Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 12, 2024

The US Gaza pier debacle ends. It was doomed to fail and everyone knew it.

The US-built pier to bring aid into Gaza was destined to fail. And everyone knew it.

The New York Times reports about the White House spin on dismantling the pier:

“The real issue right now is not about getting aid into Gaza,” [Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser] said. “It’s about getting aid around Gaza effectively. But there are a lot of things that we need to work through, including lawlessness and armed gangs. In some cases, Hamas itself is trying to disrupt and derail the delivery of humanitarian assistance.”

Who could have anticipated that?

Everyone. The New York Times reported in March when the pier was announced.

The new facility could provide another way to get truckloads of aid into the region. But it would not solve a central problem of distributing aid inside Gaza while intense fighting and Israeli bombing continues in the south, and as lawlessness in the north has grown so bad that aid groups suspended operations there.

Even according to the NYT, the pier was built without any way of solving the "central problem" of aid distribution.

Why did the US spend $230 million on this JLOTS plan that does not even address the the major obstacle to getting aid to Gazans who need it?

The main reason is that the Biden administration wanted to make it look like it was doing something. The UN falsely said that Gaza was on the brink of famine, Biden was under pressure from the progressive wing of his party to not be complicit in "genocide," and he wanted to make a dramatic announcement in his State of the Union address.

It was all optics. Helping Gazans was never the major goal.

Besides that, the point of the pier was to have a major US presence in the region to deter Israel from invading Rafah, which it announced it intended to do the previous month. Israel ignored the pressure not to attack the last major area of organized Hamas military and the US didn't succeed in that goal.

Even so, the implementation was stunningly bad. There is no way that US military engineers couldn't anticipate the roughness of the Mediterranean Sea. That is more proof that helping Gazans was only a secondary goal of this debacle.

In the end, only 1% of the aid entering Gaza came from the pier - 438 trucks of aid out of 39,000 total. That is over half a million dollars for each truck in overhead. It seems that this was even less efficient than the airdrops are.

Joe Biden dragged the military into wasting hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of people in manpower to do something that was poorly planned and doomed from the start, all seemingly to make him look better in an election year. This is not how a commander in chief should act.

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No, President Biden, Palestinians LOVE Hamas. And that means the two state solution is not a solution.

One part of President Biden's press conference should alarm every thinking individual.

Biden reiterated the mantra from every Western leader except Donald Trump since 1993: "There's no ultimate answer other than a two-state solution here, and so what was able to be done in terms of the plan I put together was it would be a process for a two-state solution,"

Mere months after the the most deadly attack on Jews since the Holocaust, Biden wants to reward the Palestinians with a state. The unspoken assumption is that if they had a state there would be no terror.

There is of course no evidence of that; it is pure wishful thinking that too many are willing to sacrifice Jewish lives.

But Biden believes there is some evidence. He said, "There is a growing dissatisfaction in on the West Bank from the Palestinians about Hamas. Hamas is not popular now."

Apparently, he believes that the majority of Palestinians are moderate and peace-loving, who are upset at Hamas for attacking innocent civilians. That is his evidence that two states would be a solution.

Politicians have made this claim for years. The media does as well. And it is all a lie.

There is not one poll in the West Bank since October 7 that does not show Hamas popularity zooming.

Here are results from the latest PCPSR poll showing that Hamas is more popular in the West Bank than in Gaza, by far, and its popularity has stayed steady - even going up from March to June.

AWRAD in May found the same popularity for Hamas in the West Bank - 76% approval rating, with Islamic Jihad close behind.

If Palestinians love Hamas, if Palestinians consistently support terror attacks (and they do, overwhelmingly, for as long as they have been surveyed), why would anyone think that two states would reduce terror? It would be giving an army to a people who have no greater desire than to destroy Israel and kill or drive out all Jews in Israel!

That is the reason Western media never highlights these results from polls. The "two state solution" is a religion, and anything that contradicts its vision of peace must be suppressed.

Even from the President of the United States.

Once you know that Palestinians support Hamas and Islamic Jihad, support October 7, support every major terror attack over the past 20 years, and view two states as a stage to eventually conquer all of Israel, how could you support a Palestinian state? Unless, of course, you share their goals.

Biden didn't read the poll; he has aides that told him that the Palestinians prefer peace to violence and Hamas is losing popularity. They lied to him. Because their two-state religio mandates lying for the Cause.

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07/11 Links Pt2: Kamala Harris thinks campus antisemites are very fine people; Melanie Phillips: The war against the Jews; Matisyahu to Perform at NYC Oct7 Benefit

From Ian:

ICC Prosecutor Tapped External Panel to Review Evidence: Is That Even Allowed?

As noted, the Rome Statute’s Article 42(7) requires the prosecutor and the deputy prosecutors abstain not from the appearance of partiality and the statute’s Article 45 requires the prosecutor and each of the deputy prosecutors solemnly undertake in open court to act impartially. The Rome Statute, however, does not apply to external consultants of the prosecutor. Consequently, no panel member or academic adviser was as obligated to avoid the appearance of impartiality, act impartially, and avow impartiality as the prosecutor, if at all.

The ICC has Rules of Procedure and Evidence, which apply precepts of the Rome Statute to the functioning of the ICC and to practice before it. Rule 34 of these rules provides, explicitly in addition to grounds for disqualification set forth in Article 42(7) of the Rome Statute, an open-ended list of grounds for disqualification of a prosecutor or deputy prosecutor. One of the listed grounds is “performance of functions, prior to taking office, during which he or she could be expected to have formed an opinion on the case in question, on the parties or on their legal representatives that, objectively, could adversely affect the required impartiality of the person concerned.” In advising the prosecutor on his evidence, the panel members and academic advisers did not act in or before the ICC, meaning that Rule 34 did not apply to them.

The already-noted phenomenon of groupthink persists as a concern about partiality. The panel reviewed evidence that the prosecutor shared with it in a coordinated manner, including meeting at the ICC and in video calls. It reached unanimous conclusions on all questions posed to it—maybe even on more, since the panel commended the prosecutor’s own process of review—and it drafted its report as one. The prosecutor declared that the panel’s analysis supported and strengthened his applications. The risk that some opinion of some panel member was advertently or inadvertently quashed for the sake of group unison is inherent to the panel and the way it apparently worked and should be charged to the prosecutor. This risk alone points to a conclusion that the prosecutor failed to meet his legal obligation to abstain from at least the appearance of partiality.

What is more, external consultants may have had prior functions or can have affiliations or agendas that bias their conclusions. The prosecutor did not disclose whether he or anyone screened the panel’s members or academic advisers for problematic prior functions or formed opinions. The prosecutor did label the panel “impartial” but left unsaid how he determined that the panel members were impartial and how he ensured that they would act impartially. As for the panel’s academic advisers, the prosecutor said nothing about their state of impartiality. Regardless, the asymmetry between the impartiality obligations of the prosecutor, which are maximally stringent, and those, if any, of the panel members or academic advisers introduces the possibility of bias. This possibility should be charged to the prosecutor and further points to a conclusion that the prosecutor did not comply with his obligations concerning impartiality.

Jonathan S. Tobin: Kamala Harris thinks campus antisemites are very fine people

So, while not an all-out opponent of Israel in the manner of her friends in the left-wing congressional “Squad” who traffic in antisemitism, Harris can be seen as a transitional figure for the Democrats on this issue as they complete their journey from a pro-Israel party to one that is hostile to it. She not only lacks the record but the instinct to pretend to be a supporter of Zionism, as Biden has done. She also makes a greater effort than the president to show the younger generation of Democrats who have been indoctrinated in toxic ideas like critical race theory and intersectionality, which falsely label Israel and the Jews as “white” oppressors, that she is on their side.

Nor should anyone look to Emhoff as someone who can be a credible voice on antisemitism or Israel. The first man to hold the title of “second gentleman” spent his life demonstrating zero interest in Judaism or Israel until it became politically important for his wife’s career to do so. He’s representative of a large segment of people whose ties to Jewish life are largely cultural and therefore ephemeral. His daughter, Ella, a fashion model, not only spurns the title of a Jewish influencer but has raised money for the viciously anti-Israel U.N. Relief Works Agency (UNRWA) that has ties to Hamas terrorism and has helped perpetuate the century-old war on the Jewish state. Those who are relying on him to advocate effectively against antisemitism are fooling themselves.

When placed beside a president whose physical and mental decline is obvious, Harris—a healthy and vigorous 59-year-old—seems like a credible alternative, as well as a DEI choice who might hold together the Democratic coalition. However, the prospect of her elevation to the presidency ought to worry anyone who cares about Israel and the imperative to roll back the woke tide that is fueling a surge in antisemitism in the United States and worldwide. Her husband’s origins and any pandering to the community notwithstanding, if she winds up leading the Democrats, the case for the party as a home for Jewish voters will become even weaker than it already is.

Nearly half of Jewish voters believe NY is unsafe for them, shocking poll finds

Nearly half of Jewish voters have felt at risk because of their religious identity while living in the Empire State — while more than a third said that New York is no longer a safe haven for their people, a shocking new poll reveals.

The survey conducted for the pro-Israel New York Solidarity Network found that 44% of the 1,200 Jewish voters in New York City and other counties queried said they have felt unsafe, as did 67% of identifiable Orthodox Jews.

More than a third — 35% — said they agreed with the statement: “New York is no longer a safe haven for Jewish life and the Jewish people.”

Nearly 40% of the same voters said the US is no longer a safe haven for Jews.

The numbers are unsettling given that 1.5 million Jews live in New York state — more than any single place on the globe outside of Israel, the poll takers said.

“That more than a third of registered New York Jewish voters believe New York is no longer a safe haven for Jews should be a five-alarm fire for state and local elected officials,” Sara Forman, executive director of the New York Solidarity Network and Treasurer of Solidarity PAC, said in a statement to The Post Wednesday.

It comes as New York has been hit by a wave of antisemitic hate crimes since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip.

The hate has spilled onto college campuses, where some Jewish students have been left cowering in fear due to anti-Israel protests and antisemitic incidents — including at Cooper Union and at Columbia University, where vandals occupied an academic building.

Many of the masked hoodlums escaped prosecution, and a campaign is now underway to urge Gov. Kathy Hochul and the state legislature to restore a mask ban at public protests to prevent harassers and bigots from hiding their identify and getting away with crimes.

Half of those surveyed by the New York Solidarity Network said they don’t believe New York’s college campuses will do enough to make Jewish students feel safe in the upcoming fall semester, while 42% said they did.

Meanwhile, 86% of respondents said they believe that antisemitism is a serious problem, and 56% have witnessed anti-Jewish hatred on social media and online forums — including 72% of those under the age of 30.

Antisemitic hate crimes are up 45% in 2024, according to NYPD data obtained by The Post in April — with many of the emboldened attacks captured on shocking video.

The survey conducted for the pro-Israel New York Solidarity Network found that 44% of the 1,200 Jewish voters in New York City and other counties queried said they have felt unsafe, as did 67% of identifiable Orthodox Jews.

Flee Gaza? What Part Of 'Palestine Refugee' Is Unclear? (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Flee Gaza? What Part Of 'Palestine Refugee' Is Unclear?

by Ayama Baboon

Gaza City, July 14 - We Palestine Refugees, proud residents of this camp for more than seventy years, refuse to leave, even if the Occupation forces tell us to stay out of harm's way. What do they think refugees do, run away from violence? Someone has poor comprehension of the concept.

Our role in this conflict is to serve as a constant reminder that the Palestinian plight remains unresolved, and that we still yearn for the homes we left in 1948, or, if precedent is any indicator, to burn down the homes of Jews and slaughter people left and right. With some torture, gang rape, kidnapping, and mutilation thrown in for good measure. THAT's what being a refugee is about.

Well, that's what being a Palestine Refugee is about. I can't speak for refugees handled by that other UN agency, which for some reason tries to achieve permanent resettlement and citizenship for people fleeing other conflicts. Why do that when the refugees can serve as cannon fodder and a political tool to deflect domestic dissatisfaction? That other UN agency obviously doesn't understand what the concept of refugees is all about, either.

The Germans did it wrong. After they lost the Second World War, they were forced to absorb millions of ethnic Germans fleeing or expelled from lands the Third Reich had previously taken - the Palestinian model is so manifestly superior that I don't even know where to begin. The Germans should have refused to accommodate those refugees, instead keeping them in camps and fostering genocidal resentment among the camps' residents for generations against the countries they fled. Think how much more justice we would have in the world had they chosen the path of perpetual Resistance!

Perhaps the migrants from this part of the world now flooding into Europe can teach the locals how things are done. Initial signs are positive, but Europeans are slow learners.

A refugee's job is not to seek refuge, as the name might imply, but to prolong conflict for decades. That fundamental point eludes the world, except in the crucial case of Palestine, where its practice represents the only true fulfillment of the concept. Refugees do not flee. We embody rage, violence, and collective assignment of guilt to the people yet unborn when our plight began, but who refuse to surrender their security, lives, homes, or possessions to satisfy only the most extreme definition of "justice."

Educate yourselves.

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07/11 Links Pt1: First Oct. 7 probe reveals how IDF, police failure led to Be'eri slaughter; UNRWA has 100 employees who are members of Hamas

From Ian:

First Oct. 7 probe reveals how IDF, police failure led to Be'eri slaughter

The IDF publicized its first probe into Israel’s October 7 failure to prevent Hamas’s invasion, focusing in on the invasion of Beeri in the South, which parallels central Gaza, and which was overwhelmingly destroyed.

During the invasion, 101 Beeri residents were killed, 30 hostages were taken, of which 11 are still being held by Hamas in Gaza, 150 houses were destroyed, and several complete security breakdowns took place.

From the start of Hamas’s breaking through the Beeri security gate at 6:55 a.m. until 2:30 p.m., between 80-220 Hamas terrorists at anyone time (a total of 340 Hamas forces participated) massively outnumbered Israeli defenders, who had only between 13-26 fighters at any given moment.

The Hamas invaders were broken down into: 100-120 trained Hamas Nukhba terrorists, 50-70 Hamas regular fighters, 100-150 even less trained Islamic Jihad fighters and common criminals.

Most of the around 1,000 Beeri residents were in grave danger, but hoping to wait out the invasion in their home’s safe rooms until around 6:00 p.m., when the first large evacuations started.

IDF Maj, Gen. (res.) Mickey Edelstein, who is outside the mandatory service officers chain of command, directed the probe.

A Hamas Nuseirat commander in central Gaza started maneuvering his forces to be ready for the invasion around 5:30 a.m.

Under cover of thousands of rockets being fired and using drones and hang gliders to destroy Israeli sensors and lookout towers, around 6:30 a.m., Hamas started penetrating the border into Israel in many areas.

Between 6:55 a.m. and 2:30 p.m., a huge number of things went wrong for the IDF beyond the lack of IDF or Shin Bet warnings and the lack of forces preventing the Hamas invaders from arriving at Beeri in the first place.

Around 7:30 a.m., Hamas was already attacking and overwhelming the IDF’s forward headquarters for Gaza at Reim which would have been the main party to coordinate reinforcements.

Gaza Division Commander Brig. Gen. Avi Rosenfeld eventually fled and there was no one left nearby to coordinate a broad reinforcements operation or defense.

Rosenfeld recently resigned from the IDF.

Around 20 Hamas forces had penetrated the village from two different vectors in a short time.

Caroline Glick: JNS poll: Most Likud voters want Gallant fired

The majority of Likud voters have lost faith in Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and would like to see him fired, according to a JNS/Direct Polls survey of public opinion carried out on July 9.

Sixty-three percent of Likud voters believe that Gallant should be sacked, compared to 29% who believe he should remain in his position. Nine percent have no opinion.

Overall, 40% of Israelis support his firing, with 53% opposing it. And 7% have no opinion.

Only 16% of Likud voters believe that Gallant’s trip last month to the U.S. was helpful, while 49% said he undermined Israel’s war goals by traveling to Washington. Thirty-four percent have no opinion on the matter.

Speaking with visiting White House envoy Brett McGurk on Wednesday, Gallant expressed support for an IDF withdrawal from the Philadelphi Corridor that controls Gaza’s international border with Egypt.

“A solution is required that will stop smuggling attempts and will cut off potential supply for Hamas, and will enable the withdrawal of IDF troops from the corridor, as part of a framework for the release of hostages,” Gallant told the U.S. official.

Fifty-seven percent of Israelis oppose the U.S.-mediated deal currently being negotiated with Hamas, according to the survey, compared to 33% who support it. Seventy-nine percent of Likud voters oppose the prospective deal, with only 14% approving.

The contours of the agreement would require Israel to withdraw from the Netzarim Corridor that controls north-south traffic in Gaza, and from the Philadelphi Corridor. In exchange for the withdrawal and the release of hundreds of terrorists from Israeli prisons, Hamas would free 18 living women and children and the bodies of 15 deceased hostages.

Seth Frantzman: How an addiction to the Iron Dome doctrine has eroded Israel’s deterrence

Since October 7, Israel has continued to rely on a doctrine rooted in air defense as a strategy. It has evacuated the North and South and believes air defenses continue to buy it time.

The concept of Iron Dome buying Israel time to decide worked when Israel’s enemies couldn’t penetrate the air defenses and when the Israeli public wasn’t affected much by the war. However, even in those previous conflicts, which were short, living under endless rocket fire and evacuating the borders was not a doctrine for success.

Israel’s enemies today are not deterred. They believe they have caught Israel in a trap in which Israel continues to rely on precision strikes and proportional attacks.

ISRAEL’S FIRST LEADERS understood this would be a recipe for disaster. Israel can’t meet its enemies man-for-man. Israel is a small state and it can’t afford to end up like Lebanon or Iraq. It is a modern state that relies on trade and wants to be part of the first world. Endless wars against Hamas, Hezbollah and a half dozen other Iranian proxies are not a recipe for Israel’s historic success.

It was once believed that Iron Dome would buy Israel the time to make rational decisions, rather than plunge her into hasty wars. Today it is clear that relying on this concept as a strategy has led to endless caution and a fear of fighting large wars to deter enemies.

Instead, the preference is to continue letting groups like Hezbollah dictate the tempo of the war. Hezbollah says that it will stop its attacks when Israel ends the war in Gaza.

In essence this means every time Israel clashes with Hamas, Hezbollah has carved out a “right” to rain down rockets, drones and missiles on northern Israel.

The most destructive aspects of the October 7 war are now being felt on multiple fronts. Hezbollah’s ability to carve out a security zone inside Israel and fight a war between the wars inside Israel is a historic disaster for Israel.

What is the "new norm" in the Middle East?
This week, Hezbollah killed two Israelis in the Golan. Its drones continue to wreak havoc.

A year ago when an IED was planted by a man near Metulla who had penetrated Israel from Lebanon, it was seen as a big deal. Today 6,000 Hezbollah rockets and drones are seen as the new norm.

The killing of Israelis in the North is becoming a new norm, all because strategists put all their faith in air defense alone.

This recalls previous historic marches of folly, such as the Maginot Line between France and Germany.

Countries that rely solely on walled defenses are doomed to end up with enemies who learn how to pierce the defenses. History teaches us this. Israel’s historic leaders understood this.

Israel will need to rethink its reliance on air defense which went from buying time, to eroding Israel’s deterrence, preventing her from making tough decisions necessary to secure the country.

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights wrote last month:

Genocidal Massacre in Central Gaza: Israeli Forces Kill 274 Palestinians and Injure 698 in Attack Lasting 75 Minutes

On Saturday, 8 June 2024, the Israeli occupying forces (IOF) perpetrated yet another genocidal massacre against the Palestinian people in Gaza. During a military attack in Nuseirat Refugee Camp and across other areas of central Gaza, the IOF killed at least 274 Palestinians and injured around 698 others, including 161 women and 153 children, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health. Among the number of casualties were amputees and serious injuries. The military attack, which lasted around 75 minutes, featured the use of deadly force and heavy firing in a densely populated area, primarily inhabited by internally displaced persons (IDPs), proving once again no regard for Palestinian life.

Of course, this was the hostage rescue. Genocide by definition requires the intentional targeting of civilians for extinction, while the goal of the operation was to save Israeli lives, not to end Palestinian lives. If the hostages would have been released peacefully no one would have been killed.

PCHR knows this very well, and gives this absurd description of the rescue:

Later, the IOF announced that the military attack led to the release of four Israeli captives.

Oh, so the captors decided on their own to release the kidnapped Israelis?

This is just one of hundreds of examples of how the so-called "human rights community" ignores and twists facts to get to their predetermined conclusion.

Yet PCHR is respected by the international community and quoted often by the UN.

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

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Tracing down a stupid antisemitic libel from 1937

I found this on an antisemitic site. It is a supposed memo from the Anti Defamation League from 1937 claiming that Jews were secretly planning to exempt themselves from any military service.

I looked up the source - I couldn't find it in the National Archives but the copy in the antisemitic "Israel Lobby" site seems to legitimately have come from a US government archive. Here is the "memo" itself so you can read it more easily:

The forgery is laughable. This is how antisemites think Jews talk amongst themselves, but no one talks this way.

The memo starts off saying it is a record from the Central Conference of American Rabbis, but ends up claiming it is from the Central Committee of the Anti-Defamation League. The letter itself does not adhere to any normal business letter format - no date, no author, no signature, The Central Conference of American Rabbis meeting in 1937 was (rather famously) in Columbus, Ohio, not New York, and it was their 48th annual meeting, not the 47th. The 47th was in 1936 and held in Cape May, NJ. (And they always called them "meetings," not "conferences.")

So why is this ridiculous forgery in the National Archives? Because it is part of a multi-volume FBI file on the ADL.

Any crackpot can send whatever they want to the FBI, and the FBI policy is to save and index everything it receives. If an FBI agent sees a newspaper story or flyer or really anything he or she wants others to see, it gets indexed and filed. It even has a file on the Protocols of the Elders of Zion - but it doesn't mean that it validates the contents. It includes letters from concerned citizens asking if the FBI was aware of this secret plot by Jews to take over the world. Here is one of them, plus the FBI response with an internal addendum on the bottom.

The ADL itself forwarded some other antisemitic materials to the FBI if they felt it important. Sometimes entire books were sent and every page copied into the FBI archives. At times the FBI would obtain material and forward it onto specific field offices, or examine the material for clues as to who sent it.

So when someone requests materials under the Freedom of Information Act, the government sends literally everything that isn't classified - including the crackpot material.

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!

In March, Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas appointed a new prime minister and asked him to form a new government, which he did.

Months later, a majority of Palestinians don't even know their new prime minister's name.

A survey last month from AWRAD explains:

Palestinians have limited knowledge of the newly-appointed government, especially in the Gaza Strip. More than one month after its formal inauguration (31 March 2024), one third of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza are unaware a new government has been formed.

Though the majority of respondents are aware that a new government is formed, they are markedly less knowledgeable of its composition. For example, only 32% of respondents were able to accurately name the new Prime Minister. Rates are slightly higher in the West Bank (40%) than Gaza (22%), but also show that, in neither territory is a majority of the population able to identify the current head of the government.

The reason they don't know his name is because the government is almost meaningless. All major decisions are made by Mahmoud Abbas alone, as he heads the Palestinian Authority, the PLO and Fatah. He is a dictator who controls all branches of the government.

The government itself remains between impotent and dysfunctional. Many of the ministry websites (like the justice ministry and the cabinet website itself) are down or out of date. The sites that are up usually don't have any useful information, more self-promotion that providing services for the people.

No wonder people don't know the name of their prime minister. It doesn't matter. Abbas is like Iran's Supreme Leader, but unlike Khamenei, he doesn't bother pretending there is a democratic process when choosing a figurehead of government.

The current prime minister is also minister of foreign affairs. But Mahmoud Abbas created a new position for the previous minister, Riyad al Maliki, to be his personal Advisor on International Affairs and he sends him around the world to continue doing what he used to do officially.

This gives an idea of how irrelevant the Palestinian government is.

By the way, the prime minister's name is Mohammad Mustafa.

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

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The Iranian Qods News Agency reports on an anti-Israel conference in Tehran Wednesday:

Quds News Agency (Qudsna) reported that a special meeting to study the latest developments in Gaza, Palestine and Lebanon was held this morning, Wednesday, at the headquarters of the Association for the Defense of the Palestinian People in the capital, Tehran, in the presence of representatives of various local media outlets.

At the beginning of the meeting, Hojjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, Secretary General of the Society for the Defense of the Palestinian People, referred to the viewpoint of the founder of the Islamic Revolution, Imam Khomeini (may God be pleased with him), and His Eminence the Leader of the Islamic Revolution regarding the Palestinian and Zionist issue.

Hojjat al-Islam wal-Muslimin Rahimiyan explained that the issue of hostility by the Jews has been emphasized in many verses of the Holy Quran and said, "In the history of Islam, most of the wars were either related to the Jews or the Jews were behind those wars and involved in them. The Jews had a prominent role in waging wars against the Holy Prophet (PBUH) in that era and also up to this day."

The trope that Jews are behind all wars is straight from the neo-Nazi handbook. This one adds an Islamic twist.

By the way the logo of the Society for the Defence of the Palestinian People is suspiciously similar to that of the Qods News Agency itself.

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

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07/10 Links Pt2: The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate; The Vindication of a Jewish Professor; What would a two-state solution solve?

From Ian:

The Normalization of Terrorism and Jew-Hate

It apparently never occurred to either the heads of the UN or the EU to consider that if you are a terrorist organization that commits war crimes, you do not get to choose how a war that you started is waged against you.

If you do not want a "bloodbath," do not take hostages, hide them among civilians, try to prevent a rescue, then if they are rescued, profess shock at the fallout that you yourself have teed up.

BBC news asked with a straight face if, to spare the lives of the Gazan "civilians" who were keeping the hostages locked up in their homes, Israel had given prior warning before launching its rescue operation. The Israeli spokesman, also keeping a straight face, politely answered that a warning might have endangered the hostages and made the rescue more difficult.

The irony of all this seems completely lost on the political and media elites, who kept insisting that the Israeli rescue operation was somehow immoral. By condemning Israel's rescue operation, they suggest that massacring and kidnapping 240 people is moral, and an act that should not require a military response.

The new purported Hamas agreement to a ceasefire apparently comes with "a major hurdle: The Iran-backed terror group is now demanding 'written guarantees' that mediators will continue to negotiate a permanent truce, once the first phase of the plan goes into effect, the Hamas rep said."

Essentially, this demand means that Hamas and its handlers, Iran and Qatar, would like to start wars and then have someone else stop them when they do not like how they are going.

In contravention of the Geneva conventions, Hamas has refused to allow the Red Cross to check on the welfare of the hostages. One can imagine why.

To this day, there seems little-to-no interest in the fate or condition of the hostages still in Gaza. Instead, there is denial that the October 7 atrocities even took place, compared to an almost obsessive regard for the safety of, and humanitarian aid for Gazans. When the UN is unable to deliver the aid, Israel, not the UN, is blamed.

The Hamas murders, rapes, burning alive of babies and abductions – all the reasons why Israel was forced to go to war with Hamas to begin with -- have retreated into the background.

What seems to matter instead to those who set the political and media agendas is to use the Hamas war once again to demonize the Jews as the world's most inhuman people for wanting to live peacefully on their historical land without daily massacres from Iran and its proxies -- Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah and the Houthis -- which apparently plan to encircle them in a "Ring of Fire" -- "six fronts of aggression against Israel" -- as part of Iran's attempt at hegemony in the Middle East.

Western elites seem happy to assist them in that fight.

Seth Mandel: The Vindication of a Jewish Professor

Hamas’s brutal attacks on October 7 were the spark that lit up college campuses, but the powder keg already in place can best be understood from a lawsuit filed nearly two years earlier. That suit has now been resolved, and it provides an important lens through which to see the long-brewing anti-Semitism crisis in American higher education.

The story ended on Tuesday with the vindication of a Jewish professor who lost her job due to anti-Jewish bias. But it began back in 2005.

As was noted by the American Center for Law and Justice, which represented Melissa Landa in her battle against discrimination, Landa became a graduate assistant at the University of Maryland in ’05 and was hired two years later for a full-time teaching position in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction. After an award-and-accolade-filled eight years there, she formed a group to speak out against anti-Semitism at her alma mater, Oberlin College. Then she took an affiliate professorship at the University of Haifa in defiance of the growing BDS movement on campus.

Her employers at the University of Maryland made their discomfort with her pro-Jewish affiliations clear, and started freezing Landa out of the department. When she objected, she was let go. Landa filed a religious-discrimination complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which investigated and determined that Landa had provided enough evidence to sue.

Maryland declined to settle, and ACLJ filed suit on behalf of Landa in 2022. Maryland’s attempts to have the case dismissed failed, and the school has now agreed to pay Landa damages and attorney fees.

Stories like this matter for the obvious reasons—religious discrimination is vile and illegal. But they also help clarify the chicken-or-egg coverage of campus anti-Semitism, which treats it as a phenomenon that began with the current conflict and therefore may simply end when the conflict ends.

Stories like Landa’s also put the focus where it should be: on the schools and their administrators, and the atmosphere on university campuses dating back decades.

On Monday, Gallup released its latest polling on higher education and public opinion. The results aren’t surprising: “Americans are now nearly equally divided among those who have a great deal or quite a lot of confidence (36%), some confidence (32%), or little or no confidence (32%) in higher education. When Gallup first measured confidence in higher education in 2015, 57% had a great deal or quite a lot of confidence and 10% had little or none.”

A Walk With the Ghosts of Jerusalem's Old City

But even as the Old City stands empty, new tourist destinations have appeared in the south of Israel, where all there is to see is raw sadness and horror. People—so far mostly in small groups—are making a modern pilgrimage to kibbutzim near Gaza, and to Re'im, the Tribe of Nova festival site. They come as an act of remembrance of the people who were murdered, tortured, raped or taken to Gaza on Oct. 7—or, in a more cynical assessment, to gawk at the evidence of evil.

Shachar Gal of Hands on Israel will take you to see the aftermath of the horror, but he's not in any way eager to go. Visiting these sites makes it Oct. 7 all over again, he said.

"I wouldn't have come, because of the trauma," Gal said on the road south from Tel Aviv. "This was a minute ago."

Still, he is a knowledgeable and faithful guide, showing a small group the "sites," which included the Kissufim military base that was overrun by murderers and the overlook of an Israeli Navy base. There was also a stop in the town of Sderot, where an Israeli tank eventually blew up a police station that had been occupied by terrorists.

At the Nova site, Israeli soldiers in their late teens and early twenties climbed down from buses to walk among the memorials to individuals–many their age– killed or captured, grim looks on their faces, guns slung over their shoulders.

Most surprising to me, there was a regular tourist bus, too. Sweaty, middle-aged American men and women walked behind a guide who was explaining the inexplicable. She painted a picture so terrible that it sounded like she must have witnessed the brutality for herself.

Listening just a few seconds more, I realized that she had. She had lived through it all. She had survived and now dealt with her trauma by sharing her experience with others.

My hope is that these new sites won't permanently take the place of Jerusalem's Old City, and that tourists will pulse through its stone heart again soon.

07/10 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Abandoning Israel and the Jews; DOJ interviews Oct. 7 victims for case against Hamas; US House leaders demand probe into Palestine Chronicle

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Abandoning Israel and the Jews

Five days after Britain’s Labour party won an overwhelming parliamentary majority in the general election, we can see the outline of what this is likely to mean for British Jews and their country’s relationship with Israel. That outline is not reassuring.

The new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, is said to have purged his party of antisemitism and has persuaded many British Jews that he has made Labour safe again for Jewish voters. On Sunday morning, he told the Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas — antisemite, Holocaust denier and fan of Hitler’s wartime ally in the Middle East — that an independent state was the “undeniable right” of the Palestinian people and that “financial support for the Palestinian Authority” was one of his “immediate priorities”.

He did not tell Abbas that a condition of this financial support was that the PA must stop paying financial rewards to terrorists and their families for murdering Israelis. Nor did he say that a condition of receiving more British taxpayers’ money was that the PA must end its indoctrination of Palestinian Arab children in Nazi-themed demonisation of the Jews, teaching them that their greatest ambition should be to murder Jews and steal all their land.

Instead, Starmer proceeded to lecture Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, that there was a “clear and urgent” need for a ceasefire in Gaza as well as an immediate increase in the volume of humanitarian aid reaching civilians. As for the war being waged by Hezbollah in Lebanon against northern Israel, Starmer warned Netanyahu:
It was crucial all parties acted with caution.

What kind of “caution” does Starmer suggest is appropriate in the face of a threat of genocide by Hezbollah and its patron, Iran? Or to put it another way, with Hezbollah primed to unleash its armoury of 150,000 rockets and other missiles that can reach all of Israel, and with Iran itself along with Iraqi, Syrian and Houthi militias not to mention the terrorist armies of the “West Bank” all primed to attack Israel if it launches all-out war against Hezbollah, does Starmer really believe that Israel actually needs to be told to act “with caution”?

Can he really not grasp that, given the daily onslaught over the past nine months from dozens of rockets, drones and guided missiles that have destroyed Israeli border towns, left swathes of northern Israel burning, made more than 60,000 Israelis refugees in their own country and kept other residents in the north trapped in their safe rooms (two Israelis were killed today by a Hezbollah rocket strike that hit their car) that if the Israelis abandon that “caution” it’s because they have no other choice?

Starmer shows absolutely zero understanding that this crisis isn’t about Hamas, Hezbollah or the Palestinian Arabs. They are proxies and pawns in an Iranian war of extermination against Israel, the essential precursor to the destruction and conquest of America, Britain and the west.

So little does he understand this that the new Foreign Secretary, David Lammy, is now poring over the government’s legal advice on whether to stop UK arms sales to Israel.

Justice Department interviews Oct. 7 victims for case against Hamas

The U.S. Justice Department is interviewing Oct. 7 survivors and victims’ families to build a case against the terrorist organization and its financial supporters.

Former hostages and families of U.S. citizens who have been killed abroad have spoken with prosecutors and FBI agents in recent months, sources told Bloomberg News.

Beyond acts of terrorism, the broader focus of the U.S. investigation is targeting the financial networks that have funded Hamas, the report said.

That support includes backing from countries such as Iran and Qatar.

The U.S. has seized assets in cases where it’s hard to arrest the people facing criminal charges. “In terrorism cases, seized funds can be potentially redirected into a reserve for U.S. victims of state-sponsored terrorism,” Bloomberg reported.

On Feb. 2, the Justice Department announced that it had seized more than 500,000 barrels of Iranian fuel it said provided funding for Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) and its Quds Force. In addition, it seized $108 million destined for the Quds Force.

“Iran utilizes the proceeds of its black-market oil sales to fund its criminal activities, including its support of the IRGC, Hamas, Hezbollah and other Iranian-aligned terrorist groups,” said Attorney General Merrick B. Garland in a Justice Department statement.

Iran and Syria are facing a slew of recent lawsuits filed on behalf of hostage victims and their families for providing the financial backing that enabled the Oct. 7 attack.

Top House lawmakers demand federal probe into US nonprofit linked to Hamas operative

A pro-Palestinian news outlet linked to Hamas is facing scrutiny from three separate House committees in a joint memo urging the Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate.

Ways & Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., and Education & Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., wrote to Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday accusing The Palestine Chronicle and the U.S. nonprofit that runs it of running afoul of several laws.

"We write to urge you to investigate The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project for violating the law, particularly for providing material support to a known terrorist organization in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2339B, for filing a false tax return in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7206, and for failing to file a valid tax return and pay estimated taxes in violation of 26 U.S.C. § 7203," the letter said.

It comes after multiple Israeli hostages taken into Gaza by Hamas during their Oct. 7 terror attack were found in the home of Abdallah Aljamal, according to the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Aljamal was a contributor to media outlets, including The Palestine Chronicle, as well as a spokesman for the Hamas-run Gaza Labor Ministry. He was killed by the IDF during an operation to rescue the hostages.

"During his time as a 'journalist,' Mr. Aljamal was listed as a ‘correspondent’ on The Palestine Chronicle’s website, but the publication later changed the description to 'contributor' after news of his holding innocent Israeli hostages was reported around the world," the lawmakers' letter said.

The Republicans also accused The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project of having ties to Iran, writing that the outlet's founder and editor-in-chief, Ramzy Baroud, "has also written for Kayhan International, an outlet that reportedly is funded by Iran’s supreme leader. Notably, Kayhan International has had six of its published writers appear on state-controlled sites that were previously seized in 2020 by the U.S. government after finding that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps unlawfully used them to further a global covert influence campaign."

The lawmakers pointed to a federal statute that states anyone under U.S. jurisdiction providing "material support or resources to a foreign terrorist organization, or attempts or conspires to do so, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 20 years, or both, and, if the death of any person results, shall be imprisoned for any term of years or for life."

"[B]ased on the facts available, The Palestine Chronicle and People Media Project appear to be at the very least complicit in supporting Hamas, and at worst full-fledged financiers of terrorism," the letter said.

"No one is free until everyone is free" quote was originally a message to American Jews from Emma Lazarus. We should listen.

We see a lot of variations of the quote "No one is free until everyone is free" in protests and essays.

It is often attributed to Maya Angelou, who said it as "The truth is, no one of us can be free until everybody is free."

But Angelou got it from Emma Lazarus, the Jew who also wrote the "Give me your tired, your poor..." quote on the Statue of Liberty.

It is not well known but towards the end of her short life, Lazarus became a Zionist - before Herzl - and an ardent opponent of antisemitism. She founded a society to help oppressed Jews in Eastern Europe to go to the Land of Israel.

Here is what Lazarus wrote in The American Hebrew, in her column "An Epistle to the Hebrews," in 1883, from which the quote came:

In defiance of the hostile construction that may be put upon my words, I do not hesitate to say that our national defect is that we are not "tribal" enough; we have not sufficient solidarity to perceive that when the life and property of a Jew in the uttermost provinces of the Caucuses are attacked, the dignity of a Jew in free America is humiliated. We who are prosperous and independent have not sufficient homogeneity to champion on the ground of a common creed, common stock, a common history, a common heritage of misfortune, the rights of the lowest and poorest Jew-peddler who flees, for life and liberty of thought, from Slavonic mobs. Until we are all free, we are none of us free. But lest we should justify the taunts of our opponents, lest we should become "tribal" and narrow and Judaic rather than humane and cosmopolitan like the anti-Semites of Germany and Jew-baiters of Russia, we ignore and repudiate our unhappy brethren as having no part or share in their misfortunes- until the cup of anguish is held also to our own lips.

Lazarus used the phrase to refer to Jews in America who she felt were not adequately concerned about the oppression of their fellow Jews in Eastern Europe. She felt Jews should become more tribal, more concerned about each other, prioritizing the wellbeing of our fellow Jews anywhere in the world over universal principles that antisemites and Jew call "humane and cosmopolitan."

Lazarus warns that if we ignore the plight of our fellow Jews around the world, we will eventually drink from their same cup of anguish.

Her message is the opposite of how the phrase is understood now. It is not universal but narrow. She is saying to Jews what Benjamin Franklin probably didn't say, "We must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately,"

Lazarus, if she was alive today, would be aghast at the American Jews who embrace Israel's enemies in the name of "human rights" - the same self-deception that the racial antisemites of the 19th century used in pretending to be upholding moral standards. Lazarus would use this phrase not to refer to Palestinians but to Jews being held hostage by Hamas and those kept homeless in the north under Hezbollah fire, today's equivalent of the "poorest Jew-peddler."

Emma Lazarus is a hero today among progressives who have erased her Judaism to turn it into a universal, watered down message. Perhaps they should read what she really said.

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!

Fake Hamas website is really anti-Hamas propaganda

Someone bought the Hamas.com domain and turned it into a fake Hamas site that emphasizes how evil it is while pretending to be legitimate.

I personally don't like this sort of deception as a means of hasbara, but the site is worth looking at because it has a lot of documentation of atrocities and quotes from Hamas leaders.

Also, while its description of Hamas political aims is not what Hamas would admit openly, it is pretty accurate.

I have no idea who set it up. It was created using the Israeli website builder Wix, but anyone could be behind it.

As with any website, be careful and make sure that you browse it safely.

(h/t Andrew)

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!

University of Washington antisemitism and threats to Jews are swept under the rug

If you do a search on "University of Washington" and "hate crimes," all of the student protests have been against Islamophobia on campus.

The university itself says it is against all hate crime. It has a webpage for their "Hate Has No Home Here" initiative, which talk about anti-Black and anti-Asian hate crimes.

The president said in December that "Our University will not tolerate religious bigotry or harassment." He set up task forces to tackle antisemitism, and, of course, Islamophobia.

What is largely unreported, though, are hate crimes against Jews on campus.

The state of Washington yesterday released its 2023 annual report on crimes, and it has a section on hate crimes. In Washington State, as with most of the country, the vast majority of the anti-religious hate crimes are against Jews.

The report breaks down hate crimes by police departments across the state. It turns out that the University of Washington has its own dedicated police department.

Here are the hate crimes reported by UW police in 2023:

At this liberal, progressive university where there are lots of resources against anti-Asian and anti-Black and anti Muslim hate, there were more antisemitic hate crimes than all the other types combined.

This university police department was only behind the cities of Seattle and Vancouver in the number of antisemitic hate crimes reported.

The amount of antisemitic crimes per capita in UW far exceed every other area of Washington State. Even though there are only 46,000 students in UW there were more antisemitic hate crimes there than Spokane or Bellevue or any other medium size town in Washington with well over 100,000 people.

Where are the student protests against this?

And things have only gotten worse in 2024. One student with a Star of David necklace was spat upon, harassed, screamed at and followed as he passed by an anti-Israel encampment. And the president of the university condemned antisemitic graffiti seen at the encampments, without giving details.

Here are some of the examples of threatening messages and incitement against Jews seen at the encampment at the University of Washington in May:

None of this made the newspapers.

Antisemitism on the UW campus is provably worse than any other kind of hate, yet it gets less coverage and less concern from both students and faculty than every other kind. We don't even know what the specific five hate crimes against Jews at UW in 2023 were - they are simply not mentioned in the media.

Clearly, nothing the university is doing or saying affects student behavior against Jews one bit. On the contrary, the university has tacitly encouraged this behavior, by supporting the encampments (bringing in porta-potties, for example).

In October, the The Office of Student Diversity and Inclusion sent out a letter to all students supporting Hamas and Palestinian terrorism. It was unauthorized, but it still reflects on how the staff on campus thinks.

The rot is embedded in university campuses, and it will not be impacted by occasional letters from their presidents pleading for more civility or handing out flyers saying that they are against all hate including antisemitism.

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!