Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, January 22, 2017

The proper Jewish response to a new President

A liberal Orthodox rabbi, Shmuly Yanklowitz, writes that he cannot in good conscience say the traditional prayer for the welfare of the government ("HaNoten Teshua") in the Trump era.

Because of my commitment to the integrity of prayer, starting this week (January 16, 2017), I can no longer recite or say amen to the Shabbat prayer for the success of the U.S. President.

So I have drafted a new prayer that I will plan to recite each Shabbat morning. If you also feel it’s important to pray for the U.S. government but also feel you cannot pray for the success of this President, feel free to use this or adapt it as you please. I felt that it was not enough to simply avoid the U.S. President in the prayer for the government but to remind myself of the billions of vulnerable people who are at risk under his rule, and challenge myself each Shabbat to build up the strength for another week of spiritual resistance.

His prayer looks more like it was inspired more from the pages of liberal media than from Jewish tradition:

O God and God of our Ancestors, help us with our struggle. We yearn for the success of the American government, to fulfill its righteous mandate to protect its citizens from threats internal and foreign, to fortify the bonds between liberty and justice, to ordain fair treatment under the law, and to expand welfare to all those within its capacity.
We pray that the vision of the prophets—the redemptive power of justice; relief for the poor, welcome for the marginal, protection for the oppressed, care for the sick—and the vision of the Constitution of a more perfect union be brought about. Guide the incoming leader of this country away from his basest instincts, thwart his plans to target certain groups and strengthen white supremacy; for You know, God, that all were created in Your image.
...

With all due respect, Rabbi Yanklowitz is missing the boat.

The traditional prayer of HaNoten Teshua has been around, in one form or another, for over five hundred years. And it is based on much older traditions back to Jeremiah's exhortation to pray for the ruler of your city in the first years of the first diaspora:

And seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to the LORD in its behalf; for in its prosperity you shall prosper.

Jews offered sacrifices for the government in Second Temple times.

More explicitly, Pirke Avot (3:2) says, "Rabbi Chanina, the deputy Kohen Gadol says: ‘Pray for the welfare of the government, because if people did not fear it, a person would swallow his fellow alive.'"

He said this during the reign of Nero.

The earliest modern form of the prayer can be seen in a Sephardic prayer book from 1490, blessing the Spanish rulers who were about to expel the Jews two years later:

“He who grants salvation to kings and dominion to rulers, whose kingdom is a kingdom spanning all eternity may he strengthen, bless, and uplift higher and higher our Lord King Fernando. May the King of Kings redeem his soul from death and in war from the sword. And may He incline his heart to do good to Israel and to speak good of them wherever they are and let us say Amen.”

Is Donald Trump, before even taking office, worse than Nero? Worse than Isabella? Worse than the Czars who were also prayed for in this fashion?

The prayer itself is multifaceted, an important point that Rabbi Yanklowitz seems to miss. While on the surface it is a prayer for the success of the ruling government, the choice of verses being quoted reveal a much more complex prayer.

Here is the text as translated in 1655 in a letter to Oliver Cromwell to convince him to let Jews return to England after their expulsion, which is essentially unchanged today:

He that giveth salvation unto Kings, and dominion unto Lords, He that delivered his servant David from the sword of the Enemy, He that made a way in the Sea, and a path in the stronge waters, blesse and keep, preserve and rescue, exalt and magnify, and lift up higher and higher, our Lord:
[And then he names, the Pope, the Emperour, King, Duke, or any other Prince under whom the Iews live, and add’s :]
The King of kings defend him in his mercy, making him joyfull, & free him from all dangers and distresse.
The King of kings, for his goodness sake, raise up and exalt his planetary star, & multiply his dayes over his Kingdome. (this line has been changed to remove the reference to astrology in the wake of fear of false messiahs)In his dayes and in our dayes, let Iudah be safe, and Israel dwell securely,
and let the Redeemer come to Israel, and so may it please God. Amen.

Here's the English version from the time of King George - the same King George who fought against the United States in the Revolutionary War:

As mentioned, this prayer has some depth behind it, and is not a simplistic prayer for the leader's success as it appears. The choice of Biblical allusions in the prayer prove this.

The very beginning quotes a verse from Psalms 144: "To You who give victory to kings, who rescue His servant David from the deadly sword.." But the very next verse says: "Rescue me, save me from the hands of foreigners, whose mouths speak lies, and whose oaths are false."

This verse was chosen deliberately. The Jews who offered this prayer were under no illusions about their rulers.

Similarly, the allusion in the prayer to "He Who made a road through the sea And a path through mighty waters" is referring to the destruction of the armies of Pharaoh: "Who destroyed chariots and horses, And all the mighty host— They lay down to rise no more, They were extinguished, quenched like a wick:"

Jews who have said this prayer in one form or another over the millennia were no fools, as people like Rabbi Yanklowitz seem to think. They knew that the rulers could be good or evil, benevolent or vindictive, and they also knew that God is the ultimate Protector, not the current flesh-and-blood ruler.

It is the height of hubris for Yanklowitz to believe that he is somehow more astute than the generations of far more brilliant rabbis who preceded him.

The prayer of HaNoten Teshua is not fawning - it is cautionary. It can be said wholeheartedly by both supporters and opponents of Donald Trump (anyone who thinks that Trump is worse than Ferdinand and Nero are too far gone to reason with.) The prayer is a reminder for both the supporters of Trump and previous supporters of Obama that Jews should not put their faith in princes (Psalms 146:3) - but it is a good idea to pray that their leaders have the wisdom to do the right thing.

References:

Schechter Institute

Jonathan Sarna

Torah Musings

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Hamas MP goes on a huge antisemitic rant during TV sermon (video)

From MEMRI:

On January 6, Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras delivered a Friday sermon in Gaza, in which he cited the antisemitic hadith of the trees and the stones and said that the Jews were the "filthiest nation" with "the worst moral values known to Mankind." Abu Ras further said that they were recruiting prostitutes to the ranks of their army "in order to lure Arabs into their traps," that they send "AIDS-infected girls to fornicate with Muslim youths," and that they allow drugs and tobacco to be smuggled through the tunnels into Gaza, while preventing the entry of useful commodities. "Victory is coming soon," he vowed. "Their state is about to disappear." Abu Ras prayed to Allah to "destroy the criminal Jews and those who help and support them, as well as those who engage in security coordination with them!" The sermon was broadcast on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV.

Marwan Abu Ras: "Who are the [Jews]? They are the filthiest people, the filthiest nation. They have the worst moral values known to Mankind. Whenever a prophet told them something that appealed to them, they followed him. But if a prophet contradicted them, even regarding a most trivial matter, they either called him a liar or killed him. They have never acted in any other way, because their moral values are driven by treachery and betrayal. They do not care about moral values, honesty, or honor. They do not know the meaning of honor. Do you know who the Jews are recruiting to the ranks of their army, an army that will be defeated soon, Allah willing? They are recruiting prostitutes in order to lure Arabs into their traps, and the traps of their intelligence agencies. So if they are recruiting girls in order to trap people, what is left of their moral values?

[...]

"They were the first to spread usury, the first to spread filthy pornographic movies and websites. They lead the pack in the spreading of drugs and alcohol.

[...]
"Do you know what commodity enters Gaza in large quantities, with the blessings of the enemy? It is drugs. Drugs only. The second commodity is tobacco. Those who want to smuggle drugs or tobacco into Gaza can do so freely, but to smuggle a useful commodity into Gaza? That is forbidden.

[...]

"Oh criminal Jews, Allah described your characteristics to us. You cannot remain on our land. We shall never relinquish a single inch of our land. My message to our Islamic nation is: Return to your senses! Know that this enemy is your enemy, just as it is our enemy. I do not understand what goes through the minds of these Arabs. The enemy openly declares that under the guise of tourism, it sends AIDS-infected girls to fornicate with Muslim youths, in order to spread fornication and AIDS among Muslim youth.

[...]

"My brothers, have patience. Victory is coming soon, Allah willing. Their state is about to disappear. We do not know exactly how this will happen, but we know what our Lord and our Prophet have told us. The time for miracles is almost upon us. Some miracles have already happened. We want to hear the stones and trees call the Muslims and say: 'Oh Muslim, oh servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me. Come and kill him!' The only exception will be the gharqad tree, for it is the tree of the Jews. My brothers, know that people, stones, and trees all hate [the Jews]. Everyone on Earth hates this filthy nation, a nation extrinsic to Mankind. This fact was elucidated by the Quran and the Sunna.

[...]

"Oh Allah, destroy the criminal Jews and those who help and support them, as well as those who engage in security coordination with them! Oh Allah, strike them with a resounding blow, for they are no match for You. Shake their entity and bring them down. Oh Allah, drive them out of our lands in submission and humiliation! Oh Allah, enable us to kill them!"

I noted how Amnesty consistently ignores this sort of thing in a tweet last week where they say that staying silent in the face of evil is cooperating with it.

Irony: This was RT'd by @Amnesty's Israel/Pal acct @IOTPA - which remains silent towards daily Arab incitement to terror and antisemitism pic.twitter.com/dU4ojtDNrq
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) January 20, 2017

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Netanyahu's message to the Iranian people (video)

This is interesting:

I plan to speak soon with President Trump about how to counter the threat of the Iranian regime which calls for Israel's destruction.
But it struck me recently that I've spoken a lot about the Iranian regime and not enough about the Iranian people, or for that matter, to the Iranian people.
So I hope this message reaches every Iranian—young and old, religious and secular, man and woman.
I know you'd prefer to live without fear. I know you'd want to be able to speak freely, to love who you want without the fear of being tortured or hung from a crane. I know you'd like to surf the Web freely and not have to see videos like this one using a virtual private network to circumvent censorship.
You have a proud history. You have a rich culture. Tragically, you are shackled by a theocratic tyranny.
In a free Iran you will once again be able to flourish without limit. But today, a cruel regime is trying to keep you down.
I'll never forget the images of brave young students hungry for change gunned down in the streets of Tehran in 2009; and I'll never forget beautiful Neda Sultan gasping for her last breath on that sidewalk.
This ruthless regime continues to deny you your freedom. It prevents thousands of candidates from competing in elections. It steals money from your poor to fund a mass murderer like Assad.
By calling daily for Israel's destruction, the regime hopes to instill hostility between us.
This is wrong. We are your friend, not your enemy. We've always distinguished between the Iranian people and the Iranian regime.
The regime is cruel – the people are not; the regime is aggressive – the people are warm.
I yearn for the day when Israelis and Iranians can once again visit each other freely in Tehran and Esfahan, in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
The fanatics must not win. Their cruelty must not conquer our compassion.
Our two peoples can work together for a more peaceful and hopeful future for both of us. We must defeat terror and tyranny and we must ensure that freedom and friendship win the day.

The responses on YouTube - from people who say they are Iranians - are far more positive than negative. Here are some:

I am from Iran and I think Israel and Iran have the potential to be the best friend in Middle East. Unfortunately, the Islamic regime works against the mutual interests.

Thank you Mr Netanyahu!
Please help us Iranian people as much as you can to overthrow this tyrannical & despotic regime which through severe corruption, incompetence and mismanagement has brought us nothing but pain, sadness, misery and financial ruin.

I'm from iran and we are you'r friend

im iranian . and we are not your enemy

Long live friendship between Iranian people and Israel.
We, Iranians, are children of Cyrus the great, have nothing against Jews and Israel. We want peace for all.

i like you . i like israel. i,m iranian

A warm hello from Tehran!
We support peace, we say NO to war! Viva Iran, Viva Israel!

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01/21 Links: Would Jerusalem Embassy Spark Unrest?; Classroom Jihad: Western Complicity in State Sponsored Terrorism

From Ian:

Would Jerusalem Embassy Spark Unrest?

Kerry told CBS News, that should Trump move the embassy, “You’d have an explosion – an absolute explosion in the region, not just in the West Bank and perhaps even in Israel itself, but throughout the region. The Arab world has enormous interest in the Haram al-Sharif, as it is called; the Temple Mount, the Dome [of the Rock], and it is a holy site for the Arab world.”
Let’s put aside that no one is suggesting moving the embassy to disputed portions of Jerusalem, but rather to West Jerusalem which is an undisputed part of Israel proper. And also forget for the moment that the peace process has hardly advanced since Palestinian chairman Mahmoud Abbas turned down Israel’s 2008 peace offer. Could Kerry be correct? And should the Arab diplomats warning behind-the-scenes of dire consequences be believed?
Here, history should inform. Prior to both 1991 Operation Desert Storm, and then again ahead of the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom, many diplomats and analysts—including some quoted in the most recent articles—suggested that U.S. forces entering the Arab world would spark protests and riots. But, in both cases, demonstrations largely fizzled. Those that did occur were often state-sponsored. What brought Arabs into the streets was not questions of war and peace in Israel but largely local issues—a vendor’s self-immolation in Tunisia and a blogger’s death under torture in Egypt.
Simply put, the threat that moving the embassy to Jerusalem will spark chaos in Jordan and Egypt is overblown, an excuse more manufactured than real.

Germany’s split personality: Courts favor antisemites, BDS takes hits

A regional court’s affirmation this month of a decision asserting that the arson at a synagogue in the city of Wuppertal in July 2014 was not motivated by antisemitism but was merely a plea by three Palestinians to criticize Israel catapulted the deficiencies of Germany’s judicial system into the spotlight.
While some mainstream political parties, such as Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union, have classified the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement as antisemitic, and German banks have pulled the plug on BDS accounts, judges in the Federal Republic have moved in a radically different direction.
A series of recent court cases has raised the profoundly disturbing impression that German justice is stacked in favor of alleged antisemites. Commenting on the Wuppertal case, the Israeli Embassy in Berlin told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday: “One of the facades of antisemitism is being anti-Israel. We recommend not to fall into this trap. Any attempt to link a sovereign state that wants to defend itself with religion is a double-edged sword that can become quickly dangerous as well for other groups of society.”
The Wuppertal lower court decision defended the reasoning of the three men – Muhammad E., 31, Ismail A., 26, and Muhammad A., 20 – who, according to the judiciary’s opinion, sought, via torching a synagogue, “to clearly draw attention to the blazing conflict between Israel and Palestinians” during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.

CIA documents reveal immediate lead-up to Yom Kippur War

The morning of the coordinated attack on Israel, US assessments flipped from presuming war was not on the horizon to frantic attempts to prevent Syria and Egypt from attacking the Jewish state, which was warned off any preemptive strike.
Amongst the tens of thousands of CIA documents put online, one can find the American intelligence assessment regarding the possibility of a war between Israel and its neighbors in 1973 and how the then-US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger acted when he received the information that Egypt and Syria were intending to begin the Yom Kippur War.
In the daily intelligence briefing submitted to the then-US President, Richard Nixon, on the day that the war broke out, it was reported, "Both the Israelis and the Arabs are becoming increasingly concerned about their adversaries' military activities, but neither side seems bent on starting hostilities."
A CIA document from October 6, the day the war broke out, reported that six Soviet military planes "flew to Damascus yesterday. In addition a Soviet jet transport normally used for VIPs made two round-trip flights to Cairo. The air-lift continues today. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Official Palestinian news agency mourns Munich Olympics terrorist

The top story in the Palestinian Authority's official news agency, Wafa, is that Sunday is a day of mourning for the anniversary of Israel's assassination of one of the more heinous terrorists of the 1970s.

Abu Hassan Salameh, leader of the Black September terror group that was part of Fatah, is mourned as a "beloved leader" and "martyr."

Black September was the group behind the Munich Olympics massacre.

Wafa doesn't mention Munich directly, it only praises him for being linked with many "quality operations."

Salameh, known as the "Red Prince" for his flaunting of his wealth, was not even a Palestinian according to the Wafa article. He was born in Iraq, raised in Egypt and joined the PLO in Kuwait in 1964. (Wikipedia, without citations, says he was born near Jaffa and educated in Germany.)

The terrorist also promised the CIA that he would protect Americans in Lebanon in exchange for contacts with US officials. The CIA was well aware of his terrorist history.

Salameh was assassinated by a car bomb in Beirut in 1979 likely planted by the Mossad.

The Fatah Facebook page also features Salameh, showing this photo of him with Arafat, praising him for "terrifying Tel Aviv" with his attacks.

The Palestinian love of terrorists is explicit and is flaunted every day. The media simply ignores it.

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01/20 Links Pt2: Europe's Jihad against Israel; The UN is occupying State-owned Israeli land

From Ian:

The hateful whispers that make me want to move from London to Tel Aviv

There’s a train of thought among right-thinking people in London at the moment that Israel is culpable; that it is responsible for all the ills of the Palestinians, all the woes of the Middle East. If it weren’t for Israel, they say, the world would be a better place. If you go to a dinner party you can hear things that wouldn’t have sounded unfamiliar in 1930s Germany. They say they’re just ‘anti-Zionist’ but to be anti-Zionist is to be anti-Semitic. No one is anti- any other country. No one questions, say, Iran’s right to exist.
I’ve voted Labour in the past, but these days people in the Labour party all too often say things about Jews having big noses, or controlling the media, or somehow engineering the attack on the World Trade Center. Israel is behind Isis, they say. At demonstrations people hold up placards that say Hitler was right. Those words, exactly. Much of Labour barely raises an eyebrow.
If only those people who wish ill on Israel, on Jews, could know what it’s like to hear their hatred — to live in London and hear that Jews are the puppet-masters of the world, that Israel only helps in disaster zones to harvest organs. My father would have known. He spent time in the 1940s in Nazi concentration camps, because he was Jewish. His parents and sister were murdered for the same reason. My father would feel the same dread chill, and know — first-hand — where all this blame and hatred of Jews leads. If you think I exaggerate, then tell me; where do you think it leads? It may be only the first ugly murmur, from stupid people, but it won’t end there.
I’ve been to Tel Aviv four times in five years, and it seems to me a place of positive things: hope, investment in the future, strength and patience and humour. This is why I’m thinking of moving.

David Collier: Helpless before the hatred at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)

This was my first anti-Israel university event of 2017. The start of an extremely busy time in the annual calendar. Apartheid Week, an intensive period of vicious anti-Israel activity on campus is only a month away. To highlight this intensity, this was one of only three events taking place I could have chosen. The other two were at SOAS, and Salisbury.
It was also my first event since Al -Jazeera launched a visible attack on British Jews, via an undercover operation driven from within a deeply antisemitic paradigm. As I pointed out at the time, even though sane people watched the show and saw nothing, for the antisemite, the show was the delivery of proof of Jewish conspiracy. So how would this play out on the UK campus?
The event itself was at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL) campus, ‘discussing the BDS movement, its impact and importance’. Hosted by the QMUL Friends of Palestine Society, it was a Friends of Al Aqsa (FOA) event, and a bag of FOA material was handed out to all attendees.
On the panel was Ben White, Malaka Mohammed, Prof. Moshe Machover and Shamiul Joarder. The range of hate that lines up against Israel. Islamic thought, the Palestinian, the Marxist Jew, and well, the other, the British guy who attaches himself to Islamic thought and Jewish Marxists, to push a highly dubious and quintessentially hypocritical humanitarian cause.
The evening began with a short clip. I have provided just 10 seconds below, all that is needed to highlight the disgraceful distortion of history that is behind the BDS campaign:

Europe's Jihad against Israel

Resolution 2334 was as sickening a surrender to the Arab-Muslim jihad in the name of "peace," as was the surrender of UK Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to Adolf Hitler at Munich in September 1938.
The UN before 1967 did not refer to the West Bank and Gaza as "occupied" territories when they were "occupied" by Egypt and Jordan after the 1948-49 war, which the Arab states launched against Israel. The Arab states then were the "occupiers" of parts of Palestine west of Jordan until 1967, and rejected any notion of Jews having a historic connection with Palestine, which they claimed was an integral part of Arab lands.
From the time of the Balfour Declaration and the League's Mandate for Palestine until the UN Resolution 181 (1947), reference to Palestine meant land with historic connection to the Jewish people. It was on this basis that the Jews' (Zionist) claim to reconstitute their national home was given legal recognition by the League, which the UN, as its successor, was legally bound to protect.
From the Arab perspective of religion and politics there never was a "Palestinian" people, or nation, distinct and separate from Arabs as a people or nation. The jihad called by the Mufti Haj Amin el-Husseini against Jews in Palestine after 1921 was in the name of "Arabs" and Islam, and it has so remained since. According to the Hamas charter, "the land of Palestine is an Islamic Waqf [Trust] upon all Muslim generations till the day of Resurrection."
Jerusalem, its principal city, was built by King David, a Jew, some ten centuries earlier.

01/20 Links Pt1: Unravelling the real story behind UN vote; In Final Press Conference, Obama Slaps Israel

From Ian:

Stephen Pollard: Unravelling the real story behind UN vote

Usually, an Israeli Ambassador would make clear any reservations and the Conservative Friends of Israel would weigh in with its own view. But almost the entire Westminster village had disappeared for Christmas. Lord Polak, CFI honorary president, was in Florida and Mark Regev, the Israeli Ambassador, was out of the country on holiday. A series of juniors were in charge. None appeared to grasp the storm about to break.
When the resolution passed and the Jewish community realised what the government had done, however, there was apoplexy in Downing Street. A source told me: “Number 10 took its eye off the ball. They screwed up badly.”
My Whitehall contacts were adamant at the time that this was a change of policy and that Number 10 had been kept fully in the loop. That week, the JC’s front page story emphasised Number 10’s role. This only added to the anger with FCO officials.
The damage of 2334 was already done. But there was a determination — not least from Nick Timothy, Mrs May’s joint chief of staff — to show this was not indicative of a new policy. Number 10 decided it would take the first opportunity to unravel the UN mess.
The opportunity presented itself almost immediately. Five days after the UN vote, John Kerry launched a withering attack on the Israeli government in a speech at the State Department. But if that was unprecedented, so was the response from Number 10 — a direct and unambiguous dismissal of Mr Kerry’s speech.

In Final Press Conference, Obama Slaps Israel. As Always.

Syria is on fire. South Sudan is unraveling. Russia is invading Eastern European states. But guess what President Obama decided to focus on in his last press conference as leader of the free world? Yup, Israel, the one and only Jewish State in the world. And by now we know that whenever Obama talks Israel it’s never a good thing.
In a parting shot to Israel on Wednesday, Obama questioned went so far as to question the viability of the Zionist project itself.
"I don't see how this issue gets resolved in a way that maintains Israel as both Jewish and a democracy if there are not two states," he croaked.
Obama’s comments come just a few weeks after he directed UN Ambassador Samantha Power to abstain from an egregiously anti-Israel UN Security Council resolution which labeled the Old City in Jerusalem, the Western Wall, and the Jewish Quarter illegally-occupied territory.
Not only did Obama refuse to concede any territory to his critics, but he ardently defended his administration’s decision to stab Israel in the waning days of his presidency.
"The goal of the UN resolution was to say the growth of the settlements will increasingly make a two-state solution impossible," he argued at the White House press conference. "It was important for us to send a signal, a wakeup call that this moment may be passing."
Obama knows full well, however, that the anti-Israel venom circulating across the Oval Office will soon be replaced by something else. On Friday, President-elect Donald Trump will take the oath of office and take hold of the levers of power. He has already signaled a staunchly pro-Israel stance, appointing an advocate as ambassador to Israel who believes that the US embassy in Tel Aviv should be moved to Jerusalem.

Enterprising Builder Thrilled About US Embassy Move to Jerusalem

The Jerusalem Embassy Act, passed by the U.S. Congress in 1995, states that Jerusalem should remain a united city, that it should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel and that the U.S. Embassy should be moved there from Tel Aviv.
Every U.S. President has signed the waiver contained in the law which extends by an additional six months the time by which the embassy must be moved.
President Trump and several insiders close to him, including David M. Friedman, the man nominated to become the new U.S. Ambassador to Israel, has stated that under this president the embassy will be moved to Jerusalem.
It is unclear where, exactly, the Obama administration considered Israel’s capital to be – there were no public declarations that Tel Aviv was considered Israel’s capital. And, of course, President Obama and his State Department made it clear in the recent past that not only did they not consider Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel, they did not even consider Jerusalem to be part of Israel.
An enterprising Jerusalem builder has made his glee public about the stated policy of the incoming U.S. administration.

An IDF photo like no other

This photo was tweeted by Israel's Channel 10 journalist Roy Sharon.

It shows the graduation ceremony of IDF intelligence officers that occurred Thursday. Two of the graduates, new officers, are religious women who are exempt from wearing uniforms because they are pregnant.

This is, Sharon notes, an appropriate integration of people in the IDF.

Haaretz noted in 2015 that the IDF is recruiting religious women, who are exempt from serving int he army and usually choose to perform national service instead. Hundreds are volunteering to join the army anyway. Military intelligence is one major focus for the recruitment efforts.

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IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Golan, Turkish Chief of Staff Akar

YNet reports:

IDF Deputy Chief of Staff Major General Yair Golan was in Brussels for the official opening of the Israeli office at NATO headquarters after it was decided that the two sides should have a closer working relationship. Roni Leshno Yaar, who submitted his credentials to NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, is the first Israeli representative to NATO since the Jewish state was accepted as a partner to the organization (not a member).

In a joint meeting between the ambassador, Maj. Gen. Golan, and NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, the Deputy Secretary said “here in NATO, we understand that Israel shares our values, and is an active and beneficial partner for Mediterranean dialogue.”

The meeting was an impressive show of support for Israel, with Maj. Gen. Golan being the highest ranking Israeli official to meet with NATO representatives.

This was delayed because of Turkish opposition, but now Turkey is on board, and Golan met with the head of the Turkish Armed Forces, General Hulusi Akar.

Yet there were other military leaders that he met:

Several Arab military heads were also at the NATO meeting in Brussels, and also met with Golan on the sidelines. Arab countries represented at the meeting were Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Bahrain, Kuwait, Morocco, Tunisia, and others. Discussions were held on the fight against terror amongst other subjects.

This stunning news was buried at the end of the YNet report - but the Arab media sure noticed it.

Although the specific Arab military leaders that met Golan were not named, already the Lebanese army command has vehemently denied that any of their leaders met with him.

That sound you hear is the heads of BDS leaders exploding. They can't even get Arab army chiefs to boycott Israel!

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Iran reveals the Jew-hatred inside its "anti-Zionism"

We reported a few days ago about how some Syrian opposition activists went to Hebrew University to plead for help to protect the lives of the Syrians who have been slaughtered by Assad.

While the two, Issam Zeitoun and Sirwan Kajjo, were in Jerusalem, like any tourists, they visited the Kotel and put kipot on their heads out of respect for the Jewish holy spot.

Palestinian media immediately noted how they put on the kipot, as a subtle way to discredit them in the context of how they want to "normalize" with Israel, which is the horrid crime that Arab students cursed them for as they were speaking about how to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of Syrians.

Official Iranian and Syrian media, however, highlighted their attempt to discredit the pair by saying that Zeitoun and Kajjo were "practicing Talmudic rituals at the Wailing Wall."

The biggest crime that Palestinian media could tar the activists with was wanting to "normalize" with Israel. The biggest crime that Iran and its Syrian proxies could tar them with is associating them with Judaism.

The apologists for Iran, often citing its large Jewish community, should answer why this wonderful, tolerant state is so critical of "Talmudic rituals" that their own people engage in many times a day.

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01/19 Links Pt2: Is Judith Butler the New Edward Said?; The UN’s Long, Shameful History on Israel; Reuters and Israel: Do Ethics Matter?

From Ian:

Is Judith Butler the New Edward Said?

Of all the non-Middle East specialists writing on the Middle East, few have been as prolific or as indecipherable as Judith Butler. More than an academic, she has become a pop culture figure. In an age of identity politics, Butler's identity as a Marxist, feminist, lesbian practitioner of critical theory who writes prolifically about gender and transgenderism have made her among the most-interviewed active college professors. But her anti-Israel advocacy has made her a star, and a possible successor to the late Edward Said, another academic whose fame rests more on tendentious scholarship and agitprop than rigorous, objective research.
With a Ph.D. in philosophy and a professorship at UC Berkeley's Comparative Literature department, Butler might have led a career as a big name academic, which is to say very well known by perhaps as much as one tenth of one percent of the American population. But as the face of academe's Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, she reaches and influences a much wider audience.
Butler's turn away from literature and language theory in favor of Middle East politics, criticism of U.S. foreign policy, and demonization of Israel came in a collection of essays titled Precarious Life (2004) in which she focused on the effects of the 9/11 attacks on America. What many people would describe as an atrocity, Butler describes as a "dislocation from first-world privilege, however temporary." Her condemnation of terrorism rings about as hollow as Kofi Annan's or Yassir Arafat's.
Not only is Butler unwilling to condemn Hamas and Hezbollah, her tepid equivocation contains more than a hint of comradery: "Understanding Hamas, Hezbollah as social movements that are progressive, that are on the Left, that are part of a global Left, is extremely important. That does not stop us from being critical of certain dimensions of both movements." Despite the great admiration that the Left has for Hamas and Hezbollah, neither group shares any of the Left's ideals and anyone claiming otherwise is delusional.

The UN’s Long, Shameful History on Israel

The Israeli English-language newspaper The Jerusalem Post was originally called The Palestine Post. It adopted its current name in 1950, two years after the creation of the state of Israel.
When the paper first appeared in 1932, the word “Palestinian” generally referred to those living in the British Mandate of Palestine. It was viewed by people everywhere as an appropriate word to describe the Jewish minority living in the area.
Languages change. Sometimes a word takes on a meaning that contradicts an earlier definition. Occasionally, different forms of a word reflect both meanings. Think of “awful” and “awesome” in English today. We can be filled with awe because something is terrible (awful) or wonderful (awesome).
In 1947, when “Palestine” still sounded like it might refer to a Jewish state, the United Nations voted to divide the territory into two countries: one Jewish and one Arab. The UN intended to create two independent states that would live together in peace and harmony.
One of the two halves — Israel — accepted its independence. The other side did not. On the day that Britain left and Israel declared its independence, five Arab nations invaded the whole territory, with the intent of conquering, and destroying, the Jewish half. Besides pushing the Jews into the sea, it was not clear what they wanted to do with the actual territory had they been victorious. Yet when the war was over and Israel controlled more land than the UN planned to give it, the remaining Arab territory went to Jordan and Egypt. There was no movement for an independent Palestinian Arab state.

Brandeis Hires Anti-Semitic Islamist With Al-Qaeda Links

In 2016, Brandeis University hired an anti-Semitic Islamist formerly linked to al-Qaeda to teach students about Islam.
Brandeis offered Boston-based cleric Suheil Laher a job in its Near Eastern and Judaic Studies department despite his long history of involvement with extremist causes. That history includes his leadership of a now-defunct charity that raised funds for jihadist causes in Bosnia, Chechnya, and Afghanistan.
This academic year, Laher is teaching two courses at Brandeis: “Introduction to the Qu’ran” and “Muhammad: Life, Teachings, and Legacy.” Given Laher’s past, what strain of Islam is he likely to promote?
Before Brandeis, Laher was the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)’s Muslim chaplain for almost twenty years. While at MIT, he also served, from 2000, as head of a Boston-based charity named CARE International (not to be confused with the current charity of the same name). Originally named the “Al Kifah Refugee Center,” the charity was founded by Abdullah Azzam, a founding member of al-Qaeda and a mentor to Osama Bin Laden.

Leftover photos from Israel

I was just looking through some photos I took in Israel last summer of scenes I found amusing or interesting.

Here is a bunch of lottery tickets, just as shlocky as anywhere else, but many with Jewish themes (Chanukah menorah, afikoman, and of course "Mazel Tov" which literally means "Good Luck".)

Here was a graffitum in Jerusalem - "Am Yisrael Chai."

I saw a stenciled "Honor your Father and Mother" graffitum on a road divider but I cannot find that photo anywhere.

This one amused me as well: "Go to Gaza" party, naturally on Gaza Road.

Another shot of Muslim girls at the beach.

The guards at the Kotel HaKatan, guarding against Jews entering the Temple Mount.

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