Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 01, 2022

04/01 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism is alive and well in Britain’s schools; WaPo Publishes Op-Ed by Mariam Barghouti, Who Compared Israel to Nazi Germany

From Ian:

Jake Wallis Simons: Anti-Semitism is alive and well in Britain’s schools

Latest figures reveal that anti-Semitism is soaring in Britain. February’s Community Security Trust (CST) report shows that anti-Jewish hate crime hit an all-time high last year. The total level of incidents rose by 34 per cent to 2,255, the highest ever recorded. Jew-hate incidents were reported to every single police force bar one.

The problem is particularly bad in education. Perhaps it is the dominance of 'woke' ideology, which seems to carry a dim view of Jews. Latest statistics from the CST disclose that anti-Semitism on campus rose by 59 per cent last year, reaching record levels.

Like many Jewish people, at times like these, I find myself daydreaming about moving to Israel (I did it quite a lot before Jeremy Corbyn was dumped by the electorate). In Israel, ironically enough, daily anti-Semitism plays little part in most people’s lives. Synagogues often have no security, even in Judea and Samaria. Yet in the last two weeks, a sudden spate of stabbing, shooting and car ramming attacks has claimed multiple lives in the country.

It is too early to establish whether this is a wave of Isis-inspired violence or if it has been orchestrated by Iran over social media. There is evidence of both, but the trend has yet to become clear. Either way, Jew-hatred in Israel – as in France and other European countries – often turns deadly. In Britain, thank God, we have seen much less of that.

Thinking back, I faced quite a lot of hassle as a kid. I grew up in an Orthodox community, so I was walking around the streets visibly Jewish, which made me a target. I got into the habit of removing my kippah when I went past pubs. I was attacked quite disturbingly once, and taunted and mocked regularly. The school I attended faced frequent bomb threats, meaning that evacuation was a familiar occurrence. On one occasion, the letter bomb was real.

I’d never dreamed that my children – living in Winchester rather than London, in the third decade of the 21st century, without being outwardly Jewish or observant – would face anything remotely similar. It was the Eighties back then, I told myself. Standards were lower. More fool me.

Some things have changed, I suppose. When speaking to my son, I asked him if the kids behaved this way towards other minorities at school. Black children, for example. His eyes widened. 'Of course not,' he said, a note of irony in his voice. 'That would be racist.'

Washington Post Publishes Op-Ed by Mariam Barghouti, Who Compared Israel to Nazi Germany

It would appear that having a documented history that has included comparing Israel to Nazi Germany does not preclude one from offering their opinions on the editorial webpages of The Washington Post, a publication that prides itself on a self-stated commitment to fairness.

Mariam Barghouti, who describes herself as a “writer and researcher based in Palestine,” was recently invited to share her views with Post readers, in a piece titled, “Another group recognized Israel’s Palestinian apartheid. How will the world react?”

Barghouti, who has also previously written for and contributed to outlets including The New York Times, The Guardian, and Newsweek, came to HonestReporting’s attention last year after we uncovered a series of now-deleted tweets, such as one in which she asserted that “Israel has been beating Hitler at his own game since 1948,” and another that referred to former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu as being “nothing more than a war criminal and a Nazi.”

Such remarks are evidence of anti-Jewish bigotry, and are a breach of the IHRA’s internationally-recognized working definition of antisemitism, specifically making comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis and claiming that Israel’s very existence is in itself a racist endeavor.

The IHRA definition has been either adopted or endorsed by dozens of countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Italy, Sweden, Spain, and Germany.

In her latest piece, Barghouti accuses the Jewish state of maintaining a “deep essence of apartheid;” suggests that Jerusalem’s decision to designate six Palestinian NGOs is part of a campaign to “discredit and vilify” critics; and claims that Israel “weaponizes charges of antisemitism to manipulate and gaslight.”

There are a number of points that deserve to be noted in response to such allegations.

Christian Congressman: Funding PA will lead to more terror

With the Passover, Easter and Ramadan holidays fast approaching, Palestinian terrorism is suddenly spiking.

Thousands of Israelis police officers, border guards and military commandos have been deployed to secure the peace.

But an American congressman, who is a leading expert on US-Israeli relations and how to combat Palestinian terrorism, warns that may not be enough.

He said that the Palestinian Authority (PA) financially rewards those who commit terrorist acts against Israelis, and that the Biden administration is turning a blind eye to this policy. Unless these two things change, according to Rep. Doug Lamborn, we’re going to see more terror ahead.

Lamborn is a Republican and a devout Evangelical Christian who represents Colorado Springs, a heavily Evangelical community in central Colorado, south of Denver. He serves on the House Armed Services Committee and is a member of the Israel Allies Caucus in Congress.

He is also the author of the Taylor Force Act.

Signed into law in 2018, the act requires the US government to deduct from any funding of the PA the amount of money that it pays to prisoners who have committed terrorist attacks against Israelis or to their families.

Given that the PA budgets upwards of $200 million towards such payments, this is a significant incentive for Palestinians to attack Israelis.

Lamborn denounces what he calls PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ “pay for slay” policy as “so sick” and “so wrong.”

But in an exclusive interview with ALL ISRAEL NEWS at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem, Lamborn said that the Biden administration is ignoring the law and trying to increase funding to the PA.

The Tikvah Podcast: David Friedman on What He Learned as U.S. Ambassador to Israel

When Donald Trump improbably became president in 2016, few knew what his foreign-policy agenda would look like. Having spent little time on such issues during his campaign and having no previous electoral experience, Trump’s inclinations were mysterious. But despite this, it’s clear now, looking back, that some of his administration’s greatest successes were in the Middle East.

This week’s podcast guest, the former U.S. ambassador to Israel David Friedman, was at the center of it all, a story that he tells in a new memoir. In this conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, Friedman brings listeners inside his tenure, which included the Abraham Accords, the move of the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and America’s recognition of Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights. Friedman also reflects on his Jewish formation, and his assessment of American Jewry today.

Erdogan condemns terror attacks; but will it impact Turkey's relations with Hamas?

Times of Israel reports:

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called President Isaac Herzog on Friday and “sharply condemned” the terror attacks that killed 11 Israelis over the last two weeks.
“President Erdogan asked to send his condolences to the bereaved families who have lost their loved ones and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” a statement from Herzog’s office quoted him as saying.
“Both presidents emphasized that on the eve of the holidays of Ramadan, Passover and Easter there is a need for action to maintain calm in the whole region,” the statement said.

Hamas leadership has been, outside Gaza, concentrated in Qatar and Turkey. It is a major base of operations for the terror group. Funding and logistics of terror attacks have come from Hamas in Turkey.

Is Turkey going to distance itself from Hamas, or it is trying to play both sides? Hamas was alarmed at President Herzog's visit, but I have not seen anything concrete that Turkey has done to weaken Hamas in that country.

It would be a mistake to trust Erdogan. His desire to patch up relations with Israel is not based on liking Israel or disliking Hamas. Israel needs to keep its eyes wide open - and push Turkey to get rid of Hamas if it wants closer ties with the Jewish state.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

04/01 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: The Negev Two-State Summit; Melanie Phillips: Blinken’s obscene "progressive" agenda; Israel and UAE Finalize ‘Milestone’ Free Trade Deal

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The Negev Two-State Summit

To block criticism of the nuclear deal the US is now concluding with the Iranians, Blinken's challenge this week was to neutralize the Israeli-Arab anti-Iran strategic alliance. And he used the two-state solution to achieve this goal.

Before Blinken arrived at the Negev Summit Monday night, he held another summit in Ramallah with PLO chief and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas. When he arrived in Sde Boker, Blinken used his meeting in Ramallah to make the Palestinians the main subject of conversation.

Given the existential threat that Iran poses to the nations of the region, Blinken's efforts wouldn't have had a chance of success without Israeli support.

Without a doubt, Blinken's greatest Israeli supporter is Defense Minister Benny Gantz. Gantz has been carrying out an independent foreign policy aligned completely with the administration's anti-Israel positions. Gantz's independent diplomatic forays have included meetings with Abbas and King Abdullah of Jordan. Media reports last week indicated Gantz was working to bring both men to the Negev Summit, a move that would have ended all talk of Iran.

Gantz is not the only Israeli leader who has been ably assisting Blinken. Prime Minister Naftali Bennett and Foreign Minister Yair Lapid also helped Blinken when they failed to defend Israel against Blinken's libelous statements about "settler violence," which is all but non-existent.

In the face of Israeli Arab terror in Beersheba and Hadera, putting Blinken in his place and ending talk of a two-state solution would have been easy. The Israeli Arab terror shows that the two-state solution's first premise – that there is an upper limit to Arab demands is false. If Israel surrenders Judea, Samaria and large parts of Jerusalem the move won't bring peace. It will move the war to the Galilee, the Negev, and the rest of what will be left of Israel. Indeed, it is already there.

But Lapid and Bennett said nothing as Blinken accused their country of imaginary crimes in furtherance of the two-state solution.

Blinken's two-state solution offensive enabled him to ignore whatever protests Lapid and the Arab foreign ministers expressed at the Negev Summit. It also allowed him to change the subject. In their final statements at the end of the summit on Tuesday, the Arab foreign ministers ignored Iran and joined Blinken in voicing their support for the two-state solution.

In truth, the main reason the fake policy of "two-state solution" keeps going is that some Jews of Israel have yet to accept the truth about the Palestinian Arab conflict with Israel and what that means. The two-state solution is inherently, and necessarily anti-Israel. In a situation where the majority of Arabs living west of the Jordan River, (whether in Gaza, Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem, the Negev, the Galilee, the Dan Region, or the Sharon) are unwilling to accept the Jewish state's right to exist in any borders, you can't be pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian. You have to choose.

The proper and indeed only adequate response to the anti-Israel two-state solution is Zionism. To contend with the Palestinians, the Iranians, the Americans, and everything in between, Israel must adopt and maintain Zionist policies across the board, whether in military policy, foreign affairs and public diplomacy, in the legal system, in economics or in social affairs. Without Zionism, Israel will be incapable of defeating the new terror onslaught. It will be unable to block Iran's path to nuclear-armed regional hegemony. And it will be unable to contend with the Biden administration, which is facilitating both.

Melanie Phillips: Blinken’s obscene "progressive" agenda

Even more significant is their belief that final victory over the Jews is now within their grasp. These attacks are being fuelled by an exultant fervour that the United States is in retreat and, by its craven submission to Iran, is surrendering to Islam.

This plays into the strand of apocalyptic Islamic messianism promoted by Islamic preachers whipping up expectations that the weakness of America and the resulting likely victory over the Jews means that the end of days is imminent.

Blinken assumes that the “Palestinian” cause is one that needs addressing in order to achieve progress towards peace. On the contrary — since the “Palestinian” cause is nothing other than the extermination of Israel, the only way to achieve peace is to sideline that cause altogether. Insisting on making “progress” with it is tantamount to insisting upon progress in achieving the destruction of Israel.

Contrary to Blinken’s words, the Abraham Accords were indeed a crucial substitute for that cause. The alliance makes true progress in ending the war against Israel’s existence by abandoning the people who continue to wage that war.

Yet the Biden administration regards the alliance between Israel and its new Arab allies as an impediment to the actual progress it so incomprehensibly desires — to empower Iran.

While Israel and its Arab allies understand that the Iranian regime poses a mortal threat to themselves that must be defeated, Blinken and the rest of the Biden team are desperate for an agreement which will enable Tehran to develop nuclear weapons within a short space of time and which will funnel into its coffers tens of billions of dollars to fund its infernal activities.

What Blinken demonstrated in the Negev was what it currently means to be a western progressive. It means supporting people who murder Israelis and empowering others who want to wipe out Israel — while spouting liberal pieties out of the other side of their mouths.

Ruthie Blum: 'Pay-for-slay' Abbas takes his cue from 'Iran-Deal' Blinken - opinion

It’s not surprising, then, that Abbas was denounced as a traitor by an already disgruntled Palestinian public for daring to suggest that the killing of Israeli civilians is detrimental. His critics in the PA don’t care about his glorification and financial backing of terrorists – as long as he continues to collaborate in some fashion with Israel and suck up to the US.

BLINKEN HAD nothing to say about any of that. Instead, he took to Twitter to “condemn the horrific terrorist attack… in Bnei Brak, the third… in Israel in a week,” and extended “condolences to the families of the victims… May their memories be a blessing.”

His sympathies were as pointless as Abbas’s contorted statement. Far more significant was his equating of Arab terrorism with “settler violence,” emphasizing the latter over the former.

If rhetoric were the only problem with Blinken’s behavior, the situation would be less dire. But, as he himself boasted, with Bennett at his side: “Our administration is… rebuilding America’s relationship with the Palestinian Authority and the Palestinian people, something I’ll continue to do… in Ramallah with President Abbas, and in east Jerusalem with leaders of that community’s vibrant and diverse civil society.”

Any Israeli who managed not to laugh at this description was weeping by the time the secretary of state got to the part about the US “increasing humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian people, totaling half a billion dollars since April 2021.” After all, as Bennett well knows, the only “Palestinian people” who benefit from such an influx of cash are Abbas, his henchmen and the terrorists they fund.

The money in question is chump change, however, compared to the billions that Team Biden is anxious to hand over to the world’s greatest state sponsor of terrorism, whose threats to annihilate Israel are no emptier than its arsenals. Just ask the Arab signatories to and supporters of the Abraham Accords.

Projection of the day: "Jews hate Arabs. Here's why Jews are all racist pigs hell-bent on ruling the world."

The Nasserist Egyptian site Al Majd has a great example of psychological projection from Firas Hajj Muhammad, in an article named "Only Israel is responsible for the violence in Palestine."

The ugliness of the Zionist occupation lies in the systematic hatred of the Arab and the Palestinians. The occupation policy and thinking is based on disrespect for everything that is non-Zionist and non-Jewish, Arab and non-Arab. A thought is based on human hatred and only recognizes them alone, and everyone is harnessed to serve them. It is a “neo-Nazi.”
Whoever contemplates the two, “Jewish Zionism” and Nazism, will find that they are very close in view of the other, so they are inhumane experiences, and as history cursed the Nazi experiment, it will curse the Zionist-Jewish experience, as it is a curse on the world and an uncontrollable evil. The real solution lies in removing this illegal and inhuman entity that is based only on enslaving and controlling the world.
The problem with this occupation is that its leaders are devoid of all human responsibility and do not share with others and do not intersect with human beings in any of the general values, so they created for themselves values and standards that differ from the rest of the world. So, they are on one side and the world on the other, so they do not recognize truth, goodness and beauty as general human values, but rather they have their right, goodness and beauty, those values that mean nothing but evil in the consequences of the living reality. They practiced this with everyone, with us Palestinians, with Arab princes and poor politicians, with Iranians, and with other leaders in the world, so what evil is this upon which the Zionist movement is based while it is destroying the world politically and morally, to sit on the throne of the leadership of evil. This is neither a construction nor an exaggeration, it is the reality of the Zionist criminality that polluted Judaism with it, to rise on its shoulders.
The whole world should warn against this evil and resist it with all it can. Eliminating evil is a human value necessity and an end in itself, and this is not the task of the Palestinians alone, but the task of the whole world. So let us take the initiative to end and eliminate this evil. Is the world’s affliction not enough as a result of its care for this evil thought for a century and more? Let the world return to its senses, to international politics its wisdom, and to the people's respect for their values!

The site that cares so much about morality supports Russia against Ukraine.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Whistleblower Khaled Hassan

This is a bombshell report from TheJC (which does perhaps the best reporting of any Jewish newspaper):

YouTube routinely ignored warnings from its own moderators to take down antisemitic videos, including some that inspired the Texas synagogue gunman, a whistleblower has told the JC.
The refusal to delete the incendiary footage, which glorifies terrorism and brands Jews “agents of Satan”, makes a mockery of the web giant’s supposed commitment to safeguarding users, the whistleblower said.
Former moderator Khaled Hassan, 31, who was employed to identify extremism in Arabic language videos until two months ago, accuses YouTube of “shirking its legal and moral responsibilities”.
In shocking testimony, the whistleblower reveals:
- YouTube ignored warnings that specific videos would incite violence against Jews, just weeks before British terrorist Malik Faisal Akram watched the same clips and took four hostages at Beth Israel synagogue in Texas.
- YouTube ignored requests to remove videos by Wagdy Ghoneim, a leading Egyptian jihadist who is banned in the UK, on the grounds that he was not on an internal watchlist of just 29 names.
- Mr Hassan was told that when he wished to “flag” any video about the Middle East conflict, he should seek approval from a Palestinian colleague.
- The whistleblower was moved to a more menial job because, he claimed, he highlighted videos that YouTube did not want to remove.
- The social media giant refused to delete clips celebrating the November murder of Jerusalem tour guide Eli Kay because they did not display the logo of a terrorist organisation.

...Mr Hassan, 31, a counter-terrorism expert who spent years fighting extremism in Egypt before achieving a master’s degree in security policy at Leicester University, told the JC: “YouTube’s policy is a sham. They claim they will remove content that glorifies terrorism and contains racist hate speech, but what they do behind the veil of company secrecy is very different.
“They are shirking their legal and moral responsibilities. They tell users that their platform is safe. In fact, they are allowing people to be radicalised and reinforcing claims that Jews are evil and rule the world.”

This is more than just being irresponsible. YouTube, and Google, are arguably accessories to terrorism.

The part where Google told Hassan that Palestinians must approve removing any jihadist video about Israel is especially insane. Terrorism enjoys wide popular support among Palestinians.

In other words, they allow people who overwhelmingly hate Jews to decide what is antisemitic incitement.

This means that the Palestinian propaganda that "Zionists" are silencing them has real-world consequences. It causes Google and other social media to err on the side of the terrorists and wannabe jihadists when dealing with antisemitic propaganda, rather than prioritize the lives of Jews.

(h/t Brad)

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

The official Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa writes:

Occupation MK Itamar Ben Gvir, at the head of 202 settlers, stormed the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, where they carried out provocative tours and performed racist Talmudic rituals under the protection of dozens of Israeli policemen .

Both the Israeli Left and the Palestinian Arabs predicted that violence would result from Ben Gvir's visit, but he quietly walked around for 15 minutes and left.

But here we see that the Palestinian Authority is calling Jewish prayer not only "Talmudic rituals," but "racist Talmudic rituals."

This is new. I cannot find the phrase "racist Talmudic rituals" before February 22 of this year.

This isn't just antisemitic - it is official antisemitism from the Palestinian Authority, and the formulation of "racist Talmudic rituals" was copied slavishly in many other Arab sites, including in Egypt.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/31 Links Pt2: Biden Admin Failing to Reform UNRWA; How EU Funding of West Bank Activities Breaches Int’l Law & Undermines Peace; Hillel Neuer: The Jew Among the Nations -- Israel and the UN

From Ian:

Biden Administration Failing to Reform U.N.’s Palestinian Refugee Agency

The Trump administration cut off all U.S. funding for UNRWA in 2018, concluding that UNRWA needed to be reformed completely, if not dismantled. With a mandate to care for refugees, providing basic services like health care and education, but not resettle them, UNRWA has perpetuated the problem it exists to deal with. By conferring refugee status on multiple generations of Palestinians—a departure from U.N. practice in other conflicts—an initial refugee population of approximately 750,000 in 1948 has ballooned to 5.7 million. This expansive definition of who is a refugee, coupled with UNRWA’s support for the “right of return,” the Palestinian claim that all these millions of Palestinians have a right to resettle inside Israel, makes the agency a vehicle for prolonging the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. To boot, UNRWA has also had serious issues of waste, fraud, and abuse.

When the Trump administration zeroed out aid to the U.N. agency in August 2018 after it resisted making changes, a State Department spokesperson announced, “The United States will no longer commit further funding to this irredeemably flawed operation.”

The Biden administration opted to restore funding to the agency before securing structural changes in UNRWA’s mandate or operations—all but ensuring no change would occur. When announcing the decision last April, Secretary of State Antony Blinken vowed U.S. taxpayer money would promote “neutrality, accountability, and transparency.” Since then, the United States has donated or pledged some $416.8 million to UNRWA, including more than $32 million contributed in the wake of the May 2021 Hamas-Israel war.

The Biden administration would likely defend its decision by pointing to the framework for cooperation with the State Department that UNRWA signed on July 14, 2021, in which it committed to stopping incitement against Jews and Israel in its education system and ensuring it does not support or provide assistance to terrorist groups. Days later, the United States announced another $135.8 million for the cash-strapped agency. On December 30, 2021, the State Department pledged an additional $99 million, again stressing the need for UNRWA to focus on “accountability, transparency, neutrality, and stability.”

But America’s return on investment appears to be negative. A report published in January 2022 by the Jerusalem- and London-based watchdog group IMPACT-se shows that UNRWA has continued to distribute teaching materials that glorify and promote violence. (Previous reports from the group, which pre-date the agreement with the Biden State Department, showed the same thing, as did an EU-funded report released in June 2021. Even the UNRWA commissioner-general, Philippe Lazzarini, admitted last September that textbooks distributed by his agency promote anti-Semitism, hatred, and violence.)

UNRWA has frequently hidden behind a claim that it merely uses the curriculum of its “host country.” With this approach, UNRWA has deflected accusations that the Palestinian Authority textbooks it uses in the West Bank and Gaza incite Palestinians to violence, even though UNRWA is under no obligation to use these materials.

Honest Reporting: EXCLUSIVE: How European Union Funding of West Bank Activities Breaches Int’l Law & Undermines Peace

The ongoing relevance of the Oslo Accords was more recently reiterated by longtime diplomat Dennis Ross, who served as former US president Bill Clinton’s Middle East envoy when the deals were signed. “These agreements, endorsed by the international community, form the cornerstone of the bilateral peace process until this day and continue to govern the relations between the parties,” Ross wrote in a submission to the International Criminal Court in 2020 [emphasis added].

But the illegal PA-EU land seizure effort taking place in Area C is, by contrast, making the actualization of the Oslo Accords more difficult as the subversive initiative seeks to, according to the Israeli intelligence report, establish “irreversible facts […] on the ground which have far-reaching implications on a future political agreement.”

The report also stresses that the land takeover is already endangering the lives of Israelis and Palestinians alike:
[…] This Palestinian activity has created a significant constraint on the freedom of movement along the main traffic arteries in the region, while transforming ‘traffic corridors’ from the Oslo era into ‘lanes,’ which are overseen and have come under threat, which might impact the security of the traffic along sections of some of the most important routes […]

For nearly three decades, the European Union has championed a “two-state solution based on the Oslo Accords and on international law,” often warning against perceived Israeli “unilateral departure[s] from the Oslo Accords.” As recently as last year, the European envoy to the United Nations Security Council explicitly invoked the agreements in an attack against alleged unilateral Israeli moves in the West Bank.

And while Europe has paid lip service to the need for direct talks between the two parties based on past agreements, with then-German foreign minister Heiko Maas in May 2021 saying that there is “no alternative to direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians,” Brussels is clearly abetting unilateral steps by the Palestinian Authority.

This, as part of an illegal campaign in Area C of the West Bank that is being funded by European taxpayers and effectively reducing the prospects for a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

Israel: A Tale of 2 Parallel Universes

UNFORTUNATELY, Israel seems to exist in two parallel, contradictory worlds.

One universe has been constructed – a false, hackneyed, out-of-date, and threatening universe – that extends from Ramallah to New York, Geneva, and other unfriendly places.

This universe, dominated by so-called Western “progressives” in cahoots with Arab/Islamic radicals, disses rather than embraces the Abraham Accords and is stuck in a time warp where Israel is an evil actor. It is a malign universe where recalcitrant and violent Palestinian leaders are venerated, and admirable Israeli leaders are criminalized. It is a tragic, forlorn universe.

The other universe – real, promising, forward-looking, and stabilizing! – is marked by a peace dynamic that runs from Jerusalem to Dubai, Manama, Rabat, Cairo, and Amman; and from Jerusalem to the most important leaders in the world.

In short, the discourse about Israel in corrupt international institutions and in some aspersive Western campuses and capitals couldn’t be more different than the discourse in Arab capitals and other calm and considered decision-making centers. It’s confrontation versus cooperation, demonization versus solidarity.

It is time for more Western leaders and democratic activists to discover the true, new Middle East, and the real Israel: a force for peace, progress, security, and stability.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

My Supreme Leader, We Can Attack The US And Biden Will Still Cave To All Our Demands (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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My Supreme Leader, We Can Attack The US And Biden Will Still Cave To All Our Demands

by Ali Mossadegh, advisor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei

Alemi Tehran, March 31- Your Holiness, I must express my admiration for your wisdom and insight regarding the Great Satan and the naivety of their political leadership. Not only did you tell us not to compromise, but to harden our demands and even extend them; you predicted that we could actively hurt American interests and Washington will still grovel to reach some sort of agreement over our nuclear program, regardless of how triumphant it makes us and how humiliated it makes them. It now appears we could conduct actual, direct terrorist operations on their soil and they will continue to grant us everything we ask for and more! A remarkable diplomatic achievement.

I suggest we do so, but defer to your greater experience and wisdom as to the timing, location - or locations - and extent of the operations. It is one thing to keep pushing Biden and the craven Democrats further and further back from their original negotiating position; it would be another entirely to risk alienating enough of the US voting public that the leadership, no matter how accommodating they wish to be to us, must take into account the animosity our actions may produce. We certainly need not take heed of domestic dissent from official policy - the perks of knowing we are right and Godly, and those who disagree are Satanic and worthy only of repression and abuse - but sadly, the Western countries adhere to benighted notions of "consent of the governed" and "accountability to the citizens." As such, we must not overreach.

I might suggest a series of coordinated attacks on strategic or important institutions with powerful symbolism, but not so powerful as to force Biden's hand against us. That means the Statue of Liberty is out, as are any number of prominent buildings in the Washington, DC area. Striking a blow against American tyranny, tempting and righteous as it may be, requires judicious restraint. Our friend Osama learned that the hard way.

Perhaps a chemical attack against a large city is in order. Not a city with the political and cultural valence of New York or Washington, however. We cannot risk the backlash. No, I suggest a city with significant population and some national renown, which probably indicates at least two major sports teams. Places such as Cleveland, for example: locales with no shortage of infidels we can murder and make suffer, but with no lasting contribution to America's sense of itself. San Diego. Seattle. Las Vegas.

I await your decision, Your Holiness.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

03/31 Links Pt1: Noah Rothman: In Israel, the Grimly Familiar and the Utterly Shocking; New synagogue guidelines call for weapons, cellphones on Shabbat following deadly attacks

From Ian:

Noah Rothman: In Israel, the Grimly Familiar and the Utterly Shocking

An ominously familiar scene unfolded on Tuesday night in the Tel Aviv suburb of Bnei Brak—one that Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said was indicative of “a new wave of terrorism” washing over the country.

Gruesome video of that event showed an attacker, dressed all in black, firing an M16 assault rifle indiscriminately at passersby. The attacker shot and killed four, including a police officer, before he was neutralized. The gunman was later identified as a 27-year-old Palestinian from the West Bank. While no terrorist organization has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, several militant groups—including Hamas—welcomed this act of barbarism.

Another grimly familiar spectacle occurred shortly thereafter in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip. As news of the bloodshed spread inside Gaza, images of militants handing out celebratory sweets to locals flooded social media. It was all evocative of the painful and persistent violence that has colored so much of the region’s history, and it may presage even more terrible events yet to come. This mass shooting was the fifth in a recent series of terrorist acts that have so far taken 11 lives inside Israel. That’s more violent death than Israel has experienced outside wartime in years.

“After a period of quiet, there is a violent eruption by those who want to destroy us, those who want to hurt us at any price,” Bennett said in a recorded address. “They are prepared to die so that we will not live in peace.” It’s enough to leave observers with a terrible sense of déjà vu. Yet, a sense that the bad old days might be back is belied by the truly unfamiliar—indeed, seminal—circumstances that likely contributed to this spate of violence.

The backdrop against which these attacks were set is the full flowering of Israel’s emergence on its regional stage as a key power—not just militarily but diplomatically, too. This week, the foreign ministers of Bahrain, Egypt, Morocco, and the United Arab Emirates, as well as Secretary of State Antony Blinken, traveled to a resort in the Negev desert in Israel for a formal diplomatic summit. There, the representatives of these Arab nations coordinated with the Jewish state’s head of diplomatic affairs on issues ranging from the extraordinary to the mundane.

What's Behind the Spate of Terror Attacks in Israel?

On the face of it, the attacks are unconnected: a Bedouin from the Negev with nationalist leanings; two extreme Islamist Israeli Arabs connected to ISIS; and a Palestinian terrorist from the West Bank. In fact, there is a close and direct connection of atmosphere, encouragement and unceasing incitement on the part of terrorist organizations and political leaders, while several conditions for such an outbreak of terror have emerged.

The security forces are wont to describe the territories as a "bubbling cauldron", for economic, political, and other reasons, on which the lid is kept tight shut by various means, partly military, but mostly economic. The moderating effect of an economy that is in a reasonable state and is developing is huge, and prevents a popular uprising like the two intifadas. Effective security measures help to thwart most terrorist attacks, which are almost all stopped at the planning stage in the terrorists' homes.

The relative quiet has, however, perhaps led to a degree of lassitude and an exaggerated sense of security. We live in a hostile environment in which the desire to annihilate Israel is alive and kicking, and the bubbling cauldron spills over now and then. The consequences of successful attacks are far-reaching. Israel looks more and more vulnerable, the Israel Security Agency and the security forces are seen to have failed, and the video clips and security camera footage showing terrorists opening fire in the heart of Israeli cities are a highly effective catalyst. Israel looks vulnerable and weak. As one assessment from a security source described it in a closed discussion: "They smell blood. Suddenly, strong Israel is taking blows, and the attacks manage to inflict pain, and even more, to have a victory effect through clips of the attacks on social networks that go viral very fast." The influence of the video clips and the praise expressed in them for the "heroes" represent extremely strong encouragement.

Jonathan Tobin: Don’t reward Palestinians for a new wave of terror

After a week of terror attacks that took the lives of 11 people, Israelis are wondering whether they are on the brink of a third intifada. The Jewish state’s security forces are redoubling their efforts to try to anticipate or prevent further such atrocities. But the Israeli government needs to worry about more than just whether these seemingly random accounts will lead to more violence from Hamas or elements linked to the Palestinian Authority. It also has to be concerned about whether its sole superpower ally and other Western countries will use these tragedies as an excuse to revive failed policies of the past, whose goal is to pressure Israel into making concessions to the Palestinians.

Throughout much of the last 30 years, that was the pattern of events. But instead of taking an honest look at Palestinian political culture, which not only lauds terrorism but views violence as a legitimate and necessary expression of national identity, the West consistently treated acts of murder as a cry for help from the disadvantaged.

Such thinking was the product of a fundamental mistake about the nature of the conflict. Rather than Palestinian violence being caused by alleged Israeli oppression or the lack of progress towards peace, it was instead an expression of a long-held belief in the illegitimacy of a Jewish state and the need for action to eliminate it.

Given repeated Palestinian Arab refusals of offers of compromise on even the most advantageous terms dating back to the pre-state era, that much should have been obvious. The support for terror even on the part of so-called Palestinian moderates, who have continued to subsidize and applaud acts of terror against Jews, had to be ignored. The foolishness of a policy that responded to terror waves with diplomatic pressure on Israel essentially rewarded Palestinians for violence.

So if the events of the last week are the harbinger of more attacks inside Israel, the question is whether President Joe Biden’s foreign-policy team will respond to them by doing the same thing every past administration—with the sole exception being the government led by former President Donald Trump—did whenever terror attacks surged and announce a renewed emphasis on reviving peace negotiations. If they do, they should not expect the results to be any different from what happened in the past. Instead of, as they claim, undermining the rationale for terror against Israel, it will send a message to the Palestinians that violence is the way to garner more support for their futile century-old war on Zionism and the Jewish presence in the territory between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

Moroccan anti-Israel group warns that normalization endangers national security, somehow.

Anti-Israel arguments are sometimes quite amusing.

The National Working Group for Palestine/Morocco has been trying to get Moroccans to oppose normalization with Israel, with not much success.

Ahead of yesterday's Palestinian Land Day, they called for a massive rally in front of Morocco's Parliament to show their anger and displeasure at normalization.

Abdelaziz Aftati, an MP for the Islamist Justice and Development Party, wrote on his Facebook page normalization "puts Morocco's strategic security at risk" isolating it from its Arab neighbors - which means Algeria. (Algerian media are the only ones that covered this story.)

How, exactly, does this affect Morocco's strategic security? Perhaps because Israel intends to "expand" into Morocco, somehow. The Moroccan Association for Human Rights warned of the "danger posed by the Zionist expansion." Perhaps Israel will invade Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and Algeria on its way to take over Morocco.

Finally, yesterday was Land Day, and a protest was indeed held outside Parliament.

A couple dozen Moroccans showed up.

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EU condemns Jews legally buying a disgusting, dilapidated hotel property in Jerusalem

EU and Palestinians tweeted, "EUREP, MS & like-minded states attended a meeting with the heads of churches to discuss the ongoing settler occupation of the Little Petra hotel at the entrance of the Christian Quarter in the Old City of Jerusalem, owned by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate. Urge Israeli authorities to immediately deescalate the situation and take measures to fully protect the presence and heritage of the Palestinians and Christian community in East Jerusalem."

Haaretz reported earlier this week:

Following an 18-year legal battle, members of a settler organization have moved into the Petra Hotel in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Currently, Ateret Cohanim occupies only part of the Petra Hotel. Located near Jaffa Gate, the hotel is one of two large buildings the organization bought from the previous Greek Orthodox patriarch, Irenaios, in a controversial deal. The other is the nearby Imperial Hotel.
When the deal came to light in 2005, it sparked a major crisis within the local branch of the Greek Orthodox church that culminated in Irenaios’ unprecedented dismissal. His replacement, Theophilos III, then tried to repudiate the deal and get it overturned.
But the Jerusalem District Court, and later the Supreme Court, ratified it, despite concluding that there were “shadows and black holes in the moves that led to the agreement’s signing.” Among other things, it was proven that Ateret Cohanim had paid a church official.
Sunday morning, Ateret Cohanim members entered the building’s first floor under police escort. Under the terms of the lease, this floor is separate from the rest of the hotel, which is why the organization was able to take possession.

While the article notes some accusations of questionable conduct by Ateret Cohanim in regard to other property purchases, the purchase itself was 100% legal and they have every right to take possession.

But the EU, so concerned about the law when it can be interpreted against Israel, wants it to be ignored when it supports the position of Jews. Buying a building and moving in is "settler occupation," and of course all "settler occupation" is illegal.

The Greek Orthodox Patriarchate is trying to incite violence over this, by "warning" that Jews buying property is likely to cause violence:

This act is extremely dangerous as it regards community relations on the ground. Acting in this illegally aggressive manner against a known Christian property and an Arab business –particularly ahead of Easter and Ramadan – could likely ignite local hostilities similar to what was witnessed last year in Sheikh Jarrah. Not to mention the timing that Mati Dan and his organisation, Ateret Cohanim, are choosing on the eve of Secretary Blinken’s arrival in the region.
In response to this illegal activity, local residents, business owners, and priests are demanding definitive action. Patriarch Theophilos III has been consulting heavily with the Council of Patriarchs and Heads of Churches in Jerusalem and receiving counsel from all sides. The Church is doing all that it can to stop these actions, protect the tenants, and come to a lawful and peaceful resolution. However, there is tremendous pressure to address these actions in a powerful way. The Church fears certain actions could quickly escalate and ignite a very turbulent scenario in the Old City.

This is a typical Palestinian response - not to call on Palestinians to be calm but to "warn" that what Jews do can cause Palestinians to turn violent. The racist subtext is that Jews want to avoid violence and Palestinians naturally engage in it.

The hotel itself looks like a dump. TripAdvisor reviews tell horror stories and show photos that are stomach-turning.

Ateret Cohanim probably paid millions for this fleabag motel whose previous owners wouldn't invest a dime in it.

In any other city, the property would be condemned and the owners fined.

As usual, no one shows interest in these properties until Jews do. Then they suddenly become holy places of utmost importance to the future of the free world.

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Egypt's Youm7 (Seventh Day) had an article on Wednesday about the great Jewish philosopher and rabbi Moses Maimonides (Rambam), who was born on March 30, 1135.

It quotes Egyptian philosopher Sheikh Mustafa 'Abd al-Raziq, Professor of Islamic Philosophy at Al Azhar University who died in 1947 and who was considered an expert on the Rambam:

I am one of those who place Maimonides and his brothers among the philosophers of Islam, and I said in a speech I gave at the Maimonides celebration at the Opera House on the first of April 1935 AD, “Abu Imran Musa bin Maimonides is a philosopher from among the philosophers of Islam. Muslims and non-Muslims have been called philosophers of Islam, and their philosophy is called Islamic philosophy, meaning that it grew in the countries of Islam and in the shadow of its state, and was characterized by some characteristics without regard to the religion of its owners, their gender, or their language."

Al-Raziq said that Jews like Maimonides translated Arabic philosophy to Hebrew, where the Christian West could read it and understand it, spreading their ideas throughout the world.

In general, this was a complimentary article. But this 2018 article in the same newspaper gives the Rambam credit for - Zionism!

The Rambam was famously the personal physician to Sultan Saladin, the article says:

What did Maimonides offer to the Jews, and how did that sultan's doctor open the way for Jewish immigration to Palestine, and did the Cordovan philosopher have a hand in paving the way for the establishment of a Hebrew state for the Jews in Palestine, which was officially announced in 1948?

According to the book “The Dictionary of the Philosophers” by the great thinker George Tarabishi, Moses Ibn Maimon, who was seeking to raise the spiritual and moral level of the Jews, used his influence in the country to provide more protection for his religion, and after Salah al-Din conquered Jerusalem, he obtained for his people the right to settle there [they had been expelled by the Crusaders - EoZ] and in Palestine in general, and to build synagogues and schools for them there, and he used that period to write to the poor Yemeni Jews to revive their hearts by believing in God and the Torah.

Dr. Muhammad Ziyad Hamdan, analyzed the last incident in his book “The Necessity of Civil Islam and the Nation State: Man’s Failure in Developing Countries,” that the decree, which Musa Maimonides approved of Salah al-Din, opened the way since that day for the establishment of the State of Israel, and to what it has reached in our present time of tyranny and corruption in the land."

Something else to admire about the Rambam!

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03/30 Links Pt2: NYTs Uses Israel-Arab Summit to Claim Ben-Gurion ‘Never Believed in Real Peace’; UN to name investigator on Israel who compares it to Nazi Germany

From Ian:

New York Times Uses Israel-Arab Summit to Claim Ben-Gurion ‘Never Believed in Real Peace’

The summit was held at Sde Boker, the site in the Negev that was Ben-Gurion’s final home. The Times reports:
[I]f he were alive today, “no one would be more stunned than Ben-Gurion himself” to see the summit, said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian and biographer of the Israeli leader.

“He never believed in real peace with the Arabs,” Mr. Segev said of Ben-Gurion.

That’s nonsense. Here is Prime Minister Ben-Gurion’s statement to the Knesset on May 6, 1963, from the website of Israel’s foreign ministry:
When we proclaimed our renewed independence at four o’clock in the afternoon of Friday, May 14, 1948, we declared:

“We extend the hand of peace and good-neighborliness to all the States around us and to their peoples, and we call upon them to cooperate in mutual helpfulness with the independent Jewish nation in its Land. The State of Israel is prepared to make its contribution in a concerted effort for the advancement of the entire Middle East.”

Israel realizes that her fate is interwoven with the fate of all mankind, and her peace depends on the peace of the world….I believe with implicit faith that the day will come when true peace will reign between Israel and her neighbors, but until that day we must ward off the danger of the war that the Arab rulers are planning against Israel.

How can the historian Tom Segev possibly know for sure that Ben Gurion was lying when he said he believed in peace? And why would the Times pass along that accusation to its readers without any evidence, or without providing the ample evidence to the contrary?

Segev’s biography of Ben-Gurion was rightfully panned by Ephraim Karsh in the Wall Street Journal (“Segev, like his fellow revisionists, is not bothered with mere facts in his endeavor to rewrite Ben-Gurion and, by extension, Israel’s history in an image of his own making.”)

It’s all a useful reminder that for Israel’s real enemies at the New York Times, the issue isn’t really the post-1967 “occupation” of the West Bank, or Israel’s supposed lurch toward the authoritarian right under Benjamin Netanyahu. The real issue is 1948-style Zionism itself: the mere existence of a Jewish state of the sort brought into reality by Ben-Gurion.

Leave it to the Times to take a positive story about Israel’s blossoming relations with its Arab neighbors and somehow find a way to turn it into a nasty, posthumous attack on Ben-Gurion.

'Arafat was a coward and the PA is paying a heavy price for it'

The arduous attempts to prevent terrorist attacks, the decision to drive the Palestinian Authority from Jerusalem, and the missed opportunity to eliminate top Hamas leaders: former Shin Bet chief MK Avi Dichter recalls the days of the iconic Operation Defensive Shield.

Passover night, March 27, 2002: The Dichter family home in Ashkelon was full of family and friends. All of a sudden, the Israel Security Agency director's phone rings out. Avi Dichter, by then a veteran of the service, was used to being away from home on holidays. Sometimes it was a security incident. Sometimes it was a source asking for an urgent meeting. This time, it was difficult for him to just get up and leave. After all, he was the host.

"I answered the phone, and the voice on the other end of the line said 'there's been an explosion at the Park Hotel in Netanya. We're checking to see if it was cooking gas,' recalls Dichter. "I was familiar with the routine of reporting a gas explosion. People found it difficult to report that there had been a suicide bombing, so when they didn't yet have proof, they would usually say, 'there may have been a gas explosion.'

"I told the guests that I had to leave and on the way to the office, I spoke with Arik Sharon, who was prime minister at the time. By now it was obvious that it was a terrorist attack and that we would be launching Operation Defensive Shield which was something that had already been discussed. Sharon decided that the main target would be Ramallah so as to send the Palestinian leadership a clear message.

Dichter, 69, has many stories from those dark days. The Likud MK and former public security and deputy defense minister was appointed to head the Shin Bet in May 2000. The Second Intifada erupted in October of that year, and terrorist attacks claimed hundreds of Israeli lives. Israel's response, 2002's Operation Defensive Shield, dealt a lethal blow to the terror infrastructure in Judea and Samaria.

Dichter says that to comprehend how Operation Defensive Shield came about, you have to go back to August 1993, when the Oslo Accords were signed. "You have to go from there, through the establishment of the Palestinian Authority, the Western Wall tunnel riot, and then Defensive Shield. Those are more or less, the main waystations," he says. "The Oslo Accords were finalized without the knowledge of the defense establishment which had no idea that the government was about to sign the agreements.

"At the time I was head of the Southern District at the Shin Bet and 90% of the burden fell on me. We had great expectations for cooperation from the other side because we knew everyone, from the head of the preventive security apparatus Mohammed Dahlan through to Moussa Arafat, who was chief of military intelligence. They were people that I had sat down with just like we are sitting together now. PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1994 (Moshe Shai/Archives)

"It's like when you marry a woman, and the next day you find out that she isn't who you thought she was. When the terrorist attacks began, we supplied them [the PA] with intelligence so they could take care of things. But instead of taking care of things, they were looking for where we got our intelligence from. After [PM Yitzhak] Rabin's murder [in November 1995], when Shimon Peres was prime minister, we had a meeting with [PLO Chairman] Yasser Arafat, Peres asked me for a breakdown of the situation. I said that the man behind the suicide bombings was Mohammed Deif," he said, naming the head of Izzadin al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas military wing.

"Arafat looked at [PA security chief] Mohammed Dahlan who was sitting next to him and said 'Mohammed who?' Dahlan said, 'The guy I told you about.' Arafat replied, 'You never told me anything.' We all knew he was lying. The most frustrating thing was that the Palestinian Authority was doing absolutely nothing to stop the violence."

UN Watch: Report: UN to name investigator on Israel who compares it to Nazi Germany

The U.N. Human Rights Council is planning to violate its own impartiality rules by appointing a new investigator on Palestinian human rights who exults in calling Israel an “apartheid” state and repeatedly compares the Palestinian situation to the Nazi Holocaust, according to a new report by the independent non-governmental monitoring group UN Watch.

Francesca Albanese, an Italian lawyer who worked in Jordan for UNRWA, is slated to be the next “Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in the Palestinian territories,” whose mandate is actually to investigate solely “Israel’s violations.”

While UN experts are obliged to be objective and impartial, UN Watch’s 25-page report reveals that Albanese has repeatedly equated the Palestinian Nakba with the Nazi Holocaust, accused Israel of apartheid, genocide, ethnic cleansing, and war crimes.

On her application, Albanese was asked whether she holds “any views or opinions that could prejudice the manner in which the candidate discharges the mandate.” She replied “No.”

Yet just last year, Albanese acknowledged the opposite, saying her “deeply held personal views” on the Palestinian issue “could compromise my objectivity.”

Indeed, Albanese has said Israel is “keeping captive millions of civilians,” organized a panel on “Israel Apartheid,” and campaigns for an arms embargo against Israel.

On her application, Albanese also certified no personal conflicts of interest, failing to disclose that her husband, who compares Palestinians to Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto resisting the Nazis, formerly worked for the Palestinian Authority, where he authored a report on Israel’s “exploitative” policies.

“According to its own rules,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, “the UNHRC must give paramount importance to impartiality when selecting its experts, and Francesca Albanese is the very opposite of impartial.”

Albanese Expected to Follow Anti-Israel Agenda of Outgoing Michael Lynk

UN Watch: Axis of Iran and Amnesty International Accuse Israel of "Apartheid"

UN Watch's Hillel Neuer took the floor at the United Nations Human Rights Council to call out the Moscow-inspired disinformation campaign of "Zionism is Racism." March 25, 2022.

A Zionist, Not a Zionist (Judean Rose)

Zionism, for me, is a complicated subject. Growing up, I thought I was a Zionist. My family was Zionist. My parents were always going to ZOA bond dinners. Morris A. Paul, my dad’s uncle, was president of the local ZOA chapter, and also served this organization at the national level. I devoured books about Israel, ate, slept and dreamed Israel, and ultimately made Aliyah at the tender age of 18.

For me, however, Zionism was not the Zionism of Ben Gurion or Jabotinsky. My Zionism was unconnected to any political ideology, but rather a Zionism of the heart. Israel was where I wanted to be, come hell or high water.

My very Zionist uncle, Morris A. Paul

As my religious sensibilities evolved and solidified, I came to see my Zionism as a religious imperative. Aside from the commandment of settling the Land of Israel, there’s the fact that many commandments cannot be performed outside of Israel. Nachmanides, in fact, was of the opinion that the commandments were given specifically to be performed only in the Land of Israel. Phrased another way, all of the commandments are invalid, performed outside of Israel.

The word “Zionism” in and of itself, is a political ideology. You don’t find it in the bible. What you do find in the bible is 152 mentions of Tzion or “Zion.”

As a woman with a strong streak of rebellion who had embraced orthodoxy after growing up in the Conservative Movement, I took pride in telling people, “I am not a Zionist.” Looking back, I am embarrassed to admit what I now know: I enjoyed the shock value of this declaration, for everyone knew from my blogs and social media activism that I fought for Israel with both words and deeds. It made no sense to anyone I knew. “Of course you’re a Zionist!” they insisted.

“Nope,” said I, pigheaded and proud.

The State of Israel was to me, only a convenience that allowed Jewish people to live in the land and to properly carry out the commandments without kowtowing to a foreign entity. I thought, and still think that the Israeli system of government is stupid. Despite my patronizing view of Israeli politics, I voted in Israeli elections, choosing the candidates most likely to support the study of Torah. Until today, I find much Israeli legislation to be antithetical to the spirit of Judaism and Torah law (one recent example, the caving in of Ayelet Shakked regarding the entrance of non-Jewish Ukrainian refugees, which might lead to intermarriage and other dangerous phenomena). Then too, the Jewish State is not synonymous with the Land of Israel, which comprises a much larger landmass, and should, in my opinion, be governed by God-fearing, commandment-following rulers.

Map of the Holy Land (1795)

With the passage of time, accumulation of years, and hopefully a bit of acquired wisdom, my views on Zionism began to change. I came to see that in fact, I am a Zionist, if not in the political sense. I believe that Jews have the right to self-determination in all of their indigenous territory, what Jabotinsky and the Likud call “Greater Israel.” This understanding of Zionism is not inconsonant with Orthodox Judaism. At the same time, you will never see a Jew in a black suit and hat declaring themselves to be Zionists.

My children span the spectrum of Jewish religious belief, yet all of them have strong, right-wing views on the right of every Jew to live in all parts of the land. This too, tells me that in truth, I am a Zionist, perhaps more than I should be. Politics are what we talk about at our Sabbath table and also from day to day.

Over Sukkot, my eldest invited us to her Sukkah to share a meal and have some family time. As we were leaving, my grandson, the first of my grandchildren, walked us out to the car. He noticed my gold necklace, a silhouette of the State of Israel, and asked about it. I said, “Oops. I better hide that. I wouldn’t want to give you a bad reputation by being seen with Zionists.”

“Why?” asked my grandson. “What’s wrong with being a Zionist?”

“Well,” said I, “Zionists think the Jews need a state that belongs just to them. They believe we have the right to our own government. For me, it also means that every Jew can live in Eretz Yisroel, wherever they want.”

“If that’s what it means to be a Zionist,” declared my black-hatted grandson, “Then I too am a Zionist!”

‘Nuff said.

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

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