Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 29, 2023

05/29 Links Pt2: Swedish MP’s participation in Hamas-tied conference sparks uproar; Jewish Voice for Peace: Who Are the Radical Jews Opposed to Israel?

From Ian:

Swedish MP’s participation in Hamas-tied conference sparks uproar

Swedish legislator Jamal El-Haj, a member of the Riksdag, the national legislature, may face consequences in his Swedish Social Democratic Party after attending a conference affiliated with Hamas.

The opposition lawmaker participated in “The 20th European Palestinians Conference: 75 Years On... We Will Return” in Malmö on Saturday, even though the Social Democrats, the Greens and the Left Party withdrew in light of the event’s affiliation with Hamas.

“It is worrying that he chose to participate in the conference despite the party’s advice,” the Social Democrats were quoted as saying by the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet. “The group leadership in the [parliament] will summon Jamal El-Haj to discuss what happened.”

Sweden's Social Democrats
The Social Democratic Party, which led Sweden as recently as 2021, advised its representatives not to attend the conference. But El-Haj, a member of the Riksdag Foreign Affairs Committee, went anyway.

His participation in the event was first brought to light by Swedish academic and columnist Daniel Schatz, who tweeted about it on Sunday, demanding answers from the Social Democrats and calling on El-Haj to be forced to resign.

El-Haj can be seen embracing European Palestinians Conference chairman Amin Abu Rashid in a video of the event. Abu Rashid is known to be affiliated with Hamas, although he has called the accusation “Israeli lies.” Abu Rashid has been photographed receiving a plaque from Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and has organized Hamas-funded flotillas from Europe to the Gaza Strip in the past, which were meant to challenge the IDF’s naval blockade.

The London-based European Palestinians Conference includes several organizations in Europe and was founded by the Palestinian Return Center, which Israel designated as an arm of Hamas in 2010. Haniyeh has attended their annual event several times.

The Palestinian Authority, the PLO and Fatah also consider the European Palestinians Conference to be a Hamas organization. According to the Middle East Media Research Institute, the PLO threatened to expel anyone who attends the Malmo event, which PLO Secretary-General Hussein Al-Sheikh said was meant to sow divisions in Palestinian communities in Europe.

Rashida Tlaib plays the grandma card yet again - opinion

Tlaib's grandmother lives in a village governed by the PA
I GUESS the students on the Zoom call with Tlaib hadn’t done their homework; maybe they didn’t know about her dual loyalty statement. To judge by the JTA’s account, nobody on the call even mentioned it. So Tlaib was able to get away with changing the subject to Grandma. It’s a tactic she has used many times before.

According to the JTA, Tlaib replied to the question about antisemitism by bringing up “her grandmother, Muftieh, whom she refers to with the Arabic term “Sity” and whom she has portrayed as the face of Israel’s oppression of Palestinians.” Tlaib said, “My grandmother, literally solely based on the fact that she was born Palestinian, she just doesn’t have equality.”

The notion that Grandma Tlaib is oppressed by Israel is a lie.

She resides in the Palestinian Arab village of Beit Ur al-Fauqa. The Israeli occupation of that village ended in 1995. For the past 28 years, Beit Ur al-Fauqa has been governed by the Palestinian Authority.

In the autumn of 1995, then-Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin signed an agreement with then-PA chairman Yasser Arafat, known as the Oslo II Accord. It provided for the withdrawal of all Israeli forces from the territories where 98% of the Palestinian Arabs reside, including Beit Ur al-Fauqa. The Israelis withdrew. The occupation ended.

Arafat agreed that one portion of the non-residential agricultural land, which Beit Ur al-Fauqa claims belongs to it, would be allotted to the area under Israeli security control. Rabin requested that arrangement because the area is dangerously close to the Israeli towns of Beit Horon and Givat Ze’ev, and Route 443, a highway where Israeli automobiles are often the targets of Arab terrorist attacks.

But the residential portion of Beit Ur al-Fauqa, as well as the rest of the adjacent agricultural land, have been under the rule of the PA for almost three decades now.

The only oppression experienced by Grandma Muftia “Sity” Tlaib is at the hands of her fellow Palestinian Arabs. Since 1996, Beit Ur al-Fauqa has been governed by 11 administrators appointed by the PA. And Grandma hasn’t been allowed to vote for the head of the Palestinian Authority since 2005; Mahmoud Abbas is now serving the 18th year of his four-year term. So much for Palestinian democracy.

Tlaib has devoted much of her life to smearing Israel. And she is willing to stoop as low as necessary to accomplish that goal even if it means both lying about her own grandmother and using Grandma as a political weapon. That’s really about as low as you can get. Maybe the students will ask her about that in a follow-up call someday.

Jewish Voice for Peace: Who Are the Radical Jews Opposed to Israel?

In a recent video essay on the current Israeli government and its support for West Bank settlements, The Washington Post relied on an interview with Beth Miller, the political director of Jewish Voice for Peace Action, to provide both analysis and context.

This was but the latest instance in which a mainstream media organization cited Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) in discussions about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the American Jewish community, or domestic American politics.

However, contrary to the impression given by its name, JVP is not a moderate, peace-seeking, good-faith actor when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians. Rather, JVP is a radical anti-Israel organization that actively aligns with those seeking to harm the Jewish state while also providing a veneer for its extreme politics through a revision of traditional Jewish rites and texts.

In this piece, we will look at how JVP uses its nominal identity as a Jewish organization to promote the boycott of Israel, tacitly support Palestinian terrorism and whitewash the antisemitism that exists among its political allies.
6. "The event even garnered support from other cultural groups...including 'Jewish Voice for Peace'."

No, @fox12oregon, JVP is not a "cultural group." It's a radical anti-Israel activist group that advocates for BDS and spreads antisemitic canards. https://t.co/baqHX969np pic.twitter.com/PDeO2eMlLv
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) May 25, 2023

Jewish Voice for Peace: Celebrating Judaism, Demonizing the Jewish State
Jewish Voice for Peace was founded in 1996 by a group of student activists in California who were upset with Israel’s decision to open an exit to the Western Wall Tunnels in the Old City of Jerusalem’s Muslim Quarter.

Initially an umbrella organization for both Zionist and anti-Zionist Jews who were critical of Israeli policies, JVP officially adopted an anti-Zionist stance in 2019.

With its exponential growth in membership and chapters (especially since 2010), JVP is considered “probably the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States.”

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!

The emancipated Jewish women of Jerusalem, 1823

This article from 200 years ago - May 1823 - describes the lives of (Sephardic) Jews in Jerusalem then, and pays particular attention to the women.

Excerpts:

Many of the Jews are rich and in comfortable circumstances, and possess a good deal of property in Jerusalem, but they are careful to conceal their wealth, and even their comfort, from the jealous eye of their rulers, lest by awakening their cupidity, some vile, indefensible plot should be devised to their prejudice. In going to visit a respectable Jew in the holy city, it is a common thing to pass to his house over a ruined foreground, and up an awkward outside stair, constructed of rough unpolished stones, that totter underfoot, but it improves as you ascend, and at the top has a respectable appearance, as it in an agreeable platform in front of the house. On entering, the house itself is found to be clean and well furnished the sofas are covered with Persia carpets, and the people seem happy to receive you. The visitor is entertained with coffee and tobacco, as is the custom in the houses of the Turks and Christians.

The ladies presented themselves with an ease and address that surprised me, recalled to my memory the pleasing society of Europe. This difference of manner arises from many of the Jewish families at Jerusalem, having resided in Spain or Portugal, where the females have rid themselves of the cruel domestic fetters of the east, and on returning to their beloved land, had very properly maintained their justly acquired freedom and rank in society. They almost all speak in broken Italian, so that conversation goes on without the clumsy aid of an interpreter. It was the feast of the Passover. they were all eating unleavened bread; some of which was presented to me as a curiosity, and I partook of it merely that I might have the gratification of eating unleavened bread with the sons and daughters of Jacob in Jerusalem. It is very insipid fare, and no one would eat it from choice.

...The Jewesses in Jerusalem speak in a decided and firm tone, unlike the hesitating and timid voice of the Arab and Turkish females, and claim the European privilege of differing from their husbands, and maintaining their own opinions. They are fair and good looking; red and auburn hair are by no means uncommon is either of the sexes. I never saw any of them with veils; and 1 was informed that it is the general practice of Jewesses in Jerusalem to go with their faces uncovered - they are the only females there who do so. They seem particularly liable to eruptive diseases, and the want of children is as great a heart break to them now as it was in the days of Sarah.

Alexandria Gazette

Alexandria, Virginia •

Sat, May 10, 1823

Page 4

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!

05/29 Links Pt1: UN accuses Israel of recruiting Palestinian child soldiers; What Is Keeping the Iranian Regime from Getting the Bomb?

From Ian:

Dennis Prager: If US abandons Israel, 'that is end of America'

If America abandons Israel and the Jews, “that is the end of America as we know it,” according to American conservative talk show host Dennis Prager.

A Jew well known for his deep connection with the Christian Right, Prager expressed concern that America was abandoning the Judeo-Christian values on which it was founded and was, therefore, at risk of losing its support for Israel and, ultimately, its rank of a superpower.

“Christians [support Israel] because they cite God’s promise to Abraham that ‘those who bless you, I will bless and those who curse you I will curse,’” Prager said. “They happen to be correct. Those who have cursed Jews have ended up cursed.

“America has been the biggest blessing to Jews since Darius in ancient Persia, and America has been a blessed country.”

Darius I, “the Great” authorized the Jews to rebuild the Temple after Cyrus, his predecessor, decreed their right of return to Jerusalem from Babylonian exile.

Surveys show rising antisemitism, less religiosity
He made the comments in an interview with The Jerusalem Post in the Israel365 studio at the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) conference in Orlando last week, against the backdrop of several surveys that have shown both an America disconnecting from religion and skyrocketing antisemitism and anti-Israel sentiment in the United States.

Prager did not name any countries that have gone in the opposite direction.

However, much critical sentiment toward Israel is enunciated by groups identifying as Christian. The NRB is an association of Evangelical broadcasters that tends to be far more pro-Israel nowadays than other Christian groups. A majority, 86% of white Evangelical Protestants have a “favorable view of the Israeli people and 42% have a “very favorable view," according to a 2022 Pew Research Center report.

A 2019 Pew Research Center Survey found that more than 10% fewer people described themselves as Christian than a decade before. Moreover, a 2021 Gallup Poll found that 47% of Americans belonged to houses of worship in 2020, down from 70% in 1999.

In 2022, the Anti-Defamation League reported the highest number of antisemitic incidents in the United States since it started recording them in 1979 with 3,697 antisemitic incidents throughout the US, a 36% increase over 2021.

UN accuses Israel of recruiting Palestinian child soldiers

A draft of the UN’s Children and Armed Conflict report for 2023 accuses Israel of recruiting three Palestinian minors as human shields and combatants. A draft of the report on incidents in 2022 includes the new accusation, which the Israeli Embassy to the UN called “strange” in its official rebuttal. A final draft is expected to be published in late June or early July.

“These claims are not supported by any evidence that could be examined by the Israeli authorities,” the Israeli Embassy wrote.

“According to our findings, this lack of evidence is due to the fact that no such cases took place in 2022 and that the claims are false. Israel expects to see these baseless claims removed from the final report.”

Israel works to not be blacklisted in upcoming UN report
Israel has been working to ensure it is not blacklisted in the upcoming report. Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan and Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories Maj.-Gen. Ghassan Alian met with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres last week to submit the results of Israel’s examination of the UN’s allegations. Israel asked that its comments be reflected in the final draft of the report.

Another UN claim that Israel said was unfounded is the allegation that a Palestinian minor was abducted by settlers. The UN report provided few details of the incident, even after Israel asked for more information, and the IDF and Israel Police have no record of it taking place.

“We believe that a case with such extreme and unusual allegations merits a serious and thorough verification before being included in the report, thus the [government of Israel] expects the mentioning of this unverified [incident] should be removed,” the embassy wrote.

The UN draft report accuses Israel of killing and wounding Palestinian minors. It does not refer to the context in which these alleged activities took place, such as teenagers killed while committing terrorist attacks, nor does it refer to ways in which Palestinians contribute to the violence, such as terrorist groups using children as human shields or launching attacks from civilian areas.

“Regrettably, the draft report does not reflect the efforts made by Israel to ensure the protection of children in the context of the conflict,” the embassy wrote.

In one case, the UN claimed that a 22-year-old Arab-Israeli was a Palestinian minor and that Israel killed him, when in fact he died from accidental self-inflicted wounds. Muhammad Walid attacked a bus carrying Israeli forces and was injured by flammable materials in his own vehicle. He died the following month.

The number of Palestinian children the UN has alleged Israel killed dropped from 86 in 2021 to 32 in 2022.

Here is video of Jews at the Temple Mount today. According to Palestinian media, they are "storming Al Aqsa mosque."

Trigger warning: this is a shocking video of Jews storming. I repeat, they are storming.

Turn the sound way up to get an idea of the intense violence and provocations they are doing.

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!

They can't stop lying: "Museum of the Palestinian People" shows a fake Palestinian "postage stamp"

Yesterday we showed that the Washington DC based "Museum of the Palestinian People" displays Egyptian coins and labels them as "Palestinian."

That isn't the only explicit lie at this museum.

Because not only does it show a "Palestinian coin" that isn't Palestinian, but it also shows a reproduction of a "postage stamp" that was never a postage stamp.

Despite it showing a monetary value, this is not a postage stamp. It was a propaganda stamp (also known as "Cinderella stamps") issued to raise money by Arab nationalists.

One could not mail a letter with this stamp. And anyone could print one.

The Jewish National Fund printed millions of similar "stamps" as fundraisers from at least the 1910s to, I believe, today. No one claims they were "postage stamps."

If their cause is so just, why do they have to lie all the time?

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!

Hurva synagogue in 1864

The Palestine Post, May 28, 1948, reported on the gleeful and deliberate destruction of the Hurva Synagogue in the Old City of Jerusalem.

The secondary story on the right column describes the many times that this synagogue had been destroyed by Muslims, or attempted to be destroyed, and how it had always been rebuilt.

Israel complained to the world about this destruction, to no avail (May 29).

The following month, a delegation of rabbis inspected the Jewish Quarter to see the destruction.

In the end, Jordan destroyed over 50 synagogues in the Old City, over 19 years, to the deafening silence of the world.

Only Jews can protect Jewish heritage. Which is why Jews rebuilt the Hurva synagogue.

And this is why Jews are restoring the Tiferet Yisrael (Nissim Bek) synagogue which will resume being he highest domed structure in the Old City.

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!

They can't stop lying: "Museum of Palestinian People" shows fake "1917 Palestinian coins"

The Washington DC-based Museum of the Palestinian People is a room-sized collection of propaganda.

I noticed in their virtual tour that they showed "Palestinian coins, 1917."

Since there were no "Palestinian coins" in 1917, I looked a little closer.

Well, they have Arabic writing, and they do say 1917.

A short amount of research showed that they were not even Ottoman - but Egyptian!

Hussein Kamel was named Sultan of Egypt under British protectorate from 1914-1917 and these coins bear his name.

There is nothing "Palestinian" about them.

When a people have no history, they have to make a history up. And you cannot even trust their museums to tell the truth.

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!

05/28 Links: Why IHRA isn’t even good enough; Col. Kemp: While playing Nazi dress-up, Roger Waters decries antisemitic branding; Why IHRA isn’t even good enough

From Ian:

Why IHRA isn’t even good enough

The reason activism against antisemitism often fails is it focuses on debunking the words of antisemitism not the intent. Compare to any other group’s activism where the language cuts past the BS and explicitly diagnoses and opposes the intention of the racism.

The term antisemitism itself was invented by a Jew hater to make anti Jewish bigotry harder to talk about. The official definition as it stands right now shows the deception was so effective it confused the collective minds of its target. It makes it sound like we are upset because our detractors don’t like us. As if it was ever about just our feelings.

The result is rarely do pro Jew much less pro Israel advocates convince anyone because we bungle the message. Within the Jewish community’s own discourse the point is stubbornly and infuriatingly missed.

Part of the reason antisemitism is so persistent is the world’s two most populous religions teach it is a holy moral duty to kill, convert or erase Jews.

The entire Christian Bible is meant as a remedy to what it codes as Jewish moral deficiency. The Christian ideas of Jews being all-corrupting money obsessed killers of all that is holy is the foundation of all western conspiracy theories and has infected secular discourse since day one.

It dovetails nicely with left wing anti capitalist and anti colonial ideas and fermented with the KGB’s invention of liberation theology.

With Islam, the hate is because we refuse to convert and also because it sees itself as the highest evolution of world religions with the Jews at the bottom of that hierarchy. The Hamas Charter quotes the most explicit passages on the subject.

The intention is always the same. The message is always the same. “It’s moral to kill Jews.”

And it never kills only Jews. If anyone really cared about ending racism they’d be opposed to antisemitism too. If they really cared about vanquishing the systems that oppress everyone they’d understand that antisemitism is a clever misdirection by those parties so folks will obsess over murdering us instead of doing anything that would actually improve the world.

Or re Israel, by proxy. If anyone really cared about the Palestinians or anyone else they’d care about how the Palestinian leadership kills, abuses and steals from their people and how almost every nation on earth finances that scam.

If it was ever really about opposing colonialism, folks would openly oppose Arab and Islamic imperialism too. The presence of Arabs outside of the Arabian peninsula is the result of that and its victims include the Kurds, Yazedis, Amazigh, Tuareg, Copts and so on. If you don’t believe me then ask those communities yourself.

In fact, Israel is the most successful anti colonial project in recorded history and real “land back” would mean every single oppressed people would get an Israel, from that region to north and South America to the natives of what is now Japan and so on.

Why Do American Liberals Ignore Palestine's Gun Control Problem?

While the majority of Israel’s allies would like to see a Palestinian State established within the West Bank and East Jerusalem, few seem to have any preference for the internal Palestinian policies that would exist within such a state. Since the global ‘Free Palestine’ movement is largely based on liberal activists, the overlooking, or perhaps ignorance, of Palestinian internal affairs often is extremely hypocritical. For example, it would be completely normal for an American gun-control activist to be spotted at a pro-Palestine demonstration; despite the extremely irresponsible gun culture in the Palestinian territories.

Just this past Friday, an Israeli 9-year-old girl living in the Israeli community of Kochav Yaakov in Judea was struck by a stray bullet, likely from the nearby PA-controlled city of Al-Bireh. In general, it is completely appropriate to hear random gunshots in Judea and Samaria since Arab locals have developed a gun-friendly culture where shooting into the air at festivities such as weddings is acceptable and even expected.

For those unfamiliar with this ‘traditional Palestinian custom’, a quick Youtube search could confirm how wedding guests, mostly male, pull the triggers of M16 assault rifles pointed to the sky as if they are shooting toy Nerf guns. Even little kids are given the OK to shoot guns at these festivities, in one famous video a child no older than four accidentally shoots his father with the gun his father let him play with at a wedding. In addition, at virtually any political rally, which often takes place in densely-populated areas, guns are brandished by participants as a symbol of strength and importance.

Guns have become a symbol of status for Palestinians; the more your family illegally owns, the more important and rich you probably are. While throughout the Middle East and its cultures, there is definitely an understanding that strength and power are one and the same, no group of people has taken it to the extreme like the Palestinians. It is so embedded within the culture that it's fair to say the only unique quality of Palestinian culture which sets them apart from all other Arabs is not the food, music, or language, but the extreme lack of gun control. While this may be a surprise or even seem like an exaggeration to some readers, it is completely synonymous with the brief history of Palestinian nationalism. A nation that was founded by militant groups seeking to terrorize their way to “freedom”, will surely keep guns on a pedestal since it has gotten them this far.

Col. Kemp: While playing Nazi dress-up, Roger Waters decries antisemitic branding

Waters’ deliberate implication was that Jews murdered Abu Akleh as Nazis murdered Anne Frank. The fact is that nobody knows whether Abu Akleh was the victim of IDF or Palestinian terrorist bullets. And indeed if it was the former it would certainly have been accidental, the farthest possible cry from the calculated way Anne Frank met her end at the hands of the German killing industry.

In every way, the circumstances of the two women’s deaths were utterly different and only a hate-filled rabble-rousing propagandist could dream up any comparison. Abu Akleh clearly did not deserve to die, but she went to Jenin of her own volition and in search of violence, whereas Anne Frank hardly volunteered to spend two years hidden in an attic in Amsterdam, in daily fear for her life, before making her final journey to Belsen.

Waters of course has a long and vitriol-fueled track record of Jew-baiting and Israel-bashing. Magistrates in Frankfurt who tried to ban his concert there accused him of being “one of the most widely known antisemites in the world”.

He takes every possible opportunity to spread lies and distortions about Israel and uses a massive media platform to amplify his prejudiced and defamatory message. As the BBC reported, he “has also floated an inflatable pig marked with the Star of David at his concerts”.

Not content with his own petty boycott of Israel (although I doubt many Israelis would want to see him there anyway) he has been aggressive in trying to persuade other performers to keep away and then publicly vilified those who treat his admonitions with the contempt they deserve. That includes the Rolling Stones.

I was there when Mick Jagger and Keith Richards defied Waters by making their Holy Land debut at HaYarkon Park in Tel Aviv a few years ago — the Israelis loved them and it was plain to see they loved the Israelis. Waters must have been furious.

Waters denies being antisemitic, professing instead to be a defender of freedom and human rights. He blames the “Israel lobby” for the complaints against him. It seems he has been taking lessons from Jeremy Corbyn who made exactly the same claims while dragging his Labour Party into its darkest depths of antisemitism and was later expelled for refusing to accept the damning findings of an inquiry into the party’s bigotry.

In another echo of Corbyn, Waters, the self-styled “anti-fascist”, has openly justified the actions of Vladimir Putin’s Russia, the nearest thing we have in Europe to fascism today, with its internal repression, imprisonment of dissidents, stranglehold on the press, wars of aggression, lust for Lebensraum, torture chambers, killing centers, mass graves and industrial scale child abduction. In a speech at the UN in February, at Russia’s invitation, he claimed that Putin’s invasion of Ukraine had been “provoked” by the West, and after the invasion berated President Volodymyr Zelensky’s wife in an open letter, telling her that “extreme nationalists” in Ukraine “have set your country on the path to this disastrous war”.

Waters’ craven justification of the Russian war, as well as his antisemitic stance, have been met with publicly expressed contempt even by members of his former band.

I suspect Waters’ father, too, would have found his son’s behaviour contemptible. Eric Waters, having originally secured exemption from compulsory military service as a conscientious objector, went on to voluntarily put his life on the line to fight Nazism as an infantryman in the Royal Fusiliers. He was killed in action at Anzio in 1944.

There is another aspect to Waters’ Nazi-cloaked charade in Berlin that is perhaps even more chilling than his own fanatical actions. Aside from the cheering crowds and brown-shirted Nazi helmet-wearing stooges escorting him on stage, all of the Third Reich insignia and jumbotron messaging at the arena were designed, known, approved and put together in advance by others. It involved the carefully planned effort of many people. Nobody said anything or stopped it.

75 years ago: Jordan imprisons Jews, calls them "prisoners of war"

From the Palestine Post, May 25, 1948:

These prisoners, for the most part, weren't fighters. They were workers at the electric plant.

Which means they were hostages, not prisoners of war.

And at least some of them remained hostages until a prisoner swap the end of the year. From December 1:

I don't know if there were any Arab workers at the Palestine Electric Company, but if there were, they sure didn't become hostages. Only the Jews.

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!

There are at least four specific major strands of antisemitism in the US today:

* Traditional far-right antisemitism associated with neo-Nazis and white supremacism that regards Jews as both uniquely powerful puppet-masters and racially inferior.

* Black antisemitism, both the decades-old version where Jews are regarded as the epitome of "whiteness" and become lightning rods for Black resentment, and the more modern Nation of Islam type regards Jews as imposters and Blacks as the real Jews and actively incites the Black community against Jews with lies about the slave trade

* Arab and Islamic antisemitism centered on Quranic texts and hate of Israel.

* "Progressive" and Leftist antisemitism that obsesses over Israel and regards the Jewish state - and by extension, Zionists - as uniquely evil when acting as any other nation at war acts. It also divides up the nation into "oppressors" and the "oppressed" and Jews are invariably placed in the former role making them the victimizers in the only real discrimination that matters.

One would have no idea that any of these exist, save the first, by reading the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism document.

While it says that the US "embraces" the IHRA Working Definition and "welcomes" other definitions of antisemitism, the 65-page document has almost no concrete examples of the latter three types. Indeed, while it doesn't mention it, the entire document is fully compatible with the Jerusalem Declaration on Antisemitism, which was written specifically to excuse all forms of antisemitism that do not emanate from the Right.

The strategy document lumps Jews in with Muslims and Blacks as victims, but not once mentions these other groups as even potential oppressors against Jews. (The closest is when it mentions the Colleyville synagogue hostage crisis, without mentioning that the attacker was Muslim.)

The document mentions "Islamophobia" 21 times, and most of the specific policy recommendations include fighting all forms of bigotry. For example, its very first recommendation is:

Federal Agencies will incorporate information about bias and discrimination related to religion, national origin, race, and ethnicity, including information about antisemitism and Islamophobia, and about workplace religious accommodations into training programs as they carry out their obligations under Executive Order 14035 (Executive Order on Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility in the Federal Workforce)

There is nothing wrong with workplace accommodation for religious Jews and Muslims, but DEI is part of the problem. It categorizes Jews as white by default and therefore as oppressors who need to be educated in how not to be bigots. This means that Jews are the only minority who are regarded as part of the problem DEI pretends to solve.

This is the way the entire strategy is: while the introduction notes that antisemitism is unique, the rest of the document does not.

When it comes to Israel, the best rule of when criticism of Israel is antisemitic remains is Natan Sharansky's "3D" test of demonization, double standards and delegitimization.This document does not combat any of them. This is the only section that deals with Israel in any depth:

Although antisemitism remains a pernicious global problem, the scope of this national strategy is domestic. The strategy is focused on countering the threat and manifestations of antisemitism in the United States of America. The U.S. Government, led by the Department of State, will continue to combat antisemitism abroad and in international fora—including efforts to delegitimize the State of Israel.

As we confront antisemitism, we do so with profound respect for our democratic traditions, including free expression and speech protected by the First Amendment. We also do so with an unshakable commitment to the State of Israel’s right to exist, its legitimacy, and its security. In addition, we recognize and celebrate the deep historical, religious, cultural, and other ties many American Jews and other Americans have to Israel.

But this is a sop. This strong commitment to Israel is only a foreign policy priority, but explicitly not a domestic one. It only protects Zionist Jewish students in the narrow sense of protecting their rights to free speech and belief.

The only examples of anti-Israel opinion that the document explicitly calls out are those that neo-Nazis are comfortable saying.

Part of the perniciousness of modern antisemitism is that it is hate disguised as anti-racism and justice. This allows the current Jew-haters to insist that they are against antisemitism (i.e., white supremacy) while engaging in it, and there is nothing in this strategy that calls that out - meaning that today's haters can continue to lump Zionism in with racism and homophobia as evils to be eradicated and there is little in the national strategy that could combat that except by noting that it indirectly discriminates against Jews.

This means that proving antisemitism is a much higher bar than proving racism.

And that is the real problem. The strategy is too vague to be useful. By avoiding explicitly endorsing the IHRA working definition of antisemitism it means that the strategy cannot combat:

* Saying that Jews controlled the slave trade

* Claiming that Jews have no historic connection to Israel or Jerusalem

* Charging that Israel and Zionists engage in "Jewish supremacy"

* Comparing Israeli actions to those of Nazi Germany

To effectively fight antisemitism, the strategy must be specific, not vague. There is nothing in this strategy that directly combats Black Americans being exposed to lies about Jews from their own celebrities. There is nothing that says that saying Israel has no right to exist as a Jewish state is antisemitic. There is not a word about BDS.

Moreover, because it doesn't recognize Black, Islamic and Leftist antisemitism, the strategy cannot combat them except in marginal and extreme cases.

Unlike other bigotries which are defined as broadly as possible, antisemitism is implicitly defined here as narrowly as possible. Whether right or wrong, burden of proof in other cases of bigotry rest on the accused, but with antisemitism it rests with the accuser.

Holocaust education and teaching employers that they shouldn't discriminate against religions Jews is fine and good, but they cover up the real issues facing most American Jews today. This strategy has some good ideas and suggestions but it fails to do what it was meant to do, and as such it feels more like a checkmark in a list of promises instead of a real tool to combat the world's oldest, and constantly morphing, hate.

The lack of a real definition, the lack of calling out specifically the threats to US Jews today, and the desire to subsume antisemitism with other bigotries makes the US National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism a failure before it starts.

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!

Sama News published apologetics for Islamic Jihad, claiming it won the micro-war with Israel earlier this month:

The enemy did not expect the "Quds Brigades" to continue fighting in the "Revenge of the Free" battle for more than two days, yet that the battle would extend to 5 days. And if he had succeeded tactically in assassinating 6 leaders of the "Al-Quds Brigades", he strategically failed to predict its capabilities and the strength of its fighters.

Once it set up and burned that straw man, it goes into detail on Islamic Jihad's military doctrine, which includes:

At the heart of the doctrine of jihad for the sake of God, which makes the goal of every fighter victory or martyrdom in pursuit of God's pleasure. ...The doctrine of jihad for the sake of God is the basis of the combat doctrine from which the Mujahideen start....Jihad is the highest degree in Islam and its culmination is in the text of the Prophet’s hadith...The fighters of the "Quds Brigades" go to battle as a religious duty, just as they go to prayer. ...

Jihad for the sake of God for the liberation of Palestine is linked to martyrdom, which occupies a central position in the combat doctrine of the Mujahideen of the Quds Brigades and all the Mujahideen are on the same path, based on the concept of divine choice of the martyrs who testify with their blood and souls that the goal of liberating Palestine and the nation's renaissance is more precious than their lives under occupation and oppression....The blood that is shed from the martyrs is the fuel for liberation and the movement of the masses to revolt against the occupation in all the stages of the Palestinian revolution. ...
The role of the mujahideen in Palestine, led by the Al-Quds Brigades, remains to keep the embers of jihad burning in Palestine, and to keep the fuse of resistance burning against the Zionist entity, which means continuing the jihad and the continuation of the resistance until the conditions for complete victory over it are completed, and this is what the founder of the movement, the thinker, the martyr Fathi. Al-Shikaqi said: “Our jihad will continue, and our martyrdom operations will continue, until this cause remains alive, and until the whole nation rises towards its sacred cause, the cause of Palestine.”

When terrorist apologists speak to the West, they like to claim that the word "jihad" is misunderstood, and that "holy war" is only the "lesser jihad" while the "greater jihad" means the personal struggle to be a better person.

But I can see no mention of "greater jihad" here in Arabic. I don't see much inner struggle in this text. The word "jihad" has only one meaning in this manifesto.

And indeed, as we've seen, the default meaning of "jihad" in Arabic is invariably violent holy war. In fact, WikiIslam say that the original source cited for "greater Jihad" as an inner struggle is considered by many Islamic authorities to be fabricated or at best quite weak, and contradicts several explicit Quranic sources that say that jihad with bloodshed is superior in every way.

Not equal are those believers who sit (at home) and receive no hurt, and those who strive and fight in the cause of Allah with their goods and their persons. Allah hath granted a grade higher to those who strive and fight with their goods and persons than to those who sit (at home). Unto all (in Faith) Hath Allah promised good: But those who strive and fight Hath He distinguished above those who sit (at home) by a special reward. (Quran 4:95)

A number of hadiths quoting Mohammed are even stronger, such as,

Standing for an hour in the ranks of battle is better than standing in prayer for sixty years.
(Saheeh related by Ibn Ade and Ibn Asakir from Abu Hurayrah 4/6165. Sahih al Jaami as Sagheer no. 4305)

Etymologically, "jihad" means struggle, but colloquially and Islamically, there is only one real meaning for the term.

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

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05/27 Links: Melanie Phillips: Jew-hatred struts the stage in Berlin; NYC’s public law school releases video of antisemitic commencement speech; Amnesty Board Member Shares Support for Terrorism, and Erasing Israel

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Jew-hatred struts the stage in Berlin

In his book The End of the Holocaust, Alvin Rosenfeld observed that the Anne Frank story has been re-framed to articulate the need to overcome racism and homophobia, prevent mass murder and promote tolerance and kindness.

Jews like Anne Frank, however, were wiped out not because of a lack of tolerance or kindness or through prejudice but because of a derangement beyond comprehension directed at the Jewish people.

In Mosaic in 2016, Edward Rothstein wrote that Holocaust museums flinched from emphasising the uniqueness of Jewish suffering. No such museum, he observed, could seemingly be complete without invoking other 20th-century genocides in Rwanda, Darfur or Cambodia.

If we are all guilty, though, then no-one is guilty. More balefully still, if everyone can be a Nazi, so too can the Jews. Holocaust universalism has thus led directly to the demonisation of Israel by people claiming to be anti-racist.

In Britain, this is one reason why there have been strenuous objections to the Holocaust memorial and education centre that the government wants to construct in a small park next to the Houses of Parliament.

The project has been derailed by the late discovery of a planning law that forbids any such construction in this park, a law that the government is determined to overturn.

Aside from environmental objections, significant concerns have long been expressed that the message to be delivered by this centre will relativise and thus devalue the Holocaust.

These objections have been brushed aside by the government and the project’s backers in the Jewish community leadership.

However, the government itself has now given the game away by acknowledging that the main purpose of this centre is not to commemorate the genocide of the Jews. As Housing Minister Baroness Scott disclosed earlier this month, its aim is to ensure that the story of what happened in the Holocaust “resonates with the public”.

And how will it do that? By denying the unique nature of the Jewish genocide. “The content will also address genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur,” she said.

This drew a furious response from one of the leading opponents of the project, Baroness Deech, who said it would “demote the Shoah”.

Deech, who is Jewish and whose late father, historian Josef Fraenkel, fled the Nazis, said: “It would prompt generalities about hate and intolerance and would drain the presentation of the Shoah from its antisemitic origins dating back thousands of years.”

She went on: “They are going to put forward the message that if you see something bad going on, you must not be a bystander. If it’s just ‘don’t be a bystander’, I don’t see how that helps people understand antisemitism and the plight of the Jews.”

Deech was backed by Gary Mond, chairman of the National Jewish Assembly, who said: “The main concern is that there must be no dilution to the principle that the Holocaust was totally unique and incomparable.”

But that message will be utterly diluted by this proposed memorial.

The government is being egged on by Jewish community leaders who refuse to get the point. Instead, they have bullied objectors to the project and vilified them as antisemites — despite the fact that a number of them are Jews.

These leaders are thus weaponising antisemitism to drive through a project that will instrumentalise antisemitism, in order to deliver a message that will betray the memory of Jews murdered in the Shoah by diminishing their unique fate.

Universalising the Holocaust has happened for two reasons. The non-Jewish world wants to share the protected moral status of being victims of the greatest crime in history by claiming other evils are just as bad. Diaspora Jews, desperate not to be viewed as different, are terrified of asserting Jewish uniqueness, even over this.

Meanwhile, a depraved antisemite struts the stage in Berlin.

Biden’s Antisemitism Strategy Fails to Condemn BDS, Includes CAIR

While Biden’s U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism doesn’t condemn BDS and waffles on pro and anti-Israel positions, it does take the time to bring CAIR into it.

The press release boasts that “the Council on American-Islamic Relations will launch a tour to educate religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses of worship from hate incidents.”

That’s the same CAIR that has defended Islamic terrorism against Jews, defended Muslim terrorists like Ahmed Ferhani who plotted attacks on synagogues, and which was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Holy Land Foundation trial involving the funding of Hamas.

The ZOA notes that, “the Biden Strategy uses the soft phrase U.S. “has embraced” [past tense] the positive consensus IHRA definition of antisemitism – while much more strongly states Biden “welcomes and appreciates” the dangerous “Nexus” definition of antisemitism. The Biden Strategy then also “notes” other definitions, which can mean even more harmful definitions such as the JDA definition.”

It also points out that, “Third, the Biden Strategy fails to explicitly identify or deal with any source of antisemitism by name other than white supremacy. The Biden Strategy never identifies Black supremacist antisemitism such as that of Louis Farrakhan; BlackLivesMatter (BLM) antisemitism and anti-Jewish pogroms; radical Islamist antisemitism; or the hatred of Jews and the sole Jewish state promoted in Congress by Squad members such as Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, Cori Bush, Bernie Sanders and Jamaal Bowman.”

The Coalition for Jewish Values also blasted the strategy, “the President’s statement also highlights the neo-Nazi march in Charlottesville in 2017 and seems to tie antisemitism exclusively to white supremacy. This distracts attention from other sources of antisemitism; the vast majority of attacks upon Jews in New York are perpetrated by People of Color.”

This is the Biden administration’s betrayal of Jews in a nutshell.

Antisemitism ‘Working Definition’ Not a ‘Work in Progress,’ Say New IHRA Co-Presidents

JNS asked if the IHRA co-presidents worry that some might misunderstand the term “working definition” and think it suggests tentativeness or some other form of hedging.

“It’s called the ‘working definition’ for it to be what it is—and that is an action-based tool, a practical tool,” Lustig told JNS. “The fact that it’s called a ‘working definition’ does not mean that it’s a work in progress, so much as it’s very clear what it is and clear what it does.”

Lustig also reflected on another part of the working definition that she said people misconstrue—that it muzzles legitimate criticism of Israel. Acknowledging that an individual can criticize Israel without being antisemitic is one of the “contemporary examples” that IHRA appends to the working definition, she said.

“One of the examples is denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination by saying that the existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor,” she explained. “That’s what the definition says. I personally would say that does not stifle the criticism of Israel. All it says is that Israel is allowed to exist and have the right to self-determination. Those are two very different things.”

Gras told JNS that the working definition, like all the items in IHRA’s toolkit, “is the product of international and interdisciplinary consensus, and it provides practical, real-world guidance for educators and others who hope to understand and monitor antisemitism.”

Antisemitism is a problem “present in all of our societies and states, so we all have a responsibility to act, to really speak out when we see such forms of discrimination,” Gras added. “Much has been done, but I think there is still much more to do.”

Chag sameach!


	Ruth and Naomi, Ary Scheffer	1856

Chag sameach to all who celebrate Shavuot!

See you after Shabbat!

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!

05/25 Links Pt2: Terror-supporting NGO advises Facebook on Israel content moderation; CNN Promotes Anti-Israel Propaganda for Children; KKL-JNF unveils photos of Shavuot festivities in British Mandate era

From Ian:

Terror-supporting NGO advises Facebook on Israel content moderation

Organizations that celebrated terrorist attacks against Israelis and support boycotting Israel have advised Meta, Facebook’s parent company, on its content moderation regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A report from NGO Monitor, which researches the activities and funding of organizations active in relation to the conflict and Israel, found that Meta and BSR, a company hired to evaluate its policies, had extensive interactions – regarding making decisions about what constitutes incitement against Israel – with organizations such as Human Rights Watch and 7amleh (pronounced “hamleh”) that have documented histories of anti-Israel campaigning.

The result is a report by BSR recommending, among other things, that more leeway be given for posts praising the terrorist group Hamas.

Emi Palmor, former Justice Ministry director-general and the only Israeli on Meta’s 18-member Oversight Board – which is meant to be the company’s “supreme court” – said “there is no doubt [that Israelis’] voices are not heard,” in part because pro-Israel organizations and figures don’t take part in the process even when they are invited to do so.

HRW and 7amleh, however, are well organized in the effort to influence Meta, leading an effort accusing the social media giant of silencing Palestinians and demanding a change in content moderation. They also appealed to the Oversight Board, which led the board to recommend that Facebook commission an independent report on the matter.

The company undertook a review of its policies following the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Palestinian terrorists and rioting in mixed Jewish-Arab cities in Israel. Facebook removed content promoting violence and supporting Hamas that was in violation of its community standards, which the NGOs said means they were silencing the Palestinians.

7amleh calls itself an “advocate for Palestinian digital rights,” but regularly celebrates terrorists and attacks against Israelis. It also advocates for boycotts of Israel and campaigned to have Palmor removed from the board. 7amleh is a “trusted partner” of Meta when it comes to content-related decisions in the region and a member of Twitter’s “Trust and Safety Council.”

7amleh has a history of supporting terrorism against Israel
The NGO and its officials have repeatedly and publicly supported terrorism against Israel. 7amleh criticized Zoom for canceling an event hosting Leila Khaled, a hijacker and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, which is designated a terrorist group in the US, EU and Israel. The group lauded Sabri Khalil Al-Banna, leader of the Abu Nidal terrorist organization, and deceased PFLP leader Ghassan Kanafani as “distinguished Palestinian personalities.”

Board member Neveen Abu Rahmoun called the barrage of Hamas rockets on Israel in May 2021 “the popular uprising,” saying that “all Palestinians have come together.” When the operation ended, Abu Rahmoun praised “Gaza the powerful... with their combative action, [they] surpassed the political leadership and returned to us the meaning of Palestinian togetherness.”

At High School Debates, Debate Is No Longer Allowed

My four years on a high school debate team in Broward County, Florida, taught me to challenge ideas, question assumptions, and think outside the box. It also helped me overcome a terrible childhood stutter. And I wasn’t half-bad: I placed ninth my first time at the National Speech & Debate Association (NSDA) nationals, sixth at the Harvard national, and was runner-up at the Emory national.

After college, between 2017 and 2019, I coached a debate team at an underprivileged high school in Miami. There, I witnessed the pillars of high school debate start to crumble. Since then, the decline has continued, from a competition that rewards evidence and reasoning to one that punishes students for what they say and how they say it.

First, some background. Imagine a high school sophomore on the debate team. She’s been given her topic about a month in advance, but she won’t know who her judge is until hours before her debate round. During that time squeeze—perhaps she’ll pace the halls as I did at the 2012 national tournament in Indianapolis—she’ll scroll on her phone to look up her judge’s name on Tabroom, a public database maintained by the NSDA. That’s where judges post “paradigms,” which explain what they look for during a debate. If a judge prefers competitors not “spread”—speak a mile a minute—debaters will moderate their pace. If a judge emphasizes “impacts”—the reasons why an argument matters—debaters adjust accordingly.

But let’s say when the high school sophomore clicks Tabroom she sees that her judge is Lila Lavender, the 2019 national debate champion, whose paradigm reads, “Before anything else, including being a debate judge, I am a Marxist-Leninist-Maoist. . . . I cannot check the revolutionary proletarian science at the door when I’m judging. . . . I will no longer evaluate and thus never vote for rightest capitalist-imperialist positions/arguments. . . . Examples of arguments of this nature are as follows: fascism good, capitalism good, imperialist war good, neoliberalism good, defenses of US or otherwise bourgeois nationalism, Zionism or normalizing Israel, colonialism good, US white fascist policing good, etc.”

"US Angry at 65% Tax on Hostile Israeli NGOs Receiving Foreign Contributions"

On Sunday, the Ministerial Legislative Committee will debate a bill submitted by Likud MK Ariel Kallner that takes away the tax credit from Israeli donors to NGOs that receive donations from a foreign entity, and in the two years before or after said donations promoted a public cause by appealing to the court, the Knesset, the government, the municipalities or bought advertising space.

In addition, the NGO will lose its not-for-profit status and be taxed at a rate of 65% of its income. The bill is part of Otzma Yehudit’s coalition agreement with Likud, which committed to enacting it within 180 days of the formation of the Netanyahu government.

On Thursday, MK Kallner tweeted his reason for the bill and mentioned Sven Kuehn Von Burgsdorff, Head of “the delegation representing the EU in West Bank and Gaza and to UNRWA,” who last August participated in the reopening of Addameer, which Israel had declared to be an arm of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP was designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel, and according to a 2021 NGO Monitor report, many individuals employed at Addameer have links to this terror group (Addameer Employees’ Violent Social Media Accounts).

“We’re putting an end to foreign political subversion!” Kallner tweeted, adding, “The fact that the head of the European Union delegation, Mr. Sven Kuehn Von Burgsdorff, thinks that the Jews are occupying the land to which they have returned, is the small problem in the story,” although, as he puts it, saying this about the remnants of European barbarism and mass murder is a tad insolent.

“The problem is that in addition to taking the position, foreign countries, mainly from Europe, do not stop acting within the Jewish state by funding civil society organizations,” and he mentions the anti-Zionist NGOs Yesh Din, Emek Shaveh, and Peace Now – to name but a few.

This did not go over well with US Ambassador to the UN Human Rights Committee, Michele Taylor, who said publicly that “Israel must ensure that human rights organizations and other non-governmental organizations can operate freely, without economic or legal pressures being applied to them that would harm their activities.”

Ambassador Taylor should consult her government’s Foreign Agents Registration Act of 1938, requiring the registration of, and disclosures by, an “agent of a foreign principal” who, among other things, solicits, collects, disburses, or dispenses contributions, loans, money, or other things of value for or in the interest of a foreign principal.