Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, April 27, 2023

A couple of EoZ cartoons

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Zionist Colonialists In Palestine Take Land For Home Country Of... Poland? Russia? Hungary? ...Morocco? (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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B'er Sheva, April 27 - The foreign transplants exploiting the land of Palestine on behalf of the regimes from which they or their ancestors hail continue to rape the land of its resources and persecute the native population for purposes of extracting everything they can for the benefit of those home countries, which is what colonialists do, except that hold on a moment, this part of the paragraph is supposed to complete the thought that Israeli Jews are part of a colonial outpost for their ancestral countries, but that means Israel is a colony of Russia, Poland, maybe Germany? Half of Israel's Jews have ancestry that spent centuries in the Islamic world, so maybe Iran? Algeria? Help a reporter out here. The Czech Republic?

Pro-Palestine activists continued this week, in the shadow of Israel's seventy-fifth Independence Day, to describe the establishment of a sovereign Jewish entity in the land that Jews have claimed as their home despite ancient exile as yet another manifestation of Western imperialism with indigenous people of color as the victims, all as part of an oppressive enterprise to take advantage of the people and resources of Palestine for hold on, this is making less and less sense. The mighty kingdom of Rumania? Tzarist Russia? the politically-nonexistent Poland of the nineteenth century, partitioned by Russia, Prussia, and Austria, from which tens of thousands of Jews emigrated to Palestine during the first decades of the Zionist movement?

Anyway, the activists leveled their familiar accusations at Israel for constituting a foreign entity sucking the goodness out of the land for the sake of the foreign home country where they really belong, which presumably means Iraq? Yemen? The reporter did not get a chance to follow up with the activists by the filing deadline, and therefore a coherent answer, if any, will occur only in the next day's edition of this publication, at the earliest. Tunisia? Kurdistan? Turkey?

Turkey makes a little bit of sense, at least, analysts say, considering that Ottoman Turks controlled Palestine for more than four hundred years until the British ousted them in 1917, but modern political Zionism began when the Turks were still in control, and no "Palestinian" Arabs, or at least no anti-Zionists, at the time, called those migrants "colonists." Maybe the Hapsburgs? Romanovs? Hohenzollerns?

Sophists of various sorts have attempted as well to expand the use of the term "colonialism" to cover influence by foreign powers of minimal representation among the colonist demographic, such as the US, but no coherent description has emerged as to how that differs from any dynamic of international relations, regardless of the ancestry of the people running the country.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/27 Links Pt1: DeSantis: ‘There’s never been a Palestinian Arab entity’; UN body will host a ‘Nakba Day’ event; Pahlavi Visit to Israel Brings Hope

From Ian:

Why ‘Foreign Aid’ to Israel Benefits the United States

The U.S. does not give foreign aid to Israel - the U.S. makes an annual investment in Israel, giving U.S. taxpayers a return of several hundred percent. Israel serves as a battle-tested, cost-effective laboratory for the U.S. defense and aerospace industries. The Israeli Air Force flies Lockheed-Martin's F-16 and F-35 combat aircraft, providing Lockheed-Martin and the U.S. Air Force with invaluable information on operations, maintenance, and repairs, which is then used to manufacture a multitude of upgrades. The F-16 has been improved by several hundred Israeli-driven upgrades, sparing Lockheed-Martin years of research and development amounting to billions of dollars.

Israeli experts have also trained U.S. personnel in neutralizing car bombs, suicide bombers, and IEDs. According to the late Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-HI), chairman of the Senate Appropriations and Intelligence Committees, the scope of Israeli intelligence shared with the U.S. exceeded that provided by all NATO countries combined. Israeli intelligence helped foil sinister plots against U.S. airliners and airports, and provided vital data on advanced Soviet/Russian military systems.

John Podhoretz: Biden insults all Americans in using race hustler Al Sharpton to get re-elected

Sharpton’s key moment as a public figure came when he helped lead a pogrom in Brooklyn in 1991 after a tragic car accident in which a ?asidic Jew struck and killed a black boy. During those three days of mob violence, Sharpton screamed into a microphone about “diamond merchants right here in Crown Heights” in the vanguard of a horde that shouted, “Kill the Jews!” A student named Yankel Rosenbaum was stabbed to death.

Four years later, Sharpton called the Jewish owner of a Harlem building that housed a store called Freddy’s Fashion Mart a “white interloper” in the midst of a rent dispute. The mob he summoned then referred to Jews as “bloodsuckers” and shrieked about “burning the Jews.” The protests continued for two months, until an armed man stormed the premises with a gun and set Freddy’s on fire. Seven people were killed.

Yes, it’s a quarter-century later, and yes, Sharpton has not lit New York City on fire again or played a role in the deaths of eight people, as he had in the 1990s. [But] Sharpton has never accounted, nor been called to account, for his monstrous words and conduct.

And he never will be. After all, Joe Biden wants African Americans to vote for him in 2024 in record numbers, and to secure those votes, he has decided to run the gamut from Justice [Ketanji Brown] Jackson—who has spent her adulthood trying to serve as a constructive force in American public life—to Al Sharpton. And that’s an insult to Jackson, to African Americans, and to Americans altogether.

In Jerusalem, presumptive GOP hopeful DeSantis blasts Biden’s Middle East policies

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a presumptive challenger to Donald Trump as the Republican presidential primary gains steam, refused to confirm in Jerusalem on Thursday that he would be running, focusing instead on the importance of the US-Israel relationship and alleged missteps by the current White House.

“There’s not been anything set,” he said at a press conference following his keynote address at an event marking the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence. “I’ve been focused on this mission that we’ve been doing.”

He did take several swipes at the Middle East policies of US President Joe Biden, who announced on Tuesday that he would seek reelection.

“Prior to this administration taking office, the Middle East was probably in as good a shape as it’s been in in a long time,” he said, indirectly lauding his likely GOP primary opponent.

“I think that this administration has worked overtime to alienate the Saudis,” DeSantis charged.

Biden had pledged as a candidate to treat Saudi Arabia as a “pariah” because of the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, and as president threatened “consequences” for the Gulf kingdom after it led OPEC oil cuts.

Israel is working to normalize relations with the Saudis, a goal Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to achieve. “Absolutely I think with proper policy and proper relations, you could see Saudi Arabia recognize the existence of Israel,” said the Florida governor.

He also blasted the approach Biden and his former boss Barack Obama took toward Iran.

“We saw the failure with the Iranian nuclear deal that was done in 2015 that flooded Iran with money, that rejuvenated their economy, and that led to the funding of terrorism all across the Middle East,” he said.

Remember last September when Israel haters went crazy with the announcement that the upcoming Captain America movie would include an Israeli superhero?

Since then, the Israeli actress Shira Haas who plays the role of Sabra has apparently already done her scenes, so the campaign has now shifted from trying to pressure Marvel not to have the character to saying that the movie will be boycotted.

A bunch of Palestinian cultural and artistic institutions decided to sign a letter calling for the boycott, saying that Marvel was racist for including an Israeli character.

We call for the broadest boycott of the upcoming Marvel movie, “Captain America: New World Order,” which is scheduled to be released in the market during the year 2024, until the company cancels the character “Sabra” or “Ruth” from the movie, as it embodies the Israeli apartheid regime.

The backstory of the aforementioned character includes working for the Israeli government and the Israeli occupation forces. Marvel's revival of this racist character - in any way - means the company's promotion of the brutal Israeli oppression of Palestinians.

We also call for creative and peaceful events and demonstrations to put pressure on Marvel Studios - owned by Disney - to end its complicity in anti-Palestinian racism and Israeli propaganda and the glorification of the settler-colonial regime's violence against the indigenous Palestinian people.

No one knows the character's role, her new backstory, her part of the plot, or really anything. Unlike with Gal Gadot, they aren't calling for a boycott because the actress is Israeli, but because the character is Israeli.

Has there ever in history been such a demand from any studio or other medium that they should be forbidden from even including fictional characters from a specific country?

And the signatories are from Palestinian cultural centers, theater groups, circus groups and others. Normally artists are in the forefront of freedom of expression - but Palestinian artists are the leaders in being against those freedoms.

The crazed reactions, the lies that the character was named after a massacre in Lebanon, the support of censorship and boycotts by groups that would normally oppose such actions - it all adds up, as always, to proving that this opposition isn't political.

It is old fashioned hatred of Jews dressed up to appear more respectable.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Alma is an organization that closely monitors activities on Israel's northern borders.

Last week it tweeted a video published by a (non-Shiite) Hezbollah-aligned militia showing their training in southern Lebanon. The terrorists are practicing how to abduct and kidnap Israeli forces.

This screenshot above shows that this training was happening right next to a UN building.

Alma identified the area of the training, in Marwahin, right across the border with Israel, and affirms that the UN building is indeed a UNIFIL base.

UNIFIL's mandate is to ensure that the only military allowed between Israel and the Litani River belongs to the Lebanese Armed Forces.

There is no report on their website or Twitter feed about any military activity under their noses, even as they show photos of UNIFIL troops patrolling in the area. What exactly are they looking for if they don't seem to care about mock abductions of soldiers right outside their door?

UNIFIL is a joke, and it is exhibit #1 on how Israel can never rely on anyone else for security.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

This story from YNet did not get the publicity it should be getting:

A newly released study showed Egypt was successful in removing antisemitism and other hatred from its school books, The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found. The research and policy institute that analyzes curricula around the world through UNESCO-defined standards, has released its second full report on the Egyptian curriculum, from its London office.

This latest IMPACT-se report evaluated 271 textbooks from the Egyptian national curricula, published between 2018 and 2023. The study focuses on the Arabic language, Islamic and Christian religious education, social studies, values and respect for others, history, geography, philosophy, and more. Egypt has the largest education system in the Middle East and North Africa, with 25 million children currently enrolled in its schools - the largest in the Arab world.

"Our findings show major improvements in attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in the revised textbooks, part of the year-by-year reform of the Egyptian national curriculum between 2018-2030 across all grades, which has already reached Grade 5," IMPACT-se said.

"Promisingly, elementary school textbooks rewritten since 2021 do not include traditional, harmful antisemitic stereotypes such as attributing evil deeds and negative traits like disloyalty, fraud, greediness, and violation of contracts to Jewish people. These were replaced with values of tolerance and coexistence between Islam and Judaism, highlighting common ground such as Islam's recognition of the Torah, and permission for Muslims to eat Kosher food."

Students are required to memorize the provisions of the peace treaty, and describe the “advantages of peace for Egypt and the Arab states.” A photograph of the peace treaty signing at the White House is shown for the first time. Passages such as “recognition of the sovereignty of each side in the conflict over its territory” were changed to “respect by each side of the other’s sovereignty and independence,” and establishing “normal relations” between the two countries, was changed to establishing “friendly relations.”

The article notes that it is not all great; older grades still use the older textbooks with explicit antisemitism, and even in the new ones students are taught that it is an Islamic duty to end the "occupation" which appears to include all of Israel based on the map they still use.

But even so, this is a very positive change. Egypt is just about the most antisemitic nation there is and the indoctrination in the textbooks is part of the reason why.

IMPACT-SE has not yet published the complete study

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/26 Links Pt2: Douglas Murray: The pathology of anti-Semitism; Mohammed El-Kurd To Receive Calgary “Peace Prize”; Report: ‘Deep Financial System’ Fueling BDS Movement

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: The pathology of anti-Semitism

It has always been like this. So tell me exactly how you propose to ‘root out’ or ‘end for good’ a pathology which blames Jews for being poor and for being rich, for integrating and for not integrating, for being stateless and for having a state.

People who have thought about this at a facile level can be relied upon to back schemes such as Holocaust education centres and memorials almost everywhere on Earth. One reason why so many MPs back an ugly Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens is because they imagine troops of schoolchildren being ‘educated’ about how not to hate Jews. They say that it is important to ‘learn the lessons’ of the Holocaust, as though these lessons are straightforward; as though it was almost generous of Herr Hitler to provide such a massive historical reference point for our own moral betterment.

Such people should read the most recent work of Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews), who recently showed in the Atlantic how the proliferation of Holocaust education centres in America might actually be increasing anti-Semitism among the schoolchildren who are taken there. Well-meaning (generally non-Jewish) curators and guides have no time to analyse the centuries of Jew-hatred that led up to the Holocaust. Instead, the visitor is simply left with the knowledge that in the 1930s and 1940s something terrible happened. A surprising number come away with the belief that the Jews must have done something to provoke such an outrage – that they were, perhaps, disproportionately rich, for instance. What all these displays have in common is that they finish with a sort of facile generalised lesson. Don’t be mean to people. Or the question ‘Who are the Jews of today? What forms of prejudice exist in our own day that should be tackled in order not to end up with Auschwitz again?’

As Horn notes, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington does not finish by generalising the black American experience. It does not ask whom we treat today in the fashion that American blacks were once treated. It is recognised to be an evil of its own, worthy of its own respect and historical treatment.

Not so with dead Jews. They must forever be used to improve us, available to be used by anyone wishing to make a point about – say – border security in the 21st century.

What Abbott and others consistently demonstrate is precisely what Grossman said: anti-Semitism is a mirror. We use the Jews as victims in our society because we live in a society which celebrates victimhood: victimhood without much serious suffering, of course. And we become so high on that search for victimhood that we can even forget the peoples more victimised than any other.

Tear that out.

Mohammed El-Kurd, An Anti-Israel Activist Journalist Accused Of Antisemitism & Glorifying Palestinian Terrorism To Receive “Peace Prize” By Mount Royal University In Calgary

On May 18, Mount Royal University in Calgary will be presenting the “Calgary Peace Prize 2023” to Mohammed El-Kurd, which according to the university’s official flyer, will recognize El-Kurd “for his exemplary contribution toward peace and justice in the struggle for a more humane, dignified, and free life for oppressed people in Palestine and beyond.”

If Mount Royal University wants to honour an activist for their efforts in making a more humane and dignified life for anyone, Mohammed El-Kurd is hardly the candidate for such an award.

In recent years, Mohammed El-Kurd, the “Palestine correspondent” for The Nation, has become a fixture of the anti-Israel cause.

The 24-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem describes himself on his official website as an “internationally touring and award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine.”

Alongside his twin sister Mona, Mohammed El-Kurd is regularly interviewed by news media outlets and boasts more than 700,000 followers on Instagram and more than 250,000 on Twitter. In 2021, the El-Kurd siblings were featured by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential people of the year.

But El-Kurd is no human rights activist, nor is he an objective journalist. He has been accused of spreading hateful anti-Israel propaganda, of publishing antisemitic tropes and inciting violence on social media.

Why the Jewish Race Question Matters

Over the weekend, UK Labour MP Diane Abbott made some ignorant comments about racism. She has since apologized, and is now suspended, but this is not the first time that well-known leaders and/or celebrities have publicly questioned whether Jews (or others) should be considered a race for protections against racial discrimination.This article will just focus on Jews.

Instead of just getting angry, it is time for us to set the record straight, so that people actually understand why the question fundamentally matters.

First, whether Jews are or are not a scientifically separate race may be debatable, as much of modern science regards the category of race itself as a social construct. But that is a wholly different question than whether Jews have experienced and do still face racism and racial discrimination.

Racism is the belief that innate inherited characteristics biologically determine human behavior. It often involves the color of a person’s skin, but not always. Racial discrimination, or discriminating based on race, takes place when people treat other people differently (usually in a bad way) because of their perception of that other person’s race, whether their perception is scientifically accurate or not.

For example, whether or not Jews are scientifically a race, it is undeniably true that the Nazis killed six million Jewish men, women, and children because they believed (as enshrined in the Nuremberg Race Laws) that Jews were racially inferior.

At the same time in the United States, immigration laws (i.e.the Johnson-Reed Act) treated Jews as a distinct racial group — and a less desirable one — thus limiting their immigration, and condemning untold numbers to death in Europe.

So Jews have clearly faced their share of racism and racial discrimination throughout history, and often lost their lives for it. Even today, the vast majority of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish people in the United States have nothing to do with this or that religious Jewish practice, and everything to do with the target’s perceived race or national origin.

That is why, from a legal perspective, the question about Jews and race is simple: Jews are considered a distinct race for the purposes of civil rights laws.

Tucker Carlson is in the news because he just got dumped by Fox News. Some say it’s because of the lawsuit filed by former head of booking for the Tucker Carlson Tonight show, Abby Grossberg, against the network and several individuals at Fox, including Carlson. Grossberg says she “endured an extremely hostile work environment” and was subjected to antisemitic treatment by Alexander McCaskill and Justin Wells, both senior producers for Carlson’s show.

Carlson is accused of misogyny in Abby Grossberg’s suit—though not antisemitism. That hasn’t stopped the media from suggesting otherwise by seeming to lump him together with McCaskill in blaring headlines about the suit and perhaps with good reason: the scent of antisemitism does seem to cling to Carlson, though there is never anything overt one can point to—no proof that Tucker Carlson hates Israel or the Jews.

In a 2021 piece for Haaretz, “Tucker Carlson Is Now a Big Problem for pro-Israel Conservatives” Jonathan S. Tobin writes, “One of the things that sets Carlson apart from virtually any other prominent conservative figure is his distinct lack of enthusiasm for Israel.”

On the Carlson show, the barbarous Assad regime in Syria is justified for its supposed defense of Syrian Christians. Worries about Iran or even criticism of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran — as much of a Republican mantra as opposition to Obamacare — is never heard.
Nor, for that matter, is any direct criticism of Israel. It is, like Sherlock Holmes' "Hound of the Baskervilles," the dog that never barks on Fox at 8pm EST.
Even when he hosts figures from the left who are well-known for their hate for Israel, such as Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, a notorious BDS advocate, the Jewish state never gets mentioned. The same is true for frequent guest journalist Glenn Greenwald, another supporter of the Palestinians. Greenwald discusses his disdain for Big Tech censorship on Carlson’s show, but not the Middle East.
While Carlson never bashed Trump for his historic support for Israel, he seized any chance he could to single out the administration figures most closely associated with the Jewish state for attention and often vicious critique.
Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner was a particular object of Carlson’s vitriol. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley — a favorite for Republican Jews and a 2024 hopeful who can likely count on the pro-Israel community’s support if she runs — is another Carlson punching bag.

Tucker Carlson: "No one has more contempt for Donald Trump's voters than Jared Kushner and no one expresses it more frequently." https://t.co/x9PtN3TIry
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 2, 2020

That lack of enthusiasm has expressed itself is through his pooh-poohing of the Iranian nuclear threat and its quest for regional hegemony. More from Jonathan Tobin, this time from his 2021 piece, Why are Tucker Carlson and Peter Beinart trying to help Iran?:

[While] Trump was careful not to get suckered into a war, [his] vigorous approach to Iran, including the killing of its top terrorist—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Gen. Qassem Soleimani—met with Carlson’s disapproval. To his dismay, Trump’s policies on Iran were not much different from the positions of the dreaded neo-conservatives that Carlson despises . . .

Carlson’s reaction to Biden’s attack on the terrorists who killed an American last week was brutal, accusing the administration of “killing strangers” in a “far-away land” and bringing “war back to the Middle East after four years.” He mocked the idea that ISIS was a threat to the West and sees no need for “counter-terrorism” measures. He also defended the brutal Assad regime in Syria. Like Beinart, despite its genocidal threats towards Israel and his aggression towards Arab states in the region, Carlson dismisses the whole idea that the United States needs to do anything about Iran.

Curiously, Carlson is an outlier when it comes to the issue on which nearly all Republicans move in lockstep: Israel . . . In contrast with other Fox shows and other conservative venues, Israel is almost never mentioned on his show. But though liberals and Democrats are the main targets of his scorn, he reserves his greatest disdain for “neoconservatives” and others whom he believes have duped America into fighting “forever wars” in the Mideast instead of taking care of the needs of those at home. He seems particularly angry at Republicans who have become beloved by the pro-Israel community like former U.S. Ambassador the United Nations Nikki Haley.

Carlson is right that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly failures. But, like Beinart, he goes further and now claims that Syria and its ally Iran aren’t worth bothering about.

These Iran apologists may start out from different points and have different end goals. But both have little use for the alliance with Israel and bend over backwards to dismiss concerns that Iran, and its Islamist and authoritarian allies, are threats to America’s interests and values.

Many of those accusing Carlson of anti-Israelism and antisemitism, both now and in the past, have pointed to ADL CEO and National Director Jonathan Greenblatt’s call—to the World Federation of Advertisers—to boycott Fox, pointing to Carlson’s “open endorsement of the Great Replacement Theory.”:

Before I pause for Q&A, let me share with you another vivid example of how hate speech and white supremacy is moving from the margins into the mainstream.

Just two weeks ago on his Fox News program, Tucker Carlson openly endorsed the white supremacist “Great Replacement Theory.” If you haven’t heard of it, this is a virulently racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that holds a secret group of Jewish people are plotting to flood the United States with non-whites and immigrants in order to commit “white genocide.”

Lots of us see the ADL and Greenblatt as irredeemably radical left, among them, this writer. We tend to discredit anything Greenblatt says or does. Some, in fact, point to Greenblatt’s decrial of the former Fox employee as proof that Tucker Carlson is innocent of these accusations and is neither a conspiracy theorist nor an antisemite. But even Greenblatt and the ADL sometimes get it right—just as a broken clock is right, twice a day.

Ben Sales expands on Greenblatt’s assertions:

On Monday, [Tucker Carlson] delivered a 20-minute defense of his “replacement” idea. At the end he took aim at the ADL, saying its defense of Israel’s Jewish majority and opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees contradicts its advocacy for immigrants in the United States.

“In the words of the ADL, why would a government subvert its own sovereign existence?” he wondered, referring to an essay on the ADL’s website. “Good question. Maybe ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt will join ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ some time to explain and tell us whether that same principle applies to the United States.”

Perhaps this sounded simply like Carlson going after a group that has been challenging him.

But for far-right extremists, his question went beyond a debate about immigration policy. Carlson was alluding to a meme that has traversed white supremacist circles for years and is a direct corollary to the “replacement” theory: Jews want to replace white people in the United States through mass immigration, the theory goes, but in Israel they protect their own race by restricting immigration.

White supremacists often refer to this idea by calling for “Open borders for Israel” — trollishly suggesting that American Jews should support similar immigration policy for the US as they do for Israel.

“Open borders for Israel” was a rallying cry at the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where far-right marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us.” A Facebook group called Open Borders for Israel features Pepe the Frog, a cartoon appropriated by the “alt-right.” An “Open Borders for Israel” face mask featuring an anti-Semitic caricature is available for purchase on at least one website, and a white supremacist group distributed flyers with the slogan at Texas Christian University last year, according to TCU360, a campus news website.

The contradiction only works in white supremacists’ imaginations. In reality, while American Jews tend to sympathize with immigrants and refugees, few Jews actually call for “open borders” in the US And many Jews and Jewish groups, including the ADL, are particularly critical of Israel’s restrictive refugee policy, which has been a topic of heated debate there for a decade.

In the “open borders for Israel” meme, white supremacists take substantive debate beyond the pale of legitimacy. Beyond critiquing policy, they suggest (falsely) that Israel’s immigration system is one more piece of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy white society, and that Jews are playing a dishonest double game by advocating separate policies for the United States and Israel.

Responding to Carlson’s salvo, directed at Greenblatt and the ADL, CAMERA Senior Research Analyst Gilead Ini tweeted:

Tucker is wrong because the ADL opposing a "right of return" is about preserving a single, functioning refuge for an oppressed people, slaughtered in the millions *as Jews,* expelled from their countries *as Jews,* whose population today is still below pre-Shoah numbers.

Surely Tucker understands the difference between what's described above and the situation of, say, Americans of English descent. But he doesn't care. He's about dulling rather than sharpening viewers understanding, for the sake of scoring his point.

1/ Tucker is wrong because the ADL opposing a "right of return" is about preserving a single, functioning refuge for an oppressed people, slaughtered in the millions *as Jews,* expelled from their countries *as Jews,* whose population today is still below pre-Shoah numbers. https://t.co/pNK9M9Mcw8
— Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) April 13, 2021

Ini isn’t shy here. He says it very clearly: Tucker “understands the difference” between Israel’s “right of return” and the Biden Administration’s “open borders” policy in the United States. Carlson is being cagey and misleading here, suggesting to his viewers that when Jews make Aliyah to their indigenous territory, it is exactly the same as illegal immigrants flooding the border in Texas.

There is more than a hint of antisemitism here, but only if you’re willing to let go of loyalty to Tucker for the sake of loyalty to Israel and the Jewish people. Tucker knows better—knows exactly what he is doing when he says these things about Israel. The now-terminated Fox News employee is too smart not to understand the import of his own words, and the theory that some conclude lies behind these words. In other words, those who so “reasonably” deduce that Tucker was pointing only to what he sees as the double standard of the ADL, and not really suggesting that Jews have no right to immigrate to the Jewish State, delude themselves. Otherwise, he would not leave the matter fuzzy, unclarified, and open to interpretation.

Where do we draw the line in our understanding of Tucker’s equivocal rant? Did his words mean nothing more than a pointed rebuke of the liberal, two-faced ADL? Or was he couching his words to avoid outing himself as someone who, at the very least, thinks that Jews demand special treatment. At worst, Tucker may be, as Greenblatt asserts—though I am loathe to give the ADL credence or legitimacy in these matters—a firm believer in the Great Replacement Theory.

In January of this year, Tucker insulted Ahinoam Nini, a singer of international renown, known simply as “Noa,” no last name, outside of Israel—her real name is probably too difficult for most non-Hebrew speakers to pronounce. Nini is rabidly far-left, and her political views are anathema to Israelis on the right. Under the cover of Nini’s leftwing politics, Tucker gave himself permission to mock her singing and hand gestures. Then Carlson went further, drawing attention to the fact that Noa is Jewish: “Yeah, and those people run the world? They are so impressive!”

Let's check in on our lizard overlords in Davos, Switzerland. pic.twitter.com/fF9t609dj4
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 21, 2023

Was Tucker making fun of the Great Replacement Theory, leftists, the singer herself, or the Jewish people? All of the above? Who knows? Only those of us who have come to believe that where there’s antisemitic smoke, there’s antisemitic fire, will interpret these words as yet more evidence that Tucker Carlson is, indeed, an antisemite.

On October 6, 2022, Tucker Carlson hosted Kanye (Ye) West on his show. Not long after, Kanye took to Twitter, in his now famous antisemitic rant. You know—the one where he said, “I’m a bit sleepy now, but when I wake up, I’m going death con 3 on the JEWISH PEOPLE.”

The indefatigable Jonathan Tobin once more documented the evidence of and the slippery nature of Tucker Carlson’s probable antisemitism six days later, when he drew a line between the Ye’s appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, and the “death con 3” tweet:

Carlson became something of a tribune for conservatives for his forthright condemnations of the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 and willingness to speak out on other issues dear to the hearts of those on the political right. That made him a target for the left, with groups like the Anti-Defamation League seeking to de-platform him for his discussions of so-called “replacement theory” about immigration. This said more about the ADL’s partisanship than Carlson, since the idea that demographic change will alter American politics is one that originated with and continues to be advocated for by Democrats.

Here again, the fact that liberal groups have already “cried wolf’” about Carlson makes it easier for him to dismiss criticisms when he actually does something to mainstream hatred. This is what happened in the wake of the West interview.

Carlson embraced West because some of what he says is in line with conservative views about race-baiting (his endorsement of a “White Lives Matter” shirt) and opposition to abortion. On the program, the rapper/fashion mogul was allowed to claim that Jared Kushner pursued the Abraham Accords for financial profit rather than to advance peace.

Carlson is unique among leading conservative media figures in that he is not a supporter of Israel. He is careful, however, to stay away from discussions about the Jewish state, lest he run afoul of mainstream conservative opinion, which is overwhelmingly Zionist.

The word “Israel,” thus, is a word almost never heard from 8-9 p.m. on Fox News. And it is not surprising that Carlson would allow one of the Trump administration’s greatest triumphs to be denigrated in this particular manner.

While Carlson trumpeted the interview as proof that West was not, as many claim, a disturbed individual or a hatemonger, what was left out of the broadcast was as interesting as what was left in. In outtakes that have subsequently been published, West made numerous allusions to hateful Jewish stereotypes.

He even echoed assertions of the Black Israelite sect that African-Americans were the real Jews—effectually denying the existence of a Jewish people. That Carlson would leave this out of his show demonstrates that he was attempting to hide West’s anti-Semitism.

Days later, West dropped the veil. In a series of tweets, he announced that he was going to “def con 3 against the Jewish people.” Yet conservative talk-show host Candace Owens defended him, in essence instructing Jews on what does or does not constitute anti-Semitism.

Like liberals circling the wagons around left-wing haters of Israel and the Jews, Carlson and Owens are doing the same for West and for the same reason. In each case, legitimizing anti-Semitism is considered justified if it defends a political ally, regardless of the consequences.

Though Carlson censored the interview with Ye, editing out all West’s antisemitic crazy talk, Tucker ended the show by, according to Vice: “declaring that the artist—whose erratic behavior has for years been at the center of discussions about mental health and how Black men with mental health issues are treated— is ‘not crazy’ and ‘worth listening to.’ He also added, approvingly, that Ye was ‘getting bolder’ in what he has to say.”

Listen to Kanye here: "the thing about it being Adidas I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can't drop me ... now what ... now what ..." @adidas pic.twitter.com/Qu5LcZnmJj
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 20, 2022

Was Ye emboldened by the interview with Tucker? Did the fact that Tucker hid Ye’s hateful ravings from the public, encourage the bipolar rapper that Carlson actually approved of these antisemitic sentiments? Why did Tucker tell his audience that Ye is “not crazy,” “worth listening to” and “getting bolder in what he has to say” if not to show admiration and approval for Ye’s virulent dislike of the Jewish people?

The mask is slipping and some of us already see Tucker Carlson for what he is: a covert antisemite. Maybe it's time for Tucker to come out of the closet and put all doubt to rest. Unless, of course, he's afraid to be canceled—a process Fox News appears to have already begun.

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NYT endorses a restaurant that features anti-Israel propaganda

The New York Times recently published a list of New York's best restaurants. One of them, Ayat with at least two locations, features Palestinian Arab food.

There is nothing wrong with that, of course. Good food is good food and the list has many different ethnic restaurants. But restaurants are more than food - they include presentation, atmosphere.

And Ayat is filled with anti-Israel propaganda.

On the wall of its Staten Island branch there is a huge mural with a crying Palestinian woman together with evil looking Israeli soldiers and tanks and innocent looking Palestinians behind bars, next to a depiction of a map that erases Israel.

Its flagship Brooklyn location has a similar mural, apparently showing a sleeping child being woken up by the evil Jews and Palestinians being held at gunpoint.

The menu prominently says "Down with the occupation."

Another mural on the wall that says that the entire point of the restaurant is political:

Now, could you imagine a restaurant that features artwork about abortion, or that is anti-immigration? Certainly any reviewer would prominently mention that, no matter how good the food is, because the dining experience for people who disagree with the politics would be ruined, no matter how good the food is.

Beyond that, is it not possible to have a Palestinian restaurant, or Palestinian art exhibit, or Palestinian concert, that celebrates Palestinian culture without feeling the necessity to attack Israeli Jews - Jews whose emotional and historic ties to the land dwarf those of Arabs?

They may exist, but they are rare indeed.

(h/t Jerry)

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04/26 Links Pt1: Israel's Miraculous 75th Birthday; Glick and Sharansky: Today, Unify around Zionism; The Golan threats: Another phase in the ‘campaign between the wars’

From Ian:

Arsen Ostrovsky: Israel's Miraculous 75th Birthday

The country today has become a homeland for the Jewish people, yet all its citizens—even those who are not Jewish—are treated equally and afforded full civil rights. It has a unified capital again in the Holy city of Jerusalem; and a strong army, capable to thwarting any foe near or far. Israel's innovation, technology, and a dynamic creativity has become the envy of the world. The ancient language of Hebrew has been revived and is spoken by its people again.

And in Israel—unlike Europe or even parts of the United States—we do not have to fear walking the streets looking "too Jewish" or celebrating Jewish festivals.

Today, Israel has become a source of inspiration to the champions of hope and dignity, serving as a role model for all those fighting for their right to self-determination.

And all this has been achieved against insurmountable odds, against implacable enemies who still today refuse to accept the Jewish state's very existence.

In 1878, 70 years before the State of Israel was born, a young Jewish poet from Europe, Naphtali Herz Imber, penned the lyrics to the poem "Tikvateinu," meaning 'Our Hope' in Hebrew. In it he says, "Our hope is not yet lost, the ancient hope, to return to the land of our fathers."

In 1948, when modern Israel was established, the hope our people had carried for millennia became a reality and "Tikvateinu" became its national anthem.

JPost Editorial: Israel Independence Day, Remembrance Day: A hard-won miracle

Israel is a major military power, an economic marvel and a technological hub for the entire world. It wins Eurovision Song Contests and Nobel Prizes, develops cutting-edge innovations and agricultural wonders, and has produced a Wonder Woman.

According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 9.7 million Israelis inhabit this tiny land – 12 times the country’s population at the time of its founding – of whom 7.1 million are Jewish, two million are Arab, and a little more than half a million are of other backgrounds. Some 79% of the country’s Jewish population are tzabarim – Israeli-born – and 46% of the world’s Jews live in Israel.

Israel’s society is vibrant and its democracy is robust. The hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have poured into city streets every Saturday night for four months now, protesting for and against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, may have different visions of Israel’s future, but they are fighting to ensure that the country their children inhabit is better than the Israel of today.

There are few songs that capture the complexities of life in Israel as simply but poignantly as Naomi Shemer’s ballad “Al Kol Eleh” (“For All of These”): “For the honey and for the sting, for the bitter and the sweet, for our baby girl, please preserve, my good Lord.”

The honey and the sting, the bitter and the sweet have always been a part of the Israeli experience, and they remain so today. As yesterday’s terrible terrorist attack – which took place just a few blocks from The Jerusalem Post’s downtown Jerusalem offices – illustrated so painfully, the fight to be a free people in our land continues.

Today we will shed tears of grief for the young men and women who have fallen in battle, and for the civilians of all ages – men, women, teens and children – who have been killed in acts of terrorism since before Israel’s birth.

Then, in an act as incomprehensible as it is natural to us, we will wipe away our tears and come together to rejoice in what we have built in this special corner of the world.

As the sun sets this evening, let us give thanks for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we might celebrate 75 years of one of the greatest miracles of the modern era.

Chag Atzma’ut Same’ach – Happy Independence Day, Israel.

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency is incensed:

The Minister of National Security in the extremist occupation government, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed today, Wednesday, the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the city of Hebron.

And local sources reported that the storming of Ben Gvir comes as part of a series of continuous incursions by the occupation and its settlers into the Haram since yesterday, Tuesday, as the settlers performed Talmudic dances inside it, to celebrate the so-called "Independence Day."

The Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Hatem Al-Bakri, denounced this incursion, considering it a flagrant violation of the holy places and places of worship.

Al-Bakri warned that the occupation, and through the continuous Judaization operations, including broadcasting pictures of settlers dancing inside and outside it with comfort and reassurance, is working to displace Palestinian citizens from the places that it wants to control in Old Hebron in particular, according to a systematic plan implemented by the occupation government with the settlers.

He pointed out that what the occupation is doing is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and a special endowment property for Muslims that no one else has the right to practice worship in, and this requires serious work to stop it and limit it completely and with all force by flocking to the sanctuary.

Here's that Talmudic dance:

Hamas' Felesteen was no less upset at those Talmudic dances:

Today, Wednesday, the extremist minister of the settler government, Itamar Ben Gvir, performed Talmudic dances in the courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. And "Ben Gvir" appeared in a video clip, accompanied by a number of settlers, while they were performing Talmudic dances and Jewish rituals inside the Ibrahimi Mosque.

To Palestinians, Jews dancing openly and safely in a Jewish holy place is a horrendous crime. Soon their "human rights" NGOs will be calling it a war crime.

Issa Amro, who is considered the most moderate Palestinian and a hero to the Jewish Left, was equally upset at those dances, tweeting, "They are dancing for what Baruch Goldstein did in 1994."

Now, people who celebrate are rarely shy about saying why they are celebrating. They will openly tell you the reason - in this case, of course, celebrating Israel's Independence Day.

But Palestinians are equally open about why they celebrate. They openly celebrate in the streets every time one of them manages to kill a Jew, handing out candy and shooting off fireworks. They aren't shy about telling the world why they are celebrating.

Issa Amro must have gotten mixed up between the Palestinians who celebrate death and the Jews who celebrate life.

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AP reported on the Egyptian and other Arab states' reaction to Israeli independence in 1948: "The weekly Akhbar el Yom said 600 persons, mostly Zionists, were rounded up and sent to concentration camps."

Yes, only three years after the Holocaust, Jews were being rounded up again. Reports of Jews in Egyptian and Iraqi concentration camps trickled into the media during 1948.

In August, 18 French Jews who were interned started a hunger strike after efforts by France to free them were fruitless. At the time it was estimated that 3,000 Jews were imprisoned in these camps. British Jews in Egypt were also arrested without charge. (The French internees were finally released in September.)

In November:

A large number of Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt and whose families have lived there for generations, were ordered to leave the country this week-end or “face the alternative of imprisonment in desert concentration camps,” the American Jewish Committee reported in a telegram to Acting Secretary of State Herbert C. Hoover, Jr.

The Committee disclosed that leaders of the Jewish Communities of Cairo and Alexandria “have already been placed in concentration camps.” At the same time, it reported that the property of Jews in Egypt has been seized as “enemy property” and placed under the custodianship of the Egyptian government.

And that wasn't the worse thing for Egypt's Jews. They were being murdered in the streets.

22 Jews were killed in a June bombing in the Karaite Jewish quarter of Cairo. 19 more were murdered by another bomb in the main Jewish quarter of Cairo in September. Four Jewish-owned department stores were bombed in July and August.

JTA reported this horrific testimony:

The situation of the Jews in Egypt was termed today as "highly alarming" by a Frenchman who returned from Cairo and gave the first detailed and uncensored report of the pogroms, mob violence, mass looting and terrorism which is now taking place throughout Egypt against the Jewish population.

Egyptian mobs, he revealed, killed three rabbis by splitting their throats, after dragging them into a Cairo slaughter house. He estimated that at least 150 Jews had either been killed or had "disappeared" in Cairo incidents during the last four weeks. A substantial number of Jews had been wounded, he said. The pogroms and anti-Jewish terrorism are tacitly encouraged by the passive attitude of the Egyptian Government, he charged.

The gravest single incident, he reported, occurred on July 20 at one of Cairo’s chief street car junctions, in Malika Farida Placo. An organized group of Egyptians ejected all the European passengers from several trolleys. All passengers suspected of being Jews were savagely killed on the spot, and many had their eyes pierced or were knifed, while non-Jews and Europeans were robbed of all cash and belongings. The police made no effort to intervene, the French visitor emphasized.

Of the large number of Jews in Cairo who have been wounded, he continued, 120 are now undergoing treatment in the Jewish hospital there and an unannounced number are in government or private institutions. Scattered incidents of knifing of Jews are repeatedly reported in various parts of the Egyptian capital, he said. The killing of three rabbis in the slaughter house took place on July 21, he reported.

I haven't seen verification of the specifics, but there are many reports of pogroms in Egypt against Jews and scores were known to have been killed.

Then, as now, the excuse given for antisemitism was "Zionism." Yet then as now, they were attacked because they were Jews.

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Here is audio of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik, one of the most prominent rabbinical figures of the twentieth century, discussing the theological significance of Israel, in a 1968 lecture. Text is below.

________________________

I always enjoy when I read in the general press - I don't know why I enjoy it, perhaps its vanity on my part, but I believe it is more than vanity - when I read in the general press that no statements were issued by the Israeli government in Yerushalayim because it is the Sabbath today and all offices are closed.

I enjoyed very much when I read in the (Boston) Globe yesterday that actually the proclamation of the State of Israel was on the 14th of May but since the State of Israel observes the Hebrew calendar, it was the fifth of Iyar, and since the fifth of Iyar coincided this year with Friday they were afraid that the Shabbos not be desecrated by the celebrations, [so] they advanced it to Thursday. Particularly when the Christian Science Monitor [wrote it].

This means kiddush Hashem.

Alright, I am not completely in agreement at all times with the government of Israel, there are many policies which are wrong and fallacious. However, we have to have a look. Those are small details, peripheral matters. The main idea is correct and there is no doubt that hashgacha (Providence) is planning something it is far from geulah (redemption) yet, but hashgacha is planning something something in hashgacha holds something in store for us I don't know. We are still groping in the dark I don't know what will... to me the chapter has not been closed yet It is as if we are in the middle of the writing of a chapter The hashgacha is in the middle of writing a chapter... What the continuation will follow, what the continuation will be I don't know; no one knows. I have faith in God that it will lead to geulah sheleimah (the complete redemption).

Whatever happens and transpires is magnificent, and has tremendous significance to the Jewish community as such and to individuals as well. Not only the community as such, but every Jewish individual. After all, Jewish nevuah (prophecy) has been realized - certain prophecies have been realized, I wouldn't say in full [but] certain prophecies have found their fulfillment and realization.Not every generation in the last 2000 years could take pride in the fact that ...this time a prophecy by Isaiah was realized. Our generation has been fortunate that somehow the hashgacha found it necessary to implement certain prophecies, and we have been waiting for it thousands of years.

You will ask why our generation? Why not the generation of the Vilna Gaon? This question has been raised. This question has been raised by the Satmarer. If, actually, the establishment of the State of Israel is so important, you say it is actually a result of the will of God, not, as they call it, the will of the Satan, (we have Satanists somehow in the house, Satan as an autonomous power which rules the world.) He actuality has a duality, the man has a certain duality of darkness and light. It’s a very strange, strange distorted philosophy he advocates Never mind his argument with Zionism, I'm not interested in that The question should be answered - the question should never be thrown into a waste basket. If you don't know how to answer a question, say that you don't know.

Don't try to ignore a question; this is one of our shortcomings, particularly of Orthodoxy We ignore questions. The question which is unpleasant, we ignore. We don't care. We don't hear the question. A question addressed should either be answered or one should admit that it is insolvable There are many equations in mathematics which are insolvable but still mathematics retains its dignity If mathematics should try to ignore an equation which is insolvable (....)

The same thing with Orthodoxy; ask a question of a Rosh Yeshiva, the question has got to be answered. "No, ah..." this is no answer. Either answer the question, resolve the problem or admit your inability, that you are not competent to answer certain problems

The problem is a big problem: This great miracle not happen in the 12th century when Maimonides was alive Is it because our generation is worthier? More worthy than the generation of Maimonides, or the generation of the Vilna Gaon, or the generation of the Baal Shem Tov? Why did this happen now?

Because Maimonides could get along without Eretz Yisrael and as a matter of fact we did get along without Eretz Yisrael! We got along very well without Eretz Yisrael. Chazal says מדברך נאוה (Shir Hashirim.) We interpret מדברך נאוה [to mean] "Your speech is pleasant" Chazal say מדברך נאוה means "your desert is pleasant". Chazal say that in the exile the Jews have excelled themselves have exhibited excellence, displayed so much tenacity and so much consecration, and so much loyalty

The Jews in the first commonwealth could not stand up and claim as much credit as the Jew in exile in Germany during the Crusades or in 1648 during the Khmelnitsky pogroms The Jew in exile was a proud Jew, a Jew who was ready to sacrifice

But however, after the Holocaust of Hitler, six million people disappeared, actually one third [of the world's Jews] perished Missionaries...you don't know what was going on in European countries In America it was not so noticeable because we live in ...Jewish ghettoes But the Jews living in France, in England, in Italy, there was actually a swarm of missionaries who descended upon them "Don't you see that the words of the Gospel has been fulfilled? That God is angry at you?" "Do you still believe that your attitude vis a vis Christ was the right one?" "Now, if you will just accept baptism all problems will be resolved"

I'll tell you if not for the State of Israel, I don't what would have happened to the small communities throughout Diaspora Shmad (spiritual destruction), assimilation..... disintegration, because of black despair. Because of simply not being able to understand what happened. Do we understand what happened? Can you explain, can any theologian explain it? Can any philosopher interpret? Just accept the will of God. But for the real believer, for the man who has indomitable faith in God, alright, it's possible, but for the people who are just on the borderline, we don't understand what happened, we cannot explain it. It was a time of hester panim, complete hiding of the Face, God actually turned His back on our people. If not for Eretz Yisrael...it's impossible to imagine what would have happened to the Jewish diaspora, with the dispersion. That's why our generation has something which previous generations didn't, because our generation was in despair and was in need of it.

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