Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, August 30, 2023

08/30 Links Pt1: Don't let Saudis have any role on the Temple Mount, put Israel in charge; Are the Saudi's offering the PA a restoration in funds as a sign of appeasement?

From Ian:

Mordechai Kedar: Don't let Saudis have any role on the Temple Mount, put Israel in charge

First, Jerusalem has been the capital city of Israel for more than 3,000 years, and the place of the Temple has been the heart of the Jewish people since the days of David and Solomon, 1,600 years before Islam came into the world.

Any renunciation of full Jewish sovereignty over the site of the Temple is interpreted in the Muslim world as a Jewish renunciation of the very existence of the Jewish religion, something that undercuts the reason for the existence of the State of Israel. Would it occur to Muslims to give up full Muslim sovereignty over the Kaaba complex in Mecca?

Second, Israel made many mistakes regarding the Temple Mount. The first mistake was when Moshe Dayan handed over the administration of the site to the Jerusalem Wakf Islamic religious trust in 1967, with an understanding that they would not object to his illegal archaeological activities.

The second mistake was giving the Jordanian kingdom its status on the Temple Mount in 1994, on the assumption that the Jordanian king would keep the PLO and Hamas away from the compound.

Over the years, it became clear that not only did he, and then his son, not keep the Palestinian Authority away from the Temple Mount, the king reached official agreements that gave the PLO an official status. Israel did nothing to stop this and today the Palestinian Authority is also involved in what is happening on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem.

Third, the Temple Mount is a focus of subversive anti-Israeli activity by Turkey. A Saudi presence could cause conflicts between Turkey and Saudi Arabia, and negatively affect Israel’s relations with Turkey. Israel must remove any Turkish influence from the mountain.

Fourth, the Temple Mount is the focus of attention for extremist organizations such as Hizb al-Tahrir (the Islamic Liberation Party), Hamas, and the northern and southern factions of the Islamic movement, among others. What they all have in common is their burning hatred for the Saudi royal family. Any clash between Saudi Arabia and these organizations could ignite the flames of conflict, and the blame would fall on Israel.

Fifth, it is possible that today there are understandings between the Israeli government and the Saudi crown prince, but there is no assurance that these understandings will survive the test of time. In the future, there may be changes in relations between Israel and Saudi Arabia that will lead to tensions between the two countries. A Saudi presence on the Temple Mount will only worsen the situation.

Sixth, if Saudi Arabia receives an official status on the Temple Mount, it could be blackmailed by Iran to allow Shi’ite activity in Jerusalem under its protection. Even if there is a clause in the agreement between Saudi Arabia and Israel that prohibits such a thing, Israel will not violate its peace agreement with Saudi Arabia even if the Saudis are forced to violate this clause under Iranian pressure.

Lastly, Wahhabi Saudi Arabia may try to lower the centrality of Jerusalem in the contemporary Islamic discourse, since according to Islamic sources the original al-Aqsa Mosque, the one mentioned in the Quran (17:1), is located in Saudi Arabia near the village of Juarana, around 30 km. northeast of Mecca.

Any such attempt by the Saudis may arouse the wrath of all the parties mentioned above, and the blame for bringing them into the sensitive equation will be placed squarely on Israel.

MEMRI: Emirati Analyst: Saudi-Israeli Normalization Will Proceed Slowly, To Preserve Saudi Arabia's Status In Arab And Islamic World

In an article titled "Saudi Arabia and Israel – Normalization or No Normalization?," published July 20, 2023 on the Saudi website Elpah, Emirati political analyst Salem Al-Ketbi reviewed Saudi Arabia's considerations in advancing towards normalization with Israel, as he perceives them. Saudi Arabia, he wrote, which sees itself as a regional superpower, is interested in relations with Israel, since it realizes that such relations can benefit it and serve its interests. However, it is proceeding very cautiously in order to avoid any harm to its special religious standing in the Islamic world, and in order to keep countries and organizations that exploit the Palestinian cause from using the issue of normalization as fuel for incitement against Saudi Arabia.

The following are translated excerpts from Al-Ketbi's article:[1]
"Discussing the issue of official diplomatic ties between Saudi Arabia and Israel, namely normalization, requires a deep understanding of Saudi Arabia's position and its overall strategic considerations in this context, which is very sensitive as far as it is concerned. Saudi Arabia's approach to Israel is not the same as that of its fellow Arab and Muslim countries. Saudi Arabia has special religious standing and prestige, since [Mecca and Medina, which are] the spiritual and religious center for some two billion Muslims [worldwide], are in its territory. It is vital to consider all the implications and consequences [of this special standing], especially since there are some who will use any issue to harm Saudi Arabia, and one of the sensitive issues [that can be used this way] is that of the relations with Israel and everything they entail: all the sentiments, the historical sediments, and the political exploitation of the issue by various elements, both countries and organizations, that use it to realize their interests and goals.

"The current Saudi leadership has a different strategic approach to the present and the future, and has an ambitious plan to catapult Saudi Arabia forward and give it the position it deserves on the world map in the 21st century. Therefore, [this leadership] does not readily limit the debate on any idea or proposal. This explains the significant shift that has occurred in the Saudi attitude towards Israel in the recent period. Suffice it to mention that Israeli planes have been given permission to fly through Saudi airspace… If we also consider the historic and famous statement made by Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman in 2022 – that Suadi Arabia does not regard Israel as an enemy[2] – we realize the magnitude of the change in Saudi Arabia's general strategic approach and position.

Saudi-Israeli normalization is a crucial factor in the considerations of the administration of [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden and in his bid to realign the elements in the Middle East. But Saudi Arabia has a different approach, based on its own interests as an active regional power. Accordingly, its outlook on normalization depends on [its ability] to ensure the realization of its geostrategic approach, which does not regard Saudi Arabia as part of any coalition or axis, and does not limit its options in forming partnerships with all the international powers active in the global arena – [an arena] that is in a process of [re]forming itself, based on the balance in the Ukraine war. Furthermore, Saudi Arabia's most pressing strategic need in the near future is to cement its security and stability and guarantee a regional environment conducive to promoting the goals of [its] Vision 2030 [plan]. The upshot of all this is that the ball is currently in the court of Washington, which apparently has not yet realized the magnitude of the change that has occurred in the rules of play vis-à-vis its Saudi ally… and that a new approach is needed in light of this change.

Gallant: Israel must widen Arab alliances, but maintain military superiority

Defense Minister Yoav Gallant on Wednesday met with top US diplomatic officials to encourage progress in widening the normalization wave with Sunni countries, like Saudi Arabia, but also emphasizing the need to maintain Israeli qualitative military superiority.

Gallant met with US National Security Council Coordinator for the Middle East and North Africa Brett McGurk, US Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf, and US ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield.

The defense minister thanked McGurk for his continuous efforts to advance normalization with Arab countries in the region, which is a form of code for the Saudis, Washington, and Jerusalem's current top normalization target.

Maintaining Israel's qualitative military advantage usually refers to having more advanced aircraft, defensive systems, and advantages with any unconventional weapons, such as nuclear weapons (which Israel reportedly has), and which the Saudis and others are seeking to receive from the US in normalization negotiations.

Currently, only Israel has F-35 aircraft, but Riyadh also wants advanced aircraft. Previously, the US was due to sell F-35 aircraft to the UAE, though for reasons unrelated to Israel, that transaction has been indefinitely frozen.

Most notably, the Saudis have demanded a nuclear reactor and the ability to enrich uranium locally for solely civilian purposes.

While Riyadh has promised not to move beyond such civilian purposes, there are mixed views within the Jewish state about the Saudis receiving such a capability, which could conceivably later be converted to a military nuclear program.

Generally, the idea is that though Israel is small in territory and in its standing army, it can use higher quality weapons systems to deter its enemies from many kinds of broad attacks.

MEMRI found this gem:

Iraqi Shi'ite Militia Leader (allied with Iran) Qais Al-Khazali: "The Devil is not a theoretical enemy. He has a party that abides by his orders. As will be shown, this party of the Devil is led by the Jews.

"The Jews are the soldiers who serve the Devil – this is the Jewish lobby that controls the decision-making, the media, the economy, the dollar, the weapons trade, and so on. This is no longer a conspiracy theory. This has become clear.

"it was the Jews – the Jewish lobby – that murdered the fathers and forefathers of the Prophet Muhammad. This point does not require further proof, right? Secondly, it was the Jewish lobby that assassinated the Prophet Muhammad. You can check it out to see that I am right. Thirdly, I say – and Allah willing, I will prove – that it was the Jewish lobby that murdered Ali bin Abu Taleb.

"Fourthly, I say – and Allah willing, I will prove – that it was the Jewish lobby who was behind the murder of all the Imams.

"Regardless of who was the actual perpetrator... The Jewish lobby is the reason for the occultation of the Hidden Imam. It is the Jewish lobby that is searching for the Hidden Imam, and they might do anything in order to murder him."

I found this highly amusing article in a Jordanian site. The author, Rashid Abdul Rahman Al-Najab, has been reading the works of the late Libyan thinker Al-Sadiq Al-Nihum - who was known as a satirist - and apparently took seriously one of his satirical pieces making fun of Arab conspiracy theories. This is wild:

The global capitalist banking system began five thousand years ago at the hands of goldsmiths in Egypt, when most of the Jews' interest there turned to the banking trade and project financing. The Egyptian banks, which were controlled by the Jews, financed around the year 2400 BC the wars of the Pharaohs.

...When the Hebrews were expelled from Egypt, in the thirteenth century BC during the reign of King Ramesses II, under the influence of the hatred that had generated in the past, and not as history shows it as an escape of an enslaved people seeking freedom, the Hebrew banking capital created the idea of “the chosen people” and "The Promised Land", and the Hebrews wrote the constitution of the modern capitalist state in the arid Sinai. It is a constitution based on reducing the authority of the king, distributing administrative organs among twelve Israeli tribes and ensuring the legitimacy of usury, and even making usury a religious duty to lend to foreigners and protect banks, at a time when it was forbidden Their constitution charged usury among the Jews themselves and urged the liquidation of their debts by general discharge once every seven years.

In the era of King Solomon, in the tenth century B.C., the Jews were managing the entire economy of the Middle East, and they did not hesitate to finance suspicious projects to achieve quick profit, such as financing bars, gambling clubs, equipping pirates, and so on, and this reached an extent that made Christ enter the temple and expel money changers and usurers from its area.

Al Najab certainly doesn't present these absurd facts as satire, although he seems to know that some of them don't quite add up. He says that while the historic facts might not be exactly true, they point to the truth.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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!

Let's see how "human rights" groups discuss this morning's deadly PA raid in Tulkarm - if at all

This morning, the Palestinian Authority clashed with terror groups in Tulkarm, leaving one person dead.

The specifics are disputed depending on whether one is reading PA-affiliated or terror-affiliated media.

According to the PA:

The Political Commissioner General and the official spokesperson for the security establishment, Major General Talal Dweikat, said today, Wednesday, that the security services removed dangerous materials and barriers from inside the Tulkarem camp.

Dweikat added, in a telephone conversation with WAFA, that the Palestinian security forces had received several complaints from institutions and individuals in Tulkarm governorate, about the presence of dangerous materials and barriers in front of children's schools and on the roads inside the Tulkarm camp. Accordingly, the security services moved and removed them, to prevent any risks that might arise. about its existence.

He pointed out that after the security force finished its mission, some armed youths opened fire in front of the governorate building, which necessitated the intervention of the security forces to take the necessary measures and measures to control the security situation and prevent any manifestations that threaten civil peace in Tulkarm governorate.

"Dangerous materials" appears to be a euphemism for explosives - IEDs that terrorists bury in the road, that are meant to slow down Israeli forces when they conduct arrests and raids. We already know that these IEDs are a danger to children - even the UN reluctantly admits this. (Update: Other media confirm explosives near schools.)

It appears that the PA, perhaps for the first time and ahead of the beginning of the school year, decided that IEDs and iron barriers in front of schools is already a step too far when it puts children at risk.

And the terrorists were not happy about their hard work of risking the lives of their neighbors to be able to possibly damage an Israeli vehicle being removed, so they naturally started shooting at the PA forces.

Hamas media says that the PA used bulldozers to remove the barricades.

One person died - the accounts differ as of this writing but it appears that the gunmen killed an innocent bystander while shooting at the PA forces. Terror media says the PA killed the man.

.This video shows some of the tear gas, and apparently one older man - a father of a "martyr" so he may have been one of the protesters - was injured.

Will "human rights groups" side with the terrorists in this case? The PA did what Israel does - employed bulldozers and shot tear gas to quell a violent demonstration, and possibly used live fire. NGOs usually adopt the narrative that the PA is almost as bloodthirsty as the IDF.

On the other hand it is hard for them to say that the PA should allow IEDs and barricades to be placed in the middle of public areas and near schools. Amnesty and HRW have never, to my knowledge, berated the local armed groups for putting their own people at risk, and they are loathe to start a new complicating narrative that might indirectly exonerate the IDF for its own similar raids.

So chances are that they will remain silent, and the dead Palestinian bystander will not be mentioned at all.

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!

A 10th century Muslim historian refutes today's Palestinian "Temple denial"

It really is quite absurd to see today's Muslims insist that there was no Jewish Temple in Jerusalem, and that somehow Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock were always there. Especially when one of the Arabic names of Jerusalem is "Bayt al-Muqqadas" - which comes straight from "Beit HaMikdash," the Hebrew name for the Holy Temple.

I've previously mentioned a 15th century work by Jalal-addín that goes into detail about Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem.

But if you want an earlier Muslim historian, we have al-Masudi - a 10th century Arab historian and geographer who has been called "Herodotus of the Arabs."

Al-Masudi's works are quoted in the 1890 work by Guy Le Strange, who translated a number of medieval Arab historians and geographers in "Palestine Under the Moslems."

Al Masudi clearly admits that Al Aqsa is on the site of Solomon's Temple:

Every literate Muslim knew this quite well - until the 20th century, when hate of Jews reached a level high enough to see Muslims and Arabs deny their own most famous and best historians.

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!

08/29 Links Pt2: Guess Human Rights Watch's new director's first target. Yup Israel; Helen Mirren Explains Why She Ignores BDS Pressure, Praises Israel

From Ian:

American Academics Take a Page Out of the Soviet Anti-Zionist Playbook

It seems like each day brings a new wrinkle in the oldest hatred. The antisemites are innovating, finding novel ways to fuel enmity against Israel and the Jewish people. The latest is a rehabilitation of the Soviet anti-Zionist playbook in the form of “Critical Zionist Studies.”

The newly created Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism “aims to support the delinking of the study of Zionism from Jewish Studies, and to reclaim academia and public discourse for the study of Zionism as a political, ideological, and racial and gendered knowledge project, intersecting with Palestine and decolonial studies, critical terrorism studies, settler colonial studies, and related scholarship and activism.”

The Institute is holding two events this coming October, one at the Resource Center for Nonviolence/UC Santa Cruz Center for Racial Justice and the other at New York University Law School. These events are a brazen effort to create and legitimize a new field called “Critical Zionist Studies” in universities across the country. Left unchecked, Critical Zionist Studies could be coming to a campus near you.

It would be difficult to imagine another area of study dedicated specifically to deconstructing a national liberation movement. Critical Kurdish Nationalism Studies? Critical Palestinian Nationalism Study? You get the point. Only Zionism is on the scholarly chopping block.

At root is an American academy in the throes of an illiberal ideology, with the backing of Middle Eastern money, that treats America, Israel and the West as colonialists and oppressors. And if we can’t stop the problem at its root we can expect more and more of these assaults on the Jewish people in the years ahead.

This is not the first time that Critical Zionist Studies has reared its ugly head. Wilson Center scholar and emigre from the FSU, Izabella Tabarovsky, describes the emergence of a field called “Zionology” in the late 1960s in the USSR. In the wake of the 1967 Six Day war, the Soviets were distressed that Israel handily defeated their Arab allies, and that Soviet Jews, inspired by Israel’s victory, were increasingly identifying with the Jewish state.

Guess Human Rights Watch's new director's first target. Yup_ Israel

One area where Human Rights Watch has been active regarding Israel is its campaign to protect critics of the Jewish state from accusations of anti-Semitism.

Last week, HRW co-signed an open letter to the Secretary General of the United Nations, calling on him to reject the working definition of anti-Semitism by the International Holocaust Remembrance Association (IHRA), which has won the support of 39 countries including the United States and most of Europe.

In particular, the open letter objected to the IHRA contention that one form of anti-Semitism is “applying double standards by requiring of [Israel] a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”

One can see why Human Rights Watch perceived this benchmark as one that may put it on the wrong side of the anti-Semitism debate.

The letter suggested to the secretary general that he consider an alternate definition, according to which “paying disproportionate attention to Israel and treating Israel differently than other countries is not prima facie proof of anti-Semitism.”

(Try substituting “Jews” for “Israel” and “people” for “countries” and see how that sounds.)

The tragedy of Human Rights Watch is that there is a desperate need for objective reporting on human rights across the globe. What do you think? Post a comment.

In many of the 90 countries where it operates, the organization lives up to that standard.

Still in her first month on the job, Hassan could steer the organization in a better direction if she is willing to take justified criticism to heart — not that it seems likely. (h/t Max Mendelbaum)

Countries backing IHRA antisemitism definition also fund its opponents, study finds

In the face of rising global antisemitism, many nations have endorsed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. Yet, paradoxically, several of these very countries are also financially supporting NGOs that contest this definition.

NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based think tank, conducted a recent study that casts a spotlight on this contradiction.

Since its introduction in May 2016, the IHRA’s definition has gained broad acceptance. By July 2023, it was adopted by 40 governments and numerous intergovernmental organizations, marking it as a foundational policy in the fight against antisemitism. However, these endorsements come with a twist. NGO Monitor’s data reveals that a significant number of these countries are also funding NGOs that resist the IHRA framework.

Countries including Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and even the European Union – all known champions of human rights – seem to be playing both sides according to the study’s findings.

These countries have paradoxically been backing organizations that are said to “engage in and promote blatant antisemitism as per the IHRA’s definition,” it reads.

Beyond financial support, these NGOs have been found to propagate antisemitic narratives and often dismiss antisemitism as a non-issue of human rights.

The study emphasizes, for instance, how some of these NGOs endorse views contrary to the IHRA, such as denying “the Jewish people their right to self-determination, suggesting the very existence of the State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

For some, self-preservation comes first
Delving into the reasons for such opposition, the study suggests that these NGOs are not merely driven by ideological differences, but have self-preservation in mind. With the IHRA’s definition gaining traction, many of their activities, especially those against Israel, risk being tagged as antisemitic.

NGO Monitor’s new visual exposes the widespread and coordinated NGO campaign against the #IHRA definition of antisemitism.

Our analysis of 345 NGOs and 45 campaigns revealed that:
👉52% of campaigns were directed at preventing gov’ts and intergovernmental institutions (like… pic.twitter.com/aOM96I44L6
— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) August 29, 2023

As the publicity increases for the new "Golda" movie, and anti-Israel activists are freaking out over the possibility that people might watch it and learn that Israel isn't wholly evil, let's revisit the quote that the haters consider the most damning and racist from Golda Meir.

Wikipedia traces Golda Meir's supposedly bigoted quote denying that there were a Palestinian people.

1969: "There was no such thing as Palestinians. When was there an independent Palestinian people with a Palestinian state? It was either southern Syria before the First World War and then it was a Palestine including Jordan. It was not as though there was a Palestinian people in Palestine considering itself as a Palestinian people and we came and threw them out and took their country from them. They did not exist."

Fact check: True. The quote is often butchered, but her words are precise: There was no independent Palestinian people in a Palestinian state. It was considered "southern Syria" by the Arabs and Westerners included Transjordan in "Palestine" which usually meant Biblical Israel and Judah. While there were isolated exceptions, Palestinian Arabs did not consider themselves a "Palestinian people," by and large, until the 1960s.

1970: "When were Palestinians born? What was all of this area before the First World War when Britain got the Mandate over Palestine? What was Palestine, then? Palestine was then the area between the Mediterranean and the Iraqian border. East and West Bank was Palestine. I am a Palestinian, from 1921 [to] 1948, I carried a Palestinian passport. There was no such thing in this area as Jews, and Arabs, and Palestinians, There were Jews and Arabs....I don't say there are no Palestinians, but I say there is no such thing as a distinct Palestinian people."

Fact check: Mostly true. I would argue that by 1970 there was an emergent "Palestinian people" that had been formed by decades of Arab mistreatment of and marginalization of Palestinian Arabs - and the Arab League decisions to maintain their stateless status until Israel is destroyed.

What she didn't say is that the creation of a Palestinian people was specifically to deny the legitimacy of the Jewish state and ultimately meant as a weapon to destroy Israel. Their Arab "brethren" (and their own leaders) did everything they could to destroy Israel, and when they couldn't do it militarily, they decided that they could appeal to the Western proclivity to root for the underdog. Before 1967, Israel was the clear underdog, so they needed to create a Palestinian people who could make Israel look like the bully and the tiny, stateless Palestinian people as the hapless victims.

Meir's comments were in the context of that deliberate re-framing of history, as she witnessed this change in the meaning of the word "Palestinian" and the emergence of the new phrase "Palestinian people" to refer to Arabs.

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!

Amnesty horrified at "settler violence." Palestinian violence, not at all.

Amnesty-UK tweeted, ""According to the UN, more than 100 incidents of settler violence a month have been reported against Palestinian civilians in the occupied West Bank this year."

I am in no way condoning violence by anyone.

But there is a Palestinian organization, Maata, that eagerly counts cases of Palestinian violence - which it calls "resistance operations."

Are there 100 incidents a month? Well, in July, they counted 1,132.

During the month of July, the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem recorded an escalation in various forms of resistance operations, including shooting operations, armed clashes, and effective run-over and stabbing operations, which led to the killing of (2) Israelis, and the wounding of (50) soldiers and settlers with various injuries, bringing the occupation death toll to rise.

The total number of operations that were monitored during the month, according to the Palestine Information Center - Maati - was 1132 acts of resistance, including 97 shootings and armed clashes with the occupation forces....

The popular anti-occupation activities also continued, and the number of demonstrations and marches reached 49 demonstrations, 334 stone-throwing operations, 413 direct confrontations with the occupation forces, 14 Molotov cocktail-throwing operations, and 117 attacks response operations.against settlers across the West Bank.

Yes, according to Palestinian reports, there are more Palestinian attacks on settlers than settler attacks on Palestinians!

But to the BBC and Amnesty, only attacks by Jews are worthy of being reported.

During the first half of the year, Maata counted 6,704 "resistance actions" which Maata called "a remarkable and qualitative escalation in the forms of popular and armed resistance." That's not 100 attacks a month - it is 1,100 attacks a month. They claim over 400 attacks of incendiary devices including IEDs, Molotov cocktails and fireworks, and hey say they destroyed 175 Israeli vehicles.

They might be exaggerating. But that is part of the point: they are so proud of attacking Jews that they want to make the militantsappear as effective as they can. To them, these are heroes.

Israelis do not consider settlers who attack Arabs for no reason to be heroes.

Where are the BBC stories about these statistics? Where are the Amnesty memes condemning them?

They are non-existent, and they will remain that way. Because there can only be one set of victims in this conflict, and Jews can never be counted among them.

This is bias. Not that this bothers the BBC and Amnesty in the least..

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!

08/29 Links Pt1: PA readying diplomatic assault on Israel; HRW Erases the Evidence of Palestinian Minors Involved in Terror; Why Is Hizballah Escalating Tensions with Israel?

From Ian:

PA readying diplomatic assault on Israel

The Palestinian Authority is laying the groundwork for another major diplomatic assault on Israel on the backdrop of the United Nations General Assembly’s annual debate next month.

Speaking to the Palestinian Authority’s Voice of Palestine radio station on Sunday, Omar Awadallah, the head of the U.N. department in the P.A. Foreign Ministry, said that U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres is expected to travel to Ramallah after the UNGA meetings, while International Criminal Court Chief Prosecutor Karim Ahmad Khan is scheduled to visit in October.

Neither Guterres’s nor Khan’s office could confirm the plans to JNS, with the ICC stating that “this information is not accurate.” However, both officials have recently indicated their wish to visit P.A.-controlled areas in Judea and Samaria.

In December, during the ICC’s annual Assembly of States Parties in The Hague, Khan asserted that “God willing” he intends to visit “Palestine” in 2023. At the time, Israel’s Kan News public broadcaster quoted the court as confirming that “a visit to Palestine is one of the prosecutor’s goals for next year.”

At the same time, the U.N. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), which consists of 25 U.N. member states in addition to the PLO and other observers, said last week that it had persuaded Guterres to visit the region.

Riyad Mansour, the PLO envoy to the U.N., said on Aug. 22 following a meeting with Guterres, “He agreed that [for] the Palestinian people who are very fed up and frustrated and angered by the brutality of this Israeli occupation and the terrorist settlers, a visit from the secretary-general of the U.N.—and what the U.N. represents and what multilateralism represents to all of us—is extremely significant and important.

“We are happy and delighted that we are in the stage of preparing for this visit with the secretary-general to take place as soon as possible,” Mansour told journalists in remarks that went largely unreported.

Experts in Israel believe Ramallah is trying to capitalize on recent tensions between Jerusalem and the international community at a time when the Jewish state is facing a wave of Palestinian terror.

Lapid to meet US officials in DC as Netanyahu visit still up in the air

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid of the Yesh Atid Party will travel to the United States next week for high-level meetings in Washington, his office said on Tuesday.

Lapid is to meet with senior officials at the White House and the State Department as well as members of Congress.

During the meetings, U.S. officials intend to bring up the normalization process with Saudi Arabia. Riyadh has requested American help for a Saudi civilian nuclear program in exchange for ties with Israel, a demand that Lapid has publicly opposed.

“I am very much in favor of a normalization agreement with Saudi Arabia,” he said during a TV interview earlier this month, before adding, “But not at the expense of uranium enrichment that would endanger Israel’s security.”

Lapid’s planned visit comes as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been snubbed, so far denied a traditional White House visit. On July 17, more than six months after Netanyahu returned to the Prime Minister’s Office in Jerusalem, U.S. President Joe Biden invited Netanyahu for a meeting “somewhere in the United States” at some time “later this year.”

It is still unclear whether the long-expected meeting will take place at the White House.

Netanyahu is expected to fly to New York for the U.N. General Assembly general debate next month, during which he may meet with Biden in the city, although neither side has confirmed details.

“The details are going to be worked out by the different teams,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told journalists last month. “But they have committed to meeting and seeing each other.”

30 yrs later, #OsloAccords, have been systematically violated countless times by Palestinian leadership, w/int’l impunity that undermines infrastructure created to uphold & protect.

A glaring example is the weaponization & politicization of the law, inc of the ICC. @i24NEWS https://t.co/alo4BGF7af
— מיכל קוטלר-וונש | Michal Cotler-Wunsh (@CotlerWunsh) August 29, 2023

Australia must do more about Iran

Earlier this month, Canberra announced that it will officially refer to the West Bank, east Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip as “occupied Palestinian territory,” and, moreover, that it deems it “illegal” for Jews to live in the West Bank. In October of last year, the Australian government also reversed its predecessor’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital. Oved Lobel comments:

Apart from its criticism of Israel, the government says little about other issues and countries in the Middle East. There’s the slight exception of Iran, but even there Australia’s response falls short. [Foreign Minister Penny] Wong used Australia’s Magnitsky powers to impose thematic (human rights) sanctions against Iranian individuals and entities—long after the U.S., Canada, the UK, and the EU had begun doing so—in December 2022, in February this year, and again in March.

It also took Australia substantially longer than most of its allies to condemn Iran or impose sanctions against it for supplying drones and other weapons to Russia for its attack on Ukraine. Australia’s government has not criticized any action by Iran since the foreign minister condemned the May 19 execution of Majid Kazemi, Saeed Yaqoubi, and Saleh Mirhashemi. Iran has reportedly hanged at least 423 people since the start of 2023 and its “morality police” have returned to arresting women for not wearing their hijabs “properly.”

The government has had little to say about events in the Middle East outside of Israel and Iran even though 2022–23 has seen overwhelming regional shifts. In addition, an Australian citizen, Robert Pether, remains unjustly jailed in Iraq, something that ought to warrant a statement.

Meanwhile, pressure has been maintained on Israel despite the Palestinian leadership’s longstanding refusal to accept two-state peace offers or, in recent years, even to engage in negotiations on the subject.

From The Judean:

A recent report detailing the "supervision of the preservation of antiquities and heritage values on the Temple Mount" has revealed disheartening findings. Published this month by the Knesset's Research and Information Center, the report asserts that the Waqf, supported by the King of Jordan, exercises unilateral authority on the Mount, while the Israeli government seemingly abets it by concealing the realities from its citizens.

In recent times, there had been an impression that matters regarding the Mount were progressing positively, particularly concerning the preservation of antiquities. The antiquities law, enacted by the Knesset in 1978, mandates the approval of a special committee of ministers before any renovation or construction on an antiquities site designated for religious purposes can take place. This rule predominantly refers to the Temple Mount, where the religious authority – an entity deeply entrenched in political maneuvering – recurrently conflicts with Israel's archaeological interests.

The intended structure for this committee is to be chaired by the Minister of Culture, accompanied by the Minister of Religion and the Minister of Justice. However, in practice, the committee remained un-convened until 2009. In the thirty years that elapsed between the law's enactment and its implementation, the Mount witnessed immense destruction. Islamic authorities clandestinely removed 400 truckloads of dirt from a pit in 1999, ostensibly to create an emergency opening for an underground mosque. Archaeologists continue to sift through the excavated dirt even now. Many other damages, such as the digging of a deep electrical trench at the temple site in 2007, have occurred without prompting any ministerial committee meeting.

According to the newly released report, the committee convened nine times between 2009 and 2015 to approve 19 works demanded by the Waqf on the Mount. These works included the renovation of the marble in the walls of the Dome of the Rock, conservation work, engineering operations in the entrance vault to “Solomon’s stables,” and the replacement of the Al-Aqsa Mosque doors. After 2015, the committee met only once, in January 2019, in a session defined as classified.

The report painfully concludes that "information regarding the state of supervision of the preservation of the antiquities of the Temple Mount in recent years is extremely scarce." In response to a request by “Makor Rishon” to acquire details about damages to antiquities from 2011 onwards, the Antiquities Authority disconcertingly responded, “The Antiquities Authority has information regarding the aforementioned. We can provide details in a classified discussion only."

The report, in Hebrew, is here.

We already know how the Waqf likes to deny and destroy any hint of Jewish history on Judaism's holiest site. And there is been scant evidence that the Israel Antiquities Authority is doing anything to stop it (occasionally I see a complaint in Arabic media that some restoration work is being delayed.)

This is not something that should be "classified" or secret. This is extraordinarily important and must be made public.

There are no doubt legitimate repairs and improvements that the Waqf can legitimately do to Al Aqsa and the Dome of the Rock, but everything that happens there must be scrutinized and publicly known.

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Harvard partners with Palestinian university that rewards and supports terrorism

From Harvard University's FXB Center:

The Institute of Community and Public Health (ICPH) at Birzeit University, the François-Xavier Bagnoud (FXB) Center for Health and Human Rights, and the World Health Organization in the occupied Palestinian territory have launched the Palestine Social Medicine course. This intensive course is part of the activities of the Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights, a partnership between ICPH at Birzeit University and the FXB Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University, United States. The course is supported through Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation funding to WHO occupied Palestinian territory Right to Health programme.

Birzeit University is a center of antisemitic, pro-Jihadist terror.

Last December, it hosted a PFLP march where they exhorted students to "blow up the settler's head!"

Also last year, Birzeit's Hamas group hosted a reception for new students where they celebrated a famous Hamas bombmaker, Yahya Ayyash, who was a graduate of Birzeit U:

This display of Nazi-style salutes, a model of a rocket and of a suicide belt was not in Gaza, but in Birzeit University:

Does it sound like Birzeit is a center of "health and human rights?" Is it appropriate for Harvard to partner with a university that is a center for incitement of violence against Jews?

Actually, maybe it is. Because Harvard's own recent record is one of sacrificing academic integrity for "social justice" causes such as hating Israel.

The entire Palestine Program for Health and Human Rights appears to be far more concerned with bashing Israel than in actually helping promote Palestinian health.

The FXB Center's Health and Human Rights Journal recently dedicated an issue to Palestinian health. The entire thrust of the journal was to call Israel "racist" and "apartheid" and "settler colonialist":

Its studies pre-suppose that Israeli policies are fatally hurting Palestinian health and work. And when biased people look for evidence of their thesis, they can invariably find it - as long as they ignore any counter-evidence.

Similarly, Harvard's School of Public Health offers a course that looks at Palestinian health through the lens of Israeli "settler colonialism" making the initial assumption that health services are drastically impacted by Israeli policies.

Yes, a Harvard University course actually highlights "The Map that Lies" that has been thoroughly debunked and retracted by numerous organizations.

Yet in real life, Palestinian healthcare - and indeed, Palestinians' general quality of life - is better than that of neighboring Jordan which does not suffer from "settler colonialism" or "Israeli apartheid:"

In fact, it is difficult to find studies that look at and evaluate Palestinian healthcare on its own merits, or that compares it with the rest of the Arab Middle East - something that is basic in studying the healthcare of every nation on the planet. One rare example that does is this obscure paper, "Experiences of Palestinian patients with hospital services: a mixed-methods study" which employs a standardized survey used throughout the world to evaluate patient experiences in Palestinian hospitals. They aren't great, they aren't terrible, and the study makes recommendations on how to improve them.

Palestinians themselves blame their governments, not Israel, for healthcare shortfalls. A recent survey says that one third of Palestinians say they do not have enough hospitals, 24% complained of scarcity of supplies, 20% said the lack of skilled medical professionals was the biggest problem, and 10% said it

was the high costs of care or the lack of medical insurance.

But looking at the real issues is not how Palestinian health is studied in the West. Instead of caring about how to improve Palestinian healthcare, these seminars and courses and studies are all designed to sacrifice Palestinian healthcare on the much more important altar of using every possible social means to demonize Israel. By viewing everything Palestinian through a "settler colonialist apartheid structural racist" lens, actual daily Palestinian healthcare is neglected and ignored.

Demonizing Israel is a higher "human rights" imperative than improving the lives of Palestinians.

So perhaps it is appropriate that Harvard, which has already hijacked Palestinian healthcare as ammunition to be used against Israel, partners with Birzeit University, which glorifies those who use actual ammunition against Israel.

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The story about the meeting between Israel's Foreign Minister Eli Cohen with his Libyan counterpart Najla Mangoush, and the angry reactions from Libya, have dominated the news cycle.

Looking at Libyan newspapers, people are falling over themselves to distance themselves from any possibility that they support talking to Israelis.

Besides the opposition political parties who are using this episode as an opportunity to slam the government, we have the Women and Children Affairs Committee in the Libyan House of Representatives which felt obligated to announce that the meeting "does not represent the national and national constants of Libyan women towards the Palestinian cause," adding that "this meeting is high treason and a moral crime."

Meanwhile Libyans burned photos of Cohen and Mangoush.

Just another day of unbridled hate that is considered normal in the Middle East.

I don't know whether Eli Cohen's explanation that the news of the meeting was about to be leaked is true. And almost certainly Cohen did not handle this as professionally as he should have. But the US reaction to the announcement is almost as insane as the Libyan reactions.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is reportedly furious with Jerusalem for revealing last week’s meeting between the foreign ministers of Israel and Libya.

US officials told Israel that the episode will deter other countries from embarking on a normalization process with Israel, multiple Hebrew media outlets reported Monday.

A US official also said it “killed” the conversation channel with Libya about recognizing Israel.

Something is not adding up here.

Everyone is talking about Saudi normalization with Israel, quite publicly, including top US officials. Everyone knows there have been secret talks between Saudi and Israeli officials. Somehow, those discussions and the angry response from Israel haters is not deterring the discussions. Somehow, Saudi conciliatory moves - like opening up its airspace to Israeli aircraft - is not deterring other countries from considering peace with Israel.

But for the subject to be broached for Libya, this is the end of the world?

The reason is simple. Over the past few years, the Saudi leadership started acting like adults, and the Libyans are still stuck in their old paradigm.

The US had a golden opportunity here. Instead of castigating Israel's Foreign Ministry, it could have told Libya and the rest of the Arab world, "Israel exists. Talking with a regional superpower about common interests is normal behavior for any state leaders who care about their own people's welfare. It is literally the job of top diplomats to talk to leaders of other countries, even and sometimes especially enemies. Acting as if this is a major crime is infantile. There are real problems in the world, and having a conversation with an Israeli official is not in the top 5,000. Stop acting like babies."

The reason that countries like Libya have managed to remain steeped in their childishness concerning Israel is because the West lets them. Antisemitism is a given as part of the Arab world and not something that must be combatted - it is a cultural right, you see. Crazed hate is expected behavior for Arabs so they are never chided for reinforcing that attitude.

Instead of demanding that Libya's top politicians act like leaders who have the best interests of their people in mind, the US rewards their mad dash to outdo themselves as to how much they publicly hate Israel.

Instead of getting angry at the Arabs who are proud of their hate, the US is angry at Israel for not bending over backwards to accommodate their obsessive hate of Jews and Israelis.

And while Israel needs to be sensitive to cultural mores when trying to establish relations - including, sadly, antisemitism - it shouldn't have to apologize for treating other countries as if they aren't filled with childish, Jew hating idiots.

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

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08/28 Links Pt2: We must make Israel a Jewish state; The NGO Campaign to Discredit the IHRA Definition; How antisemitism shifted from Nazi Germany to the Arab world

From Ian:

We must make Israel a Jewish state – we owe it to our ancestors

The very good news is that, well-financed and media-covered acts of “resistance” notwithstanding, the vast majority of Israeli Jews do “get it.” They understand that they are a unique people – not better, but possessed of the great gift of membership in the Jewish people – that, contrary to the rules of history, indeed the laws of nature, has managed to survive and to reconstitute itself in its ancestral homeland.

There are two trajectories that define the upcoming younger generation that should be a source of optimism. One is that surveys consistently show that Israelis are becoming increasingly religiously traditional. This denotes awareness and respect. It means an appreciation of what it means to be Jewish, and a desire to make sure that one’s children share that appreciation. In many respects, the rise of traditionalism mirrors the coming of age of Israel’s Mizrachi community – Jews from Muslim lands – who brought with them a profound immersion in Jewish tradition, as well as a remarkable ability to tolerate the variations of that expression by their fellows. While the Mizrachim have no interest in a theocracy, they do have a profound interest in making sure that Israel continues to reflect Jewish values, standing alone as a Jewish State.

The other trajectory that the majority of the country is embracing, is the desire for Jewish sovereignty and control. One of the great lessons of the November 2022 election was the recognition of how strong the desire of voters was for Israel to assert control over its territory and destiny. This is not the politics of fear nor of accommodation with hostile forces. It is not the politics of a Peace Now nor of Oslo, nor of Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert offering to give back the Temple Mount in a vain attempt to create some kind of calm and acceptance.

Younger Jews today, what Prof. Elisha Haas characterizes as the “third generation” of Israelis, see Zionism as a work in progress, but a successful work in progress. They want to go from strength to strength and that means building and securing Israel, both on the Mediterranean coast and in the hills of the Shomron, for Jewish sovereign life.

The worldview presented by a great many of the protesters, particularly the older ones, is a world of weakness, defeat, and abjectness. They have anointed the Supreme Court as their saviors, oblivious or uncaring of the reality that the Court has become a tainted institution, bloated with its own oligarchic omnipotence. All the Orwellian doublespeak in the world cannot change the fact that the protesters are clinging to the hope that true democratic decision-making can be thwarted, that the demographic clock can be stopped and that a world that has passed can somehow be recovered.

I feel sorry for these Jews because they are bereft of an awareness of themselves. They have no idea of who they really are, and the magnificence of their heritage.

We, young and old, who do have that awareness and cherish that heritage must make sure that we persevere, trying our best to explain and expose that heritage to those who know it not.

But we owe it to our ancestors and to ourselves to see the inescapable importance of the mission to build, secure, and cherish a Jewish State in the Land of Israel.

NGO Monitor: The NGO Campaign to Discredit the IHRA Definition

In response to the increase of antisemitism worldwide, many governments and international bodies have recognized the importance of a consensus definition of this phenomenon. The most widely accepted definition, adopted in May 2016, is that of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA). As of July 2023, 40 governments, as well as thousands of intergovernmental and local institutions, have adopted and endorsed the IHRA framework as the cornerstone to guide their policies in combating antisemitism.

Nonetheless, the definition has been the target of various non-governmental organizations (NGOs), which have been attempting to prevent its widespread adoption. This concerted campaign has emerged precisely as antisemitism from NGOs has become an enduring feature of political discourse about Israel and Zionism. Many NGOs that claim to represent human rights and humanitarian values instead promulgate antisemitic rhetoric and tropes, tolerate antisemitism from executives and staff with little to no repercussions, and consistently dismiss consideration of antisemitism as a human rights issue.

A common form of NGO antisemitism is encapsulated in one of the examples provided alongside the IHRA definition: “Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.” Many of the NGOs that contribute to growing antisemitism and simultaneously impede efforts to combat hatred of Jews continue to receive government funding. Despite the significant progress in European countries of acknowledging the evil of antisemitism and the need to allocate meaningful levels of government funding and resources to combat it, some countries have fallen short. These governments, as well as the European Union, have given hundreds of millions of dollars over the past 20 years to organizations that engage in and promote blatant antisemitism as defined by IHRA.

NGO Monitor has created a detailed database and visualization (below) that illustrate the scope and intensity of the NGO campaign to target the IHRA working definition and prevent its adoption.

The examples in the database are divided into three categories:
Governments and Intergovernmental Institutions
52% of the documented campaigns were directed toward attempts to prevent governments and intergovernmental institutions (i.e. the United Nations) from adopting resolutions, action plans, or internal regulations that would set IHRA as a benchmark for defining antisemitism.

Public and Professional Institutions
9% of the documented campaigns have been directed at professional bodies, calling for them not to incorporate the IHRA definition. Examples include the American Bar Association and Universities.

General Public
39% of the documented campaigns are part of broader NGO efforts to sway public opinion against the adoption of IHRA.

How antisemitism shifted from Nazi Germany to the Arab world

Matthias Küntzel, a German political scientist and historian, has written another extremely significant book, “Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East: The 1948 Arab War Against Israel and the Aftershocks of World War II,” which should be read together with his “Jihad and Jew-Hatred: Islamism, Nazism and the Roots of 9/11.”

In “Jihad and Jew-Hatred,” he contends that antisemitism is part of the ideological center of modern jihadism, and not simply an additional component. He argues that “during and after the World War II, the center of global antisemitism shifted from Nazi Germany to the Arab world, above all to the radical Islamist currents in and around the Moslem Brotherhood of Egypt.” This shift did not occur only because of the Arab-Israeli conflict. Quite the reverse. The “ideology of and policy of radical Islamists” actually made the clash worse.

In “Nazis, Islamic Antisemitism and the Middle East,” Küntzel focuses on the influence of Nazi antisemitism in the Middle East, which he notes “remains gravely under-researched.” He describes how since 1937, the Germans disseminated antisemitic propaganda throughout the Middle East in the Arabic language and how this antisemitism played a “decisive factor,” leading the Arab armies to attempt to destroy the nascent Jewish state. Amin el-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, explained why Israel’s 1948 War of Independence was, for the Muslims, a war against the Jews. “Our battle with world Jewry,” he said, “is a question of life and death, a battle between two conflicting faiths, each of which can exist only on the ruins of others.”

The Muslim Brotherhood claimed that partition of Palestine into separate Arab and Jewish states, which was recommended by the British Peel Commission in 1937 as a solution to the conflict, would deprive the Arabs of all of their rights. “No single Arab will ever consider, let alone accept it.” They did not regard the Jews “a party to the problem, they are mere thugs and usurpers who came under the shadow of spears and trickery to a land which does not belong to them. …” In this way, the Arabs transformed a political dispute into an “antisemitic war” to ensure that a Jewish state would not be created.

The war also precipitated the flight of Arab refugees, which has been a major source of contention ever since. The perception that the actual “catastrophe” of the war was the establishment of the state of Israel, conveniently ignores that it was the invasion by the Arab armies that resulted in the exodus of Arab refugees to Jordan and other Arab countries.

By introducing “genocidal antisemitism to the Arab world,” beginning in 1937, Küntzel asserts, we see there is “an ideological link between the Nazi war against the Jews and the Arab war against Israel three years later, [that] can be interpreted as a kind of aftershock of the great catastrophe of 1939-1945.”

As long time EoZ fans know, I am a fan of science fiction - mostly short stories.

Sometimes I stumble onto a story with Jewish themes, such as the examples linked to above.

While some of them have been decent, I always yearned for science fiction not only with Jewish characters and some Yiddish sprinkled in, but science fiction that had Orthodox Jewish characters or where halacha (Jewish law) plays a role. I always toyed with writing a story about a self-aware robot working for a religious Jewish family who wants to be treated as a human - counted in a minyan, able to build a sukkah, able to write a mezuzah or Sefer Torah.

This new collection of stories, edited by noted SF writer Michael Burstein, gives me multiple stories that fit what I always wanted to see.

As with all anthologies, the quality is uneven. But many of these stories are good enough to be included in collections of the best SF of the year.

Notably, the lion's share of stories - and of the great stories - are written by women.

Some highlights:

Samantha Katz's Shema has a plot that is not to my liking - the last Jew alive - but Katz is an enormously talented writer for a 16 year old high school student. Jordan King-LaCroix's The Last Chosen explores a similar theme, with a slightly more optimistic ending.

Mission Divergence, by E. M. Ben Shaul, has a very promising setup - a brilliant scientist in Israel finishing up the design of a space laser to protect the country. Unfortunately, the author is not at all familiar with how modern weaponry is designed, and the plot falls flat. It could have been so much better.

Esther Friesner's Rachel Nussbaum Saves the World is an amusing zombie story where a Jewish mother comes up with a very Jewish solution to the menace.

Well known author Harry Turtledove's One Must Imagine describes a future where Jews are still being pestered to convert to other religions.

Baby Golem, by Barbara Krasnoff, is an amusing story of a non-religious spacefaring woman who is nagged by gentiles to build a golem - so she does, sort of, with entertaining consequences.

Leah Cypress' Frummer House is a laugh-out-loud funny story about smart homes that suddenly enforce a higher level of religiosity on their Jewish residents than they are comfortable with. It is so steeped in frumkeit that it has its own glossary so everyone else could understand it. For religious Jews who would get the references, the book is worth it for this story alone.

Politics also comes into some stories. Initial Engagement by Steven H. Silver is about a future where many Israelis split with the religious Jews who have taken over Israel and they move to "Yehudah," the Jewish autonomous oblast of Birobidzhan. Yehuda and Israel do not have diplomatic relations but two of their female ice fencing stars are slated to meet in a sporting competition in Budapest - scheduled for a Shabbat. The story's use of a future world to help us understand our world is the epitome of what SF should be.

As would be expected, there are a couple of stories of aliens who consider themselves Jewish and an AI that wants to convert, plus one about a physicist who discovers proof of God's existence and whose life is in danger as a result. The latter premise could easily be the basis of a book.

The longest, and best, story in the collection is Moon Melody, by SM Rosenberg, about a young religious Jewish woman who is a telepath who becomes friends with a young non-Jewish man who is a telekinetic empath.. It is outstanding in how it explores the moral issues of their awesome powers and her reluctance to use hers. Judaism isn't a plot device here but it is a major part of the fabric of the story. (It is refreshing to see a story about a deep friendship between a Jewish woman and a non-Jewish man that does not turn romantic.) I would be surprised and disappointed if Moon Melody is not included in the "Best of the Year" anthologies for 2023.

Altogether, it is a really good collection of stories, with a higher percentage of stories that I enjoy than most anthologies I have read (and I've read a a lot of them.)

There have been other Jewish science fiction anthologies - notably the two Wandering Stars collections edited by Jack Dann, who wrote the forward to this volume, and a couple of SF collections from Israeli writers named Zion's Fiction - but this is to my mind by far the best, the most professional, and the most Jewish of all of them.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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Human Rights Watch report on Palestinian "children" killed proves it prioritizes anti-Israel propaganda over real human rights

Human Rights Watch issued a new front-page press release today to attack its favorite target, Israel:

The Israeli military and border police forces are killing Palestinian children with virtually no recourse for accountability.

Last year, 2022, was the deadliest year for Palestinian children in the West Bank in 15 years, and 2023 is on track to meet or exceed 2022 levels. Israeli forces had killed at least 34 Palestinian children in the West Bank as of August 22. Human Rights Watch investigated four fatal shootings of Palestinian children by Israeli forces between November 2022 and March 2023.

We've seen this approach before. HRW describes scores of potential Israeli crimes, but chooses to "investigate" only a small number of them.

By sheer coincidence, the ones they are "investigating" are the ones that seem the most likely to be innocent victims.

In other words, HRW knows quite well that the vast majority of "children" killed by Israeli forces are legal combatants - teens who are acting as spotters, or hurling firebombs or IEDs, or even shooting weapons themselves. The majority are child soldiers. They are recruited by terror groups, violating accepted international law.

But HRW doesn't want to say anything bad about Hamas or Islamic Jihad. Their reports are meant to be anti-Israel, so they cherry-pick the specific incidents that seem to imply Israeli malfeasance.

Yet even in this constricted, biased choice of trying to stack the deck against Israel, they rely on lies and don't tell you the whole story.

Their "star" is Mahmoud al-Sadi, 17, who "according to witnesses" was hundreds of meters from any fighting when he was shot and he wasn't holding any weapons.

To emphasize his alleged innocence, HRW gives a photo montage of al-Sadi being a teenage boy.

They missed this one:

Does it make sense that well-trained soldiers would shoot hundreds of meters away from the fighting for no reason? HRW seems to think so, but Palestinian witnesses are notoriously unreliable (even according to NGOs) and they will say what their leaders want them to say. Very few ever admit that the "innocent child" is not so innocent.

Other cases that HRW think are a slam dunk are anything but. Even the NGO admits that they were all involved in active fighting.

In the other cases investigated, the security forces killed boys after they had joined other youths confronting Israeli forces with stones, Molotov cocktails, or fireworks. While these projectiles can seriously injure or kill, in these cases, Israeli forces fired repeatedly at chest-level, hitting multiple children, and killed children in situations where they do not appear to have been posing a threat of grievous injury or death, which is the standard for the use of lethal force by law enforcement officers under international norms. That would make these killings unlawful.

HRW admits that the "children" were actively engaged in fighting.

HRW claims that Israel must adhere to the standards of "law enforcement" in these situations, when the "criminals" are heavily armed fighters whose aim is to destroy Israel. It is true that the line isn't clear between what is legally considered a law enforcement situation and what is governed by the laws of armed conflict (LOAC) but to breezily decide that these situations where armored vehicles and scores of soldiers are needed is "law enforcement" is, at the very least, an oversimplification.

The ICRC says "An armed conflict arises whenever there is fighting between States or protracted armed violence between government authorities and organized armed groups or just between organized armed groups."

Sure sounds more like an armed conflict than a law enforcement operation, especially since Islamic Jihad and Hamas have been bragging that they really control, organize and fund these seemingly local armed groups.

Of course, if the laws of armed conflict apply, then any fighter - no matter what age - is a legitimate target. So HRW doesn't want you to even consider that possibility.

But let's look at the innocent children HRW lists:

Here is video from a proud relative (starting at 0:12) showing Wadia Abu Ramuz shooting fireworks at Israeli troops.

Mohammed al-Sleem, 17, was a member of the Al Aqsa Brigades and also shot incendiary devices at soldiers.

We've previously discussed Adam Ayyad, 15. He went into battle intending to die and left a "will" in his pocket saying how happy he was to be about to be martyred. He was a member of the PFLP and buried wearing a PFLP flag.

These aren't innocent children by any definition. But HRW is trying to hide the truth.

Moreover, the number of children who are admitted members of armed groups prove that there is a real human rights concern here - that of recruiting child soldiers - and HRW has, as far as I can tell, not once said a word against the PFLP, Hamas or Islamic Jihad for that reprehensible practice of using children as bait meant to be killed.

HRW's dishonesty is clear to all, and they are playing their role to put a respectable face on modern antisemitism to the hilt. and even when they clearly know that dozens of the children killed were members of armed groups, they don't say a word of condemnation.

That's only for Israel.

(h/t Adin Haykin)

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!