Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 16, 2018

04/16 Links Pt1: Glick: Germany Abets a New World War; Trump pressure pushes Jordan to choose Israel or PLO; Assad is More Dangerous than ISIS

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Germany Abets a New World War

Of course, the U.S. itself views with alarm Iran’s threats against Israel specifically and its nuclear weapons program generally. Not only is a nuclear-backed threat to commit genocide a serious one, a nuclear-armed Iran could easily instigate a new world war.

Alarmingly, in the midst of Germany’s malign efforts to protect Iran and Hezbollah from sanction while permitting them to operate throughout Europe, for the past seven months, the U.S. has been without an ambassador in Germany. Democrats in the Senate are blocking the confirmationof seasoned Republican diplomat Richard Grenell.

While the White House waits for the Senate to permit the U.S. to be represented by an ambassador, the Germans have broken a deal with the U.S. and Israel to permit Israel to run for a rotating UN Security Council seat unopposed. Germany shocked both Israel and the US by opting to run against the Jewish state in the June election. The move ensures, once again, that the Jewish state will be denied representation at the Security Council.

It bears noting that Germany’s central role in empowering Iran and Hezbollah undermines the central rationale of Germany’s postwar governance. For 70 years, the Federal Republic of Germany has insisted it learned the lessons of its past aggression and crimes against humanity.

After fomenting two world wars and carrying out the most egregious genocide in human history, the Germans insist they abjure aggression and take seriously their “special responsibility” to protect the Jewish state. But Germany’s treatment of Iran and Hezbollah on the one hand, and its treatment of Israel on the other hand, indicate that whatever lessons the Germans may have learned, they missed the two most important ones.

First: If you wish to prevent a world war, you shouldn’t empower forces that seek to initiate one.

And second: If you are committed to preventing evildoers from enacting another Holocaust, you shouldn’t enable evildoers committed to annihilating the Jewish state from acquiring the means to do so.

Peter Lerner: The Gaza border – Israel’s White Cliffs of Dover

The Palestinians of Gaza are three weeks into a six-week campaign, the #GazaReturnMarch, that is expected to build up to May 15, or Nakba Day, the day Palestinians mark the establishment of the State of Israel, and their dispersal, chosen or forced, throughout the region.

The main motif of the campaign is the right to march to the lands lost 70 years ago, and as one journalist said, the mixture of participants in the events so far include disenchanted, unemployed young men that wouldn’t know what to do if they crossed the fence but also Hamas’ armed wing, Izzadin Kassam terrorists, that want to attack the IDF along the border fence.

The underlying message, missed by most of the media coverage so far, is the wish to trample the border and extinguish hope for a two-state solution. Beyond the immediate security consequences, this is a main reason for concern, exemplified by one image of a Nazi swastika pitched up alongside the Palestinian flag.

There have been many images of the wounded and killed, and of rocks being hurled, as well as some firebombs and shooting.

Every life lost is a tragedy, and while the IDF went to extensive lengths to convey the message of the dangers of storming the fence, the IDF used live ammunition as a last resort, in a controlled manner to limit casualties, and specifically targeting the lower extremities of violent rioters. Hundreds of people storming into the Israeli communities adjacent to the fence would have most definitely been more lethal. Nevertheless, the deaths must be investigated, and lessons will be learned. This past weekend we experienced less violence on the border fence, which explains the reduction in casualties.

The reality in Gaza today is one of despair, a desperation that is a result of the bad decisions Hamas’ leaders have made. This is one reason for people coming to protest. But for almost 11 years now Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron fist. That iron fist was chosen by the Palestinian people – but they chose the Islamists over the corrupt Fatah. Since 2007’s violent coup by Hamas, there have been wars, rockets, tunnels and death. Too many deaths.

UNRWA, the EU and the map

The visit of the European Union Commissioner for Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations, Johannes Hahn, to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) schools in the Beddawi camp in Lebanon on 27 March was an important and welcomed visit by UNRWA. The EU is now the biggest donor to the UN contributing EUR 82 million to the 2018 UNRWA budget.

But events surrounding the visit also reveal UNRWA’s and the EU’s incapability to deal with extremism in the camp.

Ahead of the commissioners visit to the Beddawi camp, UNRWA decided to polish the facade of its camp. The Palestinian news site Al-Quds News reports that UNRWA had told the inhabitants of the camp:

1. That they had to remove from schools UNRWA flags carrying ”slogans” against the official UNRWA policies.

2. Visible maps of the Palestinian one state solution in which Israel is erased and replaced by an Arab Palestine had to be removed also.

The removal of one such in the Kawkab-Battouf School for Girls caused a lot of angry feelings among the Palestinian Arabs. Terror organizations like Hamas complained and spoke in Palestinian media of the humiliation among those who had to remove the maps, claiming that the decision violates the so called right of refugees to their identity.

The EU commissioner came, gave some speeches and left.

Arab Youm recently went into the famous story of how Jews were turned into apes and pigs according to Islamic legend.

The Quran (2:65) refers obliquely to the story:

And well ye knew those amongst you who transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath: We said to them: "Be ye apes, despised and rejected."

It is interpreted like this:

This Ayah means, O Jews! Remember that Allah sent His torment on the village that disobeyed Him and broke their pledge and their covenant to observe the sanctity of the Sabbath. They began using deceitful means to avoid honoring the Sabbath by placing nets, ropes and artificial pools of water for the purpose of fishing before the Sabbath. When the fish came in abundance on Saturday as usual, they were caught in the ropes and nets for the rest of Saturday. During the night, the Jews collected the fish after the Sabbath ended. When they did that, Allah changed them from humans into monkeys, the animals having the form closest to humans. Their evil deeds and deceit appeared lawful on the surface, but they were in reality wicked. This is why their punishment was compatible with their crime. This story is explained in detail in Surat Al-A`raf, where Allah said (7:163),

(And ask them (O Muhammad ) about the town that was by the sea; when they transgressed in the matter of the Sabbath (i.e. Saturday): when their fish came to them openly on the Sabbath day, and did not come to them on the day they had no Sabbath. Thus We made a trial of them, for they used to rebel (disobey Allah).)(7:163)

In his Tafsir, Al-`Awfi reported from Ibn `Abbas that he said,

(We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected'') means, "Allah changed their bodies into those of monkeys and swines. The young people turned into monkeys while the old people turned into swine.'' Shayban An-Nahwi reported that Qatadah commented on,

(We said to them: "Be you monkeys, despised and rejected''), "These people were turned into howling monkeys with tails, after being men and women.''

In short, the story goes, Jews went around the spirit of the Sabbath law by putting nets to catch fish on Saturday even though they were doing no work, and they were punished by being turned into monkeys and pigs, according to this Islamic legend.

However, the question of whether a Jew can set up nets before the Sabbath and catch fish that way is discussed in the Talmud, in a Mishna in Shabbat 17b:

ב"ש אומרים אין פורסין מצודות חיה ועופות ודגים אלא כדי שיצודו מבעוד יום וב"ה מתירין
Beit Shammai say: One may spread traps for an animal and birds and fish only if there is sufficient time remaining in the day for them to be trapped in them while it is still day, and Beit Hillel permit doing so even if there is not sufficient time remaining in the day.

Beit Shammai nearly always rules more strictly than Beit Hillel - and Beit Hillel nearly always is the one whose arguments win in Jewish law.

The Islamic story gets Jewish law exactly wrong. Placing the nets is acceptable in Jewish law as interpreted by the Talmud.

The early Islamists knew the Talmud, as is evidenced from the many Talmudic legends that made it into the Quran.

So this story is indeed an antisemitic story, but it goes beyond that - it is apparently an attack on the Talmudic system of jurisprudence, where lenient opinions are often accepted as mainstream. Islamic scholars were seemingly aghast at the idea of "loopholes" in Jewish law provided by the Talmud, and this story is a way for them to assert themselves morally superior not only to Jews, but specifically to the Jews who follow Talmudic law - which is what all normative Jews follow.

When Muslims complain about "Talmudic rituals" today, it might not be a recent phenomenon. It is possible that Muslims felt threatened by the Talmud from their beginnings, which came after the Talmud was completed. They sometimes try to justify Mohammed as a successor prophet to the Biblical prophets, but the Talmud would contradict that idea, so it could be that the Muslim antipathy to the Talmud is quite old indeed, and this story is merely one early example of it.

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Al Akhbar (Lebanon) reports on a European offer to help Gazans.

According to the report, the EU contacted Hamas through a third party to say that if PA president Mahmoud Abbas would impose further sanctions on Gaza, the EU would take over all humanitarian issues and salaries to Gaza civil employees. The EU would receive all the tax revenues that Israel collects for the PA (I assume the percentage that would go to Gaza, not all the revenues.)

To sweeten the deal for Israel to pay the EU directly and not Abbas, Hamas would pledge not to support any military operations for some unspecified number of years and to prevent any other terror groups from doing the same.

This sounds far fetched, and the PA would never agree to it. I can't tell from the article if this is an official EU proposal or just some NGO trying to throw stuff on the wall to see if anything sticks. Also, Al Akhbar is pro-Hezbollah and anti-PA.

According to the article, Hamas is studying the proposal.

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Amnesty criticizes Roger Waters for acting like @Amnesty

Amnesty's Kristyan Benedict has lashed out at Roger Waters.

Not for his absurd pro-Hamas positions, but for his pro-Assad one:

The article that he refers to says:

The founder and frontman of British band Pink Floyd has echoed Russian propaganda claims that Syria's White Helmets had staged a recent chemical attack that has prompted US-led strikes against Damascus.

Roger Waters made the accusation during a concert in Barcelona on Friday after announcing that a supporter of the volunteer first responders had wanted speak to the crowd about the deadly chemical attack.

"The White Helmets are a fake organisation that exists only to create propaganda for the jihadists and terrorists," Waters said.

When it was pointed out to Benedict that Amnesty and Waters have worked together in the past, on the basis of Waters' purported human rights work as he obsesses about Israel and "Israeli" influence on world media and politics, Benedict acts surprised.

Yet Amnesty had an employee from 2011 to 2016, who had openly admired Palestinian terrorists and leaders who praised blowing up Jews on his Facebook page. The employee remained on their payroll for some 18 months after it was pointed out to them, and they never said anything against him..

Amnesty has carried water for Hamas by claiming that scores of terrorists were "innocent civilians" killed by Israel.

Benedict has refused to answer my points - because he knows that Amnesty is just as much a tacit supporter of anti-Israel terror by its one-sided reports that blame Israel more than Palestinian terrorists by a 20-1 ratio as Roger Waters is a supporter of Syria's regime.

And now Amnesty is claiming that Roger Waters is only a fool with respect to Syria but still a stand-up guy with respect to supporting Palestinian terror?

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How deluded is the Jewish left?

I wrote last week about Jerome Segal, an apparently aging hippie and founder of the Jewish Peace Lobby, who is upset that J-Street is not endorsing him against fellow Democrat Ben Cardin, and who had hoped that he could raise $5 million from J-Street.

If you thought he was on 'shrooms beforehand, wait for this.

He sent out another email where he quoted my entire article, not distinguishing between my quoting him and my making fun of him, so his readers have no clue what I really wrote. (And no link to my article so they could see it for themselves. What are you afraid of, Jerry? Actually, I think that he simply doesn't know how to use links.

He quoted me in order to galvanize whoever bothers reading his screeds, saying:

Segal has appealed these decisions, made by J-street President Jeremy Ben-Ami to the J-Street Board, all of which has delighted the right wing organizations. Thus one blogger group that calls themselves "the elders of Zion," wrote: "Nutty peacenik upset that J-Street won't endorse him for Congress"

After quoting my entire article in a way that no one could actually read it, he writes:

All this gave Dr. Segal a big laugh. He predicted that 100,000 Palestinians will write to the citizens of Maryland asking them to Vote: Jerry in the Ben or Jerry Primary, and it will swing the election.

Yes, Jerome Segal believes that 100,000 Palestinians will write to the citizens of Maryland to ask them to vote for him - and this will help him win.

I predict that zero Palestinians will write to citizens of Maryland on behalf of Jerry Segal.

Let's see who's closer.

Seriously - this poor deluded man is one of the founders of the "peace" movement.

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German news site describes Israel destroying a Hamas terror tunnel as IDF "violence"

German news outlet ZDF covers the story of Israel destroying a Hamas tunnel meant to kidnap and bomb Israelis as an example of more "violence" (Gewalt.)

The violence on the border between Israel and the Gaza Strip does not stop. Israel is destroying another Hamas tunnel, but is more cautious [this time.]

Israel's army has claimed to have destroyed another attack tunnel of Gaza-ruling Hamas. The tunnel has reached tens of meters into Israeli territory, said army spokesman Jonathan Conricus. It is the fifth tunnel of this kind that Israel has destroyed in recent months.

No explosives were used in the destruction, Conricus said. In the destruction of a similar tunnel last October, twelve Palestinians were killed.

Yes, what a cycle of violence. Hamas builds tunnels to kill Israelis and Israel destroys them.

Oy gevalt.

In case the bias of commission wasn't egregious enough, note the bias of omission: The 12 (really 14) people killed when the tunnel was destroyed in October were all Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists. But to ZDF, they are implied to be civilians. (The impression one gets from reading this story is thatIsrael is "more cautious" because it doesn't want to kill as many civilians this time)

(h/t Petra)

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04/15 Links: IDF destroys ‘longest and deepest’ Hamas attack tunnel; Israel rebukes German paper for claim Jews took Arab land to create Israel; Corbyn wants ‘dialogue’ with Assad, sanctions on Israel

From Ian:

Israel rebukes German paper for claim Jews took Arab land to create Israel

An Israeli diplomat in Berlin reprimanded leading weekly Die Zeit for the cover story of its current issue, which argues that Jews from across the globe “settled Arab lands” to build the State of Israel.

“@zeitonline, friendly reminder: Jews have been living in this land since the time of King David, King Solomon and Jesus,” embassy spokeswoman Adi Farjon tweeted on Thursday.

The article’s headline, “Israel at 70: Why is There No Quiet in This Country?” triggered outrage over the omission of historical facts.

The paper asserted that “Jews from across the world settled Arab lands and simply created facts out of which the State of Israel grew.”

Responding to the omissions in the article, the Anne Frank Educational Center wrote on its Twitter feed that the “historical background of the founding of Israel is not mentioned [nor] centuries-old antisemitism & the Shoah.”

The Frankfurt-based organization added: “Why did Die Zeit not write that since Israel’s creation in 1948 its existence has been threatened?”

Netanyahu: The West should treat Iran the same way it treated Syria

The same resolve the US, Britain and France showed in standing up to Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria needs to be shown in preventing terrorist states and organizations from getting nuclear capabilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone conversation Saturday night with British Prime Minister Theresa May.

Netanyahu, who was referring to Iran, spoke about this conversation at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting.

US President Donald Trump has given the European powers – France, Britain and Germany – until May 12 to fix the Iranian nuclear agreement signed in 2015. If it is not satisfactorily altered, he has warned, he will walk away from the deal.

Netanyahu reiterated that Israel fully supported Trump's decision to act against Assad's use of chemical weapons, and added that Jerusalem welcomed the French and British participation in the mission.

Netanyahu said he told May that “the important international message that was given with the attack was zero tolerance for the use of non-conventional weapons. I added that this policy also needs to be expressed in preventing terrorist states and organizations from obtaining nuclear capabilities.”

UN Watch: Corbyn wants ‘dialogue’ with Assad, sanctions on Israel

Jeremy Corbyn’s latest calls for “negotiations for peace” and “a political settlement” in response to Assad gassing to death his own people are part of a pattern whereby the UK Labour Party leader calls for “dialogue” with murderers he likes, as when he called the Hezbollah terrorist group his “friends” with whom the UK should promote “peace, understanding and dialogue.”

In marked contrast, however, when Israel has taken military action to defend itself against Hamas terrorist attacks and rockets fired at civilian population centers, Corbyn’s response is not to call for negotiations, but rather to demands sanctions and “justice” against Israel. As shown below, he has never called for sanctions or justice in regard to Syria.

Did you ever notice that when it comes to Israel, Jeremy Corbyn calls for sanctions, but when Assad gasses his own people he advocates "diplomatic efforts" and "negotiations"? https://t.co/qI22cB8JJ2 pic.twitter.com/nP9K3sAZw8
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 15, 2018

Did you ever notice that only hours after the flotilla incident Jeremy Corbyn found Israel guilty & demanded sanctions, yet when Syria repeatedly gasses its people to death he refuses to ever blame Assad but needs to wait for "UN-led investigation" that he knows Russia will veto? pic.twitter.com/TA1idT7voB
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) April 15, 2018

CORBYN: I’D ONLY BACK SYRIA ACTION IF RUSSIA DOESN’T VETO IT

Corbyn continues to say intervention in Syria should only take place through the UN. Which Russia has repeatedly vetoed…

"I can only countenance involvement in Syria if there is @UN authority behind it" - Labour leader @jeremycorbyn tells #marr https://t.co/ylyDFV9zQ7 pic.twitter.com/A7r2a9mZ78
— BBC News (UK) (@BBCNews) April 15, 2018

This video shows Israeli soldiers approaching a Gaza kid who is at the fence.

They give him a "Bissli" snack.

Even if there were any Western reporters in the area, do you think any of them would have publicized this?

(h/t Yoel)

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AP has an analysis of why Gazans want to demonstrate against Israel at the border.

Although the named purpose of the demonstrations is to "return" to Israel and destroy it, the AP's Josef Federman and Dan Perry really don't bother to mention that. Even though the name of the demonstration is the "Great Return March."

Apparently, the fact that Gazans are brainwashed to want to destroy Israel by "returning" to a land most of them never lived in is not worthy of being mentioned.

[I]t’s just the latest reflection of basic facts on the ground: the situation for the 2 million people of Gaza is extraordinarily harsh and difficult to resolve. It’s not surprising so many would risk death by converging on the border fence, which has now happened three Fridays in a row, with dozens killed and hundreds injured.
By and large the people of Gaza — over two-thirds of them descended from refugees who left communities in what is now Israel — cannot leave their tiny strip of arid land along the Mediterranean coast. Anger toward Israel runs deep, yet dependence is great.

The analysis of the players in the region is not terrible, but Federman and Perry miss the real impetus for Hamas throwing its weight behind the riots. They know the facts but they cannot draw the lines:

While the bulk of the article blames Israel for the "blockade" on Gaza, it only mentions in passing the important facts:

For years, President Mahmoud Abbas, based in the West Bank, tried to retain influence in Gaza by paying salaries to tens of thousands of former civil servants and funding fuel shipments from Israel to generate Gaza’s electricity. The unintended result: Abbas provided a safety net that helped keep Hamas in power.

A frustrated Abbas has taken a tougher line over the past year, scaling back electricity subsidies, reducing salaries of his former employees and now threatening to cut them off altogether.

These tough measures have added to the hardship in Gaza but had little effect on Hamas. A renewed attempt at reconciliation has deadlocked over Hamas’ refusal to disarm, collapsing last month after a bombing on the convoy of Abbas’ prime minister during a stop in Gaza.

Israel calibrated its measures to limit the damage Hamas could inflict while still allowing, as much as possible, Gaza civilians to live their lives. Abbas went way beyond that, sharply reducing medicines, electricity, fuel, salaries of critical infrastructure workers and the paperwork allowing Gazans to receive medical treatment.

It was Abbas' cruel moves that almost brought Hamas to its knees, forcing Hamas to agree to a unification deal that would have sharply restricted its power. But they two sides disagreed on the extent and the deal fell through. So Abbas maintains his own blockade, far beyond what Israel and Egypt do, with little international reaction.

Hamas is worried about its people revolting. Polls shows that Gazans now prefer Fatah over Hamas by a large margin.

So Hamas needs to get the people back on its side, distract them from their misery, act like it is the vanguard of the resistance, and - as usual - use Israel as the focal point of any actions.

The "Great Return March," based on the myths that Palestinians tell their kids from birth that they have a "right" to destroy Israel, fits Hamas' goals perfectly. It wasn't Hamas' idea but Hamas ran with it, since it was exactly what it needed to maintain its control over Gaza.

Getting people to die was exactly what Hamas wanted, to fuel successive riots and demonstrations.

The world media sees all the facts, but because of their skewed view of the region and their inability to look beyond Arab propaganda talking points, they simply cannot draw the lines and realize what the riots are all about.

The Great Return March is a magician's trick, a master class in misdirection to redirect potential Gaza anger at Hamas into anger against Israel.

And the fake "right of return" - the wish to destroy Israel - is a critical component.

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Gazans demonstrated today in support of the regime that gasses its own people.

A group of people in Gaza City denounced the US-led raids on Syria on Friday night, calling them "continued violations by the US administration on the sovereignty of the Arab countries."

They said that Syria will remain steadfast in the face of evil and terrorism practiced by the US, Britain and France.

Flags from Syria, Iran and Hezbollah were waved.

Hamas does not allow demonstrations that go against its own positions.

One of many ironic points made by speaker Talal Abu Zarifa was that "this aggression is an attack on international law against a member of the General Assembly of the United Nations."

Israel is also a member of the General Assembly.

This pro-Assad chant, although in Arabic, sounds exactly like the mindless leftist demonstrations one sees in Western college campuses.

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04/14 Links: U.S., British, French air strikes target Syrian chemical capabilities; Iranian drone shot down February was armed with explosives; 4 Islamic Jihad members killed in Gaza explosion;

From Ian:

Iranian drone shot down in northern Israel in February was armed with explosives

Israel revealed on Friday that an Iranian drone shot down in Israeli airspace in February after launching from an airbase in Syria was carrying explosives. The base was attacked on Monday, allegedly by Israel, in a strike that reportedly targeted Iran’s entire attack drone weapons system — prompting soaring tensions between Israel and Iran.

The Iranian drone shot down in February was carrying enough explosives to cause damage, military sources said. Its precise intended target in Israel was not known, they said.

The February incident marked an unprecedented direct Iranian attack on Israel. Israel’s acknowledgement of the nature of the drone’s mission “brings the confrontation” between Israel and Iran “into the open” for the first time, Israel’s Channel 10 news noted Friday.

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used a speech on Holocaust Remembrance Day this week to warn Iran: “Don’t test the resolve of the State of Israel.”

Iranian officials, for their part, have been vowing a response to the Monday airstrike, and an adviser to Iran’s supreme leader on Thursday threatened Israel with destruction.

The alleged Israeli attack this week on the base from which the drone was despatched is understood to have targeted Iran’s entire drone weapons system at the Syrian base, which was protected by surface-to-air missiles and other defenses, the TV report said.

David Horovitz: Attack drone revelation shows grave, immediate, adjacent threat to Israel: Iran

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long warned of the danger posed to Israel not many years hence by Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons. As of Friday night, Israelis are contemplating the danger posed right now by a non-nuclear Iran that is working to entrench itself in Syria.

Two months after an Israeli Apache helicopter shot down an Iranian drone dispatched from Syria, 30 seconds after it crossed into Israeli airspace, Israel’s military censors on Friday finally allowed local media to report that the drone was not merely taking surveillance footage, but was carrying explosives and was primed to attack and damage an unspecified target somewhere in Israel.

The timing of the revelation — which was accompanied by the Israeli Air Force’s release of footage showing the Apache downing the infiltrating Iranian drone — was plainly linked to a potent attack, carried out pre-dawn Monday, that reportedly caused substantial damage to a facility Iran has been building at the T-4 air base in central Syria, and from which that drone was launched on February 10.

While Jerusalem has been silent, the Monday raid has been widely attributed to Israel — by Russia, Syria, Iran and some in the US. At least seven Iranian military personnel were killed in the raid. Iran has threatened retaliation. A top Iranian aide to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran could destroy Haifa and Tel Aviv. Russian President Vladimir Putin asked Netanyahu not to cause
destabilization in Syria. And so, if anyone was asking why Israel would have risked the repercussions of a raid like Monday’s, Friday’s revelations evidently provided at last part of the answer:

Iran is now sufficiently emboldened as to directly attack Israel. The February drone attack was the first direct Iranian confrontation with Israel, after years of it employing Lebanese and Palestinian proxies to target the Jewish state from Lebanon, the West Bank and Gaza. That attack had real cost for Israel, which lost an F-16 in retaliatory raids later that same day.

Seth J. Frantzman: Three weeks: How Gaza’s mass protests are failing to make an impact

The “Great March of Return” protests that Hamas and Gaza activists launched on March 30 saw their lowest turnout in three weeks and the smallest number of casualties in clashes with Israeli forces, with one Palestinian killed and 528 reported injured on Friday.

Israeli authorities have been steadfast and on message about the protesters being a cover for violent action, while Hamas and the local activists have attempted to keep up the momentum. The proportion of those injured by live fire has declined by half, indicating a major reduction not only in the size of the protests but the level of violence along the border.

On the eve of the third Friday of mass protests in Gaza, the Hamas-run Health Ministry in Gaza published a list of casualties from the past two weeks, stating that 3,078 Palestinians had been injured, including 1,236 from live ammunition. It claimed four people had lost legs. Of those injured 445 were under 18 and 152 were women. Thirty had been killed. It also said 30 paramedics had been injured and 14 journalists, including Yaser Murtaja who was shot on April 6.

This Friday the protests didn’t reach the levels they had in the past. Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman tweeted that “from week to week there are fewer riots on our border with Gaza. Our resolve is well understood from the other side.”

The IDF tweeted that 10,000 had participated in the “rioting” on the border. It also posted a photo showing a “terrorist wielding an item suspected of being an explosive device” while crouching next to journalists and a handicapped person.

This terrorist wielding an item suspected of being an explosive device used for terror purposes while journalists & a handicapped person stand closely behind him pic.twitter.com/TjHopT3Rw2
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) April 13, 2018

04/13 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: Israel and Anne Frank's Jewishness; Melanie Phillips: The toxic reality of antisemitism in Europe; Brendan O’Neill Why do you hate Israel?

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel and Anne Frank's Jewishness

On the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, the New Israel Fund announced it signed a partnership agreement with Anne Frank Fonds, the foundation Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank, established in 1963 to administer the profits from the sales of her diary.

Frank’s diary has sold more than 30 million copies in 60 languages since it was first published in 1947. Its sales and global reach make it the most famous book authored by a Jew aside from the Bible.

The New Israel Fund’s deal with the Anne Frank Foundation is a symbolic expression of the existential struggle being waged in the Jewish world today. That struggle pits the government of Israel against much of the American Jewish leadership. It pits Israel’s public against the justices of the Supreme Court. It pits IDF line soldiers and commanders against the General Staff.

The effective merger of the New Israel Fund with the Anne Frank Foundation is the latest chapter in the theft of Anne Frank’s legacy, which began in the 1950s.

In 1952, a Jewish-American journalist named Meir Levin discovered The Diary of Anne Frank in French translation. Levin recognized that her diary was the ideal vehicle for telling the story of the genocide of European Jewry to the American public.

Frank was a Westernized Jew. Her family wasn’t religious. They were cosmopolitan German Jews who decamped to Amsterdam in 1933 when the Nazis rose to power, and immediately fit right in.

But for the Nazi occupation of Holland in 1940, Anne would likely never have received any Jewish education. But when the Dutch collaborationist government implemented the Nazi race laws, and expelled all Jewish children from public schools, in 1941 her parents were compelled to enroll her in a Jewish school.

As Prof. Ruth Wisse explained in her discussion of Anne Frank in The Modern Jewish Canon, Anne’s period in the Jewish school gave her a chance to develop a familiarity with Jewish tradition and history and to develop a positive sense of her Jewish identity.

“Thus,” Wisse wrote, “by the time the family was forced into hiding, she was well armed to face the assault against her as a Jew.”

Anne Frank House employee barred from wearing kippah

Of all the places on earth, the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam prohibited its Jewish employees from wearing kippot. The outrageous policy was changed only recently after a local media outlet intervened.

It all began when Barry Vingerling, a 25-year-old Dutch Jew, began working at the museum. He told NIW, the local news website for Jews and Israelis in Holland, that a while after he began working there he started wearing a kippah, and was promptly asked by the museum directors to remove it.

The museum's policy, Vingerling was told, was that religious symbols of any kind must be concealed from visitors to the museum (Dutch law applies to all public institutions in the country).

"I was stunned by the demand to take off the kippah," Vingerling told NIW. "Here of all places, where Anne Frank was forced to hide because of her identity, I have to hide my Jewish identity?"

Vingerling said he reported the case to his superiors, who told him the matter was being addressed. An answer, however, never came. Meanwhile, at his request, Vingerling was promised that the museum's board of directors would convene an official discussion on the matter in October 2017, but it has since been delayed until May 15.

Vingerling then turned to Rabbi Menno ten Brink, who serves on the museum's advisory board. Brink's answer, however, left him equally dumbfounded.

Melanie Phillips: The toxic reality of antisemitism in Europe

In France, Jews are being murdered by Muslims; in Sweden, the Netherlands and elsewhere, Jews are being attacked, threatened and intimidated. Who poses the greater threat to Jewish safety – the governments of Europe which are doing nothing to stop the influx that has so increased this threat, or Viktor Orban?

Some of the ultra-nationalist parties coming to the fore in Europe, such as the Austrian Freedom Party, Golden Dawn in Greece or Jobbik in Hungary, are indeed openly antisemitic or have Nazi pasts. And many Muslims are not only opposed to Islamist extremism but are its most numerous victims.

But those who ignore or deny Muslim antisemitism or other aggression effectively connive at its continuation. And that includes many Jews who denounce such concerns as “Islamophobic.”

Such Jews are themselves stoking the fires of antisemitism. People who are angry and resentful at mass immigration destroying their national identity bitterly resent being told by Diaspora Jews who have their own country in Israel that it’s racist to oppose multiculturalism.

It’s not only dangerous for Jews to oppose Europeans having their own national and cultural identity. It’s morally wrong. We Jews have ours. Why can’t they have theirs?

Mass migration into Europe is a toxic subject for Jews. But in this week when we have remembered the Shoah, we surely have a duty not to diminish antisemitism by exaggerating lesser dangers while ignoring or sanitizing the principal sources of this poison today.

Even for Haaretz, the interview that Nir Gontarz transcribed with Major Avichay Adraee, head of Arabic communications for the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, has nothing to do with journalism and everything to do with advocacy.

Instead of a normal interview, Gontarz transcribes every word of phone conversation he had with Adraee. He thinks it makes Adraee look bad. Instead, it makes Gontarz look very, very bad.

I saw what you wrote on Twitter.

About what?

About the honor of the Arab woman, who shouldn’t go out to demonstrate but stay at home and look after the children.

I didn’t write that she shouldn’t go out to demonstrate, I wrote that she shouldn’t go to terror demonstrations and throw rocks. The picture there made it very clear what the intention was.

I’m more interested in the second part: Did you really recommend that Arab women look after the house and children?

No, what I’m saying is that I quoted from what the Prophet Mohammed said what the woman I’ll translate it for you he says that a good woman is a woman who has honor, and a woman who has the interest of her home and her children at heart. That what interests her is the interest of her home and her children so she can be a good example for them. And in contrast, the bad woman is one who behaves selfishly and doesn’t set an example and is not um a mark of honor to the society from which she comes.

Adraee quoted the Quran about the role of the Muslim woman and pointed out that it is opposed to the idea of a woman throwing rocks. Being that his entire job is psyops, this is quite appropriate for his audience.

But Gontarz has no clue:

So you agree with the Prophet Mohammed, if you’re quoting him in this context.

What does it matter if I agree with the Prophet Mohammed?.

Gontarz, not realizing that he made no point whatsoever, goes on:

You also tweeted that burning tires is a non-Muslim act.

What Allah said, what’s written in Sura Verse 56 It says that Allah commands the believers not to harm the world that he created.

That that’s not environmentally friendly.

The Prophet Mohammed also said that the Muslim should plant trees, guard the soil, plant it, care for all living things and so on. And that it’s not environmentally friendly what burning tires do to the environment, to the soil, to the world that was created, that it goes against everything that’s written in the holy books.

Again, there is nothing wrong with the IDF pointing out to Muslims that they are violating their own holy book, just like there is nothing wrong with quoting international law. But Gontarz thinks this is evil.

He asks a series of questions (I'm not bothering with Adraee's answers, because the questions are what Gontarz wants the readers to read, not Adraee's responses:

Tell me, what exactly is this job you’ve taken upon yourself to interpret the Koran for them, as to how a woman should behave and how a Muslim should behave? Is this as a private person, or in the name of an IDF that is now also becoming an educator and Koran analyst for the Palestinians? This is the IDF’s job? You don’t think it’s a little patronizing for the Jewish officer from the occupying army to be teaching the Arabs how they should behave?

The colonialists and occupiers have always taught the “children” the “proper” way to behave.

To me your quotes read as if you’re a propagandist for the army. Not a spokesman. You’re a propagandist for the army.

Do you think it’s dignified for an Israeli officer to be teaching the Arab civilians who are under occupation or blockade how they should behave as Muslims? To be saying that a Muslim woman’s honor requires modesty?

As an Israeli citizen, I’m embarrassed by what you’re doing. You represent the cliché of occupation.

Last question: Should a Jewish woman also stay home and look after the children?

Gontarz, who reveals that he has no interest in any journalistic integrity or objectivity, nor in listening to his interviewees words, is complaining that the IDF spokesperson is not doing his job properly.

There is only one person in this article who is acting unprofessionally, and it sure isn't Adraee.

By the way, Gontarz publishes all his articles as full interview transcripts, including "How are you?" He interviewed a senior Hamas spokesperson about the "Great Return March" before it began, and had nothing at all critical to say about Hamas.

In fact, he said that they way Hamas described it, "It sounds like Woodstock."

It wasn't a sarcastic comment.

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Ruth Wisse
Professor of Yiddish Literature, Havard

Israel has been in for vicious criticism recently over its response to the violent Arab March of Return.

Hamas sent about 30,000 soldiers, and families of soldiers, to challenge the integrity of the fence between Israel and Gaza. They have also burned thousands of tires near that fence creating a local environmental catastrophe.

About seventeen people were killed in the first wave of this little adventure-slash-picnic and, according to some sources, about seven hundred people were shot by the IDF.

{This statistic, by the way, is difficult to believe. If the IDF shot up over seven hundred people there would definitely be more than seventeen, or so, dead.}

Simultaneously, Israelis are in an uproar over their version of the Middle East / African immigration crisis.

There are about 38,000 illegal immigrants from Africa in the country who have created their own little ghetto in south Tel Aviv. Some are calling that neighborhood "Little Africa." The high-pitched, table-pounding debate within Israel is about just what to do with these people.

The right-wing wants them deported because they are illegal immigrants and the left-wing wants them to move in with your grandmother.

In recent months it looked as if the Netanyahu government might deport them back to Africa, but a deal was struck through the offices of the United Nations wherein Western countries would take in half of those illegal immigrants and Israel would assimilate the other half. My sense is that this was a compromise that most on both sides of the argument could live with.

Needless to say, Netanyahu canceled the deal and now no one is happy. The left-wing in Israel is screaming from the rafters that this is cruel because all refugees deserve - as a friend of mine put it -"to have their specific, individual case heard by a fair system of refugee determination."

Meanwhile the right-wing is upset because of Netanyahu's unreliability and flip-flop-o'mania.

As the criticism of Israel begins to ramp-up in this current developing season of Israel Hatred, it is important to keep in mind some very wise words from Harvard Professor of Yiddish literature Ruth Wisse who, I assume, will forgive me for paraphrasing.

In a lecture a few years ago she used a metaphor to criticize the friendly critics of Israel who just wish that Israel was a more moral country. These are the kind of people who genuinely regret that Israel fails to be a Light Unto the Nations and who champion Tikkun Olam.

Professor Wisse asks us to consider the following scenario:

Let us imagine that you own a house in a particular neighborhood and one day a friendly neighbor dropped by for a beer and chit-chat on a hot summer Sunday afternoon. This is a guy who lives just down the street, who you know by first name, and who you've been more-or-less friendly with for years.

Suppose this neighbor suggested, as you're settin' on the porch, that you really needed to clean up your yard and house a bit because things are getting a little messy. He's talking as a friend to a friend and in an entirely non-hostile manner. You know, the yard needs a little weed-whacking and there is still that broken window in the second bedroom that must be replaced.

But let's say that, in truth, your house is the best-kept house in the neighborhood. The houses surrounding your house and those nearby are obnoxious wrecks. Yards are entirely overgrown like jungles. Roofs are caving in.

Neighbor kids are running around with slingshots, but no pants.

And let's say that you've always wanted to live peaceably with these neighbors, yet they throw rocks through your windows and threaten violence and death upon your family.

What would you think of your friend's advice to trim your weeds under those circumstances?

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04/13 Links Pt1: Palestinian "March of Return" Seeks to Undo the Reality of Israel; Totten: The Case for Bombing Assad;Is Jordan about to fall apart?

From Ian:

Palestinian "March of Return" Seeks to Undo the Reality of Israel

Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN partition plan, there would have been two states - the larger one Palestine, the smaller one Israel. The Jewish leaders accepted the proposal, reluctantly, but the Arabs rejected it and chose to launch a war that, despite all odds, resulted in the creation of the Jewish state. Seven decades later, the major stumbling block to peace remains Arab resistance to a Jewish state in the region, regardless of its borders.

The "March of Return" is not just an effort to mourn the Arab defeat but an attempt to undo it. Rather than face the reality of Israel, Hamas seeks to destroy it through violent means. Despite claims that the border protests are peaceful, the goal is to break through the physical barrier and wreak havoc on Israel's citizens.

Most Israelis hate the violence but are not ready to allow the state's borders to be breached so that their sworn enemies can come in and kill them. What country would?

While I have much empathy for Gazans who live in poverty, they should be venting against Hamas, which spends precious resources on digging tunnels and stocking up on rockets to attack Israel rather than attending to the needs of its people.

After the Holocaust and the decimation of the great majority of European Jews, the Jewish leaders of Palestine wept but did not whine. They proclaimed a state and fought valiantly to make it a reality. Palestinian leaders lost that war of aggression and still blame everyone but themselves for their predicament.

In the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, one side seeks peace and pursues the future with optimism, despite serious challenges, while the other seeks revenge and focuses on the past with bitterness and regret.

Official Palestinian TV Broadcasts Holocaust Denial

Two days before Holocaust Remembrance Day, an official Palestinian Authority (PA) TV channel broadcasted claims that Jews “colluded with Hitler.”

On April 10, 2018, PA TV aired an interview with Hani Abu Zeid, a Palestinian political analyst and commentator. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), a non-profit that translates Arabic, Persian and Russian media, reported on the incident:

Hani Abu Zeid: "The [Israeli] soldier, the officers behind him, and even the Israeli war [sic] minister, and above him, Netanyahu should stand trial as war criminals. The accumulation of cases, one after the other... The Israelis will end up shedding tears of blood [out of regret] for their current conduct. They used to cry about the false Holocaust in the days of Hitler, the scope of which was not that large. I'd like to point out..."

Interviewer: "The [Holocaust] is a lie that they spread worldwide."

Hani Abu Zeid: "Yes, it was a lie, and many Israelis, or many Jews, colluded with Hitler, so that he would facilitate the bringing of settlers to Palestine."

As the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has noted: “Holocaust denial and minimization or distortion of the facts of the Holocaust is a form of antisemitism.”

Yet, Holocaust denial remains commonplace in much of the Arab world, including in Palestinian society and culture. PA President Mahmoud Abbas, for example, claimed in his doctoral dissertation—done under Soviet auspices—that the Holocaust was exaggerated.

What is the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict Really About and How Will it End

Dr. Einat Wilf, former member of Israel's Parliament (Knesset), giving a definitive explanation as to the core of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and how it will end.

I received a very amusing email from the senate campaign of Jerome Segal, a professor who has been espousing the J-Street philosophy for many years before J-Street existed.

But he's unhappy with them now - because they won't endorse him:

Two alternative Jewish lobbies, the Jewish Peace Lobby and J-Street are locked in a conflict that may dominate the upcoming J-Street National Conference.

The issue is one of the keynote speakers: Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland.

The President of the Jewish Peace Lobby, Jerome Segal, himself a member of J-Street has challenged Cardin in the June Primary for the Democratic nomination.

Cardin is AIPAC's most prominent ally in the Senate. Segal says he has adopted the "big dog" strategy: to take down mega-lobbies like AIPAC and the NRA, go right at the "big dog" pulling the sleigh and send him into retirement.

Recent polling data by John Zogby Strategies suggests Segal could have an upset victory if he has substantial funding and a bit of luck. Last week luck started coming his way when the largest Palestinian newspaper, Al Quds, endorsed his candidacy. This kind of thing has never happened in the Arab world.

Yes - Jerome Segal considers an endorsement from a Palestinian newspaper to be fantastic news!

Segal had been counting on a J-street endorsement and funding. J-Street has 200,000 members and just $25 each would be $5 million, enough, in Segal's eyes to win.

If Segal expected J-Street to ask its members to give $5 million to his doomed campaign, he is completely crazy. The largest amount J-Street gave to any candidate in 2016 was $341,000, to Russ Feingold (who lost.)

Segal has a point that he is more ideologically aligned to J-Street than Ben Cardin, but J-Street is happy that Cardin is a Democrat and J-Street is far more interested in defeating Republicans than in inter-Democrat infighting.

J-Street, however, has declined to endorse Segal, and will not support his campaign financially. Not only have they given Cardin, a key AIPAC figure in the Senate, a keynote, they have refused to allow Segal to speak at the conference altogether.

In response Segal has prepared a glossy 20-page booklet, "Has J-Street Lost Its Way?" 3000 copies are now being printed and will be given to all attendees and press at the conference.

Segal's campaign site has a foreign policy section. Here it is in its entirety:

FOREIGN POLICY
1. Cardin is a vehicle of AIPAC, the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee, only second to the NRA in its influence over Congress. AIPAC carries the agenda of Bibi Netanyahu, for Israel and, unfortunately, too often for the United States as well. Twenty-nine years ago, I founded the Jewish Peace Lobby (www.jewishpeacelobby.org) as an alternative vision of what it means to be pro-Israeli. This campaign is the first time we, or anyone, has challenged AIPAC electorally, and challenged their tight grip on Congressional action on all things directly or indirectly related to Israel.
2. AIPAC/Cardin defends and shelters the aggressive settlement activity of the current Israeli government. This is destroying the possibility of the two-state solution, and thus, necessitates an Israeli choice between being a Jewish state or being a democracy. It is clear that democracy is losing in that contest. This is a heart breaking tragedy, and must be fought with all we have got.
3. Secondly, Cardin, again aligned with AIPAC, joined with all 54 Republican Senators in opposing the Iran Nuclear agreement negotiated by the Obama Administration. President Obama told us that the choice was either between the nuclear deal or the use of force against Iran. Bibi wanted an American attack. John Kerry confirmed this publicly a month ago. In effect, Ben Cardin voted for war against Iran. Anything he says to the contrary is BS.
4. Cardin, in his blank-check support of any Israeli government policy introduced legislation that would felonize (up to 20 years in jail) any American who joined and supported a boycott of the Israeli settlements, if that boycott was called by the United Nations or any of our European allies. The ACLU has condemned this as un-Constitutional, as has my excellent Congressman, Jamie Raskin, formerly a Professor of Constitutional Law.
Further, I join the Congressional Black Caucus in calling on Israel to halt the deportation of African refugees seeking asylum in Israel. Of course, Israel has to have control of its borders, but as a country that calls itself the Nation State of the Jewish People, Israel must be true to our people's historical experience. We must remember Exodus 22:21 "And a stranger shalt thou not wrong, neither shalt thou oppress him; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt."

Not a word about Syria or Russia or China or Iraq. His entire foreign policy is aimed against the government of a single nation: Israel.

He really is exactly like J-Street - only much dumber.

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Someone in Gaza is making lots of money manufacturing Israeli flags

Today's Gaza riots have the theme of burning the Israeli flag and raising the Palestinian flag.

Photos show that the Israeli flags they are burning are not close to what the real Israeli flag looks like - the blue stripes reach the border of the flag and the Star of David, perhaps symbolically and perhaps antisemitically, is broken up.

They couldn't have imported these flags from Israel, which means that somewhere in Gaza, someone is manufacturing hundreds of Israeli flags to burn.

Which brings to mind this German satirical video I once added subtitles to:

Meanwhile, women in Gaza are joining the festivities by painting their shoes as Israeli flags.

I don't know, it looks sort of fashionable to me.

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The dangers to Israeli citizens from the Gaza riots (that the media doesn't bother to explain)

Peter Lerner tweeted:

What the @NYT misses about the #GazaReturnMarch at the border fence.
The 5 protest camps are staging grounds for the violent riots.
Every camp is approx. 3000 Meters from the closest Israeli community.
The fence is the last line of defense! https://t.co/ueRdVXXby2 pic.twitter.com/oLE3mmTSjf
— LTC (R) Peter Lerner (@LTCPeterLerner) April 13, 2018

But the problem is arguably worse, because the entire border is susceptible to infiltration during the weekly riots, not just the areas where Gazans are gathering. Here are some satellite images showing how close Israeli communities are from Gaza - a short walk away in many cases.

Nahal Oz is about 800 meters from the border.

These four communities - from the top, Kisufim, Ein Hashlosha, Nirim and Nir Oz - are between 1-2 miles from the border.

The Kerem Shalom kibbutz is exactly on the border with Gaza.

Here's the thing. Only three weeks ago, a mere days before the first "Great Return March," Hamas held military exercises that were centered on kidnapping Israelis. Their exercises were centered on kidnapping Israeli soldiers, but their tunnel placement and the fact that they are holding Israeli citizens, today, as hostages show that they want to kidnap civilians as well.

Who is running these riots? Hamas!

The media that is blaming Israel for defending its borders is still completely missing the story.

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04/12 Links Pt2: Holocaust Remembrance Day 2018; Ben Shapiro: Why Israel?; Survey exposes American ignorance about Holocaust; Abusing Anne Frank's memory

From Ian:

Ben Shapiro: Why Israel?

Last week, Syrian dictator Bashar Assad used chemical weapons on his own people. The government of Israel responded to that atrocity, as well as Iran’s use of Syria as a thoroughfare for weapons transfers to terrorist groups like Hamas, by bombing Syria’s T4 airbase. The media responded by castigating Israel: for example, the Associated Press headlined, “Tensions ratchet up as Israel blamed for Syria missile strike,” and accompanied that story with a photo of suffering Syrian children targeted by Assad, making it seem that Israel had targeted the children.

That media treatment was no surprise — the week before, the terrorist group Hamas used large-scale protests against Israel on the Gaza border as a cover for terrorist attacks on Israeli troops. When Israeli troops responded with force, the media falsely suggested that Israel had indiscriminately fired into the crowd. Meanwhile, reporters touted the story of a supposed photographer killed by Israeli forces; it turns out that the photographer was a known Hamas officer.

A few weeks earlier and some 2,000 miles away in France, 85-year-old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was stabbed 11 times and her body set on fire by a Muslim neighbor who knew her well, and had convictions for rape and sexual assault. In 2017, there were 92 violent anti-Semitic incidents in France, a 28 percent year-on-year increase.

Moving across the English Channel, Israel’s Labor Party finally was forced to cut ties completely with the leader of the U.K.’s Labor Party, Jeremy Corbyn, a longtime anti-Semite who has routinely made nice with terrorists and defended open Jew-hatred in public. And, of course, in the United States, the alt-right’s anti-Semitism continues to make public discourse more crude and the Women’s March continues to make nice with anti-Semites such as Louis Farrakhan.

In other words, there is a reason for Israel to exist.

JPost Editorial: The Holocaust and Assad

If Syria, Russia and Iran are right and Israel did in fact carry out an attack on a Syrian air base a day and a half after Bashar Assad’s regime used chlorine gas against civilians in a Damascus suburb, the Jewish state should be proud.

On Holocaust Remembrance Day, as Israel commemorates the destruction of European Jewry at the hands of Nazi Germany and its allies in Vichy France, Austria, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, Ukraine and elsewhere, it is essential for the world – and the Assad regime – to know that indiscriminate acts of barbarism will not be tolerated.

US President Donald Trump was exercising a healthy moral sense when he responded strongly on his Twitter account to the atrocity committed by Assad’s regime against Syrians in Douma, including women and children.

“President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay.”

Trump’s Tweet should be followed up by military action and it should be backed by all civilized countries, particularly the nations of the European continent on which the Holocaust was carried out. (Russia, which prides itself so much on having destroyed Nazism during World War II, is now protecting the Assad regime and spreading lies that poison gas was not used in Douma.) The point of the military action is not to change the course of the civil war in Syria. Rather, the point of a combined US, European military strike that causes significant damage to the Assad regime’s military capabilities is to make a moral statement and, one hopes, to deter Syria from using poison gas against anyone in the future.

What makes the Syrian use of chlorine gas all the more despicable is that it was motivated not by desperation but by depravity. Assad, with the backing of Russia and Iran, has all but won the civil war. Forces loyal to him have surrounded Douma.

In any event, the ruthless murder of civilians is rarely if ever a deciding factor in war. In World War II the Axis powers were responsible for the vast majority of deaths – as well as for a disproportionately high rate of civilian killings, in part due to the Holocaust – yet their defeat was total and relatively speedy once the US entered the war.

Assad, apparently emboldened by Trump’s declaration that the US plans to pull its troops out of Syria, believed that the world would stand by in indifference, as it has in the past when he used barrel bombs containing chlorine against civilians.

Perhaps Assad also thought that the Trump administration’s decision a year ago this month to fire Tomahawk missiles at Syrian army bases in response to his use of Sarin gas was a blip and that the US under a fickle Trump, who was now in the mood for retreat, would not act again alone among the nations.

Perhaps he also thought that the US and other nations would make a distinction between the chlorine gas used this week and sarin, the nerve gas developed by the Nazis during World War II.