Wednesday, January 26, 2022


Praying for rain in Israel is something that happens all over the world, wherever there is a Jew who prays. When a Jew in Boise, Idaho prays for rain, he is praying for rain in Israel. You can puzzle out the spiritual, philosophical, or practical reasons for this yourself. Suffice it to say that when it rains in Israel, we are very, very happy, and especially the women, who tend to see rain as a spiritual blessing, and talk about it girlfriend to girlfriend, perhaps on Whatsapp (emojis not included here):

Girlfriend 1: I am so happy it’s raining.

Girlfriend 2: Yes! Beautiful, beautiful rain.

It’s not only girlfriends who talk about the rain. It may just as well be women of slight or even no acquaintance. A few years ago, I went to get my wig (pe’ah) done at a little shop in Geula. It’s the place I’ve gone to ever since I bought my first wig: the wig for my wedding. 

It was raining outside and while I was waiting (you don't make appointments here, you sit and wait and take whatever hairdresser becomes available first), the Chassidishe proprietor’s daughter and I had a little chat about the wonderful water falling from the sky.  The winter night had come early, and with it, the rain. “This is “gishmei bracha,” she said to me. “When it rains at night and doesn’t cause us any inconvenience.”

It's exactly the kind what we pray for the skies to rain down on Israel. Rains of blessing.“Gishmei bracha,” because there’s rain and there’s rain. There’s rain that comes at the right time, in the right way—but sometimes not. There can be rain that falls just right at the right rate, not too much, not too little. But that doesn’t always happen.

Sometimes there is even rain that turns to ice and snow. It’s not the way the rain is supposed to fall in Israel. Ice wreaks havoc on agriculture. It's why you have to be conscious and think about these things when you pray for rain. You want to pray for the right sort of rain. Rain that is rain and not ice or snow.

And here’s where things get tricky. Snow is a rare and beautiful event in Israel. When the snow does come down, we get excited, as we watch it cover our beloved land with a blanket of white.

Barely a dusting on Netzach Yerushalayim St. in Efrat, on January 22, 2022 (photo, Moshe Epstein)

It’s counterintuitive. We want to sing—preferably something like, “Let it Snow, Let it Snow, Let it Snow.”  But no matter how clear the sound in our heads of those imaginary dulcet strains, we know that the snow is killing our avocados, citrus fruits, and potatoes. These will all be scarcer and more expensive, each in their season. Because what happens now affects later supply and demand, and in Israel we feel this the most in regard to our fruits and vegetables.

For this and other reasons, we pray for rain, and not for snow. And still, last Wednesday we had a light dusting that lasted a short time. Thursday morning, my son the agronomist shared photos of a frozen avocado tree. They were not his photos, but were being shared widely among those in agriculture (and just plain Zionists who cannot resist a good natural phenomenon in Israel).









“My son the agronomist” is Gedalia (Gidi) Epstein, an insect management scout at a citrus farm in Netivot owned by the company Mehadrin. We love to talk plants when we’re together, and I like to hear him explain his work to me. Gidi doesn’t just know about insects, but all kinds of things about plants. Being that we have another snow predicted to begin right as this piece goes to publication, I asked Gidi to explain the impact of snow and ice on Israeli agriculture:

Basically, the problem with the cold weather is that frosts tend to occur during the night and early morning hours. When that happens, the cells responsible for photosynthesis are damaged and then when the sun comes up, it burns these cells, causing the leaves to dry out. This essentially renders the tree leafless and then it can’t put out the energy or do whatever else it needs to do in order to allow the fruit to keep on growing. That’s in the best case scenario.

In the worst case scenario, cells in the plant freeze, and what happens is the water contained in a cell will crystalize—it turns into ice and crystals and these expand the cells until they explode. It’s kind of like putting mashed potatoes in the freezer—it never works because the cells crystalize and blow up and then the entire texture is ruined. So the same thing happens in living plants.

In plants other than potatoes, whether it’s an avocado tree, or even as in our case with citrus, the little sacs (vesicles) inside a tangerine, for example, they blow up, they break, and then the fruit is no good. Not only is the texture ruined, but the fruit gets a bad taste, too.

My son then added that the solution is to cover the trees with special nets that create a warmer microclimate from within. The problem is that the nets are expensive, setting them up is labor intensive, and they get in the way of farming machinery like tractors. More primitive solutions have failed.

“Lately we’ve seen—like with the photos of the iced-over avocados—sprinklers that water the trees from above. They’re set to go on and off through the night and early morning. The theory is that spraying the trees with water helps keep the trees from freezing, but actually, the opposite happens.

“This time,” said Gidi, referring to last Wednesday’s brief freeze, “the trees froze worse than ever.”

There is one beneficial aspect to snow in Israel. Mount Hermon is considered Israel's only true mountain. Its three peaks are covered with snow in winter and in spring, making it a wonderful place to ski for both tourists and native Israelis. Skiing, however, is not the only reason that snow on the Hermon is beneficial for Israel. When the snow on the Hermon melts, it does great things for Israel's water supply and flora

Melt water from the snow-covered mountain's western and southern bases seeps into the rock channels and pores, feeding springs at the base of the mountain, which form streams and rivers. These merge to become the Jordan River. Additionally, the runoff facilitates fertile plant life below the snow line, where vineyards and pine, oak, and poplar trees are abundant.

Snow-topped Mt. Hermon

Mt. Hermon is covered with snow even when the rest of the country is not. So it need not concern us as we pray for rain. But as another freeze approaches, some wonder if the winter weather in the rest of the country, and its impact on agriculture, might have a deeper, more spiritual component. 

Could the cold and snowy weather be related to the fact that it is a sabbatical year in Israel? A sabbatical year, or "shanat shmitta," is a time of complicated laws, the upshot of which is that fields are meant to lie fallow. Are we observing the relevant commandments as we should? There may be a connection to our current weather situation. Or not. We cannot know these things, but we can think about them and keep them in mind.

Meantime, most of us cannot help but get swept up in the excitement of snow, even as we know it's not a good thing. For this reason, confusion reigns (get it?). We want it to snow. We don't want it to snow. 

And we pray for rain, throughout. 





Weekly column by Vic Rosenthal



Do human stupidity and wickedness have any bounds?

After reading the comprehensive Wikipedia article about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, I have to answer a resounding “no.”

The Protocols, from its its first publication in Russia in 1903 by Pavel Krushevan, an antisemitic activist, publisher, and politician whose newspaper articles instigated the notorious Kishinev Pogrom, to its employment by Henry Ford, the Nazis, and Hamas, has been one of the most effective tools for spreading Jew-hatred throughout the world.

Supposedly a transcript of secret meetings of Jewish conspirators, it is not clear who the authors were. Much of it was plagiarized from various sources, including large chunks of dialogue from an 1864 (non-antisemitic) work called Dialogue in Hell Between Machiavelli and Montesquieu, by Maurice Joly, with anti-Jewish material interpolated. The work was translated into numerous languages, including of course English, German, and Arabic. It appears in various versions on the internet, and is a best-seller in print as well. The Jerusalem Post reports that “Walmart, Book Depository, Thrift Books, Hudson Books, and Barnes & Noble are each selling dozens of versions,” including some with introductory material that suggests that it may be genuine.

Let me repeat: introductory material that suggests that it may be genuine. The bogus nature of this document was conclusively documented in the 1920s, but in some quarters it is still considered “controversial!”

The document strikes every antisemitic chord possible. It presents the Jews as arrogant, dishonest, corrupt, greedy, sneaky, murderous, promiscuous, manipulative, and cold. It lays out their alleged plans to destroy the family, the state, the church, and the national economy. It presents their conspiracy to control the minds and bodies of gentiles, to trick and force them into doing their bidding. It tells how they foment war and insurrection in order to achieve their goals. And of course it describes the great octopus of hidden Jewish control over all the important institutions in society that the stupid gentiles believe are independent.

It’s a perfect theory, because it accounts for everything bad that happens to those who believe it. Business reversal? The Jews cheated you! War? The Jews started it! Your spouse has an affair? The Jews introduced immorality into art, literature, and media! Are you conservative? The Jews are responsible for the destruction of traditional values everywhere, in government, business, and the family! Are you liberal? The Jews are the most privileged of the privileged, exploiting the oppressed classes! They are rebellious communists and rapacious capitalists, godless libertines and God’s purported chosen.

Almost every antisemitic act that hits the headlines echoes the Protocols. Robert Bowers murdered eleven old Jews in Pittsburgh because he believed that the Jews are responsible for uncontrolled non-white immigration into the US. Malik Faisal Akram took Jewish hostages in Texas because he believed that the Jews could pull strings to get a terrorist released from Federal prison. John Earnest killed a woman and injured several other people when he shot up a synagogue in Poway, California in 2019 because he thought Jews were executing a “meticulously planned genocide of the European race,” apparently by encouraging interracial relationships.

Recently, Jewish conspiracies have been “found” everywhere. In one of the most egregious violations of the principles of logic and evidence, cases of American police abusing black citizens are attributed to some American police officials participating in programs to study counter-terrorism in Israel. But even if significant race-based police mistreatment of minorities exists (in fact, it may not), it long predates such training programs, which in any event are related to intelligence gathering or SWAT training and not to techniques of apprehending suspects. And certainly there is no racial content! Nevertheless, the theory – pushed by a “Jewish” anti-Israel organization – became wildly popular. Because nothing “fits” like  a Jewish conspiracy.

Such conspiracy theories have been popular since the Middle Ages (killing Jesus, poisoning wells, the blood libel, etc.). But the grand conspiracy to rule the world that is expressed so comprehensively in the Protocols may date to the late 19th century, and I think it’s fair to say that nothing did more to popularize it than the publication of the Protocols. While it may or may not have affected the thinking of Hitler and other Nazis – there is no evidence that Hitler believed that it was genuine – they certainly used it to great effect as a propaganda tool. And other antisemites continue to do so today. In 2002, the Protocols was made into a dramatic series called Horseman Without a Horse, aired on Egyptian TV. It was rerun in 2012, and was also shown on Lebanon’s Hezbollah-linked Al Manar channel.

There’s no doubt that a book or other work of artistic expression can have malign effects. But does it make sense to say that it can be inherently evil?

I think the Protocols of the Elders of Zion is an argument for that proposition.




From Ian:

Congress members call for defunding of UN Commission of Inquiry into Israel
A bipartisan group of legislators in the House of Representatives is calling for the United States to defund the U.N. Committee of Inquiry (COI) on Israel.

Led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.), the 42 members sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, according to a news release on Tuesday, calling the COI, which was recently approved in the United Nations, “outrageous and unjust.”

“We urge the U.S. to lead an effort to end the outrageous and unjust permanent Commission of Inquiry (COI) on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was created by the UNHRC in May 2021,” the members wrote in the letter. “This commission will not only focus on the actions Israel took in Gaza as it sought to defend its citizens from unprovoked rocket attacks. It will also have a carte blanche mandate—in perpetuity—to investigate any allegations against Israel in the past or in the future; whether in the West Bank or Gaza or in all of Jerusalem and even within the recognized pre-1967 borders of the State of Israel.”

The letter recalled the administration’s stance against the COI when it controversially announced last year that the United States will return to the U.N. Human Rights Council (UNHRC), despite having withdrawn from it under former President Donald Trump, with Blinken stating that the United States will oppose actions that unfairly target Israel.

“COI’s mandate is designed to accelerate the political, economic, and legal challenges to Israel and undermine its legitimacy by pressuring international legal institutions to take action against Israeli leaders,” the members wrote. “Shockingly, the COI resolution makes no mention of the terror group Hamas—which initiated the conflict by launching missile attacks on Israel—and does not include any mention of Israel’s right to defend itself.”
StandWithUs: The antisemitic roots of the UN's latest effort to harm Israel
Meet Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi. He attended a meeting at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to promote a resolution introduced by his government targeting the world's only Jewish state with a new "Commission of Inquiry".

In May of 2021, he went on CNN and spewed anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Only a week earlier, he was allowed to spread more hatred and misinformation against Israel at the UN.

The UNHRC is supposed to protect human rights around the world. However, in reality, it is a corrupt institution that perpetuates hate against Israel and the Jewish people. Its new "Commission of Inquiry" has no legitimacy because it is rooted in this systemic discrimination. UN: Your bias is showing. This is #UNjust and UNacceptable.


MEMRI: Kuwaiti Writer: It Is High Time To Put Aside Hatred Against Jews, Which Has Gotten Us Nowhere
In a January 17, 2022 article on the English-language website Fanack.com, Kuwaiti writer and poet Nejoud Al-Yagout notes that, when, in December 2021, the U.S. embassy in Kuwait wished the local Jews a happy Hanukkah, many Kuwaitis responded with fury. They used the incident not just to troll the ambassador, but to express hatred for any and all Jews. Al-Yagout wonders where "this cringe-worthy fear" towards Jews comes from, and why Kuwaitis are not ashamed of it, given that their country prides itself on tolerance and coexistance. She notes that this antagonism has caused most of Kuwait's Jews to emigrate, and the few who remain to hide their identity, which, she says, is a great loss for the country.

Al-Yagout adds that the Quran preaches diversity and refers to the Torah as a sacred book and to the Jews as People of the Book; therefore, Muslims who harbor resentment towards them cannot pretend to be following the principles of their faith. Moreover, Muslims who feel such hatred have no right to complain about Islamophobia, she says. Nor is there any legitimate political reason for harboring resentment towards Jews, she argues, since it is possible to support Palestine without feeling such resentment. She concludes that it is high time to put aside hatred, which has brought nothing but destruction and war, and become a more open and welcoming society.

The following are excerpts from her article:
"On November 28, 2021, there was quite a controversy when the US Embassy wished Jews in Kuwait a Happy Hanukkah on social media. Some commentators trolled the Ambassador, and anyone who responded to the message in a spirit of love was verbally abused. Some argued that there are not many Jews in Kuwait, so why would the US Embassy post such a message? The commentators used the message not only to accuse the ambassador of having an agenda but to attack Jews as a whole.

"What is this cringe-worthy fear we have toward Jews? We cannot use the excuse that we don’t celebrate the festivities of other religions, because many Kuwaitis love to celebrate Christmas, and a few celebrate Diwali with Hindus. We cannot say we are protecting Islamic principles, because Kuwait is filled with people of all faiths and no faiths. As such, is this who we have become in a country whose heritage prides itself on coexistence? What a pity. What a loss for us. How heartbreaking for our forefathers, a few of whom were Jews who lived here alongside us.

"For those of us who are fortunate to have Jewish friends and acquaintances, most of the Jews we know live abroad. This is because Jews who live here do not announce their religion for fear of being ostracized or offending the “sensitivities” of their cousins in religion. Or because they are such a rarity that, as a local Jew once stated, they don’t even know about each other. We could be sitting next to a Jew in a café and never know it.

"How did we get here? And more tellingly, why are we not ashamed?





The Palestinian Authority negotiated with Israel this week agreements to help Palestinian workers in Israel.

Senior Palestinian Authority official and close Abbas aide Hussein al-Sheikh met Sunday with Israel's Foreign Minister Yair Lapid. At the time, he didn't describe the subjects of the meeting. But today, it was revealed that at least one of the topics dealt with Palestinian workers in Israel.

One was to have Israel pay Palestinian workers through Palestinian banks, which would ensure that deductions that are meant for social security benefits and insurance payments end up going to Palestinians. 

Palestinians claim that money that these salary deductions have accumulated since the 1970s to over 60 billion shekels. It is unclear whether Israel intends to pay that much.

Will it go towards "pay for slay?" Hopefully there will be transparency mechanisms in place.

Another topic was for the 20,000 Gazans who have permits to enter Israel. Right now they have commercial permits for vendors, but some of them are workers, and they should have worker's permits so that they can be paid at least the Israeli minimum wage.

"This ensures that the Palestinian worker receives the minimum wage (6000 shekels), and various insurances such as health insurance, work injuries, and other rights," a PA official said.

Israel's minimum monthly wage is actually 5300 shekels, or daily NIS 244.62 for a five day a week worker.

I've noted before that the average salary for a Palestinian worker in Israel is more than double that of those in the West Bank (and quadruple that of Gaza Strip workers.)  So it turns out that Israel's minimum wage is also far higher than the average Palestinian salary. 








  • Wednesday, January 26, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon



Israel's Channel 12 news reports that  the Biden administration has offered the Palestinian Authority a deal: if they stop paying salaries to prisoners and former prisoners then the US would allow the PA to appoint a legal advisor to represent the PLO in Washington, a step in the direction of reopening the PLO office that was closed by Donald Trump's administration.

But the details of the proposal, according to PA sources, show that this plan is just smoke and mirrors, and terrorists would continue to receive their payments.

The PA doesn't just pay prisoners and their families. It calls the payments "salaries" - everyone in Israeli prisons are automatically hired as "workers" and they continue to have their "jobs" after they are released. Jobs that they never have to actually do.

According to the report, the plan is that all prisoners aged 60 and over will be declared retired from the PA and receive benefits. Prisoners aged 60 and under will continue to receive a salary as officials in the Palestinian Authority. 

Instead of being paid out of a special fund, they will be paid as any other employee or retiree of the PA. But the problem is that they are "hired" because they tried to kill Jews!  This plan appears to make that scheme official.

The entire reason to oppose "pay for slay" is that it encourages Palestinians to attack Jews. There is nothing in this plan as reported that would stop that encouragement. It just ensures that all "employees" are treated equally, it doesn't address the fact that the resumes for those jobs are bullets and knives.

Apparently, the Biden administration cares more about the Palestinian Authority saving face by maintaining the popular program of paying terrorists  than about the Jews it encourages its potential "employees" to attack.





  • Wednesday, January 26, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon

Al Gomhuria is one of Egypt's three most popular state-owned newspapers. 


An article on Tuesday was very angry at the UN for passing a resolution against Holocaust denial, and especially upset at the German delegate who supported the resolution instead of screaming about how Jews have extorted billions from Germany.

The author at times seems to consider that maybe a lot of Jews were killed, but he always goes back to denying that millions of Jews were killed.

Hitler was not an enemy of the Jews, as they portray him, with evidence that he allowed 40,000 German Jews to immigrate to Palestine annually over a period of three years (1933-1935.) [These numbers are exaggerated - EoZ.]

Assuming that he killed Jews, were the Jews only his victims?.. His victims were from many peoples, led by the German people themselves, he executed more than 63,000 of their sons. And there were Gypsies or Roma who were turned into guinea pigs by the Nazis. We in Egypt did not escape the scourge of the Nazis because of the minefields that claimed the lives of many Egyptians or left them with disabilities. Why should he compensate the Jews alone and not compensate others, even the Germans?!.

Even if the Jews were subjected to massacres, what was the fault of the Arabs and the people of Palestine to bear the consequences of a crime they did not commit? .. 

Some time ago, an American researcher proved that the gas chambers were in fact clothes sterilization rooms. This is proven by scientific evidence that does not accept doubt. He visited the gas chambers in Auschwitz, Poland, and took samples from their walls without anyone noticing him, and returned to analyze them in America. The analysis did not show any trace of the gas that the Germans were using in the execution, so he came to the conclusion that they were not execution chambers. And he was persecuted after he announced the result of the discovery.

It is noticeable that Israel resorts to indirect methods to promote its lies as being more effective. It is assisted in this by the international media under Jewish influence. Western newspapers, for example, focused in recent days on a book published by a German-Dutch Jewish girl named "Anne Frank", a genius writer whose literary talent appeared at an early age after her birth in 1929 and extinguished with her death in 1945 at the age of 16. The book sets off a "surprise" that Frank was killed...

What is important here is the story indirectly implies that there were gas chambers. 

Sometimes these lies are made by some Arabs and Muslims, such as statements made by "Fina Malik", the Pakistani actress residing in the United States. The Israeli press highlighted her in her report on her attack on the Jews when she said that Hitler killed half the Jews and left the other half to tell what happened!!!. Her statement implies that the gas chambers story actually happened.
If this was just a Egyptian tabloid, it would be bad enough. But Al Gomhuria is an official Egyptian state newspaper. On the same day that an official Holocaust Memorial Day event was held in Egypt (sponsored by the US Embassy,) the official Egyptian response is that it was a lie.





Tuesday, January 25, 2022


The British academic bookstore Blackwell's had a few copies of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion on sale earlier on Tuesday. One of them had this description of the book:

The Protocols of the (Learned) Elders of Zion is one of the most controversial books ever written. Since its publication this small book has aroused great controversy and bitter debate. It is a source of acrimony and vituperation because of its contents and its supposed authors and because it purports to describe an ancient and enduring agenda for World Empire. Moreover, the "unknown authors" of the Protocols leave no doubt in mind of the reader of their great misanthropy and hatred for the ordinary man and a rancorous enmity for God and Christ. Furthermore, that the supposed authors affect to be Jews leads the unwary reader to conclude that the Protocols are indeed a Jewish design for World Empire and so illustrates superbly the secret rancour of the Jew for the Gentile and his nations. But gentle reader, those who understand such things conclude otherwise. That there is an ancient and enduring rancour for the Gentile by certain Jews there is no doubt. Similarly, that certain Jews have always and still do work to establish Jewish hegemony over the world is not doubted by informed researchers. But what is usually not understood is that Organised Jewry -the leadership of this Jewish ambition- has been in the thrall of a small cabal of men who have for many generations used the race of Jews for a far more sinister aim than merely the establishment of a One World Government under Jewry.
Many people complained to Blackwell's, which issued an apology:

There have been a large number of comments about the description that has accompanied a particular book.

We have refrained from commenting publicly because we did not wish to give the oxygen of publicity to this title, but given the volume of comments on this situation, we feel that we must now comment.

The description that appeared for this book was an automatic feed from the publisher. It was neither written nor endorsed by us. With over eighteen million books on our website, it is standard practice in online bookselling to list books with the book descriptions provided by the book publishers, as we are unable to physically check this many records. However, as soon as this was brought to our attention, we replaced the description with one which expressed our complete and utter condemnation of the contents:

"Not all documents that change the world are good — some are despicable, and leave hatred and bigotry in their wake. Such is the case with [this book]”

Our belief is that books should be made available — even hateful books — so that they can be studied and understood with a view to ensuring such despicable views cannot gain credence in the future. We cannot state in clearer terms that we believe that the contents of this book are abhorrent, we also believe steadfastly that books should be available and not pushed underground.

To defeat evil, you need to shine a bright spotlight on it in the first place, and expose it for what it is, and we believe that that is achieved by facilitating knowledge and discussion rather than quashing it. We have always stood up for lack of censorship within bookselling and continue to maintain this should be the case.

In the face of the unprecedented reaction to this ongoing situation, we have removed these books from sale, which of course may well attract further criticism. We believe that we have explained clearly and with honesty and integrity why this was not a course of action we wished to take, but we have now taken it.

We are sorry for any hurt that has been caused, but we hope that our explanation provides a full, unexpurgated explanation of this entire situation. We will not be commenting further on this matter.

Despite what they said, at this time Blackwell's has removed all versions of the Protocols and similar books.  

The explanation makes sense. The identical blurb can be seen in Booktopia (Australia), Fishpond (New Zealand), while other bookstores managed to catch the blurb and delete it. 

EBay's version includes glowing reviews from antisemites. 

I believe in free speech and that the bookstores have the right to sell the Protocols to any idiot who doesn't know how to get it for free over the Internet. However, when they publish this blurb, and "reviews" from Jew-hating troglodytes, they change from booksellers into publishers - and as such they are responsible for any hate that is published on their websites unless they print a disclaimer.


(h/t Tanya Gold)







From Ian:

80 years later the echo of Wannsee persists
Eighty years ago, in the House of the Wannsee, the Nazi elite passed a death sentence on millions of European Jews. There, they set in motion the process that would lead to the most brutal mass murder in the history of humanity. That did not happen in some backwater but in one of the world’s most culturally, technologically, and scientifically advanced societies. Yet our present remembrance of the Wannsee Conference would lose much of its value if it did not also serve to sharpen our attention with regards to the contemporary threats to the Jews.

It is widely known that the protocol of the Wannsee Conference talks about 11 million Jews in Europe who are to be killed. Less well known are the plans for the murder of Jews outside Europe. A few weeks before the Wannsee Conference Hitler, in a face-to-face meeting, had promised Amin el-Husseini, the Mufti of Jerusalem, that he also wished to take the earliest opportunity to kill the 700,000 Jews living in North Africa and the Middle East.

A special concern during this meeting was the destruction of Zionism and the annihilation of the Jews in Palestine. In the event, the Allies proved able to defeat the Nazis. However, the idea of thwarting a Jewish state at any cost lived on and found a new home in Egypt, where, after 1945, the Muslim Brotherhood built the world’s largest antisemitic movement. The Brotherhood defended the alliance between el-Husseini and Hitler, declaring in 1946 that, “This hero [el-Husseini] fought Zionism with the help of Hitler and Germany. Germany and Hitler are gone, but Amin el-Husseini will continue the struggle.”

The Mufti did indeed actively continue the Nazi struggle, playing a crucial role in inspiring the effort by the armies of several Arab states to snuff out the nascent Jewish state of Israel in 1948. Amin el-Husseini embodies the link between the Nazis’ big war against the Jews and the subsequent small war of the Arabs against Israel – a link that is described in detail in my latest book.

As we know, the Arabs too failed to defeat Israel. However, the idea of abolishing the Jewish state lived on. The Muslim Brotherhood passed on the baton to an Iranian cleric named Ruhollah Musavi, who would later become famous under the name Ruhollah Khomeini. Since the revolution led by Khomeini in 1979, Tehran has pursued the aim of destroying Zionism by force.
Not Just The Mufti - the real extension of the Palestinian-Nazi collaboration
When did the Palestinian Nazi connection really begin?

Was it limited only to the famous encounter between the Mufti and Hitler?

And how much did this connection affect Palestinian nationalism in the decades that followed?

First mutual understanding 1933–1936
On March 31, 1933, two months after Hitler came to power, Haj Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, called on Heinrich Wolff, head of the German Consulate in Jerusalem. In his report to the Auswartiges Amt (Foreign Ministry), Wolff wrote that Husseini said:
“Muslims inside and outside Palestine welcome the new regime in Germany and hope for the spread of fascist, antidemocratic state leadership to other countries.” In his view, “current Jewish influence on economy and politics” was “damaging everywhere and needed to be fought.”

In the hope of doing economic damage to the Jews, Husseini opined that “Muslims hope for a boycott of the Jews in Germany because it would then be adopted with enthusiasm in the whole of the Muslim world.” Further, he was willing to spread the boycott message among Muslims travelling through Palestine and to “all Muslims.” He also looked forward to trading with “non-Jewish merchants” dealing in German products [1] In Nov 1933, it was reported, a direct contact between the German Nazis and the Palestinian Arabs, Arab Riot Leaders, revealed by Nazis

Between 1932 and 1935, political parties were formed among men of education, such as mayors, teachers, businessmen and lawyers. In March 1935 the Husseinis also formed a party, called the Palestinian Arab Party. It was, as its president Jamal Husseini freely boasted, inspired by German Nazism. It included the ‘Al-Futuwwa’ (‘The youth ’), modelled on the Hitler Youth, for a while actually called the ‘Nazi Scouts’. The Mufti was on friendly terms with the German consul in Jerusalem and told him that the Muslims of the world, for whom he apparently felt he was spokesman, hoped for the spread of fascism to other countries and would assist a worldwide anti-Jewish boycott.[2]

When Hitler proclaimed the Nuremberg Race Laws in September 1935, a number of Palestinian Arabs sent telegrams congratulating him: “Delegations from the Arab world participated in the Nuremberg marches of the Nazis, during the 1930s, and expressed their common disgust toward the Jews and their joint accusations of the Jews… Upon the publication of the racist Nuremberg Laws in 1935, Hitler received greetings from the entire Arab world, from Morocco to Palestine, where Nazi propaganda had taken root.” [3] (h/t L_King)
Blaming Israel, not Muslims, for Christian woes
With all this, a recent declaration by church leaders in Jerusalem puzzlingly lays all blame for Christian woes in the Holy Land at the feet of Jewish and Israeli elements. They warned that Christians have become targets of “frequent and supported attacks by radical fringe groups”—Jewish ones, that is. Nowhere do they mention attacks, both physical and otherwise, initiated against Christians by Muslims. The religious leaders warned of a “systematic [Jewish] attempt to drive the Christian community out of Jerusalem and other parts of the Holy Land.”

Several days later, two leading Christian clerics, one in Britain—no less than the head of the Church of England, Justin Welby—and one in Jerusalem, wrote an article supporting the claims and clearly suggesting that Israel is at fault for the decline in the Christian population in the Holy Land. This, even though the Christian population in Hamas-run Gaza has plummeted by 80 percent (!) over the past 15 years, to around 1,000.

The article states: “The growth of settler communities and travel restrictions brought about by the West Bank separation wall have deepened the isolation of Christian villages and curtailed economic and social possibilities.” Again, these vague and undocumented accusations totally obfuscate the true picture of ongoing Palestinian-Arab persecution of Christians. The article does not even mention the P.A. or Muslims.

Regarding the insinuations that Israel is responsible for a drop in its Christian population, the facts tell a different story. Though the percentage of Christians in Israel has dropped drastically over the decades, largely because of the massive Jewish immigration to the Jewish state, in absolute numbers the Christian population in Israel proper has actually grown, and Israel is the only Middle East country in which this is the case.

It is notable that the Christian charity organization “Open Doors” attributes to “Islamic oppression” the steep decline of Christian numbers in the P.A.-controlled areas. The organization claims that “Islamic extremist militants” have been causing Christians to fear violent attacks.
Emily Schrader: Why is there an anti-Jewish bias in the media?
In the aftermath of the hostage situation, the FBI issued an absurd statement, which they later clarified, claiming the hostage taker’s demands were focused on the issue and not connected to the Jewish community. The irony is that the issue was antisemitism.

As if on cue, the media lapped up the statement, quick to minimize any antisemitic motivations of the terrorist. The Associated Press even ran the headline “FBI: Hostage taker was not focused on Jewish community.” Except he very much was, that’s why he researched rabbis ahead of time and stated he wanted to kill Jews. That’s why he referred to Siddiqui as his sister. Siddiqui notably demanded in her trial that the jurors be genetically tested to prove they aren’t Zionists or Jews.

Pretending that taking Jews hostage at gunpoint in a synagogue on Shabbat because you want a known antisemitic terrorist released is actively contributing to antisemitism today and that is what the media did with their outrageous coverage of the Colleyville hostage-taking attack. There is no excuse for the intentional misrepresentation of the facts of the case throughout the 10-hour ordeal and no excuse for the anti-Jewish bias that’s spreading in the media, while it is Jews who are actually being attacked just for going to synagogue.

What began with bias and inaccuracy over Israel has now expanded to bias and gaslighting of the American Jewish community as well, and we cannot remain silent about the role of the media on this issue.
  • Tuesday, January 25, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon
  • ,








  • Tuesday, January 25, 2022
  • Elder of Ziyon
The official Palestinian Wafa news agency publishes every two weeks a survey of what it calls "incitement and racism in the Israeli media," in a transparent attempt to turn the tables on Israel pointing out the antisemitism and support for terror that one can see in Palestinian media daily.

But since Israeli media is not inherently racist, they have to fudge things a little.

This time, the "racism" was all around Israeli media coverage of the demolition of two houses in Sheikh Jarrah.

The occupation stressed, by covering, the "sovereignty in Jerusalem", claiming that the family "illegally took possession of the house," a narrative promoted by the occupation authorities and a large number of officials in the occupying country.

Maariv wrote, "Municipality employees, escorted by police and army forces, infiltrated yesterday at dawn a house in the Jerusalem neighborhood (Sheikh Jarrah), which was illegally seized by the Salhia family years ago. They evacuated the family members who barricaded themselves there and demolished the house, 18 detainees were arrested on suspicion of disturbing the order, and the Left was angry and declared that ethnic cleansing must be stopped.

Israel Hayom also discusses "Israel's sovereignty over Jerusalem, saying, "In order to understand the hypocrisy of the voices calling for eviction under the guise of human rights, and to remember that all the courts that discussed the case recognized that these were squatters who rejected any settlement offered to them, the Shimon Hatsadeq neighborhood area (the name they gave Sheikh Jarrah) was purchased by the Jews in early 1875, but was abandoned during the War of Independence and liberated during the Six-Day War.After a complicated procedure, the houses were returned to their rightful owners, and it was agreed between the Arab tenants and the Jewish owners that the tenants would pay the rent, acknowledge the Jewish ownership of the place and pledge that by maintaining the property, in return he granted them protected resident status.”

The newspaper criticized the "concessions" of the "political level", indicating that it had been following a regressive approach during the last period, during which it waived "Israel's sovereignty in Jerusalem", as it requested a postponement of the "evacuation of the occupiers" from Sheikh Jarrah, rejecting the escalation last May, and they opposed the "dance of the occupiers flags" and "Ascent to the Temple Mount on Jerusalem Day."
Apparently, Jews asserting their rights is "incitement and racism."

Because to Palestinians, Jews should be weak, cringing dhimmis, not proud fighters for their land.





From Ian:

Follow the Netherlands's example: Don’t fund terrorist fronts
In January 2020, Israel declared the UHWC to be an illegal organization. Then, in October 2021, with information gathered during the counter-PFLP operation, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz designated the UAWC, al Haq, the Bisan Center, Defence of Children International-Palestine, Addameer, and the Union of Palestinian Women’s Committees as fronts for the PFLP.

Israel has not yet and might never publicly release the evidence behind this decision. The designations came amid a murder investigation, so Israel’s judicial system cannot release information that might influence the trial or that would compromise its intelligence collection.

However, a leaked Israeli dossier provides a clearer picture. It depicts a network of NGOs illicitly transferring funds from European donors to the PFLP. In a confession included in the dossier, Said Abedat, a former accountant for the UHWC, stated: “The institutions affiliated with the PFLP are interconnected and constitute a lifeline for the organization from an economic and institutional standpoint, that is, money laundering and funding of the PFLP’s activities.”

Wiretaps and other confessions in the dossier detail how Palestinian NGOs overinvoiced, well above the actual cost of projects, and sent the difference to the PFLP. According to the dossier, NGOs even worked with local contractors to produce fake receipts to justify the inflated figures.

With evidence mounting, institutions worldwide have started to cut ties with the PFLP NGO network. In recent years, credit card companies have terminated services to al Haq, the UAWC, and the DCI-P for their ties to the PFLP. As of December 2021, Ernst & Young and PricewaterhouseCoopers confirmed that they would no longer provide services to the UAWC and DCI-P respectively.

But these NGOs have received tens of millions of dollars from the United Nations, the European Union , European charities , and individual European countries , particularly Sweden, Spain, and Norway. As the evidence continues to mount, it’s time to halt all aid to these terrorist-funding NGOs.
House letter urges Blinken to ‘prioritize’ better UNHRC treatment of Israel
A bipartisan group of more than 40 members of Congress is urging Secretary of State Tony Blinken to “prioritize reversing” the United Nations Human Rights Council’s “discriminatory and unwarranted treatment of Israel.”

The lawmakers — led by Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-NJ) and Vicky Hartzler (R-MO) sent a letter, obtained by Jewish Insider, to Blinken on Monday urging him to work to shut down the UNHRC’s open-ended Commission of Inquiry on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was created in May 2021.

“COI’s mandate is designed to accelerate the political, economic, and legal challenges to Israel and undermine its legitimacy by pressuring international legal institutions to take action against Israeli leaders,” the letter reads. “This COI is outrageous and ought to be cancelled. With the UN budget in crisis, stretched by the COVID pandemic which affects all humanity, it is irresponsible to spend precious resources on yet another unjustified UN investigation of Israel.”

The letter calls on Blinken to “lead the effort” to eliminate the COI and requested that the administration pressure Congress not to provide funding the COI.

The letter enumerates several concerns about the COI in particular, including that the resolution that created it did not mention violence emanating from Hamas or Israel’s right to self-defense, that the U.N. already has six other bodies investigating Israel and that the COI is permanent, unlike other UNHRC investigative bodies. The letter’s authors also express concerns about several of the officials selected for the COI, whom they allege “have records of anti-Israel bias.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: Iran's Palestinian Proxy: Jihad against Israel and America
The Iran-backed Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), the second largest and hugely influential group in the Gaza Strip after Hamas, does not believe that the conflict with Israel is over Jerusalem, settlements, borders, checkpoints or Palestinian prisoners.

Qattati's article shows that PIJ and its masters in Tehran consider not only Israel as the "enemy," but the US too. This is the same Iran whose representatives are currently negotiating with the US and other world powers about reviving the 2015 nuclear deal.

PIJ is undoubtedly hoping that the talks in Vienna will allow Iran to proceed with its plans to deceive the world into thinking that it will end its support for terrorist groups throughout the Middle East or abandon its plan to obtain nuclear weapons.

PIJ's statement shows that its supporters understand resolutions pertaining to the Israeli-Arab conflict by the United Nations and anti-Israel organizations around the world as a license to continue the jihad against Israel and all Jews.

It is also most critical that the Biden administration immediately place Iran's other proxy organization, the Houthis, who just bombed Abu Dhabi, back on the US List of Foreign Terrorist Organizations. Since the US Department of State removed them from the list in February, they have returned the favor by becoming more aggressive than ever and are successfully destabilizing the region.

When these groups are enriched and emboldened, that just means even more bad news for the US and the region.

The Biden administration might do well to remember that its arrangements with the mullahs in Iran will spill over into bloodletting by Iran's proxies throughout the Middle East -- who will be only too happy to credit the Biden administration for their toxic, destructive success.


By Daled Amos

It's one of the great patterns in Jewish history ever since the Jews were invited into Egypt and then enslaved there.
Rabbi Ken Spiro, History Crash Course, Aish.com


How often is a people personally invited to come be part of a country? 

In 1264, Poland's King Boleslav issued a charter inviting Jews to come live there. According to the charter, in matters pertaining to Jewish money or property, the testimony of a Christian was insufficient -- it had to be accompanied by the testimony of a Jew as well. It decreed that any Christian who desecrates a Jewish cemetery would be severely punished. It also allowed Jews the freedom to buy and sell merchandise just as a Christian could.

The charter even included some items that we only wish were being enforced today, especially in France and New York City:

"If a Christian should attack a Jew, the Christian shall be punished as required by the laws of this land."

"We affirm that if any Jew cry out in the night as a result of violence done to him, and if his Christian neighbors fail to respond to his cries and do not bring the necessary help, they shall be fined."

Of course, King Boleslav was not the only one to see the benefit of having Jews in his country, especially for the economy. He was, however, the most successful. The Polish leaders who came after him followed his example to the extent that by the middle of the 16th century, 80% of world Jewry lived in Poland.

Now, invitations and gestures of friendship are again being offered, to Jews in general -- and to Israel in particular.

From Arab countries, no less.
And for a variety of reasons.

According to The Economist, The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews. And it is not solely based on fear of Iran on the one hand, or on economic benefits on the other, though of course that is part of it. Other reasons given are:
o Failure of radical Islamism has led to a rethinking of attitudes
o The need to modernize
o The Palestinian issue is no longer central to how they think of Israel
o Israel/Jews as a model for success
o There is a new generation of Arabs who didn't live through the Arab Israel wars of the last century
o Israel as a key to better relations with West

In Saudi Arabia, Muhammad bin Salman -- the crown prince of Saudi Arabia -- may not be ready to follow the example of the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in joining the Abraham Accords, but he is taking measures to attract Jewish tourists. Towards that end, he has sponsored archaeological digs at Jewish sites. Bin Salman is also planning a $500 billion high-tech city to be called Neom, on the northwest coast -- the location intended to attract Israeli expertise. Meanwhile, last year an Israeli opened Habitas, a luxury hotel in Al Ula.

The changes in Saudi Arabia seem to go beyond external projects.

Not only are Jews being welcomed into Saudi Arabia -- Israelis are too, though only if they have a foreign passport. Hebrew is spoken at fairs and festivals. Antisemitic statements about Jews are being removed from textbooks. There is even an Israeli rabbi, Jacob Herzog, who often visits the Saudi capital, where he can be seen in public, dressed as an Orthodox Jew and handing out prayer books.

Rabbi Herzog's comment on all this is interesting. He says:

Jews used to be afraid of saying they were Jews in the kingdom. Now we’re getting embedded.

Contrast that with the situation Jews find themselves in today in the US and Europe.

In 2019, Germany’s commissioner on anti-Semitism, Felix Klein, said, "I cannot advise Jews to wear the kippah everywhere all the time in Germany."

That same year, an American Jewish Committee survey showed that nearly a third of American Jews were afraid of publicly wearing anything that would indicate they were Jewish, because of rising antisemitism. Attacks on Jews have only reinforced that fear.

In 2016, Tzvi Amar, the president of the local office of the French Jewish community’s organization responsible for religious services told Le Figaro that Jews should “remove the kippah during these troubled times” because “the preservation of life is sacrosanct.” The situation in France since then has only gotten worse.

Last year, it was predicted that 2021 would be the worst year on record for antisemitism in the UK

Yet of all places, there are now Arab countries where Jews are openly welcome and can walk there without fear.

As Middle East commentator Tom Gross put it:

I’ve witnessed far more hostility towards Israel among leftists in London and Paris and by some European-born Muslims, than people I have got to know who actually live in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Iraq.

This move towards welcoming Jews is not limited to just the Gulf states.

The Economist also reports that in Egypt, al-Sisi is renovating Jewish cemeteries after having renovated the 14th-century Eliyahu Hanavi synagogue in Alexandria, which at one time was the largest synagogue in the Arab world.

And in Syria, Assad is not only restoring synagogues -- he reached out last year to the Syrian Jewish community in New York and hosted a delegation of 12 Syrian Jews in Damascus. No one is fooled that Assad's motives are altruistic.

According to David Lesch of Trinity University in Texas:

Syria is engaging with its Jewish exiles in order to buff up its image as a protector of religious minorities and to connect with communities who might possibly give it some political leverage in Washington at a time when it has very little of it.

It is a motive that might entice other Arab countries to welcome Jews and maybe even join the Abraham Accords, assuming Biden makes it worth their while to seek leverage with the current administration.

But there is the flip side -- the effect that this welcoming attitude in the Arab world is having on Israel.

According to The Economist, this is an opportunity for Mizrahi Jews in Israel who feel marginalized because of a larger focus on European Jewish history. The Abraham Accords provides an opportunity to travel to Morocco and the UAE, and maybe even to move there.

But more than that:

Those who stay put are more open about their heritage. In contrast to their grandparents, who listened to Umm Kulthum, an Egyptian diva, in secret, young Mizrahim blast Arabic music in public. In 2015 three sisters of Yemenite origin released Israel’s first Arabic chart-topper. “Coldness is turning to curiosity about the region,” says Liel Maghen, who runs the Centre for Regional Initiatives, a think-tank in Jerusalem. “There’s an Arabisation of Israeli culture.” [emphasis added]

What Maghen means by 'Arabisation' is not clear. Nor is it clear what the implications are. 

While The Economist says that Maghen runs the 'Centre for Regional Initiatives', actually the organization's full name is the Israel Palestine Center for Regional Initiatives. While one popular view of the Abraham Accords is that it may help Arab Israelis similarly develop a more positive view of Israel, Maghen might be hinting at developments in the other direction, of Israeli Jews becoming more sympathetic and open to Israeli Arabs, and to the Palestinian Arabs as well. And not necessarily that the Accords are only something that will leave Palestinian Arabs isolated. 

And yet with all the positives in the Abraham Accords and the varied reasons for its success, there is the matter of Jewish history.

Because for all the invitations to Jews over the centuries, there were also the expulsions.

the Jews were expelled from England (1290)
o  the Jews were expelled from France (1306 and 1394)
o  the Jews were expelled from Hungary (1349 and 1360)
o  the Jews were expelled from German states (1348 and 1498)
o  the Jews were expelled from Austria (1421)
o  the Jews were expelled from Lithuania (1445 and 1495)
o  the Jews were expelled from Spain (1492)
o  the Jews were expelled from Portugal (1497)

Following the expulsion from Spain, many Jews found new homes within the Ottoman Empire.

But that didn't last forever. 

After all, the title of The Economist article is "The Arab world is re-embracing its Jews." Jews have lived there before in Jewish communities, some that dated back to the time of the Talmud.

Rabbi Spiro's list reminds us, even when Jews were re-invited back, that second invitation sometimes ran out as well.

But for now, it is hard not to be optimistic.








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