Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 18, 2021

Photos of pre-teens registering for Hamas terrorist summer camp

Here are photos from the Hamas Al Qassam Brigades terrorist website showing children as young as nine years old queuing up to sign up for terror camp to be recruited into Hamas.

According to Hamas:

These camps aim to ignite the flame of jihad in the generation of liberation, sow Islamic values and prepare the expected victory army for the liberation of Palestine, God willing.

Notice how Hamas uses a submachine gun as a prop to attract recruits.

Hamas is solely responsible for the deaths along Al Wehda street

The New York Times reviews the incident that killed the most civilians in the May fighting, the collapse of the Abul Ouf Building where 22 innocent Palestinians died.

Already the subhead shows the bias:

As the article shows, Israel didn't bomb the apartment building - if that was the target, the IDF would have issued a warning.

In an interview, an Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said that on the morning of May 16, several Israeli aircraft fired 11 missiles along a 200-yard stretch of Al Wahda Street, aiming to destroy a tunnel and command center beneath it. Drone video filmed soon afterward by the Israeli military showed a row of craters left in the road by GPS-guided bombs.

But while most of the adjacent buildings remained standing, the Abul Ouf Building collapsed in what the official described as “a freak event.”

The military had not known the exact location of the command center, nor how far it extended under nearby buildings, Colonel Conricus said. When the bombs exploded deep underground, they unexpectedly dislodged the Abul Ouf Building’s foundations, he added.

The Independent, which reported about this on May 24, confirmed this:

When questioned about the purpose of the attack, the Israeli army said Hamas, the militant group that runs Gaza, bears responsibility for “intentionally locating its military infrastructure under civilian houses, thus exposing civilians to danger”.

It said a “preliminary” investigation into the attack found that Israeli aircraft struck “underground military infrastructure” that was located under the road.

“The underground military facilities collapsed causing the foundations of the civilian houses above them to collapse as well leading to unintended casualties,” a statement read.

Hamas built tunnels directly underneath buildings. When the tunnel walls collapsed, the buildings above did as well.

Ridiculously, the NYT publishes Hamas' denial that their tunnels are underneath civilian centers:

Hamas has acknowledged building a network of tunnels under Gaza for military purposes, but in a news conference on May 26, Yahya Sinwar, leader of the Hamas political wing in Gaza, denied that any of them lay under civilian areas, dismissing the accusation as “baseless.”

However, the United Nations believes Hamas built at least one military tunnel under a U.N. school.

Yet Hamas has claimed that it has built 500 kilometers of tunnels in Gaza - and none of it beneath civilian centers?

One other detail about Wehda Street that the Independent mentions, but not the New York Times:

The air raids turned one of the busiest streets in Gaza, and the main access point to the strip’s chief hospital al-Shifa, into a crater-marked moonscape.

It is well known that Hamas has a major headquarters in the basement of the Shifa hospital. This strongly indicates that Hamas has tunnels leading from the hospital itself to the rest of the "metro" network. (Wikipedia confirms that Shifa is at the end of Wehda Street.)

The NYT pretends to be evenhanded in discussing whether war crimes were committed:

Rights experts said the use of such powerful weapons in a dense urban environment put civilian lives at risk and was a possible war crime. And if Hamas installed military facilities underneath residential areas, that too is prohibited under the laws of war.

Based on just the reporting in that article, it is clear that Israel did not commit any war crimes. Most of the buildings along the route did not collapse, and clearly the Israeli military commanders did not expect the Abul Ouf building to be destroyed. To be a war crime, it must be determined that the military knew it was likely that there would be unacceptable civilian casualties, which is clearly not the case here.

And if it is known that Hamas has crucial military targets literally underneath civilians, it does not mean those targets are protected under international law. They can be targeted, carefully, in ways that minimize the danger to civilians - which is exactly what Israel did.

Hamas, by building an extensive tunnel network directly underneath thousands of innocent people, is completely and wholly responsible for any loss of life from their tunnels being targeted. And the media simply does not get it.

For the past two weeks, anti-Israel protesters have been trying to stop Israeli shipping company Zim from unloading cargo in North America.

In Seattle, the protests have been organized by Falastiniyat, which describes itself as "a grassroots collective of diasporic Palestinian feminists in Seattle living & organizing at the intersection of gender justice and anti-colonialism."

A quick glance through their Instagram page shows that these so-called feminists have not once protested against Palestinian laws that are specifically against women. This shows that these "progressive" groups are hypocrites, with no interest in actually helping Palestinian women and whose obsession with Israel - the most liberal state in the region - is thinly veiled Jew-hatred.

Aisha Mansour from Falastiniyat, said, "we’re just trying to tell our ports, stop taking anything from Israel.”

But the Zim ship wasn't unloading anything from Israel. In fact, the shipment that these bigots have been so keen to block includes medical and personal protective equipment that it picked up from South Korea and China last month.

And while Zim was founded and has headquarters in Israel, it is a public company.

Beyond that, the Zim San Diego ship that is docked at Seattle is sailing under the Liberian flag. None of the workers on the ship are Israeli. The recipients of the cargo aren't Israeli.

When international shipping is disrupted, it hurts a lot of people, including the dockworkers, as well as the other shipping companies whose own shipments are delayed by these protests, and their own customers.

The bigots who claim, incredibly, that they are pro-Palestinian don't care about all the people that they hurt. As long as some Israelis are losing money, then it is all worthwhile to them to hurt hundreds or thousands of other people whose livelihoods and jobs depend on international commerce.

That is what hate looks like. This hate has nothing to do with Palestinian solidarity - it is aimed at Jews in Israel.

After a standoff of over a week, police arrested 10 protesters and the cargo is now being unloaded safely.

The Northwest Seaport Alliance issued this statement, pointing out that freedom of expression is not the same thing as disrupting people's livelihoods:

The Northwest Seaport Alliance respects the expression of first amendment rights and prioritizes the safety of both workers at our properties and those exercising their free speech rights.

The NWSA is the fourth-largest international seaport in the United States and keeping lanes of commerce open to international trade is essential to our region and country.

The ZIM San Diego is part of a regular service that calls Terminal 18, carrying routine import cargo from Asia, including medical and PPE equipment and picking up export cargo from our Washington exporters. Local retailers and businesses across the Midwest rely on the import cargo delivered by vessels to our terminals.

Port of Seattle Police and Seattle Police Department have worked to provide a safe zone for protestors to ensure individual expression is protected while maintaining access to Terminal 18 to allow scheduled operations to continue.

Law enforcement provided multiple warnings to individuals obstructing the right of way and made approximately ten arrests of individuals who refused to comply and continued to obstruct roadways. We continue to monitor the situation as port operations return to normal.

The NWSA remains committed to close coordination with all stakeholders to ensure a safe environment for all.

06/17 Links Pt2: Sometimes it takes a few pogroms; 200 Rabbis blast Pelosi's failure to strongly reprimand Ilhan Omar; Noa Tishby tackles Bella Hadid's latest anti-Israel rant

From Ian:

MEMRI: Shaheen Nassar Of The Council On American-Islamic Relations Los Angeles (CAIR-LA): The 'European Jewish Colonizers' In Palestine Converted To Judaism In The Middle Ages, Have No Connection To Ancient Israelites; Antisemitism Is A Way Of Persecuting A Group For Falsely Claiming To Descend From Historic Palestine

Director of policy and advocacy for the Los Angeles branch of The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR LA), Shaheen Nassar, said that antisemitism is a uniquely European phenomenon, and it was a way of persecuting a group of people for the "false historical accusation" that they are the descendants of the people of historic Palestine. He made his remarks during a lecture held at the Islamic Society of Orange County, which was posted on the IOSC Masjid YouTube channel on June 11, 2021. Nassar explained that Muslims and Arabs are Semites, and that "most historians recognize" that the vast majority of European Jews and the "European Jewish colonizers" in Palestine are Europeans who converted to Judaism in the Middle Ages, and it is in fact Palestinians who most likely to have the blood of the Israelites running through their veins. He added that it is ironic that while Zionism is a "supremacist ideology," Jews are also the target of antisemitism, which he conceded is a "real thing." He went on to explain that white supremacists hold Jewish, Muslim, and Palestinian lives in equal contempt.

Antisemitism "Was A Way Of Persecuting A Group Of People... For The False Historical Allegation That They Descended From Historic Palestine"

Shaheen Nassar: "Palestinians and Arabs are Semites themselves. Antisemitism is, throughout much of history, a uniquely European phenomena. It was essentially a way of saying... it was a way of persecuting a group of people for the false history accusation, this false historical allegation, that they had descended from historic Palestine. The reality of course, as most historians recognize, is much of European Jews and much of the European Jewish colonizers of Palestine are all descendants of medieval converts to Judaism, and that realistically the blood of the ancient Israelites most likely flows in the blood of Palestinians.

"Zionism Is A supremacist Ideology... There's No Direct Blood Relation Between The Ancient Israelites And The European Colonizers"

"If Zionism is a supremacist ideology, isn't it ironic that also Jews are the targets. And by the way this is legitimate, antisemitism is a real thing. I may not necessarily agree with its relevance to the issue of Palestine, but antisemitism is a very real thing, and there are white supremacists out there who hold Jewish lives and Muslim lives and Palestinian lives with equal contempt.

"A lot of the people that were massacring Palestinians, the people that I mentioned who would kill, in such horrific and gruesome ways, Palestinian children, committed acts of sexual violence... These death squads, the Irgun, the Hagana, the Black Hand, they would later evolve into the modern Israeli defense forces.

"There's no direct blood relation between the ancient Israelites and the European colonizers."

Shaheen Nassar of CAIR LA: Arabs Are Semites, While Most European Jews Converted in the Middle Ages; Antisemitism Is a Phenomenon of Persecuting a Group that Falsely Claims to Descent from Historic Palestine pic.twitter.com/f982v2zii7
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 17, 2021

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms

In my book, The Ideological Path to Submission... and what we can do about it (Mantua Books), I agree with the approach of Daniel Pipes of the Middle East Forum to distinguish between Muslims who can adjust to lives of freedom, responsibility, women’s rights, rights of other religions including Judaism and non-violence, and other Muslims, usually called Islamists who seek Jihad, conquest, a world-wide Caliphate, forced conversions, Sharia Law and violence. My book deals mainly with Islam in America, Canada and Europe, but I hold the same distinctions must apply to Islamic Israelis.

The only Muslims that should live in Israel are those non-Islamists who accept the virtue of the Jews, the Torah and that the Qur’an says that the land of Israel is for the Jews.

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms to drive home the problem and the solution alike.

The Russian and Ukrainian pogroms in the early 19th century were the determining factor for Russian Jews to depart Russia and the Ukraine for America. A lot of Jews paid with their lives so that others would understand that the time had come to leave.

My father’s cousin, upon liberation from Auschwitz, decided to go back home to Lodz Poland. He and others were met with a violent pogrom from the Poles who did not want the Jews back. After a few years, he and his new wife made Aliyah.

Pogroms against Jews in contemporary Europe and the danger that riots in America might turn into pogroms will induce Diaspora Jews to make Aliyah. But they must see an Israel that understands that Arab Israelis must not only be cleansed of guns and other weapons, but must clearly support reformist Islam and not Islamism. At a time when Muslims up 20% of Israel’s population, it is essential to adopt this paradigm about Muslim neighbours and co-workers.

The mini-pogroms that started a couple of weeks ago must make it clear to both antisemites and Jews everywhere that the best thing for all concerned is a division between modernist more liberal Islam and the Islamists, and only the former should populate Israel, and perhaps the rest of the West. Those who follow radical hegemonic Islamism might stay in one of the numerous Islamic theocracies.

Sometimes it takes a few pogroms.

How antisemitism links various world conflicts

The pro-Armenian lobby, meanwhile, has a chronic antisemitism problem that is exposed through its social media activity. In tweets promoting the theme of "Christian Artsakh" during March 2020, the ANCA described Nagorno-Karabakh as "an ancient #Christian land, modern democratic republic, and home to 1st Century holy sites – under attack by #Azerbaijan's oil-rich #Aliyev dictatorship." The ANCA repeatedly used the same language to target supporters of Azerbaijan such as Jewish lawmaker Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.). In addition to weaponizing Christianity for political purposes, the ANCA promoted anti-Semitic tropes – including by tweeting a painting of the arrest of Jesus, invoking the myth that Jews killed Jesus, and a photo of silver coins, conjuring the antisemitic conspiracy theory of Jewish control over financial markets and governments.

This activity is not surprising when considering that, according to an Anti-Defamation League study, Armenians believe a variety of antisemitic stereotypes are "probably true" – and that they agree with those tropes at an even higher rate (58%) than Iranians (56%).

Armenian antisemitism is also apparent in the country's history of glorifying Nazi collaborators such as Garegin Nzhdeh, commander of the Armenian Legion, a unit that rounded up Jews and resistance fighters and marched them to concentration camps. Nzhdeh is honored through statues, streets, or memorials in nearly 20 Armenian municipalities.

A third parallel between the Israeli-Palestinian and Armenia-Azerbaijan conflicts pertains to the violent nature of protests taking place abroad. Much like Jews were physically attacked by pro-Palestinian protesters in major US cities last month, Armenian protesters attacked a group of two-dozen Azerbaijanis in Los Angeles in July 2020, causing injuries that required urgent medical care and prompting a hate-crime investigation into the incident.

For Israel, which maintains deep ties with Azerbaijan but at times projects a neutral or silent stance toward the Armenia-Azerbaijan conflict, the takeaway for the new government should be clear: stand with Azerbaijan, a crucial Muslim-majority ally, and stand against Armenian antisemitism. US Jews should arrive at the same conclusion, understanding that antisemitism coming from pro-Palestinian activists and pro-Armenian activists are branches of the same tree.

Secret WWII Jewish British Military Commandos Finally Come Out of the Shadows

X Troop is the fiercest British World War II commando force you have likely never heard of.

Formally known as “No. 10 (Inter-Allied) Commando, 3 Troop,” its 87 members were mainly Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria who were hell-bent on exacting revenge on the Nazis who had destroyed their families and home communities. Some commandos were themselves survivors of incarceration in Nazi concentration camps.

Sworn to secrecy about their true identities for their own safety, these brave young men assumed English noms de guerre. Only one person, a secretary at MI5, who worked in the casualty division, had access to the list of the men’s original names and places of origin.

After a year and a half of intensive training in Wales and Scotland, the X Troopers were assigned to the spearhead of Allied forces that invaded Europe and fought into the heart of the Third Reich. Utilizing advanced combat and counterintelligence techniques, and their native German language abilities, they undertook dangerous missions to infiltrate behind enemy lines. In battle, they captured and immediately interrogated the enemy, providing invaluable information to the advancing Allied armies.

The X Troopers never fought as a joint force. They were seconded individually or in small groups to various Allied troops and divisions. Over half of them were killed, wounded or went missing in action.

“Nothing was going to stop them,” said Leah Garrett, author of a new book about this highly selective and motivated unit, whose exploits have largely been lost to history due to their clandestine nature.

The Tikvah Podcast: David Rozenson on How His Family Escaped the Soviet Union and Why He Chose To Return

The Soviet Union was deeply against religion, and in particular was deeply against Judaism, so that the full embrace of Jewish religious observance, or the study of Hebrew, or the slightest approval of Zionism were often seen as criminal offenses against the state. Some Jews, like Natan Sharansky, resisted—brave refuseniks who wouldn’t give in to enforced secularization and who organized underground networks of Jewish life. Eventually, through American and international pressure, the Soviets allowed those desperate Jews to leave. But what of the Jews who didn’t flee, who remained in Russia even after the demise of the Soviet Union? What’s their story?

David Rozenson, the executive director of Beit Avi Chai, a Jewish cultural center in Jerusalem, was born in the Soviet Union before his family escaped to the United States. Years later, as an adult, he returned to Russia and stayed there for years. On this week’s podcast, in conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, he tells his family story, and explains why, despite his family risking so much to leave, he chose to go back and serve the Jews of the former Soviet Union.

Rabbi: Boys Nursing From Women 'Immodest' - Men Must Nurse Them (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

child hiding eyes Jerusalem, June 20 - The leader of a religious community in this holy city has identified a glaring breach of modesty and dignity in everyday child-rearing behavior, in the form of male babies coming into close physical contact with females who suckle them, and has issued a p'sak halokhoh forbidding women from breastfeeding boys. Instead, men must take on the task of generating breastmilk and providing it to the infants.

Rabbi Noteh LeHumra of Congregation Minhag Schtuss gave his ruling Sunday following complaints by several community activists that despite decades of increasing stringency in their practice of Jewish laws governing male-female dynamics, Jewish men still have a yeizter hora, rachmonoh litzlon, that causes them to stumble, not like our pious ancestors who never even had the slightest hirhur aveiroh, but we could never reach that exalted level and need extra protective measures lest we succumb to taivoh. The congregants identified nursing in particular as an unaddressed hazard, and Rabbi LeHumra developed guidelines accordingly.

"B'nois Yisroel," his ruling, appearing on large, adhesive posters on every available public surface, began. "Because of the unrelenting machinations of the yeitzer, it becomes incumbent upon us to adopt extra levels of taharoh and distance from sin. Therefore, be it known that women may only perform 'breastfeeding' or 'nursing' if the baby is a girl. But because we fear that exposure to, and contact with, women, especially certain uncovered parts thereof, lies at the root of our failure so far to vanquish the yeitzer, b'avoinoiseinu horabbim, from now on only men may nurse boys. Perhaps this way, b'siyatoh dishmayoh, our holy sons will remain pure of mind, never having seen or felt anything inappropriate while eating as a baby."

"Our lore contains multiple instances of men becoming able to nurse," continued the notice. "Mordechai nursed the orphan Esther - but that was ok because she became his wife; or the man in the Gemoro Shabbos who experienced the same miracle so he could provide for his children. Through our dedication to our sacred duty, we, too, may be zoikheh to such phenomena."

"Lest the scoffers argue that we do not rely on miracles, look for yourself at the everyday miracles we have come to expect," it went on. "So few of us work, yet miraculously, money keeps flowing into our institutions and yeshivois; so few of us learn a trade or study anything secular, yet somehow, despite choosing a lifestyle of crushing poverty and food insecurity, Hakodoish Borukh Hu keeps finding ways to keep us from malnutrition. He has many emissaries, not just Bituach Leumi, although that has been a mainstay of His largesse in recent decades."

"A final point," the message concluded. "No one may permit himself to voice the thought that since previous generations saw no need to adopt these stringencies, they were careless or, chas v'sholoim, sinful. They were like the very angels compared to us! They had no need for these measures because they were so elevated, they barely had any yeitzer at all! And that's why we've been exiled and persecuted and haven't been redeemed for thousands of years, because [insert rationalization to help explain why such angelic people couldn't bring the Final Redemption, whereas we unworthy shadows of their greatness definitely will]."

06/17 Links Pt1: Sen. Risch Won’t Lift Hold on Palestinian Aid Without Guarantee Taxpayer Money Is Kept From Terrorists; Will every Israeli airstrike now be front page news?

From Ian:

Sen. Risch Won’t Lift Hold on Palestinian Aid Without Guarantee Taxpayer Money Is Kept From Terrorists

Sen. Jim Risch (R., Idaho), ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, says he will not cave to demands from Democrats that he lift a congressional hold on a tranche of Palestinian aid money until he is provided with guarantees that the taxpayer funds will not enrich terrorist groups, including Iran-backed Hamas.

House Democrats led by Rep. Jamie Raskin (D., Md.) have been pressuring Risch to lift a hold on some $75 million in aid money in the wake of Hamas’s war last month with Israel. Raskin and 145 other Democrats pressed Risch on the matter in a letter sent earlier this month. They claim the money is needed for humanitarian reconstruction projects in the Gaza Strip, which came under intense fire from Israel as it struck scores of Hamas positions. Risch, who did recently lift his hold on a portion of these funds, maintains the outstanding allocation will aid Palestinian terror groups.

Risch rejected the Democratic pressure campaign on Wednesday in a response letter to the Democrats declaring that he will not release the funds until the Biden administration provides assurances the money will not be diverted to Hamas or be used by the Palestinian government to pay terrorists and their families, according to a copy obtained exclusively by the Washington Free Beacon.

Risch’s hardline stance is certain to rankle Democratic lawmakers who claim the money will be spent to address humanitarian needs in the Gaza Strip. As Democrats have broadly supported the Biden administration’s decision to unfreeze U.S. aid to the Palestinian government, potentially in violation of the law, they have also called for U.S. security assistance to Israel to be frozen. The growing divide between the parties on aid to Israel and the Palestinian government has emerged as a flashpoint in the weeks since Israel defended itself against an onslaught of more than 4,000 missiles fired by Hamas and other Palestinian terrorist groups.

"There are multiple holds on the longer-term projects, as they are under review for compliance with the law," Risch wrote. "I hope you and your colleagues are not suggesting we should turn a blind eye to the potential of U.S. funds being used to support terrorism."

Seth Frantzman: Will every Israeli airstrike now be front page news? - analysis

This appears to be a new pattern. The launching of arson balloons is not new, it has been going on for years. Israeli airstrikes in retaliation for these kinds of attacks and others, is also not new. Over the last several years Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad have perpetrated many attacks, including firing rockets, using masses of people to attack the security fence around Gaza and launching incendiary balloons. This is in addition to the major attacks that began on May 10 and involved more than 4,000 rockets fired at Israel.

In general Israeli retaliatory strikes did not get major attention. That all changed with the recent conflict. A variety of factors have played into that, not the least of which is an agenda by some groups to try to increase coverage of the Israel-Palestinian conflict. This has resulted in attacks on Israel accusing the country of practicing “apartheid” and also the circulation of a letter around media outlets calling for more pro-Palestinian coverage.

The airstrike coverage is disproportionate because similar airstrikes by Turkey on Iraq or even by the US-led Coalition partners against ISIS, receive no coverage. It’s not a comparison, of some coverage compared to less coverage. There is in fact no coverage of Turkey’s widespread airstrikes on northern Iraq’s Kurdish region, which result in casualties and depopulation. The US-led coalition openly tweets about recent operations against ISIS, which get no coverage. Huge bombings and attacks by terrorist groups in Afghanistan and pitched battles with government forces get little to no coverage.

This speaks to a new kind of coverage of Israeli airstrikes and Gaza tensions. It is not clear if this is only the result of the recent war, or if this push for increased coverage will continue. For now, it is clear, that a new paradigm exists focusing on Israeli airstrikes, even if there are no casualties in the strikes. Over the last several years most Israeli strikes on Gaza, and claims of strikes in Syria by foreign reports, received relatively minor attention. Now that spotlight has shifted. It comes with a new Israeli government in office and may affect calculations regarding these strikes.

The Joshua and Caleb Network: Photos of Gaza That You Have NEVER Seen in the Media

If you are familiar with the Gaza Strip, you probably only think of war and carnage. A simple google search however, will show you a drastically different story. On today’s show, Joshua & Luke unpack photos of Gaza that will blow you away.

Are the people of Gaza oppressed? Yes, but the people who are responsible just might shock you.

Also, a quick history lesson on the Gaza Strip beginning in the early 1900s and real facts about the area that might make you rethink your perspective on the middle east.

Hebrew watermelons, then and now

Ninety years ago, Jewish owned farms in Palestine were struggling, and they wanted to make sure that at least Jews would purchase produce from them. So they created an advertising campaign for "Hebrew melons" and told people to look for a distinctive logo before buying:

Now, the Palestinian Authority is trying to ban melons from Israel - "Hebrew melons" are to be boycotted!

On Wednesday, Palestinian customs police - operating at a Palestinian checkpoint that no one ever hears about - seized a truck with 10 tons of watermelons smuggled from Israel.

The Palestinian Ministry of Agriculture released this photo of the seizure.

Keep in mind that the 1930s campaign was to encourage buying produce from Jewish farms, but not to boycott Arab produce. The Palestinian Authority bans produce from Jews - because it knows that it cannot rely on patriotism to encourage Palestinians to only buy from Arab farmers.

Hamas freely admits it uses summer camps to recruit child soldiers

Here are the posters that Hamas has published for its summer camps. If this isn't recruitment for child soldiers, I don't know what is:

"How can I liberate my land and take my rights?"

"From generation to generation"

"Heroes are made for the day of the fighting."

"Today at the training sites...and tomorrow at the gates of Jerusalem"

Palestinian polls are interesting.

Consistently over the years, when asked a general question of whether they support armed resistance (terror) or negotiations with Israel, the results would be roughly half and half, seesawing between supporters and opponents of terror.

But when there is a specific terror attack, Palestinians overwhelmingly support that attack.

The most egregious example was in the wake of the 2008 attack on students at the Mercaz Harav yeshiva - 84% of Palestinians supported that massacre.

75% supported the Maxim restaurant suicide bombing in Haifa in 2003 that killed 20 Israelis.

77% supported a double bus suicide bombing that killed 16 in Beersheva in 2004.

Now, after the mini-war last month, Palestinians are overwhelmingly supportive of Hamas shooting rockets towards Israeli civilans.

They support Hamas shooting rockets to Jerusalem. 72% think that Hamas’ decision to launch rockets at Israeli cities came "in defense of Jerusalem and al Aqsa Mosque."

If an Israeli court would rule that the Arab squatters at Sheikh Jarrah must evacuate, 68% support Hamas shooting thousands more rockets into Israeli cities. Only 18% support non-violent resistance as a result.

Not surprisingly, Hamas' popularity has soared since the fighting. If the postponed/canceled elections would be held today, Hamas beats Fatah 36% to 19%.

Palestinians support terrorist attacks and they support terror groups. Western media consistently downplays these results, but they are consistent.

On Wednesday morning, Palestinian Preventive Security Services arrested 16-year old Amir Taha Muhammad Abu Sharar of Hebron for a Facebook post.

The police forced the child to close his Facebook account.

The Facebook post that offended the Palestinians was published during the conflict in May.

Abu Sharar, who suffers from diabetes, was held in custody for hours before he and his mother made a pledge to close his account and that he would stay away from posting on social media.

According to the Euro Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor, this is only the latest in a wave of similar arrests for things people have posted on social media. Anything that offends the Palestinian government can be prosecuted under their overly broad "Cybercrime Law."

At least 60 people have been arrested or detained in the past month, and there are reports that some of those arrested were subject to torture and abuse in Jericho Prison.

I could not find a single story in the media about any of these arrests. As of this writing, the Euro-Med Monitor only published this in Arabic.

This isn't only a story about an egregious arrest of a child. It is not only a story about how the Palestinian Authority spits on freedom of speech.

This is a story about how the world media simply ignores Palestinian crimes.

60 arrests for social media posts in a month? How can this have not been reported anywhere??

Part of the reason is because Palestinian media itself doesn't report it - there is an unwritten rule that the media is not going to say anything bad about their own leaders. But there is no doubt that this information was known - Euro-Med found out about these.

The sad fact is that the world media does not want to find out anything negative about Palestinians. There are probably more reporters in the region per square kilometer than anywhere else in the world but all the reporters are only interested in demonizing Israel.

Human rights violations by the Palestinian Authority is simply not on the reporters' radar. There is no digging, no investigative journalism. Reporters are jostling to make Israel look as bad as possible but there are no similar stories about the Palestinian leadership - even though every single reporter knows that the corruption on the Palestinian side dwarf anything that Israel has done.

The real story is that this isn't a story in any media. And that is because the entire world media is effectively colluding to make public opinion hate the Jewish state and be sympathetic to the criminally corrupt Palestinian Authority.

It is a scandal. But it is not a scandal that the media will ever report.

06/16 Links Pt2: The Un-Jews - The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood; Baseless Israel Bashing Permeates Science, Medicine, and Education Unions

From Ian:

Natan Sharansky and Gil Troy: The Un-Jews - The Jewish attempt to cancel Israel and Jewish peoplehood

The clash between zealots for progress—or what some decided was progress—and Jewish traditionalism reaches back to the time of the ancients, too.

There were many Jews during Greek and Roman times who wanted to advance these appealing civilizations, which seemed to be giving birth to a brighter future. The Roman pantheon of gods seemed so much more majestic, more worldly, than the Jews’ one jealous God. These rebels would be happy to keep Jerusalem and other Jewish sites as relics as they marched along the road to a better tomorrow—backed by the imperial power of the Roman legions.

One of the Roman generals who helped raze Jerusalem and destroy the Second Temple may have been the first un-Jew. Tiberius Julius Alexander, the nephew of the leading Jewish philosopher Philo, “did not remain in his ancestral customs,” in the words of the ancient historian Josephus, a Jewish general who himself joined the Roman cause. Then, as now, those annoying Jews insisted on keeping their ghetto, their ethnonationalist state, if you will, and rejected the symbols of Rome’s more worldly multicultural empire.

Historians ultimately don’t know that much about Tiberius. What we do know is that despite his Jewish roots, he was anxious to help the world become civilized like Rome—and he unleashed the Roman legions against Alexandria’s Jews when he was prefect of Egypt from 66 to 69 CE. All this was warming up for his greatest crime against his people, serving as Titus’ second in command in 70 CE when the siege of Jerusalem plunged his own people into exile for nearly 2,000 years.

Today’s un-Jews remain as engaged with parts of their Jewish heritage, as appalled by other parts, and as anxious for acceptance, as their predecessors. Their undoing project doesn’t involve conquering the Temple in the name of civilization or converting the Jews to Christianity. Instead, they are divorcing the democratic State of Israel in the name of democracy and social justice. Today’s social justice warriors make war on Israel the same way that the Soviet communists made war on Jewish peoplehood and its institutions.

This assault goes far beyond “hugging and wrestling” or “daring to ask hard questions” or giving Israel “tough love.” Our objections to these new attacks are not attempts to dodge the difficult dilemmas we do need to debate regarding peace and war, proportionality and morality, Jewish and democratic values—or occupation, clashing rights, and defensible borders. We intimately know the many efforts that Israel’s political establishment and military take to maintain their moral compass. We wish there were more forums—such as a Global Jewish Parliament—where Israelis could discuss these and other dilemmas with world Jewry.

But we can only have those debates if we have empathy for one another and are willing to look out for one another. Ultimately, a broad, welcoming dialogue is important. But those who are set on denying the essence of Jewish peoplehood are rarely interested in the kind of respectful, mutual exchange that builds us all up. Rather, they are bent on destroying the most powerful force that has kept us together as a people through the ages—and without which they, too, will paradoxically wither away.

Phyllis Chesler: Baseless Israel Bashing Permeates Science, Medicine, and Education Unions

Until recently, the hard sciences proved impregnable to political propaganda and to Soviet-style boycotts and censorship. Not anymore.

From college campuses to medical and mental health professionals, people whose careers are rooted in inquiry and fact are falling over each other to condemn Israel for last month’s defensive war against Hamas — and in dreadfully uniform language.

I don’t know how to stop the lies about Israeli “massacres” when that lie has now been amplified by professors at so many universities, by the media, by students, and by countless authors in medical and scientific journals.

Physicians, both clinicians and scientific researchers, have also become politicized. According to a surgeon-friend: “I had to quit my women physician Facebook group because of rabid antisemitism in the guise of pro-Palestinian humanism. We formed a separate group called ‘physicians against antisemitism’ that quickly got 1,500 members.”

As it stands, we are currently undergoing a profound degradation of both experts and of expertise.

For example, in 2010, The Lancet, once a premier journal of medicine, blamed Israel for the alleged increase of “wife beating” in Gaza.

Senate passes resolution condemning antisemitism

The US Senate on Monday passed a resolution condemning the recent rise in global antisemitism fueled by Israel's 11-day conflict with Hamas last month.

The bipartisan resolution, which passed by voice vote, was introduced by Senators Jackie Rosen (D-NV) and James Lankford (R-OK), co-founders and co-chairs of the Senate Bipartisan Task Force for Combating Antisemitism.

In addition to Rosen and Lankford, a total of 72 senators, 36 Democrats and 36 Republicans, co-sponsored the resolution "unequivocally condemning the recent rise in antisemitic violence and harassment targeting Jewish Americans, and standing in solidarity with those affected by antisemitism, and for other purposes."

The resolution cites specific examples of recent antisemitic incidents related to the Israel-Gaza conflict, including a pro-Palestinian convoy in London calling to rape Jewish women, an attack on Jewish diners in Los Angeles and fireworks thrown at a group of pro-Israel demonstrators in New York City.

"As antisemitism surges in the United States and around the world, we must do all that we can to put a stop to these hateful actions," Rosen said in a statement.

The resolution also calls on US President Joe Biden to nominate a State Department Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism.

Proud that my bipartisan resolution w/ @SenatorLankford condemning the surge in antisemitic incidents & calling for action, cosponsored by 74 Senators, just passed the Senate by voice vote. Watch me speak on the Senate floor on why we must stand united against antisemitic hate: pic.twitter.com/VVFwIPJyK8
— Senator Jacky Rosen (@SenJackyRosen) June 15, 2021

Naftali Bennett is the new prime minister of Israel, an honor to be sure. But many of us are devastated by his assumption to the throne. It’s not only that Bennett lacks the polish and statesmanship of Netanyahu, it’s the way he seized power.

Israel is a true democracy, pretty much split down the middle in terms of right and left. We comprise a plurality of views. And that is precisely why we kept having election after election (after election after election). It is so darned difficult to settle an election when half the population feels one way, and the other half feels the other way. But even right and left are fragmented into itsy bitsy parties. Except for Netanyahu’s Likud, which received the most significant block of votes.

An election was always going to be decided by forming a coalition, because without 61 seats, you can’t make a government, and Likud had only 30. The only thing to do then is to make a match between a large party, the next largest party (Lapid’s Yesh Atid), and a few lesser parties. It was either that or cobbling together lots of teeny tiny little parties to make a larger whole of a coalition that would be so fragmented in its views that it would always be doomed to failure and not represent anyone at all.

The latter is exactly the track Naftali Bennett chose in his rise to power. He glued together teensy little parties that the majority of Israelis did not vote for, and then put them all together in a basket and presented us with a government that doesn’t represent the majority of Israelis, or even the largest sector of Israelis represented in the election, those who voted for Likud, the party of Netanyahu.

Alas, the majority was still not enough to keep Bibi in power. With only 30 mandates, he was short by more than one half of the 61 mandates he needed to remain on Balfour St.

To the hopeful, it looks as though Bennett achieved an amazing feat of unity, by crafting a government composed of every part of society: right, left, Arabs and Jews, gay, straight, people of color or with disabilities—this government has it all. Those with hope see this new government as all of the people getting together to make real change and compromise: an inclusive government. But the rest of us see it as chicanery, a coup to unseat Netanyahu, a group of tiny parties of few votes so hungry for power that they would and did play dirty.

Bennett swore up and down he would not be in a government with the people with whom he is now in a government. Bennett’s party received just 7 mandates. Netanyahu’s party had 30. Is it any wonder that Netanyahu feels he was done dirty by Bennett?

Also: you don’t have to love Netanyahu to know that this is not the time to have a changing of the guard, with Iran weeks away from the bomb and a president hostile to Israel in the White House. Netanyahu is a seasoned statesman. Bennett lacks stature, presence. Maybe that’s why the people did not choose him. He got in through deception, alone.

The night that the new government passed its final parliamentary vote, I slept badly, and had nightmares. I am afraid of this government, afraid of the Biden Administration, and terrified of Iran. The situation feels out of control.

No. I did not love Netanyahu—he made promises to the right and never kept them—but that is who needs to be prime minister right now. In Israel we have two groups of voters: Only Bibi, and Only NOT Bibi. Now we have the Only NOT Bibi government in power, and consider this: four times the number of people who voted for Bennett, did not want him in power.

Of those who did vote for Bennett, many feel betrayed. I know because I live in a town where he is very popular, and he mentioned us in his first speech as prime minister in a nod to that support. I polled my friends and many said they feel betrayed by him for sitting with Lapid, the Left, and with Ra”am (the Arab party.) A minority of my Bennett-voting friends are taking a wait-and-see attitude. They are not yet ready to give up on their romance with Naftali.

Those outside of Israel often find it difficult to understand our political climate. The following segment of Guy Zohar’s M’HaTzad HaSheini [From The Other Side] of June 1, 2021, from Israel’s Channel 11 Kan News, is enlightening, but in Hebrew only. The clip details the promises that Bennett has made and broken.

I endeavored to make a rough translation (apologies in advance for my shortcomings as a Hebrew-English translator) of the 4-minute segment to help my non-Israeli readers understand why there is such a lack of trust in Naftali Bennett. It boils down to this: every politician breaks promises, but Bennett went beyond the pale, abusing his voters’ trust, and taking advantage of the kinks in our electoral system. This makes it all the more clear that we have a desperate need for electoral reform in Israel, something to which Netanyahu alluded in his bitter parting speech.

נפתלי בנט הודיע שבכוונתו לפעול כדי להקים ממשלה עם יאיר לפיד, ועם השמאל. ברוטציה. רק עם שישה מנדטים. טוב אתם מבינים מה צריך לעשות, כן?#מהצד_השני עם @guyzo pic.twitter.com/5ZEW7f4W9v
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news) June 1, 2021

Guy Zohar: We have to take a breath, it just doesn’t come easy for us.

Naftali Bennett: I inform you today, that my intention is to work with all my strength toward the creation of a national unity government, together with my friend Yair Lapid.

Guy Zohar: We have no choice. You understand now what we have to do, don’t you?

Host: You will sit under him if he is prime minister?

Naftali Bennett: No!

Host: Will you make a rotation [agreement]?

Naftali Bennett: Not in rotation. Not in mutation. [waves hand]

Guy Zohar: Ouch. No one says he didn’t learn from Netanyahu.

Naftali Bennett: Forever and without any preconditions, I will not lend my hand to the establishment of a government with Yair Lapid.

Guy Zohar: Ouch.

Naftali Bennett: I won’t permit Yair Lapid to be prime minister, not even in rotation.

Guy Zohar: It hurts us more than it hurts you. And it gets worse.

*ding*

Naftali Bennett: We won’t form a government that elevates the Left. Because I’m Right. What I’m going to do is to establish a national government, that is to say not to transfer administration to the Left, because most of the nation, 80 mandates, are on the right, at today’s count.

Host: Lapid is the Left?

Naftali Bennett: Lapid, yes.

*ding*

Naftali Bennett: I commit before you that no matter what, I will not sit [in government] with or give my hand that *ding* Yair Lapid will be prime minister of Israel. And of course, I will not flip Lapid *ding* to become prime minister, not by rotation, and not without rotation [waves hand], because I am a man of the right.

Guy Zohar: And it doesn’t end here. Come let’s return to the speech in which Naftali Bennett declared his intention to—yes—establish a unity government with Yair Lapid.

Naftali Bennett: This is a government that will not be against any sector or any group.

Guy Zohar: But . . . just before the elections, you said that . . .

Naftali Bennett: Yair Lapid caused polarization in the last decade, truly terrible, in the Israeli community. I don’t think this should be the character that the nation of Israel today needs as its prime minister.

Guy Zohar: Back to this week’s speech. (Hoo-wa!)

Naftali Bennett: Know that the Left makes here difficult compromises in granting me the position of prime minister.

Guy Zohar: Wait! You prime minister?? YOU prime minister??? But you only have 6 mandates [out of the necessary 61 minimum needed to form a government]!

Naftali Bennett: I hope and believe that the public will give me the strength *ding* with 15 mandates I won’t be prime minister. Twenty? Yes. And I am the insurance policy for a right-wing government that will care about you.

Host: The public gives you a small number of mandates, nine mandates in the latest polls.

Naftali Bennett: Excuse me. Today I am already at 11. *ding* And if I reach 15 we will have established here a government. I need just a few more mandates to generate a change in leadership. Impossible with ten mandates to do this. 15 mandates, we can come and change the leadership in real fashion.

Host: You are the spoonful that tips the scales. You can be prime minister.

Naftali Bennett: But not with *ding* ten mandates.

Host: With ten mandates!

Naftali Bennett: That’s not democratic. You need more.

Guy Zohar: Yes. Now, let’s return to the speech that’s fresh. What does it mean that the left makes compromises?

Naftali Bennett: Know that the Left makes compromises that are not easy.

Guy Zohar: Does this mean that you are going to sit with the Labor Party?

Host: The Labor Party with seven mandates is a sort of partner?

Naftali Bennett: No. With them, they’re not in favor of a Jewish and Democratic state.

Guy Zohar: Do you mean to say that you will sit with Meretz?

Host: We’re ready to come to an agreement on this that you will not sit with Meretz?

Naftali Bennett: Right. You know why? Because they support The Hague.

Guy Zohar: What about Ra”am’s [refers to the Arab party] abstention or support?

Naftali Bennett: Listen, it’s an unbelievable thing, also this. Look how Netanyahu embraced Ra”am in this way. It’s a disgrace. I’ll explain why. Ra”am is the Islamic Movement’s party in Israel, in fact the Israeli branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. This is who the prime minister is ready to embrace—those who contribute to the murder of our soldiers.

Guy Zohar: Okay. There’s one thing you have to credit him, that this also Bennett said before the elections.

Naftali Bennett: *Ding* We won’t go to a fifth election. I won’t drag the State of Israel to a fifth election. This would be a crime! Vote for the right, letter Bet, it’s a kind of insurance policy that 1. We’ll establish a government.

Guy Zohar: Here it is. Everything’s okay. There were a few promises. They were all contradicted. But hey! You have to choose "1."