Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, February 27, 2020

02/27 Links Pt1: The UN, where rights abusers get to be on the human rights council; Palestinian commentator: BDS hurts us; What is UN Res 242 and Why Does It Matter?

From Ian:

The UN, where rights abusers get to be on the human rights council

The Trump administration withdrew from the UNHRC nearly two years ago, citing the parade of dictators that have turned the body into what Nikki Haley, then the U.S. ambassador to the UN, described as a “self-serving organization that makes a mockery of human rights.” Haley also cited, not unreasonably, the UNHRC’s singular obsession with Israel.

But the Americans are missed—at least by those human rights activists who still try to use the forum of the UNHRC as a means to sanction and hold to account the world’s most brazen human rights criminals.

Last week, UN Watch—led by Montrealer Hillel Neuer—joined with two dozen other human-rights NGOs in bringing several hundred human rights activists here for the 12th annual Geneva Summit on Human Rights and Democracy. It was an opportunity for dissidents, campaigners, former political prisoners and politicians to take stock, swap notes and meet with diplomats.

It’s a wonder that any of them bother to come to Geneva at all.

The suffering of the Syrian people at the moment is as dire as it has been since a democratic reform movement sprang up in 2011. Syrian president Bashar Assad responded by destroying entire cities, resorting in dozens of cases to chemical weapons like sarin and chlorine gas. The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs counts at least 560,000 children among the 948,000 Syrians driven north by Assad’s militias and the Russian air force since December.

“There should definitely be an urgent session on the situation in Idlib,” Neuer told me, “but the UNHRC just shrugs its shoulders. The council will not act with urgency on Syria.”

There is a slim chance of some movement on Venezuela, however. It took eight years of NGO lobbying for the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights to conduct its investigations last year, but the lobbying did produce some results. And UN Watch has managed to pull together a petition with more than 125,000 signatures calling for Venezuela’s dismissal from the council.

There are several ordinarily dependable member states on the council this year—Australia, Austria, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Mexico, the Netherlands, South Korea, and Ukraine, for instance. But these days, almost everyone is keeping their heads down.

Even the most outrageous human rights abuses get overlooked, and sometimes, the world’s worst human rights abusers receive praise here. Last year, China won accolades from more than 50 countries, many of them Muslim-majority states, for its “counterterrorism” initiative in Xinjiang, where more than a million Muslims have been interned without trial in re-education camps.

As for the democracies, they’re intimidated. “The Human Rights Council only really has the power of shame, but the democracies have stopped issuing resolutions,” Neuer told me. “They’ve been made timid by Russia, by China, and by Turkey, and they don’t want to be embarrassed if they put forward a resolution and it fails. It’s a nice life here. The ambassadors go skiing on the weekends. But they’re afraid.”

Palestinian commentator: BDS hurts us

Bassam Eid is a Palestinian author and commentator, who may be seen frequently on Israeli television. While he is critical of various Israeli policies, he also speaks out frequently against corruption in both the Palestinian Authority and Gaza. On Tuesday evening, at the Fairbanks Country Club, in this affluent community wedged between northern San Diego and Rancho Santa Fe, Eid condemned the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement as being harmful to ordinary Palestinians.

He cited the case of Soda Stream, a company which had located a plant in the disputed territories and which had employed 1,500 Palestinians. After BDS launched an international boycott against the company—supposedly to help the Palestinians—the company relocated from the territories to southern Israel. That put 1,500 Palestinians out of work. As for Soda Stream, Eid said, it is making three times as much money in its new location as it did in the territories. So, he asked a gathering sponsored by StandWithUs, who did BDS help? Certainly not the Palestinians.

“BDS is using the Palestinians for their own agenda; they are just victimizing us,” Eid declared to local contributors of StandWithUs, which combats BDS and other ant-Israel initiatives on campuses across North America.

Ordinary Palestinians, according to Eid, don’t care about settlements, nor the political struggle to create a new state. “Palestinians are seeking dignity, not identity,” he said. “What they want is a job, and education for their children.” For them, he added, “a homeland is a place where you find dignity, justice, and freedom.”

He heaped scorn on Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority. “Who does he represent?” he asked. “His two sons and his wife,” he answered. “The majority of Palestinians have lost trust in him. We know that the leadership is corrupt, but we (although not Eid himself) are not allowed to speak about it.”

He noted that once it was proposed that the minute Israel made peace with the Palestinians, 54 Arab and Muslim countries would normalize relations with Israel. However, even without that peace, he said “it is already happening.”

JPost Editorial: Remembering Egypt's Mubarak's legacy in Israel

Egypt bid farewell on Wednesday to its longtime former president Hosni Mubarak, who ruled the country with an iron first for 30 years until he was ousted in 2011’s popular uprising, an early victim of the so-called Arab Spring. He spent many of the subsequent years in jail and military hospitals before being freed to his home in 2017.

Three days of national mourning were declared, and Reuters reported that horses drew Mubarak’s coffin, draped in the Egyptian flag, at a mosque complex, followed by a procession led by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, top military officials, Mubarak’s sons, Alaa and Gamal, and other Egyptian and Arab dignitaries. Mubarak’s coffin was to be airlifted to the family burial grounds, state television reported.

Mubarak’s legacy is clouded by the repressive manner in which he ruled the impoverished country of over 97 million people, but tempered by the chaos that followed his ouster. How he will be perceived in the history books in coming generations is still a question mark.

But in his relationship with Israel, Mubarak’s legacy is already written in stone.

Considered a war hero for his role in the 1973 Yom Kippur War, Mubarak ironically ended up rigorously guarding the tenuous peace between Egypt and Israel that was forged by his predecessor Anwar Sadat in 1979.

As Herb Keinon wrote in Wednesday’s Jerusalem Post, Mubarak understood the peace treaty’s importance and utility to the Egyptian economy, yet he also wanted Egypt to regain the stature it lost in the Arab world by signing the treaty. Therefore, he fulfilled the security commitments under the accord to the letter, but at the same time did nothing to try to imbue the treaty with anything that would lead to normal relations between the two countries.

In an op-ed in Palestine Today, Dr. Walid Al-Qattati starts off with an anecdote that in many ways symbolizes the entire Palestinian experience.

When he attended a school in the Sinai's El Arish (then under Israeli control) as a boy in the early 1970s, a teacher asked him, “Are you a citizen or a refugee?” Qattati didn't understand the question, so the teacher rephrased it: "Are you Egyptian or Palestinian?" Qattati answered him, "I am a Palestinian," and he said, "That means you are a refugee."

Qattati says that this made a huge impression on him, and gave him a reason for hating Israel for making him a refugee. But why, if he lived in El Arish, wasn't he an Egyptian citizen? Why is his teacher treating him differently than other students?

Why is there no anger towards the Arab world for "othering" Palestinians?

Yet there isn't. Instead, there is antisemitism.

The bulk of the article is a plea for Palestinians to return to revolution, and a culture of revolution in its media, with songs glorifying martyrdom and violence. Qattati is upset that many Palestinians seem to have abandoned that revolutionary spirit.

However, he concludes, there is something that all Palestinians have in common: "At least we - the Palestinians - can agree on one goal: to make the Jewish settlers unable to live among us, and not be able to remain in Palestine."

He can say, without fear of contradiction, that all Palestinians want to get rid of all the Jews in "Palestine."

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Reuters reports:

Facing a huge public debt burden and an acute liquidity crisis, the Lebanese state on Tuesday appointed international investment and law firms as its financial and legal advisers on a widely expected restructuring of its sovereign debt.

The government gave approval for U.S. asset management company Lazard to act as Lebanon’s financial adviser and law firm Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP to act as its legal adviser on the debt restructuring, which ratings agencies and investors expect to happen.

Lazard has previously advised on some of the world’s largest sovereign debt restructurings including Argentina, Greece and Ukraine. Lazard Freres, a French subsidiary of Lazard, was one of the firms that advised Argentina in overhauling its debt after it defaulted on some $100 billion loans during its crisis in 2002.

Lebanon's Al Modon is concerned - because the founders of Lazard from the 1850s were Jewish. So, of course.

Contracting with the Lazard company:Will the Zionist lobby control the economy of Lebanon?

Lazard belongs to the "Lazard Frere" group, which works in financial advisory, asset management and other financial services. Its foundation dates back to the year 1851 in the United States of America, by three Jewish brothers from the Lazard family who immigrated from France to America in the year 1848. Lazard's work expanded in America and Europe, especially during the Second World War and beyond. The expansion continued until the company provided its advisory services to Arab countries, mainly Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

The company's widespread expansion enabled it to extend its influence over many countries' economies, making it one of the influential parties in the global economy and one of the controllers of global wealth. However, the company's acquisition of its current strength would not have occurred without the help of the Zionist lobby in the United States and the world, so that the company itself would be among the Zionist lobby.

Unfortunately, the article didn't detail exactly how the "Zionist lobby" helped Lazard grow. I'm sure the evidence was compelling.

Interestingly, Lazard was on the Arab blacklist in the 1970s.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

As Purim approaches, Bernie Sanders, the Jewish front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination, said:

[Moving the US Embassy back to Tel Aviv is] something we would take into consideration …

I am very proud of being Jewish. I actually lived in Israel for some months, but what I happen to believe is that right now, sadly, tragically, in Israel, through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country …

Our foreign policy in the Mideast should be about absolutely protecting the independence and security of Israel, but you cannot ignore the suffering of the Palestinian people.

If there was any doubt before, we know now where Bernie stands. Jerusalem is always a litmus test. The American Congress demanded that the US government recognize reality about Jerusalem all the way back in 1995. That was a quarter of a century ago. Until Trump cut the Gordian Knot, three presidents withheld that recognition. The waivers supposedly related to “national security,” but everyone knew that it was a nod to the Arabs and others who opposed any Jewish sovereignty, not just our control of Jerusalem. Proof of that was the ridiculous opinion of the State Department that Israel was not sovereign in any part of Jerusalem, even the Western part that it has held since 1948 and in which its Knesset is located. And the fact is that there have been no adverse consequences for “national security.”

It’s important to note that Trump’s declaration did not break new ground. It did not determine the precise borders of Jerusalem, and left open the possibility that some parts of it would become part of a future Palestinian state. To go back to the pre-Trump situation – if indeed it is even legally possible, given the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 – would simply be absurd, and the only reason for doing so would be to kick Israel in the teeth.

Which is also the only reason to insult our Prime Minister, by calling him a “reactionary racist.” Maybe that’s the way American politicians have learned to talk recently, and maybe it gets Bernie points with some stupid or antisemitic supporters, or maybe it meets some psychological need of his own, but to the (minimal) extent that the accusation is meaningful, it is entirely untrue. “Racist” is a particularly unhelpful term. The US has a long history of conflict based on the ill-treatment of dark-skinned Americans, a history including slavery, Jim Crow, and other manifestations, and this is what the word is intended to evoke. It simply has no application for Jews and Arabs, whose conflicts have religious and political origins.

Probably Bernie would justify his accusation of “racism” by referring to Bibi’s famous comment that Arab voters are going to the polls “in droves,” something seized upon by his left-wing opposition here. It is supposed to imply that Bibi thinks Arabs should not exercise their right to vote, just like blacks in Mississippi in 1960. But in fact it was an attempt to turn out his own voters by telling them that Arabs were going out to vote in droves against him. There is nothing prejudiced about his pointing out that the Arab parties are part of the opposition, and warning that they were getting large numbers of their voters to the polls.

As far as “reactionary” is concerned, it is correct that Netanyahu has always favored free-market economic policies over the socialist ones that characterized Israel’s early years. He has nothing to be ashamed of – the results speak for themselves. If Bernie thinks the USA would be better off with government monopolies like the Histadrut’s enterprises, good luck with that.

Sanders’ reference to the “suffering of the Palestinian people” brings to mind Barack Obama’s Cairo speech, in which he drew a direct comparison between the Holocaust and the Palestinian nakba. I’ll just note that Palestinian “suffering” is primarily a result of the continued rejection of any Jewish sovereignty by their leadership and their allies, their refusal to accept legitimate offers of statehood, their readiness to use Arab refugees and their children as hostages in their war against the Jews, and their adoption of terrorism as their main political tactic. It is very wrong to treat the moral case of Israel as equivalent to that of the Palestinians, led as they are by the PLO and Hamas. Indeed, the groundbreaking aspect of Trump’s policy in the region is that for the first time, he has broken away from this false equivalence.

I would like to think that Bernie is taking positions that are as different as possible from those of the Trump Administration simply in order to attack Trump. Unfortunately, that doesn’t appear to be the case: Bernie’s anti-Israel positions have been consistent throughout his career, and his choice of advisors and surrogates, who include Linda Sarsour, Cornel West, Michael Moore, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, Amer Zahr, AOC, and others – some of whom might be given important positions in a Sanders Administration – does not inspire confidence.

But even if Bernie were not anti-Israel as a matter of principle – and I am convinced that he is – there is an important tactical reason that he could not support the Jewish state in the way that Harry Truman could. As a Jew, he is open to the accusation that he would prioritize the interests of Israel over the interests of the US. Certainly that accusation will always be made against any Jewish politician at any level who takes a pro-Israel position (even non-Jewish politicians who are pro-Israel are accused of being bought by the Jewish/Israeli lobby). And therefore he will avoid taking such positions.

He is a fool, an enemy of his own people, the most useful of useful idiots. Linda Sarsour said she would be proud to “elect the first Jewish American president this country has ever seen – and for his name to be Bernard Sanders.” That says it all, doesn’t it?

I hold an unpopular opinion: I don’t think a Jew should be President of the US. Any Jew. One reason is the difficulty of being pro-Israel; but there is another. The president is a lightning rod. Look at the abuse heaped on Trump, Obama, Bush, and Clinton. Do you doubt the form it would take with a Jewish president, even an anti-Israel one? Do American Jews need another stimulus for antisemitic attacks?

Look, there are more issues in this election than Jewish issues. American Jews are Americans, most of them see themselves as liberals if not progressives, and they are concerned about jobs, healthcare, immigration, student debt, the cost of living, drugs and crime, terrorism, and everything else. I get that. But if they are still Jews, then Jewish issues, including support for Israel, have to count. And there has to be a point at which a candidate disqualifies himself for someone who cares about Jewish issues. Bernie’s gone past that point. He’s made the calculation that calling Israel’s PM a “racist” will help him more with the voters who are important to him than hurt him with others who apparently are not.

Nevertheless, many American Jews will support Bernie if he is nominated. They will do it despite their misgivings, because they have elevated anti-Trumpism to the greatest mitzvah of their progressive “Torah,” and because they have been conditioned to only see antisemitism when it comes from the Right. They will do it because they have become disconnected from the Jewish people and their state, and have adopted Tikkunism as their religion in place of any form of Judaism. I suspect they’ll be sorry.

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02/26 Links Pt2: Israel’s Rihanna Is Arab and Jewish; Sanders: I'd consider moving embassy back to Tel Aviv; Carnival float in Spain features Nazi uniforms and trains with crematoria

From Ian:

Matti Friedman: Israel’s Rihanna Is Arab and Jewish

In 2017, fresh off a gig opening for Radiohead in the U.S., the pop star sang at Israel’s official Independence Day celebration, an unusual gig for an Arab artist. The invitation came from the Likud culture minister, Miri Regev, a sharp-tongued hard-liner whose family roots are in North Africa, like those of many Likud voters. Ms. Regev has said that Arabic music “has something to offer Israeli culture.”

If you can understand why it makes sense for that statement to come from a right-wing politician and not from the left, you understand something tricky and important about Israel. The Israelis who are closest to the Arab world — the Jews whose families are native to that world — tend to lean to the political right, in part because they were treated with disdain by the left, and in part because Arab Muslim societies marginalized them, expelled them, seized their property and then, after 1948, subjected their new state to wars and a siege that has gone on for more than 70 years.

Israel’s founders always wanted the country to be European, and its Middle Eastern side was long kept in the cultural basement. This was reflected in the status of mizrahi music as a fringe scene scorned by critics and trafficked on bootleg cassettes. But in the past decade or two, Israel’s old elite, which was rooted in Eastern Europe and inspired by the socialist ideal of the kibbutz, has aged out of relevance, and the country’s repressed Middle Eastern soul has surged into the vacuum.

This helps explain why Israeli politics and culture — and pop music — are increasingly discordant for Westerners. There’s a renewed interest in the Jewish sages and religious poetry that flourished in the Islamic world, for example, like the liturgical form known as piyyut, which now shows up not just in college courses but on Top 40 radio. Even an Israeli supermarket aisle is confusing for a shopper expecting what a North American would consider Jewish food: the shelves are heavy on couscous, eggplants and the rest of the pantry of the Levant. There’s more and more about Israel that’s easier to grasp if you’re a Muslim from Beirut than if you’re a Jewish New Yorker. This is a key trend in the country right now, and Nasrin’s riding it.

Yaron Ilan, an influential mizrahi radio host, sees a generational change. People around his age, 50, still call the music mizrahi or Mediterranean. “They still think of the Mediterranean sound as something different from Israeli music,” and that has changed among younger listeners, he said. To them, what Nasrin is singing is Israeli music — and she’s doing it not in small clubs in south Tel Aviv but in the Menorah Arena, the biggest indoor venue in the city.

If Nasrin is representative of the hybrid culture emerging here, there’s one part of her biography that’s truly unique: her decision not just to sing in Hebrew but also to actually embrace Judaism. (h/t Zvi)

A President Sanders will be anti-Israel? Jewish group has an answer

The Republican Jewish Coalition continued its attacks on the Democratic frontrunner, independent Senator Bernie Sanders, warning that voting for him would be "insane" because of his views on Israel.

The Republican Jewish Coalition, which has been one of Israel's strongest defenders in American politics and strongly endorsed President Donald Trump's peace plan for the Middle East earlier this month, called the video "Bernie Sanders – Insane," just days after it warned that his emergence as the clear favorite following the Nevada caucuses was a highly worrisome development.

"How bad would Bernie Sanders be for Israel?" the video asks, as dramatic music is played in the background and Sanders waves to the crowd.

The video then goes on to list Sanders's many controversial remarks, including his reference to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as racist. The video ends with, "Voting for Bernie Sanders would be insane."

Sanders: I'd consider moving embassy back to Tel Aviv

Democratic presidential hopeful Senator Bernie Sanders said on Tuesday that, if elected president, he would consider moving the US embassy in Israel back to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem.

"The answer is it's something we would take into consideration," said Sanders at a Democratic primary presidential debate in South Carolina, when asked to comment on concern among American Jews that he’s not supportive enough of Israel. He then proceeded to once again criticize Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.

"But here's the point, I am very proud of being Jewish. I actually lived in Israel for some months. But what I happen to believe is that right now sadly, tragically in Israel through Bibi Netanyahu, you have a reactionary racist who is now running that country," he added.

Former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg also weighed in on the issue and said, “You can’t move the embassy back.” Instead, he said, “The answer is to obviously split it up.”

Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren said moving the embassy is not a decision for the US to make and added, “We should let the parties determine the capitals themselves.”

US President Donald Trump relocated the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem in 2018, months after recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – a decision which angered the Palestinian Authority (PA).

My grandson's second birthday party had to be canceled due to rocket fire. I had arranged to attend the festivities and had set the alarm clock to meet my ride at approximately dawn o’clock. But when I rolled out of bed in the near darkness, I had two messages. One from my ride, and one from my daughter in-law, both telling me that it just wasn’t happening today. Maybe tomorrow.

I’d known the night before that it might not happen. Because when the rockets fly thick and fast, school is canceled, and no one can work. The party was to be held in my grandson’s daycare center. But there was no daycare that day. Or the next.

When the rockets are seeking out Jewish bodies to destroy, Jewish children don’t get to have birthday parties. They stay instead in their safe rooms and shelters, frightened and shaking as they hear the sirens and the booms. “Every red alert makes me shake in my hands and legs. Every boom terrifies me,” said one little girl in Sderot.

I can confirm that the same is true of all of the children of Southern Israel, including my grandchildren who live in the city of Netivot. I watched my granddaughter’s face crumble when she heard an ambulance go by during dinner in our Sukkah in Efrat, this past fall. S. literally dissolved into tears, though she had been in a fine mood until that moment. We understood: she'd thought it was a red alert, a rocket siren.

With well-practiced hands, my son and daughter in-law put my granddaughter to bed. The stress of the moment had wiped her out. “This is what it means to grow up in Netivot,” said my daughter in-law.

It was as if, S., my granddaughter, had lost herself, lost something essential, when that ambulance siren sounded. She was no longer in control of herself or her story. Sirens meant rockets, and they were bigger than she, and unpredictable, ruling over all.

Including my grandson’s birthday party, which, by the time this piece is published, will still not have occurred. The rockets have stopped, but it's hard living in between the rockets, rearranging and reshuffling life. It’s hard to make space for what already should have been.

Every time there is rocket fire, I feel distress for my grandchildren, for the fear I know they experience. The spotty sleep, the running to shelter, and of course, the anticipated celebrations canceled. Trying not to go stir-crazy in a single, small room, the entire family just works to conserve energy, to catch some rest as the rockets fly, the sirens blare, and the booms sound, telling you just how close it was this time. (Sometimes much too close for comfort.)

In the South, it’s not just the rockets, of course. There are the balloons, which aren’t toys to play with, but something sent by people who want to kill you, because you are a Jewish child. How do you come to grips with something like that?

How does a child come to grips with people who shoot things at you, bringing on a whole set of scary events: sirens, booms, running into safe rooms or shelters or stairwells in the middle of the candlelit peace of a Sabbath meal, or the happiness of a birthday party, or in the case of my grandson, a canceled party, the canceling of happiness and what should have been a happy time, which is now instead, a scary time that makes you shake.

My two-year-old grandson just wants to be a two-year-old. He shouldn’t have to deal with these awful terrorists who think that Jewish children--people like my little grandson G.--aren’t really human, but some kind of pestilence or vermin. That this being the case, little Jews can be targeted at will and no one will care how they feel, or whether they feel at all.

And maybe no one does.

Because the list of people who don’t care about my grandson is long. It includes not only Hamas, the Palestinian Authority, and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) (which claims responsibility for the most recent attacks), but also Jeremy Ben Ami, Linda Sarsour, Peter Beinart, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Bernie Sanders and anyone who votes Democrat in the next election come November.

Not that Trump can solve this problem any better than Israel’s own leaders. But better Trump than any Dem, because Trump sees Israel as an ally to work with and assist, whereas, the Dems see Israel as an abuser and occupier. They see Israel as needing to be brought into line, and punished through the withholding of their money and approbation.

Dems prefer to support the Arabs, whom they see as oppressed, because they are brown and poor and have no state of their own, never mind the attacks, the rockets and the balloons targeting Jews and Jewish children. Because if the Arabs are poor, brown, and oppressed, and have no state of their own, how can they possibly be expected to behave?

This is the immature paternalistic vision of the Arab people which crowds out every other perspective, so that we don’t see the canceled birthday parties, the Jewish children shaking with fear, the exploding miscarriage rate in Southern Israel, or the rampant PTSD destroying families and careers. The media doesn’t care to write about this even one little bit, and if they do, they are sure that it’s Israel that started it all, that it is Israel’s own fault.

I am powerless to do anything about this, as powerless as the children of Southern Israel to stop the sirens and the booms that send them into safe rooms and destroy what should have been a day of song and cake and presents. A day when turning two should have been the main event. I don’t know a right way to explain this to children.

I only know that it is wrong.

Sometimes I wonder why my son and his small family, of all the places in the world, chose to live in Southern Israel, knowing what it would be like, the sirens, the booms, the running for shelter. But I already know the answer: If Jews will not live in Southern Israel, the enemy will take it over, and the rockets will come closer to the center of the country.

Which means that the Jews of Southern Israel are heroes and patriots. On the other hand, there is seemingly no solution to their problem.

Neither Gantz nor Bibi can stop the rockets or the balloons.

That ship sailed with Disengagement.

There is no way to roll it back. Nor can Israel carpet bomb the innocent or even not-so-innocent civilians of Gaza. Because the world won’t stand for it, or because Israel isn’t brave enough or stupid enough to do so. We don’t want to do it. But truly, there is no other way to stop the rockets, to stop the balloons, to stop the shaking limbs of the children who live under this reign of terror, while just trying to have a normal life.

My grandchildren are lucky. Their parents have a car. They got in the car and drove to Jerusalem to get a break from it all, the sirens, the booms, the crowded safe room. They visited the aquarium, had pizza, and played Grandma’s piano in Efrat. Then they went home, not knowing how long they will have until the next time the rockets fall, sending them into a limbo where life is put on hold and children shake, not knowing who among them will live and who will die.

G. leaving Grandma's house to go home to Netivot.

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From JForum (France):

The Tunisian Jewish community could be stripped of part of its heritage. The State intends to lay hands on the largest Jewish cemetery in the Maghreb, the Borgel, and a Jewish NGO is mobilized from Paris to save this place which honors the tombs of major rabbis.

The Tunisian government wants to resuscitate a controversial plan, under study for a few years, to confiscate the Borgel Jewish cemetery which has been there since 1893, whose land value amounts to 35 million euros.

The resurgence of this measure is causing anxiety among many Tunisian Jews, all remembering the forced expropriation of the old Jewish cemetery in Tunis (known as "Passage") in 1958 and anti-Semitic violence including the desecration of the Great Synagogue in June 1967.

The land, which remains to this day the property of the Jewish community of Tunis, could be expropriated at any time without any urban planning program justifying it. The Government wishes to use this vast land which partly hinders the expansion of the city of Tunis.

It was not an anti-Semitic idea, but rather an operation intended to sell this land to local or foreign property developers. However, this project comes at a time of strong anti-Israeli sentiment in Tunisia.

This Jewish cemetery contains more than 22,000 tombs bearing the names of famous personalities, including those of several chief rabbis. Tombs of the Hakhamim (wise men or "saints") would be affected by this expropriation measure. Some 183 Rabbis rest at the Borgel.

Many of the graves there were transferred from another Jewish cemetery in 1958 when the government took over that cemetery.

The Borgel has not been maintained well despite the efforts of the Muslim caretaker.

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02/26 Links Pt1: Benny Morris: The Palestinians Don't Want to Share the Country with the Jews; Poll: Most Palestinians See "Regaining All of Historical Palestine" as their "Top Priority"

From Ian:

Israeli Historian Benny Morris: The Palestinians Don't Want to Share the Country with the Jews

In the wake of the failed Camp David and Oslo Accord, and following the brutality of the second intifada, Morris has grown pessimistic about the prospects for peace between Israelis and Palestinians, and his views have taken a rightward turn. Citing the belief that Palestinians will never support a two-state solution, he has called himself a “Cosmic Pessimist.”

J. spoke with Morris ahead of his upcoming book tour to the Bay Area. His latest book, his first on a subject other than Israel, Palestine or Zionism, is titled “The Thirty-Year Genocide: Turkey’s Destruction of Its Christian Minorities.” Co-authored with Dror Ze’evi, it tells the history of atrocities, including the Armenian genocide, by the Ottoman regime from 1894 to 1924.

Did you support his strike against Qassem Soleimani, the Iranian military leader?
Yeah, sure, no problem killing Soleimani. Soleimani was a killer, a man who organized killings, and a soldier in a war. And soldiers in a war are open to being killed. That’s what war is about.

What is your view on the Iran nuclear deal?
I think the Americans should have held out. The Americans had all the cards. The Iranians were better negotiators and the Americans should have held out for a much better deal.

But the deal was signed. It was a mistake, but it helped, maybe, slow down the Iranian nuclear project. I fear that withdrawing from the deal may lead to a quickening of the Iranian nuclear project, which will again confront Israel with a choice: either attacking the Iranian nuclear facilities, or the Americans attacking the nuclear facilities, or just allowing the Iranians to develop a nuclear weapon, as America has allowed North Korea to do. Once they have nuclear weapons, just like North Korea, they will become invulnerable. That’s the problem. And then they will do what they like in the Middle East.

With the Trump peace plan, it seemed like the administration was trying to strong-arm the Palestinians in some way. What did you make of the proposal?
Well, the Palestinians can’t agree to it. Look, I don’t think the Palestinian leadership, and Palestinians, basically, in their hearts, I don’t think they want to share Palestine with the Jews. That’s the basic thing. So it doesn’t really matter what plan they’re offered. Trump’s plan, Clinton’s plan in 2000. They say no. They don’t want to divide the country with the Jews. This is the basic thing.

If you don’t accept what I’m saying, and believe that they are willing to reach some sort of two-state deal, then this is a two-state deal they can’t accept, because it doesn’t really offer them a state. So even at minimum, what he’s offering is a long shot. But as I say, it doesn’t really matter that much because I don’t think they’ll agree to a two-state solution of any sort.

Ben-Dror Yemini: How did Western media become Gaza's useful idiot?

Israel granted work permits to Gaza Palestinians, expanded the fishing zone, and allowed the cash to flow from Qatar - all to no avail. The rocket fire from Gaza continues.

Defeating Islamic terror is considered legitimate anywhere else in the world, but what the U.S. and NATO can do, Israel cannot - even when fighting a jihadist group that controls Gaza.

Jerusalem simply cannot ignore international pressure. As soon as images depicting the aftermath of Israeli raids appear on media outlets, demands for a cessation of hostilities begin.

The West is ignorant of the true face of Hamas. It is an anti-Semitic organization that calls for the destruction of Jews; its official media outlet teaches children about the need to kill Jews.

Meanwhile, its religious leaders call for Rome to be captured in the interest of Islamic hegemony, much as the Islamic State ideology prescribed.

The Palestinians Need to Accept the Reality of Jerusalem and Israel

Israel isn’t going anywhere, and Jerusalem will always be its capital. Period.

Every head of state that visits Israel meets the prime minister in Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, and has always done so. And while most of these world leaders won’t acknowledge as much publicly, Jerusalem has been the recognized capital of Israel for 3,000 years, since the time of King David. Nor is there one scrap of archaeological evidence to suggest otherwise.

During American presidential campaigns, candidates always acknowledge that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel, but until President Trump broke that mold in 2017, they had never acted on that conviction upon winning the White House.

Trump’s decision to finally fulfill the promise of his predecessors to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital was, as he himself stated, merely a recog

In May, the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs and IRmep will be holding an all-star Israel-bashing seminar at the National Press Club in Washington.

Speakers include Haaretz' Gideon Levy, Columbia University's Joseph Massad, "The Israel Lobby"'s Stephen Walt, and washed up 1970s rock star Roger Waters.

Those who attend have to adhere to some interesting rules:

Only the official videographer and accredited members of the news media will be allowed to record this event. Attendees are allowed to take still photos without using a flash. ...
No public dissemination of third-party information in conjunction with or during the event is permitted without the express prior written permission of the organizers 30 days in advance of the conference. Individuals or organizations that violate or have in the past violated these conference or National Press Club rules or who disrupt orderly proceedings may have their conference credentials and/or tickets revoked and may not be permitted to participate in future events.

The first rule seems to be designed to ensure that if anyone says anything embarrassing - crossing the mythical line from "anti-Israel" to antisemitism, for example - there will be no evidence. The organizers must approve any news media in attendance, so you can be sure that "Zionist" media will not attend.

It took me a while to figure out what the second highlighted rule even means. I'm fairly sure it allows the organizers to kick out anyone they want if they send a single tweet during the conference.

The anti-Israel crowd is deathly afraid that one of their speakers will say something that will make them look bad and they want to control the news. In addition, these rules are meant to discourage any Zionists from attending the event.

These rules are what one would expect to see in a third world country, not the National Press Club.

The only other place I could find the same wording of "No public dissemination of third-party information..." was from a similar anti-Israel and antisemitic conference from 2014, the "National Summit to Reassess the U.S.—Israel 'Special Relationship,'" also sponsored by IRmep.

Pro-Israel conferences like AIPAC live-stream the entire show. They have nothing to hide.

Clearly WRMEA and IRmep do have something to hide from the public.

(h/t Paul R)

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Here is a new video from Islamic Jihad meant to introduce a new rocket, but it is really to celebrate the terror group's "accomplishments:"

Sprinkled throughout the video, and especially around the 2:00 mark, it proudly shows terror attacks - bus bombs, stabbings and car rammings of Jews, scenes of Jews injured in hospitals and Jewish funerals.

Islamic Jihad - funded by Iran - isn't saying that kiling Jewish civilians is a regretful but necessary component of the conflict. They are saying that attacking Jews is central to their mission and they are proud that they target identifiable Jews.

Yet this is not the worst part. Islamic Jihad is a terror group and you cannot expect any hint of morality from them.

The worst part is that this is part of the larger Palestinian culture. Islamic Jihad is hardly marginal - they are quite visible in Gaza and used to participate in student elections in the West Bank as well. Their media is popular. Their rallies attract tens of thousands.

Yet there is complete silence from the larger Palestinian community for Islamic Jihad's glorification of terror, their explicit antisemitism, their love of violence evident in this video.

Western liberals never tire of saying that most Palestinians are peaceful. Certainly the number that personally engage in terror is quite small. But the silence in the face of terrorists and terrorism being celebrated in their midst, in their media and websites, literally every day, cannot be interpreted as anything but the Palestinian public condoning and supporting the most disgusting and violent acts.

There are never any op-eds against Islamic Jihad-type terrorism or antisemitism. Not from Fatah, nor from the independent media.

Even the Western funders of the PA don't insist that part of their money go towards the active combatting of terror glorification. Instead they support nebulous and vague educational"peace" initiatives where platitudes are taught but nothing negative is said against terror and antisemitism. The reason is as depressing as it is obvious - the EU knows that Palestinian culture will not tolerate any dissent from the support of terror that is shown and taught to them from birth.

The PA and Fatah are only considered "moderate" because they aren't as explicit in their support of terror as Islamic Jihad and Hamas are. But they do absolutely nothing to stop the culture that celebrates murder of Jewish civilians, and in Arabic they often engage in the same type of incitement themselves.

There is something seriously wrong with the logic that people who condone or support terrorism against Jews have the right to their own state where such hate can be multiplied.

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Omar Hassan in Euronews writes:

Whatever one thinks of President Trump’s so-called Middle East “Deal of the Century” unveiled last month, it is clearly not a workable plan for peace in the short-term. Rather than a top-down solution crafted in Washington DC (a strategy that has failed for three decades), the world should focus on “quick wins” to reinvigorate the Palestinian economy from the bottom up, and increase startup programmes, business ties and social integration between Israelis and Palestinians.

...Pro-Palestinian activists might wonder how I can dare to focus on issues such as incomes and livelihoods when the “real issue” is justice for the Palestinian people. But an economic life, including one that brings them closer to their neighbours, is a precursor to any political settlement.

Whatever one’s views on the emotive issues in Trump’s plan, such as the right to return and the capital of the proposed Palestinian state, the day-to-day reality for ordinary Palestinians must still be addressed. It’s easy to dream of a Palestinian state. It is much harder to work to create living conditions that would make that state worth living in.

But the real benefit of focusing on economic development for Palestinians isn’t just in providing hope to a disenfranchised society, giving their youth something to live for, and providing a counter-narrative to the extremists who are happy for them to have no alternative to stone throwing.

If Palestinian entrepreneurship (which is recognised and admired across the region) can be harnessed, the social divisions between Arabs and Israelis will start to dissolve. As long as the two communities cannot live and work together side by side, the conflict will remain intractable, which is why Palestinians should be given greater access to Israel’s successful tech industry and start up scene.

The weird thing is that Hassan must not have read the Trump "Peace to Prosperity" plan, because the bulk of that plan gives specific ways to build up the Palestinian economy.

Hassan sounds almost exactly like Bibi Netanyahu back in 2008:

Likud chairman Benjamin Netanyahu told the closing plenary of the United Jewish Communities General Assembly Wednesday that the peace process needs to focus on economic issues and not political disagreements.

Instead of talking about contentious issues such as the status of Jerusalem, the first step to a lasting peace needs to be the fostering of the Palestinians' economic situation, he said.

"Right now, the peace talks are based only one thing, only on peace talks," he said. "It makes no sense at this point to talk about the most contractible issue. It's Jerusalem or bust, or right of return or bust. That has led to failure and is likely to lead to failure again."

Netanyahu used much of his 40-minute speech to delineate his own plan for the future of the peace process, which he said will be based on areas that are already agreed on.

"We must weave an economic peace alongside a political process," Netanyahu said. "That means that we have to strengthen the moderate parts of the Palestinian economy by handing rapid growth in those area, rapid economic growth that gives a stake for peace for the ordinary Palestinians."

Maybe Hassan knows very well that his ideas came from Bibi and Kushner and Greenblatt. But he knows that if he admits it, no one will take him seriously. So perhap he is saying that "economic peace" is the opposite of the Trump plan - in order to get more Palestinians to support it.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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02/25 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Sanitizing Soros through guilt by association; J’Accuse! Our Dreyfus and Theirs

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Sanitizing Soros through guilt by association

The law professor Alan Dershowitz has thrown a legal hand-grenade into America's political civil war by claiming to have evidence that former President Barack Obama "personally asked" the FBI to investigate someone "on behalf" of Obama's "close ally," billionaire financier George Soros.

He made his cryptic remark in an interview defending US President Donald Trump against claims he interfered in the prosecution of his former adviser, Roger Stone.

Dershowitz, a confirmed liberal, drew the ire of the left by joining Trump's impeachment defense team – not because he's a Trump fan, but because he cares about upholding the rule of law and the US constitution, which he believes (with good evidence) are being trashed in the anti-Trump witch-hunt.

Now, though, Dershowitz has crossed yet another line. For to criticize Soros, the principal funder of treasured activist causes, means automatically turning into a bogeyman of the left.

Predictably, therefore, Dershowitz has been painted as a wild conspiracy theorist. Other critics of Soros, a Jewish Holocaust survivor, find themselves labeled anti-Semites.

J’Accuse! Our Dreyfus and Theirs

Two months after its shellacking in the United Kingdom’s general elections, the Labour Party continues to remind British voters of why they chose the “anyone-but-Jeremy-Corbyn” option.

Last week, it was the turn of John McDonnell — Corbyn’s main lieutenant and a stalwart of the party’s far-left — to plumb the depths of illogical, offensive, and plain ignorant political rhetoric. Speaking immediately after a visit to Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, in the grim surroundings of south London’s Belmarsh prison, McDonnell produced an unforgettable soundbite. Just not in the way he intended.

“I think this is one of the most important and significant political trials of this generation, in fact longer,” said McDonnell, referring to the possibility that Assange will be extradited to the United States to face 18 charges related to national security violations, of which 17 are covered by the Espionage Act.

Warming to his subject, McDonnell then ventured, “I think it’s the Dreyfus case of our age.”

Perhaps McDonnell believed that this comparison would send journalists scurrying onto Google for a quick refresher course on “Dreyfus,” and that he would consequently be congratulated for having offered such a thoughtful, historically resonant observation. No such luck.

Diligently performing their duties as representatives of the Jewish community, organizations including the Community Security Trust and the Holocaust Educational Trust swiftly countered McDonnell’s claim. Whatever Assange might be, they said, he is no Dreyfus.

This, by the way, is not a slight towards Assange. Even if you temporarily forget McDonnell’s breathtaking gall in appropriating one of the seminal episodes of modern antisemitism to make his point that Assange is facing a show trial, on a purely empirical level, the comparison with Dreyfus is hopeless.

U.S. Criticizes French Failure to Try Jewish Woman's Killer

The U.S. special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism implicitly criticized the decision in France not to try a man who killed his Jewish neighbor.

Elan Carr referenced the decision on the killer of Sarah Halimi during a conference Monday on anti-Semitism organized by the European Jewish Association in Paris.

In December, a judge decided not to try Kobili Traore of killing Halimi in 2017 while shouting about Allah. The judge cited psychiatric evaluations saying Traore’s consumption of marijuana before the incident led to a “delirious episode” that made him not legally responsible for his actions. But the judge also said that Traore, who is in his 30s, killed Halimi because he is an anti-Semite.

The ruling provoked outrage by French Jews. Last month, President Emmanuel Macron said that “there is a need for a trial” for Traore.

“You don’t dismiss hate crime charges for issues like the consumption of marijuana,” Carr said, referencing his credentials as a former prosecutor in Los Angeles. “It doesn’t explain away hate crimes that need to be prosecuted to the utmost severity of the law.”

The conference, titled “Jews in Europe: United for a Better Future,” was held at the European Center for Judaism, a $17 million community center opened in October.

Menachem Margolin, chairman of the European Jewish Association, said the building and growing engagement with Judaism by many European Jews is making him “hopeful of the future of Jews here” despite the challenges.

Palestinian schools teach that "the first historian was Palestinian," "A Palestinian Roman expelled Jews from Jerusalem"

As I was researching the broadcast announcements in Palestinian Arab schools I came across this one from 2017 that has a "Did you know?" section about how important Palestinians have been in history.

2- Did you know that the Palestinian emperor of Rome was the one who ordered the expulsion of the Jews from Jerusalem due to their lack of politeness and their hatred against Christianity and Christians at that time?

Palestinians are trying to take credit for expelling Jews from Jerusalem - for the crime of being "impolite!"

In reality, the emperor who expelled the Jews from Jerusalem in 136 CE was Hadrian, born in Italy.

3- Did you know that the first historian in the world is Syoss Cassiros, who is Palestinian and whose book Pleistino is still preserved in the Louvre Museum ..

They appear to be referring to Simonides of Ceos (who was a poet, not a historian) and possibly his book now known as the Palatine Anthology of which part of it is in Paris. Simonides was born in Greece, not "Palestine."

The first historian is generally agreed to be Herodotus.

This seems to be the quality of a Palestinian education.

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02/25 Links Pt1: Despite attempt to change rules with Syria strikes, Israel’s Gaza policy failing; Voter apathy threatens reunion of Judea and Samaria with Israel; Mubarak, the ‘Pharaoh’ Toppled by the Arab Spring, Dies at 91

From Ian:

Avi Issacharoff: Despite attempt to change rules with Syria strikes, Israel’s Gaza policy failing

The latest round of violence between Israel and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group has not yet ended, but already there are a few things that stand out as different from previous rounds.

Syria commanders no longer immune
Israel may have chosen to strike various targets in the Gaza Strip, including rocket-launching cells, but the main response was far away, on the Syrian front, where many PIJ targets near Damascus were hit.

This is a surprising step, designed to make PIJ decision-makers think twice and thrice before attempting another attack. The military and the government are trying to set up a new equation by which escalation with Israel will hurt not only Gaza but also PIJ leaders in Syria, who have thus far enjoyed a degree of immunity from Israeli strikes.

This may not be the first time Israel attacked PIJ targets in Syria, but this time it is a direct reaction to rockets launched at Israel.

PIJ is doing quite a bit to lead to this escalation. The violence began Sunday early morning with the attempt to place a bomb next to the border fence and continued after the terrorist was killed and his body was dragged back to Israel by a military bulldozer. After a brief lull, the violence renewed Monday afternoon.

Even by its own standard, PIJ went overboard with its response, considering it all started with a cell trying to lay an explosive device. Having launched dozens of rockets into the night and on Monday, it is clear the organization seeks to drag the whole of Gaza into war — despite this being one of the better periods the Strip has experienced recently in terms of Israeli concessions.

Rocket attacks target Israeli south despite reported ceasefire

Terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired rockets at the city of Sderot and nearby communities on Monday night, some 20 minutes after a ceasefire was reportedly due to go into effect at 10 p.m.

There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage from the attack. Residents of the area reported seeing multiple Iron Dome interceptor missiles fired into the sky.

Over the course of Sunday and Monday, some 90 rockets were fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip — most of them by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group — and approximately 90 percent of those heading toward populated areas were intercepted by the Iron Dome system, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

In response to the attacks, the Israeli military launched multiple rounds of retaliatory air raids against Islamic Jihad bases in the Gaza Strip, as well as one airstrike on a squad it said was preparing to launch rockets, injuring four.

Just before the ceasefire was meant to begin, terrorists in the Strip also fired a number of rockets at the Eshkol region of southern Israel. One rocket struck inside a community in the region, causing no injuries, but light damage to a nearby building, which was hit by shrapnel.

In light of the ongoing attacks from Gaza, the military ordered schools to remain canceled Tuesday in Gaza periphery communities, including the city of Ashkelon, representing some 55,000 students.

‘I Shake in My Hands and Legs’: Child From Israel’s South Describes Rocket Trauma

A child from Israel’s south recounted on Monday the traumatic fear and terror she was facing as rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded the region once again, saying the air raid sirens made her “shake in my hands and legs.”

Dozens of rockets have been fired from Hamas-ruled Gaza into southern Israel over the past two days. While there have been no casualties thus far, the psychological and economic impact is severe.

Schools were closed in the Gaza border area on Monday, as were main highways and train lines.

Those businesses still open had almost no customers, as residents stayed in their homes close to bomb shelters and fortified rooms.

The IDF has undertaken retaliatory attacks against Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which it blamed for the rocket fire, in Gaza and Syria.

Roni, an eight-year-old second grader from the border city of Sderot, which has absorbed thousands of rocket strikes over the past two decades, was in a store with her grandmother buying a Purim costume when the warning sirens sounded.

“When I was with grandma in the store, a red alert caught us,” she told Israeli news site N12. “Immediately we got under the table that was in the store. I was under stress.”

“Every red alert makes me shake in my hands and legs. Every boom terrifies me,” she said.

“My big sister has a bat mitzvah soon and I hope there won’t be another red alert,” Roni added.

“At school they try to give us tools to deal with the fear with the help of games, and I hope that when I’m grown up I can be a dancer without sirens in the background,” she said.

Ilhan Omar calls her critics bigots. It could be because she doesn't want people to read a new book about her.

A revealing tweet from Ilhan Omar:

I am,

Hijabi
Muslim
Black
Foreign born
Refugee
Somali

Easily triggering conservatives, Right wing bloggers, anti Muslim bigots, tinfoil conspiracy theorists, birthers, pay me a 💵 to bash Muslims fraudsters, pro-occupation groups and every single xenophobe since 2016 😆 pic.twitter.com/SffIqUT32I
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) February 24, 2020

She is saying that critics are bigots against Muslims or black people or immigrants.

This is essentially her inoculation against criticism. It isn't about her words or ideology or her own bigotry - she is immune from attack because she can play the racism card.

So Omar, and the people in her circles which increasingly resembles the entire American Left, refuse to engage on the issues - her antisemitic statements, her offensive positions, her links to pro-terror organizations, her pretense of being feminist while refusing to admit misogyny in Islam, her paying a large salary to her lover and other corruption that is being revealed - and instead deflect criticism by labeling her opponents racist.

It is probable that this tweet was meant to be a response to the release this week of a book by Benjamin Weingarten about Omar and the threat that she represents.

The last thing she wants is for people to read it. For Omar, it is much better to imply that anyone who reads the book is vile.

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Today is the first day of the Islamic month of Rajab.

Like in many places worldwide, Palestinian schools have various announcements meant to be broadcast over school public address systems for various occasions. Sometimes these broadcasts include current events, prayers and the like.

Watania, a Gaza-based news organization, published a script yesterday of what was to be broadcast this morning in Palestinian schools on the occasion of the new lunar month. I don't think this is an official mandate, rather a suggestion of how to make Rajab relevant to students. No doubt some schools do broadcast what is suggested.

The suggested broadcast for today is antisemitic.

It includes this fervent prayer: "Oh Allah we ask that this year be a year of good and peace and that you cleanse the Holy Land from the spiteful Jews, for they are no match for You. Oh Jews, we have a great Lord; take revenge on them, oh Vanquisher/Subduer, oh Allah, oh Allah, oh Allah."

I found some other transcripts of Palestinian school radio broadcasts sprinkled throughout the Internet and antisemitism is not unusual. For example, this one says Jews could only hold onto Israel because of Muslim negligence:

I do not fear the power of the Jews, but I fear the Muslims ’failing. The Jews did not take what they took with their power, but with our neglect, it is the negligence of the strong that strengthens the weak.

Or this one:

The Jews are fools because they occupied a state whose people are untiring.
Every Palestinian is born a mujahid.

Palestinians learn their Jew-hatred from somewhere, and schools are one of those places.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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The Spectator explains what Israeli cuisine means

Last week the Washington Post published an article that claimed that the very term "Israeli food" erased Palestinian culture.

The Spectator actually addresses the arguments Kassis brings, perhaps unintentionally.

To the Jewish state’s many critics, the rise of Israeli cooking doubtless embodies the colonialism that lies at the heart of the ‘Zionist project’. Trust the Jews to descend on a piece of neglected gastronomic real estate, strip its cuisine for parts and then use their savvy and connections to make a fortune flogging it to Americans. It’s true that hummus and the politics of cultural appropriation are serious issues in the Middle East. The Israel-Lebanon ‘hummus wars’ saw regiments of chefs patriotically competing to prepare ever-larger vats of the stuff in an attempt to capture the Guinness world record.

But there’s another story to tell, too, about a cuisine that draws strength from the diversity that is this 72-year-old country’s tragedy and its triumph. About a quarter of Israel’s population is Arab, including Bedouin and Druze. More than half of Israel’s Jews are Mizrachi, descendants of ‘eastern’ Jews from Iran, the Middle East and North Africa, who migrated, fled or were expelled from their homes after Israeli independence was declared in 1948.

This swirl of humanity has made Israeli food into the ultimate mezze platter: tagine and couscous from the Maghreb, shawarma from Ottoman Turkey and sabich (eggplant, eggs and salad in a pita) from Iraq. Jachnun (pastry) and the unpronounceable but addictive zhoug (an ultra-hot sauce) come from Yemen. Challah rolls down from the old country of Poland and Russia. Falafel is Egyptian or Israeli but, as usual, it depends on whom you ask. The yoghurt obsession is down to the Druze. Shakshuka is Tunisian. Hummus is the cement of the Levant and claimed, like the land, by both Israelis and Palestinians, among others. Fuse all this together, and you have the modern Israeli kitchen. Lots of places do these foods well, but Israeli restaurants do them all at once.

It isn't that Israel tries to erase Arab culture. It is that it adds its own spin on Middle Eastern food, creating dishes that are brand new.

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02/24 Links Pt2: UNESCO Affiliate at An-Najah University Honors Terrorists; The ethnic cleansing of Jews and left wing hypocrisy; Bernie Sanders, Surrounded By Anti-Semites, Attacks AIPAC

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: UNESCO Affiliate at An-Najah University Honors Terrorists

In August 2018, An-Najah University in Nablus held a ceremony to recognize 61 prisoners incarcerated in Israel’s Nafha Prison who had completed a course in international law and human rights. According to the university, the ceremony was organized by the UNESCO Chair on Human Rights and Democracy and Peace at An-Najah, in cooperation with Fatah, Fatah’s youth and student movement, and the Palestinian Authority Minister for Prisoners’ Affairs.

Course instructors included:
- Yasser Abu Bakr – Responsible for a 2002 terror attack in Netanya in which two Israeli civilians were murdered, including a 9-month-old girl. In 2004, Abu Bakr was sentenced to 115 years in prison.
- Nasser Awiss – Responsible for the murder of at least 14 Israeli civilians, in at least 4 terror attacks. In May 2003, he was sentenced to 14 life sentences.
- Izaddin Hamamra – Convicted in 2004 of recruiting suicide bombers for two bombings in Jerusalem, in which 19 Israelis civilians were murdered. Hamamra’s cell also planned bus hijackings.
- Khaled el-Karam – A law student at An-Najah. According to Palestinian media, he was arrested in May 2017 and sentenced to 15 months in prison by an Israeli military court. He also delivered remarks at the 2018 ceremony.

Responding to media coverage of the program, UNESCO attempted to distance itself from the program, claiming that “UNESCO does not fund UNESCO Chairs. It is the responsibility of the university hosting a UNESCO Chair to provide all the resources required – human, financial etc. – for the UNESCO Chair to carry out its work….The diploma/certificate-awarding training is not a UNESCO program and we have no role or contribution to it. Rather it is training provided by the university with the support of the UNESCO Chair. Chairs can contribute to such training but awards, diplomas, and certificates can be issued only by the university, not UNESCO.”

According to UNESCO, it chairs exist in over 700 institution, located in over 116 countries. These devote special attention to “key priority areas related to UNESCO’s fields of competence – i.e. in education, the natural and social sciences, culture and communication.”

UNESCO chairs are active in Israeli institutions, such as Ben Gurion University, Bar-Ilan University, Tel Aviv University, Haifa University, the Technion, and others.

David Collier: The ethnic cleansing of Jews and left wing hypocrisy

Talking about the historical ethnic cleansing of Jews from the whole of North Africa and the Middle East is an easy method of proving the antisemitism within the Palestinian cause. This example started with a simple tweet. A tweet that clearly points out that whilst Arabs make up more than 20% of Israel’s population, the rest of the Middle East and North Africa has virtually no Jews in it anywhere. Given some of these areas, like Morocco and Iraq had large Jewish populations – it becomes obvious that the Jews were ethnically cleansed from the MENA region.

Over 20% of Israel's population is Arab.

The Jewish population of -

Egypt 0%
Lebanon 0%
Syria 0%
Iraq 0%
Jordan 0%
Morocco 0%
Algeria 0%
Tunisia 0%
Libya 0%
Gaza is 0%

A million Jews used to live in these places.

Talk to me about ethnic cleansing again.
— David Collier (@mishtal) February 22, 2020

The tweet was popular – it was retweeted 2500 times and received over 6300 likes. Its message is clear and easy on the eye. There were a million Jews who lived in places such as Syria, Egypt, Iraq and Tunisia. In one way or another the Arabs in the region turned on their Jews, persecuted them and in most places drove them out. An act of quintessential antisemitic persecution. So when people reference ethnic cleansing in relation to the Arab / Israeli conflict – there is ONE obvious ethnic cleansing we really have to discuss. These people were not part of a civil conflict, they considered themselves at home and identified – as Jews always do – with the host nation. There were not even violent groups amongst them. They were simply othered, persecuted and driven out from their homes – often forced to leave all their posSessions behind.

Ethnic cleaning – a simple equation
A simple equation then for the human rights activist. *If* the people who hold aloft the ‘Palestinian cause’ do it because of ‘human rights’, *then* the very least of expectations, the lowest of bars, would also have them sympathising with these Jewish victims of ethnic cleansing. If this does not occur, we have solid evidence that their support for the Palestinian cause is not driven by human rights issues at all.

The obvious conclusion
The first thing to remember is that this all came from one simple tweet. It isn’t the result of deep digging or long-term research. When you post something about the persecution of Jews – this is what you receive in response. This brutally exposes a clear and blatant truth. None of this has anything to do with international law or concern for human rights. These activists fail the most basic of tests. They simply do not care about people being persecuted. When the ethnic cleansing of Jewish people from Arab lands is placed before them – they respond with whataboutery, insults and antisemitism. If you need proof that the Palestinian cause is more about antisemitism than human rights, just look at the response to this tweet. It is *always* worth remembering this when you hear them talk about how much they care.