EoZ - influencing the influencers

I sometimes wonder how influential the Elder of Ziyon blog is.

While my 116,000 X followers clearly puts me in "influencer" territory, that doesn't necessarily mean I'm influential. I usually don't make the lists of "Top Influencers on Social Media."

For example, I found a list made last year by Masa of the top 21 influential pro-Israel and Jewish people on X. I'm not there. 

Out of 19 of them currently on X, 12 of them (63%) follow me:

@rudy_israel

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@Shaidavidai

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@adelacojab

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@noybeyleyb

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@EylonALevy

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@Kami

.Soprano - Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@yoavdavis

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@millennialmoor

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@Jews_of_Ny

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@tlvinstitute

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@noatishby

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@jewishhistory

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@houseoflev

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@melissaschapman

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@jordyntilchen

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@Jewishvibes

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@EndJewHatred

- Follows

@elderofziyon

@alizalicht

- Does not follow

@elderofziyon

@wearetov

- Follows

@elderofziyon

Looking at the top 50 pro-Israel influencers listed in 2021, out of 41 with X handles today, 22 of them - 54% - follow me. And that includes more than just activists but also celebrities that are really not my usual audience. 

If I am reaching over half of the people recognized as influencers, I'm pretty happy with that!

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

Arab paper: "Jews are the biggest US philanthropists. That proves how dangerous they are!"

One of the most fascinating thing about antisemites is that even when Jews and the Jewish state do things that are unequivocally good, they frame it as bad.

Arabi21.com refers to a report from Philanthropy.com where, the Arab site claims, Jews are vastly overrepresented as donors to charity in the US. Check out this headline:

A third of the largest donors in the United States are Jews... "They gain wide influence"

The Arabi21 article points out that Michael Bloomberg is by far the biggest donor, with $3.7 billion in 2024, followed by Michael Dell and his wife (#3, $1.4 billion), Meta founder Mark Zuckerberg and his wife (#5, $1.1 billion), Google founder Sergey Brin (#15, $205 million)  and Sheryl Sandberg (#23,  $125 million.) 

They give the bulk of their charity to the arts, medical centers, universities and social programs. Arabi21, of course, highlights the relatively small amounts some of them gave to help Israel, noting Sandberg declared her “support for the Israeli women who were victims of sexual crimes committed by Hamas during the October 7, 2023 massacre." 

It concludes that "Many critics argue that the philanthropic influence of education and health gives them political clout and allows them to control the public narrative."

I don't remember any Arabic articles about how much Arab countries give to US universities, specifically to influence their curricula. 

The difference is that when Arab nations donate to US entities like universities, the money is specifically aligned with their political program - influence is the the major reason for the donations. When Michael Bloomberg pays the tuition for all of for Johns Hopkins University medical students, he gains nothing politically, and Jews gain nothing politically.

This is just another antisemitic conspiracy theory, assuming all Jews think the same way and have the same political goals, which is pretty crazy. But it is quickly believed by antisemites. 

And that is how Jews giving charity is spun into being just another part of our evil plot to take over the world. 

By the way, just to show that there is no daylight between Arab anti-Zionism and antisemitism, here is how the Arabi21 article on American Jewish philanthropists was illustrated.

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

Here's how the UAE can fix the mess in Gaza: "Emirati Villages" as a toehold to get rid of Hamas

An "Emirati village" in Gaza

I've been discussing my idea for the UAE to take over Gaza as an eighth emirate, the "Emirate of Palestine." To recap:

It would bring peace and prosperity to the residents there, security to Israel and Egypt, and a huge boon to the entire region.

The reasons it makes sense are:

* Only a Gulf country has the resources to rebuild Gaza and realize its dream of becoming a Singapore.

* Israel is at peace with the UAE and would eagerly cooperate with it in facilitating the new emirate.

* The problem of territorial contiguity between the West Bank and Gaza would no longer be an issue. 

* Gazans would become UAE citizens, get passports,  and could freely move to other emirates if they want. If they prefer to hold on to the dream of an independent Palestinian state, they can move to the West Bank. 

* For the first time, there would be optimism about Gaza's future that would encourage investment.

* One can foresee joint Israel-UAE economic projects that would employ thousands of Gazans.

* The UAE would not tolerate terror. There would be no rockets, no cross-border raids, no tunnels - no Hamas.

* It would help the Sinai prosper as well, as Egypt would be able to reap benefits of an Arab economic powerhouse next door.

What would the UAE get out of it?

* A port on the Mediterranean

* Access to natural gas and other fossil fuels off the coast

* Overland routes of trucking and shipping tying the Gulf to the Mediterranean, facilitating imports and exports

* An airport would bring an air bridge as well

* Increased influence in the region, which the UAE desires 

* Gaza could become a tourist destination and a meeting hub between European and Arab political and business leaders

* Access to an educated Arab workforce in the UAE instead of the south Asians who are the bulk of UAE residents

One more point is that this is the only plan that gives positive incentives to everyone (except Hamas and its friends in Qatar and Turkey) to make it work. All the other ideas are based on "let's make Gaza less of a mess," this is "let's make Gaza a great place to be." 

The main problem is that the plan  must be done stealthily. If the UAE would publicly say it wants to take over Gaza it would never work. 

So how could this be done to be a win-win for everyone?

Abu Dhabi’s already the heavyweight in Gaza’s humanitarian aid game—outspending every other Arab state. They need to leverage that cash into a governance foothold, starting as a “day after” fix that quietly turns permanent. Here’s how it could unfold.

The UAE creates a  $700 million “Gaza Renewal Project” of building key infrastructure - a hospital, a university, a solar farm, a major desalination plant. It emphasizes that it will hire tens of thousands of Gazans.

A condition of the job is that the workers and their families would live in three  “Emirati Villages”—gated compounds, 5,000 residents each, for workers and families displaced by war. Modern apartments, water, power: they would be a paradise next to Gaza’s ruins. It wouldn't be a hard sell.

Every resident and worker would be screened for Hamas ties (Israel can help here, behind the scenes.) 

The UAE funds private guards to keep Hamas out of these projects under the guise of local security.

The communities will soon need mosques, markets, playgrounds - suddenly they become neighborhoods. Residents elect “village councils” (UAE-approved) to manage water, trash, disputes. Governance creeps in.

Gazans will clamor to get in, far more applicants than available slots. But over time, with success, more such communities could open.

Soon, the UAE would have a parallel Gaza government, and no non-Hamas Gazan would ever want to be under Hamas rule when they have this modern, gleaming alternative. 

The UAE could strike a deal with  Egypt to make their workers "VIPs" for easy travel to Abu Dhabi or Dubai - but not to move to Egypt. In exchange, perhaps a similar Emirati village in the Sinai too for Egyptians - not to take over Egypt but to build an economic zone that would benefit Gazans and Egyptians. 

The top managers and local governance members can be rewarded with trips or temporary residency in the UAE to help with the planning and logistics and fundraising. Over time, some may be rewarded with citizenship. 

In ten years, Gaza would become practically an emirate but without calling it that. The UAE is the landlord that everyone in Gaza wants. Eventually, it would be able to leverage this into the other things it would want to make this economically worthwhile - a port, an offshore gas field, all framed as generosity to help the Gazans. 

Hamas gets squeezed out, and all it can offer is threats and bombs to derail this. Who would be on its side?

The advantage of this plan is that all of it is based on what people want to do to make their lives better,. It is all a positive vision as opposed to one that is only geared to avoiding bad things from happening. This would generate enthusiasm from Gazans and from sane Arab states. 

It also broadly aligns with the Trump vision of what a future Middle East should look like. 

Peace isn't the stated goal of this plan - it is the inevitable outcome. 

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

The story isn't "Israeli restrictions on Al Aqsa." It is how unbelievably tolerant Israel is towards Muslims in Judaism's holiest spot.

On Thursday night, 85,000 Muslims worshipped at the Al Aqsa Mosque complex for Ramadan night prayers.

Lots of Muslims have been complaining about Israeli restrictions. According to reports, during Ramadan Israel would allow 10,000 Arabs from the West Bank, with permits, to travel there, excluding men under 55 and women under 50.

However, there are no restrictions on Israeli Arabs and Arab residents of Jerusalem in attending. Here's a detail of the crowd Thursday night, showing lots of young men.

I expect the Friday morning crowds to exceed 150,000, in line with previous Ramadans.

Now, let's think for a minute about how incredibly liberal Israel is in allowing so many Arabs to enter the complex:

- It is the holiest site in Judaism. According to Jewish law, no one should walk in the area around the Dome of the Rock nowadays at all because of its intense holiness. The Jewish state is violating Jewish law by allowing tens of thousands of Muslims to desecrate the most sacred spot in Judaism.

- Israel is currently in a low level war in areas of Judea and Samaria. Palestinian sites keep running totals of how many times they shot at, stabbed, rammed their cars or threw stones at Jews. Even so, Israel is allowing tens of thousands of Arabs to enter even during wartime.

- In every Muslim holy place that they took from Jews under Muslim rule - the Tomb of the Patriarchs, Joseph's Tomb, the Temple Mount, Samuel's Tomb  - Muslims forbade Jews to enter altogether when they were under Arab control. The Jewish state gives rights for Muslims to pray in sites that both claim (and, let's be frank, sites that Muslims stole from the Jews), the Arabs never gave the smallest amount of similar rights to Jews. (Under the Ottomans, Jews were allowed to worship at the Western Wall with severe restrictions; under Jordanian rule, Jews were not allowed in the Old City at all, even if they were not Israeli.)

- Muslims are allowed to publicly pray, to bring in political flags, to play sports, to have picnics, to have summer camps for children on the holy site. Jews are highly restricted in what they can do there, when they can visit, and what they can bring in. 

- More Muslims visited the Temple Mount Thursday night than the number of Jews who visited the site in all of 2024. 

Jewish rule in Jerusalem is more tolerant of Muslims than Muslims ever have been towards Jews under their rule. Any restrictions Israel puts in place are based purely on safety considerations - similar to what Muslims themselves do in Muslim holy sites like the Kaaba in Mecca. 

The real story isn't how Israel restricts Muslim worshippers. The real story is how Israel can be so incredibly tolerant towards them to allow them to desecrate Judaism's holiest site, when Muslims never gave Jews anything close to this much consideration.

---

---

Buy EoZ's books  on Amazon! "He's an Anti-Zionist Too!" cartoon book (December 2024) PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

 

Read More

03/06 Links Pt2: The myth of Masafer Yatta; BBC Scandal Exposes the Sham Industry of Anti-Zionist Documentaries; How Hamas exploits, abuses, weaponizes children

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The myth of Masafer Yatta

The reality of Masafer Yatta, however, is radically different. The area was never under Palestinian Arab control. The only people with any legal or historical claim to it are the Jews.

In the 1920s, the Jews alone were promised a homeland by the League of Nations throughout what is now Israel, the disputed territories and the Gaza Strip—a binding treaty obligation that has never been abrogated.

In 1999, Arabs illegally erected homes in Masafer Yatta but failed to obtain building permits from Israel’s civil administration. This violated the Israel and Arab agreed-upon Oslo Accords that gave Israel full control over this area.

In 2022, Israel’s High Court ruled that these homes must be demolished. As a result, the residents moved into nearby alternative dwellings. Many of these condemned structures, however, remained in place in order to provide the illusion of a permanent Arab presence.

None of these facts, of course, was mentioned in the film because they would instantly destroy the lie of helpless Arabs victimized by cruel Israeli oppression.

Masafer Yatta has produced numerous terrorists who have murdered Israeli civilians. Moreover, with the connivance or backing of NGOs such as B’Tselem and Amnesty, its activists harass Jews living in the area by trespassing, damaging property and provoking fights that they film and post online with titles like “settler violence” and “Jewish supremacy.”

In 2021, during a violent incident in Masafer Yatta, an Israeli Defense Forces officer filmed a young Arab setting fire to Arab structures and shouting: “The Jews did it.”

The Jewish Voice reported that this young Arab was none other than the future Oscar-winner Basel Adra, whom it described as a B’Tselem activist and “a known provocateur in the Hebron mountains.” In a succession of contradictory claims, Adra later denied that he had committed arson.

The mythology that has developed around Masafa Yatta is one of many lies that have shaped support for the Palestinian cause throughout the West, investing it with the status of a heroic fight for justice. Obscenely, this big lie has come to define the claim by Western “progressives” to moral and centrist attitudes.

Seth Mandel: A BBC Scandal Exposes the Sham Industry of Anti-Zionist Documentaries

The BBC thus had not only produced a Hamas propaganda film but sanitized the murderous Jew-hatred expressed by Palestinians throughout.

And that is why Shah, the BBC chair, was in front of a government panel expressing his deep regret on Tuesday. The government is letting the BBC take the lead on the investigation, but it is making clear that this is a uniquely shameful tale of BBC infamy.

The earlier Channel 4 program won news awards, including an international Emmy. It turned out that Channel 4 has known the family’s identity since last summer, further casting doubt on the BBC’s already-farfetched attempts to play dumb or claim to have been manipulated.

There are two important lessons here. First, as has become fairly clear by now, a great deal of the “journalism” on the war is being done by members of terrorist organizations fighting in that war. The BBC’s documentary was, perhaps, the worst such example. But it was an example nonetheless. Mainstream international media have corrupted their tradecraft in their desire to enable Hamas’s genocidal cause against Israel.

Second, the fact that this keeps happening is a reminder that in order to paint Israel as a convincing villain, news must be fabricated. Documentaries are perfect vehicles for such audience manipulation, of course. This is was part of the reason the Oscars award to No Other Land on Sunday night was so divisive: As Jonathan Sacerdoti and others have meticulously pointed out, the film’s narrative bears almost no relation to the reality of its subject. It’s agitprop produced to legitimize baldly illegal Palestinian land grabs.

One should consider the following: If Israel were truly the evil oppressor its critics make it out to be, why would all this documentary evidence have to be manufactured and distorted?

Seth Mandel: Gal Gadot and the Controversial Jewish Practice of Merely Existing

One doesn’t have to be a Hollywood insider to understand immediately that this theory is insane. Zegler is vocally anti-Israel in the current conflict and has courted controversy by taking her lemming-like social-media activity to great lengths: After the trailer for her own upcoming movie received spiteful backlash online because of Gadot’s participation in the film, Zegler signaled her agreement with the trolls. All of which is to say: Had Zegler been scheduled to present an award to an anti-Israel film, she would have crawled over hot coals to do so, not traded categories quietly for the sake of avoiding some imagined discomfort on Gadot’s part.

Now, it happens to be the case that Gadot is a class act, in stark contrast to many of her peers, and she would’ve presented whatever award the Academy asked her to. So whoever invented this rumor had an axe to grind. And who was that, anyway? According to Newsweek, the source of the rumor was Jen Perelman, a progressive congressional candidate in previous cycles whose entire political persona has been constructed out of obsessive anti-Zionist rage.

So, yes, Gadot is completely correct to have said last night that just being an Israeli Jew is considered controversial. Apparently there were a number of social-media users who, prior to the Oscars, expressed their wish that Gadot would have to present the award to the Palestinian director. Why? Because she is a Jewish Israeli, and they think it would have made her uncomfortable.

But that’s quite the admission in itself: People want Gal Gadot to be made to feel uncomfortable in public. It gives them great pleasure to imagine it. Why? Because she is a Jewish Israeli. That’s it—a number of Oscars viewers simply wanted to see someone make a Jew feel bad. When that didn’t happen, these folks imagined that the reason it didn’t happen was due to a Jewish conspiracy.

Gadot is handling all this with aplomb, but it is an ominous sign for society that it’s happening at all.

Read More

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.

Read More