Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, April 17, 2022

04/17 Links: How the US perpetuates Palestinian violence; Israel cannot allow rioters to desecrate Temple Mount; After Ukraine, can Israel trust US against Iran?

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: How the US perpetuates Palestinian violence

Willful blindness to the real root of the wider “conflict”—the desire to eliminate the Jewish state—was and still is at play, however. And no number of condolence tweets to the victims can make up for Team Biden’s simultaneous bolstering of the forces inciting them to commit mass murder in the name of Allah.

The inevitable result of the constant calls for “calm” during the current holidays was a carefully planned riot on the Temple Mount on Friday, mere hours before Israel’s Jews sat down to enjoy their seders. Early that morning, Palestinians and similarly radical Arab citizens of Israel barricaded themselves in the mosque with piles of rocks and firebombs with which to assault police stationed there to keep the peace.

Such was the scene on the second Friday of Ramadan. Rather than recite their solemn prayers, worshipers were pummeling Israelis in uniform, and civilians praying at the Western Wall below, with stones. Security forces responded appropriately, using tear gas and stun grenades, and arresting hundreds of perpetrators.

The vilification of Israel promptly followed.

“We condemn the barbaric aggression of the occupation soldiers against the worshipers in Al-Aqsa,” Hamas declared. “Our brothers in Jerusalem are not alone in the fight for Al-Aqsa. We call on the masses in the West Bank and inside the Green Line to stand by our brothers in Jerusalem.”

P.A. leader Mahmoud Abbas’s office accused Israel of launching a religious war, and Palestinian officials warned counterparts in the United States and Jordan of the “consequences of Israel’s actions.”

Decrying the “invasion of the Al-Aqsa mosque” and “harm” to Muslims at prayer, the Jordanian Foreign Ministry demanded that Israel immediately withdraw its forces from the Temple Mount. This was to be expected, as fabricating Israeli aggression on the holy site, whose ancient connection to Judaism is something that the Palestinians deny, is key to riling up young radicals and sparking an Israeli reaction.

The Biden administration buys the ploy, hook, line and sinker. Instead of directing its denunciations where they belong, it perpetuates the anti-Semitic deception by insinuating that Israel really is on the verge of taking over the mosque, thus spurring Muslim rage.

“The United States is deeply concerned by the violence in Jerusalem … on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” said State Department spokesman Ned Price on Friday.

“We call on all sides to exercise restraint, avoid provocative actions and rhetoric, and preserve the historic status quo on the Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount,” he went on, again using the Islamic term before the Jewish one. “We urge Palestinian and Israeli officials to work cooperatively to lower tensions and ensure the safety of everyone.”

The trouble is in the equation. Indeed, while Israel has been trying to appease the Palestinians, the feeling is anything but mutual.

On the contrary, as Biden’s boys don’t care to grasp, it is not in the interest of the honchos in Ramallah and Gaza to “lower tensions.” If it were, they wouldn’t be instigating the bloodshed in the first place.

JPost Editorial: Israel cannot allow rioters to desecrate Temple Mount

Tension on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount isn’t new. The site of both the First and Second Temples in ancient times and al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock shrine today has the potential for friction built-in.

But what we are increasingly seeing are cynical attempts to exploit the holy site for a different purpose, for narrative rather than peaceful religion. The Palestinian rioters who desecrated the site by throwing rocks and firecrackers at police and on the Jewish worshipers gathered at the Western Wall below the Mount, did not go to the area Muslims call al-Haram al-Sharif (the Noble Sanctuary) or al-Aqsa compound for a spiritual Ramadan experience.

Video footage of clashes between Israeli police and security forces and Palestinian rioters at the site have gone viral and are often difficult to watch. There certainly seem to be cases of police overreacting and attacking Palestinians who appear to be unconnected to the violence. Nonetheless, what needs to be kept in mind is cause and effect.

The Muslims who stockpiled stones, rocks, logs and firecrackers in al-Aqsa did not do so for religious purposes. They prepared for a riot – to attack police and Jewish worshipers – not for prayers. Police did not storm al-Aqsa Mosque to “conquer” it. They broke in to arrest the rock throwers who had barricaded themselves inside after Friday prayers. Some of the masked Palestinians waved Hamas flags and praised arch-terrorist Muhammed Deif as they tried to bombard the Jewish worshipers who had come to pray at the Western Wall at the start of the Passover holiday.

With their unholy actions, the rioters are disturbing the freedom of prayer of everyone, including other Muslims. The vast majority of the 50,000 or so Muslim worshipers in the al-Aqsa area on Friday came with the peaceful intention of prayer at Islam’s third holiest site. The fact that so many thousands were able to gather there shows that Israel is intent on protecting freedom of worship for the Muslims.

It is Jewish worship that is limited at Judaism’s holiest site. The Muslim extremists object to any Jewish presence on Temple Mount and now refer to the entire area as “al-Aqsa” and yesterday they threw rocks at buses traveling to the Western Wall. Jews who ascend Temple Mount note, however, that part of the area serves as a soccer field, far from serving religious needs.

Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the Palestinian Authority have all accused Israel of carrying out “provocations” and an “assault” at the site. They are hoping to turn it into a battle cry. It is easy to rally Muslims everywhere around the lie that al-Aqsa is in danger and needs defending. The terrorist organizations are hoping that this becomes as self-fulfilling prophesy.

After Ukraine, can Israel trust US against Iran?

PRESIDENT JOE Biden may have unintentionally set a precedent through his dealings with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin that might carry over to Israel, should Iran, God forbid, attack Israel. If so, is Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s stated commitment to guarantee Israel that Iran will never acquire nuclear weapons, worthless?

Having endured unfair tragedies that were thrust upon Jews throughout the ages, at the end of the day, will we find ourselves regarded as “suckers?” I sincerely hope not, as the fates of both great nations are tied at the hip.

Has the above potential of an air missile/drone adversarial action combined with a coordinated land and naval threat, ever been considered by President Biden and Secretary of State Blinken as a legitimate risk of the Iranian “sanctions relief” demand; if not, why not? I cannot imagine the president and secretary Blinken forgetting the Afghanistan debacle.

In all fairness, Israel has earned the right to never let its guard down. and for its own good must repeatedly assess the reliability of President Biden’s sincerity and understood commitments. The existential threats, including the ones stemming from sanction relief, cannot be counted upon to disappear of their own accord.

Jewish history, as recently recounted in the Book of Esther, poses a series of all too familiar threats. Purim (lots), commemorates the saving of Jews from Haman, an evil “Achaemenid Persian empire official,” who covertly planned to exterminate all the Jews within Persia (subsequently, to become Iran).

Were it not for Esther – the wife of the Persian king who became a reluctant heroine, ultimately choosing to risk her life to save fellow Jews from the king’s adviser, Haman – who would have stood against the evil one?

Are there equivalents of Esther to stand against those who issued threats from within Iran of “Death to Israel” and “Death to America?” Once again, our fates are indeed tied to each other, even if President Biden closes his eyes and ears to this.

Chag sameach!

May everyone have a meaningful Seder (or two) and a wonderful Passover!

I will not be online until Sunday night at the earliest.

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!

04/15 Links Pt2: This Passover, Israel has much to be thankful for; New report exposes SJP’s methods of intimidating Jewish students at Cornell; Liev Schreiber to star in Keshet, Disney's Holocaust series

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: This Passover we remember that not all are free

At a time when Jews are focusing on the freedom we struggled to obtain, it is a time for us to remember the hardships and lack of freedoms that others are facing. Russia is depriving the Ukrainian people of their most basic right – the right to live.

Ukrainians aren’t the only people facing massive threats to their freedoms. At any given moment in 2016, an estimated 40.3 million people were held as slaves, according to the International Labor Organization, with “24.9 million people trapped in forced labour, 16 million people exploited in the private sector such as domestic work, construction or agriculture; 4.8 million persons in forced sexual exploitation; and four million persons in forced labor imposed by state authorities.”

Meanwhile, the people of North Korea are starving to death under one of the world’s most oppressive regimes. People there are forced into unpaid labor under threat of detention or execution. The dictatorial regime attempts to stop anyone from leaving the state, blocking their communication with the outside world.

Much like the Jews in Egypt, they are slaves to an oppressive ruler who does not care if they live or die.

In China, more than a million Uighurs have reportedly been detained in “reeducation camps,” as the state calls them. Those who have survived their imprisonment say they were tortured and sexually assaulted. Others are used as forced labor and some women are being forcibly sterilized.

When we gather with our families tonight, let us rejoice as we recount the Exodus from Egypt. But let us also remember and tell everyone at our Seder about those who are less fortunate than we are. And let’s hope that by next year, they will have also escaped the yoke of oppression.

This Passover, Israel has much to be thankful for

Had the heavens gifted Israel with success, strength and self-assuredness that comes from faith, but not with a happy society with a high birth rate that enjoys a vibrant arts and culture scene, gourmet food and wine, verdant mountaintop getaway sites, and the most exciting intellectual institutions in the Jewish world – dayenu.

Had the heavens gifted Israel with energy and enthusiasm, but not with multiple Jewish organizations in the Diaspora that work hard every day (the vast majority of them) to back Israel politically and support its cultural and educational institutions – dayenu.

Of course, dayenu does not mean that Israel is satisfied and sitting on its laurels. It aspires to more.

Israel still needs more triumphs, including victory over Iranian revolutionaries, various radical Islamic enemies and Palestinian rejectionists. Israel desires region-wide peace – with the Iranians and Palestinians, too. Also, Israel aims to better integrate its Arab and haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish populations, bring down the very high cost of living, and narrow income gaps. And there is much to be done to help stem Diaspora Jewish assimilation and disaffiliation.

But in grand perspective, kama maalot tovot la-Makom aleinu – see how many benefits and blessings the heavens have showered upon Israel! It enjoys a strong economy, coronavirus and political stability (at least for the past year), diplomatic and security heft, renewed aliyah, national resilience that stems from faith, and global Jewish support.

Consider how far the people of Israel and the State of Israel have come in just 75 years, look at what has been achieved, and feel the Divine warmth. Dayenu! There is more than enough to give thanks for – and more than enough to inspire confidence about Israel’s future.

Rabbi who fled Moscow: ‘Jewish life in Russia as I knew it was coming to an end’

On the morning of February 24, 2022, Motl Gordon woke up to the news that Russia had invaded Ukraine.

“It dawned on me that it’s another epoch now,” Gordon told The Times of Israel in a recent interview in Jerusalem. Within two hours he, his wife, and their two kids had airline tickets, and within 10 hours they were on a plane to Warsaw.

Gordon had spent the last five years leading an independent Jewish community in Moscow, Sredi Svoih (Among Our Own). Just minutes after deciding to leave, Gordon went to the synagogue to lead a Torah lesson and morning prayers. He didn’t tell his congregants about his plans — it wasn’t clear to him yet that he would succeed in actually boarding the flight.

It wasn’t a simple journey in terms of official documents: The family was traveling through Warsaw and not all of them had visas, Israel hadn’t lifted coronavirus restrictions, and the children weren’t vaccinated. They applied for special permission to circumvent the restrictions and enter Israel, but as the war had started on a Thursday, the approval came too late to make it to Jerusalem before the Sabbath. They ended up staying in Warsaw until Saturday night, when they boarded a flight to Ben Gurion Airport. On Sunday morning they arrived in Israel.

“Sixty hours,” Gordon says, “in which I could think of nothing else but getting to Jerusalem.”

The decision to leave was not easy since Seredi Svoih had flourished under Gordon’s leadership. But it wasn’t made in a vacuum. As he tells it, Russian Jews had begun leaving before February 24.

The first sign of things to come, he says, were the elections for the Duma — Russia’s lower parliamentary house — in 2021, during which Gordon saw the pre-election repression as too harsh to be reversed.

“It felt like a purge,” he says.

According to the Hamas site Felesteen:

The Russian Foreign Ministry stated that Israel is trying to take advantage of the situation in Ukraine in order to divert the attention of the international community from the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

It said Israel is violating many resolutions of the Security Council and the General Assembly of the United Nations, and continues its illegal occupation and annexation of Palestinian lands.

The Russian Foreign Ministry stressed that the Israeli occupation of Palestine comes from the tacit complicity of Western countries and with the actual support of the United States of America.

Israel is truly amazing. Everything it does is either a horrible human rights crime, or an attempt to divert attention from horrible human rights crimes. Every citizens spends every waking moment coming up with ways to distract the international community.

The paragon of human rights itself, Russia, has spoken.

It sounds a lot like Jewish Voice for Peace.

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!

04/15 Links Pt1: UN rapporteur posted support for terror ‘icon’ Leila Khaled; Palestinians Clash With Israeli Police at Temple Mount; Game Changer: Israeli laser-based air defense shoots down drones

From Ian:

UN Official Takes a Final, Parting Shot at Israel

Lynk is true to form in his report to the UNHRC, where his inflammatory rhetoric again shows his bias. For example, he characterizes Israel as “a covetous alien power” caught in “the fever-dream of settler-colonialism.” In Gaza, he says, Israel subjects the population to a “medieval military blockade” aimed at the “indefinite warehousing of an unwanted population.” Overall, Israel’s “intent is for the Palestinians to be encased in a political ossuary, a museum relic of 21st century colonialism.” Sounds like a calm, objective analysis, doesn’t it?

Lynk rests his argument on what can charitably be called a creative reading of the law. He notes that the Convention Against Apartheid and the 1998 Rome Statute both speak in terms of race. Thus, the essence of the crime of apartheid, he says, is one race oppressing another. This raises some inconvenient questions. For example, are Israeli Jews a race? Or are they a nation with a diverse population? Are Palestinians a separate race? And didn’t the UN resolve this whole matter when it repealed the “Zionism is racism” resolution?

Clearly, Lynk is uncomfortable with these questions, and would rather not deal with them. Instead, he tries to rely on a novel theory proposed by Norwegian professor Carola Lingaas, who “argues that race in international criminal law should be constructed according to the perpetrator’s perception of the victims’ ostensible otherness. The perpetrator’s imagination as manifested through his behavior defines the victims’ racial group membership.”

Strict definitions of race should be avoided, she says. Imagination is what matters. Is that what the drafters of the Convention Against Apartheid and the Rome Statute had in mind? Not likely.

In any event, as historian Benny Morris recently said when he addressed the apartheid issue in The Wall Street Journal, the conflict is not about race: “Instead, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is essentially national, a struggle between two nations over the same tract of land.” And that goes straight to heart of Lynk’s argument: the issue of Palestinian self-determination. As Lynk would have it, Israel’s apartheid regime has denied Palestinians a state of their own. Of course, the world community offered Palestinians a state in 1947. They rejected it, and tried to murder every Jew in Israel.

And, of course, except for their intransigence, the Palestinians could have had a state several other times since then. Instead, they opted for continued violence and the maximalist goal of Arab dominion “from the river to the sea.”

As Lynk notes, his mandate only extended to the West Bank and Gaza. So he says nothing about Israel proper. Therefore, he sees no need to acknowledge that Israeli Arabs are full citizens, serve in the ruling government coalition, the Knesset, Supreme Court, IDF, and in every facet of private and public life.

None of this has to do with race, much less anything that could be called apartheid. Nevertheless, as Morris notes, “The use of terms like racism and apartheid is a way to engage and influence readers in the US and Europe, where race is a burning issue.” The apartheid claim helps spread the narrative of Palestinian victimhood. Certainly, it supports the BDS movement. But most importantly, for Lynk and his fellow travelers, it delegitimizes the Jewish state. For the “human rights” crowd at the UN, that’s what it’s all about.

UN rapporteur posted support for terror ‘icon’

Disturbing anti-Israel posts by the new UN Special Rapporteur for Palestine raise further questions about her suitability for the role following the controversy over her appointment last week.

Israel has already objected “in the strongest terms” to Italian legal expert Francesca Albanese being chosen for what is at least nominally a politically neutral role.

She has described Israel’s “occupation” as a “colonial project that has turned into apartheid”.

Now online investigators GnasherJew have uncovered further material that seems to make absurd any notion of Ms Albanese maintaining neutrality .

In one post in 2015, she celebrated terrorist Leila Khaled, a leader in the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Alongside a news story on Electronic Intifada, which revealed “Palestinian resistance icon Leila Khaled” was to tour South Africa, Ms Albanese wrote: “Go Leila go!”

The same year, she shared a story about a border official in Latin America who drew a picture of a penis on the passport of an Israeli citizen and wrote “Viva Palestinia”.

She also shared a post likening Israelis to the Nazis. It featured two pictures of soldiers. The accompanying text read: “In the first pic, a Nazi soldier, a dog, a man on the ground – who is a Jew. In the second pic, an Israeli soldier, a dog, a man on the ground – who is a Palestinian.”

Why Is the Palestinian Authority Hiding Its Finances From the World?

In an effort to hide its practices and prevent any external scrutiny, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has blocked access to all the financial reports it used to publish.

Since 2008, as part of an agreement to receive funding from the World Bank, the Palestinian Authority has been required to publish a range of financial documents, including its annual budget and monthly budget performance reports. While the PA temporarily honored the commitment to publish its annual budget, it has not done so since 2019. In contrast, with the exception of a few minor incidents (exposed by Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) and then rectified), the PA had been relatively meticulous in publishing its monthly budget performance reports.

Until recently (as shown below), the website of the PA Ministry of Finance provided access to all the current and previous budget performance reports.

The last PA budget performance report published was for January 2022. Now, however, even this option has been blocked, and the PA is preventing any outside scrutiny.

The PA’s decision to block all access to the reports on the site of the Ministry of Finance was taken after PMW used the reports to demonstrate how the PA spent 841 million shekels in 2021 alone, paying financial rewards to imprisoned terrorists, released terrorists, wounded terrorists, and the families of dead terrorists.

Amazingly, while the PA is taking active steps to prevent any semblance of financial transparency, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh is holding high-level meetings with UN and other officials in preparation for the upcoming gathering of the Ad-Hoc Liaison Committee (AHLC) — an international group of donors that coordinates aid to the PA

I often wonder when I see accusations by Palestinians that Jews are planning something nefarious - accusations that never come true - whether they are driven by stupidity or malice.

A typical example comes from academic and author Dr. Louay Bawana who confidently writes in Jordanian news site Rums:

The Jews have no right to Al-Aqsa, and all they tell and try to prove are myths. The danger of these rituals is embodied by the sacrifices they will make and the work to slaughter them inside the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque, as it represents, in their view, an advanced and important step for their extremist project related to the alleged temple. From our point of view, it is also a dangerous step that represents an attempt to change the status quo of the Al-Aqsa Mosque by force and violence, with the support of the Israeli government, and a clear international, Arab and Islamic absence. The summit of their rituals is embodied by offering sacrifices and slaughtering them in the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque and scattering their ashes in the Dome of the Chain area there...

The question that arises. What are the Arabs and Muslims waiting for as peoples and leaders? ? The storming will take place tomorrow, Friday, and sacrifices will be slaughtered, and rituals will be practiced before our eyes there, with the protection of the Israeli police, and the martyrs will fall. And the situation explodes and then we intervene and denounce. Yes, we need to close ranks, and we need a clear challenge to Israel and its plans. And each of us needs a historical testimony to prove his defense of Jerusalem and his non-complacency or neglect in the face of the arrogance of the Jews...

It is Friday. Jews are never allowed on the Temple Mount on Friday.

The guy is a professor, although I don't know in what field. Either he cannot distinguish between truth and fiction or he wants to incite violence.

There is of course some projection going on here - Arabs assume Israel will act like they would if the roles were reversed, and that idea is difficult to dislodge. But there is a more subtle projection going on here as well.

Arab media are censored and self-censored. They do not contradict what the rulers want them to write. So if an Israeli nutcase claims that he will slaughter animals on the Temple Mount and puts this on his Facebook page, Arabs naturally assume that it couldn't have happened without Israeli government support. So even when the Israeli leaders deny the story, they cannot believe them, because how could the claim have been published without their support?

That explains the many articles from pundits and "experts" who write about imminent Israeli abuses. (And when Israel doesn't play along, they provoke it.)

Yet even after years of watching and reporting on Israeli media, they still choose to believe what they want and ignore the rest.

Not to say that there isn't direct, purposeful incitement and lies. Like this statement from Hamas' Ismail Haniyeh today:

In the face of Zionist thuggery and the storming of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, there are only two options:

1- To accept the occupation assault, its brutality, and its colonial settlers' animal slaughter in Al-Aqsa Mosque,
2- To consolidate the Islamic character and origin of Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa Mosque

He knows very well there wasn't any "animal slaughter" or even attempt at one today. In Hamas' case, incitement is its own reward. And this also goes for Palestinian Authority officials, who also look at inciting violence as a way to stay in power - and distract people from the shortcomings of their leaders.

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 rocks Arabs throw at police might be priceless archaeological - or sacred - artifacts

In preparation of throwing rocks at Jews and Israeli police, Palestinian youths spent the night taking larger boulders and breaking them up to make them the ideal size for hurling and for slinging, as this video shows:

On the east side of the Temple Mount there are thousands of huge boulders piled up. My tour guide for my last visit in 2019, Rabbi Chaim Richman of the Temple Institute, pointed out to me that some of them are carved - meaning that they were part of ancient buildings, possibly even the Temple itself. Here's a screenshot from that visit.

The rocks that these Arab "worshippers" are destroying so they can throw them at Jews could be of inestimable archaeological value.

These photos of the rocks in preparation for throwing show at least some that had obviously been previously used for some building purpose, with 90 degree corners and smooth surfaces:

UNESCO claims to care so much about protecting heritage sites. They routinely condemn Israeli archaeologists who are extraordinarily careful with their methods of digging and preserving ancient treasures.

Yet in the most sacred and archaeologically sensitive spot on the planet, the people who pretend to care so much about preserving cultural heritage are completely silent.

Someone should really ask UNESCO why that is.

(video and photos from Abu Ali Express)

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!

I was looking at some of the live video taken this morning at the Temple Mount, and the Palestinians look like nothing more than actors, playing their roles.

Here are some kids who created a makeshift "barricade," with Israeli troops nowhere in sight. One has a soccer ball. Old men (and reporters) are watching as the audience.

And in this video, one of the "worshipers" is literally dancing.

They have actors, they have props, they have an audience, they have a stage.

It's all a game - and part of the game is to provoke the Israeli police to injure people so they can create headlines about how awful they are.

The violence this morning at the Temple Mount was the direct result of false rumors and lies spread by the Palestinians. I had reported on the incessant rumors in the Arab world that Jews are planning to slaughter sheep to bring the Paschal sacrifice on the Temple Mount.

This is all because of a fringe Temple Mount activist who advertised that he would pay anyone for smuggling a sheep and slaughtering it.

The police on the Temple Mount look for prayer books carried by Jews - no one is smuggling a sheep past them.

The instigator, who is not al all respected in the larger community of Jews who want to have equal rights on the Mount, also played a role in this play - to get in the headlines and provoke violence.

Because the PLO, the PA, Hamas and other groups hapily took the bait for their own roles in the play as "defenders of Al Aqsa," Israel's Prime Minister Bennett publicly denied that Israel was going to allow any sacrifices or any change to the status quo.

The denials were widely published in Arabic media - but that hadn't stopped the warnings and incitement.

Because the play must go on.

Yesterday there were calls for "worshipers" to be in position to "defend Al Aqsa," so they brought their masks and rocks and slings and even fire extinguishers.

Only one problem: they had no Jews or police to create dramatic tension.

Jews aren't allowed on the Mount on Fridays. The police didn't plan on being on the scene.

Therefore, the Arab actors dragged them onto the scene, by throwing rocks and fireworks onto Jewish worshippers at the Kotel below. Even though the Israeli police didn't want to enter the Mount, this could not be allowed to continue. So they were dragged into the production as well to play their roles.

And the media plays its role as well, by ignoring the fact that they are reporting on something that is wholly fictional, based on false rumors, created by people who want to create a conflict and feel famous and relevant.

Because whose egos are bigger than that of actors?

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!

04/14 Links Pt2: Amnesty International’s Cruel Assault on Israel: Systematic Lies, Errors, Omissions & Double Standards; Jewish A Cappella Group Six13 Releases Billy Joel-Inspired Passover Parody

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Amnesty International’s Cruel Assault on Israel: Systematic Lies, Errors, Omissions & Double Standards in Amnesty’s Apartheid Report

In February 2022, Amnesty International (“Amnesty”) released a 280-page report titled “Israel’s Apartheid Against the Palestinians.” Amnesty asserted that Israel is and always has been an apartheid state, both inside Israel and in the West Bank and Gaza. Statements by Amnesty officials and the report’s recommendations highlight that Amnesty’s objective is the end of Israel as a Jewish state.

As documented below in great detail, the Amnesty publication is fundamentally flawed, using lies, distortions, omissions, and egregious double standards to construct a fraudulent and libelous narrative of Israeli cruelty. A careful examination of the text shows that Amnesty conducted almost no primary research. Rather, it is bloated with cut-and-paste phrases and quotes and conclusions taken from third-party sources – notably other political NGOs that are part of the same libelous campaign against Israel. The footnotes are glaringly thin on primary documents, such as official Israeli government statistics, Palestinian documents, court documents, Knesset transcripts, interviews from leading officials, and much of the data is obsolete (often well over a decade old).

In preparing this report, we examined and critically assessed every line of the Amnesty publication and closely read the sources and citations provided. We uncovered five categories of faults: Errors, Misrepresentations, Omissions, Double Standards, and Dead Citations. This systematic review conclusively shows, contrary to Amnesty’s claims, that Amnesty’s allegations have no substance or merit. Click Here for Full Report

NGO Monitor: NGO Credibility in Human Rights and Conflict Reporting: The 2021 State Department Human Rights Report

The annual country reports on human rights published by the US State Department often rest largely on claims made by non-governmental organizations (NGOs), as is clearly the case in the section on Israel. A number of developments in 2021 highlight the need to scrutinize these NGOs – specifically the detailed documentation of the terror connections of prominent Palestinian groups and the actions of the Israeli government (see below). Furthermore, in their publications and statements, many NGOs continue to distort and manipulate events, with the stated aim of isolating Israel internationally and encouraging the International Criminal Court (ICC) and United Nations to investigate Israeli officials.

NGO Monitor has prepared this short analysis of several key dimensions related to this issue in 2021, highlighting the extreme ideological positions and methodological failures that define NGO reporting on Israel.

Israel’s designation of Palestinian terror-linked NGOs
On October 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense (MoD) designated six Palestinian NGOs as terrorist organizations. According to the MoD, Defense for Children International-Palestine (DCI-P), Union of Agricultural Work Committees, Al-Haq, Addameer, Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees (UPWC), and Bisan were included on Israel’s list of terrorist organizations based on detailed evidence that they are operated by and for the benefit of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), designated as a terrorist organization by the US, EU, Canada, and Israel. (A seventh PFLP-linked organization – Health Workers Committee (HWC) – was designated in January 2020.)

On July 20, 2020, the Dutch government announced it was freezing funding to Union of Agricultural Work Committees (UAWC) citing the NGO’s close links to the PFLP. Foreign Minister Stef Blok and Development Minister Sigrid Kaag revealed that an internal government audit concluded that Dutch funds were used to pay the salaries of two UAWC employees – Samer Arbid and Abdel Razeq Farraj – currently standing trial for their alleged roles in an August 2019 bombing that murdered an Israeli civilian. In January 2022, the Dutch Foreign Minister announced that the Netherlands had ceased all funding to UAWC, after an 18-month long independent investigation verified that at least 34 UAWC employees (2007-2020) were PFLP members.

In December 2021, Al-Haq revealed that the European Commission suspended its funding in May 2021, after apparently receiving information from the Israeli government. Additionally, European media reported that the EC instructed its grantee Oxfam “to cut funding to the Union of Agricultural Works Committees until the situation has been clarified.”

David Collier: They all have blood on their hands

Across the anti-Zionist activist space (and this includes media, academia, politics and NGOs) there are people who portray Zionists as sub-human evildoers. The lies these people tell and the hate that they spread has real world consequences. These people have the blood of innocents on their hands.

The blood flows on Israeli streets
In just the last few weeks fourteen Israelis have been murdered by Arab terrorists. Let me just begin with the obvious statement: those directly responsible for the terrorist attacks in Beer Sheva, Hadera, Bnei Brak and Tel Aviv are the terrorists who carried out the brutal slaughters.

But terrorism is never as simple as one man with a weapon. Nobody just wakes up in the morning and thinks they should go and slaughter civilians – unless they have been primed to do so within an ideologically twisted environment. Terrorists always believe that their horrific crimes are justified.

And this key fact is so relevant when discussing Israel. Because behind the bullets and knives, behind those slaughtering innocent civilians in Israeli streets, even behind the radical Islamist terrorist groups – sits a well-oiled industry of Jew-hate – with international factories that are churning out endless material that is enabling, empowering, and providing justifications for the monsters that wish to kill Jews.

Millions of people far removed from the actual conflict zone, also consume this hatred – and go on to spread and promote lies and demonising propaganda about Israel. In the end all this anti-Jewish disinformation combines to create an evil atmosphere that rationalises the murder of innocent Israeli civilians.

This does not mean that without the lies and constant demonisation, there would be no terrorism at all against Israelis, but there would certainly be a lot less of it. The situation has become so twisted these days, that radical Islamist terror groups often play to a western audience.

And we all understand this concept, wherever we sit on the political spectrum. When Jo Cox was murdered, the finger of blame was pointed far wider than just at Thomas Mair. And when Patrick Wood Crusius slaughtered 23 people in a mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, the New York Times wasted no time in blaming the atmosphere created by Donald Trump.

Language matters. Truth matters.

"Next Year in Jerusalem" answers EVERY anti-Zionist argument.

* It proves that Jews were in the Land first.

* It proves Jews are a nation, not merely a religion. Nations are tied to land, not just faith.

* It proves that Jews never lost their desire to return and maintained an almost supernatural emotional tie to Israel and Jerusalem.

* It proves that Zionism is an integral part of Judaism, as this is only one of many expressions of prayer and desire to end the diaspora and return to Israel.

It also proves that Zionism isn't "racism" or "ethnic cleansing." Zionism is simply an expression of the age-old desire to resurrect the Jewish nation in historic Jewish land. Redefining it as racism is itself antisemitic.

Besides that, in comparison, you will not find a similar longing or desire or love of Jerusalem or the Land of Israel in any other culture or religion. The Arab interest in Jerusalem has always been the desire to take it away from Jews, not a desire for the city itself. When Arabs controlled Jerusalem, they showed very little interest in the city.

The modern antisemites know this intuitively. They try to separate Jerusalem from Judaism. They want the Old City to become exclusively Palestinian, and call it "occupied" as if anything a Jew does there is illegal. Palestinians especially understand that if they win Jerusalem, Israel loses its heart - it becomes like any other secular nation. Jerusalem is what makes Israel special.

They want to take Jerusalem away from Jews. We won't let them.

So, yes, the only thing you need to answer the modern antisemites is לשנה הבאה בירושלים.

(From a Twitter thread earlier today)

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Ganz, Meretz Suddenly Realize European Govt's Don't Get To Vote In Israel Elections (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Euros Tel Aviv, April 14 - Leaders of the country's most progressive parties came to the sobering conclusion this week that while Continental governments invest tens of millions of Euros to advance regional goals congruent with the sensibilities of those progressive parties - and at odds with the majority of the country's electorate - the same governments and intergovernmental organizations can submit not a single legal ballot in the Jewish State's elections, creating some tension between those governments' declared goal of promoting democracy and the de facto outcome of thwarting the democratically-expressed will of the aforementioned electorate - and generating discomfort for the progressives who also claim the mantle of safeguarding democracy from the authoritarian, fascist demagogues who refuse to accept progressive assumptions.

Benny Ganz, Yair Golan, Merav Michaeli, and other prominent figures on the left side of Israel's political spectrum voiced their dismay over the last several days upon either being informed or discovering on their own that the projects, programs, initiatives, and movements that their friends in the European Union and its various constituent governments fund in amounts that would make Sheldon Adelson blush even in death, grant the EU and its members no right to vote in Israel, despite their manifest correctness as demonstrated by agreeing with Israeli leftists.

"It's shocking," acknowledged Ganz of the Blue and White Party, a former IDF Chief of Staff whose left-wing views made him noticeably less popular as a politician than when wearing the uniform forced him to keep political opinions to himself. "All the money these Europeans have must mean they have the correct opinions and policies - otherwise, my assumption that I'm right by virtue of my generous guaranteed pension might also require reexamination, as as every Israeli leftist knows, reexamining your political assumptions - if done honestly, anyway - is a dangerous thing. So we avoid that. The point is, the Europeans are right about so much, and I say this only partially because I want to get my hands on some of that largesse, but it's frustrating because all that money doesn't buy seats in the Knesset, would you believe? It seems wrong."

"What? No, you must have that wrong," said a bewildered Yair Golan of Meretz, also a former senior IDF staff officer. "That's not my understanding at all. I was under the impression that we career officers-cum-politicians naturally know better than hoi polloi, who probably don't even know the difference between Mercedes and BMW. I know, I feel the same disgust as you, I assure you."

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04/14 Links Pt1: Palestinian Terrorism Meets Israeli Paralysis; Biden Koshers Iranian Terror; IDF Thwarts Attack Planned for Passover; ISIS linked Palestinian nabbed for 2019 killing of elderly couple

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Palestinian Terrorism Meets Israeli Paralysis

As for the Palestinian Authority (PA), it has been actively sponsoring and inciting the terror offensive against Israel. The terrorist who killed three Israelis in a shooting attack last Thursday at a bar in Tel Aviv was the son of a brigadier general in the PA security services. His father greeted the crowd of well-wishers outside his palatial home in Jenin on Friday morning with a fiery tirade against the Jews, wherein he promised Israel's destruction "in this generation" to great applause.

The Bennett-Lapid government has taken no action against the PA, in response. It can't. Not only will Gantz not permit it. The far-left Meretz and Labor parties would bolt the coalition if the government takes any action that undermines the PA, even as the PA is acting as the main engine inciting, incentivizing and glorifying Palestinian terrorists and Arab-Israeli terrorism against Israeli Jews.

Mansour Abbas has worked hard over the past two years to present himself and his party as less interested in destroying Israel than in bettering the lives of Arab-Israelis. This is not the case with the majority of the Joint Arab List, a coalition of three Arab parties, whose members generally support Israel's destruction. Ayman Odeh, for instance, has advocated on behalf of Hezbollah. Earlier this week, Odeh called on Arab-Israelis serving in the Israeli police to resign their positions in a speech where he incited mass rebellion.

But in the days that followed Silman's desertion, members of Bennett's government have stated outright they will agree to work with the Joint Arab List to preserve their own power. Bennett's closest Knesset associate, Religious Services Minister Matan Kahana, said Monday the government would agree to cooperate with the Joint Arab List in order to stay afloat. If this does happen, it is likely other Yamina faction members will follow Silman's lead and vote in favor of a new round of elections.

Common hatred was enough to bring the Bennett-Lapid government together and sustain it to date. But hatred isn't a counter-terror strategy. And the ideological leanings of the majority of Bennett's coalition members ensure his government will remain chronically unstable and incapable of forging, much less executing, the type of counter-terror strategy needed to restore security to Israel.

Michael Doran: Biden Koshers Iranian Terror

In order to arm itself against questions such as Brennan’s, Biden asked the Iranians to commit to end assassination plots against American former officials, then leaked news of the request. Such a commitment would at least have allowed Blinken to respond by saying, “Margaret, the Iranians have given us solemn assurances that they will not kill my predecessor, or any other former official. Our intelligence indicates that we can trust the Iranians on this.” But Tehran refused to offer any such assurance. The negotiations stalled, temporarily, within arm’s length of the finish line.

The Brennan interview is the key to understanding the “Biden gets tough” message that Ignatius dutifully transcribed on behalf of the White House. Ignatius was not assisting the administration in announcing a major policy shift. He was helping it to camouflage the vulnerability that the Brennan interview highlighted.

This communications strategy repays further reflection. The president and his staffers were fully prepared to remove the IRGC from the terror list even with full knowledge that the organization was planning to kill former U.S. officials. Their qualms emerged only when reporters learned of the plots and refused to help the administration hide them. Even then, however, the administration sought only face-saving gestures from the IRGC. The lesson: The Biden team recognizes acts of Iranian aggression not as national security threats but only as PR challenges.

That’s a lesson to keep in mind when contemplating the penetration of the U.S. Secret Service by nefarious operatives. Last Wednesday, federal prosecutors accused Arian Taherzadeh, 40, and Haider Ali, 36, of posing as Department of Homeland Security employees in order to ingratiate themselves with Americans working in law enforcement and national defense. Over a period of two years, the duo managed to befriend Secret Service agents by providing them with gifts such as “rent-free apartments (with a total yearly rent of over $40,000 per apartment), iPhones, surveillance systems, a drone, a flat screen television, a case for storing an assault rifle, a generator, and law enforcement paraphernalia,” according to an FBI federal court filing.

With five apartments, multiple passports, and copious cash at their disposal, Taherzadeh and Ali are almost certainly agents of a foreign power. Until we learn otherwise, Iran should be considered the prime suspect. Arian Taherzadeh is an obviously Iranian name. One of Haider Ali’s passports indicates multiple entries into Iran. And the IRGC has a history of planning brazen operations on U.S. soil. In 2011, it attempted to murder the Saudi and Israeli ambassadors in Washington, and last July it planned to kidnap Brooklyn-based journalist Masih Alinejad and smuggle her to Iran via Venezuela—to say nothing about the recently exposed plots against Pompeo, Bolton, and Hook.

To be sure, the public has seen no hard evidence that Taherzadeh and Ali are Iranian agents. While circumstantial, however, the evidence that has been revealed more than calls for the press and Congress to probe American officials about the prospect of an Iranian connection. But try to find news reports of the incident that even entertain the possibility that Iran is running these men. You won’t.

The administration professes to be utterly clueless about the motives of Taherzadeh and Ali. This is no defense. Either the Biden team truly has no idea who stands behind the duo, or it knows full well that Iran is the culprit but is playing dumb to shield its shabby nuclear deal diplomacy from public scrutiny. If it’s the former, then we are witnessing an intelligence fiasco, one that deserves a thorough investigation. If it’s the latter, then we are witnessing a political scandal wrapped in an intelligence fiasco tucked inside a foreign policy blunder.

But remember: For this administration, a plot to kill Americans that does not receive major press coverage is no real plot at all. Devoting scant attention to this incident, the press is following Ignatius’ example, telling us that Biden is getting tough on Iran. Give the president his due: He knows how to kosher creepy things.

Headlines With Haddads - Terror Wave, Iranian Football Matches, and Palestinian History

Emily and Yoseph discuss the recent wave of terror attacks, the Iranian regime’s attacks on women who bought tickets to a football match, and provide a brief Palestinian history lesson in this special edition of Headlines with the Haddads from New York!

University of Illinois distances itself from Noura Erakat anti-Zionist hate lecture

Yesterday, Noura Erakat gave a lecture at the Illinois Global Institute of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, titled, "Unfinished Business: Zionism as Racism and Racial Discrimination."

The lecture was publicized as being co-sponsored by the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.

I tweeted how absurd it is that a literal hate speech that characterizes Jewish nationalism - and ONLY Jewish nationalism - as racism should be co-sponsored by an organization that supposedly cares about inclusion. I also created this meme to educate the Diversity office.

Others complained as well.

Finally, after the lecture, the University sent out a mass mailing to all students:

Dear Students Faculty and Staff:

The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Diversity Equity & Inclusion was incorrectly identified as a co-sponsor for a campus lecture titled “Unfinished Business Zionism as Racism and Racial Discrimination." As worded, this title does not invite participation and engagement with all members of our Community and does not represent the values of our university.

Academic freedom and freedom of expression are bedrock principles of this institution and are necessary for the exploration of controversial, divisive or uncomfortable issues — even those that are in opposition to this university's clearly stated positions and values.

Any future lectures in this series will make clear that these are not sponsored by our office nor do the viewpoints expressed represent the university.

I am sorry for any additional discomfort or distress some may have felt when it appeared that it was sponsored of endorsed by the office that is charged with helping us turn the aspiration of belonging and inclusion into a universal practice.

Sincerely

Sean C Garrick
Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

There is a bit of tone-deafness here from an office of diversity, equity and inclusion. And the description of the lecture still includes the claim that they are a co-sponsor as of this writing.

It is also an attempt at gaslighting. When they say, "Any future lectures in this series will make clear that these are not sponsored by our office nor do the viewpoints expressed represent the university," they know very well that this was the last lecture in the series! It is an empty gesture.

Still, a mailing to all students to distance the university from the hate espoused by Noura Erakat is welcome, and hopefully other universities will be a little more sensitive to the fact that these lectures are not "pro-Palestinian" but hate speech meant to destroy the world's only Jewish state, and offensive to any proud Jew.

(h/t Judith)

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Nothing to see here. Just a Palestinian swastika.

This morning, the IDF killed Shas Kamamji as he tried to resist being arrested. (Three of his brothers were arrested; another brother was one of the Palestinians who briefly escaped the Gilboa prison last September.)

Abu Ali Express has some photos of Shas Kamamji.

This one shows how peaceful he was.

But this one is even more interesting:

The graffiti says "The people of the streets" - with a swastika.

Unlike other swastikas one sometimes sees made by Palestinians, this one isn't accusing Israel of being Nazi. This isn't meant to mock Jewish suffering. The graffiti shows solidarity with Nazis and Nazi philosophy in a place where it would only be seen by fellow Arabs.

And Shas Kamamji, who appears to have been a member of Islamic Jihad, clearly embraces that desire to support Nazi ideology.

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A large variety of Palestine kosher for Passover wines were imported to North America in 1914

I was surprised at the sheer number and variety of wines from Israel (then Palestine) for sale at Frazer, Viger and Company, a Montreal importer, in 1914.

And Carmel also exported Palestine olive oil!

This was in the Montreal Gazette.

One could write a book about the evolution of kosher food in America based on old ads. This is a 1936 ad from Memphis, a year after Coke was first certified kosher for Passover in Atlanta.

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04/13 Links Pt2: Amnesty International’s Campaign to Destroy Israel; The Self-Righteous Idolatry of the Anti-Zionist Rabbi; EU continues to support NGOs designated terrorist affiliates

From Ian:

Amnesty International’s Campaign to Destroy Israel

It’s tempting to dismiss entirely the work of Amnesty and similar organizations, but neither Israel nor other states can afford to do so. Non-governmental organizations such as Amnesty occupy a prominent role in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC), as they can refer a matter for the prosecutor’s investigation. That statute empowers the ICC prosecutor to initiate an investigation on the basis of “information from…intergovernmental or non-governmental organizations,” even though neither Israel nor the United States is a party to it.

In the absence of a cadre of investigators akin to a domestic law-enforcement agency, an “independent” human-rights organization’s assessment is potentially significant for the ICC prosecutor and judges. The organization’s views may influence the course of a prosecutor’s investigation, be relied upon as evidence, and ultimately influence the opinions of the judges. As the Rome Statute states: “The Court may ask any intergovernmental organization to provide information or documents. The Court may also ask for other forms of cooperation and assistance which may be agreed upon with such an organization and which are in accordance with its competence or mandate.”

Thus, Amnesty’s report and others like it add to the impression of a body of evidence and legal analysis supporting a warped view among the international legal elite that the Jewish State of Israel, like apartheid South Africa, is illegitimate and unwelcome in the brotherhood of nations. From this presumption of illegitimacy, a cascade of conclusions follows. Amnesty suggests “dismantling this cruel system of apartheid” by:
1. extending to all Palestinians “in Israel and the OPT” “equal and full human rights … without discrimination”;
2. extending the “right of return” to all “Palestinian refugees and their descendants to return to homes where they or their families once lived in Israel or the OPT”;
3. providing “full reparations” to the alleged “victims of human rights violations, crimes against humanity and serious violations of international humanitarian law—and their families”;
4. encouraging countries to “pressure Israel into dismantling its apartheid system” through investigation of individual criminal liability of those who have committed the crime of apartheid;
5. inviting the ICC prosecutor “to consider the applicability of the crime against humanity of apartheid within its current formal investigation” of Israel’s activity in the OPT;
6. inviting the UN Security Council to either “refer the entire situation to the ICC” or to establish “an international tribunal to try alleged perpetrators”;
7. inviting the UN Security Council to “impose targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israeli officials implicated in the crime of apartheid, and a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel”; and
8. “calling on states to institute and enforce a ban on products from Israeli settlements.”

Any differences between this platform and those of Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine are purely cosmetic, not substantive. Amnesty’s recommendations come packaged in a glossy and colorful report, but this is legal warfare (“lawfare,” as some have aptly called it) against the Jewish state. The goal, unmistakably, is the destruction of Israel.

Finally, the human-rights organizations that have internalized the Palestinian narrative, and now aid and abet international lawfare, do the Palestinians more harm than good. If Amnesty lived up to its own mantra (“deeply held core principles of impartiality, independence and accuracy”), it might facilitate a more honest reckoning that could pave a pathway for peace. Instead, it furnishes maximalist Palestinian leaders with sham legitimacy and institutional cover to wage war and keep their people in misery.

If and when the peace we pray for finally blooms, it will be no thanks to Amnesty and its fellow travelers who have played the roles of obstructionists rather than facilitators, a crime greater than any charge they level against Israel.

David Mamet: American Occupation: Brave dissenters willing to defy an oppressive orthodoxy are our country’s best hope

Over the last two years in America, I’ve witnessed our own forces of evil with incredulity, despair, and rage. Corruption, blasphemy, and absurdity have been accepted by one-half of the electorate as the cost of doing business; as has the fear this acceptance generates. Does anyone actually believe that men change into women and women into men who can give birth, that the Earth is burning, the seas are rising, and we’ll all perish unless we cover our faces with strips of cotton?

No one does. These proclamations are an act of faith, in a new, as yet unnamed religion, and the vehemence with which one proclaims allegiance to these untruths is an exercise no different from any other ecstatic religious oath. They become the Apostles’ Creed of the left, their proclamation committing the adherent physically to their strictures, exactly as the oath taken on induction to the armed services. The inductee is told to “take one step forward,” and once they do he or she can no longer claim, “I misunderstood the instruction.”

Those currently in power insist on masking, but don’t wear masks. They claim the seas are rising and build mansions on the shore. They abhor the expenditure of fossil fuels and fly exclusively in private jets. And all the while half of the country will not name the disease. Why?

Because the cost of challenging this oppressive orthodoxy has, for them, become too high. Upon a possible awakening, they—or more likely their children—might say that the country was occupied. And they would be right.

Gandhi said to the British, you’ve been a guest in our house for too long, it is time for you to leave. He borrowed the line from Oliver Cromwell, and it’s a good one. The left has occupied the high places for too long, promoting dogma even as the occasions for their complaint have decreased (what position is closed to people of color, or women? Inclusion in all levels of the workforce; preference in higher education, a seat in the cockpit, in the Oval Office, in a movie’s cast, or admission to an elite school+? And yet the vehemence of their protests has increased, progressing into blacklisting and even rioting by those claiming to represent “the oppressed.”

Old-time physicians used to speak of the disease “declaring itself.” History teaches that one omnipresent aspect of a coup is acts of reprisal staged by agents provocateurs of the revolutionaries, and blamed on supporters of the legitimate government. It would be a historical anomaly if we were not to see such between now and the midterm elections.

For the disease has declared itself, and we are not now in a culture war, but a nascent coup, with its usual cast of characters. The Bolshevists could have been defeated by a company of soldiers in the suburbs of Moscow, Hitler stopped at Czechoslovakia, and the current horrors confronted at the Minneapolis police station or a meeting of the San Francisco school board. But those tragedies, and our current tragedies, were not just allowed but encouraged to run their course.

The Self-Righteous Idolatry of the Anti-Zionist Rabbi

On March 30, Rabbi Brant Rosen of Tzedek Chicago, a synagogue on the heimish North Side of the city, made the unusual announcement that his congregation had “just voted to adopt anti-Zionism as a core value.” The proclamation arrived within days of 11 murders in a wave of terrorist attacks across Israel. On April 7, three more Israelis were killed on Dizengoff Street in the heart of Tel Aviv in this new wave of violence. It’s not often that an established synagogue declares its antipathy against the Jewish state as a core part of its identity—but then again, this wasn’t out of step for Rabbi Rosen, who’d been working himself up to this very moment for the better part of the past decade.

As it happens, I’ve known Rabbi Rosen since before “I was a man.” I grew up in Skokie, Illinois, and attended the Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation in neighboring Evanston, where Rabbi Brant held the rabbinate. Back then, he was, I suppose, a kind of liberal Zionist. I didn’t have much of an impression of him, other than that he seemed kind and Jewish. In 2002, when I became a bar mitzvah, Rabbi Brant led the service. In his notes on my d’var (which I recently read again), he seems reasonably sympathetic to Israel.

By the time Rabbi Brant left JRC in 2014, my father and I had heard through the grapevine that he’d become a radical pro-Palestinian activist, and in our family, “Rabbi Brant” became a catchall for a certain kind of Jew we simply could not understand. When I moved back to Chicago this past year, I couldn’t help but go back to the source. I wanted to know: Who are these people? What even is a “non-Zionist” synagogue during the most spiritually elevated time of the year?

To try to find the answer, I attended Tzedek’s 2021 High Holidays services over Zoom.

The High Holidays are my favorite time of year. They feel meaningful and personal in a way that no other holidays, religious or secular, do. Wherever I am in relation to my Judaism, I know that sometime in September or October, I will be called to assess my soul, no matter how brutal the accounting. In his opening remarks on Rosh Hashanah, it seemed Rabbi Rosen was on a similar path. “The High Holidays at its core allows us to step out of time, to reboot in a sense to affirm that we would start anew, to look back and look forward,” he said. “It’s this liminal in-between time that is inherently sacred time, and it’s also a time to think seriously about how we are accountable to one another and what we owe to each other and what we owe to the world.”

I thought, Who cares if we fundamentally disagree about Jewish destiny? We’ll endure the accounting together, as Jews. These days are about the spirit, not national identity. Things quickly took a turn, however, during the rabbi’s introduction of the portion on Hagar and Ishmael. Using the most obvious inference available—that Abraham and Sarah casting out Hagar and Ishmael is the biblical version of the contemporary conflict—he said, “It is our sacred obligation to see and respond to the children of Gaza, to their parents, and to all who cry out to us from the wilderness.” Of course, the rabbi was referring to the May 2021 conflict between Israel and Gaza, and he read from an LA Times piece about the terror endured by Gazan families. He said nothing of the deaths Israel suffered in the conflict.