat at repeatedly” and sustained a bleeding calf and upper body bruising.

Another woman told of attempting to make her way through the pro-Palestine crowd with her adult daughter, who has cerebral palsy and uses a wheelchair, and her daughter’s carer.

“We were surrounded by an angry mob that encircled us. One man screamed at me and his nose could almost touch mine. They stole (my daughter)’s Israeli flag from the back of her wheelchair,” the mother and grandmother said.

“(My daughter)’s carer was traumatised and sobbing at the end of this ordeal.”

Another woman described being surrounded by pro-Palestine protesters yelling abuse as she attempted to make her way through the crowd using a walking frame, and an elderly couple with walking sticks spoke of being elbowed and called “f***ing murderers,” while other rally attendees said they had been punched in the jaw and the chest respectively, and others spoke of being kicked, poked and pushed to the ground.

Many Never Again is Now attendees spoke of being verbally abused, with some called “f...ing baby killers”, “Zionist pigs”, “murderers”, “genocide supporters” and “Nazis”, and others told they were “whores” in Arabic, that they “should be killed,” and that a “second Holocaust” was coming for them.

At the time, only a limited number of these incidents were reported in the press:

One woman was in tears as she tried to enter the pro-Israel rally with a disabled loved one, while counter-protesters yelled that they were “baby murderers”.

One first person account was published in Australian Jewish News: Australian Jewish News:

On Sunday the 19th of May, my mum, a friend and I went to the Never Again is Now rally in front of the steps of parliament. When we left Parliament station we heard drums and at first thought that it might be the rally. It turned out to have been a responding pro-Palestinian demonstration of around 150 people between us and the rally we were going to. Realising that we would have to go through them to get to the rally, I felt a sudden fear which was only amplified by hearing them chanting “Intifada” over and over again. As we approached the demonstration we attempted to keep a low profile. Despite this as we walked through the corridor of cones set up by the police I was yelled at by a young woman who asked me if I was a nazi telling me that if I was a nazi I should go through gesturing to the Never Again is Now rally she then shouted at me as I walked away that I was committing a holocaust against Palestinians. I thought to myself how could I be called a nazi by the person calling to globalise the intifada, practically calling for the death of all Jews.

This is pure antisemitism, not "pro-Palestinian activism." It is happening every day.

And children are being indoctrinated to ensure an entire generation of more haters, as this photo from "Free Palestine Melbourne" taken that day shows.

(h/t Jill)

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 longest starvation in history

A former American president said that Gazans were being "starved to death" in a speech at the American University in Cairo.

The former president was Jimmy Carter.

The New York Times reported on April 18, 2008:

In Cairo on Thursday, former President Jimmy Carter met with Hamas leaders from Gaza and spoke at the American University, Reuters reported. He criticized Israel’s action, after Hamas took over Gaza by force last June, to allow only basic supplies to be moved into the territory.

Mr. Carter said Palestinians in Gaza were being “starved to death,” receiving fewer calories a day than people in the poorest parts of Africa. “It’s an atrocity what is being perpetrated as punishment on the people in Gaza,” he said.

Carter repeated the accusation in 2009: