Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Yahoo says Natalie Portman is a "Palestine-American" actress

If you do a search Natalie Portman on Yahoo, you see that she is considered a "Palestine-American actress."

It links to her Wikipedia page, which says no such thing.

Google's default results for searching for Portman says she is an Israeli-American actress. Bing says she is "an Israeli-born actress and director."

This is very weird. I couldn't find any other famous Israelis or Jews born in Jerusalem who were called "Palestinian." Also, the choice to say Portman is a "Palestine-American" actress and not a "Palestinian-American" actress indicates that someone who doesn't know English very well deliberately chose to edit her entry.

(h/t Stu via Adam)

04/14 Links Pt2: A Tribute to the Bereaved Parents of Unsung Fallen Israelis; Memorial Day sorrow fades into joy as Israel ushers in 73rd Independence Day

From Ian:

Jpost Editorial: Independence Day: In 73 years, Israel has accomplished so much - editorial

As Israel celebrates its 73rd birthday on Thursday, it is worth remembering that there are those who have said from the very beginning that it cannot survive.

Pinstripe diplomats in the US State Department said as much in 1948, trying to convince US president Harry Truman not to recognize the nascent state. Arab leaders said it that same year in mobilizing armies to fight the Jewish state. European politicians said it before the Six-Day War as Israel’s Arab neighbors were tightening the noose and threatening to destroy the country.

Over the years pundits and politicians, columnists and authors have all spilled millions of words discussing how Israel cannot survive: how it will be overwhelmed by the enemies around it, torn apart by the divisions inside it, or swept away by pure demographics. For instance, in 2008 the Canadian newsweekly Maclean’s front cover story was entitled: “Why Israel can’t survive.”

Yet here we are, 73 years later, still standing, still kicking, still surviving. And more than that, flourishing in a way that those of little faith in the country, its people or their abilities ever imagined. Not without problems, not without dilemmas, not without blemishes, not without painfully fractured political moments, but still surviving and flourishing.

Those predicting Israel’s imminent demise have always overlooked one important feature: the people dwelling in Zion desire life, and they desire life here in an independent land in this little corner of the world. And that desire for life has compelled them to adapt and improvise over the last seven decades to confront changing demographic, political, military realities and take those steps needed to ensure survival.

Ruthie Blum: A Tribute to the Bereaved Parents of Unsung Fallen Israelis

It’s virtually impossible to remain dry-eyed at these mini-biographies of so many incredible Israelis who died in the line of admirable duty.

But there’s another group of bereaved parents far from the limelight, unable to engage in the kind of collective mourning that characterizes Memorial Day. These are the mothers and fathers of kids who committed suicide during their service in the Israel Defense Forces—after suffering from periods of depression, unrequited love, unfulfilled perfectionism and probably a less-than-stellar adolescence.

Though suicide, like illness and accidents, is counted in the annual tally of casualties among soldiers, police and civilians, it is not championed as “heroic” or highlighted on Yom Hazikaron. Nor are the parents of suicide victims as likely as their more “normative” counterparts to revel in or dwell on the circumstances surrounding their children’s demise.

Sadly, however, these mothers and fathers—who warrant just as much empathy as those given constant accolades for their kids’ accomplishments—are largely ignored. It’s actually odd, considering that suicide remains what the IDF admitted in January is the leading cause of death among its troops.

According to IDF Manpower Directorate commander Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, of the 28 soldiers who died last year, nine took their own lives. Eight of these were men, and five served in combat units.

Almoz claimed that because of prevention programs, the IDF has a lower suicide rate than the country as a whole and less than many other of the world’s militaries. He boasted that four soldiers were saved in 2020 thanks to cell-phone data used to locate them before they managed to self-harm. In addition, he said, IDF commanders are better-equipped these days to recognize suicide warning signs.

If so, they and the rest of the public, which stands in silence at the sound of the siren denoting the start of Yom Hazikaron, should give thought and pay tribute to the families of the unsung fallen Israelis gunned down at their own hands.

May their memories be a blessing.

#Israel comes to a standstill, as a piercing siren 🚨 wails in honor of all the @IDF soldiers who made ultimate sacrifice for our freedom and civilians murdered in acts of terror. May their memories always be blessed! #YomHazikaron #MemorialDay 🕯 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/IiWZDOKuKO
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 14, 2021

This evening on #YomHaZikaron we pause to honour the memory of the 23,928 Israeli soldiers who have fallen in service and 3,158 victims of terror. May their memory be for a blessing.pic.twitter.com/qpzpa0UavZ
— Chief Rabbi Mirvis (@chiefrabbi) April 13, 2021

IDF Chief Cantor Lt. Col. Shai Abramson sings the Hatikva, Israel's national anthem, at state memorial ceremony marking #YomHaZikaron pic.twitter.com/ezqLepS5Lu
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) April 13, 2021

Memorial Day sorrow fades into joy as Israel ushers in 73rd Independence Day

Israel made the abrupt annual transition from mourning to jubilation on Wednesday night, as Memorial Day drew to a close and its 73rd Independence Day began.

Somber speeches, ceremonies in cemeteries and news reports on fallen soldiers and terror victims gave way to celebration as the annual state ceremony began at Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl.

Local authorities around the country held Independence Day events in person, after events last year were mostly canceled or went online due to the nationwide virus lockdown. Now, the plummeting infection rate has allowed for most restrictions to be lifted, though some limits on gatherings remain in place.

All participants will be required to carry a “Green Pass” — evidence of full vaccination against COVID-19 or of recovery from the coronavirus.

The Mount Herzl ceremony is led by the Knesset speaker, a position currently held by Yariv Levin of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud party. During his speech, Levin called for unity amid Israel’s stifling, years-long political impasse. Last month’s inconclusive elections were Israel’s fourth in two years.

“We went through four difficult election cycles. This long period of instability, of uncertainty, harms us all. This is the time to mend the rifts. Even when our opinions are at odds with each other we are still two sides of the same coin, one nation. This Independence Day is the right moment,” Levin said.

He also gave a statement in Arabic, saying, “This holiday is for all Israelis.”

You can’t see him in the photo below, but he’s there. Right behind the guy with the Israeli flag. My son, my baby, the youngest of 12, representing his IDF battalion as part of an honor guard to welcome Lloyd Austin, the United States Secretary of Defense, on his first visit to Israel.

I watched the livestream and for a moment I thought: there’s the tip of his boot! Seconds later I thought I caught a glimpse of his back. But you know, it didn’t matter whether or not I could actually see him. I got Jewish nachat* just knowing he was there, my baby, standing tall and straight and proud.

Like all my children, Asher is a dual citizen of both the United States and Israel and somehow that made it all the more thrilling to know he was there (even if I couldn’t see him). As the IDF band played first the American and then the Israeli anthems, I hoped my parents were watching from the heavens. No one knows these things, but that doesn’t stop us from hoping.

I hoped my parents were proud of Asher, proud they had a grandchild in this honor guard, a soldier in the IDF, greeting a US dignitary. I hoped they were proud I’d ended up in Israel, that I had raised a beautiful family in the Holy Land.

It had been a long road here, to this place.

When I first arrived in Israel, I felt I belonged nowhere. I didn’t speak the language well, I didn’t understand the cultural norms of Israeli society. It took a couple of years before I could successfully push my way through a pushing, shoving crowd and onto a bus—before it closed its doors and drove away from me. People weren’t necessarily rude, but there was no concept of social distancing back then, or private space. There was a different pace here in Israel, an attitude of don’t be a freier, a sucker, grab at life while you can.

That feeling of not belonging hurt. I’d grown up in a close family, with lots of siblings, cousins, aunts, and uncles. Here in Israel, it was just me and my husband and, as our family grew, our babies. I missed having clan, people who knew me from when I was born, people who knew my grandparents before me. I missed them especially at the holidays, or when I had a new baby. There was no one to say: “She looks just like Grandma Elizabeth.”

Israel is all about family, but I had only the people in my immediate environment: my husband and children. I wanted more. I wanted extended family. For me and for my children.

I wanted to belong to something. I wanted my kids to belong to something. I wanted to belong to Israel, to feel I was a part of things. So, I delved into my family tree and history, knowing I had way distant relatives in the country going back to Ottoman times. Maybe these people, or at least their descendants, could be my family.

Getting to know my own history, learning about these family members, and the role they played in building the country did seem to make a difference in how I felt. There was a certain lift now to my shoulders as I walked the streets of Jerusalem, knowing my family had been here a long time, perhaps longer than the people to the right and left of me, waiting for a green light on the corner of Jaffa and King George.

My history was tangible. My great great grandparents are buried on the Mount of Olives.I visited the graves.

The graves of my great great grandparents on the Mount of Olives, restored after 1967

There was the relative who was killed in the King David Hotel bombing, one of the few Jews killed in that event, Yehuda Yanowski. Yehuda clerked for the British (which appalled the cousins), did a stint in the RAF, mustered out, and then returned to marry his sweetheart. He went to the hotel to invite his old office mates to the engagement party that night. Instead, all were blown to smithereens—because the damned Brits had foolishly ignored the warning leaflets and phone calls the Etzel had graciously sent.

And there was my cousin, Itzhak Tsvi Yanovsky, an important banker.

Itzhak Tsvi Yanovsky

Itzhak Tsvi Yanovsky in front of the bank in Tel Aviv

One of the cousins owned the first laundromat in Tel Aviv.

Another cousin smuggled guns into Israel for the Haganah. (She later married a general and settled in Beverly Hills).

The distant cousin I found who shared all this with me, was a professor of chemical engineering at the Haifa Technion. He had served in the Palmach and was my late mother's age, exactly.

It was all very rich, this history (no trickle down effect from the bank guy, by the way). But as much as I pored over everything I learned about these Israelis, these distant blood relatives of mine, they never felt quite like my own, like they belonged to me. The descendants of these people were happy to exchange trees and correspond, but we never had the big, warm family gatherings of my fantasies.

In studying my family, of course, I had to go back to where we had been in Europe, a shtetl then in Lithuania, now in Belarus, called Wasiliski. The Jews called it “Vashilishok” and it was where my maternal grandfather had been born. There was nachas—Jewish pride—in this history, too. Many great rabbis came from Lithuania. The Lithuanian Jews were scholarly. Study halls in Israel today, and throughout the world, are patterned after the yeshivas of Lithuania.

My great grandfather was the first to leave Vashilishok. He settled in Pennsylvania, and as was the custom, went back to the shtetl to show he'd made good. But he couldn't let his mother see him without a beard, so he first visited the relatives in Israel, then took a side trip to Egypt, all the while growing the beard you see in this photo, taken in 1914 (he is the one on the camel). It is the only photo we have of him with a beard.

Here too, the history felt a little artificial, a little off. How could I romanticize a place my family couldn’t wait to leave? A place of pogroms, of death. But my desire to belong to anything in a land where I belonged to nothing, made me cling to this history, too.

And yet: the more I learned about my personal family history in pre-state Israel, and the shtetl we came from in Lithuania, the more I settled in and became at home in Israel. I made a life here. Now I knew the streets, and how to push my way onto a bus. I could banter with the salespeople in the market and make an appointment at the medical center.

I put my studies aside. I stopped looking for cousins, dead or alive, stopped looking at death records and graves. I pulled myself out of the shtetl, out of Vashilishok, as my children came of age and served in the army. And as my children grew up, tall and straight and proud, some of them having families of their own, I realized that I had become rooted to the soil of Israel. Not just by dint of my history and the people who came before me, but by living my life here in this place.

Now I knew the truth, knew it in my bones. We are the past, but more important than that, we are the here and now, and our children are our future. Jews aren’t from Lithuania, but are B’nai Israel, sons of Israel, from Israel, and from Israel, alone.

All this is in me, when I sing Hatikvah at a son’s graduation from college, or hold a new grandson at a bris in a tiny synagogue in the south. This feeling was with me, of course, as I tried and failed to see my son in the honor guard, representing his battalion, on Lloyd Austin’s first visit to Israel. And it was with me just a few days later on Yom HaZikaron, when my baby was once again part of an honor guard, as part of the memorial ceremony at the Western Wall.

I strained for a glimpse of my son, my baby. And this time I saw him. He was there, standing at attention to give honor to those who gave their lives for this country, for Israel.

This was a sad and tragic event, one that ties all of the Israeli people one to the other through spilled blood and treasure. With my son there, standing tall and straight and proud in the here and now—a soldier through and through—I owned the truth at last: I knew that I belonged, that I was surrounded by family, and that I’d come home for good.

*Nachat (Hebrew) or Nachas (Yiddish), Definition: Proud pleasure, special joy—as from the achievements of a child.

_______________________________________

Thoughts on Yom Hazikaron (Vic Rosenthal)

Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal

A few moments ago, at exactly 11 am, I went up to my roof to stand at attention for two minutes during the siren that honors the 23,928 people, soldiers and civilians, who have died since 1860 in the struggle to create and defend the Jewish state.

Today, Wednesday, is Yom Hazikaron (Memorial Day) for fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism. It’s been said that on Yom Hazikaron we consider the price of having a state, while on last week’s Yom Hashoa, we think about the price of being without one. Most Israelis understand that the latter’s cost would be much greater, but still, the pain of those who have lost loved ones is almost unbearable. And that pain is worsened when the loss was avoidable, perhaps caused by incompetence, laziness, or selfishness on the part of political or military leaders that failed those who put their trust in them (and who mostly had no choice in the matter).

The 1973 war is considered the most prominent example of unnecessary losses in the history of the state. Repeated failures by military and political officials (including the PM, Golda Meir) to take seriously the warnings from numerous sources that an attack was imminent – even King Hussein of Jordan personally warned Meir – led to the catastrophic lack of preparation for the joint Egyptian-Syrian attack. At least 2,500 Israeli soldiers died in the war that followed, many of them in the first hours of the war when inadequate Israeli forces faced large invading armies on the Golan Heights and the Sinai.

After the war, a commission of inquiry (the Agranat Commission) investigated the failures, and after the release of its report, several military commanders were forced to resign, as well as Meir and her cabinet. Although Meir’s government was succeeded by one led by Yitzhak Rabin, it’s generally thought that the debacle of 1973 led directly to the end of the left-wing monopoly on power, the triumph of Menachem Begin’s Likud Party in 1977.

Another, more recent example was the Second Lebanon War. The three men who managed the war in the summer of 2006 were unqualified to do so. The Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, and the Defense Minister, Amir Peretz, had little military experience and went to war without a clear objective or exit strategy. The Chief of Staff, Dan Halutz, was an Air Force officer who didn’t understand the workings of the ground forces, and how to get them to do what he wanted. The army, especially the ground forces, suffered from a long-term lack of discipline, which manifested itself in an abysmal lack of preparation. There were serious failures in intelligence, logistics, tactics, and execution. 121 Israeli soldiers died in the inconclusive month-long war, which ended in a UN Security Council resolution that proved worthless in preventing Hezbollah from rearming for a second round.

The theme of the tragic loss of young people in war pervades Israeli culture; it appears throughout popular music, films, and literature. It’s felt especially strongly on Yom Hazikaron – the newspaper, radio, and TV are full of stories about young men and women who were everything to their parents, who were full of plans for the future, had talents and dreams, but whose lives ended at the age of 23, or 20, or 19. And the thought that it may not have been necessary is excruciating.

Today Israel is facing Iran, a large country whose leaders seem to have a limitless hatred for us, a hatred greater than just their geopolitical ambitions. They have surrounded us with proxies, in Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza, armed and waiting for the conflict to begin. The Iranian regime is committed to building nuclear weapons, and we are committed to stopping them. For both sides, this is an issue that is not amenable to compromise. Unless something very unexpected happens, there will be war yet again, and yet again our young people will offer themselves generously on behalf of the am Yisrael. We know, beyond any doubt, that they will not all return to take their after-army trips around the world, or go to university, or marry their sweethearts. We know this for certain. This is the terrible cost of defending the Jewish state, which is still less expensive than the cost of not having one.

If there isn’t a way to prevent it – and I think there isn’t – at least we can do our best to minimize the number of those that will be lost because of incompetence, laziness, and selfishness in the higher echelons of the government and the military.

The present situation in which there is no permanent government, in which vital functions – including the military budget – are held hostage to the ambitions, fears, personal grudges, and egos of a few dozen people who lead our political parties and our legal establishment, must end now. Not after the missiles start falling on the unprepared home front, and not after reserve soldiers whose training was cancelled for budgetary reasons are thrown into combat.

You know who you are – Bibi, Bennett, Lapid, Sa’ar, Smotrich, Gantz, Lieberman, as well as Kochavi, Mandelblit, Hayut, and all the rest. You know that the state is in a perilous situation, and that it needs the attention of leaders that will put aside everything else except the good of am Yisrael and its nation-state, who will start earning the exorbitant salaries that we pay them. You know what you have to do. Do it.
Now. Before it is too late.

04/14 Links Pt1: Biden Just Threw Israeli-Palestinian Peace Under the Bus; Boris Johnson Affirms British Opposition to ICC Investigation of Israel

From Ian:

Amb. Dore Gold: The First Lesson of the Holocaust: The Jewish People Will Never Allow Anyone to Do This to Us Again

Five years ago when I served as Director-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Israel, I stood in the Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp in Germany on Yom Hashoah. Jews from all over the Nazi Empire in Europe and North Africa were forced into Bergen-Belsen, where thousands died. What has the modern state of Israel learned from the horrors of Bergen-Belsen, and the Holocaust?

Chaim Herzog served as an officer in the British forces that entered Bergen-Belsen in 1945. In April 1987 he went back, as Israel's sixth president, and declared that the victims bequeathed a responsibility to later generations to ensure that the Jewish people would never again be helpless. That meant, first, that we will never allow anyone to do this to us again.

In modern times, there is a real physical threat to the Jewish people that emanates from a regime in the Middle East that parades missiles in its capital nearly every year and fastens to its launchers the words, "Israel must be wiped off the map." You cannot wipe a country off the map without posing an existential threat to the people who live there.

Israel will deter and defend against any state or political movement which poses a threat to the Jewish people. This is not an obsession, but a sacred trust handed to us by the people buried under the rubble of the Second World War.

Clifford D May: Biden's bad foreign policy deals

Why would the Biden administration — or any administration — not utilize all available leverage when negotiating with unfriendly and untrustworthy interlocutors? Three plausible — and not mutually exclusive — explanations occur to me.

The first: Mr. Biden actually believes Iran’s rulers can be appeased, that they will be satisfied to merely “share the neighborhood,” as Mr. Obama memorably put it.

The second: Because American diplomats are regarded as having failed if their talks break down, and having succeeded if they “get to yes,” they are inclined to see a bad deal as preferable to no deal — especially if the flaws in the deal can be papered over for a while.

Consider the 1994 Agreed Framework under which President Clinton gave North Korea massive aid in exchange for a pledge to end its nuclear weapons program. The regime pocketed the benefits while continuing its nuclear program covertly. Today, dictator Kim Jong-un possesses nuclear weapons and is developing missiles that can deliver them with accuracy.

At the time, however, Mr. Clinton was able to declare that he’d found a diplomatic solution, and the diplomats involved could move up the ladder or take comfortable chairs at universities.

The third explanation: American politicians and diplomats too often convince themselves that even the most despotic regimes contain some not-so-bad guys — moderates who want to reach a compromise, a win-win outcome.

Can American politicians and diplomats really be so naive? Yes, because sophistication is not the same as street-smarts.

Were you really surprised when John Kerry was outfoxed by Javad Zarif, Tehran’s silver-tongued foreign minister? Do you not get that Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of the WHO, has much to gain if he does Beijing’s bidding – and much to fear if he does not? By contrast, President Biden presents no threat and offers not much opportunity.

The “international community” is diverse. And not in the rosy sense that Americans now use that term.

Einat Wilf and Adi Schwartz: Biden Just Threw Israeli-Palestinian Peace Under the Bus

By resuming U.S. funding for UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, the Biden administration is choosing to fund an agency that is institutionally committed to ensuring that peace will never be possible. UNRWA, under the cover of providing social services to Palestinians, is giving political cover to the dream of undoing Israel by nurturing and legitimizing the demand to settle millions of Palestinians inside Israel.

UNRWA is one of the greatest obstacles to peace between Israelis and Palestinians. The vast majority of UNRWA refugees, the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the original refugees, are also citizens of other countries or living within territories governed by Palestinians, and so are not actually refugees and in no need of resettlement. UNRWA sustains many of them in perpetual limbo, in the elusive promise that they will one day be able to "return" to Israel.

There are perfectly rational, humane and effective ways to provide public healthcare and education services to Palestinians without fueling the conflict with Israel. As long as Palestinians are indulged by the West in their belief that the war of 1948 remains an open case, there is zero possibility that peace will be achieved. It is hard to imagine a more anti-peace U.S. policy choice.

Biden admin. say UNWRA is committed to 'zero tolerance' for antisemitism in their schools.

Meanwhile #UNWRA students ... 🤔

👉🏻"I want to fight against the Jews"
👉🏻 "I hate Jews"
👉🏻 "They teach us that Zionists are our enemy"
👉🏻 "Jews are bad people" https://t.co/arxCk5CPxS pic.twitter.com/gBHx2Rn8oU
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) April 13, 2021

A joke from 1930

This joke is taken from The Gentleman In The Parlour, a 1930 book by by William Somerset Maugham:

It appears that on one occasion Monsieur Paderewski was pressing upon Mr. Wilson, Mr. Lloyd George and Monsieur Clemenceau the Polish claims on Danzig.

“ If the Poles do not get it," he said, “ I warn you that their disappointment will be so great, there will be an outbreak and they will assassinate the Jews.”

Mr. Wilson looked grave, Mr. Lloyd George shook his head and M. Clemenceau frowned.

"But what will happen if the Poles get Danzig? ” asked Mr. Wilson.

M. Paderewski brightened. He shook his leonine mane.

“ Ah, that will be quite another thing,” he replied. "Their enthusiasm will be so great, there will be an

outbreak and they will assassinate the Jews.”

Both the Iranian response to the Natanz incident and the US lack of counter-response were painfully predictable.

On Tuesday, Iran's deputy foreign minister and a top nuclear negotiator Abbas Araghchi told state-run Press TV that the International Atomic Energy Organization (IAEA) had been informed of Tehran's decision to ramp up enrichment to 60% purity, a big step up from the current 20% purity levels.

The decision pushes Iran closer to reaching the 90% enrichment level that is considered weapons-grade. Iran has continually denied it intends to assemble nuclear weapons.

The Biden administration said Tuesday that Iran's intention to enrich uranium up to 60% purity was a "provocative announcement" that both "calls into question Iran's seriousness with regard to the nuclear talks and underscores the imperative of returning to mutual compliance with the JCPOA."

Iran and the US are playing different games - and Iran's game is winning.

Because the Biden administration thinks like negotiators in a business deal. They think that both sides have a modicum of good faith and want the same goals, with everything else being mere details.

Iran is treating the negotiations as war.

It is worthwhile to look at Sun Tzu's Art of War to see how well Iran is following his advice:

Keep [your enemy] under a strain and wear him down.

Iran doesn't even have to do this - the Biden administration has already signaled strain by doing everything it can to return to negotiations. Iran's announcement of the additional enrichment is adding to the strain, keeping the West on the defensive.

Whoever is first in the field and awaits the coming of the enemy, will be fresh for the fight; whoever is second in the field and has to hasten to battle will arrive exhausted.

Iran is dictating all the terms of the battle.

The clever combatant imposes his will on the enemy, but does not allow the enemy's will to be imposed on him.

Iran determines the conditions and the timing. It is not giving in to anything, forcing the West to make all the concessions. It makes it appear that it has red lines, while the West has none.

We can form a single united body, while the enemy must split up into fractions. Hence there will be a whole pitted against separate parts of a whole, which means that we shall be many to the enemy's few.

Iran has managed to split the US and Europe; it already could rely on Russia and China to be uninterested in enforcing the provisions of the JCPOA. The US has not managed to put forth a united front while Iran has been nothing but united. So we see that after the US withdrew from JCPOA, Iran pressured Europe to make up for the sanctions - and achieved that with threats.

O divine art of subtlety and secrecy! Through you we learn to be invisible, through you inaudible; and hence we can hold the enemy's fate in our hands.

The Biden administration telegraphs everything it will do in negotiations ahead of time. Iran stays quiet.

Though the enemy be stronger in numbers, we may prevent him from fighting. Scheme so as to discover his plans and the likelihood of their success.

Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.

Western thinking on Iran is in the newspapers, published by think tanks, and said out loud by the State Department every day. Iran doesn't reveal anything.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.

Iran has intimate knowledge of how the West thinks. The negotiators in the West appear to be floundering on understanding Iran. They seem to assume that Iran is a rational actor and can be predicted. Iran is rational - and a great part of its tactics is to keep the West off balance.

At the end of good negotiations, both sides feel like they have gotten what they wanted. Good negotiators look for win-win scenarios.

At the end of a war, there is one winner. Good generals defeat their enemies.

Iran is engaged in a war with people who don't even realize it. Unless the West gets its act together, one doesn't need to study Sun Tzu to realize what the outcome will be.

Here is a translation of President Reuven Rivlin speech at the ceremony at the beginning of Memorial Day for the Fallen Soldiers of the Wars of Israel and Victims of Terrorism at the Western Wall in Jerusalem:

___________________________

“’They that sow in tears shall reap in joy,’ (Psalm 126) wrote the psalmist. ‘My silent father, full of his scream …how will I not remember that you sowed me in tears and weeping, you will reap me,’ wrote Captain Be’eri (Beki) Hazak of Kibbutz Afikim, who fell on 17 October 1973 / 11 Tishrei 5734 in the fierce battles on the western side of the Suez Canal during the Yom Kippur War.

Dear mothers, fathers, children, partners, comrades in arms, brothers and sisters, our brothers, members of the family of bereavement. Year after year, we meet you. We ask to join you, for one day, I the task of grief and memory. You do not need these days. Every day, he or she is with you, in your hearts. As you go to sleep and as you wake up, when you go home and as you go about, you bear the mountain of memory on your weary shoulders, the wound that cannot be healed, that pain whose burden cannot be shared with anyone. Two periods in the Jewish-Israeli calendar are days of awe for us. One is in Tishrei, and the other is in Nissan and the beginning of Iyyar. Alongside the pillar of clouds, the clouds of respect and splendor of Tishrei, stands the pillar of fire rising into the firmament – the fire of battle and campaign, the column of memory – between Yom Hashoah and Yom Hazikaron, and Yom Haatzmaut. ‘Neither the pillar of cloud by day nor the pillar of fire by night left its place in front of the people’ (Exodus 13, 22). Such are we, marching between fire and cloud, weeping and dreaming. Last year, in the shadow of the virus, we could not stand with you. The sight of the empty mountain, the sight of the orphaned graves, was heart-wrenching. Standing together with the young men and women who paid the ultimate price, was a compass that showed us the way, and without it we all thought – what has become of us. And so, we stood, afraid of coming to the mountain, tied up by the threat of the virus, looking on from afar.

Dear families, soldiers of the Israel Defense Force, I am a son of this land. I fought in most of its wars. I saw my friends, my contemporaries, commanders and those under my command, older than me and much younger, galloping towards the line of fire for our people, for life, for liberty. I remember each one of them. Their names. Those who were the last of their families and those who were native-born sons with deep roots. From those who were in my year at school and those who were my madrichim in the youth movement to the sons, and sometimes the grandsons of my best friends. I remember them falling at the side of the path, embracing our land, part of it for eternity. Our sons and daughters were called to the flag and did not hesitate for a moment. Even when facing sights of great darkness, blood and fire and pillars of smoke, they did not think of themselves. They thought of us.

From here, I want to speak to you, the commanders, the soldiers, those soon to enlist, the young generation. I grew up as a child at a time when we did not have a state. For me, for those of my generation, the State of Israel is not something to be taken for granted. This strong and powerful country you see was established by the heroism and dedication of young people of your age. Today, the task of protecting the State of Israel, is on your shoulders. Remember, without love of the homeland, dedication to mission, aiming for victory, comradeship, purpose, personal example and the purity of weapons, a free people will not be established here. The Israel Defense Force and the State of Israel, we, need you young, strong, united, united, united, determined to lend a hand, determined to continue to prevail, ready when necessary, to pay a price.

Soldiers of the IDF, men and women, I have had the honor of meeting you during my term of office time after time. Know that your stature the strength of your dedication, the sense of heroism and action are no less than those that the founding generation inspired in us. You, our tousled and handsome ones, generation after generation, ensure our eternal existence. In order to strengthen our security, we must be ready to fight for it. To build a new and flourishing society in the State of Israel, we must be ready and aware for many years. To fight for our freedom and liberty every time we are called to do so. To fight, and to win. Many people make the mistake of thinking that fear is the opposite of heroism. But as Yitzhak Sadeh, the commander of the Palmach and one of the founders of the IDF, taught us, ‘It is not cowardice that is not the opposite of heroism, but selfishness. Heroism is, first and foremost, a moral characteristic.”

Dear families, seven years ago, when the country was ablaze in Operation Protective Edge, I began my term as president, on behalf of the citizens of Israel. My first baptism of fire was visiting the families of soldiers who had fallen in action. I stood before the families and bowed my head on behalf of the Israeli people. I wanted to be with them in their pain, to bear with them the bad news. I vowed to sanctify the memories of Israel’s heroes. I did my best to bring back the missing and captive soldiers. May they come back to us, and soon. I worked here in Israel and around the world to defend our soldiers and for our inalienable right to defense and security. I hope that I did right, but I surely did not do enough. I promised you families that I would be your soldier. That is what I did and that is what I will do. Even as I come to the end of my term of office, I am not released from service. As long as I live, I will hold it in my heart and will work on your behalf.

The IDF is the people’s army, and I believe in this people, whose sons and daughters they are. I believe in our destiny to live on this good land, to build and develop it for the benefit of all its people; to defend it and to ensure that its borders are secure from every threat and every enemy – near and far. I believe in our ability to stick together, to grow and to flourish proudly as individuals and as a people. Proud to walk I the path paved by Israel’s heroes who fell in the battle for our rebirth, who commanded us to choose a life of liberty and respect, of devotion to our common purpose of establishing a model society in a Jewish and democratic state. ‘When the Lord restored the fortunes of Zion, we were like dreamers’ (Psalms 126). Weeping and dreaming. May the memory of those who fell in Israel’s wars be etched on the heart of the nation for the glory of the world from generation to generation.”

(h/t Varda)

The official Palestinian Authority Wafa news agency had a headline claiming that "settlers provoke [Arab] citizens in occupied Jerusalem."

The video shows a bunch of Jewish students singing at one of the entrances to the Temple Mount (an entrance that Jews are forbidden to enter.)

There are Israeli security guards in the video - and not one Arab that I could see.

How, exactly, are these yeshiva boys provoking the Arabs when there are no Arabs there?

It only makes sense when you realize that the definition of "provocation" is much different for Palestinians than it is for everyone else.

The very existence of Jews "provokes" 'the Palestinian Authority.

It will be enshrined as a violation of international law one of these days.

04/13 Links Pt2: Israel set to come to standstill to remember 23,928 fallen; Randi Weingarten and the Antisemitism That Marx Built; Isi Leibler, leading campaigner for the release of Soviet Jewry, dies at 86

From Ian:

Israel set to come to standstill to remember 23,928 fallen

Israelis paid tribute to the country’s 23,928 fallen soldiers and terror victims starting on Tuesday evening, bowing their heads for a minute of silence as sirens sounded around the country to mark the start of Memorial Day.

The one-minute siren at 8 p.m. was immediately followed by the state ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem. On Tuesday night, additional public memorials will be held, including at Tel Aviv’s Hayarkon Park and in the Knesset in Jerusalem.

During the siren, traffic around the country came to an abrupt halt, as Israelis stopped driving to stand beside their cars and people at home stood in somber silence on their balconies or in their yards.

A second, two-minute, siren will go off at 11 a.m. Wednesday, which will be followed by the main Memorial Day ceremony at Mount Herzl military cemetery in Jerusalem, and smaller events at cemeteries across the country.

The Memorial Day events officially began at the Yad LaBanim center in Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon, with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yariv Levin and Chief Justice Esther Hayut in attendance.

Speaking at the ceremony, Netanyahu said Israel will make “every effort” to return its captives, which include two civilians and the bodies of two IDF soldiers believed to be held by the Hamas terror group in Gaza.

“This is a sacred mission that we’re not letting go of,” he said.

Speaking at the official state ceremony held at the Western Wall, President Reuven Rivlin said the message of the day was that citizens of the Jewish state must not take it for granted.

“From here, I want to speak to you, the commanders, the soldiers, those soon to enlist, the young generation. I grew up as a child at a time when we did not have a state. For me, for those of my generation, the State of Israel is not something to be taken for granted. This strong and powerful country you see was established by the heroism and dedication of young people of your age,” Rivlin said.

“Today, the task of protecting the State of Israel, is on your shoulders. Remember, without love of the homeland, dedication to mission, aiming for victory, comradeship, purpose, personal example and the purity of weapons, a free people will not be established here. The Israel Defense Force and the State of Israel, we, need you young, strong, united, united, united, determined to lend a hand, determined to continue to prevail, ready when necessary, to pay a price,” he entreated.

Danny Danon: The memories we are forced to imagine

On Israel's Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism Remembrance Day we will unite, as we do every year, in the memory of our heroes who sacrificed their lives for the independence and security of Israel. On this day we put all of our differences aside; there will be no right and no left – only a sense of unity and shared destiny.

On Memorial Day, my personal grief meshes together with the national grief felt by all Israelis. As fate happened, my own father, Yosef Danon, became one of those 23,928 fallen, dying around Memorial Day. Every year, when I accompany my mother to the military cemetery in Kiryat Shaul to mark the anniversary of his death, we feel the entire country bowing its head in commemoration of our personal hero. Indeed, this is the power of every Memorial Day in Israel, where for one day, personal pain and grief are felt by the whole nation.

My father, one of the best reconnaissance navigators the IDF has known, was mortally wounded during one of his stints of reserve duty in the Jordan Valley when he sustained a severe head injury in a battle with terrorists who had infiltrated Israel. He struggled with his injuries for many painful years, until they eventually led to his death on the eve of Memorial Day, a day he revered and honored his comrades who never returned from the field of battle.

For the bereaved families, remembrance is a lifeline. Every picture, film, or story brings back to life our fallen loved ones. Because the majority of the fallen died young, the reservoir of memories is relatively limited. I carry the memory of my father with me every day, but I've carried his memory for far longer than the years I was able to be with him. Most bereaved families are in a similar situation, having had short periods of time with their loved ones to build memories and decades of coping with bereavement and clinging to those memories.

The fallen made us stronger

Israeli society must persevere and stand those challenges through its unique blend of multi-generational stamina and liberty, creativity, and constructive focus that give meaning to this life. Some tribal societies have learned to live in the shadow of violent conflicts by developing resolve, even if at the price of curtailing personal liberties and undermining human dignity. Their only accomplishment is survival, at the expense of the constructive and creative elements of society: Life continues but its quality declines and it has a bitter taste. It's no wonder that such societies have failed in dealing with the challenges of the modern age.

Societies that are open, thriving and prosperous run the risk of losing their stamina. They often preserve individual liberties and economic wellbeing at the expense of their right to self-defense. They do so by capitulation to extortions. The violent tribal distortion has sealed the fate of most Arab societies, and appeasing haplessness is very common in Europe. It appears that most of those who are addicted to violence get overrun by it, and those who refuse to confront it with determination cannot properly deal with its challenges and deter his or her enemies. This is very much on display in Syria and eastern Ukraine.

Israel will be liquidated if it falls into one of those traps. If it slides toward the appeasement route it would be destroyed by its violent enemies. If it bolsters its defenses at the expense of its people's liberties and constructive elements, it would lose its raison d'etre and its finest men and women who want to live in it and defend it. Without them, it would simply disappear. It must preserve its stamina just enough so that it could remain an open and thriving society and radiate toughness. It has had to continue fighting in recent generations because it is surrounded by enemies that engage in wild violence even toward their own compatriots and coreligionists.

It appears that our regional environment is not going to see a fundamental improvement in its situation. In the future, we will have to fight and lose our finest people in doing so. The pain will feel as bad, but we will know that their fight and their sacrifice will have significantly helped mitigate the threats on Israel. The fact that the fallen have knowingly agreed to risk their lives for the protection of society and the life we enjoy in Israel offers some comfort for all of us.

Zionism: New Goals & Old Struggles - Prof. Gil Troy | OP-ED

In celebration of Israel’s 73rd Independence Day — Yom Ha’atzmaut — we are sharing professor Gil Troy’s essay “Why I am a Zionist.” Twenty years ago he wrote this affirmation essay sharing his reasons for being a Zionist, and how we all have a hand in fulfilling Theodor Herzl’s timeless belief that “If you will it, it is no dream.” This year, we are revisiting and updating it.

My dear friend Eyal Banin, fallen IDF Medic

On Israel’s Rememberence Day for its fallen soldiers and victims of terrorism, Wednesday, April 14, sadly, there are so many dear souls to remember. Friends, family members, neighbours, members of our community and beyond. There is almost no one in Israel untouched by this reality. Many of these unique individuals remain in my memory throughout the year but as this day approaches, one cannot help give some extra thought to who these people were, what they achieved and stood for in their too short lives and where they would be today.

One of them, is my dear friend, Eyal Banin.

On my final night of basic training in the Israeli army, June 14, 2002, I was part of an IDF unit made up of 60 soldiers who, laden with 30 kilograms (66 pounds) of equipment and ammunition on our backs, set off on a gruelling 70-kilometer (43-mile) hike along the hilly Negev desert in the southern part of Israel. This maneuver was the climax of almost five months of basic training and at the end of it we were to receive our unit’s beret.

It was the height of the Second Intifada, and due to security precautions, all army hiking routes had been redirected to the Negev desert in order to avoid proximity to the nearby Palestinian Arab villages and cities. Approximately fifteen kilometers into the hike as the sun was setting, we passed a construction site with large Caterpillar diggers parked on the side. With the exception of one soldier at the back of the group, no one noticed that one of the trucks had started its engine and was making its way in the direction we were walking.

The driver of the digger positioned his machine alongside the two rows of soldiers, lifted the vehicle’s large spade, and as he shouted, Allahu Akbar, (God is great, in Arabic,) he put his foot on the gas pedal and sped full-throttle toward us, intent on killing as many soldiers as he could. With the vehicle closing in on us, chaos ensued, with soldiers running in every direction to get out harm’s way.

Cartoon of the Day: Nostalgia

Not a New Yorker-style cartoon today....

Lebanese deputy minister and leader of the Dignity Party, Faisal Karami, seems to have missed the memo not to say "Jews" when saying something antisemitic.

Tweeting about the disputes between Israel and Lebanon in demarcating maritime borders, Karami wrote:

#Lebanon determining the southern maritime border is a confirmation of our rights in our waters and our wealth. We salute the presidents, ministers , and the leadership of the army and the negotiating team who committed this step, we do not care about the threats of the Israelis

As in every battle of truth, we do not fear either the Jews from the outside nor the Jews of the interior !!

There are perhaps 60 Jews remaining in Lebanon.. Karami's attempt to paint the Jews in Lebanon as presumed enemies is as antisemitic as it gets, which shows that his antipathy towards Israel is likewise no trooted in any pretend patriotism but in pure, old fashioned Jew-hate.

04/13 Links Pt1: Irrational, Dangerous Iran Policy is No Accident; Iran fires missile at Israeli-owned ship near UAE; UNRWA and the Unique Treatment of Palestinians Prevents Peace

From Ian:

Vic Rosenthal: Irrational, Dangerous Iran Policy is No Accident

The contention that Trump’s program didn’t work is false – the regime simply was able to hold out until he left office. Something that the NY Times et al don’t mention is that the agreement with China, the enrichment to 20%, and the introduction of new-generation centrifuges prohibited by the JCPOA didn’t occur until 2021, when Trump was either already gone or about to be. The Chinese undoubtedly knew that Trump would retaliate economically if they made their agreement with Iran during his term. And the Iranian regime clearly feared the US president, who had eliminated Qasem Soleimani, the single most dangerous terrorist operative in decades.

Biden’s policy – or that of whoever is making decisions for him – will empower the Iranian regime in reaching its objectives. And those objectives are quite ambitious: the establishment of a Shiite caliphate in the region, the replacement of various regimes (e.g., in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain), the destruction of the Jewish state, the control of all Middle Eastern fossil fuel resources, and so on. Iranian expansionism has already turned Lebanon, Syria, and Yemen into failed states whose populations are suffering enormously as a result.

If Iran continues with its nuclear program past Israel’s redlines, or if it orders its proxies to attack Israel, the result will be regional war. Such a war would be disastrous, especially for Lebanon, whose southern part has been turned by Iran’s Hezbollah proxy into one big launching pad for an estimated 130,000 rockets and missiles aimed at Israel. Israel’s defensive capabilities, although the most advanced in the world, could not deal with the number of weapons that would be fired at it, and so it would be necessary to respond by bombing southern Lebanon. That would cause thousands of casualties in a country already suffering from disease and total economic collapse.

The regime in Iran has made it clear that America, “the Great Satan,” is its most important enemy. It and its proxies have killed Americans in Lebanon and of course Iraq. It will work together with other enemies of the USA to harm it in any way it can. It even played a role in the 9/11 attacks. It isn’t unthinkable that it will provide nuclear material to terrorists in order to attack her in a “plausibly deniable” way.

Is enabling this regime’s regional takeover and nuclear project in America’s national interest? I don’t think so. The best way to forestall its plans is for the US to return to the policy of maximum pressure: to squeeze it economically until either it has no option but to retreat from its aggression, or it falls and is replaced by the more moderate government that most of the Iranian people would prefer.

Having said that, I am certain that this will not occur. What is going on is more than just a repudiation of Trump. Whoever is behind the project of strengthening the Iranian regime and enabling it to obtain its objectives knows what they are doing, and must share those objectives. The ideology of appointed officials is too consistent, the historical precedents too clear, and the functioning of the PR echo chamber too slick for it to be anything but deliberate.

Israel can only defend herself. It’s up to Americans to do whatever is necessary to move their country off this dangerous path.

The Troubling US Deflection of Israel’s Concerns on Iran

While each of these American actions may have standalone rationalizations, the cumulative effect is to put Israel on the defensive—and I think that is exactly what the administration intends. Israel is being warned not to be too pushy about Iran policy or else the administration can pester Israel diplomatically in ways that will pinch.

This week, the Biden administration also is launching its own “Bibi-sitting” exercise, with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin coming to soothe the concerns of Netanyahu and Defense Minister Benny Gantz. It is not at all coincidental that this first cabinet-level visit of a Biden administration official comes at the time that talks with the Iranians are taking place (publicly in Vienna, and perhaps secretly elsewhere too).

I hope that Austin is authorized to discuss real policy with Jerusalem, not just hold the hands of Netanyahu and Gantz and warn them to back off.

And then there are some early signs of a defamation campaign coming from Washington. Joe Cirincione penned an NBC News op-ed this week in which he warned against the return of the old anti-Iran deal “coalition,” including hawks in Congress, the leaders of Israel and Saudi Arabia, and by insinuation also evangelical Christians and American Jews, whose “money and influence” could ruin everything for the Biden administration.

This is another way of saying, in thinly veiled sophisticate-speak: Get the damn Jews and Israelis and their allies the hell off our back while we responsible statesmen loyal to Biden (and Obama) get our nuclear deal with Iran back on track.

Cirincione is a fellow at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft (a new, fiercely left-wing think tank funded by George Soros) and a former president of the Ploughshares Fund, which lavishly supported the original Iran deal campaign. He may be a bellwether of more hostile messaging to come.

In fact, after the administration leaked news of the “Israeli strike” on the IRGC ship in the Red Sea, Cirincione tweeted something to the effect that once again Israel is driving towards war. By implication, he was accusing Israel of dragging the United States into war, too.

Beware: Obama’s echo chamber is coming back in the service of Biden to bash Bibi and endorse another awful nuclear deal with Iran.

Iran fires missile at Israeli-owned ship near UAE - report

An Israeli ship called the Hyperion and owned by an Israeli company was attacked near the shores of the Fujairah emirate in the United Arab Emirates on Tuesday, according to reports in Lebanon. The attack came a day after Iran vowed to avenge the explosion at its Natanz nuclear facility, which it blamed on Israel.

Data available on MarineTraffic.com showed that the Hyperion, a vehicle carrier sailing under the flag of the Bahamas, was stopped off the coast of Fujairah. Arab media reports said that the ship was hit by an Iranian missile.

The vessel is associated with the Israeli Ray Shipping company, the same company that owns a vessel hit by an alleged Iranian attack in February.

Israeli media reported that the attack was likely carried out with a missile or drone and that only light damage was caused to the vessel. The IDF declined to comment on the reports.

Despite increased tensions with Iran and a security cabinet meeting planned for next week, Attorney-General Avi Mandelblit banned the security cabinet from meeting until a justice minister is appointed, according to Israeli media.

The attack comes just days after an alleged Israeli attack on Iran's Natanz nuclear facility and exactly a week after the Iranian Saviz ship was damaged in alleged Israeli attack in the Red Sea.

It also comes after two strikes against Israeli-owned vessels in the region and reports of dozens of earlier strikes carried out by Israel against Iran in locations ranging from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf.

Antisemitic graffiti in Miami points to right-wing haters of Israel who also love Muslims

This news story shows that there has been a wave of antisemitic graffiti in the Miami area in recent weeks, most saying "Communism is Judaism," indicating that it is being done by one person.

But the latest example also points to a website, GoyimTV.

I looked at it briefly. It is clearly a far right, white nationalist site centered on inciting hate against Jews. But what struck me is that the white nationalists behind this site seem to have no problem with Muslims. In fact, some of the videos on the site would be at home on left-wing "anti-Zionist" sites as well.

Once again proving that while leftist anti-Zionists pretend that antisemitism is a right wing phenomenon, in fact anti-Zionism is just politically correct antisemitism - and the far Left have a great deal in common with the far-Right when it comes to Jews and Israel.

The Biden administration is gaslighting Jews

JTA reports:

Days after resuming U.S. funding for the troubled U.N. agency that administers to Palestinian refugees and their descendants, the Biden administration says it has the commitment of UNRWA to “zero tolerance” for anti-Semitism, racism or discrimination.

“UNWRA has made clear their rock-solid commitments to the United States on the issues of transparency, accountability, and neutrality in all its operations,” a senior U.S. official said in an interview this weekend, describing the process that led last week to the administration announcing the resumption of funding for the agency. “And what neutrality means in the context of the United Nations is zero tolerance for racism, discrimination, and anti-Semitism.”

These promises are the exact same ones that UNRWA has made to the US and others over the years. Every time that UNRWA is shown to teach hate and support for terrorism, UNRWA tries to cover it up, issues statements that contradict clear facts, and then goes on to beg for more money because it is being persecuted by people who demand accountability.

I have discovered myself, dozens of times, explicit antisemitism being taught in UNRWA schools or posted by UNRWA teachers which resulted in UNRWA acting quickly - to take down the posts, but not to change a thing.

In 2016, I found a Gaza school Facebook page showing students supporting the spree of stabbings and car rammings happening then. UNRWA removed its logo from the Facebook page of the school - and the Obama State Department issued a ridiculous statement about how seriously UNRWA takes these things:

QUESTION: The – yesterday I asked you a question about the UNRWA school incitement --

MR KIRBY: Yeah.

QUESTION: -- which seems to go to – or possibly might go to the fact that there is still this ongoing violence that doesn’t appear to be abating. Did you – were you able to look into that?

MR KIRBY: So yeah, and as we’ve said before, we’ve seen this report that you’re talking about, and we’re looking into the allegations. As we’ve said before, anti-Semitism and incitement to violence are totally unacceptable. And UNRWA itself has made clear that it will not tolerate anti-Semitism or incitement to violence by its staff or in its classrooms, and they’ve condemned racism in all its form. We want and we expect that UNRWA will meet that – their own statements, they will meet those principles. And every such allegation brought to UNRWA’s attention thus far has either been or is being assessed. And again, our expectation is that these will as well.

We’ve asked UNRWA to keep us informed here at the State Department of the findings of its investigations into these allegations. Upholding their own strict policy of neutrality is vital to the agency’s ability to carry out what we believe to be critical life-saving work.

QUESTION: And then the other thing is, do you believe, based on what you’ve seen thus far since these reports started coming out, that they have been upholding this strict policy of neutrality?

MR KIRBY: Well, I mean, it’s certainly something we’ve talked to them about and will continue to. And as I said earlier, every such allegation brought to UNRWA’s attention has either been or is being investigated and looked at. So what I can tell you is it’s apparent to us they’re taking it seriously and they’re looking into these things, or they have looked into them in the past and closed them out. ...We’re certainly worried and concerned that there could be a problem that needs to be fixed.

QUESTION: There could be?

MR KIRBY: Right. I mean, I think we need to let these investigations play out. But we’ve been very clear about our concerns with respect to incitement of violence and anti-Semitism that has allegedly occurred in UNRWA.

Since then, of course, we have seen more examples of UNRWA teaching incitement and hate, not less.

Only this year UNRWA was caught providing students with educational materials created by UNRWA - not by host countries - that explicitly encouraged students to become martyrs. UNRWA's own logo is on this page encouraging the "sword" to "free the motherland."

UNRWA in Gaza and the West Bank uses this textbook, today, that glorifies mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi.

Is there any difference between UNRWA's worthless promises to the Obama administration in 2016 and its promises to the Biden administration in 2021?

Back to this JTA story, this little detail is very important:

The Biden administration official, who asked not to be named in order to speak candidly, reached out to JTA.

When UNRWA lies, it is expected. When the US defends the UNRWA lies, that is unconscionable. But when the Biden administration reaches out to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency to proactively defend UNRWA lies, that is the White House gaslighting Jews.

UNRWA knows it is lying. The White House knows UNRWA is lying. And it chooses to defend those lies.

Now that we've seen that Biden is treating Jewish concerns over UNRWA inciting terrorism with contempt, can anyone think that they are doing anything different over the Iran nuclear negotiations?

I have been willing to give the new administration the benefit of the doubt. That is no longer possible. Even though Biden campaigned on restoring aid to UNRWA, the subsequent news that UNRWA's own custom educational materials included explicit support for terrorism should have caused a moral White House to at least pause and insist on real reform before returning to fund UNRWA, at the very least.

Seeing White House officials treating Jews dismissively concerning UNRWA shows that they intend to do the exact same thing with respect to Iran.