Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Losing the Jewish Vote: Trump will be Trump, A Debate Postmortem (Judean Rose)

Disclaimer: the views expressed here are solely those of the author, weekly Judean Rose columnist Varda Meyers Epstein.

The Trump-Harris debate was on every politically-aware person’s mind for the past month. We heard commentator after commentator weigh in in the run-up to that time: it’s crucial that he focus on substance, and not be, well, Trump, they all said. But we all knew, as did the commentators, that Trump would be Trump.

We hoped that Tulsi Gabbard, who had been enlisted to prepare Trump for the debate, would be a moderating influence. But we knew better. We knew that Trump would be Trump and that there was nothing and no one who could change that.

A lot of people like that about Trump—that he is what he is and doesn’t care what we think of him. But a lot of people don’t like that about Trump. And those are the people he needs to sway—the others were going to vote for him anyway.

I went to bed Monday night, knowing that the debate would begin while I slept here in Israel. I wasn’t upset about that. I only felt down, so sure was I that Trump would be Trump, and that as a result, Israel would have to contend with a hostile Harris-Walz government.

I woke up, and not at all hopeful, caught the tail end of the debate. It was exactly as we all knew it would be. Trump didn’t care how he said what he said, didn’t stop to think how offensive it would be for a Jew to hear from his lips, “Israel will not exist within two years from now.”

This is offensive on so many levels and some of those levels are difficult to express. There’s a visceral recoiling from those words, it’s instinctive, and surely that’s not what Trump wants the undecided Jewish voter to feel right now. Trump thinks he will frighten us into voting for him. In actual fact, the statement gives grave offense to us. We existed before Trump, and we will continue to survive as a nation should he lose, but it would, God forbid, take a toll. A “terrible” toll, as Donald Trump might say.

Still, it’s an alienating thing to say; and if Trump alienates the Jews, they won’t vote for him, and as a result, Harris may win. And that is exactly why I blame Trump for what happened last time. I believe Trump’s bull-in-a-china-shop attitude, at least in part, led to a win for Biden. Trump’s attitude and manner of behavior is every bit as much to blame for the division in America as the politicians who slander anyone who does not agree with them, and the news media and the echo chamber that echo them.

So much of what Trump said was good and true. But the effect of that is destroyed when he says, “I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now” (emphasis added):

[When] she mentions Israel, all of a sudden, she hates Israel. She wouldn't even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers. She went to go to the sorority party. She hates Israel. If she's president, I believe that Israel will not exist within two years from now, I've been pretty good at predictions. I hope I'm wrong about that one.
She hates Israel. At the same time, in her own way, she hates the Arab population, because the whole place is going to get blown up. Arabs, Jewish people, Israel, Israel will be gone.
It would have never happened. Iran was broke under Donald Trump. Now, Iran has $300 billion because they took off all the sanctions that I had. Iran had no money for Hamas or Hezbollah or any of the 28 different spheres of terror. And they are spheres of terror, horrible terror."

Is Donald Trump wrong about any of this? Aside from saying Israel won’t exist, he’s probably right. But even if he’s not wrong about any of it, God forbid, that’s not the way to say it. The right way to say this is—as I’m sure Tulsi Gabbard tried to impress upon Trump— “A Harris win poses an existential threat to Israel.”

Would it be so hard for him to say those words instead of the ones that make us bristle?

At the Republican Jewish Coalition summit last week, speaking to a Jewish audience, it was even worse, and at the same time, even better. Trump expanded on what he would do to help Israel were he to win. He listed many good things he has done in the past and also all the good things he will do for Israel and the world should he win the election. Many, many good things.

Unlike at the debate, Trump’s words at the RJC summit were heartening and hopeful in many respects. At the same time, it’s upsetting to see how Trump sabotages his own campaign, likely losing the Jewish vote again, only for his refusal to speak like a human being instead of like an ape.

The RJC speech, on balance, is very fine, and worth reading in full, as I found out when I read over the transcript I cobbled together from YouTube auto-generated text. If it weren’t for the threats and childish nicknames he slings at his opponents, the good would outweigh the bad, and Trump would have many more Jewish votes in his pocket. But Trump can’t seem to help himself—or rather, doesn’t care enough about Israel and the Jews—to even try to speak and comport himself with enough moderation to tip the scales in his favor (emphasis added):

Take a look at what's happening with that whole group. Harris Biden Administration has sought to cast blame for these deaths on Israel. They have not been your friends. I don't understand how anybody can support them and I say it constantly, if you had them to support, and you were Jewish, you have to have your head examined. They have been very bad to you, let me state this very clearly; the blame for these wicked murders lies with Hamas and Hamas alone.
Only an evil and inhuman, really inhuman ideology, kidnaps, tortures, and murders innocent men, women, and children, and likewise, only a deeply sick political party here in America would make common cause with those who sympathize with such evil, and they are, there's nobody been close, closer than this group of people, radical left people running for office right now, and they're not going to win because they can't win, because we wouldn't have a country any longer and then Israel would not have an ally. That I can tell you and only a morally rotten president and vice president would seek to blame Israel for heinous acts of terror committed against its own citizens.
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are a disgrace to your nation and to my nation. If Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden are looking for another cause for this crisis, they should do nothing more than look in the mirror: they are the cause. They gave you no support. They gave Israel no support.
The October 7th attack on Israel would never have happened if I was president. Zero chance. It was not going to happen, just like the disaster in Afghanistan would never have happened, and frankly the invasion of Ukraine by Russia would not have happened. Happen this November, we're going to replace weakness with strength; cowardice with courage and clarity; and war with peace. We're going to tell Comrade Kamala Harris, “You're fired.”
[Applause]
Thank you.
Now we have no choice in doing so. You'll never survive if they get in and our country America will never survive if they get in.
When I left office, America was safe. Israel was safe. The Jewish people were safe, and the whole world was at peace. Under my leadership, we obliterated the Isis caliphate. 100% done. We did it in four weeks. It was supposed to take five years I did it in four weeks, and it was done, over.
I withdrew from the horrendous Iran nuclear deal, and imposed the toughest ever sanctions on the regime. Iran was weak. Iran was broke. They had no money and they wanted to make a deal.
As president, I withdrew from the antisemitic United Nations Human Rights Council, which is terrible, absolutely terrible.
I defunded the Palestinian Authority and choked off the money to Hamas, and we actually defunded that. We were paying them a fortune every year. The United was States was paying a fortune, and I said we're not going to pay, they're not our friends, and not the friend of Israel.
I recognized Israel's eternal capital and opened the American Embassy in Jerusalem, something which every president said they were going to do, and they never did it. I got it done, and I also got the embassy built. Somebody else would have never gotten it built.
I also recognized Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights was a big thing. We were talking to a lot of people. I got it done in 15 minutes. They've been negotiating it for 52 years. Nothing was ever going to happen without me.
With the historic Abraham Accords, we made peace in the Middle East. We had wonderful support, and had I been president for the remainder of that, the time that we're talking about, this year, period. Everybody, every country virtually, would have been signed into the Abraham Accords whereas Biden and Harris have done nothing. Nobody signed.
So, here at home, American Jews felt safe on our streets and college campuses when I was president, and we kept radical Islamic terrorists out of our country. They were out. They weren't allowed to come in, but all of that changed with Comrade Kamala Harris and Crooked Joe Biden in the White House.
Harris restored funding to the Palestinian Authority and even much more money than they were being paid before; and the UN Relief and Works Agency, which both funnel money now to Hamas, and they funnel a lot of money to Hamas, and nobody knows that better than you.
She supported removing the Houthis, to list—we had a terror list that was really, uh, very important for them to be on that terror list, and she took them off the terror list, a group whose motto includes the words “Death to America, Death to Israel” and “A curse on the Jews.”
This is their motto and they don't want them on a terror list.
Kamala Harris helped deliver over $100 billion in sanctions relief to Iran. Gave him all the money. They gave him $6 billion for hostages. They gave them money that Iran never expected—never, never could have made—and now because of them, in three and a half years they've got $350 billion.
When I was there they had no money. They wanted to make a deal, and we would have had a deal very easily if the election turned out the way it should have turned out, frankly, but the regime used it to expand its terror brigades and to fund Hamas. Iran was doing that, and funding them at a level that nobody thought even possible.
Kamala Harris is the candidate of the forces who want to destroy Western civilization and Israel. I am the candidate of those who want to defend Western civilization; defend Israel; and defend of course, the United States of [Applause] America. When I'm president, the United States will once again stand shoulder to shoulder with the State of Israel.
I will support Israel's right to win its war on terror and we will win fast. You have to win, and you have to win fast. We will restore stability and peace in the Middle East, and we will be using a phrase that's been used by some very great leaders over the years, including Ronald Reagan. “Peace through strength.”
You will have peace through strength.
If Kamala Harris wins, terrorist armies will wage an unceasing war to drive Jews out of the Holy Land and you know it, and we've had a great relationship with Israel, but I can say honestly that we got 25% of the vote, we got 26% after four years, after I did more for Israel than any other president by far, and this year we're probably around a 50% mark.
But I only ask you who are the 50% of Jewish people that are voting for these people that hate Israel and don't like the Jewish people, why are they, why are they voting, why? How do they exist?
Iran and his proxies will spread bloodshed and death all around the globe, and as she continues to set the world on fire, Kamala Harris will support unlimited migration from terrorist hotbeds into the United States, and will totally abandon Israel. You're going to be abandoned if she becomes president, and I think you have to explain that to your people because they don't know it, they have no idea what they're getting into.
You're not going to have an Israel if they become, if she becomes president Israel will no longer exist. When I'm president we will deport the foreign Jihad sympathizers and Hamas supporters from our midst. We don't want them in our midst, thank you very much, thank you. If you hate America, if you want to eliminate Israel, then we don't want you in our country.
[Applause]
I will ban refugee settlements from terror-infested areas like the Gaza Strip. We will arrest the pro-Hamas thugs who vandalize federal property, and I will put every single college president on notice. The American taxpayer will not subsidize the creation of terrorist sympathizers on American soil. Colleges will and must end the antisemitic propaganda or they will lose their accreditation and federal support. No money will go to them if they [Applause] don't.
In the Republican Party, we know that militant antisemitism and support for terror have no place in a civilized society. They have no place. We must reject antisemitism in our schools; reject it in our foreign policy; reject it in our immigration system; and reject it at the ballot box this November.
You must get Jewish people or people that love Israel, you must get them to vote for Republican {sic].
You must get them to vote for Trump, and if you don't, you're not going to have a country. I am telling you I've been very good at predicting things. You will not have a country. This is a radical left Marxist that we have running, you will not have a country.
With your vote, we will defend our citizens. We will defend our values; and we will defend our country America; and Israel will be respected [Applause] again.
We will deliver low taxes; low regulations; low energy costs; low interest rates; and low inflation. We will stop the invasion, end migrant crime; support our police; strengthen our military; build a missile defense shield like you have, slightly larger; keep critical race theory and transgender insanity out of our schools; and keep men out of women's sports in our country.
[Music]
We will defend the Second Amendment; restore free speech; and we will secure our elections. In everything we do, I will put America first. I will keep America safe, and I will work with you to make sure that Israel is with us for thousands of years. We're not going to let go of it.
If they win, Israel is gone. Just remember that if they win, Israel is gone. You can forget about Israel. That's what's going to happen, so they have to get out on November 5^th, and they have to vote for Trump. If they don't I think it's going to be a very terrible situation.
We're going to make America great again. We're going to, frankly, help Israel become great again. Right now, what you're going through is horrible, that you have to go through that, with all the death, destruction, and waste, and ruining a civilization.
You have to go on. You have to win, but you need a partner. You can never have that partner if these radical Marxists win the election, so I thank you, and God bless Israel, God Bless America, I'll see you soon, thank you very much.

As stated in his speech, the list of good things Trump would do for us is detailed and it is long. And many of us know that Trump would do each and every one of these good things for Israel and for the world. We know and we believe that he would defund every bad and evil influence possible; the gross George Soros people persecuting Jewish youth on campus; UNRWA; Iran. He’d defund them all, Trump would.

But first he has to get into office. And I fear that last night, with his threatening remarks at the debate, Trump has lost the election yet again, by alienating Jewish voters, put off by his off-putting words. Trump would have been smart, instead, to learn from the closing remarks of Douglas Murray when he faced off against Mehdi Hassan in June:

The Jewish State and the Jewish people have survived an awful lot worse than this. They have seen off every single one of their enemies, from Pharaoh to the Abyssinians, to the Babylonians, the Greeks, the Romans. They will see off Hamas. They will see off Mehdi, and they will outlive everybody in this [Applause] room.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

From JNS:

Senior Israeli defense officials warned earlier this week that “everything” must be done to prevent another war front from opening up, Channel 12 reported on Tuesday.

Security officials on Sunday night laid out seven recommendations, which received the backing of Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Ronen Bar, according to Channel 12.

The security chiefs were said to have urged ministers to authorize the entry of more Palestinian workers from Judea and Samaria into the pre-1967 lines, blaming the rise in terrorism on financial hardship stemming from the decision to revoke permits in the wake of the Oct. 7 massacre.

In 2010, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the Palestinian Ministry of Health and United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) issued a report about Palestinian workers in Israel.

This report was only published in Arabic, and it is no longer on the UNFPA website. The archived version is here.

The workers interviewed expressed an obsession with sex and Israeli women - both claiming that Israeli women were seducing them and that some of them felt that having sex with Israeli women was a major goal to be achieved.

From the examples given, they interpreted any Israeli women not being hidden away the way Muslim women are to be a form of sexual harassment and an invitation to sex:

The workers talked about the behavior of the Israeli women towards them, saying sexual harassment is not rare, they talked about it considering that the Israeli society is an open society, and about that they say: “The Israeli women move around with the Arab youth and this is something that is inevitable, in addition to the Jewish women moving around with the Arab youth among the workers is something very normal, especially since this is something normal in the Israeli society, and in the shops you find the Jewish girl at a certain time and she does whatever you want with the Jewish girl in a normal and natural way.”

They regarded any perceived attention by Jewish women to be harassment, but harassment that they were powerless to resist. 77% claimed to have been sexually harassed by Israeli women!

The Arab workers would particularly want to have sex with Jewish women without protection. And they like their victims to be drunk:

"The possibility of sexual relations increases because she is drunk, and thus the process of taming her is very easy, and she goes with anyone because she does not distinguish between Arabs and Jews, and then we quickly take advantage and have sex without caring about protection because it is an opportunity and we must take advantage of it.”

This is effectively rape that is being bragged about, without any negative comment from the UNFPA.

But the most concerning part of the report - one that received no media coverage - was that some of the workers considered sex with Jewish women to be a form of jihad:

Others try to explain having sex with Israeli women as a “jihadist” and vengeful act against the Israelis, and about that they said: “The Jews are open-minded, does he want to be in a room or a bed? Wherever they are, they have sex, in the street, in hidden places, and in any place, it doesn’t matter to them, as long as one has sex. These Israeli women are usually drunk and take drugs, so they have no problem with where they have sex. Some people consider sex with Israeli women to be an act of jihad."

Another testimony in the report:

I was working in the “Mahane Yehuda” market, and there was a school for Israeli girls there. The girls would invite us to go to their house because they thought we Arabs were pretty, especially the Russians. One time I went with one to the house, and after a while I stripped her (meaning I had sex with her), and the desire was more for revenge than sex.

The report makes recommendations about educating Palestinian youth about STDs and protection, but there is not a word about teaching them to treat Jewish women with respect. The overwhelming thought is that Jewish women are "asking for it" and therefore deserve to be taken advantage of and sexually abused.

This is what Israel's security professionals are recommending.

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!

Yemen news site quotes David Duke antisemitic 9/11 conspiracy theories to mark anniversary

Yemen news site 26Sep.net has an article on the anniversary of 9/11 that uses as its primary source - David Duke.

They quote Duke as claiming that only one Israeli died on September 11, 2001, "proving" that Israelis had advanced warning of the attack and were behind it.

The article freely admits that Duke is a right-wing antisemite, but uses that as praiseworthy: "He is one of the far-right activists in the United States, as his party is extremely hostile to the Jews on a racial basis, and his primary desire at the present time is to liberate America from Jewish and Zionist control, which he considers the greatest danger to America and the world."

Here is the illustration for the article:

The article quotes Duke as being a patriotic American as well as a steadfast friend of the Palestinian people:

I have dedicated my life to a free, secure, sovereign America, an America loyal to our people and our interests, not to the terrorist goals of a foreign terrorist state... Let us tell the truth about the worst terrorist state on earth: Israel.

If you do this, you will not only help save the Palestinian people, but also save the lives and freedom of the American people as well.

It is difficult to find a better illustration of the horseshoe theory than seeing far-Left protesters chanting in support of the Houthis who idolize David Duke's antisemitism.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Tor Wennesland, issued a statement condemning the IDF airstrike in Khan Younis yesterday condemning Israel for hitting a civilian area. But his statement was unusually balanced for a UN official:

While the IDF said it struck Hamas militants who were operating in a command-and-control center embedded inside the Humanitarian zone, I underline that international humanitarian law, including the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack, must be upheld at all times. I also emphasize that civilians must never be used as human shields.

Yet again, such actions only underscore that nowhere is safe in Gaza.

Wennesland appears to have added the statement about human shields to appear even handed. His tweet on the statement didn't mention that part of it.

But Wennesland emphasized that using human shielding is unacceptable and said that was one of the reasons that "nowhere is safe in Gaza."

And almost no one reported on this part of his statement.

The BBC quoted it without elaborating. So did some non-western media. But most didn't even mention that a UN official assigned nearly equal blame to Hamas as to Israel for its part in endangering civilians.

Typical is how the New York Times covered the statement:

Israeli [sic] has long said that Hamas embeds itself among civilians to use them as human shields. International law experts have said Israel still has a responsibility to protect civilians during its military operations. More than 40,000 people have been killed in Gaza in 11 months of war, according to the Gazan Health Ministry, whose figures do not distinguish between civilians and combatants.

The U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, Tor Wennesland, condemned the strike. “The killing of civilians must stop, and this horrific war must end,” he said.

The United Nations and other rights organizations have said that there is no safe place in Gaza.

While it is rare, this is not the first time a UN official has noted that Hamas employs a human shield strategy. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in November, "Hamas and other militants use civilians as human shields." Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said a week ago, "Civilian objects in Gaza, including infrastructure are also reportedly being used to shield fighters and military objectives, endangering the lives of civilians in and around them. Civilians should not be used as human shields."

These were either never reported or buried in anti-Israel stories.

Hamas doesn't merely use human shields. Hiding behind and underneath Gaza civilians is a crucial component of its entire military strategy. And it is the party primarily responsible for the deaths of Gaza civilians, not Israel.

After all, Wennesland's understanding of international law is flawed. He is charging Israel with violating "the principles of distinction, proportionality, and precautions in attack," Yet Israel issued the names of the Hamas terrorists they killed, proving that they adhered to the principle of distinction; they emphasized that they took all possible precautions, and international law's understanding of proportionality in other wars have shown that killing 16 civilians along with 3 high value military targets is not disproportionate at all. In fact, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia ruled that NATO bombing a broadcast station used for military purposes, which only knocked it out for several hours, was not a disproportionate attack even though it also killed 16 civilians.

The Geneva Conventions says very clearly: "The presence or movements of the civilian population or individual civilians shall not be used to render certain points or areas immune from military operations, in particular in attempts to shield military objectives from attacks or to shield, favour or impede military operations. "

The media, and to a large extent the international community, is not just doing a disservice by ignoring the deliberate use of human shields by Hamas. It is endangering civilians in future wars. Since one's impression of international law from the media and international officials is now saying that the principle of proportionality is far more restrictive than it has been in previous wars, they are encouraging terrorists to rely even more on a human shield strategy.

It is a big deal for a UN official to say that Hamas is even partially responsible for the deaths of civilians in Gaza. It is unconscionable and irresponsible for the media to pretend that the statement was never said.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

From Liberation (French):

An Israeli film festival in Alsace was cancelled under "pressure" from pro-Palestinian groups , according to its organizer, and reactions are pouring in. The Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France (CRIF) Alsace denounced this Sunday, September 8, "intellectual terrorism" , after the cancellation of the Shalom Europa festival, which was to be held from September 8 to 10 in Strasbourg.

In a press release entitled "No to intellectual terrorism and the establishment of a climate of fear and hatred in Strasbourg!" , the Crif Alsace deplores that " the pressures, intimidations and threats on the Star cinema and its staff (have) got the better of the Israeli film festival cancelled by the operator after 15 years of programming" . "We do not accept the totalitarian methods of small groups that are working to deny Israel the right to exist, its citizens and its artists the right to express themselves" , writes the Crif Alsace.

Stéphane Libs, manager of the Star cinemas, announced on Friday that the festival had been cancelled, denouncing "pressure" exerted by pro-Palestinian groups. "The decision to cancel was taken so as not to add violence to the tense context and to protect employees and audiences ," he explained. Several pro-Palestinian groups had called for the cancellation of this festival, which was initially scheduled to take place in June and had already been postponed amid tensions linked to the conflict in the Gaza Strip.

"Shame on these French associations that are doing censorship work worthy of authoritarian regimes and that are exploiting the tragedy taking place in the Middle East to give free rein to their hatred ," denounced the CRIF Alsace. The association calls on "local authorities to replace the festival's partner, as well as state services to do everything possible to ensure that this festival can take place and thwart this censorship . "

Strasbourg's Green mayor Jeanne Barseghian on Saturday deemed "unacceptable" the "threats and pressures weighing on the festival and its partner cinema."

When even the leading Green party member in Strasbourg says that pro-Palestinian groups are acting like thugs, you know that things were much worse than being reported.

This is how pro-Palestinian groups work. They know they cannot win any debate so they resort to threats and censorship to silence anyone who disagrees with them.

The problem is much bigger than this. By using threats to silence Zionist voices, the haters manage to keep the "genocide" slander as the only acceptable description of the Gaza war. This leads to antisemitism, to incitement to violence, and to delegitimizing the most progressive state in the Middle East in a desire to replace it with a regressive, Islamist, terror supporting regime.

When the Jordanian truck driver murdered three Israelis, it wasn't because he was a member of a terror group. It was because he was brainwashed into thinking that every Israeli must be killed as "justice." This is the message given not only in France but int he Western world on anti-Israel social media and during demonstrations.

The threats to this festival are from the same playbook. Brainwash people to associate Israel with genocide, and they logically think Israel is as bad as Hitler and must be stopped by any means possible. Part of brainwashing is silencing any other viewpoints.

This sort of thing is not funny anymore. It is deadly. It encourages violence against Jews in France and elsewhere. And the Western world tolerates and encourages this intolerance.

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!

09/10 Links Pt2: How Anti-Zionists Are Unintentionally Killing DEI; PA: “Biden should stand trial as a war criminal; ”Tucker Carlson – The anti-William F. Buckley

From Ian:

Matti Friedman: When We Started to Lie

Exactly ten years ago, during an Israel-Hamas war that seemed major at the time but seems minor now, I published two essays describing my time reporting on Israel for the Associated Press. “Is there anything left to say about Israel and Gaza? Newspapers this summer have been full of little else,” I wrote at the time. “Television viewers see heaps of rubble and plumes of smoke in their sleep.” It wasn’t the volume of coverage that unsettled me in the summer of 2014. I was writing about something that had gone unreported, and which has done much to shape reality in the decade since—a change not in the news but in the newsroom.

The essays—the first for Tablet, and the second for The Atlantic—described my experience as a reporter watching from the inside as a major news organization lost its way in one of the world’s most heavily covered stories. To this day, nothing I’ve ever written has been quoted back at me more often. The essays go back into circulation every time there’s an explosion of violence here, and it happened again after the Hamas attack of October 7. I reread them recently, as the new tragedy in Gaza balloons into a moment that feels like a civilization shift, as rallies against “Zionism” become a staple of life in cities across the liberal West, and as a war launched by Muslim fundamentalists is recast with global success as a story of Jewish brutality, influence, and mendacity.

The most important thing I saw during my time as a correspondent in the American press, it seemed to me, was happening among my colleagues. The practice of journalism—that is, knowledgeable analysis of messy events on Planet Earth—was being replaced by a kind of aggressive activism that left little room for dissent. The new goal was not to describe reality, but to usher readers to the correct political conclusion, and if this sounds familiar now, it was both new and surprising to the younger version of myself who was lucky to get a job with the AP’s Jerusalem bureau in 2006.

The story I found myself part of proposed, in effect, that the ills of Western civilization—racism, militarism, colonialism, nationalism—were embodied by Israel, which was covered more heavily than any other foreign country. (Israel takes up one one-hundredth of one percent of the surface of the world, and one fifth of one percent of the landmass of the Arab world.)

By selectively emphasizing some facts and not others, by erasing historical and regional context, and by reversing cause and effect, the story portrayed Israel as a country whose motivations could only be malevolent, and one responsible not only for its own actions but also for provoking the actions of its enemies. The activist-journalists, I found, were backed up by an affiliated world of progressive NGOs and academics who we referred to as experts, creating a thought loop nearly impervious to external information. All of this had the effect of presenting a mass audience with a supposedly factual story that had a powerful emotional punch and a familiar villain.

“The lasting importance of this summer’s war, I believe, doesn’t lie in the war itself,” I wrote as the fighting petered out in 2014. “It lies instead in the way the war has been described and responded to abroad, and the way this has laid bare the resurgence of an old, twisted pattern of thought and its migration from the margins to the mainstream of Western discourse—namely, a hostile obsession with Jews.” It’s possible that I understated the problem.

From academic guardians to political operatives

It’s hard to deny the once-storied AAUP, esteemed for its commitment to academic integrity, has been captured by activists who are more concerned with advancing their political goal of dismantling the Jewish state than with advancing the group’s scholarly mission.

This shift from scholarship to anti-Israel politics, as expressed by the AAUP’s approval of academic boycotts, not only corrupts AAUP’s mission and degrades its reputation, it can cause real harm to higher education in America and beyond.

What few people realize is that although an academic boycott of Israel ostensibly targets Israeli universities and scholars, there is simply no way it can be implemented without directly suppressing the educational opportunities and academic freedom of students and faculty on U.S. campuses, as well as inciting antisemitic animus and harm towards Israel’s on-campus supporters.

Specifically, implementing academic BDS means boycotting the educational programs in or about Israel on one’s own campus, and seeking to cancel or shut down Israel-related events and activities; encouraging academic programming and campus events that portray Israel in a wholly negative light, as a pariah state unworthy of normalization; shunning collaborations with Hillel and other Jewish organizations and the students and faculty who affiliate with them; and denigrating, protesting and harassing members of the campus community who express positive views about Israel.

The AAUP’s reversal of its long-standing opposition to academic boycotts marks a significant blow not only to Jewish students and faculty but to the future of higher education and the society that vitally depends upon it. By condoning an academic boycott that replaces genuine scholarship with political activism aimed explicitly at dismantling the Jewish state and purging Zionism and Zionists from the academy, the AAUP has made a mockery of the professional standards it has, for more than 100 years, been relied upon to uphold. It has shown itself to be a deeply corrupt organization, antithetical to the core principles of American higher education, and wholly unworthy of the public’s trust.

Yisrael Medad: The Jewish 'status quo' violated? Jewish historical narratives are too often ignored

Until 1911, that is
On Monday, April 13, during Passover, the Parker Expedition Affair, the search for “Solomon’s treasures,” exploded. The guardian of the Haram al-Sharif was bribed to let the British adventurers in to the Dome of the Rock. Their digging was discovered. Riots broke out in Jerusalem. At the Wall, the Sephardi custodian was set upon and beaten. Benches were broken.

It is unclear whether there is a direct connection, but in early November that year the status quo came to an end. Jews were informed that no benches or stools would be permitted at the Western Wall. The complaint of the locals was that Jews bringing chairs would allow them in the future to assert ownership. Chairs, tables, and separation screens now were deemed “innovations.” Appeals went out to the sultan in Turkey.

A British official was to later testify that if chairs were allowed, next would come benches, then permanent seating, “and before long, the Jews would have established a legal claim to the site.”

The July 26, 1912, issue of the Chicago Sentinel, a Jewish weekly, reported, a bit garbled, that an order from Constantinople “announces that the recent interdict prohibiting the Jews from worshiping on Friday evenings at the Western Wall in Jerusalem has been removed.” What the editor couldn’t have known as he went to press was that on July 22, the night of Tisha B’Av, the Western Wall had been smeared with feces. And not for the first or last time.

It was from this period that the struggle over the rights of Jews at the Western Wall became a central political element in the relations between Jews and Muslims in the early years of the Mandate. Chaim Weizmann tried solving the matter by purchasing the neighborhood, as did others before him.

In May 1920, a month after the riots, the Wakf unilaterally attempted to fix the upper layers of the Wall. Benches were removed by the Wakf in early 1922 and Yom Kippur 1925. In 1923, the approach to the Wall was closed to Jewish worshipers on the first day of Passover, as the British feared disturbances.

Following the violent incident of the removal of a partition on Yom Kippur, September 29, 1928, Mufti Amin al-Husseini organized actions that would highlight the Muslims’ exclusive claims to the Temple Mount and its environs. He ordered new construction in proximity to the Western Wall.

Eventually, on November 19, 1928, a white paper was issued. Quoting the 1911 prohibition, Leopold Amery, secretary of state for the colonies, pronounced there had been an infraction of the status quo, which the government was unable to permit.

As a result of the ensuing 1929 riots, an international commission was appointed. On December 1, 1930, it declared a prohibition on bringing “benches, carpets, mattings, chairs, curtains, and screens” to the Wall and “to blow the ram’s horn” at the Wall, all in force until 1948.

That situation continued throughout the Jordanian occupation.

No full Jewish rights. No Jewish privileges. No more previous status quo. That is, until 1967, when full Jewish sovereignty was renewed.

09/10 Links Pt1: South Africa trying to delay ICJ genocide case for lack of evidence; IDF video shows ‘horrific conditions’ in hostage tunnel

From Ian:

South Africa trying to delay ICJ genocide case for lack of evidence

South Africa is attempting to extend the deadline for presenting evidence against Israel at the International Court of Justice in The Hague because it is unable to prove its allegations of genocide, Kan News reported on Tuesday.

The move comes some nine months after the country submitted a suit against the Jewish state over the Israel Defense Forces’ conduct in the war against the Hamas terror group in Gaza, claiming that the IDF is committing genocide.

South Africa is required to submit its evidence on Oct. 28, but is trying to extend the deadline by several months in the hope that evidence proving their genocide accusations will come from other places.

Kan noted how unusual the tactic is, as plaintiffs generally want to expedite the proceedings, and the defendant, in this case Israel, wants to slow it down.

Axios reported on Monday about an Israeli campaign to exact a heavy price in the diplomatic arena for South Africa’s ICJ suit, with the Israeli Foreign Ministry in recent weeks engaged in a diplomatic effort to prevent South Africa from moving forward with the case, including sending a classified cable to the Israeli embassy in Washington and all Israeli consulates in the United States.

“We are asking you to immediately work with lawmakers on the federal and state level, with governors and Jewish organizations to put pressure on South Africa to change its policy towards Israel and to make clear that continuing their current actions like supporting Hamas and pushing anti-Israeli moves in international courts will come with a heavy price,” the cable read.

Netanyahu: ICC prosecutor pushes ‘pure antisemitism’ by again asking court to arrest Israelis

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately criticized the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court after he urged justices on Tuesday to issue a swift ruling on arrest warrants for the Israeli premier, Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and two top Hamas terrorist leaders.

Karim Khan’s comparison between Israel, “which is fighting murderous Hamas terrorism in accordance with the laws of war, and war criminal [Yahya] Sinwar, who executed Israeli hostages in cold blood, is pure antisemitism and a moral disgrace of the highest order,” he stated.

“Unfortunately, we have seen from the beginning that the proceedings in The Hague are politically biased and have no professional legal basis whatsoever,” the premier added in a statement published by his office.

In a filing to the ICC’s Pre-Trial Chamber on Monday, Khan expressed frustration with the court’s delay in issuing the arrest warrants, urging action ahead of Netanyahu’s scheduled address to the United Nations General Assembly later this month, Israel’s Ynet outlet reported.

“The prosecution respectfully requests that the Chamber issue its decision on the applications for the warrants of arrest against Yahya Sinwar, [Mohammed] Deif, Benjamin Netanyahu, and Yoav Gallant with utmost urgency,” Khan wrote in a six-page letter to the ICC justices.

The arrest of the four, the prosecutor insisted, “is necessary to, inter alia, ensure that they do not obstruct or endanger the investigation or court proceedings, prevent the continuing commission of the crimes alleged and/or the commission of other Rome Statute crimes. “

In May, Khan demanded the arrest of Netanyahu and Gallant for alleged war crimes. He lumped the two Israelis together with then-Hamas chief Yahya Sinwar, Hamas “military” leader Mohammed Deif and Hamas “political” head Ismail Haniyeh. (Deif was reportedly killed in Gaza and Haniyeh in Iran, both in July, by Israeli forces as part of Swords of Iron.)

The ICC has no jurisdiction as Jerusalem is not a signatory to the Rome Statute, which established the court. But in a legalistic sleight of hand, the court claimed jurisdiction by accepting “Palestine” as a signatory in 2015, even though no such state exists under international law.

'Shocking Failure': Cotton Blasts UN Human Rights Council for Refusing To Call Hamas a Terrorist Org

Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.) is pressing the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to explain its "shocking failure to condemn the terrorists of Hamas," blasting the international organization for its "moral blindness" and "obscene penchant for targeting and smearing Israel."

Cotton, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, instructed the council to explain why it continues to call Hamas terrorists "Palestinian armed groups," a term the senator says is meant to whitewash its ongoing crimes.

"While you preen as the moral voice of the world, you’ve refused to call Hamas a terrorist organization and repeatedly drawn a false equivalence between Hamas and Israel," Cotton wrote to UNHRC high commissioner Volker Türk in a Tuesday letter, according to a copy obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. "You and your United Nations colleagues should immediately and unequivocally call Hamas what it is: a terrorist organization."

The letter comes after Hamas claimed responsibility for the torture and murder last week of six hostages, including one American citizen, who were held in the intricate tunnel system running underneath the Gaza Strip. Shortly after the mass killing, the UNHRC issued a statement attributing the slaughter to "Palestinian armed groups," even though Hamas had already claimed responsibility.

"Although you professed that you were ‘horrified’ by the executions, you failed even to mention Hamas as the murderer and called for an ‘independent’ investigation into the killing," Cotton wrote. "Hamas had already admitted to these barbaric murders, so I’m not sure what such an investigation would prove."

"Moral blindness," he added, "unfortunately seems to be your modus operandi—never more evident than in your statement earlier this month after Hamas executed six hostages."

The @WashingtonPost knows they are quoting Hamas liars, but they keep doing it

At first, the Washington Post reported:

An Israeli strike on Mawasi, a tent encampment near Khan Younis that Israeli forces designated a humanitarian zone, killed at least 40 people and injured at least 60 on Tuesday, a Gaza Civil Defense official, Mohammed al-Mughair, told The Washington Post. The Israel Defense Forces said it had struck a Hamas command and control center hidden there — a claim Hamas denies.
Israeli war planes hit the area with about five missiles in the middle of the night, leaving three large craters inside the camp and sending ambulances scrambling, another Gaza Civil Defense spokesperson, Mahmoud Bassal, told The Post. The strike took place near the British Hospital, he added. Rescue workers are still working to recover 15 missing people, al-Mughair said.

"Gaza Civil Defense Officials" are Hamas. The WaPo quotes two Hamas terrorists, who claim "at least 40" dead and "15 missing people" under the rubble - 55 dead at the very least.

Hours later, the newspaper modified the story:

An Israeli strike Tuesday on Mawasi, a coastal tent encampment in southern Gaza that Israeli forces designated a humanitarian zone, killed at least 19 people and injured more than 60, the Gaza Health Ministry said.

Rescue workers were still trying to reach people trapped under rubble and debris, it added. A Gaza Civil Defense official, Mohammed al-Mughair, put the death toll at 40 earlier Tuesday. Ahmad al-Naqa, another Civil Defense official, said later in the day that the previous number was an estimate and that the Health Ministry reports the final numbers.

No one seems concerned that the "estimate" is nearly triple the number the Gaza health ministry claims. No one seems to notice that Hamas routinely inflates casualty numbers by a factor of two, three or more.

But this story indicates that the Washington Post knows that Hamas civil defense officials lie. Saying "at least 40 dead and 15 missing" " is not an estimate, it is a statement of fact. An estimate would be "we fear dozens have been killed."

But even after the newspaper proves that Hamas lies - they continue to quote them!

Israeli warplanes hit the area with about five missiles in the middle of the night, leaving three large craters inside the camp and sending ambulances scrambling, said another Gaza Civil Defense spokesman, Mahmoud Bassal, on Tuesday morning. The strike took place near the British Hospital, he added.

The Washington Post has unusually good access to Hamas terrorist spokespeople. Maybe because Hamas knows the Post will quote them uncritically, time and time again, even after they are proven to be liars.

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!

Some Hamas statements are too bizarre for even the anti-Israel media to believe

While the media is more than happy to parrot Hamas' claims about deaths and injuries in Gaza, sometimes Hamas says something so obviously false than the media chooses to ignore it.

Because if they would report it, then everyone might start to wonder about the veracity of the Hamas statements that they do believe.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The Israeli Air Force (IAF) struck Hamas terrorists Samer Ismail Khadr Abu Daqqa, Ayman Mabhouh, and Osama Tabesh in a strike in Khan Yunis in the Gaza Strip, the military said on Tuesday.

The terrorists were operating within a terrorist command and control center embedded in a designated humanitarian area of Khan Yunis, the IDF added.

The military specified that Mabhouh was a senior Hamas terrorist, Abu Daqqa was the head of Hamas’s Aerial Unit in Gaza, and Tabesh served as chief of the Observation and Targets Department in the terror group's Military Intelligence Headquarters.

That is pretty specific. The IDF wouldn't claim to have killed named terrorists if they didn't.

Hamas responded to the IDF report by denying everything:

The Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas confirmed today, Tuesday, that the massacre of Mawasi Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip is a crime that comes within the occupation's plan to exterminate the Palestinian people.

Hamas stressed that the occupation's allegations of the presence of resistance fighters at the targeted site are blatant lies to justify these heinous crimes.

She pointed out that the resistance has repeatedly denied the presence of any of its elements in civilian areas or their use for military purposes.

Hamas itself has published dozens of videos showing them shooting rockets and guns from civilian areas and humanitarian zones.

The claim is ludicrous - which is why the media doesn't even bother mentioning these denials.

If they did, then they would have to answer why they do believe Hamas when it fits their narrative.

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!

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.