Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, November 05, 2018

Insane academic paper of the day criticizes an Israeli gay porn film as an example of settler colonialism (update)

Today's insane anti-Israel academic paper:

Pinkwashed:
GAY RIGHTS, COLONIAL CARTOGRAPHIES AND RACIAL CATEGORIES IN THE PORNOGRAPHIC FILM MEN OF ISRAEL
Brett Remkus Britt
Journal
International Feminist Journal of Politics
Volume 17, 2015 - Issue 3

Claims regarding “gay rights” have acquired a prominent role in debates over Israel's occupation of Palestine. This often takes the form of “pinkwashing,” a term denoting the use of gay rights discourse to justify the imposition of colonial rule. This article analyzes the pornographic film Men of Israel to explore how pinkwashing reflects colonialism's depoliticizing and exclusionary logics. Men of Israel shows how pinkwashing is far more than a justificatory practice. It also legitimates, reproduces and appropriates colonial narratives to justify an alliance between supporters of gay rights and the “pro-gay” Israeli state. It simultaneously excludes a racial category of people called “Palestinians,” which includes gay Palestinians, from the rights accorded to gay men in Israel. In an era of “gay rights as human rights,” such deployments of “gay rights” highlight the necessity of directing critical scrutiny to the alliances and exclusions implicated by a particular articulation of rights.

Yes, a "scholarly" examination of a gay Israeli porn film, the criticism of which honestly sounds like parody:

The film’s attempt to depoliticize Israel’s territorial claims is perhaps even more important. Men of Israel reflects an important turn within contemporary colonial practices, where gay male bodies serve as markers of colonial boundaries. However, the colonial power relations implicated by the film are well disguised because, in common with other pornographic films, it elides the social and political aspects of the subjects it depicts, presenting them as “images of people without social context or relations” (Bhattacharyya 2008, 136).

You get that? The porn film "elides the social and political aspects of the subjects it depicts." The target audience for the film must be very upset over that omission.

Such a portrayal requires exclusion of images that might provoke questions regarding the cost of sustaining this geography. We are not shown impoverished Palestinian towns or the remnants of bombed out Palestinian homes in the wake of Israeli air raids. The film does not show bulldozed buildings and Israeli settlements built in their place or the poverty within the occupied territories, elements upon which the vibrant urban landscape of the film is constructed. Indeed, the evasion of a Palestinian presence is a key component of the film’s agenda.

According to this brilliant reviewer - who must have watched the film dozens of times in order to describe it accurately for the readers of the journal - the film isn't meant to turn on gay guys like 100% of other gay porn films. It is designed specifically to avoid showing things that sham academic who obsessively watched it would like to have seen.

Any vision of Israel that is not wholly concerned with evil Israelis running roughshod over the human rights of an enslaved Palestinian people is clearly illegitimate, according to the brilliant academics who spend scores of hours watching gay porn for their "research." (This is not the only paper that Britt has written on the subject of gay porn and its supposed political implications. He also wrote “Reading Gay Pornography as Transnational Colonial Project.”)

Amazingly, this is not the only academic paper obsessed with Men in Israel. This other paper argues that gay porn with Arab actors is meant to build bridges between the West and the East while Israeli porn tries to build walls between the two.

Really.

And a third academic paper from a third author, Nada Elia, also features an extended discussion of this film.

That is at least three academic papers, published in three separate academic journals, written by three separate academics, all obsessed over a minor Israeli gay porn film.

UPDATE: A fourth paper on the same film!

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11/05 Links Pt1: Netanyahu hails ‘historic’ Iran sanctions, says his fight against world paid off; PA lies, presents Holocaust victims as Arabs; Why Hamas Cannot Be Trusted

From Ian:

Netanyahu hails ‘historic’ Iran sanctions, says his fight against world paid off

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday praised US President Donald Trump’s “courageous, determined and important decision” to reinstate all US sanctions on Iran that had been lifted under the 2015 nuclear deal, saying the move was a direct result of his own efforts against the deal.

“For many years I have devoted my time and energy to the war against the Iranian threat. On this issue I went up almost against the whole world. Today we see the results of this long and ongoing struggle,” Netanyahu said at the opening of his Likud faction meeting in the Knesset.

“This day is a historic day,” Netanyahu said. ”I would like to again thank President Donald Trump again for a courageous, determined and important decision. I think this contributes to stability, security and peace.”

Monday’s sanctions are the second batch the Trump administration has reimposed on the Islamic Republic since withdrawing from the nuclear agreement earlier this year.

The rollback ends US participation in the Obama-era accord, which now hangs in the balance as Iran no longer enjoys the billions of dollars in sanctions relief it was granted under the deal in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program.

Israel, which considers Iran an existential threat and opposed the deal from the beginning, broadly welcomed the US’s exit from the deal and the reimposition of sanctions.

Netanyahu, who personally lobbied world leaders against the deal and since its signing, has called for it to be canceled said, “This is a very big day for the State of Israel. This is a great day for the people of Israel. This is a great day for the future of Israel.”

PMW: PA lies, presents Holocaust victims as Arabs

Purporting to be showing images of Arab victims from the village of Al-Dawayima which the Israeli army captured during Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 (see note below), official PA TV deceptively showed a photo from a Nazi concentration camp showing victims from the Holocaust.

Below is the original photo from the concentration camp at Nordhausen, originally a sub-camp of Buchenwald, showing hundreds of dead victims. It was taken right after liberation of the camp by the American army:

[April 17, 1945, AP photo / US army Signal Corps]

This is PA TV’s image and text on screen claiming the victims are Arabs:
“70 years since the occupation’s massacre at the village of Al-Dawayima”

[Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Oct. 28, 2018]

Ironically, this is not the first time PA TV have deceived their viewers about this concentration camp photo. Palestinian Media Watch exposed earlier this year that PA TV presented this very same photo claiming it showed Arabs killed by Jews on April 9, 1948 in the village of Deir Yassin.

Another humanitarian crisis today in Gaza.

No goods can be imported into Gaza today, because the trucking companies in Gaza have ceased working.

The Palestinian Authority has levied taxes on all truckloads of goods, about NIS 30 per truck. The transport companies declared that they would stop all loading of trucks at Kerem Shalom.

The Land Transport Association said they will refuse to work until these fees are rescinded. However long it takes.

I don't know which side it right, but what is clear is that the welfare of the people of Gaza is not a prime consideration for either their government nor for those whose services are critical to them. They remain pawns, and the world doesn't care unless Jews can be blamed.

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The radical Left and Arabs share the antisemitic belief that Jews are not a people

In the wake of the Pittsburgh massacre, there are bizarre attempts by anti-Zionist organizations to claim that they are against antisemitism, and moreover that Zionism and antisemitism are interrelated.

The US Campaign for Palestinian Rights is typical:

Our struggles for justice are inextricably linked: rejecting white supremacy means rejecting antisemitism, anti-Black racism, Zionism, Islamophobia, transphobia, and all forms of oppression.

The first step in standing in solidarity and linking arms across movements is educating ourselves. We know that these connections may not be obvious at first glance, so we pulled together some resources that we hope you’ll find useful whether you want to expand your knowledge, or are having these conversations over the holidays or on social media.
Understanding Antisemitism
This resource from Jews for Racial and Economic Justice offers an analysis of antisemitism, how it works, and why it matters. It addresses how antisemitism fits into a matrix of oppressions that includes anti-Black racism and Islamophobia, and how Trump has emboldened white supremacists.

The document they point to is a 45 page description of antisemitism from a Leftist viewpoint. The problem isn't so much with what it says, but with what it ignores:

Who are Jews?
A central way that antisemitism thrives is through myths and stereotypes about Jews. These stereotypes benefit from a lack of clarity about who Jews actually are and ignorance about the demographics of our community.
Judaism is one of the three so-called “Abrahamic” religions, along with Christianity and Islam,which trace their roots to the biblical patriarch Abraham. Judaism predates both Christianity and Islam, but over time has been overtaken by both of them in numbers of adherents throughout the world.
Between 722 and 73 BCE, Jewish population centers in the Middle East began to fragment due to invasion and military conflict, and Jews were scattered throughout the region. From 63 CE until 70–73 CE, the Romans occupied Judea, which led to an uprising, a crackdown, and the final expulsion of Jews from their homeland in what is now Israel/Palestine. Many Jews remained in the Middle East and North Africa, while many others migrated throughout the world in whatiis known as the “Jewish diaspora,” with some settling in what is modern-day Europe and other parts of the world.

While this abbreviated history mentions Judea and that Jews had homeland, it downplays something vital: that the Jews are a nation, not only a religion. It does not even say that there were two Jewish kingdoms; it doesn't mention King David or the Temples.

Wikipedia's entry on Jews starts off with "Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‬ Yehudim, or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and a nation, originating from the Israelites and Hebrews of historical Israel and Judah. Jewish ethnicity, nationhood, and religion are strongly interrelated." But to leftists, including leftist Jews, the national component of Judaism is ignored or diminished, scrubbed from history and Jewishness is viewed as merely a religion like Islam or Christianity.

Denial of Jewish peoplehood is antisemitic. It is also a lie - Jews were recognized as a nation by not only themselve but by non-Jews for all history since the destruction of the second Temple.

But for anti-Zionists, this antisemitic denial of the essence of Jewish peoplehood is necessary, because if you accept that there are a Jewish people, then you must accept that they have a place of origin and a right to live in their historic home. Not only that, but you must admit that they are the indigenous population of their homeland.

Arabs do the exact same thing. They claim that Judaism is merely a religion and that they have nothing against Jews; but Jews who act as a people are Zionist and must be stopped.

Anti-Zionism's philosophical basis is the denial of the Jewish people's rights to self determination. Because Jews are a people - and they have been understood to be a people for thousands of years - then anti-Zionism is truly antisemitism. The scrambling being done to separate antisemitism of Pittsburgh from the anti-Zionism of the radical Left is an attempt to erase the obvious link between the Jews of Squirrel Hill and the Jews of Israel.

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I don't know exactly when this happened, but on Twitter there are hundreds of Arabic speakers celebrating this brief video clip of a Jew, wearing his prayer shawl and tefillin, running for his life down a Jerusalem alley as Arabs throw things at him. He trips and loses his yarmulka as Arabs jeer.

مستوطن صهيوني دخل إلى أحد أحياء #القدس. فحدث له ما لم يتوقّعه😄 pic.twitter.com/H2NViUniMV
— تركي الشلهوب🤐 (@TurkiShalhoub) November 3, 2018

The Tweet says "Zionist settlers entered a neighborhood of #Jerusalem . He did not expect what happened to him next.😄"

The people responding are mostly enthusiastic. When one woman was ambivalent, saying "I have conflicting feelings. Do I rejoice for this fierce resistance scene or feel concern for this weak man in this bad situation?" she was attacked as having "Stockholm syndrome" and having some mental problem for feeling any sympathy with the Jew. Another answered to her "I have conflicting feelings - do I feel happiness at the scene or anger at your arrogance where I want to spit at your face?"

Many express the hope that this is how all Jews will leave Jerusalem. Some point out that celebrating this video makes the world think badly of Palestinians. And one starts a rumor that the man insulted the prophet Mohammed which is why he was being chased in the first place.

(h/t AD and David Abraham)

UPDATE: It appears that this occurred in 2015.

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Disgusting Swedish priest lists dead Hamas terrorists along with Pittsburgh martyrs: "Pittsburgh and Gaza in our hearts"

Here's a photo of one of the most immoral members of clergy you are likely to ever seen

Anna Karin Hammar is a Swedish member of clergy and theologian. Her blog has a memorial to the victims of Pittsburgh - and she then adds the people killed in Gaza riots since March, including many known Hamas terrorists and leaders.

Because, hey, their deaths are just as tragic, right? And it would be immoral to mention the names of 11 dead Jewish worshipers without also listing the names of dozens of terrorists who share the philosophy of their killers.

Here is an English autotranslation of the beginning of her post, where I show pictures of some of the dead Gaza terrorists that this perverted, disgusting example of a religious Christian equates with the martyrs of Pittsburgh.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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11/04 Links: A rude awakening for the Palestinian dream; Anti-Semitism and the fragmentation of society; Jewish nurse who treated synagogue shooter: I chose to show him empathy

From Ian:

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: A rude awakening for the Palestinian dream

When something is built on an unstable foundation, it is only natural for its long term survival to be at risk. It is also natural for it to be in need of constant support just to keep from falling. The belief that it will eventually be able to stand on its own two feet causes people to lend their support, but only egregious fools continue to do so if there is no hope of its ever being independent, because in that case, everythiing those supporters have invested is doomed to be irretrievably lost.

The Palestinian Authority is in exactly that position today and this article will expound on the reasons it has no hope of every being able to become a viable and independent entity.

The prime reason for this situation is the very reason the PA was founded. In 1993, the Israeli government tried to find someone who would accept responsibility for eliminating the terror network created by the Hamas and Islamic Jihad movements in Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip, someone willing to be rewarded for anti-terrorist activity by being granted the authority to rule the area and administer the lives of the Arabs living there. This was the "deal" concocted by the Israelis, and the "contractor" who accepted the challenge was the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) headed by arch-terrorist Yasser Arafat. The Israeli government actually believed that Arafat was serious about eliminating terror and establishing an autonomous administrative system for running those territories.

Of course, this deal was doomed to failure from the start due to the residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza and also the government of Israel. The Arab residents considered the Palestinian Authority (PA), the governing arm of the PLO, to be the operative arm of Israeli policy, an organization collaorating with Israel by means of the coordinated security system that exists up until this very day.

"Security coordination" to the Palestinian Arab mind is a laundered word for cooperation, meaning PA security forces attempt to apprehend the terrorists that belong to organizations other than their own and hand them over to Israel. Many of the Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza see this as no less than treason.

In order to cover up that perceived betrayal and silence its critics, the PA employs thousands in both real and artificial jobs (the kind where the worker does not have to do anything in order to be paid) . For the sake of earning a livng, people are willing to shut their mouths and utter not a word about what they really think of the PA and the reasons for its existence. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Tablet Editorial Voter Education

Eight candidates who have expressed blatantly anti-Semitic views, or who openly associate with anti-Semites

If nothing else, the Pittsburgh massacre should underline for all American Jews that our ongoing struggle against hate is not a narrow sectarian interest or a partisan political tool. It is a matter of life or death—for your neighbors, your synagogue, your family, your children, your parents and grandparents, for our community.

In that spirit, we want to emphasize, as Nathan Rubin does today in our pages, just how important it is to have friends and allies in the ongoing struggle against hate.

We also want to make clear that open and blatant anti-Semitism—as well as validating and associating with open and blatant anti-Semites who spread their poison in our country or call for the elimination or destruction of Jewish communities anywhere else in the world—is not acceptable, ever. Licensing hate means death for Jews.

Anti-Semitism is a bright red line in our politics that no one in our public life can be permitted to cross and expect to receive the support of our community, whether we are proud Democrats or proud Republicans.

Support for Israel is not an excuse for calling for the elimination of Jews or the Jewish religion. Support for immigrants or other marginalized groups is also not an excuse. Past histories of individual or group oppression at the hands of anyone, anywhere is not an excuse. Being Jewish, or having a Jewish parent or grandparent, is not an excuse. There are no more excuses.

In that spirit, here is a list of candidates in Tuesday’s hotly contested congressional elections who have expressed blatantly anti-Semitic views or endorsed or refused to condemn individuals or ideas that are blatantly anti-Semitic.

I just want to take a moment to note how deeply stupid and toxic is this line of thinking--which we see every time Farrakhan says something anti-Semitic. pic.twitter.com/gLWh8e9caF
— John-Paul Pagano (@johnpaulpagano) November 3, 2018

BBC report on Jerusalem-Tel Aviv train parrots absurd Palestinian claims

The BBC produced a slick piece about the newly opened high speed train between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv:

Of course, it has to say things that are anti-Israel, so it interviews Palestinians in Beit Surik, who live as much as 80 meters above the train tracks.

They don't know much about the train, but they are sure of one thing: their human rights are being violated, somehow.

"Villagers fear they may lose access to some of their land," the BBC caption tells us, backed up by a resident of the village who says "We do not have enough information about the route of the train. But whether it is above land or under the land, it is the same problem. I am sure we will not have the freedom to work our lands."

But that part of the route is completed. The farmers of Beit Surik aren't impacted - they have not been restricted from farming, even while the tunnel was being excavated. They don't even know exactly where the tunnel is! Certainly they are not affected by this train line in the least.

The claim that the train will force the villagers to lose access to their farms is provably, obviously false. Yet the BBC parrots it as if there is any credence to it.

Beyond that, the BBC article implies that the train might be extended to the Western Wall, which is absurd. The controversial talk about a light rail to the Western Wall would be a different line, which has nothing to do with this train.

(h/t Yoel)

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A couple of weeks ago, I reported that J-Street's leaders, including Jeremy Ben Ami, had met with Mahmoud Abbas and other Palestinian leaders, including one whose statements showed that he supported terrorism.

It turns out that that member of the Fatah central committee, Hussein al-Sheikh, is a terrorist himself.

Stephen Flatow, father of a terrorist victim, writes:

Thursday, March 21, 2002, was a pleasant early spring morning in Jerusalem. King George Street, in the heart of the city, was packed with shoppers. Suddenly, a Palestinian suicide bomber struck. The explosion left three people dead, and more than 100 wounded. One of the fatalities was Tzippi Shemesh, who was five months pregnant with twins.

Among the wounded were a number of Americans. The force of the explosion hurled U.S. citizen Alan Bauer 20 feet. Two screws that were packed into the bomb ripped clear through his left arm. His 7-year-old son, Jonathan, suffered severe shrapnel wounds and fell into a coma. Jonathan subsequently underwent numerous operations to remove nails and screws from his head, including one that was lodged in his brain. Needless to say, he was left with permanent injuries.

The Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, which is the military arm of Abbas’s Fatah movement, openly claimed responsibility for the bombing. In fact, it was that bombing that moved the U.S. State Department to finally put the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade on its official list of terrorist groups.

Members of the Shemesh family filed suit against the PA and, as a result, details of those who were involved in the attack became public. Earlier this year, the Jerusalem District Court ruled that the PA was responsible for the bombing. In its ruling, the court cited closed-door testimony provided by Israeli intelligence officials who named names—including “senior Fatah official Hussein al-Sheikh, who met the suicide bomber and two other operatives and gave them money and two hand grenades to carry out the bombing.”

So Al-Sheikh literally put hand grenades into the hands of the bomber and his assistants, in order to murder innocent people, and financed their attack. Which, according to American and Israeli law, makes Al-Sheikh equally guilty of the murders and maiming of their victims.

Al-Sheikh's involvement in terror has been known for years:

Even before the Jerusalem court ruling, the American government was aware of Al-Sheikh’s terrorist background. Several years ago, a scheduled meeting between Al-Sheikh and U.S. diplomats at the American Consulate in Jerusalem was canceled when U.S. officials realized Al-Sheikh’s connection to the bombing.

Hussein al-Sheikh should be extradited and tried in the US for his role in shedding the blood of Americans. But to J-Street, he is someone to be embraced as someone who supports peace.

Jeremy Ben Ami must be forced to answer why he chose to embrace a terrorist with Jewish and American blood on his hands.

(Al-Sheikh is also a known sexual harasser. Since J-Street doesn't give a damn about Israeli and American lives, perhaps Jeremy Ben Ami will apologize for that.)

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The World Forum of Interfaith Dialogue Ambassadors, sponsored by the Organization of Muslim Scouts and taking place starting today in Tunisia, will not allow any Israelis to attend.

The Republican Party of Tunisia appealed to the Tunisian High Court to ensure that no Israelis could step foot in Tunisia, and the Court agreed. There were rumors that a single Israeli delegate would arrive via Paris.

The Scouts didn't deny that they invited the Israeli but commended the Court decision and emphasized their full support for Palestinians.

The conference's materials claim that the conference is open to any members of the World Religions Forum, World Scouts Organizations and national representatives of scouting organizations.

The topics of the sessions, ironically, include "dialogue between civilizations" and "promotion of the culture of tolerance."

The international scouting movement claims that "Scouting should reflect the societies in which it exists and actively work to welcome all individuals without distinction. This diversity should not only be reflected in the membership, but also the methods and programmes used within the Movement."

Israel is a member of the world scout organization.

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11/03 Links: Bari Weiss: When a Terrorist Comes to Your Hometown; Ben Shapiro: Israel is protecting Western civilization; The not-so-sweet taste of hypocrisy about anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Bari Weiss: When a Terrorist Comes to Your Hometown

I want to tell you what it is like when your neighborhood becomes the scene of a mass murder.

The first thing you should know is that when your phone pings with a text from your youngest sister saying, “There is a shooter at tree of life,” your brain will insist that it is not true, that it is a hoax.

But your fingers will write back immediately, unthinking: “is dad there.”

Your mouth will turn to cotton while you wait for your mom to confirm that your father, who goes to one of Squirrel Hill’s synagogues every Shabbat morning, was not in the building.

Then another of your sisters will send a link to the police scanner and you will listen as the calls come in from the scene. You hear an officer report that the shooter declared he wants to “kill all the Jews.” He has hit officers. “Shots fired. Shots fired. Shots fired.”

You will cancel all your plans and book a flight home. Before you are even on the plane you will start to hear rumors — a couple has been killed, a doctor. You will wonder which families in your neighborhood will be shattered.

The numbness will break only when you find out that Cecil Rosenthal — the intellectually disabled, gentle giant of a man your mother has known since grade school — was murdered along with his brother, David. You will picture him as a proud usher standing in the entrance to services, and you will wonder if he greeted the killer, too. And you will weep.

When an anti-Semitic murderer mows down Jews in the synagogue where you became a bat mitzvah, you might find yourself in the sanctuary again. But instead of family and friends, the sanctuary is host to a crew of volunteers — the chevra kadisha — who will spend the week cleaning up every drop of blood because, according to Jewish tradition, each part of the body must be sanctified in death and so buried.

Ben Shapiro Interview: Israel is protecting Western civilization

Conservative commentator Ben Shapiro‘s star has been rising in the US in recent years. He’s only 34 years old, but he began his career 17 years ago, writing a syndicated column, and now he has his own news site, The Daily Wire, “The Ben Shapiro Show,” a podcast with millions of listeners.

In between, he managed to become editor-at-large of the far-right – these days, some would say alt-right – website Breitbart, and resigned in 2016. Shapiro accused Breitbart chairman Steve Bannon, an eventual adviser to US President Donald Trump, of turning the site into “Trump’s personal Pravda.”

Later that year, the Anti-Defamation League identified Shapiro as the No. 1 target of online antisemitism among Jewish journalists in the US, and he received the most hate by far.

Shapiro continues to be targeted from all ends: from the Left, because he’s staunchly conservative, and from the Right, because he is not a Trump cheerleader, and doesn’t hesitate to criticize the president.

His no-nonsense attitude and caustic humor have attracted admirers and detractors; “facts don’t care about your feelings” is his most famous slogan, and he sells coffee mugs that are labeled “leftist tears.” He’s found allies in the self-described Intellectual Dark Web, a group of thinkers – their day jobs include academia, journalism and comedy – who don’t fit perfectly into mainstream media’s liberal or conservative labels, and have found wild success producing their own content online.

Although Shapiro is an Orthodox Jew and a vocal supporter of Israel, his content is aimed at a broader American audience, and therefore he doesn’t often focus on those areas.

In a conversation with The Jerusalem Post last month from his LA podcast studio, the father of two – married to a Moroccan-Israeli doctor about whom he often sweetly scheps naches (expresses great pride) – discussed American Jewish identity, support for Israel and more, in his typically no-holds-barred manner. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Caroline Glick: Israeli Cabinet Minister Challenges Propaganda on Trump and Antisemitism

Israeli Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett kicked in the foundations of the left’s case against President Donald Trump on Tuesday. And they didn’t like it.

Since Saturday’s massacre of 11 mostly elderly Jews at prayer at the Tree of Life Synagogue, prominent left-wing American Jewish activists and Never Trump pundits have blamed Trump for the massacre by insisting that he has empowered antisemitic forces in the U.S.

The “proof” these commentators provide for their incendiary allegation is the Anti-Defamation League’s 2017 report on antisemitic incidents in the U.S. The ADL alleged that during Trump’s first year in office, there was a 57 percent rise in antisemitic incidents.

Bennett flew to Pittsburgh Sunday as the representative of the Israeli government to show solidarity with the Jewish community in the aftermath of the massacre. Before travelling back to Israel, he participated in a roundtable discussion of antisemitism in New York at the Council on Foreign Relations.

When asked about the ADL data, Bennett said that he wasn’t certain that the report was accurate. “I’m not convinced those are the facts,” Bennett said adding, “I’m not sure there’s a surge in antisemitism in the United States.”

“We need to look at the facts. I understand that the ADL themselves have stated there is a drastic reduction in violent anti-Semitic events, but that has for some reason been hidden from the public discourse,” he maintained.

📆101 years ago today, Britain issued the Balfour Declaration, endorsing the Jewish people’s right to a national home.

“The Balfour Declaration puts Britain on the right side of history.”
—@IsraeliPM

📷Inspecting the original Declaration with Mrs Netanyahu at @BritishLibrary pic.twitter.com/JwXN5xwu7e
— Mark Regev (@MarkRegev) November 2, 2018

Iran threatens Gulf states, Israel, with missiles

From Ma'an:

Member of the Iranian Fatwa Council Ahmad Al-Huda warned of dire consequences for the countries of the region in the event of damage to his country's economy.

"The Iranian navy will control the Straits of Hormuz and three Saudi tankers will cross this strait every day, so if necessary we will stop the three vessels, confiscate the oil and take the workers to the families," he said in a Friday sermon.

"If they try to attack Iran, six international airports will be destroyed in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Riyadh, Bahrain and Qatar within 30 minutes using our missiles. The global economy and stock markets, especially those owned by Arab countries, will plummet and oil will reach $ 400 a barrel. "

"If Iran decides, within 90 minutes, all the Persian Gulf states will be eliminated, and the UAE and Saudi Arabia will be destroyed within 60 minutes, and above all Israel."

What's Israel have to do with it?

Obviously, everything! As always.

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