Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 29, 2025

Terror Unleashed: The Dangerous Cost of Hostage Freedom (Judean Rose)

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

The night before the first three women hostages were released, Prime Minister Netanyahu addressed the nation. Attempting to placate a nation appalled at the prospect of another terrorist release, the prime minister made a promise [emphasis added]. “We have established that terrorists who have killed will not be released to Judea and Samaria; they will be expelled to the Gaza Strip or abroad, and we also decided in the cabinet on a very significant reinforcement of our forces in Judea and Samaria to protect our citizens,” said Bibi.

Because we have been lied to before, we didn’t really believe this declaration. But it didn’t much matter. The only difference between a terrorist who has killed and one who hasn’t, is that in the first instance, the victims died, and in the second, they lived. That is why the distinction isn’t much comfort to the 5,700 or so Jewish residents of Beit El. Of the first 200 terrorists released in this deal, 114 of them were sent to Ramallah, adjacent to Beit El.

One woman in my town of Efrat heard that a further 22 terrorists “who have not killed” were released to Hebron, quite close to us. I asked how she knows this, since everything about the mass terrorist release has been cloaked in mystery. It turns out her son’s friend is serving there. He said he would have been safer in Gaza.

In truth, there is a general air of despondency here. Many assume that what we hear about the terrorist release is not true, or at least not the whole truth, because so little information filters down to the common man that it makes us suspicious. Others are more pragmatic. “I'm not sure it's a ‘lie’ as much as politics and hands tied and deals behind the scenes,” says Chani Ugowitz of Efrat.

Be that as it may, the lack of information has created an air of distrust. Victim families directly affected by the release have yet to be contacted by the government. Those of us who live in close proximity to locations where terrorists will now roam free, have not been briefed.

“This is a crazy complicated situation. I am so against this "deal"/ blackmail but know so many people that are going with it because they feel we had no choice. We tried the other way and it didn't work. I don't know. Makes me mad, scared, and sad,” says Ugowitz.

“It’s incredibly painful,” said another Efrat friend, Rachel Schwartz, “Statistically, half of those will do another terror attack. 170 out of 200 hundred that were released had life sentences. Varda, it is so incredibly painful. I can’t stand it.”

I had heard the same figure regarding terrorist recidivism. But it seems this figure has been updated. Lt. Col. (res.) Attorney Morris Hirsch formerly of the Military Prosecutor’s Office, writes that [emphasis added], “[As] part of the cabinet discussion going into approving the deal, the head of the Shin Bet noted that 82% of those released in the Shalit deal returned to terrorism.”

In the frightening Hebrew-language article, Without you knowing: This is how Israeli terrorists will be released back to the country, Hirsch shares a further, little known but profoundly disturbing fact, “The list of terrorists who will be released as part of the deal includes no less than 73 terrorists who hold Israeli citizenship or residency. This means they will be released back to the country.”

“Of that list, 21 terrorists are serving life sentences – that is, murderers. Of these, eight terrorists are to be released to Israel (within the 1949 armistice lines), while the rest are to be deported, although at this stage it is not clear where,” writes Hirsch. “Five of the eight are affiliated with Hamas and the rest with Fatah. All eight were arrested between 2001 and 2003, during the terror attacks initiated by the PA, starting in September 2000.”

All in all, of the 73 Israeli terrorists to be released from prison, 45 will be released into Israel, writes Hirsch, “while the remaining 28 terrorists will be deported abroad, either temporarily (3 terrorists) or permanently (25 terrorists).”

We may not know nearly enough about the terms of this deal but one thing seems certain, exactly none of the terrorists slated for release will be deported to America. President Trump wants Americans to feel safe. He doesn’t want any more innocents killed, people like Jocelyn Nungary and Riley Laken. So Mr. Trump is having these criminal elements deported. He doesn’t want them in his country.

“And there they are deporting murderers and criminals,” said Chani Ugowitz of the new administration, “while forcing us to take them to our streets with our children.

“I've gotten very harsh in my views since the war and I don't like it but I don't like how the other side has pushed me to think in an "us or them" mentality. There is no partner on the other side of the negotiation table so it becomes blackmail on their end and force on ours.”

Then too, what does it say about Israel that we’re freeing murderers into the wind? Whatever it was that was held over Bibi’s head to agree to this deal, it’s hard to hear that it was worth letting these murderers roam loose. Why would anyone even ask us to do so?

“How depressing that monsters like these are the price of getting innocent Israelis freed from the Hamas underworld,” remarked Arnold Roth, father of 15-year-old terror victim Malki Roth, murdered in a pizzeria. “and that there's no one so monstrous that Israel would keep him or her in prison if the blackmail demands were perceived as warranting an even more painful surrender.”

Meantime, outside of Israel, Jews are giving Trump's Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff multiple ovations (!) for forcing Israel into accepting Biden’s May horrific deal. Yet he managed to get not a single American hostage released.

What then, was the point?

I wonder if President Trump is aware that among the terrorists released or slated for release in this deal, are many who were convicted of murdering Americans. JD Vance begged us Israeli Americans to vote for Trump, and we did. Now we wonder at the betrayal of American Israeli victims of terror whose murderers we were leaned on to release.

Why was Israel pressed into this deal now, when we were ahead of the game, when we were winning, when we were no longer between a rock and a hard place because it was no longer Joe Biden threatening us, slow-walking arms, and supplying the enemy with cash dollars? Trump had won and could now push Hamas into releasing the captives with just a few threatening words. Why then force Israel to release murderers from Israeli jails into the wild?

Will we ever know why we were compelled by Trump to sign a bad deal months after it had been rejected? Or why not one American hostage has yet been released since this ceasefire was implemented. As of this writing, Keith Siegel is not to be released in this latest batch of hostages, and we know he is fast fading. Emily Damari was so worried about Siegel that she offered to switch places and let him go first. Hamas refused.

Keith Siegel, an dual American citizen held captive in Gaza

So we watch as no Americans are released, but the murderers of Americans like Dr. David Applebaum and his daughter Nava, who were blown up in the Hillel Café on the night before what would have been Nava’s wedding are going free in this “deal.”

Dr. David Applebaum, Nava Applebaum, murdered at the Hillel Cafe in Jerusalem

Member of the cell that killed them, released or about to be.

The same is true of the murderer of American citizen Asher Palmer and his baby son Yonatan, who were on their way to spend Shabbat with their family when their murderer stoned their car with boulders.

Asher and Yonatan Palmer, murdered when their car was stoned while driving to family for Shabbat

On the list of terrorists demanded by Hamas

Ditto the murderer of Tuvia Yanai Weissman, an American killed by a child terrorist in 2016 while shopping at a supermarket.

Out or about to be out and free as birds.

It was that last name that grabbed at my throat, as I finished scanning a new list of the terrorists to be released, this time in English, from Palestinian Media Watch (PMW). It was just before Shabbat, and I had to shut down my computer, but I remembered that one. I never could get Tuvia Yanai Weissman out of my mind, because of the photo that circulated of him with his young wife and infant son. He had such a beautiful baby face, and his wife’s face was so full of joy and light. How awful to lose her young husband with whom she was clearly smitten. I mentioned Tuvia at the Shabbat table, and my youngest son told me that Weissman’s wife is his friend’s sister.

Tuvia Yanai Weissman, a dual American citizen, murdered in a supermarket.

Every Israeli has multiple connections to multiple terror victims. Connections upon connections upon connections. That’s the way it is.

Ari Fuld, dual American citizen, murdered while talking to his wife on the phone

I wonder: does President Trump feel a connection to the American victims whose murderers are now being set free in this deal we were compelled by his man Witkoff, to sign?

Why don’t we hear President Trump threatening Hamas if they don’t release Keith Siegel, now?

Why don’t we hear Witkoff saying to Hamas, “No. You can’t have the terrorists who killed American citizens. You can’t have the murderers of Americans Marla Bennett and Ben Blustein, exchange students killed in the Hebrew University Cafeteria,” or “No. You can’t have the terrorist who killed American citizen Ari Fuld while he was standing outside a supermarket talking on the phone with his wife,” or “No. You can’t have the murderers of David and Nava Applebaum, or the murderers of Asher and Yonatan Palmer. You can’t have the murderers of Tuvia Yanai Weissman.”

Ben Blustein, American exchange student

Marla Bennett, American exchange student, who along with Ben was murdered in the Frank Sinatra cafeteria on the Hebrew University Mt. Scopus campus

Instead, we hear none of this. We hear people say things like, “What if it were your family members being held in Gaza?” as if those of us who feel as I do, that this “deal” is a horrible, unjust, and dangerous thing, are heartless.

But two things can be true at once. We are joyous at the release of each hostage, and sick at the release of murderers of loved ones we tracked down, caught, and jailed. Where is the justice for the victims?

How do you think their families feel?

And how would you feel if you lived in Beit El, and 114 murderers had just been released next door to your home?

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

I've been pointing out the antisemitic underpinnings of the media coverage of the Gaza war. The media, UN and NGOs has consistently accepted the Hamas narrative lies - their casualty numbers, most victims are women and children, starvation, genocide, indiscriminate bombings, blocking aid - while every piece of evidence offered by Israel countering the lies has been dismissed or questioned. Proof that Gaza officials blatantly lie is ignored.

The lie that Jews are inherently deceitful is not new. Here's an example from the mid-18th century.

At the time, there was a huge debate in Britain about the "Jew Bill," the Jewish Naturalization Act of 1753, which would allow foreign born Jews to become naturalized citizens without being forced to take a Christian oath. It would not, however, allow Jews to vote or hold political office.

The antisemites of the day brought forth lots of antisemitic tropes to support their opposition to the bill. This essay was the lead article of the Gloucester Journal, July 31, 1753. :

LET a Cause be ever so bad, where there is Money to pay, there will not be wanting Advocates to plead. It is not, therefore, to be wondered at that we have Writers who would gloss over the Jewish Act, endeavour to persuade us out of our Senses, and make us believe that the Jews are the best Sort of People in the World, and that wherever they come they are a National Blessing.

Much has been said about their vast Knowledge in Mercantile Affairs, as if our Commerce was in a great measure depending upon their superior Abilities. Yet the Truth is, their Commerce is but a Trifle, their Knowledge is chiefly in the Stocks, and their Arts of Merchandize are exerted principally in Exchange-alley. That the Nation gets Riches by them has been confidently asserted; that they acquire great Riches by the Nation has been sufficiently demonstrated. All that has been said in their Favour has been only by begging Questions: Let us, therefore, lay down some certain Rule for Argument; let us establish some uncontroverted Principle to reason upon, by which we may judge, Whether the Jews are, or not, in a political Light, a Benefit to the British Nation?

We will, therefore, advance this one short, but unerring, Rule, "That no Set of People whatever can be of real Service to any Community, who are notorious for acting upon dishonest Principles and contrary to Conscience."

The short Question, then, is, Whether the Jews are, in general, a People who act upon honest Principles, or not? If not, they cannot, even in a political Light, be of Service to any State. But, to judge impartially, let us consider what it is that chiefly makes Men act honestly and according to Conscience, and whether the Jews are possessed of that Principle, or not.

Everyone will acknowledge that it is not in the Power of human Laws to bind the Hearts of Men; they may, indeed, compel their outward Compliance to such Things as they enact, but Men may be very bad, and very detrimental to Society, without directly and openly infringing their Laws, because those, who are restrained from dishonest Actions only out of the Fear of Punishment from human Laws, will be ever studying to elude, and may in many Things escape, the Justice of them. It is, therefore, the Laws of God only, the Laws of Him who knows the human Heart, and the Belief of a future State of Rewards and Punishments, that can thoroughly influence the Hearts of Men to act uprightly. Now, as the Jews deny the Word of God, and disbelieve a Resurrection! they are not possessed of that chief Principle which obliges Men to act honestly and according to Conscience. Therefore, to set the bad Consequences of their Want of Conscience to those among whom they live in a clear Light, let us consider the Manner by which all of them, both Rich and Poor, maintain themselves.
—Do the Jews grow rich by trafficking abroad, and exporting the Commodities of this Country, as has been asserted? No. It is a known Truth that they export but very little. How, then, have the Rich Ones got all their Wealth? By State-jobs, Lotteries, and other iniquitous Arts of Exchange-alley!
—How do the Poor Jews get their Bread? Do any of them plough the Land or Sea? No.
—How, then, do they get their Living? By peddling about, and cheating the Public with bad and counterfeit Commodities!
—Since, then, the Rich Ones get their Money by the Arts of the Alley, and the Poor Ones live by imposing bad Wares upon the Public, Can they be said to act upon honest Principles and according to Conscience? Or, Can the Nation be really benefited by such a People?

As to our Most Holy Religion, (though it is certainly very wrong, and contrary to the True Christian Doctrine, to persecute any People on account of their Religious Principles, yet) it can never be right to encourage Infidelity so far as to incorporate the Blasphemers and Crucifiers of Christ.
—It has, indeed, been said, by those who have wrote in favour of the Jews, “That the Ruler of Heaven and Earth may have guided the Hearts of our Superiors in making this Act to naturalize them; and that it may probably be a Step towards their Conversion to the Christian Faith.”
—As to who or what guided the Hearts of our Rulers to make this Act, it may not, perhaps, be so proper to explain, though not at all difficult to guess: But to think to convert the Jews to the Belief of the Prophecies in Sacred Scripture by endeavouring to prove them to be false is certainly one of the refined Strokes of our Modern Politics.

Jews, by rejecting Christianity, prove that they cannot be trusted. QED.

The Jew Bill passed, and then months later was rescinded. Jews could not become full British citizens with equal rights until more than a century later, in 1858.

The slur of Jews as deceivers is as ingrained in the Christian world as it is in the Muslim world, where Jews are framed as breaking covenants. Today's supposedly enlightened, modern thinkers believe that they are beyond such prejudices, but the Gaza war proves otherwise. Most people believe what they want to and find justifications afterwards, and that is the dynamic at play in today's news media and human rights groups, more than willing to believe and repeat antisemitic lies while statements from Jews are automatically suspect.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

How to make Israel look like a country of religious nationalist fanatics, @Haaretzcom style

Haaretz writes:

Israel Has Bigger Share of 'Religious Nationalists' Than Any Other High-income Country

Judy Maltz Jan 28, 2025 7:00 pm IST

Religion plays a far more important role in national identity in Israel than it does in other developed countries, according to a global survey published on Tuesday by the Pew Research Center.

Israel was the only high-income country surveyed in which at least a third of the respondents said that following the predominant religion – Judaism, in this case – was a very important element of national identity. Fewer than a quarter of the respondents in the other high-income countries agreed with this statement.

Three dozen countries participated in the survey, which found that people who live in middle-income countries are more likely to be "religious nationalists" than people who live in high-income countries. Still, religious nationalists did not account for the majority of the population in any of the countries surveyed.

For the purpose of the survey, people were classified as religious nationalists if they identified with their country's historically predominant religion and took a strongly religious position on a number of questions related to the role of religion in national identity and government. The findings are based on nationally representative surveys of nearly 55,000 adults conducted between January and May of last year.

Everything Maltz writes is technically correct - and highly misleading.

First of all, Jews are both a people and a religion, so when Israelis say that being Jewish is a very important part of national identity, they interpret the question quite differently than people of most other religions.

But beyond that, the survey does not distinguish between countries that are officially associated with a religion and those where most citizens happen to belong to a religion. Israel is the only high income country surveyed that associates itself with a religion, but there are many other such countries that were not part of the survey: Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Brunei, Qatar and the UAE, and officially Christian countries like Liechtenstein, Monaco and Malta. Without including those countries, any conclusions about Israel is at best a half-truth.

Indeed, those polled in Muslim countries (including upper-middle income Muslim countries like Malaysia and Turkey) tended to be much more likely to say that Islam was a critical part of their national identity than Israelis did, and one can presume that this would be the case with high-income Muslim countries as well.

When you compare Israel to other countries that define themselves religiously, it has a much lower percentage of people who answer this question affirmatively.

Now, let's look at the headline. The first paragraphs of the article imply that more than one third of Israelis are "religious nationalists." But Pew's definition of that term is much more restrictive - something Haaretz buries further down - and the percentage of Israelis who fit that definition is only 9% (compared to 6% in the US.) This is hardly the country of religious fanatics that Haaretz wants its readers to believe.

That's a lot of missing context to promote a narrative of Israel as being uniquely religious-nationalistic fanatic.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

UN accredited NGO has been accusing Israel of inflicting a "holocaust" on Palestinians since at least 2008

The International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) is a non-governmental organization in special consultative status with the UN. It issues reports every year or so to the UN that is filled with pure Jew-hatred.

It routinely compares Israeli Jews to Nazis. For example, this submission to the UN from August 2008:

Have Jews everywhere forgotten the terrors of the Holocaust to such an extent, as to allow Israel to pursue, and inflict one on the Palestinian people?

...Unseen, and most times, unheard, because of the great Israeli lobby that would accuse us, vilify us, of anti-Semitism if we did report the grave violations. Let us, once and for all, catch on to this game plan, because for all that it is, it is simply just: an old and abused attempt at utilizing the feeling of guilt amongst some to inflict another holocaust on innocent Palestinians and to deny access to the present truths.

To those of us, to whom much has been given, much is expected! The present day Holocaust of the Palestinian people, their dignity, and their struggle for freedom will not be cancelled, as the Jewish Holocaust was not, from history. Basic humanity impels us to make a stand, to shout from the roof-tops- NOT AGAIN, NO MORE!

EAFORD accused Israel of inflicting a "holocaust" on Palestinians even the first Gaza war with Hamas, making direct comparisons between the Jewish Israelis and the Nazis.

And it repeated this blood libel in other submissions. For example, in 2014: "It is appalling that Israel, after the tragic Holocaust history of the Jews in Europe, has turned the Jewish legacy from a victim of the Nazi racist ideology into a victimizer."

Its embracing of antisemitic tropes goes back even further. In 1986, EAFORD gave their highest honor to the crackpot Paul Findlay's book on the Israel lobby, They Dare to Speak Out: People and Institutions Confront Israel's Lobby. (The entire book is on the EAFORD site.)

The UN gave EAFORD an award as a "peace messenger" the following year.

A look at EAFORD's history explains its antisemitism.

EAFORD was launched during the International Symposium on Zionism and Racism held in Tripoli, Libya in 1976, under the auspices of that human rights paragon the Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi.

Gaddafi is widely believed to have bankrolled EAFORD, which moved to Geneva. The NGO soon became accredited to the UN and gave a pretense of caring about other topics than Israel, but every submission it makes to the UN is condemning Israel.

EAFORD was also heavily involved in the infamously antisemitic Durban UN conference in 2001.

Who funds EAFORD nowadays?

Officially, the UN must receive reports on the funding of the NGOs it supports. EAFORD says on its website, "In compliance with the requirements applied to all non-governmental organizations with Consultative Status, EAFORD submits regular reports to the ECOSOC Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations regarding the sources of its funding."

I asked both EAFORD and ECOSOC for copies of these reports, and they ignored my queries.

This is just a small example of how anti-Israel NGOs end up gaining respect and prestige even when their origins and continuing work show that they are the ones who support discrimination and bigotry while pretending to fight against them.

EAFORD is an antisemitic organization by any sane definition of antisemitism. The UN's elevating EAFORD shows that the UN is no better.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

01/28 Links Pt2: The Holocaust Cannot Be Hijacked to Describe Other Conflicts; The religious mania of Owen Jones; What the Irish President Should Have Said about His Country and the Shoah

From Ian:

Elisha Wiesel: Will We Continue Giving Moral Credibility to Voices Who Say Israel Is the Villain for Refusing to Die?

Auschwitz was liberated 80 years ago Monday. The world told itself they were doing all they could - even as the railroad tracks to Auschwitz were not bombed; as the St. Louis ship, full of Jewish refugees, was turned back from Florida to Europe; as Britain froze European Jewish immigration to the British Mandate for Palestine, preventing the escape of hundreds of thousands who could have been saved.

It is hard to look evil in the face. To see the jihadists in Gaza fire rifles in the air as 90 Palestinian prisoners were exchanged for three Israeli women. One of the terrorists set to be released by Israel is Abu Warda, who was responsible for killing 45 civilians in the 1996 bus bombings in Jerusalem. Does he occupy the same moral universe as these women?

It is easier to believe that this militant mob wants their own state than to hear, really hear, what they shout: that their mission is the eradication of Israel. Americans must not forgive Hamas. We must confront evil when and where we see it.

Will we continue explaining away the images of non-uniformed Palestinian civilians celebrating - and actively aiding Hamas - in the Oct. 7 attacks? Will we continue confusing the concepts of perpetrator and victim? Will we continue giving moral credibility to voices who say that the tiny nation of Israel is the villain for refusing to die?

Seth Mandel: Food for Thought for the Anti-Zionists

Perhaps one reason this type of vandalism has so few defenders even among progressives is because they like to claim that anti-Zionism is not anti-Semitism—and the accusations of food appropriation demolish that ridiculous fiction like almost no other argument.

Israel is the name of a geographic location; if you are upset about Israelis eating or making a particular kind of food it is because you actually object to Jews eating or making that food. The fact that a person in one region of the world would be eating the same food as his neighbor across the street is unremarkable. But when one of those two people is a Jew, it becomes fodder for the fever swamps.

You will not find, for example, vandalism by Syrian activists against Palestinian-identified shops for making a version of a dish in, say, Nablus even though the dish predates Palestinian Arab nationalism. Which is why my Syrian Jewish friends, as they cook their centuries-old family recipes, don’t whine about Palestinians also cooking a similar Syrian dish while putting a slightly modern twist on it and calling it Palestinian. You’d have to be insane to do something like that.

Easily my favorite such controversy, however, is the recurring one over couscous. Pro-Palestinian activists get particularly upset over seeing dishes labeled “Israeli couscous.” Columbia’s anti-Zionist professor Joseph Massad claims he once stomped out of a New York restaurant after seeing it on the menu.

A more recent example comes from Yale. Last year, students posted pictures from the dining hall purportedly showing that Israeli couscous suddenly had the “Israeli” part removed. Things had gotten so tense on campus that the school, it turned out, had decided to remove regional or cultural labels from the dishes they served. But then “Israeli couscous” reappeared. Yale explained to JTA: “In this case, Israeli Couscous is indeed an actual ingredient and is explicitly listed on the ingredient list. Considering it is the main ingredient, it is appropriate to remain in the title, and we will correct this oversight.”

The reason for this is that Israeli couscous isn’t couscous at all, and Israelis never tried to pass it off as such. It’s a relic of Israel’s early days when food manufacturers were pushed to make a grain product that was cheaper than rice. It looked like couscous but wasn’t. Israelis didn’t call it couscous. They called couscous, couscous. They didn’t call it Israeli couscous either. It acquired that name later to differentiate it in stores from couscous.

Which is to say: when something is labeled “Israeli couscous” it is not to “steal” couscous but to announce that it isn’t couscous.

This is indicative of the larger point: There are no winners in the food wars, because merely participating in this stuff makes you sound like a lunatic. Objections to Israeli food are thus helpful only because they identify people who have way bigger problems than ill-formed opinions on geopolitics.

Yisrael Medad: ‘Shofar’s call to ‘rehabilitate’ Zionism

Shofar, an interdisciplinary journal of Jewish studies whose editors are committed “to publishing a diversity of beliefs, ideas and opinions,” is a project of cooperation with Purdue University. The academic institution was beset, as were many campuses, last year with pro-Palestine rallies and demonstrations, and even set up a “Liberation Zone,” although it would seem none for any Israeli hostages. I have no information that those events had a direct influence on the publication of an issue dedicated to anti-Zionism, but it exists.

Shaul Magid of Dartmouth College led that Shofar special issue, which was devoted to “Zionism and Its Jewish Critics.” He claimed that “while some scholars argue that the concept [of Zionism] has biblical origins, most acknowledge that it is a modern Jewish iteration of Western European nationalism that emerged in the mid-nineteenth century.” Who are these “most” scholars who champion perverse purposeful ignorance? What is their academic weight? Are these the instructors properly suited to lecture university students, Jewish and non-Jewish?

Magid and fellow travelers would have us believe that the many dozens of Torah commandments, hundreds of verses of Tanach, thousands of Midrashic, Talmudic and Second Temple literature pieces, as well as thousands of rabbinic dicta and responsa spanning some 2,500 years of Jewish core religion, culture and ritual revolving around Zion, Jerusalem, the Land of Israel and a Jew’s obligations to the same are to be erased and ignored. Similarly, the constant presence of Jews residing in the Land of Israel—immigrating and traveling to it, and sending charitable dollars to those living there all during the 1,800 years of our Exile, not to mention the Return to Zion during the sixth-century BCE—is to be disregarded.

In a follow-up response, Lior Sternfeld of Penn State University addresses the topic of “Settler Colonialism, From the River to the Sea, and the Israeli Case After October 7.” He intends “to offer a way to unpack some of the volatile concepts often used to analyze the Israel-Palestine conflict.” Nevertheless, he promptly engages in a volatile position and, as if objectively, observes that “well-meaning scholars and activists have sought to rehabilitate the concept of Zionism.”

And what is the need for that? Sternfeld knows and suggests that “Zionism, at least in its twenty-first-century form, negates the very existence of Palestinian identity and Palestinian nationalism. As such, the peaceful existence of the two peoples, enjoying freedom, independence, and self-determination, could never be achieved.” All the fault of the Jews. Sorry, the Zionists. For what is Zionism if not, according to Sternfeld, “settler-colonialism”?

01/28 Links Pt1: Netanyahu is first foreign leader invited by Trump to White House; Hostages spent eight straight months in tunnels; Senate Democrats block ICC sanctions bill

From Ian:

Hamas May Be Cheering, But It Is Writhing in Pain

All the stories about how Hamas has swiftly recovered, replenished its depleted ranks with new recruits, and resumed governing contradict the realities on the ground. Hamas has not renewed any of its military capabilities and has not yet reestablished its battalions. Nor has it resumed rocket production or tunneling work. The new recruits in the displaced persons camps have not been given any real training. Its civilian apparatuses are operating on a very limited scale.

Countless tweets and videos show that the local population has learned that it can both hate Israel and despise Hamas. Several clans in southern Gaza have formed armed gangs that are prepared to clash with Hamas operatives. Hamas may have a large amount of money, but it has gotten that money by scalping goods at the civilian population's expense. Everyone knows this.

It is clear to Hamas officials that no serious sum of money is going to be given to rebuild devastated Gaza as long as they remain in control. They have been practically begging PA President Mahmoud Abbas to assume responsibility for administering Gaza, but the PA won't enter unless Hamas first disarms. Neither the Emiratis nor the Saudis will open their wallets, and Israel isn't about to let Qatar sneak its way in.

For those who have already begun to weep bitterly because Hamas survived and supposedly emerged with the upper hand, they should think again.

Seth Mandel: Qatar’s Bid to Destabilize Israeli Politics

We know, and have known for some time, that the live return of all the hostages was not on the table in December 2023. We also know that the positioning of Israeli troops was so different in December 2023 that in terms of the reality on the ground, the deal would not have looked anything like the deal that was signed earlier this month.

As a reminder, here is what then-Secretary of State Antony Blinken said a few weeks ago regarding the barriers to a deal:

“The two biggest impediments to getting that over the finish line — and we’ve been so close on several occasions and as we speak today, we’re also very close — there have been two major impediments, and they both go to what drives Hamas. One has been whenever there has been public daylight between the United States and Israel and the perception that pressure was growing on Israel, we’ve seen it: Hamas has pulled back from agreeing to a cease-fire and the release of hostages. And so there are times when what we say in private to Israel where we have a disagreement is one thing, and what we’re doing or saying in public may be another. But that’s in no small measure because with this daylight, the prospects of getting the hostage and cease-fire deal over the finish line become more distant.”

Scapegoating Israel for the lack of a deal is nothing more and nothing less than a form of diplomatic sabotage. It is what Hamas was doing then, and it is what Qatar is doing now.

But to what end? What’s the purpose of Qatari misbehavior at a time like this? The answer is that Qatar is playing games with Israel’s domestic politics. Emotions are, of course, raw. And that is especially so around the hostage deals, in which Hamas and its Western chorus line have succeeded in portraying Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as the roadblock.

We know now that this wasn’t the case all along—we know now definitively that it was Hamas acting as Lucy pulling the football away from Charlie Brown each time. But we’ve known this for quite some time. Nonetheless, Israelis had one government they could petition: their own. That petitioning morphed over time, for many in the Israeli public, into an article of faith that Netanyahu was negotiating against himself. Hamas took advantage of this and poked and prodded at Israel’s internal divisions, tormenting families and constantly reopening wounds.

That is what Qatar is doing now. The Qataris want what Hamas wanted: the destabilization of Israeli politics. And so they portray Israel as the only party to the conflict with agency. And they are willing to continue doing so, even if it maximizes the suffering of grieving Israelis.

End America’s unwise alliance with Qatar

An alliance with the U.S. — specifically, a Major Non-NATO alliance — was once the most highly coveted relationship a nation could earn, a sacrosanct pact of mutual importance. But one such alliance is now a liability for both the U.S. and its long-time allies.

Qatar, our oil-wealthy “ally” in the Persian Gulf, is funding and harboring terrorists that not only threaten American forces but are attacking long-standing American allies. Worse yet, Doha believes this terrorist/ally balance is protected because the country hosts the largest U.S. military base in the Middle East.

A U.S. base should give America leverage with the country hosting it — it should not give leverage to Iran, in the case of Iraq; and it should not give leverage to Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Houthis in the case of Qatar.

Qatar is counting on the proposition that hosting a strategically significant U.S. base insulates Doha from the repercussions of funding and supporting Hamas attacks against Israel and helping the terrorist organization survive to carry out more such attacks in the future —attacks promised by Hamas leaders from luxury hotels in Doha.

How did the Hamas political office end up in the capital of a U.S. ally? Qatar’s ambassador to the U.S. says the nation was asked by the Obama administration in 2012 to set up “indirect lines of communication” with Hamas. Doha gravely mistook the request. Qatar was certainly not asked to give Hamas billions of dollars, give its leaders a platform on Al Jazeera to call for jihad, and embed its reporters to film terrorist attacks.

There should be a cost: targeted sanctions and designations like those established by the Russian Elites, Proxies, and Oligarchs Task Force, which was set up to seize and reallocate assets to support the victims of Vladimir Putin’s aggression. The U.S. should seize assets tied to individuals and entities in Qatar for supporting terrorist groups, especially those tied to Iran, a state sponsor of terrorism. The U.S. should use those funds to replenish the U.S. Victims Of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund.

It’s time to put Doha on notice that they are jeopardizing their relationship with the U.S. by providing material support to designated terrorist groups. Qatar is clearly acting like a state sponsor of terror and should not be allowed to use the U.S. banking system to bypass existing, though not enforced, sanctions on funding Iran and its terrorist proxies.

The Real Humanitarians

Curiously, those in the West who most loudly claim to be champions of Palestinian human rights, international law, and a voice for the downtrodden have a bizarre double standard. The very people who are ordinarily the loudest advocates for the rights of refugees and asylees, are adamant that the right to leave a warzone doesn’t apply to Gazans.

Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis, Ukrainians and others are welcomed with open arms but Gazans? Well, hang on a minute, that’s much more complicated. For Gazans their advocacy is limited to outrage at both the conditions in Gaza and at the suggestion that Palestinians might choose to leave.

The absurd position these so-called humanitarians take is that survivors of what they claim is a genocide, must be prevented from leaving the place of their tragedy. What kind of monster demands that survivors of genocide live in tent cities for decades, and under the iron grip of the same oppressive regime which brought about this disastrous war in the first place?

Yet this is the position these sanctimonious hypocrites take. Instead of supporting Gazans right to rebuild their lives on their own terms, western activists fetishize Gazan suffering so they can display their professed moral virtue.

What then of the “brotherly” Arab nations? Where is their solidarity? Unless you count words, it’s just not there. Egypt, which ruled Gaza before Israel or Hamas and sits on vast tracts of empty land keeps its border slammed shut- refusing to accept any refugees. Gazans speak the same language, have the same religion and many have family ties in Egypt, but even the sick and wounded in Gaza are not permitted to leave for medical treatment unless it is to be treated in a third country. What about Yemen, which boasts of its solidarity with Gaza. Well, it turns out that the Houthi’s solidarity extends only so far as their effort to murder Israelis. They do nothing to save Gazans or reduce their suffering.

Others in the Arab world issue routine condemnations of Israel, but concrete help to Gazans other than dropping aid on their heads, or sending food which they know will be stolen by Hamas and sold for extortionate prices? Forget about it. With the exception of Bahrain and the UAE, the nations which make up the Arab League continue their decades long policy of using the Palestinians as a weapon against Israel, even though everyone knows they couldn’t care less.

Trump’s suggestion that Gazan be allowed to leave and rebuild their lives is a welcome break from the usual hot air, slander of Israel and slavish adherence to policies that have failed Arabs and Jews for decades.

Human rights advocates insist that Gazans leaving Gaza would be “ethnic cleansing”, ignoring the fact that no-one calls it this when refugees voluntarily leave other war zones, or that forcibly expelling Jews from Judea and Samaria is the preferred policy option of most govts. They aren’t humanitarians they are hypocrites.

True compassion for Gazans would be to genuinely free them. Not from Israel which left Gaza in 2005 and only went back to retrieve the hostages stolen by Hamas, but from those who claim to represent them. Hamas and Fatah do not care for Gazans, we saw in this war, and the negotiations to end it, that there is literally no-one on earth who cares less for them.

Certainly no-one serious is talking about forcing Arabs to leave Gaza, but let them leave if they wish. Let them start over in places where their children can grow up without fearing the next airstrike. Let them escape the grip of Hamas and the indifference of their “allies.”

Denying Gazans who wish to leave the chance to rebuild their lives elsewhere is not humanitarianism. It’s cruelty masquerading as solidarity.

Did the US provide Hamas with condoms that they turned into IEDs? Probably not, but UNRWA did.

In 2020, the Jerusalem Post reported:

Two years after Palestinians first started launching flaming kites and other improvised explosive devices (IEDs) like condoms and balloons into the South, the phenomenon has yet to abate.
It started with kites with burning rags or embers attached to them. Three months later, booby-trapped balloons and condoms began to be carried east toward the South, carried by winds coming off the Mediterranean Sea.
While the use of kites – a popular Middle Eastern pastime – seems to have disappeared, scores of balloons and condoms with explosive devices attached to them continue to land in schoolyards, agricultural fields and highways.
Though condoms or balloons bearing messages of “Happy Birthday” or “I ❤️ You” flying through the air may sound silly, the hard truth is that these primitive devices have wreaked havoc, burning thousands of hectares of land and causing millions of shekels of damage.

Could these condoms have come from the US taxpayer? The White House just said that they blocked a planned shipment of $50 million in condoms to Gaza.

That figure seems quite high. Condoms are not the most popular method of birth control in Gaza -

The UN has reported that the condoms that NGOs (including UNRWA) did ship to Gaza were often not used for their intended purpose:

It was noted that the amount of methods dispensed to NGOs doesn’t correspond to the number of beneficiaries they serve. During a focus group discussion (FGD) with the members of the FP steering committee in Gaza, a key informant at one NGO said, “We receive condoms from MOH but we use them for something else other than family planning. We use them to cover the head of the ultrasound probe during doing vaginal ultrasound”.

The report says, "UNRWA is the second biggest provider (27%) after the private sector (for birth control) and is the main provider in the GS (61%), much more than in the WB (11.4%)"

UNRWA almost certainly provided condoms to Hamas that were used as delivery systems for IEDs.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Last year, someone offered an online series of seminars called "Hospicing Zionism: Cognitive, somatic & ritual practice toward Jewish recovery."

Our premise is all survivors and perpetrators of Zionism will need healing and recovery...This course asks, what does healing look like for Jewish survivors of Zionism? Akin to dismantling internalized white supremacy, the invitation is to dismantle the intersecting, internalized supremacist constructs of of Zionism, whiteness, Ashkenazi normativity, ableism, Islamophobia, and anti-Semitism; and to examine the internalized and external structures of nation states, imperialism and settler colonialism. We aim to do so not just cognitively and intellectually, but also in a sturdy container of somatic practices, ritual, and deep empathic witnessing.

Wait, it gets better:

Recognizing that the soul wound of relational separation and disconnection underlies Zionism, as it does all forms of settler-colonialism, together we’ll practice deactivating the affective, cognitive and relational patterns that reinforce that separation and fuel dehumanization and violence done in our names. We are clear that through the colonial process of assimilation into whiteness, combined with intergenerational trauma, many Ashkenazi Jews have lost connection with body and earth based ways of being and relating to self, other humans, the more than human world (trees, waters, land, animals, plants, elements, the whole earth, etc), our earth and body honoring ancestors, and the Divine. As such, this course intends to support participants in not just developing cognitive understanding of Zionism and its alternatives, but also recovering and regenerating the capacity for sacred and honorable connection, reciprocity, presence, and intimacy with all of our relations. In this way, we will collectively cultivate secure attachment in relationship to all these layers of relationality.

How much does it cost to learn how to babble like this?

INVESTMENT / EXCHANGE

The exchange for this course is $3,000 ($250 month ‐ actual cost), $2400 ($200/month) or $1800 ($150/month).

Who is it meant for?

This course is an affinity space for Jewish folx, and is best suited for white, Ashkenazi Jews who feel ready to do the work of unpacking Zionism and all its related siblings of supremacy with both rigor and support. If you are Jewish and have Mizrahi or Sephardic lineage and/or are BIPOC, you may feel that this is not the right container for you as you have different lineages, lived experiences and relationships with Zionism/white supremacy/settler-colonialism. However, if you are a Sephardic, Mizrahi and/or BIPOC Jew who identifies as white adjacent, white presumed, or who simply feels that this container speaks to you, you are welcome to apply! We are also happy to discuss this further if you have questions.

Who created this absurdity?

Stacey Prince, PhD, SEP Stacey (she/her) is a psychologist and somatics practitioner living on the stolen lands of the Duwamish and Coast Salish peoples in what is colonially known as Seattle, WA. She is queer, an anti-occupation Ashkenazi Jew and a visitor on these lands with a lifelong commitment to examining and dismantling her complicitness with whiteness, settler-colonialism and modernity. She founded and stewards The Living Room, a collective of politicized healers. In addition to psychotherapy she offers supervision, consultation, group workshops and healing spaces, and is an adjunct professor in the department of psychology at the University of Washington.

Simon Wolff, SEP Simon (they/them) is a politicized healer, ritualist, and artist weaving one-to-one and small group somatic, ancestral, and cultural healing vessels in service to collective liberation. They support Jewish people to cultivate embodied and animist resilience and relationality amidst lived and intergenerational trauma. Simon identifies as a white antiracist, antizionist, queer, trans, disabled person of the Ashkenazi Jewish diaspora living on Anishinaabe land called Waawiiyaatanog / Detroit, MI. Starting in June 2024, they will be living on Nipmuc and Pocumtuc land known as Northampton, MA. To learn more about their work, visit www.simon-wolff.com.

The course - sorry, vessel - started last summer and is supposed to occur once a month for a year.

I would be very surprised if they attracted a single paying attendee.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

"He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024)

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)