Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, November 30, 2024

11/30 Links: Biden spotted with book that claims Israel shouldn't exist; IDF strikes World Central Kitchen employee who participated in Oct. 7 attack

From Ian:

Biden spotted with book that accuses Israel of settler-colonialism, apartheid

US President Joe Biden was spotted leaving a bookstore in Nantucket, Massachusetts, on Friday with a copy of The Hundred Years’ War on Palestine: A History of Settler Colonialism and Resistance, 1917–2017, by Palestinian-American historian Rashid Khalidi.

The purchase occurred during a holiday visit with his family as the nation kicked off the Black Friday shopping season following Thanksgiving. Photos of the outing have circulated all over X/Twitter and international media outlets.

It is unclear if Biden purchased the book or if it was handed to him. Multiple media outlets, including Fox News and The New York Post, have reached out to the White House for comment, but so far, there has been no response.

The Post also asked Khalidi about his reaction to the president holding his book.

“I do not speak to the Post (or the Times, for that matter), so this is not for publication, but my reaction is that this is four years too late,” Khalidi told the newspaper, which clarified that it did not offer or agree to any terms conditioning that response as off the record.

Khalidi’s book, first published in 2020, presents a controversial perspective on the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The historian, known for his outspoken critique of Israeli policies, describes Palestine’s modern history as “a colonial war waged against the indigenous population by various parties to force them to relinquish their homeland.” His framing has drawn both praise and criticism for its sharp departure from traditional narratives.

The book highlights key moments such as the 1917 Balfour Declaration, the 1948 establishment of Israel – referred to as “the destruction of Palestine” – Israel’s 1982 invasion of Lebanon, and the “endless, futile peace process.”

Khalidi has previously criticized former president Donald Trump’s policies, such as relocating the US Embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, calling them discriminatory toward Palestinians.

“Conflicts between settlers and indigenous peoples have ended in only three ways,” Khalidi writes, likening Israel’s policies to historical settler-colonial conflicts in North America, Algeria, and South Africa.

The historian also discusses moments of Palestinian resistance and terrorism. He praises the First Intifada as “an extraordinary example of popular resistance against oppression.”

Still, he labels the Second Intifada (2000-05) “a major failure” that contributed to the construction of Israel’s security barrier. Khalidi predicts that “popular resistance will continue to rise,” framing the Palestinian struggle as an enduring battle against colonialism.

Since the October 7 Hamas attacks and the resulting war, he has intensified his criticism of Israel. In recent interviews, the author accused Israel of conducting “ethnic cleansing” in Gaza, stating: “It is completely unclear what Israel’s political objective is. They are conducting ethnic cleansing, pushing the population of northern Gaza into the southern part of the Strip. But their political goal is entirely unclear to me.”

Who is Rashid Khalidi, the former PLO spokesman whose book Joe Biden showcased publicly yesterday?

Here he is recently saying that Jews are indoctrinated to support Israel and that once the generation that knew the Holocaust dies out people will no longer support Israel. pic.twitter.com/qSntLPOnH3
— Shelley G (@ShelleyGldschmt) November 30, 2024

When Edward Said died in 2003, Rashid Khalidi became the only living Palestinian historian of any note. And his scholarship is riddled with inaccuracies, distortions, flimsy citations, and lies. https://t.co/tEFAgyssca https://t.co/ddgxFLiYU0
— Strxwmxn (@strxwmxn) November 30, 2024

11/29 Links Pt2: The Codification of Anti-Jewish Hiring Policies; Oxford Union debate descends into chaos as students shout down Israeli speakers

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: The Codification of Anti-Jewish Hiring Policies

There’s a case of apparent employment discrimination at UCLA that should put to rest once and for all the spurious idea that the current campus battles are about mere “free speech.”

For over a year now we’ve been subjected to the whinging of the “pro-Palestine” crowds who are physically harassing Jews on campus while claiming their speech rights are infringed upon any time their actions bring a whiff of consequences. But aside from the violence deployed against Jews, there’s been evidence of professional discrimination—at state-funded institutions, no less.

The latest and most illuminating example comes from UCLA, where a newly filed complaint alleges that the college Cultural Affairs Commission has in place a policy of anti-Jewish bias in its hiring process. Bella Brannon, editor of the Jewish student newspaper Ha’am, filed the petition with the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) Judicial Board earlier this week.

The crux of the allegation is that Alicia Verdugo, head of the Cultural Affairs Commission, told staffers not to hire Jewish applicants. Specifically, she told subordinates, “please do your research when you look at applicants” because “lots of zionists (sic) are applying.” However, the directive was not Israel-specific; applicants were being rejected after having identified themselves as Jews unrelated to anything regarding Israel or the war in Gaza. Finally, staffers were told that at an upcoming retreat a “no hire list”—that is, an anti-Jewish blacklist—would be shared.

According to Ha’am, “every student who indicated their Jewish identity in their applications for Cultural Affairs Commissioner (CAC) staff was rejected.” One rejected applicant, for example, answered a question on the application about an issue of importance by noting that “as a Jewish student at UCLA, it is imperative that I have the right to express my identity.” Another rejected applicant had mentioned Judaism when asked about attendance at the staff retreat, explaining that they are Sabbath observant.

A CAC hiring document obtained by Ha’am allegedly says: “We reserve the right to remove any staff member who dispels antiBlackness, colorism, racism, white supremacy, zionism, xenophobia, homophobia, transphobia, sexism, misogyny, ableism, and any/all other hateful/bigoted ideologies.”

Although “dispels” is obviously the wrong word there, the intent is clear. As is the fact that “Zionism” is listed as disqualifying but “anti-Semitism” is not.

Ivy League Holocaust professor charges Israel with genocide

Omer Bartov, Brown University’s Samuel Pisar professor of Holocaust and Genocide Studies, called Israel’s ongoing Gaza military campaign a “genocide operation” in a Nov. 11 podcast “Gaza and the Question of Genocide.”

Addressing Georgetown University’s Saudi-supported Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU), Bartov, an Israeli Holocaust historian, failed miserably to substantiate his outrageous accusation. The irony that a scholar of such reputation and subject specialty would make such egregiously false claims was not lost on Bartov’s hosts, who surely invited him knowing that his stance would be useful in their propaganda war against Israel.

As ACMCU’s reliably anti-Israel director Nader Hashemi moderated, Bartov discussed Israeli policies in the post-Oct. 7, 2023 context. He said the barbarous Hamas jihadist assault upon Israel “should be classified as a war crime and as a crime against humanity.”

“Potentially, if you want to connect it to the Hamas Charter of 1988, you could also describe it as a genocidal act. I am less strong on that,” he added, even though the events of Oct. 7 clearly reflected Hamas’s longstanding genocidal intentions.

Bartov’s slander of Israel’s self-defense response as genocidal rested upon the hackneyed trope of civilian collateral damage. “In order to save the lives of [Israeli] soldiers when you’re moving into a heavily built-up area,” air and artillery strikes precede Israeli advances into Gaza, he said. Thus, Israeli military leaders “order the population to leave for its own safety, and then you assume that the population left even if many people don’t leave,” perhaps, for example, “because they’re sick.”

NGOs calling for Israeli arms embargo are dangerous and hypocritical

This international policy stampede is orchestrated through powerful NGO campaigns. “Respected” groups like Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam with anti-Israel biases have been relentless in their efforts to cut off military funding, halt arms sales and undermine Israel’s defense systems, including the Iron Dome, which protects civilians from lethal rockets, missiles and UAVs. The NGOs have filed lawsuits, staged protests and exerted immense pressure on governments to cease military aid.

In November 2023, for example, just weeks after the brutal Hamas atrocities in southern Israel, Human Rights Watch demanded that Israel’s allies—the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Germany—suspend military assistance, repeating entirely false allegations of war crimes. In December, the organization called for an immediate halt to arms transfers from the United Kingdom to Israel, followed in February by a statement accusing Israel of crimes against humanity and urging the U.S. government to impose sanctions.

As the lobbying intensified, the Dutch Court of Appeal ruled that the Netherlands must cease the transfer of U.S.-owned F-35 components to Israel, a legal milestone brought about by a lawsuit led by Oxfam and other NGOs. By June, Amnesty was actively pursuing legal measures to stop arms exports to Israel, while Oxfam was lobbying for “all available measures” to block military sales. Over the summer, these coordinated efforts culminated in multiple legal actions across Europe, highlighting the systematic NGO push to isolate Israel militarily.

This isn’t advocacy for peace; it’s a concerted attempt to leave Israel defenseless.

This time last year, NGOs, including two linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group, filed a federal lawsuit against the Biden administration in an attempt to force a comprehensive arms embargo against Israel. Although the lawsuit failed, the question is whether the outgoing Biden administration will adopt a wider policy of arms embargoes against Israel. Additionally, it remains to be seen if and how President-elect Donald Trump will counter ongoing NGO-led efforts aimed at weakening U.S. support for Israel’s security.

If these NGOs succeed, whether by lawsuit or lobbying, they and leaders that supported them or were swayed by them in their decision-making will be responsible for crippling Israel’s security infrastructure and emboldening Iran and its proxies. The NGOs’ vision is one where Israel is exposed to the very real and ongoing threats at its borders, a danger that could spread unchecked across the region if not stopped.

The inconsistencies in the NGO community’s selective stance become even more apparent when considering the human toll of their actions. They disregard the rights and lives of Israeli civilians who depend on defense systems to shield them from constant threats.

In their quest to impose sanctions against Israel, these NGOs are contributing to a situation that could lead to more, not less, bloodshed.

Instead of embracing their hypocrisy, responsible governments should be holding NGOs accountable. Those working with them, including government and private donors, must demand transparency, reject double standards and foster a dialogue that does not automatically demonize Israel, including the role of terrorism and the need to defend against it, in the Middle East. Only then can these groups be credited with promoting a vision where all civilians can live free from violence.

11/29 Links Pt1: Obama Plays a Dead Man’s Hand in Lebanon, and Wins; Glick: Bibi Between Biden and a Hard Place; Greece: ICC arrest warrant for Israeli officials is wrong

From Ian:

Tony Badran: Obama Plays a Dead Man’s Hand in Lebanon, and Wins

Barely three weeks ago, Barack Obama’s legacy was in tatters. His party was roundly defeated in the election, after he personally engineered the defenestration of his doddering former vice president from the Oval Office. Instead of greeting the sight of Obama emerging from the shadows with relief, Americans reacted with horror. His handpicked candidate was trounced, while the Party he directed lost both houses of Congress. The Iran deal, which he once saw as his ticket to Mount Rushmore, would be consigned to the dustbin of history by self-proclaimed master dealmaker Donald Trump.

And yet, two months before the end of his lengthy shadow presidency, and faced with the final undoing of his signature legacy project in the Middle East, Obama went all in—and won big. By forcing Israel to accept a deal with Hezbollah that will formalize America’s role as the terror group’s protector, Obama will have locked in a key piece of his decade-old policy of leveraging American power to secure both Iran’s continuing regional influence and its direct control over Israel’s borders.

After nearly two months of operating in Lebanon, the Israeli cabinet agreed on Tuesday to the cease-fire deal brokered by President Joe Biden’s special envoy, Amos Hochstein. The details of the deal are, for the most part, as irrelevant as they are meaningless. In essence, they represent a return to the Oct. 6, 2023, status quo ante. Namely, that the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF) and the U.N. Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) will again deploy in south Lebanon, and again pretend to “implement UNSCR 1701”—the meaningless 2006 U.N. resolution which supposedly prevents Hezbollah’s rearmament and the reconstruction of its infrastructure south of the Litani River. To prop up this threadbare charade, the U.S. will now up its annual taxpayer subsidization of Hezbollah’s base—reportedly by at least another $400 million—to account for the enlargement of the LAF with new, U.S.-subsidized recruits. With these additions, U.S. taxpayer funding for Hezbollahland will now sit at around a $1 billion a year.

The relevant parts of the agreement have to do with the formalization of the U.S. role in Lebanon—a process that began with Hochstein’s maritime deal in 2022—as an arbiter between Israel and Hezbollah, increasing America’s direct management of the Lebanese special province and of Israel’s defense policy. The vehicle for this role that the deal introduces is the creation of a so-called monitoring committee headed by the U.S., which will be represented presumably by a CENTCOM officer.

In other words, the U.S. is now responsible for handling Israel’s complaints about the myriad violations of 1701 that will doubtlessly be forthcoming as Hezbollah’s forces and supporters stream back into their villages on Israel’s northern border. And since the U.S. underwrites the LAF, in which it has been heavily invested for two decades, the Americans will be inclined to cover for the LAF’s collusion with Hezbollah—in the process becoming directly complicit for the aid that the LAF will give to its symbiotic terrorist partner. The lawyerly language that Team Obama planted in the side letter they gave Israel, as well as the text of the agreement itself, make it plain that the U.S. will now restrict Israeli actions, certainly in the parts of the country north of the Litani. As a senior administration official told its Israeli stenographer Barak Ravid, “There are restrictions on the military activity that Israel can carry out. It is impossible to sign a ceasefire agreement if Israel can shoot afterwards whatever it wants in Lebanon and whenever it wants.”

Instead, as Hochstein told Al Jazeera, “The United States will send diplomats and military personnel to the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, whose mission will be to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces and Lebanese authorities.” And if Israel has a complaint, it will need to notify the U.S., and share intelligence with it in the context of the monitoring committee, so that the CENTCOM officer can then relay those concerns to the LAF, which has long operated in partnership with Hezbollah’s forces, and whose political sponsors in Beirut are dominated by the Iranian-run militia.

In other words, the agreement affirms that Israel is a province that lacks full sovereignty, especially when it comes to its defense policy in territory where Washington has decided to partner with Iran and establish a joint protectorate dedicated to Israel’s destruction.

Ruthie Blum: Bibi’s latest challenge

According to a survey conducted by Direct Polls for Israel’s Channel 14, the Israeli public is split down the middle on the Lebanon ceasefire agreement that went into effect on Wednesday at 4 a.m. What’s notable in this case is that the division doesn’t run along party or ideological lines.

In fact, the newly minted deal—stipulating that Israel has 60 days to withdraw its troops from Lebanon, during which time the Lebanese Armed Forces will deploy to the southern border and Hezbollah will retreat northward of the Litani River—has been met with harsh criticism by both supporters and detractors of the government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Chief among the latter are members of the “anybody but Bibi” protest movement, most of whom claim to consider Netanyahu a greater threat to national security than Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis and the head of the snake, Iran. Since they oppose every policy that he puts forth, their knee-jerk anger was to be expected.

The former category includes residents of northern Israel: evacuees forced for the past 14 months to live in temporary lodgings; and others, slightly farther south of the Lebanon border, who’ve remained under constant rocket, missile and drone fire.

Rather than welcoming the prospect of a truce enabling them to return home or stop running for shelter with every air-raid siren, these people are furious. Not trusting Hezbollah to honor an arrangement that it didn’t actually sign, nor believing that the Lebanese Armed Forces and UNIFIL will guarantee the phony peace, they feel that Netanyahu capitulated to foreign pressure before finishing the job.

His explanation for the move—from the Knesset podium and subsequently in a video message—may have assuaged some of their fears. It also possibly helped them understand the timing of his decision. Nevertheless, they remain wary and out of sorts.

Champions of the ceasefire are also a mixed bunch, with pundits and part of the populace who disagree with one another on various other issues viewing the maneuver as strategically clever. This disparate group seems to be growing with each additional clarification by Netanyahu and the coalition partners who gave him the green light.

In an effort to persuade skeptics—especially after Hezbollah violated the terms of the deal within hours of its implementation—Netanyahu sat down on Thursday evening for a lengthy, one-on-one interview with Channel 14’s Yaakov Bardugo.

Bardugo is a right-wing journalist whose natural inclination would be and was to disapprove of such a ceasefire. After all, on paper, it’s almost identical to U.N. Security Council Resolution 1701, the farcical 2006 document that ended the Second War in Lebanon against Hezbollah.

Clifford D May: Another week of attacks on Israel

For more than a year, Israel has been fighting a brutal multifront war against Iran’s rulers and their terrorist proxies: Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, Hezbollah, the Houthis and Shia militias in Syria and Iraq.

Last week, Israel was also attacked by enemies in New York, Washington and The Hague. Although these were not kinetic battles, they did damage.

First attack: On Nov. 20, 14 members of the U.N. Security Council voted in favor of a resolution that did not call on Hamas to release its hostages, Americans among them, as a precondition for a ceasefire in Gaza.

President Joe Biden, credit where it’s due, instructed his envoy at the United Nations to veto the resolution. Allowing the resolution to pass, said Ambassador Robert Wood, would have “sent a dangerous message to Hamas.”

Which raises this question: Do the leaders of France, Britain, Japan and South Korea who voted with Beijing and Moscow not understand the message they just sent to Americans at a time of rising isolationism?

And if American diplomats tried but were unable to persuade America’s allies to stand with the United States, how likely is it that they will prevail when negotiating with the envoys of Beijing, Moscow, and their buddies in Tehran and Pyongyang?

Second attack: Also on Nov. 20: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) led what The Nation, a far-left journal, called a “bold new effort to block arms sales to Israel.”

He and 18 other senators, all Democrats or self-styled independents, apparently would prefer that Hamas survive the war it launched against Israel with its invasion and barbaric pogrom on Oct. 7, 2023. And they clearly don’t regard liberating the hostages as an urgent concern.

Sanders’ resolutions to limit munitions sales to an ally defending itself from genocidal enemies failed. But Mother Jones, another far-left journal, noted that the vote “shows Dems are shifting.” Hard to disagree.

The third attack: On Nov. 21, Karim Khan, prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant.

Khan also issued a warrant for Mohammed Deif, the head of the military wing of Hamas in Gaza. However, since Deif was “martyred” in July, I doubt his lawyers will put him on the stand.

Khan has not just politicized international law; he’s weaponized it to defame and blood libel the only surviving and thriving Jewish community remaining in the Middle East.

To achieve that, he violated both international law and the rules of his court.

November 29, 1947: Palestinian Arab media claim Jews bribed the United Nations to vote for partition

Antisemitic conspiracy theories (disguised as "anti-Zionist") are nothing new.

Here's the headline of the Falastin newspaper the day after the UN partition vote on November 29, 1947:

It says "Arab Palestine was sold yesterday for ill-gotten money paid by Jews."

Jaffa-based Ad-Difaa sounded a similar note:

The partition was decided in America, but it will not be implemented in Palestine. ...The selfishness of countries and their interests make them subject to pressure from the Zionists.
...The status of the United Nations has never gone so low as when it considered the partition plan. On its stage, it was revealed: bad bias, rude pressure and vile bribery....
The United Nations has wounded itself by buying and selling itself in the market.

Obviously, it is Jewish money that forces the world to bend to Zionist wishes.

Israel-hating Arabs and Muslim countries would never do that. Why waste money when threats of violence gain the same benefit for free?

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!

Seeing Through Distorted Media Coverage of Israel (Guest post by Jerry Schwartz)

Guest post by Jerry Schwartz

I recently took a three-week trip to the United States from Israel to visit family and friends. At each visit they pounced on me for information about the situation in Israel. Even though they all follow current events in the American media, the news they were getting about the war between Israel and Hamas left them bewildered.

This is not surprising. A recent research article published in the journal Israel Affairs studied the coverage of this war by the New York Times. The findings were damning, among them “misquoting Israeli leaders, employing questionable journalists..., misleading repeated errors, inadequate corrections, significant omissions, and poor editorial supervision.” The authors concluded that “the Times pretends nothing has changed, but its newsroom has radically changed and does not uphold the same standards it once did. This misleads many readers who still believe they are receiving broad well-founded views, as well as accurate and impartial information.”

So widespread has distorted reporting on Israel in Western media become that watchdog organizations have sprung up to counter it. Two long-established examples are CAMERA and Honest Reporting.

Such reporting also tends to cause perplexity among visitors to Israel whose positive impressions clash with the negativity so widely portrayed in the media. One such visitor was Professor Cherryl Smith. In her book Framing Israel she defines and illustrates six patterns of distortion in coverage of Israel in mainstream media and campus discourse, and for each pattern gives the necessary basic historical background. Once you learn to identify them, the distortions will no longer leave you perplexed as you read the Washington Post or other major western media outlets, but will seem transparent and even unprofessional.

Chapters 1 and 2 lay out the impetus for writing the book. Chapters 3 and 4 are more academic and explain the theoretical underpinning of the method of rhetorical frames. Chapters 5 through 10 develop the six rhetorical patterns. The book is written in a personal, narrative style, and is engaging, not so abstruse as to make it challenging yet at a level that satisfies intelligent readers.

It’s a great book for incoming Jewish college freshmen to read and discuss during the summer preceding their first semester. They will be much better prepared to see through and resist the anti-Israel indoctrination and activism they are about to confront from their professors and fellow students.

Like my family and friends, I have always been a staunch supporter of Israel, and like them, I trusted NPR and the New York Times, except that their reporting about Israel almost always got my hackles up--until I read this book when it was first published four years ago. Since then I’ve been relying on other, more trustworthy sources for news and analysis about Israel.

The Israel-Hamas war has seen, and continues to see, egregiously distorted reporting. Rereading Framing Israel now, I find its unique way of deconstructing distorted media coverage of Israel–to our great dismay–more relevant than ever.

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!

Angry fans greeted the Turkish Beşiktaş football team on their arrival back from a defeat against the Maccabi Tel Aviv team in Hungary. But they weren't protesting specifically about the loss to the Zionists; they were protesting how poorly the team has bene playing altogether.

But one part of the match caused the Turkish fans to be very upset.

After scoring a goal, Gabi Kanikovski pointed to the Israeli flag on his uniform, looked up at the sky, and gave a salute.

Deputy Chairman of the opposition CHP Republican Peoples Party Ali Mahir Başarır called for the UEFA to ban Kanikovski from football, calling the salute a "crime against humanity" and "immoral."

Others noted that Turkey was penalized when all the players on their national team gave a coordinated salute after a goal in 2020, and Turkish player Merih Demiral received a two-game suspension for displaying a "grey wolf" sign after a goal in July. (The "grey wolf" sign is associated with a fascist group.)

The Turks are saying that if Turkey is penalized, certainly Israel should be for a hand gesture.

They are not remotely comparable. Kanikovski's salute was not political. And you can see it for yourself.

Why was he saluting the sky? The reason is that Kanikovski was not saluting the IDF but two of his friends that had fallen in the Gaza war, childhood friend Shauli Gringlick and Yaron Chitiz. He even named his own son after Shauli.

Don't expect any Turkish media to report that.

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!

London 2024 is Berlin 1936

Things are turning horrific in England for Jews.

Here are some incidents reported just the past week:

A 14-year-old ultra-Orthodox Jewish girl from Stamford Hill in London, was rushed to the hospital with serious head and facial injuries after being brutally attacked in what is believed to be an antisemitic incident. Her condition is reported as critical, according to local Jewish organization Shomrim.

The attack occurred when a man threw several glass bottles from his balcony at a group of ultra-Orthodox girls who were walking home from school. One of the girls was struck by a bottle and severely injured, and transported by ambulance to the Royal London Hospital.

______________

JFS pupils have spoken of their horror after their school bus was pelted with rocks and rubbish by teenagers from another school who shouted “f*ck Israel” at them.

Two of the buses used by the school were attacked by a group of around ten teenagers from another school as they made a stop in Edgware, north London.

Four teenagers also jumped onto one of the buses, swore at the JFS children and filmed them before getting out and throwing things at the bus.

______________

Leaflets with the writing “every Zionist needs to leave Britain or be slaughtered” were found spread around the streets of Hendon, a predominantly Jewish neighbourhood in north London.
The threatening message was written in Hebrew, and the leaflet also stated in English “Zionist Free Zone.” It also read “Ha, made you pick up litter you zianazi freak.”

______________

A King’s College London academic used a Hamas propaganda document to encourage her students to sympathise with the terror group, the JC can reveal.

Dr Rana Baker, a lecturer on Middle Eastern history, led a seminar earlier this year in which she handed out the Hamas text titled “Our Narrative: Operation Al-Aqsa Flood” and suggested students think about the terrorist organisation as a “liberation” movement.

She also remarked on the “collaboration between Zionists and Nazis” and the “deployment of the Holocaust as a justification to build an exclusive Jewish state”.

______________

Several BBC staff members quit the journalists' union after being told to wear the colors of the Palestinian flag, Jewish News reported on Wednesday.
The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) and the Trades Union Congress (TUC) reportedly sent messages asking workers to “wear something red, green, black or a Palestinian keffiyeh.”
This directive is part of a Day of Action for Palestine, an event calling for a permanent ceasefire in Gaza.

_____________

A Merseyside councillor who joked that complaints of antisemitism in Labour should be labelled “Jew process” rather than “due process” gave antisemitism training to the Green Party.

_______________

The restaurant critic Jay Rayner left the Observer because “there are antisemites on the [Guardian] staff” and the editor, Kath Viner, “likes to deny it,” he wrote on a private Facebook post seen by the JC.
In the post, Rayner wrote: “I'm not sorry to be leaving Guardian newspapers. For years now being Jewish, however non-observant, and working for the company has been uncomfortable, at times excruciating.
"Viner likes to deny it but there are antisemites on the daily's staff and she has not had the courage to face them down. For years now I have made a point of sending her a back channel email each time the Guardian has published another outrage. It will be a joy to know that I'm not a part of that anymore.”

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!

11/28 Links Pt2: Gad Saad: My Chat with Erin Molan; Former hostage Mia Schem engaged; Media Amplifies “Video” Used to Excuse Amsterdam Violence — Does it Exist?

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: Trump will bring ‘seismic change’ to the world

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will bring about a “seismic change” to a world in need of urgent reforms, the British conservative political thinker and journalist Douglas Murray said in Jerusalem on Wednesday.

“There is, and I say this carefully, there is a rather large, orange-colored hammer that has just landed, or is about to land, on this whole sea and I think this will change things seismically,” Murray said during an event at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center organized by the NGO Monitor research institute, speaking during a discussion on stopping groups that drive anti-Israel and antisemitic agendas.

“And I think that what America does in this moment will really matter because so much of this is so rotten,” he added.

Murray, who has emerged as a top supporter of Israel over the past year of war, said that Trump usually does what he says he will do, and that the declarations of members of his Cabinet speak for themselves.

He cited the proposed removal of U.S. federal funding from universities “which don’t teach their students anything other than how to become radical activists and waste their lives,” as well as cutting funding to the U.N.

“And we all know this, and you all know this, but something has to be done about it at a seismic level, at a level that will shake everything in this in this rotten tree.” British journalist Douglas Murray and NGO Monitor Vice President Olga Deutsch and President Gerald Steinberg discuss groups that drive anti-Israel and antisemitic agendas, during an event at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem on Nov. 27, 2024. Photo by Yehoshua Halevi.

The event focused on the critical role played by international organizations over the last quarter-century in promoting anti-Israel activities that have now gone mainstream.

“Many of these NGOs which have nice sounding names have gone rotten,” Murray said. “They all have this sort of smoke screen facade of decency and morality and under that smoke screen, they could get away with doing absolutely evil things.”

He cited as case in point the U.N.’s Palestinian aid agency UNRWA, which has been repeatedly connected to terrorism during the war against Hamas in Gaza but continues to receive funding from much of the world, including the U.S.

“There is nothing that UNRWA can do that will not prevent Europeans and other Western governments from funding them,” Murray said. “There can be UNRWA employees carrying out massacre and you’ll say, well, who else is there to fund? Which you would say, ‘Lots of people. Non-massacre people.’”

The Canada we loved is disappearing with the normalization of Nazi and jihadist activity

Being Canadian used to be a profound source of pride for us in the Jewish community. Growing up in Toronto meant living in one of the most ethnically and racially integrated cities in the world, a true mosaic of diversity and coexistence, built on the backbone of countless immigrants.

Like many nations, Canada’s history is not without its dark periods. Our community has long been aware of its antisemitic past, particularly during the Holocaust when Canada shamefully accepted only a negligible number of Jewish refugees despite what was happening to Jews under the Nazis. The infamous phrase, “None is too many,” epitomized the government’s stance at the time, a chilling indictment of its moral failure.

Yet, despite this grim chapter, Canada emerged as a beacon of moral clarity on the global stage under prime minister Stephen Harper. His administration stood as one of Israel’s staunchest allies, unwavering in support of its right to self-defense, starting in 2006 in the Second Lebanon War all the way up until Operation Protective Edge in the 2014 Gaza War. Canada was the first country to cut aid to the Palestinian Authority after Hamas’s election and consistently opposed biased, one-sided UN resolutions against Israel. These actions showcased Canada as a principled leader, unafraid to stand firm in its convictions despite global criticism.

But the Canada we once knew and loved now feels unrecognizably distant. Since well before October 7, 2023, Canadian Jews – and, indeed, many average Canadians – have been abandoned. Hateful antisemitic and anti-Canadian protests have erupted nationwide, where agitators openly glorify Hamas and Hezbollah terrorists while desecrating the Canadian flag. Calls to “globalize the intifada” and praise for the groups responsible for atrocities have become alarmingly common.

One particularly harrowing incident occurred outside the Beth Avraham Yoseph of Toronto (BAYT), one of the city’s largest synagogues. Pro-Hamas activists viciously protested and harassed members of the congregation during an event. In the last week of May 2024, a Jewish school for girls in Toronto was the subject of gunfire, a yeshiva (Jewish seminary) was similarly shot at in the middle of the night in Montreal, and a synagogue in Vancouver was set alight by protesters after a hate-filled rally.

On those same streets of Vancouver, Samidoun’s Charlotte Kates chillingly chanted “Long Live October 7” and lauded various terror groups as “resistance fighters” and “heroes.” Although the Canadian Parliament eventually sanctioned Samidoun as a sham charity linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terrorist organization, this action came after years of harm inflicted on Canadian soil. Only after the group, so emboldened by government inaction, began to shout “Death to Canada” and burn both Israeli and Canadian flags during memorials marking the anniversary of October 7, did the Canadian government finally shut it down.

Media Amplifies “Video” Used to Excuse Amsterdam Violence — Does it Exist?

The New York Times Corrects
After CAMERA called on authors and editors to substantiate their claim, the New York Times (eventually) came clean with readers. It didn’t have the alleged video.

The paper published corrections, removed references to the video, and changed the report so that it attributed to “city officials” the allegation about the alleged chants. (The amended report doesn’t consider whether city officials, who don’t speak Hebrew, may have fallen victim to the same mistranslations that appeared to trip up Times reporters.)

Before the piece was corrected, though, the claim spread further — crafted on social media, blasted out by the New York Times, and repeated, for example, in a Globe and Mail opinion piece that links to the Times piece when condemning the purported chant. After a German journalist pointed to the New York Times and its questionable quote, his newspaper, Frankfurter Allgemeine, led readers to believe the quote appears on video.

And on, and on, and on it rippled. Wikipedia currently cites the New York Times and Frankfurter Allgemeine when claiming: “Israeli fans were captured on video chanting ‘Death to Arabs,’ ‘Let the IDF win’ and ‘Why is there no school in Gaza? There are no children left there.’”

The quote appeared elsewhere. Al Jazeera mentions it repeatedly. Various arms of Turkish state media describe the supposed video. The Guardian’s Jon Henley refers to “verified social media videos” of the quote, and his paper repeated the claim a day later. The Jewish Chronicle stated as fact that the words were chanted by fans headed to the soccer match. The Media Line reported that video from Amsterdam showed of chant.

After contact from CAMERA, the author of the Media Line piece made clear he couldn’t substantiate the claim, and the piece was changed to say that chants “reportedly” included the words in question. The Jewish Chronicle, too, acknowledged it had no video, and quietly changed its piece so that the charge was attributed to a “city official” and Frankfurter Allgemeine.

Frankfurter Allgemeine informed CAMERA that it didn’t, in fact, have video. (Editors defended their language with a technicality: While the allegation appeared in a paragraph that that opened by describing video of Israelis, which itself appeared in a section that opened by describing video of Israelis, the offending sentence didn’t restate the word “video.” The reporting, they insisted, was based on eyewitness claims — though the article didn’t attribute the claim, and instead reported it as fact.)

The Guardian reader’s editor said she would look into the issue. The Globe and Mail columnist did not reply to a call for substantiation.

11/28 Links Pt1: There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Ceasefire with Lebanon’; Hezbollah lost 4,000 fighters; Send in the clowns, arrests at Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade

From Ian:

Seth Mandel: There’s No Such Thing As a ‘Ceasefire with Lebanon’

Yesterday, President Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron crowed that, “after many weeks of tireless diplomacy, Israel and Lebanon have accepted a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.”

Between Israel and Lebanon? Have there been hostilities between Israel and Lebanon? Because it would be very silly to have Lebanese troops patrol the buffer zone if the buffer zone is meant to separate the IDF from Lebanese troops.

It’s wonderful that “Israel and Lebanon have accepted a cessation of hostilities between Israel and Lebanon.” Whoever this “Lebanon” guy is, he sounds nice. But I have no idea what he’s doing here.

Last week, men almost surely hired by Iran murdered in cold blood a Jerusalem-born Chabad rabbi in Dubai. Are Biden and Macron working on a “ceasefire” between Israel and the United Arab Emirates? Of course not, and no one is even suggesting such a thing, because it would be patently ridiculous on its face and arguably a mockery of the victim.

So that’s the conceptual absurdity of this ceasefire. What about its practicality?

“Eight vehicles and a motorcycle carrying Hezbollah personnel arrived at the ruins of Kfar Kila near Matula,” Israel’s Kann News reported this morning. “The IDF force that was on the spot drove them away with warning shots.”

Metula is an Israeli town on the border with Lebanon. Hezbollah had begun the ceasefire by advancing on Israel. Wrong direction, guys! Like legendary Vikings defensive end Jim Marshall recovering that fumble against the 49ers in 1964 and then running 65 yards into the wrong end zone—except on purpose.

And Israel’s response was to fire warning shots, because anything more aggressive—anything actually appropriate to the threat, in other words—would have triggered condemnation from the very allies that negotiated this ceasefire.

The Lebanese Armed Forces cannot enforce this ceasefire. If they could, they would have already cleared the area of Hezbollah, which has been operating with impunity for four decades. And the UN peacekeepers are Hezbollah’s trusted allies—that may sound harsh but it is just plain fact.

Yes, Israel is hoping to run out the clock on the Biden administration and have freer range of action once Donald Trump takes office. But Hezbollah knows Biden is on his way out, too, and that Trump is on his way in. And the enemy always gets a vote. Sometimes that vote is expressed by a nine-vehicle Hezbollah convoy encroaching on Israel’s sovereign border, in contemptuous contravention of a ceasefire signed by “Lebanon.”

Avi Issacharoff: Hezbollah can only claim Pyrrhic victory, but the real one is Israel's

While Hizbullah spokesmen may claim victory, the reality is clear to most Lebanese citizens. Hizbullah suffered a devastating defeat in the recent conflict.

Israeli intelligence demonstrated its ability to locate Hizbullah operatives down to the level of company commanders and including those facilitating weapons smuggling from Iran through Syria.

This campaign will undoubtedly be studied in military academies as a model of how Israel, through a combination of deception, tactical ingenuity, precise intelligence, combat spirit and soldierly sacrifice, managed to bring the conflict to a decisive close once the decision was made to act.

Israel had allowed Hizbullah to grow unchecked over the past 17 years without decisive action to stop its military buildup.

After the ceasefire, Hizbullah will undoubtedly resume its reconstruction efforts. Will Israel act decisively to prevent Hizbullah's next military buildup?

Ben-Dror Yemini: IDF's achievements against Hezbollah are tremendous and we should talk about it

Hizbullah's strength was supposed to deter Israel from any contemplation of striking the Iranian nuclear program. Everything written about Hizbullah's potential was accurate.

Then Israel struck Hizbullah with the pager operation, with massive bombings of missile and rocket depots, and with the elimination of Nasrallah and other top leaders in an unprecedented achievement.

Israel comes out of this conflict much stronger and Hizbullah has folded after a heavy blow.

Israel is in a position of strength. We lost this strength once because of a conciliatory approach. It must not happen again.

International Tourism Down, Taxi Drivers Forced To Price-Gouge Israelis (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Ben-Gurion International Airport, November 28 - Deprived by the consequences of an ongoing war of clueless visitors from abroad whom they can fleece by charging unreasonable rates, local cab operators find themselves struggling to generate the same extra cash by doing the same to the more seasoned, long-term residents of the country, an industry group reported today.

A spokesman for the Organization of Navigational Automotive Associates (ONAA) shared its members lament this morning that the lack of tourists since last October 7 has all but crippled taxi drivers' opportunities and abilities to gouge naive passengers with inflated prices, since the only remaining marks for the venerable scam are locals who are wise to any such attempts to defraud them.

"It's difficult to adapt to this situation," acknowledged Rami Ramai, ONAA's deputy director. "On paper, the standard, metered rate for a trip from the airport to, say, Jerusalem is a few hundred shekels, assuming only light traffic on the highway. On paper, that's supposed to cover the fuel, wear and tear, maintenance, insurance, and registration costs, plus a reasonable profit. But regardless of what the meter might say, often the driver and passenger will negotiate a flat sum for the trip in advance. Still, that's perfectly fine, and drivers know their lower limits. But again, that's just on paper - in reality we don't want merely a reasonable profit. We're here to exploit the innocent."

Ramai explained that while seasoned Israelis will not fall for the "I give you big discount" line, enough tourists do, resulting in flat sum notably in excess of what drivers can expect from local customers - and some drivers have become dependent on the extra income from fleecing foreign visitors, principally Americans. With the war since October 7, 2023, scaring off many airlines, foreign tourist traffic has decreased markedly, and with it, the opportunities to score exploitative profits from travelers - and putting nearly half of ONAA's members in a financial bind.

"A lot of us are still paying off mortgages, or loans for the taxis themselves," noted Ramai. "Even those who don't have to worry about those problems, most of them, are still reliant on the price-gouging to make the difference between mere subsistence and some measure of a comfortable lifestyle. Gouging tourists became, however informally, a fixed part of many families' budgeting. Now we have to find ways of separating less-gullible people, cynical and suspicious Israelis, from their money, and it's not easy."

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!

Kosher Egyptian French Fries - in Israel

We don't hear much about trade between Egypt and Israel, besides natural gas. But it is happening, even with the cold peace between the two.

Yerushalimey sent me pictures of a brand of frozen French fries at his local grocery in Israel.

When he looked at the back, he saw something unusual:

It is made in Egypt.

Not only that...

It's kosher!

French fries require certification, since they get fried during their manufacture and the oil must be kosher as well as the equipment. (Chances are the oil used in this brand are kitniyot, which is why they are only kosher for Passover for Mizrahi Jews.)

Which means that some Israeli rabbi or rabbis must be traveling to Cairo to verify how the fries (or chips, if you prefer) are manufactured.

Of course, now that I published this, there's a danger that Egyptians will start attacking the manufacturer and accuse it of "genocide," which is becoming the go-to response for anyone who deals with Israel in any way.

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!

On November 21, UN Watch reported a major story:

UN Watch has revealed that UNRWA’s previous head Pierre Krahenbuhl met repeatedly with leaders of Palestinian terrorist organizations, including one meeting where he called for their covert partnership and unity. The practice has continued under UNRWA’s current commissioner Philippe Lazzarini.

At a gathering in Beirut in February 2017, Krahenbuhl met with the Hamas chief of foreign relations, Ali Baraka, who was recently indicted by the U.S. government for “heinous crimes.” Baraka managed Hamas ties with Tehran and other regimes including Syria and Iraq. Days after the Hamas massacre of October 7th, Baraka claimed that the group had been planning the attack for two years, and he revealed the existence since 2021 of a Palestinian Joint Operations Room among the various factions. “We made them think that Hamas was busy with governing Gaza, and that it wanted to focus on the 2.5 million Palestinians there, and has abandoned the resistance altogether. All the while, under the table, Hamas was preparing for this big attack,” said Baraka.

The head of UNRWA at the same gathering also met with Abu Imad al-Rifai, the leader of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Lebanon, who boasted about sending a wave of suicide bombers to Baghdad in 2003 to kill American and British troops.

At the meeting, UNRWA’s Krahenbuhl emphasized the “spirit of partnership” between the terrorist groups and UNRWA. He invited them to privately challenge any UNRWA decision, which he could then change or “tear up,” while also urging that their “discussions not be made public.”

If their meetings were to be publicized, said Krahenbuhl, who now heads the International Red Cross, that “could challenge our credibility” — and “lead to a loss of trust between donor countries and UNRWA, which might result in reduced or even terminated funding.”

In the discussions with the terror chiefs, Krahenbuhl acknowledged that UNRWA’s role was not primarily about aid distribution. “We will not abandon the role entrusted to us, to be the historical witness to the injustice that has befallen the Palestinian people,” he said.

This is as damning as can be. It proves that UNRWA cooperates with terror groups, and it tries to hide it. It proves that UNRWA's main mission is not to aid Palestinian "refugees" but to "be the historical witness" by perpetuating the fake refugee problem.

This comes on top of evidence that UNRWA schools were run by Hamas leaders, and students are being taught to hate and attack Israel. And UNRWA employees are stealing aid meant for Gazans - according to Gazans themselves.

UNRWA cannot argue about these facts. So it responds by calling it "disinformation."

From Philippe Lazzarini, the UNRWA Commissioner-General:

The spread of disinformation against UNRWA is meant to create chaos & divert attention from the political aims to dismantle the Agency.

It is distraction from what really matters: The devastating impact the war in Gaza & the region is having on civilians & the work that our UNRWA teams continue to do to save lives.

The spread of false information continues unabated causing harm to Palestine Refugees by undermining the only UN agency dedicated to providing humanitarian assistance, education + primary health care to one of the most vulnerable communities in the region.

UNRWA is the international community’s instrument put in place to address the plight of Palestine refugees in the absence of an alternative & until a just political solution is found.

Most importantly, this dis-information campaign is putting the lives of my colleagues in the occupied Palestinian territory including Gaza at further risk.

Before you share, double check the source & question the intent. Ask, why is this information out there?

Avoid becoming an echo for disinformation & de facto of fueling hate.

It’s more harmful than you think.

What, exactly is the disinformation and false information? Has Lazzarini denied the transcript of his predecessor cozying up to terrorist leaders? Has UNRWA denied that Hamas leaders were also school principals? Has UNRWA brought any proof that UN Watch is lying?

Of course not. Because they can't.

The only distraction happening is UNRWA trying as hard as it can to distract attention from its own complicity in terror.

Arguing that UNRWA provides some services to vulnerable people and therefore shouldn't be touched is like saying that same about Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, all of which run social service programs. It is like arguing that a surgeon who never went to medical school should not lose his or her license since only 10% of their patients died from their incompetence.

And, no, these revelations are not meant to "divert attention" from political aims to dismantle the agency. They are very clearly meant to dismantle the agency.

It should have been done decades ago.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

This is the cover of The International Jew: The World's Foremost Problem, written by Henry Ford, translated to Arabic.

You can buy this book at the Kuwait International Book Fair, this week.

Other titles that are either explicitly antisemitic or bizarre Zionist conspiracy theories:

So We Don't Forget: Jewish Crimes... Zionist Hatred by Essam Shaker

The Jewish conspiracy against Mesopotamia until the fall of Babylon in 539 BC: an analytical study, by Dr. Hassan Obeid Issa

What the Russians wrote about the Jews A collection of books

Forced displacement of Jews, a goal or a crime? by Hadi Muhammad Al-Shadookhi (his answer is "goal")

Sabbatai Zevi and the Secret Life of the Donmeh Jews by Dr. Jilani Kokjan

A book called Zionist Mentality

The Nile Basin Water Agreements and Zionist Ambitions by Muhammad Abdul-Mumin Abdul-Ghani (a conspiracy theory that Israel planned to take over the Nile River Basin)

Judaism is a doctrine of racial superiority by Mohammed Nimer Al-Madani

The Strategy of the Zionist Entity between Settling the Palestinian Issue and the International Balance of Power (After Oslo - the Beginning of the Third Millennium) by Dr. Ashraf Mahmoud Abu Amer

The abomination of desolation.. Establishing the Zionist temple on the ruins Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem by Osama Marai

Plus four editions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, published in Syria and Lebanon.

There are hundreds of books listed on the site that mention Jews or Zionists in their titles, but the database lookup is very slow so these are the ones I found first.

Iran, of course, is exhibiting.

Many of the books have innocent sounding titles but they end up being antisemitic once you research them.

At the fair, the American publisher Scholastic has a huge booth, lending legitimacy to this.

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!

In the autumn of 1789, President George Washington call for November 26 that year to be "a Day of public Thanksgiving and Prayer, to be observed by acknowledging with grateful Hearts the many and signal Favors of Almighty GOD, especially by affording them an Opportunity peaceably to establish a From of Government for their Safety and Happiness. . ."

On that November 26, the spiritual leader of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel, Gershom Mendes Seixas, delivered a sermon on giving thanks for the United States, especially the Constitution.

The sermon was so well received by the public that it was published as a booklet the following month.

The speech describes the obligation to thank God for everything good that happens; indeed, it is the only way we could possibly fulfill the obligation to "know ye the Lord is God." It includes a brief history of the Jewish people and even includes what would be called Zionism today: "From the circumstances we are led to believe, that though we, by our sins and transgressions, as well as by the sins of our fathers, are involved in this captivity, yet we may, by an acknowledgment of our evil actions, find grace in the sight of our Creator, and again be restored to our own land; for this we have many strong assurances in the sacred writings...when that we should return unto the Lord with a contrite heart, a true spirit and sincere repentance; that he will then hearken unto our prayers and supplications, and cause us to be again established under our own government, as we were formerly..."

It was republished in 1977 as "A Religious Discourse: Thanksgiving Day Sermon, November 26, 1789" but that booklet is out of print.

Here is the full text of Chazzan Seixas' sermon. It is a worthwhile read.

----------------------------------------------------

THE subject I have chosen to expatiate on this day, is taken from the three first verses of the 100th psalm, where we find King David, in a particular manner, address ALL inhabitants of the earth in these words—“Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands,” and earnestly exhorts them “to serve the Lord with gladness, to enter into his presence with a singing.” In all exhortations of this kind, there are two things to be attended to: the one is the station, and the other the character of the person who undertakes the office of exhorter.

In respect to his station, you cannot but allow him to have filled the most eminent, the most dignified that human nature can boast of, for the sacred scripture mentions his both as a prophet and a king, and he is therein stiled the anointed of God. As to his general character, his writings are sufficient to evince his faith and hope in God; that he was pious, just, and upright in his ways, is incumbent on us to believe, as he was expressly called “the man after God’s own heart;” and when we view him both as a prophet and a king, we cannot but be sensibly affected with the endearing language he uses throughout his writings. Observe how tenderly he invites you to hearken to his instructions, in Psalm 34, v. 11– “Come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.” Could he have called you in a more affectionate manner than by the name of children? Is there a tie in nature more binding than subsists in a parent towards his child? Surely not; if there was, no doubt he would have used it to express his tenderness to his fellow creatures. Possessed of all the principles of benevolence, he breathes forth love and peace to man; how strenuously does he recommend the practical duties of religion, and points out the many advantages that necessarily arise from a due observance of God’s holy law; and in Psalm 3, the last verse, he declares, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” A knowledge of God, and his works, is the material principle he endeavours to inculcate; for immediately after his advising you to “serve the Lord with gladness,” he tell you the chief duty you owe to your Creator in these few words—“Know ye that the Lord he is God;” not with the authority of a despotic king to his subjects, or a master to his slave, but with persuasive language he intreats, in the gentle strains of consequence he intrusts, his voice is the voice of reason in its greatest state of perfection, and his arguments are universally acknowledged to be founded in truth and justice.

You may here ask, how is it possible for us finite beings to attain a knowledge of God? Are we endued with the faculties to comprehend that which is infinite? It is generally (though wrongly) asserted as a thing impracticable. But when we reflect on the wondrous works of his creation, that “the heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament sheweth the works of his hands,” are we not most forcibly led to exclaim, with the royal psalmist, “How wonderful are thy works, O God!” It is only through the medium of these things that we can arrive at a proper knowledge of God, and from a study of ourselves, we become capable of forming suitable ideas of his divine attributes; from the providential care of his creaturs, we judge of his benevolence; from the manifestations of his tender mercies towards us, we judge of his beneficence; and from the various productions of nature, we judge of his omnipotence. A Being, possessed of such powers (and attributes) is forever to be adored; and we only comply with our duty, when we assemble, to render praise and thanksgiving for all his benefits towards us. The wonderful display of his divine providence, “in the course and conclusion of the late war;” the happy consequences derived therefrom, by an establishment of public liberty; the recent mercies conferred on these states, by the general approbation and adoption of the new constitution, are (ALL) blessings that demand our most grateful acknowledgments to the Supreme Ruler of the universe; more especially, as we are made equal partakers of every benefit that results from this good government; for which, we cannot sufficiently adore the God of our fathers, who hath manifested his care over us in this particular instance; neither can we demonstrate our sense of his benign goodness, for his favourable interposition in behalf of the inhabitants of this land, and for every other kind of dispensation bestowed both on them and us. What return can we make to so glorious a Being? How are we to shew our gratitude? King David himself, although inspired, seemed to be at a loss to express his sense of the obligations he acknowledged to have received, as you may find in Psalm 116 v. 12—“What shall I render unto the Lord for all his benefits towards me?” and the only mode he could devise, was by declaring he would publish the name of the Lord; as he says in the next verse—“I will take the cup of salvation, and call upon the name of the Lord:” that is, I will acknowledge the salvations, the benefits I have received, and publish the name of the Lord, to make known that he is the fountain of all good, the dispenser of all benefits. The acknowledgment of favors received by a dependent creature, is all the return he can make to his creator; the proclaiming that goodness to all men, the only thanksgiving in his power. It would be digressing too much from the subject to enumerate all the instances mentioned in the [sacred scriptures] to prove that this calling upon the name of the Lord means a publishing the belief of a God; teaching the world a knowledge of his glorious attributes; preaching faith and good works among the sons of men, in the manner as it is recited of Abraham; when, after he was called by God to quit the place of nativity, his kindred and the house of his father, that he went on his peregrinations, and at every place where he arrived, and pitched his tent; he built an altar unto the Lord, and called upon the name of the Lord, as you may find particularly in Genesis ch. 12, vs. 7 and 8; the belief of an eternal God had, in his day, almost become obliterated; by which means an immediate revelation was necessary to renew the knowledge of a true God. And Abraham not only taught his own offspring and houshold the tenets of his faith, but he was disposed to promulgate them to all mankind; for we find in Genesis ch. 18, vs. 17, 18 and 19 when the Lord was about to destroy Sodom and Gomorrab for the grievousness of their sins, that he said—“Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, feeling Abraham shall become a great and mighty nation, and all nations of the earth shall be blessed in him; for I know him, that he will command his children, and his houshold after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment.” This knowledge of God has been progressively obtaining from the earliest ages of the creation; and though the greater part of the world were idolaters in Abraham’s time, still he persisted in his researches after truth, and by a steady faith and perseverance, he at last attained it, and, by his universal charity, communicated it to the rest of the world, inasmuch that it has now become almost universal, although the different nations of the earth do not altogether agree in their ideas respecting the Supreme King of Kings, still they maintain the essential doctrines of his holy law in point of morality; and in this enlightened age, we may reasonably hope to see our prophetic writings thoroughly fulfilled, that the knowledge of the Lord shall finally become so diffused and extensive as “the waters cover the sea.”

. . . It may not be amiss here to remind you of the situation we are now in, and what we were in antient times, whilst we rended in our own land, in that land which the Almightly swore unto Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them, and to their seed forever; at that time, when a man became conscious of having transgressed any of God’s holy commandments, either by commission or omission, he had an opportunity of making an atonement by sacrifice, which he carried to the Temple, either as a trespass or sin offering, according to the nature of his offence; the high priest, with the inferior order of priests were ever ready to attend any one who applied for expiation; and by an humble confession of the sinner, and a promise of amendment, his sin was forgiven. But, alas! through the multitude of our sins, and the sins of our ancestors, we are brought into this deplorable captivity, where we have neither temple, altar, or priest, to make atonement for us; nor have we any other means of imploring the Divine Favor but by words and deeds, which we find were earnestly recommended by the latter prophets, as may be seen in the book of Hosea, ch. 14, v. 2— “Take with you words and turn unto the Lord, say unto him, take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously; so will we render the calves of our lips.” This practice of public prayers was continued, after their time, by the heads of the great Synagogue, and from them in a regular descent to us, by which we are enabled to offer up our supplications to our Creator, to render praise and thanksgiving to him for all his tender mercies towards us; and in the language of King David will I say, “I will offer unto thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving, and I will publish the name of the Lord.”

The practical duties of our holy religion are to be found in almost every part of the sacred scriptures; but from an habitual negligence of applying to them, in the occurrences of human affairs, mankind becomes depraved. Attend only to what is said by our divine legislator Moses, in Deuteronomy ch. 10, vs. 12 and 13, in these words, “And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee—but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, to keep the commandments of the Lord, and his statutes, which I command thee this day for good” . . . .

From these instructions, we are led to reflect on the great and glorious author of our existence. How does the human mind become elated with the idea of being worthy his providential care! It is then we discover the dignity of ourselves; then it is that we may truly say with Job, who, after he had suffered almost every temporal evil, exclaimed, “And from my flesh I see God;” meaning thereby, that the formation and construction of our natural bodies were manifest evidences of a God: for what power, except the omnipotent self-existing Being, could ever have formed to compleat, so complex a creature as man; endued with all the benevolent and social virtues, yet subject to the most flagrant vices, vices that are productive of destruction, both of body and soul. Man is to be viewed in two different states with respect to God, the comparative and the relative. When in the comparative, what are we? what are our lives? what are our actions? how mean! how insignificant! But when we consider the relative state we stand in towards God, that he hath formed us after his own image, how important, how dignified do we appear! Capable of reasoning on things both present and absent; searching into the mysterious operations of nature; exploring the works of an almighty Providence, in enabling the human mind to contemplate futurity; improving and increasing in knowledge; possessing faculties to comprehend the movements of the heavenly spheres, thereby admitting the necessity of a great first cause, determining rules of right, judging of things proper or improper according to their various degrees.[2] How grateful therefore ought we to be to our Maker! Who hath of his own good-will, and not from any merit in us, bestowed on us such precious gifts; gifts that we cannot but be sensible of every moment of our lives. As we confess in our daily prayers, (in these words)—“For thy miraculous providence which is daily with us, and for thy wonders and thy goodness which are at all times, evening, morning and noon, exercised over us,” for all which, we are loudly called on, to render praise and thanksgiving, as it is expressed in Psalm 13, v. 6, “I will sing unto the Lord, because he hath dealt bountifully with me.”

But amidst your rejoicings, it is necessary that you still keep in remembrance, that “the Lord he is God, that he hath made us, that we are his, even his people, and the sheep of his pasture;”[3] consequently, as we are his peculiar treasure, we are at all times, and upon all occasions, bound to obey every rule that he hath ordained; to place our hope and dependence on him, by which we may obtain his blessing, as it is said in Jeremiah, ch. 17, v. 7—“Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord, and whose hope the Lord is;” to rest assued of his tender mercies; for in Psalm 145, v. 9, you will find these words—“The Lord is good to ALL, and his tender mercies are over ALL his works.”

As an earthly king is ever watchful over his subjects, and a parent over his children, seeking their peace and prosperity, endeavouring to accomplish their happiness, so is the Almighty ever watchful over his people; providing bountifully for their natural wants, continually inspecting their conduct, as it is written (in Psalm 33 vs. 13 and 14) “the Lord looketh from Heaven, he beholdeth all the sons of men; from the place of his habitation he looketh upon all inhabitants of the earth,” rewarding and punishing them according to their merit or demerit; slow to wrath, but not entirely acquitting; his anger endureth for a moment, but his mercies are everlasting; from his efficient grace, pointing out the road of salvation through the medium of his prophets; inviting sinners to repentance, as may be seen in the book of Jonah, in a very particular manner; when the inhabitants of that great and famous city of Nineveh had become heinous sinners in the sight of God, he ordered Jonah on an embassy to them, to exhort them to repentance and amendment, with assurances of forgiveness if they would forsake their evil practices; they were soon convinced of their folly and wickedness, and immediately devoted themselves to fasting and prayer. It is here necessary to remark, that faith alone is insufficient to procure salvation, for we find the Almighty only had respect to their actions; they ceased to do evil, and sought after that which was good. This was pleasing to the Lord, and he spared the city on which he had denounced destruction, agreeable to holy-writ, where it is said—“He that confesseth and forsaketh (his wickedness) shall find mercy.”

From the circumstances we are led to believe, that though we, by our sins and transgressions, as well as by the sins of our fathers, are involved in this captivity, yet we may, by an acknowledgment of our evil actions, find grace in the sight of our Creator, and again be restored to our own land; for this we have many strong assurances in the sacred writings from our first and greatest prophet, who was called the faithful servant of God, as you may find in Numbers (ch. 12, v. 7) and in Deuteronomy (ch. 34, v. 10) it is said of him—“There arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face;”—from his time, even unto Malachi (who lived in the time of the second temple, and was the last of our prophets) the same assurances are given of our restoration, when that we should return unto the Lord with a contrite heart, a true spirit and sincere repentance; that he will then hearken unto our prayers and supplications, and cause us to be again established under our own government, as we were formerly; then shall the lost tribes of Israel be again embodied and united to the house of Judah, as represented in a figurative manner in Ezekiel, ch. 37. Then shall there be but one shepherd and one king to rule over them, as it is said in verses 24 and 25—“And David my servant wherein your fathers have dwelt, and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children’s children, for ever.” In a word, from the chapter to the end of the book, you will find a reference to that glorious day which every true Israelite looks for with anxious expectation; and in the 47th chapter, it is even mentioned of the stranger that sojourneth among you, that he also shall have inheritance in the land with the tribes of Israel. “In whatever tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance saith the Lord God.” This is an explicit proof that we shall be established under our own king—the Messiah, the son of David. . . .

These are assurances on which we may rely; they are the express declarations of infinite goodness. What a fore-taste of happiness; for who among God’s creatures can boast in the manner we may, that hath seen and felt the miraculous effects of his all gracious providence so often and so fully as we and our fathers; as Moses elegantly describes it in Deuteronomy ch. 4, vs. 7 and 8—“For what nation is there so great who hath God so nigh unto them as the Lord our God is in all things that we call upon him for. And what nation is there so great that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law which I set before you this day.”

Let us only revolve in our minds the many different situations that we and our fathers have gone through since the time of our first progenitor among the Patriarchs; for so soon as the promise of the holy land was made unto him he became a sojourner therein, and in the course of four hundred years his posterity had been sojourners, and at last became mere slaves to a people who knew not the Lord; they were cruelly oppressed in bondage until they cried unto the Lord; who heard them from his holy habitation, and sent Moses and Aaron to redeem them; they were delivered from their oppressors, and were going to take posession of the promised land, but by their own evil actions they were involved in a forty years wandering in the wilderness, and after having been settled by Joshua, who was immediate successor to Moses, they again fell off from the service of God, and thereby incurred divine punishment. The Judges succeeded him until the time of Samuel, and then they rebelled against the majesty of their Maker, and desired an earthly king, who was given to them in wrath, as it is mentioned in the sacred scripture, and they were never at peace until the close of king David’s reign, which was of but short duration, for their proneness to evil always had the ascendancy. For we find, although king Solomon, particularly blessed with wisdom, built the temple according to divine directions, appointed an high-priest, consonant to the institution of the office, to perform the services thereof; and the inferior order of priests, with the singers and attendants, still a general defection soon took place, and they again became sinners in the sight of their Creator, who raised up an instrument of vengeance against them in the person of the Assyrian king, who took many of our brethren captives, and sent them into distant countries, as you may find in 2 Kings, ch. 17 and 18. Where they are not known by any among us, even at this day; and there remained only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, with the priests and Levites, who were either in their respective offices, or had inter-married with these tribes, who were all accounted as one tribe only, as it is written in the 18th verse of the 17th chapter of the second book of Kings, in these words—“Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel, and removed them out of his sight; there was none left but the tribe of Judah only.” Nor did they long refrain from following the evil examples of their captive brethren, for we find that a few years afterwards the Babylonish captivity took place, where they remained seventy years, until the time of Cyrus the Persian king, who liberated them from their captivity, made them many valuable presents, and restored to them a considerable number of things that belonged to the sacred temple, as you may find at large in the book of Ezra, they were re-established in their possessions, they rebuilt the temple and renewed the services pertaining thereto, which they contained until the final destruction made in Vespasian, in consequence of their abominations; in a word, they were always so refractory, that they were seldom at peace; but whenever they returned unto the Lord, and repented them of their sins, they were sure to find mercy. From that period even till now, our predecessors have been, and we are still at this time in captivity among the different nations of the earth; and though we are, through divine goodness, made equal partakers of the benefits of government by the constitution of these states, with the rest of the inhabitants, still we cannot but view ourselves as captives in comparison to what we were formerly, and what we expect to be hereafter, when the outcasts of Israel shall be gathered together, as it is said in Isaiah, ch. 27, v. 12—“And those who are lost in the land of Assyria, and the outcasts in the land of Egypt shall come and worship in the Lord in the holy mount of Jerusalem.” But unless we return unto the Lord and sincerely repent us of our sins and transgressions, as well our “private as those of a national nature,” we cannot rationally expect to see the accomplishment of the sacred text. How necessary is it therefore for us to unite in a general reformation of manners? Who knoweth but at this very moment, while we are yet speaking, we may be snatched hence from all the pleasures and allurements of this transitory state, to appear at the awful tribunal of divine justice, where every one must render an account of his actions?

The many visitations of an almighty providence which we have experienced within these few years past, are sufficient indications, to a sensible mind that we are suffering under his displeasure. Awaken from your lethargy, and think, before it is too late, of your dependence on him, humble yourselves before him, and implore his mercy. I mean not to impeach the innocent victims that have been made, far from it, they suffer not; for as the royal psalmist says— “Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints;” and the prophet Isaiah says, “The righteous perish and no man layeth it to heart; and merciful men are taken away because of the evil. He shall enter into peace; they shall rest in their beds, each on walking in his uprightness.” But it is we that suffer; it is we that have cause to lament. Where now, ye youths, is the fostering hand of age and experience, to lead you through the slippery paths of life? In what manner can we comply with that excellent [exhortation] given to us by our faithful legislator, “Ask thy father and he will tell thee?” Who is to plead the cause of the widow and fatherless? Their cries are now in vain! We have lost our benefactors; we have lost those who, in cases of necessity, were ever ready to assist us with their advice and their interest.[4]—These, these are calamities that ought to humble you. Lay aside your pride and your vanities; strive to imitate the virtues of those worthy characters who are now no more. Be not lifted up above yourselves; but know, for a certainty, that he who exalts can depress. Let us not apply to ourselves that short but expressive sentence, “and forsook the God that made him.” Let us not have cause to reproach ourselves with neglect of duty: but do justice, execute judgement, and walk humbly before the Lord; for this is all that he requires.[5] Then shall we be able to sing and rejoice both in body and spirit, and truly say, “This is the day which the Lord hath made, we will be glad and rejoice therein.”

Then shall ye know that the Lord he is God, and that there is none other beside him. Then will be as it was in the time of Ahab, when there were no less than four hundred and fifty false prophets that offered sacrifices to Baal; and Elijah, of blessed memory, remained alone the faithful servant of our only true God—the God of Israel—as you may find at large in the first book of Kings, ch. 18. When, after the false prophets had invoked their idols for a length of time, as Elijah had proposed to them, and they received no answer to their supplications; then it was that Elijah built an altar with a trench surrounding it—he prepared a sacrifice, and ordered a considerable quantity of water to be poured upon the sacrifice, the wood, and the altar—the trench also was filled with water—and about the evening time of offering, he intreated the God of Israel to hear him, and make manifest his truth and his holiness; when, immediately after, the fire came down from Heaven, in the presence of all the people, consumed the sacrifice, the wood, and the altar, and even licked up the dust thereof, and absorbed the water that was in the trench; insomuch that the people saw the impositions they had suffered by the wickedness of their then rulers, and, as if universally inspired, they fell upon their faces, and with one voice cried out—the Lord, HE is the God!—The Lord, HE is the God!

From the foregoing, you will naturally observe the duties we owe our Creator: it now remains to point out the duties which we owe to ourselves, the community to which we belong.

In the first place, it is necessary that we, each of us in our respective stations, behave in such a manner as to give strength and stability to the laws entered into by our representatives; to consider the burden imposed on those who are appointed to act in the executive department; to contribute, as much as lays in our power, to support that government which is founded upon the strictest principles of equal liberty and justice. If to seek the peace and prosperity of the city wherein we dwell be a duty, even under bad governments, what must it be when we are situated under the best of constitutions? It behoves us to use our utmost endeavours to suppress every species of licentiousness; to unite, with cheerfulness and uprightness, upon all occasions that may occur in the political as well as in the moral world, to promote that which has a tendency to the public good for, without a proper subordination to the rulers (either superior or inferior) no government can (long) exist.

And, secondly, from this mode of general government may be deduced the necessity of conforming to the established rules of particular societies: for, whatever is necessary to be observed in respect to the former, may be with the greatest propriety applied to the latter.

And lastly, to conclude, my dear brethren and companions, it is incumbent on us, as Jews, in a more especial manner (seeing we are the chosen and and peculiar treasure of God) to be more circumspect in our conduct [Isaiah, ch. 44, v. 8.]—that as we are at this day living evidences of his divine power and unity: so may we become striking examples to the nations of the earth hereafter, as it is mentioned in several passages of the sacred scriptures, and particularly in Exodus, ch. 19, v. 6. “And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation;” meaning thereby that we should, in the latter days, teach the law to those who shall then enter into the covenant made with Abraham our father, for in him “shall all nations of the earth be blessed.” For this purpose, let me recommend to you a serious consideration of the several duties already set forth this day; to enter into a self-examination; to relinquish your prejudices against each other; to subdue your passions; to live, as Jews ought to do, in brotherhood and amity; “to seek peace and pursue it:”[6] so shall it be well with you both here and hereafter; which God, of his infinite mercies, grant.—Amen.

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