Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 13, 2021

Rash of antisemitic incidents in high schools and colleges

Graffiti on Canadian elementary school
last December

Right on the heels of a new report about antisemitism in colleges, there have been multiple reports of antisemitic incidents in colleges and even high schools just this past weekend.

At American University:

Antisemitic graffiti was found in a men’s bathroom stall in the Lower Level of Anderson Hall by an American University student on Sept. 7.

Jason Churchfield, a senior in the School of International Service, found four symbols, three of them Nazi propaganda, carved into the stall. Churchfield promptly posted a picture to his Instagram story.

The graffiti consists of two swastikas, Nazi SS (Schutzstaffel) bolts and a Star of David.

At DePaul University:

Jewish tradition holds that on Rosh HaShana our destiny for the coming year is written. For many Jewish DePaul students, who make up 4 percent of undergraduates, it has already been chosen for them – we are being written out of the community.

This year, the first day of classes for DePaul students landed on this deeply important day. Somewhat ironically, Rosh HaShanah is also the day of the Involvement Fair that centers around religious and cultural groups. The result is that many Jewish students who are interested in being involved Jewishly on campus, cannot attend the fair because they are observing the Jewish New Year.

What I want to know is how does imposing an ethical burden on Jewish students evoke the ideals of welcoming and inclusion and reject the very discrimination that President Esteban stands against? What does this decision forecast for the first year students as they embark on their journeys at DePaul? And maybe most critically, are Jews welcome or merely tolerated at DePaul?

In Cobb County, GA:

A local rabbi claims someone drew swastikas with the words “Hail Hitler” on a bathroom wall at Pope High School in Cobb County, GA.

“This is an attack on humanity, and it is important to understand that,” said Rabbi Larry Sernovitz, a Cobb parent and senior rabbi at Temple Kol Emeth in East Cobb.

The incident took place at the school during the high Jewish holidays.

School officials sent a letter home on Friday to parents, but it did not detail the swastikas or antisemitism. Instead, the letter explained that “Several students have defaced our beautiful school with hateful graffiti and also damaged our facilities.” Officials vowed that “Disturbing acts like what occurred this week have no place in our district or at our school and will not be tolerated.”

American Federation of Teachers - San Diego issues an anti-Israel statement filled with antisemitism and lies

Right before Rosh Hashanah, the American Federation of Teachers in San Diego, Local 1931, issued an anti-Israel statement.

This statement is worth reading in full, because not only does it say that Jews have no right to self-determination, but it relies on lies in nearly every sentence to make that point.

Teachers who teach bigotry and lies would appear to be supremely unqualified to be teachers.

Here is the statement:

WHEREAS, the AFT Guild condemns the forced removal of Palestinian residents in West Jerusalem,

West Jerusalem? This must be talking about 1948, and Arabs in West Jerusalem were not forcibly removed from their homes.

the bombing of civilian areas in the besieged Gaza Strip,

Every target in the Gaza Strip, in every war, was pre-determined according to the laws of armed conflict to have been military targets. Every one.

and the continued human rights violations committed by the Israeli government during its 73-year occupation of this land.

By saying "73-year occupation" the statement says that all of Israel is "occupied." Even the UN doesn't make that claim. It is a statement not against occupation but against the very existence of a Jewish state and the concept of Jewish self-determination. It is pure antisemitism.

It is unfortunate that civilians on both sides have suffered casualties, yet Israel’s use of advanced weaponry in its indiscriminate bombing of the Gaza strip has claimed a significantly greater and disproportionate number of Palestinian lives and destroyed essential infrastructure in the already oppressed occupied territories.

Here the statement switches its definition of "occupied," showing that the teachers that drafted this statement are completely unconcerned with consistency, let alone truth.

The bombing of Gaza has never been indiscriminate, which can be proven by a modicum of research.

The statement evokes a violation of international law with its use of the term "disproportionate" but in fact Israeli actions are not in the least disproportionate, and no army in history has taken more care to protect the civilian population of an area where they are used as human shields by the enemy as Israel has.

WHEREAS, the recent forced removal of Palestinian civilians from homes they occupied in Shaikh Jarrah for generations follows a 73-year pattern of disenfranchising Palestinians of their rights, property and the opportunity to live with dignity.

The Palestinians who have fought a losing legal battle for homes they do not own have not been forcibly removed.

Since 1967, home demolitions, land confiscations, systemic denial of building permits, and massive illegal settlement building (a violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Convention) on virtually every part of the occupied Palestinian territories, have become official Israeli policy, despite repeated condemnation by the international community.

It would take multiple articles to show how many lies are in this sentence, but all of the things listed here have been approved by the Israeli High Court - not to mention many things that the Israeli legal system did not approve - and one would be hard pressed to find a sober legal analysis of their rulings finding that they violate international law.

Building settlements is not a violation of Article 49 of the Geneva Conventions. It says nothing about building on disputed land.

WHEREAS, since the 1967 War, 48,488 Palestinian homes and other structures have been demolished compared to none belonging to Israelis. The United Nations has condemned Israel’s continued occupation of territory after the 1967 war. The International Court condemns the settlements, and Israel has repeatedly snubbed efforts to limit the settlements, which are viewed as an obstacle to peace.

Notice how the timeframe suddenly changes from 1948 in the first paragraph to 1967 here, to avoid noting the many Jewish-owned homes and structures - i.e., synagogues - destroyed by Arabs. Yet even with this attempt at sleight of hand, the statement is a complete lie: every single Israeli structure in the Gaza Strip has been destroyed - over 2,800 home and synagogues.

Israel has also destroyed - and continues to destroy - scores of homes determines to have been built illegally in the West Bank, such as in Amona, Givat Baladim, Maoz Esther other places.

WHEREAS, in 2018 over 40 Jewish groups worldwide signed onto a statement opposing the “dangerous conflation of anti-Jewish racism with opposition to Israel’s policies and system of occupation and apartheid.” Their statement read, “This conflation undermines both the Palestinian struggle for freedom, justice and equality and the global struggle against anti-semitism. It also serves to shield Israel from being held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law.”

The statement referred to is simply another set of lies, that claims without any proof that Zionists call legitimate criticism of Israel antisemitism. It is a straw man - no one makes that claim. But statements like this one that use a provable litany of lies to target the world's only Jewish state as illegitimate using standards that are way beyond those expected of any other state are clearly antisemitic.

The idea that Israel is not "held accountable to universal standards of human rights and international law" is as far from the truth as possible. Israel is held to standards way beyond those of any other nation in history. And the amazing thing is that it largely meets and exceeds the artificial standards created only for Israel.

Proof can be seen from the AFT San Diego website. No statements against China or Syria or Iran or Egypt, against Hamas or Hezbollah or Al Qaeda, or anyone besides Israel.

WHEREAS, although we consider the targeting of civilians by all sides to be inhumane, the absence of an evenhanded U.S. foreign policy, in addition to massive unrestricted military aid to Israel, emboldens Israeli militarism, contradicts our policy regarding the status of the occupation of the Palestinian lands, and dooms the two-state solution to failure.

Here is another contradiction, where the AFT switches from advocating the destruction of Israel to pretending to want a two-state solution.

US aid to Israel is not unrestricted - it has many restrictions, from where the money can be spent to what it can be spent on, in line with US laws on foreign aid to every country. And none of it is spent on "occupation."

WHEREAS, we condemn the recent spate of anti-semitic attacks in the United States and other parts of the world, just as we condemn white supremacy and violence against Blacks, and members of the AAPI, LatinX, and LGBTQ communities. We also unequivocally condemn anti-semitic violence wherever it occurs. However, let us be clear that condemning Israel for its ethnic cleansing of Palestinians, occupation, apartheid and war crimes is not anti-semitism.

The AFT thinks that declaring itself to be free of antisemitism is a "get out of jail free' card. It isn't. Saying that Jews have no right to self determination or self defense, and that time should be turned back to the 1940s when no nation protected the Jews from genocide is supremely antisemitic.

Also, spelling "antisemitic" as "anti-semitic" is arguably bigoted, as it gives a pretense of allowing an argument that antisemitism is against Semites. Major Jewish human rights organizations and experts have adopted the spelling without the hyphen, and by adopting this spelling, the AFT is showing its disregard to the wishes of the organized Jewish community itself. For an organization that pretends to be "woke" it is rather disrespectful towards Jews.

BE IT RESOLVED, we urgently call on our government to put an end to the occupation and oppression of Palestinian people, and we call on the White House and the Department of State to hold Israel accountable for its complete disregard of international law and a prompt reassessment of military aid to Israel.

Besides the lies enumerated above, this is a demand that Israel not be allowed to defend itself from Gaza rockets, tunnels meant to kidnap Jews, sophisticated missiles used by Hezbollah and other groups, the genocidal Syrian regime, and Iranian plans to destroy Israel.

No state besides Israel and no people besides Jews are denied the right to defend themselves, but these teachers say the Jewish state has no such right - again, contradicting the UN principles it pretends to respect.

Only when Israel treats Palestinians inside Israel as equal citizens, recognizes the right of the Palestinian refugees to return, and the right of the Palestinians to live free of colonization and occupation, will there be hope for peace and reconciliation in historic Palestine.

Most Arabs in Israel do not identify as Palestinian, so this statement is disrespectful to them even as it lies and claims they are not treated as equal citizens.

The demand to "return" is a transparent demand to destroy Israel, and Arab leaders haven't even tried to hide that fact.

The term "historic Palestine" is a misnomer, unless one believes that history began with the creation of borders by Western powers a century ago. The term "Palestine" never referred to the borders that Palestinians today claim - the areas that are controlled by Jews, and not the areas of Jordan or Lebanon that were considered part of Palestine in every map before the twentieth century.

The statement was accompanied by a graphic:

The AFT, pretending to care about peace in the Middle East, accompanies its statement with a graphic of a raised fist - hardly the logo of someone who wants all peoples of the Middle East to live in peace and harmony.

Literally every paragraph and practically every sentence of this statement is a lie, and many of them are quite antisemitic. This is besides the fact that this statement gives a green light to attack Jewish teachers who believe that Israel has the right to exist in contradiction to the beliefs of the union. This statement chills free speech.

Teachers in San Diego are now open to being censured or attacked by their own union for telling the truth.

This is an outrageous litany of lies, supported by people who are supposed to care about the truth. It is a statement of bigotry written by those who are supposed to teach children to treat people equally. It is hypocrisy in its purest sense.

And every minute that this bigoted statement filled with falsehoods is not denounced by the national union of teachers, the lies and antisemitism are condoned by those who are teaching every American child.

Saudi Arabia's Muslim World League accused of being too pro-Jewish

Wikipedia says:

The Muslim World League is an International Islamic NGO based in Mecca, Saudi Arabia that claims to clarify the true message of Islam by advancing moderate values that promote peace, tolerance and love.

Because of the Saudi funding, the League is widely recognized as a representative of the Islamic principles promoted in Saudi Arabia.

The organization funds the construction of mosques, financial reliefs for Muslims afflicted by natural disasters, the distribution of copies of the Quran, and political tracts on Muslim minority groups. The League says that they reject all acts of violence and promote dialogue with the people of other cultures, within their understanding of Sharia, but they are no strangers to controversy, having been the subject of several ongoing counterterrorism investigations in the U.S. related to Hamas, al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.

However, since 2016, the Muslim World League has been widely recognized as one of the leading organizations in Saudi Arabia dedicated to combating extremist ideology. In its 2019 Country Reports on Terrorism, the U.S. State Department stated that the Muslim World League's Secretary General, Dr. Al-Issa “pressed a message of interfaith dialogue, religious tolerance, and peaceful coexistence with global religious authorities, including Muslim imams outside the Arab world,” as well as conducted extensive outreach to prominent U.S. Jewish and Christian leaders.

Arab news site 26 September is now accusing the Muslim World League of being way too friendly to Jews:

The MWL, led by a former senior official in the Saudi regime, announced that it had signed an exceptional partnership agreement with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, to bring together the visions of the two institutions.

The association indicated that it will work with Blair over the next three years to provide a global program to provide 100,000 young people between the ages of 13-17 with thinking and critical skills, in 18 countries, to meet the challenges of future opportunities, according to its description.

Sounds really bad!

The program will also work through networks of schools and education partners around the world to train more than 2,400 teachers in “dialogue skills such as critical thinking, active listening, and global communication, to impart these skills to their students, and thus the program will contribute to building greater mutual understanding, tolerance and trust between Young people and their societies, and correct perceptions of religious and cultural diversity.

Even worse!

The head of the Muslim World League, former minister in the Saudi regime, Muhammad Al-Issa, repeatedly promoted dialogue with the Jews and promoted normalization with Israel.

Al-Issa said during a conference organized by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) on issues of Judaism and combating anti-Semitism: We (Al Saud) are currently obligated to restore bridges of dialogue and construction with the Jewish community.

During the aforementioned conference, the committee presented Al-Issa with a prize for allegedly appreciating his role in combating anti-Semitism.

Al-Issa claimed that “while Jews and Arabs have lived side by side for centuries, it is sad that in recent decades we have moved away from each other.. There are those who try to falsify history, who claim that the Holocaust, the most terrible crime in our human history, is a figment of the imagination.”

He continued: "We stand against these liars, and I always stood by my Jewish brothers and said: This will never happen again, God willing, not to Jews, Muslims, or Christians."

In April 2018, Al-Essi visited the Museum of the Commemoration of the Holocaust, accompanied by Muslim leaders from more than 24 countries. American Jewish Committee CEO David Harris said the trip represented "the highest-ever delegation of Muslim religious leaders to visit Auschwitz."

Now we see the real problem. The Muslim World League officially treats Jews like human beings. It denounces the Holocaust. It takes a stand against antisemitism.

No wonder some Muslims are upset!

Rabbi Eric Yoffie promoting Muslim jihad propaganda

The Muslim world love to frighten Westerners with threats of holy war - holy wars that almost never materialize.

1908:

1921:

1938:

1941:

1953:

1956:

1969:

Clueless Westerners not only believe and are frightened of these baseless threats, they amplify them. Muslims use the threats to get the West to do what they want, and Western dhimmis love to play their role.

Which brings us to Rabbi Eric Yoffie, writing in Haaretz last week:

I hardly knew whether to laugh or cry when I read Rabbi Meir Soloveichik’s most recent article in Commentary magazine.

Entitled "The Real Truth About the Temple Mount," Soloveichik’s article calls for "freedom of worship" on the site for Jews, who, according to longstanding agreements with Muslim authorities, are permitted to visit the Mount but not to pray there.

Let us be clear about what is happening here: A leading representative of mainstream American Orthodoxy is calling on Israeli officials to undermine longstanding agreements between Jordan and the State of Israel, and between Israel and Muslim religious authorities, and is encouraging Jews, at least indirectly, to disregard binding commitments made by their government and to begin praying openly at the Temple Mount.

This is idiotic and potentially catastrophic. It would greatly weaken the Kingdom of Jordan, one of Israel’s most important Arab allies and the party ultimately responsible for administering the Mount.

It would open the door to incitement against Israel by extremist elements throughout the Muslim world.

It would strengthen the hands of Iran and Hamas in their struggle against Israel.

It would generate violence on the Mount and elsewhere in the region and would trigger furious protests from moderate Sunni states that have been drawing closer to Israel.

In short, on the grounds that the principle of "freedom of worship" entitles Jews to pray there — a point to which I shall return — Rabbi Soloveichik is prepared to call for steps that may lead not only to confrontation between Arabs and Israelis but to holy war between Jews and more than a billion Muslims.

Oh no! Jews, by insisting on their right to worship in their holiest spot, are provoking a holy war - a catastrophic conflagration where a billion Muslims will march and start killing Jews and Westerners because of the idiocy of the stupid religious Jews who want to exercise their rights of freedom of worship!

What Yoffie seems not to understand is that Jews have been quietly and communally praying on the Temple Mount for over five years now.

In full view of the Muslims there.

With the Jordanian Waqf watching them up close.

And nothing has happened.

No holy wars. No fighting. A little screaming, which died down years ago. There are lots of newspaper articles in daily Arab media about the "Talmudic rituals" done by "extremist settlers" in the "Al Aqsa Mosque" - so everyone who cares in the Muslim world already knows about this.

And there has been no war.

What will Muslims who read Haaretz think when they see a "rabbi" call for Jews not to exercise their rights to worship on the Temple Mount? It will empower them to encourage violence! After all, if Jewish leaders are against Jewish worship in areas that Muslims have stolen from Jews, Muslims can hardly be expected to do less.

So, paradoxically, a person who calls himself a leader of Jews is tacitly encouraging Muslims to rise up and kill Jews. Yoffie's pretense to "warn" about a holy war is giving Muslims an excuse for violence.

This isn't Jewish leadership. It is irresponsible, stupid leadership that justifies violence against Jews. Islamic Jihad and Iran couldn't ask for a better article to be written in Haaretz.

09/12 Links: The Real Lesson of 9/11 Isn’t a Story About Islamophobia; Escaped prisoners received no help while on the run; Iran Giving Militias Drone Training Near Isfahan

From Ian:

Jonathan S. Tobin: The Real Lesson of 9/11 Isn’t a Story About Islamophobia

Though Greenblatt claims FBI statistics back up his claims about an anti-Muslim backlash, a look at the last 20 years of such data proves the opposite. The number of attacks on Muslims has remained small even when temporary hikes occurred. Throughout this period, the numbers show that the overwhelming majority of religion-based attacks have been aimed at Jews, not at Muslims.

While Greenblatt is riding the left’s favorite racism hobby horse, elsewhere the anniversary is being used for different purposes.

In Afghanistan and other places where Islamists rule, Sept. 11 won’t be a day of mourning or an occasion for talking about Islamophobia. It’s not a coincidence that the Taliban — the Islamist group that hosted the Al-Qaeda terrorist atrocities — have chosen to inaugurate their new government on the date. They believe they have proved that with enough patience, sooner or later those who attack the United States can wait out a democracy that lacks the will to oppose them in a long, drawn-out struggle.

As Hudson Institute strategic analyst and former combat veteran Michael Pregent told me in an interview that will air on a JNS “Top Story” podcast, Afghanistan will now be open for business again as a base for Islamic radicals. While four administrations from both political parties contributed to this catastrophe, the feckless decision of the Biden administration to pull the plug on its Afghan allies and then effectively concede the country to this enemy will help to recruit others for various Islamist radical terror groups. It will also encourage Iran, a rogue regime that President Joe Biden is also still bent on appeasing, to stick with its goal of acquiring nuclear weapons.

That will make American allies like Israel less secure and increase the chances of regional war. It will also — contrary to the belief of many Americans on both the right as well as the left, who think the conflicts in the Middle East can be ignored as long as Americans are no longer stationed there — make it entirely possible that future terror attacks will be closer to home, rather than in Kabul.

These cruel facts should be uppermost in our minds on this somber anniversary. Instead, Greenblatt and others on the left are trying to change the subject to Islamophobia. In retrospect, the Ground Zero mosque controversy was all about the way radical groups like CAIR were, with the help of liberal media, trying to change the narrative about 9/11 in order to distract Americans from a potent threat while miring them in a self-destructive and dishonest conversation about prejudice. Still, who would have believed 10 years ago that the ADL, the group tasked with defending Jews against the ideas and the people behind 9/11, would be lending its considerable influence to this disgraceful effort?

So moving, so powerful! U.S. Marines in Jerusalem, as "The Star-Spangled Banner" is played at the @JNFUSA #September11 commemoration. ???? ????@usembassyjlm @USAmbIsrael @IsraelinUSA @giladerdan1 @IsraelMFA @StateDept @JNFRobinson pic.twitter.com/SxCEYTKLg6
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 12, 2021

In 9/11 Anniversary Message, Al-Qaeda Chief Warns ‘Jerusalem Will Not Be Judaized’

In a video marking 20 years since the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks, Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri attacked Arab countries for “collaborating” with the United States, calling them “Zionist Arabs.” Al-Zawahiri also vowed that “Jerusalem will not be Judaized.”

The video was posted to the website of a US NGO, SITE Intelligence Group.

Al-Zawahiri named Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as the chief “collaborators.”

The UAE, along with Bahrain, Morocco, and Sudan, made history in 2020 when they signed the Abraham Accords, normalizing ties with Israel under the auspices of the United States.

Al-Zawahiri took command of Al-Qaeda following the assassination of its longtime leader Osama bin Laden in 2011. Rumors of al-Zawahiri’s death have circulated for years, and the assessment in the West is that this video is not proof he is still alive, as he makes no mention in it of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Osama bin Laden's son ashamed of father's crimes, wants to visit Israel

The son of Osama bin Laden, the slain leader of the al-Qaida terrorist group said he hopes to visit Israel in an interview with the Israeli media.

Omar bin Laden, 40, the youngest of Osama's sons, was expected to be his father's heir and take on the leadership of al-Qaida but turned down the offer. He said he felt "shame and horror" toward his father for the crimes he committed during his life.

He said after the devastation of the Sept. 11 attacks orchestrated by his father on the World Trade Center towers in New York City, the Pentagon outside Washington, and in an open field in Shanksville, Pennsylvania that "it was hard for me to believe that he had the ability to organize such a thing. That day changed our lives forever, and it was very hard to continue to live afterwards. During these years of loss and pain, I was forced to come to terms with the truth about my father."

An artist, Omar bin Laden lives in Normandy, France. He longs to visit the United States and Israel, noting that his wife, whose maternal side of the family is Jewish and originally from Israel, received an offer to give lectures on peace at Israeli universities.

"I know that it's a beautiful country, and many people in it want peace with the Palestinians," he said. "I know that since 1948, the Palestinians have been living alongside the Jewish nation. We believe that the world needs to live as one and that neighbors from every religion can live alongside each other in peace."

'Osama Bin Laden was the face of evil', says the Navy Seal that killed him

Arab moves to improve human rights must be praised, not ridiculed

In late August, the UAE announced that it will establish an independent human rights commission, independent of the government, adhering to the Paris Principles for the National Human Rights Institutions.

There is reason to be skeptical when one sees such announcements. The UAE does not exactly have a stellar human rights record. It has essentially no freedom of the press and it imprisons political dissidents.

It is possible that this is a whitewash. Yet the very announcement shows a sensitivity to a public perception of human rights in the Emirates and that can be leveraged.

Human Rights Watch ridiculed the UAE move. "This is just another tactic, part of the UAE's decadelong whitewashing campaign to make themselves look like a tolerant, respectful and open country," said Hiba Zayadin, a researcher with HRW. Ken Roth dismissed the news out of hand.

But other human rights groups properly say that it is too early to tell, and that the new organization can be judged against its own standards soon enough.

Alexis Thiry, a legal adviser at Geneva-based legal advocacy organization MENA Rights Group, told DW it was too early to know if the new UAE organization would be sticking to the Paris Principles, as promised. This was because the rights group had not yet been able to read a publicly available version of the law, UAE Federal Law number 12 of 2021, that enabled the creation of the institution, said Thiry.

"It is difficult to have an opinion about the forthcoming independence of the [institution] and its compliance with the Paris Principles," he explained. "At this stage, it is also too early to comment on the performance of the institution since its members have yet to be appointed, to our knowledge."

This is the proper response - healthy skepticism but hoping for the best, and an eagerness to hold the UAE to its own standards. Compared to the HRW response, the MENA Rights Group sounds like a responsible party that actually cares about human rights and not sound bites.

Egyptian president Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi yesterday attended a human rights forum in Cairo, He said some very positive things about freedom of religion in Egypt: "What annoys you as a Muslim when you see a church or a synagogue? Whoever wants to convert can convert, and the one who wants to believe believes, and the one who doesn't want to believe does not believe... and this is freedom from a religious perspective...I respect non-belief, even if one says I do not believe in any religion...Whoever believes that he possesses cultural distinction and tries to impose it on other societies is taking a dictatorial path."

Again, Egypt's human rights record is abysmal. But shouldn't such statements be celebrated? One cannot turn around a society in a day, and hearing such statements from the president of a country is important.

It seems that groups like HRW choose to target countries that have established relations with Israel. But those relations can only have a positive effect on human rights in the other countries, as more Arabs are exposed to the Israeli society where Muslims enjoy full rights, to an extent beyond many European countries. Their relations with Israel are often accompanied with positive moves towards the few Jews who live in those countries.

People who care about human rights should celebrate peace between Arab countries and Israel, something that we have not seen from HRW and Amnesty. Real human rights groups should use the positive messages being given by the Arab countries leavened with a healthy dose of skepticism. At the very least, official announcements in favor of human rights can be leveraged later to hold those officials accountable, since no one wants to be exposed as liars.

There is nothing negative about Arab nations publicly embracing human rights. Even if they are hypocrites, it gives ammunition to human rights defenders. HRW's slamming those moves indicates that they are more interested in appearing to care about human rights than actually doing anything to promote them.

The Gilboa prison episode: A perfect example of honor/shame

When the six prisoners, most of them Islamic Jihad terrorists, escaped from Gilboa Prison, the Palestinian street went wild. Palestinians were proud. This tweet from "human rights attorney" Noura Erakat captures the glee, praising the "six Palestinian political prisoners who self-liberated themselves using spoons against nuclear weapons and grotesque racial domination."

Why?

It was very clear that they would be caught - or killed during a capture attempt - eventually. Four of them have been caught as of this writing. Islamic Jihad is blaming the "apartheid wall" for their capture saying that this was why they couldn't escape to the West Bank (and indirectly justifying the security barrier.)

So why the celebrations?

The celebrations and praise had nothing to do with "freedom" for the terrorists. Everyone knew that their freedom will end one way or another.

They were celebrations of Jewish humiliation.

To be sure, the problems at the prison that led up to the escape were inexcusable. But the Israeli prison system will lick its wounds, examine its mistakes, and fix the problems. That's what Israelis do - keep improving and learning from mistakes.

Palestinian Arabs don't think that way. To them, everything is about honor - the Jews must be not defeated but humiliated. Victories are based on perception, not facts.

The honor/shame society, with its emphasis on how things look and not ho they are, cannot win against a society that is fact-based. One needs to be able to admit mistakes to improve, and the Palestinians who blame all of their problems on the Jews cannot grow beyond their own myths.

This is why the Arab states have been turning away from the Palestinian cause - because the Palestinian refusal to accept a state and to stop their internal fighting is shameful to the entire Arab world, and at some point the shame has caused them to stop wanting to be associated with people who have shamed the entire Arab world.

Palestinian groups are trying to escalate this prison escape into something much bigger, into a new intifada. They will use any excuse to try to do that, and there are multiple attempts to do that every year, as we saw when Israel placed cameras near the Temple Mount. The groups try to direct Palestinian emotion of any kind into a new war. Usually such attempts fail, but this is hard to predict. Palestinian prisoners are heroes and new measures to frustrate future escape attempts will upset the masses. The Palestinian Authority is trying to ride this wave of emotion just as Hamas and Islamic Jihad are.

Both the "honor" of the escape and the "shame" of the captures elicit emotions, and the Palestinian groups want to gain power based on these emotions. The Gaza groups try to shame the PA and the PA tries to shame Hamas. Facts are secondary.

You simply cannot understand the Middle East without understanding how pivotal the honor/shame culture is - and how self-defeating it is. Arab nations are starting to catch on, but there is a long way to go.

Here's a nice example of an antisemitic article in the Jordanian Assawsana news site. This is not an anomalous opinion, but mainstream, even though articles like this are somewhat more rare than in the past.

If I were a Jew, I would go back to reading the real history of the Jews.

The Jews are the descendants of the Canaanites who inhabited the country of the East, the area between the Nile River, the Tigris and the Euphrates, and for this reason their flag consists of two blue lines representing the Nile and Euphrates rivers.

...They returned to the land of their fathers and grandfathers in the land of Canaan when our Prophet Moses, peace be upon him, rescued them from enslavement, killing and slaughter of Pharaoh for them. After that, God scattered them all on the earth for breaking the covenants with our master and Prophet Muhammad bin Abdullah, peace and blessings be upon him.

And I will ask and verify why the countries of the whole world agreed to get rid of us and establish a national home for us in Palestine? Is it because people hated us in all the countries in which we lived for our pure and unfair material dealings that are not our religion, and we exploited them and tried to enslave them. . . etc?.

I also wonder why the Jews did not fuse with the different societies in which they lived and continue to live for many years? Why couldn't they merge with the Palestinian people in Palestine as well? . . .

I will arrive at a fact that no one can deny, which is that the problem is not with all the peoples of the world, nor with the Palestinian people, but with the Jewish people themselves. And when I came forward, and because I play the role of a member of the Jewish people, I have to realize the truth of the matter, which is that all peoples hate us, even if they seem to us outwardly love us. And that is because the thirteen Jewish families, the most important of whom are Rothschilds, Rockefellers and Morgans, control the economy, money, policies and global decisions in the Security Council and the General Assembly.

How long will we Jews continue to live in anxiety, fear and terror from all around us? And why? Can we control the peoples of the world forever? Is it not time for us to change our behavior with other peoples? And live a life of tranquility, serenity, security and peace?

See how much the author cares? He only wants what's best for us Jews!

09/11 Links: Mossad spy chief on 9/11: We realized rules for fighting terror had to change; Yom Kippur in British Mandate Palestine and the Irgun; Security forces search for last 2 fugitives

From Ian:

Mossad spy chief on 9/11: We realized rules for fighting terror had to change

When American Airlines Flight 11 struck the World Trade Center’s North Tower on September 11, 2001, then-Mossad chief Efraim Halevy was in the middle of a meeting with then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.

“Suddenly someone came in the room, passed him a piece of paper. And he said to me, ‘Something has happened. I think you shouldn’t be here, you should be in your office.’ I said, ‘What happened?’ He told me briefly, and I was off on my way,” Halevy recalled, speaking to The Times of Israel ahead of the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

“The 9/11 events caught everyone by surprise,” he said.

Halevy, 86, had been the head of the Mossad spy agency for three and a half years when two planes hit the World Trade Center, a third hit the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, after the passengers regained control of the aircraft from the hijackers and prevented it from hitting its target, which investigators believe was either the White House or the United States Capitol.

The British-born spymaster was wary of revisiting many of the technical questions of the Mossad’s activities following the attacks — what they knew and when and what was shared with the US — but he said there was a general effort to bring whatever relevant information it collected with the Americans.

“I’m now well past 80 and to start going into my memory, which has all kinds of ‘boxes,’ some which are very full and some of which are emptying up — I would rather not go into that minefield,” he said.

“We had an understanding that on this issue we had to cooperate in bringing information [to the US] if it came our way and to initiate activities to gather information subsequent to the attack.”

Halevy recalled a grim mood in the Mossad following the attack and not only out of an understanding that a major event had taken place with the potential to significantly reshape the world.

'If we cannot name our enemy, how can we ever expect to defeat it?'

Steven Emerson is considered one of the most esteemed experts on Islamic Jihad. As early as 1992, he sounded the alarm that a major attack on US soil was just a matter of time, but no one seemed to care. Speaking with Israel Hayom, he has vivid memories of 9/11, as if it happened yesterday.

Unlike most Americans who were shocked by the horrific events, he was not surprised. In fact, about a month before the attack he predicted that something big was imminent, but again, to no avail.

Q: What lit up your interest in going after the subject of the jihad in America and how it happened, a decade or so before 9/11.

"In December 1992, I had been working as an investigative correspondent for CNN (my second year for CNN; my 12th year as a journalist). In late December I got a tip that in Oklahoma City, the Iran-Contra Special Prosecutor was going to unveil his final report on the Iran-Contra affair but I didn't know what day. So I flew to Oklahoma City on December 24, the day before Christmas and checked into a downtown hotel, waiting any day for the report to be released. Well on December 25, Christmas Day, everything was closed, even the restaurant in the hotel. So I took my rented car and drove around downtown looking for a fast-food restaurant and I suddenly passed a most unusual sight as I drove near the Oklahoma City Convention Center: Streaming in and out of the Center were thousands of men and women dressed in traditional Middle East clothing – women wearing hijabs and men wearing the galabias (long robes). My first instinctive reaction was that there must have been a film being made and that these folks were extras. So I parked my car nearby and went inside the convention center. I immediately realized that this was actually a convention of some kind – I really didn't know what kind until I went down to the convention floor where there were scores of tables, each one cluttered with books, audio and video cassettes, and pamphlets or Middle East clothing for sale. I felt a bit conspicuous but I was warmly welcomed from the table as I began collecting the books, cassettes, and pamphlets. Some were in Arabic, but many were in English. And the ones that were in English had very radical anti-American, anti-Israeli, and antisemitic rhetoric with names of organizations based in Tampa, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; Bridgeview, Illinois; Brooklyn, NY; Tucson, Arizona – from all over the country.

"I soon discovered that the organization hosting this conference was called the Muslim Arab Youth Convention or MAYA for short. (Only later would I found out that it was founded and headed by Abdullah bin Laden, Osama bin Laden's half brother). In fact, I was warmly welcomed by one of the attendees – Abdullah, who identified himself as a 'revert' to Islam (since everyone in the world is born a Muslim including Jews and Christians, one doesn't convert to Islam; rather one reverts to Islam). Abdullah told me he had been born a Jew but had reverted to Islam. He took me under his wing and actually allowed me to accompany him as his guest to 'Palestine Night' that very evening where we sat in the section of converts or reverts. The speakers including Hamas leader Khalid Mashaal, Muslim Brotherhood leader Kamal Helbawi and leaders of other radical Islamist groups including Al Gama al Islamiya. Although the fiery speeches were in Arabic with thunderous applause from the audience of about 3000, there was a simultaneous translation for all 25 of us in the revert section. At one point, everyone got up and starting chanting something about 'Yahudi.' So naturally, we all tried to join in as well. I asked Abdullah what were we chanting? He blithely responded, ' Oh, just 'Kill the Jews.'

Al-Qaida was smashed, but not crushed

In 2001, the organization al-Qaida struck a blow that shocked the world. In a series of coordinated terrorist attacks, unprecedented in nearly every aspect, the group managed to hit the US, the strongest superpower in the world, in its most vulnerable spot.

Residents of the world were amazed to see how a small organization numbering only a few hundred or thousand members, located in far-off Afghanistan without any particularly impressive infrastructure, managed to organize such a destructive attack. In the years that have passed, al-Qaida has carried out other terrorist attacks in Madrid (2004) and London (2005).

But the American invasion of Afghanistan dealt the organization a harsh blow. Many of its people were killed or captured by the Americans. Cooperation between intelligence agencies worldwide made it difficult for terrorists from the group to operate freely, as they had done previously, and the scope of the attacks it perpetrated against the west gradually decreased.

But the most serious blow to al-Qaida came in 2011, when a team of US special forces killed its leader and founder Osama Bin Laden. His successor Ayman al-Zawahiri, served as a kind of spiritual authority, almost disconnected from what was happening in the field.

Al-Qaeda leader, rumored dead, appears in video for 9/11 anniversary

Al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri was seen in a new video on Saturday, following rumors that he had died. The footage wsas released on the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

SITE Intelligence Group, which tracks the online activity of jihadist groups, reported that in a video released by al-Qaeda, al-Zawahiri spoke on a number of subjects including the “Judaization of Jerusalem.”

Although the video was released on Saturday, al-Zawahri made no mention of the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan, Rita Katz, SITE’s director noted.

Al-Zawahiri made references to a raid on a Russian military base by the al-Qaeda-linked Hurras al-Deen group in Syria, which it claimed on January 1, 2021, Katz added.

Al-Zawahiri also talked about the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan, but Katz pointed out that it could have been said long ago following the signing of the Doha Agreement, in which the US pledged to remove its troops from the country.

“Thus, he could still be dead, though if so, would have been at some point in or after Jan 2021,” Katz tweeted.

Reminder, this is how some #Palestinians celebrated #September11! Just vile. pic.twitter.com/qNbKwBLWgz
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) September 11, 2021

09/10 Links Pt2: Caroline Glick: Assessing the twin disasters of September 2001; Danny Lewin H'yd: The very first victim of 9/11; 9/11 event to feature speakers affiliated with terrorists

From Ian:

Matthew Continetti: Year 20

We owe this 9/11 Generation a great deal. I was not the only resident of New York City in the weeks after September 11 to have nightmares of more planes flying into skyscrapers. Nor am I alone when I recall the pervasive fear that accompanied the anthrax attacks the next month or the D.C. sniper rampage the following year. The threat loomed large of another massacre; of suicide bombings on the scale experienced by Israel during the contemporaneous Second Intifada; of terrorists armed with weapons of mass destruction. None of that happened.

Why? Because Americans acted. Those Americans, male and female, belonged to every race, every ethnicity, every religion, every creed, every sexual orientation. And they belonged to both political parties. The brightest stars among Republicans and Democrats—from Tom Cotton to Tammy Duckworth, from Dan Crenshaw to Jason Crow—belong to the 9/11 Generation. They may not agree on either the ends or the means of domestic and foreign policy. But they are joined by common citizenship and a mutual interest in the safety and prosperity of America. They ran toward the danger. And they deserve our profound gratitude.

The high cost of war bought safety for the homeland and a reduction in radical Islamic terrorism. Bin Laden wanted his holy warriors to collapse the American economy and drive us from the Arabian Peninsula. They failed. Not only did Osama bin Laden lose his mission and his life. His successors Musab al-Zarqawi and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi did too. These victories for freedom did not happen in a vacuum. It wasn't special-pleading or guilt-tripping or an especially scathing diplomatic communique that ended Baghdadi's reign of terror. It was Delta Force.

Which is why the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has been so dispiriting. It may resuscitate global jihad at the very moment when that ignoble cause was on the verge of defeat. It may revive the fighting spirit and grand ambition of localized and constrained terrorist groups just as America turns inward and aloof.

That danger makes the twentieth anniversary of 9/11 an occasion not for intellectual browbeating but for patriotic resolve. It is the bedrock courage, resourcefulness, and resilience of the 9/11 Generation that will see America through her latest dark night of the soul. The enemy cannot win so long as we never tire, never waver, and never forget.

Caroline Glick: Assessing the twin disasters of September 2001

We have a tendency to forget that two historical events occurred in early September 2001. No one needs to be reminded of the jihadist attacks on Sept. 11 that killed nearly 3,000 people in a single morning. The other event, that tends to be overlooked, was the UN Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia, and Related Intolerance in Durban, South Africa, which concluded four days before the attacks.

With 20 years of hindsight, and in light of America's catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan last month, it suddenly seems clear that the Durban Conference changed the course of history equally if not more than the Islamic terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. It was legacy of Durban, more than Sept. 11 that brought the free world to its present perilous juncture. Today a humiliated free world faces triumphant forces of jihad, far more powerful than they were on Sept. 10, 2001. It faces a rapidly rising China. Above all else, it faces internal upheavals and cleavages within its own ranks.

US President Joe Biden justifies his decision to withdraw US and NATO forces from Afghanistan in the shameful way he did by claiming that the time had come to end "the forever war." But it works out that Biden and his advisors don't have a problem with all "forever wars." They just weren't willing to fight jihadist Islam. They didn't want to fight this specific war – against the enemy that attacked America 20 years ago this week. And in their frenzied quest to devote all of their energies and efforts to fighting their chosen forever war, Biden and his team were willing to ignore – or perhaps worse, to accept – two very simple facts of war.

First, the only way to end a war that you haven't won is to lose it. And second, if you end a war without winning it, you hand victory to your enemy.

Several analysts have likened the US defeat in Afghanistan to the fall of the Byzantine capital Constantinople to the Ottoman armies in 1453. The Taliban flag flying over what was the US Embassy in Kabul until the end of last month, and reports that China is considering taking over Bagram Air Base, signal that America's enemies believe they are ascendant, that the free world has been defeated.

The "forever war" Biden, his advisors and supporters are gunning to aggressively pursue until the complete destruction of their enemy is a war within the United States. The "enemy" are their political rivals, who they castigate as "racists." They call their forever war, "the war against racism."

The odd thing about their efforts is that the American war against racism was won decisively more than 50 years ago thanks to the Civil Rights Movement and thanks to the fact that the majority of Americans recognized at the time and since that racism is antithetical to ideals of freedom and equal opportunity on which the United States was founded.

The seeds of this strange war were planted 20 years ago at Durban. We remember the Durban conference mainly for its antisemitic agenda. The plan to present anti-Zionism as a "kosher" form of antisemitism, and use it to abrogate the Jewish state's right to exist was codified at Durban. But legitimizing antisemitism wasn't only a means to hurt the Jews. For many actors on the international left, legitimizing the goal of cancelling Israel's moral and legal right to exist was and remains still today a means to advance their primary goal: destroying America's moral confidence in its role as the leader of the free world and denying the US's moral right to fight to defend its national interests.

Melanie Phillips: Twenty years on, the cultural fault-line remains

Most devastatingly of all, the Holocaust passed a shattering judgment against modernity. So in the repudiation of its foundational beliefs, the west arrived at precisely the same point as the Islamic jihadists.

Of course, westerners never saw any similarity between themselves and Islamists locked into the seventh century and whom it dismissed as incomprehensible, crazy and worthless.

But in a mirror image, the west was busily severing the connection with its own historic values. This was compounded by an arrogant assumption that western attitudes were universal.

The west therefore tried to impose its utopian, post-modern belief in negotiation and compromise upon a Middle East and Islamic world that saw conflict solely in terms of victory and defeat, strength and weakness.

And so the west has continued to repeat its fiascos by indulging in the same fantasies that it will end the “forever wars” — whether through the Israel-Palestine “peace process,” the Iran nuclear deal or abandoning Afghanistan, where both British and American governments are now spinning themselves the fantasy that Taliban “realists” will keep the Taliban jihadists in check.

For Islamists, war is indeed forever. For such fanatics, defeat is only ever temporary.

For the west, however, there are no “forever wars.” Its wars are either won or lost; there are victors and vanquished.

And military strength matters less than belief. The 9/11 attackers didn’t use sophisticated military hardware. They hijacked civilian aircraft and turned them into flying human bombs of enormous destructive potential.

What fuels the jihad is the power of an idea. That idea is the cult of death.

To overcome a cult of death, the west needs a belief in life. Its own life. That is the way to draw the necessary courage and resolve from this most sombre anniversary; but alas, it seems the most difficult of lessons to learn.

Palestinian media says Israeli police shot a doctor for no reason. Video shows the reason.

Wafa, the official Palestinian news agency, wrote:

Palestinian doctor shot dead by Israeli police in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM, Friday, September 10, 2021 (WAFA) – A Palestinian medical doctor was announced dead on Friday evening shortly after he was shot and critically injured by Israeli occupation forces in the old city of Jerusalem, according to witnesses.

Israeli police officers reportedly opened gunfire at Dr. Hazem Joulani near Bab al-Majlis, one of the main gates of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, critically injuring him. The Israeli police also denied access of Palestinian civilians who attempted to provide him with first aid.

The Palestinian Detainees Affairs Commission said Joulani, who was rushed to Hadasah Medical Center for treatment, was announced dead of his wounds a couple of minutes later.

No mention of why they might have shot him. (Or why any police officer would ever allow "civilians" to enter a crime scene to administer "first aid.")

Luckily, we have video of this doctor trying to stab an Israeli police officer. From three different angles.

Why would a doctor want to do this?

Perhaps he went crazy. Perhaps he was under investigation for something. Perhaps he was depressed and decided that being a "martyr" sounded pretty good.

All we know is that he decided to attack Jews. And Palestinians cheer that.

(h/t kweansmom)

Akhbarten.com, an Arab news site popular in Egypt and Syria, has an article explaining a Quranic verse:

The example of those who were burdened with the Torah, but then did not carry it, is like an ass carrying books —evil is the example of the people which deny the signs of God, and God does not guide the wrongdoing people. [Qurʾān 62:5]

The article explains that just as a donkey carries books yet does not understand what they contain, so the Jews are burdened with a Torah they do not understand. Only Muslims do.

So far, this is just another example of how one can find examples of antisemitism in every day Arabic language media.

But the person explaining the verse does not understand it as well a the author of the Quran did.

The Quran's stories often come not only from the Torah itself but from rabbinic sources as well. Its author was quite familiar with Rabbinic stories from the Midrash and Talmud.

This particular verse seems to refer to a famous midrash, the first part of which is familiar to every Jewish schoolchild. When God wanted to give the Torah, he first went to the other nations and offered it to them. They would ask, "What is in it?" and God would answer "Thou shat not kill" or steal or commit adultery, and the nations would decline, saying that one of these sins are part of their national culture. When God came to Israel, however, they didn't ask what was in it, but accepted it wholeheartedly.

The second part of the midrash says, "It is similar to a man who sent his donkey and his dog to the granary, where fifteen seʾah [of grain] were loaded atop the donkey and three seʾah on the dog. The donkey walked and the dog lolled his tongue [in exhaustion.] He cast aside one seʾah and placed it atop the donkey and then did the same with the second and then the third. This is how Israel accepted the Torah, together with its commentaries and its minutiae. Even those seven commandments that the Noahides could not abide and cast aside, Israel came and accepted. "

So the rabbis themselves compared the Jews to a donkey, as a compliment! The Quran took this story and turned it into an insult to Jews - an insult not only for a Muslim audience but for a literate Jewish audience as well!

This paper notes also that a later Quranic verse seems to compare Jews more directly to the tongue-lolling dog of this midrash. (It shows that the verse that the midrash is commenting on is one of the "proofs" Muslims give that Mohammed is alluded to in the Torah.)

09/10 Links Pt1: Matti Friedman: The Next Lebanon War; Joe Biden’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moments; A Missed Opportunity in America's Refunding of UNRWA

From Ian:

Matti Friedman: The Next Lebanon War

Spending time on the border with Yitzhak Huri, a lieutenant colonel who’s the second-in-command of the army brigade in this sector, I asked if he thought Lebanon’s disintegration and the desperation of its citizens made war more or less likely. Does the crisis lead the Lebanese to pull back to avoid further mayhem, or go for broke? “When a person has nothing to lose, you can’t know what he’s capable of,” Huri said. “The same goes for countries.”

I put the same question to the Lebanon watcher David Daoud, who was born to a Jewish family in Beirut and lives in Washington, D.C., where he works with the Atlantic Council and the advocacy group United Against a Nuclear Iran. Hezbollah has never wanted Lebanon to be a prosperous state “like Israel or Singapore,” Daoud said, because that would limit its autonomy. But at the same time, he said, the organization’s interests aren’t served by another civil war or the kind of state collapse that would be hastened by a war with Israel at this moment. The group is more likely, Daoud thinks, to try to use the current crisis to make itself even more central to the lives of its followers by doing what it has always done: providing services that should be provided by the state but aren’t. Hezbollah is already distributing bread and fuel, and if it plays its cards right, it will emerge stronger. “The crisis hasn’t weakened Hezbollah, but it has constrained them to such an extent that they must act responsibly on the border,” Daoud said.

That’s why, for example, Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah quickly announced that his group’s recent 19-rocket barrage was purposely aimed at open fields, not at Israeli civilians or even soldiers. He’s trying to project strength to his followers, insisting he’s unafraid of war, while calibrating his actions to avoid an explosion he won’t be able to handle. But it’s a hazardous game. Both sides may not want a war, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be one. Things could easily slip out of control no matter how closely each side watches the other.

What do Israelis see when we look into Lebanon? A place with beautiful forests and beaches, where different groups of people share a strip of Levantine coast, one that could have been as successful as Israel or more so—the “Switzerland of the East,” as people said in the ’50s and ’60s. Some of us see a country that has been an arena for misguided Israeli policies or the backdrop for a potent chapter of our own young lives as soldiers. Many see a continuous threat.

But there’s another story we might see across the fence this summer, as we struggle to emerge from an unprecedented period of political dysfunction of our own, with four elections in two years and no national budget, with political leaders who’ve tried to convince us to see each other as enemies, and with internal divisions that feel less bridgeable than ever before. Lebanon is a country that allowed itself to be hollowed out. Its different sects failed to create a national story about citizenship that superseded other loyalties, and the state was paralyzed until the fragile edifice corroded, until the forces of progress faded or emigrated and were replaced by religious and tribal powers not just indifferent to modernity but openly contemptuous of it. It’s a story of state collapse, which is one of the themes of this region in our times. The forces of disintegration are weaker in Israel than they are in Lebanon, but they’re present and will win if we let them. The neighbor across the fence isn’t just a problem or a threat. Lebanon is a possible future.

Noah Rothman: Joe Biden’s ‘Mission Accomplished’ Moments

And if the United States has been made more secure by the debacle in Afghanistan, the visuals to which American audiences are being treated don’t suggest that at all. The Taliban has indicated that it will formally inaugurate its new government in Afghanistan on the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks against the U.S. The date is surely designed to humiliate the United States as much as to reinvigorate the terrorist elements that spent the last two decades evading American vengeance. In fact, many of those same terrorists will serve in the new Afghan government.

Sirajuddin Haqqani, Afghanistan’s new interior minister charged with maintaining domestic security, heads the Haqqani Network, a U.S.-designated terrorist group with close operational ties to al-Qaeda. Haqqani is wanted for his involvement in several terrorist attacks, some of which targeted and killed Americans. Mullah Yaqoob, the son of the infamous Taliban commander Mullah Omar, is in charge of the country’s defense. He oversaw the field commanders who led the insurgency against the Afghan government and is complicit in the Taliban’s atrocities against the Afghan people. Hibatullah Akhundzada, a hardline cleric who encouraged his own son to execute a suicide-bombing attack, serves as the Taliban’s supreme commander. And the country’s prime minister, Mullah Mohammad Hasan Akhund begins his tenure as head of state on a United Nations sanctions list.

The president insists that this iteration of the Taliban will be unable to govern Afghanistan, but they have so far ruled with an iron fist. Moreover, the administration betrays this as more hope than expectation when its members dangle the idea that the United States could one day recognize the legitimacy of a Taliban-led government. The notion that America would even contemplate acknowledging the validity of the Taliban’s ascension to power through force of arms isn’t just a moral atrocity but also an act of abject cowardice that leaves Americans at home and abroad exposed.

The reconstitution of the Taliban does not inspire confidence that the United States is in any way safer because of the Biden administration’s actions. And, if recent history is any guide, this administration will suffer political consequences as a result.

Noah Rothman: Yes, Biden blew it

Clearly, America’s vaunted capacity to disrupt and deter terrorist operations in the Afghanistan-Pakistan region from bases in the Persian Gulf and without reliable intelligence in the area is a matter of some dispute.

The apparent imprecision of the intelligence that informed the planning around these strikes has not dissuaded the Pentagon from entertaining the possibility of further cooperation with the Taliban on counterterrorism issues. “As far as our dealings with them, in war, you do what you must in order to reduce risk to mission and force, not what you necessarily want to do,” Milley said in a statement that called into question just how “over” the war in Afghanistan truly is.

Whether this nascent relationship blossoms into something fruitful or not, the threats to American interests from within Afghanistan will persist. The Taliban’s reconquest of Afghanistan “is encouraging many jihadists to think about traveling to Afghanistan now instead of Syria or Iraq,” one British official told the Washington Post . “We are now back to 1998, where the Clinton administration was launching missiles at desert camps and hoping to hit something,” one Trump-era counterterrorism official said. “That wasn’t enough to prevent 9/11, and returning to that is not a recipe for success.”

Ultimately, the evacuation effort Biden took so much pride in and credit for failed in its single mission: getting American citizens, legal permanent residents, visa holders, and eligible applicants out. The Biden administration admitted to leaving only between 100 and 250 American citizens behind, though it has previously claimed that there is no way to know precisely how many Americans were in Afghanistan when Kabul fell. The number of green card holders left to the Taliban’s mercies is also unknowable, but it is estimated to be in the thousands . Many more NATO and non-NATO allies are struggling to evacuate their stranded nationals.

Even the herculean multinational effort to get as many people out of Afghanistan as possible could become an albatross around Joe Biden’s neck. Of the over 120,000 people evacuated from Kabul’s airport, only 8,500 were Afghans. “Hundreds of children were separated from their parents. Rogue flights landed without manifests,” the New York Times reported. “Security vetting of refugees was done in hours or days, rather than months or years.” U.S. officials are investigating widespread reports that Afghan children were “married ” off to able men so that both would be eligible for evacuation. And despite all this, on Sept. 1, the State Department finally conceded that the United States left behind “the majority ” of Afghans who either had visas or were eligible for them, along with their families, but languished on a waiting list. One estimate places that number at around 100,000.

So, yes. This could have gone better. From the beginning of the U.S. drawdown and at almost every haphazard step along the way, the Biden White House stumbled into disaster after disaster. And in the end, all America managed to secure were circumstances that leave Americans less safe at home, less respected abroad, and stained with the dishonor of the broken promises we made to the Afghans who foolishly trusted in the United States. There’s nothing to be proud of in that.