Tuesday, December 03, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
I am almost ready to announce my cartoon book: "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" Stay tuned!
Meanwhile, here are some cartoons I hadn't yet posted on the blog.
(Amsterdam)
Tuesday, December 03, 2024
Tuesday, December 03, 2024
Elder of Ziyon
Everybody is talking about the hostages who are being held so violently, inhumanely, and against the will of the entire World, in the Middle East - But it’s all talk, and no action! Please let this TRUTH serve to represent that if the hostages are not released prior to January 20, 2025, the date that I proudly assume Office as President of the United States, there will be ALL HELL TO PAY in the Middle East, and for those in charge who perpetrated these atrocities against Humanity. Those responsible will be hit harder than anybody has been hit in the long and storied History of the United States of America. RELEASE THE HOSTAGES NOW!
This is very nice, and it has helped the families of the hostages feel better.
But what, in reality, can Trump do to help gain the release of the hostages?
The open-ended threat is itself a useful tool - if it gets taken seriously by Hamas. Together with other factors like Israel successfully decoupling Hezbollah from Gaza, it could help prompt Hamas to be more flexible in hostage negotiations.
This is all assuming that Hamas can still operate as a top-down organization that actually controls the whereabouts and treatment of the hostages, which is not at all obvious.
But if Trump enters office without a hostage release, and doesn't do anything major, it makes America look weak. It would be no different from Obama's "red line" on chemical weapons in Syria or Biden's "Don't!" to Iran on attacking Israel.
If Hamas ignores the threat, what can the US do that Israel has not done?
Trump isn't going to bomb Gaza. There are already sanctions against Hamas leaders.
The US can stop pressuring Israel on humanitarian aid which is going to strengthen Hamas. That's something, but not much.
The most effective thing that could be done is also unlikely. Trump could pressure Qatar to stop propping up and supporting Hamas. But, as Jewish Insider notes, "[W]hen it comes to Qatar, the president-elect has been friendly, including hosting the Qatari emir in Florida in September and appointing former Qatar lobbyist Pam Bondi as attorney general and Steve Witkoff, who has financial ties to Doha, as Middle East envoy."
Trump can certainly strengthen sanctions on Iran to what they were before the Biden administration, but he would have done that anyway.
There may be some ways to pressure Turkey to pressure Hamas. But these are all diplomatic efforts, not "all hell to pay."
Trump may be hoping that his threat will prompt Hamas to release at least the American hostages the way Iran released the US Embassy hostages as soon as Ronald Reagan took office out of a vague fear that something bad could happen to the hostage takers. But this is a risky game.
While Trump's actions are always a wildcard, calling his bluff doesn't seem to leave many viable options. This could weaken his effectiveness throughout his term.
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- Tuesday, December 03, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
On November 24, the Washington Post published an editorial against the ICC decision to issue arrest warrants on Benjamin Netanyahu and Yoav Gallant. It briefly discussed the "complementarity" issue:
Israel haters are putting together their "evidence" of the fictional vaporization weapon. Their proofs are just as bogus as the "genocide" charge, but by stringing together previously reported lies and half-truths, they are trying to make a plausible case. An obscure Indian site called "Defense Mirror" does it this way:
Israel needs to be held accountable for its military conduct in Gaza. After the conflict’s end — which is long overdue — there will no doubt be Israeli judicial, parliamentary and military commissions of inquiry. Israel’s vibrant, independent media will do its own investigations. Some Israeli reserve soldiers have already been arrested over accusations of abuse against Palestinian detainees. More investigations will follow. The ICC is supposed to become involved when countries have no means or mechanisms to investigate themselves. That is not the case in Israel.A "legal scholar" from Egypt named Abdelghany Sayed, currently a graduate student in England, responds in Al Jazeera.
Complementarity in no way means that the elected officials and independent judiciary of a democratic state shall enjoy immunity from ICC prosecution. Instead, it means that Israel needs to show it has active investigations. The fact of Israel’s inactivity in relation to war crimes and crimes against humanity by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defence Minister Yoav Gallant in and of itself already means that the complementarity assessment has been exhausted and the court may proceed.And even if it were active, Israel would need to demonstrate the willingness and ability to genuinely prosecute the perpetrator and conduct. The law of the ICC allows it to intervene if the “investigative activities undertaken by the domestic authorities are not tangible, concrete and progressive”, as laid out in a decision in the case of Ivory Coast first lady Simone Gbagbo, accused of crimes against humanity.
First of all, the war is still going on. To say that Israel must mount an investigation on its top leaders during a war - and its failure to do so is evidence that it has no ability to independently investigate any crimes - is insane.
But the absurdity of the argument doesn't end there.
Before Israel can investigate itself for genocide, there needs to be a shred of evidence for genocide. There isn't any. Genocide requires intent, and every sane Israeli from the right to the left knows that there is no intent to wipe out the people of Gaza. Every piece of evidence proffered by Israel's enemies for genocide has been handily refuted by actual facts that show that the supposedly genocidal statements are twisted and Israel's military actions are consistent with what every army would do under the same circumstances
According to people like Sayed, the "genocide" charge requires no solid evidence. Just the repetition of the charge by antisemites is enough to make it respectable enough to be investigated. And, they say, if Israel doesn't mount an investigation around every bogus accusation, that is proof that it is unwilling to investigate itself and therefore the ICC must step in.
Calls for investigation of bogus charges against Israel is a standard playbook by antisemites. In 2010, the "Palestine Telegraph" made up a story that Israeli teams helping earthquake victims in Haiti were stealing their organs, and former British MPO Jenny Tonge called for an independent investigation - for Israel's own good, of course. “To prevent allegations such as these — which have already been posted on YouTube — going any further, the IDF and the Israeli Medical Association should establish an independent inquiry immediately to clear the names of the team in Haiti,” she said.
Last week, Hamas called for an independent investigation into the absurd lie that Israel is using illegal weapons to "vaporize" Gazans.
* The head of Gaza's Health Ministry accuses Israel of using weapons that vaporize bodies.
* The EuroMed Monitor NGO made the same accusation in May, suggesting Israel might be using thermobaric weapons.
* Antony Loewenstein wrote a book that claims that Israel uses experimental weapons in Gaza in order to be able to market them worldwide.
Put them together, and antisemites have all the proof they need!
The bogus evidence for this mythical weapon was bolstered by Electronic Intifada in September:
Did Israel kill my friend Bashar Abed al-Wahad along with his family by using banned thermal weapons?I learned that when a civil defense crew came to find the bodies left under the rubble of the house they shared in Gaza City’s al-Daraj neighborhood which was bombed in August, they didn’t find any human remains.This suggests Israel might have used special munitions – like thermobaric bombs – that can vaporize human bodies.
Only one problem. The bodies of the family were recovered and transferred to the Baptist Hospital. They weren't "vaporized." The Gaza writer lied to create this story, which was reproduced numerous times on social media. Now it is part of the canon that Israel uses vaporizing weapons.
(By the way, there are still body remains even with the most powerful thermobaric weapons. Outside of nuclear bombs, I cannot find any weapons that "vaporize" bodies.)
In other words, anyone can make up a lie, whether it is "genocide" or "vaporizing weapons," and given enough time to dig up or manufacture evidence, make a case that it is worthy of "investigation." And if Israel refuses to mount such an investigation - because it knows it is not engaged in genocide nor in manufacturing vaporizing ray guns - that is considered evidence that it is covering up its crimes.
Calls for "independent investigations" is a means to make a lie sound plausible. In genocide case, the ICC willingly went along.
The playbook of the "vaporizing" case is the exact same thing. Falsely accuse Israel, support it with lies, and then use the Big Lie technique: let the Israel haters repeat it until people believe it. Israel's denials are just more evidence of its "truth."
- Tuesday, December 03, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
On November 18, at the daily State Department briefing, spokesperson Matthew Miller said:
What I would say on behalf of the United States is that we don’t believe the leaders of a vicious terrorist organization should be living comfortably anywhere, and that certainly includes in a major city of one of our key allies and partners. Remember that Hamas is a brutal terrorist organization that has murdered a number of Americans, continues to hold to this day seven American citizens hostage, and of course that’s not even to speak of the citizens of other countries that it has murdered and that it has held hostage.So to the extent that members of Hamas are in Türkiye or in any country, look, a number of these individuals are under U.S. indictment, have been under U.S. indictment for some time, and we believe that they should be turned over to the United States.
As soon as I read that, I tweeted:
Has the @StateDept told this to Jordan regarding Ahlam Tamimi?
After all, it is the exact same situation. A Hamas terrorist, who is under US indictment, is living comfortably under a US ally, Jordan, which is actively protecting her.
In 2017, the US Justice Department announced:
A criminal complaint was unsealed today charging Ahlam Aref Ahmad Al-Tamimi, also known as “Khalti” and “Halati,” a Jordanian national in her mid-30s, with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction against U.S. nationals outside the U.S., resulting in death. The charge is related to the defendant’s participation in an Aug. 9, 2001, suicide bomb attack at a pizza restaurant in Jerusalem that killed 15 people, including two U.S. nationals. Four other U.S. nationals were among the approximately 122 others injured in the attack. Also unsealed today was a warrant for Al-Tamimi’s arrest and an affidavit in support of the criminal complaint and arrest warrant. The criminal charge had been under seal since July 15, 2013.
Maybe Matt Lee of the AP read my tweet, because the very next day, he asked Miller:
MATT LEE: If it is, in fact, true that you press countries to return or to extradite people indicted in U.S. courts, what about the woman in the Sbarro bombing in Israel years ago who’s been living free in Jordan now? There was long talk of her – of efforts to get her extradited, and nothing has ever come of them. So why should these Hamas guys worry if you’re just going to —
MR MILLER: Matt, I’m going to admit you’re speaking to a case that predates my tenure, that I have a limited, at best, factual understanding of it, so I shouldn’t speak to it. But when it comes to these terrorists who are members and leadership of a group who continue to hold Americans hostage, we do think it’s appropriate that they face justice.
Funny. Because this is not the first time Lee asked Miller about Tamimi. And not the first time Miller deflected the question.
Today Secretary Blinken hosted King Abdullah. What is the State Department doing to get Jordan to extradite Ahlam Tamimi, a terrorist wanted by the U.S. for a bombing that killed two Americans in 2001?MR MILLER: So as it pertains to your first question, I’m going to defer comment to the Department of Justice, as we always do when it pertains to matters of extradition.
Following up on a question I asked yesterday regarding Ahlam Tamimi, who’s a terrorist wanted by the United States, did Secretary Blinken bring up that case in his meeting yesterday with King Abdullah?MR MILLER: I don’t have any further readouts, other than the note we issued publicly.
How can Miller say he is not familiar with the case now when he has been asked about it twice before this year?
The annual State Department country report on terrorism Jordan said in 2022 under the Jordanian entry:
The United States has continually emphasized to Jordanian authorities the importance of holding Ahlam al-Tamimi accountable in a U.S. court for her admitted role in a 2001 bombing in Jerusalem that killed 16 people, including Americans Malki Roth, Shoshana Greenbaum, and Chana Nachenberg. While the United States considers the extradition treaty with Jordan to be in force as a matter of international law, the Government of Jordan’s position, citing the ruling of its highest court, is that its Constitution forbids the extradition of Jordanian nationals. The United States continued to impress upon the GoJ the importance of this case and continued to seek all viable options to bring Tamimi to justice.
(Even though the State Department is required by law to issue these reports every year by April 30, no reports were published in 2023 or 2024.)
It seems disingenuous, at the very least, for the State Department spokesperson to claim ignorance on a case that has been around for decades, especially when the State Department itself writes about the importance of extradition.
It sure sounds like the stated desire to bring a terrorist who murdered Americans to justice is not real, but only words meant to shut up the bereaved parents of the victims and the many people who want justice for Malki Roth and the other victims of Ahlam Tamimi.
Wouldn't the State Department spokesperson be familiar with a "foremost priority for the United States" as said by the Secretary of State?
We won't be quiet about this horrible miscarriage of justice.
Monday, December 02, 2024
From Ian:
How the Incoming Administration Can Restore Jewish Civil Rights
How the Incoming Administration Can Restore Jewish Civil Rights
As the fall semester comes to an end, there has been only modest relief for Jewish college students in America. A series of congressional hearings throughout 2023 and 2024 led some university administrators to prevent demonstrators from taking over public spaces and the like, but institutions of higher learning remain rife with obsessive hatred of Israel. Jewish students feel threatened or targeted; many fear wearing outwardly Jewish symbols or mentioning trips to Israel lest they be ostracized as “Zionists.” Israeli students and faculty are especially likely to be harassed. The state of the campus has led many to despair.Jonathan Tobin: America’s future depends on Trump’s promise to punish woke universities
But despair is not warranted. There is in fact a lot that can be done with little more than a change in approach and by making more effective arguments. While the underlying problems that led universities to become hubs for anti-Semitism are complex and longstanding—and may take generations to fix—the federal government already has the requisite legal means to crack down on the ongoing abuses of Jewish students. It can make clear to university administrations that they will be held responsible for allowing the sort of eliminationist anti-Israel climate that has persisted on too many campuses. It can punish institutions that incentivize or ignore anti-Jewish discrimination, including with the radical step of suspending federal funds. Even admissions policies that allow significant numbers of Hamas-sympathizers into universities can come under scrutiny. A range of new policies, if enacted, would strengthen these existing legal tools further. All it will take is political will—and for Jews to make explicit what it is they want, and why that political will is due.
Of course, there are several fronts on which American Jews need to fight: we ought to engage in the battle of ideas in the academy, in the media, and in the public square; we must expose and stop foreign funding of campus protest movements (often by Iran or U.S.-designated terrorist groups), not to mention the vast social and political battle to support Israel beyond the campus. But most of this essay will focus on how to use America’s robust system of civil-rights law to make colleges and universities safe for all Jews once again.
I. Avoiding the Anti-Zionism-vs.-Anti-Semitism Trap
Before delving into civil-rights law, however, it is important to make one clarification. The anti-Israel campus agitators and their many apologists—no small number of Jews among them—insist that the campus demonstrations aren’t aimed at Jews per se, but only at the state of Israel or its policies. Universities seem to have largely accepted this argument. So long as administrators don’t condone the most obvious anti-Jewish actions by demonstrators—such as establishing no-go zones for Jews at UCLA, or stalking and assaulting Jews at Harvard—they can maintain the fiction that “anti-Zionism” is garden-variety political speech. As such, it is different in kind from anti-Jewish discrimination and cannot be punished.
After all, say the administrators, professors, and students, Zionism is a political ideology, one that stands for Jewish supremacy in a land once called Palestine. And how anti-Jewish can it be to chant “from the River to the Sea,” when so often it is chanted by Jewish activists as well?
Pro-Israel Jews, according to this logic, seek to ban legitimate political protest and restrict legitimate speech by conflating anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. And campus activists have been willing to take this argument quite far. When students at Columbia and Harvard staged demonstrations in front of campus Hillels—seemingly clear instances of targeting Jewish institutions—the apologists were ready. Their argument, paraphrased, went like this: we have no issue with Jews having a place to congregate and pray, but Hillel has an Israeli flag flying in front of it, sponsors trips to Israel, and hosts Israeli speakers. It has made itself complicit in the Israel’s crimes, and we have a right to protest its explicit political stance. With this justification, the anti-Semites have even gone a step further, calling on their schools to sever all official relations with Hillel houses or the umbrella group that maintains them. It is often said that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism because nearly all Jews support Israel. But this makes clear is that that sword is double-edged. Anti-Israel extremists feel comfortable intimidating Jews because, it is true, nearly all Jews and the institutions that serve them support Israel.
Hatred of Israel may be distinguishable from hatred of Jews in theory, but in reality they are inextricable. Campus and street activists celebrated October 7, proclaiming “glory to the martyrs” and calling for Israel’s destruction “by any means necessary.” Less than three weeks after October 7, “Glory to Our Martyrs” was projected in bright lights onto the Gelman Library building at George Washington University—an undeniable celebration of the murderers of Jews that has been echoed in many campus pamphlets, signs, and chants since then. On the first anniversary of the attacks, several campus Students for Justice in Palestine chapters wished their members a “happy October 7.” Occasionally a demonstrator will forget to substitute “Zionist” for “Jew,” or will lead an Arabic chant about Mohammad’s armies coming to destroy the Yahud.
Jewish students and advocacy groups point out such brazen examples of Jew hatred, correctly noting that the mask has slipped. They denounce their schools for permitting this bigotry, and for their double standards, as many colleges go to extreme lengths to ensure “safe spaces” for other minority groups. Some students also note the stark difference in conduct between pro-Israel and pro-Hamas campus groups; only the latter, they argue, would rejoice in the deaths of innocent civilians.
No matter. Anti-Israel groups know that the pro-Israel community is reluctant to push for sweeping expulsions or, where appropriate, prosecutions, of offending students. We hesitate to condemn our adversaries wholesale, and continue to seek out nuanced discussion with, and tailored consequences for, those who call for Israel to be wiped off the map. The anti-Zionists, meanwhile, have no such compunction. When caught explicitly championing Hamas or slandering or harassing Jews, they often blame “Zionist saboteurs,” suggesting that interlopers seek to undermine the anti-Zionist cause by using especially inflammatory language or tactics. They then continue doing much the same thing as they were doing all along: seek to anathematize the idea that Jews should be sovereign in their ancestral homeland, and to create the illusion that supporting Israel is a fringe position. Those are the goals; the strategy involves intimidating Jews in the hope that they will stay away from the public square.
Draining the swampJonathan Sacerdoti: The Oxford Union has disgraced itself
That is why Trump’s scorched-earth approach is so necessary, even as it is being denounced by the same people who are responsible for creating or perpetuating the current mess as too extreme or even needed at all.
Trump’s stated intention of “draining the swamp” throughout the federal government is being depicted as evidence of his supposed authoritarian impulses and racism. But this is exactly the sort of argument based on a high-handed dismissal of genuine concerns and problems that have caused so many Americans to lose faith both in our educational system and in Washington.
His threats can seem crude to those accustomed to politicians being guarded in their remarks. Yet the events of the last few years—starting with the moral panic about race behind the Black Lives Matter riots and then on to the post-Oct. 7 surge in antisemitism—demonstrated that a restrained “business as usual” approach won’t cut it when the collapse of our most cherished institutions is at stake. Their transformation into purveyors of neo-Marxist indoctrination and toxic ideas that enable hatred for both the West and Jews is a crisis of enormous proportions. It is happening at both the college and graduate levels, as well as in K-12 schools where leftist teachers’ unions have also imposed the indoctrination of critical race theory.
The only reasonable response to this disaster is exactly the kind of tough-minded purge that Trump has envisioned. And far from this being an uninformed or extreme approach, Trump and his transition team are consulting with experts like Christopher Rufo, author of an authoritative and essential book on the woke plague—America’s Cultural Revolution: How the Radical Left Conquered Everything—and incorporating the ideas of “Project Esther,” a serious plan for dealing with campus antisemitism produced by The Heritage Foundation.
All of this has produced panic on the left and even among mainstream liberals who have been conditioned by partisan political rhetoric to believe that Trump is a second Hitler. They worry that he is already going too far in seeking accountability for institutions that engage in racial discrimination and tolerate antisemitism under the guise of DEI “anti-racist” policies, believing that somehow this will destroy academic freedom. What his critics fail to recognize is that American education is already enduring a catastrophic transformation that has silenced dissent against woke doctrines that seek to trash the Western canon.
A necessary sledgehammer
The only way to fix it is with the same sort of Trumpian sledgehammer that tossed aside failed ideas about the Middle East in his first term that enabled him, among other important policy changes, to move the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem and forge the Abraham Accords. If that means executive orders reversing President Joe Biden’s DEI orders that created woke commissars in every federal agency and department, that should be welcomed. If it means closing the largely useless and counter-productive Department of Education and enacting far-reaching reforms that will defund institutions clinging to discriminatory ideas and actions, then that should be cheered by those who cherish the values of equal opportunity, merit and zero tolerance for hatred and discrimination.
More to the point, it will mean that policing antisemitism on campus will be shifted away from the ineffectual Title VI complaints to federal education bureaucrats to a campaign of lawsuits conducted not just by groups like the Deborah Project, valuable though they may be, but by the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Department of Justice, with all of the vast resources at its command. In this manner, a message can be sent that will likely motivate the vast majority of college administrations to discard DEI and the tolerance of hate for Jews that accompanies it.
It is impossible to know whether the new administration will succeed. But rather than worrying that he is the wrong instrument to carry out this effort or wasting time decrying his rhetoric, it’s likely that only an outlier like Trump could contemplate such a bold project or have the will to see it to its logical end. Indeed, so grave is the threat that DEI and other leftist ideas pose to the country’s future that anything short of what he has discussed would be inadequate. Instead of expressing horror at his determination to enact real change, fair-minded Americans of all faiths and in both major political parties should be rooting for him to keep his word and to do everything he promised to punish colleges and universities, in addition to any other entity that promotes the sort of woke hate that has made life for Jewish students and anyone else who dissents against the new secular orthodoxy so difficult.
The chamber of the Oxford Union, that once-proud institution, has been breached by the forces of bigotry, hatred, and mob rule.
Invited to speak against an anti-Israel motion, I attended with three colleagues, each bringing unique expertise and experience to the room. But what unfolded on Thursday night was not a debate at all. It was an assault on the very principles the Union once claimed to uphold, presided over by organisers who behaved more like a mafia than custodians of an august society dedicated to free speech.
The motion for debate was itself a grotesque provocation: “This House Believes Israel is an Apartheid State Responsible for Genocide.” Apartheid and genocide are not just loaded terms; they are distortions when applied to Israel, as I planned to explain in my speech. That the Union had decided to frame this debate around them was bad enough. It had caused some to decline their invitation to speak at all. But the problems were much deeper rooted even than students seeking attention through sensationalist wording.
This wasn’t an evening for intellectual rigour or balanced argument. From the very beginning, it was clear the organisation of this event was deeply and worryingly dishonest, aggressive and one-sided. Speakers infamous for their unhinged views were invited to confront us; we were left in the dark about who had been invited on our side. Deception and dishonesty characterised the entire run-up to the debate.
When the day finally arrived, the atmosphere in the chamber was hideous, sinister, and suffused with tension. Jews who might have attended were clearly too afraid to show up: many had written to me privately to tell me of their fears. In a packed chamber, I identified four Jewish students who sat huddled together across from me, but soon realised there were unlikely to be many more present. When I acknowledged them with a thumbs-up, they returned the gesture with a heart symbol: a fleeting moment of solidarity in what was otherwise an unrelentingly hostile environment.
The tone was set long before the debate began. The president of the Union, Ebrahim Osman Mowafy, an Egyptian Arab, seemed to me to be openly biased from the outset. His behaviour throughout the evening was not that of a neutral chair but of an orchestrator, stacking the odds against the opposition and fostering an environment of unchecked hostility. In the end, perhaps his most disgraceful speaker against Israel withdrew, seemingly intimidated by the strength of the team we had managed to assemble despite the Union’s best attempts to stop us. Having been told a student would take his place, we found out only on the night that Osman Mowafy himself would forgo the traditional impartiality of the chair’s role and speak against us himself.
From Ian:
Seth Mandel: Israel: The Mideast’s Anchor of Stability
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.Prepare for Disintegration of Syria and Rise of Imperial Turkey
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.
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.Seth Frantzman: Why hasn't Hamas faced repercussions for killing American citizens?
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.
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.
- Monday, December 02, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
history
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.
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- Monday, December 02, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian government accuses @UNWatch of "war crimes" for airing interviews of Gaza UNRWA students
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.
- Monday, December 02, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
- EoZ Antisemitism
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. "
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.
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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.
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- Monday, December 02, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
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.
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Sunday, December 01, 2024
- Sunday, December 01, 2024
- Elder of Ziyon
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.
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.
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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.
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From Ian:
Douglas Murray says 'many in Europe want to throw Israel to the crocodiles'
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.On Mary and the Mob
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.
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.
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