Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 31, 2019

12/31 Links Pt2: Palestinian NGOs Reject European Aid, Due to Refusal to Renounce Terror Ties; New Israeli Scholarship Shows That an Alleged 1948 Massacre Never Happened

From Ian:

Palestinian NGOs Reject European Aid, Due to Refusal to Renounce Terror Ties

Over 100 Palestinian NGOs have refused to sign an EU grant request because it demands that funds cannot be handed over to terrorist groups.

The director of the BDS organization Al-Haq, Shawan Jabarin, told The New Arab, “We demanded to include conditions stipulating that we do not have to recognize the criteria listed regarding terror groups.”

Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs said in a statement that this was due to “shared ties between supposed Palestinian human rights organizations and terrorist groups,” and cited its report “The Money Trail,” which found that “EU institutions have awarded millions of euros in financial aid to Palestinian civil society organizations which have ties to terrorist entities and promote boycotts against Israel.”

In another report, titled “Terrorists in Suits,” the ministry revealed “over 100 ties shared between BDS organizations and internationally designated terrorist groups … including the PFLP and Hamas.

“According to the report, so-called Palestinian civil society organizations act as medium for funds for terrorist entities, enabling them to raise money for their activities through legitimate bodies including the EU,” the ministry added.

“The opposition of these organizations to criteria preventing the transfer of funds to terror related activities proves the report’s claim,” the ministry’s statement asserted.

50 Leftist Jews to Spend Winter Vacation in ‘Direct Co-Resistance’ in Judea & Samaria, Fly Home in 10 Days

To start, you should know there’s a thing called The Center for Jewish Nonviolence, and that it “strives for a future that honors the full equality and shared humanity of both Palestinians and Israelis.”

Then you should know that on Monday the CJNV tweeted: “CJNV delegation begins—International Jewish activists defy crackdown on Palestinian solidarity activism during delegation to the Occupied Territories.”

IfNotNow, one of the groups represented in this unusual Xmas vacation in the Holy Land, tweeted: “A group of our members, along with members of J Street, JVPlive, Naamod UK and other Jewish left orgs around the world just hit the ground in the West Bank as part of CJNV’s newest delegation. They’ll engage in direct co-resistance work with Palestinian activists.”

We have no blessed idea what the crackdown on Palestinian solidarity activism even means, never mind how one goes about defying it, and what’s the meaning of “direct co-resistance work” – in ten days or less (they’re flying home at the end of the revolution). We do know from the group’s press release that it will include “civil disobedience, educational sessions and community building projects.”

Then lunch.

That’s a lot to accomplish in ten days. We signed up for the daily updates, in the hope they’ll be as entertaining as the first couple of tweets.

David Collier: Antisemitism and the conflict – explained in two simple maps

This is the entire story of antisemitism and the Israel / Arab conflict delivered in two simple maps. One map is based on Jewish populations in the 1930s, the other Jewish populations today. The maps are not just of Europe or the Middle East, but the entire Europe, Middle East and North Africa region. People love to make everything seem complex. Sometimes the best thing to do is cut out the noise:
Map: Jewish populations Europe and MENA region 1930s

Map: Jewish populations Europe and MENA region 2010s

If anyone notices any important mistakes, let me know. The figures in the maps are a collation of official European pre-holocaust figures, scholarly estimates from the Arab ethnic cleansing of their Jewish populations and contemporary population figures. Only significant populations of 50k+ have been considered unless the population is smaller but still a sizeable % of the total population.

Put the two images side by side and everything suddenly becomes clear. The horrific scale of the destruction of Jewish communities. But also the antisemitic obsession with Israel. Some spend their time arguing that anti-Zionism isn’t antisemitism, but just look at the maps. Tell me that having hounded, persecuted, expelled and murdered their Jewish communities throughout the regions, that the current obsession with that one tiny concentration of Jews that is left – the Jews in Israel – isn’t driven by antisemitism.

News that the media missed: Israel installs system to allow 12,000 Palestinian workers to speed through Tulkarem crossing daily

We hear horror stories about how demeaning and time consuming it is for Palestinian workers to cross into Israel.

Yet when Israel fixes the problem, the media suddenly loses interest in reporting the story.

10 new SpeedGates were recently installed at the Ephraim Gate (Tulkarem) Crossing. More than 12,000 residents pass through the crossing from the West Bank each day and travelers can already feel a significant improvement in transit conditions and a reduction in travel time. pic.twitter.com/amaKuzsfGA
— COGAT (@cogatonline) December 19, 2019

It is much easier to report the lie that Israel wants to humiliate Palestinians for no reason than to report the reality that Israel wants to make everyone's lives easier while maintaining its security.

Unfortunately, the lie sells newspapers and helps ratings, while the truth is complicated and messy and doesn't conform with what so many people want to believe.

So the truth is buried.

(h/t Irene)

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12/31 Links Pt1: Anti-Semitism Is a Threat to Western Civilization Itself; Victimhood Culture Leads to Anti-Semitism; Peace through sports? Qatar to let Israelis in for 2022 World Cup

From Ian:

Anti-Semitism Is a Threat to Western Civilization Itself

On Saturday night, a man burst into a rabbi’s home in Monsey, NY, where a Hanukkah party was taking place, and began stabbing people with a machete. In North London, that same night, the walls of a synagogue and several shops were spray-painted with anti-Semitic slogans. Daniel Johnson comments on both incidents:
The appearance of graffiti in North London seems, by comparison, merely symbolic. Yet the fact that it happened against the background of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership of the Labor party gives it a sinister significance.

The fact that these incidents happened at Hanukkah is also ominous. In the German city of Halle, a synagogue was attacked by a gunman at Yom Kippur only last month. Jewish festivals present opportunities for anti-Semites to target victims wherever they gather together. By deliberately turning solemn occasions of communal worship into times of fear and anxiety, anti-Semites seek to disrupt the rhythm of the religious calendar that is the essence of Judaism.

Yet the Jewish people has never allowed itself to be intimidated, let alone subdued, by such threats. The Hebrew Bible is the story of a nation that survived every attempt to crush its identity and suppress its faith in the God of Abraham and Isaac.

It is up to the rest of society to show their Jewish friends and neighbors that they will not look the other way as the oldest hatred renews itself. . . . Western leaders, too, have a responsibility to protect their Jewish citizens. This Hanukkah, Boris Johnson tweeted: “Britain would not be Britain without its Jewish community.” True enough, but tweets and gestures are not an adequate answer to lies, murder, and mayhem. Anti-Semitism is a mortal threat not only to the Jewish people but to Western civilization itself.

Victimhood Culture Leads to Anti-Semitism

The left’s leading populists have fetishized the victim status of certain minorities, including African Americans. They’ve made slavery and its legacy the focal points of American life. They’ve determined, without evidence, that police are on a campaign to kill unarmed blacks. And they speak generally as if we’ve suddenly been transported to a pre-civil-rights-movement America.

What’s more, unlike Donald Trump, some of the left’s leading populists have gone out of their way to steer their followers toward blaming the Jews. The stand-out figures here are Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar and Michigan Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. Their public record of blaming Jewish money for corrupting American politics is so well known that it needs no rehearsing here. And it’s either been ignored or defended by the larger left. If you called either of them out on their anti-Semitism, you were charged with racism and misogyny. Democratic leaders were so petrified of Omar that they couldn’t even pass a House resolution condemning her blatant anti-Semitic remarks.

But the problem on the left goes beyond Omar and Tlaib. And it goes beyond the rest of the Squad, who engage in constant anti-Israel theatrics. It stretches to the identitarian populism of most of the 2020 Democratic candidates for president, to the liberal garment-rending over the defeat of the anti-Semitic Jeremy Corbyn, to the intersectional gobbledygook that divides college campuses by ethnicity, to the Women’s March activists who embrace Louis Farrakhan, and down to the community level, where, for example, the NAACP, Passaic branch posts Facebook rants blaming tainted water supplies on the Jews.

Historically, indulged victims have needed no encouragement in pointing their finger at Jews. Telling them that others are responsible for their woes has usually been enough to get them headed in that direction. But some on today’s left have given Jew-hatred an extra nudge. Their winks, dog-whistles, and outright calumnies have served as a noxious propaganda campaign and led to a surge of minority anti-Semitism. With the attempted murders in Monsey, this can no longer be kept a secret, and maybe those who have facilitated it will begin to know a little shame.

Bethany Mandel: Stop using Jewish blood to smear your political enemies

Those who reflexively blame President Trump for any and all attacks, no matter how unrelated his administration, actions, or rhetoric are, have made a conscious choice: They would rather play politics than put an end to the violence. And worse, it seems they would like it to continue, in order to have more ammunition against the White House leading up to the 2020 election.

Just as dangerous are those on the Right who are using the occasion to lecture Jews on how they should be voting, that they should be arming themselves and fortifying their houses of worship, and where they should be living. The problem of anti-Semitism isn’t because Jews vote one way or another. (This is a complicated issue when you break down voting histories between Orthodox and secular Jews, but that is a conversation for another time.)

Solving anti-Semitism doesn’t involve making our supermarkets, schools, synagogues, and more into fortresses. That’s not how any of us want to live. Unfortunately, we’ve begun to, and yet the violence continues and is becoming more serious by the day. Most of the attacks in New York have been in the streets, and they’ve taken place against men, the elderly, and even women with their children, in broad daylight and in full view of the public.

Advocating for Jews taking advantage of the protections of the Second Amendment is a moot point for many panicked Jews living in areas where obtaining a gun permit is an uphill climb and a conceal carry permit an absolute impossibility. We can recognize that Jews are safer while armed and advocate for less restrictive gun laws while still acknowledging that guns aren’t a magic bullet to solve this crisis, either. In the long term, there is a battle to be fought for expanded access to guns, but in the short term, lectures about firearms are paternalistic and can be deeply frustrating for panicked people unable to avail themselves of the option.

That this is the case in New York and New Jersey isn’t the fault of the Orthodox Jews living there. Instead of being condescended to about needing to move, allies would be far more appreciated and be doing far more good, continuing to advocate for less restrictive gun laws in these jurisdictions instead of expecting a small community under siege to flee the homes of their parents and grandparents.

There are societal issues that are much more complex and deeper at play — the rot is far more complicated than mere politics and Trump. As long as the violence striking the Jewish community is treated as a political cudgel, it will continue unabated.

December 30, 2019 - Hour 1 (Guest Host Jon Gabriel)

Jon Gabriel, Editor-In-Chief at Ricochet, columnist for the Arizona Republic, and co-host of "The Conservatarians" podcast, fills in for Seth.
Guests: Bethany Mandel of Ricochet.com. (first 20 minutes)

Ken Roth, the head of Human Rights Watch, tweets more that President Trump does. Yet I cannot find any tweets where he denounces antisemitism that cannot be blamed on white nationalists.

Essentially, he denies that any other sort of antisemitism exists.

The one tweet that shows this more than any other was written in 2018:

Of 1,453 anti-Semitic crimes in Germany in 2017, nine out of ten were committed by members of far-right or neo-Nazi groups. But let’s blame the Muslims. https://t.co/T3W3DLMJ1p
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) April 27, 2018

The New York Times article he refers to is about a rally against antisemitism that was prompted by an attack by a Syrian on someone (who wasn't Jewish!) wearing a kippah.

The article describes all kinds of antisemitism in Germany - from immigrants, from a rap duo as well as from the far-Right. But Roth ignores almost the entire article to take one sentence that claims that 90% of antisemitic attacks are from the far-Right as he sarcastically demeans anyone who says that Muslim antisemitic attacks are worth mentioning.

Yes, a human rights advocate is literally making fun of anyone concerned about Muslim attacks on Jews.

Certainly Roth knows that the vast majority of violent attacks against Jews in Europe have been done by Muslims. He not only fails to acknowledge them, but he smugly denounces anyone who mentions it!

What about this German study that supposedly says that 90% of attacks are from the far-Right? It turns out that the study was worthless.

The German government uses outdated and ambiguous definitions of the motivation behind antisemitic attacks that by their nature do not include specifically Muslim antisemitism as a category, only the vague "foreign ideology" or "religious ideology" as well as right and left wing. So, for example, when 20 Muslims chanted "Sieg Heil" at an Al Quds demonstration in 2014, the government absurdly classified that as "right wing" antisemitism. Four Palestinians who burned down a synagogue were not charged with an antisemitic crime.

In reality, German Jews have reported that 41% of the antisemitism they have experienced comes from Muslim extremists, and only 20% from the far-Right - not much more than the 16% from the far-Left.

The German government itself has written a 40-page report specifically on Muslim antisemitism.

Ken Roth never mentioned any of this.

If the German government and German Jews (as well as other studies) refute the claim that nearly all antisemitism in Germany comes from the far-Right, then why does a supposedly human rights defender actively deny the evidence and cherry picks only one specific type of antisemitism to ever denounce?

There is nothing wrong with combating the very real danger of right wing antisemitism. There is something very wrong about denying that any other types exist or are worth talking about. If you deny the very existence of a type of antisemitism that conflicts with your political beliefs, then you are a denier and enabler of antisemitism.

What kind of a human rights leader makes fun of the very real fears of people of Islamic extremist antisemitism?

Ken Roth, by sarcastically denying that any non-Right version of antisemitism even exists, shows that he is unqualified to call himself a human rights advocate at all.

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Abbas reiterates: If he has only one penny in his budget, he will use it to pay terrorists

PA president Mahmoud Abbas has emphasized that he will not allow any Israeli or Western moves to limit the salaries he pays terrorists, whom he calls "martyrs and prisoners."

Abbas said that if only penny remains in his budget, he will spend it on terrorists and their families. He said that he considers this issue a red line that he will not allow any change to.

The funny thing is that Abbas has reduced the budget for paying terrorists as a result of Israeli pressure, he just doesn't admit it. Members of Hamas have had their terror salaries cut a few months back and they even went on a hunger strike to protest that cut in November.

It seems that Abbas has no problem cutting Hamas out of his budget, even their "martyrs," something we've known for quite a long time.

Nevertheless, the West's "moderate" darling has made it abundantly clear that he supports "pay for slay." He proudly tells his people that his number one priority is not a state, not independence, not jobs, not the economy, and not even Jerusalem.

Abbas' top priority is rewarding terrorists who have killed and injured Jews.

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In 2014, after Israel refused to release a final batch of prisoners unless the PLO agreed to extend peace negotiations, the PLO responded by violating an agreement with Israel that it wouldn't sign international conventions join international bodies. In a very short time, the PLO signed the following conventions, without reservations:

The Fourth Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949 and the First Additional Protocol
The International Convention on the Suppression and Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid
The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
The International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
The Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Optional Protocol to the Convention on the Rights of the Child (on the involvement of children in armed conflict)
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment
The Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
The UN Convention against Corruption
The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations
The Vienna Convention on Consular Services
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
The Hague Convention (IV) respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land and its annex: Regulations Concerning the Laws and Customs of War on Land
The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities
The Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
The International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination

As we have been reporting, the signing of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) has been rejected recently by the Palestinian Authority's own Supreme Fatwa Council and has been denounced by a group of tribal leaders. An analysis of Palestinian Authority laws also shows that CEDAW was never implemented in legal codes; discrimination against women is in fact the law.

Given what we know about the Palestinian Authority, it clearly has not taken seriously a number of other conventions it signed in 2014, including the ones against racial discrimination (which include the rights to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, freedom of opinion and expression, freedom of peaceful assembly and association); corruption, torture, civil and political rights, and apartheid. Its policies still include antisemitic laws against selling land to Jews. It is considered one of the most corrupt regimes in the Arab world. It still tortures prisoners with impunity.

The editor-in-chief of the Ma'an media network, Dr. Nasser Al-Lahham, made an astonishing admission about the Palestinian Authority in a television show over the weekend on the topic of CEDAW:

Regarding the CEDAW agreement, which recently sparked controversy, Al-Lahham sees it as a fabricated crisis for partisan reasons, and that its signature is important so that Palestine is part of the international system, calling on those concerned about the CEDAW agreement to be reassured that there is no civil marriage in Palestine...
He continued: "The government cannot implement CEDAW in its entirety in light of the existence of a societal system, and that the signing of the agreement is political and was not intended to undermine the Sharia, and had it not been for the signing of CEDAW and many other agreements, the International Criminal Court would not have accepted us."

He is admitting that the PLO never had any intention of honoring its agreements with the international community, and the only reason these conventions were signed were to take on the trappings of a state so they could join the ICC and prosecute Israel!

It is notable that Israel signed CEDAW with reservations on two of its paragraphs because Israel relies on Muslim and Jewish law for personal issues like marriage that cannot be reconciled with CEDAW. The PLO didn't sign it with any reservations about Sharia law, simply because it never intended to honor the convention to begin with - and by extension, it never intended to honor any of the agreements it signed.

This proves yet again that the PLO and PA have no intention for "Palestine" to be a serious member of the international community. The only reason for its existence is to attack Israel, not to build a functioning state that protects the rights of its citizens.

The ICC prosecutor should be made aware that the "State of Palestine" is not a state and its signed agreements that underlie its claims to statehood are meaningless.

Ironically, Muslims say that Jews are inherently violators of treaties, based on Quranic stories about Mohammed. Here we see that Palestinians knowingly violate international treaties and never intended to abide by them from the outset.

The international community should revisit every single treaty signed by the PA and PLO and demand full compliance - or it should expel the Palestinians from treaties that they have joined without intent of implementing.

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12/30 Links Pt2: The ICC has some nerve to target Israel; Prosecutors find anti-Semitic materials on Monsey suspect’s phone, journals; After US attacks Iranian-backed militias, is America back in the game?

From Ian:

Josh Hammer: The ICC has some nerve to target Israel

Bensouda’s prosecution is utterly lawless. As a political matter, the West must push back against this encroachment on the sovereignty of a democratic nation-state.

For starters, the ICC is structurally biased against Israel. As international-law expert Eugene Kontorovich noted when the Palestinian Authority sought formal ICC membership in 2015, the Rome Statute, which created the ICC, included language at the behest of the Arab states specifically designed to demonize Israeli “settlement” activity in the West Bank.

That should have given away the ICC game. But even under the ICC’s own terms, Bensouda’s attempted prosecution doesn’t pass muster. It lacks jurisdiction.

Under the Rome Statute, the ICC can go ahead with a prosecution in a country only if the state has delegated jurisdiction to the international court. But which state could delegate jurisdiction to the ICC in the case of the Palestinian territories? Certainly not the fictional “State of Palestine,” which even the United Nations doesn’t formally recognize as a state.

Plus, if Israel is a nefarious “occupier” of Palestine, as Palestinian propaganda constantly claims, then it means that the “State of Palestine” isn’t sovereign over its own claimed territory and therefore can’t delegate jurisdiction to the ICC.

An ICC prosecution, moreover, would flout the Oslo Accords, which call for direct negotiations between the parties to reach a final political settlement and under which Israel retains full civil and military control over the majority of the West Bank territory.

A still more glaring problem: Israel is a democratic state with civilian control of the military and an independent, rigorous judiciary that can adjudicate war-crimes allegations. This isn’t some war-torn, broken state or one transitioning out of recent dictatorship — like, er, Gambia. Israel doesn’t need ICC supervision to prosecute war crimes by its own soldiers.

But Bensouda cares not for legal niceties. She has previously opined that Gaza, from which Israel unilaterally withdrew in 2005, remains occupied, because the “international community” says so. The fact that she has gone ahead with this prosecution means she already buys the anti-Israel narrative wholesale: that “Palestine” is a sovereign state; that all of the West Bank belongs to that Palestinian state; and that Jews living in their biblical heartland are war criminals.

Did ICC prosecutors engage with Hamas when drafting case against Israel?

Prosecutors from the International Criminal Court did not deny that they engaged with representatives of the terrorist groups Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) when preparing their case to investigate Israel for alleged war crimes.

When asked whether it heard arguments from Hamas, the ICC told The Jerusalem Post it engages with all kinds of groups within Israeli and Palestinian society. However, it added, its official focal point is with the Palestinian Authority, not Hamas.

Still, the PA’s official committee, appointed by President Mahmoud Abbas to handle matters related to the ICC, which definitely engaged with the court, includes representatives of Hamas and PFLP, among them individuals with known ties to terrorism.

PLO Secretary-General Saeb Erekat, head of the ICC committee, said on official Palestinian TV earlier this month – the day after the probe of Israel and the Palestinians was announced – that Hamas had been involved.

“This committee includes all the bodies of the Palestinian political spectrum without exception… We worked together as a team,” he stated in a video translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). “Dr. Ghazi Hammad, for example, was elected as the committee’s spokesman… He is one of Hamas’s leaders. There were six Hamas members in the committee. Khalida Jarrar – may she be released [from prison] soon – represented the PFLP. I don’t want to go into the names, but I will just say that no [faction] was left out.”

Fatah terror group holds parade in Gaza. Practically no one shows up.

The Nidal Al-Amoudi brigades of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades held a parade in Gaza to commemorate the 55th anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack.

About ten years ago, Mahmoud Abbas claimed he dismantled all the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades military groups. He lied.

There were a few teen gawkers at the parade, based on the photos, and no one else.

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12/30 Links Pt1: Why No One Can Talk About The Attacks Against Orthodox Jews; Monsey stabbing suspect may be tied to another knifing at nearby synagogue; In Light of Anti-Semitic Attacks, What Can You Do to Help?

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Fight the hate together

The shooting incident at the kosher New Jersey supermarket on December 10 – in which two ultra-Orthodox Jews were killed along with a non-Jewish employee and a policeman – was another dreadful reminder that the situation is growing out of control.

The fatal attacks on worshipers in synagogues in Pittsburgh last year and Poway in April this year are a tragic evidence of the extent and dangers of the phenomenon.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has ordered a thorough investigation and New York Mayor Bill de Blasio tweeted, “Hate doesn’t have a home in our city,” promising an increased police presence in Jewish neighborhoods and adding, “Anyone who terrorizes our Jewish community WILL face justice.”

We welcome their support and action.

Part of the problem is that Jews are targeted for attacks from many different directions: the far Right, Islamists and, in the case of the New Jersey attack, members of a marginal community of so-called Black Hebrews. The anti-Zionism and anti-Israel sentiment of the radical Left also fosters hatred. The BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement is another modern expression of antisemitism, singling out Jewish and Israeli businesses.

The wave of antisemitic attacks in the US has grabbed the headlines recently, but there have been incidents throughout Europe, the UK, Australia and elsewhere.

Several Israeli politicians condemned the attacks and urged the Jews to make aliyah. There are many reasons for Jews to move to Israel but it shouldn’t be done out of fear. And Jews shouldn’t have to live in fear wherever they are.

As Moroccan publisher Ahmed Charai wrote in an opinion piece in this paper earlier this month, “Antisemitism is everyone’s problem.” He called for cooperation in fighting hatred, writing, “Arabs and Jews simply must stop hating each other so that together we can face the truly dangerous people who hate us both.”

Zero tolerance for antisemitism cannot be a meaningless slogan. This kind of hatred does not bode well for society as a whole. The Jews will not be the only victims.

An American pogrom

Bill de Blasio, a longtime ally of Sharpton’s, responded with the same hypocrisy as the anti-Jewish violence in New York City ran out of control. In February 2017, Jacob Siegel recently noted in Tablet, the NYPD reported ‘an 81 percent increase in hate crimes compared to the same period in 2016, an increase largely caused by a 115 percent rise in incidents targeting Jews’. Questioned a few days after, de Blasio ignored his police department and the growing CCTV evidence: ‘The horrible, hateful rhetoric that was used in this election by candidate Trump and by a lot of his supporters directly connects to an increase since the election in anti-Semitic incidents, anti-Muslim incidents and anti-LGBT incidents.’

In June 2019, de Blasio called anti-Semitism ‘a right-wing force’. He continued to deny reality until the Jersey City killings. I’m sure he didn’t meant to incite, but the effect was to connive, just as Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders connive when they’re photographed with Al Sharpton as they compete for the Democratic nomination — or, moving from one kind of Jew-hatred to another, Nancy Pelosi connived with Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib by posing with them on the cover of Rolling Stone.

A similar connivance has corrupted the pro-Democratic media which uses the killing of Jews by white supremacists to hammer President Trump, only to consistently suppress the embarrassing reality of attacks on Jews by non-whites. On Sunday, Seth Mandel of the Washington Examiner described ‘practically begging’ editors to cover anti-Jewish violence that didn’t come from white nationalists, a ‘humiliating spectacle’ made all the worse by consistently negative responses.

‘There’s no one doing this work at the Atlantic,’ Mandel wrote. ‘There’s no one doing this work at the Washington Post.’ Nor, he said, are the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books covering what’s happening on their doorsteps. The same, Mandel said, goes for HuffPost, Slate, Mother Jones, Vox, BuzzFeed, the Daily Beast and NPR.

I hope Mandel is wrong and that all of these publications have assigned resources and reporters to an obvious and serious crisis in American life. Many of them have recently supported and published worthy investigations into the ways in which Republican politicians have mainstreamed the bigotry of white racists. It’s time that they did the same with the Democrats — and past time for the Democrats themselves to address their longstanding complicity with their preferred forms of anti-Jewish incitement.

Batya Ungar-Sargon: Why No One Can Talk About The Attacks Against Orthodox Jews

And therein lies the trouble with talking about the violent attacks against Orthodox Jews: At a time when ideology seems to rein supreme in the chattering and political classes, the return of pogroms to Jewish life on American soil transcends ideology. In the fight against anti-Semitism, you don’t get to easily blame your traditional enemies — which, in the age of Trump, is a non-starter for most people.

Of course, the rise in anti-Semitism is not incidental to the times we live in. While the Brooklyn attackers are, at least according to demographic trends, extremely unlikely to be Trump supporters, our president, who has a penchant for anti-Semitic tropes, is a conspiracy theorist, and anti-Semitism often manifests as a conspiracy theory about secretive Jewish power.

But conspiracy theories flourish on the left as well in today’s day and age. They twist and torque those rigid ideologies to which so many are enslaved, reshaping the extremes from polar opposites into a horseshoe whose ends meet — again and again — to justify, excuse, or muzzle criticism of anti-Semitism.

It has resulted in a staggering, shameful silence when it comes to speaking out on behalf of the wave of pogroms against the Orthodox. For many people, it seems when they can’t blame the other side of the political aisle, they would rather say nothing at all.

This is not acceptable. The Jewish community’s most visible, vulnerable members need Americans to stand up and say “no more.” They need us to climb out of our trenches and find common ground to fight this ugly resurgence of anti-Jewish hatred.

We can only fight this fight together, because it is a pox on all of our houses. It is only by remembering what unites us as Americans that we can help our fellow Jews and, as “Maoz Tzur” suggests, hasten the time of salvation.

Jordanian and Saudi Girls Gone Wild!

Jordanians are transfixed by a video widely circulating of a man and woman having sex - or perhaps only kissing - in a Mitsubishi Lancer car. There are dozens of articles about it today.

Apparently the man has a beard and the woman is veiled.

People are complaining to the police, who are warning people not to film and spread such videos. Rumors are that the couple have left Jordan and that the car was not theirs.

A spokesman for the Public Security Directorate said that the video contradicts all laws, customs and traditions, and an investigation was opened to verify its authenticity, its location, and the people who appeared in it to take the necessary legal measures regarding it.

This isn't the only controversial video in the Arab world this past week.

This grainy video showing a woman dancing and briefly flashing her breasts outside a car last week, also in Jordan, caused a stir.

And this video of a Saudi girl wearing skimpy clothing (by Saudi standards) and smoking also caused controversy.

As did this very brief video of two Saudi women with veils and see-through tops - meaning their bras were visible. News media called this "almost naked."

This idea of women walking around in ways that would barely turn heads in the West seems to be a pattern now, in line with women removing headscarves in Iran. It seems to be a trend that will challenge the conservatism of the Arab world.

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.

Israel-sanctioned Turkish NGO regularly publishes pure antisemitism

Mirasimiz is a Turkish NGO that operates in Jerusalem, and calls itself the Association for the Preservation of Ottoman Heritage in and Around Jerusalem. According to an article in Daily Sabah about it last year, their spokesperson said, "All the activities carried out by Mirasımız are in accordance with Israeli laws and regulations. The efforts of the waqf focus on protecting the Ottoman culture and heritage in the holy city of Jerusalem."

Here is the cover of one of their reports:

Yes, a devil disguised as a religious Jew is tipping the scales against the innocent.

They also have a magazine called Minber-i-Aksa. One issue featured this antisemitic cover, whose accompanying article claimed the Star of David is Islamic.

In that same issue was this article entitled "ISRAEL'S FOOD TERRORISM":

It claims that Israel monopolized the genetically modified food business, and is selling "killer seeds" that damage the soil, poisoning fields and consumers, so that then Israel could sell them the medicine as part of a sophisticated plan to make more money.

The article goes on to say, "Jews do not hesitate to carry out forbidden transactions and treatments, such as gambling or interest, which they prohibit among themselves in order to harm foreigners."

Every single issue of the magazine has antisemitic messages. "Jews" are mentioned literally hundreds of times in recent issues! For example:

The Jewish nation is approaching its ambitions step by step… The issue of the Jewish Nation State is the last step taken, followed by the destruction of Al-Aqsa Mosque tomorrow. Jews see themselves as superior race; unfortunately, Jewish lovers do not realize this aspect of Jews… Muslims will understand the Jews and what they want to do if they return to the Qur'an and the hadiths, listen to our Lord's commandments, the recommendations of our Prophet.

Why is Israel allowing a blatantly antisemitic organization to do work as an apparently credentialed NGO?

(h/t iTi)

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Fighting antisemitism will take a multi-pronged approach of both tactical and strategic approaches.

From a tactical point of view, Jews need to be protected, now. This means more police patrols in Jewish neighborhoods, more physical protections around synagogues and Jewish schools. This will be a challenge for synagogues that specialize in outreach like Chabad and Aish HaTorah because their very identity is to be open to all. But it is necessary, as Poway and Mumbai have shown.

Haredi Jews need to shed their shtetl mentality. Too many times we have seen them being attacked in Brooklyn and bystanders don't even chase the attackers. This is emboldening the youths, often black, who now see this as a way to get their kicks. If Jews catch them and beat them up a few times, the incentive to grab at the weakest Jews - which is what they have been doing - will dry up. It is essential to make the haredim realize that their accepting being tormented as we did in Europe before the Holocaust it not a good strategy here - it encourages more attacks.

From a strategic perspective, we need to define the antisemites and their motivations. If black youths are using Jews as scapegoats because they themselves feel powerless, then we need not only to raise the price of attacking Jews but also to make them empowered over their own lives, which is a huge endeavor but one that there should be support for at both a governmental and grassroots level.

It is crucial for black leaders - church and political leaders - to address their own people and let them know that attacking Jews is immoral and counterproductive to their communities.

Farrakhan supporters are a different issue. They need to be marginalized in the larger black communities as fringe, not mainstream - articles by Nation of Islam supporters should not be published in major black newspapers, for example, for the simple reason that they are disgusting bigots. Their message of black empowerment is important but that can be accomplished with far-sighted black leaders who are not also bigots and antisemites.

Right-wing antisemites have indeed felt emboldened by President Trump, even if he has not been encouraging them nearly as much as the Left pretends. He is still partially responsible for dividing the nation for his own electoral gain and he needs to make crystal clear that he does not want support or votes from people who are white nationalists or neo-Nazis, and that they should crawl back under the rocks they came from.

Left-wing antisemites are so self-righteous that they are impervious to shame. We saw from Corbyn supporters that practically none of them are self-aware enough to realize how hypocritical and bigoted they are. They will bend over backwards to ensure that Muslims or blacks are not the least bit uncomfortable but Jews feeling under siege in a toxic campus environment where they cannot even express their opinions is not even acknowledged. The response from the Left to Monsey was a combination of willful blindness and misdirection - anything to avoid considering that their political allies are antisemitic. All we can do is to put them on the spot - have them define, for example, exactly which criticism of Israel they consider to be valid and which is over the line for antisemitism. They hate the IHRA definition - force them to come up with their own, and maybe a dialog can happen. I'm not optimistic.

And even less open to discussion are most of the Muslim and Arab antisemites. But there is a chance for dialogue with Muslim Americans because religious Jews do have a lot in common with them. Both communities are insular, though, and liberal Jews speaking with liberal Muslims won't make much of a difference. Perhaps finding specific issues that they can work together on - security around mosques and synagogues, around Muslim and Jewish schools, jointly protesting European initiatives to ban circumcision and ritual slaughter, working together to replace meat-based food ingredients with vegetable substitutes that can ensure more Kosher and Halal foods - perhaps these can help both communities become more amenable to the other.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution to antisemitism, and regarding Jew-hatred as just another bigotry is not only wrong but exactly the opposite of the correct approach.

What other ideas do you have?

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