Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, July 07, 2020

EoZTV: Bryan E. Leib, HaShevet

My latest EoZTV was with Bryan E. Leib, who recently started along with other prominent young professionals HaShevet, a Zionist organization meant to be a watchdog to ensure that mainstream Jewish organizations don’t lose their commitment to Israel, and that qualified Zionists can network to join these organizations to keep them relevant in the future.

Enjoy!

07/06 Links Pt2: The Third Wave of Anti-Semitism is on the Way; Biden's Foreign Policy Boss Called for Anti-Israel DNC Platform; YouTube: Delete Louis Farrakhan’s 4th Of July Speech ASAP

From Ian:

JCPA: The Third Wave of Anti-Semitism is on the Way

What is currently being promoted by the international community is not a discourse of criticism, which would be legitimate, but instead a storm of prejudices.

Research and polls carried out in dozens of countries testify that virus-inspired anti-Semitism has gone viral on social media, and it is the continuation of the ancient conspiracy theories of blood libels that have always painted the Jews as the source of diseases and the spreaders. Public opinion will surf again on this deadly anti-Semitic wave.

The Palestinian Authority’s Prime Minister, Mohammad Shtayyeh, personally promoted the coronavirus blood libel by stating that Israeli soldiers and settlers knowingly spread the Coronavirus widely among Palestinians. His spokesperson went so far as to state that the occupation itself was the virus and that the Jews had inflicted the pandemic on the Palestinians. The phenomenon of the anti-Semitism plague converged with the Coronavirus, which then intertwined with subsequent waves.

Responsible national and international leaders who have taken a stance to combat anti-Semitism in this period have mobilized to fight the idea that the Jews are responsible for COVID-19. In addition, some leaders seek to quash the conspiracy theories that imperialist Jews and their wealth are attempting to dominate the world. Some combat those who want to obliterate the Shoah’s memory. Others confront Neo-Nazi hatred. And others focus on their societies’ bias against the Jews because of their hatred, prejudice, and ignorance about Judaism.

The political, diplomatic, and academic spokespersons who care deeply about the adoption and the promotion of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA), upheld the connection between hatred for Israel and anti-Semitic hatred during a webinar conference in June 2020. Katharina Von Schnurbein, the European Commission Coordinator on combating Anti-Semitism, alluded to a 2019 survey in which 85 percent of Jews declared that they feel they are perceived through the Israeli lens. Jews are synonymous with Israel.

The question that arises is the following: if, as the IHRA suggests, anti-Israel hatred is the engine of anti-Semitism, its twin, why are there no measures to deal with this dual-threat? Why not be more cautious when dealing with issues relating to Israel? Why not challenge both hatreds by delving deeper into Israel’s history, its democratic nature, humane inspiration, and the heroic story of the country itself?

Institutions and states that have implemented measures against anti-Semitism and have adopted the IHRA should monitor how they and their institutions influence public opinion and the spread of prejudice against Israel. Political actors must be more cautious before putting labels on Israeli-Jewish consumer products, or bandying about apartheid, or legitimizing BDS. The examples are endless, and the many condemnations and institutional threats today push anti-Semitic crowds into the streets with a “moral cloak.” These political actors and institutions are committed to fighting against anti-Semitism, but they are also responsible for creating it. This has been the case since the 1975 UN Resolution 3379, which equated Zionism with racism.

Rachel Riley – JLGB LIVE Youth-Led Q&A (h/t Arie)

South Africa paid the price for defaming Israel

Party members are expelled if they set foot on the tarmac of Ben Gurion International. Foreign Affairs bureaucrats walk the talk of the local BDS franchise, so rotten that it lost the license to tell lies about Israel under the BDS brand. But dare challenge bizarre views and you’re toast.

Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng is toast. He is threatened with removal from office. For loving Israel he is guilty of “endangering the justice system.” This from a governing party that beat the rule of law stone dead so that comrades could loot the country to their heart’s content.

Two things that the Chief Justice said brought haters out of the woodwork. One, he connected Israel to the bible, and two referred to God’s blessings and curses. To me the latter struck the rawest nerve.

Then a law professor entered the fray to do a non-political, objective hatchet job on Mogoeng Given that law professors who recognise the sovereign rights of Israel are as rare as a pig in Palestine, we can speculate if the professor would have delivered the opinion he did, or any at all, had the Chief Justice laid into Israel for crimes against humanity.

Israel more than any country attracts claims beyond wild, and most especially Jews with a chip on their shoulder who compete with Palestinian Arabs to come up with the wildest. Here is one example of suggested reading: The Chief Justice the Bible and Palestinian Real Estate, Daily Maverick 01.07.2020.

But for my money, the claim that Jesus was a Palestinian (Arab?) wins hands down. Yasser Arafat’s PR, Hannan Ashrawi, disclosed the astounding fact to the Washington Jewish Week on February 22, 2001. No one blinked. She was not the first or the last to bring Christ into play. It is done annually. “Every Christmas, Palestine celebrates the birth of one of its own,” proclaimed a PLO’s statement at Christmas time. I don’t know if anyone has made Jesus into a Muslim, but the PLO seems to leave that possibility wide open.

Hate is one of the more perverse emotions. More than it destroys the subject of hate it destroys the hater. In party politics hatred can harm a whole country. Antisemitism in fact could be at the bedrock of South Africa’s collapse into a failed state.

Hell, though, is not the end of the world. Life in a failed state is not entirely bad. You have to deal with elements more or less stable, more or less controllable, more or less mad. Only one thing really matters – to recognise the curse that brought you to hell and what will keep you there unless you learn that those who curse Israel will be cursed.

Haters REALLY hate Jews being called indigenous to Israel

This thread was widely circulated (including by the usual “Jewish” anti-Zionist accounts) on Twitter:

Funny, I thought that the idea of Jews being indigenous to Israel was a little older than Black Lives Matter. But I’m willing to check my facts.

From “The Survey of Western Palestine: Special papers on topography, archaeology, manners and customs, etc.” by Palestine Exploration Fund · 1881:

Notice how the authors, who are Christian, aren’t willing to call Christians indigenous to the Holy Land (let alone Muslims) - only Jews.

And this part is a nice overall description of the land before modern Zionism:

For Jews, identifying as “white” is not always helpful (Daled Amos)

By Daled Amos

While writing a recent post on Jews: From Asiatic, Mongoloid, Slavonic, Low-Level Caucasians To Privileged White Supremacists, I came across this on Twitter:

As it turns out, it's a hoax.

But that does not mean that the 'whiteness' of Asian Americans is not an issue.

Yes Magazine, features an article asking the same question Are Asian Americans White? Or People of Color? The answer, of course, is no, Asian Americans are not 'white'. But apparently, you might have thought they are.

Why?

Because "on average Asian Americans are among the most successful in the United States," though there are major differences, depending on the particular segment of the Asian-American population. The underlying assumption being that lack of success for a "person of color" might be due to racism -- and that success itself is a sign of integration and with it, "becoming white."

That would certainly seem to indicate that Jews are white, based on their financial success and apparent integration into society. (And let's not start with the percentage of Nobel Prizes that Jews are awarded).

But more importantly, the article bases Asian American status as People of Color squarely on how they are treated. Regardless of the prosperity of the more successful Asian Americans, the problem of racial discrimination remains:

Asian Americans continue to experience discrimination, hate crimes and racial violence, xenophobia, concerning levels of racial/ethnic bullying in schools, and other indicators of racial marginalization in the U.S.

But if hate crimes and violence are the proof that Asian Americans are not integrated and therefore not 'white', then surely Jews pass that same test with flying colors.

If Muslims are not considered integrated enough to be 'white,' why should Jews -- who regularly suffer more hate crimes each year according to the FBI -- be considered white?

Yet Jews are considered 'white' -- and white supremacists, at that.
Something doesn't add up.

Michael Lerner approached this issue from another angle when he wrote in The Village Voice in 1993:

In the context of American politics, to be “white” means to be a beneficiary of the past 500 years of European exploration and exploitation of the rest of the world — and hence to “owe” something to those who have been exploited. So when Jews are treated as white in the United States, the assessment is not a crude physical one but a judgment of Jewish culture and civilization, history and destiny.

When Rome sent the majority of the indigenous Jews out of their native land, many found their way to Europe. Jews did not share in that exploitation, they were the victims of it -- not to mention those Jews who remained and witnessed the Islamic invasion that came later.

The Spanish, who were explorers and colonizers. Does that mean they are...'white'?
What about the Italians, who did their share of exploration and exploitation?

For that matter, what about Muslims, who invaded: Syria, Egypt, North Africa and then-Palestine (all then under Christendom) as well as Spain, Portugal, France, Sicily, Rome, Russia (under the Tartars), Anatolia, Constantinople, and the Balkan peninsula. [see: Bernard Lewis, "What Went Wrong" (p.4ff)]

It still doesn't add up.

Obviously, it all depends on whose rules you are following, and now that Jews live in a time when people are drawing up sides to see who qualifies for People of Color -- Jews are again being excluded, despite a history, culture, religion and language that demonstrates a separate ethnicity, and the fact Jews are anything but 'white'.

In an op-ed in the LA Times last year, an African American woman suggested doing away with the term "person of color" altogether:

The terms “women of color” and “people of color” are meant to be inclusive. But, from my perspective, they only help to leave black people behind — specifically black women. While every minority group faces its own challenges in America, a “one size fits all” mentality toward diversity erases the specific needs of the most vulnerable communities. [emphasis added]

Considering how Jews ended up being the odd man out, one would have to agree.

She goes on to write that this is not to deny the important implication of People of Color for common solidarity and struggle --

But even more important is doing the hard work of understanding and fighting to overcome the distinct layers of injustice that face people of different identities — and different layers within those identities. A black person has different challenges than someone who is both Muslim and black, and a black, Muslim woman has different challenges still. Parsing the implications of these differences, instead of flattening them, is what it means to be “intersectional,” an important but widely misunderstood concept — even by the liberals who use it most. Intersectionality is not about building the biggest interracial team possible. It’s about catering to the individual needs of different communities to make sure no one is left behind.

Put this way, intersectionality is not a weapon to be used against Jews, but a group that Jews can not only be a part of but also contribute to -- just as Jews contributed to the black community, long before Black Lives Matter became a weapon to attack the Jewish community today.

But that still leaves the problem of Jewish identity, and the need to recognize and embrace that Jewish identity. At a time when Jews are surrounded by those who want to define for Jews:

o What does and does not qualify as antisemitism
o What Zionism really means
o What a Jew is

-- at a time like this, there is a need to strengthen ties, not only with Israel, but with the Jewish community.

Other ethnic groups talk about the importance of their identity. Jews should too.

Returning to the article in Yes Magazine:

identifying as Asian American is not a biological destiny or question of geography, which would suggest a passive orientation (i.e. individuals are born Asian) rather than an active choice to identify in solidarity against matrices of oppression. [emphasis added]

For many of these ethnic groups, their identity is an active choice in the solidarity of their identity against what they see as US colonialism and racism.

For Jews, the danger may be more than that.

It is in seeing their Jewishness as simply a matter of birth. Considering Jews are historically threatened by both assimilation and discrimination, Jewish identity is more than an issue of solidarity. It is a question of survival.

And there are Jews for whom simply identifying as 'white' is not a guarantee of survival.

Intersectionality is being weaponized against Jews.
But instead of a threat, it should be a warning and maybe even an opportunity for Jews to get their act together.

07/06 Links Pt1: Kontorovich: ‘Annexation’ Prevents Palestinians from Ethnically Cleansing Jews; Palestinians vexed by Arab leaders' apathy over Israeli sovereignty bid

From Ian:

The Jewish People's Rights

A fundamental principle which is so lacking in the current discourse about sovereignty was highlighted by Israeli poet Naomi Shemer writing in Ma'ariv in December 1975.

"The Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people...regardless of conditions or temporary ownership of territory, regardless of the essence of a passing rule or a question such as how many Jews are living in the Land of Israel at any given moment."

That, if you will, is the unwritten constitution of the State of Israel, the one that begins with "Go from your country...to the land that I will show you" (Genesis 12:1) and continues on to "the hope that is 2,000 years old" and the genetic code of "If I forget thee, O Jerusalem."
Even the League of Nations recognized that genome 100 years ago as "the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine" and "the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country" and the Jewish right to "settle in any place in the west of Palestine, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea."

Security is important but doesn't come before everything else. David Ben-Gurion didn't address the question when he insisted on holding onto far-flung settlements in the Jerusalem hills and in the Negev and the western Galilee.

We might be here today because of might, but even before that, because we have a right to be.

Exclusive: Expert Says ‘Annexation’ Prevents Palestinians from Ethnically Cleansing Jews

Israel’s plan to apply sovereignty to parts of the West Bank puts an end to the “morally repugnant” notion — endorsed by all U.S. administrations except Trump’s – that Jews need to be ethnically cleansed from the territory, preeminent legal expert Eugene Kontorovich told Breitbart News in an exclusive interview.

“The Obama administration took the position that peace with the Palestinians requires Israel to pre-ethnically cleanse the territory,” Kontorovich said.

The Trump administration had the “moral clarity” to recognize that the “removal of the Jewish people [from West Bank settlements] as an Israeli obligation in a peace accord is morally reprehensible,” Kontorovich noted.

President Donald Trump’s so-called Vision for Peace sees Israel annexing 30 percent of the West Bank and the Jordan Valley. It also delineates a demilitarized Palestinian state established on most of the West Bank with parts of eastern Jerusalem that are outside the Israeli security fence as its capital.

If Israel goes ahead with the plans, the Palestinian leadership warned that it would unilaterally declare a state based on the pre-1967 lines.

According to Kontorovich, a law professor who serves as the director of the Center for the Middle East and International Law at George Mason University Scalia Law School, all peace proposals – except Trump’s – that have been put forward over the years since Israel liberated the West Bank from Jordanian occupation in the 1967 defensive war have been based on the erroneous idea that Jewish presence there is illegal and needs to be reversed.

Those proposals called on Israel to “maintain the area from which Jordan ethnically cleansed Jews in 1948 as a perpetual judenrein zone,” he said, using Nazi terminology for the exclusion of Jews.

While no Israeli government has ever proposed evacuating Palestinians from the area, he said, “expelling Jews is the minimum demand for any Palestinian negotiations.”

It is incumbent upon Israel to apply Israeli law over the area, as indeed should have been done 53 years ago after the Six Day War, the law professor told Breitbart.

The belief in Israel at the time was that it was only a temporary situation and the Jewish state would imminently come to a peace agreement with the Palestinians, he explained. But the Palestinians rejected all Israeli offers so instead, close to half a million settlers have had to live for decades under Kafkaesque bureaucracy relating to obscure Ottoman laws ruling the area.

Proving beyond doubt the error of those who claim Israeli settlements are illegal. Such claims are invariably based on an anti-Israel political agenda rather than legal facts. https://t.co/sz2TlOFmYL
— Rɪᴄʜᴀʀᴅ Kᴇᴍᴘ ⋁ (@COLRICHARDKEMP) July 6, 2020

David Singer: Is it “Annexation” or “Restoring Jewish Sovereignty”?

Students at Australia’s largest Jewish Day School – Moriah College – can be excused for being completely confused as to whether Israel’s proposed application of sovereignty in Judea and Samaria constitutes “annexation” or “restoring Jewish sovereignty” in the Jewish people’s biblical heartland after 3000 years.

There is a big difference – as College Principal Rabbi Yehoshua Smukler’s article “The myth of Israeli annexation” informed Moriah students:
“To use the term ‘Annexation’ in relation to Judea and Samaria is misleading. ‘Annexation’, a term applied to the forcible seizing of land or territory and annexing it into one’s own country or bringing it under its rule. It implies Israel is about to ‘seize control’ of areas that don’t already belong to Israel and that it doesn’t currently govern. This is simply untrue. Let’s look at the history.”

Regrettably the Principal’s look at history did not mention that:
- Judea and Samaria were designated by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine in 1922 as part of the territory within which the Jewish National Home was to be reconstituted
- the United Nations description of this territory as “Occupied Palestinian Territory” is false and misleading
- Jewish rights to “close settlement” in Judea and Samaria under article 6 of the Mandate are preserved by article 80 of the United Nations Charter.

The BBC reported:

Italian police have seized what they believe is a world-record haul of 14 tonnes of amphetamines they suspect were made in Syria to finance the jihadist group Islamic State (IS).

About 84 million counterfeit Captagon pills worth an estimated €1bn ($1.1bn; £0.9bn) were found in containers at the port of Salerno.

They were hidden inside large drums of paper and gear wheels.

Officers are looking into whether local Camorra crime groups are involved.

Captagon is a brand name for the synthetic stimulant fenethylline. It was originally used to treat attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and narcolepsy, but many countries banned it during the 1980s because of its addictive properties.

Now, counterfeit Captagon is reportedly one of the most popular drugs among affluent youths in the Middle East, particularly in Gulf Arab states.

The drug has also been consumed by combatants in the civil war in Syria, including IS militants, who value its ability to inhibit fear and ward off tiredness.

Syria is believed to be the biggest producer and exporter of counterfeit Captagon.

Lebanon’s Al Modon says that Hezbollah is known to be a major partner with Syria for distributing this illegal drug.

The production and smuggling of drugs from Syria to the countries of the world is not limited to the partnership between the Assad regime and the Lebanese Hezbollah, which has long sales in this field; it is widely believed that the Russian mafia is in close relationship with such operations that used to flood the European market with drugs coming from India, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and currently from Syria and Lebanon. This is after the Russian mafia benefited from the Russian influence, which has become strong on the eastern and southern Mediterranean coasts, and the costs of producing and shipping drugs from Syria to Europe have decreased.

Information shows that Samer al-Assad, Bashar's cousin, is primarily responsible for the manufacture and trade of drugs, and runs the system's operations in cooperation with Hezbollah and the Russian mafia.

This confirms the third face of Hezbollah, alongside its two known faces in Lebanon: the political side , and the military-security side.The third side is the manufacturing of Captagon, cultivating the plants from which drugs are made, trafficking cocaine and heroin, and smuggling goods, medicines and food through dozens of land crossings between Syria and Lebanon, and through the Beirut Port and Rafic Hariri Airport, and money laundering.

The article goes on to compare how Hezbollah is like the other organized crime cartels worldwide; hiding their activities under social programs, using strong family and ethnic connections to maintain an atmosphere of secrecy, flourishing in weak states.

The cowardice of the socialist Left on Farrakhan’s antisemitism

As I showed yesterday, Louis Farrakhan gave a nationally-televised speech, promoted by Diddy, that has at least a half dozen antisemitic parts. (I didn’t include them all – he also said that he told God to give Floria the coronavirus because Cuba’s Jews fled to Florida and hurts US relations with that country. Really.)

What did the socialist Left, which pretends to be so much against antisemitism, say?

Nothing. Nada. Gornisht. Zip.

Instead, IfNotNow posted an old clip of a Jew interrupting a Nazi party event in New York, pretending to be as brave as he was.

I pointed out that they aren’t brave – they are cowards.

And you are SILENT when Louis Farrakhan spouts the exact same kind of hate. You MINIMIZE when Roger Waters says the same thing. You HATE when Jews defend themselves. Stop pretending you give a damn about antisemitism. You enable it, you @IfNotNowOrg hypocrites.

Ooooh, you are against Nazis. How brave. What about when your political allies are antisemites? Then you turn into cowardly silent sheep. Screaming you care about "justice" and "racism" but allowing your pals to crap all over Jews. You are contemptible.

Your hate for Nazis doesn't overcome your tolerance for a Nazi admirer.

Here's the biggest piece of hypocrisy imaginable from people who are silent (or tacitly encourage) antisemitism from Arabs and Nation of Islam and Leftists.
When you actually grow some balls, give real Jews a call. Until then, don't pretend you represent any of us.

Of course, they didn’t answer. They cannot. They know they are cowards, pretending that fighting against Zionists – who won’t do anything to them – is bravery. If they would speak out against the Nation of Islam or Roger Waters, though, people on their side will denigrate them and they cannot even handle insults from their compatriots.

How very brave they are. They choose to condone antisemitism rather than risk their position as solidly socialist anti-Zionist and “woke.”

The few times that they've mentioned Farrakhan it has always been in the context of downplaying his antisemitism and its importance. One example:

Not once have they condemned Farrakhan without “context” meant to minimize his hate and danger.

The Jersey City murderers who espoused Farrakhan’s philosophy didn’t move them at all.

No, they don’t care about antisemitism unless they can associate it with the Right. Which means they don’t care about antisemitism, only about their own standing in their anti-Israel community.

Arab antisemitism? Black antisemitism? Leftist antisemitism? Not a word. But they are so assertive in countering the neo-Nazis, pretending that they are somehow showing some mettle by doing that.

Really pathetic.

And the same goes for all the people who insist they are against antisemitism as well as Zionism. In the end the Linda Sarsours and Ali Abunimahs and Rashida Tlaibs are all on the same side as the Arab, and black, and Leftist antisemites.

They let their own Jew-hatred slip through often enough.

(h/t kweansmom)

World War Z was (as I recall) a zombie apocalypse movie starring Brad Pitt. At one point in the movie, Jerusalem is seen as the safest place to be because Israelis built a wall around the city to protect themselves from the zombies. Jews and Arabs were safe inside Jerusalem and at one point, they started to sing together, which inflamed the zombies to overrun the wall and get the peaceful Arabs and Jews.

According to this academic paper by Haneen Shafeeq Ghabra & Marouf A. Hasian of Kuwait University and University of Utah, this is really a lesson in how Palestinians are the monsters.

The abstract:

The authors deploy a critical cultural critique that extends the work of monstrosity scholars and other researchers who are interested in the application of zombie apocalypse analyses to critiques of contemporary nationalistic and social controversies. World War Z sets in motion a series of cinematic dynamics that invite audiences to consider how Israeli securitization of Jerusalem might serve as the world's best hope for containing the zombie apocalypse. By decoding the “monstering” features World War Z, the authors note the heuristic value of understanding how the rhetoric of autoimmunity influences mediated perceptions of Israeli and Palestinian conflicts.

The paper says:

We contend that through cinematic modes of monstering and discourses of autoimmunity, World War Z assuages Israeli and Western anxieties by creating characters clearly modeled on Western imaginings of Palestinian terrorists.

Clearly!

By choosing to put on display monstering images of zombies scaling walls, and by choosing to geopolitical situate the potential “cures” for this zombie apocalypse in Israel, the producers and promoters of World War Z are explicitly or implicitly suggesting that Palestinian dissenters, or indigenous “others,” constitute biopolitical threats that can be quarantined or contained by those who know how to battle zombies.

Except that the monsters were not quarantined – the humans (Arabs and Jews) were. But, hey, they only get that part 100% wrong.

The authors quote serious movie critics: Arabs who tweeted their reviews.

Avinash Tharoor, in one Tweet, said to “forget the zombies,” because the “most unrealistic thing about World War Z was Israel inviting in displaced Palestinians.” ⁵⁸ Another blogger, writing from United Arab Emirates, complained that the film went from being “action film into Zionism pornography an hour into the film.” ⁵⁹ Rania Khalek seemed to echo these types of remarks when she tweeted that in World War Z, Israel’s “apartheid” wall apparently “helps keep out a massive horde of zombies.”

Here’s a nice part:

Viewers are asked to suspend belief and forget about how Israeli checkpoints, gates, and grids become the “forensic architecture” that dismantle the social fabric of this region. ⁷⁶ In World War Z, the checkpoints are configured as “salvation” gates, perhaps intended to appeal to the Judeo-Christian sentiments of viewing audiences who are taught on Saturdays and Sundays to believe that Israelis are a “chosen people,” and that Jerusalem belongs to those who fought off the infidels.

In reality, Israeli checkpoints are used to remind Palestinians of their subordinate power positions and their second-class status as dispossessed people.

And the checkpoints at Israeli malls and supermarkets? Are they also meant to demean Palestinians, or to, you know, stop bomb attacks?

What about the fact that the movie makes it very clear that Arabs and Israelis are on the same side and the zombies help unite them? Why, of course,!

The camera focuses on Muslims praying, Israelis and Palestinians chanting together as they wave both Israeli and Palestinian flags, and all of this can be viewed as cinematic form of hasbara (Israeli diplomacy) that elides, counters, or neutralizes the positions of those want to underscore the apartheid nature of Palestinian othering.

The final scene in Jerusalem is described in a truly twisted way:

One of the most intriguing parts of World War Z comes when all of the chanting and flag-waving appears to infuriate the zombies, who overwhelm the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that are there to protect the people from the zombies. As the camera moves beyond the wall, into Palestinian territory, we begin to hear grunting while dozens of monstrous bodies scurry toward the wall. Thousands of zombies are moving in dead-like piles as they breach the Israeli wall. Gerry, along with another Mossad agent, flees the country, barely making it out alive. It no coincidence that the viewer is not afforded space to sympathize with the zombies who symbolically may represent the Palestinians who threaten the security of Israel or the Palestinian terrorists who belong to organizations like Hamas. Situated thanatopolitically in the body of the zombies, the Palestinians, and their demographic threats, can be contained—at least at long as filmgoers, and Israelis, understand the necessitous nature of biosecuritizing walls.

A zombie film that doesn’t humanize the zombies is obviously showing its hate for Palestinians!

The only racists here are the academic authors, who are the only people on Earth who look at the swarming monsters in the film and automatically say – yup, those are Palestinians.

EoZTV: Legal scholar Avi Bell on “annexation”

My 24th pandemic interview was with Professor Avi Bell, who has written widely on legal topics concerning Israel. He described why Israel is de facto and de jure legal sovereign over Judea and Samaria today using the principle of uti possidetis juris , why Palestinians in Area C would be thrilled by this “civilianization” of parts of the territories, and what is likely to happen next. Avi also demolished the “apartheid” argument, the “demographic” argument, the politicization of the ICC and Europe’s role.

See the whole thing here, and browse through my other many interviews on TheElderOfZiyon YouTube channel.

07/05 Links: Study finds first wave of COVID-19 positively boosted Israel’s image; Slavery Rampant in Africa, Middle East; The West Wrongly Accuses Itself

From Ian:

Study finds first wave of COVID-19 positively boosted Israel’s image

A new study conducted for Vibe Israel found that the Jewish state’s image in the international community was seen in a positive light during the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic.

The study, based on data from research done by Bloom Consulting from March 30-April 2 and utilizing a new type of measurement called Brand-Nought, analyzed how a country was perceived internationally based on its government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis. This analysis focused on image impact in four specific areas: Whether people would want to visit the country (Tourism), whether people would want to work in or live in the country, whether people would want to study in the country and whether people would want to buy products from the country.

When compared to over 140 countries, Israel was found to have a positive image, especially compared to countries like Italy and the United States.

“Israel being one of the first to close its borders and being quick to react was an indication on how positively it handled the virus,” CEO and founder of Vibe Israel Joanna Landau told The Jerusalem Post.

“During the first wave, countries like the US were reluctant to quarantine, Italy was in a terrible state and Israel was two weeks into its full on quarantine… While New Zealand literally crushed the curve, we were able to flatten it, while others were still struggling with it.”

Landau believes that there were three aspects that contributed to Israel having such a positive image: reacting quickly, keeping quarantine seriously and being one of the countries involved in the race to develop a vaccine.

However, not all specific areas studied were impacted to the same degree, with some, most notably tourism, being surprisingly unaffected.

Legal Insurrection: I’m helping to launch a new, millennial-run Israel advocacy watchdog group

Against the backdrop of a rising tide of anti-Semitic incidents across the country and the failure of many mainstream Jewish organizations to condemn anti-Semitism emanating from the left, communities of color, or Islamists, I’ve joined a group of Jewish-American millennials in founding a brand-new non-profit organization called HaShevet.

It is my honor to serve on HaShevet’s founding board of directors with a cadre of brilliant, ambitious, and passionate Jewish leaders.

HaShevet is not a part of or affiliated with the Legal Insurrection Foundation.

On Monday, June 30, we published our first press release, announcing HaShevet’s launch and explaining our mission. JNS reported on our project:

Amid dissatisfaction with mainstream Jewish advocacy organizations, a new alliance of young Jewish American leaders was launched on Monday: HaShevet (Hebrew for “The Tribe,” which is also a nickname for the Jewish faith and people).

The organization seeks to “represent a diversity of political opinions and professional backgrounds” and “come together, united in our dedication to promote moral clarity within the Jewish advocacy sector, strengthen and mobilize young Jewish professionals to publicly oppose all forms of anti-Semitism (including anti-Zionism), and take up the mantle of Jewish community leadership to safeguard the future of the Jewish people,” said the organization in an announcement.

We believe so strongly in our mission that all of us on the founding board are volunteers, working on this project in our spare time:

Jonathan S. Tobin: Why Should We Give a Pass to Those Who Tweet Antisemitism?

Ours is a time when antisemitism is surging and the popularity of intersectional politics has given new credibility to radical groups that are keen to link the war on Israel to the culture wars being waged in the United States. At such a moment it is the duty of those who speak up against this prejudice to be ever more vigilant rather than to relax our efforts. Yet when a person who has associated herself with some of these smears and was an editor at a publication that habitually trafficked in them rises to a position of eminence at the country’s most important newspaper, the advice from some quarters is to not be too hasty in expressing alarm.

That is the conceit of a piece published by The Algemeiner that alleges that I have done an injustice to Charlotte Greensit, an incoming managing editor at The New York Times because I called her to account for tweets in which she promoted an antisemitic blood libel about Israel training American police to kill African-Americans.

Greensit scrubbed her Twitter account of this and other outrageous tweets that she posted during her time at The Intercept. We are now told that promoting such awful articles was just part of her job and, according to the author of The Algemeiner article, since jobs are hard to find in journalism, we shouldn’t judge her. Her half-hearted non-apology for her past actions notwithstanding, that is, of course, a very low standard. Nor do I think it is likely that she, or anyone else at the Times, would be as charitable to those who retweet hateful views that they opposed.

Instead, we are told we should listen to Greensit’s friends, who all vouch for her virtue and opposition to antisemitism. One such friend cited in The Algemeiner repeated the discredited argument that she is merely guilty of holding “an unauthorized view” about Israel even if those views aren’t legitimate criticism but actually in accord with smears promoted by antisemites.

The point here is that actions and associations that would result in a person being “canceled” if they testified to links to racism never seem to apply to antisemitism. Since Greensit is a member in good standing of the elite chattering classes, we are told to judge her kindly. Had she categorically renounced the content of the antisemitic story and other awful tweets, that would buttress her defenders’ arguments. But she has not done so.

“Martyr” video shows again how disgusting Hamas is

Abd al-Salam Abu Nadi was a Hamas terrorist who died a few days ago – of a heart attack.

But Hamas had some footage of him training and they didn’t want to waste it, so they made it into a boring 12-minute video dedicated to him.

But even in this video, Hamas proves how immoral it is.

In one scene, Abu Nadi is shown practicing shooting – into a “souk,” as the sign conveniently says, which is by any definition a civilian area.

Here’s the first ten minutes if you want to see more.

The countries that voted for China’s “national security law” that imposes harsh penalties for Hong Kong residents protesting against China include every Arab country in the UN Human Rights Council.

These include Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the UAE and Yemen – and “Palestine.”

Iran, Sudan, South Sudan and Pakistan also supported China.

Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch mentioned the Arab countries that are HRW’s usual targets, but of course didn’t include “Palestine”in his list of “dictators and thugs.”

It takes a Who's Who of dictators & thugs to back China's repressive "national security" law for Hong Kong including Bahrain, Belarus, Burundi, Cambodia, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea, Iran, Myanmar, Nicaragua, NKorea, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE, Venezuela, Zimbabwe. https://t.co/iaBUyd40S8 pic.twitter.com/T6viYVpm0o

— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) July 1, 2020

I see no outcry in Arabic media about voting against freedom, even in the relatively liberal Lebanese media.

One takeaway is obvious: The UN, even its purported “human rights” arm, is not a moral arbiter of anything. Nations vote according to their own self-interests and not for any reasons that are remotely related to human rights.

But the other lesson is that even “human rights” groups are loathe to criticize the UN Human Rights Council because it usually aligns with their anti-US, anti-Israel mindset and if they publicly criticize it then they cannot point to its many anti-Israel resolutions as proof of Israel’s supposed immorality, which they love to do as Ken Roth himself did over the past couple of weeks.

Now that the UN rights chief has issued the database of companies doing business with Israel's illegal settlements, it's important that she keep it updated. That's the only way it will serve as a spur to companies to meet their human rights obligations. https://t.co/eC1VJ5bLnb pic.twitter.com/7AokYVJsal
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) June 23, 2020

The United Nations Human Rights Council, which if you listen to Trump only criticizes Israel, just condemned Iran (yet again) by a vote of 22 for, 8 against, and 15 abstaining. pic.twitter.com/7dzv2IM6oo
— Kenneth Roth (@KenRoth) June 22, 2020