Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, November 20, 2024

International Muslim clerics issue a letter saying that murdering Jews on October 7 was worth tens of thousands of Gaza deaths

There was a kerfuffle in Gaza in response to a statement by a major religious figure criticizing Hamas for its attack on October 7 2023:

Professor Dr. Salman al-Dayah, a former dean of the Faculty of Sharia and Law at the Islamic University of Gaza, issued a fatwa against Hamas for their October 7 attacks, the BBC reported on Friday.

Fatwa is an Islamic religious decree made by a recognized Islamic jurist, Faqih, as a response to a question asked by a judge or government.

The document accused Hamas of “violating Islamic principles governing jihad.”

Dayah added, “If the pillars, causes, or conditions of jihad are not met, it must be avoided in order to avoid destroying peoples' lives. This is something that is easy to guess for our country’s politicians, so the attack must have been avoided.”

In response, a group of international Islamic scholars issued a letter to counter al-Dayah's fatwa and support Hamas' decision to murder 1,200 Jews.

It is quite lengthy, and respectful of Dayah's position and reputation. Here are some highlights of their arguments for murdering Jewish civilians and putting Gaza civilians at risk.

First of all, it is divisive to oppose Hamas terrorism:

The most dangerous thing about the matter is that the article may be understood as an absolute rejection of jihad in the Gazan reality, and a mistake in its path originally, and an underestimation of its great achievements throughout its long blessed journey, despite the sacrifices that are necessary on this path, and the matter is not related to the last flood war only, and from here it is necessary to respond and warn against this grave mistake that represents a great danger to the blessed journey of jihad, and comes at its origins and foundations, and weakens the resolve of the mujahideen, and divides their ranks...

Second, it argues that jihad is a holy obligation but most Muslims never get a chance to do it personally.

The great freedom of Islamic work in calling to Islam, preparing for jihad, and other things, which was never available, and is rarely available anywhere in the world.

Moreover, the jihad is necessary to destroy Israel and build a new Caliphate.

This is more important, that this jihad removed the state of weakness, feebleness and submission before the enemy, and kept the flame of this great duty in the heart of the nation, especially in Jerusalem and its environs, alive and burning; as a prelude to its renaissance, its people and its promised second caliphate - God willing - and this is the basic mission of the people of Palestine until they rescue with their nation the captive Al-Aqsa Mosque, which is the responsibility of the entire nation,...These great achievements and others are more evident than the sun at noon.

The war may be necessary to perform the ultimate genocide of Jews, as Allah promised.

He did not notice the intermingling of the Sunnahs in it, and that perhaps what is happening is the ultimate corruption and great arrogance that will lead the Children of Israel to their faces being ruined, and the rescue of Al-Aqsa from them, and their disappearance as Allah the Most High promised, so it will be a link in the chain of jihad and ribat on the path to victory.

Tens of thousands of dead Muslims is a small price to pay for the chance to eradicate Jews:

What is required in the affliction of calamity is patience, regardless of the form of the affliction or its cause; In any case, if people are patient, this trial will be good and a mercy for them, regardless of its cause.

The attack on October 7 is a legitimate act and a fulfillment of the duty of jihad, and there is no doubt about that, and its people will be rewarded with the reward of the great jihad, God willing

The letter does admit that, perhaps, the timing of the attack was wrong, and that perhaps Hamas could be criticized for locating its military targets among the people. But those are individual errors and do not detract from the greater issue of the importance of Jihad.

Then comes more antisemitism, not sullied by the pretense of being merely "anti-Zionist."

Whoever knows the truth of the Jews, their beliefs, their arrogance, their crimes and their great corruption on earth, and their religious war with us under the shadow of their extreme right-wing government, knows the truth of what we have mentioned, and the truth of the Almighty’s saying: "And never will the Jews or the Christians be pleased with you until you follow them... And they will not cease fighting you until they turn you back from your religion if they are able" [Al-Baqarah: 217].

The attacks on October 7 were defensive, not offensive, and therefore obligatory:

The October attack in itself is a defensive jihad, not a jihad of demand, because the reality is that the Jews are besieging Gaza, and occupying its air, sea, and envelope before it, so it is occupied in reality, so expelling them from it is obligatory and is a defensive jihad. And even though we allow disagreement in the ruling on the timing of the attack in terms of right and wrong, because it is a matter of consideration, due to the many evils that result from it and the many interests that are also brought about, then disagreement in the legitimacy of the original act is not permissible, because it is a defensive jihad that is obligatory in principle.

And of course there is honor to consider:

The true believer sees the humiliation of surrendering to the infidels, and the breaking of the banner of faith as a breaking that is difficult to recover from, and it is a painful and long affliction that he cannot truly bear, and everything less than that is easier for him as long as he has breath...

They deny Hamas uses human shields, saying that the fatwa is based on Israeli propaganda:

- There is also something unjust in his words when he provides evidence for the Mujahideen in exaggerating the mistakes, not making excuses in light of the difficult reality in which they work, and not seeing the great good deeds and huge sacrifices. Rather, it repeats and reinforces the words of the enemies without examining them, unfortunately; such as his saying: “The Mujahideen take the people of the sector as a shield to protect themselves from the attacks of their enemy without caring about the size of the disaster resulting from that.”

This is a great injustice to the Mujahideen who are doing everything they can to spare civilians any loss. They are their brothers, fathers, sons and clan, and they feel pain for their pain, so how can this be thought of them?

The signatories:

Sadiq Al-Ghariani - Grand Mufti of Libya

Muhammad al-Hasan bin al-Dido al-Shinqiti - Head of the Center for the Training of Scholars (Mauritania)

Dr. Hammam Saeed - President of the Global Coalition to Support Jerusalem and Palestine (Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood)

Hamed Al-Ali (Kuwait)

Dr. Abdul-Hay Youssef - President of the Academy of the Supporters of the Prophet, may God bless him and grant him peace (Sudan)

Dr. Muhammad Yusri Ibrahim - Vice President of the Muslim Scholars Association (Egypt)

Dr. Nawaf Takrouri - Chairman of the Palestinian Scholars Association (Jordan)

Dr. Wasfi Ashour Abu Zaid - Professor of Maqasid and Usul al-Fiqh (Turkey, I think)

Dr. Al Hassan Al Kattani - President of the League of Scholars of the Maghreb (Morocco)

Dr. Ahmed Hawwa - Secretary General of the Syrian Scholars Association

Dr. Sheikh Attia Al-Adlan - Professor of Islamic Jurisprudence and Politics (Egypt)

Dr. Ahmed Al-Jawhari - Director of the Institute at Al-Azhar Al-Sharif

Dr. Muhammad Hammam Melhem - Head of the Miraj Center for Research and Studies (Turkey)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Last night in Brooklyn, an event was held to market real estate in Israel.

The location was kept secret except for registered attendees, but Israel haters apparently found out where it was and held a protest outside a yeshiva in Midwood.

The event did not advertise any real estate in the "occupied territories." But the Pal-Awda group protesting it considers all of Israel to be "occupied."

The antisemites who believe that Jews have no right to live in their homeland not only protested outside the alleged venue, but also marched through the heavily Jewish neighborhood shouting their genocidal slogans.

For years, pro-Israel activists have warned that when Palestinians and their allies say "occupation" they really mean all of Israel. But the media never considered that, and always claimed that the protests were merely against "occupation" in the West Bank and Gaza.

Now no one (except perhaps J-Street and Peace Now) can argue that we weren't right. it was never about "occupation" as is obvious from anyone who looked at anti-Israel propaganda before 1967.

Then, over the past year, the media pivoted and claimed that the protests were not against "occupation" but against the "Gaza war" or that they were "pro-Palestinian."

But neither of those explain the protests outside real estate events like this one or the one last June in Los Angeles that turned violent.

So is it "pro-Palestinian" to march through a Jewish neighborhood?

There is nothing "pro-Palestinian" about people who support Hamas, who cheer terror, who target synagogues and Jewish schools, who attack Jews in America. The only people upset at Jews moving to Israel are antisemites. These are just Jew-haters, nothing else.

The irony is that their attacks on Jewish institutions and neighborhoods will drive more Jews to move to Israel - exactly what they don't want to see.

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!

(Reported) UN Security Council draft resolution is a series of gross insults to Israel

JNS reported yesterday:

A United Nations Security Council resolution demanding an “immediate and unconditional” ceasefire in Gaza and the release of all hostages held by Hamas could come up for a vote as early as Tuesday, though the possibility of a U.S. veto looms large.

The resolution, drafted by the E10, or 10 elected members of the Security Council, is another effort by the body to bring about an end to the war or at least improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The UNSC has passed four resolutions on the matter thus far, with little to no effect, and has failed to pass resolutions a number of times.

I received what appears to be a draft of this UN resolution. I do not know if it is the latest one, but its metadata strongly indicates that it was indeed written by UN and UN Security Council employees.

It pays lip service to Israeli demands but in reality demands nothing from Hamas and ensures that Israel does not get its military goals.

The operative section says:

1. Recalls the Security Council’s primary responsibility to uphold international peace and security and demands an immediate, unconditional and permanent ceasefire to be respected by all parties; and further reiterates its demand for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages;

If Hamas does not release the hostages, Israel would still be obligated to cease fire.

2. Reiterates its demand that the parties comply with their obligations under international law in relation to persons they detain;

Meaning, Israel is violating international law.

3. Demands immediate access by the civilian population in the Gaza Strip to basic services and humanitarian assistance indispensable to its survival, while rejecting any effort to starve Palestinians, and further demands the facilitation of full, rapid, safe and unhindered entry of humanitarian assistance at scale to and throughout the Gaza Strip and its delivery to all Palestinian civilians who need it, including to civilians in besieged north Gaza, who are in urgent need of immediate humanitarian relief, under the coordination of the United Nations;

This is a slander claiming Israel is using starvation as a method of war.

4. Calls on all parties to fully comply with international law, including international humanitarian law, notably with regard to the protection of civilians, especially women and children, and persons hors de combat as well as with regard to the protection of civilian objects;

Again, this is an insult to Israel which is adhering to international law.

5. Demands that the parties fully, unconditionally, and without delay implement all the provisions of Security Council resolution 2735 (2024), leading to, inter alia, the release of hostages, the exchange of Palestinian prisoners, the return of the remains of hostages who have been killed, the return of Palestinian civilians to their homes and neighbourhoods in all areas of Gaza, including in the north, and a full withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza;

Hamas started the war in part to gain release of prisoners. The UN wants to reward them for the attack. Moreover, it says that Israel has no right to ever enter Gaza to go after those who murder Israeli civilians.

6. Underscores that UNRWA remains the backbone of the humanitarian response in Gaza, calls on all parties to enable the Agency to carry out its mandate as adopted by the General Assembly, in all areas of operation, with full respect for the humanitarian principles of humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence, and to respect international humanitarian law, including the protection of UN and humanitarian facilities, and welcomes the Secretary-General’s and UNRWA’s commitment to fully implement the recommendations of the Independent Review of Mechanisms and Procedures to Ensure Adherence by UNRWA to the Humanitarian Principle of Neutrality;

The Independent Review mentioned was not a whitewash; it noted significant deficiencies in UNRWA and gave some decent recommendations. But it didn't note the basic illegitimacy of UNRWA: an agency meant to help refugees when there are few refugees from 1948 still alive; the only UN agency with its own parallel school system and medical system and free housing on the world's dime, an agency that is dedicated to Palestinian refugees when all the rest of the world refugees use the different, more honest UNHCR and the two agencies have different rules and procedures; an agency whose purpose is to prolong sand worsen the "refugee" problem is was meant to solve.

UNRWA's policy is that it will continue to exist as long as Israel exists and does not allow millions of hostile Palestinians to become citizens. Which is why UNRWA should be dismantled, not supported.

The resolution does not address the main issue: an Iranian-supported terror organization that controlled and abused two million Palestinians and terrorized the entire state of Israel. it does not call for Hamas to be dismantled or disarmed. It only demands that the situation be turned back to October 6 - except that Israel would also have to release terrorists where they can mount another October 7.

The entire resolution is an insult and should be treated with contempt.

Yet reports say that the Biden administration is taking it seriously and working with the drafters to make it slightly less offensive. Which brings up the question of whether the lame duck administration is indeed trying to force Israel into a corner, the way its predecessor did in the waning days of the Obama administration.

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!

11/19 Links Pt2: Israel’s Comically Inconsistent The harrowing tale of a former Hamas hostage; Critics; Coates the Charlatan; New HRW "report" is a work of fantasy and fake law

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Israel’s Comically Inconsistent Critics

Critics of Israel’s counteroffensive in Gaza, especially those in the media, really need to settle on a complaint. Too often they are effectively arguing with each other, though unintentionally. To read the daily newspapers is to see Israel accused of mutually exclusive sins.

Take the fights over humanitarian aid and postwar governance in Gaza. Today’s New York Times carries a story on the fact that an aid convoy of 109 trucks was hijacked and looted over the weekend. Only 11 of the trucks made it to their destination.

Who’s to blame? Well, we know the one group that isn’t looting convoys is the IDF. Miraculously, the IDF is also the one at fault, according to the press. “Aid agencies have said for months that woefully inadequate food supplies have led to looting, hoarding and profiteering, exacerbating the shortages,” the Times explains. That is, when food is let into Gaza, it gets stolen, usually by Hamas. This means if there are starving Gazans it is most likely Hamas that is starving them.

What’s the fix here? You guessed it—more cowbell. The aid agencies insist “that the only solution is a significant increase in deliveries.”

Just to review: Israel let in a convoy of over 100 aid trucks. Nearly 100 of them were looted. Had the convoy been 150 trucks, they would… not have been looted? It begins to sound like a riddle: How many trucks must an aid convoy be before Hamas chooses not to loot it?

And when it’s not Hamas looting the supplies, it’s still Israel’s fault. “Gaza is basically lawless,” a UN coordinator tells the Washington Post. “There is no security anywhere. Israel is ‘the occupying power,’ he said, so ‘this is on them. They need to make sure that the area is protected and secured.’”

The Post, in fact, makes a provocative accusation: that Israel is looking the other way as local gangs are becoming bolder in areas controlled by the IDF. Says the Post: “The thieves, who have run cigarette-smuggling operations throughout this year but are now also stealing food and other supplies, are tied to local crime families, residents say. The gangs are described by observers as rivals of Hamas and, in some cases, they have been targeted by remnants of Hamas’s security forces in other parts of the enclave.”

The problem, according to the Post and the UN, is that Israel is trying to crush Hamas. Local families are trying to take the reins from Hamas, and Israel stands accused of letting them steal cigarettes.

But it’s not clear the New York Times sees it that way. “The Israeli campaign in Gaza toppled much of the Hamas government, and there is no civilian administration to take its place,” states the Gray Lady. So Israeli security measures regarding humanitarian aid are too strict and too lax at the same time. Trucks are getting looted because Israel won’t reduce security enough to let more trucks in, and there’s no replacement for Hamas but also Israel needs to crack down on Hamas’s would-be replacements.

David Hirsh: Fear and denial – why we founded the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism

We set up the London Centre for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism (LCSCA) because we were afraid. Antisemitism had been progressively spreading into academic disciplines in the social and human sciences, and it was becoming more and more acceptable and normal. This was an antisemitism that angrily denied being antisemitic, which was carried by people who thought they opposed racism and who were convinced they were the good guys.

We were afraid because anyone who challenged this antisemitism was more and more likely to be denounced by their academic colleagues as a charlatan who misused their academic talent and perverted their disciplines in an effort to delegitimise criticism of Israel.

Hamas was founded to prevent the creation of a Palestinian state. It hoped to destroy the peace process by murdering Israelis in buses and in restaurants in the name of Palestine. Hamas hoped to make Israelis believe that all Palestinians hated them and it hoped this would turn Israeli public opinion away from peace. More recently Hamas has encouraged Palestinians to murder Israelis randomly, using knives or cars, in the hope that Israelis would come to fear any Arab who they encountered. The founding document of Hamas made it clear that it regarded peace with Israel as a violation of the principles of Islam and it repeated Nazi-style antisemitism as though it was embraced by the single, authentic reading of Islam.

Happily for Hamas, the peace process did collapse, in January 2001. In August 2001, at the World Conference against Racism, in Durban, there was a formidable campaign to reset thinking about Israel from a maker of peace to an entity that was incurably evil. It sought to take us back to the 1970s UN and Soviet era. A week after Durban was the 9/11 attack on the USA, which revitalised antisemitic Islamist politics for the 21st century.

On 7 October 2023, Hamas showed its hand. It broke into Israel and murdered everybody it could find; it perpetrated a campaign of sexual violence; and it kidnapped 250 people. It turned out that by that time, there were enough people around the world who were ready to embrace elements of the Hamas view of the world.

People in our universities glorified the day of Jew-killing as ‘resistance’; they claimed that Israel’s inherently genocidal nature was the real aggression and that the day of Jew-killing was just a small, understandable response; they blamed the victims; and they denied that there was violence against Israeli civilians.

Strangely, all four of these responses to 7 October could co-exist within an individual.

11/19 Links Pt1: Why the West Should Care About Ukrainian and Israeli Independence; Court orders PA to compensate victims of 2001 Sbarro terror attack

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Why the West Should Care About Ukrainian and Israeli Independence

The Ukrainians are a people on their historical land. Israelis understand this concept, but fewer and fewer in the West seem to. The goal of the hostile foreign powers that invaded Ukraine and Israel was to negate the legitimacy of the land so they could wipe out the people.

The West’s original sin against Ukrainian legitimacy goes back 30 years now. In 1994, the U.S., UK, Ukraine, and Russia signed the Budapest Memorandum. In return for security guarantees, Ukraine agreed to relinquish its nuclear arsenal, which it inherited from the Soviet Union upon the USSR’s dissolution.

In addition to agreeing not to attack Ukraine, all the signatory countries vowed to “respect the independence and sovereignty and the existing borders of Ukraine.” (Emphasis added.) They also promised (again, emphasis is mine) “to refrain from economic coercion designed to subordinate to their own interest the exercise by Ukraine of the rights inherent in its sovereignty and thus to secure advantages of any kind.”

The U.S. and UK have failed to uphold their obligations in humiliating fashion. Not only has Ukraine been losing territory to Russian aggression for a decade, that aggression was spurred in 2014 by the discussion of increasing economic ties between Ukraine and Europe. All of which means that back in 2014, we made Ukraine give up one of the world’s largest nuclear arsenals in return for promises we have been breaking every day for 10 years. Coincidentally, the U.S. ambassador to Hungary at the time, and therefore the man standing next to President Bill Clinton at the press conference announcing the Budapest Memorandum, was Donald Blinken—the father of current Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

In 2014, Russia occupied and annexed the Crimean Peninsula. In the current war, Russian troops still occupy nearly a fifth of Ukraine. Unless the future Ukraine-Russia settlement contains any pleasant surprises, there’s no reason to believe Ukraine’s territorial integrity will remain intact. Which is to say, Ukraine has been forced to reduce its sovereign territory each time Russia wanted to take a bite. Ukraine is very nearly becoming independent in name only.

Meanwhile, in Israel, Lebanon-based Iranian militias keep killing Israelis in the north and perpetuating the forced displacement of civilians there. The Hamas invasion of last year triggered the displacement of Israelis near Gaza Strip. Israel has been building underground hospitals to go with its shelters—a slightly different use of underground construction than that of Hamas in Gaza.

Israel’s total landmass is a rounding error in the Middle East. Yet the ceasefire proposals from the U.S. and Europe have for months envisioned a “peace” in which Israelis cannot be confident that they can safely live in their homes again. Hamas and Hezbollah chose to live underground, so Israeli civilians should be forced to do the same? Nonsense. Yet, that is very clearly the implication behind any “permanent” ceasefire deal that leaves Hamas in power in Gaza or Hezbollah right on Israel’s northern border.

For the comfortable West, for those wrapped in the security blanket of NATO, our allies’ limited territory is negotiable. But NATO was founded on the principle that sovereignty and independence mean something. American and European leaders ought to act like it.

Herzog to Ukraine on 1,000th day of war: ‘You are not alone’

Israeli President Isaac Herzog issued a video message on Tuesday in support of Ukraine on the 1000th day of its war, saying that Jerusalem identifies with its cause and what it has endured at the hands of Russia.

“We also pause to reflect on the enormous human suffering that this war has brought. As a country that knows the pain and loss of war, we in Israel wish to say to our friends in Ukraine, you are not alone,” Herzog said in the English-language clip.

“We feel your pain. We feel your suffering, and we continue to grieve with you in your enormous losses. So many have lost their lives, their livelihoods, their homes, their loved ones, their basic sense of security for them and their children. And this is deeply, deeply painful,” he said.

Herzog said Israel was grateful to be among the countries that have provided resources and humanitarian, medical and psychological support to Ukraine, reflecting the “goodwill and empathy of the Israeli people.”

Israel supports the territorial integrity of Ukraine, he added, expressing his hope that “diplomacy and goodwill” would bring about an end to the suffering and a resolution for peace in Ukraine.

Now, Let Israel Win

For months the Biden-Harris administration has sought to restrain Israeli military operations by blocking or delaying the delivery of weapons - far more weapons than has been reported. It is widely known that the White House has blocked the delivery of 2,000-pound MK-84 bombs to Israel, despite Congress's approving their transfer. But Israeli officials have told us that the Defense Department is slowing the delivery of thousands of 1,000-pound MK-83 bombs, 500-pound MK-82 bombs, and the Joint Direct Attack Munition kits that convert those bombs into precision-guided munitions.

The State Department has also stalled thousands of Hellfire missiles, tank and mortar shells, and more than 100 armored bulldozers. Israel has requested expedited purchase of Apache helicopters, which the Defense Department has yet to approve.

Although President Biden has helped Israel defend itself - deploying U.S. military assets which have helped shoot down Iranian projectiles - he has held back from helping Israel win. Israel seeks to dismantle Hamas, degrade Hizbullah, and defang Tehran's nuclear program. Delaying weapons to Israel has dragged out the war, worsening humanitarian conditions and undercutting U.S. interests.

In its inevitable confrontation with Hizbullah, the Israeli air force planned to hit 3,000 targets a day. Instead, partly owing to insufficient U.S. weapons deliveries, Israel is conducting 1,000 strikes a week. Fewer airstrikes forced Israel to conduct more ground operations than planned to destroy Hizbullah's infrastructure. In Gaza, targets that might have been hit by artillery or from the air now require ground troops to clear. The result is more casualties.

Israel also needs to be fully armed to take the fight to Iran - to retaliate if the regime strikes again, or to attack its increasingly dangerous nuclear program. If Israel crushes the Iranian axis, it would be a boon for U.S. interests. Iran and its proxies kill America's troops, plot to assassinate its politicians and civilians, and meddle in its elections. Tehran's nuclear program remains one of America's greatest strategic threats. The administration should provide Israel with the weapons it needs to defeat the Iranian axis that threatens the Free World.

Israel Is a U.S. Ally, Not a Client

Israel wants to be an American ally, not an American client. A client relies on a patron for military protection and financial largess. An ally is self-reliant and pursues common interests with another country.

While President Biden provided support, every step of the way he has micromanaged Israel. He pushed for a weakened invasion of Gaza. He withheld weapons to try to stop Israel from fighting in Rafah, where Hamas's leader was hiding. He enforced delivery of humanitarian aid that Hamas stole. He urged Israel not to respond seriously to Hizbullah's rocket fire. All of this prolonged the war and put Israeli soldiers at greater risk.

If Israel were a weak state that needed the U.S. to fight its battles, that approach might make sense - but it isn't. When a strong U.S. ally is discouraged from strengthening its position, both the ally and America are undermined.

Israel targeted Houthi infrastructure that America shied away from hitting. Israel wiped out Hizbullah's missiles and leadership. Israel crippled Hamas and killed Yahya Sinwar. Israel destroyed Iran's air defenses and weapons facilities. These actions advanced the interests of the U.S. and Israel. This is the benefit of having an ally instead of a client.

Since the Oct. 7 attack, about 800 Israeli soldiers have been killed in a war to secure our country. Israelis don't expect American soldiers to risk their lives for Israel's sovereignty.

Court orders PA to compensate victims of 2001 Sbarro terror attack

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority must compensate the victims of the 2001 Sbarro suicide attack in Jerusalem.

According to the report, the ruling is based on a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, which stipulates that the Palestinian Authority is a party to the crimes caused by terrorists since it financially supports both security prisoners and their families.

The compensations to the Sbarro attack victims are set to amount to millions of shekels, and the ruling comes after two lawsuits the victims and their families filed over the last two decades. Paving way for other compensations

According to N12, the ruling may pave the way for other victims of terror attacks, including victims of the October 7 massacre, to request compensation of up to NIS 10 million for each person who was murdered.

On August 9, 2001, a suicide bomber killed 15 civilians, including four children, and wounded 130 others at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

Palestinian terrorist Ahlam Ahmad al-Tamimi led the suicide bomber to the Sbarro restaurant during lunchtime when the restaurant was at peak capacity.

Tamimi was arrested and imprisoned for her role in the bombing and was sentenced to 16 life sentences. However, she was freed in 2011 during the prisoner swap to free captured IDF soldier Gilad Shalit.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

The Jerusalem District Court ruled on Tuesday that the Palestinian Authority must compensate the victims of the 2001 Sbarro suicide attack in Jerusalem.

According to the report, the ruling is based on a 2022 Supreme Court ruling, which stipulates that the Palestinian Authority is a party to the crimes caused by terrorists since it financially supports both security prisoners and their families.

The compensations to the Sbarro attack victims are set to amount to millions of shekels, and the ruling comes after two lawsuits the victims and their families filed over the last two decades.

According to N12, the ruling may pave the way for other victims of terror attacks, including victims of the October 7 massacre, to request compensation of up to NIS 10 million for each person who was murdered.

On August 9, 2001, a suicide bomber killed 15 civilians, including four children, and wounded 130 others at the Sbarro restaurant in Jerusalem.

The terror attack was done by Hamas, no the PLO. It is significant that the court finds the PA responsible to compensate victims - all because of its policy of "pay for slay."

This means that Israel may withhold any tax revenues earmarked for the PA and pay the hundreds of terror victims instead.

PA leader Mahmoud Abbas has said that the payments to prisoners and the families of "martyr" terrorists are sacred and will never be reduced. But this now means that they will have no money at all.

The Biden administration would pressure Israel to continue to pay the PA. The Trump administration is not likely to do that.

Which means that things could play out a number of ways:

- Europe would make up the shortfall in funds.

- Europe might pressure Israel to pay anyway by threatening boycotts.

- The PA will make a deal with Iran which would involve it turning into an Iranian proxy like Hamas in exchange for funding.

- The PA abandons pay for slay and makes a deal with Israel to regain its revenues.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

-----

By the way, there is a pizza shop called "Sbaroo" in the Arab section of Jerusalem. Sbarro should sue it is spelled the same way in Arabic.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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It was inevitable: Article pointing out that ancient Israel included much of Lebanon being criticized by Hezbollah media

At the Jerusalem Post, Michael Freund an utterly inoffensive op-ed that pointed out the obvious: that the borders of ancient Israel are not congruent with today's borders of the State of Israel.

As the IDF battles to clear southern Lebanon of Hezbollah terrorists, it is worth highlighting an intriguing historical fact, one that many seem to have forgotten.

Having grown up with an international boundary between the Jewish state and our neighbors to the north, we take it for granted that this is how it has always been and should be.

But the truth is that the current border between Israel and Lebanon is little more than a century old and is entirely artificial, a relic of a time when European colonialists whimsically drew lines on maps over a bottle of brandy in smoke-filled rooms.

Historically speaking, southern Lebanon is in fact northern Israel, and the roots of the Jewish people in the area run deep. Whether or not this can or should be translated now into a political reality is a far more complex question, but there is simply no denying our connection to the land.

He is in no way advocating annexing southern Lebanon, just as no one is seriously contemplating annexing parts of Jordan that also lie within the boundaries of ancient Israel - nor is anyone talking about giving up the Negev which was not part of the old borders, as this nineteenth century map shows.

But Hezbollah mouthpiece Al Mayadeen is freaking out:

Michael Freund, an American-born Israeli political figure of German descent, believes that southern Lebanon is historically part of "Israel" and that the Jewish people have deep-rooted connections to the area.
A recent opinion piece in The Jerusalem Post, titled "Southern Lebanon is Actually Northern Israel," exemplifies yet another attempt to legitimize expansionist ambitions through what can only be described as Zionist propaganda.
The article undermines Lebanon's sovereignty while distorting Judaism by weaponizing it to rationalize territorial conquest.

The New Arab also slammed the piece, without contradicting it.

Because everything Freund says is true and no one can seriously doubt it (although the exact borders of ancient Israel are always matters of dispute and they changed over time.)

There are two real questions one might want to ask.

One is is why the map above of what are clearly the 12 Tribes of Israel calls the area "Palestine?" The answer is, of course, that the term "Palestine" was historically used as a synonym for the Holy Land or the Land of Israel. It never referred to a land of Palestinian Arabs.

The second question is what, exactly, is "historic Palestine" that the Palestinians claim to have heritage over? All of those maps are indeed based on when "European colonialists whimsically drew lines on maps over a bottle of brandy in smoke-filled rooms." They consider the colonial boundaries of the 20th century to be their age-old lands - which is ridiculous.

Yet while they love pointing to these maps and claiming that it proves that "Palestine" is a historic country, they never use those same maps to claim their own stake in parts of Jordan, Lebanon and Syria.

No, for some reason the only lands they ever claimed as their historic homeland always coincides with the land that Jews control, and no more. And this includes before 1967 when they made no claims on the West Bank.

Funny how the more you look at their claims of having been part of a historical Palestine for thousands of years, the less tenable their claims turn out to be.

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Yesterday, the State Department said it was sanctioning a number of Israeli organizations that aim to settle Jews in Judea and Samaria.

The justifications are tenuous.

Today, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) is sanctioning Amana the Settlement Movement of Gush Emunim Central Cooperative Association Ltd (Amana), a settlement development organization that is involved with U.S.-sanctioned individuals and outposts that perpetrate violence in the West Bank, and its subsidiary Binyanei Bar Amana Ltd. This action, taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14115, is part of an ongoing multilateral approach by the United States and its partners to hold accountable those who are threatening the peace, security, and stability of the West Bank. Amana has also been sanctioned by the United Kingdom and Canada.
...
Amana is a key part of the Israeli extremist settlement movement and maintains ties to various persons previously sanctioned by the U.S. government and its partners for perpetrating violence in the West Bank. For example, Amana provided a loan to Israeli settler Isaschar Manne, and served as a partner in the formation of Meitarim Farm. The U.S. Department of State sanctioned Isaschar Manne and Meitarim Farm on July 11, 2024 pursuant to E.O. 14115. The settlers and farms that Amana supports play a key role in developing settlements in the West Bank, from which in turn settlers commit violence. More broadly, Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land.

By this logic, the US should sanction the EU.

For many years, the EU has explicitly pursued a policy of building Arab settlements in Area C, choosing areas deliberately to seize land that will stop Jews from living there. It is spending tens of millions of euros on buildings and structures that are against international law.

Some Arab terrorists come from Area C.

The terrorist who slaughtered the Salomon family during a Shabbat dinner came from Kobar, which is about half in Area C. An Arab from Az Zawiya, in Area C, stabbed Rabbi Itamar Ben Gal to death in 2019.

Did the EU play a role in these murders and others? Directly, no, but the State Department is not sanctioning Amana for direct support for violence, but for indirect support. There is no doubt some terrorists whose crimes don't rise to the level of media interest have come from areas that the EU helped build.

To put it mildly, that is a slippery slope. The last sentence quoted above, that "Amana strategically uses farming outposts, which it supports through financing, loans, and building infrastructure, to expand settlements and seize land" applies just as much to the EU.

That sentence shows that the intent of the sanctions goes way beyond Amana giving a loan to a person who is under sanctions. It is meant to stop all Israeli actions in Area C, even those that are legal under Israeli law.

The State Department sanctioning of Jewish organizations has little to do with protecting Palestinians. Settler leaders have consistently spoken out against violence by a small number of hotheads. These sanctions are political, not humanitarian, and meant to force US wishes on Israel.

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Iran's Deputy President for Strategic Affairs Mohammad Javad Zarif issued an English language video that is filled with so many risible lies that it almost seems like a parody.

Here's the video and transcript:

Salaam/ Shalom

Peace to those – of any faith, language, or ethnicity – who cherish freedom, and justice. Greetings to the followers of all religions, and all children of Abraham, regardless of their creed, ethnicity, or language. Shalom to my fellow Iranians of Jewish faith and all followers of Prophet Moses across the globe.

Ask the women of Iran about how much they enjoy freedom and justice.

I begin in the name of our one Compassionate and Merciful God, to remind us, all, of the urgency of preventing the spread of war, bloodshed, plunder, and oppression.

Ask the people of Yemen how much Iran tries to prevent the spread of war, bloodshed, plunder and oppression.

I speak to you, Jewish people across the world, as a citizen of an ancient nation with a rich history of tolerance and humanity. For over two thousand years, my nation has been a symbol of peaceful coexistence among various religions, cultures, languages, dialects, races and ethnicities. Supporting the oppressed, the displaced, and those seeking refuge from genocide, has always been a trait of my nation in its long and proud history:
• Liberating the Jews suffering under the Babylonians over 2,600 years ago
• Receiving Jews displaced by the Nazis and fascists during World War II
• Opening its arms to millions of Afghans fleeing foreign occupation
• Assisting Palestinians, Lebanese, and Syrians displaced by aggression and apartheid.

Iran since the 1979 revolution has nothing in common with historic Persia. It is in most ways the antithesis of Persian traditions. Iran pre-1979 was mostly a tolerant and peaceful place for its citizens, although it was hardly a liberal democracy.

A few years ago, I had the honor of contributing to a unique achievement of multilateral diplomacy to end the manufactured crisis over Iran’s peaceful nuclear program. Yet, Netanyahu – who himself had contributed to the manufacturing of this crisis – made it his “historic mission” to obstruct and kill the nuclear deal: an agreement that would have ensured that the “wolf” this habitual liar was always “crying” about, would never come to town.

That agreement could have been the foundation of a new era of peace, tranquility, regional cooperation, and freedom from threats, conflicts, and escalating tensions.

However, before too long, Netanyahu and his Zionist and extremist cohorts succeeded in their satanic effort to rob the region and the world of this historic opportunity, standing on the wrong side of history.

Before Trump withdrew from the JCPOA, Iran was developing advanced centrifuges, violated the agreement on stockpiling heavy water, engaged in secret nuclear weapons development, banned the IAEA from inspecting military nuclear facilities, worked on building ballistic missiles to be a delivery system for nuclear bombs. Even after the withdrawal, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, and China pledged to continue to adhere to the agreement while Iran blatantly violated all its major provisions.

Standing on the wrong side of history again, Netanyahu and his regime, along with Israel’s Western enablers, have unleashed the machinery of death and destruction in the region, causing carnage and crimes against humanity in a genocidal campaign that has murdered over 50,000 civilians, including over 10,000 children.

But resistance to occupation will not die by killing children or even its leaders.

50,000 civilians and not one Hamas member. That's impressive!

Dear friends, sisters, and brothers,
Aggressive Zionism is nothing but an expansionist secular movement, deceitfully using Judaism to advance its colonial and racist agenda.

It's always nice when anti-Zionists define Zionism.

It abuses the memories and blood of Jewish victims of the Holocaust who perished during World War II, while Zionism itself is nothing but racism, chauvinism, militarism, terrorism, expansionism, apartheid, and hatred against other nations and religions.

Funny that the Baha'i religion is persecuted in peaceful and tolerant Iran while its beautiful headqarters is in the hateful, apartheid Zionist state.

Iran has been behind attacks on Jewish religious centers and prominent Jews in the UK, Germany, France, Canada, Argentina and the US, for starters.

It deceitfully claims to be the representative and protector of Jewish people worldwide, while in practice, it is the greatest threat to the dignity and security of the Jewish people.

Of course, the weapons Iran gives to Hamas, Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, Iraqi Shiites and the Houthis don't threaten Jews at all.• Sacrifices Jews and Gentiles at the altar of Zionism;

• Uses the name of the Lord in vain to justify genocide;

I'm stumped on this one. I've never heard a Zionist pronounce the Tetragrammaton.

You are not just horrified by the Zionist crimes committed against others; you too are victims of Zionist assault on your faith and identity. Continue to stand – as you have done in the streets of Western capitals – with all the innocent victims of Zionism in Palestine, and elsewhere. Continue to support those at the forefront of this resistance who defend human dignity. Save the Divine Abrahamic Jewish faith from Zionist forgeries, marred by aggression, apartheid, and genocide.

Literally everything he accuses Israel of doing is happening in Iran and in Iranian-controlled areas of the "Axis of resistance." And none of them are happening in Israel.

Notice that Zarif doesn't mention the other progressive things about Iran, like executing gays.

If Zarif wants "shalom," Iran should stop arming terrorist organizations, stop illicit nuclear development, keep its international obligations and promises, and stop inciting antisemitism.

Any Western Jew who actually believes this claptrap is an ignoramus. Unfortunately, there are no shortage of Jewishly illiterate morons.

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11/18 Links Pt2: How identity politics makes excuses for anti-Semitism; Chilling new report reveals just how widespread antisemitism is at US colleges

From Ian:

How identity politics makes excuses for anti-Semitism

Rachel Shabi’s aim in her new book, Off-White: The Truth About Anti-Semitism, seems to be to reassure those on what passes for the left these days that they are not anti-Semitic – and that accusations that they are anti-Semitic are just, as she puts it, ‘a stick with which the right clobbers the left’. Little wonder, perhaps, that Off-White has already won praise from various leftist luminaries.

Shabi herself is a self-avowed ‘progressive’ and a veteran Israeli-born British journalist of Iraqi Jewish origin. In Off-White, she seeks to apply contemporary ‘frames of analysis’ common on the left to the subject of anti-Semitism. In practice, this means reconceiving anti-Semitism in terms of the core ideas of the identitarian left.

Many of Shabi’s starting assumptions are conventional. She sees anti-Semitism as an ‘ancient hatred’. She also talks about how anti-Semitism is a conspiracy theory that often involves scapegoating Jews for the perceived ills of society. Few would take issue with any of this.

From there on, however, she offers up a strikingly instrumentalist history of anti-Semitism. In her view, anti-Semitism is a ‘tool’ used by ruling elites throughout history ‘to maintain their power’. Christian church leaders once needed to vilify Judaism ‘in order to ensure [Christianity’s] own spread and eventual dominance’, she says. Likewise, 19th- and 20th-century Western ruling elites needed to vilify Judaism to maintain and deepen their dominance – as evidenced by the Dreyfus Affair in France and the British government’s Aliens Act in 1905.

As Shabi sees it, there’s little difference, then, between these instances of historical anti-Semitism and other forms of racism and discrimination, such as today’s far-right targeting of refugees from Africa and the Middle East. These are all simply instances of instrumental, trans-historical prejudice.

But while anti-Semitism is presented here as one racism among many, Shabi also argues that the position of Jews has changed radically over time. After the Second World War and the Holocaust, Western elites’ view of Jews underwent a dramatic transformation, she says: ‘Jews in the West were by and large absorbed into whiteness and its corresponding power structures.’ Persisting with the jargon of critical race theory, she claims that Jews were used to ‘maintain [white privilege] as a social construct’.

Jewish group seeks six-month ‘emergency’ to fight Jew-hate in EU

A prominent rabbi from Brussels on Monday called on the European Union to declare a six-month emergency period for fighting antisemitism at anti-Israel protests and beyond. He warned that Jews would leave Europe in the absence of such action.

Rabbi Menachem Margolin, director of the Brussels-based European Jewish Association, issued the call in a speech he made in Krakow, Poland, to about 100 participants of a conference commemorating the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the nearby Auschwitz German death camp.

“The European Jewish Association calls on the European Union and its member states to declare a six-month emergency period to combat period, with high-level protection for Jewish communities but also special measures at public events,” said Margolin.

Such events have become “a fanfare where anything goes and anything can be said and done,” he said.

Organizers of protests under the plan would need to “sign an obligation” against speech that incites violence and face rigorous monitoring for such conduct and heavy punishments, said Margolin.

“If our call today won’t be answered, we will start to see an exodus of Jews from Europe and the end of Jewish life on this continent, and Europe will lose an important part of its history and rich culture,” he said.

David Collier: An open letter to the police and CPS

To the police and CPS.

With reference to complaints made by Gabriel Kanter-Webber about Rupert Nathan. I understand that the matter has now been referred by the police to the CPS. Given Webber is from Brighton I imagine the original complaint would have been received by Sussex Police but cannot be certain.

I have known about this complaint for some time – and was shocked from the outset when I learnt that the police had turned up early in the morning at Rupert Nathan’s home, arresting him in front of his child. This created unnecessary trauma. Webber (and remember we are talking about someone who – progressive or not – qualified to be a Rabbi), also reported the incident to Rupert Nathan’s professional body – the Chartered Institute of Securities & Investment [CISI]. Thankfully, they chose to take no further action. But we have every right to question the ethical position of a man (Rabbi or not) who would knowingly attempt to damage someone’s career over a single personal comment made on social media.

The reason I am writing this is because I believe I possess relevant information. On December 4 2023 (long before the incident you acted upon), and because of his behaviour, I felt compelled to write this in an email to Gabriel Webber:

“Please stop commenting on my website. You are deliberately goading people as part of your ongoing harassment. I have work to do and am not there to police deliberately provocative behaviour – and the responses to it.”

Despite my written request Gabriel Webber continued to post comments on my site – and I felt forced to disable his ability to post freely in my comment spaces.

11/18 Links Pt1: Biden threatened to leave Israel defenceless; Iranian plot to murder Irwin Cotler; Large Gaza food convoy violently looted, UNRWA says

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Elise Stefanik’s UN debut can’t come soon enough

Whether the Biden administration is planning a last hurrah for the Jewish state at the United Nations—a lame-duck good riddance, à la Barack Obama, in the form of an abstention in a hostile Security Council vote—remains to be seen. The updated draft of a resolution relating to the war in Gaza and Lebanon is no better, if not worse, than its first anti-Israel version.

No surprise there. The only question is how Washington’s current dubious “ironclad commitment” to its key Mideast ally will stand up to scrutiny where the international vipers’ nest in Midtown Manhattan is concerned.

What’s certain is that President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee to replace U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Linda Thomas-Greenfield can’t come soon enough.

To grasp the difference between Thomas-Greenfield and her soon-to-be-successor, Elise Stefanik, one need only compare their statements about Israel and the Iran-backed enemies bent on its annihilation.

Thomas-Greenfield opened her address last week to the UNSC by issuing a harsh rebuke. Not to Hamas, of course. No, instead, she began her Nov. 12 tirade by citing remarks by acting U.N. under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs and relief coordinator Joyce Msuya.

“There is no need to mince words here,” Thomas-Greenfield stated at the outset. “As we heard from our briefers, the situation in northern Gaza is dire. Catastrophic, as we heard from Ms. Msuya. An unconscionable number of Palestinian civilians, many women and children, have been killed.”

She proceeded to invoke a false Integrated Food Security Phase Classification report, according to which “nearly every civilian in Gaza is without adequate food, medication, clean drinking water or housing,” adding, “They simply cannot be left to suffer indefinitely.”

Paraphrasing Secretary of State Antony Blinken, she continued: “We need to end the armed conflict, bring the hostages home, including the seven Americans held by Hamas, and chart a path forward in the post-conflict period that provides governance, security and reconstruction in Gaza.”

Not a syllable about the monsters who make such a task impossible. Never mind, though, Thomas-Greenfield, like her boss Blinken and the rest of the outgoing administration, has been focused on currying favor with the world’s malign actors.

Bassam Tawil: UNRWA Hires Palestinian Terrorists, Glorifies Violence And Terrorism

According to Israeli intelligence, more than 450 terrorists belonging to terrorist organizations in Gaza, mainly Hamas, are also employed by UNRWA.

"By not firing them, the UN Secretary-General and UNRWA's Commissioner General are brazenly demonstrating their determination to continue employing members of Hamas and Islamic Jihad even after having been presented with incriminating evidence to this effect. It is time for donor governments to wake up and stop funneling their taxpayers' money to members of designated terrorist organizations." – www.idf.il, August 5, 2024

UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini recently told the UN General Assembly that his agency provides tolerant, respectful and anti-extremist education in Gaza. However, IMPACT-se's new report unveils institutional teaching material taught in five UNRWA schools in Gaza, where Hamas commanders have been exposed masquerading as school principals.

A poem taught to seventh-graders... calls on knights, symbolizing Arab leaders, to liberate the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem "from the fist of unbelief, from Satan's aides – revenge to the Jews."

What is disturbing is that the UN chief and other donor countries refuse to see what many Palestinians already see, namely that UNRWA has long been playing a significant role in inciting hatred against Israel and raising another generation of Palestinian children on the glorification of violence and terrorism. It is time for this agency, as well as the entire UN, to be dismantled and removed, or at least, as suggested years ago, to have nations pay only for what they want and to get what they pay for.

It is also time for the Palestinian "refugees" to move on with their lives and stop relying on Western taxpayers' money.

Canada foils Iranian plot to murder Irwin Cotler

Canadian security forces last month foiled an Iranian assassination plot against Irwin Cotler, the Jewish former politician and human rights advocate, the country’s The Globe and Mail newspaper reported on Monday.

A source told the daily that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police warned the former Liberal justice minister on Oct. 26 that he was the target of an “imminent threat of assassination within 48 hours from Iranian agents.”

The source said authorities knew of two suspects in the plot, but it is unknown whether they were arrested or fled the country. The RCMP did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The source claimed to The Globe and Mail that Cotler was informed last week that the threat level against him had been significantly lowered.

Cotler, 84, has reportedly been under 24/7 RCMP protection since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led cross-border massacre in Israel’s northwestern Negev.

The protection provided to Cotler by Canadian authorities was said to include bulletproof vehicles, armed bodyguards and other measures.

“After Oct. 7, my wife and I attended the March for Israel in Washington, D.C. When we flew back to Montreal, security asked us not to leave the airport. Security personnel spoke to me and informed me of what has been characterized as imminent and lethal threats, without going into further details,” Cotler said in an interview with JNS earlier this year.

The international legal scholar noted at the time that “the community of democracies including Canada does not understand the threat of Iran.”

Cotler, who served as Canada’s justice minister and attorney general between 2003 and 2006, has been on the Islamic Republic’s radar for his calls to list the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps as a terrorist entity.

The Jewish jurist has also represented Iranian political prisoners and is a strong supporter of Israel. He was Canada’s special envoy on Holocaust remembrance and combatting antisemitism from 2020 to 2023.

This was the BBC headline last week: "Nearly 70% of Gaza war dead are women and children, UN says."

The BBC is lying, and the UN is twisting numbers.

The UN is only counting what they call "verified" deaths, which is only 8,119 Gazans - not the 40,000+ that the health ministry claims. They are saying that among those "verified" deaths, 70% are women and children.

That's far higher than even the Gaza health ministry claims.

The latest Gaza health ministry count as of October 7 showed that women and children were 50.5% of the total that they counted. That already indicates that the UN is not counting a representative sample of Gaza deaths - only ones that are more likely to include women and children. It is a difference of 8,000 women and children that the UN is implying are dead compared to reality.

When you dig into the UN methodology, you can begin to see the problem.

It says:

[T]he number of killings verified by OHCHR by 2 September 2024 standing at 8,119 Palestinians in Gaza, including 2,036 women and 3,588 children (1,865 boys and 1,723 girls). Of these verified figures, 7,607 were killed in residential buildings or similar housing, out of which 44 per cent were children, 26 per cent women and 30 per cent men.

The footnote describes the methodology used:

That a large proportion of the fatalities verified by OHCHR were killed in residential buildings or similar housing is also partly explained by OHCHR’s verification methodology, which requires at least three independent sources, and the challenges in collecting and verifying information of killings in other circumstances.

The UN is only counting deaths that they can verify with three independent sources. The vast majority of Hamas members killed will not be verified by three sources, because Hamas is hiding its casualties. So the remainder that are far less likely to be Hamas are counted as if they represent all of Gaza!

And this is the reason that such a high percentage of those counted by the UN were killed in residential buildings. Those areas are public and Hamas cannot block people from witnessing the deaths, as opposed to in urban areas already cleared of civilians and tunnels, which is where most of the fighting is happening.

But, the UN asks, why are such a high percentage of people killed in buildings women and children? And the answer is because most of them are human shields!

We know that Israel warns residents before bombing their buildings - when they can. But if the target is a high ranking terrorist, they cannot issue a warning because then the terrorist will get away.

During the 2004 war, I counted 108 children who were killed while in the proximity of 24 known terrorists who were killed along with them. B'Tselem would usually (but not always) mention when women and children were killed along with terrorists who were the actual targets.

One major example was the Abu Jame family, 24 members of whom were killed because a top Hamas commander in Khan Younis named Ahmad Sahmoud was using them as human shields.

In other cases, it was a family member who was the Hamas terrorist.

The point is that when Israel has to go after major terrorists hiding in residential areas, while it has to perform a proportionality calculation, chances are there will be multiple innocent deaths along with the terrorist. Those situations would make the percentage of women and children killed look far higher than in most of the fighting. The UN methodology overcounts those relatively rare scenarios - 8,000 out of 40,000 deaths counted by the MoH. In the case of these 108 children killed in 2014, the UN would say that over 80% of those killed in those incidents were women and children. It is true - and the entire reason is because of Hamas war crimes of using human shields.

But the people quoting this report, like EU foreign policy head Josep Borrell, don't look past the headline. They, like the BBC, simply parrot the lie that 70% of those killed in Gaza are women and children, ignoring the evidence from Hamas itself that these numbers are nowhere close to true.

That eagerness to inflate Gaza casualty figures and the reticence to look beyond those numbers is simply another form of antisemitism.

(h/t Mark Zlochin)

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By Forest Rain

Sirens throughout the day, but not here. It was a beautiful Saturday (November 16th) and we were trying to enjoy the wonderful weather, lovely people, interesting things – although we knew that others were not.

I was hearing the sirens and interceptions in the distance. Israelis closer to the border with Lebanon were hearing sirens and rockets exploding. Huddled, waiting to see if the rockets would hit them. Or the shrapnel. Waiting for the bombing to end.

I was waiting for the bombing to begin. Eventually, it would come to Haifa too.

And in the evening, it came. Sirens. Down to the shelter.
Explosions, so loud they shook the house.
Not just interceptions. Impact too.
But where?

We got videos of the impact site on our phones. Something was on fire. A different neighborhood in Haifa, about a 10 minute drive away.

A cousin lives there. We called to ask if he was ok – he wasn’t at home but was worried about his dog. Neighbors had called him to say that his house was damaged. We promised to go to see what had happened until he could arrive.

Getting into our car, we could smell the fire.

When we got to the neighborhood the police had already closed off the section of the street where the missile hit. It smashed the beautiful Templar-period building used as the neighborhood synagogue – directly across the street from his house.

Firefighters were there, dealing with the fire. Ambulances were evacuating people. I hoped that no one was injured too badly. The Electric Company was there too. I didn’t know if the darkness was because the trees that had fallen in the blast pulled down lines or because the electricity needed to be turned off to keep people safe. Or both.

Instead of going through the crowd – people who lived there, rescue workers, media both foreign and local, and the curious – we approached the apartment from the back.

We walked through the darkness, the only lights from the rescue teams. Glass from the windows that had blown out of the houses crunching on under our feet. The sound of water pouring down from the roofs. Water tanks had been destroyed by the explosion… thank goodness the electricity was off for the area.

We got to our cousin’s house a moment before the Home Front Command rescue workers broke down his door. Their job is to go door to door, make sure no one is trapped inside, and help evacuate people. If they knock and there is no answer and they can’t contact the owner, they break down the door.

We told them that he wasn’t home and no one else was inside, that he was on the way. They marked the apartment as cleared and went on to check the rest of the building.

Neighbors who had been out came to check their apartment. As they surveyed the damage one of them broke down from the shock, crying, “Everything is broken. The walls, my paintings, my piano, I don’t have anything left.”

The blast broke the windows of their apartments and flung large pieces of shrapnel inside. There were holes in the walls, even in the piano. It was hard to see the full extent of the damage in the dark. Everything was covered in dust, smelled of the fire outside, and felt like the end of the world.

Objectively, not everything was damaged. A lot of cleaning up needed to be done. Windows and holes need to be fixed. Original artwork cannot be replaced but we told him over and over until he could breathe again: “It’s just property damage. Thank God you weren’t home when it happened.”

He nodded in understanding but still had a hard time shaking the hysteria. There’s something deeply shattering in having your sanctuary smashed. You have to pull yourself together, grit your teeth, and begin an uphill battle to put the pieces of your life back together. It’s hard to even know where to start…

Our cousin arrived. We were all relieved to see that the dog had taken shelter under the bed so she wasn’t hurt when the windows blew out. She came out shaking but wagging her tail.

We made a quick survey of the damage and helped him pack some things. It would take at least a few days to make the place livable again.

As we left the building, we saw others leaving. An exodus of people carrying small bags with some things, their cats and dogs.

In the morning it would be possible to come back, understand the true extent of the damage, and begin repairs. Thank God it was “just” property damage.

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Reuters reports:

The European Union's top diplomat on Monday confirmed he would suggest to members of the bloc that the EU pauses its political dialogue with Israel, citing the country's conduct of the war in Gaza.

"Many people tried to stop the war in Gaza... this has not happened yet. And I don't see a hope for this to happen. That's why we have to put pressure on the Israeli government, and also, obviously on the Hamas side," Josep Borrell told journalists ahead of an EU meeting.

The European Union's foreign policy chief last week proposed that the bloc suspend its political dialogue with Israel, citing possible human rights violations in the war in Gaza, according to four diplomats and a letter seen by Reuters.

He also falsely claimed that 70% of those killed in Gaza were women and children, a ridiculous assertion that even Gaza's health ministry has shown is not close to true.

Since the EU must "obviously" pressure Hamas, what has Borrell and the EU done in that area since October 7 2023?

I can find only one specific and meaningless move: Months after the October attack, the EU added Yahya Sinwar, Mohammed Deif and Marwan Issa to its terrorist list.

It is astonishing that they weren't on the list beforehand.

I can find nothing else. No moves specifically to sanction Iran or even politically pressure it for arming Hamas and Hezbollah (although there are sanctions against Iran for arming Russia) . No effort to ensure EU aid to Gaza doesn't go to Hamas. No declaring Iran's IRGC to be a terrorist group, as the US and Canada (and Lithuania) have done.

The hypocrisy becomes crystal clear when you realize that while Borrell wants to isolate Israel diplomatically, he and the EU has been increasing efforts to diplomatically engage with Iran.

In April, Borrell spoke to Iranian foreign minister Hossein Amirabdollahian and cringingly told hi exactly what Iran wants to hear from the EU. Borrell told him that the EU condemned Israel's airstrike on Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists in Syria, claiming (falsely) that they violated the Vienna Convention because it was inside a compound that included the Iranian embassy - even though it was being used to plan more attacks on Israel.

Following that meeting, Borrell told reporters that "the EU needs to have the best possible relations with Iran."

So Borrell simultaneously supports engagement with Iran, pressuring and isolating Israel and merely pretending to pressure Hamas.

As one EU parliament member said ahead of Borrell's end of term on December 1, “We won’t miss you, Mr. Borrell, but I’m sure the mullahs will.”

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