Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, April 09, 2018

04/09 Links Pt2: How a small pogrom in Russia changed the course of history; Fear and Loathing at DC's 'Israel Lobby' Conference; Israel at 70 - the future of the Jewish diaspora

From Ian:

Commemorating the genocide of European Jewry as we will on Holocaust Remembrance Day – which begins Wednesday night and continues through Thursday – is not just a show of respect for those lost. Actively remembering the past should also have relevance for us today.

Yet looking around the world, we can easily reach the conclusion that the lessons of the Holocaust have not been learned.

An annual Anti-Defamation League report surveying antisemitic incidents in the US in 2017 released in February found the number of antisemitic incidents was nearly 60% higher than in 2016 – the largest single-year increase on record. There were 1,986 incidents, including 1,015 cases of harassment, 952 of vandalism and 19 physical assaults.

Europe, meanwhile, has become an inhospitable place for Jews. A recent survey by the World Zionist Organization conducted before International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, found that half of European Jews said they do not feel safe being in public using a Jewish name, or seen with Jewish symbols such as a kippa or Star of David.

And it is not just a subjective feeling.

Last month, Mireille Knoll, an 85-year-old Holocaust survivor, was hacked to death and burned in her home, evidently by a young male Muslim neighbor. France’s President Emmanuel Macron said that Knoll was murdered “because she was Jewish.”

Other incidents include the murder last of year of Sarah Halimi, 65, by Kobili Traore, who reportedly shouted “allahu akbar” as he carried out the murder.

Sarah Halimi apparently is a distant relative of Ilan Halimi, the French-born Jew who was kidnapped and murdered in 2006 by a gang of Muslims. Four Jewish hostages were murdered in the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris two days after the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

In Germany, police recorded 1,453 antisemitic incidents in 2017.

How a small pogrom in Russia changed the course of history

The Kishinev pogrom’s impact was fueled, in part, by photographs of the atrocities that made it around the world. One image of 45 murdered victims laid out in prayer shawls was particularly resonant, appearing in numerous broadsheets during the early days of news photography.

“It was a little bit like how that [photo of Alan Kurdi, a dead] Syrian child on the beach concretized Syrian misery,” said Zipperstein, referring to how a captivating image can break through the “abstraction” behind human catastrophes.

Although the pogrom did not sway many American Jews toward Zionism, there was a decided shift to the political left. It was generally (and erroneously) assumed the pogrom had been organized by Russian officials, prompting many Jews to become suspicious of conservative government. In 1905, the Russian Empire’s formation did, in fact, lead to a wave of state-sanctioned, anti-Semitic violence. As many as 200,000 Jews were murdered in an estimated 600 massacres, including an additional 19 victims in Kishinev.

In the US, it was not only Jews who drew conclusions from Kishinev. Black leaders spoke about the “twin evils” of European pogroms and lynchings in the American south, where thousands of blacks were murdered in a decades-long campaign of racial terrorism. In 1909, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) was formed to combat this violence, and Kishinev was mentioned in the group’s founding documents.

The Jews’ enemies, too, drew conclusions from the pogrom, realizing that mass media could be used to incite large-scale violence. One of Kishinev’s chief instigators, the publisher Pavel Krushevan, pushed out the anti-Semitic forgery, “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” in the months following the pogrom. The notorious canard made it into the hands of anti-Semites including Henry Ford, who published half a million copies in the US.

According to some Jewish leaders, “every aspect of the Holocaust had been anticipated by the Kishinev pogrom.” From the role of intellectuals in galvanizing anti-Semitism, to the blaming of Jews for defending themselves, the pogrom helped solidify a template that culminated in the murder of six million Jews during World War II. This modernization of anti-Semitism was not lost on Jewish thinkers, some of whom predicted Nazi Germany’s “Final Solution” with eerie precision.

“When I was in America, I did not believe in the Jewish question removed from the whole social question,” wrote Emma Goldman after being deported to Russia by the US government in 1919. “But since we visited some of the pogrom regions I have come to see that there is a Jewish question, especially in the Ukraine,” she wrote.

“It is almost certain that the entire Jewish race will be wiped out should many more changes take place,” wrote Goldman.

Norwegian People's Aid fined $2 million by US for providing aid to terror organizations

From the US Justice Department last week:

Geoffrey S. Berman, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and Ann Calvaresi Barr, Inspector General for the U.S. Agency for International Development (“USAID”), announced today the filing and settlement of a civil fraud complaint against NORWEGIAN PEOPLE’S AID (“NPA”), a non-profit, non-governmental organization headquartered in Norway, that receives funding from USAID. The settlement resolves claims that NPA violated the False Claims Act (the “FCA”) by providing material support to Iran, Hamas, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (“PFLP”), and the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (“DFLP”), contrary to federal funding requirements. At all times relevant to the lawsuit, Iran was included on the U.S. Department of State’s list of state sponsors of terrorism (the “State Sponsors of Terrorism List”), and Hamas, PFLP, and DFLP were included on the U.S. Office of Foreign Assets Control’s specially designated nationals and blocked persons list (the “SDN List”). The State Sponsors of Terrorism List includes countries that have repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism, and the SDN List includes individuals and entities that support terrorism or otherwise engage in conduct antithetical to U.S. interests.

On March 30, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory H. Woods approved a settlement agreement that resolves the Government’s claims against NPA. Under the settlement, NPA is required to pay $2.025 million to the United States (that amount is based on an analysis of NPA’s ability to pay a monetary settlement), and it has revised its internal policies to ensure that it complies with applicable U.S. sanctions laws and the terms of its USAID grants. In addition, in connection with the settlement, NPA has admitted to and accepted responsibility for its conduct.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey S. Berman said: “For years, Norwegian People’s Aid obtained grant money from USAID by falsely representing that it had not provided, and would take reasonable steps to ensure that it did not knowingly provide, material support to prohibited parties under U.S. law. With this settlement, NPA is being made to pay a significant financial penalty for its conduct, and importantly, has admitted to its conduct and agreed to put proper precautions in place to ensure that it does not happen again.”

The group that filed the complaint to begin with, the Zionist Advocacy Center, published this photo in the materials showing the NPA logo behind a Hamas spokesperson:

The lawyer behind the action, David Abrams, is a friend of EoZ. He was interviewed about this case by a Norwegian news site (autotranslated)

"We claimed, among other things, that Norwegian People's Aid had received money from the Iranian state to assist with the development of Iran's oil industry. In the United States, Iran is considered a terrorist state. Therefore, I am pleased that Norwegian People's Aid in practice pays back money they have received from Iran.
"From my point of view, it is important that non-governmental organizations are committed to humanitarian work and expanding their caution in dealing with organizations such as Hamas and countries like Iran," says Abrams.
He has previously won a case against the American University in Beirut.

Abrams also mentioned that he is involved in similar claims against the Carter Center and against another major humanitarian NGO.

Q: Norwegian People's Aid is one of the largest aid organizations in Norway. The Carter Center is also a large organization. And now you'll take another case against what you call a major international humanitarian organization. Are you not worried that your work will put obstacles in the way of international humanitarian work?
A: No. All that organizations need to do is stop engaging with Hamas and other terrorist groups and stop interfering in the political side of the Arab-Israeli conflict.

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Linda Sarsour’s blood and soil (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

I always thought that talk about blood and soil has a really bad ring to it ever since the Nazis used it to express some of their core beliefs. But I was obviously mistaken: it’s progressive. You don’t have to take my word for it – here’s Linda Sarsour: “I am honored and grateful to God that he chose to let this Palestinian blood run through my veins. A blood of a courageous, determined and resilient people” who “have EVERY right to fight for their land.”

And needless to say, Linda Sarsour fully supports Palestinians fighting “for their land” by trying to storm the border between Gaza and Israel…

It’s hard to know what exactly Linda Sarsour has in mind when she is sending her “Palestinian sisters and brothers … gratitude for their sacrifices.” Maybe she’s grateful that they haven’t yet revolted against Hamas? After all, the Hamas leader has given one of those speeches that should really please someone whose “Arab pride was hurt” when the ruthless Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was captured.

When you regard Saddam Hussein as a mistreated hero and are so immensely proud of the “Palestinian blood” running through your veins it must sound wonderful to hear: “We will take down the border with Israel and we will tear the Israelis’ hearts out of their bodies!” Though for some reason, Linda Sarsour had nothing to say about this speech, or the Palestinian Nazi flag, in the two posts she put on her Facebook page since then. Maybe she’s too modest to talk all the time about how proud she is? Oh, and she was also too modest to mention the chants of “Remember Khaybar, O Jews. Muhammad's army will return.”

In any case, you may have heard that a senior adviser to Mahmoud Abbas had some very strong words of condemnation for the violent show Hamas is putting on, accusing the terror group of “deliberately sending Gazan civilians to their deaths to grab good headlines.”

But Linda Sarsour doesn’t quite see it this way. In her most recent post, she passionately decries “the inhumanity in the continued assault, dehumanization and murder of Palestinians who have every right to mobilize for dignity on their own land;” she also calls on her followers to “say a prayer for these souls” – meaning those who were killed while trying to storm the border. And she adds: “More important than that - speak truth to power and do not let anyone dictate what your eyes clearly see for themselves.”

Okay then, my eyes clearly see for themselves that Linda Sarsour wants her followers to “say a prayer” for more than a dozen terrorists.

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04/09 Links Pt1: Fatah: Murder of 11 was "greatest and most wonderful quality operation,"; The Gaza Clashes: What’s Really Happening; It's Hamas that wants to see Palestinians killed, not Israel

From Ian:

PMW: Murder of 11 was "greatest and most wonderful quality operation," says Fatah in video and Facebook post

In March 1975, eight terrorists traveled by boat from Lebanon to a Tel Aviv beach. They took over the Savoy Hotel and took guests as hostages. The next morning, while Israeli forces tried to free the hostages, the terrorists murdered eight hostages and three soldiers. Seven of the terrorists were killed.

For Abbas' Fatah Movement this attack was the "greatest and most wonderful quality operation." In a video and post on Facebook, Fatah's Nablus branch honored the terrorists who carried out the attack as "heroic" and "pure."

The video shows pictures of each of the terrorists who committed the Savoy terror attack posing with weapons, as well as the planner of the attack, arch-terrorist Abu Jihad who the PA has credited with planning attacks in which they claim 125 were murdered.

Text on screen: "Heroes of the Savoy self-sacrificing operation March 5, 1975
Heroic Martyr Abdallah Khalil Abdallah Kleib
Heroic Martyr Ahmed Hamid Ahmed Abu Qamar
Heroic Martyr Khader Ahmed Jarram
Heroic Martyr Muhammad Diya Al-Din Al-Hilwani
Heroic Martyr Musa Al-Abd Abu Thuraya
Heroic fighter Musa Jum'a Hassan
Heroic Martyr Naif Najd Ismail Al-Saghir
Heroic Martyr Omar Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Shafai
The one supervising the operation, Martyr leader Khalil Al-Wazir

May Allah's mercy be upon our pure Martyrs
Long live the memory - the revolution will continue!
Group picture of those who carried out the self-sacrificing Savoy operation"
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Nablus District Branch, March 6, 2018]

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that PA District Governor of Ramallah and El-Bireh Laila Ghannam honors the Savoy murderers with a wreath of flowers on their grave every year.

Honest Reporting: The Gaza Clashes: What’s Really Happening

Re-cap of events

On April 1, we posted this explanation and analysis of the events up to that date. It was immediately clear that the “protests” also included molotov cocktails, burning tires, rock throwing, and in one case even live gunfire at the IDF. There were ongoing attempts by rioters to breach the border fence and enter Israel.

Of the 30,000 Palestinians present, 16 were reportedly killed by IDF sniper fire. The figure later increased to 19.

It was well known since April 1 that at least ten of the casualties had clear affiliations to terror groups, including Hamas. An analysis of open-source information from Palestinian media brought that number up to 15, and HonestReporting was the first to publish that new information on April 5.

Another protest/riot on April 6 brought 20,000 people and new violence: including the burning of what may have been 10,000 tires, and further attempts to both attack IDF soldiers and to infiltrate Israel under the resulting smokescreen. Meanwhile, and this is not a joke, Hamas is now blaming Israel for what it claims is a “shortage” of tires in Gaza. Seriously. You couldn’t make this stuff up if you tried.

A number of Palestinians criticized Hamas for publicizing the deaths of its members, including holding military funerals and rallies. The main objection can be summarized as follows: by revealing that so many of the deaths were actually terrorists, Hamas undermines the PR illusion that this was a “peaceful protest.”

As of yesterday morning, Haaretz put the total number of Palestinian casualties at 29, while a slightly later AP story puts the number at 32. One casualty was Palestinian photojournalist Yaser Murtaja. Though the not all the facts are known yet, this story is making some strong waves in the press. The IDF says it is investigating and that it does not deliberately target journalists. Most of the information known so far is from the Hamas controlled Gaza Ministry of Health or from Hamas itself.

Col. Kemp: SHOULD BRITISH FORCES HIT BACK OVER CHEMICAL ATTACK?

If the latest chemical attack in Syria is verified, the US should hit back and Britain must play a leading role.

President Trump’s cruise missile strike following a Sarin nerve agent attack one year ago failed to deter Assad which means much stronger action is needed this time.

Russia’s presence makes the risks of escalation greater. Assad is counting on that to deter Western retaliation.

We should not fear Russia but we should avoid hitting their forces on the ground in Syria.
Why should we take such risks? As a permanent member of the UN Security Council we have global responsibilities – including prevention of proliferation of weapons of mass destruction.Rightly outraged by Russian use of nerve agent against one person in Britain, we cannot confine ourselves to ineffective speeches in the Security Council while the world’s most violent despot gases hundreds of his own people.

There are even bigger stakes. President Obama’s failure to enforce his red line against Syrian chemical weapons use in 2013 emboldened not only Assad but also Russia.

Putin’s aggression in the Ukraine and his intervention in Syria were the consequences.

I remember getting a lot of pushback once I started using the siege metaphor to describe Israel’s situation, both historically and as part of a wider discussion of how to look at our battle with Israel’s enemies through the lens of military conflict.

That criticism largely stemmed from a misunderstanding of siege warfare, with advocates for “going on offense” against Israel’s foes perceiving being on the receiving end of an enemy’s siege as a passive example of what is often criticized as being stuck “playing defense.”

But the siege, like the pitched battle where armies face off in direct combat, are simply types of activities that take place in a war, each of which come with a full set of offensive and defensive tactics. And many an army has been defeated when they got tired or bored with fighting off a besieging army from within protected walls and decided instead to leave their fortress to needlessly clash with the enemy.

This month’s Passover attacks from Gaza are a perfect illustration of siege strategy in action. For, from the perspective of Israel, the nation’s borders are its defensive walls which the military inside those walls cannot allow to be breached. Outside the Gaza portion of those walls is a Hamas army, made up of fighters and the civilians they have recruited to protect them, trying to crash through the border/barrier to sack the city/nation within.

In this case, the besiegers tactics do not involve catapults or battering rams, although past (and likely future) siege attempts have involved a different age-old tactic of tunneling beneath enemy walls. But, in the case of this month’s attacks, the prime weapon is “the feint,” in this case the creation of distractions (large numbers of marchers mixing civilians and military men, huge plumes of smoke generated by enormous tire fires) that will allow militants to sneak into Israel to wreak havoc.

One advantage of Hamas’ tactics is that it fits a propaganda model that originated during Israel’s 2006 clash with Hezbollah in Lebanon, one that has been perfected during fights between Israel and Hamas ever since. This tactic involves triggering a war and then counting on allies (such as the UN and anti-Israel activists abroad) and a pliant media to turn the violence created by Hamas into a morality tale of Israel’s cruel targeting of civilians.

Such propaganda has had trouble getting off the ground this time around, possibly because it’s been overused (allowing Israel and its friends to blunt it using counter-tactics created during this same decade-long period), possibly because parts of the media – which is being asked to swallow ever greater lies - have grown tired of playing the role of Hamas stooges.

Getting back to the siege itself, success or failure can be judged based on how well the IDF has managed to keep the enemy on its side of the walls. And, so far at least, that enemy has failed at even the modest goal of slipping killers through the gates, making the actual dream of Israel’s enemies (thousands breaking out of Gaza to march on Jerusalem) no more than fantasy bombast.

A key feature of siege warfare is that it is as hard, or harder, on the besieger than the besieged, especially when siege tactics are deployed against a stronger party that is ready to fight patiently to hold the line.

Casualty figures routinely trotted out to condemn the Jewish state (which is criticized for asymmetrical body counts) actually demonstrates success on the part of the IDF since any successful war involves maximizing enemy losses while minimizing your own. So, putting aside the humanitarian question surrounding one side fighting behind civilians while the other side fights to protect them, simple military arithmetic shows that treating the current Gaza conflict as siege warfare has been a wise move on the part of Israeli military planners.

It remains to be seen if other forms of suffering will visit those who chose siege warfare as a tactic. Smaller crowds showing up to act as cannon fodder for Hamas’ current campaign would be one indication of that organization paying the cost of poor choice of tactics, as are reports of internal fighting within the organization over choices the leadership is making.

It’s ironic that Israel’s foes use the language of the siege to describe the situation within Gaza, given that Israel has no interest in using siege tactics (or any other tactics) to conquer territory it left behind over a decade ago. This is best demonstrated by the Jewish state’s refusal to engage in traditional siege activities (such as starving out your foe) during not just this conflict but every conflict where Israel continued to supply food and electricity to enemy territory while fighting was taking place.

Those who might still consider defending against a siege as an exercise in passivity should look at results, which are still unfolding, to decide who might be playing the right cards in the high-stakes game of war.

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Ranan speaking to Muslims at a barbershop

Spiegel Online has an interview with David Ranan, an Israeli author who spoke with scores of German Muslims to determine what they thought about Jews.

He establishes quite clearly that they hold classic antisemitic opinions:

Ranan conducted lengthy conversations with his interview partners. About half were women, and most had completed high school or studied at college. "I didn't want to interview any hormonal 15-year-old boys who had seen the previous night how Israel is bombing Gaza and were repeating mindless slogans."

But that didn't stop him from hearing some disturbing opinions. Two 21-year-old students, for instance, were obsessed with figuring out where they could shop in good conscience.

"But many brands belong to you! I have heard that Aldi belongs to a Jew -- but it's only something I heard -- I don't know for sure."

"Starbucks, I heard, but that doesn't keep me from going to Starbucks and getting a coffee or from going to Aldi."

"But there are surely people who don't go shopping there anymore! Rossmann, the drugstore DM, that's also supposed to be Jewish:"

There are a number of patterns to be found in the transcripts. For example, most had read something about a supposed Jewish global conspiracy or heard about it from friends or family. A female engineer who grew up in a Turkish family in Germany said, "People talk about it, that the world is governed by some families, about 120 families. They are Jewish and that they control the government, more or less. All these diseases, bacteria, that are being spread everywhere in the world here, supposedly also come from there, that means the whole system in the world! I do think that Jews very, very much manipulate the world and also control it."

The people he spoke with seldom referred to the Koran or religious questions. For most of them, the Middle East was much more important.

One of the stories they told Ranan mirrored the plot of the Iranian TV show "Zahra's Blue Eyes," in which a leading Israeli politician has a Palestinian girl kidnapped to have her blue eyes transplanted into his blind son. The Palestinian territories' ambassador to the United States, Riyad Mansour, made a similar claim in 2015. He wrote to the UN secretary-general that Israel was organ-harvesting Palestinians who had been killed and that "bodies were returned with missing corneas and other organs."

One of Ranan's interview subjects was firmly convinced that organ theft was really happening. He said he had received reports from his own family. "Do you really think that my parents, my aunt and uncle, who experienced this, my mother-in-law, all of my relatives, do you really think they are lying to me?" he asked. He even claimed to have personally seen people who had had "their innards cut out."

"I know that very large economic powers in the world are run by the Jews," said one of the men [interviewed.] Another claimed, "The Jews in Germany came up with all the inventions -- Daimler-Benz, Thyssen, Bosch, no idea. They also founded the entire banking system."

But even after hearing all of these people accuse Jews - not Israelis, but Jews - of controlling the world economy, of unleashing germ warfare on gentiles, of stealing organs in the modern blood libel - Ranan excuses them!

Many of his interview subjects, he argues, said "Jew" when they meant "Israeli." As Ranan puts it, "When someone is shouting 'Jew, Jew, cowardly pig' at a protest in reaction to an Israeli bombing of Gaza, they aren't referring to London or New York Jews, but Israelis. That doesn't make it more pleasant for spectators and it is especially hard for Jews to bear."

Speaking in Berlin, Ranan repeatedly returns to this thought. "I don't claim there are no anti-Semites, I'm only saying that there needs to be some differentiation."

The book isn't out yet, but he brings very few examples in this interview of Muslims who does not harbor classic antisemitic beliefs, and whose only issue is Israel.

He allows many voices to be heard, including some conciliatory ones. A 22-year-old says he would like to have Jewish friends, "because I would like to sit down with them and have an exchange." One Palestinian reflects on the hatred of Jews that he felt as a teenager. "But what good does this hatred do for me -- to what extent am I justified in my hatred?" Still, envy and prejudice pop up frequently. One young man, for example, expresses his anger that synagogues in Germany are provided with greater police protection and security than mosques.

Apparently Ranan's own politics is not allowing him to hear his own interview subjects' words.

Ranan is critical of Jewish organizations and German politicians. He says the Central Council of Jews in Germany hasn't managed to separate itself from an Israeli government that uses anti-Semitism as a "political weapon." He calls the American Jewish Committee (AJC) in Berlin, which fights anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, a "Jewish lobbying group."

It is amazing how much people can delude themselves. Muslim antisemitism can be seen literally every day in Muslim media (here's one from today that says "Jews are masters of the world today and control the economy of people and their livelihood." )

This "researcher," after hearing pure Jew-hatred from most of his subjects, decides that they are really talking about Israel and therefore everything is A-OK. This isn't research - it is twisting facts to fit his pre-existing biases.

Because it is too upsetting to admit that there is a real problem with Muslim antisemitism, not only in the Arab world but in Germany, too.

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Maybe the attack on T-4 airbase in Syria had nothing (or little) to do with chemical weapons

From Times of Israel:

In a rare move, the Russian military on Monday accused Israel of carrying out a predawn missile strike on an air base in central Syria that reportedly killed 14 people, among them Iranian nationals.

Dictator Bashar Assad’s regime also said Israel was behind the airstrike.

Israeli military officials refused to comment on the allegations.

The United States and France officially denied carrying out the strike, which came shortly after both countries threatened to retaliate for a chemical weapons attack allegedly conducted by Assad in the Syrian town of Douma late Saturday.

The target of the reported airstrike was the Tiyas air base — also known as the T-4 air base — outside Palmyra in central Syria. Israel has previously carried out at least one explicitly acknowledged attack on the base, which it said was home to an Iranian drone program.

According to Russia, the strike was carried out shortly before 4 a.m. Monday by two Israeli F-15 fighter jets.

The Russian defense ministry said the Israeli aircraft launched eight missiles at the base from Lebanese airspace, five of which it said were intercepted.

Syrian television showed footage of the alleged Israeli missiles flying through Syrian airspace toward the base.

In a statement carried by the official Syrian news agency SANA, however, a military official source said eight of the missiles fired by the Israeli jets were downed by air-defense batteries, though some of them got through. “There are martyrs and wounded,” the source said.

While Syria has publicly accused Israel of conducting airstrikes against targets in its territory, Russia has mostly refrained from commenting on these attacks.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitor, at least 14 people were killed and more were wounded. Iranian nationals were listed among the casualties.

Moscow noted that no Russians were injured in the strike.

The initial assumption that the raid was in retaliation for the recent Syrian chemical weapon attack on its citizens, which President Trump threatened, seems to be wrong. Israel had targeted the T-4 base before, and the IDF tweeted this in the aftermath (h/t David Gerstman):

pic.twitter.com/eKBP4VleZa
— IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) February 10, 2018

Also, the Russian and Syrian accusation of Israel firing missiles from Lebanese airspace is consistent with how Israel usually carries out these types of strikes.

It seems likely that the US was in the loop on this attack, which is consistent with Israeli warnings about Iranian entrenchment in Syria that could threaten Israel.

I would guess that there is a lot of intelligence to be gathered as to which missiles evaded the Russian defense system and which were shot down.

It is notable that Iranians were killed at the airbase.

It is also notable that the 14 casualties are insignificant compared to the number of people killed in Syria yesterday alone - 130, including 86 civilians.

Of course, the media is focusing on Gaza and not on Syria.

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Dead Gaza journalist was an experienced high resolution drone operator and Hamas sympathizer (update)

Here is a short video showing the dead Gaza journalist, Yasser Murtaja, showing off his drone:

To get an idea of the resolution of the video that could be taken by the drone, see here:

Also see here, a photo of the port at Gaza that he took recently (click to enlarge):

And he took drone photos of the Gaza border before the first march as well:

All of these can be seen at his Ain Media Facebook page.

The caption for the video at the top of this post shows that Murtaja was not an objective journalist but that he considered his drones to be part of Hamas' army:

طائراتنا في السماء وجنودنا على الأرض .. قواتنا مستعدة لكل السيناريوهات صباح مساء
صباحٌ منعش

Our planes are in the sky and our soldiers are on the ground.Our troops are ready for all scenarios in the evening
A refreshing morning

Israel's Defense Ministry hinted that Murtaja had been operating drones and that might be why he was targeted. The evidence shows that this was entirely possible.

(h/t Tomer Ilan and Intellitimes)

UPDATE: Haaretz reports that the IDF has not accused Murtaja of using a drone.

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04/08 Links: The Hamas Gimmick that Failed; Kontorovich: Why Israeli Rule in the West Bank Is Legal under International Law; Why Does The Left Get A Pass On Anti-Semitism?

From Ian:

Eugene Kontorovich: Why Israeli Rule in the West Bank Is Legal under International Law

An interview with Professor Eugene Kontorovich by Sarah Haetzni-Cohen
A version of this interview first appeared in Hebrew in Makor Rishon on March 23, 2018.

Professor Eugene Kontorovich is the head of the international law department of the Kohelet Policy Forum and a fellow of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. He teaches at the Law Faculty of Northwestern University. Born in Ukraine, Professor Kontorovich spent most of his adult life in the United States. Several years ago, he moved to Israel with his family.

Q: From the viewpoint of international law, how can the legal position of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] be defined?

Professor Kontorovich: The question that should be asked is: What were the borders of Israel when it was first established? What defines this is the borders at the moment of independence. Israel was created, like most countries, after a successful war where no one came to its aid. In international law, there is a clear rule regarding the establishment of new countries: the country’s borders are determined in accordance with the borders of the previous political entity in that area. So what was here before? The British Mandate. And what were the borders of the British Mandate? From the Mediterranean Sea to the Jordan River.

The UN General Assembly’s declaration on November 29, 1947, was a recommendation for partition rather than an operative resolution. What actually defined the situation was what the Mandate did, and it neither accepted the recommendations nor put them into force. During the War of Independence, Jordan and Egypt conquered territories from Israel illegally, and it was almost universally agreed that neither Jordan nor Egypt had any legitimate claim of sovereignty over Judea and Samaria or Gaza. But Israel did. When Israel liberated the territories in 1967, it renewed its control over lands that it had sovereignty over based on the Mandatory borders.

Why Does The Left Get A Pass On Anti-Semitism?

This week, an assemblywoman from Brooklyn — the New York City borough with approximately 2.7 million people, not some far-flung hamlet in flyover country — went on an near-hour-long rant in which she accused Jews of conspiring to gentrify her district and steal her home. In the midst of this outburst, Diane Richardson reportedly referred to one of her rivals as the “the Jewish senator from southern Brooklyn.”

This incident comes not long after a DC Council member named Trayon White Sr., a Democrat who represents the Eighth Ward of the capital of the free world in the twenty-first century, posted a video offering some of his thoughts on how “the Rothschilds” were controlling the climate to squeeze money out of the oppressed.

Both of these people have been treated as raving lunatics, which they might very well be. But a person could easily imagine the fate of any elected official in a large city had he or she aimed similar conspiracies at African-American neighbors. We would almost assuredly be plunged into a national conversation about the shameful bigotry that plagues our cities.

That’s not to argue that we should overreact to these incidents. Although certainly a serious concern, anti-Semitism is a relatively minor problem in American life. It is, however, getting difficult not to notice a trend among liberals of either ignoring, rationalizing, or brushing off anti-Semitism, which seems to be more commonplace on the Left than it has been in a long time.

But when identity politics and class warfare propel your movement, as it does the progressivism that’s becoming increasingly popular on the American Left, it’s almost inevitable that the Jews, who’ve tended to successfully navigate meritocracies, will become targets. This hate has traveled with socialists since Karl Marx first declared that “Money” was the god of the Jews.

JCPA: The Hamas Gimmick that Failed

The “Friday of Tires” protest failed to achieve its main objective, which was to impede the actions of IDF marksmen on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.

The Palestinians did not manage to infiltrate the territory of the State of Israel in their vast numbers, and the Israeli deterrent was preserved.

The Palestinian “Return” campaign has also failed to mobilize Arab states and the West Bank. But there is still a month ahead for the campaign to run, on various notable dates, culminating in Nakba Day on May 14 and 15, the scheduled dates of the transfer of the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and Nakba

On May 15, the month-long fast of Ramadan, which is sacred to the Muslims, is set to begin.

According to official statistics released by the Palestinian Health Ministry, 10 Palestinians were killed during the “Friday of Tires” in Gaza. Around 1,400 were injured, 33 of whom were in serious condition.

The second week of the “return” campaign organized by Hamas ended in failure, according to IDF estimations, which the Palestinians do not deny. Only around 20,000 people took part in these events, compared to 40,000 people who participated during the previous week.

Free Gaza (Forest Rain)

It’s been one week since the riots in Gaza began. We’re promised riots every week, till May 14th, the date commemorating the Israel’s Declaration of Independence in 1948.

As I write this, new riots are massing on the border.

Last Friday was the grand opening of the “March of Return”. Hamas orchestrated the event, billing it like across between Woodstock and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Selma march. Supposedly, this would be an event for the entire family, men, women and children – a peaceful march to the border of Gaza to declare their desire to “return”.

And by doing so, turn Israel into Palestine.

Last Friday was the night of the Passover Seder. Choosing the night of this very important holiday for the date of mass demonstrations was very deliberate.

Preparing for Passover creates its own tension (imagine preparing for Christmas, Thanksgiving or a wedding) – it begins with a type of spring cleaning that can range from cleaning the house to remove chametz (leaving) to make the house kosher for the holiday to painting the house and even full-blown renovations. There is a massive amount of shopping and cooking to be done for the Seder which lasts long into the night and is when everyone hosts family and friends – or is hosted, which means buying presents, getting stuck in traffic and having to drive home in the early hours of the morning.

But that is a fun kind of tension.

The tension of the unknown is much less pleasant. Would the peaceful demonstration remain peaceful? Not likely. How bad would it get? While getting dressed and making the finishing touches for the evening we were receiving more and more updates from Gaza which had quickly become a scene of mass, violent riots in five locations along the 60 kilometer Israeli side of the Gaza border.

Soldiers who were supposed to spend the holiday at home had to remain on duty. That in itself was a success for Hamas, ruining the holiday for many families. Israelis in the communities surrounding Gaza who are licensed to carry were requested to take their guns with them to holiday celebrations, their family meal and even to the synagogue when they went to pray.

It would be necessary for civilians have guns to defend themselves and their families in the nightmare scenario of the border being breached and terrorists invaded Israeli communities.

Or Israeli Arabs choosing to use the distraction to kill Jews.

The night celebrating freedom, smelled like war.

And celebrate we did. Because that’s what we do. And when the Seder was over, we heard that an emergency UN Security Council had been convened to discuss the “indiscriminate killing” of “peaceful demonstrators”.

Here too, the timing was deliberate. How could an Israeli representative be available, in time, to counter the accusations, on the eve of one of the most important Jewish holidays of the year? But, according to the UN, this was an emergency. There had been a massacre!

At 3:00 am we listened to some of the live session from New York. The accusations, twisting of reality was absolutely sickening. But it wasn’t really a surprise. We are used to it.

What struck me was the callous abuse of children. Not Israeli children (we’re used to no one caring about the lives of our children). Listening to the various UN representatives discuss Israeli “atrocities”, I was thinking of the children of Gaza.

I could not help but think of a little boy I saw in 2005. Israel had just executed the Disengagement Plan, ripping thousands of Jews from their homes in the Gaza strip, dismantling 21 Israeli communities, handing to control of the Palestinian Authority.

This tiny child was taken to one of the demonstrations celebrating Israeli withdrawal. Too small to really understand what was going on, someone had given him a cardboard Kalashnikov to hold, like a real, grown-up member of Hamas. He looked so confused in the photo, as if he was searching for guidance from a grown up. But what guidance was he getting?

13 years have passed. That boy is old enough to be any of the Gazans killed in the riots. Interestingly 15 out of the 19 killed in the riots are known terrorists. How do we know? Not because of some special Israeli military intelligence gathering. We know because the PA announced with pride exactly who each individual was at which organization they were affiliated with.

Now here’s a math logic problem. There were 24,000 rioters. 19 were killed. 15 are known terrorists. Does that mean that the other 4 were not terrorists? Note that the youngest man killed was 18. No women or children were killed, although there were many women and children there.

So much for the “Israeli massacre” and “indiscriminate killing”.

It is a war crime to use women and children as human shields. But the UN has no concern about Hamas abuse of their own people. In my mind, it is a crime against humanity to raise entire generations to hate and kill.

Palestinian rioters on the border of Gaza literally chanting about killing the Jews. Not "kill the soldiers," not "kill the Israelis..."

KILLING JEWS

This violent riot is based on violent antisemitism and MUST be condemned. #StopTheStorm #GreatMarchofReturn pic.twitter.com/38BhaLsDQD
— StandWithUs (@StandWithUs) March 31, 2018

The people in this video are shouting the ancient Islamic chant “Khaybar, khaybar ya yehud.” This chant refers to the Muslim massacre of the Jews of the town of that name in northwestern Arabia in 628 CE and means “Jews, remember Khaybar, the army of Muhammad is returning.” This is a threat of genocide and is directed at Jews, not Israelis, not soldiers – this is about Jews.

Many a beautifully posed image of “Palestinian resistance” has been published. Here is an image that is reminiscent of the imagery of the French revolution. A fantastic image, meant to pull on the heartstrings and help the viewer choose the “correct” side to support.

This is not journalism. This is art – the art of propaganda.

The statements by Hamas leadership that, if Israel does not give in to their demands they will come and “eat our livers” were given less media focus. Many will of course assume that this threat was meant as a figure of speech, conveniently forgetting the video from the beginning of the Syrian civil war of the Syrian rebel eating the liver of a Syrian soldier he had just killed.

When the agenda is to delegitimize and, ultimately destroy Israel, nothing matters. Not truth, not facts.

It does not matter that Israel is a sovereign nation with a duty to defend her borders and the lives of her citizens. This is the duty of any State, not a right.

It does not matter that these demonstrations were nothing close to peaceful, they will still be presented as such.

It does not matter that the only Gazans killed were males, over 18 years old, active in terrorist organizations. It’s still a massacre.

And no one, absolutely no one, cares about the children of Gaza, callously used as human shields to make Israel look bad, raised to hate and trained to become murderers.

If the “pro-Palestinian” crowd actually cared about Arab lives, they would stop lying about Israel and start demanding the freedom of Gazans from the oppression and abuse of Hamas.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Hamas is the party that weaponizes journalists (cartoon)

Cartoon in Hamas-linked Palestine Information Center (Arabic):

Gaza journalists aren't truth-seekers. They are propagandists for Hamas. And as we have seen beforehand, the journalists in Gaza who do not toe the Hamas line are harassed and expelled.

I'm not saying that any journalists deserve to be shot; we don't know the circumstances behind any shooting. We do know with a pretty high degree of certainty that Gazans have been shot by other Gazans purely to score anti-Israel propaganda points. So anyone who is reporting on any death at the Gaza border and blaming it purely on Israel without the proper caveats is not engaging in journalism but in pushing more anti-Israel propaganda.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Hamas' tire burning successfully blinds Washington Post

Here is the headline from the Washington Post:

This mirrors a tweet from Palestine Info Center, a Hamas-linked organization:

Israel kills journalists: Clearly marked Palestinian photo-journalist Yaser Murtaja @YaserMurtaja shot by Israeli snipers while he was covering the peaceful Palestinian protest in Gaza. Israel targets journalists to silence the truth. #GreatReturnMarch #جمعة_الكوشوك pic.twitter.com/gWXVQQqP9v
— Palestine Info Center (@palinfoen) April 6, 2018

I am not happy with the IDF not being forthcoming on the circumstances of its shooting in this and other cases, nor am I happy that they have not published clear criteria that they use before employing live ammunition at the Gaza border.

However, Hamas made it very clear that the entire point of the mass tire burnings was to obscure what people were doing on the ground. There were clearly real attempts to breach the fence. Here's video of how thick the smoke was:

And even the Washington Post admits that the smoke was too thick for people even on the ground with the crowds to see well:

Shady al Assar, 35, who was with Murtaja just before he was shot, said they were about 100 meters from the border at Khan Younis, in the southern Gaza Strip, when he lost sight of his friend in the thick black smoke.

And a different WaPo article said explicitly that the purpose of the smoke was to shield Gazans from sniper fire:

Clouds of thick black smoke billowed across the edges of the Gaza Strip on Friday as Palestinian protesters used burning tires in an attempt to shield themselves from sniper fire as they faced off against heavily armed Israeli troops.

Hamas cannot have it both ways - setting tires on fire to create a smokescreen, and then blaming Israel for not seeing a journalist's PRESS vest. Yet this one-sided coverage shows that Hamas propaganda worked perfectly, and the Washington Post did not mention a word about how Hamas' desire for innocent "martyrs" was what drove the tire protest, not Israel's desire for shooting innocent people as the coverage implies.

Again, the incident needs to be investigated and the IDF has done a terrible job explaining its position. But the only ones who benefit from the accidental shooting of a journalist is Hamas, and the Washington Post was obligated to draw the clear line from Hamas policy to the dead journalist. And in that, it failed.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

04/07 Links: US slams Gaza leaders who send children to border, ‘knowing they may be killed’; Explosives hurled at IDF troops guarding Jewish worshipers in Nablus

From Ian:

US blocks Arab-led UN call for independent probe of Gaza protests

The United States for a second week in a row blocked a UN Security Council statement supporting the right of Palestinians to “demonstrate peacefully” and endorsing Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ call for an independent investigation into deadly protests in Gaza.

Palestinian UN Ambassador Riyad Mansour told reporters at UN headquarters in New York on Friday evening that 14 of the 15 council nations agreed to the statement, but the United States, Israel’s closest ally, objected.

Mansour called the US rejection “very irresponsible,” saying it gave Israel “the green light to continue with their onslaught against the civilian population” in Gaza.

In response, Israeli Ambassador to the UN Danny Danon said the council “should condemn Hamas, which uses children as human shields while risking their lives, and must call for the end of these provocations which only increase the violence and tensions.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians gathered along the Gaza border on Friday, burning tires and throwing firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers, who responded with tear gas and live fire, the army and witnesses said, as Palestinians held a second “March of Return” protest.

Mansour said that nine Gaza civilians were killed and over 1,000 wounded in the clashes, and again urged the UN Security Council to demand an independent investigation into the deaths.

He told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York that one child was among the dead and a large number of children were injured, at least 48 according to one report. He said his information came from the Hamas-run Health Ministry and Red Crescent officials in Gaza.

Haley Touts Israel and Cuba Policies: ‘Leading From Behind Is Over’

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley spoke at Duke University Thursday and credited the Trump administration with strengthening American leadership role at the U.N.

She criticized previous administrations for being too deferential to international opinion, saying she is not hesitant to resist the majority at the U.N. She described how the U.N.’s Security Council and Human Rights Council regularly single out Israel but leave authoritarian regimes alone.

"Soon after coming to the U.N. last year, we decided we weren’t going to silently accept that anymore. Israel is our great friend," Haley said to applause. "And Israel is a lonely voice for democracy and human dignity in the Middle East."

"We’ve made these changes to have the back of our friend and ally Israel, absolutely, but we’re also sending the message that the era of the United States leading from behind is over," she added.

US slams Gaza leaders who send children to border, ‘knowing they may be killed’

The White House on Thursday called on Palestinians to engage in solely peaceful protests and stay at least 500 meters from Gaza’s border with Israel, on the eve of fresh demonstrations supported by Gaza’s Hamas terrorist rulers along the border.

While the UN issued a warning to Israel to use “extreme caution” in facing the mass protests, US President Donald Trump’s Mideast envoy Jason Greenblatt put the onus squarely on Palestinians.

Greenblatt said protesters “should remain outside the 500-meter buffer zone; and should not approach the border fence in any way or any location.”

He added, in a statement: “We condemn leaders and protestors who call for violence or who send protestors — including children — to the fence, knowing that they may be injured or killed. Instead, we call for a renewed focus by all parties on finding solutions to the dire humanitarian challenges facing Gazans.”

Earlier on Thursday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres urged Israel to exercise “extreme caution,” and to allow Palestinians to protest peacefully along the border.

“I particularly urge Israel to exercise extreme caution with the use of force in order to avoid casualties. Civilians must be able to exercise their right to demonstrate peacefully,” Guterres said in a statement.

Explosives hurled at IDF troops guarding Jewish worshipers in Nablus

A Palestinian hurled explosives at Israeli soldiers protecting a crowd of Jewish worshipers in the West Bank city of Nablus overnight Wednesday-Thursday, causing no injuries or damage, the army said.

A thousand Jewish worshipers flocked in the early hours of Thursday to Joseph’s Tomb for Passover prayers under military escort.

In a statement, the military said that before the worshipers entered the site, observations indicated “suspicious activity” in addition to the explosives that were hurled. Soldiers arrested three suspects and found weapons, including rifle magazines, bullets and a knife on a nearby roof.

The worshipers, who included the head of the Shomron Regional Council Yossi Dagan, prayed, sang and danced at Joseph’s Tomb, believed to be the burial site of the biblical figure.

04/05 Links P2: Collier: The Jewdas Gambit, assimilation and distorted statistics; Christian Arabs Receive More Support From Israel Than From Muslim Arabs; Why Shouldn't Peter Beinart Be Discomforted?

From Ian:

MEMRI: Palestinian American Columnist Ray Hanania: Christian Arabs Receive More Support From Israel Than From Muslim Arabs

In a recent column in the English-language Saudi daily Arab News, Christian Palestinian-American columnist Ray Hanania laments that Christian Arabs receive more support from Israel than from their fellow Arabs. As an example he presents Palestinian-Christian filmmaker Shady Srour, whose new film, Holy Air, is celebrated by Israelis but is likely to be disregarded by Arab activists because it was made with Israeli funding. Arab activists, says Hanania, pay lip service to the idea that Christian and Muslim Arabs are brothers, but in practice they do not regard Christian Arabs as their equals – especially if these Christians challenge mainstream Arab principles such as supporting the BDS or rejecting normalization with Israel. Stressing that films are far more effective than protests as a means of swaying public opinion, Hanania suggests that, instead of rejecting normalization with Israel, Arabs should make quality films that will show Israelis, and the rest of the world, the positive face of Palestinians and Arabs.

The following is his column:
"Shady Srour, a Palestinian-Christian filmmaker based in Nazareth, has produced a comedic film called 'Holy Air,' which has received huge promotional support from Israeli activists. It is about a fictional character who devises a scheme to sell bottled air from the Holy Land to enrich himself and pay his family’s bills. It is one of several Palestinian-made films headlining this year’s Israeli Film Festival in Los Angeles.

"The message in Srour’s film is that money cuts across Middle East differences and brings Arabs and Israelis together. Even though the film is not political, because of Israeli funding it is unlikely to get support from Arab activists.

"Overall, I think Christian Arabs tend to get more support from Israel than they do from Arabs. Israel recognizes how important Arab Christians are in the war for the hearts and minds of the world, especially in gaining US support. Arabs tend to pay lip service to Arab Christians, parroting the politically correct line that Christians and Muslims have shared the same suffering and challenges, and shed their blood for the same causes.

"But Christians are not equal to Muslims in the eyes of Arab activists. Christian Arabs who challenge mainstream Arab principles — such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, and rejection of the two-state solution — are marginalized, demonized as 'Zionist shills' and labeled 'traitors to the Palestinian cause.' Activists do not want their 'wisdom' questioned. They want these moderate voices silenced.

Seth Mandel: Ideas Have Consequences

Review of 'Realism and Democracy' By Elliott Abrams
Here is where Abrams’s book stands out: He provides, in the last two chapters, an accounting of the weaknesses in U.S. policy, including mistakes made by the administration he served, and a series of concrete proposals to show that democracy promotion can be effective without the use of force.

One mistake, according to Abrams, is America’s favoring of civil-society groups over political parties. These groups do much good, generally have strong English-language skills, and are less likely to be tied to the government or ancien régime. But those are also strikes against them. Abrams relates a story told by former U.S. diplomat Princeton Lyman about Nelson Mandela. Nigerian activists asked the South African freedom fighter to support an oil embargo against their own government. Mandela declined because, Lyman says, there was as yet no serious, organized political opposition party: “What Mandela was saying to the Nigerian activists is that, in the absence of political movements dedicated not just to democracy but also to governing when the opportunity arises, social, civic, and economic pressures against tyranny will not suffice.” Without properly focused democracy promotion, other tools to punish repressive regimes will be off the table.

Egypt offers a good example of another principle: Backsliding must be punished. The Bush administration’s pressure on Mubarak over his treatment of opposition figures changed regime behavior in 2005. Yet by the end of Bush’s second term, the pressure had let up and Mubarak’s misbehavior continued, with no consequences from either Bush or his successor, Barack Obama, until it was too late.

That, in turn, leads to another of Abrams’s recommendations: “American diplomacy can be effective only when it is clear that the president and secretary of state are behind whatever diplomatic moves or statements an official in Washington or a U.S. ambassador is making.” This is good advice for the current Oval Office occupant and his advisers. President Trump’s supporters advise critics of his dismissive attitude toward human-rights violations to focus on what the president does, not what he says. But Trump’s refusal to take a hard line against Vladimir Putin and his recent praise of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s move to become president for life undermine lower-level officials’ attempts to encourage reform.

There won’t be democracy without democrats. Pro-democracy education, Abrams advises, can teach freedom-seekers to speak the ennobling language of liberty, which is the crucial first step toward building a culture that prizes it. And in the process, we might do some ennobling ourselves.

Yisrael Medad: Hammerman's Anti-Zionist Terror

Ilana Hammerman has smuggled Arabs-called-Palestinians into Israel illegally from Judea and Samaria as an act of defiance. With friends*.

Now, she ratchets up the incitement speech.

She has published, in Haaretz, of course, an op-ed: Israel Is the Terrorist
sub-titled:
Young Palestinians are not carrying out acts of terror- they are leading a desperate struggle against an army
Selected outtakes:
the West Bank – in which not a single dunam belongs to the State of Israel
the reality there [in Judea & Samaria]...it’s one of state-sponsored terror, [by] the State of Israel.

All this stems from
the choice of Israeli governments to use terror to impose the “state of the Jewish people” on the entire region between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River.

Despite the terror of Haj Amin El-Husseini 1920-1948, that of the Fedayeen 1948-1956, that of the PLO founded in 1965, Hammerman writes that it is
this policy [of Israel] that gives rise to the acts of resistance against it.

Either she cannot think, cannot read or, like too many in the anti-Zionist camp, simply ignore facts of history, fly in the face of logic and seek to harm Jews and the state's existence.

Anti-Zionist terror.