Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, July 08, 2024

The Palestinians signed a convention on equality of women in 2014 - and have not passed any laws to enforce it

In 2014 , the "State of Palestine" acceded to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) without reservation.

According to UN documents, it maintains a set of laws that continue to enshrine the second-class status of women, and has not passed any laws to improve their status.

Here is a summary of their anti-woman laws are summarized here (taken from this document).

A UN ESCWA webpage tracks the passing and implementation of laws promoting women's rights per country. It shows that nothing has changed for Palestinian women since 2018 (the earliest date they track from.)

Notably, they are the only signatories in the Arab world that acceded to the convention without any reservations. In particular, most Arab countries expressed reservations about CEDAW's Article 16, which says women have equal rights with men within marriage including family planning, property ownership and occupations.

There is huge opposition to CEDAW in Palestinian territories and the larger Arab world, claiming that it goes against sharia law. Nevertheless, some Arab countries have passed laws to empower women. Tunisia banned polygamy and recognises a woman’s equal right to marry a non-Muslim spouse. In Egypt, women have been granted the right to divorce under some circumstances.

The claims that CEDAW is against sharia appears to be largely bogus. For example, while Islamic law may allow underage marriage, there is no reason to oppose laws that prohibit it - just as sharia allows slavery but there is little opposition nowadays to national laws prohibiting the practice.

It seems that the only reason the Palestinians accepted CEDAW was to help their case to join the International Criminal Court to press cases against Israel, but they had no intention of following through on that nor other international conventions that they signed. This was admitted by the editor of the Palestinian newspaper Ma'an, who said in 2019, "The government cannot implement CEDAW in its entirety in light of the existence of a societal system, and that the signing of the agreement is political and was not intended to undermine the Sharia, and had it not been for the signing of CEDAW and many other agreements, the International Criminal Court would not have accepted us."

As the chart above indicates, this is true. The Palestinian Authority signed all these conventions to use them against Israel, not to actually implement them. And when international agencies notice their foot dragging, it is blamed on internal pressures by Islamists or other technical reasons, but no one begins to think that there was never any intent to follow the signed agreements from the outset.

Which also shows another important fact about Palestinian leadership: their signed agreements are not worth the paper they are written on.

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The Lancet publishes a letter:

By June 19, 2024, 37 396 people had been killed in the Gaza Strip since the attack by Hamas and the Israeli invasion in October, 2023, according to the Gaza Health Ministry, as reported by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. The Ministry's figures have been contested by the Israeli authorities, although they have been accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services, the UN, and WHO. These data are supported by independent analyses, comparing changes in the number of deaths of UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) staff with those reported by the Ministry, which found claims of data fabrication implausible.

As I've noted, the independent analyses based on extrapolating UNRWA data from the first several weeks of the war are bad science. It used bad assumptions, a poor sample and a demonstrably wrong conclusion. If you us the same methodology for later months in the war, you find that the proportion of UNRWA workers killed are far fewer than the numbers reported by the ministry of health. Science that is not reproducible is not science. Yet this study is still referred to as proof positive of MoH accuracy months after anyone can see that its conclusions were simply wrong with five minutes of math.

But the authors of this article not only claim that the ministry of health numbers are accurate, but they are an underestimate of wartime deaths. They wave away the incompatibilities between the two sets of numbers by the MoH. They ignore that the same MoH has been provably lying about women and children deaths and injuries.

Setting aside that absurd assumption, the main point of the article is this:

Armed conflicts have indirect health implications beyond the direct harm from violence. Even if the conflict ends immediately, there will continue to be many indirect deaths in the coming months and years from causes such as reproductive, communicable, and non-communicable diseases. The total death toll is expected to be large given the intensity of this conflict; destroyed health-care infrastructure; severe shortages of food, water, and shelter; the population's inability to flee to safe places; and the loss of funding to UNRWA, one of the very few humanitarian organisations still active in the Gaza Strip.
In recent conflicts, such indirect deaths range from three to 15 times the number of direct deaths. Applying a conservative estimate of four indirect deaths per one direct death to the 37 396 deaths reported, it is not implausible to estimate that up to 186 000 or even more deaths could be attributable to the current conflict in Gaza.

The entire basis of this estimate of four indirect deaths for every direct death is a 2008 document called the Geneva Declaration: Global Burden of Armed Violence.

Yet even that paper, and studies since then, note that the most significant factor on estimating the number of indirect deaths is how developed the medical system is in the war zone - how well fed and immunized the children are beforehand.

A 2023 monograph describes the Geneva Declaration as being accurate for worldwide estimates, but not accurate in countries that had a relatively developed medical infrastructure:

For instance, a recent mortality survey in a high conflict region of the Central African Republic, one of the world’s poorest countries, documented that violent deaths accounted for about 13% of total mortality, as people were also dying at high rates from illnesses such as malaria and diarrhea and maternal and newborn complications. By contrast, in the 1990s war in wealthier Bosnia, evidence suggests that the majority, about 67%, of war-related deaths, were due to violence.

And later the paper says:

The author’s review suggests that a lower ratio may be accurate in Iraq, while a higher ratio is likely in today’s humanitarian crisis situations such as in Afghanistan and Yemen.

Gaza's health infrastructure before October 7 was more comparable in maturity to Iraq and Syria than to Afghanistan, Yemen and Somalia. There was (and still is) far less malnutrition in Gaza then in the countries that had the highest death rates due to war, namely CAR, DRC, Afghanistan and Yemen.

The four to one ratio that the Lancet bases its analysis on is from an outdated paper, and even worse, it generalizes all conflicts to be the same ratio of direct to indirect death, when the reality is far more variable.

Which means that yet again, the Lancet is publishing biased data as if it is science, and referencing old studies that have been superseded as if they are accurate. Like social scientists, it is pretending to use the scientific method to publish anti-Israel propaganda.

Furthermore, the authors seem to be saying that the absurd estimate of 186,000 dead is the current amount, not the expected future amount of excess mortality from the healthcare crisis in Gaza - which is what the other studies concentrate on. In fact, based on previous Gaza wars, chances are very high that those who die from natural causes are being counted as part of the total war deaths. We would have expected that about 5,000 Gazans would have died over the past nine months without a war.

I'm not saying there will not be excess mortality of Gaza as a result of the war. There most certainly will be. But there are field hospitals being built as quickly as possible; thousands of Gazans have been able to exit the sector to get treatment abroad (something that had not happened to the same extent in other war zones,) and - most importantly, - there is a dedicated unit of the attacking army whose entire job is to protect and aid enemy civilians, something that is practically unprecedented in the other wars that the inflated statistics come from.

When it comes to Israel, the Lancet has a real problem with the scientific method, objectivity and reporting reality.

Where are the honest scientists and statisticians who are willing to expose the Lancet for consistently publishing anti-Israel articles that make a joke of the scientific method?

(By the way, I had emailed a couple of the prominent authors who wrote or referred to the Lancet UNRWA article justifying the MoH numbers, asking them to comment on my analysis showing the same methodology contradicts its conclusions for later months. Not one responded. Real scientists would care about the truth, either to refute me or to admit I am right.)

(h/t JW)

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Latest EoZ cartoons and memes

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07/07 Links: Heroes in flip-flops; Netanyahu sets red lines ahead of Doha summit; Federal court to enforce the Taylor Force Act; It’s time for a Gaza Buyout

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Heroes in flip-flops

The only thing giving away the theme of this makeshift amusement park—organized for weeks and funded by the attendees and donors—is an incessant loop of photos projected on two screens adjacent to a stage on which a live band is performing. The pictures show the above guys in full military gear: dusty helmets, ceramic vests and weapons.

These comrades-in-arms from a particular Israel Defense Forces company are in various poses, separately and together, alternately at a base in the south and in the Gaza Strip. There, they are battling Hamas. Here, they’re changing diapers. The contrast is both charming and jarring.

A master of ceremonies takes the mic, flanked by his young daughter and son. As he introduces the company commander, the men in the audience, children in their laps, burst into a chant familiar only to them. Like a secret handshake. But noisier.

“This is a different crowd from the one I’m used to addressing,” he says, referring occasionally to text he has written on his cellphone. “I’m used to talking to exhausted reservists questioning why they can’t postpone certain tasks until later, complaining, ‘We haven’t slept; we haven’t eaten.’ So, it’s moving to speak to this audience, all bright and beautiful.”

He goes on, “It’s important for me to begin by telling the women and children here, ‘Your husbands and fathers are heroes.’”

He then defines a hero as “someone who on Oct. 7 got up, left his house and headed south, putting on his gear and saying, ‘Here I am. What should I do?’”

But, he qualifies, “a hero isn’t only someone who arrived on Oct. 7; it’s someone who showed up for training in 2022, and in 2021 and in 2020 and in 2019 and in 2018 and in 2017 and in 2016. Even when it caused problems at home and at work. Even when it was hot and inconvenient. That’s what a hero is. Everyone in this company is a hero. And it was a privilege to have been called up on Oct. 7 to lead this company.”

Allowing the renewed cheering to subside, he continues: “I’m sure there are people present who’d be happy to report that I’m not an easy person. It’s true. I made life difficult for everybody in this room. But all you people did was ask what more you could do. That’s why this company earned the respect of the entire brigade.”

Turning to the wives, he says, “Now it’s time to mention the other heroes in this room—you women who took care of your households by yourselves with great strength of spirit, despite living in a state of major uncertainty. From our point of view, you fought alongside us against the enemy. Without you, we couldn’t have done any of it. And with you, we will keep winning.”

He concludes with a reminder and a request.

“There are still many challenges ahead,” he says somberly. “The fighting isn’t over. We’re preparing for the next phase of the war. So, I’m asking you to allow us to borrow your loved ones for another round.”

The battalion commander, a lieutenant colonel in a T-shirt and sandals, gets up to punctuate the speech with a similar sentiment about the importance of the home front and the inevitability of a third tour in Gaza. When he’s done, the M.C. announces that there is a Shabbat challah and bouquet of flowers waiting for everyone at the exit.

The reservists-on-furlough shuffle out, waving and slapping one another on the back. They know they’ll be summoned soon to replace their flip-flops with combat boots yet again.

These heroes of the IDF laugh as they leave the premises. I try not to let them see me crying.

Andrew Pessin: Anti-Israel Divestment Demands Demand a “Damn no!” Response

Executive Summary
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1. Background and Introduction
On October 7, 2023 Hamas massacred some 1200 mostly Jewish non-combatants in the most barbaric manner imaginable. Shockingly, many campuses responded in celebration of the massacre, with months of pro-Hamas rallies, culminating in encampments. Instead of shutting encampments down, many administrators negotiated, some making significant concessions. Among the activists’ main demands is that for divestment from Israel. I argue that administrators and trustees must forcefully resist, reject, and in fact denounce any such demands.

2. No Negotiations
There should be no negotiations with people breaking campus rules or the law, especially if they are aggressing toward other community members. The proper response is: “You must desist immediately or disciplinary proceedings, culminating in possible suspension or expulsion, will begin.”

Any other response normalizes and thus incentivizes the behavior. Once you capitulate to extortion, there will only be more extortion. Negotiations also immorally privilege those violating the mission and norms of the university over those actually manifesting them.

3.-4. Recent Precedents and General Arguments Against Divestment
The proposal to divest from Israel should be publicly rejected and denounced.

There are many arguments to this conclusion, both general “content-neutral” ones and others specific to the Israeli-Palestinian-Jewish-Arab-Muslim Conflict (IPJAMC). Through a study of recent precedents, including Penn, Williams, and Cornell, we extract these arguments:
(1) Divestment is inconsistent with academic freedom.
(2) It is discriminatory in nature, thus immoral and inconsistent with inclusivity norms.
(3) It may be illegal in many states.
(4) It is divisive, while consensus is a necessary (though not sufficient) prerequisite.
(5) It’s not particularly feasible, and even where feasible likely to have negligible if any impact at all on its targets.
(6) The institution can have a far greater impact by providing a first-rate education, funded by an endowment guided by maximizing returns rather than by political considerations.
(7) Divestment may have symbolic value, but (a) onerous changes in investment strategy should not be pursued for mere symbolic gestures and (b) that symbolic value is also one of hate and exclusion for many community members present and prospective.
(8) It may actually do more harm than good even in the political arena.
(9) Maximum investment “transparency” is disastrous for the endowment and the community.
(10) Divestment is inconsistent with the purpose of the university endowment, which is not to be an instrument of political and social power and advocacy but to support the educational mission of the university. It may also violate the ethical, legal, and fiduciary obligations of the trustees and their investment managers to the beneficiaries, and it directly harms and violates the rights of every stakeholder in the institution, thus making the university vulnerable to expensive litigation.
(11) Divestment is inconsistent with institutional commitments to diversity and equity. Endowments fund financial aid and other programs essential to any university’s commitment to “make the highest-quality liberal arts education available and affordable to a diverse population of future leaders.”

5. Institutional Neutrality
Inspired by the famous Kalven Report, recently enjoying new life as universities (such as Harvard, Syracuse, Stanford, and Purdue) have begun recommitting to “institutional neutrality” as essential to the nature, mission, and inclusive values of the university, we have the final general argument:
(12) Divestment is inconsistent with institutional neutrality.

6. Rebuttal, and “Damn No!”
The only argument anti-Israelists have is that their stance is morally correct. But even if so, it doesn’t matter: universally applicable, content-neutral considerations override it.

Every administration should recognize what is going on here: activists are hijacking the institution to advance their own agenda at the detriment of all other stakeholders and the institution itself. That is why these demands must be publicly, promptly, and harshly denounced.

Federal court allows action to enforce the Taylor Force Act

Astoundingly, the amended complaint mentions that the State Department has acknowledged in a non-public report to Congress that the P.A. had not ended the “pay for slay” program and that it could not therefore certify compliance with the act. Nevertheless, this did not result in a suspension of further aid payments, as required.

It is also important to note that the program is not a matter of executive fiat; it is embodied in P.A. law—an egregious violation of the Oslo Accords, which explicitly provide that “both sides shall take all measures necessary in order to prevent acts of terrorism, crime and hostilities directed against each other … and shall take legal measures against offenders.”

In essence, not only is the P.A. not preventing these horrendous acts, it is encouraging, rewarding and honoring murderers. In this regard, limitations on aid and other restrictions are also triggered under the Anti-Terrorism Law-PLO (22 USC 5201) and Palestinian Anti-Terrorism Act of 2006 (120 Stat. 3318) by a P.A. breach under the Oslo Accords.

The disdain for the law shown by U.S. government officials, seemingly without consequence, should be inconceivable; yet apparently, it is not. Under Article I of the Constitution, there is a separation of powers. The power of the purse was reserved to Congress.

The remedy for those in Government who may disagree with the law is to seek to change it, not to undermine or evade compliance with the law. It is unacceptable for those in the executive branch unilaterally to disregard the sacred responsibility of enforcing or complying because they think they know better and disagree with the law or the policies it promotes. This should be an issue of profound concern to everyone, no matter the party or affiliation.

Moreover, the effect of violating the law is odiously financing and promoting the murder of innocent Americans, Israelis and others. A policy of appeasement and virtuous-sounding pronouncements about a desire to promote peace has proven to be ineffective in practice. By funding evil, peace is not being achieved; it only emboldens the wrongdoers. Those acting to evade the law are, in essence, complicit in enabling despicable terrorist actions, including of Hamas and the terrorism rewarded by the P.A.

It’s time for Congress to employ its power of the purse to defund those who are violating or failing to enforce the law. Consideration should also be given to establishing an independent counsel position to enforce these laws.

Usually, Palestinians deny every Jewish holy site, claiming that they are really ancient Muslim holy sites. They've renamed Rachel's Tomb, the Temple Mount, and other holy spots to take them away from the Jews.

For Joseph's Tomb in Nablus, the usual claim is that it is really named after location of a local sheikh/miracle worker, Yusef al-Dawiqat, who died in the 18th century and was coincidentally also named the Arabic equivalent of Joseph.

Which is why I found this story in a Palestinian news site surprising:

500 settlers storm the tomb of the Prophet Joseph in Nablus

Hundreds of Israeli settlers stormed Joseph's Tomb in Nablus at dawn on Thursday, under the pretext of performing their prayers, under heavy security guard from the Israeli occupation authorities.

No scare quotes around "Joseph's Tomb," no reference to Dawiqat. It appears that the news site accepts this as legitimately Joseph's tomb.

However, this is an old story, from 2013. \\

More recent stories in Palestinian media about Jews visiting the site make sure to add that they don't believe that it is really Joseph's tomb, indicated by not saying "Prophet Joseph."

If it is the real resting place of the biblical Joseph (which is far from clear,) then Palestinians have no reason to ban Jews from visiting. So it is easier to rewrite history than to allow Jews to do pilgrimages in an Arab majority town.

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Ramallah based Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics publishes very specific Hamas lies

For months, the Gaza health ministry claimed that 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children.

But they stopped making that claim around the beginning of May.

The UN stopped making that claim around the same time, after looking at detailed MoH records that showed that the percentage was far lower for the "martyrs" that they claimed to have documented, and even if every one of the "undocumented" people were women and children the numbers still wouldn't add up.

But there is one Palestinian organization that still claims 70% of the dead are women and children: the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.

The PCBS still publishes specific statistics about women and children supposedly killed.

As far as I know, the only official place the Gaza health ministry publishes its information is its Telegram account. If it had these detailed statistics on women and children, it would publish them.

PCBS claims that its source for these numbers are the ministry of health and UN OCHA (which in turn gets its statistics from the same health ministry) - so why aren't the supposed sources reporting these numbers?

Where does the PCBS really get its information from?

There is only one source for these statistics: the Hamas-run Government Media Office.

They don't get their statistics from the health ministry - they give the statistics to the health ministry, which is forced to claim that the differential in the two sets of total "martyrs" is that they "don't have complete documentation" for the 10,000 they cannot account for.

The media office does not have researchers in the field to count bodies. It makes up the numbers out of whole cloth.

The Palestinian Authority's official statistics bureau acts as a mouthpiece for the Hamas terror group. Their entire reputation rests on accurate data, and they prefer to parrot Hamas propaganda - and lie about the source.

These are the "moderates" that the West believes can be trusted.

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According to Amnesty, you shouldn't trust anything @Amnesty says

Amnesty Australia has a handy guide to identify disinformation and determine whether information is accurate.

Let's see ow Amnesty as an organization does against its own standards.

How to Fact Check Information when Consuming Content
Tips to fact check when reading content on social media or through the media

Consider potential biases: When assessing a source, be mindful of any biases that could be influencing its content. Review previous posts and articles to get a comprehensive picture on the source.

For years, Amnesty employed a researcher named Saleh HIjazi. His Facebook page featured multiple terrorists as the featured photo. Amnesty kept him on as a researcher on Israel, putting hi in videos and allowing him to write reports. He finally left Amnesty to work for the BDS Movement

Is that biased enough for you?

That's only the tip of the iceberg. For example, Amnesty UK once voted down a resolution condemning antisemitism. It has hosted groups that have supported Palestinian terrorists but turned down Jewish organizations from using its facilities.

I once counted the topics of Amnesty tweets for a month, and its obsession with Israel was pretty clear.

If this isn't bias, what is?

Appeal to sensationalism: Ask yourself when watching videos on social media whether the content describes specific events or facts or whether it is meant to prompt an emotional trigger for the audience. You have to harness critical thinking skills, and question information that may come across or overly sensational.

Here's part of an Amnesty report on the 2014 war:

Raisa Mahmoud Mohammad al-Bakri, 62, was watching the news in her living room. She described how her son Mohammad lost his wife Ibtisam and two of his daughters, Asil and Asma, and how her son Ahmad in turn lost his only son, Kamal: “It was horrible. The walls fell over my body. I was just lying there. The neighbours came and started lifting the rubble and carried me to the ambulance. I got injured in my eye and couldn’t see clearly. My two poor children – one lost his wife and two kids, and the other, after spending 15 years in [an Israeli] prison and finally managing to have his first son, is gone.” Four-year-old Kamal spent 10 hours in an intensive care unit before dying of severe internal bleeding. Another of Mohammad and Ibtisam al-Bakri’s daughters, Hanin, and Ahmad al Bakri’s wife, Soua, were transferred to Turkey for medical treatment due to the severity of their injuries

This is an appeal to emotions. Yet even Amnesty, after 13 paragraphs of similar text about how horrible the attack was, mentions as an aside who the target of the airstrike was: "Although family members denied it, both Ramadan Kamal al-Bakri and Ibrahim al Mashharawi were members of Islamic Jihad’s al-Quds Brigades, as was confirmed when, after some weeks, their names appeared on their list of 'martyrs'." One was a high ranking brigadier-general equivalent.

Amnesty was appealing to emotions, and burying the facts.

Evaluate the source: Investigate the credibility of sources, and be cautious of sources with clear bias or a history of spreading false information.

We've already seen that Amnesty itself is not a credible source, and I have dozens of other examples. Here's another one from the Australian Amnesty site.

A video where they pretend to prove Israel is guilty of "apartheid" is filled with lies and half truths. This screenshot is complete lie:

Look at the map: The Jews are in "settlements" but most of the land is "Palestinian land." But it wasn't Arab land. Over 75% were public lands belonging to the government, who was Great Britain.

Of the private land, about 1/3 was owned by Jews and 2/3 owned by Arabs, not 90%.

Clearly. Amnesty cannot be trusted as a source, according to its own standards.

Even worse, Amnesty doesn't evaluate the credibility of sourses themselves.

In a report updated in April, Amnesty wrote: "More than 33,000 Palestinians, at least 14,500 of them children, have been killed over the last six months, according to the Ministry of Health in Gaza. Thousands more are buried under the rubble and presumed dead." Yet the number of children actually counted by the health ministry was half that amount, and this was known as of the time Amnesty last updated that page. It is impossible for both sets of numbers published by the ministry to be true, but Amnesty chooses the one that has no source outside Hamas.

Be mindful of potential propaganda: Remember to critically assess any political affiliations sources may have as this may be reflected in the information they present.

According to OpenSecrets, of the money given by Amnesty members in the US for political campaigns, 94% went to Democrats.

Sounds like they align politically to only one side, way out of proportion of all Americans.

Avoid echo chambers: Don’t limit your exposure to information that aligns solely with your pre-existing views and challenge your own assumptions when diversifying the information and sources you engage with.

I challenged Amnesty when they issued their "Gaza Platform" website. I showed lots of examples of people they claimed were civilians but in fact were terrorists. When someone asked them about it, they responded, without any evidence, that they do not consider me a credible source - even though I linked to Hamas and Islamic Jihad websites proving I was right and they were wrong.

I was not the only one to challenge their assertions; The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Centre also documented every casualty in the 2014 war and counted far more terrorists than Amnesty did. Furthermore, the IDf responded to many of their accusations, and Amnesty never updated their reports with the additional information that showed that ISrael did not do any war crimes.

Sure sounds like Amnesty will only accept facts from their own echo chambers.

So there you have it. If you take Amnesty's advice as to how to determine whether information is accurate, you cannot trust Amnesty at all.

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07/06 Links: UNRWA doesn’t assist refugees, it aids and abets terrorism; The Diaspora Tragedy of Philip Roth; Rabbi Linda dupes Cori Bush

From Ian:

The Diaspora Tragedy of Philip Roth

Times have changed over the past half-century since the story of Merry’s destruction of her father’s sense of himself and the country that had granted him such riches. And radically so. Young protesters no longer march against the U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam or, at the extremes of the movement, in support of North Vietnam and the Vietcong; today, they march in support of Palestinian liberation and, at the extremes, in support of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and a “globalized intifada.”

“I remember when Jewish kids were doing their homework,” Swede’s father laments. “What happened? What the hell happened to our smart Jewish kids? If, God forbid, their parents are no longer oppressed for a while, they run where they think they can find oppression. Can’t live without it. Once Jews ran away from oppression; now they run away from no-oppression.…They have parents they can’t hate anymore because their parents are good to them, so they hate America instead.”

If American Pastoral were set in 2024 instead of in the 1960s and ’70s, Merry would almost certainly be participating in the Free Palestine movement and mindlessly chanting “Palestine must be free from the river to the sea”—and she, her father, and her grandfather would be gazing at each other across a wide gulf of mutual incomprehension. I can’t presume to know how Roth would portray the 2024 version of Merry Levov, but the odds are very high that he (or more specifically his fictional alter ego Nathan Zuckerman) would have imagined her as a convert not to Jainism, and not to Islam itself—that would be too glib for the Rothian sensibility—but to the pasteurized Islamist radicalism that has infiltrated America’s places of privilege, principally academia, journalism, and the arts.

This is not to say that a 2024 Merry Levov would be an active supporter of Hamas; more likely, she would be chanting slogans inspired by or invented by the Muslim Brotherhood or designed by the KGB to advance the cause of Islamist radicalism in the West without the chanters quite knowing that this was their purpose. What Roth describes in American Pastoral as “the monotonous chant of the indoctrinated, ideologically armored from head to foot” has been an inescapable feature of the current conflict.

What if the Swede back then, or his hypothetical 2024 version, had married a religious fellow Jew and both had raised Merry to be a devout Jew herself, rather than, as she was, a “half Jew”? Would that have changed anything? Would it have made Merry happier, more content, more attached to the eternal and the spiritual and less fixated on temporal conflicts and controversies? Or would it have given her just one more thing to rebel against? There is no way of knowing, in particular because Philip Roth himself was a secular Jew almost devout in his Godlessness and without the ability to provide his characters with satisfactory religious answers.

Even with the distance of many years, the accommodating and ineffectually liberal Swede Levov and his ideologically dogmatic daughter remain paradigmatic figures in the existential journey of American Jewry. The Swede assimilated as well as he knew how, and he became that figure of admiration (and sometimes envy and disdain): the successful Jew who created something useful out of nothing. But “look where it’s got you,” his brother says, during a bitter argument about whether Swede should turn Merry in for her crimes.

UNRWA doesn’t assist refugees, it aids and abets terrorism

Funds that serve terrorism
The rest cooperate with Hamas terrorists. Funds supposed to serve the residents have been used for weapons and ammunition and to establish an anti-Israeli propaganda machine.

The main points of the Hamas charter are as follows.
• The conflict with Israel is a religious conflict between Islam and the “infidel” Jews.
• The entire Land of Israel is waqf land, meaning “Islamic holy land,” which no one has the authority to give up.
• Every Muslim has a personal duty to wage an uncompromising war, jihad, as a central means of destroying the State of Israel.

Numbers of refugees have been artificially increased by the non-reporting of deaths and the false registration of additional people as refugees, aimed at increasing support for the agency over the years.

Bedouins who were wanderers in the area and had no permanent home in Israel were also included in the numbers, but UNRWA has neither improved the lives of the refugees nor rehabilitated them.

Internal UNRWA reports from 1951 and 1960 note that UNRWA was “very flexible” in defining people as “refugees,” to be able to include those who had not even had a home in Israel but only worked for within the territory before the 1948 war was declared by Arab countries on the nascent state.

ISRAELI HOUSING and Construction Minister Yitzhak Goldknopf, also chair of the Israel Land Authority (ILA), has found a way to dislocate UNRWA from property owned by the Jewish state in response to the organization’s deviation from its contractual obligations, The ILA has demanded that UNRWA immediately vacate buildings and land in Jerusalem and pay tens of millions of shekels owed.

Shockingly, despite evidence of the UNRWA-Hamas-and-Islamic-Jihad terror alliance, countries such as Germany, Japan, France, Australia, Canada, Sweden, and Spain have hastened to renew their funding of UNRWA in Gaza.

Germany was, surprisingly, the first, on the heels of the publication of a UN report stating that Israel had not provided evidence that many UNRWA employees belonged to the terrorist organizations in the Gaza Strip and that at least 12 UNRWA employees were involved in the October 7 massacre.

Yoav Zeitoun wrote this week on Ynet: “The IDF recognizes how Hamas has recovered in Gaza City in recent months in terms of governance, which has not only manifested itself militarily. The terrorist organization has even managed to pay the salaries of its operatives and recruit hundreds of new militants, some of whom are now confronting IDF forces...”

Hypocrisy reaches new heights
In February, hypocrisy reached new heights when a senior MP in Norway’s ruling Labor party, and a Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee member, Edmund Okrost, announced Norway’s submission of UNRWA for the Nobel Peace Prize for its long-term work in providing essential support to Palestine and the region in general over the past over 70 and particularly in the last three months – even as UNRWA was being investigated for ties to Hamas.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres appointed an Independent Review to investigate UNRWA.

The review reported “a more developed approach to neutrality” than found in other similar UN or NGO entities. France’s former foreign minister Catherine Colonna chaired the inspection committee, submitting its report to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who moved to adopt its recommendations and immediately set a plan in action, called on all stakeholders to actively support UNRWA as a “lifeline” for Palestinian refugees.

Beneath UNRWA headquarters the IDF dug up an 18-m. deep by 700-m. long tunnel, containing an electrical infrastructure shared with Hamas. The tunnel would have enabled raids on additional Israeli targets.

UNRWA Director-General Philip Lazzarini’s comment on this issue was that the organization does not have the “military expertise” to check what is underground.

As proof of UNRWA terrorism, IDF Spokesperson Rr.-Adm. Daniel Hagari published two recordings of UNRWA teachers who infiltrated Israeli territory during the October 7 massacre. In one, an Arabic teacher brags that he has “captured Judaism.”

According to the IDF, more than 450 Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in the Gaza Strip are also UNRWA employees.

It is time to act to close down UNRWA so that the funds contributed by many countries not become the wages of terror, attracting hundreds of new armed terrorists.

Sen. Lindsey Graham: Gazans ‘taught to hate Jews from birth,’ ‘most radicalized population’

Senator Lindsey Graham, while addressing the pro-Palestinian demonstrations that took place on America’s Independence Day, claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that Palestinians born in Gaza are “the most radicalized population on the planet.”

Graham added that in addition to being the “most radicalized,” Gazans are “taught to hate Jews from birth,” and this “will take years to fix.”

Graham further noted that he saw widespread antisemitism in the pro-Palestinian movement, comparing the popular protest chant “from the river to the sea” to the Nazis’ final solution - which planned to see the complete extermination of the Jewish people.

“From the river to the sea” is in reference to the land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, an area that encompasses the entire state of Israel.

Many critique this chant as advocating for the creation of a Palestinian state at the expense of Israel's existence.

“The Hamas terrorists are the SS on steroids,” Graham said, while asserting, “I will always support giving Israel the weapons and the space they need to destroy Hamas so there is never another October 7. “

On pro-Palestinian protests, Graham wrote that he supported the right to “peacefully protest” but expressed his apologies to nearby households disrupted from their celebrations by the demonstrations.

The protesters were recorded shouting “Lindsey Graham we’re not done, intifada has just begun.” The chants were met with accompanying drum beats.

“Intifada” is an Arabic word for “uprising” and references the waves of terrorism that targeted Israeli civilians and soldiers from 1987-1993 in the first intifada and in 2000 in the second intifada.

Over 1000 Israelis were killed in the second intifada, and thousands more were wounded, according to Israel’s foreign ministry. Thousands of Palestinians were also killed during the intifadas.

07/05 Links Pt2: Who is Keir Starmer? And the rise of a sectarian Muslim vote in the UK; Antisemitism on the Rise Down Under; IDF are finding stolen Judaica in Gaza

From Ian:

Antisemitism on the Rise Down Under

Throughout its history, Australia has been overwhelmingly good to its Jewish community. From an original group of eight Jews who arrived on the First Fleet in 1788, the community has grown to more than 100,000 today.

“Historically, there was hardly any issue of antisemitism here,” said Yossi Aron, the religious affairs editor of the Australian Jewish News, who has published several books on the history of Australia’s Jewish community.

Significantly, the country welcomed thousands of Holocaust survivors after WWII. Among them was Berysz Aurbach, who sought refuge in Australia in 1947 after witnessing the tragic loss of nearly all his family. Aurbach, now 103, is one of the last remaining survivors of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. And, he told me, he has never experienced any antisemitism in Australia. “There are good people in Australia,” he said. “They always want you to be a good citizen. If you are bringing good things to Australia, they leave you alone.”

A quick look at Australia’s Jewish communities shows that they are exceedingly vibrant, with dozens of Jewish schools, cultural organizations, synagogues, and kosher restaurants. Being Jewish in Australia has never been seen as a bar to success, with Australian Jews occupying senior positions in government, including treasurer, attorney general, and governor general.

Since Oct. 7, however, Aussie Jews have been shocked by an explosion of antisemitism, including doxing, boycotts of Jewish businesses, and violent attacks. One of the most troubling incidents occurred when a WhatsApp group dedicated to combating antisemitism in the arts had its information leaked and compiled into a “Jew List.” This spreadsheet was created with the intention of boycotting and harassing Jewish artists.

Although isolated antisemitic incidents are not new here, when Melbourne’s Mount Scopus Memorial College, one of Australia’s largest Jewish day schools, had the graffiti “Jew Die” scrawled on its fence in late May, the incident was so shocking that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese weighed in with a statement on X, noting: “No place for this in Australia or anywhere else.”

“Is this something new?” Aron asked about the new wave of antisemitism in Australia. “Or is this something that was under the covers the whole time? That’s a very difficult question to answer.”

Jeremy Leibler, the president of the Zionist Federation of Australia, believes that Australian Jews are experiencing a seismic shift. “I believe that the golden age for global Jewry has likely come to an end,” he said. “In Australia, we have seen a dramatic rise in antisemitism in almost every part of society.”

Leibler, who doubles as a partner at Arnold Bloch Leibler, one of Australia’s most prestigious law firms, recently helped draft a submission to Australia’s government that weighed in on a parliamentary review. His focus? The urgent necessity to overhaul laws about doxing—the intentional online exposure of an individual’s identity, private information, or personal details without their consent—especially considering the disproportionate impact on Jewish individuals in Australia post-Oct. 7.

“I believe that the government announced the review in good faith and intends to make necessary changes so that this sort of behavior is clearly unlawful and real action can be taken to protect the individuals impacted,” Leibler said. “However, at this stage the consultation period is still underway so it is too soon to know where it will land. But I remain optimistic.”

Literary antisemitism is bad and getting worse

Last week the 14,000-member Authors Guild waded into the waters of post-October 7 antisemitism, found that water not to its liking, and hot-tailed it back to the beach.

Which is to say that the Authors Guild’s public statement of June 24 – which many had hoped would be a forceful denunciation of the rapidly spreading wildfire of review-bombing, blacklisting, protest, and cancellation of Jewish writers – was no such thing. Instead, it was an anodyne communication that one could read without thinking it had anything much to do with the Jew-hatred now plaguing the publishing industry.

The word “antisemitism” appears but once in the statement, and Hamas-adjacent readers can take solace that the word is immediately followed by “Islamophobia, racism, and other forms of bigotry and discrimination.” So, see, the Authors Guild isn’t especially worried about the impact of the war against Jewish authors. It’s worried about a lot of bad stuff that “chill(s) writers’ freedom of expression.” And the Authors Guild, of which I’m a member, is brave enough to acknowledge that antisemitism fits in there, somewhere.

The inclusion of Islamophobia on the list of dangers facing writers today is particularly rich and gives the game away. Despite what one might imagine after reading the Authors Guild statement, there is no organized campaign to review-bomb Islamic books online, as has happened to Jewish writers including Talia Carner. Her novel, The Boy with the Star Tattoo, which depicts Israel’s early days, was review-bombed [given bad reviews or low ratings to drive down sales) first on TikTok and Instagram, then on the widely read book-review site Goodreads — all before the book came out. Most of the 120 one-star ratings that Carner’s novel received came without explanation. The rest made clear that they opposed Carner’s Zionist background and the publication of a pro-Israel book “while Israel openly commits genocide.”

Carner isn’t alone. Author Gabrielle Zevin’s novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow received the same treatment on Goodreads. So did author Lisa Barr’s Woman on Fire, about a search for Jewish art stolen by the Nazis.

“This is organized harassment,” Carner told me. “This isn’t a good time for the Jewish novel.”

Similarly, no bookstores have canceled signing events for Muslim authors, as happened repeatedly to Jewish author (and “Stranger Things” star) Brett Gelman. At least three bookstores cancelled scheduled book tour dates with Gelman for his debut book, The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories, after receiving protests. The stores cited safety concerns, and Gelman reportedly speculates that the stores may not have wanted to associate with a prominent advocate for Israel.

And there are no online blacklists of Muslim writers, while Jewish authors were recently shocked by the very real “Is your fav writer a Zionist?” blacklist, a Google doc that Google admirably took down — after it was viewed by millions of people. The seemingly flimsiest excuse could land an author on the list, such as taking a Birthright trip to Israel, mentioning a concern for Jewish friends, or speaking to a Hadassah meeting (really!).

“What’s happening to Jewish authors gives lie to those who claim they’re not antisemitic, just anti-Zionist,” the American Jewish Committee’s Saba Soomekh told me. “This is a vendetta against any author who’s Jewish.”

Federal court allows action to enforce the Taylor Force Act

Rep. Ronny Jackson (R-Texas), Stuart and Robbi Force (the parents of Taylor Force), and Sarri Singer (as plaintiffs) filed an action in December 2022 against U.S. President Biden and U.S. Secretary of State Blinken (as defendants) seeking to enforce the Taylor Force Act (22 USC 2378c-1).

The act was named in memory of Taylor Force, 28, a U.S. military veteran who was murdered by a Palestinian terrorist in Tel Aviv in 2016 while on visiting Israel as a graduate student. The Palestinian Authority awarded the terrorist’s family a stipend for his homicidal efforts, under its “pay for slay” program. Singer is an American survivor of a suicide bombing by a Palestinian terrorist of a Jerusalem bus that killed 17 people. The P.A. also makes payments to that terrorist’s family.

The act requires cutting of funding available for assistance for the West Bank and Gaza (outside of three very limited humanitarian exceptions not here at issue) directly benefiting the P.A., as long as it continues the despicable “pay for slay” system. Pursuant to the act, the Trump administration did, in fact, cut aid payments.

Shockingly, the Biden administration restored and even increased funding, in flagrant violation of the act. Under the act, such funding is illegal unless the secretary of state certifies in writing to the appropriate congressional committees that, among other things, the P.A., PLO and any successor or affiliated organizations are taking credible steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens; have terminated terror payments; and have revoked or invalidated any law or decree providing for the same. However, the secretary was unable so to certify because it would have been flatly untrue.

The Biden administration responded to the action by moving to dismiss the complaint—arguing, among other things, that plaintiffs had no standing to bring the case. While the court dismissed a part of the complaint, it preserved the basic claim, ruling:
(1) Defendants plausibly violated statutory authority; and
(2) Plaintiffs had standing to challenge those alleged violations because they faced an increased risk of harm in traveling to Israel-harm that was “reasonably tied to Defendants and redressable by the relief sought.”

Plaintiffs obtained leave of the court for expedited and limited discovery. The documentary evidence obtained not only showed non-compliance with the Taylor Force Act; it also implicated a likely violation of the US anti-terrorism law (18 USC 2339B).

Then, Oct. 7 occurred, when Hamas committed murders, rapes, kidnappings and atrocities against Americans, Israelis and others, including reportedly murdering 45 Americans and kidnapping 12 Americans (with eight still being held hostage in Gaza, of which only five are said to be alive). Once again, the P.A. rewarded the perpetrators with “pay for slay” payments.

Israeli Radio Stations Boycott Roger Waters’ Music After He Denies Hamas Sexually Abused Victims on Oct. 7

Several Israeli radio stations announced they will no longer play songs by former Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters after he denied Hamas terrorists carried out sexual violence against their victims during the Oct. 7 attacks in a recent interview with Piers Morgan, Ynet reported on Thursday.

Waters appeared on the talk show “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on Tuesday and claimed there is “no evidence” that Hamas terrorists sexually assaulted some of its victims on Oct. 7, despite widely corroborated proof to the contrary, confirmation by the United Nations, and first-hand testimonies from former Hamas hostages.

“All the filthy disgusting lies that the Israelis told after Oct. 7 about burning babies and women being raped — no they weren’t,” Waters said.

Morgan fired back, “Actually women were raped. It’s been established by the United Nations. There is extensive evidence of assault and rape.”

However, Waters replied, “You can say anything you want [but] there is no evidence.”

A day after Rogers’ interview with Morgan aired, Hagit Pe’er — the president of NA’AMAT, the largest women’s organization in Israel — urged radio stations in the country to stop broadcasting songs by the singer. “We believe that a reputable and fair-minded radio station should take a stand against the harmful statements made by Mr. Waters,” Pe’er wrote in a letter sent to radio stations on Wednesday. “The appropriate course of action would be to refrain from playing his music until he acknowledges and apologizes for his deceptive and inflammatory remarks.”

07/05 Links Pt1: Biden's State Department Used Data from Anti-Israel Org To Compile 'Report Card' on Israel; America-hating anti-Israel protesters burn US flag on July 4th in NYC

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: A clear message needs to be sent: You can’t hold US citizens hostage no matter what

In the 1980 election, Ronald Reagan gained a great deal of traction by stressing the American-hostages issue.

It was a year earlier, during the Carter administration, that the Revolutionary Islamic Government seized power in Iran.

It also seized American hostages.

It was Reagan who saw the opportunity to make the election in part about that.

How dare any country seize Americans and get away with it?

He famously insisted that on Day One of his administration the hostages would be returned.

The mullahs realized they were no longer dealing with a weak American leader and the hostages were duly brought home.

Today we are in a similar situation.

Iran and Russia in particular are in an ugly citizen-bartering phase.

Vladimir Putin has now held an American journalist (Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich) for more than a year.

Russia has invented charges against him and is clearly holding him to try to trade him at some point.

In a little-covered story, Putin’s friends in Iran recently stole two Swedish civilians in order to swap them for an Iranian war criminal held in a Swedish jail.

US citizen Robert Woodland was also recently detained in Russia.

Again most likely for a swap.

But most appalling is the more than 100 hostages currently being held by Iran and Qatar’s proxy army in Gaza: Hamas.

These hostages include at least five Americans.

To the shame of Biden and Harris, these Americans have been utterly abandoned.

Show some force
And here is where Trump can step in.

He should explain that when he is back in charge, he expects all these hostages to be released.

All of them.

And that they better be in the best possible condition. Otherwise Russia, Qatar and Iran are going to pay big time.

Countries like those mentioned do not respect weakness.

They respect force.

When Americans can be seized and held anywhere in the world, it is clear that America has lost that force and that respect.

It is time to get it back.

Biden's State Department Used Data from Anti-Israel Org To Compile 'Report Card' on Jewish State, Internal Emails Show

The Biden administration produced an internal "report card" on Israeli activities in the West Bank based on data from a United Nations organization closely linked to the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement, according to government emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

The report, based on data from the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), was produced in January 2023, several months after an Israeli election virtually guaranteed that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu would return to power. At the time, the Biden administration was preparing for diplomatic clashes with the Netanyahu government. Those divisions are now on full display as the United States pressures Israel to preemptively ink a ceasefire deal with Hamas and stop defending itself from Hezbollah militants along its northern border.

An internal State Department email chain reviewed by the Free Beacon shows the creation and dissemination of the report on so-called Israeli settlement growth. U.S. officials described the report as an update from previous data compiled by the Biden administration on Israeli activities in the West Bank.

Prior to Hamas’s Oct. 7 terror strike on Israel, the construction of Jewish homes in contested areas of the West Bank was a central source of tension between the Biden administration and the Israeli government, particularly under Netanyahu. When Netanyahu's conservative governing coalition retook power in 2023, the Biden administration appeared ready to clash with Israel over the issue.

"Our very own [redacted name] updated the open-source report card he produced this time last year," wrote Hady Amr, the Biden administration's special representative for Palestinian affairs. "This draft conveys the average annual rates [of growth], and as you can see, across board."

Amr wrote in the email that he "would be happy [to] repackage / update per suggestions."

OCHA is responsible for funneling money from international governments, including the United States, to "highly biased and politicized NGOs, including a number that are highly active in promoting BDS and lawfare campaigns, and some even engage in blatantly antisemitic activities," according to NGO Monitor, a group that tracks anti-Israel nonprofits. "Some of the NGOs also have ties to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a terrorist organization designated as such by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel."

A separate 2016 report by NGO Monitor, one of many published by the group, details how OCHA is a driving force in the United Nation’s campaign to delegitimize Israel.

"Coordinating with some of the most virulent NGOs in the region, OCHA promotes a one-sided narrative of Palestinian victimization and sole Israeli aggression," wrote Anne Herzberg, an NGO Monitor legal adviser. "OCHA’s central role in anti-Israel political warfare is yet another example of the exploitation of human rights, international law, and humanitarian principles via UN bodies to attack the Jewish state."

Figures and information produced by OCHA, the United Nation’s central humanitarian group, have long been identified as misleading, with the organization facing accusations it facilitates "funding to and the dissemination of information from groups involved in political warfare against Israel." OCHA’s information is often circulated by anti-Israel nonprofits to build the case that Jewish construction in the West Bank is displacing Palestinians and hurting the chances of a two-state solution.

ICC prosecutor Karim Khan opts for Netanyahu's arrest warrant, cancels Israel trip

Khan personally decided to cancel the visit to the Gaza Strip, Jerusalem, and the West Bank city of Ramallah, which was due to begin on May 27, two of the sources said.

Court and Israeli officials were due to meet on May 20 in Jerusalem to work out final details of the mission. Khan instead requested warrants that day for Netanyahu, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, and three Hamas leaders -- Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh.

A UN official, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed that initial discussions had taken place regarding a visit to Gaza by Khan, covering security and transportation.

Flight tickets and meetings between senior-level court and Israeli officials were canceled with just hours of notice, blindsiding some of Khan's own staff, seven sources with direct and indirect knowledge of the decision said.

The US State Department official said that abandoning the May visit broke from the prosecution's common practice of seeking engagement with states under investigation.

Three US sources said, without providing details, that Khan's motive to change course was not clearly explained and the about-face had hurt the court's credibility in Washington.

Khan's office did not directly address those points but said he had spent the three previous years trying to improve dialog with Israel and had not received any information that demonstrated "genuine action" at a domestic level from Israel to address the crimes alleged.

Khan "continues to welcome the opportunity to visit Gaza" and "remains open to engaging with all relevant actors," his office said in an email.

Senior Hamas official Basem Naim told Reuters Hamas had no prior knowledge of Khan's intentions to send a team of investigators into Gaza.

Netanyahu's office and the Israeli Foreign Ministry declined to comment.

Haredi organization in Israel disproves the stereotypes

Yaakov Katz writes in the Jerusalem Post that his car died as he was driving with his wife from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem on Tuesday night. His insurance company said it would take five hours to send a tow truck.

His wife suggested they call Yedidim, a haredi volunteer organization for situations like this, and 20 minutes later they had a young religious man arrive to help them.

I have plenty to say – and I often do – about the ultra-Orthodox and their refusal to serve in the IDF. But Yedidim – one of the largest volunteer organizations in Israel founded by haredim – shows another aspect of life in Israel. Nothing is black and white. Worth keeping that in mind.

The Yedidim ("Friends") organization is on the scene within minutes for non-emergency assistance, when children or dogs get locked in cars and the key is left inside, when people get stuck in elevators, and when people cannot remove rings from their fingers. During COVID they also assisted with food and medical equipment delivery. It has over 65,000 volunteers from all walks of life helping anyone who needs assistance 24 hours a day, six days a week. People just have to call 1230.

As they say on their (Hebrew-only) website:

Our vision is to reach a situation where there will be at least one volunteer in every building, so we can reach a situation where no person will be stuck for more than a few minutes anywhere in the country.

This is how we will make the State of Israel a better place.

This is the kind of story that people outside Israel simply don't know about, and it shows a side of Israel - and the much vilified haredi community - that is unreported in the media.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

From The Daily Telegraph Australia:

The University of Sydney administration has once again clashed with pro-Palestine activist students and staff, this time over new rules explicitly banning the kind of “occupation” protesters employed at the Camperdown campus for weeks on end.

In an email to students on Thursday, Vice-Chancellor Mark Scott set out a list of changes to the university’s “campus access policy”, including that any activity “using megaphones or amplifiers, erecting structures, projecting words or images onto buildings or other structures, using cooking equipment or heaters not provided by the University, (and) attaching materials, banners or structures to University buildings” would require approval and at least 72 hours’ notice.

Demonstrations can still be held without approval, but organisers must still give three days’ notice, and they “must be held in open spaces and are not permitted inside any building”.

Camping has been banned outright, along with “intimidating behaviour”, “using a megaphone … in close proximity to a person”, “dumping rubbish or other materials” and “storing personal property on University lands without permission”.

“At its core, this policy upholds our commitment to free speech — while recognising we need to be able to manage our environment for the safety and security of all,” Professor Scott wrote. “We continue to support the right to peaceful, orderly protest.”

All of this makes sense, and it protects all students while upholding free speech. So naturally the Israel haters are going crazy:

SRC president Harrison Brennan argued the measures would have a chilling effect not only on pro-Palestine activism, but other campaigns and causes, and would “stifle” other aspects of campus life.
“This is a repulsive full-scale offensive on the right to protest at the University of Sydney,” he said.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi slammed the move on Friday,.

"What we are seeing here is a despicable attempt by neoliberal, corporate university management to stifle student activism and shut down political expression," she said.

Free speech does not mean the unlimited right for students to take over property, destroy property, threaten others, endanger others, bring outside agitators to campus, block access to areas for people they disagree with, and call for violence. If students don't understand that basic concept, they are clearly taking the wrong classes.

(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!