Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 02, 2024

12/02 Links Pt1: Israel: The Mideast’s Anchor of Stability; Trump: 'ALL HELL TO PAY' if Hostages not returned; American-Israeli Thought To Be Hostage in Gaza Was Killed on Oct 7

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Israel: The Mideast’s Anchor of Stability

Israel’s critics often give the impression that the Jewish state is the only state in the Middle East that doesn’t have a right to exist. But if events keep going along their current path, Israel might be the only state in the Middle East that exists at all.

Hyperbole? Sure. But a look around the Levant shows just who had true sovereignty and legitimacy all along.

The Assad dynasty in Syria spent decades carving up Lebanon and negating its territorial integrity. Now Syria itself is tumbling toward the same fate: a country with borders that exist only on paper and in a state of perpetual political chaos thanks to the machinations of its foreign patrons in Tehran.

Over the weekend, Islamist rebels retook effective control of the city of Aleppo, a central node of conflict in the ongoing Syrian civil war, which began more than a decade ago. The attack, led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), began last Wednesday and in less than a week has thrown the regime of Bashar al-Assad into disarray.

For the duration of the Syrian civil war, Iran and Russia have kept Assad propped up while subjecting swaths of the country to ruthless bloodletting. But both Iran and Russia are stretched at the moment, the former in its multifront war on Israel and the latter in Ukraine. Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, has been so depleted by the IDF that it is unable to come to Assad’s aid in any significant way. Iran itself has been weakened substantially by Israeli counteroffensive strikes, which took out Iranian ballistic missile sites as well as Iran-aligned terror infrastructure in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen. Because Iran was also providing missiles to Russia, Moscow has been hamstrung by Israel’s strikes on Iranian facilities.

This is almost certainly the reason the rebels chose to strike when they did, and it is surely why the surprise attack was as successful as it was. The rebels seemingly have drawn Russia’s air force back into the conflict, further stretching Moscow’s capabilities.

The rebels are led by an offshoot of al Qaeda and supported by Turkish-backed Islamists. They have, therefore, also done battle with the Kurds, a group traditionally backed (at least nominally) by the Western alliance, although the only NATO state involved at the moment is Turkey, which has long tried to obliterate the Kurds.

There are no “good guys” as traditionally understood in this round, and that includes our NATO “ally” Turkey, which has reembraced its role as sponsor and host of Hamas. Which is to say, the renewed rebellion can be Assad and Iran’s just deserts without being cause for bandwagoning. We don’t always have a dog in every fight.

But it does demonstrate the Jenga tower created by Iran’s regional adventurism. The more power Tehran took from Gaza, parts of the West Bank, South Lebanon and Syria, the more precarious the whole construct became. It is now teetering.

Prepare for Disintegration of Syria and Rise of Imperial Turkey

On the same day the cease-fire went into effect along the Israel-Lebanon border, rebel forces launched an unexpected offensive, and within a few days captured much of Aleppo. This lightening advance originated in the northwestern part of the country, which has been relatively quiet over the past four years, since Bashar al-Assad effectively gave up on restoring control over the remaining rebel enclaves in the area. The fighting comes at an inopportune moment for the powers that Damascus has called on for help in the past: Russia is bogged down in Ukraine and Hizballah has been shattered.

But the situation is extremely complex. David Wurmser points to the dangers that lie ahead:

The desolation wrought on Hizballah by Israel, and the humiliation inflicted on Iran, has not only left the Iranian axis exposed to Israeli power and further withering. It has altered the strategic tectonics of the Middle East. The story is not just Iran anymore. The region is showing the first signs of tremendous geopolitical change. And the plates are beginning to move.

The removal of the religious-totalitarian tyranny of the Iranian regime remains the greatest strategic imperative in the region for the United States and its allies, foremost among whom stands Israel. . . . However, as Iran’s regime descends into the graveyard of history, it is important not to neglect the emergence of other, new threats. navigating the new reality taking shape.

The retreat of the Syrian Assad regime from Aleppo in the face of Turkish-backed, partly Islamist rebels made from remnants of Islamic State is an early skirmish in this new strategic reality. Aleppo is falling to the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS—a descendant of Nusra Front led by Abu Mohammed al-Julani, himself a graduate of al-Qaeda’s system and cobbled together of IS elements. Behind this force is the power of nearby Turkey.

Seth Frantzman: Why hasn't Hamas faced repercussions for killing American citizens?

HAMAS LEARNED, through the October 7 attack, that murdering and killing citizens of numerous countries hasn’t had any real negative effect on Hamas. It isn’t more isolated today than on October 6, 2023. In fact, it has the same support abroad, probably more support, than on that day.

Hamas knows it has more support on campuses in the US today than two years ago, along with support from the Global South. Its willingness to kill so many people has appeared to make it get more respect from Russia and China. This means Hamas does not assess today that it has lost out due to the attack.

It hasn’t been replaced as a governing authority in Gaza. It still controls parts of Gaza City and the central camps area in Gaza. This includes Deir al-Balah, Bureij, Maghazi and Nuseirat. Hamas assumes that the IDF is exhausted from more than a year of war and that Israel wants to let reservists go home after the battles in Lebanon.

There remain key questions related to the new information about the death of Neutra. He was a member of a tank crew on the border of Gaza on October 7. Why didn’t the US ask Doha if he was alive after the attack? Why wasn’t more done to confirm the details and status regarding the Americans held in Gaza? The fact that Hamas seems to have faced no queries from Doha about the status of Americans held in Gaza is concerning.

This is a reminder of several incidents over the past year that also raise questions. On October 20, 2023, Hamas released two American women who it had held hostage for two weeks. Nothing more was heard about this story or why it happened how and when it did. Clearly, Hamas had decided to release two Americans. Why not the others? Why not more discussions about their status at the time? Days later Hamas released two elderly women as well. Nothing more was ever revealed about these two hostage releases in October.

This begs the question of why the Bibas children were not released at that time. They were the most vulnerable of the hostages because one was a baby and one a toddler. There are a lot of questions now about why more wasn’t done to pressure Hamas for basic details on the hostages.

In January, reports circulated that Qatar and France had brokered a deal to deliver medical aid to 45 hostages in Gaza. Nothing was done to confirm whether the aid reached the hostages.

Why? Why is it that systematically since October 7 there has been a kind of collective shrug about basic details about the hostages, details that would have helped families who have been waiting for information?

No pressure from the US, no pressure from Doha, and it’s not clear if there is pressure from Israel. Since the decision to shift focus from Gaza to fighting Hezbollah, Hamas has felt free rein to run central Gaza and continue its rule.

200 years ago: The Pope forces Jews of Rome, including children, to attend Catholic sermons weekly

From the Stockport Advertiser, Stockport, Greater Manchester, England, Dec 17, 1824:

The pope was the recently installed Pope Leo XII, whose papacy started in September 1823.

This edict seems to have been only for the Jews of Rome.

Wikipedia mentions this along with another edict that Leo issued against the Jews:

Laws such as that forbidding Jews to own property and allowing them only the shortest possible time in which to sell what they owned, and that requiring all Roman residents to listen to Catholic catechism commentary, led many of Rome's Jews to emigrate, to Trieste, Lombardy and Tuscany.

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!

Over the past few weeks, UN Watch has been posting interviews of UNRWA students in Gaza to expose how they are being taught to murder Jews and to become "resistance fighters" to ultimately become martyrs.

The interviews are damning, but not really different from similar reporting by David Bedein some ten years ago exposing UNRWA teaching hate and antisemitism.

The Palestinian Authority is very upset at this evidence that makes UNRWA look bad to the world.

So they are attacking UN Watch - for supposedly performing a war crime by interviewing children!

The use of children in war is a crime and is considered an ugly form of exploitation

The Israeli occupation's targeting of Palestinian children has gone beyond killing, arresting and depriving them of their basic rights, to another ugly exploitation of their innocence, to mislead world public opinion and incite against the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

The Israeli organization [sic] "UN Watch" , which specializes in attacking the United Nations and UNRWA, recently produced a number of videos and published them on its page, in which Palestinian minors appear, exploiting their spontaneous speech and without the presence of their parents, to incite against UNRWA, distort the facts and label it as terrorism.

The text of the Convention on the Rights of the Child states in Article No. (16) states: “ No child shall be subjected to arbitrary or unlawful interference with his or her privacy, family, home or correspondence, nor to unlawful attacks on his or her honour and reputation. The child has the right to the protection of the law against such interference or attacks.”

The [PA] Department of Refugee Affairs ... considered these materials a serious violation of the child’s right to express his opinions freely without pressure, misleading or extortion, and in a manner that does not serve his best interests, as stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child, and what they represent in terms of exploitation of children in an immoral, illegal and inhumane manner, and a serious violation of national and international laws.

Of course, interviewing kids does not violate the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

However, we have seen countless videos of even much younger children being interviewed on Palestinian TV saying the exact same things.

Very young children playing "The Martyrs Game:"

"Whoever has a rifle, shoot a Jew!"

Here we see Jordanian schoolchildren supporting Hamas attacks on Jews, telling Hamas "You are the cannon and we are the bullets."

As far as I know, most Palestinian schoolchildren in Jordan attend UNRWA schools up to 10th grade.

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!

As antisemitic incidents soar, my precise definition of antisemitism becomes more and more important to adopt

Hannah Meyers writes in Commentary about the necessity of documenting and reporting antisemitic speech and incidents, even when they do not rise to the level of crimes. One reason given is that when there are violent or criminal incidents, a record of previous antisemitic language from the perpretatots helps establish intent and distinguish between a regular crime and a hate crime.

But, she cautions, "All of this reporting requires stronger definitions of what constitutes antisemitism. And, at root, this revolves around one key factor: Zionism’s centrality to Jewish identity needs stronger recognition. "

Moment magazine also recently described the importance of an accurate definition of antisemitism in the context of how actions and words that have previously been considered taboo become accepted with repetition:

Once upon a time—well into the 2000s—the usual way for the community to determine whether something was to be considered antisemitic was to consult Abraham Foxman of the Anti-Defamation League. A Holocaust survivor, a community pillar and a confidant of multiple U.S. presidents of both parties, Foxman, who’s now retired but occasionally still comments on current events, was an example of that vanished phenomenon in American politics, the neutral arbiter. Was it antisemitic for President Ronald Reagan in 1985 to make a visit to a cemetery in Bitburg, Germany, where SS officers were interred? Foxman, weighing in after a firestorm of criticism, called Reagan “well-meaning.” In 1999, the Rev. Jerry Falwell told his congregation that the Antichrist was probably already alive and “of course he’ll be Jewish.” Foxman, consulted, said the statement “revisits the worst in intolerance that resulted in persecution of the Jewish people and inquisitions.”

No one fills that role now, so we’re stuck with two strategies—it’s probably more accurate to call them reflexes—that are manifestly inadequate. First, when someone says something that clearly breaks the taboo, our superheated media environment—including Jewish media, which feed the wider dialogue—leaps on it and repeats it hundreds of times across every imaginable platform until we’re numb, dulling our sense of the forbidden. And second, when the transgression is not so clear, when it’s located somewhere on that melting hinterland, we struggle to pretend that it’s still in the center, where it can be deemed taboo and rejected without discussion.

Both of these are arguments for a clear definition of antisemitism that anyone can apply with largely the same results. In other words, an algorithm.

My algorithmic definition of antisemitism, which I have discussed a number of times, fits that bill better than any other definition out there.

Antisemitism is hostility toward Jews, denigration of Jews, malicious lies against Jews or discrimination against Jews as individual Jews, as a people, as a religion, as an ethnic group or as a nation (i.e., Israel.)

This definition can replace Abe Foxman: it is neutral between Left sand Right antisemitism, it leaves far less ambiguity than other definitions, and - crucially - it accurately includes Israel and Zionism as part of the Jews that are being attacked.

Conversely, it can be used to define what is not antisemitism as easily as it can define what is. Criticism of Israel that does not cross the line into hostility, malice, denigration and double standards is not antisemitism, just as reasonable criticism of Judaism or the Jewish people itself is not antisemitism.

I've noted that there are still boundary cases - most often dog-whistles. But those cases are boundary cases anyway no matter who is determining whether they are antisemitic or not. Indeed, my definition can even be used to be a taxonomy of antisemitism from which further analysis can be done in a reproducible way. It is as close to "science" as social science ever gets.

My definition is being discussed in academia. I've presented it at a scholarly conference. It should be incorporated into the widely adopted IHRA definition as a tool to help refine the definition.

Reporters, Jewish organizations, universities, nations - all of us need a solid definition of antisemitism in order to analyze the phenomenon. This is the best definition out there for than purpose.

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!

Covering up and minimizing sexual abuse by aid workers in Gaza is official policy

AP reported last week:

The United Nations in Chad has launched an internal investigation, following an Associated Press report on allegations of sexual exploitation of Sudanese refugees, which included aid workers.

The statement, written days after the AP published the story last week, was seen on Tuesday. It said the seriousness of the allegations cited in the AP’s story, warranted immediate and firm measures and that those responsible should be punished.

“Refugees are already vulnerable and traumatized by the events that led them to flee their country and under no circumstances should they be the victims of abuse by those who are supposed to help them,” said Francois Batalingaya, the U.N. resident and humanitarian coordinator in Chad.

Yet the UN itself admits that aid workers in Gaza have been sexually exploiting women. A May UN Protection Cluster report says Gaza women are exposed to "violence, exploitation and abuse, trafficking and forced prostitution, including by aid workers."

Another report from April called "Risk Mitigation Assessment Report to Prevent SEA in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank" warned of an "epidemic" of sexual abuse by aid workers: "[H]umanitarian actors must scale up their PSEA and Safeguarding capacity to prevent an epidemic of SEA [sexual exploitation and abuse] abuses committed by personnel related to humanitarian operations. This should be also seconded by programmatic actions to protect the most vulnerable from sexual exploitation and abuse by aid workers but also other actors. "

This was confirmed by a Kuwaiti who visited Gaza more recently.

Why are there no press releases by the UN about this, the way they issued about sexual abuse by aid workers in Chad? The April report itself tells us the reason. It lists the risks of publicizing these findings:

Identified risks are:
- Humanitarian aid diverted causing further harm to the community and increasing tensions
- Potential retaliation against aid workers (physical harm)
- Lost of trust in aid institutions calling for further acts of incivility: deterioration of the operational environment
- Media attention to safeguarding incidents which can also have an uncontrolled political manipulation

Covering up and minimizing sexual abuse by aid workers in Gaza is official policy. UN Women's report on gender issues in Gaza from September didn't mention a word about abuse by aid workers. UNICEF says it prioritizes combating sexual abuse by aid workers worldwide but does not discuss Gaza.

The official line is that humanitarian workers are angels. When one gets accused of, say, being a terrorist who rampaged through Israeli communities on October 7, even when evidence from his own social media shows his clear support for terror, nobody wants to believe or report that these aid workers are anything but righteous.

Shining a light on how aid workers abuse women? Everywhere else in the world this is considered an imperative. In Gaza, it would cause more harm.

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!

Gaza officials: Israel has vaporized thousands of Gazans with advanced science fiction weapons leaving no trace or evidence. These same officials are quoted by the media and UN. (UPDATE)

In August, Hamas civil defense officials claimed that Israel had used new illegal weapons that vaporized over 1,700 Gazans, leaving them without a trace.

The Gaza Civil Defense has revealed that approximately 1760 Palestinians have completely vaporized and disappeared, with no trace of their remains, due to the use of internationally prohibited weapons by the Israeli military. According to the Civil Defense, these weapons, used during the ongoing conflict in Gaza, cause the evaporation of bodies, leaving no physical evidence behind.

In October:

The Director General of the Supply and Equipment Department of the Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, Dr. Mohammed Al-Mughair, said in an interview with Al Jazeera that the Israeli occupation uses banned weapons in areas characterized by high population density. He considered that the use of these weapons explains the martyrdom of large numbers, and the melting and evaporation of thousands of bodies due to the high heat emitted when the explosion occurs, turning the bodies that are in the “target” into small particles that cannot be seen with the naked eye, flying and dissolving in the air and soil.

Thousands of the dead in Gaza left not a trace of their bodies. That's why we can trust Gaza civil defense to tell us the casualty counts.

Last week, the director of the Palestinian Ministry of Health in Gaza, Dr. Munir al-Bursh, speaking to Al Jazeera, said that these weapons are real:

Israel is testing weapons on us that we do not recognize. They drop bombs with terrifying sounds, and when a person gets within 200-300 meters of them, they vaporize.
The massacres happening in northern Gaza are unknown to us until later. Nobody calls to inform us. The Israeli army bombs entire residential blocks, wiping out all their inhabitants, and we only find out about them a day or two later.
When these weapons are used on residential buildings, they reduce them to small fragments and rubble. We urgently need an international investigation committee to uncover what ‘Israel’ is doing to us.

And he confirmed this on Sunday:

Dr. Munir Al-Bursh, Director General of the Ministry of Health in Gaza Strip, confirmed on Sunday that the Israeli occupation uses internationally banned weapons, and there are testimonies of the vaporization of some bodies.
Dr. Al-Bursh said, in press statements, “There are types of burns that we have not seen before, and entire bodies have evaporated, and that among the martyrs there are those whose faces and rib cages were smashed.”
He called for an international investigation into the mysterious weapons used by Israel in genocide crimes in the Gaza Strip.
Dr. Al-Bursh highlighted recent cases of the evaporation of bodies and the ongoing ethnic cleansing and mass massacres, especially in northern Gaza Strip.

Hamas is calling for an international investigation into this death beam.

I found an original photo of the secret IDF death beam aiming at innocent civilians in the camps.

Here is another verified photo of a presumed Zionist aggressor shooting at a Palestinian monster on Mars with his evaporation ray gun. Unfortunately he missed.

When you think about it, Flash Gordon has a very Jewish name.

While these reports are absurd, keep in mind that the UN and NGOs, not to mention prestigious British medical journals and numerous academic papers, quote statistics and claims by the Gaza Civil Defense and the Gaza Ministry of Health all the time without ever questioning them. CNN has quoted Dr. Mnnir al Bursh at least twice.

They trust the words of those who are accusing Israel of having deployed a science fiction weapon that, conveniently, leaves no evidence behind.

And not one of them will ever publicly say, hey, maybe these people are not telling the truth. Maybe we should double check what they said and see if it can be corroborated. Maybe those who are paid by a terrorist organization are not the most trustworthy people in the world.

No, they only presume Jews lie.

UPDATE: I see the accusation goes back to at least May, from an NGO that also gets respected news coverage:

A Geneva-based right group urges an investigation into Israel’s potential use of banned thermal weapons in its genocidal war campaign against Gaza which could evaporate or melt victim bodies.
Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor in a report on Tuesday said that testimonies received by the rights group show that victims’ bodies appear to have evaporated or melted as a result of Israel’s bombing of residential homes in the Gaza Strip.
“An international committee of experts must be established to look into the weapons Israel has been using as part of its genocide in the Gaza Strip, ongoing since 7 October 2023, including the potential use of bombs that produce such high heat that victims’ bodies evaporate,” the report said.
According to the Euro-Med Monitor report, thousands of bodies in Gaza remain missing and they “no longer exist” and may have “turned to ashes,” raising questions about the type of bombs used in the attacks.

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!

12/01 Links: Douglas Murray says 'many in Europe want to throw Israel to the crocodiles'; On Mary and the Mob; The Oxford show trial

From Ian:

Douglas Murray says 'many in Europe want to throw Israel to the crocodiles'

Since October 7, Israelis have come to appreciate and love Douglas Murray. The British author, editor, and journalist, whose name was previously known mainly to conservative thinkers among the people of Zion, has become a frequent visitor to our region over the past year. When not here, Murray "bombards" the global media: responding to false claims, shattering blood libels, defending our righteousness, and exposing the nakedness of those who seek to portray Israel – which is fighting for its existence – as the source of troubles and problems.

This year, Murray has also gotten to know us and fallen in love, especially with IDF soldiers. Despite his British reserve, evident in all his conduct, he cannot hide his sympathy and admiration for the uniformed members of the Israel Defense Forces. "It's the soldiers," he responds when asked which Israeli inspires him the most. "I am repeatedly amazed to see them, 18 and 19-year-olds, defending their people with courage and sacrifice in exceptional circumstances. I'll share one example: a friend of mine, with whom I entered Lebanon during the past month, is a sniper who lost an arm in battle inside Gaza. Despite the injury, he insisted on returning to service and fighting. I admire people like him."

Murray has entered Lebanon with IDF forces several times and seen up close Hezbollah's preparations to attack northern Israeli communities. He's clear that what happened in the communities near Gaza could have befallen the Galilee, only with far more horrifying intensity. "Hezbollah's tunnels so close to the border were the most terrifying thing I've seen," Murray recalls. "I stood at one of Hezbollah's compounds, looked toward the Israeli cities and villages, which I know well, and thought how fortunate it was that Israel managed to prevent such an attack. We'll see what happens following the ceasefire taking effect, but it's clear that the terrible danger of a massacre in the north was prevented." Israeli military vehicles at a gathering site next to the border with Lebanon as seen from an undisclosed location in northern Israel, 30 September 2024 (Photo: EPA)

Although he prefers not to enter Israeli political disputes, Murray has a clear insight into another danger – the danger of division and extremism. "Sometimes an outsider sees certain things in Israeli society and thinks that only those with a death wish could do such things," he diagnoses sadly. "I wonder how those Israelis who threatened refusal during the judicial reform discussions feel now. These are the kinds of things that truly break society. When in August 2023, IDF commanders had to declare that despite the refusal, units would maintain operational readiness, this was music to the ears of Israel's enemies. Without criticizing any particular segment of Israeli society, we must reiterate the importance of preserving what's shared in society, certainly when facing a common enemy."

"But after October 7, this society proved its ability to live together, unite against a common enemy, and overcome. That's encouraging. Politics, of course, always brings back the divisions. But I hope Israeli society will remember the lessons of the past year. Sometimes, people tend to go crazy over things that aren't really that important, certainly compared to bigger issues. Emotions run high, discourse intensity increases, and people make threats they don't necessarily mean. This isn't unique to Israel – look at what happened recently in America. Media outlets and even Democratic candidates called Donald Trump 'Hitler,' a 'fascist and tyrant,' saying 'his victory would end democracy.' And now these same people are knocking on his door begging for interviews, which says several things about them. One is that they never meant what they said. I expect them to reflect and learn to restrain themselves. Something similar happens in all democratic countries, including Israeli society."

Unlike the US, in Israel, the left's hatred toward Netanyahu and the right hasn't diminished with their rise to power and has taken the form of attempting to prevent them from implementing right-wing policies.

"That's indeed the big issue here, and within it, there's a phenomenon of external intervention to prevent policy implementation, not just in war management, in all areas. It's crazy and reaches absurdity. It was quite amusing, to put it mildly, to see American administration officials during the judicial reform discussions criticizing Israel for the idea of moving to political appointment of judges. When the American administration criticizes another democratic country's internal policy, that's strange in itself, but to criticize it for aspiring to adopt the American model? In America, there's nothing more political than Supreme Court appointments. Much of the external criticism of Israel isn't just unfounded in facts; it's simply hypocritical. And regarding what's happening inside Israel, there's no doubt that regulating powers between government branches is a major challenge."

Murray has written plays, biographies, and non-political books, but gained fame through his ideas and no less through his brilliant ability to clothe them in sharp, precise formulations – both written and spoken. His published books have become international bestsellers, and the subsequent series of public lectures have drawn audiences of thousands.

In 2017, Murray published "The Strange Death of Europe: Immigration, Identity, Islam," which remained on the Sunday Times bestseller list for 20 weeks, even reaching the top spot. Since then, the book has been translated into dozens of languages. Murray argued in the book that Europe is committing suicide by allowing culturally hostile foreign immigration into its territory and losing its "faith in its religion." In days when Europe's ruling elite, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, pursued an open-door policy flooding Western Europe's wealthy nations with millions of Muslims from the Middle East, Murray's statements were seen as subversive. Instead of engaging with them, the left – true to form – rushed to label him an Islamophobe, dismissing him outright as an extremist and presenting his concerns about the West's fate in the face of Europe's quiet conquest by Muslims as paranoia.

Seven years later, even Murray's critics would find it hard to deny the new European reality, which proves daily that Merkel and her ilk were wrong, and he was right all along. If, in 2017, critics still dared to mock the "apocalyptic picture" of future Europe in Murray's book, this picture is no longer confined to the book's pages. It has taken over Amsterdam's alleys, established itself in Paris's squares, and doesn't skip the streets of Berlin, Brussels, or London. The apocalypse has arrived, and anyone who still doesn't notice its presence is invited to walk through European cities' Muslim neighborhoods wearing a visible Star of David or cross.

On Mary and the Mob

As ridiculous as the attempt by pop Marcionists to strip the Virgin Mary of her Jewishness is, it is dangerous to downplay it. The revival of this ancient Christian heresy is happening in Western societies undergoing a vile renaissance in antisemitic rhetoric and violence. On elite college campuses as well as in the streets of cities like London and Montreal, pro-Palestinian Jew-haters openly celebrate Hamas and Hezbollah.

Modern history shows us where weaponized Marcionism can lead. In 1939, the Nazis founded The Institute for the Study and Elimination of Jewish Influence on German Church Life, for the purpose of “defense against all the covert Jewry and Jewish being” that had polluted the West. The Institute dedicated itself to “understanding Christian German being” in light of this refined knowledge.

Founded with the participation of eleven German Protestant churches, the Institute refashioned Jesus as an Aryan persecuted by Jews. Galilee, where Jesus grew up, was in this view a region inhabited by Aryans—Assyrians, Persians, Indians—who were forced to convert to Judaism. Jesus, then, who in reality died as a Jew, was really an Aryan martyr. When anti-Mary activists shout “Jesus was Palestinian!” you’d better believe there is precedent.

“The Institute shifted Christian attention from the humanity of God to the divinity of man: Hitler as an individual Christ, the German Volk as a collective Christ, and Christ as Judaism’s deadly opponent,” writes Susannah Heschel in her 2010 book The Aryan Jesus: Christian Theologians and the Bible in Nazi Germany.

It has been said that heresy emerges when people take a portion of the truth and turn it into the truth’s entirety. For believers in the Gospel accounts, there is no gainsaying that Jesus of Nazareth died in part because his claim to be the messiah outraged Jewish religious authorities, who demanded his death as a blasphemer. As much as Christians today may despise how our ancestors in the faith used charges of deicide to justify persecuting Jews over the generations, it is intellectually unjustifiable to rewrite Scripture, in effect, to compensate for sins of the past.

That said, it is also the case that Pontius Pilate, the Roman governor, could have saved the life of a man he judged to be guilty of no crime, but instead chose political expediency in killing him.

What’s more, in contemporary Christian understanding, the responsibility for deicide lies not simply with the Jewish religious authorities and the Roman political authorities, but with every single human being. This is why, in the Holy Week liturgies of the Roman Catholic Church, the entire congregation recites the words of the mob in Jerusalem: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” (Luke 23:21). It continues to this day, in the hearts and minds of every believer. As an Orthodox priest once told me in confession, every time we sin, we in some sense crucify Jesus again.

The Executive Council of Australian Jewry issued a report on antisemitic incidents since October 2023.

It is horrifying.

Here are some examples of physical assaults on Jews, as Jews, over the year:

• Physical assault of a 44-year-old Jewish man in a public park by three males; who asked if he supported Israel, then threatened “I’ll kill you!”; he was hit to the ground, and three men repeatedly punched and kicked him, including multiple punches to the head, called him a “Jew dog” and other slurs; he sustained two black eyes, concussion and four fractures to his spine, and was hospitalised for four days, Arncliffe, Sydney (28 Oct. 2023).

• Physical assault and verbal abuse of an identifiably Jewish boy who was called a “dirty Jew” and slapped in the face by a group of youths at Bounce, in Osborne Park, Perth (29 Oct. 2023).

• Male exited a 7/11 store and started physically attacking a Jewish man outside, with punches while screaming “dirty rotten Jew cunt” at the Jewish man and others on the street, and made multiple threats to kill the Jewish man, some witnesses intervened and pushed the male away, St Kilda, Melbourne (8 Nov. 2023).

• A Jewish man was hit by a large rock and injured, requiring medical treatment, by an anti-Israel protester across the road from a synagogue, Caulfield, Melbourne (10 Nov.2023).

• A group of 10-15 males shouted “Fuck the Jews” at several Jews, then threw shoes at them, and spat at them, St Kilda, Melbourne (6 Jan. 2024).

• The occupants of a vehicle threw eggs at a group of identifiable Jews walking home from Shabbat dinner, Balaclava, Melbourne (19 Jan. 2024).

• Verbal abuse and harassment and physical assault of a Jewish student in Year 10, by a student in his class who told the Jewish student to “Go back to the gas chambers”, said “Heil Hitler” in his face, performed a Nazi salute in class, cheered during a video when it stated that Hitler sent Jews to the gas chambers, used Hitler and swastika symbols on Google classroom, and shoved the Jewish student; Sydney (5 Feb. 2024).

• Physical abuse of a 77-year-old Jewish woman who was spat on, threatened and kicked multiple times, by protesters opposing a rally to counter antisemitism, outside Victorian Parliament House, Melbourne (19 May 2024).

• The passenger of a vehicle yelled "Israel" at an identifiable Jew, then threw a can of Red Bull towards him, St Kilda, Melbourne (3 Aug. 2024).

• A male in a group of 8 to 10 teenage males yelled "Fucking Jews!" at two Jews, then one of the males approached one of the Jews and punched him in the face, Caulfield, Melbourne (1 Sep. 2024).

And some graffiti:

This is only the tip of the iceberg. Yet these incidents have not been nearly as publicized as those in Europe and the US.

(h/t Jill)

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!

By Daled Amos

Going through old articles, I came across this:

The conflict also mobilized anti-Israel views around the world. Turkey and other forces opposing Israel consulted with Iran about a full-court diplomatic press against the Jewish state. Gangs of men in New York, California, London and across Europe attacked Jews and synagogues, threatening to “rape” Jewish women. Rabbis were attacked.

The unprecedented outpouring of far-right Palestinian nationalist hooligans driving around in convoys searching for Jews to attack in the US and Europe was a new phenomenon caused by this conflict.

Obviously, this is not something new.

But this article is talking about May 10-21, 2021, known as Operation Guardian of the Walls.

The ADL reported at the time that "outside of the [Middle East] region, there was a surge of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish communities and individuals in the United States and around the world."

In the US

The ADL reported a 75% increase in antisemitic incidents, many blaming American Jews for the actions taken by Israel. There were approximately 200 anti-Israel rallies across the US. Many of the rallies were peaceful, but some speakers, signs, and chants used language that attacked Jews and Zionists.

o May 23 (Redondo Beach, CA): A synagogue received an antisemitic and harassing email from an unknown sender who wrote: "Die fucking jew cockroaches! Israel = racism, apartheid, genocide."
o  May 22 (New York, NY): A Jewish man wearing a Star of David necklace was punched by a man who allegedly asked him, “What is that around your neck, does that make you a fucking Zionist?"
o  May 22 (Brooklyn, NY): Three men allegedly drove around Borough Park harassing and assaulting Jewish individuals, including teenagers. They yelled antisemitic slurs as well as, "Free Palestine." The men also kicked a synagogue's doors and broke a car mirror.
o  May 20 (New York, NY): A Jewish man was beaten by a group of anti-Israel protestors in Times Square. In another incident, anti-Zionist protestors shouted, "Fucking Zionists" and threw fireworks at passersby, injuring one, in midtown Manhattan's Diamond District, which is home to many Jewish-owned businesses.
o  May 18 (Los Angeles, CA): A group of Jewish diners at a kosher restaurant were allegedly assaulted by a group of individuals. The attackers reportedly arrived in cars carrying Palestinian flags and yelled antisemitic slurs.
o  May 18 (Bal Harbour, FL): A Jewish family was walking home from synagogue when they were harassed by a group of individuals in a car who allegedly yelled, “Free Palestine!” “F**k the Jews!” “Die Jew!”

In its 2021 report on the international reaction, ADL points out:

During the 2014 conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas, dangerous incidents occurred in a similar context: attempts to breach synagogues while worshippers were inside; Molotov cocktails and other projectiles thrown at synagogues; and unprovoked assaults on Jews on the street with expressed linkage to the conflict. Jewish communities remember these incidents and worry about similar attacks.

The ADL mentions 2014, but not Operation Black Belt in 2019. In its 2019 report, the ADL reports that
Antisemitic Incidents Hit All-Time High in 2019, but does not mention the operation or of November, when the operation took place.

That 2014 ADL report, Violence And Vitriol: Anti-Semitism Around the World During Israel’s Operation Protective Edge – July-August 2014 begins:

Once again, “Death to Jews!” and “Jews to the gas!” are heard in Europe. Once again, Jewish communities around the world are paying for the perceived “sins” of Israel.

Going a step further, the 2014 ADL report notes that in response to antisemitic incidents during Operation Cast Lead during December 2008-2009:

As Israel defends her citizens from Hamas’ missiles, Jews around the world have also come under attack. Jews have been beaten on the street. Synagogues have been fire-bombed. “Jews to the gas” has been chanted at anti-Israel demonstrations. Newspapers in the Arab world and in Latin America have published pieces making blatant comparisons between Israel and the Nazis’ perpetration of the Holocaust.

The point is that public attacks on Jews in the streets today is not something new, nor should it have been unexpected. But we are seeing a change in degree as well as in kind. The groundwork has been laid for those taking advantage.

The ADL reported that during the one month between October 7 and November 7, 2023, there were 832 antisemitic incidents, including assault (30), vandalism (170), and harassment (632) in the US--an average of almost 28 incidents each day. That is a 316% increase over the 200 incidents during the same time in 2022.

But now there are rallies showing admiration for the Hamas terrorists. Anti-Israel activists are coming out publicly in support of Hamas without fear of consequences.

This is not an issue of spontaneous attacks on Jews and Jewish institutions. Nor is it just a problem of these attacks becoming more intense and widespread. And the protests are more public and in-your-face as we saw during the Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Screen grab of YouTube video

Now there are groups behind the protests, orchestrating for maximum effect. They are taking advantage of a phenomenon that has existed for many years. In the process, they go beyond free speech and deliberately disrupt both the US and Europe.

In the US, the Biden administration has not confronted the situation. One would like to think that the Trump administration will be more active in dealing both with antisemitism in general as well as with the threat to society in general.

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!

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden was seen having purchased a book by professor Rashid Khalidi called " "The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917-2017"

Khalidi has been called the most significant Palestinian intellectual of his generation, the successor to Edward Said, and the preeminent living historian of Palestine. He recently retired as a professor at Columbia University. This year he was a leader of the anti-Israel protests there.

Khalidi is not a good historian. He is a propagandist. I've pointed out his lies many times in the past.

The very title of his book is sophisticated propaganda. Khalidi, like most anti-Israel activists, frames the conflict as something that is a century old, a conflict that was started by Jews and Western colonialists against the native Palestinian Arabs. His response to October 7 is saying that the Jews started the war, not the peaceful Palestinians.

By coincidence, this weekend also saw Haaretz publish a lengthy interview with Khalidi where he emphasized that very point: "You have to pretend that history started on October 7 or on June 7, 1967, or on May 15, 1948. But that's not the way history works."

To Khalidi, history begins with the Balfour Declaration. But, as he says, that's not the way history works.

At the end of the interview, Khalidi unloads the biggest lie in the anti-Israel propaganda arsenal:

What do you wish Israelis understood better about the conflict?

"They need to understand something that's very hard for them to grasp: how the Palestinians and the rest of the world see the situation. It's seen from the beginning as an attempt to create a Jewish state in an Arab country. This is not some innocent bunch of refugees arriving in their ancestral homeland and suddenly being attacked by wild men and women. They arrive and do things that generate everything that follows; their very arrival and the structures with which they arrive create the conflict.

"Was there ever a Jewish-Arab conflict in Palestine in the 18th century, 17th century, 19th century, 15th century, 12th century? No. This is not a conflict that's been going on from time immemorial. You have to put that self-justifying version of history aside.

Khalidi is not ignorant. He is a liar. He knows as well as anyone that the Arabs and Muslims of Palestine treated the Jews horribly before Zionism. he just doesn't want you to know that.

I have catalogued a number of examples from primary sources in the 19th century and before the Balfour Declaration - the sort of thing a historian is supposed to do and that Khalidi refuses to do when the facts do not support his propaganda. Here is a summary of several examples I put together last year:

W. B. Lewis, 1824:

The Jews at Jerusalem, (I speak even of European Jews) are liable to be stopped by the lowest of the country, who, if he pleases, may demand money of them as a right due to the mussulman ; and this extortion may be practised on the same poor Jew over and over again in the space of ten minutes.

The Jews are fond of frequenting the tombs of their forefathers, especially on particular days, to read their prayers of remembrance of the dead. Here advantage is taken of them again. They are rudely accosted and pilfered, and if resistance is made, they are beat almost to death, and this not by common highwaymen or Bedouin Arabs, but by men they may have been in the habit of seeing and talking with every day.

The book "Stirring Times: Or, Records from Jerusalem Consular Chronicles of 1853 to 1856" by James Finn, British consul to Jerusalem, describes the financial extortion Muslims practiced on Jews:

In times gone by these native Jews had their full share of suffering from the general tyrannical conduct of the Moslems, and, having no resources for maintenance in the Holy Land, they were sustained, though barely, by contributions from synagogues all over the world. This mode of supply being understood by the Moslems, they were subjected to exactions and plunder on its account from generation to generation (individuals among them, however, holding occasionally lucrative offices for a tune). This oppression proved one of the causes which have entailed on the community a frightful incubus of debt, the payment of interest on which is a heavy charge upon the income derived from abroad.

…Notwithstanding these glimpses of honorary distinction the Jews are humiliated by the payment, through the Chief Rabbi, of pensions to Moslem local exactors, for instance the sum of 300£. a year to the Effendi whose house adjoins the ' wailing place,' or fragment of the western wall of the Temple enclosure, for permission to pray there; 100£. a year to the villagers of Siloam for not disturbing the graves on the slope of the Mount of Olives ; 50£ a year to the Ta'amra Arabs for not injuring the Sepulchre of Rachel near Bethlehem, and about 10£ a year to Sheikh Abu Gosh for not molesting their people on the high road to Jaffa...

From Remarks on the present condition and future prospects of the Jews in Palestine, by Arthur George Harper Hollingsworth, 1852:

This Jewish population is poor beyond any adequate word ; it is degraded in its social and political condition, to a state of misery, so great, that it possesses no rights. It can shew no wealth even if possessed of it, because to display riches would secure robbery from the Mahometan population, the Turkish officials, or the Bedouin Arab. ... He creeps along that soil, where his forefathers proudly strode in the fulness of a wonderful prosperity, as an alien, an outcast, a creature less than a dog, and below the oppressed Christian beggar in his own ancestral plains and cities. No harvest ripens for his hand, for he cannot tell whether he will be permitted to gather it. Land occupied by a Jew is exposed to robbery and waste. A most peevish jealousy exists against the landed prosperity, or commercial wealth, or trading advancement of the Jew. Hindrances exist to the settlement of a British Christian in that country, but a thousand petty obstructions are created to prevent the establishment of a Jew on waste land, or to the purchase and rental of land by a Jew. “
...What security exists, that a Jewish emigrant settling in Palestine, could receive a fair remuneration for his capital and labour? None whatever. He might toil, but his harvests would be reaped by others; the Arab robber can rush in and carry off his flocks and herds. If he appeals for redress to the nearest Pasha, the taint of his Jewish blood fills the air, and darkens the brows of his oppressors ; if he turns to his neighbour Christian, he encounters prejudice and spite ; if he claims a Turkish guard, he is insolently repulsed and scorned.
,,,Now, how is this poor, despised, and powerless child of Abraham to obtain redress, or make his voice heard at the Sublime Porte? The more numerous the cases of oppression, (and they are many), the more clamorous their appeals for justice, the more unwillingly will the government of the Sultan,—partly from inherent and increasing weakness, partly from disinclination,—act on the side of the Jew. They despise them as an execrated race ; they hate them as the literal descendants of the original possessors of the country. ...

From "Sir Moses Montefiore's Report to the Board of Deputies of British Jews," 1867:

On Saturday, April 14th [1866], after the morning service, I took a walk round the garden, and was much pleased with the improvement of the place since my last visit to Jerusalem.
I regret, however, not being able to report the same of the land at Jaffa, which has been unfortunately let to persons who, being unable to resist the threatened attacks of the neighboring Arabs, deserted the place altogether. The consequence is, that the houses are completely demolished and the trees destroyed.

From the book The Rob Roy on the Jordan, Nile, Red sea, & Gennesareth, published in 1870 by John MacGregor:

From Narrative of a Modern Pilgrimage Through Palestine on Horseback, and with Tents By Alfred Charles Smith, 1871:

The Jews at Jerusalem were singularly forbearing with strangers, and—considering their general antipathy to all Gentiles—were almost civil and obliging. This unnatural good-will might perhaps be due in part to my escort, the well-known Yakoob ; perhaps, too, in part to their own despised condition, for, scarcely tolerated and often persecuted as they are by their Muslim rulers, they dare not show an illiberal spirit, or display any tokens of religious hostility or rancour through fear of retaliation

I list other examples of attacks on Jews, including pogroms, here.

The American Jewish Yearbook of 1914-1915 describes all these incidents in Palestine:

August. Bedouins attack colony of Rehobot, killing one colonist and wounding several others. --Rehobot vineyards penetrated by villagers from Zernuka, who kill Jewish student.

November. At colony of Kinneret two Jewish watchmen murdered by Arabs.

December. Near Tiberias, two colonists killed and several injured by Arabs.

January. At Hebron, Jewish storekeepers are boycotted by Mohammedan women.

April. Minister of Interior removes Governor of Tiberias on complaint of Chief Rabbi of his laxity in protecting the Jews against Arab attacks.

May. Minister of Interior orders officiais in Palestine to repress all anti-Jewish manifestations.—Chief Rabbi waits on Minister of Interior and reads to him two violent articles in Arab journal Palestine, and warns him that any disorders that might result therefrom would create bad impression abroad.

Many more listed here, including in 1911: September 23: Arabs assault about sixty worshippers at religious service on Rosh Hashanah at Wailing Wall.

Khalidi cannot be ignorant of these facts. He just doesn't want you to know them.

Indeed, as I showed here, 19th century Palestinian Arabs started respecting Jews only when world powers started showing interest in the region by placing Jews under their protection. When the Jews of Jerusalem and elsewhere had no legal recourse before the mid-1800s, the Arabs mercilessly abused them - extorting, stealing, beating them, and even murdering them with impunity. Only when the Jews gained some political power and outside powers pressured the Muslim Ottoman Empire to punish their attackers did the Arabs start to back off and even some started treating some Jews with respect.

In short, the Arabs respected Jewish power. But they never, ever, respected Jews, in any century.

In the wake of October 7, Khalidi's book that Biden purchased went back to the top of the New York Times bestseller lists for 39 weeks. The liars like Khalidi have spent decades honing their arguments. Even though anyone with access to Google Books and 19th century newspaper archives can demonstrate that these people are lying, the media and most academics simply do not want to see their heroes exposed as the liars they are.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!