Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, December 20, 2021

12/20 Links Pt1: The world must stand behind Israel in fight against terrorism; UN funding Palestinian groups with terror ties; Chile's president-elect backs BDS, accuses Israel of 'genocide'

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: The world must stand behind Israel in fight against terrorism

Every successful attack encourages more, both as copy-cat attacks by so-called lone wolves and by organized terrorist cells. Every attack is an attempted murder. The terrorists do not set out to injure their victims but to kill them.

There is an unfortunate tendency to dismiss terrorist attacks that take place over the Green Line as being about “settlements.” Relating to the victims in terms of being settlers delegitimizes and even dehumanizes them. The victims in the recent upsurge of attacks were not targeted for being “settlers” but for being identifiably Jewish. For the terrorist organizations, all of Israel is considered a legitimate target and all Jewish Israelis are perceived as “settlers.”

What starts in Judea and Samaria does not end there. Terrorists attack where it is easiest for them. If it is easier for terrorists to throw rocks and Molotov cocktails at cars or open fire in a drive-by attack or ambush in Judea and Samaria, then that’s where they will do it most often. However, it doesn’t mean the rest of the country is not at risk. Indeed, jihadist attacks around the world have shown that nowhere is safe.

There is no justification for terrorism, period. Not the economy, not the settlements, and not a peace process or the lack of one.

It is morally repugnant to blame the victims for where they live, work or travel. When an attack is dismissed because it is on a “settler,” it is but one tiny step on the proverbial slippery slope. Further downhill are attacks on all Israelis and Jews anywhere, and ultimately nobody of any religion will be safe. The world needs to take this seriously and support Israel in the battle against terrorism.

UN funding Palestinian groups with terror ties - Erdan

The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) is partnering with organizations that have ties to the terrorist group the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan warned in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

OCHA’s Humanitarian Response Plan for 2022 includes a partnership with the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC), one of six Palestinian NGOs Israel designated as terror organizations, because of their work as a money-laundering front for the PFLP.

“It is outrageous that an organization with a mission to ensure international peace and security would partner with organizations that directly and materially support terrorists and provide the PFLP – a designated terrorist organization worldwide, including in Israel, the US, the EU, Australia, Canada and Japan – with its financial lifeline,” Erdan wrote.

The partnerships “fly in the face of the relevant UN counterterrorism resolutions,” the ambassador added, quoting UN Security Council Resolution 2462 of 2019, which warned against the “abuse of nonprofit organizations [and] donations” by terrorists and calls on member states to prevent the financing of terrorism, as well as the 2021 UN Global Counter-Terrorism Strategy, which did the same.

Erdan called on Guterres to ensure that OCHA does not work with NGOs that are part of the PFLP’s financial network.

“While, as you know, Israel strongly supports humanitarian efforts and is a leader in this field, we must not allow well-intentioned humanitarian work to be tainted and poisoned by the very terrorist groups that destabilize our region and make such humanitarian efforts necessary in the first place,” Erdan wrote.

NGO Monitor: UN’s “Humanitarian” Plan: Lawfare and Support for Terror-Linked NGOs

On December 16, 2021, the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA-oPt) released its Humanitarian Response Plan, ostensibly to address humanitarian needs “in Area C, Hebron H2 and East Jerusalem in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip” in 2022.

As in previous years, UN-OCHA is exploiting the humanitarian label to advance legal attacks against Israel (“lawfare”) and to channel funds to non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with links to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terror group.

- The plan’s first “strategic objective” is not the provision of humanitarian aid. Rather it is for Palestinian and international advocacy groups to “monitor[] and document[]” alleged violations by Israel and to lobby institutions such as the UN and International Criminal Court:
“The rights of Palestinians living under occupation, including those living under the blockade and other restrictions, are protected, respected and promoted in accordance with IHL and IHRL, while duty-bearers are increasingly held to account” (emphasis added).
- UN-OCHA’s implementing partners include two NGOs that were designated as terrorist organizations by the Israeli government due to their links to the PFLP: Health Work Committees (HWC) and Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC). Over the past two years, employees from these two NGOs have been arrested, indicted, and put on trial for the August 2019 murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb and for implementing an elaborate scheme to defraud donors for the benefit of the PFLP.
- As opposed to conducting independent investigations into whether it has been partnering for years with terror-linked NGOs, UN-OCHA repeats the claim that, “absent evidence substantiating the allegations, the designation of six Palestinian human rights and humanitarian NGOs as ‘terror organizations’ by the Israeli authorities in late 2021 risks further undermining the humanitarian community’s ability to provide assistance and protection to Palestinians throughout the oPt.”
- UN-OCHA is also attempting to raise millions of dollars for numerous NGOs involved in various forms of political warfare against Israel (see pages 69-70 of the Humanitarian Response Plan Working Document).

Fun fact: 31 of the 36 MEPs who wrote in support of terror-designated Palestinian NGOs also signed a pro-BDS petition opposing Israel's entry into Horizon 2020.
Coincidence? https://t.co/At7suwWOnW
— NGO Monitor (@NGOmonitor) December 19, 2021

NGO Monitor: Canadian Funding for Terror-linked Palestinian NGO: Absence of Consistency

Click Here for Full Report

Canada is a major supporter of aid projects, with large budgets allocated annually for international development assistance. As has been previously documented, in some cases, examination of the details suggests a lack of due diligence in the decision making and evaluation processes, including funding through the United Nations and other international frameworks. Global Affairs Canada (GAC) funding policies are also marked by a notable lack of transparency.

For example, Canada has provided millions to NGOs linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)- a Canadian designated terrorist organization. NGO Monitor has identified the Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) as a primary or secondary partner on several Canadian-government funded projects.

On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense declared UAWC to be a terrorist organization due to its links to the PFLP.

In an October 2020 statement GAC stated that, “While Canadian-funded projects with experienced international and Canadian partner organizations have included UAWC as a sub-implementer in the past, we do not currently fund the organization, directly or indirectly.”

However, according to information provided by GAC in October 2021 in response to an ATIP request, UAWC is listed as an implementing partner on an ongoing GAC-funded Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) project that ends in March 2022.

As the year winds down, I want to express my appreciation for all the people who follow me and read Elder of Ziyon.

I'm grateful that I have so many supporters and fans who are hungry to learn the truth about Israel and the Middle East. This year the number of Elder of Ziyon social media followers has gone past 50,000, and there are more joining every day.

Many of EoZ followers and fans are influential. We are followed by major media, academic and political figures, authors and recognized experts. It is gratifying and humbling.

The blog is doing well, but I have also been spending time on memes and tweets that have been shared widely. Every month, my tweets are seen by millions of people - and during the May fighting that number topped 8 million impressions a month! Tweets regularly gather hundreds of "Likes" and retweets.

EoZ's influence extends beyond the blog and Twitter. EoZ has been published, linked and mentioned in plenty of other media. The Google News sites that have mentioned, quoted or republished EoZ in 2021 includes:

JTA

Jewish Journal

Algemeiner

Jewish Press

Israel Today

Breitbart

Weekly Blitz

Legal Insurrection

Jewish News

Gatestone Institute

JNS

BizPac review

Mosaic

Israellycool

Cleveland Jewish News

Honest Reporting

I also started an Instagram site to be an easy place to find my infographics, memes, posters, and comics.

I have finally started to gather my best articles and more in the hope of publishing a book. I'm happy with my progress so far.

My regular columnists (Judean Rose, Vic Rosenthal, Daled Amos, PreOccupied Territory) continue to add new dimensions to the blog, along with occasional contributions from Real Jerusalem Streets and (I wish more!) from Forest Rain. Ian continues to do an amazing job collecting the links to every single important article published elsewhere. EoZ is really a one stop shop for all Israel news.

All of this takes a great deal of time and money.

Please donate to EoZ so we can continue to provide the very best in news and analysis.

To donate with PayPal you can click here

You can buy me an iced tea. (I never liked coffee!)

If you prefer, you can become a patron with Patreon here.

You can also send me an Amazon gift card to my email elder@elderofziyon.com .

If you want to make a large donation but wish it to be tax-deductible, there are a couple of ways to do that. Contact me and we can see what can be done.

Once again, thanks for your support and kind words.

Palestine Today mentions, as an aside in a story about a Palestinian Authority political prisoner who was recently released, that in recent weeks PA security services have launched a massive campaign of arrests of activists, freed prisoners, intellectuals and writers, especially those with Hamas ties in the run up to Hamas' 34th anniversary celebrations this month.

A group called Lawyers for Justice announced earlier this month that it had documented dozens of arrests of West Bank Palestinians and activists of various backgrounds because of their political beliefs. They said that the arrest campaigns started in October. The groups counts over 200 arrests and detentions since May.

Most of these arrests took place without presenting an arrest or search warrant, and many of the arrests were violent, as were many of the detentions themselves.

There is one major question that needs to be answered:

Are the hundreds of journalists who cover the Palestinians thoroughly incompetent for not mentioning this story, or are they aware of it and decided that is wasn't worth reporting because it would damage the narrative of Palestinians being oppressed by Israel alone?

Palestinians eat more meat per capita than any Arab nation. While they get more aid per capita.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations issued a report on meat consumption in the Arab world - and Palestinians eat more red meat per capita than any Arab nation, with 97 kilograms per person per year consumed.

This was way ahead of the rich Gulf countries. Kuwait's rate was 67 kg per capita, the UAE was at 60 kg, Saudi Arabia had 54 kg.

That would put Palestinians in the top ten worldwide in meat consumption per capita.

What about other food metrics compared to the Arab world? The Lancet and NGOs constantly come out with statistics to make it sound like Palestinian children have high amounts of food insecurity, stunted growth or wasting. How do they compare with Arab states?

Pretty well. Not the best and far from the worst.

For stunting in children, the Palestinian rate is lower than nearly all Arab countries outside of wealthy Gulf states.

For wasting for children under 5, Palestinians are better than nearly all Arab states, including Saudi Arabia and Oman:

This points to one of the little discussed problems of the world's obsession with Palestinians: more aid is sent to them per capita that anyone else, and they need this help less than many or most other groups. Which means that the overrepresentation of various aid groups falling over themselves to give more and more to Palestinians takes away more and more from other countries that need it more.

One would think that socialists would be sensitive to that inequality.

Put it this way: the antisemitism that underlies making the Palestinian cause appear to be the most critical issue on the planet ends up hurting millions of people worldwide.

14 expat Jews are eligible to vote in Lebanon

Al Modon reports that 14 Jews who left Lebanon are eligible to vote in upcoming elections.

The Lebanese ambassador to France invited prominent Jewish expatriates to a meeting in Paris last month where he encouraged them to register to vote as citizens. Most ignored the plea, and according to published lists, only 14 Jewish expats are eligible to vote in the next Lebanese elections. 16 registered but to were disqualified after an audit. The sixteen included 13 from Europe, 2 from Latin America and 1 from Africa.

The most interesting part of the article is perhaps how the Lebanese newspaper described the Jews. It consistently used the word "Israeli" instead of "Jew."

12/19 Links: What Worked in the Golan Will Work in Judea and Samaria; Why the Double Standard on West Bank Violence?; Israel ‘Bombs Auschwitz’

From Ian:

What Worked in the Golan Will Work in Judea and Samaria

The 40 years that have passed since the dramatic day the Knesset — at the initiative of then-Prime Minister Menachem Begin — applied Israeli sovereignty to the Golan Heights allow us to examine what has and has yet to be achieved following this historic step.

The main goal of the legislation, enacted in three Knesset readings on the same day, was certainly achieved: Israel established its control over the Golan Heights and signaled to the entire world that the annexation of the territory had been finalized and there would be no going back.

Up until that point, Israeli military control of the plateau had signaled transience. Israel may have previously made convincing arguments for its right to the region, but its decision to refrain from annexing the Golan Heights seemed to allude to Jerusalem itself being unsure as to the weight of those arguments. When you yourself send a signal you are unsure of the justice of your position, why would others stand with you?

Begin’s move put an end to this ambiguous state. Although the countries of the world have not officially recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, they were forced to accept the move in practice. Whether willingly, indifferently or reluctantly, they have all come to terms with the fact. The most tangible proof of this is the absence of any pressure on Israel regarding the matter.

Amb Alan Baker: A Possible Return to UNESCO by the United States – A Very Bad Idea

Recent media reports indicate that the United States is considering re-engaging with UNESCO and is encouraging Israel to do so as well. This occurrence follows both the United States and Israel’s withdrawal from the organization in 2018 after the granting of full member-state status to the Palestinians, and in light of highly politicized, anti-Israel resolutions of the organization.

Congressional legislation prohibits the United States from contributing to UN organizations that grant full, state membership to any group that does not have internationally recognized attributes of statehood. This legislation, therefore, bans U.S. contributions to UNESCO.

In granting full membership status to the Palestinians, as well as its acute politicization, hostility, and bias against Israel, UNESCO is violating its own basic purposes and functions, including the requirement to “contribute to peace and security by promoting collaboration among the nations through education, science and culture,” set out in Article 1 of its own constitution.

Rejoining UNESCO would imply recognition of a Palestinian state despite the fact that no such state exists and despite the absence of any permanent status agreement between Israel and the Palestinian leadership. The act would set a toxic precedent for other UN organizations.

Recognizing Palestinian statehood by rejoining UNESCO would further contravene the premise of the Oslo Accords that the permanent status of the territories must be resolved by direct negotiation between Israel and the Palestinians and not through unilateral measures intended to bypass such negotiations. The United States is a signatory to the Oslo Accords as a witness.

The U.S. Administration should reconsider this issue and act in accordance with its own policies of supporting the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation process and postpone a return to UNESCO pending the achievement of a permanent status agreement.

Jonathan Tobin: Why the Double Standard on West Bank Violence?

To the casual observer of news from the Middle East, it would appear that the biggest story coming out of Israel lately is what some outlets are describing as a surge in settler violence against Palestinians. According to B’Tselem, an anti-settler group that is nonetheless treated as if it is an impartial and objective source by Western publications, the number of attacks by Jews living in West Bank settlements on neighboring Arabs is allegedly up by nearly 50 percent in the previous year. In this telling, radical Jews—motivated by nationalism-inspired hatred for Arabs—are guilty of numerous instances of stone-throwing and even shootings, along with so-called “price tag” attacks in which Palestinian property is vandalized.

The question we should be asking about the hyping of the threat of settler violence is not whether it’s true that a small percentage of residents in Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria have engaged in confrontations with Palestinians or that some have broken the law by committing violence. It’s whether the decision on the part of activist groups and some in the media to treat these incidents as emblematic of why it is wrong for Jews to live in the territories is justified, as well as why the focus on settler violence is almost always bereft of the broader context of what is going on in the West Bank on a far more frequent basis: daily attacks on Jews by Arabs, including murder.

While Arab violence doesn’t justify gratuitous Jewish responses or reprisals, there is something wrong if a few Jews throwing stones is considered far more important than the fact that attacks on Jews in the same areas is more or less the national sport of Palestinians.

The double standard is what is outrageous. All of the several hundred thousand Israelis who live in what the international community considers to be “occupied territory” and, by extension, the entire Jewish population of the country are held somehow responsible for the crimes of a few. Yet at the same time exponentially greater volumes of Palestinian violence is considered either unremarkable or somehow justified. If so, then it’s clear that the subject here is not so much the conduct of the settlers as it is the delegitimization of Jews.

"My son is a hero for murdering a Jew. How dare the police search my house for his gun?"

Today, Israeli security forces arrested six suspected members of Islamic Jihad for the murder of Yehuda Dimentman last week.

The mother of two of those arrested spoke to Palestine Today.

You get the feeling that every Palestinian is reading from a script when they get interviewed.

First she talks about her outrage at Israeli police searching her house for the gun and arresting her sons:

Ataf Bosef Jaradat stated that the soldiers turned the house upside down, isolated the family and subjected her son Ghaith (17) to a field investigation inside the house for an hour, adding, “We were surprised by more soldiers and intelligence storming our house, which they destroyed and searched until they found weapons.”

Jaradat explained that the intelligence officer told us, "Your son, Ghaith, is the killer who carried out the Homesh operation" and they found the weapon that was used in her house and the vehicle in the Al-Silah Al-Harith Mountains.

Then she switches roles from the person upset at being senselessly searched by the evil Israelis to the proud mother of a terrorist:

She said, "If Omar (20) and Ghaith were the ones who carried out the operation, then my message to our people is that their direction and their way of jihad should be for the sake of Allah, not internal disagreement.. Our direction is to God and jihad, and we will not regret whatever happens because our direction is to God, and all of my children are sacrifices to God, Al-Aqsa and Palestine, and we ask God to make it easy and relieve them.”

She added, "If my son executed the attack I am proud of it with my head held high."

It is a sick society where mothers are proud that their sons become murderers.

Taking the wrong lesson from a photo of a "brave" Palestinian confronting a soldier

This tweet is going viral this morning, celebrating the fearlessness of a Palestinian arguing with a heavily armed Israeli soldier.

Once we are imagining, can you imagine such a scene with a Palestinian arguing with a Palestinian Authority policeman? With a Hamas terrorist? With a Lebanese or Syrian soldier?

You won't find photos like that, because the Palestinian would be arrested or beaten or killed.

But there are lots and lots of photos of Palestinians unafraid to get in the faces of Israeli soldiers and police.

The reason that you see so many photos of "brave" Palestinians confronting Israeli soldiers and police is because they know the soldiers will not touch them as long as they don't get violent. They know that Israeli security professionals are not going to hurt them.

They would be equally brave to confront a soda bottle.

These photos prove what the people posting them deny: that the Israeli security forces are professionals, who have no desire to hurt anyone. They prove that soldiers and police who take abuse every day, who are falsely accused of crimes every day, who are literally dared every day to respond with force, will adhere to their laws and regulations. They prove that the Palestinians tell one thing to Western media about Israeli forces abusing them for no reason but they know the truth - if Israeli forces were 10% as violent as they say, they wouldn't be around to confront the forces tomorrow.

These photos prove that, unlike the propaganda spread by Israel haters, the IDF really is the most moral army in the world.

UPDATE: You can see video of how this photo was taken here.

Man dresses up as a Jew in Egypt as a practical joke, and proves Egyptian antisemitism

The Egyptian city of Assiut (Asyut) has a reputation for miserliness. As a result, the people of Assiut have nickname, being known as the "Jews of Egypt." Because, cheap Jews, har-har.

A man decided, as a practical joke, to dress up as a caricature of a rabbi and walk through the streets of Assiut to prove that the residents there are tolerant and really aren't like "Jews."

Dressed up in a ridiculous hat a fake sidelocks, he walked around the streets, posing in front of Assiut's landmarks.

Cairo Live reports that the resulting photos caused anger on social media in Egypt.

The jokester defended himself, saying he only wanted to show how tolerant the people of Assiut really are, as he is one of them.

The photographer says that indeed the citizens of the town were not angry - it was the other Egyptians who got upset at seeing a "Jew" walking around their beloved nation.

But even the jokester did the video with the intention to prove that Assiut's residents weren't like miserly Jews, so there was plenty of antisemitism all around in this episode.

Ha-ha.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

12/18 Links: Rabbis: College Diversity Officers Promoting ‘Irrational Hatred of Jews’; Israeli injured in terror stabbing attack near Cave of Patriarchs

From Ian:

Rabbis: College Diversity Officers Promoting ‘Irrational Hatred of Jews’

A group of more than 2,000 rabbis is calling on all American universities to suspend their "diversity, equity, and inclusion" (DEI) programs due to their overwhelming anti-Israel and anti-Semitic bias.

The Coalition for Jewish Values, an umbrella organization representing Orthodox rabbis, wants all DEI programs put on ice in light of a recent study that exposed how university staffers in these positions use their social media accounts to bash Israel and incite hatred of Jews. That study, conducted by the Heritage Foundation think tank, concluded that "rather than promoting diversity and inclusion, universities may be contributing to an increase in anti-Jewish hatred by expanding DEI staff and power," the Washington Free Beacon reported last week.

"Repeatedly accusing the Jewish state of Israel of ‘genocide,' ‘apartheid,' and other fictitious crimes while praising China, a country that is putting Muslims in internment camps, indicates an irrational hatred of Jews and not a concern for human rights," Coalition for Jewish Values managing director Rabbi Yaakov Menken said in a statement provided to the Free Beacon.

The Heritage Foundation researchers reviewed the Twitter feeds of 741 DEI officials at 65 different U.S. universities to determine their attitudes on Israel and China. They found that DEI staff "tweeted, retweeted, or liked almost three times as many tweets about Israel as tweets about China." Of the tweets in question, 96 percent were critical of Israel, and 62 percent of the China-centered tweets were favorable. In many cases, Jews were criticized for their support of Israel and referred to as "Nazis" and "colonizers."

While DEI staff are primarily tasked with creating a welcoming space on campus and protecting the student population, their obsession with Israel and Jews indicates they put liberal politics first. The study was released amid a soaring number of anti-Semitic attacks on college campuses that have put the Jewish community on high alert.

"So-called diversity leads have responded to a dramatic spike in anti-Semitism by engaging in openly hateful rhetoric against Jews themselves, often using Israel as a convenient foil." said Rabbi Steven Pruzansky, Coalition for Jewish Value's Israel regional vice president.

Israeli injured in terror stabbing attack near Cave of Patriarchs

A 38-year-old Israeli was lightly injured in a stabbing attack in the West Bank city of Hebron on Saturday morning. The terrorist, a 65-year-old Palestinian woman, was neutralized by Border Police officers at the scene of the attack at Ruth checkpoint, near the Cave of the Patriarchs.

Magen David Adom (MDA) paramedics treated the injured Israeli, who is fully conscious.

The Hebron attack is the latest in a recent wave of terrorist attacks across the West Bank and Jerusalem.

On Thursday, Palestinian gunmen killed 25-year-old Yehuda Dimentman and wounded two others in a West Bank shooting attack. A week prior, a Jewish woman was stabbed while walking with her children in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem.

IDF carries out intensive West Bank searches for attackers in deadly terror shooting

Israeli troops carried out intensive searches overnight in the area surrounding the West Bank city of Jenin as the manhunt continued to find the gunmen behind a deadly terror shooting, Palestinian media reports said Saturday.

The reports said the searches were concentrated on Kafr Ra’i, southwest of Jenin and a few kilometers from the scene of Thursday’s attack. Other villages in the area were also searched, including Sanur and Jaba.

Yehuda Dimentman was killed and two others were lightly hurt after they were fired on while driving a car as they left Homesh on Thursday night. A military official said the car was ambushed from the side of the road.

The searches came hours after IDF chief Aviv Kohavi on Friday toured the site of the attack and vowed to expand the manhunt until the Palestinian gunmen are found.

“Along with using intelligence capabilities, we will also increase combat forces and will continue to act and expand operational activities as needed,” Kohavi said while visiting the scene.

According to television reports on Friday evening, security officials are concerned the cell could attempt to carry out another attack before it is captured.

Police arrest 13 at Jerusalem protest calling for government action against attacks

Dozens of right-wing protesters gathered at the entrance to Jerusalem on Saturday evening calling on the Israeli government to take action following a series of Palestinian terror attacks in recent weeks, including a deadly shooting in the West Bank Thursday that claimed the life of a 25-year-old yeshiva student.

Police said they arrested 13 people for disorderly conduct, including one person who was carrying “weapons.” According to Ynet, these included a knife and brass knuckles.

In footage from the demonstration Saturday, police can be seen using a water cannon to disperse some protesters, whom they said were trying to block a highway. One person was lightly hurt, medics said.

In one video from the scene, some of the protesters — mainly Jewish youths — can be heard chanting “death to Arabs,” while waving Israeli flags.

The protest Saturday came hours after a 38-year-old man was lightly hurt when he was stabbed at a checkpoint close to the Tomb of the Patriarchs in the West Bank city of Hebron by an elderly Palestinian woman.

The victim, a resident of the Kiryat Arba settlement, struggled with the Palestinian attacker before Israeli troops subdued her without opening fire, police said in a statement.

Palestinians are still seething over the photo of the Philippines' contestant for Miss Universe making stuffed grape leaves dish in Israel and captioning it "Day in the life of a Bedouin."

A very angry article in Arab America said that Israelis were taking credit for Palestinian culture.

Imagine what their headline would be if the Miss Universe contestants were only exposed to Jewish culture. They would be talking about Israel erasing Arab culture!

The fact is that some 20% of Israelis are Arab and their culture is part of Israeli culture no less than that of Mizrahi, Russian or Ethiopian Jews.

Now the official Palestinian news agency Wafa is quoting an Arab Israeli restaurant manager as saying that stuffed grape leaves made by the pageant contestants was Palestinian (and that there is no such thing as Israeli cuisine.)

No, stuffed grape leaves is not Palestinian.

There is disagreement over where it originated, but the best guesses are Greece, Persia or Egypt. I don't see any source that claims this is a Palestinian food.

Who practices cultural appropriation again?

12/17 Links Pt2: Meir Soloveichik: What Zionism Owes Yavneh; Mark Regev: Why is support for a two-state solution declining?; SNL's Michael Che Obsesses Over Israel Once Again

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: What Zionism Owes Yavneh

On Hanukkah, as part of the country-wide celebration, the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) opened to the public a Jewish town excavated from the earth. Yavneh was where the Sanhedrin, the supreme religious and judicial body of rabbinic Judaism, took up residence in 70 C.E. Talmudic tradition accords the credit for the Sanhedrin’s survival to the sage Yohanan ben Zakkai, who fled Jerusalem before it fell. Today, an entire home has been uncovered in Yavneh, a home that clearly belonged to Jews who kept kosher and followed the Levitical laws of ritual purity. It may have been the domicile of a Sanhedrin member. Nearby, a cemetery may well bear the bodies of some of the most important rabbis in Jewish history.

All of Jewish ritual from the destruction of the Second Temple to the present has been defined by what ben Zakkai and his Sanhedrin ordained in Yavneh. It is, after Jerusalem, the most influential site in the history of Jewish law.

Now Yavneh’s significance is being celebrated and highlighted by Israeli archeologists. The excavators informed the media that the town represents “a direct voice from the past, from the period when the Jewish leadership salvaged the remaining fragments from the fall of the Temple, went into exile in Yavneh, and set about re-establishing the Jewish people there.” Simultaneously the IAA is staging an exhibit in northern Israel illustrating how the Sanhedrin preserved Judaism and the memory of Jerusalem. Rightly understood, these excavations and this exhibition are nothing less than the righting of a historic wrong, a recognition of all that modern Zionism owes to Yavneh, the Sanhedrin, and the man who oversaw its survival.

While rabbinic sources differ as to details of Yohanan ben Zakkai’s story, all agree as to certain facts. The rabbi fled Jerusalem while the Jewish rebels against the Romans were still fighting. He then met with the Roman authority and requested to be allowed to settle the Sanhedrin in Yavneh. But it is often unappreciated why he did so; why did he not hope for the miraculous salvation of the city, as it had been saved in the age of the Maccabees and so often in the Bible? The Talmud stresses that ben Zakkai was horrified by how the Jews in Jerusalem, riven by factionalism, were attacking one another inside the city even as they fought the Romans without. The last straw for ben Zakkai, according to the Talmud, was when the rebels burned their rivals’ food. This rabbinic text parallels another in Josephus’s contemporaneous history, The Jewish War. Josephus describes the horrific behavior of Jerusalem’s Jews toward one another: “It was as if to oblige the Romans they were destroying all that the city had laid up against a siege and hamstringing their own powers…. It was hunger that defeated them, a thing that could never have happened if they had not brought it about themselves.”

Jews lost Jerusalem by attacking one another. Nearly 2,000 years later, the moment would be cited by Menachem Begin in 1948 when he stood upon the ship Altalena as the forces of his political rival, David Ben Gurion, fired upon members of Begin’s Irgun, and Begin ordered his men not to fire back. Yohanan Ben Zakkai, seeing a Jerusalem where Jew slaughtered Jew, sensed the city would fall not only because of the brutality of the Roman emperor Vespasian’s assault, but because a Jerusalem that had eschewed Jewish unity had no right to expect salvation. He therefore set about preserving Jewish tradition, preparing for an age when Jews could claim Jerusalem again.

Mark Regev: Why is support for a two-state solution declining?

In his famous 2009 Bar-Ilan University address, prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu placed Palestinian recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people as an indispensable ingredient in any future peace, arguing that “the Palestinian leadership must arise and say: ‘Enough of this conflict. We recognize the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own.’”

Of course, Netanyahu has been accused of deliberately creating obstacles to peace.

Unlike the Likud prime minister, Tzipi Livni is “known for her efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict.” Yet in the lead-up to the November 2007 Annapolis peace conference, she as foreign minister urged the Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel as the national home of the Jewish people, seeing this as a vital prerequisite element in a genuine process of reconciliation.

The Palestinians refused to do so.

Herein lies the fundamental contradiction: Palestinians demand from Israel recognition of their right to national self-determination, while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge the corresponding right of Jewish people.

Palestinians counter that they accepted Israel in 1993 as part of Oslo when the sides exchanged mutual letters of recognition, and that should suffice. But acknowledging Israel as a fact is no substitute for affording it legitimacy. (Iran recognizes Israel as fact, like cancer is a fact, a cancer that must be removed.)

Ultimately, if the Jewish state remains fundamentally illegitimate in the eyes of our Palestinian neighbors, what sort of peace are they offering us?

When Israeli prime ministers Ehud Barak and Ehud Olmert adopted proposals that dealt with the post-’67 issues in a highly forthcoming manner, even accepting the redivision of Jerusalem, it was never enough for the Palestinian leadership. If the heart of the dispute is 1948 and not 1967, it really does not matter how flexible Israel is in the negotiations, how acquiescent our proposal on final borders, or how many settlements we offer to uproot. Contrary to the conventional wisdom, for Palestinians, the real problem is not Ariel and Ma’aleh Adumim, but Herzliya and Ra’anana.

Perhaps the international community needs to appreciate its accepted formula is more convention than wisdom.

Ruthie Blum: Yes, prime minister

Yes, prime minister, you know this about the settlers. You know it, as well, about the PA, which on Wednesday lauded Bar Lev for presenting the “first official recognition” of “settler violence,” and called on more Israeli ministers to “condemn and oppose settler terrorism and attacks on Palestinians.”

Regional Cooperation Minister Esawi Frej, from the left-wing Meretz Party, did so on Tuesday, tweeting: “Not all settlers are violent, but there is a great deal of violence that originates in the settlements. Anyone who ignores this problem, and the need to deal with it, encourages it.”

Yes, Prime Minister, you’re familiar with Frej. He’s the minister who last month led Israel’s delegation to the biannual gathering of PA donor countries in Oslo, where he did some fundraising for the leadership in Ramallah. Their till, after all, has been on the wane as a result of their refusal to cease paying stipends to the families of Palestinians killed while committing terrorist attacks on Israelis, or to those survivors imprisoned for doing so.

Frej is also the guy who accompanied Health Minister Nitzan Horowitz on a pilgrimage to Ramallah in October to suck up to PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and assure the terrorist-in-a-tie that the left-wing members of the Israeli government were on a mission to “keep the two-state solution alive, not let it disappear and not sabotage the chance of reaching it in the future.”

Horowitz told Abbas, “We believe that there’s no room for unilateral measures… No new settlements, no illegal outposts, and no violence by extremists among the settlers.”

Yes, prime minister, though you are cognizant that the Palestinian apparatus, not the settlement movement, is the real cause of “violent extremism,” you are stuck with the likes of Bar Lev, Frej and Horowitz for the duration of this coalition. But it’s a concoction that you yourself contrived.

The “settlers in Judea and Samaria [who] have been suffering from violence and terrorism, daily, for decades” – many of whom voted for your party – aren’t thanking you for your lip service.

12/17 Links Pt1: Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel; UN Completes 14 Resolutions on Israel, 5 on Rest of World Combined'; Netanyahu and Trump's well-defended goal

From Ian:

Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as capital of Israel

Ukraine recognizes Jerusalem as Israel's "one and only capital" and will open a branch of its embassy in the capital in the upcoming year, Ambassador to Israel Yevgen Korniychuk said on Thursday.

Korniychuk's announcement came at the Kyiv Jewish Forum, an event marking 30 years of Israel-Ukraine ties, which was attended by Jerusalem Affairs Minister Ze'ev Elkin, who grew up in Ukraine. Elkin is also the housing and construction minister.

The embassy branch in Jerusalem would be responsible for promoting bilateral trade and technological ties and will be inaugurated during a visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Israel next year.

The aim of the annual Kyiv Jewish Forum – which was held online this year due to coronavirus restrictions – is to foster dialogue among leaders from around the globe that will help bring about solutions to such challenges as antisemitism, the rise of the anti-Israel boycott movement, and the effects of the ongoing pandemic. Discussions also centered on pressing issues facing Jewish communities worldwide, and relations between Ukraine, Israel, and the global Jewish community.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky attended the online event, as well as Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Foreign Affairs Minister Dmytro Kuleba and Health Minister Viktor Liashko, in addition to Elkin, Diaspora Affairs Minister Nachman Shai and Tourism Minister Yoel Razvozov, among other senior leaders and officials from Europe, Israel and the US.

Reopening Jerusalem consulate a priority for Biden admin. - Nuland

The US is still determined to reopen the Jerusalem consulate for the Palestinians and is still in dialogue with Israel about it, contrary to many reports, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland told Maariv.

She explained that, as clarified by Secretary of State Antony Blinken, reopening the consulate is seen as a priority for the Biden administration. This, she explained, would be a return to the longtime status quo, until former US president Donald Trump had closed the consulate down.

The Israeli government has been vocal in its opposition to reopening the consulate, as have some members of the opposition.

UN Watch: UN Completes 14 Resolutions on Israel, 5 on Rest of World Combined

The UN General Assembly will condemn Israel today in two separate resolutions, concluding the world body’s 2021 legislation with a total of 14 resolutions that single out the Jewish state, and five on the rest of the world combined.

There was one resolution each adopted yesterday for the regimes of North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, one on Crimea, while a draft resolution on Syria was deferred.

“The UN’s assault on Israel with a torrent of one-sided resolutions is surreal,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a Geneva-based non-governmental watchdog organization.

“It’s absurd that in the year 2021, out of some 20 UN General Assembly resolutions that criticize countries, 14 of them—70 percent—were focused on one single country: Israel. Make no mistake: the purpose of the lopsided condemnations is to demonize the Jewish state,” said Neuer.

Today’s Two Resolutions Against Israel
The plenary will vote today to ratify two one-sided resolutions against Israel that were adopted in draft form last month by the UNGA’s Second Committee.

The resolution entitled “Oil slick on Lebanese shores” singled out Israel as the only country to be censured under the “Sustainable Development” agenda item, and refers to an alleged incident from the 2006 war between Hezbollah and Israel. It is expected to pass by an overwhelming majority.

A second resolution condemns Israel for allegedly exploiting natural resources of the Palestinians, and in the Golan, also expected to be adopted by a wide margin. The text makes no mention of Hamas’ commandeering of international aid money to fund the construction of terror tunnels rather than to rebuild destroyed infrastructure; environmental pollution caused by Palestinian tire burning; destruction of flora and fauna with arson balloons and kites; and refusal to develop their own water resources and deal with their own sewage as required by the Oslo Accords.

Palestinian Self-Determination Resolution Adopted
Only yesterday, a resolution on “The right of the Palestinian people to self-determination” was adopted by a vote of 168 to 5, with 10 abstentions. Out of hundreds of self-determination claims worldwide, thee UNGA singled out one—the claim against Israel—while omitting Palestinian obligations to dismantle terrorist infrastructure before a state is to be created.

StandWithUs: The UN and Israel UN Secretary-Generals past and present all agree: The UN's disproportionate criticism of and obsession with Israel has to stop!

Here's an unusually sane article in Egyptian media.

Well-known writer and editor Ibrahim Eissa confirmed that the Christian community in Iraq has been subjected to violent and racist attacks over the past years, noting that 4 million Iraqi Christians have left the country as a result of persecution.

During his interview at the Cairo Talk program, Eissa said that there is real fear for the disappearance of Arab Christians and what it means for diversity in Arab societies, pointing out that the proportions and numbers of Christians in Lebanon and Syria have greatly decreased as a result of the control of Islamic leaders in most Arab countries.

The journalist and Islamic thinker explained that Christians in Egypt were subjected to much sectarian strife as a result of the control of the Wahhabi Salafist movement over the country, pointing out that the exodus of the Jews from Egypt after 1956 made the country lose the civilized, internationalist character of which it was part.

This is not a take that one sees often.

Eissa has won freedom of expression awards for his outspoken journalism.

You won't believe why the Palestinian Authority shut down four mosques in Hebron

Four mosques in Hebron have been closed by the government for Friday prayers today.

Not the Israeli government, though. That would be Islamophobic!

No, the Palestinian Authority Ministry of Endowments in Hebron announced that the four mosques would be closed to encourage Muslims to all pray at the "Ibrahimi Mosque," the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron.

It announced the closure "in support of and strengthening the presence and endurance in the Holy Ibrahimi shrine and to counter repeated attacks."

When they say "attacks," they mean "Jews praying." Which means the official reason of closing these mosques is to promote antisemitism.

However, commenters on Facebook understood that the official reason was not the real reason. If it was, the PA would have made this announcement when Israel's President Herzog lit the first Chanukah candle there. Or for any of a dozen other reasons before now. Why this week?

The real reason is because those mosques are Hamas strongholds! Hamas planned a demonstration today after prayers at one of those mosques to celebrate the 34th anniversary of its launch.

The PA wanted to stop the Hamas rally, but admitting that is the goal would be divisive and look bad. So instead the PA chose to use as an excuse the only point of unity between virtually all Palestinians: hating Jews.

This one incident - the PA arbitrarily closing mosques, the official reason being antisemitism, and the real reason being a passive aggressive attack on its political rival - is a microcosm of the reality of Palestinian politics. It isn't an anomaly; this sort of stuff happens every day. But Western journalists don't bother telling their audiences how dysfunctional, broken and hateful the PA is.

Because the incompetent, petty and Jew-hating PLO represents the "best chance of peace."

‘‘Combating International Islamophobia Act’’ can easily be misused to condemn Israel defending itself from terror

The US House of Representatives approved a bill Tuesday that seeks to combat Islamophobia around the world - but not within the United States. The bill is supposed to create an Office to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia in the State Department, which only deals with foreign affairs.

The text of the bill is problematic.

Firstly, it doesn't define Islamophobia. Given that we have seen any criticism of any Muslim being used as examples of "Islamophobia," a definition is critical. Its absence means that the envoy who heads this department has wide latitude in deciding what is and isn't Islamophobic.

The bill does give some examples of a subset of things that it does consider Islamophobic:

Acts of physical violence against, or harassment of, members of the Muslim community, and acts of violence against, or vandalism of, Muslim community institutions, including schools, mosques, and cemeteries.

The first part is too vague. It need to say that an act of violence or harassment is Islamophobic only if the act was clearly directed against Muslims as Muslims. A random shooting or looting a store that happens to be Muslim-owned is not necessarily Islamophobic; there needs to be evidence that the attack was meant to target Muslims. (The second part is not bad -one can assume that an attack against a mosque or a Muslim cemetery is indeed aimed at the Muslim community.)

Instances of propaganda in government and nongovernment media that attempt to justify or promote racial hatred or incite acts of violence against members of the Muslim community.

Without a definition of Islamophobia, this can be badly misused. The Palestinian Authority issues a weekly report on "racism and incitement" in Israeli media and social media, and very few of their examples are racist or incitement. They interpret anything they disagree with politically to be incitement against them as Palestinians or as Muslims. This includes archaeological finds that support the Jewish history in the land.

The Israeli flag can be seen as incitement to people who pretend that the purpose of Israel was colonialism and ethnic cleansing of Muslims. The Israeli national anthem can be called racist. Calling Israel the Jewish state could be considered off limits. Without a definition of Islamophobia, the opportunities for misusing this example are unlimited.

And, as before, anything done towards members of the Muslim community is only Islamophobic if they are deliberately aimed at them because they are Muslim. The current language could result in absurdities, like Israeli airstrikes against terrorists with rocket launchers or Hamas weapons caches being interpreted as "acts of violence against members of the Muslim community."

So could attacks on ISIS or against Syrian chemical weapons factories.

These aren't the only problems. Is it Islamophobic to criticize women being forced to wear the hijab or burqa? Is it Islamophobic to point out that most designated terrorist organizations base their philosophy on Islam? Is pointing out the antisemitism of the hadiths that trees and stones will instruct Muslims where to find Jews to murder off limits? Can a Jew say that the Temple Mount is the holiest site in Judaism, which would hurt the feelings of Muslims who insist it should be Judenfrei? Can one write academic studies about Muslim cooperation with Nazis? Can one even talk about the problems of child marriage or female genital mutilation or "honor killings" in Muslim countries?

Critics of Israel falsely claim that Jews use the charge of antisemitism to silence critics - will anything in this bill forestall that very accusation from becoming true but with Muslims and Islamophobia?

As it stands, this is a poorly written, vague bill that can easily be weaponized against not just Israel but the entire West.

And let's be honest: Ilham Omar's incentive to write this bill is not to fight worldwide Islamophobia. It is to water down the effectiveness of the antisemitism envoy, which calls out antisemitism that Omar supports.

Modern antisemites like to claim that antisemitism can be fought just like every other bigotry and therefore needs no special attention. Statements against antisemitism issued by everyone from colleges to Congress get watered down into "all lives matter." Yet history shows that they are wrong: antisemitism is fundamentally different from all other hates, and as such requires different tools and methods. Only antisemitism is based on conspiracy theories, only antisemitism is hate based on the target group having too much power, only antisemitism can explain the obsessive hate of anti-Zionists. The current false narrative of the world being divided into the oppressors and the oppressed deliberately puts Jews in the "oppressor" category and therefore it is impossible to fight antisemitism within that context.

But can the same be said about Islamophobia? Is there any difference between anti-Muslim hate - which is very real - and other prejudices, bigotries and racism? Why, exactly, do we need a separate Islamophobia envoy and not, say, an envoy to combat anti-Black racism or anti-Asian racism or anti-Hindu hate worldwide? The US already monitors human rights issues around the world - what is being added by this office? The most important question to be asked about any new government organization is "what value does it add?" I don't see that this question has been answered.

Given that the downsides of the possibilities of this office being misused, compared to the undefined and nebulous benefits it would bring, one wonders why this is needed altogether.

12/16 Links Pt2: Charging Israel with apartheid turns int’l law on its head; Big Four auditors ditch NGOs listed as terror groups by Israel; Gaza Boy Is 6,000th Child Saved by Israel's Save a Child's Heart

From Ian:

Charging Israel with apartheid turns int’l law on its head - NGO Monitor

Attempts to tar Israel as an apartheid state under international law, twist legal tools for political ends, a new NGO Monitor report argues.

Authored by British Barrister Joshua Kern and NGO Monitor Legal Advisor Anne Herzberg, the report delves deep into legal sources to identify what “apartheid” means as a crime in concrete legal terms as opposed to its colloquial and political uses.

The report comes following non-governmental organizations (NGOs) increasing campaign to apply the “apartheid” label to Israel not only in political discourse but lobbying the International Criminal Court (ICC) to charge Israelis with this crime and bolstering related campaigns at the UN.

“Apartheid is a grave accusation, but claims of apartheid have been made imprecisely and casually by many NGOs… the definition of apartheid is untested in international law as no court has yet examined the crime, and there is comparatively little legal writing available,” says the report.

NGO Monitor views the report as an opportunity to address “this legal vacuum and provides a full analysis grounded in international law of the elements of apartheid as a crime against humanity.”

According to the report, “the elements of the crime have been broadened by Human Rights Watch [HRW] and others in a manner that is inconsistent with both the principle of legality (under international human rights law) and the presumption that the definition of crimes shall be strictly construed (under international criminal law).”

Law Professors' Group Should Revoke "Human Rights Award" Given to Raging Antisemite Zahra Billoo

Zahra Billoo is the Executive Director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, San Francisco Bay Area. According to her official bio, she received the 2017 Human Rights Award from the Society of American Law Teachers, a left-wing law professors organization.

Let's start by noting that mainstream (i.e., in this context, progressive-leaning) Jewish organizations have been among the strongest advocates for admitting Muslim refugees to the U.S., opposing Trump's so-called "Muslim ban," opposing hateful remarks against Muslims by populist right-wingers, and so on.

Nevertheless, as the Jerusalem Post reports Billoo holds these organizations, which she calls "polite Zionists," responsible for "Islamaphobia:" "When we talk about islamophobia, we often think of the vehement fascists… but I also want us to pay attention to the polite Zionists, the ones that say 'let's just break bread together.'" Who is she referring to? "the Anti-Defamation League, we need to pay attention to the Jewish Federation, we need to pay attention to the Zionist synagogues, we need to pay attention to the Hillel chapters on our campuses." These, she said, are Muslims' "enemies."

You can't get more mainstream in the Jewish community than synagogues (almost all synagogues would qualify as "Zionist" by her lights), Hillel, the Federation charitable infrastructure, and the ADL. In other words, Billoo wanted her audience to see the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community as the "enemy." Even "organizations who say they're not zionists but want a two-state solution" are the enemy, assumedly because they don't want Israel destroyed.

Worse yet, she strongly implies that Islamaphobia is a Jewish conspiracy: "Islamophobia is a well-funded conspiracy, a well-funded project — A well-funded project to marginalize us… We have to connect the dots between the organizations that promote Zionist agendas materials marketing and legislation are the same ones that want to ban Muslims, are the same ones that want to pass anti-sharia legislation…"

‘Jews Don’t Count’ Author David Baddiel Explains to ‘Late Night’ Host Seth Meyers Why Antisemitism Is a Kind of ‘Racism’

British comedian and writer David Baddiel discussed how antisemitism fits into the concept of racism during a Tuesday guest appearance on “Late Night With Seth Meyers.”

The author, who was born Jewish but identifies as an atheist, published “Jews Don’t Count” in September. In it, Baddiel uses his “unique combination of close reasoning, polemic, personal experience and jokes” to argue “that those who think of themselves as on the right side of history have often ignored the history of antisemitism,” according to the publisher.

Baddiel argued to Meyers on Tuesday that antisemitism should be judged as a form of racism, though it is often not.

“It’s about the identity politics conversation and how in that conversation, which has intensified incredibly over the last 20 years, it seems to me that antisemitism, which is a very old racism [and] a very old form of discrimination, is kind of very low in the mix of that,” he said about his book. “It kind of feels like people aren’t so bothered about it.”

Baddiel told Meyers that in the US, it’s “more of a complex thing” and there “seems to a problem” with identifying racism and antisemitism.

He explained to the talk show host, “I’m an atheist, but that would get me no free passes out of Auschwitz. White supremacists don’t check whether I keep kosher before they think ‘I’ll burn down that Jews house.’ So for me, its an accident of birth that the racists hate me for and so, therefore, its racism.”