Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- analysis, Daled Amos
Raisi said the general [Qassem Soleimani] never feared the US even as he was fully aware of its military power, “and believed from the depths of his soul that America can’t do a damn thing against us.”
Iran's president Ebrahim Raisi, quoted in Aljazeera
Soleimani's admitted underestimation of the ability, and willingness, of the US to terminate him might be matched by the overestimation of just how popular Soleimani himself was during his life -- and now that he is dead.
Iran, of course, insists that the general was a hero beloved by his country and has declared its commitment to seeing Trump and others in his former administration brought to justice. Back in 2020 and then each year on the anniversary of Soleimani's death on January 3, Iran turns to Interpol with a request to issue a "red notice" that would make it possible for local law enforcement in the US to arrest Trump on Iran's behalf. Red notices, however, cannot force an arrest nor an extradition -- and besides, according to their policy Interpol does not get involved in issues of a political or military nature.
Iran has not stopped there. It has also called on both the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to issue resolutions against the US.
But looking at the reaction to Soleimani's death demonstrates just how hated Soleimani -- and Iran -- are in the Arab world.
An article on the website of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace notes that though Soleimani was killed at 1 o'clock in the morning in Baghdad, by 4:30am there was already a group of Iraqis running through the streets there celebrating his death. He was considered responsible for the 500 deaths of protestors against Iranian involvement in Iraqi corruption and mismanagement.
The celebrations went beyond Iraq, extending to the Persian Gulf, and parts of Syria and Lebanon where
People danced in the streets, handed out sweets, and bought cakes to celebrate the death of the man who was, to all intents and purposes, the long arm of the Iranian revolutionary regime.
According to the Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad, Soleimani was not all that loved by the Iranian people either:
One indication that she is right is that one of the statues that was erected to honor Soleimani in Shahre-Kord in Iran was set on fire hours later:
Nor was that an isolated incident:
In September 2021, police arrested a man for torching another statue of Soleimani in the southwestern city of Yasuj, not very far from Shahrekord.
A few months before that, three young men in the city of Baneh were sentenced to a total of 16 years and seven months in prison for setting fire to a banner of Soleimani.
Meanwhile, in Gaza, both Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad attended various memorials for Soleimani and praised him for his support -- and put up some banners and posters of their own. Considering the ties between Hamas and Iran, this is to be expected.
Among the fierce critics of these ties is Majdi Al-Mughrabi, a Salafi sheikh from Rafah. Like last year, he defied Hamas by calling on the people of Gaza to tear down the posters of Soleimani.
Last year, some Gazans actually did tear down some poster of Soleimani, and Al-Mughrabi responded:
Praise Allah, some Muslim youths, clean of hands and pure of heart, tore down several pictures of the dead warmonger and criminal Soleimani, after biased mercenaries put them up in some of Gaza's squares…
Here is Al-Mughrabi responding to Muhammad Al-Buraim, a spokesperson for the
Popular Resistance Committees, who praised Soleimani:
What resistance are these mercenaries speaking about?! Resistance [carried out] by smuggling and by expelling, murdering and imprisoning the Syrian people? Or by destroying homes over the heads of unarmed women, children and elders? When he could no longer [continue these actions in Syria, Soleimani] brought the Russian infidels into [the country]. Or perhaps they are talking about similar actions carried out in Iraq, which has been butchered, in Yemen, which has been plundered and destroyed, or in Lebanon?!Nor did opposition in Gaza to Soleimani only spring up after his death. In 2017, in reaction to Hamas leader Yahya Al Sinwar praising Soleimani, Dr. Ibrahim Hamami, a Palestinian journalist residing in London responded:
Does Mr. Al-Sinwar, who claims that Soleimani loves Palestine, know how many Muslims and Arabs this criminal has murdered since 2012 in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and Lebanon? Palestine will never be liberated by people like the criminal Soleimani. We say: Palestine loathes, hates, and curses Soleimani, and may we earn the right to see Allah do justice unto him. [Oh Al-Sinwar], if only you would shut up!
According to Jordanian journalist Luqman Iskandar, whose articles have been cited in Hamas-affiliated websites:
According to our ideology, in whose defense Hamas martyrs are killed, a Muslim does not forge an alliance with the murderers of Muslims to overcome other murderers. Distinguishing between [primary and secondary] enemies is one thing, but forging an alliance with the enemy and courting him is another… [But] the worst thing Al-Sinwar is doing is [inflicting] damage on the nation's consciousness and intensifying internal division. From what lair has this person emerged to court the murderer of our children?
There were other Palestinian Arab leaders and journalists who came out against Soleimani back then -- and, of course, many who defended Hamas ties both to him and to Iran. The fact that Hamas has only increased its ties to Iran speaks for itself.
Basically, the Hamas leadership is not much different than Arafat, who during the first Gulf War was one of the very few Arab leaders to publicly support Saddam Hussein.
As for the Arab world in general, Khaled Abu Toameh wrote about a recent poll:
Syrian-born TV host Faisal Al-Kasim recently asked his 5.9 million followers on Twitter the following: "Which is better, Israel's reputation or Iran's reputation in the [Middle East] region?" The result of the poll showed that 74.8% viewed Israel as having a better reputation as opposed to 25.2% in favor of Iran. [emphasis added]
Al-Kasim didn't stop there:
The next day, Al-Kasim, who hosts a popular debate show on the Qatari-owned Al-Jazeera network called The Opposite Direction, conducted another survey on Twitter. This time, he asked his followers: "Do you support the Israeli bombing of Iran and its militias in Syria?"
According to the results of the poll, 77.8% said they supported the Israeli military strikes, while only 22.2% voiced opposition. [emphasis added]
For all their posters and statues, Iran cannot alter the fact that
Soleimani is despised in the Arab world.
Just like they are.
Watchdog Sues Biden Admin Over Funding for Palestinian Government
A watchdog group is suing the Biden administration for refusing to turn over internal documents that could show it violated a bipartisan law banning the federal government from sending money to the Palestinian government until it stops using these funds to pay terrorists.
Protect the Public's Trust (PPT), a watchdog group comprised of former government officials, is accusing the State Department of stonewalling its Freedom of Information Act request for all internal documents and communications related to the administration's decision last year to unfreeze U.S. aid to the Palestinian government. Taxpayer funds for the Palestinian Authority were stopped under former president Donald Trump due to that government's ongoing support for terrorism.
The lawsuit, a copy of which was exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon, says the State Department sat on PPT's FOIA request for more than 240 days, well past the statutory period in which federal agencies like the State Department must provide the requested information. The State Department says it will not be able to turn over the relevant information until at least Dec. 16.
The information in question could show the Biden administration resumed Palestinian aid in violation of a law known as the Taylor Force Act, a 2018 bipartisan piece of legislation that bars the federal government from providing taxpayer aid to the Palestinian government as long as it continues a policy known as "pay to slay," in which aid dollars are used to pay terrorists and their families. The Palestinian Authority continues to make these payments, generating concerns from lawmakers and watchdog groups like PPT that the Biden administration violated the law.
"The American public deserves transparency around this decision, which may not only be in violation of the law but could potentially result in increased danger for U.S. citizens and their allies," Michael Chamberlain, PPT's director, told the Free Beacon. "But the State Department has yet to even give an estimate for when we will receive records, much less provide any."
Texas Synagogue Hostage Crisis: A Case Study in Downplaying Antisemitism
So, you can’t really blame some Jews for being perturbed at the FBI, recently charged with keeping an eye on “domestic terrorists” who challenge school-board members, for initially contending that the Texas synagogue attack was “not specifically related to the Jewish community.” Or, our suddenly judicious president, who only last week was smearing anyone who refused to support his power grab as a white supremacist, for now saying, “I don’t think there is sufficient information to know about why he targeted that synagogue or why he insisted on the release of someone who’s been in prison for over 10 years, why he was engaged — why he was using antisemitic and anti-Israeli comments. I — we just don’t have enough facts.”Deborah Lipstadt: Being Jewish Today Means Training for Active Shooters
Being vigilant is fine. In fact, it would serve the nation better if law enforcement, media, and politicians always took their time assessing these events before placing blame. This cautious approach, however, seems reserved for certain politically inconvenient crimes. Everyone knows well what will happen the next time a white male commits anything resembling a politically motivated act. The media still seem to think every conservative is somehow culpable for January 6, while liberals will never be asked to answer for the terrorist who attempted to massacre the entire Republican leadership on June 14, 2017, or for the widespread rioting of 2020.
As Batya Ungar-Sargon pointed out today on HillTV, there is no need to get hysterical about every anti-Jewish incident, as Jews in the United States are still the luckiest Jews in history — safer, freer, and better off, than at any time. That, however, goes for everyone who lives here. As Ungar-Sargon also notes, it is unreasonable to diminish the presence of anti-Jewish behavior to protect “marginalized” groups. Antisemitism is quite popular in the Islamic world. Forget the Middle East, where Pew found near unanimity among national populations on the Jewish question; look at allegedly liberal Europe. As one recent EU study found, among the most serious incidents of antisemitism in the European Union, 31 percent include someone the victim did not know, but 30 percent were perpetrated by someone with extremist Muslim views; 21 percent with someone who held left-wing political views; 16 percent by a colleague from work or school; 15 percent by an acquaintance or friend; and 13 percent by someone with known right-wing views.
And, in the historic harmony of American life, there are more anti-Jewish crimes perpetrated than all the other religiously motivated crimes combined — often at the hands of other minority groups. The habit of downplaying this kind of antisemitism, or appropriating it for partisanship, is a dangerous game.
We are shaken. We are not OK. But we will bounce back. We are resilient because we cannot afford not to be. That resiliency is part of the Jewish DNA. Without it, we would have disappeared centuries ago. We refuse to go away. But we are exhausted.
Rabbi Cytron-Walker credited his survival to the active-shooter training and security courses that he and his congregants took in order to prepare for just such a moment. He knew to stay calm and knew the right moment to fling a chair at his captor and dash for the exit with the other captives. The Jewish community offers such training on a regular basis to an array of Jewish institutions, especially to our synagogues and our schools.
It is not radical to say that going to services, whether to converse with God or with the neighbors you see only once a week, should not be an act of courage. And yet this weekend we were once again reminded that it can be precisely that.
Among those morning blessings that are part of Blessings of the Dawn is one that thanks God for opening up the eyes of the blind. Jewish eyes did not need to be opened. But this week we wonder if the eyes of our non-Jewish friends and neighbors, particularly the ones who didn’t call to see if we were OK, have been opened just a bit.
There is an additional blessing during these early prayers that thanks God for allowing us to stand tall and straight. We are standing tall and we are standing straight.
But we are checking for the exits.
Just beautiful.
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 18, 2022
The (Orthodox) Rabbinical Council of America (@RCArabbinical) letter to (Reform) #Colleville Rabbi Charlie Cytron-Walker (@URJorg) ends with the traditional prayer of Jewish Peoplehood and Unity.
H/t my incredible (@UJAfedNY) brother @rabbicreditor! pic.twitter.com/Ms91dR8gFi
- Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
Harry, Albert, Sam, and Jack Warner - the Warner Brothers |
On Sept. 25, the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures held its opening gala with a starry guest list that included Lady Gaga, Brad Pitt, Nicole Kidman, Queen Latifah, Patty Jenkins, Tiffany Haddish, Kristen Stewart, and Jurnee Smollet. ..... Donors and influential Academy members, many of whom already had received private tours, were outraged that Hollywood’s origin story — wherein a group of mostly Jewish émigrés fled persecution in their home countries to create what would become a multibillion-dollar, American-led industry — was conspicuously absent.Anti-Defamation League CEO Jonathan Greenblatt, who was on hand for the gala, was immediately struck by the lapse. “I would’ve hoped that any honest historical assessment of the motion picture industry — its origins, its development, its growth — would include the role that Jews played in building the industry from the ground up,” he says. “As I walked through, I literally turned to the person I was there with and said to him, ‘Where are the Jews?’ The omission was glaring.”That sentiment is being echoed from Hollywood’s C-suites to the halls of academia. “It’s sort of like building a museum dedicated to Renaissance painting, and ignoring the Italians,” says Hollywood historian and Brandeis University professor Thomas Doherty. “That generation of early moguls — Carl Laemmle, Jack Warner, we know all their names — is a terrific story of upward mobility, living the American dream. It’s one of the great contributions of American Jews to American culture.”Behind the scenes, a full revolt was afoot, sources say, with some patrons threatening to pull future support for the institution. Says one prominent Academy member who declined to be named: “You left the museum with the impression that the film industry was created 10 years ago. They erased the past. And I find it appalling.”
Sources say a small contingent of influential Academy members pushed hard for nonwhite cinema to be highlighted and white contributions to be de-emphasized. A review of the exhibits would seem to support this notion. Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki, for example, received a retrospective, while there was no similar treatment for the genre’s godfather, Walt Disney.The relative obscurity of others spotlighted, such as Ethiopian director Haile Gerima, who received the museum’s first Vanguard Award, left some patrons scratching their heads.If identity was a priority in programming, Jewish identity apparently was not. There is scant mention of Jewish trailblazers.A source who is familiar with programming decisions says it was a battle no one was willing to fight, even if that meant a skewed overview of cinema history: “A lot of people who might have fought harder for the representation of Jews were just really laying low,” says the source.
“By not including the founding fathers out of the gate, they were making a massive statement,” says Triller co-founder and Academy member Ryan Kavanaugh. “As the grandson of Holocaust survivors, it’s just shocking that they erased the contributions of a group who faced severe anti-Semitism — they couldn’t get bank loans, they couldn’t own homes in L.A., and yet they still created this industry that is the bedrock of the L.A. economy and touches people around the world. Instead of, ‘Look at what what they were able to do,’ it’s just wiped out. It goes against everything that our industry says they stand for.”
- Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
Valiant. Loyal. Fearless. They defend Israel daily – they deserve our thanks.The Druze of Israel are a tiny yet fiercely loyal minority who serve with pride and dignity and have sacrificed 505 of their brethren in the defense of Israel – with over 1,500 wounded. Out of a community of just 120,000 those are huge, unfortunate, and very telling numbers.Most of Israel’s friends around the globe do not know about the Druze community and its special relationship with the State of Israel. This recognition is long overdue, and it is the reason for the creation of the Global Week of Hakarat Hatov – #ShukranDruze.Since even before the modern State of Israel was established, members of the Druze community have been serving proudly alongside Jews as soldiers, as first responders, and in all of the other arms of Israel’s security establishment.In 2014, when Jews were being massacred during their prayers at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, it was an off-duty Druze police officer who ran in to stop the terrorist.When Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to curb terrorism from Gaza, a Druze commander led the ground battle.In 2017, two Israeli police officers were killed while defending tourists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Both officers were Druze.Israel’s Presidential Military Liaison is Druze.The commander responsible for cross-border goodwill with Gaza is Druze.The Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces is Druze.Many other senior leaders in Israel’s security and judiciary infrastructure, past and present, are Druze.
- Tuesday, January 18, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
Israel has signed an agreement to indirectly pump natural gas to Lebanon to aid the crisis-hit nation, an unsourced television report claimed on Saturday.Channel 12 news reported that the deal was brokered by Amos Hochstein, Washington’s special envoy and coordinator for international energy affairs, and signed in secret over the weekend.It will see Israel transfer gas from the offshore Leviathan field to Jordan, the report said. From there it will be transferred to Syria and on to Lebanon.However, the network said, the move will require repairing and extending a gas line that flows from Syria to Lebanon, which could take several years.The agreement was approved by the United States and was also coordinated with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to the report.
The Lebanese Ministry of Energy affirmed, for its part, that the natural gas is Egyptian, denying the media reports as well.The natural gas from Egypt will be used to generate electrical power to the Lebanese who are currently living with only few hours of state electricity a day and are obliged to pay increasing hefty bills to private generator operators, which also depend on diesel fuel.
Monday, January 17, 2022
David Collier: Wikipedia butchers history and promotes terrorism – part 1
A stream of content-empty, repetitive books is included – but there is no entry for the blood-curdling cries of the Arab leaders. Abdul Rahman Azzam, the Arab League’s first secretary-general, said that the establishment of a Jewish state would lead to “a war of extermination and momentous massacre which will be spoken of like the Mongolian massacre and the Crusades.“. Wikipedia editors obviously believe that the horrific and murderous ideology promoted by Arab leaders is not as worthy of mention as books that almost nobody bothered to read.Why do neo-Nazis love ‘Haaretz’?
And looking at anti-Zionism today, nothing has changed. All around us we see violent threats, and antisemitism spreading through anti-Zionist thought. The false image that anti-Zionism has a friendly, peaceful face may be all you will see on the page, but as Bret Stephens pointed out in the NYT not everyone got the memo:
“Not the people who, waving Palestinian flags and chanting “Death to Jews,” according to a witness, assaulted Jewish diners at a Los Angeles sushi restaurant. Not the people who threw fireworks in New York’s diamond district. Not the people who brutally beat up a man wearing a yarmulke in Times Square. Not the people who drove through London slurring Jews and yelling, “Rape their daughters.” Not the people who gathered outside a synagogue in Germany shouting slurs. Not the people who, at a protest in Brussels, chanted, “Jews, remember Khaybar. The army of Muhammad is returning.””
These incidents are just a snippet, but provides an image absolutely representative of anti-Zionism in the modern era. Just as the Hamas Charter represents the 1980s, the three Nos of Khartoum the 1960s, and the genocidal call from the Arab leaders the 1940s. Where is all this in Wikipedia’s sanitised timeline of anti-Zionism?
This isn’t an encyclopedia – it is a propaganda site.
The timeline of anti-Zionism page is an exercise in carefully polished propaganda. It is not real – it is not history – it does not even try to be balanced. All that exists is a page for anti-Israel propagandists to use as a reference guide.
Is this really what Wikipedia’s founders imagined the website would become – and more importantly – is this really what Wikipedia donors are supporting? A Marxist / Islamist vision of the world? This is a single page – there are 1000s of them. Every page that deals with Jews, Zionism, the Palestinians, or Israel is tainted.
I cannot stress this enough Wikipedia is a hostile website that spreads anti-Jewish disinformation and hate – much of it written by the hands of Islamists. This is even more important given what will be exposed in part two of this story – evidence that ‘Wikipedia promotes terrorism’. Coming soon.
A neo-Nazi website claims that Orthodox Jews treat women “like filth,” and says that doing so is commanded by Jewish law. The claim is backed up with quotes from an article from the far-left daily, Haaretz, and even includes a direct link to the Israeli newspaper’s site.
Another post on the neo-Nazi forum claims that Orthodox Jews are spreading the COVID-19 virus in Australia. This, too, is backed up with quotes from and a link to Haaretz.
A third neo-Nazi post includes a call by Haaretz to reprint Adolf Hitler’s anti-Semitic, genocidal book, Mein Kampf, and put it back on sale in German bookstores. Germany currently outlaws the book.
There are actually hundreds of anti-Semitic posts on the site based on “news items” from Haaretz—1,400 references, to be precise. And if it were a little-known publication, perhaps such citing would be inconsequential. As the leading paper among Israel’s ruling elite, however—with subscribers including Supreme Court justices, government ministers, leading journalists, Israel Defense Forces generals and cultural icons—the powerful Hebrew broadsheet with an English-language edition wields enormous influence, both inside and outside the country. Nor is it only the secular elite who read Haaretz. Many left-wing religious Jews are also subscribers.
The neo-Nazi website in question is Stormfront, described by Wikipedia as a “neo-Nazi Internet forum, and the Web’s first major racial hate site … primarily focused on propagating white nationalism, anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, anti-Catholicism and white supremacy.”
Where Haaretz goes full-blown neo-Nazi Holocaust distortion! pic.twitter.com/Yl8CeEOfnS
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) January 16, 2022
Tu B’Shvat: The Festival That Proves the Jewish People’s Connection to the Land of Israel
The Jewish calendar has many holidays. Some celebrate the survival of the Jewish people over various enemies, and some are solemnly spiritual in nature — but others exist, too. One such festival, Tu B’Shvat, is perhaps the greatest proof of the Jewish people’s deep connection with the Holy Land.
Tu B’Shvat is a Jewish holiday heralding the blossoming of trees and the beginning of the coming cycle of fruit. The name actually derives directly from the Hebrew date of the holiday, which occurs on the 15th day of Sh’vat. “Tu” stands for the Hebrew letters Tet and Vav, which have numerical values of 9 and 6 respectively, which add up to 15.
Tu B’Shvat’s roots can be traced all the way back to the Jewish Talmud. While Rosh Hashanah, the main Jewish new year festival, is familiar to many people, there are actually a number of new year dates in the Jewish tradition. The Talmud records a debate with various opinions, leading to the establishment of four new years:
- The first of Nisan as the “new year for kings and festivals”;
- The first of Elul as the “new year for the tithe of cattle”;
- The first of Tishrei as the “new year for years,” including the calculation of the calendar and sabbatical years; and
- The 15th of Sh’vat as the “new year for trees.”
Many centuries ago, a variety of different taxation methods were employed. One of the most common was called tithing. Tithing required separating percentages of produce, and handing them over to the local authorities. In ancient Israel, Tu B’Shvat marked the date when calculations of the forthcoming fruit crop would begin.
The Talmud records this date as being the point in time when trees in the Land of Israel are said to awaken from their winter hibernation and start the process of renewal. While the date can naturally only be approximate, the month was selected because “most of the yearly rainfall has passed” (Babylonian Talmud, Rosh Hashanah, 14a), causing the trees to renew and their fruit to ripen.
- Monday, January 17, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
Photo from Abu Ali Express |
Times of Israel reports:
A Palestinian man was shot dead as he attempted to stab soldiers at a bus stop in the central West Bank on Monday, the Israel Defense Forces said.No Israeli injuries were reported.“The assailant got out of a car, armed with a knife, and tried to stab an IDF soldier,” the military said.The soldier opened fire at the man, killing him, according to the IDF. The knife was recovered at the scene.Troops launched a search to find the car that transported the assailant to the scene, setting up roadblocks in the area. A short while later, the driver of the vehicle turned himself in to Israeli security forces, the Defense Ministry’s Civil Administration said.
Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates today condemned in two separate statements the Israeli army killing of a Palestinian man near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem.Faleh Jaradat, from the Hebron area town of Sair, was shot and killed this afternoon after he allegedly attempted to stab a soldier at an intersection near Bethlehem. The soldier was not hurt.Shtayyeh called on international human rights organizations to pressure Israel to stop the killings and ongoing attacks on the Palestinian people.He said the soldiers left Jaradat bleeding on the ground until he died, stressing that the extrajudicial execution of Palestinians reflects “the doctrine of state terrorism espoused by its soldiers.”The Foreign Ministry, on the other hand, considered the killing of Jaradat another episode in the series of extrajudicial killings committed by the Israeli occupiers and their settlers against unarmed Palestinian civilians under flimsy pretexts and enforcement of the new shooting instructions approved by the political and military circles in the occupying state.While it held the Israeli government fully responsible for “this crime,” it called on the international community, particularly the United Nations and its Secretary-General, to shoulder their responsibilities and initiate a system to protect the Palestinian people under occupation.
The Islamic Resistance Movement "Hamas" mourned the martyrdom of Faleh Musa Shaker Jaradat, the perpetrator of the stabbing attack at the "Gush Etzion" junction, south of Bethlehem. "We mourn with pride the heroic martyr Faleh Musa Shaker Jaradat, who carried out the heroic stabbing operation at the Gush Etzion junction," the movement said in a statement. She added, "We congratulate this operation, and affirm that it comes in the context of the natural response to the crimes of the occupation and its settlers throughout the West Bank, occupied Jerusalem, and the steadfast Negev."
Bari Weiss: Being Jewish in an Unraveling America
American Jews have always told ourselves that we were different because this country was different—that it was exceptional. That the equivocation about Jew-hate that we are now witnessing was normal in other places but never would be so here. (I think of Sarah Halimi, a Jewish woman who was beaten and thrown out of her Paris window by a man screaming “dirty Jew” and “Allahu Akbar.” But French courts and much of the press decided that no motive could be ascertained. Ultimately, charges were dropped against the perpetrator because he had smoked weed before the murder.)JPost Editorial: Amid antisemitic violence, Jewish solidarity is needed
But America will only remain exceptional if Americans fight for it. And very few people in positions of cultural and political power seem to have any will to wage that battle. They believe that we are not the land of freedom, the country that abolished slavery, but one where slavery persists in more subtle form. That our army is not a force for liberation, but oppression. That our courts are not fair and blind, but prejudiced. And that this country and our ally, Israel, are not democracies but bastions of racial supremacy.
Today is Martin Luther King Day and I’m thinking of his understanding that the demand for equal treatment comes at no one’s expense because justice is not a zero-sum game. “We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity in this Nation,” he said. “When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men—black men as well as white men—would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”
Jews thrived in an America that had confidence in its goodness. Jews are not safe—no one is—in one which does not.
Five years ago, the rabbi’s invitation to the gun range would have shocked me. Now I think: I’m glad I saved her number.
The American Jewish Committee’s 2021 State of Antisemitism in America report released in October revealed that approximately one in four US Jews was the target of antisemitism over the previous 12 months, and some 39% of US Jews changed their behavior out of fear of antisemitism.
The Colleyville attack ended without the loss of innocent lives, but it must be considered a wake-up call. The immediate crisis in Colleyville is over but the threat has not disappeared. Every Jewish community in the world needs to take the threat seriously and increase security measures.
Israel, with its experience in handling terrorism, can help by providing training and emotional trauma support. It should be stressed that vigilance does not mean vigilantism. Jews need to protect themselves, but this is not a call for violence, only for self-defense.
As well, the attack should serve as a reminder to Jews everywhere that we are one. The feeling of solidarity and support that was in evidence around the Jewish world on Saturday was real and heartfelt. It is a pity that such solidarity is mainly felt in times of crisis and is not ongoing.
The attacks are not restricted to one denomination or another, or a particular political affiliation or another. Orthodox Jews in Israel should not only stand with Reform Jews in the US when they are held hostage; they need to stand together at all times, despite political or ideological differences.
It must be made clear that Jew-hatred and antisemitism in all its forms is appalling and unacceptable anywhere and on any pretext. Indeed, it must be noted that violence against Jews is violence against all. What starts with lawless attacks on Jews never ends there. When Jews are afraid for their safety on the streets, on campuses and in synagogues, no one is safe.
This what the last 10 years has looked like for Jews in the west.#ColleyvilleSynagogue pic.twitter.com/5m8ygEJzh6
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) January 16, 2022
‘Lady Al Qaeda’ Blamed Jews for Her Conviction. Her Allies Can’t Figure Why A Gunman Attacked Synagogue In Her Name.
The Council on American Islamic Relations denied any connection between the terror attack at a Texas synagogue and its campaign to free imprisoned terrorist Aafia Siddiqui, one day after a fanatical gunman took Jewish congregants hostage to demand Siddiqui’s release.
CAIR has been a longtime advocate for clemency for Siddiqui, a terror operative who was dubbed "Lady al Qaeda" and sentenced to 86 years in prison in 2010 for trying to gun down U.S. FBI and military officials. During a joint press conference with Siddiqui’s attorney on Sunday, CAIR’s Dallas director Faizan Syed said it had no prior relationship to the the assailant, British national Malik Faisal Akram, and that his actions should not detract from efforts to seek clemency for Siddiqui.
Syed and Siddiqui's attorney, Marwa Elbially, were pressed by reporters on anti-Semitic remarks by Siddiqui that could lead her supporters to attack a synagogue. During her 2010 trial, for example, she demanded that jurors undergo DNA tests to ensure there were no Jews on her jury. In a letter to President Barack Obama from prison after the trial, Siddiqui wrote that Jewish people have "always back-stabbed everyone who has taken pity on them and made the ‘fatal' error of giving them shelter." The letter said "this why ‘holocausts' keep happening to them."
Elbially acknowledged the anti-Semitism, but suggested Siddiqui was suffering from mental illness during her trial due to alleged abuse Siddiqui was subjected to in CIA custody. When asked by the Washington Free Beacon if Siddiqui had ever renounced or apologized for her anti-Semitic views since 2010, CAIR and Elbially declined to answer affirmatively.
Elbially told the Free Beacon that "nothing excuses anti-Semitic statements," but said Siddiqui "was in a diminished state both physically and mentally when she stood trial."
Antisemites against antisemitism?
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) January 16, 2022
CAIR, Linda Sarsour, and her organization MPower do not stand with the Jewish people, they stand with the antisemitic terrorists who attack them, literally.#Colleyville#Texas#Antisemitism
w/ @yosephhaddad pic.twitter.com/m04RTvk8Lb
MEMRI: CAIR-TX Panel on Aafia Siddiqui – Siddiqui’s Attorney: U.S. Government Lies on "Large Scale"
In a November 11, 2021 panel that was streamed live on YouTube by CAIR-TX and that was titled “Injustice: Dr. Aafia [Siddiqui] and the 20-Year Legacy of America’s Wars,” Aafia Siddiqui’s attorney Marwa Elbially said that the U.S. government lies on a large scale. She gave the example of the "fabricated" rescue of American soldier, who was taken hostage by Iraqi forces in 2003. She also said that the fact that Aafia Siddiqui has not become a “household name” for every American and that he has not been portrayed in “stupid TV shows” or “poorly-made movies” is proof that the government never really believed that she was an Al-Qaeda operative.
Prominent Palestinian-American activist Linda Sarsour, the Executive Director of Mpower Change, said that Aafia Siddiqui is a “political prisoner” like H. Rap Brown, who is serving a life sentence for the 2000 murder of two law enforcement officers, and like Leonard Peltier, who is serving a life sentence for involvement in the murder of two FBI agents. It is interesting to note that in September 2005, Iranian filmmaker Nader Talebzadeh also claimed that Jessica Lynch’s rescue had been staged (see MEMRI TV Clip No. 881.)
- Monday, January 17, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
In 2017, a census was taken that showed that the number of Palestinians in Lebanon was 174,422.
Lebanon’s economic situation tightens its grasp on citizens and foreigners alike, said Abdelnaser Elayi, project manager at the inter-ministerial Lebanese-Palestinian Dialogue Committee.“Before 2020, we would usually see about 6,000 to 8,000 Palestinians leave the country without returning, per year," Mr Elayi told The National“Now, those figures are closer to 10,000 to 12,000. That is an increase by at least 30 per cent.”
- Monday, January 17, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
- Monday, January 17, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon
Weird and provocative to the Arab essence… An Arab newspaper that is published in English employs a Jewish rabbi as its chief editor… We would have respected the decision if (the rabbi) would be one that rejects the occupation, the ethnic cleansing and the racism… The debasement has become like a (runaway) train)… (Even) spitting on these (people) is not enough!
Sunday, January 16, 2022
- Sunday, January 16, 2022
- Elder of Ziyon