Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 16, 2024

In February, Fiji refuted anti-Israel arguments at the ICJ (full text)

This Friday, the International Court of Justice is expected to rule on "Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem."

It is widely expected that the ICJ will rule that the settlements are illegal and give the UN ammunition to sanction Israel.

This is the culmination of the PLO's strategy to become a state for the purposes of international law. The entire reason the PLO has pretended to accede to international agreements is to give the pretense of statehood, when in fact the entire purpose of statehood for the PLO is not to build a state but to destroy one, and calling itself a state has allowed it to bring cases to the ICC and ICJ. The ICJ is another international institution that the PLO has been hijacking.

The question before the court itself was biased in its very wording, almost forcing the decision to be against Israel.

During oral arguments on this case in February, Fiji's UN Ambassador Ambassador Filipo Tarakinikini gave an argument on why the ICJ should not issue this ruling and how it ignores the context of the issues. That argument received very little attention, but it is a comprehensive response explaining why the case was biased and should never have been formulated the way it was.

Here is nearly all of his 25 minute speech.

____________________________________

Fiji affirms the important role of this Court as the highest judicial organ of the United Nations in resolving disputes between States and assisting United Nations organs in their activities.

In so doing, the Court must promote the purposes and principles of the United Nations Charter. According to Article 1 of the United Nations Charter, one of the main purposes of the United Nations is “to develop friendly relations among nations based on respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples”. Fiji strongly believes that the only way to achieve truly sustainable peace between Israel and the Palestinian people - indeed between any neighbours - is through mutual respect.

As reflected in our Written Statement, Fiji considers it essential to maintain and uphold the legal framework agreed between the parties and sanctioned by the Security Council to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian dispute. That framework is founded on the understanding that Jews and Arabs must coexist in a small piece of territory. This requires direct negotiations between the parties for an agreed outcome.

Mr President, Members of the Court, the General Assembly has requested the Court to answer certain questions that focus on the legal consequences of the policies and practices of only one party to this dispute.

In Fiji’s view, this Court has unfortunately been presented in these proceedings with a distinctly one-sided narrative. This fails to take account of the complexity of this dispute and misrepresents the legal, historical and political context.

In its Written Statement, Fiji has provided several reasons why the Court should exercise its judicial discretion not to render an advisory opinion on the questions that have been posed by the General Assembly:

(i) first, the request is a legal manoeuvre to circumvent the existing internationally sanctioned and legally binding framework for resolution of the Israel-Palestine dispute;

(ii) second, to give an opinion in this case “would have the effect of circumventing the principle that a State is not obliged to allow its disputes to be submitted to judicial settlement without its consent”; and

(iii) third, due to the one-sided formulation of the questions posed in resolution 77/247, the Court does not have before it the accurate and reliable information that it would need to render an opinion on the questions posed.

Mr President, Members of the Court, in this oral presentation I will address the first and third of these issues.

THE PEACE PROCESS AND LEGALLY BINDING FRAMEWORK

I turn to the existing framework.

In these proceedings, the Court has been asked to render an advisory opinion that may well mean, in effect, the “immediate”, “unconditional” and “total” end to the occupation - that is, withdrawal of all Israeli military and civilians from the entirety of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza. This withdrawal must not only be complete, but it must also be unconditional - in other words, Israel may not impose or require any limitations or conditions. This unconditionality is supposedly necessary in order that the Palestinian people have a sovereign State on such territory, which they assert is the only way to achieve justice and therefore peace.

Fiji respectfully submits that this demand of a complete and unconditional withdrawal circumvents the peace process and the agreements that have been made in pursuit of that process.

Mr President, the fact is that, from 1993, Israel and Palestine entered into the series of agreements known collectively as the “Oslo Accords”. The parties expressed the intention to “put an end to decades of confrontation and to live in peaceful coexistence, mutual dignity and security, while recognizing their mutual legitimate and political rights”. To that end, they agreed on a wide range of interim measures, pending the achievement of a final agreement through permanent status negotiations.

Some of those interim measures include:

(a) The Palestinian Authority was established.

(b) Powers and responsibilities were transferred from the Israeli military government and its civil administration to the Palestinian Authority, while Israel continued to exercise powers and responsibilities not so transferred.

(d) The West Bank was divided into three areas: A, B and C. The Palestinians would obtain exclusive control over Area A; Area B would be under joint Israeli/Palestinian control; and Area C would be under exclusive Israeli control.

(e) Lastly, the parties would enter negotiations on the permanent status to resolve the remaining issues, which included “settlements”, “borders”, “Jerusalem” and “security”.

In addition, the Oslo Accords contain a specific dispute resolution mechanism, and do not permit either party unilaterally to commence or ask others to commence external legal proceedings.

Since 1993, an extensive set of arrangements has been put in place to operationalize the agreements.

In 2003, the General Assembly7 endorsed the Oslo Accords and the Security Council8 has “[e]ndorse[d] the Quartet Performance-based Roadmap to a Permanent Two-State Solution to the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict”. This Court itself confirmed the importance of the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap in the Wall Advisory Opinion in 20049.

According to the Roadmap,“a two state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will only be achieved through an end to violence and terrorism, when the Palestinian people have a leadership acting decisively against terror and willing and able to build a practicing democracy based on tolerance and liberty, and through Israel’s readiness to do what is necessary for a democratic Palestinian state to be established, and a clear, unambiguous acceptance by both parties of the goal of a negotiated settlement”.

The thrust of the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap is mutual performance and good faith negotiation, leading to a consensual outcome. 22. The Oslo Accords are legally binding. Remarkably, the Palestinians do not refer to these agreements in their Written Statement, while less than 12 months ago both Israel and Palestine reaffirmed their “unwavering commitment to all previous agreements between them” and “to address all outstanding issues through direct dialogue”.

Mr President, it is our submission that the request to this Court to opine on questions that address the legal obligations of only one party to this dispute conflicts with the clear rights and obligations of both parties in the Oslo Accords and the Roadmap, and which exclude recourse to this Court.

For this reason, Fiji respectfully submits that the Court should exercise its discretion not to render an opinion on those questions.

LEGAL AND FACTUAL EVIDENCE

Mr President, Members of this honourable Court, I now turn to the issue of legal and factual evidence.

As stated, in Fiji’s view, the Court should decline to answer the questions posed. But were it to do so, it would need to gather and independently assess the probative value of evidence on issues raised within the established legal framework of the dispute.

This Court would have to decide, as it has previously explained, “whether [it] has before it sufficient information and evidence to enable it to arrive at a judicial conclusion upon any disputed questions of fact the determination of which is necessary for it to give an opinion in conditions compatible with its judicial character”.

In Fiji’s view the Court cannot simply defer to the reports of United Nations bodies. In order to fulfil its judicial function, the Court must reach its own independent findings of fact.

Further, Fiji submits that, that due to the selective and one-sided formulations of the questions, the Court does not have before it all the evidence it would need to exercise its judicial function.

Mr President and esteemed Members of the Court, the point here is that the Court is being asked to focus solely on the policies and practices of one of the parties to this dispute, to the exclusion of the policies and practices of the other. This is highly problematic. If the Court would limit itself to consideration of the questions asked, it would be unable to consider the relevant broader context, and it will also not have before it sufficient information and evidence to enable it to arrive at a judicial conclusion upon questions of fact that are in dispute, all of which would be necessary to give an opinion compatible with its judicial character.

We will illustrate this by looking briefly at three of the issues raised by the questions that have been posed to the Court, and these are: withdrawal and security, territorial sovereignty, and the right to self-determination.

Withdrawal and security

First, withdrawal and security. Palestine argues that the occupation is illegal and the legal consequence is that Israel must withdraw from the occupied territories. As highlighted earlier, any assessment of the questions posed would require the Court to consider the legal rights and obligations of both parties under the Oslo Accords.

The Oslo Accords were built upon Security Council resolutions 242 and 338, which were adopted following the 1967 and 1973 Arab-Israeli Wars. They recognize the legitimate security needs of Israel to prevent further attack.

Resolutions 242 and 338, and thus the Oslo Accords, do not oblige Israel to withdraw from all the territories.

Further, resolutions 242 and 338 refer to peace being established by the application of two mutually dependent principles:

“(i) Withdrawal of Israeli armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict; and (ii) Termination of all claims or states of belligerency and respect for and acknowledgment of the sovereignty, territorial integrity and political independence of every State in the area and their right to live in peace within secure and recognized boundaries free from threats or acts of force.”

By incorporating these resolutions into the Oslo Accords, the parties recognize that Israel’s withdrawal and the creation of conditions providing security to Israel are interdependent. As Judge Higgins stated in the Wall Opinion, both “Israel and Palestine [need] to move in parallel to secure the necessary conditions . . . for Israel to withdraw from Arab occupied territory and for Palestine to provide the conditions to allow Israel to feel secure in so doing”.

In other words, if the Court is to consider the legal consequences of the alleged Israeli refusal to withdraw from territory, it should also look at what Palestine must do to ensure Israel’s security.

Mr President and Members of this honourable Court, the events of 7 October 2023 have shown us what could happen if there were a complete and unconditional withdrawal without the necessary arrangements in place to guarantee the security of Israel and its population. At the very least, the Court would need to examine and evaluate evidence concerning the question whether the 1949 Armistice Lines are “secure boundaries” within the meaning of resolutions 242 and 338. This in turn would require examination of the threats facing Israel emanating from the occupied territories and the broader region.

Territorial sovereignty

Second, territorial sovereignty. Mr President and Members of the Court, the General Assembly’s request speaks of Israel’s “prolonged occupation, settlement and annexation of the Palestinian territory occupied since 1967”. This asks the Court to presuppose that all the territories held during the Jordanian and Egyptian occupation within the 1949 Armistice Lines are “Palestinian” - that is, that they are sovereign territories of Palestine and thus not of Israel.

A precise definition of the scope of territorial claims is important because “[t]erritorial sovereignty is a fundamental principle of the international political and legal order . . . It ‘serves to divide between nations the space upon which human activities are employed, in order to assure them at all points the minimum of protection of which international law is the guardian.’”

In the context of the questions put to this Court, territorial sovereignty is critical because without clarifying the respective claims of Israel and the Palestinians concerning the sovereign status of the territory, it would be impossible to answer the questions of territorial scope of the Palestinian self-determination claim or the occupation.

Fiji notes that the question of territorial scope- both of the State of Israel and of the self-determination claim of the Palestinian people - is in dispute between the parties.

And yet the way the questions are drafted excludes the possibility of the Court considering Israel’s claims to the sovereignty over the territory and asks the Court to assume without further investigation that these territories are somehow “Palestinian”.

Furthermore, the Court would need to assess whether the Palestinians have sovereignty and, if so, over which territory. This would include an examination, among other things, of the history of Palestinian assertions of claims and of whether Palestinians make different assertions of sovereignty in different fora.

Palestine asserts that the provisions in the Mandate for Palestine concerning the establishment of a Jewish homeland as envisaged in the Balfour Declaration were illegitimate and in contravention of the Covenant of the League of Nations. It appears to claim that all the territory of Mandate Palestine - even including what is generally accepted to be the territory of the State of Israel - belongs to the Palestinian people.

Mr President, Israel asserts, and Fiji agrees, that the Mandate for Palestine, including its provisions concerning the establishment of the Jewish homeland, such as the right of the Jewish people to live in and closely settle the land, was a binding instrument of international law. Israel also argues that the relevance of the rights conferred by the Mandate for Palestine was affirmed in Article 80 of the United Nations Charter, the so-called “Palestinian clause”20.

There is thus a dispute about territorial sovereignty. Fiji submits that this dispute cannot and should not be resolved through means of the requested advisory opinion, for two reasons.

The first reason is that the question of “borders” and therefore the scope of territorial sovereignty was expressly agreed to be resolved through the permanent status negotiations to which the parties have committed themselves in the Oslo Accords. For the reasons set out earlier, this precludes the matter being adjudicated via an advisory opinion procedure.

The second reason is that, in any event, because of the way the questions to the Court have been formulated, the Court simply does not have before it sufficient information and evidence to enable it to arrive at a judicial conclusion on the disputed issue of the geographic limits of the territorial sovereignty of Palestine and Israel.

Self-determination

I now turn to self-determination.

The questions before the Court ask it to assume that Israel is violating “the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination”.

The question of self-determination raises the question of territorial scope. This raises the evidentiary concerns I have just expressed.

Moreover, Fiji notes that the right to self-determination is a relative right. It should not involve changes to existing frontiers. In the context of Israel/Palestine, this means that the Court would need to ascertain whether the Palestinians’ exercise of their right to self-determination has infringed the territorial integrity, political inviolability or legitimate security needs of the State of Israel.

By asking the Court to look only at the policies and practices of Israel, resolution 77/247 shields from the Court’s purview the policies and practices of Palestine. The result, in Fiji’s submission, is that the Court simply does not have before it sufficient information concerning the policies and practices of Palestine, and thus is unable to make a judicial determination on whether, in exercise of their right to self-determination, Palestine has infringed the sovereignty of the State of Israel.

CONCLUSIONS

Mr President, esteemed Members of the Court, in conclusion, the relationship between Israel and the Palestinian people is legally, factually and historically complex. There are no simple answers. But there are two parties who need to jointly find a solution and they should be supported to do this.

Using the advisory opinion procedure to prosecute the alleged violations of international law of one of the parties to the dispute while ignoring possible violations by the other will not promote dialogue, nor foster mutual respect. Rather, it is likely to undermine efforts towards peace that can be best settled through the recommitment of the parties to the processes established under the Oslo Accords. In our view, this is why the General Assembly was seriously divided on whether these questions should be put to the Court for an advisory opinion, and it is also why this honourable Court should refrain from giving one.

Fiji respectfully submits that, for all these reasons, the Court should exercise its judicial discretion to decline to provide an advisory opinion on the specific question put to it in the United Nations General Assembly resolution 77/247.

Mr President, were the Court to decide to provide an advisory opinion, which Fiji submits it should not, the Court should be cautious to ensure the advisory opinion rendered does not circumvent the binding agreements between the parties but encourages them to promote fruitful negotiations. Furthermore, the Court should ensure that it does not impose obligations and responsibilities on only one party, while disregarding its legitimate concerns.

Mr President, Members of this honourable Court, this brings me to the end of Fiji’s oral presentation and I thank you.

Fiji's written arguments included more information about how the PLO was cynically abusing the court.

Legal Obfuscation to Instrumentalize the Court.

Legal obfuscation is problematic throughout the Request. It is evident, inter-alia, in the conflation of the legal doctrines of }us ad helium and of jus in hello, in the false assertions of violation of the Palestinian right to self-determination, false assertions of Israeli annexation throughout the West Bank, and of Palestinian national territory.

The problem of conflation of the legal doctrines of }us ad helium and of jus in hello is apparent in the allegations embodied in the Request. The allegations impugn the entire Israeli occupation despite its legality in accordance with jus ad helium. Controversy over Israeli application of jus in hello should not be conflated with and does not equate to negation of the rights of the occupier under jus ad helium.

Under jus ad hellum, the presence of Israel is legitimate, as is affirmed in UN Security Council Resolutions 242 (1967), 338 (1973) and 2334 (2016). These recognize control by Israel of the presumed occupied territories but do not declare that control per se to be a violation of international law. Furthermore, Israel's presence in the West Bank is endorsed by detailed international legal agreements, such as the Treaty of Peace between the State of Israel and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan of 26 October 1994. According to the Oslo Accords, the final status of the territories is subject to negotiations. Various peace proposals negotiated between the parties have all recognized the potential for territorial exchanges, including the letter from US President Bush to Israeli Prime Minister Sharon of 14 April 2004.

The Request also asks for legal consequences against Israel to flow from "prolonged occupation". While Israel is occupying a remainder of territories over which it gained control in self-defense in June 1967, the mere fact of occupation does not entail illegality. Control over much of those territories was handed back following the conclusion of an Egypt-Israel peace agreement of 26 March 1979 based on the 1978 Camp David Accords. (Israeli control over the Gaza Strip was unilaterally relinquished and handed by Israel to the Palestinian Authority in 2006 also, despite the lack of a final status peace agreement. The consequent continuing acts of aggression against Israel emanating from the Gaza Strip are well-known.) Israel has expressed and demonstrated willingness to cede control over territory in return for peace. International law imposes no constraint on the duration of occupation. The right of occupation continues throughout an armed conflict and endures until it is resolved.

The illegal South African presence in Namibia is not comparable, as that situation involved a League of Nations Class C Mandate in Southwest Africa (Namibia) granted to South Africa in 1915 and then terminated in 1966 under UN General Assembly Resolution 2145(XXI). The General Assembly resolution rendered the continuing South African presence illegal. In the current situation, there is no mandate and no termination of it. The Israeli presence is legal.

The Request also refers to "annexation" in the context of the West Bank, but the only territory annexed is East Jerusalem. The situation concerning East Jerusalem is complex and the Court cannot decide this issue unless it is presented with extensive, objective and verified legal and historical facts. The previously united city of Jerusalem was recommended by the UN General Assembly in 1947 to become an international condominium, but East Jerusalem was illegally invaded by Jordan in 1948 and then taken from Jordan by Israel in legitimate self-defense in 1967, then de facto annexed and reunited by Israel in 1980, and then passed symbolically by Jordan to the PLO in 1988. A substantive Jewish population resided in East Jerusalem for centuries; it has been the Jewish people's historic capital for more than 3000 years. West Jerusalem was built by Jews and has been under Israeli jurisdiction and control since 1948 and was treated as being under Israeli sovereignty in Security Council Resolution 242, which referred to trading peace for only those territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Although the Security Council in 1980 referred to the "Holy City of Jerusalem" and asserted that Israel's de facto annexation of the city was an infringement of its obligations as the occupying power, that resolution concerned East Jerusalem only. Furthermore, allegations that Israel illegitimately annexed East Jerusalem presume that international law prohibits annexation in any circumstances, including even reunification of a national capital city.

The Request for an Advisory Opinion also alleges "discriminatory legislation and measures". Vague reference to Israel's alleged "adoption of related discriminatory legislation and measures" is indeterminate and prejudicial. Application of }us in be/lo entails legislation and measures distinct from the municipal law of Israel. To apply Israeli domestic law would amount to de facto annexation. Furthermore, Israel can depart from applying prior Jordanian law to the extent needed to meet the security needs of the occupying power.⁴ It would be incompatible with the judicial function for the Court to prosecute the case by actively selecting so-called "discriminatory" measures and then actively selecting standards to compare.

The Request also refers to "settlement (...) of Palestinian territory", using language that obfuscates the lawful status of that territory. International law prohibits the forced movement of civilian population into occupied territory but does not prohibit civilian migration per se.⁵ Furthermore, "Palestinian territory" is a political concept without legal specificity. Security Council Resolution 242 does not rule out Israel's legitimate territorial claims to some of those territories, because it did not recommend withdrawal from all of those territories. Moreover, it was Jordan, not the Palestinians, who made claims to the territory originally.

The sovereignty of these territories is, arguably, in abeyance until such a time as a peace agreement is reached. The Court was careful, in 2004, to avoid deciding the sovereign status of these territories, except to determine that they are not, at present, part of the sovereign territory of Israel. The legal status of West Bank/Judaea and Samaria occupied by Israel has never been determined. Moreover, to decide this issue would require the Court to examine the complex history of the region from 1920 onwards, an exercise that goes arguably beyond the scope of the Request. It is relevant to mention that Article 2 of the Mandate for Palestine, created by the Council of the League of Nations in 1922, carries legal weight. It recognized the rights of the Jewish people in its legal obligation to ensure the establishment of the Jewish national home in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River. The Mandate included in Article 6 a right to immigration and settlement for the Jewish people in that territory.⁶

The international law principle of "acquired legal rights", constituted part of the transitional arrangements from the system of Mandates under the League of Nations to the system of Trusteeships under the UN Charter. Article 80 of the UN Charter continued the rights of Jewish and other peoples under the Mandates system. When the British unilaterally terminated their responsibilities under the Mandate and the Israel was proclaimed a State on 14 May 1948, rights under the Mandate remained relevant in the mandate territory not yet under Israeli control. The Court has underlined the relevance of the rights bestowed by a Mandate on the people concerned in its Advisory Opinions on Southwest Africa ⁷ and Namibia.⁸

Legal obfuscation to instrumentalize the Court is evident in the Request to the Court to opine on "legal consequences arising from" "ongoing violation by Israel" of "the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination". The Court is presumed to agree with the assertions of fact concerning alleged violation of the right to self-determination. There is no doubt that the Palestinian people have a right to self-determination, but it cannot be assumed that Israel is violating Palestinian rights to self-determination:

a.       The application of a right to self-determination requires the will of the peoples concerned to be fully established.⁹ This condition has not been satisfied, as a result of the failure of Palestinian leaders to hold elections for the last 16 years.

b.      Contrary to unsubstantiated frequent assumptions, reliable opinion polls (e.g. December 2021) show that an overwhelming majority of Arabs in East Jerusalem prefer a continuation of Israeli rule.¹⁰

c.       Self-determination is a relative right, that must be respected together with other rights, including the rights of the Jewish people to self-determination and to security. This is why a solution to the conflict must be found through a political process.

Under the Oslo Accords, the PLO agreed that "realization of the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people and their just requirements" depends on the fulfillment of conditions, including "direct, free and general political elections", establishing "a democratic basis for the establishment of Palestinian institutions". The Oslo II Interim Agreement (1995) contains current provisions regarding the election of the Authority in its Articles II-IX and Annex 2. It is the non-implementation of these provisions by Palestinian leaders that is currently depriving Palestinians of self-determination.
Even a prima facie analysis shows strong reasons why the allegations made in the Request obfuscate the law and make factual assertions that are misleading or false. If the UN General Assembly seeks advice, it must not require the Court to agree first with its own assertions. If the Court was to address these issues, there is a high risk its Advisory Opinion would be based on false information.

Reportedly, this was created with the help of a pro-Israel organization, The Hague Initiative for International Cooperation, a pro-Israel legal consulting team based in The Netherlands.

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!

Times of Israel reports:

The memorial ceremony at the upcoming Paris games for the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack will reportedly be held outside of the Olympic Village in a secret location, due to concerns that it may be targeted by extremists, given heightened antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment.

According to the Hebrew news outlet Israel Hayom, the ceremony was originally scheduled for July 24 at the Paris City Hall, but was canceled due to security concerns. Instead, an alternate smaller ceremony will be held with fewer attendees at a location that will not be disclosed to the public, the report stated.

If they hold a memorial in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?

The entire point of a memorial is to make a public statement about the deceased and to remember them. To cave to the threat of violence is outrageous, but to change the venue to a secret spot is in some ways even worse.

But the Israel Olympic Committee claims it is not true:

The Israel Olympic Committee refuted the report that the ceremony was moved due to threats, saying it was nothing more than a logistical issue, as specific permits needed to hold the event at the City Hall could not be issued in the days before the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Due to the delegation’s tight schedule, it was decided to hold the ceremony, in coordination with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, in its full format on August 6 in another location,” the committee said. “Claims that the ceremony is underground or that it was moved due to any specific security alerts, or that canceling it was considered are fundamentally false claims.”

OK, so if it will not be held in secret - where will it be?

The tie and place should be widely publicized and proper security arranged. And if anyone wants to mount a protest or threaten the ceremony, let the world see how depraved they are.

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!

Google politely telling its BDS workers to go to hell

The tiny but noisy Google and Amazon BDSers get lots of press, including in mainstream media, as they protest "Project Nimbus" and other Israeli use of technology.

Google has shown no tolerance for the intolerant.

When they did a university-style "occupation" of their offices in New York and Sunnyvale, CA, Google called the police and arrested them - and then fired 28 of them for "physically impeding other employees’ work and preventing them from accessing our facilities."

Google has two offices in Israel, in Tel Aviv and Haifa. with about 2,000 employees. Over the years it has bought several Israeli companies, like Waze, Siemplify, Elastifile, Cybereason and Alooma.

Now Google's parent company Alphabet is close to its biggest acquisition ever. Google parent company Alphabet is said to be in advanced negotiations to buy Israeli cloud security company Wiz for around $23 billion.

Wired has an article saying it has evidence that Project Nimbus really does do work for the IDF. If so - so what? They brought no evidence that the project was violating Amazon's policies or agreements with the State of Israel. The IDF is a large organization with lots of services that have nothing to do with attacking the enemy which may be out of bounds for the contract. (Examples would be back office work, payroll, benefits, procurement, office supplies, promotional materials, and coordinating aid to Gaza.)

Google is not leaving Israel anytime soon. Many of their technologies were developed in Israel. The BDSers, if they wanted to be consistent, should quit immediately.

Their failure to do so shows that they are the worst kinds of hypocrites.

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!

07/15 Links Pt2: It's Time to End Hezbollah's Decades of Impunity; Marvel strips Sabra of Israeli identity; Paris memorial for 1972 Olympics massacre to be held in secret

From Ian:

Aviva Klompas: It's Time to End Hezbollah's Decades of Impunity

Since October 7, Hezbollah has used that arsenal to launch almost 5,000 rockets and explosive drones at Israel. The near-daily attacks have set swaths of northern Israel on fire and forced tens of thousands of families to evacuate their homes indefinitely. In recent weeks, the attacks have stretched deeper into Israel, making more and more of the small country uninhabitable.

At the same time, Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah is ramping up the rhetoric. He recently vowed to fight Israel "without restraint, without rules, without limits and without restrictions," and even threatened to attack Cyprus, a member of the European Union.

While global leaders have spoken with dismay about the escalating tensions between Hezbollah and Israel, they have failed to stop the attacks from Lebanon or to enforce Resolution 1701. If no solution is found, Israel will have no choice but to take matters into its own hands.

It's not too late to stop an impending war — but that can only happen if the international community confronts Hezbollah and backs its resolutions with resolve.

That means designating both Hezbollah's political and military wings as terrorist organizations, which would leave no room for ambiguity to freeze assets, ramping up counter-terrorism efforts, and bringing terrorists to justice. It also means implementing a true monitoring system and guarantees that Hezbollah doesn't creep back toward Israeli territory and resume attacks on northern towns.

As world leaders and officials gather in Buenos Aires to mark the 30th anniversary of the AMIA tragedy, such accountability would be the most fitting way to honor the victims' memories.

Until that happens, Hezbollah and Iran will have license to spread terror and commit murder around the world, just as they did the morning of July 18, 1994.

Offensive anti-Israel protests at Holocaust memorials

The Holocaust is a reminder of the consequences of unchecked hatred and violence. Exploiting this sacred memory to push a political agenda disrespects the victims and diminishes and trivializes the gravity of their suffering. The actions of these groups feed into the narratives of antisemites who seek to delegitimize and demonize Israel, further endangering Jews worldwide. As a child of Holocaust survivors and proud Zionists, I find these actions despicable.

Accusations of genocide against Israel are a gross misrepresentation of reality. Israel’s military actions are defensive measures against terrorist organizations, including Hamas, which continuously threaten the safety and security of Israeli civilians. By equating these actions with genocide, protesters ignore the legitimate right of a nation to protect its people.

Protests at Michigan’s largest Holocaust museum justify violence against Israelis and Jews by falsely portraying them as perpetrators of heinous crimes. This dangerous rhetoric incites hatred and violence, contributing to rising antisemitic incidents globally. These libelous protests distort historical facts and promote a false narrative that fuels antisemitic sentiments, misuses the memory of the Holocaust to criticize Israel unjustly and feeds into dangerous and false allegations of genocide.

The Coalition Against Genocide, JVP and their supporters are morally corrupt. All community members and leaders need to denounce this protest and its sponsor groups. It is our collective responsibility to protect the memory of the victims of the Holocaust and to ensure that their suffering is not trivialized or misused. Let us stand together against antisemitism, for truth and for Israel’s right to protect itself.

Paris memorial for 1972 Olympics massacre to be held in secret over threats – report

The memorial ceremony at the upcoming Paris games for the victims of the 1972 Munich Olympics terror attack will reportedly be held outside of the Olympic Village in a secret location, due to concerns that it may be targeted by extremists, given heightened antisemitic and anti-Israel sentiment.

According to the Hebrew news outlet Israel Hayom, the ceremony was originally scheduled for July 24 at the Paris City Hall, but was canceled due to security concerns. Instead, an alternate smaller ceremony will be held with fewer attendees at a location that will not be disclosed to the public, the report stated.

The Israel Olympic Committee refuted the report that the ceremony was moved due to threats, saying it was nothing more than a logistical issue, as specific permits needed to hold the event at the City Hall could not be issued in the days before the Olympics opening ceremony.

“Due to the delegation’s tight schedule, it was decided to hold the ceremony, in coordination with International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach, in its full format on August 6 in another location,” the committee said. “Claims that the ceremony is underground or that it was moved due to any specific security alerts, or that canceling it was considered are fundamentally false claims.”

The memorial ceremony for the victims of the attack at the Munich Olympics, when eight members of the Palestinian militant organization Black September infiltrated the Olympic village and killed 11 Israelis, was held for the first time during the Tokyo 2020 games.

The decision to recognize the victims of the attack with an official commemoration was made by the IOC president after extensive campaigning by the families of the 11 victims.

The memorial was followed a year later by a ceremony in Germany marking 50 years since the attacks, in which Berlin acknowledged, for the first time, its “responsibility” for failings that led to the deaths of the athletes.

The ceremony in Paris next month will be attended by Bach, as well as Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo, members of the Israeli delegation, and French Jewish communal leaders.

07/15 Links Pt1: Trump picks J.D. Vance as running mate; The Palestinian theater of terror; Natasha Hausdorff: "There is No Genocide, No Apartheid, No Occupation"

From Ian:

The Palestinian theater of terror

After the October 7 massacre, the international community was shocked by the harsh atrocities committed by Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Palestinian civilians who participated in the attack.

Hamas has been compared to ISIS and the Nazis, which has given Israel broad international support and credit for acting in Gaza to topple Hamas and bring the hostages back home.

Hamas and the PA’s smear campaign against Israel
Both Hamas and the Palestinian Authority realized that in order to win this war they would have to use the card that the Palestinians have been using for years – to smear Israel’s legitimacy in the world.

Nabil Abu Radina, spokesman for the office of Mahmoud Abbas, chairman of the Palestinian Authority has said that the “series of daily killing crimes” of the IDF in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank is a comprehensive “war of extermination against the Palestinian people”.

This is how the murderous organization tries to obscure the symbolic date of the horrible massacre it carried out against Israel – and makes the date symbolic for the Palestinians – as “the day Israel attacked the Palestinians."

Palestinian officials from the PLO and Hamas also use the terms “extermination” and “Holocaust” to strengthen the influence on public opinion that Israel is committing a “Holocaust” to the Palestinian people.

Hamas spreads disinformation on Palestinian female prisoners
Hamas continues to present false information that Israel keeps women, elderly people and children in extremely difficult conditions to further characterize Israel as “the aggressor."

In January 2024, Hamas started a social media campaign using female terrorists imprisoned in Israeli prisons for its counterpropaganda. It published various posts in which the “Palestinian women prisoners” are described as experiencing abuse in the prisons and that they are “in danger”. Moreover, Hamas detailed the “abuses” that Palestinian women suffer in Israeli prisons: “Severe beatings and torture, a shameful (physical) examination” and more.

Hamas uses external agencies to incite against Israel
Al Jazeera to further incite against Israel:
Hamas employs not only its own disinformation tactics but also leverages affiliated media channels and a network of compliant journalists for information and propaganda purposes.

During IDF operations in late January 2024 at a Hamas base in the northern Gaza Strip, the laptop of Muhammad Samir Muhammad Wishah, a reporter for Al Jazeera Mubasher and the Al Jazeera network in Gaza, was seized.

This discovery underscores the presence of terrorist operatives posing as journalists within Al Jazeera’s ranks, raising questions about the network’s credibility. Based in Qatar, Al Jazeera often serves as a mouthpiece for Hamas, frequently inciting against Israel.

'Not the MSF I knew': Doctors Without Borders accused of picking side in Israel-Hamas war

Former leaders and a major Canadian donor of Doctors Without Borders are distancing themselves from the venerable aid organization after its employees celebrated the October 7 atrocities, gave aid to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health, ran a one-sided social media feed and internally circulated articles accusing Israel of creating Palestinian “death worlds.”

“To be frank, I was very, very, surprised because it’s not the MSF I knew,” Alain Destexhe, the secretary general of the organization, popularly known by its French acronym MSF, from 1991 to 1995, told National Post.

Destexhe said MSF’s messaging throughout the Israel-Hamas war is markedly different than past conflicts.

“We used to make statements, you know, in Bosnia and Rwanda, but not taking sides like this,” he said. “We always took into account the political context, but not to take sides from one group to another. In the Gaza War, I really got the feeling that MSF was totally biased.”

Despite MSF’s charter principles of “bearing witness” through neutrality and impartiality, the organization’s response following the Hamas invasion of Israel and the ensuing war is leading passionate supporters to question its role in the conflict.

The organization dismissed these criticisms.

“Our decision to speak out about these grave realities as an impartial and independent humanitarian organization has sometimes prompted questions from the public about our neutrality in the conflict itself,” Claudia Blume, a spokesperson for MSF Canada, told the Post by email. “We unequivocally disagree with the notion that MSF’s communications on Gaza have been ‘politicized’ or represent an ‘abandonment of our neutrality.’”

Destexhe wasn’t the only MSF loyalist to have an October 7 wake-up call. One major Canadian Jewish donor told the Post he urged his mother to support the group despite pushback from family members cautioning him against MSF’s reputation of being institutionally biased against Israel.

“I think most people know that they have a history of not being the friendliest towards Israel,” the philanthropist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, told the Post.

He said he reassured his mother, following conversations with MSF Canada’s leadership, that the organization was duty-bound to be apolitical and strictly adhere to its mission of providing aid and observation. However, the inconsistencies between their initial promise and their treatment of Israel reached a boiling point in November 2023 when the patron confronted MSF Canada’s executives.

“I will be honest,” the donor told then-executive director Joe Belliveau in an email shared with the Post, “the more I review MSF public communications (Instagram, specifically), the evidence is overwhelming that the MSF stance has a pronounced bias. There is still not one single mention of the 200+ civilian hostages; not one mention of Hamas’ indiscriminate rocket fire into civilian centers, both of which are war crimes and violations of the Geneva conventions,” he wrote in late November.

Bassam Tawil: Hamas's 'Popularity': Attempt To Deceive The American Public?

"If you notice, there is a growing dissatisfaction in the West Bank, from the Palestinians, about Hamas," Biden said during a press conference. "Hamas is not popular now."

It seems that Biden does not want the American people to be aware that most Palestinians in the West Bank are enthusiastic supporters of Hamas, as that would discourage them from endorsing his idea of creating a Palestinian state there.

The broad support Hamas enjoys among the Palestinians, including those who live in the West Bank, means that a Palestinian state would be ruled by the same terrorists who masterminded and carried out the October 7 atrocities against Israelis.

Biden appears to be convinced that hiding the fact that most Palestinian people support Hamas from the American people will make it easier for him to promote the insane idea of pressuring Israel to accept a state that is controlled by Hamas and other Iran proxies, such as Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah.

Hamas is not only deeply committed to refusing Israel's right to exist, it has also openly announced that it will use a Palestinian state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and Jerusalem as a springboard to eliminate Israel and murder as many Jews as possible.

Biden's claim that Hamas is "not popular" among the Palestinians in the West Bank actually contradicts analysis by US intelligence agencies showing that Hamas's popularity has significantly grown after the terrorist group's attack on Israel on October 7, 2023...

The latest poll, released on July 10, 2024, showed that since the October 7 attack, satisfaction among the Palestinians in the West Bank with the "performance" of Hamas murderers and rapists has risen to 82%.

When asked who the public would prefer to control the Gaza Strip after the current war, 71% of Palestinians in the West Bank chose Hamas, compared to 46% in the Gaza Strip.

The reason Hamas has such high popularity among Palestinians is because it seeks to destroy Israel though jihad (holy war).

With respect, President Biden, it was after its members murdered, sexually assaulted, tortured, and abducted hundreds of Israelis on October 7, that Hamas became even more popular among the Palestinians.

It is time for Biden and his administration to come clean with the American people about the Palestinians: the majority of them favor destroying Israel and murdering Jews.

Remember "settlers"? Now, the official Palestinian news agency calls them "colonists"

It used to be that the official Palestinian news agency Wafa railed against "illegal Israeli settlers storming" something or other. For example, this story from November in their English-language edition:

Sometime around January, WAFA changed its style guide. Because now, virtually every similar article describes them as "colonists," not "settlers." See this story from May:

Someone, probably from the PLO, decided that "settlers" just didn't have that visceral effect that they wanted. "Colonists" sounds even more illegal.

Similarly, "settlements" have morphed into "colonies."

While I haven't seen them use the term this way, it could be that they prefer "colonists" because they can use that word for Israelis on either side of the Green Line. Hamas calls all Israelis "settlers," perhaps the PLO wants to reserve the term "colonists" as a rhetorical tool against all Jews.

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!

Al Jazeera Mubasher published two articles about a 2017 Turkish TV series that ran for five years, Payitaht: Abdülhamid, and another more recent one, Akif, both of which spin conspiracy theories about how Jews worked to destroy the Ottoman Empire.

According to the articles, Payitaht: Abdülhamid depicts a huge Jewish conspiracy against the Ottoman Empire spearheaded by Theodor Herzl.

An old weapons storehouse, more like a cave from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on the outskirts of Istanbul, the capital of the Caliphate, is infiltrated by four figures, three of whom are Jewish: the most prominent Zionist thinker and the founder of the Zionist state in the Islamic lands (Palestine) and from there to the greater Jewish state from the Nile to the Euphrates, Theodor Herzl, along with his friend Emmanuel Carasso, and Marco, the mastermind behind the collapse of the Caliphate, Barros, one of the most important and greatest Zionist figures. The fourth figure was the Ottoman Mahmud Pasha, who allied with the Zionists to destroy the Caliphate of Abdul Hamid, his wife’s brother, and seize the Sultanate.

The four enter, each carrying a lighting torch. The four torches come together to draw the “Star of David,” the emblem of the Zionist state on its flag. On the floor of the old warehouse, a map is drawn showing the locations of oil in the regions of the Islamic nation. If the ground is lit, the map appears. From behind the caves and tunnels of the warehouse, comes the voice of Barros, who specifies for the three Zionists and the Ottoman traitor Mahmoud Pasha the four pillars of the Caliphate and how to destroy them.

The "Barros" character is the uber-Jew, a combination of every antisemitic trope:

The Jewish character whose voice was the driving force of the previous scene is Barros, the hidden master whom only a few people see, even Herzl and Carrasso do not know what he looks like. He is the owner of the deed granting Zionism to the Jews, the mastermind of the movement and its main financier, controlling the world’s banks and their money, and consequently its companies, factories and arms trade.

Barros can move armies and stop them, he arms countries and strips them of their power, all the banks in the world are under his command, he tried through his followers to get rid of Abdul Hamid by killing him but he could not, and he is the one who determines the role of each person in the world, (I do not know, perhaps he represents the world administration or the Jews who control the world’s money.)

In the Akif series, Jewish domination is achieved in a different way:

The Akif series revealed how Jews and Zionists infiltrated cultural and youth circles through the poet Tawfik Fikret and his son, who was recruited by the Zionist movement during his study trip, and Zionist characters appeared working to recruit young Turks through newspapers and schools.

The influence of the Jewish Zionist movement on the youth of the Caliphate appeared in the two works through the temptation of these youth with the manifestations of Western civilization and culture, and the freedoms enjoyed by the West. It reached the point of changing their beliefs, so these youth began to call Caliph Abdul Hamid the Red or Bloody Sultan, as he was called in the European newspapers.

This was evident in the figures within the palace represented by Prince Abdelkader, the eldest son of the Sultan, and Prince Sabah al-Din, his nephew and son-in-law, Mahmoud Pasha. This young man was initially influenced by the slogans of freedom and democracy until he reached the point of clearly conspiring against his father with Herzl in all his attempts to seize Palestine as the beginning of his dream.

But the infiltration mentioned in the earlier series was more nefarious:

The most dangerous thing that the series, Payitaht: Abdülhamid, indicated was the infiltration of Muslims by Jews living in the capital as Muslims, among them one of the imams of the largest mosques in Istanbul, gold and jewelry merchants, army officers, and maids in the palaces of the Caliphate.

These people lived as Muslims until they reached the foundations of the state. They were originally Jews working to overthrow the Caliphate, the only obstacle to the establishment of the State of Israel. You think they are Muslims, but they become imams, teachers, and journalists, teaching the youth in mosques and schools and on the pages of newspapers and magazines.

This is mainstream thinking in Erdogan's Turkey, which wants to re-establish a Turkish-based pan-Muslim caliphate.

Qatar's Al Jazeera now thinks it makes sense to spread the antisemitic conspiracy theories throughout the Arabic-speaking world.

You can see a portion of how the first series depicted the First Zionist Congress here.

Most Westerners don't realize how lucrative antisemitism is in marketing to the Muslim world.

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!

"May I buy Zionist Coke for a homeless man?" The responsa literature of BDS

Anti-Israelism has all the trappings of a cult.

It demands total loyalty, it restricts what activities are allowed for its members, it limits communications with outsiders, and those who dare leave the cult are subjected to vicious attacks on social media.

But the anti-Israel cults, specifically BDS, also has an intricate faux-legal framework where members who aspire to faithfully adhere to the rules are faced with problems that require higher guidance.

The BDS group on Reddit is filled with what can only be called an insane version of responsa (or, perhaps, fatwa) literature, where people who are caught up in the excitement of being members of the cult find themselves with real world questions on how to properly boycott products that are Israeli, Israel-adjacent, third- and fourth- degree related to Israel, rumored to support Israel or owned by Jews and assumed to be supporting Israel.

Here are some of the questions being asked:

BDS friendly face washes?

Do we need to boycott despicable me 4?

Have any popular YouTubers shown either support for Palestine or made a statement?
I ask because I think it’s just as bad to be silent on the genocide as it is to be complicit. Especially at this point, 9 months in when they’ve had nearly a year to educate themselves. I unfollowed some of my favorite YouTube creators like Fundie Fridays, and Plumbella because I couldn’t stand how chipper and ignorant of a genocide they were, pretending like nothing was happening and refusing to even acknowledge it

Target and Cvs
Can i still shop at Target and Cvs if their shareholders are blackrock and vanguard? Those stores are the ones i buy from when i need hygiene products, hair products, school supplies etc.

an Ai that doesn't support Israel
hey guys, since chatgpt and gemini are supporting Israel, I wonder what are eome alternatives that doesn't support Israel ??

My boss implemented Monday.com 🥲
I didn’t know they were headquartered in “Israel” until last month, when my boss was already finalizing details to go with Monday.com for work management. We were using Google Sheets before, and although Google is also bad, Monday.com is next level since it’s an Israeli company. For functionality it works better than Google Sheets for sure, so when my boss asked me if I liked it, I couldn’t say otherwise, other than that I haven’t really used it and will use it first before I say for sure. I’m planning to really focus on the cons of it and at the same time look for alternatives to recommend to my boss. I wonder if anyone here knows/ have used any good work management tools that would be a better alternative? Thank you!!

is boycotting a company that collabed with a company whose investors’ investors are problematic reasonable?
sorry for the convoluted title, but i was just wondering how far i should go? i recently purchased makeup from a company that as far as i know has no ties to israel (i can still cancel the order). i noticed that they did a collab with a character tomie from junji ito and some of their products have images of the character, thought i did not purchase any products from the collab. upon further notice i saw that they had the copyright of a publishing company, asahi shimbun, and i looked into the company’s investors. the investors themselves seemed to be fine, but i noticed that one of the investors, tv asahi, had vanguard listed as one of their shareholders on fintel, but not on the site or wikipedia as i believe the shares were acquired very recently, between may 19-june 27 2024. is this something to be concerned about, considering i doubt any of my money is going toward vanguard? i have quite a bit of time to cancel the order.

Where to buy kn95s/n95 masks aside from Amazon?
I have a chronic illness and am higher risk (asthma), and I need to be masking frequently. I just recently went to the ER because I got a viral infection that gave me a bad asthma flare up. However, as much I need to be masking for my health I so far have not found any reliable places to buy kn95/n95 masks except Amazon. Since I started boycotting against Israel, I haven't used Amazon at all. I live in the United States. Please suggest some ethical places to buys masks!

Is it okay to buy from brands that sell their products in Israel?
I want to buy shoes from Crocs, but I noticed they sell their products in Israel. Should I be boycotting brands that sell their products in Israel?

Old Eurovision Songs
I used to be a massive eurovision fan before I knew what was happening in the first place. When I say that, I mean I genuinely had no idea, mind I was in my early to mid teens at the time (18 now).
But, fastforward to today, a lot of my playlists consist of these old eurovision songs. I feel awful when I get a music craving for them, because the question that’s always on my mind is whether i’m supporting the EBU and people who choose to partake in it. I don’t listen to israeli entries, as far as I can remember I never really liked their entries as songs (barring Netta, but that swiftly exited my playlist once I found out what was happening).
My question is, is this true? Because if it is it’s a lot of my childhood music taste gone, but it may be necessary

Michael's craft store?
A few weeks ago I saw a tiktok about Michael's crafts is pro-israel but now I can't find anything about their involvement. Does anyone know what I'm talking about? I feel like I am going nuts but also worrying they may have scrubbed the Internet for PR. I don't want to be misguided in my BDS efforts so I appreciate any info available, thank you!

Is buying Coke once okay if it’s for a good reason?
So I’ve been hard boycotting for a while now to where it’s just a part of my life. When I get groceries, checking the No Thanks app is a ritual for every single item I buy. I know Coke is on the list and a brand that has connections to “Israel” but yesterday I bought one.
I was on my lunch from a new job and walked to the nearby dollar store. There was a houseless man sitting on the curb outside the shop and he looked really unwell. When I walked by he looked up and asked “Could you buy me a cold soda? Please?” And the thing is, we’re on the brink of a heat wave, the man had every reason to want a cold drink, so I said “If my card works, absolutely.” I’m not going to say no to someone asking for help when it comes to food to drink or anything like that.
So I went inside and grabbed a water for myself and looked in the refrigerated drinks area near the registers and it was only cola products in all of them. I felt bad and stood there for a second but there was no way I could go back out without a cold drink for him, he looked overheated, dehydrated, and exhausted. So I grabbed a cola and for the first time in however long I can’t remember, I bought it. Went out and gave it to him but I can’t stop thinking about it.
What’s done is done, but do you think that was okay? I really can’t stop thinking about it, I’m trying so hard to do everything I can to support the cause but that felt like a big slip up and I didn’t know what else to do. I feel like helping people in need is part of the actions we need to take to help bring in the new world we’re trying to create, but idk how much that means anything if I did it using a product that’s actively helping along a genocide. :/

Should I quit McDonald's?
I started working at McDonald's a couple weeks ago, but now I'm not sure if I should stay. Backstory is, I quit my last job in November and started to look for another one (which I was not very motivated to do). I applied to several places, but none of them would take me. My parents suggested McDonald's, but I kept putting it off because I knew something was going on with McDonald's and Israel (I didn't understand what at first, but I do now). I didn't want to say the real reason, though, because I wasn't sure what they would say (though looking back, maybe they would have understood). As for why I could stay, as I mentioned, I haven't had a lot of luck with applying for jobs, so I'm not sure how successful looking for another one would be. I can't be without a job either as I need to pay for at least part of this semester's tuition. I tried to justify it for myself as well by saying that maybe things would get better now that McDonald's had bought out the Israeli franchise, but I'm not sure if that cuts it. Above all else, if I quit after just a few weeks, that would bring about conversations with my parents I'd rather not have right now. I know I probably should've fixed this a long time ago, but what should I do now?

These are people who are looking for a meaning in life, and they are choosing hating "Zionists" as their religion.

Maybe someone should go on the forum and mention that 9% of Reddit is owned by Sam Altman (OpenAI founder) so their using Reddit helps support someone that BDS considers a Zionist. Therefore they should all leave Reddit.

When reading this idiocy, one just wants to slap some sense into these people.

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!

Anti-Jewish hate crime is also soaring in Chicago

Here is a chart from the Chicago Police Department showing hate crimes against Jews by year:

There were 6 hate crimes against Jews in 2020, 8 in 2021, 39 in 2022, 50 in 2023 and 55 in 2024.

But the year is only half over.

In 2023, there were a total of 81 hate crimes attacking religion, and 61% of them were anti-Jewish. This year, there have been 62 hate crimes against religions so far, and 89% of those have been anti-Jewish.

By contrast, there have been 4 anti-Muslim hate crimes so far this year in Chicago.

There are roughly the same number of Jews and Muslims in Chicago (between 300,000 and 400,000.)

How long will it take for local and national leaders to understand that anti-Jewish bigotry is fundamentally different from all other types, and requires different methods to fight them?

The assassination attempt on Trump on Saturday shows that some people take demonization rhetoric seriously enough to kill on behalf of their twisted idas of morality. . If Trump is evil personified, then killing him makes as much sense as assassinating Hitler in 1938. But the same deranged hate rhetoric is being hurled against Jews every day - after all, the majority of Jews are accused of supporting genocide, the worst possible crime. It is not out of the question that a similarly deranged person with a gun will believe that shooting up a synagogue or a random Jew in the street is a righteous, necessary act for the good of mankind.

This has already happened many times to Jews in the US. Usually the shooters are either Muslim or far Right, but the Right feeds on the anti-Israel propaganda of the Left - the neo-Nazi Daily Stormer has graphics from The Guardian and quotes Haaretz.

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!

How Lavender Saved Israel (Forest Rain)

By Forest Rain

I don’t particularly like lavender, but a farm dedicated ONLY to lavender?! I thought that would be something worth seeing. I never imagined I’d hear about lavender saving Israel but then in Israel, you never know what you will discover.

Azizo Lavender Farm is located in the community of Kanaf in the Golan Heights.

The name "Azizo" is inspired by a Latin inscription discovered on a lintel of the ancient synagogue in Deir Aziz, where modern Kanaf now stands. Farmer Dan and his wife Lilach chose this name to honor the deep historical connection to the land and the water source by the same name that sustained the ancient community and continues to nourish their lavender fields today.

The place is beautiful and full of purple accents – and fresh lavender smells much better than the lavender scent used in perfumes and detergents.

Farmer Dan happily explained the history of the business, growing and harvesting lavender. His lavender brought a small but crucial revolution to Israeli households. Everyone used to use moth balls to protect clothes – an effective but terrible-smelling solution. The first Azizo product was small bags of lavender to use instead. They work so well and last so long that some Kanaf residents still use the ones they bought in 1987!!

The farm now sells a large variety of products made with their lavender – everything from chocolate, liqueur, honey, and lavender ice cream to lavender-based toiletries.

Nice, wholesome, and a little boring until suddenly farmer Dan told us about October 7^th.

We didn’t know to ask. Who would think that a flower farm in the north of Israel had anything to do with the horrors of the Hamas invasion in the south?

On October 7^th Dan got a phone call from a woman begging for help. Her husband was among those evacuating bodies of the massacred to the Shura Camp for identification. Within hours the rooms of the camp were piled to the ceiling with bodies and the smell was unbearable.

The soul could not deal with what they were seeing. The task needed to be done but the workers were becoming physically ill.

“You have to help me!” she pleaded.

The next day the Shura teams received Dan’s solution - small bags of lavender which they inserted inside their face masks and lavender oil they could drip on the masks themselves. Instead of breathing death, they could breathe in lavender.

The invaders massacred Jews to try to disconnect us from our land. Flowers born of the ancient love story between the Jewish People and our ancestral homeland, between this land and her People, saved the day.

Flowers protected those doing the unspeakably horrible and deeply sacred work of identifying the massacred. They enabled the families of Israel to get much-needed answers. We used sheer determination and technology too but we needed flowers, a blessing from the land herself to finish the job.

Think about that.

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!

07/14 Links: The free world needs a strong America and safe Israel; ‘God bless Trump’: Israeli politicos react to assassination attempt

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: The free world needs a strong America and safe Israel

What happened a mere four hours after Netanyahu’s declaration that he wouldn’t budge on his red lines made everything else suddenly pale in comparison. While addressing supporters at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania, Trump was nearly killed by a sniper.

Thankfully, the assassination attempt failed. Miraculously, Trump turned his head at the split second that the shot was fired, so the bullet grazed his ear, but missed his brain. One hopes that Deif wasn’t so lucky.

Which brings us to the problem of moral equivalence in general and that which the Biden administration has been applying to Israel and Gaza specifically. (The progressives in the Democratic Party don’t bother with false comparisons; they simply consider Israel to be culpable of all crimes.)

Killing individuals or groups who set out to annihilate you, especially if they manage to accomplish part of their mission, is a worthy aim. Understanding, empathizing with or appeasing them is exactly the opposite.

It is therefore good to wish Deif dead and be happy that Trump’s would-be assassin was taken out. It is honorable to battle forces of evil, and shameful to succumb to their blackmail. The concept isn’t all that complicated.

When he was president, Trump’s less-than-complex instincts led him to starve the regime in Tehran of the resources that his predecessor, Barack Obama, had heaped on it in order to cut America down to the size of its inferiors. To the amazement of his detractors, the same gut feelings—coupled with top-notch advisers—resulted in the Abraham Accords.

When Biden took the reins, he resuscitated Obama’s “leading from behind” doctrine. And here we are.

Everyone now knows that Biden’s faculties are impaired, but his politics have always been defective. Replacing him with Kamala won’t make the slightest bit of difference on that score.

Nor can eradicating Trump—through lawfare or bloodshed—obfuscate the need of the free world for a strong America and safe Israel.

Victor Davis Hanson: Assassination porn and the sickness on the left

If we were leftists and we were to use leftist tropes to editorialize the recent attempt on Trump’s life, then we would frame the assassination attempt in the following way:

We have witnessed for years blatant exceptions to the once-common custom that we don’t normalize the imagined killing of any president or presidential candidate and thus lower the bar of violence.

But the left constantly makes Trump an exception. Now, it is as if the imagined killing of Trump had been mainstreamed and become acceptable in a way inconceivable of other presidents.

(Do we remember the rodeo clown who merely wore an Obama mask during a bull riding contest and was punished by being permanently banned by the Missouri State Fair authorities?)

So, since at least 2016, there has been a parlor game among leftist celebrities and entertainers joking (one hopes), dreaming, imagining and just talking about the various and graphic ways they would like to assassinate or seriously injure Trump:

By slugging his face (Robert De Niro), by decapitation (Kathy Griffin, Marilyn Manson), by stabbing (Shakespeare in the Park), by clubbing (Mickey Rourke), by shooting ( Snoop Dogg), by poisoning (Anthony Bourdain), by bounty killing (George Lopez), by carrion-eating his corpse (Pearl Jam), by suffocating (Larry Whilmore), by blowing him up (Madonna, Moby), by throwing him over a cliff (Rosie O’Donnell), just by generic “killing” him (Johnny Depp, Big Sean) or by martyring him (Reid Hoffman: “Yeah, I wish I had made him an actual martyr.”).

Or should we deplore the use of telescopic scope imagery, given that the left blamed Sarah Palin for once using bullseye spots on an election map of opposition congressional districts, claiming that such usage had incited the mass shooting by Jared Lee Loughner?

Yet recently, POTUS Joe Biden was a little bit more graphic and a lot more literal.

In a widely reported call to hundreds of donors last week, Biden boasted: “I have one job, and that’s to beat Donald Trump. I’m absolutely certain I’m the best person to be able to do that. So, we’re done talking about the debate, it’s time to put Trump in a bullseye.”

“In a bullseye”?

‘God bless Trump’: Israeli politicos react to assassination attempt

Israelis from across the political spectrum on Sunday conveyed overwhelming support for Donald Trump following the attempt on his life at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the assassination attempt on the former president and presumptive Republican nominee for the White House “is not only a heinous crime, it is also an attempt to assassinate American democracy.”

At the start of the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, Netanyahu said that he “would like to send him in my name, in the name of my wife, Sara, in the name of the ministers of the Israeli government and in the name of the entire people of Israel our best wishes for a speedy recovery and a return to full strength.”

Netanyahu earlier wrote that he and Sara were “shocked by the apparent attack on President Trump” and praying “for his safety and speedy recovery.”

Foreign Minister Israel Katz tweeted, “I am shocked by the shooting at the 45th President of the U.S. Donald Trump. I pray for his speedy recovery. Violence can never ever be part of politics.”

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid described the shooting as “greatly troubling and dangerous,” tweeting, “Political violence is an existential threat to democratic systems. I extend my wishes for a speedy recovery to the former president.”

Anti-Jewish hate crimes hits a new record in California

There were 289 reported hate crimes against Jews in California in 2023, a 52% increase from 2022, according to the hate crimes statistics released by the State of California earlier this month.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes accounted for over 73% of all anti-religious hate crime.

Since 2014, the numbers of hate crimes against Jews has increased dramatically and consistently. While anti-Muslim hate crimes increased in 2023, they have remained fairly steady over the years.

Anti-Jewish hate crimes account for nearly the entire increase in all anti-religious hate crimes between 2022 and 2023. In fact, the total number of all hate crimes in California decreased slightly in 2023, with the most drastic increases against Jews (+100) and LGBTQ+ (+70)

The dramatic increase in antisemitic hate crimes in 2023, which were already high out of proportion to the number of Jews in those areas beforehand, has been seen in most places that have released hate crime statistics so far.

And 2024 looks like it will be not just worse, but far worse.

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!

Antisemitism in Turkey has skyrocketed since October 7

A new book has been published about the history of antisemitism in Turkey, which is manifest on both the political Right and Left.

The German language book "Antisemitism in and from Turkey" is edited by Corry Guttstadt, whom you can see in this 2015 lecture about Turkish antisemitism and how Turkey created the fictional story of rescuing tens of thousands of Jews in the Holocaust. In reality, Turkey knowingly allowed Jews to die.

Since October 7, things have gotten exponentially worse for Jews in Turkey.

One need only look at the Twitter/X account of the Jewish community in Turkey. Their weekly "Shabbat Shalom" messages, often with a prayer for peace, have antisemitic responses. Even their commemoration of the anniversary of the deadly February 2023 earthquake received antisemitic responses.

Synagogues, and churches that Muslim Turks could not distinguish from synagogues, have been attacked.

Nazi symbols have been found in Turkish schools in reported antisemitic incidents.

A man proudly posted a video of himself teaching his young son to murder Jews.

A Turkish bookseller posted a notice that no Jews were allowed in his shop.

When Turkish president Erdogan's AKP party lost in some local elections, people blamed Jewish vote manipulation.

I had reported about the hysteria in Turkey where the media falsely claimed that 4,000 Turkish Jews are fighting in Gaza. A new bill was introduced that would revoke the citizenship of Turkish nationals who served in the IDF in Gaza and allow for the confiscation of their assets.

Perhaps the epicenter of Turkish antisemitism is the newspaper Yeni Şafak, which has close ties to Turkish president Erdogan. In response to the "secret Chabad tunnels" story in January it published lurid accounts of the classic blood libel, saying that Jews were murdering gentile children in those tunnels in Brooklyn to use their blood in Jewish rituals.

This post is still on Instagram today and received over 58,000 "likes."

This isn't "anti-Zionism." This is state-approved Jew-hatred.

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!

At the beginning of the Gaza war, I posted a list of things the media gets wrong every single time there is a war there. And for the most part, that post remains correct even today.

However, nine months into the war, the New York Times published a lengthy article about Hamas war tactics in Gaza that begins to describe only some of my points.

Very little of what they report is a surprise for anyone following the war, and it is mysterious why they took over nine months to mention all of these things, most of which they admit could be seen in Hamas' own videos taken months ago.

Virtually all of those tactics violate international law. And that point is almost completely ignored.

An analysis of battlefield videos released by Hamas and interviews with three Hamas members and scores of Israeli soldiers, most of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, suggests that Hamas’s strategy relies on:

Using hundreds of miles of tunnels, the scale of which surprised Israeli commanders, to move around Gaza without being seen by Israeli soldiers;

Using civilian homes and infrastructure — including medical facilities, U.N. offices and mosques — to conceal fighters, tunnel entrances, booby-traps and ammunition stores;

Ambushing Israeli soldiers with small groups of fighters dressed as civilians, as well as using civilians, including children, to act as lookouts;

Leaving secret signs outside homes, like a red sheet hanging from a window or graffiti, to signal to fellow fighters the nearby presence of mines, tunnel entrances or weapons caches inside;

Dragging out the war for as long as possible, even at the expense of more civilian death and destruction, in order to bog Israel down in an attritional battle that has amplified international criticism of Israel.

Dressing as civilians while fighting is a war crime.
Using civilian homes for military purposes is a war crime.
Purposefully hiding among civilians and firing rockets from civilian neighborhoods is a war crime.
Recruiting children to do military activities is a war crime.
Hiding soldiers in hospitals is a war crime.

Astoundingly, the article gives one paragraph to Israel pointing out that this intentional use of civilian clothing and buildings is the reason why there is so much destruction in Gaza, and five paragraphs to Hamas officials defending their war crimes.

And not a single international law expert is consulted to see which side is correct.

One soldier said Hamas used chained dogs to entice soldiers toward a booby-trapped building, hoping that the soldiers would try to free the dogs.

Another soldier recalled spotting a dead Hamas fighter inside an apartment block and making his way toward the body. As he drew closer, he realized the corpse had been rigged with an explosive, he said. When his squad fired at the body, it blew up and set the building ablaze, he said.

There is, surprisingly, no international law that specifically protects animals from being abused in war, but there is such a law against mutilating the dead.

While the NYT describes all of these violations of the laws of war, the only time it mentions that fact is saying more than 50 paragraphs into the report that "International law requires combatants to avoid using 'civilian objects,' which include homes, schools, hospitals and mosques, for military objectives."

The article should have been written many months ago, and it should have emphasized that Hamas' actions are not only illegal but also the cause of so much suffering of the innocent in Gaza.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

07/13 Links: Muhammed Deif dead?; Trump shot at during rally; The Lancet libel: Lies masquerading as medical research; Dr. Ruth passes away at 96

From Ian:

Palestinian destruction of Jewish archaeological sites must be halted

A large group of the most prominent Israeli archaeologists (including Zartal critics and anti-Biblical-narrative archaeologists at Tel Aviv University including many Israel Prize laureates in archaeology) twice signed a public petition to then-Defense Minister Benny Gantz and Prime Minister Netanyahu demanding protection for the “altar” site on Mount Ebal; to no avail.

In January 2023, a Palestinian building contractor started again to plow-up the area. An Israeli officer even found the PA plans to destroy the entire site inside one of the tractors in operation.

An Archaeology Staff Officer then acted to demarcate the site as a protected site, but the Civil Administration insisted that the line be drawn narrowly around only the “altar” without the surrounding plain where the biblical “swearing-in ceremony” may have been held and which could be an archaeologically rich zone. The excuse: insufficient legal authority.The battle continues.

Another infuriating story relates to the incredible aqueduct identified as King Solomon’s magnificent water system in Judea that runs from Hebron through Bethlehem to Jerusalem, including what is today termed “Solomon’s Pools,” southwest of Bethlehem.

This marvel of ancient engineering, 40 km. long, is described in detail in the Bible, and the description matches the archaeological findings precisely. The pools and aqueducts survived 2,000 years of summer and winter and many invaders and predators – until the arrival of the Palestinian Authority.

In 2022, the PA dug an enormous 1,500-dunam quarry pit at Beit Fajar right through a section of the aqueduct. The quarrying caused irreversible damage to the aqueducts, with some 100 m. of tunnel and approximately 2,000 m. The Government of Israel did nothing to stop this.

This is the place to point out that PA-directed destruction of Jewish heritage sites in Judea and Samaria is a gross and explicit violation of the Oslo Accords and all relevant international legal frameworks, including heritage preservation obligations under UNESCO (which the PA joined in 2011), and the World Heritage Convention (known as ICOMOS, the International Council on Monuments and Sites).

The flip side of this is that the government of Israel has been derelict in its international heritage preservation legal obligations too (in addition to its responsibility for Jewish memory and historical truth), under provisions of The Hague Convention and Jordanian law which still partially apply in the West Bank.

The Israeli Supreme Court in particular has been a comatose, regressive actor in this ongoing saga – foregoing opportunity and after opportunity to force the hand of the Israeli government into action against Palestinian destruction-ism.

The sad result to-date is truly annihilationist: Three thousand years of heritage on its way to near-complete wipe-out within a mere 30 years. This is a tragedy that must be stopped.

I salute the activist archaeologists and Ministers Bezalel Smotrich and Amichai Eliyahu, MK Amit Halevi, and others who have driven this matter to the government table. Clear policy directives must be issued to the IAA, IDF, Israel Police, and Israel Security Agency to prioritize the preservation of heritage sites in Judea and Samaria and to punish the PA for its belligerence.

Preservation and protection is a necessity so that something of biblical heritage remains for future generations. So that the land of the Bible is not erased by Palestinian aggression and denialism.

The Lancet libel: Lies masquerading as medical research

THERE ARE multiple issues to call out regarding this “gold-standard” publication. The entire premise of the article (aka “letter”) argues that conflicts lead to non-combatant deaths, meaning that the fatalities can be as high as 186,000 due to “indirect deaths.” Yet the Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health casualty numbers already included indirect deaths, which the authors did not adjust for. The 186,000 figure also includes “post-conflict deaths.” However, according to international law, any deaths that occur after the war’s conclusion are not counted as part of the official death toll.

Early in the article, they write that the Hamas casualty figures were “accepted as accurate by Israeli intelligence services” – but this claim is false. The authors cite one Vice article that references a Mekomit article claiming that unnamed Israeli “intelligence sources” found Hamas numbers reliable. There is also no evidence that some Gazan “first responders” are counting bodies in addition to “Gaza Health Ministry.” They are relying on a fringe news item based on unidentified sources to legitimize Hamas’s numbers.

The authors also claim the UN estimates that 35% of Gaza has been destroyed, but the UN study referenced cites only 12%. They also present all the deaths as civilians and ignore that 17,000 terrorists have been killed, ignore the thousands of natural deaths, and ignore any deaths that were caused by Hamas or Islamic Jihad terrorists themselves from misfiring rockets.

I have not been able to scratch the surface of the amount of false information in this piece. It is disinformation masquerading as “reliable research,” which cites unreliable sources, presents gross misrepresentations, and suffers from omissions. Even one of the writers, Prof. Martin McKee, retracted from the numbers he presented and co-signed on, claiming that “our piece has been greatly misquoted and misinterpreted.”

The Lancet once again allowed disinformation to spread on what is considered a “well-respected magazine” with a readership of 36 million people. When healthcare and medical professionals and policymakers read such reports, it has a direct impact on the Jewish state that is fighting an unprecedented urban war where the terrorists are hiding under the civilian population.

These three authors completely misconstrued the reality and repeated falsehoods based on fringe sources. We live in a world where the facts matter and should matter, especially when the lives of Israelis and Palestinians are at stake.