Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 01, 2025

05/01 Links Pt2: 77 Years of Vindication and Miracles; Collier: Violently attacked again. Is it time for me to leave?; Mohsen Mahdawi: ‘I like to kill Jews,’ per court filing

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Antisemites are still proving why we need Israel

Still the answer to Jew-hatred
Zionism is more than just a justified reaction to persecution in the past and the existential threats of the present. It is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people and—in no small irony given the mendacious rhetoric of contemporary antisemites—it is the greatest and most successful anti-colonial movement in history since it restored this small country to its indigenous people: the Jews.

Rather than blaming its existence for antisemitism, it’s time to understand that Israel and Zionism must be the primary answer to hatred against Jews.

Israel is not merely a physical shield that is the only true monument to the Six Million slain in the Holocaust, as well as the only guarantee that it can never happen again. The idea of Zionism can and must serve as an inspiration for Jews, no matter where they live, no matter their religious beliefs, and whether or not they call themselves Zionists.

To imagine a world without Israel is to enter into a counterfactual scenario in which not only is the destruction of the Jewish people encompassed, but also a world in which barbarism, rather than the values of ethical monotheism, the nation-state and universal justice that the Jews gave the world, will reign unchallenged. If Israel is still under siege, it is because Islamists and Marxists—whether they fly a false flag of concern for “human rights” or are more open about their despotic beliefs—alike seek such a terrible outcome for humanity.

Jews have a right to their own nation in the place that has been their home for thousands of years, regardless of any other factor. Herzl was right that it was a necessity in a world in which, as the Passover Haggadah states, “in every generation, they rise against us.”

A symbol of justice
Though it is as imperfect as any human endeavor, Israel is more than a precarious shelter in a hostile world. Whether Israelis and Jews elsewhere would have it so or not, the Jewish state, like Judaism itself, remains a symbol of the greatness that humanity can achieve and of its highest ethics and morals. And it will never be forgiven for that by those who embrace the ideologies of hatred and destruction, and are inevitably to be found among the ranks of antisemites in every era.

No matter what its enemies throw against it—be it conventional armies, terrorists or calumnies about “genocide”—Israel is here to stay. The Jew-haters may labor under the delusion that they can destroy it and redefine Zionism as racism, but all they are doing is reminding the world of the imperative of the logic that made the modern-day nation of the Jews necessary. Whether it is a somber observance or a joyous party, Israel’s Independence Day is still a day that Jews and people of goodwill everywhere should celebrate since it is a commemoration of both freedom and the eternal cause of justice.

Happy Yom Ha’atzmaut!

Seth Mandel: 77 Years of Vindication and Miracles

It’s hard not to see some symbolism in the coinciding of three events this week: Israeli Independence Day, a rainstorm over areas of Israel scorched by a raging wildfire, and the U.S. and Ukraine signing a mineral deal.

To back up: Today is Yom Ha’atzmaut, the day Israelis celebrate the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in the Jewish people’s ancient land. Because Israel is still relatively young as a nation state—77 years—Jews around the world each year still contemplate the meaning of that independence. It’s worth noting that current Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu became, in 1996, the first Israeli premier to have been born in the state after it achieved statehood. Indeed, Israel was not yet 18 months old when Bibi was born.

So as strong and successful as Israel has become in those 77 years, its existence isn’t taken for granted. And each year, I wonder how it would fare in today’s political climate were it to be born under the same war conditions.

Israel was subject to a wide arms embargo when five combined Arab armies set upon it at birth. If Israel were to start from scratch today, it would meet plenty of hostility from the West. The pressures of internal Democratic Party politics would make siding with Israel a nonstarter. Progressives have increasingly turned away from a two-state solution toward acceptance of the idea that Israel simply doesn’t deserve to belong to the family of nations, and a do-over would give them the opportunity to right what they have come to see as a historical wrong.

Republicans, meanwhile, have become the more reliable pro-Israel party, a turn that arguably began in earnest after 9/11 drove home for many Americans the commonalities between the two states’ strategic and moral concerns. But Israel’s strength makes it a more attractive ally to an influential portion of the GOP than it might otherwise be.

Last May, JD Vance—now the vice president—gave a speech to an isolationist think tank in which he made the case for U.S. support for Israel. This in itself was a positive development, because the isolationist/retrenchment wing of the conservative movement needed to be told that while some of the winds of change were blowing within the conservative coalition, going forward Israel would remain a cherished ally of the United States.

But Vance’s defense of Israel was pitted against his distaste for Ukraine as an ally. And it wasn’t hard to see the conditional nature of his defense of Israel lurking beneath the kind words:

“Israel is one of the most dynamic, certainly on a per capita basis, one of the most dynamic and technologically advanced countries in the world…. We have to sort of ask ourselves, what do we want out of our Israeli allies? And more importantly, what do we want out of all of our allies writ large? Do we want clients who depend on us, who can’t do anything without us? Or do we want real allies who can actually advance their interests on their own with America playing a leadership role.”

UK’s Charles laments ‘immense pain and suffering’ of Gaza hostages in letter to Herzog

Britain’s King Charles III wrote to President Isaac Herzog to congratulate him on the occasion of Israel’s 77th Independence Day, and said he is praying for the return of the remaining Gaza hostages.

“My wife and I wanted to send Your Excellency and the people of The State of Israel our congratulations on the auspicious occasion of your seventy-seventh Independence Day,” began the letter, which was sent on Wednesay.

“We are all too aware of the immense pain and suffering still being endured by those who remain hostage in Gaza,” Charles wrote.

“Our special thoughts and prayers remain with them and their families, as well as with all those whose lives have been so dreadfully devastated by this conflict.”

He added that it is his “profound hope that they are able to return home to their loved ones and that there is peace in the region.”

Herzog acknowledged the letter during remarks at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem on Thursday.

Charles also reached out to Herzog in the days after the 2023 Hamas attack, which started the ongoing war, and expressed his condolences and “deep shock” at the actions of the “barbaric” Hamas against Israeli citizens.

In January, he visited Auschwitz-Birkenau, laying a wreath in memory of those murdered at the Nazi camp.

05/01 Links Pt1: Spencer: Hamas Is Not Just a Terrorist Organization; Unmasking the Palestinian Authority; Iran had imperial ambitions in Syria

From Ian:

John Spencer: Hamas Is Not Just a Terrorist Organization

If the 2023 attack was a military operation, an invasion by a terrorist army, then the attackers were “militants” or “fighters,” and their leadership is a belligerent regime, not just a group of terrorists in the narrow sense. And the battle now unfolding against this hostile army is not counterterrorism. It is war.

The difference is not merely semantic; it has operational consequences as well. The U.S. Department of Defense doctrine recognizes that different kinds of operations apply, respectively, to terrorism, insurgency, and war. Calling Hamas fighters “militants” more accurately reflects the reality of their battlefield role, which is governed by the laws of armed conflict—including the Geneva Conventions and customary international law.

Language also frames legitimacy. If Israel is perceived to be responding to terrorism with full-scale war, it can be accused of overreach. But if Israel is understood to be engaged in a defensive, existential fight against a hostile regime that invaded its territory, killed and kidnapped its citizens, and declares its intent to repeat the attack, then war—along with all the obligations and rules it entails—is the appropriate response, and absolute victory is a justified objective.

Unfortunately, the label “terrorist” has become a rhetorical weapon. It invites simplistic comparisons between Israel’s airstrikes and Hamas’s atrocities. It enables critics to say, “Israel is killing more people than Hamas, therefore it must be the aggressor.” But wars are not judged by symmetry in body counts. They are judged by adherence to principles: military necessity, distinction between civilians and combatants, proportionality, and humanity. Those principles only function if the conflict is properly defined.

None of this is to excuse Hamas’s conduct. Hamas has repeatedly violated the laws of war by targeting civilians and holding them hostage, using human shields, and placing military assets in protected civilian sites. But the nature and scope of how Israel carries out its right to defend itself under international law—and the perception of how it does so in the eyes of the public—depends in part on the type of conflict it is fighting. If the public continues to see the war through the lens of counterterrorism, it will not appreciate the scale or scope of Israel’s objectives or the existential risks associated with failure.

Precision in language supports precision in strategy, and aligns legal frameworks with battlefield realities. And it gives the international community a coherent basis for judging conduct—not by emotion or media framing, but by the standards of just war. It also means that, to win, the IDF must pursue the sort of conventional strategy it would apply at wartime, rather than resorting to the playbook it used effectively during the second intifada, and with less clear results during the numerous brief outbreaks of fighting with Hamas since 2007. Hamas may use terrorist tactics, but it is an armed force fighting in a war.

The semantics matter. They always have. But in war, they can mean the difference between legitimacy and condemnation, between clarity and chaos, between victory and defeat.

Unmasking the Palestinian Authority

April 22, 2025, may be remembered as a turning point in the history of Israeli public diplomacy—and rightly so. On that day, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs harnessed the power of social media to expose the Palestinian Authority as the enemy it is.

From the official @Israel account on X, a powerful statement was posted: “The Palestinian Authority isn’t educating children, it’s indoctrinating them. Maps without Israel. Teachers praising martyrdom. Textbooks that glorify terror. As long as they teach hate, there’s no hope for peace. Stop ignoring it. Stop funding education that leads to terror.”

By directly attributing responsibility for the deeply rooted antisemitism prevalent in P.A.-controlled areas to Mahmoud Abbas and his co-conspirators, Israel took a vital step toward challenging the dangerous myth that a Palestinian state would lead to peace.

Prominent French public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy took to X and explained the tragedy that the so-called two-state solution would mean.

His post was quickly retweeted by @Israel. His message deserves to be quoted in full: “If there is a moment when the two states solution is not relevant, it is today! What do we want to tell? That we reward terrorism? That what could not be achieved through peace has been achieved with pogrom? That #Hamas has brought #Israel & the free world to its knees? Come on … .”

That these posts appeared during the week of Yom Hashoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day, was no coincidence. More and more Israelis are acknowledging a painful reality: Whether they support Fatah or Hamas, Palestinians overwhelmingly agree that the Jewish state must be eliminated. Their only disagreements are over tactics, not goals.

What, beyond the P.A.’s institutionalized antisemitism, has prompted this new boldness from Israel on social media?

The reasons may never be fully known, but a series of alarming recent events likely played a role, many of which have gone underreported in Western media.

Planes from Cyprus, Croatia, Italy, France to provide support as firefighters

In the ongoing battle against the flames on Thursday, Israel is operating its "Elad Sqadron" as several aircrafts from abroad are en route to aid in its efforts.

An aid helicopter from Cyprus has already landed in Israel, and soon the plane from Croatia will also land. An additional two planes from Italy will also arrive later.

This squadron includes American-made Air Tractor AT-802 planes. These planes can carry about 3,000 liters of fire retardant and are suited for complex, mountainous terrain. They are known for their precision and maneuverability, but are limited in the amount of material they can drop per sortie.

Israel is also using a converted C-130 Hercules aircraft equipped with the MAFFS 2 system. This system allows the plane to carry about 12,000 liters of fire retardant and drop it accurately over fire hotspots.

Its main advantage is the ability to operate in poor visibility and at night. However, it requires a long runway for takeoff and landing and is not suitable for all types of terrain.

As part of international assistance, Croatia was the first to announce its support and is sending CL-415 aircraft, also known as “Super Scoopers.”

These Canadian-made planes can scoop water from natural sources like lakes and seas and carry about 6,000 liters per sortie. They are particularly effective in areas with accessible water sources but are less suitable for dry or mountainous regions.

French and Cypriot planes
France is expected to send Dash 8 Q400 aircraft converted for firefighting missions. These planes can carry around 10,000 liters of fire retardant and are known for their speed and ability to cover large areas. They are best suited for flat terrain but require proper runways for takeoff and landing.

Israel To Force Released Prisoners To Thank Them For Screening Of Last 3 Star Wars Films (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Ofer Prison, May 1 - Taking a page from the Hamas public relations playbook, the next exchange of incarcerated Palestinians as part any upcoming hostage deal will feature a public ceremony in which the soon-to-be-free men will, with armed guards standing over them, voice gratitude for the times that their jailers sat them in front of repeated showings of the final trilogy of the Skywalker family saga. The report came from sources within Israel's Ministry of Defense.

According to the officials, the move comes as a response to the Islamist terrorist movement that governs the Gaza Strip, which held degrading "thank you" events starring Israeli hostages forced to make groveling statements to their "hosts" and given parting "gifts."

"It had to be something just as harsh, perhaps harsher, but not strictly defined as a war crime," explained one official. "What Hamas did was without question a crime against humanity and a war crime, but the international community doesn't care what Hamas does. We, for better or for worse, have to maintain a higher standard than our enemies do. Our legal department spent months developing a retaliatory method that matches the sadism of the original act without falling afoul of any statutes in the Laws Of Armed Conflict and the Geneva Conventions."

Hamas representatives and human rights activists decried the reports. "Anything less than immediate Israeli acquiescence to complete domination and enslavement to Islamist Palestinians is a war crime," explained Human Rights Watch Director Federico Borello.

Amnesty International confirmed the assessment. "The fact of the actual showings of those atrocities to the prisoners may be appalling, but that's not going to change what we say except in the details," admitted Agnes Callamard.

Sources within Hamas echoed that characterization but also hinted at a softened position on the remaining Israeli hostages still in its hands. "Our brothers behind Zionist bars are suffering," lamented Mousa Abu Marzouk. "We must take the necessary steps to spare them from further suffering, however much we have urged them to persevere in the face of challenges. 'The Rise of Skywalker' alone could break a stronger man than I. There's no telling what having to sit through both of the other sequels will do to our heroes, let alone if they are forced to watch them repeatedly."

The Ministry of Defense sources also disclosed that as a backup plan, the inmates could be forced to watch the 1980's sitcom Small Wonder.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Antisemites don't change

We often see that antisemites think that they are the center of the universe and that everything any Jews does that upsets them is a personal insult.

Palestinians think this way every day.

Jews visiting the Temple Mount? It is to provoke them! Jews dancing on holidays? It is to insult them!

Their spiritual ancestors, the Nazis. engaged in their own version. Inventing a new theory in physics? Obviously, it was meant to upset Aryans!

From Reuters in August 1936:

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

JTA reports:

An amendment saying that criticism of the Israeli government is not antisemitic was added to the Antisemitism Awareness Act today in a Senate committee hearing.

The amendment was proposed by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, the Jewish progressive leader, and approved in a 12-11 vote in the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.

We do not yet know the exact text of the amendment. That wording is critical.

The Antisemitism Awareness Act, as currently written, says:

For purposes of this Act, the term “definition of antisemitism”—

(1) means the definition of antisemitism adopted on May 26, 2016, by the IHRA, of which the United States is a member, which definition has been adopted by the Department of State; and

(2) includes the “[c]ontemporary examples of antisemitism” identified in the IHRA definition.

However, the IHRA definition already says "criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic. "

So what is the purpose of the Sanders amendment?

If Sanders is concerned that this is a free speech issue, the very same act also says, "Nothing in this Act shall be construed...to diminish or infringe upon the rights protected under any other provision of law..." meaning, it already protects the First Amendment.

What, exactly, is his amendment adding to the Act that wasn't already there?

Sanders positions himself as a free speech absolutist, at least in terms of left-wing free speech. heis positioning this as a defense of free speech. He does not appear to be quite as liberal for speech he disagrees with: he advocated for regulating speech associated with right-wing or corporate interests, such as corporate campaign spending (the Citizens United case), billionaire-owned media (e.g., Fox News), and online ads funding right-wing outlets.

In terms of the Antisemitism Awareness Act, the only reasonable explanation for adding an amendment that seems redundant to the existing IHRA definition is that Sanders wants to allow all criticism of Israel, including Holocaust inversion, accusing Israel of being Nazis, or saying "Zionists" control the media or the banks. Adding text to the Act which primarily supports using the IHRA definition is meant to undermine the Act itself.

It might be possible that the additional amendment, if it does not include the IHRA qualifiers, would endanger Jewish Zionist students on campus. Student groups can say that they won't allow "Zionists" to enter their spaces or become members, and argue that they are simply making a political statement and not a discriminatory one - the exact scenario that prompted the government to extend Title VI to Jews who consider Zionism a core part of their identities.

Depending on the language, this amendment might destroy whatever gains have been made in applying Title VI protections to Jews on campus.

It would be better to kill the Antisemitism Awareness Act than to allow it to gut the IHRA definition that it is meant to promote.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The devastating wildfires in Israel appear to have been deliberately set.

“It’s a terror attack on Israel,” Eli Beer, president of the United Hatzalah emergency response organization, told The Media Line. He noted that fires were started in 20 separate locations. A security source also confirmed to The Media Line that a terrorist act was likely behind the fires, adding that several people had been arrested.

A map circulating in Israeli security circles depicts the locations of the fires, almost all of which are marked on the Israeli side of the Green Line separating the West Bank from Israel and Gaza—not in the areas inhabited by Palestinians. Hamas posted on social media a call for Palestinians in the West Bank and Israel to “burn whatever you can of groves, forests, and settler homes” and “set their cars ablaze.”

This is hardly a surprise. Arabs have been setting fires in Israel and in Jewish areas for a hundred years.

During the 1936 Arab riots, setting fires was a popular method of attacking Jews.

Palestine Post, May 31, 1936:

Setting fires in forests became especially popular during the first intifada - you know, the one that was supposedly non-violent: From JTA, June 9, 1988:

Forest fire damage since the beginning of summer is running five times ahead of all of last year, and much of it is the result of arson linked to the Palestinian uprising, Jewish National Fund spokesman David Angel said Wednesday.

He urged the police and fire departments to do their utmost to prevent the torching of forests that JNF Chairman Moshe Rivlin has called the “intifada against trees.”

There have been 160 fires since the beginning of May, which have destroyed about 120,000 trees and thousands of acres of grasslands, the JNF spokesman said. The police have arrested nine arson suspects.

One third of the forest fires in Israel in 1988 were deliberately set.

1989:

Ten suspects have been detained for questioning in connection with the fire Tuesday that destroyed at least 2,500 acres of forest and underbrush on the Carmel range, south of Haifa.

There is no question that arson was the cause, according to police and fire officials, who linked it to the Palestinian uprising. They said the arsonists started the fire simultaneously at five different spots at about one-mile intervals.

An anonymous caller speaking in Arabic told Israel Television’s Arabic service Tuesday night that the fire was the work of a group called “Direct Revenge.”

This pattern continued through the early 2000s and continuously to today. I reported on arson forest fires set by Arabs in 2011, 2012, 2016, and Hamas sending incendiary balloons into Israel through the late 2010s as well.

In 1936, the fires were so heartbreaking for the indigenous Jews of the Land of Israel that David Shambadal, a young electrician who was viciously murdered was found to have written a poem about the arsonists and the desire to replant all the trees that were destroyed only hours before his murder. I cannot find the original Hebrew version; it was translated into English this way:

Plant!

Sycamores they cut down

Cedars we shall plant;

Foes in the open

Shall never find us scant.

The vandal of the desert,

Destructive is his hand;

With faith and fortitude

We shall build the Land.

Onward, onward

We shall ever go;

Pave in the desert

Paths, in spite of foe.

Forests are falling,

Fires are aglare –

Plant, plant, plant –

Brothers, no despair!”

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Arabic media is quoting an Al Jazeera report where the director general of the Ministry of Health in the Gaza Strip, Munir al-Barash says, "The Zionist occupation is exterminating the Palestinian race."

There is no Zionist "occupation" in Gaza. There is no "extermination." There is no such thing as the "Palestinian race."

In Arabic, that quote is only five words long. الاحتلال الصهيوني يبيد النسل الفلسطيني

So in five words he managed three lies. This may be a record for a Palestinian official, but it is hard to know, since they lie as easily as they breathe.

This is the Ministry of Health that the world is trusting with casualty numbers.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

04/30 Links Pt2: Israel at 77: Why a Jewish state matters; Harvard Hamasniks’ Jew-Tracking Network; David Horowitz, ’60s radical turned conservative, dies at 86

From Ian:

Eli Sharabi is Jewish resilience

Earlier this week I, along with 1,400 other British Jews, attended an evening at St John’s Wood Synagogue to listen to Eli Sharabi share his story from hell.

Eli Sharabi was kidnapped from his home in Israel by Hamas terrorists on October 7 and held hostage in tunnels under Gaza for 491 days. His wife and two daughters were killed on the day he was taken, though mercifully he wasn’t aware of their fate until he was released.

The Sharabi family asked that none of Eli’s words were recorded and out of respect for Eli and his family I won’t share what was said.

That moment when Eli walked in felt spiritual. We all stood and applauded as he made his way to the stage. I was crying the moment I stood, before I even saw him, as were many others. Perhaps it was the overwhelming sense of togetherness we felt or the shock of seeing someone from that horrific day in real life. When I did see him, my mind went to the image we all saw when he was released; the photo that showcased the unimaginable suffering the hostages had been through, and are still going through, at the hands of terrorists. I tried to shake that picture out of my head as I looked at the man standing in front of me. The sadness in his eyes gave away his loss yet his presence felt hopeful and strong. He was defiance, true resilience, in the face of true terror.

As the audience continued their applause, I felt so many things. Awe. Sadness. Guilt. Anger. Without meaning to sound hyperbolic I felt as though I was in the presence of something divine. Something bigger than me. Of course Eli himself is a simple, normal man by his own description but what he represents – well, it’s beyond words.

We’ve all had experiences with people who move us in some way. Film stars, musicians. I understand what it’s like to be starstruck, to not believe that someone you admire is standing in front of you. This was not that. Eli is not a celebrity. He’s not a martyr. But being in that room tapped into something on a different frequency that I had not felt before; perhaps it’s the same feeling people describe when they visit the Kotel or a glimpse of what it might have felt like at Mount Sinai.

I recall an ethics lesson in high school where we discussed what we’d live for and what we’d die for. We learnt about war and the concept of dying for one’s country, for something greater than yourself. From a young age we were taught stories of people who risked their lives to celebrate Chanukah or light Shabbas candles whilst living through times of persecution. This idea has always stuck with me; the idea that there is something greater than the individual human experience, something worth that risk. Hearing the words of Eli Sharabi, I felt that abstract idea as a visceral emotion.

Life has changed for the Jewish people since October 7 and the truth is that many of us have come together because of it. There has been so much sadness, such a depth of darkness, that it feels wrong to credit it as the catalyst for this renewed sense of unity. But there has also been so much light. Jewish sadness is an important part of who we are, it brings us together in divisive times and reminds us of what we fight for but it is Jewish joy, community, hope and unity that will keep us going.

Seth Mandel: Harvard Hamasniks’ Jew-Tracking Network

The long-awaited Harvard report on its own campus anti-Semitism is more than 300 pages long. By now, we have heard most of these stories or stories just like them, and the subsequent lack of impact is no doubt what Harvard was betting on by dragging out this process as long as it has.

But “most” is not “all,” and there is one story buried within the dense report that is genuinely shocking, even after all we’ve seen. I’m going to include the crux of the story, which isn’t long, in the words of the faculty member who experienced it. Every single Jew in America should read this story to understand the current situation and where it is headed.

The faculty member had walked over to a campus Gaza encampment to listen to what participants had to say about the conflict during an open-mic period. Here is the key part of what she recounted to the anti-Semitism commission that produced this report:

“While I quietly stood watching the open mic in the encampment (I attended alone and not in ‘counter protest’), a Harvard alum and former student called me on the phone, and then texted several times, which is not normal. When we were able to speak after I left the yard that night, he informed me that he had seen my name come up on an internal chat (apparently a large group communication for ‘marshals of the encampment’) and that there was concern with my presence there. I was described so that others could recognize me and identified as a ‘Zionist.’ It was unclear if he was alerting me to warn me to be careful or to ask me to leave, but during our brief conversation he wrongly associated me with counter protest and communicated that he was hoping I’d act in an especially nonthreatening way because my presence was a concern. It was chilling.

“What I’m taking from this, and perhaps I’ve internalized it in the wrong way, is that I was surveilled, identified by name, and profiled as a ‘Zionist’ threat in a chat that reached far enough that an alum not at the protest, who I had no idea was even involved, knew exactly where I was and reached out with concern. I have not shared any of my views (complex and ever-changing) with students or in any public setting save for asking a question at a ‘teach in.’ I have no idea what I did to end up on a blacklist, but whatever the reason I was profiled, beliefs about me that are inextricable from my Jewishness seem to have made me a potential target.”

Abe Greenwald: A Tale of Two Reports Via Commentary Newsletter sign up here.

Here are the first two sentences of the New York Times’ write-up on two newly released Harvard task-force reports on “bias” in education and life at the university. See if you can spot the crucial difference in focus between the two:

Sentence 1: “A Harvard task force released a scathing account of the university on Tuesday, finding that antisemitism had infiltrated coursework, social life, the hiring of some faculty members and the worldview of certain academic programs.”

Sentence 2: “A separate report on anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias on campus, also released on Tuesday, found widespread discomfort and alienation among those students as well, with 92 percent of Muslim survey respondents saying they believed they would face an academic or professional penalty for expressing their political opinions.”

It’s not hard to see the game that’s being played here. The report on anti-Semitism documents the actions of anti-Semites on campus. The report on “anti-Arab, anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian bias” surveys Muslim students’ self-reported feelings. It’s not about “bias” at all.

Jew-hatred is demonstrably rampant at Harvard, and 92 percent of the school’s Muslim students feel oppressed. Thanks for the update.

The anti-Semitism report documents anti-Semitism on campus because it’s a real phenomenon; the Islamophobia report documents perceived victimhood because Islamophobia is not.

The term “Islamophobia” came into popular use after the attacks of 9/11, because the first thing liberals worried about after a devastating terrorist attack on the U.S. was American bigotry. When that bigotry failed to appear, the term was repurposed. “Islamophobia” is now summoned to apologize for those rare moments when liberals are forced to acknowledge anti-Semitism—for example, when violent, pro-jihadist Jew-hatred has overtaken one’s own institution and the president of the United States demands accountability. That’s when liberals are compelled to acknowledge Muslims’ feelings of alienation.

Holocaust education has a lot to answer for, but at least there aren’t any “Holocaust and Germanophobia” centers.

I wrote the following essay around 2002 during the height of the second Intifada on a Yahoo message board. For the past twenty years I have updated it every Yom Ha'atzmaut to include the events of the previous year.

This year I decided to publish the original. The parts that sound ironic today really aren't. Israel is fighting the exact same war against terror as she was then. The same people who lie about Israel now were lying about her then. Israel is as wonderful, as glorious and as admirable now as it was then.

My 2002 essay holds up.

__________________________

I often do Internet news searches on the word "Zionist" and, not surprisingly, the word is far more often used as an insult than as a compliment. It is way past time to reclaim the term Zionism and for those of us who support Israel to show pride in the term.

Yes, I am a Zionist and I am proud of it.

I know that Israel has the absolute right to exist in peace and security, just like any other country.

I am proud of how the IDF is conducting itself during the current war on Palestinian terror. There is no other country on the planet, save the US, that would try to minimize civilian casualties in such a situation where innocent Israelis are being threatened and murdered in cold blood.

I am proud of how the IDF is performing doing the most difficult type of battle, that of looking house to house for terrorists, while maintaining amazing professionalism under fire and minimizing its own casualties. I defy anyone to find any other nation who has performed as well -- and as ethically -- as Israel has done during the current conflict.

I am proud that Israel remains a true democracy, with a free press and vigorous opposition parties, while in a constant war situation. Any other nation, again besides the US, would have imposed martial law to maintain peace.

I am proud of how Israeli citizens are going through their day to day lives, even while knowing that a despicable terrorist can still make it in to their hometowns.

I am proud of how many terror attacks have been thwarted by the Israeli police and citizens, and how many lives have been saved. For every "successful" attack (if you can use such a term) there have been many failed attempts, and these are truly miraculous.

I am proud that Israel will investigate any mistakes that happen on the battlefield and keep trying to improve its methods to maximize damage to the terrorists while minimizing damage to the Palestinian people. And over the years of the "intifada" we can see that the number of civilians killed accidentally by Israel has gone down dramatically. I challenge anyone to find an example of a country that was as restrained under these circumstances as Israel has been.

I am proud that Israel takes steps to stop vigilante actions from its own citizens living in impossible conditions.

And, of course, I am proud of Israel's many accomplishments in building up a desert wasteland into a thriving and vibrant modern country, with its many scientific achievements, world class universities and culture. In a short period of time Israel made itself into a strong yet open nation that its neighbors can only dream of becoming.

I am proud that the vast majority of Americans support Israel as I do, and that the rabid terror-lovers we see on the Internet are the aberration.

There is a right and a wrong in this conflict, and I am proud that Israel is in the right.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

04/30 Links Pt1: The Commons hearing that turned into a trial against Israel; US defends Israel at Hague; Australia is in Serious Trouble

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Commons hearing that turned into a trial against Israel and its defenders

Aside from Thornberry’s confrontational behaviour, something else stood out. For some committee members, there were simply no facts that could dent their certainty that Israel was behaving like a rogue state.

When Hausdorff stated that the IDF observed higher standards of humanitarian law than any other army in the world – a view backed by numerous international military experts – Labour MP Alex Ballinger dismissed this as “outrageous” and “a staggering claim”. And he repeated the allegation by Israel’s enemies that its blockade of aid to Gaza was a clear breach of humanitarian law.

Hausdorff attempted to rebut this with facts and context – a huge amount of aid flooded into Gaza during the ceasefire that would last for months; reports of incipient famine had been found to be baseless; and the blockade was a desperate measure to force the release of the remaining hostages.

This was all swatted aside on the basis that all international legal bodies and aid organisations were saying Israel was behaving atrociously. So was Hausdorff really maintaining that she was right and they were all wrong? Well yes, she was. Because that’s the astonishing reality. And this is why.

There’s now an unchallengeable idea among the educated classes that trans-national legal bodies and laws stand for truth and conscience. Nations are held to be partisan in their own interests. Trans-national bodies are assumed to be disinterested and fair. But that’s not how it works at all.

Trans-national bodies – such as the UN or International Criminal Court – represent a world dominated by tyrannies and dictatorships, many of which want democratic Israel destroyed. That’s why the UN, particularly Unrwa (its agency for Palestinian refugees), seems to have been infiltrated by Hamas, appoints human rights abusers to its Human Rights Council and employs people with a record of antisemitic statements, such as the rapporteur on the “Occupied Palestinian Territories”, Francesca Albanese.

At a deeper level, the notion that developed after the Holocaust that international laws and institutions would deliver justice was fundamentally flawed. Law derives its authority from being passed by parliaments representing the will of the people. International laws and tribunals, which have no such inherent jurisdiction, lack that legitimacy and therefore inescapably become instruments of politics rather than law.

As Hausdorff stepped away from the committee table, Thornberry could be heard muttering under her breath “Extraordinary! Extraordinary!” What really is extraordinary is a level of hostility, double standards and deafness to facts when it comes to Israel that’s applied to no other conflict, cause or people in the world. Parliament should hold a committee hearing into that. Then Britain might start to regain the moral compass it has so conspicuously destroyed.

Douglas Murray: Steve Witkoff is fumbling foreign talks and dragging Trump down

No ‘hell’ unleashed
But there are still dozens of Israeli hostages (including one born in New Jersey) being held in the dungeons of Gaza. And when Trump has said that he would unleash hell on Hamas, he seems to have meant that he might encourage the Israelis to go back in on the ground in Gaza. That feels like a weak answer to a big question: what to do about Hamas? How to finish them off?

One reason why Hamas is not finished off is that they seem — again — to have run rings around Witkoff. Two months into his negotiations, in March, Witkoff admitted Hamas might have duped him into pretending it wanted a deal.

Hamas? Duped? A murderous death cult behaving unreliably? Whatever next.

Who could have expected that?

Except everybody.

Perhaps the problem is that one of the keys to unlocking the problem of Hamas is for America to put pressure on one of the terror group’s key funders and hosts — the terrorist-loving state of Qatar.

Yet you will be hard pressed to hear a single negative said about the terrorist-supporting state from Witkoff.

The Israel-Gaza war could end tomorrow if the Qataris felt even the most minimal pressure from America. But when they have done the least possible thing in negotiations, they get only salivating praise from Witkoff. Asked about them early in the stringing-along process, Witkoff memorably said the Qataris were doing “God’s work.” I’d hate to think how Witkoff imagines the devil if he sees angels in Qatar.

Envoy’s ‘Iran’ problem
But it is with the Iranian revolutionary government that Trump’s envoy is running into his biggest problem.

When Barack Obama was president, he signed the US into nuclear negotiations with the ayatollahs known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). It saw the US and various other allies being mercilessly mislead by the mullahs. Out of office, Trump rightly blasted the deal and removed America from the negotiations. He understood the West was being outplayed. He also understood that one of the best pieces of leverage anyone has over the revolutionary government in Iran is sanctions.

Trump snuffed out the mullahs’ economy and the revolutionary movement suffered. But then in 2020, Biden came in and gave the Iranians a cash windfall. Suddenly the Ayatollahs were rich again. Meaning that Hezbollah, Hamas and the Houthis were rich, too. None of which has worked out well for Israel or anyone else in the region.

Now it looks like Witkoff is being hooked by the ayatollahs into an “Obama” process. The Iranian regime is still racing for the bomb. Trump has said he wants a deal. But the ayatollahs are still riding high.

In Iran — as in Russia — this country’s foes have made a calculation. Trump himself has made great promises and great statements. But his negotiator has been hooked into negotiations. And the Kremlin, Iran, Qatar, Hamas and the rest of them have reckoned that they can string America along very nicely.

A few more weeks will become a few more months and then a few more years. And then — no Trump — and behold a weaker American leader who will lead America and the world into a far worse place.

Seth Mandel: France’s Yom HaZikaron Disgrace

Because it is Yom HaZikaron, let’s review why it matters a great deal if there’s any hint of a connection between an ornery horde of French lawmakers and the PFLP.

The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine was created in the 1960s as a Marxist alternative to the more Islamist Palestinian nationalist groups. Its ideology is one reason it remains so popular with progressives abroad.

Among the PFLP’s more infamous attacks is the 1976 hijacking of an Air France plane that was diverted to Entebbe, Uganda—site of Israeli forces’ spectacular rescue raid a week later. The raid was commanded by Yoni Netanyahu, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s older brother, who was killed during the rescue.

In 2001, the PFLP assassinated Israeli Minister Rehavam Ze’evi in Jerusalem. Decades earlier, a PFLP splinter group pulled off a massively disproportionate prisoner swap with Israel, nearly overnight reshaping the Israeli-Palestinian conflict around a policy of kidnapping innocent Jews. That road led directly to Oct. 7.

But the PFLP didn’t merely bring us to the Oct. 7 status quo. It actively participated in that day and everything that followed. Most significantly, the PFLP appears to have held the Bibas family in captivity in Gaza, a particularly barbaric episode in a series of barbaric episodes.

From there, the PFLP has played on outsized role in the anti-Semitism crisis and the pro-Iran, China-backed meddling in domestic U.S. politics.

Democratic Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib was a keynote speaker at a conference in Detroit last year that was little more than a PFLP confab. This year’s version of that conference is using clips of PFLP terrorists in its advertisements.

And of course, the PFLP and its cutouts were a regular presence in the tentifada movement, the pro-terror encampments throughout American higher education that supported Hamas’s mass rape and slaughter on Oct. 7.

All of which raises a question: What country, besides Israel, is expected to welcome with open arms those who side with its enemies—enemies with whom it is currently still at war? It is difficult for me to understand why sending to Israel a delegation of government officials who want to see Israel destroyed isn’t a scandal for France rather than the Jewish state. The only explanation is the obvious: Israel, alone among the nations of the Western alliance of democracies, is simply expected to accept repeated public abuse from its friends. Even on Yom HaZikaron.

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

This week, Doug Emhoff was informed of his removal from the US Holocaust Memorial Council, alongside other Biden appointees, by the Trump administration. Emhoff responded in a statement to the New York Times, which said, in part, “Holocaust remembrance and education should never be politicized. To turn one of the worst atrocities in history into a wedge issue is dangerous — and it dishonors the memory of six million Jews murdered by Nazis that this museum was created to preserve.”

Emhoff, of course, is missing the point. His ouster is not about politicization but about failure—about being bad at one’s job. To put it bluntly, the Biden administration’s approach to remembering the lessons of the Holocaust ain’t working. Witness the campus protests exploding on college campuses since October 7, with professors gushing that they found the massacre “exhilarating” and with students assaulted for being Jewish and afraid to go to their classes.

Antisemitism proliferated and became widespread during the Biden years. So tell us, Doug Emhoff, why would President Trump still want you and your pals in charge? And what does it tell us about you that this explosion of antisemitism happened on the watch of your closest associates, including your wife?

No, getting rid of Emhoff is not about politicization, nor is it about scoring points. New administrations clean house. Biden unraveled Trump’s first-term policies with a vengeance. Now Trump is restoring order, installing his own people—people who care about making America great again—which includes making Jewish students safe again.

Given Trump’s unapologetic support for Israel and admiration for the Jewish people, it’s only logical he’d want to appoint Holocaust Memorial Council members who would advocate for Jewish students drowning in a sea of campus hate. The Biden years, on the other hand, were basically a replay of Germany during Hitler’s rise to power. The uproar on German campuses then, were no different than those on American campuses today. This is where Biden and company, including Doug Emhoff and the symbolic, synthetic Holocaust council he sat on, led us.

Which is why Emhoff and his ilk just weren’t going to make the cut once Donald Trump turned his sights on the mess they’d made, the out-of-control antisemitism spreading across America like an oil spill, something very difficult to clean.

Trump had perfectly viable reasons to fire Doug Emhoff’s butt. Beyond Trump, the Jewish people should themselves be questioning Emhoff’s suitability to sit on a Holocaust memorial council. Doug Emhoff, born Jewish, married non-Jewish women—first his ex, then Kamala Harris. His children? Not Jewish. By choice, Emhoff severed his Jewish line, a voluntary echo of the deliberate destruction Hitler inflicted on Jews who had no choice in the matter. What could be more antithetical to the Holocaust’s memory than a Jew who, with eyes wide open, ends his branch of the tribe? If that’s not a betrayal of Jewish continuity, what is?

Why would we want this person deciding how the memory of the Holocaust and the murdered should be preserved when he himself has ended his own Jewish chapter? A man who doesn’t even know the meaning of Chanuka?

Then there is the matter of Emhoff’s non-Jewish daughter, Ella, who raised money for UNRWA whose staffers have killed Jews alongside Hamas—a group whose charter calls for annihilating the Jewish people.

Ella calls Kamala “Momala,” as if Harris were some Jewish matriarch, while helping those who would erase her father’s people. Kamala herself? Hardly a friend to Israel before or since October 7, as we well know.

This is the Emhoff-Harris clan: Jewish when it suits the optics, divorced from Judaism when it counts.

I always tell friends whose parents or grandparents survived the Holocaust that their children are a victory over Hitler. One branch that evil didn’t manage to snuff out. Emhoff? He is the opposite of that, a victory handed to Hitler on a plate. Because Doug is the absolute end of his line. And he did it seemingly without a second thought—twice.

Emhoff may be an expert in the Final Solution, having killed off his line. But in no way should we consider Doug a suitable person to honor the memory of those who had their lines cut short by Hitler and his “Final Solution.” A Jew who voluntarily cuts short their own line is doing Hitler’s work for him and should not be serving on a Holocaust Memorial Council. The Holocaust Memorial Council should be peopled by those who embody the Jewish will to endure, not those who shrug as the legacy of their ancestors fades away.

Not long ago, on Quora I was asked, “Why is being pro-Israel but anti-Zionist considered by some as being extremely antisemitic?”

I kept my response simple, saying that anti-Zionism is by definition antisemitic, because to be anti-Zionist is to be against Jewish rights. I didn’t specify which rights. I left it at that. But of course, Zionism is the right of the Jewish people to be sovereign in their indigenous land.

The opposite of that, of course, is to agitate to ethnically cleanse Israel of Jews from the river to the sea.

Which is why Ella Emhoff’s fundraising for UNRWA isn’t a call to help the people of Gaza—but a call to eliminate the Jews and steal their rightful heritage, the Land of Israel. Ella’s father Doug, by extension, is complicit not only in his own line’s demise; but in the efforts of his spawn to undermine the survival of the Jewish people as a whole. How can such a man sit on a council meant to honor those who died for being Jews? Should this person, whose actions and those of his family are antithetical to the preservation and rights of the Jewish people get to decide things about the Holocaust?

To my own children, I often say, “Never mind the rest. Just have Jewish babies.”

Because nothing on earth is more important than that. It’s the most righteous and most philosemitic response to Hitler I can think of: add Jews to your family tree—continue the line.

Continue the line. The rest is only sound and fury, signifying nothing. Which is pretty much the story of Doug Emhoff’s small little life.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

UNRWA tweets:

In less than ten days the closure orders issued by Israeli officials for six UNRWA schools in #EastJerusalem will enter into force, risking the #RightToEducation of some 800 boys and girls. These orders violate Israel's obligations under international law.

UNRWA schools in Shu’fat have been part of the social fabric of the camp for decades, enabling children to enjoy high-quality education near their homes. Little girls are now afraid that their dreams of becoming doctors or scientists will evaporate if they lose their access to education”.

Here's what UNRWA doesn't want you to know.

Those 800 students are less than one percent of the more than 110,000 students who attend 249 schools in East Jerusalem. Only six of those schools are UNRWA. About 45,000 of the students attend public schools that are run by the Jerusalem Municipality. The rest attend private schools that are recognized by Jerusalem and a smaller number attend unrecognized and unofficial schools.

The UNRWA students can and will find other schools they can attend, for free, on Israel's dime. In fact, the Jerusalem Municipality has been planning for this for years - not only replacing UNRWA schools but also health clinics, sanitation and other services.

No one is in danger of losing their right to education. Not one student.

Now think about this for a minute. UNRWA claims that it needs funding to pay for educating and providing services for Palestinians. Palestinians in Jerusalem are legal residents and can receive all of these services for free. So why is UNRWA upset - it is not needed there, and can save the money to be used elsewhere, right?

Ah, but that is assuming that UNRWA is an apolitical agency who cares about Palestinians. It isn't. Its complaints over this prove it is nothing but political.

UNRWA doesn't want the Palestinian children to learn from an Israeli curriculum. It does not want them to learn that Jews are normal human beings and they have a history in the land that pre-dates Palestinians. It does not want them to not learn hate.

A legitimate refugee agency would be thrilled that another party is willing to take over the services it provides.

A sham "refugee" agency whose only purpose is to pressure Israel's existence by artificially extending fake refugee status to millions who do not fit the Refugee Convention definition of refugees would act exactly as UNRWA is acting.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)