Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Tunisians upset that Jewish tourism minister said he wants to see peace for Palestinians

Because the Tunisian Tourism Minister Rene Trabelsi is Jewish, many Tunisians are out to get him.

One recent example I reported on was when a radio show tried to get him on the air to dispel a rumor about him trying to normalize relations with Israel - and he refused because it was Saturday, causing an uproar about his putting Judaism above his duties.

The newest controversy is that he was seen in an interview with i24News, where he said that he is committed to support the Palestinian cause and establish peace in the Middle East.

This caused another uproar.

One reason is because he was on an Israeli TV network. It doesn't look like he spoke to i24News directly, but through a partner channel, but the Tunisians are saying that clearly that was a ruse and he wanted to talk to an Israeli channel.

The other reason is that he said that he wanted peace. What business does he have to speak for Tunisia's foreign affairs ministry? By saying he wants peace, he is implicitly agreeing that Israel should exist!

The Popular Party called for his dismissal from the government, saying that he is clearly a Zionist and is acting like a foreign minister, and knowingly speaking with Israeli media.

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.

In 2007, a battle between Palestinian militants and the Lebanese Army destroyed the Palestinian "refugee" camp of Nahr al-Baled where 20,000 lived.

A conference in Vienna in 2008 saw the international community pledge to rebuild the camp. UNRWA requested $450 million, but only $120 million was pledged.

This week, the head of the Refugee Affairs Department, Dr. Ahmed Abu Houli, called on the donor countries that participated in that conference to honor their financial pledges to complete the reconstruction of the camp. So even the lower amount was never paid.

In cases like this, it is usually the Arab world that pledges big and never pays. And the Lebanese are still trying to get the pledged funds - 11 years later.

At this time only about half of the camp's residents have returned.

And no one talks about this.

Because - no Jews, no news.

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.

From the New York Post:

Families from around the globe have filed suit in Brooklyn federal court against several banks they say funded terrorism that killed their loved ones.

Three separate lawsuits filed Tuesday and Wednesday claim Lebanon’s Blom Bank, the Palestine Investment Bank and the Bank of Palestine maintained accounts for various branches of Hamas and other terrorist organizations, and that those funds were then used to murder innocents.

Among more than 100 plaintiffs are Eugene Goldstein, whose son Howard Goldstein was killed by Hamas gunmen while driving through Israel to attend his own son’s wedding in June 2003.

Another plaintiff, New Jersey native Moses Strauss, was riding on a bus in Jerusalem in 2003 when a Hamas suicide bomber on board the bus set off his vest. Twenty-three people were killed.

The lawsuits, which accuse the banks of aiding and abetting a terrorist organization, are suing for unspecified damages.

The Palestinian Money Authority has just issued this statement:

The Governor of Palestine Monetary Authority has been aware of recently filed civil litigation in the United States against 3 banks operating in Palestine which are Cairo Amman Bank, Bank of Palestine and Palestine Investment Bank. The Governor expressed his confidence that the lawsuits do not have any factual or legal basis. The Governor noted that all banks operating in Palestine are safe and sound institutions that are cornerstones of the Palestinian economy. Further, the banks will continue to be committed to compliance with laws and international best practices to counter money laundering and terror financing.

The Cairo Amman Bank annual report in 2015 discussed its efforts to fight money laundering and terrorist financing, but that department seems to have only been created after 2007 in response to the threat of lawsuits. The terror attacks that precipitated the lawsuits in the US all occurred beforehand.

The US General Accounting Office seems to have concluded in 2013 that the Cairo Amman Bank and Bank of Palestine both adhere to anti-money laundering rules, clearing the way for the US to provide funds to specific programs in the West Bank. Again, this was many years after the events mentioned in the lawsuit.

In 2004, Israeli forces seized over $6 million from terror-linked accounts in several banks in Ramallah, representing hundreds of accounts. Many of these were payments not for "martyrs" or prisoners but direct payments to terrorists who planned deadly attacks.

The senior security official said interrogations of arrested militants showed that an attack might bring its Palestinian planners a minimum of 3,000 to 5,000 shekels, or $673 to $1,122. He also said Israeli intelligence indicated that much of the seized money had come from Iran, funneled through the Lebanese guerrilla group Hezbollah.

Al Arabiya says that banks in Iran, Bank Saderat and Bank Saderat Iran, were sued as well for supporting Hezbollah terror attacks. It links to the same New York Post article, which at this time does not mention the Iranian banks.

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.

01/15 Links Pt2: World Council of Churches Trained 2,000 Anti-Israel Activists, Funded by UNICEF; Democrats drop Women’s March support; Enough with the Hysterics, Anti-BDS Laws Are Perfectly Constitutional

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Churches’ sin

The WCC, which was established in 1948, the same year as Israel, once performed a similar role in its campaign against apartheid South Africa. And if that analogy is not appalling enough, its activists have gone as far as comparing the Jewish state to Nazi Germany.

South African EAPPI activist Itani Rasalanavho, for example, said during an “Apartheid Week” event in his home country that “the time has come to say that the victims of the Holocaust have now become the perpetrators,” while EAPPI national coordinator in South Africa Dudu Mahlangu-Masango called for “total sanctions” on Israel.

The organization, according to NGO Monitor, also combats Christian Zionism. At a 2015 WCC event, it notes, Zionism was called “heresy” under Christian theology, modern Israelis were said to have no connection to ancient Israelites, and Israeli society was described as being “full of racism and light-skin privilege.”

In response, the WCC told the Post that its unique focus on Israel was the result of “a specific call from WCC’s member churches in the region.” However, it stressed that it “does not countenance equating Israel to Nazi Germany, neither in the training of participants in the EAPPI nor otherwise,” and does not support economic measures against Israel.

Since its establishment, “the WCC has denounced antisemitism as a sin against God and humanity, and we strongly maintain that position,” declared WCC Commission of the Churches on International Affairs director Peter Prove.

So who do we believe? Perhaps the best response, Mr. Prove, is: Prove it! If the WCC is not anti-Israel, then why is it funding what seems like a nefarious program in support of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against the Jewish state?

Its aim is to harm Israel’s good name, and someone needed to blow the whistle. WCC needs to put its house in order.

World Council of Churches Trained 2,000 Anti-Israel Activists, Funded by UNICEF

The World Council of Churches (WCC) has sent nearly 2,000 participants to Israel, and Judea and Samaria, since 2002 to train them in anti-Israel narratives and assign them to communities worldwide, according to a report from NGO Monitor.

With no similar program in other conflict zones, the WCC’s Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI) consists of activists being sent to “witness life under occupation.”

“EAPPI misuse tourist visas to enter Israel, where the group has no legal status,” according to NGO Monitor. “They are hosted in Jerusalem by a WCC affiliate, the Jerusalem Interchurch Center (JIC). Notably, the head of JIC, Yusuf Dahar, is one of the authors of the Kairos Palestine Document, which legitimizes terror, embraces anti-Jewish theology and rejects Jewish history. Similar views have been expressed by a number of WCC officials.”

The NGO Monitor report also stated that EAPPI has been funded by UNICEF and countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Switzerland, Finland, Denmark, Canada and Japan.

Norway contributed nearly $2 million between 2017 to 2019, while Sweden gave $500,000 between 2017 and 2018.

“We are sharing our research with the public and decision-makers as part of an informed discussion on EAPPI’s agenda and funding. The research highlights EAPPI’s radical agenda, which, rather than advancing or defending human rights, is a platform for conflict and antisemitism,” said NGO Monitor Founder and President Gerald Steinberg. “We have received numerous inquiries from Christian and Jewish groups calling attention to the central role played by EAPPI alumni in leading BDS and other delegitimization campaigns.”

A cautionary tale of European antisemitism

And if a recent large survey of antisemitism in Europe conducted by CNN is any indication, then there is truly reason to fear for the future of Jews on the continent.

Published last November, the poll, which included more than 7,000 interviewees, found that, “antisemitic stereotypes are alive and well in Europe, while the memory of the Holocaust is starting to fade.” Over a quarter of all Europeans say Jews have too much influence in business and finance and nearly the same percentage link Jews with global conflict and wars. Incredibly, according to CNN, “a third of Europeans in the poll said they knew just a little or nothing at all about the Holocaust.” In France, 20% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 said they had never even heard of it.

I am neither an alarmist nor a pessimist by nature. But anyone with even a modicum of historical memory cannot help but be frightened by what is happening in places such as Paris, London and Stockholm.

Unfortunately, in recent years, warnings of mounting European antisemitism have begun to resemble various traffic signs on the highway: little-noticed and largely unheeded. We have come to assume that, like the weather, all we can do in the face of European hatred of Jews is to shrug and move on with our lives.

Perhaps that may be true. But we must nonetheless try to stem this dangerous tide, first and foremost by calling out European leaders and holding them to account for failing to stamp out the antisemitism and Holocaust-denial that is metastasizing in their midst. By neglecting to educate the next generation about the horrors of the past and persistently bashing Israel for defending itself, Europe’s leaders are fanning the flames still further.

Indeed, if a lonesome loser such as Anton Drexler was able a century ago to kindle the spark that gave rise to Nazism, who knows what calamities today’s brand of open and brash European antisemitism, armed with popularity and the power of social media, may yet produce. The old cliché is that history repeats itself, but that is only partly true. In fact, it is people who enable it to happen and it is they who will bear the blame.

Know How to Answer, part 15: "Israel has the most hawkish government in its history"

The series continues...

Nearly six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.

Here is part 15.

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.

In Malaysia, Israeli Paraplegics Not Welcome - But Hamas Terrorists Holds Their Own "Event" There

By Daled Amos

Malaysia is making news - at least in the Jewish media - for its refusal to allow Israeli participants into the Paralympic Swimming event it is hosting this year from July 29 to August 4. This has broader implications for Israel since this is a qualifying event for the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics.

This is not even the first time Malaysia has blocked Israel from participating in a sports event.

As Elder of Ziyon pointed out 3 years ago, Malaysia also blocked 2 Israeli teenagers from competing in the 45th Youth Sailing World Championships held there in 2016. Malaysia also refused visas to Israel that year to prevent them from participating in the World Team Table Tennis Championships. The International Table Tennis Federation threatened a ban, but in the end, Israel withdrew because of security concerns.

Paralympics logo. Fair use

But Malaysia has no problem hosting Hamas terrorists, for whom it hosts their own special "events".

Hamas Logo. Fair Use

Malaysia provides Hamas with a training ground where it conducts financial activities, trains terrorists, and develops rockets and missiles.

When Malaysia’s prime minister Najib Razak visited the Gaza in 2013, he became the first non-Arab leader to visit Hamas since it grabbed control from the PA in a bloody civil war in 2007. Razak pledged Hamas political and financial support -- all of which is mutually beneficial: improving Hamas’ image worldwide, while also strengthening Razak’s own standing in Malaysia’s Muslim community.

As for Malaysia's Jewish community, there isn't one. In Malaysia itself, there are virtually no Jews remaining, as a result of state-sponsored Antisemitism:

Few Malaysians have laid eyes on a Jew; the tiny Jewish community emigrated decades ago. Nevertheless, Malaysia has become an example of a phenomenon called “Anti-Semitism without Jews.” Last March, for instance, the Federal Territory Islamic Affairs Department sent out an official sermon to be read in all mosques, stating that “Muslims must understand Jews are the main enemy to Muslims as proven by their egotistical behaviour and murders performed by them.” About 60% of Malaysians are Muslim.

In Kuala Lumpur, it’s routine to blame the Jews for everything from economic failures to the bad press Malaysia gets in foreign (“Jewish-owned”) newspapers.

Ten years ago, Forbes ran an article on The Myth Of A Moderate Malaysia. Even without having to make any mention of either Jews (around 100 remain) or Israel in the article, the article had no trouble seeing that

Malaysia has rejected secularism in favor of a kind of ethnoreligious apartheid that belongs more in a medieval kingdom than in a modern democratic republic.

In Malaysia, Islam is the state religion. Higher education, the bureaucracy and vast swathes of the economy are operated as a kind of spoils system almost exclusively for Malays, whom the state defines as Muslim. Race and religion determine everything from your odds of getting into medical school to the amount you're expected to put down for an apartment.

Not surprisingly, Malaysia is also a big supporter of BDS. Last year there was a call to boycott Malaysia’s largest television service provider, Astro, because it allegedly made a business deal with the Israeli software and service provider Amdocs. Malaysia also put pressure on McDonalds and Tesco, for alleged business relations with Israel. To counter this, these companies downplay the political aspect of their connection and instead emphasize how they provide jobs and help Malaysia's economic growth.

Yet Malaysia avoids the consequences of its actions, as its leader Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad manages to walk a thin line condemning the US while also playing a supportive role in fighting terrorism.

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Public Domain

Back in 2002, The New York Times reported on how moderate Malaysia is:

Dr. Mahathir has cracked down hard on suspected terrorists and shared intelligence with the United States, the kind of support the Bush administration wishes it were getting from Indonesia.

Some American officials have said Malaysia was a launching pad for Sept. 11, that it is a base for Islamic terrorists. Although a few of the hijackers did pass time here, Western and Asian analysts say that this is a moderate Islamic country, where extremists are as unwelcome as they are in Europe or the United States. [emphasis added]

In 2016, even the State Department praised Malaysia in its Country Reports on Terrorism praised Malaysia for its combatting terrorism, although it also noted that the same laws were used to harass and intimidate critics and political opponents.

It was a just a few months after that 2002 Times article that Malaysia's opposition Pan-Malaysia Islamic Party invited terrorists from Hamas and Hezbollah to speak at their conference, they claimed they had no formal links. That may be when Malaysia and Hamas terrorists started to begin to get close. At the time, Current Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad was prime minister then too -- and accused the opposition party of fomenting extremism.

So all things being equal, the question is not merely what is taking the International Federation for Paralympic Swimming so long to take real action.

The question is why are they holding their Olympics there to begin with?

Hat tip: This Ongoing War

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.

01/15 Links Pt1: PA Media: Israelis/Jews "defile" Muslim and Christian holy sites; The UN, the "State of Palestine" and the Torture of Women; Trump Should Endorse the Bush-Sharon Letter

From Ian:

PMW: Israelis/Jews "defile" Muslim and Christian holy sites

Muslim and Christian holy sites in "Palestine" are "defiled" and "desecrated" by the presence of Israelis/Jews. This hateful demonization is often expressed by Palestinians, including Palestinian leaders.

In December 2018, the PA "presidential office" stressed that Mahmoud Abbas was to have "urgent conversations" with Arab and international bodies about "the dangerous Israeli escalation," which among other things Abbas' office said is being expressed by "the defilement of the holy sites." [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 11, 2018]

Every time an Israeli/Jew enters Judaism's holiest site, the Temple Mount plaza, the PA calls it "an invasion" and a "defilement" or a "desecration."

Recently, official PA radio broadcast a song which included the lyrics: "The Zionist" has "defiled the mosques and churches" in the cities of "Haifa, Ramallah, Gaza, Jaffa, Ramle, Acre, and occupied Jerusalem":
"Where is the Arab army, where? ...
Haifa, Ramallah, Gaza, and occupied Jerusalem call to you
Jaffa, Ramle, Acre, and occupied Jerusalem call to you...
The Zionist has defiled their mosques and churches, and trampled our sanctity."
[Official PA radio station The Voice of Palestine, Dec. 19, 2018]

Israelis/Jews "defile" holy sites. This hateful demonization is often expressed by Palestinian leaders. Recently, official PA radio broadcast a song which included the lyrics: "The Zionist has defiled their mosques and churches."
Read more here: https://t.co/vVfWajqRYK pic.twitter.com/2THhiMBBwz
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) January 15, 2019

Khaled Abu Toameh: Muslims protest against kippah-clad policeman at Temple Mount

Muslim worshipers and guards for the Wakf Islamic religious trust protested on Monday against an Israeli policeman wearing a kippah who tried to enter the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount as part of a routine security patrol.

The protesters barricaded themselves inside the shrine after a large police force was rushed to the area, witnesses said. They demanded that the policeman remove the kippah before entering the site, triggering a standoff with police. The incident ended several hours later.

The Wakf claimed the police detained five east Jerusalem men as they were leaving the Temple Mount after the incident. The five were identified as Fadi Elayan, Yahya Shehadeh, Ahmed Abu Alya, Awad Salaymeh and Luay Abu al-Sa’ed.

The Wakf said in a statement that it had ordered the closure of the Dome of the Rock after an Israeli policeman “attempted to storm it while wearing a kippah.” It said that two Israeli policemen enter the site daily – in the morning and evening – for a routine security check.

“The guards at the Dome of the Rock asked the policeman to remove his kippah before entering the site, but he refused and insisted on entering it even by force,” the Wakf statement said. “The guards then closed all the gates of the Dome of the Rock. Later, police officers were deployed at the entrances to the Dome of the Rock, while the guards and worshipers remained inside.”

Khaled Abu Toameh: The UN, the "State of Palestine" and the Torture of Women

This is the kind of story that the "State of Palestine" does not intend to raise during its chairmanship of the largest bloc of developing countries at the UN. It seems that, from the point of view of the Palestinian Authority leadership, Jbara's ordeal does not fall within the category of human rights.

Jbara's story has barely attracted the attention of the international mainstream media. As far as many foreign journalists covering the Middle East are concerned, a Palestinian woman complaining about torture in a Palestinian prison is not newsworthy. Had she been detained by Israel, Jbara would have most likely made it to the front pages of the world's leading newspapers and magazines in a matter of minutes.

The PA regularly complains about human rights violations of Palestinians held in Israeli prison for security-related offenses. But when the PA's own security forces detain and torture a mother of three, Palestinian leaders are found elsewhere -- like at the helm of a UN bloc.

Caroline Glick: Mike Pompeo Destroys the Ideological Legacy of Obama’s Middle East

To sum up, Obama rejected America’s moral right to lead in world affairs. He undermined the morality of Israel’s very existence. He rejected the legitimacy of Arab governments and elevated the Muslim Brotherhood as a legitimate force in the Muslim world. And he ignored all of the pathologies of the Arab and Muslim world.

Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran; his hostile treatment of Israel; his support for the overthrow of allied and non-threatening Arab governments in Egypt, in Tunisia, and in Libya; and his refusal to take decisive action against either ISIS or Iranian aggression in Syria all were rooted in the anti-American principles he set out in his Cairo speech.

On Tuesday, Pompeo disavowed and condemned Obama’s speech point by point. Pompeo rejected Obama’s denunciation of American power insisting, “America is a force for good in the Middle East.”

Of the Muslim Brotherhood’s rise to power in Egypt following Mubarak’s ouster in 2011, Pompeo said

Pompeo went on to describe the Trump administration’s actions to restore and strengthen America’s alliances with its Arab allies, its strategy for countering Iranian aggression, and cultivating good relations between the Arab states and Israel.

He underlined the America’s continued commitment to utterly destroying Islamic State forces in Syria, even after U.S. forces are withdrawn. And he spoke in great detail about U.S. actions to curtail Iranian power and influence throughout the region.

There is little doubt that the media, the foreign policy establishment, the European Union and the Democrats will continue to seek to undermine Trump’s policies in the Middle East with the intention of paving the way for a restoration of Obama’s policies – based on Obama’s Cairo speech from January 4, 2009.

But on Thursday, by condemning and disavowing that speech in detail, from the place where it was delivered, Pompeo drove a spear through the lie at its very heart – that America is anything other than a force of good in the Middle East.

Nina Burleigh is Newsweek's National Politics Correspondent and a New York Times bestselling author.

And she is apparently also an antisemitic conspiracy theorist.

It started with a thread by Sarah Kendzior, a self described "Writer and scholar. Co-host of @gaslitnation. Author of the NYT bestseller THE VIEW FROM FLYOVER COUNTRY." In the thread she talks about lots of anti-Trump stories that she believes have inexplicably been dropped, like the charge that he raped a 13-year old girl, that he was involved in Israeli firm Black Cube targeting supporters of the Iran deal, and that "Chabad is used as a cover for criminal activity by international mafias and key players in the Trump team including Sater, Cohen, Kushner, Ivanka, etc. Briefly explored by Politico, then dropped."

Every tweet in the thread implicated one or more Jews.

Kendzior ended her thread with,

There are many more undercovered stories, but the press seems particularly reluctant to pursue these. Which is not surprising since those who do write about them are threatened.
Why officials also seem reluctant to investigate or prosecute obvious crimes - now there's a story...

Nina Burleigh weighed in on the thread:

The "third rail of American journalism," according to Burleigh, is obviously - Jews. That's why no one wants to pursue these "obvious" crimes.

No one has seemed to tell this to Bernie Madoff, Harvey Weinstein, Woody Allen, Anthony Weiner, Eliot Spitzer, Sholom Rubashkin, Jeremy Reichberg, the yeshivas of New York City...

This is a truly bizarre tweet (note that the Mossad is not mentioned by Kendzior. although Black Cube boasts some former Mossad members.) It betrays what Burleigh really feels.

I have not found any similar antisemitic craziness from Burleigh, although she ludicrously claimed that "settlers periodically try to take back the Dome of the Rock from the Muslims in Old Jerusalem," which makes her a sloppy reporter - but no sloppier than many other such "professionals" who write what they believe rather than the facts.

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.

For the past week, the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt has been closed.

While it had been closed for much of the past six years, last May it was opened as Hamas allowed the Palestinian Authority to man the crossing. Egypt severely restricted who could travel through the crossings but several thousand were allowed to cross in both directions monthly.

Then on January 9, the PA announced that it will stop its presence at the crossing, ostensibly because their employees were being harassed and arrested by Hamas. However, Palestinian Authority Minister of Civil Affairs Hussein Al Sheikh said in an interview that the closure was part of the PA's attempts to pressure Hamas into surrendering in their longstanding dispute.

It should be noted that Egypt can open the crossing any time it wants, but at this time it refuses to open it unless the Palestinian Authority is there. In the past Egypt did open the crossing sporadically to traffic when Hamas controlled the crossing, and during the time the Muslim Brotherhood controlled Egypt the crossing was open often. On Sunday, Egypt did allow crossing one way into Gaza, but not out, so PA presence is certainly not necessary for the border to be opened.

As usual, the news story is of little interest to international media, because Palestinian suffering from infighting is not nearly as interesting to the world as when Israel can be blamed.

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.

Qatari schoolbooks say that Jews are liars, cowards; Torah teaches Jews to steal, cheat and murder

From the official Qatari eighth grade textbook on Islamic education (pages 76-80 on Khaybar):

A characteristic of the Jews from the Quran is they hate the truth.

Lessons from Khaybar:

1. The inherent characteristic of Jews in all times is cowardice and weakness.

From the official Qatari eleventh grade textbook on Islamic education (pages 135-140 on Judaism):

Judaism is a term for a false religion distorted from the true religion which Moses came, since he did not come with Judaism, but came with Islam (p. 135)

The Zionist movement is a Jewish political movement which managed to convince most of the Jews to control the whole world in order to have dominance (page 136, not screen-captured)

The current Torah is full of cruelty and barbarism, and the Jews are allowed to cheat, steal and treachery , deceit, murder and other things that the current Torah contained. (p. 137)

You know how Arabs love to say that they have no problems with Jews and Judaism?

That doesn't quite jive with what their textbooks say.

This is all online, I checked the translations as best I could. Feel free to factcheck me.

(h/t WC)

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.

01/14 Links Pt2: World Council of Churches trainees use antisemitic rhetoric, advocate BDS; The NYTs' War on Israel and Jews Who Support It; Douglas Murray: Lessons We Seem Unwilling to Learn

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: EAPPI: The World Council of Churches’ Training Camp for Anti-Israel Advocacy

Executive Summary Click Here for Full Report [pdf]

EAPPI, the World Council of Churches’ flagship project on Israel and the Arab-Israel conflict, has brought 1,800 volunteers to the West Bank to “witness life under occupation.” The World Council of Churches does not run similar activities in other conflict zones. By singling out Israel, EAPPI embodies antisemitism, as defined in the International Holocaust Remembrance Association’s working definition.

Despite marketing itself as a human rights and protection program, EAPPI places significant emphasis on political advocacy before, during, and after the trip. When volunteers return to their home countries and churches, they engage in anti-Israel advocacy, such as BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) campaigns and comparing Israel to apartheid South Africa and Nazi Germany.

Participants are selected by country-specific non-governmental organizations (NGOs) known as “National Coordinators.” The National Coordinators are also active in BDS and other delegitimization campaigns against Israel.

EAPPI receives funding from a variety of sources, including the WCC and National Coordinators. Funding from different governments is directed to EAPPI through the National Coordinators and via UNICEF.

EAPPI contributes to a UN “Working Group” consisting of a number of UN agencies and NGOs that collaborate on and coordinate politicized anti-Israel campaigns in the West Bank. In this capacity, EAPPI does “a lot of administrative work which is fed into UN systems.”

EAPPI partners with a number of political NGOs in the region, including groups that support BDS campaigns against Israel and/or that accuse Israel of “war crimes.”

The significant problems with EAPPI, as laid out in this report, should be seen in light of the antisemitism1 and demonization that emerges from EAPPI’s parent body (World Council of Churches), partners, and affiliated staff.

World Council of Churches trainees use antisemitic rhetoric, advocate BDS

WCC leadership and EAPPI volunteers have repeatedly made comparisons of Israeli actions to those of Nazi Germany in their advocacy sessions. For example, WCC general secretary Dr. Olav Fyske Tveit said: “I heard about the occupation of my country during the five years of World War II as the story of my parents. Now I see and hear the stories of 50 years of occupation.”

In 2017, an observer Rev. Gordon Timbers of the Presbyterian Church of Canada gave a presentation. When an audience member asked if “Jewish people who go in to see...the model of the gas chambers” see similarities between that and the West Bank, Timbers responded that “there are similarities,” including the use of identification papers.

South African EAPPI activist Itani Rasalanavho said during an “Apartheid Week” event in his home country that “the time has come to say that the victims of the Holocaust have now become the perpetrators.”

In a presentation by Rev. Joan Fisher, an EAPPI activist, she quotes a Palestinian cleric as saying: “We are sympathetic to the suffering of our Jewish brothers and sisters in the Holocaust, but you don’t deal with one injustice by creating another injustice.”

The IHRA Working Definition of Antisemitsm states that “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is an example of antisemitism.

The WCC supports boycotts and divestment from settlements, but EAPPI activists have called for a boycott of all of Israel.

The EAPPI publication “Faith Under Occupation” called in 2012 for “sanctions and suspension of US aid to Israel,” to “challenge Israel in local and international courts” and “economic boycotts.”

EAPPI National Coordinator in South Africa Dudu Mahlangu-Masango signed a letter to then-president Jacob Zuma calling “on our government and civil society to instigate broad-based boycott, divestment and sanctions on Israel” in 2012. She repeated this call in a 2018 television interview, calling for “total sanctions” on Israel.

Caroline Glick: The New York Times' War on Israel and Jews Who Support It

Following the 2016 presidential election, Weisman wrote a book which purported to be about anti-Semitism titled, (((Semitism))): Being Jewish in America in the Age of Trump.

Weisman did three things in his book. He used the presence of antisemitism on the right as a means to castigate the entire Republican party and conservative movement as antisemitic. He ignored and dismissed antisemitism on the Left. And finally, Weisman attacked Judaism, Jews who observe Judaism, and Jews who support Israel.

Weisman accused pro-Israel American Jews of disloyalty to America, arguing, “The American Jewish obsession with Israel has taken our eyes off not only the politics of our own country, the growing gulf between rich and poor, and the rising tide of nationalism but also our own grounding in faith.”

Weisman’s January 4 article in the Times was an amplification of the arguments he made in his book. Again he ignored left wing anti-Semitism. He regurgitated Goldberg’s allegations of Israeli moral infirmity. He defended Tlaib and Omar and their hatred for Israel. And thne, Weisman insisted that American Jewry should forget its ties to Jewish tradition and to the Jewish people and instead embrace an identity based entirely on leftist ideology and propaganda.

In his words, “American Jewry has been going its own way for 150 years, a drift that has created something of a new religion, or at least a new branch of one of the world’s most ancient faiths.”

It is hard to know how influential the Times‘ ever-escalating campaign against Jews will be on the American Jewish community. Survey results and other data indicate that the vast majority of American Jews are not buying the claim that Israel is morally infirm, incapable of discerning its national interest, and deserving of hatred and destruction.

Most American Jews don’t think that American Jews should tell Israel how to handle the security and other challenges it faces. And even as anti-Israel groups in the American Jewish community receive adulation and attention disproportionate to their small numbers, they do not seem to have built major inroads into the Jewish community. This explains why their efforts are directed towards weakening existing Jewish institutions rather than building their own. Their constituencies are too small to support them.

But whether the New York Times succeeds or fails in its campaign to mainstream leftist antisemitism, shame pro-Israel American Jews, and detach the Jewish community in the U.S. from Israel and the rest of the Jewish world, it is worth taking note of, and condemning, what the newspaper is attempting to do.

Know How to Answer, part 14: "Palestinians accept a two state solution"

Nearly six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.

Here is part 14. This has not aged since 2013.

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.