Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

The @EUAntisemitism czar falsely accused of conflating criticism of Israel with antisemitism, says @EUObserver. She said nothing inaccurate.

A senior EU official has been lobbying against Israel sanctions using bogus claims of antisemitism, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.

Katharina von Schnurbein, the EU Commission's "coordinator on combating antisemitism", made the claims in a meeting with EU ambassadors in Tel Aviv on 29 May — in the middle of EU talks on possible trade sanctions against Israel.

She "warned against the risk that review of the [EU-Israel] association agreement is based on 'rumours about Jews', as opposed to facts", in one comment.

Luckily, the newspaper that says that she was engaged in falsehoods reproduced the leaked memo. And she said nothing inaccurate..

Let's fact-check.

Exchange of Views with EC Coordinator on Combating Antisemitism and Fostering Jewish Life, Katharina Von Schnurbein
EC Coordinator (KVS) recalled the growing antisemitism in Europe at the highest level since the Holocaust.

True.

KVS welcomed the fact that 24 EUMS had adopted national strategies for combating antisemitism. She underscored also the need to fight incidents of antisemitism that are not illegal via counter speeches.

True.

Noting how the first anti-IL protests in Europe began already on October 7, 2023, KVS shared with HoMs the suspicion that Hamas or other extremist groups were behind those.

True. Maybe not Hamas directly but certainly extremist groups like Samidoun, which is now on the US and Eu terror list. So she is correct.

KVS challenged some reports by the UN on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, such as a statement by the WFP warning of a humanitarian crisis already on October 8, 2023. She also mentioned how Hamas skilfully managed within just one week to shift the media attention from the massacre it committed on October 7 protests against the Israeli actions in Gaza and all this even before a single Israeli soldier had entered the Strip.

True.

KVS warned against new forms of antisemitism, which she described as “ambient antisemitism,” i.e., creating an atmosphere in which Jews feel uncomfortable, even in European institutions, noting, for instance, the “bake sales for Gaza.”

This was said in the article to be a Red Cross fundraiser. Whether this specific incident was right or wrong, no one can doubt that the constant elevation of Gaza as the world's biggest humanitarian crisis without context like Hamas using the civilians as human shields can certainly make Jews feel uncomfortable.

KVS stated that news on IL providing food in Gaza are ignored by the UN and the media, and warned against the risk that review of the Association Agreement is based on “rumours about Jews,” as opposed to facts.

The first part is true. I don't know enough about the second.

KVS also mentioned what she referred to as “conspiracy theories spread in social media about ‘Jews or the Mossad succeeded in putting the Israeli singer in second place’ at the recent Eurovision Song Contest.”

True.

In the ensuing Q&A, a number of HoMs [redacted] asked how to draw the line between antisemitism and the legitimate criticism of Israel.
Some [redacted] expressed discomfort in looking at the humanitarian situation in Gaza through the lenses of antisemitism, noting how, while there have been instances of hospital statements by the UN, the IL side dismisses every accusation on attacks on hospitals as “blood libels,” while HoMs heard from doctors, human rights organisations, the UN and from UNSC Kaag herself about the seriousness of the humanitarian situation in Gaza, and these are facts and to bring them up is not anti-Semitic.

No one said it is.

[Redacted] warned against even considering, in view of the extreme views of said Minister [redacted] wondered how to deal with a reality in which accusations of genocide against Israel are being considered by international jurisdictions.

KVS replied by clarifying how criticism of IL is not antisemitism, even if the IL government says it is; qualifying as dangerous the IL extreme right “flirting” with European far right parties.

So she is explicitly saying legitimate criticism of Israel is not antisemitic - directly contradicting the main claim in the article.

She insisted on the need to build a “trust based” dialogue with IL. She said that international Human Rights Organisations apply “double standards” in relation to the IL-PAL conflict. She warned against the temptation to “reopen” the IHRA, as it would be very difficult to agree on it again.

True and true.

KVS noted how the public discourses in IL and Europe are as far apart as they have ever been, and how losing IL would be a loss for Europe, and went on to also reflect on the consequences for Europe when looking at the review of the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

True.

She added that the focus in Europe is only on Gaza, with the hostages being almost forgotten.

True.

Noting how Jews in Europe are being blamed for what happens in Gaza, KVS concluded by insisting on the need to focus on facts.

True.

Here is a case where a newspaper makes a claim, says that the evidence supports the claim, but the evidence in fact refutes it. But it knows that most people do not know enough about the situation and won't bother reading the memo itself. And then it quotes "experts" who dispute what Katharina von Schnurbein supposedly said without actually engaging with what she actually said.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

07/14 Links Pt2: The Anti-Semitism Nexus; The BBC has proven itself to be institutionally blind to anti-Semitism; Congressmen raise questions about US funding to anti-Netanyahu protest groups

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Anti-Semitism Nexus

Well said. Albanese has declared war on the democratic West on behalf of the world’s most repressive and violent regimes, and she has a particular obsession with whipping up anti-Semitism all over the world. Albanese is a truly abominable figure in global politics.

She is also, like most delusional anti-Semites, whiny and self-pitying in the extreme. “I have been tormented for years,” she posted over the weekend, each desperate utterance merely proving that she is every bit the malign martyr-poseur she is accused of being.

For those interested in a rundown of Albanese’s greatest Jew-baiting hits, I wrote about her sordid career in January. But at the moment what strikes me about the Trump administration’s decision to sanction Albanese is what it reveals about her enabling institutions. After all, if sanctions are going to prevent her from working with certain organizations or people, it helps to know who was aiding her crusade along the way.

And you will probably not be shocked to see that among those institutions are Columbia and Harvard University. UN Watch obtained disclosure forms from 2023 and 2024 showing the schools made “in kind” contributions to Albanese’s efforts to buff Hamas’s reputation even after Oct. 7, 2023. These contributions came in the form of four research assistants in 2023 and “two rounds of interns/research assistants” in 2024 from Columbia alone.

That might not sound like much but it is a good indication of how elite universities became part of a nexus of “Globalize the Intifada” activism. As Albanese intensified her anti-Zionist campaign in the wake of those massacres, American institutions of higher learning were there to help her. It is one of the many ways these universities contributed to a dangerous atmosphere for Jews all over the world.

Albanese happened to have visited Columbia for a speech about a year after the Hamas attacks. Here is how a news report on her lecture opened:

“Francesca Albanese, the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories, shrugged when Columbia University student Eden Yadegar asked her if all Israelis were legitimate targets.

“When another student asked Albanese if she condemns the rape and kidnapping that occurred during the October 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist attack, the majority of the audience laughed, Yadegar told the Times of Israel.”

The anti-Semitic rot always runs deeper than it looks—even when it looks alarmingly deep to begin with.

Anti-Semitism Is Un-American

With numerous signs of rising anti-Semitism in the U.S., Jack Miller and Wilfred M. McClay argue that hating Jews is not only wrong, but fundamentally contrary to the American ethos.

America has, indeed, been an incomparably wonderful land for Jewish people, a land in which they have been able to flourish and achieve according to their own abilities and their own hard work. It also is equally true that America owes a profound and incalculable debt to those Jews who helped foster principles upon which much of the American experiment in democratic self-government was erected. Jewish Americans have helped our nation find cures for many of the worst illnesses, helped it become an economic and cultural juggernaut, and helped enrich our legal tradition. The Jewish people have contributed in ways large and small to the soul of America, both its making and improving.

Fortunately, the vast majority of Americans are not anti-Semitic, and see anti-Semitism as a grave threat. They believe in that vision in our Declaration of Independence and want to work to get us ever closer, as we previously had been doing, to realizing it in full.

The Founders adopted the Exodus story as a symbolic expression of America’s quest for liberty against the tyranny of worldly kings who counted themselves above the law. In that way, as in so many other ways, the American story and the Jewish story have been intertwined—and to negate one is to negate them both. We can’t let that happen if we are to continue as the land of the free.

Federal report warns of rise in antisemitic incidents against children in schools

A six-year-old child’s teacher told her she was “half human” because one of her parents was Jewish - one of nearly 800 antisemitic incidents in the Ontario elementary and high school system since 2023 reported to a federally commissioned survey.

Others included a 13-year-old girl being swarmed several times a day by classmates who raised their hands in a Nazi salute even as she begged them to stop, and Jewish children told by their teachers they were baby-killers for supporting Israel in its war with the militant group Hamas.

The stories relayed by Jewish families in a report for the Special Envoy for Preserving Holocaust Remembrance and Combatting Antisemitism reflect the rise in antisemitic incidents reported to municipal police nationwide since Hamas militants in Gaza attacked Israel in October, 2023. The ensuing war has killed tens of thousands of people and displaced millions more.

Antisemitism on university campuses has been explored by parliamentary committees, but the scope of the issue in the K-12 school system has received less attention at the federal level, in part because the schools are provincial responsibilities.

Envoy Deborah Lyons decided to embark on a probe after hearing numerous anecdotes from Jewish parents and organizations about the situation facing younger children. The final report was published Monday.

“Jewish students deserve what every Canadian child deserves: to feel safe, valued, and included in their classrooms,” Ms. Lyons said in a statement.

“This is not the reality today – and it must change.”

The survey focused on Ontario, home to approximately 30,000 Jewish children, the largest such population in Canada, according to University of Toronto sociology professor Robert Brym. He conducted the study, sending surveys to Jewish families via community organizations between January and April.

Of the 599 Jewish parents who responded, many reported incidents with no direct connection to the war, including the one reported by the family of the six-year-old.

“More than 40 per cent of responses involve Holocaust denial, assertions of excessive Jewish wealth or power, or blanket condemnation of Jews – the kind of accusations and denunciations that began to be expunged from the Canadian vocabulary and mindset in the 1960s and were, one would have thought, nearly totally forgotten by the second decade of the 21st century,” the report says.

Most of the respondents to the survey reported incidents with a connection to the ongoing conflict.

Among the examples: children being told by teachers or fellow students that they personally were responsible for the Israeli government’s actions in Gaza, with one grade nine boy told he was a baby killer.

07/14 Links Pt1: Those demanding a ceasefire know nothing about the evil of Hamas; Anti-Israel UN Commissioners Resign En Masse After Trump Sanctions

From Ian:

Richard Kemp: Those demanding a ceasefire know nothing about the evil of Hamas

So what makes Hamas think it still has the muscle to dictate terms to the side that is so obviously winning the fight? It knows it is no longer popular among the citizens of Gaza. There have been some protests that were brutally smashed down.

During a recent visit to the Strip I met around 100 Gazan civilians. Many of them openly told me how much they hate Hamas and want rid of them. So strong was their feeling, cheered by those around them, that I believe it’s likely they are representative.

The dreadful truth is that Hamas gets greater encouragement to continue fighting from widespread support in the West and the misguided and unjust condemnation of Israel from many political leaders and international institutions. How often do we hear people such as Keir Starmer demanding Israel stops fighting yet never making any demand on Hamas?

The same is true of attitudes to the GHF. Starmer has also condemned them, as has the UN Secretary General, both speaking in unison with Hamas. And of course it is received wisdom in the West that the population must in no circumstances leave Gaza. Yet that would be the most humane option and should have happened long ago.

The majority of Gazans I spoke to said they want to leave as soon as possible. That’s hardly surprising given the misery, bloodshed and destruction brought on them by Hamas’s war. Acquiescing with their wishes is obvious. But many in the international community apparently would rather civilians be further endangered than voluntarily and temporarily evacuated. Again, they and Hamas almost speak with one voice.

Our leaders have helped to prolong the war and increase the killing. Instead of looking to reward terrorism by recognising a putative Palestinian state, Macron, Starmer and the rest should be helping to make Hamas give up hope and demand a ceasefire followed by a negotiated end to hostilities on Israel’s terms.

Benny Morris: Rape and the Arab Way of War

Last week, an Israeli group called the Dinah Project issued a detailed report on the rapes, sexual mutilations, and similar atrocities committed by Hamas and its collaborators on October 7. While there is hardly a lack of documentation of these depravities, the report is compiled specifically to build a case against Hamas as such—and not just the individual perpetrators—under Israeli and international law. It can be read in full here, in all its awful details.

Back in March, Benny Morris offered some reflections on this subject, in light of a then-new report from UNICEF about the widespread rape of children in the Sudanese civil war:

I believe [the UNICEF report] tells us something—which many in the West don’t want to hear—about behavioral norms of Arab combatants in wartime, even in civil wars in Arab countries.

Among the recorded rape victims were four children aged one year and one-third of the 221 recorded victims were boys. The report adds that many more cases of rape of children likely went unrecorded and many of the victims probably died. The 221 cases “represent only a small fraction of the total cases,” states the report. Sudan’s national anthem states: “We are soldiers of God (Allah), Soldiers of the Homeland.”

The report does not deal with the many hundreds, and probably thousands, of adult Sudanese women and men raped during the past fifteen months. The report states that sexual violence is used by the Sudanese combatants—and the report avoids identifying the perpetrators’ affiliations—as a “tactic of war.”

The Sudanese are not alone among the Arab world’s organized perpetrators of sexual violence. Widespread sexual violence was reported in recent years in the Yemeni civil war. . . . It is worth noting that mass sexual violence, which included thousands of cases of rape and abduction to Muslim homes, characterized [Islamic State’s] assault on the Sinjar district of northern Iraq in 2014. . . . A twenty-one-year-old Yazidi woman, Fawzia Sido, was freed from captivity by the Israeli army fighting Hamas in the Gaza Strip in October 2024. She was kidnapped as a child by IS fighters in August 2014 and was then trafficked across a number of countries.

Bereaved Oct. 7 families launch billion-shekel lawsuit against PA

The relatives of 122 Israelis murdered by Hamas-led terrorists during the Oct. 7, 2023, massacre in southern Israel on Sunday filed a claim against the Palestinian Authority, asking that the Jerusalem District Court hold Ramallah responsible for supporting the terror attacks.

The families’ lawsuit, filed by attorneys of the Tel Aviv-based Herzog law firm, demands over a billion shekels (approximately $270 million) in frozen P.A. tax revenues held by the Israeli government.

The claim was submitted on behalf of Israelis “tortured and slaughtered with unimaginable cruelty by terrorists, and on behalf of survivors who were left with permanent disabilities as a result of their severe injuries, during the murderous terror attack that began on Oct. 7, 2023,” it said.

Among the plaintiffs, brought together by bereaved father Itzik Shafir—his son Dor Hanan Shafir, 30, was murdered on Oct. 7 while fleeing the Psyduck festival—are families whose loved ones were killed at the two music parties near the border, as well as in towns near Gaza.

“On that dark morning, 399 young people who had been at the Nova and Psyduck festivals were murdered, and 44 were kidnapped to Gaza,” the claim states. “The terrorists conducted systematic searches, assaulting, torturing, raping, murdering and kidnapping everyone they ran into.”

If the families win the lawsuit, the money will be distributed among the plaintiffs, amounting to 10 million shekels ($2.7 million) per murdered victim and 5 million shekels ($1.35 million) per wounded victim.

The lawsuit was one of many actions taken since Knesset lawmakers approved the “Compensation for Terror Victims Bill” in March 2024.

Zionism isn't Jewish supremacy. It is Jewish equality.

I don't know why this one tweet, from late May by a doctor in England, upset me - but you never know what gets under your skin, do you?

Her premise is wrong and that makes her an antisemitic bigot.

Zionism is not about Jewish supremacy, but Jewish equality - for a people who have been around for 3,500 years, whose ideas have had more influence on the world than any others', who have been more persecuted than any other people, to be given self-determination like any other nation. It is human rights. It is fairness. It is asking for Jews to be treated like every other nation.

But let's do a thought experiment. Let's see if this doctor ever tweeted about Muslim supremacy in Saudi Arabia.

Of course not. Even though non-Muslims in Saudi Arabia cannot practice their religion openly. Even though its Basic Law says that human rights are subordinate to Sharia law. Even though non-Muslims must conform to Saudi dress codes.

Israel has no such laws. Non-Jews can eat non-kosher food, in public, on Yom Kippur. Mosques send out their prayers on loudspeakers at ear-splitting volumes.

So why not dismantle Saudi Arabia?

Oh, no, Doctor Rahmen cannot say that. Because if she says that out loud, she would be putting her life in danger. Antisemitism is not dangerous - but pointing out Muslim supremacy sure is.

Aladwan is part of the now illegal Palestine Action group in the UK, and she has been arrested.

But all you really need to know about her and her faux concern for human rights can be seen in this single tweet:

What kind of trauma doctor cheers rape?

One that should lose her license.

(h/t Jill)

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Modern philosophy, for all its brilliance and rigor, often suffers from a foundational flaw: it tends to treat abstraction as an end in itself. In its pursuit of purity, it frequently drifts into a mode of intellectualism that detaches thought from responsibility, treating moral dilemmas as puzzles, and ethical obligations as thought experiments. In this sense, modern philosophy can be seen as engaged in a quiet but profound flight from responsibility.

Think about philosophy's concept of "mind–body dualism," the idea that the mind and the body are separate entities. This can lead to profoundly unethical results, where actions are divorced from the mind, and responsibility for actions evaporates.

Or the idea of skeptical solipsism - the view that only one's own mind is knowable, casting doubt on the reality of others’ minds or the external world This can be used to avoid any relationships, any interaction with one's community and family, all in the name of philosophy.

But perhaps most of all is philosophy's love of abstraction - of puzzling out questions like "when does a pile of sand become a heap?" Solving theoretical problems is only meaningful when they can be leveraged to solve real problems, but too often philosophy elevates these questions as if finding the answers are themselves moral imperatives.

AskHillel, the secular framework for Jewish ethical reasoning, offers a radical alternative.

It looks at philosophy through the same prism that it looks at every human endeavor to see if it meets the preconditions for any ethical system to be morally trustworthy, what can be called the ethoskeletal axioms.

Corrigibility – Can the idea self-repair or evolve in the face of moral critique? Many philosophical systems treat themselves as closed; AskHillel demands iterative integrity.

Transparency – Can the reasoning process be laid bare, or does it obscure its premises behind jargon? Much of modern philosophy fails to show its scaffolding.

Dignity – Does the idea uphold the innate worth of human beings? Abstract systems like solipsism or utilitarian totalism often erase this.

Override Logic – Can the system resolve value conflict responsibly, or does it collapse into paralysis or binary thinking?

Relational Integrity – Does it account for roles, covenant, and responsibility within relationships? Philosophies of hyper-individualism often fail here.

Epistemic Humility – Does the idea acknowledge the limits of certainty, or does it weaponize doubt or claim moral infallibility?

To be sure, not all philosophies are equal, and each kind will respond differently to this test. But many classic philosophical constructs falter when tested against these axioms. Solipsism fails dignity, relational integrity, and override logic. Mind-body dualism often dodges corrigibility and relational grounding. Infinite regress paralyzes moral clarity under the guise of epistemic rigor. Even elegant thought systems, when left abstract, violate transparency and dignity by refusing to take a stand.

AskHillel challenges the assumption that philosophy must float free of moral gravity. It insists instead that ideas must be lived, not just theorized. Concepts must be inhabited, not merely defined.

The essence of AskHillel's way of looking at the world lies in a simple inversion: abstraction is not dismissed, but grounded. Its test is not whether a concept is internally consistent, but whether it helps sustain a moral structure that holds under pressure. In this sense, AskHillel doesn't just practicalize philosophy; it elevates it. By asking what any given abstraction demands of us ethically, AskHillel performs a kind of secular sanctification, adding meaning to what had been seen as a mind puzzle.

Take, for instance, the Ship of Theseus. This is a famous metaphysical riddle about identity: if every part of a ship is replaced over time, is it still the same ship?

AskHillel doesn't discard the question: it reframes it. When does a person, institution, or nation remain morally accountable despite internal transformation? If a company employed slaves in the past, is it still responsible to fix the harm many decades later after it has changed management, headquarters, employees, its own mission statement? This is no longer a riddle; it's a diagnostic for teshuvah, justice, and communal continuity. Abstract becomes actionable.

Or consider the Sorites paradox which asks when a collection of grains becomes a "heap." AskHillel hears a deeper ethical call: when does small acts of harm accumulate? When does silence become complicity? When does a fetus become a human? Jewish ethics is attuned to continuity as opposed to the discreteness often assumed in philosophy, but sometimes there is a line that is crossed - where exactly is that line? The question of a "heap" becomes a test of Areivut (responsibility) and dignity.

For this article, I created a completely new concept I called "qwertyism, " defined as the irritation felt when someone takes a parking spot you were eyeing. A traditional philosopher might analyze its taxonomy: Is qwertyism the same as seeing someone grab the last bag of chips? Or the elevator doors closing on you? What about when a spot looks open but has a motorcycle? A cone? A hydrant?

When I asked AskHillel how it would deal with the concept, it looked at it from a different perspective:

Does qwertyism expose latent entitlement that undermines gratitude? How should one ethically respond to feelings of minor loss or resentment? Is qwertyism a test of Anavah (humility) or Areivut (shared public goods)? AskHillel elevated what was meant to be a silly thought experiment into a path for how to become a better person.

Where traditional Jewish ethics grounds itself in divine covenant, AskHillel is secular. But it retains the structure of brit through shared axioms: truth exists, dignity matters, responsibility is binding. These values are not commanded; they are engineered into the system because without them, moral life collapses. AskHillel asks not "What is the good?" but "What kind of structure can people live in without their dignity breaking?"

This is the core reversal: modern philosophy often chases coherence. AskHillel chases consequence. Where the former admires ideas, the latter demands that they hold human weight. In this way, AskHillel turns philosophy back toward responsibility, restoring the bridge between reason and moral presence. Just as Judaism teaches that any object or idea can become sacred when used for sacred purposes, AskHillel says any idea can become meaningful when used for moral purposes. The abstract questions are not silly, but we need to reveal their moral core, and endow them with meaning: a secular version of kedushah, holiness.

Philosophy need not be abandoned. But it must be reclaimed. Its flight from responsibility is a major error. AskHillel offers a path for that reclamation.

It is not the end of abstraction. It is its elevation.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

The "non-Zionists" of a century ago would be considered Zionists today

Today's anti-Zionists like to portray Zionism as a fringe movement a century ago, and they claim that they are just following the paths of anti-Zionists of the past.

The argument is knowingly deceptive. The anti-Zionist arguments in the interwar period evaporated after the Holocaust. Opposing Zionism before Israel was reborn was a position against a political idea, opposing Zionism after Israel exists is antisemitism - the opposition to the very existence of the only Jewish majority state.

But there are other nuances to the anti- and non-Zionist stance by Jews in the interwar period.

Something happened a hundred years ago that sounds strange today. After discussions in Zionist conventions in the US and Europe, The Jewish Agency in British Mandate Palestine voted to expand to include non-Zionists.

Here is an article from the Wisconsin Jewish Chronicle from July 1925:

Who were these non-Zionists and why did they want to join what was the most visibly Zionist organization - the Jewish Agency?

The non-Zionists of 1925 supported Jewish immigration to Palestine. They supported Jewish presence and growth in the Holy Land. They supported building up Jewish institutions and Jewish culture there. But they were ambivalent, at the time, about the concept of a Jewish national home as a political entity.

Some were worried about appearing to have dual loyalty. Some were worried that a Jewish state would survive and they just wanted to make Palestine a safe haven for Jews.

Yes, there were some real anti-Zionists among the Orthodox and Jewish socialists. But it is they who were were the fringe, even in 1925.

The non-Zionists of the time - the ones who wanted to be involved in building up a Jewish presence and culture and institutions in Palestine - were much different than the anti-Zionists of today. Unlike the "Jewish Voice for Peace" style haters, they cared deeply about the fate of their fellow Jews in Europe, the Muslim world and Palestine itself.

Today's Jewish "anti-Zionists," like the ones who met in Vienna in the "First Anti-Zionist Congress," last month, have nothing in common with the "non-Zionists" of the past. Those non-Zionists would be the first ones to condemn today's anti-Zionists as enemies of the Jewish people.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

Why isn't mainstream Egyptian antisemitism ever discussed in Western media?

Another day, another antisemitic article, this one in Egypt's Al Ahram, one of its most popular, government-aligned newspapers:

Israel: Present and Destiny... and the Factors of the Nation's Victory
By Abdulmajid Al-Shawadfi

The nation possesses distinguished capabilities, a clear civilization, and a message that is the savior of humanity. Today, this is embodied in the battle for survival that the nation is currently experiencing, after an enemy—along with its Jewish adversaries—was planted in its heart during a period of division, multiple banners, and fragmented states, under the dominance of secular thought. Suddenly, truth stirs souls anew, and the nation moves forward, carrying immense trusts for victory and triumph to rid itself of the Jews. In this context, and based on the historical and analytical study prepared by Dr. Mustafa Hilmi, Professor of Islamic Philosophy, titled “Israel: Between History, Present, and Destiny,” and the factors of victory possessed by the nation:

Hilmi, a distinguished Egyptian scholar and past winmer of the King Faisal Prize for service to Islam, goes on to give strategy on how the Muslim world can defeat the West, specifically the US and Israel, using methods like stopping accepting dollars as the currency for oil. And then quotes Hezbollah's current leader as an architect of this victory, and an ideological ally of Hilmi's.

When Egypt is described by Western media, this sort of anti-American, antisemitic rhetoric that is seen daily in mainstream Egyptian media is simply not mentioned. As a result, the West gets a skewed view of what is normal discourse and opinion in the so-called "moderate" Arab world - Egypt and Jordan in particular.

Without an honest analysis, the West is blind to reality. Political convenience and wishful thinking cannot and must not replace hard reality. Because in the long run, something bad is going to happen and the West will say, "How could we not have seen this coming?"

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

07/13 Links: Netanyahu says he’s ‘confident’ hostage deal can be reached; Charter Signed by Hundreds of Muslim Scholars Supports Hamas's Oct 7 Attack; Anti-Semitism ‘normalised in middle-class Britain’

From Ian:

MEMRI: Charter Signed by Hundreds of Muslim Scholars Supports Hamas's October 7 Attack on Israel: It Was Jihad Against the Infidels

On June 27, 2025, hundreds of religious scholars and clerics from across the Muslim world held a conference in Istanbul, Turkey, and issued the "Charter of the Islamic Nation's Religious Scholars" to give religious sanction to Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and to reject calls to disarm Hamas. The charter states, similarly to the ideology of the Hamas movement itself, that the conflict with Israel is a religious one between Muslims and infidels, and that Hamas's "resistance" against Israel constitutes "jihad for the sake of Allah."

According to the charter, Palestine "from the river to the sea" - namely all of Israel's territory - is Islamic land, and anyone who gives up any part of it is a traitor. It says the demand to disarm Hamas is "treason against Allah" and it highlights the necessity of educating the younger generation to wage jihad for the sake of Allah. Many of the signatories are senior members of the International Union of Muslim Scholars (IUMS) based in Doha, Qatar, and backed by the Qatari and Turkish regimes.

Red Flags Everywhere: How U.S. Public Opinion Is Tilting toward Palestinians

The view of unbreakable American support for Israel may be a political mantra that may be true now, but a closer look at trends among the American population will show that a conceptual change may be taking place in full view.

A few "red flags" are out there. The most glaring is the precipitous increase in antisemitism. Jewish leaders have called "for the government to take strong and aggressive action to stop the antisemitic murders, attacks, violence, and harassment."

Hillel reports a 700% increase in antisemitic incidents against Jewish students. The recent overt acts of violence resulting in Jewish deaths in Washington and Boulder lend credence to these sentiments.

If people are moving toward having less of a favorable attitude towards Israel, it is only a matter of time before the politicians that represent them do the same.

In repeated polls over the last year and a half, sympathy for Israel over Hamas is indeed significant, but when "Palestinians" is substituted for "Hamas," this support wanes meaningfully. There is also a large swath of the population that is ambivalent on the matter, citing equal support for "both sides." The data we see all point to behaviors that don't support sympathetic attitudes toward Israel.

If the political balance in the U.S. swings over from what we see today, the policy ramifications may be grave. Taking today's America for granted may be understandable, but taking tomorrow's America for granted may be simply foolish.

Confessions of a Reformed Anti-Zionist

I grew up with 16 years of American Jewish day school. At seventeen, I stood on the train tracks of Auschwitz wrapped in an Israeli flag, convinced that Jewish survival deserved any cost. When I arrived at college, my professors taught me that Zionism is a colonial project, depicted Jews as European interlopers, and described Israel's existence as dependent on the continual subjugation of Palestinians.

So I walked away. First from Zionism, then from Judaism itself. At that point, I thought I had liberated my conscience. In truth, I had only hollowed it out. In my mind at the time, rejecting Zionism and recognizing my "privilege" equaled solidarity with the oppressed. Really, though, I was living in a borrowed story - a story written by others, for whom Jewish pain is always suspect, Jewish safety always provisional.

After Oct. 7, while enrolled as a PhD student at Stanford, I experienced firsthand how quickly "political anti-Zionism" slips into irrefutable Jew-hatred. I lived it. I am trained in critical race theory, ethnic studies, and Jewish and Middle Eastern history. Most Stanford classmates measured my solidarity by my willingness to endorse the murder of Jews, the rape of Jewish women, and the immediate dissolution of the Jewish state as necessary for the project of "decolonizing Palestine."

To my classmates (and quite a few professors), to mourn the loss of Jewish lives was invalid - the selfish conspiracy of an oppressor. The same progressive thinkers who demanded I acknowledge complexity in every other struggle refused to grant even a fraction of that nuance to Jewish experience. They interpreted my attempts to humanize Jews as proof of my complicity in empire and racism. My classmates assured me that unless I was in agreement that Jews deserve to be murdered in the fight for "Palestinian liberation," I would never belong in their intellectual community.

Being a Jew has always meant refusing to abandon our inheritance simply because it makes others uncomfortable. I am no longer willing to apologize for being a Jew. I have come back to my community, not because it is flawless, but because it is mine. And I will never again let anyone tell me that loving my people is something I must outgrow.

The secularized Jewish framework I have been working on, AskHillel, may be based on Jewish concepts, but by its very nature it must be different. After all, Jewish ethics is based above all on the covenant between Israel and God, and no one who is not a believer can accept such a system.

However, the reverse is not true: religious people can accept a secular moral system as long as it doesn't contradict their own. So a truly universal system must be secular, by definition.

That is why my goal has been to create an ethical system that stands alone, that leverages the brilliance of the Jewish ethical system and halachic process, but that can appeal to the entire world and the false assumptions that underlie much of Western secular ethics.

Therefore, AskHillel must distinguish itself both from faith-based Jewish ethics and from the traditional secular philosophies since the Enlightenment.

How is AskHillel different from Jewish ethics?

Faith-based Jewish ethics begins with divine brit: a covenant between God and the Jewish people, grounded in revelation, obligation, and sacred history. It draws authority from halacha, midrash, and divine command. It binds the Jew to God through a living system of duties, many of which transcend rational justification.

AskHillel, by contrast, is covenantal without being theistic. It retains the structure of obligation, tiered values, and moral repair - but re-roots them in shared human axioms, not divine will. It transforms the halachic method into a secular design framework: values are upheld not because they are commanded, but because they build ethical worlds that hold.

Where traditional Jewish ethics is received, AskHillel is engineered. Where one is divine fidelity, the other is moral architecture. The two may share tools, instincts, and even many conclusions, but their foundations differ. AskHillel must prove its validity not through revelation, but through coherence, durability, and human flourishing.

AskHillel and the Architecture of Ethics: A Pragmatic Jewish Answer to Western Morality

In modern ethical theory, a silent assumption has governed for centuries: that morality, if it exists, must be a system that can be deduced, proven, and universally applied. Whether it's Kantian duty, utilitarian calculus, or the existentialist cry for authenticity, the goal is the same: to build a moral system that holds up under reason alone.

But what if that assumption is wrong? What if morality isn't something you deduce, but something you build? Not like geometry, but like architecture. Not abstract perfection, but structural integrity.

This is AskHillel's claim. It treats morality as a tested structure, a system of values and obligations engineered to support human dignity, uphold truth, and withstand collapse. It doesn't ask, "What is the good?" It asks, "What kind of moral world won't fall apart?"

The Failure of Abstraction

Western philosophy begins with the isolated thinker. Morality is something you figure out, ideally from first principles. But this approach often collapses under its own weight. The is/ought problem (Hume), regress of justification (Plato), and moral luck (Nagel) all point to a fundamental fragility: moral systems are built in the air, without ground beneath them.

By contrast, Jewish ethics starts from obligation: a binding commitment to uphold certain values, not because they were logically derived, but because without them, life breaks.

Engineering Ethics

AskHillel takes that principle and makes it secular, transparent, and testable. Its structure is built on three pillars:

Foundational Ontology: Truth exists. Dignity is real. Responsibility is binding. These aren't proven; they are chosen because moral life depends on them.
Tiered Ethical System: Not all values are equal. There are axioms, primary obligations, amplifiers, and overrides. This enables the system to handle conflict without collapse.
Moral Integrity Tests: Like stress tests in architecture, AskHillel uses diagnostic triggers (“override logic”) to detect when a structure is bending toward harm, humiliation, or false certainty.

The result is not moral relativism, nor rigid formalism. It's pragmatic ethics: a structure designed to be lived in, not admired from afar.

AskHillel replaces the Western question, "What is the good?" with a more grounded one:

What kind of ethical structure can people live in, together, without their dignity breaking?

This is the same question architects ask about buildings, or physicians ask about bodies. It's not theoretical. It's lived. When a moral world collapses, people get hurt.

This reframing doesn't make ethics easier. It makes it urgent. Every value must prove its worth by how it holds under stress. Every override must prevent collapse. Every obligation must sustain life, dignity, truth, and repair.

Here is a chart that describes the differences between Western moral philosophies, Jewish ethics and the AskHillel ethical framework:

Axis	Western Philosophy	Traditional Jewish	AskHillel (Secular Jewish Ethics)
Starting Question	What is the good?	What is my obligation, now, to whom?	What kind of moral structure will hold — personally, communally?
Method	Abstract reasoning, logical deduction	Textual interpretation, covenantal reasoning	Structured ethical engineering: values (taken from Judaism) tested like blueprints
Moral Source	Rational autonomy or moral feeling	Divine command, brit, national memory	Shared moral axioms confirmed by their durability under stress
Morality As	System of rules and deductions	Journey of fidelity and sanctification	Architecture of obligation — built to withstand pressure
Individual Role	Independent moral calculator	Bound actor in divine covenant	Co-architect of moral structure, judged by what it sustains, in relationship with others
Conflict Resolution	Philosophical balance of competing theories	Tiered resolution within halachic/metaphysical scaffolding	Override triggers + ethical integrity diagnostics
Telos (Goal)	Universal moral rationality	Redemption, sanctity, justice	Empirical moral viability: a world built on dignity that holds
Time Orientation	Ahistorical theory	Brit rooted in past, aiming toward future	Pragmatic evolution — continuity without utopian fantasy
Error Mode	Logical inconsistency or subjective drift	Betrayal of obligation, moral disloyalty	Structural failure — collapse of dignity, responsibility, or trust

Traditional Jewish ethics relied on a divine covenant to structure obligation. AskHillel secularizes this by treating ethics not as obedience, but as design. You enter into obligation because that's how you build something that lasts. The covenant becomes a blueprint.

That shift changes everything. It makes moral systems accountable not to theoretical elegance, but to durability -the kind that produces flourishing, justice, transformation, and resilience.

AskHillel doesn't claim to be perfect. It claims to be coherent, testable, and built to last. In a time of moral confusion, it offers not commandments from heaven, nor theories from the void, but something much harder to dismiss: a structure you can walk into, live inside, and trust not to fall down.

Because in the end, that's the only kind of morality that works.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

From Bladi.net:

A five-month suspended prison sentence was requested by the Paris prosecutor’s office on Thursday, July 10, against Motawassim L. This 21-year-old Moroccan student from the University of Paris-Dauphine appeared before the 13th correctional chamber for the modification of the computer profiles of 18 Jewish students.

The events took place on October 7, 2024. The student, from his home, took advantage of a security flaw in the university’s intranet to replace his classmates’ profile pictures with an image of a Palestinian flag with a clenched fist and the slogan "Free Palestine".

The main debate during the hearing focused on the qualification of the facts. Motawassim L. was prosecuted for "fraudulent modification of data from an automated processing system", as the investigators had not established any anti-Semitic character. The lawyers for the civil parties described this choice as "scandalous" and asked for the addition of the aggravating circumstance of an act committed "on the grounds of belonging to a religion".

At the time of the events, the president of the university, El-Mouhoub Mouhoud, had been alerted by the Union of Jewish Students of Dauphine (UEJD) and had referred the matter to the prosecutor. He had then stated that the intervention of the IT services had "undoubtedly made it possible to limit the manipulation of images" and recalled the position of the institution: "We remain more than ever intransigent against any criminal act or statement that could be likened to racism, anti-Semitism [...]. "

During his trial, the defendant denied any hateful intent, describing an "rather political" action targeting the UEJD. He acknowledged that "there would have been other more peaceful ways to do it", but said he refused "to be accused of anti-Semitism". The maximum penalty provided by law for this offense is five years in prison and a fine of 150,000 euros.

Yes, he specifically targeted members of the Union of Jewish Students of Dauphine - but the prosecutors and court did not consider this to be antisemitism.

Insanity.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)

YNet has a fascinating article about an Israeli raid in Syria:

“In the past, if you had asked me whether I’d lead an operation like this, I’d have told you you’re way off,” admitted Lt. Col. (res.) Y., commander of the Alexandroni Reserve Brigade’s 7012nd Battalion.

Just days earlier, he led his troops some 10 kilometers into Syrian territory in a covert overnight raid to arrest members of a terror cell operated by Iran’s Quds Force before they could carry out an attack on Israeli forces along the buffer zone. The operation remained classified until the team safely returned to Israeli territory.

Most of the article concentrates on the unqualified success of this complex raid: an entire Iranian cell arrested in their sleep and taken to Israel for interrogation without a single shot fired.

But more interesting are the small details it mentions, like, "This was the second time in a week that an Iranian-led Syrian force had been captured." And this: "During the 12-day war with Iran...while the aerial battle raged, soldiers on the ground held the line against infiltration attempts and terror cells from Syria.

This isn't a story about how well Israeli forces are doing their jobs. it is a story that even in the new Syria, Iran still controls terror cells that are trying, seemingly daily, to attack Israel.

That is a story we are not hearing about in the news. The impression from the mainstream media is that Iran is quiet again, licking its wounds. But it still has proxies, even in Syria, and it is still trying to attack Israel using that proxy strategy it has used for decades.

Buy EoZ's books on Amazon!

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

PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism (February 2022)