Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, September 10, 2024

Tabletop role playing gaming convention issues disgusting anti-Israel "values statement" for "Jews in TTRPGs" panel session; it isn't enough for Israel haters

Big Bad Con is a tabletop role-playing game convention taking place in October.

One of the sessions planned is on Jews and gaming, But to participate, you need to pass an anti-Israel purity test:

Jews in TTRPGs
Max Fefer

Curious how Judaism presents itself in the TTRPG industry? Learn from a panel of accomplished Jewish TTRPG game designers and actual play creators about how their Judaism presents itself in our games. Panelists will expand on how we choose to incorporate our diaspora stories into the games and art we create. A special highlight will be how to incorporate historical and religious texts, including translating Hebrew and Aramaic texts about Jewish magic!

Note the phrase "our diaspora stories:" any Jew who creates a game that is Israel centered is excluded.

But if that wasn't clear enough, this panel - alone among all the panels at the convention - adds a "values statement" to make sure that they don't attract the 95% of Jews who do not want to see the Jewish state destroyed:

The panelists have committed to a values statement to ensure we are creating an inclusive environment that does not support the genocide in Palestine:

"The members of this panel are opposed to the ongoing genocide in Palestine and call for an immediate ceasefire. Israel is occupying and colonizing Palestinian land, discriminating against Palestinian citizens of Israel, and denying Palestinian refugees the right to return to their homes. Israel is maintaining a regime of occupation, apartheid, and settler-colonialism over the Palestinian people. Israel is only able to maintain this illegal regime because of international support and complicity.

We call on all people of conscience to stop the imminent genocide of Palestinians. We demand our government work towards de-escalation, that it immediately stop sending weapons to the Israeli military. A future of peace and safety for all, grounded in justice, freedom and equality for all, is still the only option.

We can and we must stop this. Never again means never again — for anyone."

Calling Israel's actions in Gaza genocide is antisemitic. It has no basis in reality and it is an attempt to say that Zionist Jews are today's Nazis. Together with the demand for "return", this is a call to dismantle the world's only Jewish state.

But this disgusting, antisemitic statement wasn't good enough for the haters.

The organizers of the conference balked at including in this statement the phrases "From the river to the sea" and "anti-Zionist," and that resulted in a torrent of complaints from committed Israel haters and a call to boycott the event.

As emails from the organizers make clear, the reason they opposed publishing those phrases isn't because they are Zionist or that they even care about Jewish attendees feeling attacked. The reason is that they do not want the negative attention, as occurred earlier this year when a TTRPG awards event was canceled following publicity on their statement saying Zionists were disqualified.

Today's "progressive" Jew haters, spearheaded by a Jewish gamer named Esther Wallace (she/zhe) and her Muslim friend Hamnah Shahid, are saying that Big Bad Con is not going far enough, and they are making three demands:

Make a public values statement indicating that Big Bad Con is an anti-Zionist space. This statement cannot equivocate both sides, but rather must stand firmly for the decolonization of Palestine.

Allow all events to include anti-Zionist language in their programming, including event descriptions.

Commit to consulting with Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, and anti-Zionist Jews within the TTRPG space to determine what actions the community would like to see from Big Bad Con in supporting them/us in 2025 and beyond.

If Big Bad Con does not agree to these demands, hundreds of attendees promise to boycott the event. Wallace also states that these demands are a "floor, not a ceiling" - if the con caves to these demands, there will be more. Perhaps next year the convention will be named "HamasCon."

Speaking of "values," Big Bad Con says two of its community standards are:

We welcome folks to the table. We pull up a chair. We invite others into our conversations and catch them up.
We practice compassion. We’re mindful of our effect on others. We honor boundaries and use them to inform our choices.

Obviously, most Jews who have emotional, religious or family ties with Israel are excluded from these "values." There can be no conversations with those who disagree with anti-Zionists - they must be excluded.

And just as icing on the cake, the "Jews in TTRPGs" panel is being held on Shabbat; the entire con is being held during Shemini Atzeret/Simchat Torah - the Hebrew anniversary of the October 7 massacre.

They are so welcoming! They care so much about their attendees!

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The UN Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, Michael Fakhri, wrote a thread on X/Twitter that is breathtakingly false - and antisemitic.

How was Isr. able to starve 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza at unprecedented speed and intensity?

I answer this question in my new report. I'll be discussing my report with the UN General Assembly on Friday, October 18.

This didn’t start in October.

Isr. started restricting goods into Gaza in 1991. Imposed full blockade in 2000. Military siege in 2005. The Isr. Ministry of Health measured incoming calories to ensure that people Gaza stayed hungry enough not to trigger a humanitarian crisis .

The "full blockade" he is referring to was Israel closing off Gaza in response to the wave of suicide bombings at the beginning of the second intifada. The "military siege" was after Israel unilaterally withdrew all its citizens from Gaza in 2005 and as suicide bombings continued.

It’s not just Gaza. And it’s not just restricting goods + humanitarian aid.

Isr. has been destroying the Palestinian food system for 70+ years. Destroying orchards & farms. Harassing/ killing peasants, fishers & shepherds.

Also, years of working with Palestinian farmers, helping them export through Israeli ports, sometimes even advising Palestinian farmers on the best crops for them to make the most money. You know who protested this cooperation? Palestinians! Which totally refutes Fakri's theory of Israel deliberately trying to destroy the food system.

In Gaza, malnutrition, famine, and disease are killing more people than bombs and bullets. This personal and social trauma is going to be carried by Palestinians for several generations in the future.

Really? More Gazans are being killed by famine and disease than war? This is a bigger lie than the Al Ahli Hospital libel. Even Hamas says that only 36 Gazans have starved to death while they claim over 40,000 wartime casualties (of whom, of course, nearly half are Hamas members themselves.) Nobody has said what Fakhri s claiming - not UNICEF, not UNRWA, not WHO, not OCHA, not even Al Jazeera.

Lying is apparently a qualification for the job of UN Special Rapporteur.

Why is this happening? This about land.

In 2023, Isr. seized more Palestinian land than in any given year in the past 30 yrs. Isr. wants to erase the Palestinians from their homeland + territory and deny them their right to return to Palestine.

If Israel is only interested in Gaza to take over the land then why, exactly, did Israel withdraw from Gaza in 2005? Why did it sign the Oslo Accords giving Palestinians the first land they've had in their short history to begin with?

Fakhri's analysis doesn't stand up to two seconds of thought. Maybe it flies at the UN and with his college students at the University of Oregon, but it is not just wrong but maliciously wrong.

His solutions are antisemitic by definition.

What can be done now? Ceasefire now. All countries have a duty to end the starvation and genocide. Countries and corps. supplying Isr. with money and weapons are complicit. Other countries should impose economic, political and cultural sanctions. Institutions should divest.

And Hamas must survive to plan more October 7ths.

What can be done for the future of Palestinians?

Any discussion about 1-state, 2-state or whatever political configuration must prioritize two things:

-the Palestinian people’s right to return to Palestine; and - the full realization of their human rights and dignity.

But not Israel's security.

So Fakhri supports BDS and dismantling the Jewish state, both of which are antisemitic.

A glance at his timeline shows that he does not even mention Hamas. Not a negative word about Palestinian terrorism. Not a gram of sympathy for the Israelis slaughtered, raped and forced from their homes.

Of course he makes a perfect UN Rapporteur - just like Francesca Albanese.

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!

09/09 Links Pt2: The Plot To Make October 7 the New Nakba; Preaching Peace, Using Violence: The International Solidarity Movement’s Activism

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Plot To Make October 7 the New Nakba

The initial approval of the hate rally raised two problems—one easily solvable and one very difficult to fix. The easy one was the rally itself: The school could cancel the permit, which is what it ultimately did, although a school theoretically needs to show good reason for the cancellation of an otherwise approved event.

According to Jewish Insider’s timeline of events, an associate dean (and parent of a UMD sophomore) named Gilad Chen wrote a letter, signed by tens of thousands connected to the university’s Jewish community, asking the school to take action to protect its Jewish students from the effects of the hate rally it had okayed. University president Darryll Pines followed with a public letter kinda-sorta announcing it had canceled the SJP Klan rally. Pines’s letter was opaque and roundabout but included the statement that, “out of an abundance of caution, we concluded to host only university-sponsored events that promote reflection on this day.”

The letter made clear that other events were free to take place before October 7 and after. Which means that an SJP rally in celebration of the October 7 massacre will almost surely take place on campus, though it might be on a day near the anniversary instead of on the anniversary.

Which brings us to the second problem—the one that is much harder to solve. And that is the fact that the university contains within the student body a shocking number of people who want to celebrate the pogrom of October 7 in public. The desire to do so, unlike the event itself, cannot be canceled by a mealymouthed letter from an administrator.

In fact, the desire to celebrate the deaths of October 7 requires a level of sociopathy that suggests the people organizing and attending this rally possess a fetishistic attraction to evil. They are joined in this death cultism, of course, by the rest of the national members of SJP and similar groups of McSinwar’s franchises. And the attendees at those chapters’ events. And the faculty and administrators who support them—who, in fact, likely inculcated this bloodlust in the students. They are also certainly joined by men like Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, a college-age attempted terrorist seeking to take up the tentifadas’ call to arms on behalf of ISIS and other identical twins of Hamas.

Dozens of Americans were murdered on October 7. Yet in America (and elsewhere in the West), the organizers of political-protest culture regard that day not as one to mourn but one to celebrate—and their plan is to make sure history sees it the same way.

Phyllis Chesler: No one--absolutely no one--stops them

The greatest poets and prophets always tell us exactly what's happening and what's likely to keep happening. Their words seem to be timeless. For example, there's always William Butler Yeat's "The Second Coming," first published more than a century ago, in 1920.

"Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold:/Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world/ The blood-dimmed tide is loosed....Surely some revelation is at hand;/Surely the Second Coming is at hand/...And what rough beast, its hour come round at/last/Slouches towards Bethlemam to be born?"

How can Yeats describe so well exactly what is happening in our world today? Mere anarchy is precisely what's upon us. We now live without boundaries or borders--and I am not only talking about America's southern border, although, that too, is a symptom of what I'm seeing.

A sense of personal boundaries in public has frayed. Social etiquette in public is gone. Post-pandemic, many people show up in fairly dressed-down, even in disheveled ways when summoned to court; appear at business meetings on zoom; arrive at airports, concerts, and restaurants. Worse: Although there are exceptions, people are so focused on their cellphones, that they do not see each other coming and thus, walk right into others, shove and push each other, take offense.

Too many people are in a permanent rage--none more so than the pro-Hamas demonstrators who've been "on the job" since 10/7.

Masked and keffiya-wearing pro-Hamas demonstrators have not only blocked traffic in my own fair city, they have also chained or glued themselves to bridges, defaced statues private residences, restaurants. By now, they are a completely normalized phenomenon.

No one has stopped them.

They are everywhere almost all the time: a yelling, chanting, Jew-hatring mob, disturbing the city peace, interrupting every holiday and public event, harassing innocent civilians, at work, at homes, and on the streets, but especially harassing Jews: Students of course, but also those who are dressed in visibly Jewish ways; Jewish museum directors, Jewish professors, both on campus and at their homes, and as they are dining in known Jewish restaurants.

This actually just happened a few days ago in Philadelphia at a restaurant, Goldie's, owned by a Jewish businessman. Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, described the demonstration as pure "antisemitism."

The pro-Palestine protestors trespass all boundaries of civility, just as similar Jew-hating groups have been doing for many years in classrooms. They shout down any speaker perceived as possibly a "Zionist," or "pro-America," and try to have him or her harassed right out of their university position.

Preaching Peace, Using Violence: The International Solidarity Movement’s Activism

This entanglement with terrorist networks is one piece of a broader network of organizations providing cover for terrorist activities. Four senior American ISM members went on to form the international pro-Hamas umbrella organization, the Free Gaza Movement (FGM), whose most notable effort was the Gaza flotilla, led by the pro-Hamas Turkish organization IHH, whose objective was to strengthen Hamas rule in the Gaza Strip. The flotilla ended in a violent confrontation with IDF soldiers in May 2010.

Senior ISM figures have likewise justified Palestinian armed violence, even during the height of suicide bombings. On October 8, the organization tweeted justifying the horrific Black Saturday massacre, blaming the “violence of the oppressor.” It also released a statement blaming Israel for every single death, while the co-founder of the ISM Northern Californian branch Paul Larudee praised his Palestinian brothers and sisters for “teaching a lesson to the Zionists”. Larudee has also been linked to Hamas.

Interestingly, the Meir Amit Center’s methodology involved a critical comparison of ISM’s publicly available materials to its actual operations and internal documents. Internal ISM publications and training manuals not meant for public release revealed workshops ISM activists participated in, which included legal and security briefings on how to deceive Israeli authorities (e.g., altering passport details). This deliberate misdirection in their intentions, hidden under proclamations of “non-violence”, serves the ISM well during incidents like that Eygi’s death.

A far cry from its stated principles of peaceful solidarity and bearing witness, the ISM’s founding members’ ideology and statements, the organization’s track record, and current actions reveal a troubling policy of violence, obstruction and instigation. Tragically, in the case of Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, this same pattern is at play.

The ISM’s fraudulent intentions and dangerous presence at volatile flashpoints like Beita only heighten tensions, encouraging protesters and making it more difficult for Israeli security forces to act without escalation, while leaders’ statements and leaked documents make it clear that this was the goal all along.

However, despite the ISM’s incitement, purposeful use of human shields, and the hazy and dangerous conditions of the current war, at the very least one can rest easy in the fact that at least one actor in this situation does their due diligence, conducts investigations and takes accountability.

Meanwhile, we can only hope outside actors cease to escalate the violence people who live in this country are forced to face every day.

09/09 Links Pt1: Biden is rewarding Hamas; From Naharayim to Allenby: Sad evolution of Hashemite kings response to Jordanian terror

From Ian:

Biden is rewarding Hamas

While Israeli officials continue to debate the cabinet's decision to oppose withdrawing IDF forces from the Philadelphi Corridor, Khalil al-Hayya, Hamas's deputy chief in Gaza, reiterated that this issue is merely one of several demands his group has put forward as conditions for a deal. "We stress that any agreement must encompass a full cessation of hostilities, complete withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, including the Philadelphi Corridor and the Rafah crossing, unimpeded return of displaced persons to their homes, aid and relief for Palestinians, Gaza's reconstruction, and a prisoner exchange," al-Hayya stated.

This stance isn't new. What stood out in its presentation was the self-assurance displayed by the senior Hamas official, during a week when he and his associates were expected to be on edge, fearing repercussions for the killing of six hostages. However, the reaction to this in Israel and the United States prompted an opposite response from them. From their perspective, not only did they avoid consequences for the heinous act, but through it, they managed to escalate tensions and internal disagreements in Israel, while also prompting Washington to consider presenting a framework defined as a "final offer, without room for negotiation" ("Take it or leave it"). They swiftly capitalized on the public outrage over the hostages' deaths through a media campaign warning that this would be the outcome of Israeli military pressure, while taking a firm stance on their negotiation demands.

Hamas assumes that a final American proposal will inevitably come at Israel's expense. The primary pressure to reach an agreement is already being applied to Israeli leadership. Hamas faces no consequences for prolonging the process, and as long as it holds hostages, it can always resume negotiations from where they left off.

President Joe Biden has promised that Hamas would face consequences for the hostages' deaths. At the very least, he can be expected not to reward Hamas. Pressuring the Israeli government to yield to Hamas's demands would be tantamount to rewarding the terror group. Instead, the logical step would be American support for Israel's justified position. Such backing might even help advance negotiations.

It's time for the United States to fully leverage its influence over Hamas. One approach is to push for the removal of the group's leaders from Qatar. Washington should demand this from Doha. This leadership bears equal responsibility as the Gaza-based leadership for the October 7 terror attack and subsequent war crimes. It's the same leadership that is currently urging its operatives in the West Bank to carry out suicide attacks. Demanding the expulsion of Hamas leadership from Qatar and imposing personal sanctions on its members is the minimum expected from the US. Israel will find ways to hold the ringleaders accountable.

Qatar Must Extradite a Hamas Terrorist

Qatar isn’t some humble refuge for Meshal. The terror chief lives like royalty in Doha, where he has amassed a staggering net worth of approximately $4 billion.

Beyond that, Qatar offers Meshal legitimacy and a global platform. That was clear in 2017, when Meshal unveiled a new Hamas guidance document at a press conference in Doha. Meshal said Hamas was “ready to support” a Palestinian state along the June 1967 borders. But the document was merely a re-branding exercise. Hamas never altered its 1988 charter, which calls for the annihilation of Israel.

Bizarrely, for the past eleven months, Washington and much of the international community has viewed Qatar as an honest broker in the effort to secure a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of the Israeli hostages. This is both ridiculous and dangerous. Indeed, the wealthy Gulf emirate has not only housed Hamas leaders for more than a decade; it has showered Hamas with hundreds of millions of dollars.

Qatar should not be touted as a Major Non-NATO Ally and host America’s Combined Air Operations Center while also hosting Hamas. Hosting and funding Hamas actually qualifies Qatar as a state sponsor of terrorism.

At a minimum, Washington should place significant pressure on Qatar to extradite Khaled Meshal, among other Hamas leaders. Legally, such a move is more than justified and long overdue. Such pressure would begin to reset the relationship between Washington and Doha and perhaps set the stage for Qatar to jettison leaders from Al-Qaeda, the Taliban, the Islamic State, and other malign actors. The move might also put residual pressure on Hamas to release the remaining hostages in Gaza and end the current crisis—something that Qatar has repeatedly failed to do.

From Naharayim to Allenby: Sad evolution of Hashemite kings response to Jordanian terror

On March 13, 1997, less than three years after Israel and Jordan signed a peace agreement, a Jordanian soldier opened fire on a group of high-school girls from Beit Shemesh visiting the “Island of Peace” at Naharayim on the Israel-Jordan border. Seven girls were killed.

Jordan's monarch at the time, King Hussein, quickly decried the murder and responded with a memorable display of empathy and reconciliation.

Hussein went to Beit Shemesh and visited the grieving parents as they were sitting shiva. At one home, he said, “Your daughter is like my daughter. Your loss is my loss,” and expressed deep shame for the crime.

He visited the wounded in the attack at the hospital. He also stood by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who was the prime minister at the time and delivered a heartfelt apology.

Hussein’s son, King Abdullah, has not followed his father’s example.

A day after a Jordanian terrorist, Maher Dhiab Hussein al-Jazi, killed three Israelis working at the Allenby (King Hussein) Bridge - Adrian Podmeser, Yohanan Shchori, and Yuri Birnbaum - Abdullah had not denounced the murders as of Monday evening.

Jordanian Foreign Minister spokesman Sufian Quday said the attack was an “individual act,” and - according to the Jordan Times - said that Jordan rejects targeting civilians for “whatsoever reasons.”

Peace strained as attacks and tensions escalate
At the same time, and somewhat contradictorily, Quday “also called for addressing all reasons of escalation that lead to violence and the targeting of civilians.”

That’s code for: it's Israel’s fault that a Jordanian terrorist killed Israeli citizens.

The murder of the seven Beit Shemesh schoolgirls, The Washington Post reported at the time, “threatened to transform Jordan’s image among Israelis from their only friendly neighbor to just another dangerous Arab foe.” Hussein’s actions, the paper reported, were designed partly to prevent that from happening.

In the interim 27 years, much of the original promise of the Jordanian-Israeli peace agreement has faded.

Abdullah, whose ministers and wife, Queen Rania, regularly lash into Israel with vicious tirades, couldn’t care less about Israeli public opinion. This is especially true now, with the country on Tuesday going to parliamentary elections in which the Islamic faction is expected to ride a wave of anger toward Israel because of its war with Hamas into electoral gains. The last thing Abdullah wants to do right now, in this atmosphere, is to show empathy toward Israel.

The Israeli public, for its part, harbors few illusions about the king, the Jordanian public, or the prospects of peace with the Hashemite kingdom. This is a cold, functional peace - mainly between the countries' security apparatuses - that serves each side’s security interests.

Israel benefits from close security cooperation with Amman and - for the last 30 years - having had a mostly quiet eastern border. This, however, is changing, as Sunday’s attack demonstrated.

Even before that attack, there have been a number of incidents - including the arrest of two Gazans in March who crossed over from Jordan and were arrested in the Jordan Valley on their way to carrying out a terrorist attack, and the arrest a month later of a Jordanian parliamentarian smuggling arms and gold into the West Bank - indicating that this border is not what it used to be.

Palestine Today, a mouthpiece from Islamic Jihad, writes:

The World Health Organization confirmed, on Monday 9/9/2024, that "Israel" does not allow us to bring fuel, medicines, equipment and aid into the Gaza Strip.

The organization indicated that it has 46 groups in Egypt awaiting Israeli approval to enter Gaza.

Since the start of the Israeli ground military operation on the city of Rafah and the destruction of the Rafah crossing last May, the entry of aid into the Strip has decreased significantly, until it reached about 50 trucks, according to the United Nations.

This announcement is not on the WHO website. It is not on the WHO X/Twitter page. Nor is it on their Facebook page.

I could find no one else reporting this news in either English or Arabic.

The only news from Gaza recently from WHO was the announcement that polio vaccinations were successful.

This is quite interesting because Palestine Today normally adheres to minimum journalistic standards. However, more than ever before, this is a cognitive war - from Hamas perspective, it has only been a cognitive war for months - and regular press releases of lies are as valuable to Palestinian terror groups and their Western enablers as RPGs and rockets.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The Asserson Report on the BBC is damning

The BBC breached its own editorial guidelines more than 1,500 times between October 7 and February 7 showing "a distinct pattern of bias against Israel," according to a new report published Saturday.

The Asserson Report is nearly 200 pages long, detailed, and damning in every respect.

It is difficult to give it justice in a post, but here are some of the highlights:

* A well-designed study of BBC online using ChatGPT to help eliminate bias showing that BBC articles overwhelmingly showed more sympathy for the Palestinian side than the Israeli side.

* Another analysis of three popular BBC TV shows indicating pervasive anti Israel bias. (Negative is pro-Palestinian, positive is pro-Israel.)

* Somewhat more Palestinians interviewed that Israelis in BBC English; far more Palestinians thanIsraelis in BBC Arabic

* For interviewees from neither side, the vast majority were anti-Israel

* Interviewees were treated as unbiased when they were actually pro-Hamas, and many who had affiliations with Hamas were not identified as such

* Violations of BBC guidelines in omitting information: not mentioning the genocidal Hamas charter, not mentioning that Hamas ran a dictatorship in Gaza, refusing to admit there is no press freedom in Gaza, little information on the hostage ordeal, little mention on Israeli socio-economic hardships or 200,000 Israelis displaced during the war

* Associating Israel with "war crimes" far, far more than Hamas

* Huge number of corrections of original presumed death toll of October 7 in Israel but very few similar corrections after the fact of Hamas lies like the Al Ahli Hospital rocket strike

* Consistently favoring Hamas casualty numbers over Israeli estimates, directly violating BBC policy

* Adjectives to evoke sympathy with casualties were far more likely among Gaza casualties than Israeli civilians

* Trend analysis showing bias:

* Consistently interviewing Israeli officials with a hostile tone, and Palestinian officials with sympathy.

The details are almost numbing. There is no way that these are oversights. The entire BBC coverage of the war is undeniably biased and hostile to Israel.

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!

Jordan did NOT condemn the terror attack at Allenby Bridge - it implicitly condemned the IDF for killing the shooter!

Times of Israel reported yesterday:

After some 14 hours, Jordan’s Foreign Ministry issues a statement containing a brief condemnation of today’s terror shooting attack by a Jordanian man that killed three Israelis on the West Bank side of the Allenby Bridge Crossing.

The Jordanian statement was carefully crafted not to condemn the shooter, and the entire statement blames the incident wholly on Israel. In fact, it can be read as a condemnation of Israel for killing the shooter!

The entire statement, posted on X/Twitter, says:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates confirmed today that the relevant authorities are following up on the investigations into the incident in which a Jordanian citizen opened fire on the Palestinian side of the King Hussein Bridge, which is controlled by Israel, which led to the killing of three Israelis.

The official spokesman for the ministry, Ambassador Dr. Sufyan Al-Qudah, said that initial investigations confirmed that the incident, in which the shooter was also killed, was an individual act.

The Ministry stressed Jordan's firm position in rejecting and condemning violence and targeting civilians for any reason, and calling for addressing all causes and escalatory steps that generate it.

Ambassador Al-Qudah stressed that Jordan is continuing its regional and international efforts and movements aimed at reaching a permanent ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, stopping the dangerous escalation in the West Bank, and reaching a comprehensive calm and launching a real political effort that restores hope in the possibility of achieving a just and lasting peace based on the two-state solution, and protects the entire region from the consequences of the continued deterioration that perpetuates despair and extremism, and detonates cycles of violence and killing, the price of which everyone pays.

Ambassador Al-Qudah stressed that a just and comprehensive peace that meets all the rights of the brotherly Palestinian people and embodies the independent, sovereign Palestinian state on the lines of June 4, 1967, with East Jerusalem as its capital, based on the two-state solution, to live in security and peace alongside Israel, is the only way to achieve security and stability for all, and to stop the spread of violence and the escalation of conflict in the region.

Ambassador Al-Qudah referred to Jordan's repeated warnings of the consequences of the continued Israeli aggression on Gaza, the dangerous escalation against the Palestinian people in the occupied West Bank, and the attacks on Islamic and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, and the repercussions of this on the entire region.

Commenters on the tweet understand the language. They consider all Israelis to be soldiers, and the only civilian killed in the incident was the shooter, Maher Diab Hussein Jazi, himself a former Jordanian soldier. (Early reports indicated that Jazi killed three "security forces." Two of the victims were in their 60s.)

When you read the condemnation with this understanding, against "targeting civilians for any reason," you can see that Jordan wrote the statement intentionally to avoid condemning the terrorist. The ministry is saying Israel had no right to kill Jazi.

The rest of the statement squarely blames and justifies all violence as normal responses to Israeli actions.

This becomes even clearer when you look at the Jordanian Foreign Ministry website. As of this writing, the statement which merely implies condemnation does not even appear. But there is a clear and unequivocal condemnation of the death of the American ISM activist on Saturday that Jordan blames on Israel:

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates condemned in the strongest terms the targeting of the American activist of Turkish origin, Aysinur Ezgi Eci, by the Israeli occupation army, a heinous crime that requires holding those responsible accountable..

So is their unqualified sorrow at the deaths of victims on a Kenya school fire.

By contrast, this statement does not express condolences to the families of the victims.

It is obvious that Jordan's statement is reluctant and purposefully ambiguous at best. The people of Jordan understand this and are celebrating the shooter as a hero, something that wouldn't be done nearly as much if the government - or the king - had unequivocally condemned the attack.

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!

Most of the stories about the foiled plot by a Pakistani man in Canada to go to New York and kill Jews only say he mean to attack a "Jewish center" in Brooklyn.

Typical was the New York Times coverage.

A Pakistani citizen was arrested in Quebec this week and accused of plotting to kill “as many Jewish civilians as possible” in New York City on or near the first anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks on Israelis, according to a Justice Department complaint unsealed Friday.

Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, who lived in Canada, tried to cross the border with the intention of traveling to New York, where he planned to carry out a mass shooting at a Jewish center in Brooklyn, in support of the Islamic State, prosecutors said.

“New york is perfect to target jews,” he wrote to an associate, according to the filing, adding, “We could rack up easily a lot of jews.”

He also boasted that his plan would be “the largest Attack on US soil since 9/11,” the filing said.

The Jewish Press and COL Live both state that the target was Lubavitch (Chabad) World Headquarters at 770 Eastern Parkway, one of the most famous Jewish addresses in America.

The complaint does not specify the target. All it says is that he planned to attack "Location 1." But a careful reading of the complaint shows that 770 was almost certainly Khan's target.

First of all, before deciding on New York City as the best place to attack Khan discussed other targets:

5. Starting in or around late July 2024, MUHAMMAD SHAHZEB KHAN, a/k/a “Shahzeb Jadoon,” the defendant, began communicating with the UCs [undercovers] on a second encrypted messaging platform (“Encrypted Platform-2”). During those conversations, KHAN told UC-1, in sum and substance, that KHAN and a U.S.-based ISIS supporter (“Associate-1”) had been actively attempting to create “a real offline cell” to carry out a “coordinated assault” in a particular U.S. city (“City-1”) using AR-style rifles, and invited UC-1 to join in their cause to “target[] Israeli Jewish chabads . . . scattered all around [City-1].”

And later:

KHAN stated that “u guys will even have to attend some s[yn]agogue or chabad sessions . . . to check the insides of [t]he buildings.”

Clearly, Chabad was in his sights. The complaint later corroborates the idea that Chabad headquarters, were thousands of Jews attend prayer services, was the target he had in mind:

....The following day, on or about August 21, 2024, KHAN told the UCs, “Brothers . . . we are going to nyc to slaughter them Inshalah.” KHAN also sent the UCs links to a video depicting members of the Hasidic Jewish community in Brooklyn, a video depicting Location-1, and a link to a Google map showing Location-1. KHAN also stated “Allah make us successful” and told the UCs that Location-1 has “[t]he most any Jews gather anywhere” and that “[Location-1] [is] the ultra orthodox hasidic jews world headquarters” and the “largest in the world.”

The only major Hasidic groups that have their headquarters in Brooklyn are Chabad, Satmar, Bobov and a couple of much smaller groups. Khan's mentioning Chabad in his earlier discussions with the undercover agents strongly indicate that Chabad was indeed the target.

A terror attack against Chabad on Yom Kippur, which was one of the ideas Khan mentioned, would have been catastrophic.

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09/08 Links: BHL: A Big Part of the World Was Longing for Something Like Oct. 7; Dan Senor: One Year Since October 7th - Douglas Murray‬; Sinwar’s useful idiots

From Ian:

A Big Part of the World Was Longing for Something Like Oct. 7

Bernard-Henri Levy interviewed by Tunku Varadarajan
The muted reaction to the murder of six Israeli hostages by Hamas "tragically confirms" liberal Jewish French philosopher Bernard-Henri Levy's view that the Jewish state and "Jews around the world" are alone, as reflected in the title of his new book, Israel Alone.

In an interview in Paris, Levy draws attention to one of the hostages, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, 23. "Hersh was executed for being a Jew. He was also American. Where is the collective rage in the USA? The collective grief?" It is "fashionable to be anti-Jew in America. Jews have been assimilated into the box of oppressors."

After Oct. 7, everyone realized "that there is no place in the world where Jews are safe." Rather than provoke sympathy and compassion for the Jews, Hamas's massacre liberated hate. "I expected at least a moment of real solidarity in the face of this enormous crime." Instead, the murderers were "blessed, excused and praised." The victims were "accused, cursed and held responsible for their fates."

"A big part of the world was longing for something like Oct. 7, dreaming of it. People danced in the streets...after Oct. 7. They loved the humiliation of...Israel." There was a craving among the "antiliberal, antidemocratic, anti-Western, antisemitic crowds" for "someone to do this."

Yet Levy wrote his book to "instill courage and pride in the Jews, and to galvanize their many non-Jewish supporters in America." He concludes that "the soul, mind, and genius of Judaism are standing firm amid tumult and torment." He's confident Jews will emerge stronger. The Jews "don't disarm themselves. They fight back. They behave as they should. They are proud."

Gadi Taub: Sinwar’s useful idiots

The mainstream media, itself a major player in the Never-Bibi info op, was not eager to emphasize the way the demonstrators are following Sinwar’s playbook. Predictably, the usual suspects rushed to blame Netanyahu for everything, as they always do. Prominent columnists such as Haaretz‘s Yossi Verter, Maariv‘s Ben Caspit, Yedioth Ahronoth‘s Nadav Eyal, Channel 12‘s Amnon Abramowitz and Channel 13‘s Raviv Druker unfurled the party line: it’s all on Netanyahu. Netanyahu has deliberately thrown in new demands (this time it was the Philadelphi Corridor, we were told) because staying in power is more important to him than saving the hostages.

Since this is what the Israeli media keeps repeating in both Hebrew and English, much of the foreign press assumes it’s true, and that Israelis generally believe it to be true.

But, alas, that’s wrong on both counts. Netanyahu could not have saved the hostages by giving up the Philadelphi Corridor even if he was so inclined. The corridor was never the only bone of contention. Giving it up (which Israel should not do) would not have brought about a deal.

As Khalil al-Hayya, Sinwar’s deputy for negotiations, recently reiterated, Hamas’s demands for a deal have not changed. They are tantamount to an Israeli surrender:
1. A permanent ceasefire.
2. A complete withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces from all of the Gaza Strip, including the security parameter along the border, the Philadelphi Corridor and the Netzarim Corridor (which cuts the north of the strip from the south just below Gaza city).
3. Rebuilding the whole of Gaza.
4. An exchange of 50 terrorists for every female IDF soldier and 30 for every civilian in the first stage, then 500 terrorists for every male soldier in the second.

These terms will eliminate all Israel’s gains in this war and ensure that Hamas remains in power, able to rebuild its military capabilities with Iran’s help, and its front-line cadres fresh from Israel’s jails (where courtesy of our Supreme Court they get a well-balanced diet, diverse and certain to include enough fresh fruit). No prime minister of Israel can accept these terms because Israel’s public won’t.

The media has been trumpeting polls saying most Israelis support a hostage deal. This is a crucial part of the narrative. But then, these polls do not specify what deal, or else present a deal that would never be accepted by Hamas. Of course, most Israelis want some deal—but not the one Hamas is offering.

One Telegram channel owner got tired of the media’s game. That person is, most probably, a former intelligence officer. He calls his channel, tongue in cheek, Abu Ali Express. But he is a serious professional and a reliable source of news from the Arab world, one many in Israel rely on. Over 400,000 Hebrew speakers subscribe to this channel. Abu Ali decided to run an opinion poll of his own. He first presented the Hamas terms for a deal, then asked his followers if they would have accepted it. 51,000 users responded in the space of two hours. Eighty-one percent said they would not accept such a deal, 10% said they would, 9% said they don’t know. Granted, this is not a representative sample, nor a proper survey. Still, it is indicative of something. And it gives you an idea about how the mainstream media is misleading you.

This public mood was also demonstrated by the collapse of last week’s (illegal) attempt at a general strike. The Histadrut (the umbrella organization of Israeli labor unions) declared it—under pressure from demonstration organizers insisting they are the sole legitimate representatives of the families of hostages—only to fold it all at 2 p.m. the next day following a labor court ruling. The Never-Bibi activists found they don’t really have enough troops.

Still, in the immediate aftermath of the shocking news of the executions the protests drew more people than usual. Predictably, the media inflated the numbers. And then, mistaking the press coverage for reality, the Biden administration seems to have felt that perhaps the wave of anger that will topple Netanyahu has finally arrived. The president therefore chipped in, reversing earlier statements that put the blame on Hamas. He did it with a single word. Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was doing enough to conclude a hostage deal, the president simply said “no.” But that too had little impact.

It now seems that the protesters’ attempt to harness the tragedy of the six hostages for their permanent political project may have just backfired. More people now see them more clearly as Sinwar’s useful idiots.

But the wrong turn the permanent anti-Netanyahu protesters took long preceded these recent events. It began soon after the war broke out. From the start, their arguments, focused as they were on Netanyahu’s responsibility for Oct. 7, were not only controversial but also in the wrong conversation. For most Israelis, the question now is not who is responsible for the disaster, but who can lead us to victory. And the answer to that question cannot possibly be a Chamberlain in the guise of Benny Gantz, Yoav Gallant or Yair Lapid, all of whom are willing to cave in to Hamas’s demands and leave it on its feet at the end of this war.

Netanyahu owes his recovery in the polls to one thing above all. He never wavered on this one issue: The Gaza campaign must end with the clear defeat of Hamas. Nothing less. In this, he represents the majority in Israel. And it is that majority that has—and will—sustain him so long as he stays on this course.

ISIS attack on Pope Francis in Jakarta thwarted: Indonesian police detain terror org. members

Indonesian police have detained seven individuals following an attempted attack on Pope Francis during his visit to Jakarta, The Straits Times reported, citing statements released Friday by Indonesia’s national police anti-terrorism unit, Detachment 88.

Colonel Aswin Siregar, a spokesperson for Detachment 88, stated that authorities have yet to determine if the suspects belong to a coordinated terrorist cell.

Pope Francis arrived in Jakarta on Tuesday for a three-day stay, part of his 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region.

According to the Straits Times, police discovered bows and arrows, a drone, and ISIS propaganda materials in the home of one of the suspects. The report also mentioned that several of the detainees had pledged allegiance to ISIS.

A source informed the media that the suspects were angered by the pope’s scheduled visit to the Istiqlal Mosque in Jakarta and the government’s request to suspend the public broadcasting of the Islamic call to prayer during the visit.

Indonesia, where 87% of the population identifies as Muslim and about 10% as Christian, has a predominantly Sunni Muslim population, with the Pew Research Center estimating that 99% of Indonesian Muslims are Sunni. The small Shia minority resides mainly in Jakarta.

Latest batch of EoZ cartoons

These bring us up to cartoons I have posted on X/Twitter up until about August 20.

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The Washington Post published a video report, and later a text report, about a Reconstructionist "rabbi" Lonnie Kleinman, who describes herself as "a white, queer, fat, cis femme from the Sonoran desert of the Southwest (she/they.)"

The video title is "A rabbi called for a cease-fire in Gaza. She lost her job."

But Kleinman didn't lose her job at Moishe House because she advocates for a ceasefire in Gaza, as she claims.

Kleinman is a liar.

Moishe House builds communities for Jews in their 20s worldwide. It allows diverse opinions on Israel. It would not fire someone for saying they want a ceasefire in Gaza.

However, the organization is committed to Israel and creating relationships between its members and Israel. It supports Zionism. It even supports Israeli soldiers.

Its resident handbook says that its facilities and programs cannot

• Partner or work with individuals, organizations, or movements that seek to create a combative political environment, impose one particular political or religious agenda as the truth, or whose core values, strategies, or tactics include antagonizing those with different political views, Jewish people, or Jewish organizations.
• Act as a platform or tool (at Moishe House programs or through Moishe House affiliated social media accounts) to impose personal religious or political views on participants or the community.
• Endorse, advocate, or serve as a platform for physical harm to Israelis or deny Israel’s right to exist as a secure, democratic Jewish state, including support for or participation in the BDS (Boycott, Divest, Sanction) movement.

Kleinman violates Moishe House's written policies.

She is a member of Jewish Voice for Peace Rabbinical Council.. This disqualifies her from any role in a Zionist organization. Indeed the only reason she could want to be a member of such an organization without being a hypocrite would be to poison it from the inside. After all, JVP supports BDS. JVP has supported Hamas, saying kaddish for terrorists and sponsoring events that called October 7 "resistance" an "self defense."

Even in this video, Kleinman calls Israel's actions in Gaza "genocide." If you ask her whether Israel has a right to exist as a Jewish state, you can be sure her answer would be no.

The Washington Post does not see that as a reason that she might be fired from a Zionist organization. It didn't even ask Moishe House for their side of the story. Instead, it takes her at her word that she was fired because she advocates for a ceasefire.

Why bother checking out the facts, when everyone at the WaPo knows that Zionist Jews are just that evil?

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This is a recent cover of a recent issue of a Turkish magazine, Gerçek Hayat. The title says "The Jewish era is ending."

Here is another recent cover:

"Child victims of the evil Jewish network."

One of the stories in this latest issue says that the classic blood libel of Jews murdering gentile babies is not a conspiracy theory, but true:

The first records of Jews sacrificing children in Greek temples date back to the 1st century AD. Due to these accusations, which increased especially during and after the First Crusade, hundreds of Jews were tried and killed in Europe. The rest were exiled.
There are hundreds of recorded 'blood rituals' in the history of every region where Jews lived, from England to Rhodes, from Hatay to Damascus. However, the Jews, who took complete control of Europe in the early 1900s, distorted the reality of rituals as they rewrote history.
The 'blood ritual', which has hundreds of examples in the records, turned into a 'blood libel' after this date. All cases were recorded as 'slanders against the Jews' and the name 'blood ritual' was changed to 'blood libel' in European encyclopedias. Jews who were executed by European Christians for much less than what they did in Gaza today were tried to be cleared with a fake history woven with lies.

It is accompanied by a video that includes some AI-generated images, which claims among other things that the "secret tunnel" under the Chabad headquarters in New York last year was a place where Jews were murdering gentile children.

It seems to be way past time for businesses to boycott Turkey. Because its media is inciting genocide and the government is complicit.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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09/07 Links: Water Is Wet, Sky Is Blue, Hamas Is Evil; Erdogan calls for an “Islamic alliance” against Israel; When Students Become Terrorists

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Water Is Wet, Sky Is Blue, Hamas Is Evil

The German newspaper Bild has a story today based on a Hamas intelligence document it claims was discovered on a computer in Gaza. The document appears to have been approved by Yahya Sinwar directly, according to the article.

The document lays out a strategy of tormenting hostages, manipulating their families and supporters, and drawing out negotiations for a ceasefire-and-hostage deal with the goal of attaining not a deal itself but international recriminations against Israel as the talks dragged on.

What’s most interesting about the document is that it describes what is obviously happening. I have not seen a reason to doubt the document’s authenticity nor have I seen proof of its origins, but it is as if someone claimed to have retrieved a document from Sinwar’s hard drive that argued, in detail, that water is wet.

And that helps explain some of the frustration of watching coverage of this conflict. Blaming Israel for the lack of a ceasefire deal, and for the longevity of the conflict in general, requires one to believe or pretend to believe the most irrational explanations for everything.

Some snippets from the purported document:
“Continue to exert psychological pressure on the families of the prisoners, both now and during the first phase (of the ceasefire), so that public pressure on the enemy government increases.”

“Israel’s stubbornness” should be “held responsible for the failure of an agreement.” To accomplish this, the document suggests media manipulation.

“Arab forces be stationed along the eastern and northern borders” should be the only peacekeeping troops, so that they can “serve as a buffer to prevent the enemy from entering Gaza after the war ends until they (Hamas, ed.) have reorganized their ranks and military capabilities.”

In other words, until Hamas is ready for the next war.

Douglas Murray: Family of American hostage in Gaza shocked by antisemitism of New York

There are plenty of bad things happening in Kathy Hochul’s New York. But one thing that has become increasingly clear is how willing Hochul is to allow racism and bigotry to thrive in this city.

Last weekend the terrible news came through that another American citizen has been murdered by Hamas.

California-born Hersh Goldberg-Polin was held hostage in Gaza for almost a year. He was kidnapped from the Nova music festival in Israel on October 7th.

Last week, as the Israeli Defense Forces moved in to save him, Hamas executed Hersh and five other hostages.

A day after this news broke there was a huge pro-Hamas protest in New York. A bunch of sick keffiyeh-wearing psychos, banging drums and chanting, marched through the center of New York waving the Hamas flag.

The main flag-wavers all covered their faces of course. It seems in Hochul’s New York you can openly praise a designated terrorist group that just murdered an American.

Jewish New Yorkers have had to put up with a year of this. They have had to put up with routine intimidation, with anti-Jewish graffiti going up calling for the murder of Jews, and for posters of the hostages being ripped down wherever they are put up.

Then on Tuesday things moved to their next stage, as Jewish students from CUNY’s City College got barricaded into a Jewish deli on Broadway.

A group of racists from “Students for Justice in Palestine” and other hate-groups screamed abuse at the Jewish students.

Too little, too late: Why the US delayed charging Hamas for decades

This raises troubling questions about the priorities of past administrations.

The answer likely lies in a combination of geopolitics, diplomacy, and shifting foreign policy agendas. For decades, US administrations have tried to balance their approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with broader Middle Eastern strategies, sometimes prioritizing diplomatic efforts over direct legal action against groups like Hamas. It is possible that prosecuting Hamas was seen as politically risky, with concerns that it could derail peace negotiations or provoke further conflict.

Yet this delay has sent a damaging message. To the families of American victims, it says that their loved ones’ deaths were not a priority, since justice was deferred for too long, even when the blood of US citizens was spilled.

For decades, Hamas’s violent actions have carried little immediate consequence from the world’s most powerful nation. The terror organization’s leaders have operated with relative impunity, emboldened by the lack of direct action.

Now, with charges finally being brought, the US government is attempting to right a wrong – but the impact of this move is severely diminished. Many of the Hamas leaders responsible are either dead, in hiding, or living in territories beyond the reach of US law. Extraditing key figures is a long shot, at best. The passage of time has only made the path to justice more complicated and less likely to yield meaningful results. Even if prosecutions were to happen, they would be more of a symbolic victory than a tangible one.

Justice delayed is justice denied. The right time to pursue these charges was when the murders first occurred, when the trail was fresh, and when bringing those responsible to account could have had a real deterrent effect. By waiting this long, the Justice Department’s actions, though commendable, feel like a hollow gesture. They offer little consolation to grieving families.

Bringing charges against Hamas now is not without merit – it signals that the US does not forget its murdered citizens. But it is impossible to overlook how much more powerful and effective this action would have been if it had come years, or even decades, earlier.

The families deserved better.