Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 06, 2025

03/06 Links Pt1: Free all hostages, eradicate Hamas: There’s no other solution; Trump wants Hamas to release Israeli-American Edan Alexander; Israel rescues 10 Indian hostages from WB village

From Ian:

Free all hostages, eradicate Hamas: There’s no other solution

Continuing a gradual release of the remaining hostages is a mistake because no human being can survive in the underground concentration camps of Hamas for much longer. The conditions of Ohad Ben Ami, Or Levy and Eli Sharabi, the three living hostages released recently, speak for themselves: they seemed to have come out of Auschwitz. This should not be tolerated.

As explained by Israeli-Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh for the Gatestone Institute, the hostages could have been released a long time ago if the Biden administration had exerted enough pressure on Qatar to use its good relations with the Islamist group to force it to do so.

Biden could have pressured Doha by threatening to withdraw United States forces from Qatar. He could have threatened to impose economic sanctions on Qatar or designate it as a “state sponsor” of terrorism if it did not pressure Hamas to release the hostages. After all, Hamas is blacklisted by the United States and the European Union, and it’s no secret that Qatar is its main supporter in the Middle East. Hamas would have found it hard to say no to its major political and financial patrons and backers.

Qatar is no neutral mediator, and it is pursuing Hamas’s interests in the region. It’s obvious that the terror organization’s current interest is to survive the war, and, so far, it seems to be working. Its next step will be to remain in control of Gaza, and that’s exactly what will happen if Israel accepts the conditions for Phase 2.

The situation is confusing with the Trump administration declaring that it wants all the hostages released, while, at the same time, stating that Hamas must be destroyed and Gazans deported. Hamas will never release all the hostages without reassurance that it will survive and remain in Gaza.

Now would be the right time to put an end to the ceasefire deal and force Hamas to release every single hostage remaining in captivity by enforcing real pressure on Qatar, taking over Gaza with the military, and eradicating it once and for all, while simultaneously arresting and prosecuting its leaders abroad.

With the end of the first phase, the situation is now stalled. New terms proposed by U.S. special envoy to the Middle East Steven Witkoff call for a temporary ceasefire during Ramadan and Passover. On the first day of such an agreement, half of the living and dead hostages would be released. At the end of the framework, if an agreement is reached, the remaining hostages would all be freed at one time.

Israel’s position remains the same. Hamas must be eradicated before a deal to end the war can take place. As of now, Hamas has rejected Witkoff’s proposal and Israel has responded by cutting aid supplies to Gaza. Additionally, the leaders of Arab countries have met in Cairo to discuss the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip. The world now waits to see if there will be any further breakthroughs in negotiations or if the fighting will resume.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Rebuilding Gaza is Pointless Unless Hamas is Eradicated

The establishment of a new government in the Gaza Strip while Hamas maintains its military capabilities there unfortunately will not work. Hamas's presence during reconstruction will only result in the emergence of the Lebanon model: Hezbollah, another Iranian proxy terror group, simply created a terrorist state-within-a-state.

Worse, having a new government that would oversee reconstruction and humanitarian efforts in the Gaza Strip while Hamas is still there would exempt the Palestinian terrorist group from its responsibilities towards Gaza's residents. The new government would not be able to stop Hamas from rearming, regrouping, and preparing more attacks against Israel -- as Hamas has unremittingly vowed to do.

The new government would be busy rebuilding homes and skyscrapers and delivering humanitarian aid, while Hamas and the other terror groups would have all the time in the world to rebuild tunnels and manufacture weapons.

Hamas never cared about the well-being of the Palestinians under its rule in the Gaza Strip. The terrorist group could have built schools, universities, and hospitals. Instead, it chose to invest millions of dollars in building a vast network of tunnels to attack Israel, smuggle and hide weapons, and torture Israeli hostages.

The reconstruction of the Gaza Strip and the resumption of humanitarian aid should be conditioned on the removal of Hamas from power and disarming of all of Gaza's terror groups.

Hamas should be completely excluded from any plan to rebuild the Gaza Strip because all it cares about is pursuing its Jihad (holy war) to destroy Israel and murder as many Jews as possible.

Palestinians are Hamas, and Hamas are Palestinians

Even Palestinians who don’t support Hamas very much support their ideology and methods. Indeed, a survey by researchers at Oxford University found that 98% of Gazans said they were religious and almost as many said they viewed the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as religious, not political—exactly as Hamas. Furthermore, polls show that Palestinians in Gaza, and Judea and Samaria, broadly support terrorism as a means to end the “occupation” and achieve independence, just like Hamas. These polls also reveal that more than half of Palestinians want Israel to be replaced by a single Palestinian state governed under Islamic law—just like Hamas.

Palestinians broadly support the Oct. 7 massacre. The December 2023 poll by PCPSR showed that 72% of Palestinians supported Hamas’s decision to launch the Oct. 7 attacks. The effects of war since then have eroded Palestinians’ support for this decision, yet the September 2024 poll showed that 54% of Palestinians still supported it.

Palestinians enthusiastically participate in Hamas’s atrocities against Israel. In fact, an Israel Defense Forces’ assessment released in August 2024 revealed that more than 2,000 Palestinians who invaded Israel from Gaza on Oct. 7 were not Hamas members—many were mere “civilian” terrorists. Palestinian civilians went into a maniacal frenzy when hostages were kidnapped into Gaza, surrounding the vehicles used to carry them and shouting “Death to the Jews.” Similarly, more than a year later, Palestinian “civilians” cheered and jeered as Hamas mockingly paraded hostages before their release.

When the coffins of the Bibas children, who were murdered with the terrorists’ bare hands, were paraded before civilian mobs through the streets of Gaza, it wasn’t just Hamas presiding, but members and supporters of other Palestinian factions, including the PLO’s Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

Furthermore, some hostages were held in civilian homes, including female soldiers, who were used as slaves, and forced to cook and clean for Palestinian families. Albag, for example, was forced to clean toilets for a family and cook food that she was forbidden to eat. She subsisted on scraps and was only allowed to shower after 37 days.

Palestinian civilians also gladly assisted Hamas during the war by hiding their terrorist infrastructure in civilian buildings—schools, hospitals, mosques, playgrounds and even in children’s bedrooms.

Progressives cannot deny that Hamas and the Palestinian public are virtually indistinguishable. No matter how well-meaning, progressives cannot deny that the Palestinians elected Hamas to govern them. They cannot deny the research that shows broad support among Palestinians for Hamas, their ideology and their methods, or the research that reveals overwhelming Palestinian support for the atrocities of Oct. 7. Finally, they cannot deny that even as Hamas’s popularity fades, Palestinian civilians continue to support its goals, ideology and methods.

Those who assert that Hamas does not represent the Palestinian people are either fooling themselves or trying to gaslight you, contrary to all factual evidence.

Awkward: High Schoolers Show Up In Same Slutty Purim Costume (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook and Substack pages.

Modiin, March 6 - Embarrassment and recriminations echoed through the hallways of the Hannah Szenes Academy today when a pair of seniors arrived within minutes of each other, both clad in a skimpy getup technically evoking Princess Jasmine from the 1992 Disney film Aladdin but in practice serving as an excuse to show much more skin than necessary, eyewitnesses reported.

Bar Shimoni and Tal Fogel, both 17, came to school this morning just before nine wearing the same revealing costume to mark the upcoming Purim holiday, and a shouting match ensued that almost escalated to blows, bystanders recalled. Each had intended to sashay through the school as Jasmine, only sluttier, and thereby to command both the attention of almost all the males in the building and the envy of almost all the females - only to find their respective schemes had failed, not just because of their no-longer-unique getup, but also because other girls had found equally-slutty interpretations of nearly every other profession, character, or costume concept.

Those who saw and heard the encounter between the two Jasmines recalled much screaming and gesticulating, but no specific words, other than individual slurs such as "sharmuta" (Arabic for "slut" or "whore") and "kalba" (Hebrew for "bitch"), among others; the tumult and the acoustics of the school hallways rendered any coherence impossible.

Principal Avner Golan and several faculty members managed to separate and restrain the warring students, with the assistance of their classmates. "That was the most unbecoming display I've seen since last year under almost-identical circumstances," he recalled. "Last year it was slutty nurse- no, that was the year before. Last year was cavewomen."

Principal Golan has considered banning Purim Costume Day, but always faces an uproar from students and parents. The tradition of wearing a disguise for Purim - which will occur this year on Friday, March 14 - dates back at lest to the fourteenth century, and echoes both Queen Esther hiding her national origins and the "hidden hand" of God in the story; unlike every other Biblical work, none of the names of God appear at all in Esther, indicating a transition from open miracles and prophecy to a more grown-up, post-Biblical mode in which perception of the divine becomes a choice, not an imposed reality. The practice of donning Purim costumes persisted even in non-religious milieus such as this one, where, inevitably, the values of secular culture became manifest in the form of overt sexuality.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

"Because here, I feel at home" - visiting Kibbutz Gvulot (Forest Rain)

by Forest Rain

“Because here, I feel at home”

In Kibbutz Gvulot we helped harvest red grapefruits. The fruit is designated for industrial use, meaning it will be used for juice, jam, and other products.

Each generation has defining moments that give rise to the questions: “Where were you when…?” and “What was it like when…?” In America, for my mother’s generation, it was “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?” and “Where were you during the moon landing?” In Israel, that generation will tell you where they were when the Yom Kippur war started. For my generation, it was “Where were you when Rabin was murdered?”

Today, the defining question is: “Where were you on October 7th? What was it like?”

In a year of doing agriculture volunteer work, we’ve asked every farmer that question. Each has a unique story. Farmer Kobi told us that he lives in Kibbutz Nirim with his beautiful wife Anat “Nati” and their two small children. He explained almost dismissively “In between the trees here in Gvulut our security forces found a lot of munitions… terrorists were hiding here. They [the IDF] took care of them.”

It was at home, in Nirim, where he had his October 7th.

First, he explained, it is important to say that his family was granted a miracle. They survived with only a little damage to their house.

Kobi told us of that Shabbat morning, of the Red Alert sirens that at first seemed like the “normal” type of attacks the border communities had become used to. (It is not normal that any family would get used to sirens alerting them to rockets slamming into their communities, trying to kill them).

Kobi and Nati rushed their children to the home's safe room. They considered what they needed to wait out the attack: food, water, toys to keep the kids occupied… regular things like that.

Again that word, “regular” …

Quickly they realized that there was nothing “regular” about what was happening. Their house was closest to the entrance to the Kibbutz. The invaders came from the back of the Kibbutz, through the fields between them and Gaza. This meant that the invaders went to other homes before they came to theirs.

Kobi described hearing gunfire everywhere. Gunfire that sounded different than that of the guns our soldiers use. Listening and not hearing our soldiers.

He described his eldest son, then 3 years old, asking what was going on, the indescribable fear and the dilemma of what to tell a small child. “We told him what we wanted to hear. We lied but he’s just an innocent child. He didn’t need to know… We told him that people want to take our house but that the army was here to protect us and everything would be fine.”

Someone asked him: “Did you have a gun?” He answered, “No. I had a kitchen knife. That’s all."

A calm, strong but gentle man, Kobi had to pause in his story before he could continue. His face flushed, and he struggled to steady his voice. When he continued he changed from speaking in the first person to the third person. “The parent that could keep it together distracted the kids. The other held the door of the shelter.”

He spoke of dark thoughts that flooded the mind. Understanding that they might “have to do the worst possible to prevent the invaders from doing the worst possible to them.” He didn’t explain what he meant, and we didn’t ask. The horror was more than obvious and his pain, in a memory of terrible thoughts he faced more than a year ago, was not something anyone would want to dig into.

Kobi told us of the enormous relief of hearing Israeli gunfire. Even before knowing if they would be rescued in time or not, just the fact that soldiers were there, fighting for them lifted a terrible burden.

He didn’t describe their rescue. He told us of the bus ride to Eilat on Sunday after they were evacuated (the attack began Saturday morning and they were only evacuated on Sunday). He said: “The entire trip everyone was utterly silent. Out of the window, you could see the road we travel every day strewn with bodies and burned cars. Bodies of terrorists. Bodies of Jews. Everywhere. We gave the kids the phone to look at. They didn’t need to see what was outside the window.”

Israelis are loud. Happy Israelis sing and shout. Upset Israelis complain and shout. Thinking about being in that silence makes my blood run ice cold...

Kobi’s family was granted a miracle. They survived physically unscathed. He told us of others who were killed, whose homes were destroyed, and about not knowing when they would be able to go back home. Now living in temporary housing in Be’er Sheva, they are ok (how do you define ok after all of that?)—but it’s not home.

A fellow volunteer changed the subject and asked why he was wearing flip-flops in the field instead of proper work shoes. Kobi looked at us all with a big grin and said: “I have work shoes and of course wear them when I need to but I wear these here when I can because here, I feel at home.”

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The Deliberate Murder of Israeli Children by Palestinian Terrorists Has A History (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

Hamas supporters around the world, who march, harass, and vandalize in support of these terrorists, are outspoken about how their heroes are merely "resisting" Israeli oppression when they massacre over a thousand Israelis and kidnap hundreds more as hostages.

But do they justify Hamas when they murder infants and toddlers?

They may push the Hamas narrative that these innocents were killed by Israel itself because the IDF tried to rescue the hostages.

Another way is denial, just as "protesters" have attempted to deny the Hamas raping of women on October. The UN already debunked their denial in March 2024:

“It was a catalogue of the most extreme and inhumane forms of killing, torture and other horrors,” including sexual violence, [Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, Pramila Patten] stated. The team also found convincing information that sexual violence was committed against hostages, and has reasonable grounds to believe that such violence may still be ongoing against those in captivity.

That is not stopping those in denial over Hamas murdering the Bibas children.

Meet Arnesa Buljušmić-Kustura:

She describes herself as a genocide researcher, an educator, and a genocide survivor of the Bosnian Serb army.

But to claim that the hostages were physically OK and untouched? Being a survivor of genocide does not automatically confer on her special understanding of genocide or those who commit it.

Buljušmić-Kustura not only seems to ignore the victims of the Hamas massacre itself, but seems to forget how malnourished the released hostages have been and the accounts they have given, as well as the account from the UN in 2024 as quoted above.

Factcheck.org already pointed out in November, 2023, that at least 29 children were murdered by Hamas according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as well as 30 children taken hostage according to the AP.

Even then, Factcheck.org notes people on social media attempting to deny children were killed, so Buljušmić-Kustura has good company.

Has she forgotten that when Gazans flooded into Israel and slaughtered Israeli civilians, they wiped out entire families such as the Kapshetar family and the Siman Tov family?

But Palestinian terrorists murdering children is not new.

Before the re-establishment of the state of Israel, Arabs murdered children along with the adults:

1929 Hebron Massacre – Arab mobs slaughtered 67 Jews, including women and 3 children. Survivors reported brutal killings of entire families.
1938 Tiberias Massacre – Arab assailants murdered 19 Jews, including 11 children, when they attacked a Jewish neighborhood and set houses on fire.

Here are some of the post-1948 massacres of Israeli children 10 years old and younger over the years.

Name of Massacre	Names and Ages of Child Victims	Perpetrators	Sources
Avivim School Bus Massacre May 22, 1970; near Moshav Avivim, Israel	- Rachel Eliyahu, 9 - Sarah Eliyahu, 7 - Miriam Eliyahu, 7 - Avraham Abuhatzira, 8 - Kochava Abuhatzira, 7 - Dina Cohen, 8 - Miriam Dadon, 9 - Rina David, 8 - Zemira Shmuel, 7	Terrorist Group: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine - General Command (PFLP-GC) Individual Terrorists: Not specified	Wikipedia: Avivim School Bus Massacre
Nahariya Attack April 22, 1979; Nahariya, Israel	- Einat Haran, 4 - Yael Haran, 2	Terrorist Group: Palestinian Liberation Front (PLF) Individual Terrorist: Samir Kuntar	Wikipedia: Nahariya Attack
Shalhevet Pass Murder March 26, 2001; Hebron, West Bank	- Shalhevet Pass, 10 months	Terrorist Group: Fatah Individual Terrorist: Mahmoud Amru	Wikipedia: Shalhevet Pass
Sbarro Pizzeria Bombing August 9, 2001; Jerusalem, Israel	- Yocheved Shoshan, 10 - Avraham Schijveschuurder, 4 - Tzira Schijveschuurder, 2	Terrorist Group: Hamas Individual Terrorists: - Izz al-Din Shuheil al-Masri (suicide bomber) - Ahlam Tamimi (mastermind)	Wikipedia: Sbarro Pizzeria Bombing
Itamar Attack (Shabo Family) June 20, 2002; Itamar, West Bank	- Avishai Shabo, 5	Terrorist Group: PFLP Individual Terrorist: not specified	Wikipedia: Itamar Attack
Kibbutz Metzer Massacre November 10, 2002; Kibbutz Metzer, Israel	- Matan Ohayon, 5 - Noam Ohayon, 4	Terrorist Group: Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades Individual Terrorist: not specified	CNN
Fogel Family Massacre March 11, 2011; Itamar, West Bank	- Elad Fogel, 4 - Hadas Fogel, 3 months	Terrorist Group: Not specified Individual Terrorists: - Amjad Awad - Hakim Awad	Wikipedia: Itamar Attack

There is an online slide presentation that lists 123 Israeli children murdered by Palestinian terrorists between 2000 and 2005. According to the presentation, the deliberate Palestinian murder of children started in October 2000:

Here are the children deliberately murdered by Palestinian terrorists, from 17 years to one day old:

The memories of these precious neshamas should be a blessing, and a further reminder of why Hamas terrorists cannot be allowed to remain in Gaza so close to Israel.

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

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The 106 page Arab plan for Gaza is dead on arrival.

While it discusses economic issues in depth, it all but ignores the root cause of the problem: Hamas. Hamas is not even mentioned once, but here is how it breezily dismisses the issue:

The issue of multiple armed Palestinian factions remains challenging. However, it is one that can be addressed, and even resolved permanently, only if its root causes are tackled by providing a clear political prospect and a credible process that works to establish the Palestinian State and restores the legitimate rights of the Palestinian People to their rightful owners.

The aforementioned efforts must ultimately lead to a single and clear outcome, which is the implementation of the two-state solution; there is no alternative to the establishment of a Palestinian State.

A Palestinian state would not weaken Hamas - it would empower it.

It is richly ironic that nations that work so hard to defeat their own Islamists - usually, without mercy - are telling Israel that they just have to give them a state and they will disappear.

People don't remember that there were plenty of massive terrorist attacks during Oslo, at the exact same time that there was "a clear political prospect and a credible process to establish the Palestinian State." Saying that such a process will stop terror this time is insane.

I can't believe this is mere naivete. These guys hate Muslim Brotherhood style jihadists. This is an attempt to gaslight the West into thinking that a Palestinian state is the solution (really, the Trojan horse to eventually defeat Israel.)

Let's be clear: A Palestinian state would be taken over by Hamas or a similar group. It would be a terror state. It would be Gaza, just larger. Everyone knows this - including those who drafted this plan.

The plan is a kneejerk reaction to the Trump proposal to empty Gaza and take over. It adds nothing to the discussion. It is simply a rehash of the mainstream Arab position: no to allowing Gazans to emigrate to Arab countries, using "refugees" as pawns to pressure Israel, eventually creating a Palestinian state. The entire point of this plan is to avoid taking responsibility for their Palestinian brethren that they pretend to support.

The idea of Egypt and Jordan training Gaza police for law and order is the same as the 2005 "Dayton plan" of the US training PA forces to suppress Hamas - it didn't work then and it wouldn't now. The US-trained PA security forces cannot even enter Jenin and other Islamist strongholds in the West Bank, let alone control them. Plenty of PA security forces are also terrorists. Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades were never disbanded.

If the plan is not serious about eliminating Hamas, it is not serious at all.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Text of Barnard protesters' pamphlet celebrating the murder of Jews (plus Hamas pamphlet)

Open Source Intel tweeted some of the radical materials handed out by the protesters who took over the library at Barnard College on Wednesday, including “Death to America, ” “Global Intifada” and "The Red Army’s 'Urban Guerilla Concept.'"

Another was "The Black Liberation Army and Hamas" by Dhoruba bin-Wahad (formerly Richard Earl Moore) of the Black Panthers of the 1960s.

It is a transcript of a rambling video he made last year where he proves doesn't know the first thing about Hamas.

It is insane - but more importantly, it is incitement to kill.

Here's part of the pamphlet so you can see how these privileged, rich mostly white protesters celebrate the murder of Jews.

If we understand that Hamas, just like the BLA, is an expression of the people's relationship to power and the status quo, it's just that we took a position—and the community knows that—that whenever the status quo does something bad to our community we will retaliate in kind. Black folks appreciated that. Yeah, if you stick a mic in their face from CBS and said, "Two cops was just killed yesterday by these Black extremists and these radical revolutionaries, what do you think about them?" They might say, "Well, that’s a shame. I don't think police should be killed." What else they going to say? "Yeah, they should have killed that motherfucker?" You understand what I'm saying? But if you took a survey of the people there… "Yeah, them cops always coming in here beating up on people. Good somebody got their ass, especially that white one that’s always bullying people. It’s good they kill his ass." They might not say that on CBS, but that’s what they feel.

It’s just like the Palestinians when Hamas went across that border and defeated all of that surveillance and snatched them Israelis, they were cheering. They was dancing on the tanks with their cell phones. You see? They couldn't cheer when they were occupied and Israeli soldiers standing at the checkpoint. They had to humble themselves. They had to let these people push them around. But, yeah, our boys got ‘em. Our boys got ‘em. Yeah. When they see the rockets coming over from Iran and from Hezbollah dropping on them Israelis, they be talking about, "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" People identify with resistance, you see? Who are the ones in Lebanon talking about Hezbollah in a negative way? It’s the Christians talking about, "Hezbollah is endangering Lebanon." Like Lebanon is safe with Israel on your doorstep? If it wasn't for Hezbollah, Lebanon would be cool? American imperialism would have no [influence]? Y'all be good?

...
What I’m trying to point out is that we used to have an axiom that repression breeds resistance. All this murder and killing, you see them young kids that’s watching their whole family get murdered in their sleep, them babies that are starving and watching their mama cry and watching their daddy and their siblings die. If you think that that’s not the next generation of Hamas, you a goddamn fool. And they going to be far more ruthless than the ones that you got now. You better negotiate with these motherfuckers you got now, because when that baby grow up... That’s why the Egyptians like, "I ain’t letting them motherfuckers in here. You know what I’m going to have on my hand in 10 years with a population that’s experienced this and they in the desert in Gaza suffering and we the ones just keeping them there suffering?" Whoa.

Even worse, they were handing out direct Hamas literature celebrating October 7.

Tuition and fees plus housing is about $88,000 a year at Barnard.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

03/05 Links Pt2: No Other Land isn’t what it seems; Oscar-winning filmmakers caught on video provoking IDF troops; Yale Law School investigates employee with PFLP ties

From Ian:

Gil Troy: Fearless Zionism: American Jews need to reshape their view of Israel

As American Jews mourn the younger generation’s supposed alienation from Israel, many blame Bibi rather than their decisions to raise their kids on tikkun olam/social justice diets that Poisoned Ivy League Progressives distorted and turned against Israel.

“What do you expect?” many ask. “Jews born after 2000 have only known an Israel defined by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and right-wing, religious fanatics.”

This formulation foolishly defines Israel, our forever-homeland, by its often-unstable governments. Living in a polarized nation that’s zig-zagged from Barack Obama’s and Joe Biden’s America to Donald Trump’s America, they don’t always judge their country by its leaders.

Defining Israel in partisan terms ignores what over 900,000 young Jews have discovered on Birthright and other Israel experiences: that the Jewish connection to Israel is eternal and existential.

Even many who haven’t visited Israel – yet! – have been shaped by their Birthright buddies’ identity revelations. Seeing Israel, feeling it, tasting it – and meeting Israelis – reframes the conversation. I understand why Palestinians try to make every conversation about “the conflict” into their agenda. But why do so many Jews fall into that same trap?

Framing Jews’ relationship with Israel in identity terms as existential transcends Left and Right. It’s not a pro-Netanyahu or pro-Trump move: It’s simply the Zionist way.

Zionism is broad-based enough to welcome a kaleidoscope of opinions. Zionism goes far beyond today’s headlines, emphasizing that Jews are a people as well as a religion; that we are tied to one particular homeland; and that we have the right to establish and now develop a state on that homeland.

In less partisan times, with less angry leaders and a less hostile world, many would recognize Zionism’s spacious, welcoming tent for all kinds of Diaspora Jews. Similarly, Israel includes a stunning array of Jews, from ultra-Orthodox to hyper-modern, from conservative capitalists to Peace Now socialists.

Gerald M. Steinberg: Review: Righting Wrongs: Three Decades on the Front Lines Battling Abusive Governments by Kenneth Roth

Roth’s cursory discussion of antisemitism, in which his defensiveness is very pronounced, highlights the fact that this issue is largely ignored by HRW and most institutions claiming to promote human rights. “The charge of antisemitism is often bandied about to silence critics of Israeli repression, including me—I was also accused of being a ‘Jew hater’” (p. 200). As in previous statements and social media posts, he blames the victim, proclaiming that Israel’s actions are the cause of any resurgence of hostility to Jews, particularly following the October 7 slaughter. “In the minds of some partisans, the idea that a state designed as a haven for Jews could stimulate harm against Jews is inadmissible” (p. 205). Roth’s response to journalist Jeffrey Goldberg’s denunciation of this position replaces the evidence with a blanket rejection of the conclusion that HRW’s relentless criticism, including accusations of “apartheid,” feed the violent Jew-hatred sweeping across university campuses. Roth also attacks the consensus definition of antisemitism adopted by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, composed after the infamous hate-filled NGO Forum of the UN’s 2001 Durban World Conference Against Racism, in which HRW played a central part and which constitutes another example in Roth’s distorted history.

Notably, but consistent with the rest of the book, Roth makes no mention of the “eyewitness testimony” of Danielle Haas, a senior editor at HRW from 2010 until October 2023, who became a whistleblower. Not easily dismissed as a “troll,” Haas exposed the “years of politicization … shattered professionalism, abandoned principles of accuracy and fairness,” and the ways in which HRW “surrendered its duty to stand for the human rights of all.” Countering claims of careful fact-checking, she wrote about the violation of “basic editorial standards related to rigor, balance, and collegiality,” and summarized “the constellation of my experiences over years … as feeling a lot like antisemitism … ”Footnote7 Anonymous HRW staff members, both Jewish and non-Jewish, told her that “for years, they had raised concerns with managers and in wider discussion forums about antisemitism and methodological problems related to Israel work, only to face hostility at worst, inaction and indifference at best.”Footnote8 Haas also condemned HRW’s response to the Hamas massacre, which invoked “the ‘context’ of ‘apartheid’ and ‘occupation’ before blood was even dry on bedroom walls,” and, based on Roth’s practice, “could easily be construed as blaming the victim.” Regarding the 2021 “apartheid” campaign, Haas observes that HRW staff (i.e., Roth and others) knew the 217-page pseudo-research report filled with legal-sounding jargon and propaganda “would rarely be read in full,” and was designed to give ammunition to anti-Israel campaigners “including Hamas supporters … who now bandy about the term with appalling ease.” This is as much of an indictment of the journalists and other consumers who turned HRW’s press release into major headlines as it is of the organization’s manipulative practices.

In summary, a more accurate title for Roth’s magnum opus would be “Wronging Rights,” and while he may have hoped to have the last word in establishing his legacy and silencing the “trolls” and “extreme partisans,” the criticism will continue. Beyond the specific treatment of Israel, Roth demonstrates that the human rights advocacy based on morality and political neutrality that he claims to have championed for thirty years is a myth.

Kassy Akiva: DA Backs Away From Deal To Keep Scott Hayes From Going To Trial For Shooting Anti-Israel Attacker

Scott Hayes, 48, says he will likely have to go to trial for shooting an anti-Israel man who tackled him after a district attorney backed away from finalizing a disposition to resolve the case outside the courtroom.

Hayes was charged with assault and battery with a dangerous weapon and released on a $5,000 bail on September 13 after he shot Caleb Gannon, who charged through traffic and tackled Hayes in Newton, Massachusetts. Hayes pleaded not guilty and said shooting Gannon in the stomach was an act of self-defense.

“I am demanding a trial because the district attorney’s office continues to miss deadlines, go back on agreements, and play with my life,” Hayes said. “If they think they have a strong case — which they don’t — I’ll see you in court.”

Hayes, who lost his job over the incident, spent the last few months working out terms with the office of Middlesex County District Attorney Marian Ryan. According to Hayes, Ryan’s office and Hayes’ legal team worked out terms for a “pretrial probation” (PTB) with no admission of liability, which would suspend Hayes’ license to carry during the period and require him to complete a de-escalation course and stay away from Gannon.

The point of contention is whether Hayes should stay out of Newton, the town where Gannon resides. Hayes believes that the condition is unnecessary, and that he should not have to stay out of the major Boston suburb, where he has many friends. The two sides were supposed to argue to a judge on Tuesday, until Hayes’ lawyer was informed that the DA’s office cancelled the hearing.

Ryan’s office ignored requests about the reason for the cancellation of the meeting on Tuesday and instead said the case hearing is scheduled for March 20.

Immediately after his release on bail, Hayes was required to wear a GPS ankle monitor, which flagged him several times for violating the stay-out-of-Newton order each time he traveled on the Mass Pike (I-90) for doctor appointments, as the highway runs through Newton. In October, a judge removed the ankle monitor requirement and his restrictions from being in Newton.

“It’s absurd that they want to now restrict me from Newton while I have been free to travel there for five months without any incidents,” Hayes told The Daily Wire.

03/05 Links Pt1: 'This is your last warning!': Trump gives ultimatum to Hamas; Egypt Tells Trump to Pound Sand; 17-year-old Israeli dies of injuries from Feb. 27 terror car-ramming

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: Egypt Tells Trump to Pound Sand

Despite presumably having watched the way Donald Trump has responded recently to world leaders who question or challenge him, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi has decided to poke the U.S. president in the eye and see what happens.

The much-ballyhooed Arab Plan for postwar Gaza has been released, and it is unimpressive even by the standards of past pan-Arab peace proposals. Perhaps even deliberately so.

Trump’s plan for Gaza—the Riviera on the Med—called for the evacuation of civilians from the enclave so it could be properly cleared and rebuilt. Trump doesn’t seem to care much whether the Palestinians come back after it’s done, though Israeli officials are careful to endorse only voluntary emigration.

Egypt is a solution to this riddle, but it would rather be a problem.

For starters, Egypt could have provided Gazan civilians with a place to go during the war, when Israel was forced to hunt Hamas monsters hiding among those civilians in designated humanitarian zones within Gaza. Sisi chose not to, because his country only wants the few Gazans who can afford to pay through the nose for their freedom.

We can go back further and point out that the war itself didn’t have to happen and that Egypt could very well have prevented it. Cairo had stopped policing the smuggling routes between Egypt and Gaza in the area of Rafah, a town that is split between the two jurisdictions. Those smuggling routes enabled Hamas to resupply and reinforce its army, as well as secure a near-monopoly on certain goods on the Gaza market. Money and manpower, in other words, care of Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

We could keep going back even further—Egypt allows no path to citizenship for the original Palestinian refugees or their descendants, and has washed its hands of any stewardship over Gaza, which was once part of its territory—but the record is fairly consistent: Cairo has been, and continues to be, an impediment to a solution to the Palestinian element of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Unless Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is able to negotiate, with the help of Israeli pressure, a continuation of the ceasefire plan, there will be another round of war in Gaza—probably more intense than anything over the previous 16 months. In that case, Egypt will once again have the chance to play a constructive role by allowing temporary Palestinian resettlement so that Israel can end Hamas once and for all. Egypt will again refuse, and then it will again complain about Israel and the lack of a two-state solution.

When Egypt Favored Resettling Gazans in Its Borders

In Cairo yesterday, a summit of Arab leaders adopted an Egyptian proposal for the future of Gaza, which includes a six-month period during which a “non-factional” Palestinian government will administer the Strip, after which the Palestinian Authority will take over. It does not, however, suggest how Hamas will be forced out of power. Hussain Abdul-Hussain calls the plan “dissociated from reality.” Worse still, he writes, it “defers disarming Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and other militias until after the creation of a Palestinian state.”

The impetus for the summit wasn’t so much the actual situation in Gaza as the need to provide an alternative to Donald Trump’s plan to remove the population prior to reconstruction. While Arab states have objected to plans to move large numbers of Palestinians outside the Strip, and Egypt most vociferously, this was not always the case. Abdul-Hussain explains:

In 1953, Egypt and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) signed onto a plan to resettle 120,000 Arab refugees from Gaza. . . . At the cost of $200 million ($2.4 billion in 2025 dollars), the Egyptian town of Qantara, east of Suez and 130 miles southwest of Gaza, would become the refugees’ new home. Egypt would divert water from the Nile to allow agriculture and a self-sustaining economy.

Palestinians in Gaza (then ruled by Egypt) protested and rioted to voice their opposition to the plan, staging what is now called the “March intifada.” Egypt, then ruled by Gamal Abdel Nasser,

promised to “end the Sinai relocation project,” but quickly broke its promise. The Nasser regime instead undertook mass arrests and threw its Communist and Muslim Brotherhood leaders into prison, where they remained until July 1957.

Nasser eventually pulled out of the relocation plan for two reasons. First, he was frustrated with the Eisenhower administration for withdrawing its funding of the Aswan Dam. Second, he feared communists on the left and Islamists on the right might use the issue to outflank him. As a result of such domestic machinations, 120,000 Arabs remained stuck in a resourceless strip instead of relocating to an economically viable spot, less than 150 miles to the south.

17-year-old Israeli dies of injuries from Feb. 27 terror car-ramming

An Israeli teenager has died of injuries sustained during a Feb. 27 terrorist car-ramming attack at a bus stop east of Caesarea, local authorities said on Wednesday.

In a Facebook post, the Pardes Hanna-Karkur Municipality named the slain victim as Yahli Gur, 17, a resident of the town located north of Netanya.

Gur studied at a high school in the city of Harish, east of Pardes Hanna-Karkur.

“On behalf of Harish’s residents, I embrace and send condolences to her family at this difficult time. All of Harish grieves with you,” the city’s mayor, Yitzhak Keshet, said in a statement.

Twelve other people were wounded, including two seriously, in Thursday’s vehicular assault at the Karkur Junction, according to medical officials.

Israel Police spokesperson Aryeh Doron told Channel 12 that “after carrying out the car ramming at the bus stop, the terrorist drove another few hundred meters, hitting an officer and his car.” He was shot and killed at the scene, Doron added.

The terrorist was identified by authorities as a 53-year-old Palestinian from the Jenin area in nearby northern Samaria who was illegally residing in the Jewish state while married to an Arab citizen.

The Hamas terrorist organization hailed the attack, saying in an official statement that the vehicular assault was a “natural, heroic response to the brutal aggression and ongoing crimes” committed by Jerusalem.

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

I watched, open-mouthed as Zelenskyy became argumentative, even hostile to the vice president and president in front of the press. It was so shocking I didn’t even have words for what I was seeing. “Oh my God,” I said over and over again like a mantra. “What an idiot! Why???”

I put the knife down, afraid I’d nick myself. I’d been checking two kilograms of dried apricots for bugs so I could make hamantaschen filling. My phone blared Zelenskyy, its tiny screen propped against a vase of Shabbos flowers in front of which I sat with my cutting board and a mound of wrinkly, plump and fragrant fruit. And a knife.

But the apricots could wait. This needed my full attention.

There was so much going on that I didn’t know where to look. Trump’s face got so red I thought he would plotz. I sincerely hope he wouldn’t croak. But if two assassination attempts didn’t take him down, neither would some weaselly little guy with a Napoleon complex in fake fatigues.

Zelenskyy had really stepped in it this time—it was one for the history books. If you ever meet someone who doesn’t understand the term “own goal,” just tell them about the time Zelenskyy, who should have been humbly begging Trump to save his country, self-eviscerated in the Oval Office in front of the press—and everyone else. In the world.

But this wasn’t the first time an ungrateful Zelenskyy decided to FAFO what an American president would do when treated with disdainful impertinence. He did it to Biden, too:

It’s become routine since Russia invaded Ukraine: President Joe Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speak by phone whenever the U.S. announces a new package of military assistance for Kyiv.

But a phone call between the two leaders in June played out differently from previous ones, according to four people familiar with the call. Biden had barely finished telling Zelenskyy he’d just greenlighted another $1 billion in U.S. military assistance for Ukraine when Zelenskyy started listing all the additional help he needed and wasn’t getting. Biden lost his temper, the people familiar with the call said. The American people were being quite generous, and his administration and the U.S. military were working hard to help Ukraine, he said, raising his voice, and Zelenskyy could show a little more gratitude.

These were not isolated incidents. This is what Zelenskyy does. He did it to Trump and JD Vance. He did it to Biden. And he did it to Israel, too.

Back in 2022, I noted that in his address to the Knesset, Zelenskyy rubbed Israelis the wrong way when he claimed that Ukrainians saved Jews during WWII:

Zelenskyy has left us Israelis with a bad taste in our mouths. He’s a hero the world over, and we want to like him, too. But it’s difficult for Israelis to like him after the things he said in his address to the Israeli Knesset on Sunday. President Zelenskyy hit all the wrong notes, pointing an accusatory finger at Israel with one criticism after another.

Zelenskyy criticized Israel for not doing enough to help Ukraine, for not supplying the right kind of aid, for not applying pressure to Russian businesses. The Ukrainian president asserted that Ukrainians saved Jews during the Holocaust, while Jews have turned their backs on the Ukrainian people.

“One can keep asking why we can't get weapons from you. Or why Israel has not imposed strong sanctions against Russia. Why it doesn’t put pressure on Russian business. But it is up to you, dear brothers and sisters, to choose the answer. And you will have to live with this answer, people of Israel.

“Ukrainians have made their choice. Eighty years ago. They rescued Jews. That is why the Righteous Among the Nations are among us. People of Israel, now you have such a choice.”

Now I was listening to the same record on repeat. Whatever America gave him, it was not enough for Zelenskyy. Trump gave him javelins? Zelensky said not enough. Biden gave him money. Zelensky said not enough. Israel took in more Ukrainian refugees than any other country and Zelenskyy said it was not enough.

Instead we got a lecture. Just as Trump and JD Vance got a lecture. Also from 2022:

President Zelenskyy accused Israel of indifference, of refusing to choose sides, and of immorality, too, questioning whether Israel’s imagined inaction was premeditated, for which, he suggested, we’d one day be held to account in the final battle between good and evil.
“Can you explain why we still turn to the whole world, to many countries for help? We ask you for your help? What is it? Indifference? Premeditation? Or mediation without choosing a party? I will leave you a choice of answer to this question. And I will note only one thing — indifference kills. Premeditation is often erroneous. Mediation between states is possible, but not between good and evil.”

Zelenskyy hates to say thank you, but he sure does like to point a finger at others, accusing them of both apathy and conversely, at the same time, premeditated evil. Going back to the Oval Office disaster, remember when Zelenskyy tried to tell JD Vance and Trump what they’d “feel?”

Zelenskyy: First of all, during the war, everybody has problems, even you. You have nice ocean and don’t feel [it] now, but you will feel it in the future.

Trump: You don’t know that. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel. We’re trying to solve a problem. Don’t tell us what we’re going to feel.

Zelenskyy: I am not telling you, I am answering …

Vance: That’s exactly what you’re doing …

Trump, raising his voice: You’re in no position to dictate what we’re going to feel. We’re going to feel very good and very strong.

You could feel the disdain coming off Zelenskyy in the combative way he spoke to the president and vice president and you could see it in his demeanor. I would even call it hatred. For the west? I don’t know. Maybe he hates everyone outside of Ukraine, which begs the question: why is he begging everyone outside of Ukraine to give him help as if it’s an honor to help him, just a sour-faced little autocrat.

Zelenskyy has a God complex. He’s smug. In his mind, he’s the only one who’s awake to what plays out on the world stage. He’s the only one who’s smart. Everyone else is oblivious. Ignorant, beneath him, and bad.

I was appalled back in 2022, when during his address to the Israeli Knesset, Zelenskyy drew a comparison between Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to Hitler’s Final Solution:

“When the Nazi party raided Europe and wanted to destroy everything. Destroy everyone and leave nothing from us, nothing from you. They called it ‘the final solution to the Jewish issue.'

“You remember that. And I’m sure you will never forget! Listen to what is sounding now in Moscow. Hear how these words are said again: ‘Final solution.’ But already in relation, so to speak, to us, to the ‘Ukrainian issue.'”

Did the Ukrainian president think that because he was born a Jew, he could say this dreadful thing—that he could blatantly compare a land grab to the attempted annihilation of a people?

Zelenskyy seems unable or unwilling to shove aside his considerable ego long enough to consider the off-putting effects of his words on others. He doesn’t seem to realize that his contempt is obvious to those of whom he is contemptuous, which appears to be everyone but Ukrainians. And that contempt has trickled down to Zelenskyy administration officials, or as I called it in 2022, a rot that spreads from the head down:

It is now an unavoidable conclusion that criticism of Israel from Ukrainian officials over the past several weeks has come from the top down. From the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel finding fault with Israeli aid and Israel’s handling of Ukrainian refugees, to Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba accusing El Al of evading sanctions by accepting payments “soaked in Ukrainian blood,” it’s all a part of the antisemitic party line. The Ukrainian fish, like every other fish, rots from the head down.

Israel might have hoped that President Zelenskyy, being a Jew himself, might refrain from fomenting another Chmielnicki-style Uprising. Instead, the hate begins with Zelenskyy, trickling down to the others to a man. Zelenskyy may not be motivated by antisemitism, but unfortunately, he inspires it in others.

What Zelenskyy wanted from Israel was patently ridiculous. He wanted Israel to do things that would anger Russia and Iran, two countries already not very kindly disposed toward Israel, to say the least. Zelenskyy actually expected Israel to give him arms and chastised the Jewish State from the halls of the Knesset for not doing so.

Well, Zelenskyy may be suicidal, witness that Oval Office fiasco, but demanding that Israel commit suicide with him? That was a bit much. As I wrote in 2022, “For most Israelis, there’s no contest. We choose to protect our own people from terror and worse over the things Zelenskyy wants us to do for a people with a long and well known history of antisemitic cruelty.”

Zelenskyy wanted Israel to ignore the harm that supplying him with weapons would inevitably do to the Jewish State. But Israel needs to look out for Israel before looking out for Ukraine or anyone else. Zelenskyy tried to make it a moral choice: if Israel doesn’t help him we’re aligned with Putin. And he tried to do the same thing to President Trump.

But just as Israel wasn’t having any of it, neither was President Trump, who told a reporter during that disastrous Oval Office meeting, “I'm not aligned with Putin. I'm not aligned with anybody. I'm aligned with the United States of America, and for the good of the world, I'm aligned with the world, and I want to get this thing over with.”

Zelenskyy thinks the world—and its leaders—owe him a living. He’s not grateful for a thing, believing he is more than entitled to whatever and however much you might give him. Well, ingratitude may be Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s middle name. But it’s not mine.

I’m actually a little grateful to Zelenskyy, right now. After seeing that exchange with Trump and Vance, I know that for once, Israel’s not special! Zelenskyy treats everyone badly, even the president of the United States!

Can it be that Israel has finally joined the family of man?

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)