Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, August 26, 2022

08/26 Links Pt1: Phillips: Apoplexy greets Israel’s move against terror NGOs; UNRWA says it faces existential threat as UN prepares to renew mandate; Palestinian brutality funded by Britain

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Apoplexy greets Israel’s move against terror NGOs

So “human rights” NGOs are a key weapon in the diplomatic and political war of attrition aimed at Israel’s destruction. That’s why Human Rights Watch is intimately involved in the Pillay commission set up by the United Nations as a kangaroo court to declare Israel a supreme violator of human rights.

And that’s why a letter disseminated by Human Rights Watch and signed by ten like-minded groups called the Israeli action “an assault on the basic human rights of Palestinians to assemble and organize freely and an example of the Israeli government’s weaponization of ‘counterterrorism laws’ in its relentless attacks against civil society activists.”

Thus much was entirely predictable. But the reaction of the Biden administration raises additional questions.

For unlike the European Union, the United States hasn’t funded any of the NGOs in question. So although it hasn’t actually repudiated Israel’s claims, why has it called into question Israeli intelligence?

The president of NGO Monitor, Professor Gerald Steinberg, offers two reasons. The groups in question, he says, are heroes to progressive Democrats for championing “human rights” against Israel. To acknowledge the reality would create a major backlash from those for whom the Palestinians can do no wrong and Israel can do no right.

Moreover, in the diplomatic realm, the Biden administration needs European cooperation on a number of global issues. Ukraine, China and Iran are obvious examples. “There is nothing to be gained by being caught between Israel and Europe on the ostensibly minor issue of partnerships with Palestinian NGOs,” Steinberg told me.

This last point accords with Blinken’s own response to the row over the NGOs. The Guardian reported: “According to a federal government source, Blinken has shied away from the issue of the designations since Israel announced them. ‘The secretary himself said basically: this isn’t something we want to touch too much.’ ”

This sheds an intriguing light on the Biden administration’s attitude towards Israel—for it shows that America cannot act alone. It needs European support.

To grasp the significance of this, try turning it around. Suppose the E.U. countries were passionate supporters of Israel and determined to call a halt to Palestinian violence and blackmail. Suppose they reacted to Israel’s blacklist by cutting off all European aid to these NGOs and denouncing their abuse of human-rights culture.

In those circumstances, the Biden administration would feel unable to cast doubt on Israeli intelligence. It would also find it far less easy to side with and empower Israel’s enemies in Ramallah—or in Tehran, as it is now doing.

In reality, the E.U. funds many groups that operate against Israel in the diplomatic sphere, as well as helping fund illegal Arab settlements in the disputed territories and in the Negev.

Just as those trying to resist evil are disempowered if they find themselves acting alone, so too those perpetrating evil can only succeed if others support them.

In their animus against Israel, the Biden administration and the countries of Western Europe draw sustenance from each other. That’s the poisonous nest that was revealed when Israeli forces in Ramallah last week lifted the stone.

EU's reverence for the PA: Old habits die hard

THE ISRAELI government and real human rights organizations like NGO Monitor clearly have demonstrated that the outlawed groups “constitute a network of organizations active undercover on the international front on behalf of the PFLP to support its activity and to further its goals.”

The foreign government funding received by these groups has been utilized to pay “martyr” wages for activists, for PFLP activity in Jerusalem, and for distribution of the organization’s messages and ideology. And there are at least 70 Palestinian staff and board members who hold positions in both the NGOs and the PFLP.

Just one example: The 50-person strong PFLP terror cell responsible for the murder of 17-year-old Rina Shnerb, among others, included numerous members of these same government-funded NGOs. For instance, UAWC’s “accountant,” Samir Irbid, was responsible for commanding the PFLP terror cell that carried out the bombing.

It is therefore both laughable and intolerable that European governments are decrying the Israeli decision to designate the groups as terrorist supporters. European politicians and government bureaucrats have known for years that the six organizations have links to the PFLP terror group.

The even worse dirty European secret is that these groups, whether you might consider them “terrorist-supporting” or not, are the worst anti-Israel actors, who have vehemently attacked Israel, every minute of the day, as an “apartheid state,” “war criminal enterprise,” and “illegal entity” going back to 1948. It’s clear that they seek the complete dissolution of Israel. That, of course, hasn’t stopped the EU from investing heavily in them.

Overall, the European behavior described above – insolence toward Israel alongside reverence for Palestinians – explains why Palestinian leaders do not understand that they will have to compromise to reach an agreement with Israel. On the contrary. The Palestinians can safely assume that their demand for a state on the 1967 lines (or thereabouts) is absolute “revealed truth,” and in the meantime, they can rely on the EU to isolate, vilify, boycott and criminalize Israel.

Meanwhile, dictating impatiently to Israel is in vogue. Therefore, for example, the EU is single-mindedly determined to put a stop to the real fronts of radicalism – like EU scholarships for Hebrew University students who live in Efrat or Ma’aleh Adumim. After all, these students, and their professors (who might also, God forbid, live in the Old City of “oPt” Jerusalem), are the more salient threats to peace in the region.

The EU is perfectly happy to continue lavishing funds on the most anti-Israel “human rights” groups like the seven listed above, but EU commissars are determined not to indirectly fund any more scientific research or to abet productive commercial activity by Israelis who live or work over the Green Line. They won’t allow wine or plastic chairs produced in Judea and Samaria to be sold in Paris or Brussels without a yellow star of Jewish “occupation” opprobrium.

In the warped weltanschauung of the European Union, it is logical to diss Israel – in 20-person-strong ambassadorial mobs up in Jerusalem – while coddling the Palestinians. Old habits, it seems, die hard. European countries have a historic knack for judging Jews, restricting Jews to specific pales of settlement, and labeling them – while lauding their enemies.

Palestinian brutality funded by Britain

Palestinian thugs who beat a leading critic of Mahmoud Abbas’s regime to death were members of a security force trained by the British Army at taxpayer’s expense, a JC investigation has revealed.

Fourteen members of the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Organisation (PSO) were caught on CCTV kidnapping human rights campaigner Nizar Banat in June 2021, in footage obtained in full by the JC.

3.17am: Thugs from the Palestinian Authority’s Preventive Security Organisation arrive at the flat where political activist Nizar Banat has been staying. They break in using a hammer and a crowbar

The aspiring politician was targeted after he highlighted the corruption of the Palestinian leadership on Facebook and other platforms. The footage shows them bundling him into a car and later carrying his partly-clothed body into their security headquarters.

Britain has been training and supporting Abbas’s security services since 2011 at a cost of more than £65 million to the taxpayer, raising serious questions about Whitehall’s judgment.

3.22am: Banat is badly injured from hammer blows and pepper spray. Security men bundle him into the back of a stolen VW Polo with his hands cuffed behind his back. Later an official will claim he ‘deserved to die’

Palestinian activists have accused the UK of turning a blind eye to the systematic use of torture and widespread human rights abuse on the West Bank.

Diala Ayesh, a human rights lawyer and friend of the victim — who has herself been beaten and sexually abused by PA thugs — said:

“You [British] say you support human rights, but when I see the atrocities the PA is creating, I say you must stop paying your money. This isn’t just on my country. It’s on yours.”

By Daled Amos

Ben & Jerry's was in the news again this week, as a federal judge rejected their attempt to prevent their parent company, Unilever, from allowing their ice cream from being sold in Judea and Samaria -- or as Ben & Jerry's prefers to call it: "Occupied Palestinian Territory."

Just a little over a year ago, they formally joined the BDS movement when the company announced they would no longer sell their ice cream in the West Bank.

Just last month, Ben & Jerry's found themselves accused of being hypocrites for claiming it was inconsistent with their values for their ice cream to be sold "on occupied land" while they themselves based their headquarters on tribal Indian land -- according to a letter signed by over a thousand Israeli students and academics affiliated with Students for Justice in America, with the support of Shurat HaDin.

The New York Post covered the story: Israeli students accuse Ben & Jerry's of occupying tribal land:

Israeli students claim that ice cream maker Ben & Jerry’s is “illegally” occupying land in Vermont that once belonged to a Abenaki native American tribe and should practice what it preaches and immediately evacuate the properties.

...“We have concluded that your company’s occupation of the Abenaki lands is illegal and we believe it is wholly inconsistent with the stated values that Ben & Jerry’s purports to maintain. Ironically, in July of the last year you announced that you would discontinue the sale of your products in Israel because you object to the Jewish State allegedly occupying Palestinian territories,” the letter to B&J’s chairperson, Anuradha Mittal said.

This double standard had already been noticed just a few days after Ben & Jerry's original announcement last year, by lawyer Stephen Flatow:

Ever hear of the Abenaki Tribe?

Neither did I, until the Ben & Jerry’s ice cream company this week started accusing Jews of illegally occupying other people’s territory, and I got curious about whose territory Ben & Jerry’s is occupying.

After all, if you’re going to go around calling other people “occupiers,” well, you better not be an “occupier” yourself, right? I mean, wouldn’t that be just the height of hypocrisy?

Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield launched their business empire in 1978 by setting up an ice cream parlor in Burlington, Vermont. Today, the headquarters of their multi-billion-dollar enterprise is located in South Burlington.

It’s a safe bet that neither Ben nor Jerry ever asked permission from the territory’s original inhabitants. Like most white, imperialist, colonialist settlers, they just moved in and did what they wanted, the natives be damned.

The natives, in this case, were the Abenakis, a proud, peaceful group of indigenous tribes who had been living in that part of the country since forever... [emphasis added]

Yet not everyone had ignored the issue of the Abenaki's rightful place on the land. Legal Insurrection notes that just 3 miles from the Ben & Jerry's headquarters in Burlington, Vermont, the University of Vermont features a land acknowledgment on their site that -- unlike Ben & Jerry's -- formally recognizes the history of the Abenaki and their historical connection to the land:

The UVM HESA Program acknowledges that the University of Vermont rests upon the traditional territory of the original inhabitants of this land – the Abenaki people – and the State of Vermont now occupies the lands of the Mahican and Pennacook tribes. We acknowledge that Indigenous Peoples were forced to leave Vermont during the 1600’s, and eastern tribes were displaced by colonial expansion.

The university goes on to note records indicating that in addition to efforts to force them off their land, during the early 20th century, the Abenaki were also subjected to forced pregnancy terminations and more than 3,400 of them were sterilized. They faced attempts to physically reduce their numbers, the kind of physical threats that Jews too have faced in their history.

As Jeff Benay testified in 2010, during testimony for recognition of the Abenaki by the state of Vermont:

As noted by the National Trust for Historic Preservation, “The Vermont Eugenics Survey of 1925 and the sterilization law of 1931, which were intended to anglicize the state’s population, identified the Abenaki as undesirable – along with Catholics, such as French Canadians, Irish, and Italians; Jews, the poor; the mentally ill; and criminals.”

Interestingly, Benay notes that while the tribe was recognized by the state governor in 1976, it was rescinded the following year by the next governor.

The reason?

The new governor said that he could not give recognition to a “sovereign nation within a sovereign state” -- a problem that Jews are very familiar with over the centuries, having been told that they could not be fully accepted because they constituted "a people within a people."

Another parallel between the Abenaki and Jews is the attempt to rob each of their history. One of the hurdles placed in the way of the Abenaki was meeting the Federal definition of "tribe" before they could be recognized as indigenous. According to the Federal government, they had to prove that they were an autonomous and existing entity since colonial times -- a test that the Abenaki could not pass to the government's satisfaction.

As Abenaki activist Fred Wiseman put it:

They said the Abenakis were genetic, political, and cultural fakes.

How often have we seen antisemitic attacks accusing Jews of something similar -- of being descended from Khazars or of having no historical and cultural connection to the land Israel?

Apparently, during the American Revolution, the Abenaki retreated north into Quebec, to the extent that 2 centuries later they “were indistinguishable from the general population in Vermont.” In other words, their skin color was white. Not only could they not be visibly identifiable as Indians, they also hid their Indian identity from the Census Bureau.

Again, a point of comparison:

It’s happened before. In 15th Century Spain, Jews converted to avoid getting burned at the stake, lived outwardly Christian lives, but secretly observed Jewish rituals at home.

Wiseman sums up the situation that the Abenaki face:

Whatever happens, the Abenaki will once again be defined by others. Indians don’t have the right to self-identify. We have to be recognized by white people.

This again is a situation that Jews are very familiar with, where others get to define what can be considered antisemitism, antisemites lecture us about what Zionism is and international agencies assume the authority to give our cultural heritage away to others.

Ultimately, what ties the Abenaki and Jews together is that they are both indigenous peoples, born in their respective lands with historical and cultural ties to it.

And both have struggled to return to their land and have their connection to it recognized.

In this, the Jews have been extraordinarily successful after thousands of years. And that is a problem for some.

According to the UNHCR Resettlement Handbook:

Indigenous groups are descendants of the peoples who inhabited land or territory prior to colonization or the establishment of state borders. They often have strong attachment to their ancestral lands and natural resources, an attribute that can distinguish them from other minority groups. They may also have distinct social, economic and political systems, languages, cultures and beliefs. Their right to self-determination has frequently been impeded by subsequent migration of other ethnic groups into the territory where they reside.

Indigeneity is defined, in part, in the context of colonization. That may be helpful to the Abenaki, but in the case of the re-establishment of Israel, enemies of the Jewish State accuse Jews of being the colonists. Yet the distinct social, political, language, culture and belief systems of the Palestinian Arabs originate in Arabia -- and are not indigenous to Judea.

But because the definition of indigeneity is made in the context of being a victim of colonialism, the history of the Arab invasion and conquest of the land is forgotten and they are held up as the native population in the face of the return of Jews to their home.

The world is just not ready for indigenous populations that successfully re-establish their home.

Ben & Jerry's can glibly explain to an interviewer the rightness of their refusing to sell their ice cream in Judea and Samaria, but when challenged as to why they sell their ice cream to areas in the US where there are problems with human rights issues -- the 2 men are totally dumbfounded:

It seems likely that Ben & Jerry's will not be recognizing the indigenous rights of either the Abenaki nor of Jews in the near future.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

On Thursday, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini gave a statement to the UN Security Council saying, as the agency has said every year for decades, that it is in existential danger.

There is plenty UNRWA can do to cut costs, though.

For example, it can close nearly all of its operations in Jordan, with some 2 million so-called refugees. The vast majority of them are Jordanian citizens, and UNRWA has never explained why it is needed to provide services like schooling and free medical care to people who are full citizens of Jordan, and who are not refugees by any definition. Why should Palestinian children in Jordan attend different schools from other Jordanians? Why should they get free housing in "camps" when they have the same opportunities as other Jordanians?

The UNRWA recipients who live in the West Bank and Gaza are not refugees either - after all, they live in the areas of British Mandate Palestine. To call the descendants of those who left from the pre-1967 borders of Israel "refugees" is insane, but it is even crazier to consider them "internally displaced persons" after 73 years. They are citizens of "The State of Palestine." They have passports recognized by most countries. They should be taken care of by their own governments of the Palestinian Authority and Hamas; there is no reason for UNRWA to exist there.

Lazzarini touched upon how UNRWA's Lebanon "refugees" are emigrating to Europe. What he didn't mention is that most of the "registered refugees" have already left, but UNRWA still counts them as people they are helping. UNRWA claims to be helping 479,000 "refugees" in Lebanon, when the actual number is 300,000 less. Hundreds of thousands of UNRWA "registered refugees" live in Europe or the US but UNRWA still claims them as their own. This would be considered a scandal for any other publicly funded institution.

Also left unsaid is why the UN is responsible for the education, housing and medical care of Palestinians - but no other groups. They spout slogans to justify their existence like "Education is a right" - but why does the world have to pay for that right for Palestinians and not for suffering people anywhere else?

Lazzarini did mention the people like me who point out these issues and topics that he avoids answering. "Coordinated campaigns to delegitimize UNRWA with a view to erode the rights of Palestine refugees are increasing in frequency and in maliciousness," he told the Security Council. I didn't know that the many critics of UNRWA throughout the decades were part of a "coordinated campaign." This is Elders of Zion-level conspiracy thinking.

Lazzarini also said, "Shifting geopolitical priorities, shifting regional dynamics, and the emergence of new humanitarian crises have deprioritized the Israeli- Palestinian conflict." In plain English, this means that even though the world has much bigger problems and crises to deal with, it must prioritize Palestinians above all of them - because if they were given the priority commensurate with their actual importance, the UNRWA budget would plummet.

And that is the key issue. UNRWA's existence implies that Palestinian "refugees" are more important, more desperate, needier, poorer, and hungrier than any other refugees and any current victims of war. By any objective measure, they are in better shape than the citizens of many poor countries. The vast majority do not meet the definition of "refugee" in the Refugee Convention.

UNRWA was created to be a temporary agency. Lazzarini's appeal is to ensure that it remains permanent, and that it continues to grow unimpeded, forever.

It is up to the world that created UNRWA to create a plan to phase it out.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Abbas declares a state of emergency for Covid, which hasn't been a problem at all. No one questions him.

From the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

President Mahmoud Abbas today declared a 30-day state of emergency in Palestine to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.

The state of emergency was first declared in March 2020 after the discovery of the first cases of coronavirus in the Palestinian territories.

The state of emergency gives the government the power to act in any way it deems necessary to combat the pandemic.

I have not seen any articles about a new wave of Covid-19 in the West Bank. There has been a slight uptick in the last couple of weeks, but the rate is way below Israel's. At its recent peak there have been two deaths a week.

As far as I can tell, he is not automatically extending an old state of emergency every 30 days. According to Xinhua:

The state of emergency was first declared in March 2020 after the discovery of the first coronavirus cases in the Palestinian territories. It was last extended or re-declared in January this year, local media reported.

Under the state of emergency, the government is empowered to take any step it deems necessary to fight the pandemic.

I cannot find a single Palestinian news site that questioned this announcement. They just parroted it. They didn't even elaborate on it, showing a rise in cases or in deaths.

And on Mahmoud Abbas' Facebook page, the announcement was greeted with Soviet-style unanimous praise for his great insight and wisdom:

If there was a free press, people would be asking questions why Abbas just added emergency powers on top of his already dictatorial powers over the executive, judicial and legislative branches of Palestinian government.

World leaders and media still treat the Palestinian president and his government as if they are rational leaders. If anyone would read their own media and government websites for a couple of weeks with a critical eye, the levels of dysfunction would be obvious. And there is something very rotten about this "state of emergency."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/25 Links Pt2: The Mass Appeal of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ Persists; Anti-Israel journalists cover up the Palestinians’ murder of numerous Americans

From Ian:

Anti-Israel journalists cover up the Palestinians’ murder of numerous Americans

Who are the primary victims of the bloodlust supposedly uncovered by The Intercept and Le Monde?

One is Rachel Corrie, a young woman originally from Olympia, Washington who died in 2003. The other is Shireen Abu Akleh, a Palestinian journalist who obtained U.S. citizenship through relatives in New Jersey. She was fatally wounded by gunfire in May.

But Israel did not dispatch agents to Washington and New Jersey to kill these two women. Nor did Israelis conspire to harm them at all.

Corrie was killed after journeying to the Gaza Strip as an anti-Israel activist. She was hit by an Israeli bulldozer that was demolishing structures near the Egyptian border. It was doing so as part of an effort to stop the smuggling of weapons to Palestinian jihadists who explicitly seek Israel’s destruction. Corrie was affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, a self-declared “non-violent” Palestinian-led group that endorses “legitimate armed struggle”—that is, terrorism—against Israel. According to an ISM witness’s own account, Corrie approached the military bulldozer, climbed onto it, fell off and was then dragged by its shovel, which caused mortal injuries.

Akleh was killed in Jenin in Judea/Samaria. An Al Jazeera correspondent, she was there to cover an Israeli counterterrorism raid that followed a wave of gruesome Palestinian attacks that murdered 19 people across Israel. When Israeli security forces attempted to apprehend Palestinian suspects, a fierce gun battle erupted and Akleh was fatally wounded. Al Jazeera, a Qatari state-owned network whose funders do not recognize Israel, asserted immediately that “Israeli occupation forces assassinated” Akleh while she was “covering their brutality.” However, there was no proof that the bullet came from the Israelis’ position, let alone that Akleh’s death was intentional. Palestinian leaders refused to share physical evidence with Israel or conduct a joint investigation.

Of course, neither the actions nor the personal politics of Rachel Corrie or Shireen Abu Akleh dispel the tragedy of their deaths. But to suggest that their demise indicates calculated, systemic Israeli malice towards Americans is absurd. On the contrary, Israel has every reason to prevent such deaths, as it knows very well that they will be exploited to maim Israel politically. Israel expressed sadness over Corrie’s demise and left the questions surrounding Abu Akleh’s death to be answered by a full investigation.

What Speri and Filiu ignore is as significant as their wild accusations. Put simply, they engage in the wholesale omission of American victims of brutal and deliberate Palestinian violence.

Over the three decades since Israel gave the Palestinians autonomy, which eventually included a complete Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, some 60 Americans have lost their lives to Palestinian terrorism. Here are some of their names:
Koby Mandell, 13, was stoned to death.
Malki Roth, 15, was killed in a suicide bombing in a pizzeria.
Nachshon Wachsman, 19, was taken hostage and then shot dead.
Naftali Fraenkel, 16, was kidnapped while hitchhiking and killed.
Hannah Rogen, 92, died in a bombing of a Passover seder.
Rabbi Moshe Twersky, 59, was killed in a hacking and shooting attack on a synagogue.
Marla Bennett, 24, died in a bombing of a Hebrew University cafeteria. I was a student there at the time.
Kristine Luken, 44, a Christian, was bound and fatally stabbed during a hike.
Hallel Yaffa Ariel, 13, was stabbed to death in her own bed.
Chaya Zissel Braun died in a car-ramming attack. She was just three months old.

During the time these atrocities took place, the Palestinians received more than $6.3 billion in U.S. aid. Yet Palestinian leaders continue to be implicated in endemic, shocking glorification of violence, and they officially dispense payments to those found guilty of terrorism.

Each victim of these attacks had a past, a stolen future and a grieving family left behind.

Will The Intercept and Le Monde speak their names? Or do their lives—and the Palestinian atrocities that took them—not matter?

No less than governments, journalists must be held accountable. Truth isn’t pursued with one eye closed.

You can't fight antisemitism while ignoring its supporters on the Left

Jews face threats from numerous directions. Unfortunately, viewers may be left with the impression that the far Right is dangerous, the far Left makes unpleasant comments, and any other threats are vague. For the sake of American Jews’ safety, though, a comprehensive threat overview is necessary.

Viewers saw a picture from the Tree of Life synagogue, where 11 Jews were massacred in October 2018, and watched the shooter from the April 2019 Poway Chabad attack play piano — both of those men identified with the far Right. However, that’s not always the case.

There was no mention of the Black Hebrew Israelite influence on the attackers who killed Jews in Jersey City, New Jersey, or Monsey, New York, in 2019. While the January 2022 Colleyville, Texas, synagogue attack was spotlighted and the deputy director of the FBI mentioned the hostage-taker's interest in freeing a convicted al Qaeda terrorist, his Islamist ideology was not made explicit. There was no discussion of the attacks on New York’s visible Jews or increased anti-Zionist attacks on Jews walking to a pro-Israel rally or eating sushi in May 2021.

The special did rightly reference the trope of Jews as disease vectors, pointing to Orthodox Jews being blamed for spreading COVID-19 in 2020. This narrative was irresponsibly furthered by New York City’s mayor, who tweeted about breaking up a Jewish funeral and locked playgrounds in Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods, while New York’s governor appeared to lie to Jewish leaders about gathering limits and blasted an Orthodox Jewish community over a wedding. However, this wasn’t new. New York’s Orthodox Jews were also blamed for measles in 2019.

The special also zoomed in on social media’s fueling of antisemitism. However, a cited investigation focused overwhelmingly on user reports of far-right antisemitism, which were almost entirely ignored. Reality is undoubtedly uglier.

Bash's comment that "experts across the board caution antisemitism is growing on the Left, but it is not equivalent to hate from the Right” was unhelpful. Antisemitism is a problem on the Left. Debating whether the far Right or the far Left is “worse” is a waste of time — both pose dangers to American Jews. Given how heavily featured the far Right was, though, it’s worth remembering that America's society already stigmatizes the far Right, but the far Left is culturally embedded. Further, given how many Jews live in Blue America, most Jews in the United States are more likely to encounter problems from the far Left.

Finally, education was offered as an antidote to antisemitism. Yet, there were no specifics for those interested in learning more. This was a missed opportunity. Beyond offering a list of organizations fighting antisemitism on campus and in the country at large and a reading list, viewers should have been directed to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance's definition of antisemitism. If well-intentioned people can’t recognize antisemitism, there’s no way they can help combat it.

Rest Of Mideast Kind Of Jealous Ben-Gvir Wants To Send Only Palestinians To Europe (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Rest Of Mideast Kind Of Jealous Ben-Gvir Wants To Send Only Palestinians To Europe

Itamar ben-Gvir Amman, August 25 - A controversial, discriminatory proposal by a far-right Israeli lawmaker piqued interest in the wider region this week, and caused many to wonder why only disloyal Arabs living under Israeli rule would get deported to an area with one of the highest standards of living in the world, while the rest of the Middle East's population remains under oppressive control of corrupt dictatorships.

Otzma Yehudit Party Chairman Itamar Ben-Gvir continued his career of provocative, ultranationalist rhetoric in the leadup to November parliamentary elections, with a repeated promise to voters last week that he will make the party's joining any government conditional on passage of a law mandating expulsion to Europe of any non-Jews in Israel and the territories it controls who act against the principle of Israel as the nation-state of the Jews. Ben-Gvir's proposal makes no such demand regarding Jewish Israelis who engage in anti-Arab violence, prompting familiar accusations of racism against him. In the wider region, however, the response has featured a more circumspect, even envious, tone, with many in Lebanon, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq, Yemen, and elsewhere wondering why they must suffer where they are simply because Israel lacks the means and authority to deport them to Europe.

"Palestinians get all the luck," lamented a Damascus resident. "Not only do millions of them get refugee status in perpetuity - which refugees from no other conflict ever got - they have an easy one-way ticket to Europe. My family has to risk lives and give up everything we own just to arrange for smugglers to try to get us to Europe, and even then it's hazardous and success isn't guaranteed. It just isn't fair."

The nuances of Ben-Gvir's attitude and its subtle departure from that of his late mentor, Rabbi Meir Kahane - who advocated wholesale removal of hostile Arabs, and not merely of those who engaged in violence or worked against Israel's Jewish character - make little difference to the envious Arabs of surrounding states and territories, observers note. "The way Zionism is depicted in general Arab media leaves no room for such distinctions," explained Tarin Fethr, an analyst with Al Jazeera. "In the crudely-crafted Arab narrative of the last century, all Zionists want to dispossess and probably exterminate Arabs. It's the specifics of the current brouhaha that intrigue most of us. We'd kill - I mean, I guess many of us do kill - to get moved to Europe for doing things we'd want to do anyway. Goddamn Palestinians. Not only do they get the most international aid per capita; now they get to ditch this godforsaken desert while we wallow in the same political and social pit as ever."

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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The eagle-eyed Waqf confiscate "Talmudic objects" being "smuggled" to the Temple Mount

Ma'an reports:

The guards of Al-Aqsa Mosque confronted today, Thursday, a settler who stormed Al-Aqsa, along with a candlestick and biblical artifacts.

The settler was among a group of tourists who stormed the mosque through the Mughrabi Gate, and the guards were able to seize him and prevent him from taking pictures in Al-Aqsa.

Here the guard shows off the contraband:

Good to know that the Waqf is protecting Muslims from these terrible weapons.

A reminder: In 2017, two Israeli guards in the Old City were murdered with guns that had been stored on the Temple Mount. So Muslims can bring guns but Jews (or, more likely, Christians) cannot bring a Kabbalistic "sh'viti" diagram meant for meditation.

(h/t Eliyahu who pointed out that Christian tourists buy seven branched menorahs)

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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08/25 Links Pt1: Will Anyone Punish Iran for Its Murderous Campaign?; How the Truth about the Palestinians Is Silenced; Palestinian Textbooks Rife with Holocaust Denial

From Ian:

International Crisis Group: Realigning European Policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict

European policy toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict appears increasingly out of tune with the reality on the ground. A better approach would entail Europe abandoning its permissive approach vis-a-vis the PA leadership and taking steps to check the Palestinian Authority's authoritarian drift, while pushing for conditions that would allow for Palestinian democratic political renewal.

In April 2021, PA President Mahmoud Abbas cancelled what would have been the first Palestinian general elections in 15 years, thus ending any immediate hope of rejuvenating Palestinian leadership.

Europe could hold the PA accountable for its repression, conditioning budget support for the justice and interior ministries, for example, on benchmarks. It could redirect some funds earmarked for the interior ministry to Palestinian civil society, especially human rights watchdogs. It could more decisively put its weight behind Palestinian legislative elections.

Behind closed doors, many European officials admit that the hope for Palestinian statehood is an illusion. While continuing humanitarian and development aid to Palestinians at a level that has declined steadily since 2015, Europe has moved from efforts to build a Palestinian state to attempts at managing an ever-worsening "status quo."

Some European diplomats on the ground want a change of approach involving greater pressure on Israel. However, European leaders balk at the price of revising their bilateral relationship with Israel, especially at a time when the U.S. itself is barely engaged and influential Arab capitals are normalizing ties with Israel.

For powerful EU states like France and Germany, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict's importance pales in comparison to the war in Ukraine and the larger standoff with Russia, which they and others view as existential questions for the continent's security. They see the situation with the Palestinians as contained and not a priority.

How the Truth about the Palestinians Is Silenced

In all areas of Palestinian control, whether under Hamas or the Palestinian Authority, free speech does not exist. Journalists, officials, teachers, doctors, academics, and farmers are all forced to give the same narrative. A Palestinian who dared to speak against their leadership would be threatened, jailed, or tortured. This is the sad reality for millions of Palestinians.

This greatly affects the quality of news that British readers and viewers get from their media regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For many British journalists, a misfire by a terror organization which killed Palestinian children is not a story for them. A few explained to me that their fixers in Gaza would face dangerous consequences if they reported these facts. I can understand their fear of putting a colleague in danger of losing his livelihood or even his life.

British readers who are not exposed to Israeli media know nothing about how their news is being made, or about the terror of the Islamic Jihad and Hamas, or the system of intimidation and violent silencing of journalists. This blindspot over coverage of Palestinian violence is not only denying people from knowing the truth, but it also contributes to blocking any path forward to improving the lives of Israelis and Palestinians and bringing this conflict to an end.

Palestinian Textbooks Rife with Holocaust Denial

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claimed in his doctorate that the Holocaust was nothing more than a "fantastic lie." The textbooks distributed to over a million students in the West Bank are rife with antisemitism, including Holocaust denial. Under Abbas' directive, the Palestinian Education Ministry implemented a comprehensive curriculum reform, with the content in school textbooks becoming significantly more radical compared to previous years.

The reworked educational material now includes calls to Jihad, violence, and incitement against Israel and Jews. Additionally, previous attempts to reach peace with Israel, such as the Oslo Accords, have been deliberately omitted from the new textbooks. The Holocaust was completely omitted from the history books that teach about World War II.

The 1972 Munich Olympics massacre of Israeli athletes by Palestinian terrorists is presented as an example of a legitimate Palestinian struggle. Dalal Mughrabi, who led the attack on an Israeli bus in 1978 that ended with the murder of 38 Israelis - including 13 children - is idolized as a role model in a 5th grade textbook.

Palestinian students also learn that Jews are racists who control the world's money, media and politics. The Jews are characterized as liars and corrupt, and as "enemies of Islam." Some textbooks speak openly of the genocide that is waiting for Jews at the end of days.

Bret Stephens: Will Anyone Punish Iran for Its Murderous Campaign?

The Islamic Republic of Iran did not take responsibility for the August 12 murder attempt on author Salman Rushdie in New York. But Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini's 1989 fatwa against him remains in effect. In 2007, Rushdie reported that every Feb. 14 he receives a "sort of Valentine's card" from Iran recalling its promise to kill him.

On Aug. 10, the Justice Department unveiled criminal charges against Shahram Poursafi, a member of the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, for trying to orchestrate an assassination attempt against former national security adviser John Bolton. It was reported the same day that Iran had put out a $1 million bounty for the murder of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo.

The Islamic Republic has been carrying out a campaign of assassination, kidnapping and intimidation of its critics from its earliest days. Those who argue that Iran was merely responding for wrongs done to it - the 2020 assassination of Maj.-Gen. Qassim Suleimani of the Revolutionary Guards, for instance - have cause and effect backward. Suleimani was targeted after a career spent killing hundreds of Americans, according to the Pentagon.

What signal does it send to Tehran that we will do nothing to punish it, and will continue to negotiate with it, even as it seeks to murder Americans on our own soil, including former senior officials?

Moreover, what do Iran's murderous tentacles reveal about the character of the regime? Advocates of a deal can tell themselves that it will have safeguards to verify compliance. But Iran has found ways to cheat, and the lifting of sanctions will provide it with a financial bonanza that it will immediately put to destructive use.

Today, the PFLP announced it joins the Palestinian Authority in opposition to the Israeli plan to allow Palestinians to travel internationally through the Ramon Airport.

One of its reasons it gave:

The passage of Palestinian citizens through this airport is aimed at striking the communicative and emotional depth with our brotherly people in Jordan, and its goal is also to provide support for the Zionist economy, and to confirm the apartheid policy practiced by the enemy against our people.

You see? Giving Palestinians more options in how to travel, and allowing them to travel from an Israeli airport sitting next to Israeli passengers, is apartheid!

Palestinians on social media have been showing intense interest in using Ramon Airport. They are not at all convinced by the arguments against it given by the Palestinian Authority and other leaders.

One online poll shows 66% were looking forward to traveling via Ramon, while only 29% said that they were against it because of "normalization."

Ramallah Live compared the cost for West Bankers to travel through Jordan with Ramon, and found that the Jordanian fees were triple the cost of Ramon - 180 shekels to 60. This did not include the fees on returning, paying VIP fees the Allenby Bridge to reduce the number of hours of waiting.

On August 16, the Palestinian minister of transportation said, "We will consider imposing procedures and sanctions against travelers through Ramon Airport, and we urge all Palestinians not to use this airport because it does not represent a Palestinian sovereignty."

The Palestinian response on Facebook has been withering, with many pointing out that he personally has a VIP pass to travel through Ben Gurion Airport - why is that not violate Palestinian sovereignty?

There are nearly 10,000 comments like these:

Yes, I swear to God, we hate you
We wish to hear a statement that will benefit the people!!!
With the honor of your sister, shut up and beat yourself up
Spit on you and your authority
You are all illegitimate and your origin is not known, bastards
I swear to God that penalties and procedures must be against the officials who left the people to humiliate on the crossings. I am with the citizen who travels from anywhere to preserve his dignity.

Others point out the awful conditions and humiliation at the Jordanian crossings, asking how travel through Jordan helps "Palestinian sovereignty."

And there is another group of Palestinians who demand to be able to use Ramon Airport: Gazans!

The current plan is to only open it for West Bank Palestinians, but it is closer to Gaza and Gazans would jump at the chance to use that airport rather than try to make it to Cairo, which is very difficult. Some are demanding the right to use Ramon, and given that Israel already vets many of them to work in Israel, this would seem to be a possibility. Commenters there point out the humiliation they go through to even have a chance to travel to Egypt, the ability to fly out of Ramon would be a dream for Gazans. If for no other reason than PR, Israel should consider allowing those who pass security checks to use that airport as well.

Ramon Airport continues to expose the pure hypocrisy of Palestinian and Arab leaders who, for decades, have made decisions for Palestinians and pretend that these decisions are for their own good. In the end, they are only for the good of the self-appointed leaders, and Palestinians suffer.

Israel is treating Palestinians with more respect than their own leaders do, and despite all the anti-Israel propaganda, the people know this very well.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Islamic Jihad is holding a large rally today to celebrate its great victory in the Gaza fighting earlier this month. Here's a video featuring victory music and children with the same kinds of rockets that killed many of their friends:

There's only one problem: Islamic Jihad lost. Badly.

Their military leaders were killed. They didn't convince Hamas to join the fighting. Most Gazans didn't support the fighting, which they understood correctly to be risking Gaza lives only for Islamic Jihad's glory. The prisoners that they claimed Israel would release are still in custody.

Islamic Jihad cannot credibly point to a single accomplishment.

But they don't have to. They just declare victory! And the worse you lose, the louder you claim to have won.

We see a similar dynamic with the recent examples of Arabs withdrawing from sports competitions, or even purposefully losing matches, when they would otherwise be competing with Israelis.

Forfeiting a match is about as far from victory as possible. Quitting instead of competing is the most cowardly thing imaginable. But look how this columnist in Al-Binaa spins it:

There are resistance heroes who did not carry a rifle, did not fire a bullet, and did not undergo military courses, who were able to defeat the arrogant Zionist entity with all its techniques, tools, military arsenals...Youths in sport defeated the Zionist enemy by refusing to confront its representatives, so they became lions and resistance heroes. They may have lost medals , but they won the medal of the nation that crowned them fighters and liberators. With their blows, they brought down the legitimacy of the occupying Zionist entity of Palestine.

No, they just lost.

There is a simple reason for this bizarre twisting of total defeat into massive victory: the Arab honor/shame culture.

Losing is shameful. Losing to weak, dhimmi Jews is unforgivable. Living with this shame is unbearable. Better to fool yourself and claim you won, and try to confidently convince everyone else of your "victory."

There is a secondary benefit of declaring victory after a loss. It is difficult to recruit people to your cause when you are viewed as a loser, but Gaza terror groups never admit defeat. On the contrary, their media is filled with stories about how inevitable and total their ultimate victory over the Jews will be.

As long as Palestinians and their supporters twist reality, and refuse to learn from their mistakes that they deny ever making, Israel has little to worry about.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Hamas-affiliated website Al Resalah features this video.

It shows a very sad Gaza child. He is crying. He is inconsolable. The music is dramatic. What happened to this poor child?

Was his brother killed by the Israelis? Was his father jailed? Is he starving?

Then, the camera pans to what he is crying about....

His large, wall mounted color TV is showing that Manchester United defeated his favorite Liverpool team, and its star Mohamed Salah, 2-1.

Life is so cruel for Gaza kids.

Notice how easy it is to create Pallywood-style propaganda with nothing more than a mobile phone. This is no less absurd than hundreds of similar videos and photos of Gaza children who are prompted to act for the cameras to tug at Western heartstrings.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

08/24 Links Pt2: A defeat for Ben & Jerry's, and all of BDS; PragerU: Is Israel An Apartheid State?; Pot & Kettle: Roger Waters Lashing Out at West’s Banning Russians

From Ian:

A defeat for Ben & Jerry's, and all of BDS

Even when the Arab boycott stronghold was breached in the 1990s, the tools continued to be used by our enemies – now by left-wing organizations and Western countries – which were enthusiastic about embracing the anti-Zionist vision and isolating Israel with fervor that would have put the Nazi campaigns to shame.

For the Left, the outline was clear: to bring an anti-Israel atmosphere into every sphere of life, to ostracize the Jewish state and prepare the ground for the expansion of sanctions against it, all the way to government and international institutions.

Israel was targeted from all directions, and yet, it did nothing. The peak of the wave occurred around the turn of the century, which is no coincidence. The Oslo Accords and the disengagement policies only reinforced the boycott movement. A little bit more effort, the activists believed, and Israel will break.

And they spared no effort: Israeli scientists were excluded from international conferences and projects, international companies cut ties with Israeli tenders, and talks of boycotting corporations and banks that dared invest in Israel became common knowledge.

The trend began to change when Israel and its allies – Jewish communities in the Diaspora, first and foremost – stopped turning the other cheek and began to retaliate against our enemies.

We are beginning to see the fruits of their efforts with the Ben & Jerry affair, a victory that would have been impossible without continuous efforts to spread the truth: that boycotting Israel is antisemitic, and as such, is intolerable and unacceptable.

And yet, the fight is not over. There are still battles against the boycott movement to be fought, but the ice cream precedent is sweeter than ever. Our bravery brought us a victory.

PragerU: Is Israel An Apartheid State?

Does Israel discriminate against Arabs? Is it today's version of apartheid South Africa? Olga Meshoe, herself a South African whose family experienced apartheid, settles the question once and for all.

Life is a supreme Jewish value. So much so that it’s customary to make charitable donations or monetary gifts in multiples of 18: the numerical value of the Hebrew word for life: chai. When we drink in celebration we say, “L’Chaim,” as popularized by the song from Fiddler on the Roof.

We Jews place life on a pedestal not only in times of celebration but in times of mourning too. Anglo-Jews from Britain and communities in the former Commonwealth, for example, are likely to conclude a condolence call with “I wish you long life.”

In Islam, on the other hand, life appears to take a backseat to death. The goriest murders, butchery, death, and suicide seem not to faze Muslims at all. Whereas Jews are preoccupied with life, the Muslim thinks more about death. In a 2004 op-ed, Aspiration not Desperation, Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook detailed the final words of a suicide bomber, describing her joy at the prospect of blowing herself to smithereens.

“I always wanted to be the first woman who sacrifices her life for Allah. My joy will be complete when my body parts fly in all directions.”

These are the words of female suicide terrorist Reem Reyashi, videotaped just before she killed four Israelis and herself two weeks ago in Gaza. What is surprising about this horrific statement is that she put a positive value on her dismemberment and death, distinct from her goal to kill others. She was driven by her aspiration to achieve what the Palestinians call “shahada,” death for Allah. She had two distinct goals: To kill and to be killed. These independent objectives, both positive in her mind, were goals greater than her obligations and emotional ties to her two children. This aspiration to die, which contradicts the basic human instinct for survival, is at the core of the suicide terrorism fervor.

Contrast this with the Jewish concept of dying “al Kidush Hashem,” in sanctification of God’s name. Every Holocaust victim, every Jewish terror victim, is considered to be a holy martyr. But Jews don’t strive for that holy eventuality—we don’t court death for the sake of martyrdom. Which is what all too many Muslims seem to do.

Most people can't stand the sight of blood, but blood doesn't seem to generate the same revulsion in Muslims. Take the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha, which commemorates what we Jews still call the Akedat Yitzchak, the binding of Isaac. The Muslim version, which of course postdates Jewish scripture substitutes “Ibrahim” for Abraham, and “Ismail” for Isaac. Jews remember the Akedah by reciting the story from the Torah before the congregation on the second day of Rosh Hashanah. Muslims, on the other hand, celebrate their version of the story with mass slaughter of livestock. So many animals are killed on this holiday, that in 2016, the streets of Dhaka, Bangladesh ran red with blood.

Dhaka, 2016

In The value of life in the Jewish tradition: Towards understanding Jewish bioethics, written in 2009, Professor Michael Barilan of the Sackler School of Medicine at Tel Aviv University, writes about protecting the ability of animals to procreate and bring new life and what we as humans are supposed to learn from this:

Judaism is possibly the only religion that prohibits all forms of castration. This taboo creates grave challenges to pet owners, modern animal farming and scientific research. However, when one becomes aware of the ubiquity of sterilization in the utilization of animals, one may also appreciate the subtle protest Judaism articulates against the mechanical exploitation of animals. The prohibition on sterilization of animals and humans underscores further the special regard in Judaism to the capacity to generate life. According to Sefer Ha’hinnukh, castration articulates a nihilistic attitude towards life. Contemporary scholarship on Judaism and human rights also interpret God’s admonition “Choose life!” as a call for hope and engagement in worldly life, not as a strict refusal to recognize situations in which loss of life is the more dignified and just course of action.

In regard to shedding blood, Barilan writes,

Ironically, the first prohibition on bloodshed is articulated in terms of the death penalty. “Whoso sheds man’s blood, by man shall his blood be shed, for in the Image of God made he man.”

The Torah does not tell us directly, “do not kill” the way God proscribed eating from the tree of knowledge. From the story on Cain and Abel we learn that this knowledge is self-evident; every person must recognize it naturally.

Many Muslims, apparently do not. There is ample evidence of the Muslim thirst for bloodshed.

As Itamar Marcus and Barbara Crook documented in their aforementioned op-ed, “Palestinian society actively promotes the religious belief that their deity craves their deaths. Note the words of a popular music video directed at children, broadcast hundreds of times on PA TV, which depicts the earth thirsting for the blood of children: ‘How sweet is the fragrance of the shahids, how sweet is the scent of the earth, its thirst quenched by the gush of blood, flowing from the youthful body.’”

Life is so important to Jews that we are allowed to break just about any religious commandment in order to save the life of a human being. Look at that last sentence carefully. There is rabbinical consensus that we are commanded to breach Torah laws not only in order to save Jewish lives, but in order to save the life of any human being in peril.

In Jewish law, human life comes first. We understand how important a man’s life is—any man’s life—by the early mention of the concept in Scripture:

“And God created man in His image, in the image of God He created him.” (Genesis 1:27)

Judaism is life-affirming. Islam, on the other hand, cares little for life, and instead embraces death with a whole heart. More from Marcus and Crook:

PA ideology rejects the value of ‘life’ that other societies hold supreme. As expressed by a senior historian, Professor Issam Sissalem, in a lecture on PA TV: “We are not afraid to die, and do not love life.”

This attitude was echoed by Nidal Malik Hasan in wrapping up a presentation he created for his fellow doctors, two years before he killed thirteen and wounded 29 at Fort Hood: “We love death more than you love life!”

According to the National Post, the sentence originates with “a 7th-century Muslim commander who threatened his enemies with the prospect of ‘an army of men that love death as you love life.’”

The Post then references a 2004 interview with Hezbollah head Hassan Nasrallah. Professor Richard Landes quotes the same interview in Lessons from Kafr Qana:

“We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death.”

Landes, describing Muslim awareness of their own obsession with death, writes:

Even as they deplore it, Arab intellectuals acknowledge the depths of the problem: Wrote Tunisian intellectual Al-Afif Al-Akhdar:

“Why do expressions of tolerance, moderation, rationalism, compromise, and negotiation horrify us [Muslims], but [when we hear] fervent cries for vengeance, we all dance the war dance?… Why do other people love life, while we love death and violence, slaughter and suicide, and [even] call it heroism and martyrdom?”

In Death: a beautiful Gift for a believer (compiled by unknown), the author describes hating death as the provenance only of the “ignorant”:

Hatred towards death and love of the world is the outcome of an ignorant person's mind, who thinks that the happiness of this world is his prosperity and good fortune. The world beset with numerous troubles and anxieties is about to end in misery and does not enjoy eternity, perpetuity and sincerity. A poet has referred to this in the following words - “Do not give your heart to this world, for its example is of an unfaithful bride who has never loved you, even for a night.”

Unknown also writes:

[Hazrat Qasim], the son of [Imam Hasan Al-Mujtaba], when asked concerning death at Karbala, answered: “death to me is sweeter than honey.”

He continues (emphasis added):

Usually, most of the people are alarmed and fearful upon hearing the word `death', and to them, death appears dreadful and terrifying, whereas, according to the Islamic ideology, this terminology or this subject has a different appearance and can be perceived in a different way. Basically it can be said that those who fear death, consider it to be a negative entity.

According to this insight, death is an end of life and a moment of everlasting separation of man with his life. They believe that with death, the compounded substances of the body suffer a breakdown and return to nature and man too, is nothing except this very broken-down body. Hence, with death, everything ends with no hope remaining!

Indeed, with this view and insight, death is darker and more dreadful than every other thing and perhaps, no calamity, pain, sorrow and tragedy can be greater and more painful than the tragedy of death, because death would mean the burial of all the desires, hopes, longings and in short, the termination of all things for man - that man who loved life and eternity very dearly.

Anyway, Islam does not possess such a dark and fear-instilling view of death because according to the Islamic view, death is a positive entity.

The idea of death as a “positive entity” is informative, here--perhaps more than anything else. Jews and incalculable numbers of Muslims stand in diametric opposition to each other when it comes to our most essential and sacred beliefs.

But it is more than that, of course. It’s more than our differing views on life and death, but the gruesomeness of the Muslim culture of death, the horrifying bloodlust that accompanies those beliefs; the nature of the killings; and the lack of even the tiniest drop of the milk of human compassion when choosing their victims.