Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 28, 2021

Palestinian Authority tries to incite Muslims, claiming Israel demolished a mosque THAT NEVER EXISTED

From the official Palestinian Authority Wafa news agency:

Acting Secretary of Endowments and Religious Affairs Husam Abu al-Rub condemned that the Israeli occupation forces demolished the Umm Qisa mosque at dawn [Wednesday] in the Badawi al-Zuwaidin and Basitah community of al-Ka'abneh Village Council and Umm al-Daraj in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron .

Abu al-Rub stated that the demolition of mosques clearly indicates the barbarism that the racist Israeli incitement machine has exhibited towards Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine, adding that this crime is a blatant attack on Muslims and their feelings .

Abu al-Rub stressed that there are no longer safe places of worship in light of the attacks and crimes that the Israeli occupation and the herds of settlers perform, saying that this racist assault is added to the list of Israeli crimes against holy sites .

Abu al-Rub called on international Islamic institutions such as the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, the Islamic Conference, and the Arab and Islamic countries to intervene and work to stop and end these attacks.

This is being reported widely in Arabic media.

Only one problem: There was never a mosque.

Israel demolished an illegal structure in Area C that was under construction, which the Palestinians claim was going to be a mosque. A notice warning of the demolition was given ten days ago.

There is no photo of this "mosque." The photos of the area after the demolition show an amount of rubble that is not close to what a building would have.

Even if you consider the area occupied, Israel has the obligation under international law to uphold zoning laws and not allow anyone (including Jews) to throw up a building wherever they want.

Palestinians know very well the propaganda value of saying that Israel is demolishing schools and mosques, so they build or claim to build these structures in strategic locations to claim land in Area C.

So this minister gets headlines falsely claiming Israel is demolishing mosques, and he is even trying to instigate a religious war by appealing to the larger Muslim world to "intervene."

Idiots at Jewish Voice for Peace think Zionists want Facebook to ban the word "Zionist"

I am honestly not sure if this is pure stupidity or a bizarre effort to gain media attention.

Jewish Voice for Peace has launched a campaign and website to pressure Facebook not to implement a policy that there is very little evidence it was contemplating.

Supposedly, in November, a Facebook official reached out to...someone...asking for a conversation to see if the word "Zionist" is sometimes used as a pejorative term for Jews.

I'm reaching out to you about a topic which I was hoping to have a conversation with you on. As you know, in the context of our hate speech policy, we do not allow content that attacks people based on a protected characteristic (e.g., race, religion, ethnicity, sexual orientation). Under the same policy, we also remove violating attacks where proxies or codewords are used by way of substitute for a protected characteristic.
In that context, we are looking at the question of how we should interpret attacks on "Zionists" to determine whether the term is used as a proxy for attacking Jewish or Israeli people. The term brings with it much history and various meanings, and we are looking to increase our understanding of how it is used by people on our platform.
We wanted to ask whether you would be willing to have a conversation with us about "Zionist" in the context of our policies. We are happy to provide you with more information when we speak.

Any Zionist knows that the word Zionist is sometimes used as an insult. It all depends on context. Calling someone a "F*ing Zionist" is just as offensive as calling someone a "F*ing queer," but it doesn't mean that the words "Zionist" or "queer" are offensive.

Facebook merely wanted to clarify in what ways it might be able to tell when the word is used as a codeword for Jews, something that we have seen happen countless times.

I have no idea whether Facebook can tell the difference between when the word is used as a pejorative and when it is a compliment. I frankly don't trust Facebook to understand anything at all about offensive speech.

But JVP is hallucinating.

JVP is pretending that this letter is part of an Israeli government campaign to silence Palestinians.

What’s happening at Facebook?
Right now, Facebook is reaching out to stakeholders to ask if critical conversations that use the term “Zionist” fall within the rubric of hate speech as per Facebook’s Community Standards. Basically, Facebook is assessing if “Zionist” is being used as a proxy for “Jewish people or Israelis” in attacks on its platform.
This move is part of a concerning pattern of the Israeli government and its supporters pressuring Facebook and other social media platforms to expand their hate speech policies to include speech critical of Israel and Zionism.
Facebook says it will make a decision as soon as the end of February 2021.
Why is this happening?
The Israeli government and its supporters falsely claim that equating “Zionist” with “Jew” or “Jewish” will help fight antisemitism. In reality, they hope that that by mischaracterizing critical use of the term “Zionists” as anti-Jewish, they can avoid accountability for its policies and actions that violate Palestinian human rights.
Attempts to stifle conversations about Zionist political ideology and Zionist policies carried out by state actors — both of which have real implications for Palestinian and Israeli people, as well as Jewish and Palestinian people around the world — are part of an emerging pattern of political censorship by the Israeli government and some of its supporters.

I'm a Zionist. Israelis are, by and large, Zionists. The Israeli government is Zionist. The idea that we want to ban the word "Zionist" from social media is perhaps the dumbest thing I've heard this week. Does that mean that the Zionist Organization of America would be banned from Facebook?

(The link that they chose to pretend that Zionists are trying to ban the word "Zionist" points to a truly bizarre Salon article that claims that calling Israelis Nazis is not antisemitic - but that Zionists are the real antisemites. Yet even that crazed article doesn't claim that Israel is trying to ban the word "Zionist.")

How Israel Could Get a Stable Government (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column

The challenges facing the state today are enormous. Although the vaccination project has been a success, the more-contagious mutations are spreading among groups that haven’t been vaccinated, and there are worries that new strains for which the vaccines aren’t as effective may develop. The health-care system is past peak capacity now. The economic impact on some segments of the population has been exceedingly painful already, and the costs for the vaccines and lost productivity will ultimately be felt throughout the economy.

At the same time, the IDF is asking for more money, in part to prepare for the possibility that it will be necessary to neutralize the Iranian nuclear capability by military means. That also would involve conflict with Hezbollah and Iranian militias in Syria and possibly Iraq, as well as involvement from Hamas. There still is no 2021 budget, and since the Knesset has been dissolved in preparation for the fourth election in two years, there is no possibility of passing one until there is a new government. The election is scheduled for 23 March, and then there is the interminable process of forming a coalition after that – assuming that a coalition can be formed.

The “unity” government that has just fallen apart was very expensive, since it was put together by bribing various politicians to join it with ministerial portfolios; since there weren’t enough to go around, a bunch of new ministries were created, for a total of 35. In addition, it was ineffectual: since the main partners were PM Binyamin Netanyahu’s bloc and a bloc made up of anti-Netanyahu politicians (with no other ideology besides a desire to depose him), they were permanently at each other’s throats.

In recent years Netanyahu has become obsessed with protecting himself from the corruption indictments against him. As a result, he has been unable to stand up to the Haredi parties that hold up his coalition. Their constituents seem to believe that they are Rabbi Akiva and the government which is trying to enforce the rules to contain the epidemic is the Roman Empire. Their acting as an autonomous group within the state has always been a problem, but with the advent of Covid it has become much more serious. Recently they have engaged in violent riots against the police.

Bibi has always insisted on managing everything himself. Ministers often find that their authority is very limited, limited to precisely what Bibi wants them to do. Their individual initiatives are stymied, something very frustrating to people like Naftali Bennett, who have ideas and energy but are kept on a tight leash. Bibi is tremendously competent and able to do many things at once, but this sometimes results in particular areas being neglected. And lately this problem, too, has become more serious.

Everything the government has done to control the epidemic except for the vaccination program has been poorly planned, poorly timed, and poorly executed. I judge that this is because the PM wants to control everything, but lacks the power – and perhaps also the focus – to exert that control.

Finally, the temporary vacation from American pressure that Israel enjoyed under the Trump Administration has come to an end. Biden’s promise to return to the Iran deal means that sanctions on Iran will be removed and (almost certainly) limitations will be placed on Israel’s freedom to act against Iranian bases in Syria and the transfer of weapons to Hezbollah. Israeli officials believe this makes conflict with Iran much more likely.

In the Palestinian arena, too, Biden and his Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, have reiterated their belief in the necessity of a sovereign Palestinian state in Judea and Samaria. They have said that they will restart payments to UNRWA, the Palestinian refugee agency that exists to nurture the growth of a population of stateless refugee descendants – now more than 5 million – that is a hothouse of terrorism, and which the Palestinians and their supporters demand be allowed to live in Israel. Biden also intends to reopen the PLO mission in Washington.

The administration hasn’t done much that affects Israel yet, and I would like to be optimistic about the future. But some of his appointments are troubling. For example, his new Senior Director for Intelligence Programs at the NSC, is former Obama Administration staffer Maher Bitar, a Palestinian activist who worked for UNRWA and supports BDS. Bitar will “coordinate intelligence between the White House and the intelligence community, receiving material from intelligence agencies, informing the intelligence community of White House policy, and deciding who gets access to secret information.”

All this requires a government that can pay attention to multiple issues at the same time, a coalition that can work together, and a PM that is not on trial for corruption.
How can we get one? The last three elections have been almost deadlocked. Twice no governing coalition could be formed, and the last election produced the Frankensteinian “unity” government that was almost worse than no government at all (I have discussed the technical issues in our electoral system here).

Based on recent polls, if we leave out the non-Zionist Arab parties, who will neither be invited into a coalition nor wish to be, and the Haredi parties, then neither the right- nor the left-wing blocs will be able to form a government. The Right, which has a majority of the Jewish vote, is split between pro- and anti-Netanyahu factions. With the Haredi parties, Netanyahu is very close to 61 seats – precisely the situation we were in the last time. But if he succeeds, the government will be weak, dependent on the Haredim, and will continue to be a one-man show. The Left has no chance, even with the support of the Arab parties from outside the coalition. Of course there are all kinds of imaginative solutions involving partners that would normally not be together that I haven’t mentioned. But they are unlikely.

I would like to see a fundamental restructuring of our system, but that is not going to happen under a caretaker government in the next two months. But there is one thing that could radically change the picture, and it is something that should happen in any event:

Binyamin Netanyahu should voluntarily step down as head of the Likud. This could unify the Right, and enable a solid majority right-wing coalition – without the Haredi parties, whose ability to bring down the government at will has made it possible for the Haredim to act like a state within a state.

This does not solve all of our problems. It doesn’t fix the imbalance of power between the legal establishment and the elected Knesset, for example. But it does at least make it possible to have a reasonably lean government with a unified ideological perspective that will be able to act on the problems at hand.

Since I’m dreaming, there is one other thing I would like: as part of the deal, all charges against Netanyahu – some of which are legitimate, and some fraudulent – should be dropped, in view of his service to the state.

There are only a few weeks to go before the election. Can our politicians, starting with Bibi, put aside their plans for personal glory and their thoughts of revenge, and agree to do the right thing for the Jewish state? I’m hoping they can.

01/27 Links Pt2: Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Never Again’ Is More Than a Slogan; The Courage of William Cooper; How people deny the Holocaust without denying it

From Ian:

Benjamin Netanyahu: Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘Never Again’ Is More Than a Slogan

Some thought that after the horrors of Auschwitz and Treblinka, humanity would learn its lesson once and for all, disavow antisemitism, and throw the destructive hatred onto the ash heap of history where it belonged. However, they were sorely mistaken. The gangrene of antisemitism continues to spread in the 21st century. We see expressions of it at respected universities in North America, in Islamic madrasas in south Asia, and among the European elite.

Antisemitism is present in the developed Western world as well as the developing East. It is the official policy of Iran, which day after day declares arrogantly: Our goal is to kill another six million Jews and destroy Israel. Indeed, no vaccine has been found for the virus of antisemitism. Some would say that it will never go away, because things don’t change.

But I can tell you what has changed: we, the Jewish people, have changed. During the Holocaust we had no home, no state, and no salvation, and were forced to beg others to defend us; but that is no longer the case.

Today we are free, established in our homeland, and the superior power in our independent country. As prime minister of the proud, strong State of Israel, a state that was reborn after the Holocaust, a state that was built on the ashes of destruction, a state that gave survivors a home, a state in which the Jewish people is living the fulfilment of a dream, I swear that we will never forget the tragic past, and will never again be helpless against those who seek to kill us.

“Never again” is not merely a slogan. It is our policy, our mission, and our task. We will execute it, and with God’s help ensure that the Jewish people live forever.

WATCH: Prime Minister @BorisJohnson reflects on his conversations with Holocaust survivor Rene Salt & British serviceman Ian Forsyth, who liberated Bergen-Belsen.

"Their courage to share their testimonies must inspire us all never to forget the Holocaust"#HolocaustMemorialDay pic.twitter.com/vd5TdnKYOe
— CFoI (@CFoI) January 27, 2021

Jpost Editorial: Holocaust Remembrance Day: We remember

UN Secretary-General António Guterres said Monday that because the pandemic had led to rising antisemitism, “The world must remain vigilant against this persistent form of racism and religious persecution.”

Speaking at an online event, Guterres said although antisemitism found its most horrific expression in the Holocaust, it did not end there and continues to blight the world today.

“It is sad, but not surprising, that the COVID-19 pandemic has triggered yet another eruption of this poisonous ideology. We can never let down our guard,” he said. “In Europe, the United States and elsewhere, white supremacists are organizing and recruiting across borders, flaunting the symbols and tropes of the Nazis and their murderous ambitions.”

The rise in hatred and antisemitism, Guterres said, must be seen in the context of a global attack on truth, and as the number of Holocaust survivors diminishes every year. Guterres concluded, “We must make ever greater efforts to elevate the truth and ensure that it lives on.” We applaud the secretary-general for his remarks, and support his call for coordinated global action to counter the growth and spread of neo-Nazism, white supremacy and antisemitism, and to fight propaganda and disinformation.

“History shows that those who undermine truth ultimately undermine themselves,” the UN chief noted. “The only way out of the COVID-19 pandemic is through science and fact-based analysis. The production of vaccines in record time is testimony to the effectiveness of this approach. There is no vaccine for antisemitism and xenophobia, but our best weapon remains the truth.”

The truth is that six million Jews – about two-thirds of Europe’s Jewish population – perished during the Holocaust, 1.1 million of them at Auschwitz. Today, an estimated 400,000 survivors are still living, almost half of them in Israel. As we stand alone but together today, let us declare in unison, “We remember!”

The Courage of William Cooper

In the early 2000s, Abe Schwarz was working and living in Echuca, a small town 115 miles north of Melbourne, Australia, where he was tasked with organizing a conference to discuss the prevention of youth suicide in the area. After this conference, an Aboriginal elder from the Yorta Yorta clan approached Schwarz to ask if he was “from the Hebrew mob.” When Schwarz confirmed that he was Jewish, the elder told him that he had “always wanted to meet someone of the mob that my mob tried to save.”

The elder then described the details of an incident that was well known among members of the Yorta Yorta Aboriginal clan, but mostly unknown to members of the Australian Jewish community.

On Dec. 6, 1938—one month after Kristallnacht—a 77-year-old Yorta Yorta Aboriginal man named William Cooper had led a delegation, along with members of the Australian Aborigines League, to the German Consulate in Melbourne to deliver a letter protesting the violence against Jewish people in Germany. The letter was refused, and Cooper and his delegation were turned away from the consulate.

This protest on behalf of European Jews was extraordinary—not just because Cooper was protesting an injustice that many countries had failed to properly address, but because Cooper himself was an oppressed Australian Aboriginal man trying to fight for his own rights, yet nonetheless felt compelled to take the time to call out the injustice against European Jews thousands of miles away.

Schwarz was intrigued. As he told Tablet recently: “The next day I called the Jewish Holocaust Centre in Melbourne and asked them for more information.”

“It took the centre some time to pull together the facts,” he said, “but they were able to verify the story through newspaper clippings in their archives which had been published on Dec. 7, 1938, the day after Cooper’s delegation was turned away from the consulate, and some prior research undertaken by members of the Jewish and Aboriginal communities.”

Jews are everywhere in the Biden administration. If you are Jewish, you may see this as a source of pride or shame, depending upon whether you are a Democrat or a Republican. Non-Jews, in particular antisemites, may, on the other hand, see the preponderance of Jews surrounding Biden as demonstrating his supposed affinity for Israel/Zionists, perhaps even proof that the Jews are well on their way in their quest for world domination as per the Protocols of the Elders of Zion. A Turkish social media site, for example, referred to Jews as being “overrepresented in [the] Biden cabinet.” This, according to the Jerusalem Post, is “part of a rising crescendo of antisemitism and anti-Biden media coverage in Turkey.”

The Suspicious Jew

Then there are the suspicious Jews like this author, who think about what impression we are meant to form on seeing so many Jews appointed to positions of power at once. No doubt we are supposed to look at all those Jews and think: “Joe Biden cannot possibly be an antisemite. Look how many Jews are in his cabinet! Look how many Jews he has appointed to positions of power!”

This is important, because of Jewish concern over antisemitism by such malevolent far-left forces that Biden must appease, for instance The Squad. Being surrounded by so many Jews, we are meant to understand that far from being an antisemite, Biden is actually a philosemite. Furthermore, with so many Jews surrounding him, Biden must be good for the Jews and for Israel—or those Jews would not be onboard with his administration. The Jewish appointees, are themselves, proof of Joe Biden’s goodwill to the Jewish people and to Israel at large.

Suspicious Jews, however, see these intended takeaways and impressions as a smokescreen. Whenever Joe Biden does something that is bad for Israel, we will be told that on the contrary, it can’t be bad for Israel: look at all the Jews who are directly involved in helping the Biden administration form these policies. Why would Jews do something that harms their own? Ergo: any policy harmful to Israel, for instance reinstating the JCPOA, must instead be deemed as beneficial—a total inversion of the truth.

As a suspicious Jew, I also believe a closer look at the Jews populating Biden’s court is warranted. No doubt, the Jewish Biden appointees are largely progressive, as are most Jewish Americans, among them the Jews who overwhelmingly voted for Joe Biden. Progressive Jews do not place Israeli security above such issues as, for instance, gun control, abortion, the LGBTQ community, climate control, and illegal immigration. Jewish progressives don’t put “Jewish” issues first. Instead they place all their most important issues—whether sanctioned by the Torah or not—under the rubric of “Tikkun Olam.” In this manner, progressive Jews make issues “Jewish.”

Jew "ish" Values

Being pro-choice or supporting illegal immigration is therefore “Jewish” because these are positions that are in synch with the sensibilities of the society that Jewish progressives inhabit. Supporting these issues makes them feel good. Supporting Israel, on the other hand, makes them feel uneasy. That’s because of the very loud voices telling them that Israel oppresses Arabs and occupies their land. They should know better, and they would if they would read beyond the news they are spoon-fed by CNN and MSNBC. Instead, however, they feel they have to work double-time to show they do not support Israeli “occupation.” They do this through initiating and supporting legislation that is harmful to Israel.

That means that while Biden is working hard to give the impression of a philosemitic, pro-Israel government, what he actually has is a cabinet and administration that will work extra hard to show they do not favor either Israel or the Jews. They want to be seen as having the right sort of politics. This, they call “Jewish.”

One or Two Good Eggs?

I don’t know enough about the Jews in Biden’s court to tar them all with the same brush. There may be one or two good eggs in the bunch. If there are decent, honest Jews among the appointees, they may be a smokescreen for the others.

I may not know all the Jews in Biden’s court. But I do know enough about Joe Biden, his appointees, and his intended actions, to know that so many members of the tribe in his administration is not a portent for good. This is in contradistinction to the Trump administration which had Jews aplenty, but enacted a great deal of philosemitic, pro-Israel policy. The differences are stark:

Trump starved the Iranian nuclear machine, Biden wants to feed it cash by reinstating the JCPOA.

Trump made warm peace with the Abraham Accords, Biden wants to revive the dead two-state solution and invigorate and empower the corrupt, terror-inciting Palestinian Authority.

Trump made the settlement- and sovereignty-supporting David Friedman, his ambassador to Israel. Biden renamed the ambassadorial position (though he later changed it back) from U.S. ambassador to Israel, to “U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza.” Biden did this to suggest he doesn’t accept Israel’s hegemony in the region. He did it to suggest he supports the creation of an Arab state on Jewish land.

BREAKING: Biden Admin Changes U.S. Ambassador to Israel into "U.S. Ambassador to Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza" -- Day 1 policy shift signals new admin does not consider any parts of these areas as Israeli territory https://t.co/m3O6j2nO68 pic.twitter.com/lcfLqCtZuX
— Adam Kredo (@Kredo0) January 20, 2021

Trump pulled support to the corrupt UNRWA, which perpetuates the Arab refugee problem, and inculcates Arab children with violent Jew-hatred through UNRWA schools, so these children grow up with a lust for killing Jews. Biden appointed former UNRWA official and “Palestinian-American” Maher al-Bitar to be director of the NSC intelligence service.

Who exactly, are the Jews in Biden’s “court?” Here is a list of Biden appointees and nominees (in no particular order), with some yet to come (for instance, Jews are in the running for ambassador to Israel, and Robert Malley is shortlisted to be appointed special envoy to the Iran nuclear negotiations):

· Tony Blinken, secretary of state

· Ron Klain, chief of staff

· Alejandro Mayorkas, secretary of homeland security

· Avrail Haines, director of national intelligence

· Janet Yellen, treasury secretary

· Merrick Garland, attorney general

· David Cohen, CIA deputy director

· Eric Lander, Office of Science and Technology policy director

· Rachel Levine, deputy health secretary

· Anne Neuberger, National Security Agency cybersecurity director

· Wendy Sherman, deputy secretary of state

· Stephanie Pollack, deputy administrator of the Federal Highway Administration

· Jared Bernstein, Council of Economic Advisers

· Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

· Jeffrey Zients, COVID-19 response coordinator

· Jennifer Klein, co-chair Council on Gender Policy

· Jessica Rosenworcel, chair of the Federal Communications Commission

· David Kessler, co-chair of the COVID-19 Advisory Board and head of Operation Warp Speed

· Polly Trottenberg, deputy secretary of transportation

· Isabel Guzman, administrator of the Small Business Administration (claims to be of Mexican, Jewish, German and possibly Chinese descent)

Special mention of those married to Jews:

· Vice President Kamala Harris, married to Doug Emhoff

· Samantha Power, director of United States Agency for International Development, married to Cass Sunstein

By way of offering balance, we end this column with one more special mention: that of non-Jewish Biden appointee Cecilia Rouse, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers. Rouse is married to Ford Morrison, son of Toni Morrison, who denounced Israel’s right to self-defense and claimed that Israel’s sole aim is the “liquidation of the Palestinian nation.” I don’t know anything at all about Rouse or her husband, but the latter’s genealogical “inheritance” does not bode well for Israel.

Cartoon of the Day: They go together

Continuing my series of recaptioning cartoons...

01/27 Links Pt1: Renewed talk of two-state solution illustrates US influence; Canada probes UNRWA funds over textbooks for promoting hate; Iran is totally confused on how to approach Biden

From Ian:

Seth Frantzman: Renewed talk of two-state solution illustrates US influence - analysis

The narrative in Israel has been, with perhaps shortsighted reference to the Trump years, that the Palestinian issue no longer matters to the region. Israeli experts say that countries care more about the Iranian threat. That may be true and it may be not. For instance Turkey’s aggressive behavior also appeared to bring Israel closer to Egypt, Greece, Cyprus and the UAE. However, Qatar and Saudi Arabia recently agreed to normalize relations and this inevitably affects views of Ankara.

There is much more moderate talk from Cairo now about Ankara and also about Iran and other issues. In short, the idea that an aggressive Iran and Turkey would mean that no one cares about Ramallah and Gaza may be oversold, especially as Biden’s administration wants to talk two states again.

WHAT IS clear from the recent talk of Saudi Arabia, Russia, Germany, France, Egypt, Jordan – and basically everyone taking an interest in two states again – is that there is a hunger for a US role and a kind of competition to see who can fit in with the new administration on this issue.

In contrast to the Trump administration’s early discussions with Jordan, the Biden administration has not had a lot of talks with Middle East leaders – yet. The US is focusing on repairing relationships with its neighbors Canada and Mexico, supporting friends in Japan and South Korea, talking about what to do in Afghanistan, and looking at European allies, as well as the Iran issue.

That means that Israel’s assessment that the two-state issue is not the top priority may be correct. However, any signal from Washington regarding moves in the Middle East – and how it may play a role with Moscow, Riyadh or Paris on their interest in two states – will matter. Russia and France’s role is important as both are historic key players in the region. In addition, Israel’s growing relations with the Gulf matter to Saudi Arabia, which has signaled support for these relationships.

How, exactly, anything can manifest itself in the Palestinian arena is unclear. The divided Palestinian authority, Hamas in Gaza, talk of elections – and the tenuous nature of Ramallah’s control of an autonomous statelet – all leave serious questions.

Palestinians Greet Our New President With an Old Trick

Eying the new administration in Washington, Ramallah is promising full democracy in Palestine. The Palestinian Authority President, Mahmoud Abbas, has declared parliamentary and presidential election in June and July respectively.

It’s an old trick. Not that it went unwelcomed by the marks at the United Nations. Secretary General Guterres was to make that clear. He was followed by a number of Western governments, hoping the 85 year old Mr. Abbas, who was elected for a four year stint back in 2005, will finally face voters and democracy will return.

Ramallah is eager to present its promised election round as superior to that of Israel, which will go to the polls in March for the fourth time in less than two years. Here is how Mr. Abbas’s foreign minister, Riad Malki, put it in a speech to the Security Council today:

“In this period of electoral campaigns, there are those who, in trying to secure votes, remain committed to international law, the two-State solution and peaceful means, and those who instead announce settlements, advance annexation and persist in their provocations.”

It’s almost impossible to parse all fallacies here. Feature “this period of electoral campaigns.” True, Israel’s politics have gone bonkers. The country is overly segmented, with every third-rate politician believing he or she is a potential national leader, forming new political parties almost daily. The prime minister, Benjamin Netanayhu, prefers election campaigns to dealing with trials against him on various criminal charges.

So Israel’s democracy might be in crisis, but a democracy it is, including a tradition of competitive elections, a vigorous adversarial press, independent courts, and a free economy. None of that is evident in the Palestinian territories.

Yes, 16 years after being elected to his four-year presidential stint Mr. Abbas has declared a new election round. But is that a sign of democracy promotion? Is it even a piece of news?

Canada probes UNRWA funds over textbooks for promoting hate

Canada will investigate its contributions to UNRWA following a report that the refugee agency for Palestinians uses textbooks that incite hatred and violence, Canada’s International Development Minister Karina Gould announced.

Gould said she was “deeply concerned” to learn that educational materials UNRWA gave Palestinian children during coronavirus-related lockdowns “contained references that violated UN values of human rights, tolerance, neutrality and nondiscrimination,” the minister said last week.

Canadian officials plan to investigate “how this happened and to reinforce UNRWA’s corrective actions, monitoring and oversight in the future,” Gould added.

Gould also spoke directly with UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini.

“I reiterated that the use of these educational materials violates the neutrality principles that UNRWA is committed to as a UN organization and under the Framework for Cooperation between Canada and UNRWA,” she stated. “I am personally reaching out to a number of my counterparts to discuss this situation and Canada will remain closely engaged with UNRWA and other donor countries on this and other neutrality issues.” Canada pledged $24 million to UNRWA in 2020.

Gould’s statement came less than a week after IMPACT-se, an Israel-based organization that monitors textbooks, mostly in the Middle East, released a report showing UNRWA distributed content that “promoted jihad, violence and martyrdom, [and] libelous claims that Israel intentionally dumps toxic waste into the West Bank.” The materials also erased Israel from its maps.

Iran's Mehr News reports:

Zionist Regime's occupation of Arab lands is a clear violation of human rights, Syrian envoy to the UN said, adding that such Zionist aggressions pose a threat to stability and security of the region.

Deputy Foreign Minister, Bashar al-Jaafari, affirmed that despite the passing of more than five decades on the Zionist occupation of the Arab lands, it still exists until today in a clear indication to the failure of the UN Security Council in assuming its responsibility and end the occupation which poses threat to stability and security of the region, SANA reported.
...
“The past days have witnessed an increasing number in the Zionist attacks against Syria, the most recent was last Friday, when the Zionist entity perpetrated a new aggression on the vicinity of the city of Hama, claiming the lives of a family of two parents, two children, and wounding four others from the same family in addition to the destruction of a number of innocent civilians’ homes,” al-Jaafari said.

It wasn't Israeli weapons that killed the family - but Syrian:

Syrian Observatory activists have reported that Israeli fighter jets flying over Lebanon struck at least five positions of Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese Hezbollah nearby Hama city and the Syria’s middle sector. The airstrikes have destroyed all these positions.

On the other hand, shrapnel of missiles fired by regime air-defences in an attempt to intercept the Israeli airstrikes hit the residential neighbourhood of Kazu in the north-western part of Hama city, which killed a family of four, a woman, her husband and two children, and seriously injured an old man, a woman and two other children.

Israel is more careful about Syrian lives than the Syrian regime is.

Not that this is surprising.

Most of the critics of Israel's vaccination program are asserting a moral argument: that Israel is "withholding" vaccines from people who could be saved and hoarding the valuable vaccines for its own selfish purposes.

Most of Israel's defenders are arguing not from a moral but a legal and fact-based perspective: that Israel is not obligated to provide vaccines to the Palestinians under existing agreements, and besides, the Palestinians have not asked Israel for more than a handful of vaccines to begin with, plus Israel is cooperating with Palestinian officials in everything they are asking for.

Needless to say, the moral argument, painting Israel as a cold, miserly nation, is more compelling to journalists and anti-Israel NGOs than the actual facts and Israel's legal obligations.

However, Israel indeed has not only a moral right but a moral obligation to inoculate its own citizens first. And it is exactly the same reason why every nation on Earth is prioritizing populations who are more at risk above those who are not.

According to the latest figures, Israel's COVID-19 infection rate is the 10th highest in the world: 67,317 per million people. By contrast, the Palestinians are ranked #59, with an infection rate far less than half of Israel's: 30,259.

Comparing the death rates from COVID-19 shows a similar disparity: Israel's is 493, which the Palestinians (with far fewer medical resources to keep critical cases alive) is only 349.

Israel has 1,207 critical cases - while Palestinians have only 61.

Israel had 27 deaths yesterday, while Palestinians had five.

Israel has every interest in making sure that Palestinians don't get COVID-19, but its moral priority is to inoculate its own citizens first. It is a race against time, because the new strains of COVID-19 that are rampant in Israel are spreading faster than even the vaccination rate, despite a three week lockdown. The number of active cases continues to rise, and the number of serious cases has not gone down. The first dose of vaccine is not as effective as was advertised so the second vaccine is of critical importance and priority.

Of course Israel should prioritize Israelis - they are the population that is most at risk! If somehow Israel could provide as many vaccines to Palestinians as the critics demand, the number of Israelis who would die would be much higher than the number of Palestinians who might be saved.

Those who are claiming that Israel is immoral for vaccinating Israelis first are not saying that Palestinian lives matter - they are saying that Israeli lives do not matter.

They are the immoral ones.

Palestinian Authority TV says the Holocaust was punishment for "Zionist wickedness"

Today is International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and the Palestinian Authority has decided to celebrate it in its own Jew-hating way.

An official Palestinian TV show, "From the Israeli Archive," translates some Israeli TV documentaries for Palestinian audiences. This week, they showed (and also mistranslated) an episode from the 1981 Israeli Zionist history documentary "Pillar of Fire" which described the rise of Nazism and its effects on the Jews of Germany.

In the introduction to the episode, the Palestinian host said that the Holocaust was punishment for Zionist wickedness.

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Official PA TV host: “In this episode, whose title is “Hitler’s Rise to Power in ‎Germany,” we’ll talk about the very sensitive periods between 1929 and 1935. ‎This is the period in which Zionism was diminished and nearly ended and ‎disappeared… The preparations began leading to World War II in Europe, and ‎this is the period in which the Zionist movement paid the price for its ‎conspiracies and wickedness, there in the European states.”‎

[Official PA TV, From the Israeli Archive, Jan. 23, 2021]‎

This shows not only how antisemitic the Palestinian Authority is, but also how self-centered they are to think that "Zionist crimes" were what Nazis were fighting when they murdered six million Jews.

Here is the English episode of Pillar of Fire that corresponds to the episode shown.

Palestinians dust off a 2018 "peace plan," where only Israel has to give up anything, to the UN Security Council

Now that Joe Biden is President, Mahmoud Abbas is trying to set the clock back to the Obama era by pretending to act like he wants peace and hoping that the world will go back to castigating Israel and praising him.

The PA's foreign minister spoke before the UN Security Council and managed to get the usual suspects to praise the Palestinians and slam Israel.

The reason for the meeting was for the PA to push a 2018 "peace plan" that they put together as a response to the Trump recognition of Jerusalem. They are now treating this plan, where they are not expected to give anything up, as a serious proposal to try to regain some momentum and act as if they are interested in peace.

The "peace plan" includes:

An international peace conference led by the permanent members of the Security Council and the Quartet.

Accepting the State of Palestine as a full member of the United Nations

Mutual recognition between the State of Palestine and the State of Israel based on the "1967 borders."

An international multilateral mechanism to assist the two sides to resolve all permanent status issues within a specified time period with guarantees for implementation.

During the period of negotiations, stopping all settlement activities including East Jerusalem.

Freezing the US decision recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

Implement the Arab Peace Initiative and no Arab nation can make peace until that is implemented.

"State of Palestine" capital is in East Jerusalem.

An international peace force to assist.

"A just and agreed solution to the Palestinian refugee issue on the basis of Resolution 194."

Continued international commitment to support UNRWA "until the refugee issue is resolved."

This is warmed over versions of Palestinian demands for years, where instead of Palestinians making actual compromises, they sit back and let the international community pressure Israel into making concession after concession on everything - Jerusalem, refugees, settlements, borders.

They are clearly hoping that the Biden administration will back them up.

01/26 Links Pt2: What the War Over the IHRA Definition Obscures; The uncomfortable truth about BLM, Malcolm X and anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Jeff Jacoby: The politics of an Auschwitz survivor’s son

Equally menacing is an obsession with race and racial distinctions. Hitler’s Germany deemed “Aryans” the highest race and Jews the lowest. In their fanaticism on the subject, the Nazis demonized Jews, denied them legal rights, deprived them of their livelihoods, drove them from their homes, and finally destroyed them by the millions. As the son of a Holocaust survivor, I consider all racial categories fundamentally illegitimate. I abhor the labeling and sorting of Americans by race. “Classifications and distinctions based on race or color,” argued the NAACP Legal Defense Fund in a 1947 brief, “have no moral or legal validity in our society.” That has always been my position. It makes me heartsick that 50 years after the civil rights movement, America’s leading institutions have become more race-obsessed than ever.

I’m sure that some of the stands I take in public-policy debates have been influenced by my experience growing up with a father who survived the death camps and being raised in a community that was home to other survivors. I fervently opposed the Bush administration’s reliance on torture to extract information from Al Qaeda detainees, for example. I have always condemned the scapegoating of immigrants, whether it came from the left or from the right. I have no patience with foreign-policy “realists” who downplay human rights in dealing with other governments.

Above and beyond politics, however, my lifelong awareness of the Holocaust has made it impossible for me not to know that human goodness is fragile. It doesn’t come naturally but must be honed and practiced, etched into our nature one good deed at a time. Civility and civilization are only veneers, stretched like a bandage over an ugly wound. More easily than we like to think, that bandage can be pulled off, exposing the putrescence beneath. It was pulled off in Europe in the middle of the 20th century, and the consequences were diabolical — for the world, for the Jews, for my father and his family. Those consequences are never far from my mind. They shape my thinking to this day.

After converting to Judaism, I was surrounded by neo-Nazis - Opinion

When we talked about it over scoops of ice cream later that night, he told me it was surprising to have experienced neo-Nazis in Iceland, a country famous for its equality and peaceful society, but he didn’t reveal having felt anything beyond the surprise.

I took this experience home with me though, and it helped me understand the gravity of my conversion. It was the first time that fear made me reconsider my conversion and the choices I was making in my public Jewish life. It was the first time I truly looked inward and asked myself the hard question required of converts: Was I ready to accept the realities of anti-Semitism?

I also asked myself the question so many of my friends had asked already: As a gay man, why would I want to add an additional target on my back?

I used to find the imagery of a target on someone’s back too grotesque and melodramatic for the context of a religious conversion, but since my encounter with presumed neo-Nazis in the hot tub that day, the question has become even more reasonable. On top of all-too-common news of anti-Semitic threats and vandalism, there have been synagogue shootings and Jewish-oriented hate crimes around the world.

At the time of this writing, we are dealing with the aftermath of domestic terrorists storming and overtaking the U.S. Capitol building. Some rioters waved Confederate flags, others held signs referencing the anti-Semitic conspiracy theory QAnon. Others wore sweatshirts that read things like “Camp Auschwitz,” an obvious glorification of the Holocaust. During the pro-Trump “Save America” rally leading up to the storming of the Capitol building, a Republican congresswoman, Mary Miller, even quoted Hitler.

While I wait for my city’s mikvah to reopen after being closed due to COVID-19 in order to finalize my conversion, I find myself revisiting the same question I asked myself back in Reykjavík: Is my conversion a smart choice?

In the two years that have passed since soaking in a hot tub with neo-Nazis, I have to admit that my certainty in my desire to convert has taken a few blows. But what keeps me pushing toward the mikvah, however, is that when I’m asked if I’m Jewish, I always say yes.

The uncomfortable truth about BLM, Malcolm X and anti-Semitism

Fifty-five years ago, Martin Luther King delivered a speech to 50,000 Americans in which he demanded justice for persecuted Jews behind the Iron Curtain.

‘The absence of opportunity to associate as Jews in the enjoyment of Jewish culture and religious experience becomes a severe limitation upon the individual,’ he said. ‘Negros can well understand and sympathise with this problem.’

He then stated, in typically uncompromising style, that Jewish history and culture were ‘part of everyone’s heritage, whether he be Jewish, Christian or Moslem.’ He concluded:

‘We cannot sit complacently by the wayside while our Jewish brothers in the Soviet Union face the possible extinction of their cultural and spiritual life. Those that sit at rest, while others take pains, are tender turtles, and buy their quiet with disgrace.’

This speech – released last week by the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCEJ) to mark Martin Luther King Day, and coming just days before we remember the Holocaust – feels particularly poignant in the newly radicalised atmosphere of 2021. Today's activists in the Black Lives Matter movement would be wise to remember King's words.

During the Los Angeles riots over the killing of George Floyd, Jewish shops were destroyed, synagogues were sprayed with ‘free Palestine’ graffiti, and a statue of a Swedish diplomat who had saved Hungarian Jews from the Nazis was defaced with anti-Semitic slogans.

In France, a Black Lives Matter rally descended into cries of ‘dirty Jews’, echoing the anti-Semitic chants that filled the same streets during the Dreyfus affair a century ago. Shortly afterwards, the #Jewishprivilege Twitter hashtag sought to lump Jews together with the forces of oppression – until it was subverted by Jews posting accounts of the persecution suffered by their families. Jewish privilege indeed.