Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 23, 2024

.@AP gives publicity and support to October 7 rape deniers. Hamas uses it to demand apologies from world leaders for rape accusations

On Wednesday, AP published two stories about how two of the narratives of rape from October 7 were found out not to be true.

I first read this one:

Other accounts from that day, however, proved to be untrue. They include two debunked testimonies from volunteers with the Israeli search and rescue organization ZAKA, whose stories helped fuel a global clash over whether sexual violence occurred during the attack and on what scale.

Some allege the accounts of sexual assault were purposely concocted. ZAKA officials and others dispute that. Regardless, AP’s examination of ZAKA’s handling of the now debunked stories shows how information can be clouded and distorted in the chaos of the conflict.

The accounts have encouraged skepticism and set off a highly charged debate about the scope of what occurred on Oct. 7, one still playing out on social media and in college campus protests.

I expected the story to continue saying that despite the mistakes by volunteers who were not experts, there is overwhelming evidence of rape and sexual crimes on October 7, and then to detail some of that evidence and perhaps link to the film "Screams Before Silence" that shows what people witnessed firsthand on that horrible day.

But the article didn't go there.

It just ended, giving the impression that Israelis are a bunch of liars even though it mentioned that the UN said there is "credible evidence" of sexual crimes. No details of those were reported in the article.

It is shocking.

It turns out that this is a companion article to another which is only marginally better. There is no link to the other article, so the one linked above, as a standalone piece, is ghastly.

The larger article mentions a little bit more about the evidence, but gives far more than equal time to those who deny the rapes.

Some critics of Israel’s war, meanwhile, have raised questions about the weight of the evidence, using debunked testimonies, including from ZAKA volunteers, to do so. The site oct7factcheck.com, which says its aim is to combat “atrocity propaganda” that could “justify military or political actions,” has repeatedly challenged investigations in mainstream media about sexual violence.

The site, which is run by a loose coalition of tech industry employees supporting Palestinian rights, says it has not yet reached a conclusion on the occurrence of gender-based violence. It has alleged that ZAKA members are “behind many of the Oct. 7 fabrications.” The site has also highlighted other debunked accounts, including about a baby found in an oven and a hostage giving birth in captivity.

The website Oct7factcheck is completely anonymous. No one has any idea of the biases or qualifications of the authors. It is quoted uncritically. Yet while it casts doubt on every single Israeli witness to sexual assault, it uncritically accepts Palestinian claims of alleged Israeli war crimes. And almost unbelievably, it cannot find anything negative to say about Hamas.

That is not a fact-check site. It is an anti-Israel site that cherry picks facts to reach a foregone conclusion. Yet it has now gained huge amounts of publicity by AP.

Tariq Kenney-Shawa, a U.S. policy fellow at Al-Shabaka, a Palestinian think tank, said a long history of what he calls Israeli disinformation and propaganda has fueled global skepticism over the claims. The debunked ZAKA stories, he said, contributed to the sense that Israel exaggerated accounts of atrocities committed by Hamas to dehumanize Palestinians as its military continues its deadly offensive.

“Skepticism of all claims made by the Israeli military, a military that is being investigated for genocide at The Hague, are not only justified but should be encouraged,” he said. “That’s why Palestinians, and much of the international community, are asking for thorough scrutiny.”

Tariq Kenney-Shawa's very first tweet on October 7 justified the massacre.

There is no skepticism about whether the people quoted have an agenda, or a history of lies, or anything. They are "experts" to the reader of AP.

Both articles give far more credence to the supporters of Hamas than to the victims.

There is nothing wrong with tracking down the origins of discredited stories. We all want the truth. But without reporting on the huge amounts of evidence being gathered that leave absolutely no doubt as to the sexual assaults on October 7, AP has turned the facts of sexual assault on October 7 and afterwards into a mere "he said/she said" story.

When it comes to rape, that is unforgivable.

I don't know how much is the fault of the two evidently Jewish reporters, Tia Goldenberg and Julia Frankel, and how much from AP editors, who are known to have a serious anti-Israel bias. But these articles are absolutely disgraceful and disgusting.

No doubt the reporters would point to the paragraphs that say, in general terms, that evidence is strong supporting the sexual assault. But the way it is written is the opposite - specific allegations from October are debunked, allegations that the Israeli government stopped making as soon as it was discovered that they were mistakes in the chaos and fear of the first days after the massacre. In this AP piece, the door is left open that every accusation might be a lie.

The main point should have been the evidence that proves that Hamas and other Gazans abused women, and then the article should note how some of the stories that were reported immediately were inadvertent errors that came about because ZAKA responders are tasked with recovering body parts and blood, not forensics, and there was simply no manpower to treat each murder as a proper crime scene when Jewish law mandates treating the body with respect and burying it quickly.

Beyond that, has AP or any major new organization ever systematically shown that Hamas knowingly lies in its own statements, a pattern from the beginning of the war that would show that lying is part of Hamas' very strategy and the media has been its puppet? Hamas lies by default and Israel tells the truth by default - has AP ever investigated their relative track records? Of course not. It still gives them both equal weight,and in fact puts Israeli statements through much more rigorous tests than it does for Hamas. This story is not written in a vacuum - it implies Israeli disregard for the truth while I cannot recall any major media writing about Hamas the same way.

Indeed, Hamas is thrilled with the story, putting out its own press release saying that AP has now debunked all the evidence of sexual assault on October 7.

The [Hamas] movement indicated, in its comment on the American agency’s report, this evening, Wednesday, that the Israeli allegations about sexual violence were used for the purpose of demonizing the resistance, and to cover up the humanitarian behavior that appeared to the world regarding the resistance’s good treatment of Zionist prisoners during their detention in Gaza .

The movement stressed that this report, as well as many reports issued by international media and human rights bodies, which refuted these allegations and proved that they are pure lies and blatant fabrications, requires US President Biden and other officials in some European countries to apologize and stop repeating these false accusations against the resistance and the Palestinian people.

In its statement, the movement called on Ms. Pramila Patten, the UN Special Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflict Areas, to re-evaluate and review its report in which it accused the Palestinian resistance of committing sexual violence, after relying on Zionist narratives that were proven to be baseless, and without conducting any professional investigations into these false allegations.

Even here Hamas is lying, since the story did not debunk every accusation and, at least elliptically, mentions that the evidence for sexual assault is strong. Will AP issue a statement refuting Hamas' interpretation of the story? Or will it allow itself to be an instrument in spreading pure hate even further?

AP's reporting is as unconscionable as a report cherry picking inconsistencies in accounts of the Holocaust over the years without stating clearly that the Holocaust is an incontrovertible fact and that its deniers have a track record of hate. Just as with the Holocaust, antisemites denied the rape reports first and looked for evidence to justify their position later - their motivations are not seeking truth but attempting to cast doubt on it.

As it is, AP has just increased the amount of antisemitism in the world. And it seems inconceivable that the reporters and editors were not aware that this is how the story would be used.

(h/t Ben)

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!

05/22 Links Pt2: The European Bid to Save Hamas; The ICC’s war crimes; Salman Rushdie’s lonely crusade against Islamism

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The European Bid to Save Hamas

There’s a moment in the novel The Parisian in which a bunch of Arab Palestinians in Nablus in 1920 read a newspaper report that King Faisal has declared himself head of an independent Greater Syria. Most of the group cheers, but one man turns to another and says: “Does it say where Syria is?”

What he wants to know is: What are the borders of this magically declared new independent state, and do they extend to where he is standing?

That’s the question everyone should be wondering today, as the governments of Ireland, Norway, and Spain have taken the rare step of recognizing the state of Palestine. And where is this existing state of Palestine? Well, according to Irish prime minister Simon Harris, it doesn’t physically exist yet: “We had hoped to recognize Palestine as part of a two-state peace deal, but instead we recognize Palestine to keep the hope of that two-state solution alive.”

In other words, the Irish government hoped to recognize a real state, but for the time being it will recognize an imaginary one.

If the Irish premier is right, however, he just solved the conflict. There’s no need to worry about keeping the two-state solution alive, because he just recognized the two states. Of course, if he doesn’t believe the state has borders yet, where is he going to put the embassy? Never mind.

Recognizing the state of Palestine while Hamas is in power explicitly and literally empowers and legitimizes Hamas as a governing entity. There is no wiggle room there. So, asked why he would legitimize Hamas now, Harris made clear that he didn’t really think about that part: “Hamas is not the Palestinian people, and here in Ireland, better than most countries in the world, we know what it’s like when a terrorist organization seeks to hijack your identity and seeks to speak for you.”

Now, it may sound from these comments that the trio of European leaders have made a rather thoughtless and dim move. But in fact Spanish premier Pedro Sanchez took great pains to clarify that the intentions behind this joint recognition announcement were evil, not stupid: “Spain will be accompanied by other European countries. The more there are of us, the sooner we will achieve a ceasefire. We are not going to give up.”

So the point of timing the announcement now was to save Hamas by stopping the war before the terror group loses control of the Gaza Strip. The three governments sought to legitimize Hamas, yes, but even more so they wanted to take action that might rescue Hamas from defeat and keep it in power in this new state of Palestine.

Caroline Glick: The ICC’s war crimes

The ICC’s lack of jurisdiction is only part of the legal problem with its move against Israel. In his statement on Monday, Khan drew a false moral equivalence between the crimes against humanity and acts of genocide Hamas committed on Oct. 7—meaning, the terror group’s invasion of Israel and slaughter, rape, torture and abduction of thousands of civilians and soldiers on the one hand, and the lawful acts of war that Israel has conducted against the Hamas terrorist regime and its terror army in response to that invasion and commission of atrocities.

Hamas is bound by its charter to commit genocide against the Jewish people worldwide and to annihilate the Jewish state. Khan’s allegations against Netanyahu and Gallant—and against the State of Israel more broadly—are predicated on blood libels originating from the Hamas regime in Gaza. In so acting, the ICC is providing material support for Hamas. That is, it is providing material support for a genocidal terror group engaged in a genocidal war against the Jewish people.

Unlike the libelous accusations Khan raised against Israel’s elected leaders, Khan’s provision of material support for Hamas’s war of genocide is an actual war crime.

Both houses of Congress are now advancing bills to sanction the ICC and its personnel for their illegal prosecution of Israel, a U.S. ally. It is essential that these bills be fast-tracked through the legislative process.

But two more actions should be taken.

A threat to the free world
First, the United States should indict Hamas’s terror masters, including senior leaders Yahya Sinwar, Mohamed Deif, Ismail Haniyeh, and other top Hamas terrorists for the murder, rape, kidnapping and torture of U.S. citizens on and since Oct. 7. Not only should these war criminals not get a free pass for their actions, they should be held criminally liable by real courts, as opposed to the ICC’s kangaroo court, which is only advancing charges against them to criminalize a liberal democracy carrying out a war for its national survival.

Second, Khan and his associates should be charged with extortion of U.S. elected officials. Following the news late last month that Khan intended to pursue false charges against Israel’s leaders, several American lawmakers announced their intention to advance legislation sanctioning ICC officials. In response to those announcements, on May 3, the ICC issued a statement that Khan posted on his X account, threatening action against anyone acting against them.

The statement claimed that “threats” of action against the ICC and its personnel “may … constitute an offense against the administration of justice under Art.70 of the Rome Statute.”

Although Israel is a small state and the only Jewish one, now isolated in the international community, prejudicial actions taken against it pose a threat to the free world as a whole.

Do You Actually Hate Jews?

In 2024, antisemitism generally evidences itself in two forms. The first is your classic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, “Hitler was right” sort of neo-fascist fabulism. The second is the kind who buys every lie coming out of Al Jazeera and the rabidly antisemitic Arab press. The thing about both of these kinds of hate is that they have been watered down to a level of acceptability in many circles. The watered-down Protocols crowd accurately points to the number of Jewish influencers in Hollywood and the media, as if that somehow validates an unspoken blood libel. These people are the Joe Rogans of the world—avowedly “fair” while actually speaking from highly bigoted assumptions.

The second crowd—the watered-down Al Jazeera crowd—hides behind “anti-colonialism” as an excuse for quaint chants in favor of exterminating Israel’s Jewish population. Unfortunately, that second kind of watered-down antisemitism is mirrored in the great majority of the mass media in the U.S. and globally. CNN, MSNBC, NPR, BBC, Reuters and the like will buy every line coming out of the Gaza Health Ministry and every staged Pallywood video without question, and will flood the zone endlessly with stories supporting the myth of Israeli fascism and “genocide.” When you see Jewish students on college campuses across America being terrorized by their Hamas-sympathizing peers, that phenomenon is fueled almost completely by that second sort of antisemitism—let’s call it the “media narrative of Israel.”

When someone starts demonstrating outside the Jewish dry cleaner because of that mustard stain—whether they’re politically on the right or the left—there are only two possible explanations:
1. They bought the media narrative of Israel.
2. Consciously or subconsciously, they hate Jews.

I can almost forgive people who fall prey to No. 1, especially if they are young and/or stupid. College students who don’t know any better are immersed in a nonstop barrage of the media narrative of Israel, and as college students their brains are mush anyway, so I sort of get how they could be so easily misled. Your average, working, adult American who does not pay much attention to politics or international relations can also be driven into this belief set—their media bombards them with unbalanced, anti-Israel propaganda, and if all those kids are protesting on campus, there must be something to it, right?

But it’s people like my fellow soldier on X who trouble me more. When you know that Israel is the freest, most liberal state in the region; when you know that war is hell and civilians die in all wars; when you know that the IDF engages in state-of-the-art mitigation measures to protect innocent civilians; when you know all of these things and still engage in the blood libelish lies of “Israel is committing genocide,” No. 2 is the only logical conclusion. The only stain is the one on that person’s soul—a black stain of Jew hatred that goes back millennia.

The hate of the well-informed stands out because it’s purposeful. Ultimately, antisemitism is a mind virus. Any so-called influencer or self-styled intellectual who spreads it to fellow Americans, under the guise of informing them, is a predator.

A Response to the New Antisemitism: Independence of Thought

Considering the way the anti-Israel left combines its peculiar ideas of morality with its peculiar brand of anti-Semitism, Yehoshua Pfeffer explains the challenge it poses:
In a world that cares only about power inequality, the Jew loses all status. Abraham was chosen by God for his dedication to justice; he cannot live in a justice-free space. Moreover, when seen through the binary progressive lens of oppressor and oppressed, the Jew represents the quintessential evil: he becomes the epitome of whiteness, colonialism, imperialism, and patriarchism; he is oppression incarnate, and the oppressed Arab (or Palestinian) is goodness personified. . . .

Right-wing anti-Semitism drove us, decades ago, to physical independence in the Jewish state. Today, left-wing anti-Semitism inspires us to build on our spatial freedom and achieve a type of independence we have yet to develop and cultivate: intellectual independence.

To achieve such independence, writes Pfeffer, Jews must be willing to reject the recent trends of the world of ideas, and try to recover modes of thought and moral ideals rooted in their own tradition:
Notwithstanding its political independence, Israel has not made concerted efforts to cultivate a parallel [intellectual] space free from the shackles of academic uniformity. On the contrary, core institutions have copied the liberal ideas that 20th-century Jews had become so enamored with. In its early years, socialism was a dominant force in Israel’s economy and social models. Though socialism has declined and the kibbutzim mainly privatized, Israel’s universities, popular media, state institutions, and significant elements within branches of government (in particular the legal system) continue to reflect the same left-progressive principles that are breeding anti-Semitism worldwide.

Today, in an age of Jewish sovereignty and a period of unprecedented crisis, we must ensure that these study halls, haredi and otherwise, devote significant energies to the great questions of human life that contemporary academia [seeks to answer]. Israel must become the countercultural reaction against the anti-Semitism-breeding academic orthodoxy.

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

Bambie Thug represented Ireland at Eurovision, one might even say admirably so. The singer’s hatred for the Jewish people and their state indeed typify the Jew-hating sensibilities of Irish society. Ireland only yesterday in fact, announced that it would recognize a terrorist state run by Jew-hating rapists and baby killers on sovereign Israeli soil. So one can’t really blame Thug, who prefers the pronouns “they” and “them,” if they cried when Israel qualified for the Eurovision finals.

“I cried with my team,” they said.

@newstalkfm “I cried with my team" - Ireland 🇮🇪 Eurovision finalist, Bambie Thug's reaction to Israel qualifying for the Eurovision Grand Final #eurovision2024 #eurovision #eurovisionsongcontest #bambiethug #ireland #israel ♬ original sound - Newstalk

How exactly did Bambie Thug use the Eurovision song contest to express their hatred of Jews?

The non-binary singer took an aggressive anti-Israel stance, including calls to remove Israel from the competition, wearing a keffiyeh, smuggling a watermelon-shaped plushie to the grand final, and attempting to go on stage with the word "ceasefire" written on their face.

Oh, well. Perhaps Bambie Thug felt a bit better this week when the International Criminal Court (ICC) announced it would be issuing arrest warrants for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Yoav Gallant. Of course, the singer’s relief would have been tempered by the knowledge that arrest warrants would also be issued to Hamas leaders Yahya Sinwar, Ismail Haniyeh, and Mohammed Deif. But Thug would understand why drawing a moral equivalence between Israel and Hamas was important. Which is why the intention of the court was first broadcast to the media by ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan, and sensationalized by CNN’s own Jew-hating Christiane Amanpour.

Bambie Thug would be feeling better still when three countries, including Ireland, announced they were to recognize Palestine as a state, only two days later. “Recognition is an act of powerful political and symbolic value,” said Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris at a special news conference in Dublin.

Israel understands that symbolism quite well. Ireland is rewarding Gaza for the October 7 massacre by gifting it with Israeli territory. Or put another way, symbolically stealing Israeli territory for Hamas, archenemy of the Jews. Think of it as an Irish, Spanish, and Norwegian love note to the terrorists who gang rape and torture Jews and burn Jewish babies alive.

Back in March, Irish Prime Minister Leo Varadkar paid a visit to the U.S. At his first stop, in Boston, he spoke at the JFK Library, and used the occasion to accuse Israel of imposing “collective punishment” on Palestinians, and reacting in a manner that he claimed was out of all proportion to the October 7 massacre. These events prompted a short piece in Mosaic Magazine on Why Ireland Hates Israel:

[Retired Jewish Irish politician Alan] Shatter cited the close relationship between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the IRA, which dispatched its operatives to the Middle East for military training in Palestinian camps, as a key factor. “Their strong bond, which still exists, was reflected in these huge murals in nationalist areas expressing solidarity with the Palestinians,” he said. . . . Central to this position was the refusal of the IRA and Sinn Fein, its political wing, to recognize that Jews are indigenous to the land of Israel. . .

. . . Anti-Semitism in Ireland has become “blatant and obvious,” Shatter said. There is little sympathy for the right of the Jews to national self-determination, despite the fact that “Sinn Fein fights for exactly this for the Irish,” he noted. Although he is a storied writer who has published several books, Shatter’s latest manuscript—provocatively titled So You Have a Problem with Jews?—remains unpublished, with one imprint informing him that he was being turned down because “there’s no interest” in Ireland on the topic of anti-Semitism.

Perhaps the greatest irony in Irish antisemitism is that there are also almost no Jews in Ireland. According to the Institute for National Security (INSS), “Ireland has a small Jewish community, numbering about 2,700 (of which close to 500 are Israelis who have moved there in recent years) and totaling about 0.05% of the country’s total population.”

Such a tiny community to be the target of so much Irish hate. No wonder Ireland has to look farther afield at Israel to get its Jew-hating jollies. Bambie Thug, for example, had to travel all the way to Malmö, Sweden. But Thug could have just as well stayed home, permeated as Ireland is with hate for Jews and Israel.

What drives all this Irish hate, and how does it manifest? David Collier wrote an investigative report on antisemitism in Ireland. The report begins with an executive summary of Collier’s conclusions:

➢ In Ireland, anti-Jewish racism spreads within the corridors of power and unlike in the UK or US, appears to be as much driven from the top down as the reverse.

➢ Some Irish politicians are obsessed about attacking Israel and Zionism, treating it in a manner different from the way they treat all other international issues.

➢ Irish politicians share material that is clearly fake and that comes from social media accounts that are blatantly antisemitic.

➢ One TD even liked a post that seems to suggest Hitler ‘may not have been too far wrong’.

➢ The argument that allegations of antisemitism are about stifling ‘criticism of Israel’ is used to shield some of the most horrific anti-Jewish racism imaginable.

➢ The problem stretches across politics and NGOs and spills onto the street. There is little political will and few voices to counter it. This has led to a proliferation throughout the Irish mainstream.

➢ In almost every town analysed, many of the key ‘activists’ have a history of sharing antisemitic content or giving voice to antisemitic ideology. There is even little or no reaction to activists sharing Holocaust Denial.

➢ Antisemitism is a key motivator in anti-Zionist activity. The people who share antisemitic ideology are often those handing out leaflets, organising the protest and starting groups in their local areas.

➢ These anti-Zionists view Zionists as ‘global manipulators’, ‘thieves’, ‘bloodsuckers’ and as people ‘intent on destroying the world to fulfil their own evil agenda’. It is undeniably antisemitism.

➢ Traditional Christian antisemitism plays a significant role in compounding the problem in Ireland and Christian NGOs facilitate the spread of antisemitism there. ➢ In anti-Zionism, far-right and far-left merge. The report confirms the findings of previous research. It establishes beyond doubt the indivisibility of anti-Zionist protest and antisemitism. Antisemitism in all its guises must be called out. It has no place in public discourse

I asked Collier what he thought about Ireland’s recognition of Palestine as a state, and of Bambie Thug’s tantrum. “For years Ireland has been the most visibly antisemitic nation in Europe, and it comes as no surprise they would be leading the charge to recognise Palestine as a state – even after the Hamas atrocities of October 7. Ireland is now a country whose two most recognisable exports are antisemitism and Bambie Thug – and this says far more about them than it does about Israel."

There is a hugely ironic backstory to Bambie Thug’s obsessive Jew-hate, and it comes by way of “their” name. Some believe that the storybook, “Bambi: a life in the woods,” first published in 1922, by Felix Salten, is meant to be read as an allegory for Jewish persecution.

Screenshot from Instagram

Jack Zipes, a professor of German and comparative literature wrote a new edition of Bambi for its centennial birthday, “The Original Bambi: The Story of a Life in the Forest.” He stresses that Salten’s story was not meant to be the children’s classic we know from the silver screen. It was not even meant to be read by children:

Zipes explains that the original story was “’a book about survival in your own home.’ Disney's adaptation washed out much of the original meaning, he said.”

“All the animals have been persecuted. And I think what shakes the reader is that there are also some animals who are traitors, who help the hunters kill.”

In the book, Bambi does not suffer the same fate as in the Disney film. He ends up completely alone. In reality, it is a tragic story of the loneliness of Jews and other minority groups in early 20th century Europe.

Salten, the son of a rabbi who worked as a journalist in Vienna, changed his birth name from Siegmund Salzmann in his teens to obscure his Jewish identity.

"I think he foresaw the Holocaust," Zipes said.

Felix Salten at a young age

A later portrait of Felix Salten

The first edition of Bambi

In “Bambi Was Jewish” Judy Gruen writes that Salten was a Zionist:

The antisemitism he endured growing up and its growing menace during that era drew him to the writings of Theodore Herzl, particularly his pamphlet Der Judenstaat (The Jewish State). He viewed Herzl as a symbol of resistance and began contributing articles about Jews and anti-Semitism for Die Zeit as well as Herzl’s own weekly, Die Welt. He eventually traveled to Palestine to investigate how Jews were managing to realize the Zionist dream.

His professional success brought him wealth, and he summered with his family near Austrian forests, intensifying his lifelong affection for animals. He later owned a hunting preserve, but as his daughter, Anna, wrote, “Only very rarely did he fire a shot—and then only when the principles of game keeping demanded it.” His stories and novels about animals emphasized their powerlessness, a theme he continued for the rest of his life.

But his own assimilation was no help once the Nazis occupied Austria in 1938. The following year, Salten and his wife fled to Zurich, after the Swiss extracted a promise from him to stop writing about cultural politics. This limited him to writing far less marketable animal stories.

Salten had already realized that the assimilation he embraced would not protect him from rising antisemitism. He reveals this through the character of Gobo, a childhood pal of Bambi but much weaker physically and emotionally. Long assumed to have been killed, Gobo shocks the forest population by returning, very much alive, and bragging about having been rescued by “Him,” whom Gobo insists is not the evil threat everyone else imagines. Gobo wears a braided ring around his neck, placed by Him, which the deer believes is a special mark that will immunize him from any further danger.

After Bambi and the others scoff at his claims, he tells another friend, “He (Bambi) still can’t deal with the fact that I’ve become someone different. . . There’s no danger for me on the meadow! . . . What does he mean by danger? He means well enough and cares for me, but danger is something for him and the likes of him, not for me.” His confidence that his assimilation will protect him will soon prove as tragically naïve as that of Jews throughout the generations who made similar bargains.

Zipes writes that based on the author’s life experiences with antisemitism, “Bambi is indeed Salten, and Salten is Bambi. . . Just as Bambi becomes an intrepid roebuck, Salten rose to fame and then was belittled and alienated from Austrian and German culture. He was treated just like all the other European Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.”

Felix Salten with his children

Salten's books were banned by Nazi Germany in 1936. But his allegory for Jewish persecution lives on, not least of all in the form of Bambie Thug.

A thug whose lifeblood is "their" hate for the Jewish people.

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!

05/22 Links Pt1: Hostage families release horrifying footage kidnapped female soldiers on Oct 7; Ireland, Norway, Spain to recognize Palestinian state; Moral Cretins at the ICC

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: The Ugly Lessons of October 7

The lesson for aspiring ethno-religious terrorist groups, then, is not that they would be assured recognition if they can only match the gruesomeness of Oct. 7. Uighurs and Kurds: Don’t try this at home. If you’re not the IRGC, an Iranian proxy, or a Palestinian group, don’t bother applying.

The flip side of this equation is even more obscene. Washington rewards Iranian and Palestinian terrorism under the moniker of “de-escalation.” That is to say, Iran and the Palestinians get to have their cake and eat it too: Their barbarism advances their agenda, and any attempted retaliation against them is condemned and constrained.

Which leads us to the heart of the matter, namely what Iran, Hezbollah, and Palestinian terror groups all have in common with each other and not with ISIS. By itself, the specific identity of the perpetrators of gruesome violence does not account for Western advocacy on their behalf. That is explained only by the specific identity of the victims: Jews. This is the common thread that ties together support for Palestinian barbarism abroad and for antisemitic mobs at home.

This brings us to the Biden administration’s diplomatic program, which aims to start the countdown for a Palestinian state in time to take credit for it in November. Much of the professional diplomatic and political class that has pushed for this outcome for three decades remains fully committed to it. As with the term “de-escalation,” the Biden administration uses Orwellian doublespeak to justify its push to establish a Palestinian terror state, like, “peace,” “security,” and “stability.” But what the pattern of the past eight months has doubtless conveyed to the Palestinians and their Iranian patrons is that more slaughter of Jews, especially those that will provoke a strong Israeli response, is the surest way to obtain more of what they want.

Supporters of Palestinian statehood have long maintained that if such a state were to attack Israel, the international community would support decisive Israeli actions to neutralize the threat. But the U.S. response to the Oct. 7 attack from Gaza, as well as to the subsequent attacks from Lebanon and Iran, which are states, shows the opposite. The atrocities a Palestinian state could inflict on an Israel reduced to the 1949 boundaries would make Oct. 7 look like a bar fight. The current U.S.-led international posture shows quite definitively that Israel will face pressure to make even more territorial and security concessions, until the Jewish state is no more. That has been the explicit goal of the Palestinian national movement since its inception, and it remains so today.

A reasonable observer can only conclude that the goal of “a Palestinian state” for both the Palestinians and their Western partisans has never been about achieving peaceful coexistence with Israel, which has been eminently achievable at every point in time beginning with the U.N. partition plan, which Israel accepted and the Palestinians and their Arab state backers rejected. The only “Palestinian state” that is acceptable to its partisans is one that replaces Israel on the map. When the White House, European governments, progressive NGOs, academic boycotters, the U.N., and other august bodies announce their support for Palestinian statehood, that is precisely what they are supporting.

Brendan O'Neill: Rewarding fascism

Whatever subjective spin the three PMs put on their heedless act of global virtue-signalling, the objective consequence is the legitimation of Hamas. Indeed, Hamas has warmly welcomed their recognition of Palestine, describing it as ‘an important step towards affirming our right to our land’. I’m not into guilt by association, but seriously – when an army of anti-Semites starts singing your praises, you’ve messed up. Badly.

It was completely predictable that Hamas would interpret the recognition of Palestine as a recognition of Hamas itself. What exactly is this ‘State of Palestine’ that Ireland, Spain and Norway are welcoming into the international fold? There’s the West Bank, semi-governed by the corrupt, collapsing bureaucracy of Fatah. And there’s the Gaza Strip, dominated by the frothing extremists of Hamas. Palestine, sadly, is not a functioning state. And right now it shows no meaningful capacity to become a functioning state. That Hamas and its suicidal cheerleaders among the Western influencer set view today’s support for Palestine as support for Hamas and its war on Israel is the least surprising thing I’ve heard in a long time.

The historical illiteracy of the preening PMs really is something. Taoiseach Harris compared his recognition of Palestine with Ireland’s plea for recognition in 1919. That was when the revolutionary Irish Republic issued a ‘Message to the Free Nations of the World’ asking them to acknowledge its independence from Britain. This is mad. There is no comparison between the historic movement for Irish independence and what’s currently happening in Palestine, with exhausted oligarchs on one side and radical Islamists on the other. Ireland sought to create a free republic – Hamas wants to turn Palestine into an outpost of an unforgiving caliphate in which freedom would be notable by its absence. That Harris cannot distinguish between national liberation and Islamist depravity is chilling. He should listen to Salman Rushdie, who wisely counsels that Hamas-ruled Palestine would be a ‘Taliban-like state’.

Perhaps we should not be surprised by the infantile posturing of the three PMs and their dearth of consideration for what might happen if we further isolate Israel and embolden Hamas. Because in a way, such self-involved moral blindness sums up the entirety of ‘Palestinian solidarity’. So much of the supposedly pro-Palestinian sentiment – in politics, on campuses, on the streets – is fundamentally a displacement activity. Politicians and activists bereft of ideas for how to improve their own societies instead seek sanctuary in the moral glow of Palestinianism. Hence you have a figure like Harris, unpopular, unelected, directionless, devoid of ideas for how to fix Ireland’s housing crisis or its migrant crisis, who can nonetheless feel briefly important and even statesmanlike by standing before the cameras to say: ‘I recognise Palestine.’

This is what ‘Palestine’ has become for the cultural elites of the West: a moral balm, a source of fleeting meaning, a soapbox from which they can grandstand on faraway affairs, having zero vision for closer-to-home affairs. That’s what’s most unforgivable about today’s reckless act of unwitting Hamas emboldenment – that these three leaders seem to value their own 15 minutes of virtue more than the pressing task of bringing peace to the Middle East by bringing to an end the racist army that started the current war.

Seth Mandel: Pierless

Finally, the UN official’s explanation for this disaster is one for the books. “They’ve not seen trucks in a while,” so they mount the trucks. This sounds like the description of a spacecraft landing on an alien planet. Moreover, it appears the UN… expected this response?

In fact, it sure sounds like the UN thinks this whole circus is a waste of time and money, and that they told the Americans as much: “The U.N. agreed to assist in coordinating aid distribution from the floating pier, but has remained adamant that deliveries by land are the best way to combat the crisis.”

That is certainly true: The pier has a far more limited capacity than the traditional overland crossings. It’s also expensive: The U.S. paid over $300 million to build what sounds like a pop-up pier ordered from IKEA. The Defense Department, via Ryder, is describing every cent of that $300 million as wasted. After all, the aid disappears into the mists of time as soon as the Americans hand it over to the UN’s version of Uber Eats.

Ironically, on paper this still makes the pier a complete success. America does its job quite well. The pier is built, food is delivered to it, and nary a boot is on the ground. Promises made, promises kept. Truly, this is the quintessential government project.

Years ago, there was a TV commercial for a security system that went something like this: We see a security breach reported, an alarm sounds, sector 13’s guard chases an intruder while radioing for help. The guard chases the intruder all the way to a line on the ground that marks where sector 13 ends and sector 14 begins. When the perp crosses that line, the guard radios triumphantly: “Sector 13, all clear.”

The Pentagon sounds an awful lot like sector 13’s security guard. Once the handoff is made, the rest is sector 14’s problem. According to Ryder, about 570 metric tons of aid has been delivered to the pier since its grand opening. Apparently, Americans should be proud that we are doing our part.

And in a way, we are. Statistically, it is highly likely that at least some of those stealing the food aid are its intended recipients. They’re just cutting out the middle man. In a way, hijackings and lootings make the process more efficient.

More dangerous too, sure. But not for Americans, and therefore not for the president’s reelection chances. Sector 13, all clear.

The pattern is a little too consistent.

If you get your news from mainstream non-Israeli news sources, you wouldn't know that:

* Israel is transferring more aid into Gaza every day than was sent in before the Rafah operation

* Egypt has refused to send over 650 truckloads of aid via Kerem Shalom, instead letting it rot on the Egyptian side.

* Egypt's refusal to open the Rafah border crossing has stopped hundreds of Palestinians from getting medical help.

* Even beforehand, Egypt blocked thousands of Gazans who needed to go abroad for medical attention

* Egypt took in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Syria, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yemen and elsewhere. It only refuses Palestinians.

* The only Gazans who have managed to flee are those who have paid exorbitant bribes to a shady organization with ties to Egypt's president, plus well over a thousand injured Hamas terrorists. (I've seen this covered in Arabic media far more than in Western media!)

Why don't most people know these facts? Why is the media treating Egypt with kid gloves?

It isn't like the news media loves Egypt. Egypt is a serious human rights violator and gets criticized in other contexts.

It must be that Egypt controls the media!

How else do you explain that the only place that this story was published was in Israel:

A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters offers very rare criticism of Egypt over what they said was Cairo’s withholding of UN humanitarian assistance from Gaza.

“What should be going into Kerem Shalom is the UN assistance, which is now in Egypt. Egypt is holding that back until the Rafah crossing situation settles out,” the senior administration official says.

“We do not believe that aid should be held back for any reason whatsoever. Kerem Shalom is open. The Israelis have it open. And that aid should be going through Kerem Shalom,” the official adds.

There were reporters, plural, hearing this. Not one, outside Times of Israel, evidently felt this was worth reporting on.

Egypt must control the media!

Or, just maybe, the news media has a narrative of unparalleled Israeli evil, and reporting on how Egypt is abusing Gazans while cynically pretending to care about them takes away from that story.

We are all being misled by news sites, NGOs and politicians who are eager to criticize Israel and reticent to say anything negative about Egypt (or Jordan and the PA, both of whom also refuse to accept Gaza refugees.)

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!

For months, I've been calling out the hypocrisy of human rights organizations not calling for Egypt to allow Gazans to take refuge there. They are vocal about the rights of refugees in every other context, but silent about Gaza.

Perhaps to avoid being called hypocritical, a director at HRW did write an article in The Hill last month that almost apologetically asked Egypt to accept Gaza refugees (while also demanding Israel allow Gazans to "return" to Israel:)

Neighboring Egypt’s borders are mostly closed, too. Only a relatively few Gaza residents have been allowed to enter Egypt through the Rafah crossing, including foreign passport holders, the wounded and their companions, and some who have paid exorbitant sums to flee via Egypt. Not wanting a wave of refugees flooding into his country, especially given the prospect that the Israeli authorities might bar them from returning, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi declared Egypt’s “vehement rejection of the forced displacement of the Palestinians and their transfer to Egyptian lands in Sinai.”

But what about Palestinians in Gaza who feel their only chance to survive is to leave Gaza? How much longer can Israel and Egypt block desperate people from fleeing?

Palestinians in Gaza should be allowed to remain in dignity in their homes and to exercise the right to return, but they also have other treaty rights that must be respected by all states: the right to leave a country, the right to seek asylum, and the right of nonrefoulement, that is, not to be pushed back or returned to face persecution or other serious threats.

Palestinians, like everyone everywhere, have the right to live in dignity in their homes. They also have the right to leave for their own security and to return in safety and dignity. Stopping forced displacement and other atrocity crimes from occurring is the top priority at this moment. But when all other human rights are denied, the right to flee is the last remaining option. That option cannot be closed.

This is as mild a criticism of Egypt as possible. There is no demand or call for Egypt to open its border; only the passive voice that Gazans have the "right to flee." The word "Egypt" is not in the headline. Obscenely, he also insists that Israelis who live in communities that were ravaged October 7 allow Gaza rapists and murderers and those who cheered them to move in next to them.

Notably, this article was not written by HRW's ,Middle East Director Lama Fakih, or by Ahmed Benchemsi, its Advocacy and Communications Director for the Middle East. No, it was written by Bill Frelick, HRW's refugee rights director who looks at the world through a refugee rights prism, not the obscene anti-Israel point of view of HRW's dedicated Middle East personnel.

As such, this article was buried. The media amplifies other HRW criticisms of Egypt, but no one picked up on this article,.

HRW did not turn this into a campaign. Frelick's tweet about the article does not even mention Egypt by name. HRW itself did not tweet this article at all, as they normally do when their directors publish articles in major media.

It seems that the issue of Palestinian rights to leave Gaza to save their families is seen as the lowest possible priority for HRW.

More likely, they only want to use the article as a shield they can point to when their hypocrisy is noted, but they really believe that Egypt should not allow Gazans to flee there.

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!

Spain, Norway and Ireland said on Wednesday that they would recognize an independent Palestinian state.

It's literally beyond parody.

Every poll of Palestinians for the past seven months shows strong support not only for the massacre and orgy of violence, but also of Hamas altogether.

In the most recent poll, 71% of Palestinians support Hamas' decision to attack on October 7. 63% want to see Hamas restored to power in Gaza. Hamas is using the entire civilian population of Gaza as human shields, but 72% of Palestinians are satisfied with how Hamas is waging war. A plurality of 49% believe that Hamas is the most deserving of representing and leading the Palestinian people today, triple any other option. 55% support terrorism against Israelis. Most oppose a two state solution next to Israel - they want everything.

These polls do not get much publicity in Western media. But any democratically elected leadership of a Palestinian state would share Hamas goals of making the Middle East Judenfrei.

There is no way that the leaders of Ireland, Norway and Spain do not know this. Which means that they tacitly support the same goals.

In the name of "peace."

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!

IDF: 1250 truckloads of aid this week to Gaza, 200 to the UN. UN: Almost zero. The media only reports UN figures, not Israel's.

There have been many, many articles about the problems of bringing aid into Gaza.

Reuters reported on Tuesday:

Food and medicine for Palestinians in Gaza are piling up in Egypt because the Rafah crossing remains closed and there has been no aid delivered to a U.N. warehouse from a U.S.-built pier for two days, U.N. officials warned on Monday.

Senior U.N. aid official Edem Wosornu said there were insufficient supplies and fuel to provide any meaningful level of support to the people of Gaza as they endure Israel's military onslaught against Hamas militants.

"We are running out of words to describe what is happening in Gaza. We have described it as a catastrophe, a nightmare, as hell on earth. It is all of these, and worse," she said.

The New York Times adds:

The temporary [US] pier is one of few remaining entry points for aid shipments after Israel’s incursion into Rafah, in southern Gaza, earlier this month in response to a Hamas rocket attack that killed four soldiers on May 5. Israel not only seized the Rafah crossing on the border with Egypt but also closed the Kerem Shalom crossing into Israel. Those were the two main entry points for truck convoys carrying aid overland.
Though Israel has since reopened Kerem Shalom, only 69 trucks have entered Gaza through it in the past two weeks, according to U.N. data. That is far fewer than the number of aid trucks that were entering through the two southern border crossings before Israeli troops went into Rafah. That number peaked at 340 trucks a day.

Here is UNRWA's chart showing the number of trucks that entered Gaza through the two crossings since May 5:

But for all the coverage of the supposed shortage of trucks going into Gaza, international media completely ignores what the IDF's COGAT unit is saying is happening.

According to COGAT, 451 trucks of aid entered Gaza on Tuesday, 403 on Monday and 422 more on Sunday.

If that is true, Israel is bringing in more trucks now than ever before since October 7.

Isn't that sort of important?

UNRWA's statistics do not include any aid that arrives through the newer crossings Israel opened, Erez West, Erez East and Gate 96.

And COGAT says that it transferred 200 trucks of aid to the UN on Monday:

The stories are not only inconsistent, they are seemingly contradictory. If the UN is receiving and distributing aid from the northern Gaza crossings, then UNRWA is being deceptive in implying that the UN is not receiving anything.

But what is really insane is that the media is not mentioning COGAT's claims at all. Which indicates that COGAT is telling the truth, and the truth contradicts the holy Narrative of Israel blocking aid to Gaza. You could be sure that if COGAt were lying, there would be reporters all over the place to expose how evil the IDF in misleading everyone.

And we see that in the news coverage all the time. Look again at the New York Times article above, implying that Israel closed Kerem Shalom for an extended period. Yet it was only closed for three days. Egypt has refused to send some 650 truckloads of aid rotting in the hot sun in Egyptian Rafah through Kerem Shalom. Even a US official gingerly noted that on Tuesday:

A senior Biden administration official briefing reporters offers very rare criticism of Egypt over what they said was Cairo’s withholding of UN humanitarian assistance from Gaza.
What should be going into Kerem Shalom is the UN assistance, which is now in Egypt. Egypt is holding that back until the Rafah crossing situation settles out,” the senior administration official says.
“We do not believe that aid should be held back for any reason whatsoever. Kerem Shalom is open. The Israelis have it open. And that aid should be going through Kerem Shalom,” the official adds.

We all know this but it took weeks to for any official to mention what everyone knows and barely criticize Egypt. And the media has been all but silent on Egypt's refusal to send aid.

The news media is well aware of COGAT. They quote them for other information all the time. Their refusal to report COGAT's statistics that show that not only has aid been entering Gaza, but more aid than before the Rafah invasion, can only be because the media doesn't want the world to know anything but anti-Israel lies.

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!

05/21 Links Pt2: Biden NSC Advisor: We Can't Go Against Israel until Reelection; VDH: The Disgrace and Fall of the American Elite Campus; The BBC is spreading dangerous lies

From Ian:

Israel Doesn’t Need Better ‘Hasbara’ It needs better friends

None of this is to suggest that pro-Israel Democrats should all jump ship and become Republicans. If an individual finds himself on the political left for whatever reason, he can be a good ally by pushing the Israeli cause within the Democratic Party. Figures like John Fetterman, Ritchie Torres, and Eric Adams have been important allies throughout this conflict. Democrats like these will always be facing somewhat of an uphill battle going forward given the basic moral and intellectual commitments of the modern left. But political parties generally aren’t known for always being logically consistent across all issue areas, so to the extent that a pro-Israel left can still exist, we should hope that it does.

All of this is to say that the best thing individuals can do to shape public opinion in Israel’s favor is to be more confident and assertive allies.

This involves not granting the premise of moral equivalency between Israelis and the Palestinians. A nation defending itself and inflicting collateral damage is not the same as a movement with exterminationist goals, which seeks to slaughter innocent people as an end in itself. And it is fine to say, based on everything else we know, that the Israeli government is more credible than Hamas when the truth about an incident or aspect of the war, like whether Israel is targeting innocent journalists, is in dispute.

From a broader perspective, friends of Israel must push back on any ideology that emphasizes Western wickedness and identity politics, of which hostility to the world’s only Jewish state must be a byproduct, made all the more powerful in international forums due to the way it resonates with the Third World. Join the struggles against DEI bureaucracies, fake academic fields based on an oppression-centered view of the world, and a far-left takeover of the Democratic Party. These larger battles will, more than any hasbara operation narrowly focused on Gaza, ultimately determine whether Israel can in the coming years continue to count on the United States as an ally.

The war in Gaza has captured the attention of the world because Israel, due to the kinds of tragic choices it must make, has emerged as the main avatar of Western civilization. This is one thing that the campus left gets correct. Throughout human history, most peoples have accomplished nothing most of the time, sulking in poverty, stagnation, tyranny, and sloth. Just as the United States forged a new civilization out of a wilderness, 75 years ago a people that had been stateless for over two millennia took over a small strip of land that had practically no natural resources, all the while being surrounded and outnumbered by hostile neighbors. Yes, in both stories, atrocities and injustices were committed along the way. But this is fundamentally less important than what these nations have accomplished and the necessity of making sure they continue to survive and prosper. As recent campus protests have made clear, the left sees these connections and knows what the stakes are. Israel and its allies must similarly understand that the real public relations battle is a struggle over the metanarrative of Western civilization.

In the Wake of October 7: Reflections on the American Jewish Community

Since Oct. 7, American Jews are experiencing a fundamental repositioning of not only how they see themselves but also how others perceive them. It includes seismic shifts in their relationship to Israel, how they form political alliances, and their way of being Jewish in a world that feels scarier, lonelier, and, in some surprising ways, more Jewish than ever.

This spring, American Jews awoke to a coordinated assault on American universities as pro-Palestinian groups orchestrated a set of demonstrations and demands designed to remove U.S. involvement with Israel and to disengage higher educational institutions from any academic or financial connection with the Jewish State. With their distortions of Zionism, misrepresentations of Judaism, and outright dismissal of the Jewish people, these players are attempting to rewrite the Jewish narrative concerning who we are and what we represent.

These activists seek to deny both our presence in the land of Israel and our historic connection to this holy space. Our opponents in this moment are calling for our genocide, comfortably aligning themselves with those in prior periods who were committed to seeking our demise.

American Jews Overwhelmingly Support Israel in a War Imposed upon It by Genocidal Forces Seeking Its Destruction

Liberal Jewish voters consider President Biden a longtime friend. At the same time, they are troubled by the growing influence of anti-Israel forces in the Democratic Party. They view Mr. Biden's freeze on sending some weapons to Israel as evidence of capitulation to a radical fringe.

American Jews overwhelmingly support Israel. Most consider the Jewish state an important component of their identity. They distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and hatred of the Jewish state. Contrary to the impression the media often gives, anti-Zionist Jews are few, a marginal part of the American Jewish community.

Judaism hates war and American Jews share the world's concern for Palestinian civilians. Revenge is for God, not human beings. We are prohibited even to rejoice in the deaths of enemy combatants, let alone civilians. Still, most American Jews understand that the West's nearly exclusive focus on Palestinian casualties - the result of a war that Gaza's own government launched - distorts reality.

This war was imposed on Israel by genocidal forces seeking its destruction. Oct. 7 revealed what is in store for Israel if these forces win. If Hamas defeats Israel, its Islamist supporters will come for us in Europe and America. Most Americans understand this and support Israel over Hamas by huge margins.

Since Oct. 7, American Jews understand much better the nexus between anti-Zionism and antisemitism. With the explosion of antisemitism in America, it is clearer to us than ever why there must be an Israel. We now realize that in most cases anti-Zionism constitutes, or leads inevitably to, antisemitism.

New poll shows Americans - including young Americans - support Israel in Gaza more than the White House and the media do

A new Harvard/Harris poll asks a number of questions about the current Gaza war and the day after, and even the youngest voters are much more pro-Israel than the media would have us believe.

62% of 18-24 year olds think Israel is trying to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza.

This is a surprising result from the 18-24 crowd ; 61% say Israel should move forward with an operation in Rafah to finish the war with Hamas, doing its best to avoid civilian casualties even though there will be casualties.