Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, November 06, 2018

Sick "scholarly" paper of the day says that Israel must be destroyed - and academics must do their part

This academic journal article, in Settler Colonial Studies, was just published last week.

Here's the abstract in academic gobbledygook:

Seeing Israel through Palestine: knowledge production as anti-colonial praxis
Yara Hawari, Sharri Plonski & Elian Weizman
Published online: 31 Oct 2018
ABSTRACT
Knowledge production in, for and by settler colonial states hinges on both productive and repressive practices that work together to render their history and present ‘normal’ by controlling how, where, to and through whom they tell their story. This makes the production and dissemination of knowledge an important battleground for anti-colonial struggles. The State of Israel, in its ongoing search for patrons and partners, is focused on how to produce and appropriate ‘knowledge’, and the arenas in which it is developed and shared. In so doing, it works to reshape critique of its political, social and economic relations and redefine the moral parameters that inform its legitimacy and entrench its irrefutability. Inspired by existing literature on and examples of anti-colonial struggles, this paper challenges the modalities through which Israel produces and normalises the colonial narrative. By critiquing existing representations of the Israeli state – and the spaces and structures in which these take hold – our article contributes to the range of scholarship working to radically recalibrate knowledge of ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine’. As part of this work, the article purposefully centres indigenous anti-colonial frameworks that reconnect intellectual analysis of settler colonial relations, with political engagements in the praxis of liberation and decolonisation.

The paper takes it as a given that Israel must be destroyed ("liberation and decolonisation") and wants to ensure that no one looks at it as anything other than an evil, artificial colonialist entry.

The paper starts off with a quote from Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN that it regards as the perfect example of how Israel is trying to fool the world into thinking that it is a liberal, normal state:

Ladies and gentlemen, we live in a world steeped in tyranny and terror where gays are hanged from cranes in Tehran, political prisoners are executed in Gaza, young girls are abducted en masse in Nigeria, and hundreds of thousands are butchered in Syria, Libya and Iraq, yet nearly half – nearly half of the UN Human Rights Council’s resolutions focusing on a single country have been directed against Israel, the one true democracy in the Middle East; Israel, where issues are openly debated in a boisterous parliament, where human rights are protected – by independent courts, and where women, gays and minorities live in a genuinely free society.

The paper doesn't even attempt to refute Netanyahu's words. In the circles that these academics travel, facts aren't important. It is so axiomatic that Israel is inherently, uniquely evil that Netanyahu's words do not evoke the desire to argue with it as much as the desire to show that they prove that Israel is so bad that its prime minister is forced to divert the world's attention from its evil.

As with "pinkwashing" - the absurd concept that is roundly rejected everywhere outside the anti-Israel and academic worlds - anything that Israel does that is consistent with liberal values is really immoral, they just have to figure out how.

The article is also concerned that the field of "Israel Studies" helps to make Israel sound like a normal state. The authors are very concerned that academia itself cannot be objective in describing how evil Israel's colonialism is:

Given our discussion above of counter-hegemony – and the fact that hegemony is a field of struggle – can we then consider all spaces as potential sites for contestation? What tools do we have to turn the study of Israel into a platform for transforming settler colonial relations, when we are working from within one of the key centres of colonial hegemony, the academic arena? Again, this involves challenging how we work, whose voices are centred, and the connection we make between scholarship and praxis, between understanding settler colonialism and resisting it.

The point of these academics isn't to understand Israel - but to resist it.

The strategy of fomenting Indigenous studies as a starting point for studying the Israeli state and society (as part of critical Palestine Studies), is also a political endeavour.

Throughout this article, we have been working towards a re-reading of Israeli state and society as part of critical Palestine studies; an epistemological starting point that would make visible and disrupt the hegemony increasingly held by Israel Studies in its reproduction of Israel as a ‘normal – if complex – modern state’, as posited in the quote that introduced this article. We have drawn on Indigenous studies and anti-colonial scholarship to make the point that the only way to do this, is to ensure that when we investigate the Israeli state and society, it is with the goal of its transformation. This is informed by a political commitment, requiring not simply that Israel is understood, but that scholars are in solidarity with its decolonisation.

If you are a scholar of Israel and not actively working to dismantle it, then you have no legitimacy in today's academic environment.

This paper freely admits that when the topic is Israel, academia is part of the "resistance" - meaning exactly what Hamas means when they use the term. There isn't even the pretext of objectivity or scholarship where Israel is concerned.

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11/06 Links Pt1: Official Palestinian Authority paper: "Settlers" kill Palestinians for pleasure; Shin Bet Chief: We foiled 480 major terror attacks this year;

From Ian:

PMW: "Settlers" kill Palestinians for pleasure - hate speech in official PA daily

The Palestinian Authority regularly demonizes Jews, Israelis, and those who they call "settlers" and accuse them of believing in precisely the hate ideologies the PA itself espouses to its own people.

While accusing Israelis of participating in a religious war, it is Mahmoud Abbas' advisor who has called Israel "Satan's project" and presented the war with Israel as a religious war to destroy Israel and Jews. The PA Mufti, who is appointed by Abbas, has said extermination of Jews is a religious obligation and Islamic destiny.

In Israel, the isolated cases of Israeli terror against Palestinians are punished and condemned. It is the Palestinian Authority under direct instructions of Mahmoud Abbas that rewards murderers of Israelis with high salaries and calls terrorist murderers "stars in the sky of the Palestinian people."

In this op-ed in the official PA daily, the writer projects the PA's own hate ideologies onto what he refers to as Israeli "settlers." They are demonized as inhuman murderers who kill Palestinians for their own pleasure and at the orders of the Israeli government.

Under the headline "The settlers are sacrificing the Palestinians' blood as a sacrifice to Netanyahu," regular columnist for the official PA daily, Muwaffaq Matar, who is also a member of the Fatah Revolutionary Council and hosts a TV program on Fatah-run Awdah TV, portrayed Israelis living beyond the Green Line as "mass murderers obsessed with bloodshed" who are "directed" and controlled by the Israeli army and government:

"Criminals, mass murderers, obsessed with bloodshed, wild unbridled foreigners, but also directed - these are the settlers, the colonialists, the pawns of the racist regime in Tel Aviv.
[They are] criminals who are being activated by a remote control with dual controls - one in the hands of the heads of the occupation army, and the second in the hands of the heads of the coalition of [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's government. Both of them are trying to inflict a heavy toll on the Palestinian citizens by means of groups of people devoid of the elements of human nature, who have no connection to the civilized societies other than [their] human form..." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 14, 2018]

Petra Marquardt-Bigman: Don’t Be Fooled: The Left Only Cares About Palestinians If It Can Blame Israel

Anyone with even a passing interest in news from the Middle East will know that all over the region, undemocratic and repressive regimes use their security forces to suppress dissent. The Palestinian authorities in Gaza and the West Bank are no exception, as a recently released Human Rights Watch report documents.

Considering that the report is “the result of a two-year investigation,” it is remarkably meager. According to the summary, HRW exposes the “machineries of repression to crush dissent” by showing that Palestinian authorities in the West Bank and Gaza “routinely arrest people whose peaceful speech displeases them and torture those in their custody.”
Why Israel Is Right To Expel Human Rights Watch’s Omar Shakir

While this might give the impression that the report focuses exclusively on the abuse of people arrested for “peaceful speech,” there are also chapters that deal with cases of people accused of criminal charges in Gaza and the West Bank.

But what the report leaves out is perhaps more noteworthy than what it covers. A glimpse of what’s missing is provided on page 51, where one sentence suffices to deal with the most egregious abuses:

“Hamas authorities have also carried out 25 executions since they took control in Gaza in June 2017 [sic! Hamas took control in June 2007], including 6 in 2017, following trials that lacked appropriate due process protections and courts in Gaza have sentenced 117 people to death, according to the Palestinian Center for Human Rights.”

In other words, a report that is touted as “the result of a two-year investigation” relies on another human rights organization to provide a one-sentence summary of executions carried out by Hamas. Presumably, two years were too short for the hard-working people at HRW to check their own records, which indicate that Hamas carried out considerably more than “25 executions” since taking power in 2007.

But the appalling sloppiness displayed by HRW when it comes to keeping track of the murderous record of the Islamist terror group that rules Gaza is a telling sign of how little Palestinian human rights matter to HRW when Israel can’t be blamed.

Dore Gold: The Bedouin Encampment of Khan al-Ahmar Violates the Oslo Accords

Khan al-Ahmar is a cluster of Bedouin structures located in the Judean Desert to the east of Jerusalem. This past year this subject has been heating up. It is located on public land and is situated on the main route connecting Jerusalem to the Jordan Valley. Twenty-eight Bedouin families live there. It is too small to really be called a village, so some label it as a hamlet or even other terms. The structures in Khan al-Ahmar were not erected with any sort of building permit, as required by Israel's Civil Administration in the West Bank.

Accordingly, demolition orders were issued in 2009. Though the residents turned to the Israeli Supreme Court, in its ruling the Court stated: "there is no dispute that the entire complex was put up in violation of the zoning laws." In the past the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that Jewish families living in illegally constructed dwellings needed to be removed, as was the case in Migron (2012), Amona (2017), and Netiv Ha-Avot (2018).

Some Western commentators have fundamentally misunderstood Israel's decision to dismantle Khan al-Ahmar. A New York Times analysis insisted that Israel sought "to make room for the expansion of Jewish settlements." Of course, anyone familiar with the topography of the West Bank, with the map of the West Bank, knows that the Judean Desert is full of empty territory, so that the argument that the demolition of Khan al-Ahmar was required for settlement expansion really rings hollow.

If your child came home from college and said she was challenged by a classmate who claimed that Palestine is Arab land stolen by the Jews, could you provide her with a response?

That is the question Douglas Feith asks in the article he recently wrote for Tablet Magazine. Based on a speech he gave to the Canadian Institute for Jewish Research, Feith offers a helping hand to his fellow Jews - who really should not be having such a tough time arguing for the Jewish right to Israel:

The campaign to delegitimate Israel has been scoring successes. The efforts to counter that campaign have often proven inept. That too I find astonishing.

In the arena of argumentation, the Jews are practiced, having continuously honed their debating skills since Abraham questioned God about Sodom. They should be formidable in explaining why Israel is not colonialist and refuting other calumnies. Yet they’re often beaten into retreat by anti-Zionist polemicists. There’s no excuse for it.

He then goes on to outline a response.

What he writes is not new, but still bears repeating --

o During the 400 years leading to World War I, Palestine was part of the Ottoman Empire -- was owned by the Turks, not by the Arabs living in Palestine.
o  There was never a country called Palestine.
o  Palestine was never ruled by its own Arab inhabitants.
o  Therefore, it is not accurate to say that Palestine was a country, or that it was Arab land.
o  And neither the Jews nor the British stole it from the Arabs.
o  The original Zionists who came to live in then-Palestine did not come as colonists, nor with the backing of an imperialist or colonialist power. Jews bought the land on which they settled.

Rabbi Moses Porush (c.) and Arab Landowner holding deed for a large tract of land
that Rabbi Moses Porush and Rabbi Joseph Levi Hagiz purchased from the Arab.
Credit: Wikipedia. Public Domain

Feith does give context to the situation during WWI that is generally overlooked.

The British invasion of Palestine in World War I was precipitated by the Ottoman Turks, who joined Germany and attacked the Allied forces. When the British war cabinet approved the Balfour Declaration on October 31, 1917, -- it was already more than 3 years into World War I.

And the war was not going well for the Allies.

It was one of those rare occasions when the exaggerated belief in Jewish power and influence actually worked to the benefit of the Jews. The British saw an opportunity to gain support in Russia and the US.

As for Palestine itself,

colonialism didn’t bring Britain to Palestine. Britain didn’t seize Palestine from an unoffending native population. It conquered the land not from the Arabs, but from Turkey, which (as noted) had joined Britain’s enemies in the war. The Arabs in Palestine fought for Turkey against Britain. The land was enemy territory. [emphasis added]

The British view of Palestine, and of the Arabs living there, was taken in the context of the area as a whole. Palestine was just a small part of a huge region the British forces conquered from the Turks -- and even though most Arabs had fought for the Turks, the Allies were ready to set the Arabs on the path to independence and national self-determination. However, the small piece of land that was the "Holy Land" had a unique status, of special interest to Christians and Jews around the world.

And the Arabs already living in Palestine?

The idea that a small segment of the Arab people – the Palestinian Arabs – would someday live in a Jewish-majority country was not thought of as a unique problem. There were similar issues in Europe. After World War I, new nations were created or revived: Poland, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia and Hungary, for example. Inevitably, some people would have to live as a minority in neighboring states. Seven hundred thousand Hungarians would become a minority in Czechoslovakia, almost 400,000 in Yugoslavia and 1.4 million in Romania. Where they were a minority, they would have individual rights, but not collective rights. That is, ethnic Hungarians would not have national rights of self-determination in Romania, but only in Hungary.

The principle applicable to European minorities applied also to the Arabs of Palestine. In any given country, only one people can be the majority, so only one can enjoy national self-determination there. The Arab people would eventually rule themselves in Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Arabia. They were going to end up in control of virtually all the land they claimed for themselves. They naturally wanted to be the majority everywhere. But then, the Jews could be the majority nowhere. The victorious Allies did not consider that just.

The British were actually taken by surprise by the accusation that they were being unjust to the Arabs, especially considering the actual history of Palestine, what the British had sacrificed for the liberation of the Middle East from Ottoman control and the fact that the Arabs fought on the side of the enemy.

Feith quotes from a speech Balfour gave in 1922 on the issue:

“Of all the charges made against this country,” he said, that “seems to me the strangest.” It was, he recalled, “through the expenditure largely of British blood, by the exercise of British skill and valour, by the conduct of British generals, by troops brought from all parts of the British Empire . . . that the freeing of the Arab race from Turkish rule has been effected.” He went on, “That we . . . who have just established a King in Mesopotamia, who had before that established an Arab King in the Hejaz, and who have done more than has been done for centuries past to put the Arab race in the position to which they have attained—that we should be charged with being their enemies, with having taken a mean advantage of the course of international negotiations, seems to me not only most unjust to the policy of this country, but almost fantastic in its extravagance.”

Arthur Balfour. Source: Wikipedia. Public Domain

This is all part of the Zionist history that Feith believes Jews need to know in order to respond to the claim that the British stole Palestine and just gave it away to the Jews.

The problem, of course, is that the "other side" is not arguing from facts, nor are they appealing to logic. Just look around. On social media, people do not make logical arguments and they have no interest in history -- facts just make their eyes glaze over. Meanwhile, on college campuses, Jews are not being engaged in debate, they are being harassed by groups who want to eliminate debate and the free speech of their victims while isolating them.

Yes, we do need to know about our history and our birthright.
But let's not fool ourselves into thinking that Israel is the subject of a debate.

Israel is the target of an attack.
And we are still on the defensive.

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Diplomatic sources are telling a major Brazilian newspaper that Egypt canceled a planned visit by Brazil's foreign minister in retaliation for the president-elect, Jair Bolsonaro, saying he intended to move the Brazilian embassy in Israel to Jerusalem.

The visit was to start on Wednesday, and the last minute cancellation was given a different excuse by Egypt. A number of Brazilian business leaders were already in Cairo ahead of the visit.

This move by Egypt is worrying Brazilian cattle farmers. Brazil is a major exporter of animal products that can be eaten by religious Muslims, and there is worry that their Arab customers will go to competitors in Turkey and elsewhere.

There have been no threats to Brazilian business interests; the threat is mostly a warning by the Arab-Brazilian Chamber of Commerce. But the Arab League did send a note to the Bazilian government protesting the idea of an embassy move.

Usually, Arab nations do not follow through with economic threats, but they are good at scaring others with the threats themselves that many do not want to take a chance. This will be an interesting test for Bolsonaro.

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From the Sofia Globe:

Bulgarian Border Police officers at the country’s Kapitan Andreevo checkpoint have detained three Iranian men who attempted to enter the country using false Israeli passports, the Interior Ministry said on November 2.

The three men, aged 21, 28 and 32, arrived at the checkpoint, at Bulgaria’s border with Turkey, on October 31.

They presented Israeli passports, which on examination were found to have been falsified, the ministry said.

In custody at the Svilengrad office of the Bulgarian Border Police, it was established that the three men were Iranians, the statement said.

The men had been transferred to the special facility for temporary detention of foreigners in Lyubimets. Fast-track proceedings against them had been initiated, the Interior Ministry said.

This is not the first time this has happened. Nor the second or third.

In 2016, three Iranian nationals were caught in Italy with forged Israeli passports. They were deported to Turkey.

Also in 2016, two Iranians were arrested in India after attempting to board a flight using fake Israeli passports. The two, a married couple, intended to use the fake passports to immigrate to the United States.

And in 2014, two Iranians were arrested at an airport in Nairobi, Kenya, after attempting to enter the country using fake Israeli passports. They were sentenced under anti-terrorism laws to two years in prison, meaning they have been released by now.

The Iranians in this case are not necessarily spies. Iranian citizens like to buy forged passports in order to travel - not all Iranians can get passports to begin with, and even those who can are limited as to where they can travel. Israeli passports are considered valuable because they are so well accepted in Europe and elsewhere, and apparently easier to forge than many others.

Seven Iranians were arrested in Vancouver with forged Israeli passports in 2013 but they were planning to emigrate. But Iranians have been caught with other country's passports as well.

In order to avoid sanctions, over a hundred Iranian businessmen bought passports from Comoros, legally, until Comoros canceled them. Iranian law does not allow citizens to have foreign passports but they are allowing - or encouraging - businessmen to acquire a second passport to continue to do business worldwide.

Iranian businessmen have been linked to acquiring other countries' forged or stolen passports. Iran is apparently facilitating them getting Iraqi passports.

The worry about espionage is always there, of course. Especially among the "businessmen" that Iran is actively helping acquire false passports.

Israel has been involved in diplomatic incidents over the Mossad using fake or stolen passports from the UK and New Zealand. For some reason, this methodical use of fake passports by Iran has not yet been considered a big deal - even though Iran directly funds terror groups.

(h/t Yoel)

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11/05 Links Pt2: The NYTimes understands anti-Semites; NBC News Airs Jewish Mourner’s Prayer to Memorialize Pittsburgh Victims; Farrakhan Leads ‘Death to America’ Chant on Solidarity Trip to Iran

From Ian:

Stronger than Hate: Honoring the Pittsburgh Victims.

There have been many small and meaningful gestures in the wake of the horrific violence at the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh Steelers' Ben Roethlisberger is wearing custom cleats today to honor the synagogue shooting victims.

Cecil and David Rosenthal, victims of the shooting were brothers of Michele Rosenthal, who worked in the Steelers' community relations department and assisted in Roethlisberger's foundation.

The Pittsburgh Penguins have added a Star of David, and the words "Stronger than Hate" to their Jerseys

Limited editions of this patch are available for sale, with proceeds going to the families of the victims.

Throughout the country, Jewish Day schools and synagogues have reported tender messages of solidarity, comfort and compassion from their neighbors.

After the attack, the worse ever on US soil, parents from San Raphael's Venetia Valley Elementary School meet their neighbors at Marin Brandeis with a sign "You are not Alone".

Prof. Phyllis Chesler: The NYTimes understands anti-Semites

And still, the New York Times never ceases to amaze me. Frighten me too, because so many thought leaders continue to swear by the Gray Lady.

Just yesterday, they presented two full pages of faces, mid-term candidates all; they are visually categorized in terms of gender, race, and sexual preference, but not in terms of issues. Identity Balkanization at its finest. A new kind of Tribalism.

Also that same day, the Times covered the perpetrator who tried to torch six Jewish schools and who wrote “Die, Jew Rats,” “Hitler,” “End It Now” and “Jew Better Be Ready,” and who also scrawled a swastika on the walls of the Union Temple of Brooklyn.

Dare we feel anger or fear, the headline steers us towards compassion. It reads: “Man Accused of Anti-Semitic Vandalism Faces New Setback in a Life Full of Them.”

In other words, the perpetrator is a victim, a victim of the foster care system and of a bipolar disorder. He is also a man who self-identified as “queer.”

Despite having been eventually fostered by a Jewish couple, given a scholarship to Brandeis, chosen as an intern by former City Council Speaker, Christine Quinn, who met him at a gay pride rally for Obama, and with whom he worked for a decade—despite all this, Polite still struggled with marijuana use and, like so many similarly afflicted others, did not always take his psychiatric medication.

Delicately, reverentially, the article does not put into words the fact that the perpetrator, James Polite, is also an African-American. We only know this from his photo and from the police surveillance image which was published in the New York Post.

NY Times Frets Anti-Semitic Vandal ‘Faces New Setback’ After Arson, Hate Crime Charges

After a man broke into a Jewish temple in Brooklyn and left vandalism reading "Die Jew Rats" and "Jew Better Be Ready" and set fire to five other Jewish institutions, the New York Times knew who the real victim was: "Man Accused of Anti-Semitic Vandalism Faces New Setback in a Life Full of Them."

Yes, that was the real headline in Sunday's print edition of the Times. Gosh, don't your heart bleed for him?

James Polite was arrested late Friday after being caught on camera leaving the synagogue where he left the anti-Semitic messages, including "Hitler" and "End It Now." He was caught at the scene of nearby Yeshiva Beth Hillel, where he had set fire to the coatroom. It didn't take long for people to realize he was the same James Polite who once received a sympathetic profile from no less than the Times itself, detailing how he had overcome struggles with mental illness and drugs with the help of prominent Democratic politicians.

"In 2008, at a gay pride rally for Mr. Obama, Mr. Polite met Christine C. Quinn, then the City Council speaker…" the paper wrote at the time. "He interned with Ms. Quinn, a Manhattan Democrat, for several years, working on initiatives to combat hate crime, sexual assault and domestic violence. He also took part in her re-election campaign in 2009 and returned to help with her unsuccessful bid for mayor in 2013."

A year later, the Times is still quoting the lamentations of those who knew him. "This is a young man I have worked with for over a decade," Quinn told them. "With all the setbacks, you hoped this would be a good turn. But the opposite happened."

CNN reports that police have arrested James Polite for allegedly vandalizing a synagogue in NYC.

CNN failed to report that Polite:

-Was a Democratic activist
-Volunteered on Obama's presidential campaign
-Was a former City Hall intern who worked on combating hate crimes pic.twitter.com/otEGASg1bY
— Ryan Saavedra (@RealSaavedra) November 3, 2018

Over the last week, I noticed that horror over the recent Pittsburgh synagogue massacre did not lead to the kind of partisan finger-pointing which usually accompanies outrages of this type.

Certainly there was a fair share of finger-pointing at the current administration, coupled with counter-accusations that those who wanted to use the tragedy of Pittsburgh to further their own political agendas were dishonoring the dead. But such Internet-fueled rages were fewer than one might have expected, given how quickly other mass killings turned into clashes over guns vs. mental illness I described last time.

This may be because the communities most affected, including the Pittsburgh and wider Jewish communities, urged those who needed to “do something” to reflect on their faith (in the case of Jews) and commitment to one another when responding to the outpouring of support from non-Jews around the world.

The power of such a response was brought home to me when I attended services at my synagogue on Friday night, the first ones held since Pittsburgh. At that event, the clergy addressed the overflow crowd of Jews and non-Jews with a message of hope, rather than despair or anger.

Helping those who were directly impacted by the crime was obviously first priority, and anyone with a connection to Tree of Life through family, friends or personal history, were asked to stand so that the community could show their love and support. But the rest of the service was dedicated to life, and not just life going on after a tragedy, but to the life-affirming, celebratory moment Jews are privileged to experience once a week in the form of Shabbat.

No doubt there were members of the audience able to find fault in some of the things that were said that evening. Even I couldn’t help but think about Elder’s warning against taking the murderer at his word that he targeted Tree of Life due to their embrace of refugee issues when our rabbi highlighted the killer’s excuse for why he did what he really wanted to do, which was to kill lots of Jews. Upon reflection, however, it seemed more than uncharitable to characterize this story of solidarity as anything other an attempt to illustrate the open heart of a Jewish community which has decided to use its resources to help others now that our own refugee issues are largely behind us.

More importantly, the embrace of life-affirming principles, represented by the #ShowUpForShabbat effort embraced by millions across the globe, got me thinking about not just Jewish tragedy, but Jewish strength and longevity that has allowed us to survive for Millenia while other peoples vanished into history.

A natural – and understandable – tendency, after all, is to sink into despair when confronted with murderous anti-Semitism coming to America, especially in the context of the skyrocketing of attacks on Jews worldwide, accompanying (and excused by) the war against the Jewish state. But despair can easily turn to fatalist expectations of doom. But there is a cure. For Shabbat in general, and the most recent Shabbat in particular, demonstrates Jewish faith in week-by-week renewal that has kept us around fifty-two weeks a year for countless centuries.

Another natural response to the attack would have been boundless rage. But, as we have seen in societies that have devoted themselves to stoking and exacerbating such rage (especially societies who blame the Jews for their own failings and crimes), anger untempered by hope can lead to not just despair but to trillions in wasted dollars and, far more importantly, millions of wasted lives.

So, as tempting as it might be to turn our enemies’ tactics against them, especially when they ruthlessly and relentlessly assault the most important Jewish project of modernity, we must avoid anything that might turn us into those enemies. One need only look at Gaza to see where that can lead. Similarly, one need only look at Jerusalem – ancient and modern – to see what we can accomplish when we play to our strengths, and act like the people we are.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Today's insane anti-Israel academic paper:

Pinkwashed:
GAY RIGHTS, COLONIAL CARTOGRAPHIES AND RACIAL CATEGORIES IN THE PORNOGRAPHIC FILM MEN OF ISRAEL
Brett Remkus Britt
Journal
International Feminist Journal of Politics
Volume 17, 2015 - Issue 3

Claims regarding “gay rights” have acquired a prominent role in debates over Israel's occupation of Palestine. This often takes the form of “pinkwashing,” a term denoting the use of gay rights discourse to justify the imposition of colonial rule. This article analyzes the pornographic film Men of Israel to explore how pinkwashing reflects colonialism's depoliticizing and exclusionary logics. Men of Israel shows how pinkwashing is far more than a justificatory practice. It also legitimates, reproduces and appropriates colonial narratives to justify an alliance between supporters of gay rights and the “pro-gay” Israeli state. It simultaneously excludes a racial category of people called “Palestinians,” which includes gay Palestinians, from the rights accorded to gay men in Israel. In an era of “gay rights as human rights,” such deployments of “gay rights” highlight the necessity of directing critical scrutiny to the alliances and exclusions implicated by a particular articulation of rights.

Yes, a "scholarly" examination of a gay Israeli porn film, the criticism of which honestly sounds like parody:

The film’s attempt to depoliticize Israel’s territorial claims is perhaps even more important. Men of Israel reflects an important turn within contemporary colonial practices, where gay male bodies serve as markers of colonial boundaries. However, the colonial power relations implicated by the film are well disguised because, in common with other pornographic films, it elides the social and political aspects of the subjects it depicts, presenting them as “images of people without social context or relations” (Bhattacharyya 2008, 136).

You get that? The porn film "elides the social and political aspects of the subjects it depicts." The target audience for the film must be very upset over that omission.

Such a portrayal requires exclusion of images that might provoke questions regarding the cost of sustaining this geography. We are not shown impoverished Palestinian towns or the remnants of bombed out Palestinian homes in the wake of Israeli air raids. The film does not show bulldozed buildings and Israeli settlements built in their place or the poverty within the occupied territories, elements upon which the vibrant urban landscape of the film is constructed. Indeed, the evasion of a Palestinian presence is a key component of the film’s agenda.

According to this brilliant reviewer - who must have watched the film dozens of times in order to describe it accurately for the readers of the journal - the film isn't meant to turn on gay guys like 100% of other gay porn films. It is designed specifically to avoid showing things that sham academic who obsessively watched it would like to have seen.

Any vision of Israel that is not wholly concerned with evil Israelis running roughshod over the human rights of an enslaved Palestinian people is clearly illegitimate, according to the brilliant academics who spend scores of hours watching gay porn for their "research." (This is not the only paper that Britt has written on the subject of gay porn and its supposed political implications. He also wrote “Reading Gay Pornography as Transnational Colonial Project.”)

Amazingly, this is not the only academic paper obsessed with Men in Israel. This other paper argues that gay porn with Arab actors is meant to build bridges between the West and the East while Israeli porn tries to build walls between the two.

Really.

And a third academic paper from a third author, Nada Elia, also features an extended discussion of this film.

That is at least three academic papers, published in three separate academic journals, written by three separate academics, all obsessed over a minor Israeli gay porn film.

UPDATE: A fourth paper on the same film!

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/05 Links Pt1: Netanyahu hails ‘historic’ Iran sanctions, says his fight against world paid off; PA lies, presents Holocaust victims as Arabs; Why Hamas Cannot Be Trusted

From Ian:

Netanyahu hails ‘historic’ Iran sanctions, says his fight against world paid off

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday praised US President Donald Trump’s “courageous, determined and important decision” to reinstate all US sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, saying the move was a direct result of his own efforts against the deal.

“For many years I have devoted my time and energy to the war against the Iranian threat. On this issue I went up almost against the whole world. Today we see the results of this long and ongoing struggle,” Netanyahu said at the opening of his Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.

“This day is a historic day,” Netanyahu said. ”I would like to again thank President Donald Trump again for a courageous, determined and important decision. I think this contributes to stability, security and peace.”

Monday’s sanctions are the second batch the Trump administration has reimposed on the Islamic Republic since withdrawing from the nuclear agreement earlier this year.

The rollback ends US participation in the Obama-era accord, which now hangs in the balance as Iran no longer enjoys the billions of dollars in sanctions relief it was granted under the deal in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Israel, which considers Iran an existential threat and opposed the deal from the beginning, broadly welcomed the US’s exit from the deal and the reimposition of sanctions.

Netanyahu, who personally lobbied world leaders against the deal and since its signing, has called for it to be canceled said, “This is a very big day for the State of Israel. This is a great day for the people of Israel. This is a great day for the future of Israel.”

PMW: PA lies, presents Holocaust victims as Arabs

Purporting to be showing images of Arab victims from the village of Al-Dawayima which the Israeli army captured during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 (see note below), official PA TV deceptively showed a photo from a Nazi concentration camp showing victims from the Holocaust.

Below is the original photo from the concentration camp at Nordhausen, originally a sub-camp of Buchenwald, showing hundreds of dead victims. It was taken right after liberation of the camp by the American army:

[April 17, 1945, AP photo / US army Signal Corps]

This is PA TV’s image and text on screen claiming the victims are Arabs:
“70 years since the occupation’s massacre at the village of Al-Dawayima”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Oct. 28, 2018]

Ironically, this is not the first time PA TV have deceived their viewers about this concentration camp photo. Palestinian Media Watch exposed earlier this year that PA TV presented this very same photo claiming it showed Arabs killed by Jews on April 9, 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin.

Another humanitarian crisis today in Gaza.

No goods can be imported into Gaza today, because the trucking companies in Gaza have ceased working.

The Palestinian Authority has levied taxes on all truckloads of goods, about NIS 30 per truck. The transport companies declared that they would stop all loading of trucks at Kerem Shalom.

The Land Transport Association said they will refuse to work until these fees are rescinded. However long it takes.

I don't know which side it right, but what is clear is that the welfare of the people of Gaza is not a prime consideration for either their government nor for those whose services are critical to them. They remain pawns, and the world doesn't care unless Jews can be blamed.

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The radical Left and Arabs share the antisemitic belief that Jews are not a people

In the wake of the Pittsburgh massacre, there are bizarre attempts by anti-Zionist organizations to claim that they are against antisemitism, and moreover that Zionism and antisemitism are interrelated.

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is typical:

Our struggles for justice are inextricably linked: rejecting white supremacy means rejecting antisemitism, anti-Black racism, Zionism, Islamophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.

The first step in standing in solidarity and linking arms across movements is educating ourselves. We know that these connections may not be obvious at first glance, so we pulled together some resources that we hope you’ll find useful whether you want to expand your knowledge, or are having these conversations over the holidays or on social media.
Understanding Antisemitism
This resource from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice offers an analysis of antisemitism, how it works, and why it matters. It addresses how antisemitism fits into a matrix of oppressions that includes anti-Black racism and Islamophobia, and how Trump has emboldened white supremacists.

The document they point to is a 45 page description of antisemitism from a Leftist viewpoint. The problem isn't so much with what it says, but with what it ignores:

Who are Jews?
A central way that antisemitism thrives is through myths and stereotypes about Jews. These stereotypes benefit from a lack of clarity about who Jews actually are and ignorance about the demographics of our community.
Judaism is one of the three so-called “Abrahamic” religions, along with Christianity and Islam,which trace their roots to the biblical patriarch Abraham. Judaism predates both Christianity and Islam, but over time has been overtaken by both of them in numbers of adherents throughout the world.
Between 722 and 73 BCE, Jewish population centers in the Middle East began to fragment due to invasion and military conflict, and Jews were scattered throughout the region. From 63 CE until 70–73 CE, the Romans occupied Judea, which led to an uprising, a crackdown, and the final expulsion of Jews from their homeland in what is now Israel/Palestine. Many Jews remained in the Middle East and North Africa, while many others migrated throughout the world in whatiis known as the “Jewish diaspora,” with some settling in what is modern-day Europe and other parts of the world.

While this abbreviated history mentions Judea and that Jews had homeland, it downplays something vital: that the Jews are a nation, not only a religion. It does not even say that there were two Jewish kingdoms; it doesn't mention King David or the Temples.

Wikipedia's entry on Jews starts off with "Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‬ Yehudim, or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and a nation, originating from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated." But to leftists, including leftist Jews, the national component of Judaism is ignored or diminished, scrubbed from history and Jewishness is viewed as merely a religion like Islam or Christianity.

Denial of Jewish peoplehood is antisemitic. It is also a lie - Jews were recognized as a nation by not only themselve but by non-Jews for all history since the destruction of the second Temple.

But for anti-Zionists, this antisemitic denial of the essence of Jewish peoplehood is necessary, because if you accept that there are a Jewish people, then you must accept that they have a place of origin and a right to live in their historic home. Not only that, but you must admit that they are the indigenous population of their homeland.

Arabs do the exact same thing. They claim that Judaism is merely a religion and that they have nothing against Jews; but Jews who act as a people are Zionist and must be stopped.

Anti-Zionism's philosophical basis is the denial of the Jewish people's rights to self determination. Because Jews are a people - and they have been understood to be a people for thousands of years - then anti-Zionism is truly antisemitism. The scrambling being done to separate antisemitism of Pittsburgh from the anti-Zionism of the radical Left is an attempt to erase the obvious link between the Jews of Squirrel Hill and the Jews of Israel.

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I don't know exactly when this happened, but on Twitter there are hundreds of Arabic speakers celebrating this brief video clip of a Jew, wearing his prayer shawl and tefillin, running for his life down a Jerusalem alley as Arabs throw things at him. He trips and loses his yarmulka as Arabs jeer.

مستوطن صهيوني دخل إلى أحد أحياء #القدس. فحدث له ما لم يتوقّعه😄 pic.twitter.com/H2NViUniMV
— تركي الشلهوب🤐 (@TurkiShalhoub) November 3, 2018

The Tweet says "Zionist settlers entered a neighborhood of #Jerusalem . He did not expect what happened to him next.😄"

The people responding are mostly enthusiastic. When one woman was ambivalent, saying "I have conflicting feelings. Do I rejoice for this fierce resistance scene or feel concern for this weak man in this bad situation?" she was attacked as having "Stockholm syndrome" and having some mental problem for feeling any sympathy with the Jew. Another answered to her "I have conflicting feelings - do I feel happiness at the scene or anger at your arrogance where I want to spit at your face?"

Many express the hope that this is how all Jews will leave Jerusalem. Some point out that celebrating this video makes the world think badly of Palestinians. And one starts a rumor that the man insulted the prophet Mohammed which is why he was being chased in the first place.

(h/t AD and David Abraham)

UPDATE: It appears that this occurred in 2015.

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Disgusting Swedish priest lists dead Hamas terrorists along with Pittsburgh martyrs: "Pittsburgh and Gaza in our hearts"

Here's a photo of one of the most immoral members of clergy you are likely to ever seen

Anna Karin Hammar is a Swedish member of clergy and theologian. Her blog has a memorial to the victims of Pittsburgh - and she then adds the people killed in Gaza riots since March, including many known Hamas terrorists and leaders.

Because, hey, their deaths are just as tragic, right? And it would be immoral to mention the names of 11 dead Jewish worshipers without also listing the names of dozens of terrorists who share the philosophy of their killers.

Here is an English autotranslation of the beginning of her post, where I show pictures of some of the dead Gaza terrorists that this perverted, disgusting example of a religious Christian equates with the martyrs of Pittsburgh.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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11/04 Links: A rude awakening for the Palestinian dream; Anti-Semitism and the fragmentation of society; Jewish nurse who treated synagogue shooter: I chose to show him empathy

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: A rude awakening for the Palestinian dream

When something is built on an unstable foundation, it is only natural for its long term survival to be at risk. It is also natural for it to be in need of constant support just to keep from falling. The belief that it will eventually be able to stand on its own two feet causes people to lend their support, but only egregious fools continue to do so if there is no hope of its ever being independent, because in that case, everythiing those supporters have invested is doomed to be irretrievably lost.

The Palestinian Authority is in exactly that position today and this article will expound on the reasons it has no hope of every being able to become a viable and independent entity.

The prime reason for this situation is the very reason the PA was founded. In 1993, the Israeli government tried to find someone who would accept responsibility for eliminating the terror network created by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, someone willing to be rewarded for anti-terrorist activity by being granted the authority to rule the area and administer the lives of the Arabs living there. This was the "deal" concocted by the Israelis, and the "contractor" who accepted the challenge was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat. The Israeli government actually believed that Arafat was serious about eliminating terror and establishing an autonomous administrative system for running those territories.

Of course, this deal was doomed to failure from the start due to the residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and also the government of Israel. The Arab residents considered the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing arm of the PLO, to be the operative arm of Israeli policy, an organization collaorating with Israel by means of the coordinated security system that exists up until this very day.

"Security coordination" to the Palestinian Arab mind is a laundered word for cooperation, meaning PA security forces attempt to apprehend the terrorists that belong to organizations other than their own and hand them over to Israel. Many of the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza see this as no less than treason.

In order to cover up that perceived betrayal and silence its critics, the PA employs thousands in both real and artificial jobs (the kind where the worker does not have to do anything in order to be paid) . For the sake of earning a livng, people are willing to shut their mouths and utter not a word about what they really think of the PA and the reasons for its existence. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Tablet Editorial Voter Education

Eight candidates who have expressed blatantly anti-Semitic views, or who openly associate with anti-Semites

If nothing else, the Pittsburgh massacre should underline for all American Jews that our ongoing struggle against hate is not a narrow sectarian interest or a partisan political tool. It is a matter of life or death—for your neighbors, your synagogue, your family, your children, your parents and grandparents, for our community.

In that spirit, we want to emphasize, as Nathan Rubin does today in our pages, just how important it is to have friends and allies in the ongoing struggle against hate.

We also want to make clear that open and blatant anti-Semitism—as well as validating and associating with open and blatant anti-Semites who spread their poison in our country or call for the elimination or destruction of Jewish communities anywhere else in the world—is not acceptable, ever. Licensing hate means death for Jews.

Anti-Semitism is a bright red line in our politics that no one in our public life can be permitted to cross and expect to receive the support of our community, whether we are proud Democrats or proud Republicans.

Support for Israel is not an excuse for calling for the elimination of Jews or the Jewish religion. Support for immigrants or other marginalized groups is also not an excuse. Past histories of individual or group oppression at the hands of anyone, anywhere is not an excuse. Being Jewish, or having a Jewish parent or grandparent, is not an excuse. There are no more excuses.

In that spirit, here is a list of candidates in Tuesday’s hotly contested congressional elections who have expressed blatantly anti-Semitic views or endorsed or refused to condemn individuals or ideas that are blatantly anti-Semitic.

I just want to take a moment to note how deeply stupid and toxic is this line of thinking--which we see every time Farrakhan says something anti-Semitic. pic.twitter.com/gLWh8e9caF
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) November 3, 2018

BBC report on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv train parrots absurd Palestinian claims

The BBC produced a slick piece about the newly opened high speed train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:

Of course, it has to say things that are anti-Israel, so it interviews Palestinians in Beit Surik, who live as much as 80 meters above the train tracks.

They don't know much about the train, but they are sure of one thing: their human rights are being violated, somehow.

"Villagers fear they may lose access to some of their land," the BBC caption tells us, backed up by a resident of the village who says "We do not have enough information about the route of the train. But whether it is above land or under the land, it is the same problem. I am sure we will not have the freedom to work our lands."

But that part of the route is completed. The farmers of Beit Surik aren't impacted - they have not been restricted from farming, even while the tunnel was being excavated. They don't even know exactly where the tunnel is! Certainly they are not affected by this train line in the least.

The claim that the train will force the villagers to lose access to their farms is provably, obviously false. Yet the BBC parrots it as if there is any credence to it.

Beyond that, the BBC article implies that the train might be extended to the Western Wall, which is absurd. The controversial talk about a light rail to the Western Wall would be a different line, which has nothing to do with this train.

(h/t Yoel)

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A couple of weeks ago, I reported that J-Street's leaders, including Jeremy Ben Ami, had met with Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, including one whose statements showed that he supported terrorism.

It turns out that that member of the Fatah central committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, is a terrorist himself.

Stephen Flatow, father of a terrorist victim, writes:

Thursday, March 21, 2002, was a pleasant early spring morning in Jerusalem. King George Street, in the heart of the city, was packed with shoppers. Suddenly, a Palestinian suicide bomber struck. The explosion left three people dead, and more than 100 wounded. One of the fatalities was Tzippi Shemesh, who was five months pregnant with twins.

Among the wounded were a number of Americans. The force of the explosion hurled U.S. citizen Alan Bauer 20 feet. Two screws that were packed into the bomb ripped clear through his left arm. His 7-year-old son, Jonathan, suffered severe shrapnel wounds and fell into a coma. Jonathan subsequently underwent numerous operations to remove nails and screws from his head, including one that was lodged in his brain. Needless to say, he was left with permanent injuries.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is the military arm of Abbas’s Fatah movement, openly claimed responsibility for the bombing. In fact, it was that bombing that moved the U.S. State Department to finally put the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade on its official list of terrorist groups.

Members of the Shemesh family filed suit against the PA and, as a result, details of those who were involved in the attack became public. Earlier this year, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the PA was responsible for the bombing. In its ruling, the court cited closed-door testimony provided by Israeli intelligence officials who named names—including “senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, who met the suicide bomber and two other operatives and gave them money and two hand grenades to carry out the bombing.”

So Al-Sheikh literally put hand grenades into the hands of the bomber and his assistants, in order to murder innocent people, and financed their attack. Which, according to American and Israeli law, makes Al-Sheikh equally guilty of the murders and maiming of their victims.

Al-Sheikh's involvement in terror has been known for years:

Even before the Jerusalem court ruling, the American government was aware of Al-Sheikh’s terrorist background. Several years ago, a scheduled meeting between Al-Sheikh and U.S. diplomats at the American Consulate in Jerusalem was canceled when U.S. officials realized Al-Sheikh’s connection to the bombing.

Hussein al-Sheikh should be extradited and tried in the US for his role in shedding the blood of Americans. But to J-Street, he is someone to be embraced as someone who supports peace.

Jeremy Ben Ami must be forced to answer why he chose to embrace a terrorist with Jewish and American blood on his hands.

(Al-Sheikh is also a known sexual harasser. Since J-Street doesn't give a damn about Israeli and American lives, perhaps Jeremy Ben Ami will apologize for that.)

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The World Forum of Interfaith Dialogue Ambassadors, sponsored by the Organization of Muslim Scouts and taking place starting today in Tunisia, will not allow any Israelis to attend.

The Republican Party of Tunisia appealed to the Tunisian High Court to ensure that no Israelis could step foot in Tunisia, and the Court agreed. There were rumors that a single Israeli delegate would arrive via Paris.

The Scouts didn't deny that they invited the Israeli but commended the Court decision and emphasized their full support for Palestinians.

The conference's materials claim that the conference is open to any members of the World Religions Forum, World Scouts Organizations and national representatives of scouting organizations.

The topics of the sessions, ironically, include "dialogue between civilizations" and "promotion of the culture of tolerance."

The international scouting movement claims that "Scouting should reflect the societies in which it exists and actively work to welcome all individuals without distinction. This diversity should not only be reflected in the membership, but also the methods and programmes used within the Movement."

Israel is a member of the world scout organization.

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11/03 Links: Bari Weiss: When a Terrorist Comes to Your Hometown; Ben Shapiro: Israel is protecting Western civilization; The not-so-sweet taste of hypocrisy about anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: When a Terrorist Comes to Your Hometown

I want to tell you what it is like when your neighborhood becomes the scene of a mass murder.

The first thing you should know is that when your phone pings with a text from your youngest sister saying, “There is a shooter at tree of life,” your brain will insist that it is not true, that it is a hoax.

But your fingers will write back immediately, unthinking: “is dad there.”

Your mouth will turn to cotton while you wait for your mom to confirm that your father, who goes to one of Squirrel Hill’s synagogues every Shabbat morning, was not in the building.

Then another of your sisters will send a link to the police scanner and you will listen as the calls come in from the scene. You hear an officer report that the shooter declared he wants to “kill all the Jews.” He has hit officers. “Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired.”

You will cancel all your plans and book a flight home. Before you are even on the plane you will start to hear rumors — a couple has been killed, a doctor. You will wonder which families in your neighborhood will be shattered.

The numbness will break only when you find out that Cecil Rosenthal — the intellectually disabled, gentle giant of a man your mother has known since grade school — was murdered along with his brother, David. You will picture him as a proud usher standing in the entrance to services, and you will wonder if he greeted the killer, too. And you will weep.

When an anti-Semitic murderer mows down Jews in the synagogue where you became a bat mitzvah, you might find yourself in the sanctuary again. But instead of family and friends, the sanctuary is host to a crew of volunteers — the chevra kadisha — who will spend the week cleaning up every drop of blood because, according to Jewish tradition, each part of the body must be sanctified in death and so buried.

Ben Shapiro Interview: Israel is protecting Western civilization

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro‘s star has been rising in the US in recent years. He’s only 34 years old, but he began his career 17 years ago, writing a syndicated column, and now he has his own news site, The Daily Wire, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” a podcast with millions of listeners.

In between, he managed to become editor-at-large of the far-right – these days, some would say alt-right – website Breitbart, and resigned in 2016. Shapiro accused Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon, an eventual adviser to US President Donald Trump, of turning the site into “Trump’s personal Pravda.”

Later that year, the Anti-Defamation League identified Shapiro as the No. 1 target of online antisemitism among Jewish journalists in the US, and he received the most hate by far.

Shapiro continues to be targeted from all ends: from the Left, because he’s staunchly conservative, and from the Right, because he is not a Trump cheerleader, and doesn’t hesitate to criticize the president.

His no-nonsense attitude and caustic humor have attracted admirers and detractors; “facts don’t care about your feelings” is his most famous slogan, and he sells coffee mugs that are labeled “leftist tears.” He’s found allies in the self-described Intellectual Dark Web, a group of thinkers – their day jobs include academia, journalism and comedy – who don’t fit perfectly into mainstream media’s liberal or conservative labels, and have found wild success producing their own content online.

Although Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew and a vocal supporter of Israel, his content is aimed at a broader American audience, and therefore he doesn’t often focus on those areas.

In a conversation with The Jerusalem Post last month from his LA podcast studio, the father of two – married to a Moroccan-Israeli doctor about whom he often sweetly scheps naches (expresses great pride) – discussed American Jewish identity, support for Israel and more, in his typically no-holds-barred manner. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Caroline Glick: Israeli Cabinet Minister Challenges Propaganda on Trump and Antisemitism

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett kicked in the foundations of the left’s case against President Donald Trump on Tuesday. And they didn’t like it.

Since Saturday’s massacre of 11 mostly elderly Jews at prayer at the Tree of Life Synagogue, prominent left-wing American Jewish activists and Never Trump pundits have blamed Trump for the massacre by insisting that he has empowered antisemitic forces in the U.S.

The “proof” these commentators provide for their incendiary allegation is the Anti-Defamation League’s 2017 report on antisemitic incidents in the U.S. The ADL alleged that during Trump’s first year in office, there was a 57 percent rise in antisemitic incidents.

Bennett flew to Pittsburgh Sunday as the representative of the Israeli government to show solidarity with the Jewish community in the aftermath of the massacre. Before travelling back to Israel, he participated in a roundtable discussion of antisemitism in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations.

When asked about the ADL data, Bennett said that he wasn’t certain that the report was accurate. “I’m not convinced those are the facts,” Bennett said adding, “I’m not sure there’s a surge in antisemitism in the United States.”

“We need to look at the facts. I understand that the ADL themselves have stated there is a drastic reduction in violent anti-Semitic events, but that has for some reason been hidden from the public discourse,” he maintained.

📆101 years ago today, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, endorsing the Jewish people’s right to a national home.

“The Balfour Declaration puts Britain on the right side of history.”
—@IsraeliPM

📷Inspecting the original Declaration with Mrs Netanyahu at @BritishLibrary pic.twitter.com/JwXN5xwu7e
— Mark Regev (@MarkRegev) November 2, 2018

Iran threatens Gulf states, Israel, with missiles

From Ma'an:

Member of the Iranian Fatwa Council Ahmad Al-Huda warned of dire consequences for the countries of the region in the event of damage to his country's economy.

"The Iranian navy will control the Straits of Hormuz and three Saudi tankers will cross this strait every day, so if necessary we will stop the three vessels, confiscate the oil and take the workers to the families," he said in a Friday sermon.

"If they try to attack Iran, six international airports will be destroyed in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Riyadh, Bahrain and Qatar within 30 minutes using our missiles. The global economy and stock markets, especially those owned by Arab countries, will plummet and oil will reach $ 400 a barrel. "

"If Iran decides, within 90 minutes, all the Persian Gulf states will be eliminated, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be destroyed within 60 minutes, and above all Israel."

What's Israel have to do with it?

Obviously, everything! As always.

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11/02 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: American Jewry’s false prophets; Most Progressive Israelis Are Zionists; UK police launch criminal probe of anti-Semitism in Labour

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: American Jewry’s false prophets

Contrast Trump’s actions with Obama’s actions. Not only did Obama refuse to transfer the US Embassy to Jerusalem, he rejected even symbolic acceptance of Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem. The Obama State Department erased all the captions on archival photos of American dignitaries in Jerusalem that referred to the location as Jerusalem, Israel. This petty act demonstrated a deep-seated hostility to the history of the Jewish people and was nothing if not bigoted.

Yet, by the lights of Foer, Ioffe, Milbank and their fellow American Jewish Trump-haters, Obama was a friend of American Jews, and Trump and his Jewish supporters are their enemies.

Likewise, Trump’s decision to remove the US from the congenitally antisemitic UN Human Rights Council which Obama joined despite its open bigotry against Jews; his ending of funding to the genocidal, antisemitic UN Refugee Works Agency for the Palestinians (UNRWA), which Obama expanded; and his decision to cut funding to the terrorist-financing Palestinian Authority – which Obama increased – and close the PLO diplomatic mission in Washington – which Obama upgraded, were moves of historic significance in the fight against antisemitism and for Jewish rights. Trump is the first president in a quarter century to make the Palestinians and their international enablers pay a price for their rejection of peace and facilitation of terrorism and armed aggression against Israel and Israeli Jews.

Are these actions bad for American Jewry? When Trump says that Israel has a right to defeat its enemies and respond to aggression, is he harming American Jewry?

Of course not.

TRUMP’S JEWISH antagonists in the US media and their partner, ADL executive director and former Obama White House official Jonathan Greenblatt, insist that under Trump, antisemitic incidents in the US have risen 57%. But as David Bernstein demonstrated this week at Tablet magazine, the ADL data everyone is citing tells the exact opposite story. The claim that antisemitic incidents have risen under Trump is not supported by the ADL data.

What the data do show is that violent antisemitic attacks in the US have decreased significantly since Trump took office, while they increased significantly during Obama’s presidency. And as the blogger Elder of Ziyon noted this week, the data show no causative relationship between either administration and the level of antisemitism.

What is clear is that Trump has spoken far more seriously about antisemitism and the need to combat it than Obama ever has.
In January 2015, an Islamic terrorist massacred and held Jews hostage at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris. Obama refused to acknowledge that it was an antisemitic attack and that the victims were killed because they were Jews. Instead he referred to them as “a bunch of folks in a deli.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Melanie Phillips: Grappling with the roots of anti-Semitism after Pittsburgh

For to acknowledge that fact would be to admit things that would shatter their view of themselves as wholly virtuous, and that the Muslims or Palestinians they support are always virtuous victims.

Those in the West who deny the true, metaphysical nature of anti-Semitism also fail to realize that it fuels the threat they themselves face from Islamist aggression. They think the Muslim world in general hates the Jews because it hates Israel, but they have this precisely the wrong way round. The Muslim world in general hates Israel because it hates the Jews—and much of the hatred of the West by radical Islamists arises from their conviction that the West is run by the Jews.

Blaming Israel is a way of blaming the Jews for anti-Semitism. People do this not just out of their own bigotry, but because they cannot acknowledge the unique and uniquely evil nature of the phenomenon.

They ask the question: Why are the Jews hated so much? And they conclude that the only possible explanation is that it must be the Jews’ own fault.

It is a tremendous mistake to assume that anti-Semitism arises from any political activity or ideology. It is a pathology based on the wish to exterminate the Jewish people—a moral and spiritual sickness unique in human history, and which morphs and mutates across religious, secular and political systems.

The continued existence of the Jewish people in the face of expulsion, exile and persecution defies rational explanation. Anti-Semitism is a never-ending evil that also defies reason.

But while the murdered Jews of Pittsburgh are mourned, the Jews remain the eternal people; and whether anti-Semitism comes from left, right or anywhere else, its diabolical goal will never be achieved.

Melanie Phillips: Jews and conservatism an idea whose time has come

This has all left American Jews in particular difficulties. Unlike British Jews, most of whom vote for the political party that at least calls itself Conservative, some three quarters of American Jews vote for a Democratic party that has embraced the identity politics, grievance culture and enraged narcissism that threaten to destroy American society.

Worse, these liberal Jews either embrace or minimise the animus against Israel and open antisemitism displayed on campus by the left and by personalities embraced by the Democratic party. Worse still, they have told themselves that these universalist, secular “liberal” values are authentic Jewish values. They are in fact the very antithesis of Judaism.

Thus liberal Jews – the overwhelming majority in America – are on course to destroy themselves as a community while aiding the left in the undermining of America.

That’s how bad it is. But here’s the hopeful thing. Last year saw the JLC’s first conference on Jews and conservatism and some 300 people turned up. This year, 800 attended with a further 200 on the waiting list, some reportedly offering in desperation black market prices for a ticket.

Something out there is changing, and in the right direction. The people, the ordinary, decent people who understand and value the basic principles of western culture and want to defend them, the American Jews who realise the terrible danger to their own community and who feel a duty and responsibility to help save American civic society, all those disenfranchised, silent millions are now beginning to stir. Conservatism, even for American Jews, is an idea whose time has come.