Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 23, 2021

WaPo publicizes a self-selecting online poll of Israel-hating academics as scientific

From the Washington Post, an article written by anti-Israel academics Marc Lynch and Shibley Telhami:

The Middle East never lacks for commentary and opinions. Several high-quality surveys regularly ask political scientists and foreign policy experts their views on U.S. policy in the region. But what do scholarly experts on the Middle East think?

Last week, we fielded a unique survey of scholars with expertise in the Middle East, the first of our new Middle East Scholar Barometer. Drawing on the membership of the Middle East Studies Association, the American Political Science Association’s MENA Politics Section and the Project on Middle East Political Science at George Washington University, we identified 1,293 such scholars. The vast majority speak regional languages, have spent significant time in the Middle East, and have dedicated their professional lives to the rigorous study of the region and its politics. Within three days, 521 scholars had consented and responded (a 40 percent response rate), divided almost equally between political scientists and nonpolitical scientists.

Perhaps the starkest finding of the survey is the collective assessment of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. A strong majority, 59 percent, describes the current reality for Israel and the Palestinians as “a one-state reality akin to apartheid.” An additional 7 percent view it as a “one-state reality with inequality, but not akin to apartheid.”

How scientific was the survey? Not at all. It was a self-selecting online survey, meaning that people with strong opinions were more likely to answer. The survey makes itself sound scientific by saying that it uses the "University of Maryland's Qualtrics platform" when Qualtrics is simply an online survey company that anyone can sign up for in five minutes, send a "poll" to their mailing list, and post the results as if they are meaningful.

Qualtrics is as scientific and rigorous as a Twitter poll.

Legitimate surveys are constructed to reduce bias. This poll is constructed to encourage bias. Unlike legitimate surveys, this online poll ensures that people with strong opinions are more likely to respond. And who are more fanatic than Israel haters and BDS supporters?

Which brings us to the second fatal issue with the poll. The vast majority of the respondents are members of the Middle East Studies Association, which pretends to be apolitical but is anything but. While it has not voted on BDS, it has defended it vigorously. And it defends those who want to boycott Israeli universities in the name of academic freedom, which is as Orwellian as it gets.

Before the "call for BDS" in 2005, MESA issued a 2002 statement that would be a condemnation of BDS:

We believe that critical analysis and argument should infuse university life. We believe that individuals should be accorded equal access to that arena for debate without regard to their personal status, country of origin, religious persuasion or policy preference.

Yet BDS advocates boycotting Israeli academics - and MESA defends them, seemingly silently eliminating the "country of origin" clause in their 2002 statement.

A self-selecting, unscientific, online poll of "scholars" who defend boycotting Israeli universities, and only Israeli universities, is being pushed as if it is meaningful. It doesn't reflect reality - it reflects the biases of the people who came up with the idea of the poll and their friends.

This isn't a one-off. This was the first poll of the "Middle East Scholar Barometer" - a way to push political agendas by creating polls whose results are cooked to begin with, while giving credulous news media the pretense that these are objective and accurate surveys.

(h/t Lenny)

On Sunday, I quoted Times of Israel:

The Palestinian Authority has reportedly sent a letter to Washington stating that all Palestinian factions — including Hamas — have committed to a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem, and to peaceful popular resistance against Israel.

Thge "all Palestinian factions" part upset the Islamic Jihad terror group.

They issued a statement on Sunday night saying that it has no connection with what was stated in the letter, stressing that it did not authorize anyone to relinquish any grain of sand of the soil of the land of historical Palestine.

At the same time, the terror group released a video where their leader says that as long as one Palestinian is alive, they will keep fighting.

02/22 Links Pt2: David Collier: David Miller’s antisemitism – Bristol University shares the blame; SNL’s Anti-Israel Covid Blood Libel; Why Poland Is Trying to Control Holocaust Memory

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: 'We need to BDS them': Mark Levin says of media hostility towards Israel, US

Mark Levin, the conservative Jewish American radio broadcaster with more than 14 million daily listeners, has a gloomy forecast for the future of American media coverage of the US, of Israel and of ties between the two countries.

Ahead of the launch of the Hebrew-language edition of his bestselling book Unfreedom of the Press, Levin told Israel Hayom that to understand the nature and depth of the danger that the US media poses to democracy in America, you have to understand the way that the US media treats Israel.

"I think the American people – forget about the elites – I think the American people and the Israeli people have such a connection, and such a love for each other," he explained.

"We get in this country from our media … that Israel is an apartheid society, it's a racist society. It's the same things they say about our country, they say about Israel. So it's kind of hard to write a book – what I called Unfreedom of the Press – and ignore what's going on in Israel.

"It's also hard to ignore it as a Jew," he adds.

"I see the overlays. I see the animus towards Israel, the animus towards the United States."

For decades Israelis and Israel's supporters in America complained about the anti-Israel bias of the US media. But in Unfreedom of the Press, Levin explains that the problem is far worse than mere bias.

David Collier: David Miller’s antisemitism – Bristol University shares the blame

I have long said Corbyn was a symptom of a far greater problem and only now is that beginning to be more widely understood. The rewriting of history took place in academic halls long before it began to spread on social media. We witnessed the growth of anti-Israel movements only after academic activists had provided them with faux legitimacy. The NGOs fighting against Israel are full of graduates who were taught their twisted hatred, whilst studying at government-funded educational institutions. A whole generation of academics has arisen, who view the world through an antisemitic lens. They protect each other, stand together to silence dissent and spread their false tales to all the new students that appear. It is a factory that creates clones.

If they leave academia to branch out into law, politics or non-profit work, they spread their toxic beliefs wherever they land. It was only a matter of time before a mainstream political party became a target.

In comparison to the battle against Corbynism’s invasion of the Labour party, we are faced with a much more difficult fight. Academia will be protected by academics. The wider uninformed public will not tolerate interference with something that all the little graduate soldiers in media and in NGOs will come out to defend. David Miller’s case highlights this perfectly. The Bristol faculty, certainly the parts surrounding David Miller, are probably very hospitable to his views. When Bristol University considers its response to the outrage facing David Miller, make no mistake – the reaction of their own faculty if they respond harshly is a larger worry to them than having to deal with a few unhappy Jewish students.

But ask yourself this. If Bristol University which adopted the IHRA, still cannot deal with a case as blatant as David Miller then what value does the IHRA have? At the very least, the IHRA demands that a name be given to such breaches – and that name is antisemitism. The Miller case proves that those attacking the IHRA have little to worry about. The responsibility of the University of Bristol

But the bottom line is that this story is all down to the University of Bristol. They chose to give him a senior role even though he had been targeting the Jewish community for a decade. If you employ a racist and he racially abuses your students – you bear responsibility. This is no different.

Bristol is failing in providing a basic duty of care for Jewish students. It is a waste of time turning to an academic who is lost down an anti-Zionist black hole and expecting some type of understanding, sympathy or apology. Miller sees our community as a fifth column with a power base that he would happily dismantle. All this is down to the university. They chose to employ him. They would not have done this to any other minority group. It is time they afforded their Jewish students the basic protections that they are legally obliged to provide.

It is time they start doing their job.

Morton A. Klein: It wasn't funny, Michael Che

The ZOA demands that NBC’s Saturday Night Live (“SNL”) producer Lorne Michaels apologize for and terminate the writer of a “joke” which was not funny and in reality was a dangerous Jew-hating, Israel-bashing blood libel. In addition, this blood libel should be removed from NBC’s website and other fora where it may appear.

On SNL last night, SNL actor Michael Che stated, in a failed attempt at humor that: “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population. I’m going to guess it was the Jewish half.”

In fact, in Israel, all citizens – Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Christian, are equally eligible and have the equal opportunity to receive the anti-Covid vaccine.

Antisemitic libels are not funny. In fact, in Israel, all citizens – Jewish, Muslim, Arab and Christian, are equally eligible and have the equal opportunity to receive the anti-Covid vaccine. The priorities are health care workers of all backgrounds (including Israel’s many Arab physicians and health care workers) and the elderly of all backgrounds. Approximately 70% of Israeli Arabs over 60 have already received the vaccine.

Israel also offered the vaccine to the autonomous Palestinian Authority (“PA”) and PA President/PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, even though Israel has no obligation to do so. The Oslo accords make clear that the PA is responsible for all issues affecting the health of the PA’s citizens. The PA and Abbas adamantly rejected Israel’s extraordinary, generous humanitarian offer.

The "Franklin Prophecy," a 1930s era forgery of a statement purportedly made by Benjamin Franklin at the 1787 Congressional Congress, is still being circulated in the Arab world as fact - along with the claim that Franklin was a US president.

Jordanian news site Rum Online writes:

In a bold and clear speech more than 200 years ago, US President Benjamin Franklin presented to the American Constituent Assembly in 1799 his historic will alerting to the dangers facing America’s future as a result of the increasing Jewish threat in the country. Do not think that America escaped from the dangers once it gained independence, for it is still threatened by a grave danger that is no less than the danger of colonialism, which is the devastating danger as a result of the multiplication of Jews in our country, where the evils and troubles that befell European countries will befall us, and it is the one that tolerated the Jews and provided them with livelihoods and left them settling Its lands, when the Jews were quick to eradicate the traditions and beliefs of its people and killed the morale of its youth with the toxins of pornography and immorality.

This is a bit of a difference from what the actual forgery stated. The original statement itself is straight antisemitism, first published by a fascist organization in the US and then immediately republished in various Nazi organs. It says:

There is a great danger for the United State of America. This great danger is the Jew. Gentlemen, in every land the Jews have settled, they have depressed the moral level and lowered the degree of commercial honesty. They have remained apart and unassimilated; oppressed, they attempt to strangle the nation financially, as in the case of Portugal and Spain.

For more than seventeen hundred years they have lamented their sorrowful fate — namely, that they have been driven out of their mother land; but, gentlemen, if the civilized world today should give them back Palestine and their property, they would immediately find pressing reason for not returning there. Why? Because they are vampires and vampires cannot live on other vampires --they cannot live among themselves. They must live among Christians and others who do not belong to their race.

If they are not expelled from the United States by the Constitution within less than one hundred years, they will stream into this country in such numbers that they will rule and destroy us and change our form of Government for which we Americans shed our blood and sacrificed our life, property and personal freedom. If the Jews are not excluded within two hundred years, our children will be working in the field to feed Jews while they remain in the counting houses, gleefully rubbing their hands.

I warn you, gentlemen, if you do not exclude the Jews forever, your children and your children’s children will curse you in their graves. Their ideas are not those of Americans, even when they lived among us for ten generations. The leopard cannot change his spots. The Jews are a danger to this land, and if they are allowed to enter, they will imperil our institutions. They should be excluded by the Constitution.

It was determine to be a forgery fairly quickly. The language is not how people spoke in the 18th century and its reference to Palestine shows that it was written partially as a response to Zionism. This New York Times article from March 10, 1937 describes how it was exposed:

Arab antisemitism has often used Nazi sources, and that hasn't changed.

02/22 Links Pt1: Biden’s Policy of Weakness Toward Iran; Why are Israelis held in Gaza ignored amid Syria prisoner exchange?; IAEA strikes deal with Iran to cushion coming blow of slashed access

From Ian:

National Review: Biden’s Policy of Weakness Toward Iran

Instead of signaling to the Iranians, as President Trump did, that the U.S. will hold them directly accountable for the actions of the militias under their control, the new team appears to have let it slide without a direct warning to Iran.

And as Yemen’s Houthi rebels continued their assault on civilian areas, Biden lifted the Foreign Terrorist Organization designation of the Iran-backed group.

Worst of all, though, the Biden administration has extended this olive branch to Tehran following a report this month revealing that the International Atomic Energy Agency found new Iranian uranium-metal production in excess of JCPOA limits. Meanwhile, Iran is threatening to curtail IAEA inspections following a February 23 deadline set by parliament if the U.S. doesn’t cave.

Contrary to what some Iran appeasers argue, this bad behavior is not the result of the Trump-era maximum-pressure campaign. Tehran is escalating now because it sees an opportunity to strong-arm Biden into lifting sanctions first.

Since Thursday, the calls for talks by Jake Sullivan, Blinken, and the president himself have been taken less as a sign of magnanimity than of weakness. Already, Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif has reiterated his demands for sanctions relief as a prerequisite for any talks about U.S. reentry into the JCPOA.

At least the administration hasn’t budged on sanctions — yet. But unless Biden is forceful in pushing back on Iran’s tests of his resolve, yet more will come and perhaps force the kind of crisis that the president wants to avert.

PMW: How much did PA spend on terror salaries in 2020?

Since the beginning of 2020, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been trying to hide the financial record of its payments to the Palestinian terrorist prisoners and released terrorists (together hereinafter “the terrorist prisoners”). In 2018 and 2019, the PA monthly budget performance reports clearly listed the transfer expenditures of the “Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs,” which was primarily the payments to terrorist prisoners, as 502 and 517 million shekels respectively. In 2020, the budget category of the “Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs” (later by the PA called the Commission for Detainees’ Affairs) was removed altogether. However, throughout 2020, numerous statements by PA and PLO officials confirmed that the PA continued to pay hundreds of millions of shekels a year in terror rewards. Consequently, it was clear that the PA had decided to pay terrorists in a roundabout way so that there would be no reference to the salaries at all in their budget.

Palestinian Media Watch has examined the PA’s financial reports throughout 2020 and can now report both where the payments are being hidden, and that the amount the PA spent on terrorists salaries in 2020 was no less than 512 million shekels.

The salaries the PA paid to terrorists in 2019 via the Ministry/Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, were paid in 2020 through the PLO. Under the budget listing of PLO “transfer expenditures” the PA’s payments through the PLO rose more than 300% in 2020, from 161 million shekels to 673 million shekels. The additional expenditure - 512 million shekels - is the minimum amount the PA paid to the terrorist prisoners and released terrorists in 2020.

Why did the PA make this accounting change in 2020?
As a recipient of international funding, the PA must show full transparency and publicly list all its expenses, whereas the PLO is not accountable to anyone for how it spends its money. The PA wants to prevent the international community from seeing listings like the one below in its “budget performance report” of 2019, which shows 517 million shekels for salaries to terrorist prisoners listed under the “Commission of Detainees’ Affairs”. (Note: the 517 million shekels in the right column are the salaries to terrorists, while the 619 million shekels in the left column is the full budget of the Commission in 2019.)

The answer is that if the price of each vaccine was $33, the PA could have bought 4,727,272 vaccines.https://t.co/HwDcG1mdl1
— Maurice Hirsch, Adv. 🇮🇱 עו''ד מוריס הירש (@MauriceHirsch4) February 22, 2021

Palestinian COVID vaccine plan faces large funding gap, World Bank says

The Palestinians' COVID-19 vaccination plan faces a $30 million funding shortfall, even after factoring in support from a global vaccine scheme for poorer economies, the World Bank said in a report on Monday.

Israel, a world leader in terms of vaccination speed, could perhaps consider donating surplus doses to the Palestinians to help accelerate a vaccine roll-out in the occupied West Bank and Gaza, the bank said.

"In order to ensure there is an effective vaccination campaign, Palestinian and Israeli authorities should coordinate in the financing, purchase and distribution of safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines," it said.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) plans to cover 20% of Palestinians through the COVAX vaccine-sharing programme. PA officials hope to procure additional vaccines to achieve 60% coverage.

Cost estimates suggest that "a total of about $55 million would be needed to cover 60 percent of the population, of which there is an existing gap of $30 million," the World Bank said, calling for additional donor help.

The Palestinians began vaccinations this month and have received small donations from Israel, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Palestinian Media Watch reports that during 2020, the Palestinian Authority continued to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners, hiding the salaries under the budget line of “PLO institutions.” The total payments in 2020 to terrorist prisoners and released prisoners were at least 512 million shekels, which is over $156 million.

There are about 4.5 million people under Palestinian rule, of which about 2.5 million are over 20 years old.

For $156 million, the PA could have purchased two doses of the Moderna vaccine at an expensive $30 a dose for every adult Palestinian. For the Russian Sputnik-V vaccines, they could have purchased enough for every single citizen of any age at $10 a dose and still had $66 million left over for other critical expenses.

Instead, they pay terrorist salaries, on a sliding scale, where the more Jews they attacked roughly means more money from their government.

One of the arguments that anti-Israel activists use to justify their demand that Israel provide free vaccines for Palestinians is that the Palestinians cannot afford to buy their own without wrecking their economy. These people seem to agree that it is more important for Palestinians to pay terrorists than to pay for vaccines.

Today, finally, Hamas started the process of inoculating Gazans with the Russian Sputnik-V vaccine.

Besides the 2000 doses sent through Kerem Shalom last week, another 20,000 doses were donated by the UAE and were shipped in through Egypt yesterday.

That is interesting in itself. The UAE, still upset at the Palestinian Authority for rejecting its own COVID-19 aid last summer, apparently decided to bypass the PA altogether and send vaccines straight to Gaza.

And they worked with Mahmoud Abbas' political rival from Fatah, Mohammad Dahlan, who is angling to be a player in the upcoming planned election.

Politicizing vaccines would be considered reprehensible if done by anyone but Palestinians. (Yet another example of the "Palestine exception.")

The other interesting fact about the vaccines in Gaza is that even though the Hamas health ministry opened up an online registration drive, only 7,000 out of 2 million Gazans actually signed up for vaccines so far.

After all of the publicity of the delay of bringing vaccines in to Gaza, it seems that most Gazans aren't too interested in getting the vaccine anyway, at least up until now.

The first people to receive the shot, in front of reporters, were former Gaza health ministers.

CNN uncritically reports US-Palestinian who was stuck in Gaza, when his story doesn't add up

CNN has the story of Hani Almadhoun and his family, who were stranded in Gaza when they went to visit Almadhoun's dying grandfather. They went to Gaza via Egypt on in early November and then they couldn't leave as Egypt blocked the Rafah crossing due to COVID.

Parts of his story doesn't quite add up, but CNN reports his experiences as accurate.

About a week after Almadhoun's grandfather died on November 19, the crossing was closed due to Covid-19 restrictions.

..."We realized we were stuck around December 25 ... that's when we started worrying," Almadhoun said.

After his grandfather's death, apparently the family decided to hang around in Gaza for several more weeks. During a pandemic.

The State Department makes it crystal clear that it strongly discourages travel to Gaza at any time, let alone during a pandemic:

Gaza:  The U.S. government is unable to provide emergency services to U.S. citizens in Gaza as U.S. government employees are prohibited from traveling there and are restricted from traveling close to the Gaza demarcation line.  Hamas, a U.S. government-designated foreign terrorist organization, controls the security infrastructure in Gaza. The security environment within Gaza and on its borders is dangerous and volatile. Sporadic mortar or rocket fire and corresponding Israeli military responses may occur at any time. During periods of unrest or armed conflict, the crossings between Gaza with Israel and Egypt may be closed.

So why on Earth did these US citizens choose to stay in Gaza when they could have and should have left?

But instead of asking that question, CNN reports on their plight - and their complaints about the US State Department for not helping them escape

Given his past experiences traveling to Gaza as a US citizen, and the Covid-19 pandemic, Almadhoun expected the US Embassy would help.
"It's not like we went to Gaza to smoke hookah. We went to see our dying grandfather," he said. "It was a human thing to do. We didn't expect not to get any help, or even just kind words, from the American embassy. All their replies were robotic and scripted."
Almadhoun believes that if his family was not Palestinian, the US Embassy in Jerusalem would have treated them differently.
"I never received help from them in the past, but I hoped with the pandemic they were feeling more human," he said. "It's like, you're an American citizen yet when they see you're Palestinian, that's all you are, and that's how you're treated. If they ask if you have a Palestinian ID card and you do, they stop listening."

So did the US Embassy help him in the past or didn't they? The contradiction isn't cleared up. But the State Department makes it clear there is only so much they can do.

In the end, the family appealed to a senator to contact Egypt and allow them to leave a few days after the Rafah crossing opened.

There were some other parts of Almadhoun's story that were strange as well:

On many nights, while spending time with his family or working remotely, Almadhoun said he could hear the sounds of drones flying overhead and what sounded like missiles striking targets not far from their home in Gaza City.
"Being in Gaza is hard. At times it was hell. You get maybe six or eight hours of electricity a day, and some days there is not even water," Almadhoun said.

I looked up how many times there were Israeli airstrikes in Gaza during the 100 or so days the family was there. It happened on only four nights, according to the UN: 11/15, 11/21, 12/26 and 1/18. Each of them were in response to Hamas rocket attacks to Israel. There were also some "work accidents" during that time period, but Almadhoun reports every explosion he heard as an Israeli airstrike - and CNN didnt fact-check him/

Also, OCHA-OPT says that Gaza averages 14 hours of electricity a day during the time the family was there. It is possible that he only got 6-8 hours of electricity where he was, but again, CNN took his statement as being truthful for all of Gaza.

But why shouldn't CNN believe him? Why shouldn't CNN give him the benefit of the doubt?

Because Almadhoun works for UNRWA-USA, which depends on demonizing Israel for its funding. Members of UNRWA-USA have a history of anti-Israel slanders.

An Arab family decided to essentially vacation in Gaza, and they then blame Israel and the US for making their trip less than enjoyable. And CNN happily reports their story without any skepticism.

(h/t Mathew)

Cartoon of the Day: Modern anti-antisemitism

02/21 Links: The hatred of the stupid for the smart; Temple University Must Take Action Against Marc Lamont Hill; Pope pops in on author and Holocaust survivor Edith Bruck

From Ian:

Julie Burchill: The hatred of the stupid for the smart

Why do so many students hate Jews? Especially now. You’d think with so much spare time on their hands — all those sob stories about being denied the full Uni Experience of staying drunk on cheap students’-union booze 24/7 and becoming more intimately acquainted with each other and the cast of Neighbours than with their own blood relatives during communal hangover days — they’d be buckling down and using these months to do some work now that they’re prevented by law from getting together and bonding over bullying the Chosen. But no, it seems that for many of them, all that time is being used to put in the extra hours on Jew-baiting duties.

Following a report from a small group of academics at UCL, its Academic Board has passed an advisory resolution calling on the university to ‘retract and replace’ the international definition of anti-Semitism which it adopted in 2019. Rebecca Lyons, vice-president of UCL’s Jewish Society, said: ‘The IHRA definition of anti-Semitism directly codifies what it means to be anti-Semitic, thereby shielding Jewish students from acts of intolerance and hatred. The removal of the definition leaves us exposed and unsafe on campus.’

Who can call this hyperbole when a supporter of the move chose the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day to state ‘I am confident that long will pass Israel’s time, as South Africa passed before it, and we’ll laugh at these days when people actually took this state seriously’? As ever, Jews are being told what is and what is not anti-Semitism, by both their teachers and their fellow students — an unimaginable situation if it were applied to other ethnic minorities.

It’s tempting to think that this is all about Palestine, but that lets those who turn the Socialism of Fools into a campus caper off the hook. A Gentile friend told me of her experience at Dundee University (twinned with Nablus!) in 2015:

‘My best friend was in with the Free Palestine gang and thought I was weird for finding them so appalling. She was eventually enlightened when Trump was running for election — and they basically wanted him in because he was portrayed as a Nazi, so they said “At least he might finally deal with the Jews”. She finally saw what I was talking about, the basic anti-Semitism of these people hiding behind anti-Zionism. Nevertheless, I ended up having to go to the police when a good part of the campus turned on me.’

It’s all about the brains, in my opinion; see the crazy percentage of Nobel Prizes won by this extraordinary people. Anyway, academic anti-Semitism existed long before Israel was reclaimed. The thick children of the bourgeoisie have always known that they can’t keep up with these under-privileged over-achievers, so they get spiteful. Thus no sooner had the musty right-wing prejudices against Jews been overcome, with the end of quotas on the number of Jewish students accepted into the top universities, than what I’ve previously coined ‘Fresh’n’Funky anti-Semitism’ was there to take the weasel wheel under the guise of being pro-Palestinian.

Temple University Must Take Action Against Marc Lamont Hill

Temple University professor Marc Lamont Hill, who was fired from CNN in November 2018 for his clarion call to destroy Israel, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” is reiterating that call. This time, he has written a book, Except for Palestine: The Limits of Progressive Politics, and has been promulgating his violent ideas in a series of interviews.

As Hill speaks about his book, in which he calls for “justice” for the Palestinian people, he disregards the history of the Jewish people, including their exile from the land of Israel, their millennia of persecution in the Diaspora, their endless longing to return to their ancestral homeland in Zion, and the presence of Jews in the land of Israel since biblical times. In doing so, he chooses to dismiss the existence of Jewish peoplehood, and instead, arrogantly and naively defines Jews as “a religion and a faith,” as he did during an interview with Carmen Perez Jordan on Feb. 18.

Hill’s refusal to acknowledge historical facts is coupled with his dismissal of contemporary realities, as he laments the plight of the Palestinian people but does not acknowledge the UN Partition Plan of 1947, Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, or the terror with which Israeli citizens have lived for decades at the hands of Palestinians. His simplistic bifurcation of the resulting complex and multi-dimensional social and political situation into a “good guys and bad guys” scenario says more about Hill’s desire to lambast the Jewish people of Israel than it does about the conflict.

Indeed, watching and listening to Hill propagate antisemitic tropes as he promotes his book has been both illuminating and deeply disturbing. On one occasion, he mocked what he regarded as Israel’s demand for exceptional treatment — reminiscent of the antisemitic view that Jews regard themselves as the “Chosen People.” (Ironically, he was discussing Israel’s right to exist, a subject that originated when Israel’s legitimacy was called into question as an attack by Israel detractors like Hill, not as a unique demand by Israel.) On another occasion, he spoke about Israel as having stolen land from the Palestinians, using the words “transfer of people out of their homeland” and “dispossession,” eliciting the stereotypical image of the thieving, greedy Jew.

Michael Che Makes An Anti-Semitic Joke on “Saturday Night Live” That’s Already Getting Social Media Criticism

SUNDAY 10:30AM UPDATE Just as I expected, there’s been an avalanche of criticism on social media overnight. But there have also been plenty of Tweets supporting Che by people who are either anti-Semitic or clueless. Che didn’t say, “the Israeli half.” He said “the Jewish half.” There’s a difference, even if he’s unaware of it. His joke was directed at a religion, not a state or government. That he didn’t understand that distinction is where the problem lies. And will perpetuate more anti-Semitism. I’m usually a fan of Che. But he’s made a big error that must be rectified.

SUNDAY 12:38AM Comedian Michael Che is already getting blasted midway through “Saturday Night Live” for an anti-Semitic joke.

During “Weekend Update,” Che joked that half the people in Israel had already been vaccinated and “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”

Lorne Michaels, who is Jewish, cannot be happy. (He might not be happy about some other references to his personal wealth during the segment.)

Che is getting a ton of criticism and anger on Twitter right now. But even worse– the anti-Semites are coming out, applauding the line. What a stupid thing he did. I think this will not be the end of it.

One Tweeter said: Michael Che perpetrated an anti- Semitic anti- Israel trope with his vaccine joke. Just as a fact check – Israel vaccinated 1/2 of its population of Israeli citizens – Arab, Jewish and Christian. Shame on you.

Another: WTF, SNL. Your no-reason quip about Israel only vaccinating Jews is not only a lie, but it perpetuates anti-semitism. Cheap shot that does more damage than the momentary, paltry laugh you got for that sorry excuse of a joke.

SNL's Michael Che makes joke about Israel not vaccinating Palestinians 2/20/2021

PA tells Washington that Hamas is committed to peace and a two state solution. Hamas disagrees (in Arabic only.)

Times of Israel reports:

The Palestinian Authority has reportedly sent a letter to Washington stating that all Palestinian factions — including Hamas — have committed to a Palestinian state within the pre-1967 borders with its capital in East Jerusalem, and to peaceful popular resistance against Israel.

The letter was allegedly sent as part of a reconciliation process between the vying groups ahead of scheduled Palestinian elections. Hamas, an Islamist terror group which seized control of Gaza in 2007 and avowedly seeks Israel’s destruction, has never publicly withdrawn its commitment to violent resistance against Israel.

Palestinian officials who spoke to The Times of Israel have previously emphasized that Hamas’s participation in the Palestinian political process would depend on its acceptance of previous agreements signed between Israel and the Palestinians, in addition to committing to “peaceful popular resistance.”

And what does Hamas say?

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh gave a speech on Saturday at a "United Against Normalization" conference. Haniyeh said Hamas was committed to resistance "in all its forms," a phrase that explicitly includes terrorism, although he did say that these forms also include peaceful and political resistance.

As far as accepting a two-state solution, Haniyeh also rejected that as well, saying that Hamas wants Palestinian leaders to ignore everything that has happened since before the 1991 Madrid Conference and all agreements made with Israel, and to reject the legitimacy of "the occupier" Israel.

Crucially, the official Hamas English report on the speech changed what he said to bring it more in line with US demands. It did not include the phrase "resistance in all its forms." And instead of saying "non-recognition of the legitimacy of the occupier" it changed his words to "not give any legitimacy to the occupation," implying that Hamas is OK with Israel but just not with its control of the lands won in 1967.

Hamas has become adept at Yassir Arafat's art form of saying one thing in English and the opposite to Arab audiences. The PA is happy to go along with the charade that Hamas has somehow reformed, and is quite happy to lie to the Biden administration about Hamas' words and aims.

So far, it seems that the Biden administration is willing to be fooled as well, and is more than willing to return to a US policy based on fantasy rather than reality, pretending that what Hamas tell the West is the truth and what it says in Arabic is just rhetoric.

Last Wednesday, Israel allowed a batch of 2000 vaccine doses to enter Gaza. This came after a debate in Knesset about whether it was wise to allow the vaccines to be sent to a terror group. This debate delayed the transfer of the vaccines by a little more than a day.

During that time, Israel haters and the media reported extensively on Israel's "refusal" to send the vaccines and Israel's inhumanity for not caring about Gazan lives. That 36 hour delay was called a war crime and Israel was painted as a ghoulish entity hell-bent on punishing ordinary Palestinians.

What happened to the vaccines?

Nothing. They are still sitting in refrigerators, unused.

Originally the Hamas health ministry announced that health care workers in Gaza would be inoculated today. But today they announced another delay, and the vaccines will not start to be administered tomorrow, at 11 AM.

That is a six day delay from when the vaccines were delivered.

And the world is silent. The BDSers are silent. The media is silent. The critics are silent.

Once again, we see that Palestinian lives don't matter unless Jews can be blamed.

Just like no one cares that Palestinians in Lebanon are three times more likely to die from COVID-19 than Lebanese citizens because of their poor health and living conditions that are enforced by Lebanese laws against them.

This is modern antisemitism, folks.

It is also anti-Palestinian to ignore when Arabs - including Palestinians themselves - to be reckless with Palestinian lives while expecting Israel to value those lives ahead of its own citizens.

I guess it was inevitable, but the announcement of the Association of Gulf Jewish Communities (AGJC). last week is prompting some conspiracy theories.

Ali al-Saleh writes in Arabi21:

Only six months have passed since the announcement of the first normalization agreement between the occupying power and Mohammed bin Zayed, vice president of the Abu Dhabi regime, with the support of the ruler of Dubai and the deputy prime minister of the Emirates, Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, until the Israelis began talking about the Jewish presence in the Gulf and the need to establish ties between them, to preserve them and their identities.

And the first rain drop, as the saying goes. Here we are about to talk about the association that the "Jews of the Gulf" recently announced, in the name of "an association that brings together Jewish communities in the Arab Gulf states." An association of Jewish communities in the Gulf, and they know and we know that there are no such groups. They also know that they are lying, but as usual they repeat the lie until they themselves believe it first, and hearing it becomes an acceptable matter for the ears so that others may believe it after them.

...This is an opportunity for Israelis to buy, in preparation for that promised day in which it announces in the Gulf region the establishment of an Israeli Jewish lobby that controls fateful decisions.

The new Jews / Israelis will invade the Gulf states, with the consent of those in charge of them, who will allow them to settle and reside in the coming years. They start gradually, smoothly and stealthily, until the moment they are able to pounce on their prey.

I see the Palestinian catastrophe being repeated in the Gulf, or in some of its countries, and this time it takes place with the cooperation of some of its regimes. This is how they started at the beginning of the last century in Palestine, until the occurrence of the Nakba in 1948, with the declaration of the Zionist entity. ...

Nah, nothing antisemitic about this.

55 years ago: A bar mitzvah on The Dick Van Dyke Show

This episode of the Dick Van Dyke Show aired on March 2, 1966. It is one of the few times that Judaism figured as a major plot point in a sitcom in those days.

I do wonder if the writers used the kosher joke on the same episode as Buddy eating swiss cheese and turkey on purpose....

According to IMDB:

There are differing stories about the origin of this episode. Morey Amsterdam recalled that producer Carl Reiner and some of the show's writers, all of whom were Jewish, were swapping bar mitzvah stories one day when Reiner asked Amsterdam about his experience. Amsterdam responded that he had never had a bar mitzvah because his family had been too poor, adding, "In those days my folks couldn't afford to be Jewish." Amsterdam said that this exchange prompted Reiner to commission the episode. Art Baer, who co-wrote the episode recalled it differently, claiming that he, too, had never had a bar mitzvah as a child, but that his mother had asked him to go through the rite at age 40. Baer mentioned this to Reiner at a story conference, who thought it would be a good plot line for Buddy Sorrell, and he and Baer then worked out the story.

In the episode, Buddy's Hebrew name is revealed to be Moshe Zelig. My guess is that was Morey Amsterdam's real Hebrew name.