Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 25, 2024

CRIT Awards: "We value everybody. We insist on respect. We love diversity. Oh, and no Zionist Jews allowed."

The Creator Recognition in TTRPG (Tabletop role-playing game) Awards, CRIT, issued a Code of Conduct:

1. Inclusivity and Respect

1.1. No Racism: We do not tolerate any form of racism, racial discrimination, or xenophobia. Treat all individuals with respect and fairness, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or cultural background.

1.2. No Homophobia: We embrace diversity and do not condone any homophobic behavior or discrimination against individuals based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.

1.3. No Ableism: We are committed to being accessible and accommodating to all individuals. Avoid ableist attitudes or behaviors and strive to make the CRIT Awards inclusive for people of all abilities.

1.4. No Sexism: Gender-based discrimination, stereotypes, or harassment will not be tolerated. We promote gender equality and a supportive environment for all genders.

1.5. Individuals who identify as Zionists, promote Zionist material, or engage in activities that without a doubt support Zionism are not eligible for nomination.

They even issued a tweet to make this very clear:

But wait - they really do care about creating an inclusive community! They have a morality clause!

3. Morality Clause
3.1. Social Responsibility: Participants of the CRIT Awards are encouraged to consider the social implications of their actions and strive to make positive contributions to society through their work and behavior.

3.2. Community Engagement: Engage with and support local communities, initiatives, and organizations that promote social welfare, diversity, and inclusion. Encourage collaboration and cooperation to address social issues and promote positive change.

3.3. Diversity and Inclusion: Promote diversity, equity, and inclusion within the CRIT Awards community and beyond, fostering an environment where individuals of all backgrounds feel valued, respected, and empowered to contribute.

Everyone is welcome and respected! All backgrounds! Neo-Nazis - sure! October 7 Hamas groupies - welcome!

Don't believe me? Well, in 2022, it was discovered that one of the legends of RPGs, M. A. R. Barker, who died in 2012, had written a neo-Nazi novel under a pseudonym (that is very popular on Stormfront) and was on the Editorial Advisory Committee of the Journal of Historical Review which denies the Holocaust. (M. A. R. stands for "Muhammad Abd-al-Rahman," He converted to Islam in 1951.)

Now, look at the comments on an RPG forum upon discovering the news. They are so tolerant!

People are not perfect and on our daily news water is wet and grass is green.

What an train wreck some of the comments in the Reddit are " what do you mean an rpg author I liked is not perfect. How dare he not be"

Get over it we are flaws and imperfect as human beings.

Crying shame ain't more people whining about the anti-white stuff from things like ADL and SPLC and MURDER bigotry from BLM. What, some kinds of bigotry okay but not others?

While some people were upset over the discovery that Barker was a white supremacist, there is nothing in the CRIT Code of Conduct that would exclude him from being nominated if he was still alive.

Only "Zionists" are excluded.

Since this became news yesterday, Gencon, the show that was going to host the CRIT Awards kicked them out, which they claim was for "safety concerns:"

Because we all know how violent Zionists are.

Anti-Zionism is today's socially acceptable form of Jew-hatred. And this debacle proves it.

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!

Last Wednesday, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah threatened to invade northern Israel.

He threatened to shoot rockets at every part of Israel.

He threatened to attack any Israeli shipping in the Mediterranean.

He threatened to attack the entire country of Cyprus.

How did EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell respond to explicit threats to expand the current fighting to become a region-wide conflict?

By warning that Israel is the aggressor.

European foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday that the Middle East was close to seeing the conflict expanding into Lebanon just days after Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah threatened EU member Cyprus.

“The risk of this war affecting the south of Lebanon and spilling over is every day bigger,” Borrell told reporters ahead of a foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg.

“We are on the eve of the war expanding,” he added.

Nothing about the war expanding from Hezbollah-held areas to the entire region - but from Israel to Hezbollah areas.

Borrell's statement after the meeting mirrored what he said before, with the implication that only Israel is the aggressor:

What is also a serious concern, is the spillover in the region. We support the active mediation efforts, especially by the United States and France, in order to avoid a confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah. Lebanon can count on our support, and also [can] Cyprus.

But not Israel.

The fight against Hezbollah can bring the whole region into a serious crisis. And that is why, we have to continue our diplomatic efforts in order to provide humanitarian assistance in Gaza and stop the spillover of the war in the region.

It isn't aggression started by Hezbollah. It isn't even a conflict between Hezbollah and Israel. It is a "fight against Hezbollah" - and Israel is the only party attacking.

Who started attacking who on the Lebanese border again? Based on Borrell's statements, the aggressor is always Israel.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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IPC statistics show that the Gaza food situation is improving, yet @theIPCinfo releases a report saying things are getting worse

The New York Times reports:

Gaza is at high risk of famine and almost half a million people there face starvation because of a catastrophic lack of food, a group of global experts said on Tuesday. The experts stopped short of saying that a famine had begun in the enclave as a result of Israel’s war against Hamas.

The analysis by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or I.P.C., carries considerable weight. The group is a partnership of U.N. bodies and major relief agencies, and global leaders use its determinations to gauge the severity of hunger crises and allocate humanitarian aid.

The full IPC report has not been released, but they did publish a graphic of the current situation and their predictions, much as they did in February..

Here is what they said the situation was in February:

Here was their prediction at the time for July:

Here is their updated analysis of the situation today:

Not only is it much, much better than their dire predictions - but things are much better today than they were in February! The numbers that they measure as being in Phase 5 have been cut in half since February, and Phase 4 has been reduced as well, despite Israel's actions in Rafah, no more aid coming through Egypt and accusations that Israel is blocking and impeding aid.

Yet, the IPC insists, things are getting worse despite their own observations.

AP, which saw a draft of the report, quotes them: “The humanitarian space in the Gaza Strip continues to shrink and the ability to safely deliver assistance to populations is dwindling. The recent trajectory is negative and highly unstable. Should this continue, the improvements seen in April could be rapidly reversed.”

And their predictions for September are on the site:

Yet even their dire predictions show that things will be better in September than they were in February.

There is a more fundamental problem here, though. The IPC definition of Phase 5 says

Even with any humanitarian assistance at least one in five HHs in the area have an extreme lack of food and other basic needs where starvation, death, and destitution are evident.

For the rare and extreme case of classifying Phase 5 (Famine), there must be evidence of all three outcomes of mortality (in particular CDR > 2/10,000/day), wasting (GAM > 30%) and food consumption (near complete Food Consumption gap for >20% of the population) according to the IPC Reference Table for Area classification.

The IPC said in February that 676,000 people were in famine - meaning that we should expect to see two adults or four children dying per 10,000 people every day. So based on February figures, there should be well over a hundred people dying of starvation every day in Gaza; according to the current figures the number should be between 70-140 a day.

By now, we should have seen about 18,000 Gazans starved to death, based on 100 deaths a day.

The latest Gaza health ministry report says that the total number of people who died from malnutrition in Gaza in eight months is 34.

So not only is IPC terrible at predicting the future, but they are hugely unreliable in describing the present. Even though they tried to justify their classifying hundreds of thousands as being in Phase 5 based on what they described as credible reports months ago, by now it is obvious that practically no one is in Phase 5, or else there are many thousands of deaths that are inexplicably being hidden.

An organization like IPC depends on accuracy and impartiality. These reports prove that it has neither. There is no way that there are currently 340,000 in Phase 5 today because there are simply almost no deaths - which is their own definition.

The only reasonable explanation is that they care more about slandering Israel than about saving the people of Gaza.

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!

i24News reports:

Reports from Palestinian sources indicate that the Kerem Shalom crossing will open for Palestinians from Gaza, marking the first access since the conflict's onset.

This decision, requiring stringent security checks and coordination with Civil Administration officials, primarily aims to facilitate medical treatment abroad for Gaza patients, in collaboration with Egyptian authorities.

Sources within the IDF's Southern Command have confirmed this move, portraying it as an initial step towards enabling essential travel. Additionally, individuals with specific humanitarian needs and special permits will be permitted to exit Gaza through Kerem Shalom.

Military officials emphasize that while security protocols remain stringent, there is a proactive stance within the security apparatus to facilitate Palestinian departures under rigorous scrutiny.

Times of Israel adds that, according to reports, the initiative was coordinated between Israel and the World Health Organization.

For six weeks now, Egypt has refused to allow patients to leave Gaza, no matter how desperate the need, because, something something, Israel. Essentially, the Egyptian government was comfortable dealing with Hamas at the Rafah crossing and considered dealing with Israel instead to be an affront to its honor. Arab terrorists are much better partners, apparently, than any Jews.

Everyone in the world sees Egypt's refusal to save Gazan lives, which has been the case since the beginning of the war. And yet the criticism of Egypt - outside from Gaza residents themselves - has been quite muted.

Because criticism of Egypt would shame them. And everyone knows that you must never shame Arabs, because that is worse than letting child cancer patients in Gaza die.

That is the exact calculus of the world refusing to say a negative word about Egypt. It's okay to occasionally criticize Hamas, and Syria, because they are criticized by moderate Arab states as well. But to criticize Egypt or Jordan or Lebanon? No, that cannot be done publicly.

Even when that criticism can save thousands of lives.

Here we see Israel cares more about the lives of Gaza children with illnesses than Egypt does. It is quote obvious. And it will just as obviously go unreported in the media and by Western officials.

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!

06/24 Links Pt2: The U.N.’s Latest Insult Against Israel May Be Its Worst; Where Are the Celebrities After the Assault on Jews in LA?; Media ‘Both Sides’ Anti-Israel Mob Attack

From Ian:

The U.N.’s Latest Insult Against Israel May Be Its Worst

Sympathy for Israel has long been in short supply at the United Nations, but the world body has outdone itself this time.

That’s really saying something, considering its disgraceful treatment of Israel over the past eight months. After the October 7 terrorist attacks by Hamas resulted in over 1,100 deaths and hundreds raped and taken hostage, Israel rightly declared its intent to destroy those responsible and rescue the hostages. Yet virtually every day since, the U.N. seemingly has done everything possible to protect Hamas from the consequences of its barbaric acts.

Now U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres has listed “Israeli armed and security forces” alongside repressive governments and terrorist groups guilty of “grave violations affecting children” in conflict in 2023.

Yes, in the immediate aftermath of October 7, the United Nations condemned the attack in the “strongest terms.” But before the calendar turned to November, the secretary-general was saying the attacks didn’t happen in a “vacuum,” U.N. experts were voicing alarm at the plight of ordinary Palestinians in Gaza, and the General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a “sustained humanitarian truce.”

After that came U.N. accusations that Israel was causing starvation, accusations of war crimes, giving the Palestinians elevated privileges in the General Assembly, echoing Hamas’s false casualty data, and a U.S.-sponsored Security Council resolution designed to pressure Israel into supporting a cease-fire that would ensure the survival of Hamas.

Through this process, the U.N. member states refused to adopt resolutions condemning Hamas for its terrorism. Over and over, U.N. officials have neglected to properly place blame for the conflict and suffering on Hamas. For instance, a U.N. commission of inquiry report just declared that both Israel and Hamas have committed war crimes since October 7, but that Israel also committed crimes against humanity against the civilian population in Gaza.

Ignored is the fact that Hamas instigated the conflict, uses Palestinian civilians as human shields, steals aid meant to relieve suffering, and perpetuates the fighting by refusing to release the hostages. The report from a U.N. commission of inquiry even outrageously blames Israel for not stopping the October 7 attack and protecting its citizens.

While the death toll in Gaza is tragic, it is the intent of Hamas to place civilians in harm’s way. Hamas military leader Yahya Sinwar recently stated his belief that more civilian casualties help Hamas undermine Israel internationally and considers them “necessary sacrifices.” Where is the U.N. condemnation of this callous disregard for Palestinian civilians?

Indeed, Israel can do nothing right in the eyes of the U.N. Even rescuing hostages from Hamas is deemed lamentable. Just see the reaction of U.N. Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese to the June 8 rescue of four hostages. She said that the rescue “should not have come at the expense of at least 200 Palestinians, including children, killed and over 400 injured by Israel and allegedly foreign soldiers, while perfidiously hiding in an aid truck.”

And now we have the latest insult, with Guterres, for the first time, listing Israeli armed and security forces alongside the armed forces of Burma, Russia, Syria, Sudan, and Yemen, and terrorist groups like al-Qaeda, al-Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Lord’s Resistance Army, and the Taliban as parties that “commit grave violations affecting children in situations of armed conflict.”

In San Francisco, Doctors Feud Over ‘Do No Harm’ When It Comes to War Protests

Dr. Kanal has dozens of relatives living in Israel, including one who hid from Hamas for hours at a music festival on the day of the attack and another who works in forensics and had to identify the bodies of dead children. His grandfather survived the Auschwitz concentration camp, with his forearm branded by the Nazis.

Soon after he sent the email questioning a cease-fire resolution, Dr. Kanal learned that someone had forwarded it to another U.C.S.F. doctor, Rupa Marya, who practices internal medicine and said she focuses on how history and power affect health. She criticized his email on X multiple times over several months without naming him.

But later, in a Substack post, Dr. Marya did refer to him by name and called his email an “expression of anti-Arab hate” that prompted doctors of South Asian and North African descent “to say they do not feel safe in his presence.”

Dr. Kanal said that he was shocked a colleague with whom he had never spoken had blasted him so publicly. He met with university leaders multiple times, but he said they took no action. He then filed a complaint with the school’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination, which responded that Dr. Marya’s speech was protected and closed the complaint.

“It’s not the words of my colleague that leave me feeling unwelcome and frankly unsafe here at work,” Dr. Kanal said. “It’s the persistent unwillingness of my leaders to clearly denounce them and ensure my inclusion in this broad community here at U.C.S.F.”

The university did respond to a different post by Dr. Marya. In January, she said on X that “the presence of Zionism in U.S. medicine should be examined as a structural impediment to health equity” as she shared another person’s post about being “terrified” for “Palestinian, Arab, Muslim, South Asian and Black patients” being treated by Zionist doctors and nurses.

The university, without naming Dr. Marya or quoting her post, said in a statement that the notion that Zionist doctors are a threat to their patients was both antisemitic and “a tired and familiar racist conspiracy theory.”

In a written response, Dr. Marya said the statement by U.C.S.F. that addressed her post was “a disingenuous attempt to silence perspectives they don’t like” and that she has never felt, in her 22 years on the job, “the kind of repression” that she has since Oct. 7.

She said she called out Dr. Kanal because his email was the first time she had heard “a doctor put forward an argument to continue the killing of innocent people.”

“It shocked me to see this and it is a violation of a fundamental ethical cornerstone of our profession to do no harm,” she wrote.

If the doctors can agree on anything, it is that the university administrators have done too little to quell tensions and address complaints.

A U.C.S.F. spokeswoman, Kristen Bole, said the university and medical center are working hard to ensure a healing environment for its patients and respect the free speech rights of its employees. She said that Sam Hawgood, the chancellor who oversees both the school and hospital, has convened meetings with faculty to hear their concerns and has issued public statements denouncing intolerance several times.

She declined to address the specifics of how U.C.S.F. has addressed particular complaints. Mr. Hawgood declined a request for an interview.

Rick Sheinfield, a Jewish lawyer who has seen doctors at U.C.S.F. for 30 years, said that he filed a complaint with U.C.S.F. in January over Dr. Marya’s posts. He was told in April that his case was closed with no action taken.

He said that he and his family have received excellent medical care there — from heart surgery to the births of his two children. He is unsure if he will remain a patient, but said he was certain of one thing: If he was starting to look for medical care in San Francisco now, he would strike U.C.S.F. from his list.

It was not so much the posts of one doctor that bothered him, he said, but what he saw as indifference from the larger community.

“I don’t think they would tolerate this if it were medical conspiracy theories alleging such hateful things about other groups,” he said. “But they are tolerating this.”

Israel publishes a response to UN Human Rights lies within only five days

The UN Human Rights Council published a paper last week that accused Israel of attacking civilian targets in Gaza for no apparent reason, or for insufficient reason given the number of casualties caused.

So for example, the UN analysis says:

In some cases, where the military objective is unknown because Israel has made no claims, it is nevertheless hard to conceive of a military advantage that would justify the predictable scale of harm to civilians and civilian objects. For instance, the strikes on Jabalya market on 9 October killed at least 42 persons, including 14 children and one woman, and Taj3 Tower on 25 October killed at least 105 persons, including 47 children and 32 women.

Israel published a response within an amazing five days that demolishes the argument of the UN.

It states precisely what international law, what proportionality is, and the impossibility of determining guilt without knowing what the commander knows at the time of the decision to strike.

For the two cases the UN OHCHR cites above, the IDF says:

OHCHR does not hold a full understanding of the facts and circumstances surrounding the mentioned attacks, except for what was published by the IDF, which is limited due to security and operational considerations, as well as others. For example, though not published at the time by the IDF spokesperson, the strike at Jabalya on 9 October comprised of several military targets including a terror tunnel with tunnel shafts, which was part of a Hamas compound that also held a rocket launcher and Hamas military infrastructure, alongside Hamas militants. Any proper legal assessment of the strike must take into consideration the military advantage of all the targets which were struck, compounded by the fact that at the time there were no alternatives for ground operations.

Lack of information regarding the strike on 25 October requires similar caution in legal conclusions. While the sensitivity of the information prevents a more elaborate response, it can be mentioned that on that day, the IDF struck several unique and high value Hamas military assets and infrastructure, which were used by Hamas’ highest level of military commanders, both above and underground.

This is slight on detail, but it has to be. As the report notes, "As a matter of law, no army or State has an obligation to disclose information or intelligence regarding strikes conducted during hostilities. In many times, sharing the intelligence held by the commander prior to the strike, and sharing details regarding the targets struck (even after conducting the attack) might compromise sources or intelligence tactics, techniques, and procedures, thus undermining the effectiveness of the intelligence and disrupting future intelligence gathering."

Actual military experts know this. OHCHR has none, apparently, As the Israeli response concludes:

The State of Israel firmly rejects the conclusions and factual assertions portrayed in the background note, as they are methodologically flawed. The note aims to assess the legality of aerial strikes, though lacking many crucial facts and understandings that are crucial for any sound legal discussion. It is apparent that the document suffers from hindsight and methodological biases which cast a shadow on the credibility of its legal assessment.

It also appears that the authors of the background note lack operational expertise to fully grasp the rationale of military operations and the need for specific munitions in an operational reality.

As a bonus, the IDF notes that the UN relies on Hamas information, some of which is laughably flawed, like classifying several male terrorists as women.

What is obvious whenever one reads Israel's responses to allegations like these is that the IDF is playing chess while the "experts" are judging them with a knowledge of tic-tac-toe, and often not even knowing the rules of that.

This is why any criticism of IDF actions that is not written by someone with actual military field experience of urban warfare is worthless .It also explains why the vast majority of those who do have that expertise fully support Israel's actions in Gaza.

(h/t Aizenberg)

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!

06/24 Links Pt1: Oct. 7 survivors sue UNRWA; Horrific new October 7 abduction footage released by hostage families; Pro-Hamas mob attacks Jews outside LA shul

From Ian:

Oct. 7 survivors sue UNRWA

More than 100 victims of Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre filed a lawsuit in U.S. federal court today, alleging that a scandal-plagued U.N. agency has led a long-standing money-laundering operation to the financial benefit of the terror group.

The suit, filed in the District Court for the Southern District of New York, names as defendants the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) and seven commissioners-general, deputy commissioners-general and a director, accusing them of participating in a decade-plus scheme of fraud and corruption.

“There is no pain in the world that compares to burying your children and grandchildren who were murdered and suffocated in their own home,” said Gadi and Reuma Kadem in a statement. “All that is left is to fight to hold those responsible for strengthening Hamas to account. UNRWA strengthened Hamas and transferred funds and financed the murders, acting as a full partner in the growth of Hamas terrorists. UNRWA and its directors are fully complicit in the murder of my children and family. ”

UNRWA, the Palestinian-only aid and social services agency, has long been accused of fomenting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through its unique treatment and perpetuation of the Palestinian refugee situation, incitement to violence in its schools and its employees’ ties to terror organizations.

“The findings in this lawsuit demonstrate that UNRWA was aware of and actively participated in the diversion of funds earmarked to support the people of Gaza into channels that ensured those funds were used for terrorism and in violation of international law,” said Bijan Amini, one of the lead lawyers in the case. “UNRWA’s insistence that over a billion dollars in Gaza aid be distributed in U.S. cash that locals could not spend without going through Hamas moneychangers is one of the most damning pieces of new evidence presented in this case.”

The lawsuit accuses UNRWA of insisting that aid payments in Gaza be made in U.S. dollars rather than Israeli shekels, which is the local currency. The suit claims this practice is unique to Gaza, and did not apply to aid payments made to other Palestinians benefiting from UNRWA, including those in Judea and Samaria or Jordan. Nor, the suit says, does it apply to refugees in any other U.N. program, all of whom are handled outside the Palestinian sector by the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Seth Mandel: American Institutions Have Chosen Breakdown and Disorder

Here’s another fun fact about LA and Thousand Oaks and the surrounding area: The LA media market is the second-largest in the country and the only one anywhere close to the size of New York’s media market—that is, it’s second only to the “media capital of the world.”

But if you saw the scenes that developed and continued throughout the day Sunday—weapon-wielding psychos in keffiyehs stalked Jewish neighborhoods chasing Jews in the area as well, not content with keeping their riot confined to the Jewish house of worship—you almost certainly saw them from citizen journalists and alternative media and eyewitnesses taking video. Not, that is, from the major media.

Again, the event was scheduled, and once things turned violent there was plenty of time to catch up. I assure you the West Coast press knows how to get to Pico Boulevard.

We have often compared the current outbreak of anti-Jewish riots to the Charlottesville hate rally in 2017, but that might not be strong enough. After all, the second Charlottesville march attracted almost nobody on the white supremacist side but thousands of counter-protesters. The thirty Unite the Right participants were surely outnumbered by media alone. These pro-Hamas demonstrations, many of which turn violent, are planned openly and publicly and now are a common feature of life in America.

Media coverage may have something to do with why Charlottesville was a one-and-done and the Hamas protests became a movement that shook down the Democratic Party’s leadership and won concessions from the president himself. But it is only a part of the story. The reason the media participation likely outnumbered skinheads at the second rally is because of the urgency of burying such a rally before it can grow arms and legs. That urgency applied equally to the Hamas protests, but it was not politically convenient to do the right thing in this case. The political and media establishment is capable of squashing these burgeoning hate movements but simply chose not to do so. That’s it—that’s the story.

The continuation of the left-wing Cossack-wannabe movement is a choice. It is a choice by the media to treat it with kid gloves. It is a choice by universities to kowtow to it. It is a choice by congressional anti-Semites to egg it on. And it is certainly a choice by the president of the United States to join such figures at political events and praise them to the heavens.

The leadership of America’s political, media, and academic institutions have chosen this path. No one’s participation in any of this is unintentional. And very few hands are clean.

Los Angeles, you have failed us Jews

The Jews of Los Angeles are no longer safe. The events of June 23rd brought to life the darkest nightmare many of us hoped we would never witness on American soil.

Los Angeles, once a city of dreams, now harbors domestic terrorists. The FBI defines domestic terrorism as “violent, criminal acts committed by individuals and/or groups to further ideological goals stemming from domestic influences, such as those of a political, religious, social, racial, or environmental nature.” The chaos that erupted near a synagogue in Los Angeles on June 23rd is a terrifying testament to this definition.

Over 150 pro-Hamas protesters clashed with brave Jewish citizens near a synagogue, turning a peaceful neighborhood into a battleground. The protesters blocked entrances, engaged in physical altercations, and resorted to using bear spray and throwing objects. The scene was chaotic, with several people wounded and numerous law enforcement officers in riot gear trying to control the situation. Multiple arrests were made by the LAPD as tensions continued to escalate.

The seeds of this chaos were sown years ago with the rise of the defund the police movement in Los Angeles. In a city already struggling with crime, reducing police presence seemed like a recipe for disaster. Then came District Attorney George Gascon, whose policies allowed even the most heinous criminals to escape justice with what felt like free “get out of jail” cards. Without law and order, the world becomes a dangerous place, and the events of June 23rd are a direct consequence of this erosion of safety and justice.

From the New York Times:

Alvin Bragg, the Manhattan district attorney, last week dropped most of the 46 cases against pro-Palestinian demonstrators charged in the April 30 siege of Hamilton Hall at Columbia University because prosecutors had little proof that the cases would stand up at trial.

There was limited video footage of what took place inside the campus building, Doug Cohen, a spokesman for the district attorney, said in a statement. The protesters wore masks and covered security cameras, preventing prosecutors from identifying those who had barricaded the doors and smashed chairs, desks and windows during the 17-hour occupation.

The district attorney announced the decision to drop 31 of the 46 cases during a court hearing on Thursday. Apart from trespassing, a misdemeanor, proving any other criminal charges would be “extremely difficult,” Mr. Cohen said.

For similar reasons, prosecutors also dismissed charges against nine of the 22 students and staff members at City College who were arrested inside a campus building and charged with burglary during a protest that took place on the same night as the arrests at Hamilton Hall.

The police arrested all the protesters in the building. They know what they wore. If they wanted to, they could find out which people did what.

They don't want to.

And by saying this, they are giving a message: as long as you hide your face and destroy security cameras, the NYPD won't bother going after you.

It's only burglary, and destruction of property. No biggie as long as it is for "Palestine," am I right?

Who would have thought that when masking became required, it would end up being used to hide criminal activities? Actually, everyone who gave it two seconds of thought did.

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!

Just another Al Jazeera lie that is a good example of modern antisemitic Arab propaganda

Al Jazeera (Arabic) published an article claiming that there has been a centuries-old "silent contract" between the Zionist movement and Western countries to promote Israel at the expense of Palestinians.

It tries to find evidence back to Napoleon that Christians in the West have backed Zionism as a means to get rid of their Jews. But one of its claims was new to me:

It is noteworthy that Article 401 of an American law issued in 1940 stipulates that any citizen who votes in political elections in a foreign country immediately loses his American citizenship. However, in 1967, Jews in the United States were excluded from this law, and this decision was issued by the Supreme Court by a majority of only one vote, that of the Jewish member of the court, Pais Overdim.

As Muhammad Al-Sammak says in his book “Christian Zionism,” just as the Jews of the United States enjoy this exception to the exclusion of all other American citizens, Israel also enjoys exceptional treatment to the exclusion of all other countries of the world.

Indeed, the 38-page Nationality Act of 1940 does say, in paragraph 401(e), that any US citizen who votes in a foreign election can lose their citizenship.

And indeed, in 1967 this law was overturned, in a case brought by an American Jew who voted in Israeli elections in 1951, Afroyim v. Rusk, and then denied the ability to renew his American passport. As summarized here:

Question
Does Section 401(e) of the 1940 Nationality Act, revoking U.S. citizenship to persons who vote in other countries' elections, violate either the Fifth Amendment right to Due Process or the Fourteenth Amendment, under which naturalized citizens are granted national citizenship?

Conclusion
Yes. In a 5-to-4 decision, overruling Perez v. Brownell (356 US 44), the Court held that Congress has no general power to revoke American citizenship without consent. Noting the special bond between Americans and their government, a bond that protects every citizen against all manner of destruction of their rights, the Court held that only citizens themselves may voluntarily relinquish their citizenship. This sacred principle applies equally to natural and naturalized citizens. As such, Section 401(e) violated both the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.

It was a 5-4 decision, and the one Jewish member of the Court - Abe Fortas - voted for the majority.

But it was not an exception for American Jews. The decision applies to all Americans and goes beyond just voting in foreign elections.

(I have no idea how his name wac converted to "Pais Overdim." Also, his wasn't the deciding vote; Fortas was one of the more liberal members of the Supreme Court and would have voted that way no matter what religion he was.)

It is a minor but telling example of how antisemitic propaganda works. Almost all of the facts are true, but they are spun to conclude that Jews are not subject to the same laws as other Americans, a classic antisemitic conspiracy theory.

And Al Jazeera is one of the more responsible Arab media outlets.

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 UN's ReliefWeb reports:

Up to 21,000 children [1] are estimated to be missing in the chaos of the war in Gaza, many trapped beneath rubble, detained, buried in unmarked graves, or lost from their families, said Save the Children. The agency’s child protection teams are reporting that the latest displacements caused by the offensive in Rafah have separated more children and further increased the strain on families and communities caring for them.

How did Save the Children manage to make that estimate?

It is nearly impossible to collect and verify information under the current conditions in Gaza, but at least 17,000 children are believed to be unaccompanied and separated and approximately 4,000 children are likely missing under the rubble [2], with an unknown number also in mass graves. Others have been forcibly disappeared, including an unknown number detained and forcibly transferred out of Gaza, their whereabouts unknown to their families amidst reports of ill-treatment and torture.

Ah, it is 17,000 "believed to be unaccompanied" plus 4,000 "likely missing under rubble."

Where did the 17,000 number come from? It came from a statement from UNICEF's "State of Palestine"spokesperson Jonathan Crickx in February: "UNICEF estimates that at least 17,000 children in the Gaza Strip are unaccompanied or separated. ...Of course, this is an estimation since it is nearly impossible to gather and verify information under the current security and humanitarian conditions."

So there is no source for that number. It is completely - and I mean completely - made up. There is no methodology, no background on how this estimate was calculated, nothing.

How about the 4,000 children estimated to be missing under the rubble? That one comes straight from from Hamas plus an additional lie laundered through the UN:

More than 10,000 people are believed buried under the rubble in Gaza after nearly seven months of devastating conflict, UN humanitarians said on Thursday, citing the enclave’s health authorities.

Citing the Palestinian civil defence authority, OCHA said that the recovery of dead bodies from the debris is a huge challenge, owing to a lack of bulldozers, excavators and personnel.

The number of people supposedly missing under rubble is another completely fictional number made up by Hamas with no mention of how that estimate was arrived at. In addition, the estimate that 40% of those fantasy victims are children is a further lie, based on the idea that 40% of those killed in Gaza are children, when in fact the number is 32% according to the last detailed report from the health ministry in May. If you exclude boys from 15-17 who are of military age the percentage of children killed according to the latest dataset is 28%.

Save the Children adds up two wholly made up numbers to arrive at a third, and pretend that there is some sort of science behind it.

The old adage of "garbage in, garbage out" needs to be updated to "propaganda in, propaganda out."

The report goes on to add even more lies:

According to Gaza’s Ministry of Health, more than 14,000 children have been killed since 7 October, roughly half of whom have not yet been fully identified, partially due to their bodies being harmed beyond recognition [3]. Children are also among those recently found in mass graves, according to UN experts, with many showing signs of torture and summary executions, as well as potential instances of people buried alive.

The 14,000 number is another absolute falsehood, and there are not 7,000 bodies of children who are unidentified. That was a weak attempt by the health ministry to explain to Western reporters why there was such a discrepancy between their "verified" statistics and the ones that Hamas made up. The "mass graves" libel are likewise Hamas propaganda.

Save the Children then adds an almost unbelievable afterthought in weak attempt to pretend to be evenhanded:

At least 33 Israeli children have been killed since October, while it is unclear if any children are among those still being held hostage in Gaza.

We know that there are still two children in Gaza, Kfir (1) and Ariel (4) Bibas. The language from Save the Children is shockingly inconsiderate and dismissive, either questioning whether the Bibas children were ever kidnapped or unconcerned over whether they are still alive.

This NGO dedicated to "saving the children" happily parrots Hamas lies about fictional children but cannot even say a single word of concern for the two unreleased children kidnapped by Hamas and now missing somewhere in Gaza.

Knowingly lying about the number of children missing and killed in Gaza is not "saving the children." It is repeating propaganda from a terror group that wants to kill and ethnically cleanse every single Jewish child in the Middle East.

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There don't seem to be very many women and children killed lately in Gaza, according to this site

A website dedicated to the memory of Shireen Abu Akleh has been trying to enumerate every single death in Gaza (and the West Bank) since October 7, with names, ages and even photos for the people it lists.

The database is in reverse chronological order. So far it has the names of 11,798 "martyrs", claiming that the remaining 26,317 that the ministry of health claims they do not have full documentation for.

While I am not going to claim that this is a complete list, it certainly should be a reasonably representative list of the total casualties. And it roughly tracks to the percentages of women and children that the ministry of health used to claim in its detailed statistics - 37% children under 18, 25% adult women.

But its most recent entries are overwhelmingly adult males.

Here are its photos for all the "martyrs" it lists since April 1:

Not only that, but a huge majority of the "children" are males 15 years and older as well.

I do not know their methodology of gathering these names. Since January they only have several hundred listed, and this includes many in the West Bank. But if these statistics can be used as an accurate sample of all the casualties, it sure looks like the IDF is hitting military age men far out of proportion to their actual numbers in Gaza.

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Veganism in Israel is considered racist against Palestinians. Of course.

The journal "Settler Colonial Studies" published this article and abstract earlier this year:

Vegan nationalism?: the Israeli animal rights movement in times of counter-terrorism
Hiroshi Yasui

ABSTRACT
In recent years, the movement advocating animal rights and welfare (animal rights movement), in parallel with the practice of ethical veganism, has become increasingly significant in Israel. Along with this trend, several studies examine and analyze the colonial aspects of the Israeli animal rights movement and its relevance to the Palestinian issue from the perspective of Critical Animal Studies. Critically examining preceding studies on veganism and colonialism, through analysis of the political discourses of leading activists and public figures within the newly popular Israeli vegan trend, as well as interviews with a sample of Israeli vegans, this article will demonstrate how veganism in Israel is associated with a narrative of Israeli national superiority. Such discourses may well be called ‘vegan nationalism'. Vegan nationalism is a discursive and regulatory framework in which veganism is considered proof of the moral superiority of a nation in a settler colonialist context, implicitly stressing the barbarism and backwardness of the ‘terrorists’. At the same time, as an article written by the Israel Defense Force indicates, in this framework, vegans present a welcome, appealing image that resonates even though it differs from the image of the stronger, more robust and powerful carnist traditionally favored by Zionists.

As we've seen with "pinkwashing," the accusation is that when Israelis do something that is aligned with the progressive movement's own pet causes, it must be interpreted as proof that Israelis are trying to hide their inherently evil personas.

I do not have access to the article, but I can see the footnotes. Not one footnote I saw supports his thesis.

So for example, I can see the two references to the IDF website where we are supposedly exposed to this Jewish moral supremacy narrative that demeans Palestinians as immoral meat eaters.

One was a 2017 article in an IDF journal that describes how the army accommodates vegans, both with food and clothing choices, and the other was a more expansive article about the difficulties of being a vegan in the IDF and how the army is working to make everyone comfortable. It even discusses the dilemma of a soldier who is killing people while being a vegan:

From time to time, the vegan warriors come across people who claim that their very role as warriors is incompatible with their aspiration for morality which is expressed in the vegan lifestyle. Maj. Friedman knows very well how to deal with these claims. "I just think it's not true. I enlisted in the army to be a fighter to protect our country. There are very clear orders in the army and our army is a moral army. If there is a soldier in the army who does something that is forbidden then he is punished," he responds. "I don't see a connection between sparing animals and sparing people who want to harm the country. Our army is not an army designed to kill, it is an army designed to protect."

But I cannot find anything from the IDF that even implies that it considers itself morally superior to meat-eating Palestinians. It would be absurd, since most soldiers still eat meat. But it is justifiably proud that it offers choices for vegan soldiers:

The closest example I could find of the IDF using animal rights to make a moral point was this tweet:

Hamas is killing animals every day. @PETA, do you condemn this? pic.twitter.com/NhBYc79ejv
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) August 14, 2018

Which is just pointing out Hamas hurting animals.

When PETA does it, that is moral; when the IDF does it, it is immoral.

Speaking of PETA, their blog published a fawning article about animal rights in Israel (not quoted by this paper: "When it comes to recognizing animals’ natural rights, Israel is leagues ahead of many other countries. Israel has long banned the sale of personal-care and household products that were tested on animals. It was the first country to ban horse- and donkey-drawn carts and carriages used for work purposes."

Another article referenced in the paper that disproves the author's attempts to demonize Israel is from Vegan Review:

Hailed as ‘Israel’s Angriest Vegan’, Tal Gilboa is an activist with a difference.

In 2019, following a decade of animal rights activism, she was appointed by the Israeli prime minister as his advisor on matters of animal welfare. Some saw it as a political manoeuvre on Benjamin Netanyahu’s behalf, but to Gilboa, it was simply “a historic day for animals”.

“There is no Left or Right in the fight for animals,” she explained. “If it advances animals’ welfare and alleviates their suffering, it is the right thing to pursue.”

Gilboa’s voice softens somewhat when speaking of the Netanyahu clan. “What Netanyahu’s administration did for animals is exemplary,” she says. “This should be happening all over the world — operating within a reigning government rather than waiting for small animal-rights niches to form; these niches do not work.”

Within four months in her new role, Gilboa has achieved more than she ever dreamt possible. Her wins for animals include the ban of the trade in fur and the hunting of certain species of birds. She also helped secure Kaya’s Law (named after Netanyahu’s own dog), where vaccinated dogs suspected to have bitten someone can be quarantined at home rather than being forcibly taken from their owners.

None of these sources even remotely fits in with the bizarre abstract. The author is reduced to blaming Israeli society when a deputy mayor of Jerusalem called terrorists "animals" as an insult.

Even if you do a general search for veganism in Israel, you find lots of articles but none of the ones I found make any reference to Palestinians one way or another.

While there is no evidence that Israelis use veganism to position themselves as being morally pure as opposed to Palestinians, vegans in general are well known to be insufferably smug about their own moral superiority over everyone else.

It is difficult to escape the idea that the writer of this paper is projecting his own idea that he is morally superior to meat eaters to Israelis and Palestinians. It is nonsense, but it is the only thing that explains this paper, whose own footnotes do not support the researcher's thesis.

By being published in "Settler Colonial Studies," the entire field of settler colonialist studies looks like a joke.

(h/t YMedad)

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06/23 Links: Biden’s whole-of-government hostility to Israel; Netanyahu cites ‘dramatic drop’ in US arms supplies; 6 dead, 13 wounded in shooting attack on Russian synagogue

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Biden’s whole-of-government hostility to Israel

The top U.S.-Israel story of the week is the prospect of a massive ground war in Lebanon.

The main question dominating the discourse is whether the Biden administration intends to provide Israel with the munitions it requires to prosecute such a war successfully. The White House says it has Israel’s back. But recent U.S.-Israel backstories indicate that Israeli anxiety about the U.S. position on munitions is well founded.

Two back stories that have generated minor splashes signal clearly that contrary to President Joe Biden’s oft repeated “ironclad commitment to Israel’s security,” his administration is implementing a whole-of-government policy of criminalizing Israel and its citizens.

The first story relates to stepped-up U.S. sanctions against Israeli nationals and organizations. The second is the reported change in U.S. policy regarding visa and immigration applications from Israeli citizens.

Immediately after the Hamas-led Palestinian invasion and slaughter of Oct. 7, the Egyptian government announced that contrary to the binding requirements of international humanitarian law, Egypt would prohibit Gaza residents from transiting Gaza’s international border into Egypt to seek refuge either in Egypt or in third countries through Egypt.

Far from opposing Egypt’s unlawful action, the U.S. administration supported it. Egypt was not responsible for protecting the residents of Gaza from the war their regime opened against Israel. Israel was.

Days after Oct. 7, the administration began demanding that Israel provide a constant and ever-growing supply of food, water, medicine and other goods to the residents of Gaza. As the administration routinely ratcheted up its demands, it cited wholly unsupported, and now discredited, claims from the U.N. that Gaza was on the verge of famine.

Although the Netanyahu government quickly folded under the administration’s barely disguised threats to accuse Israel of war crimes, the Israeli public has been all but united in its opposition to the U.S. position.

Videos from Gaza have emerged daily since November showing Hamas gunmen seizing the aid trucks and shooting civilians who try to seize bags of flour and other goods from the trucks. Last week, former U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross reported on his X account, “A UN official told me lately that 80 percent of the humanitarian assistance going into Gaza has been looted by criminal gangs or Hamas.”

After Israel began permitting hundreds of truckloads of supplies to enter Gaza directly from Israel in late January, a Direct Polls survey found that 82% of Israelis believed that the trucks should only be allowed to enter Gaza if Hamas released all the hostages.

A near consensus view in Israel throughout the past eight and a half months is that the humanitarian aid undermines the war effort by keeping Hamas fully supplied; maintains Hamas’s grip on power by enabling the terror regime to control who gets fed and cared for; and endangers IDF soldiers on the ground in Gaza.

JPost Editorial: Human shields? UN, you’re blaming the wrong side

The recent accusations by a senior UN official against the Israel Defense Forces, in which she picked a little-known instance of the IDF supposedly using a human shield, shows that she has forgotten or is ignoring Hamas’s long-standing and pervasive practice of using them in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Such are the core tactics aimed at manipulating both military operations and international perceptions.

On Saturday, UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese accused the IDF of using a human shield, citing a video showing an injured Palestinian civilian tied to a military vehicle in Jenin.

The IDF has not commented on the allegations, and the authenticity of the video could not be verified by the Post.

Hamas has used the human shield tactic at least since 2007: placing military assets and personnel in civilian areas to increase the likelihood of collateral damage – civilian deaths and wounded – during Israeli counter-attacks.

These are not incidental tactics but deliberate ones designed to exploit Israel’s efforts to minimize civilian harm and to gain international sympathy for the inevitable collateral damage to civilians.

During the 2014 Tzuk Eitan conflict in Gaza, it was reported that Hamas also used schools, hospitals, and densely populated residential areas to store weapons and launch rockets.

This included the use of the infamous Al-Shifa Hospital, which The Washington Post described as a “de facto headquarters” for Hamas leaders, who could often be seen crisscrossing hallways and taking over back offices.

Hamas is the enemy of the Palestinian people

On 7 October last year, Hamas’s Al-Qassam Brigades attacked southern Israel, killing around 1,200 people and taking another 250 hostage. Despite this demonstration of anti-Semitic barbarism, many Western anti-Israel activists continue to see Hamas as some sort of ‘resistance’ movement, fighting for Palestinian nationhood.

This view couldn’t be more wrong. As Italian journalist Paola Caridi shows in her largely sympathetic account of the group, Hamas: From Resistance to Government (originally published in 2009 but updated last year), Hamas is not and never has been a national-independence movement. It is above all an intransigent, religious movement set on the destruction of Israel. The exhaustion of Palestinian nationalism

To get to grips with the nature and development of Hamas, it’s important to understand the broader historical background. The central problem here for Palestinians and Israelis is that their national aspirations are irreconcilable.

Israel was founded in 1948, after Jewish people revolted against Palestine’s British rulers. (With a mandate from the League of Nations, the British took over from the Ottoman Empire, which had ruled Palestine for over four centuries, at the end of the First World War.) During the 1920s and especially the 1930s, Palestine’s indigenous Jewish population was supplemented by refugees from Eastern Europe and later Nazi Germany. This growing and increasingly restive populace rebelled against British occupation, just as neighbouring Iraqis did in the 1920s and 1940s, and Egyptians did in the late 1910s and early 1920s. In doing so, these rebellions laid claim to new nations, which claimed descent from ancient civilisations.

Many Arabs, caught in the crossfire of the often violent Jewish struggle for an Israeli state in the late 1940s, fled to the neighbouring territories of the Egyptian-governed Gaza Strip and the Jordanian West Bank. In 1967, Israel defeated the Arab coalition of Egypt, Jordan and Syria in the Six-Day War. Through this war, Israel conquered the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, complete with their Arab populations. These became the ‘occupied territories’.

As the Six-Day War demonstrated, the Arab world refused to accept Israel’s existence. Arab nations took Israel as an affront to their own independence. Yasser Arafat, born to Palestinian parents in Cairo in 1929, co-founded the paramilitary organisation, Fatah, in the late 1950s. Its object was to fight for a Palestinian state. In 1967, Fatah joined and became the dominant faction in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), which was then a national-independence movement. Arafat became PLO leader in 1969.

Israel’s leaders always understood that the national aspirations of Palestinians were irreconcilable with the existence of Israel. Hence, Israeli prime minister Golda Meir insisted in a 1976 New York Times op-ed that there were no ‘Palestinians’, only Arabs, living in Egypt, Jordan and Israel itself.