Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, September 21, 2022

09/21 Links Pt2: Dara Horn: Why Democracies Are So Slow to Respond to Evil; Orthodox Jews say they were excluded from White House hate-crimes summit

From Ian:

Dara Horn: Why Democracies Are So Slow to Respond to Evil

In his new series The U.S. and the Holocaust, the documentarian Ken Burns explores exactly how little America did to help Jews flee Hitler’s Europe before and during World War II. Dara Horn writes in her review:

The question of Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s role in all of this has been fertile ground for historians for decades. Burns has a soft spot for Franklin and Eleanor, the subjects of one of his prior films, and here he treats them with kid gloves, blaming most of the missteps on State Department antagonists. The series makes a point of . . . showing Nazi rallies in New York, clips of the popular anti-Semitic broadcaster Father Charles Coughlin, and colorized footage of a Nazi-themed summer camp in New Jersey. But the film goes out of its way to outline the pros and cons of Roosevelt’s decisions, leaving his reputation intact.

To be clear, Roosevelt is an American icon and deserves to remain one. The problem with this approach is less about Roosevelt (there are plenty of convincing arguments in his favor, not least that he won the war) than about how it contradicts the rest of the film’s premise. The goal of the series is seemingly to reset America’s moral compass, using hindsight to expose the costs of being a bystander. But every bystander, including Roosevelt, can explain his choices. The film’s refusal to judge the commander in chief plays into a larger political pattern: offering generosity only toward those we admire.

The Nazis lost their war against the Allies, but they won their war against the Jews. Judaism survived Nazism, just as it outlived its many other oppressors. But Jewish life in Europe never recovered and almost certainly never will. That is the meaning of genocide.

Standing Tall as IDF Fighters Where Our Families Were Murdered

Shaul and Mina Sterngast, who lived Krakow, had eight children. One of them, Romek, was my grandfather. He caught the Zionist bug, as did some of his siblings, and together they made aliyah to Mandatory Palestine before World War II. The rest of the family stayed in Poland. They were rounded up in the ghetto and then, like the entire community, were murdered in Auschwitz. Their execution at the gas chambers was also the death of humanity, justice, and morality.

I visited the home of my family this week. It still stands. For a moment, I could imagine the kids hurriedly descending the wooden stairs as they headed down to play in the yard or the special aura one would sense when the household's Shabbat preparations got underway.

But it was also easy to imagine how the family members were brutally hit as they were forced down those very stairs. When I entered the main hall in the Auschwitz crematorium, with 16 battalion commanders from the IDF standing next to me, I was overcome with emotion. I know them personally; they represent what's best about Israelis. They decided to dedicate their lives to the most important thing there is. Many had family members who were murdered in the Holocaust, and now – having flown directly from Tel Aviv and their shoes still bearing some dust from the Land of Israel – they stand at the shallowest and darkest place in human history as the spearhead of Israel's defense force.

At the very place where our families became ashes, we now stand tall as armed soldiers; in the very place where our clothes had a yellow Star of David, we now have insignia to mark the operations and wars in which we defeated our enemies - in the distant past or in the present. Each one of the battalion commanders and officers represents unique military power; each one has fought and defended Israel and each one continues to engage in combat and fight the threats facing our country, all the while working to bolster the armed forces.

As we stand in the cabins of death, we feel an increased sense of duty. From here one cannot escape the thought that we have a treasure in Israel – its institutions, its military, and its culture, as well as all of its accomplishments – and that its safeguarding must be of paramount concern.

The real meaning of Never Again. pic.twitter.com/5FcsWom784
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) September 20, 2022

(photo: Aharon Epstein)

Vatikin—the sunrise prayer service—was a revelation. I’d thought about it before—about getting up at the crack of dawn to pray with the faithful on the High Holidays. And the idea held some appeal. I liked the idea that I’d be finished with the endless hours of holiday prayer way before the rest of my family. I’ve always been the sort of person who prefers to get things out of the way.

I pictured it like this: I’d finish davening and be free as a bird. I could see myself in that space, in the afterglow of duty fulfilled. I could wiggle my toes and rest on the cool bed linen to rest until the afternoon meal.

I also just liked imagining myself as someone who rushes to shul to beg for another year from God, the very moment when it becomes possible to do so. I liked seeing myself as a zealot, at least in this matter if not in others. But the idea remained something I toyed with only. Vatikin was for me, a vague temptation, but not an altogether persuasive one. My bed was too comfortable, the hour of departure too dark. I’d stay in bed rather than stumble about and wake everyone, possibly hurting myself in the process of getting to shul on time.

The catch was that a seat in shul costs a hefty sum. And while our 12 kids are now grown, back then, finding a way to seat us all was a serious problem. You would have had to be a millionaire to pay for 14 seats. And so I decided to give the sunrise minyan a try, because the seats at the Vatikin minyan are free.

As it turned out, I liked the Vatikin service for its own sake, irrespective of cost or lack of same. In a Vatikin minyan, every congregant is absorbed in the act of prayer. No one is yawning with boredom or riffling the pages of the mahzor prayer book to see how much longer we have to mumble before we can go home and eat.

Vatikin is a pleasure. It’s prayer without vanity or status. You wear your comfortable shoes because prayer—and not your Manolo Blahniks—are what counts. It's one of the pleasures of Vatikin that begin before you even get to shul. Imagine —if you are of the gender that wears them—not having to walk to shul in heels.

As a child I was a morning person, who liked to greet the sun and the promise of the new day ahead. But the dark was equally enchanting. The night was fireflies blinking in your hands and the hope that our mothers would give us a little longer before calling us in for bedtime. Night was both quiet and loud, with purple-black skies and crickets that were heard but not seen. Now, as an adult, I find that Vatikin holds all of these elements, elements of morning and night.

I have to tell you what it feels like to get up before dawn, when all is dark, and everyone else is fast asleep. You get ready in silence and leave quietly, armed with your supplies—tissues, a scarf for kneeling on, a bottle of water, and a High Holiday prayer book—in a plastic bag slung over the crook of your arm. As you walk out under the glow of the street lamps, you feel caught somewhere between the light and dark, in the hush of your own private world.

As you inch closer to the building designated for the Vatikin service, you see, here and there, others who like you, have ventured out into the silent dark to be first at prayer. One may nod at an acquaintance, but mostly all are quiet, intent on getting to the main task of the day: prayer. Besides, it’s too early to talk.

Once inside the building, we concentrate on the task at hand, heads to our books. And at a point somewhere between the prayers—it always surprises me when it happens—I look up from the page to see through the window that night has become day and I have missed the moment.

Sunup is like that: like a watched pot of water that never boils. You look away for a second, and that’s when it chooses to happen. That’s when light comes to slowly lift the coverlet of night, to peek into the windows of a small room somewhere in the Judean Wilderness. The light rises in company with the voices of a handful of supplicants, raised in prayer.

I have always felt that the in-between times of night and day are different in Israel, where night and day seem to tussle for pride of place. You still hear the dissonant call of the muezzin creeping in through your open bedroom window, even as the dew begins to sparkle on the golden stones of Jerusalem with the first light of dawn.

The light in Israel is big and powerful, the night forcing your gaze upward. As you look up at the stars, you wonder why the hairs on your arms are standing up and if you really belong in this, deserve to be in this: the holiest spot on earth.

These doubts have no place in the Vatikin minyan; there's no oxygen for them to breathe. There's always this moment when the congregation lifts its voice in prayer, and your heart fills, because now you know that you belong here in this room with these people, and the only light that matters is the light that comes from prayer.

Shana Tova to all my readers, their families, and friends.

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!

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!

09/21 Links Pt1: Biden at UNGA: ‘Give the Palestinians State to Which They Are Entitled; Suspected terrorist in killing of woman, 84, found dead after apparent suicide

From Ian:

Biden at UNGA: ‘Give the Palestinians State to Which They Are Entitled

President Joe Biden told world leaders on Wednesday that the US is committed to Israel’s security, “full stop” — but in his next breath advocated for citizens of the Palestinian Authority to be given “the state to which they are entitled.”

In his remarks to the United Nations General Assembly, Biden said, “We will continue to advocate for lasting, negotiated peace between the Jewish and democratic State of Israel and the Palestinian people.

“The United States is committed to Israel’s security, full stop.

“And a negotiated two-state solution remains in our view the best way to ensure Israel’s security and prosperity for the future and give the Palestinians the state to which they are entitled.

“Both sides to fully respect the equal rights of their citizens. Both people enjoying an equal measure of freedom and dignity.”

Biden waited until the final ten minutes of his 81-minute speech to drop that bombshell.

Saudis invite PA, not Israel to UN ministerial meeting on Arab Peace Initiative

Saudi Arabia hosted a closed ministerial meeting at the United Nations on Tuesday marking the 20th anniversary of the proposal of the Arab Peace Initiative, two Arab diplomats confirmed to The Times of Israel.

Representatives from almost every member in the Arab League, including the Palestinians, attended the meeting, while Israel did not receive an invitation. The Saudi Al Arabiya news outlet, which broke the story, said that the US sent Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Barbara Leaf and that the UK and several EU countries were also represented at the evening session.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borell, Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan and Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit addressed the session, Al Arabiya reported.

Ministers are slated to discuss proposals to revive the Israeli-Palestinian peace process based on the Arab Peace Initiative and similar plans, one Arab diplomat told The Times of Israel.

The holding of such a session and its attendance by such senior diplomats from the Middle East, the EU and the US appears to represent a blow to Israeli efforts to dismiss the initiative as an outdated formula for peace.

An Israeli official familiar with the meeting dismissed it as a “low-level initiative,” adding that Israel “was not invited and we will not comment on it.”

Iranian president tells UN that Israel is most ‘savage power’ in Middle East

Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi called Israel a “savage power” and insisted his country’s nuclear program is peaceful in a speech to the United Nations General Assembly on Wednesday.

Raisi further said the US had trampled the 2015 nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers. He also vowed to obtain justice for the US assassination of Qassem Soleimani, a top Iranian general killed by a drone strike in 2020.

“The region has not seen an occupying savage power such as the Zionist regime in its midst in the past,” Raisi said. “The killing of children and women are present in the dark report card of the Zionist regime. It has managed to form the biggest prison in the world in Gaza and the expansion of settlements and housing illegally on Palestinian territories.”

“The killing of Palestinian women and children shows everyone that seven decades of Israeli occupation and savagery is still with us and not ending,” the Iranian president added. “The occupying Zionist power that has occupied Jerusalem and other lands in the region cannot be a partner for security and stability.”

He proposed a vote by all Palestinians — “Muslim, Christians and Jews” — to establish a single state. The suggestion comes in contrast to the two-state solution favored by Western nations and their allied Middle Eastern countries led by Saudi Arabia.

Raisi addressed the UN General Assembly as talks to revive the Iranian nuclear deal approached a take-it-or-leave-it moment.

The reactions - and non-reactions - to the murder of an 84 year old Jewish woman

Yesterday, a Palestinian man stalked and murdered an 84 year old Jewish grandmother in Holon. She was identified as Shulamit Rachel Ovadia.

Israeli security services suspect that it was a terror attack, since nothing was taken from her.

The suspect, Mousa Sarsour from Qalqilya, was found this morning after apparently committing suicide, hanging himself in an abandoned Tel Aviv building. He had a valid work permit in Israel.

When attacks like these happen, the reactions (and non-reactions) from the anti-Israel crowd reveal a great deal.

Palestinian terror groups are happy - but they pointedly do not mention the age of the victim. Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades describes the victim as "a Zionist usurper killed in a commando operation." Palestine Today, associated with Islamic Jihad, called her a "female settler."

More mainstream Palestinian newspapers understand that murdering an elderly lady is not something to be proud of. So they are instead quoting the suspect's family, saying that he suffers psychological problems - but he couldn't have murdered her anyway.

Jewish anti-Zionists who claim to care about human rights become deathly silent when the victim is an elderly Jewish woman. The anger that they show when Israeli forced kill a teen throwing Molotov cocktails evaporates when the Jewish victim did nothing to provoke the attack. Their righteous indignation, ready to ignite on a moment's notice at the death of a Palestinian, is simply nonexistent. I can find nothing in the social media accounts of the anti-Israel activists I follow.

To them, Palestinians are pure good and Zionist Jews are pure evil, and they are so invested in pushing that narrative that they will never say a negative word about a terror attack, no matter how heinous. They will go to rallies to support Rasmea Odeh but do not want you to know the name Shulamit Rachel Ovadia.

One Israeli leftist - Dror Etkes, who heads the Kerem Navot NGO - tries to redirect the conversation to make this about Israeli racism:

The man murdered an 84-year-old woman and then committed suicide. Horrifying and shocking by any measure. The man was not investigated and from what has been published so far, it is not known what his motive is. What's more, it is very uncharacteristic for someone with a nationalistic motive to commit suicide after a murder. But the fact that he was Palestinian and she is Israeli, is also enough for the newspaper Haaretz to call him a "terrorist"

And maybe he was "just" a psychopath?

So that's it, a Palestinian cannot be a psychopath, because if he kills an Israeli, that means he is by definition a "terrorist". I don't know what was the motive behind this horrible act. It seems that even the police and the network do not know. But I do know that there are Palestinians who are "just" psychopaths. By the way, there are also such Jews.

To Etkes, the characterization of a murderer of an 84 year old woman as a terrorist is just evidence of Israeli racism. (He also uses the propaganda method of "sure, the attack is horrifying, but look at how terrible the reaction is!")

His theory might make sense if there were random murders of unrelated Palestinians by Palestinian psychopaths. In general, there are very few reports of anything like that.

Mousa Sarsour went out of his way to kill a Jewish woman in Israel, and even if he did have psychological problems, the reason for choosing a Jew has everything to do with Palestinian antisemitism that is called "nationalism." It has everything to do with the social and monetary benefits in Palestinian society of murdering Jews.

Most terrorists, including suicide bombers, are not entirely sane. To claim (without evidence) that this was just a psychopath is simply another way to justify terror.

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!

Yesterday, I reported that the Palestinian Authority arrested Mosab Shtayyeh, a commander in the Hamss Al-Qassam Brigades, in Nablus.

Coming after Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party has been taking responsibility for terror attacks itself, including attacks by its own security services, this move was simply an attempt to claim that the PA really opposes terror - so Mahmoud Abbas can make that claim ahead of (or within) his annual anti-Israel speech at the UN.

The arrest was also reportedly after intense pressure from the US and Israel for the PA to adhere to its own signed agreements to fight terrorism, not to contribute to it.

In my post, I predicted that by next week, we'll see that this was simply political theatre.

It seems that we don't have to wait for next week.

After massine riots in Nablus and Jenin, in which Palestinian security forces killed one protester, the PA caved to the terrorist supporters who wanted Shtayyeh released. At dawn today, after all-night negotiations with the rioters, reports say that the PA will release Shtayyeh "within a few days."

Conveniently, this will be after Abbas' speech to the UN and after he leaves the US.

The PA is not serious about fighting terror. On the contrary, it supports terror. And it always has.

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!

Arabic media is reporting:

Aram Ezzat, Chairman of the Council of the Jewish Religion in the Kurdistan Region, announced his joining the Islamic religion and pronounced the two testimonies in front of the journalists' lens, stressing that his step is embodied in "striving to obtain God's pleasure and the love of the Noble Messenger."

Ezzat said in a press statement that he informed his Jewish colleagues and friends of his decision and that he handed over the sect's representation to his colleagues to decide to choose his successor after 6 years of holding the position.

He added, "I have other personal reasons, but I have not been subjected to any threat or pressure, and I am not the type who succumbs to threats and everyone knows me."

This story seems bogus.

I cannot find any mention either of Aram Ezzat or of the "Council of the Jewish Religion" in Kurdistan.

The main self-described leader of the Jewish community in Kurdistan is supposedly Sherko Abdallah, according to an AFP article on Jews of Kurdistan from 2020. He was appointed Kurdistan's official Jewish representative.

That article said that many Kurdish Jews converted to Islam under pressure and while some of them practice Judaism in secret there are very few left.

However, according to the National Association of Jews from Kurdistan in Israel, there are absolutely no native Jews left in Kurdistan (and even Abdallah, the official Jewish representative, is not Jewish:)

Currently, there are no Jews remaining in the Kurdistan Region, except for very few expatriates... When Jews were expelled from Kurdistan in the 1950s, the Jews living in Kurdistan left in their entirety. No Jewish family remained. Because of the very close nature of the Jewish communities, this was never under any doubt, as all members knew each other and were closely attached to their community leaders.

Since the 2010s, a new but rare phenomenon has occurred of a small handful of impostors who claim to represent long-lost Jews, usually in order to obtain some personal advantage, solicit money, or get a position. This is dishonest, degrading, and connected to antisemitism. Impostors serve nothing except usurping goodwill toward Jews, by attempting to gain personal benefits through inserting themselves into the public consciousness about the Jews from Kurdistan. Three examples of such impostors are,
- Mr. Sherzad Omar Mamsani and Mr. Sherko Othman Abdullah. Both men defrauded an earlier Kurdistan Region administration into roles as local Jewish representatives, before the National Association renewed efforts to advise on Jewish concerns.
- Mr. Ranjdar Abdulrahman, under the alias “Ranj Cohen”, whose attempts to displace the authentic Kurdish Jewish community’s role in Kurdistan are reprehensible.

It sounds like this Aram Ezzat is not Jewish, but is trying to somehow scam people by saying he was. Apparently, some Kurds believe that either Jews hid money, or that they can claim reparations from Iraq as Jews, and they are claiming to be part of a community that completely disappeared from Kurdistan and Iraq.

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!

09/20 Links Pt2: Shurat Hadin head: ‘80 years after Holocaust, there is a price for Jewish blood’; The Cold, Hard Truth About Ben & Jerry’s; Are all progressive college students anti-Israel?

From Ian:

‘80 years after Holocaust, there is a price for Jewish blood’ - Shurat Hadin head

“80 years after the Holocaust, there is a price for Jewish blood,” Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said Monday at the Jerusalem Post Conference in New York.

To exact a price from terrorists, “the private sector [needs] to take part in this war,” she said, rejecting the idea that fighting terrorism is solely the job of the government and the defense establishment. “The only way to fight terrorism is everyone together – me, you, everyone.”

Speaking on “The Price of Terror” panel along with Stuart Force, father of American terrorism victim Taylor Force, Darshan-Leitner said if you see “a lawless regime, terrorism is on the rise.”

“Shurat Hadin was established to choke off the pipeline of the money of terrorism to make sure no one is killing Jews” and doesn’t pay a price, she said.

“Private people built the State of Israel; private people keep it safe,” she added.

Force talked about how he became involved in the campaign against the Palestinians' “pay for slay” policy, in which the Palestinian Authority pays money to terrorists who have killed Israelis.

“There was a program in place – ‘pay for slay,’” he said. “I knew something had to be done.”

Force said when Darshan-Leitner approached him to file lawsuits, he immediately came onboard.

The Cold, Hard Truth About Ben & Jerry’s

Yet Cohen and Greenfield seem to be suffering from convenient memory loss — and, conspicuously, not one journalist cited the actual text of the agreement negotiated in April 2000.

Unilever’s $326 million acquisition of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc. was the subject of complex negotiations, resulting in a lengthy document regulating both company’s rights and obligations down to the last detail. In point of fact, Richard Goldstein — who, as then-president of Unilever USA, served as the global organization’s chief negotiator — once called it “by far the most unique deal” he was ever involved in.

Under the terms of the sales contract, as published by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, Unilever was given control over the “financial and operational aspects” of Ben & Jerry’s. Meanwhile, the independent board only retained responsibility “with respect to the enhancement of the Social Mission Priorities…of the Company, as they may evolve, and the preservation of the essential integrity of the Ben & Jerry’s brand-name.”

The agreement does not grant the independent board the explicit authority to withdraw Ben & Jerry’s from countries it disagrees with. Schedule 6.14, an addendum to the merger deal that clarifies some of the firm’s social objectives, lists everything from promoting “sustainable agriculture efforts” to continuing “the purchase of non-rBGH milk and cream primarily from Vermont farms,” but — crucially — does not mention geopolitics.

Moreover, the contract limits the board’s discretion within the bounds of “commercial reasonableness.” And one can hardly deny that effectively boycotting a market of 9.2 million consumers impacts the financial and operational aspects of Ben & Jerry’s, especially in light of the massive monetary repercussions Unilever has faced due to counter-boycotts.

At the same time, it is imperative to note that Cohen and Greenfield explicitly agreed to “use commercially reasonable efforts to obtain (at [Ben & Jerry’s] expense) for [Unilever] the right to conduct all facets of the Business in Israel.” Legal experts have pointed out that, “as a matter of contract law, a highly generalized contractual provision giving Ben and Jerry’s board the final say on amorphous ‘social mission priorities’ cannot override a specific and tangible legal commitment to conduct business in Israel.”

This prompts the question: did MSNBC and Mehdi Hasan fail to do their due diligence or are they letting Cohen and Greenfield actively mislead the show’s 443,00 viewers about the Ben & Jerry’s “cone-undrum”?

As HonestReporting detailed in a July 31 piece, Ben & Jerry’s refusal to back down on this issue is indicative of how its board views Israel as uniquely bad, even as the famously “woke” company continues to sell ice cream in the disputed territories of Cyprus and Gibraltar.

Activism vs. Journalism Contrasting the Ben & Jerry Interviews of Mehdi Hasan and Alexi McCammond

NBC News’ biography of Mehdi Hasan claims he is “an award-winning journalist known for riveting one-on-one conversations.” However, Hasan fell far short of “award-winning journalism” during his recent segment interviewing the cofounders of Ben & Jerry’s. This is particularly evident when one contrasts his interview with that of Axios’ Alexi McCammond, who delivered a masterclass while interviewing the same subjects just last year. While the latter handled her interview with a professional focus on getting her subjects to address and dig into the issues, the former seemed focused on preserving his preferred narrative.

Both interviews dealt with Ben & Jerry’s decision to stop selling ice cream in the West Bank, a decision which effectively meant it would stop selling ice cream to the entirety of the Jewish state, not just settlements.

Consider just this portion which Hasan proudly tweeted, when he asks Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield:
“Then a lot of bad faith actors try to claim that not wanting to sell Ben and Jerry’s ice cream in the occupied territories illegally occupied is somehow anti-Jewish antisemitic. As someone yourself who is Jewish but who’s been critical of Israel’s occupation for many years now, what is your response to those critics?”

Putting aside Hasan’s obsession with tokenism and mocking concerns of antisemitism, his question is, professionally speaking, unserious. It begins with Hasan describing Ben & Jerry’s critics as “bad faith actors.” That is, he begins by portraying the story as good faith truth versus bad faith slander. There is then no subsequent genuine effort to unpack the criticisms, explore the arguments, and allow for his audience to get an honest assessment of the competing narratives.

Note that this isn’t for lack of time. Indeed, the Mehdi Hasan interview ran about five minutes, the same length as that of the relevant portion of the Axios interview.

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 October 6, 1943, a group of hundreds of Orthodox rabbis came to Washington DC to plead for the lives of their brethren in Europe.

They presented a letter to Vice President Wallace asking for a government agency to help save the remaining Jews from the Holocaust. The letter demanded that the US open its doors to Jewish refugees, that the UN create a passport that could be used for Jews to travel, and for Britain to "open the doors of Palestine."

Some of the details about this trip are outrageous.

Historian Alex Grobman writes:

Dressed in long, dark rabbinic attire, the rabbis walked from Union Station to the Capitol Building. There, Rabbis Eliezer Silver, Israel Rosenberg and Bernhard Louis Levinthal led a recitation of Psalms. Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), who was head of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, introduced them to Vice President Henry Wallace and a number of Congressmen.

Bergson enlisted the rabbis and the American Jewish Legion of Veterans for the march. He expected American clergy would join, but none did. Only the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, the Union of Hassidic Rabbis and a commander of the Jewish Legion participated. The modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America sent Rabbi David Silver, Rabbi Eliezer Silver’s son.

White House adviser Judge Samuel Rosenman told the president that those “behind this petition” were “not representative of the most thoughtful elements in Jewry.” The “leading Jews” Rosenman knew opposed the march, but he admitted failing to “keep the horde from storming Washington.”

A number of Jewish congressmen had attempted to dissuade the rabbis from marching. This backfired when Congressman Sol Bloom, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that “It would be undignified for these un-American looking rabbis to appear in the nation’s capital.”

At the Lincoln Memorial, the rabbis—who had declared a fast day—prayed for the welfare of the armed forces and the Jews of Europe and a quick Allied victory. Then they walked to the White House and prayed outside the gates. Though they expected to meet with the President, they were told he was unavailable. Later they learned he went to Bolling Field Air Force Base for a minor ceremony to avoid meeting them.

Rafael Medoff adds:

The era’s most prominent American Jewish leader, Rabbi Stephen Wise, criticized the march in somewhat similar terms. Wise, who headed the American Jewish Congress, the World Jewish Congress, and the American Zionist movement, wrote that “the orthodox rabbinical parade [ sic]” was a “painful and even lamentable exhibition.” He derided the organizers as “stuntists” and accused them of offending “the dignity of [the Jewish] people.”

The oh-so-dignified Jews were aghast that Orthodox rabbis would make a scene while pleading for the lives of Jews in Europe.

And these self-appointed leaders were dead wrong. They thought that since they had their own access to corridors of power, they had influence in those corridors. In fact, Roosevelt didn't want to meet the rabbis specifically because he didn't want to be pressured to help save the Jewish refugees from Europe. FDR knew the power of public pressure. (His schedule that afternoon was remarkably open.)

The vice president issued a vague, meaningless statement of support meant to get rid of these strange Jews.

And there was a more than a little self-hating from the American secular Jews in this event, as these supposed defenders of Jews in America did not want to be associated with people who looked like their grandfathers did. The Orthodox embarrassed them. Public tears to help save millions of lives is not the image they want Americans to see.

They thought of themselves as superior, at having left their visible Judaism behind. And their conceit that they are better, and know better, than other Jews, indirectly resulted in more European Jews being murdered.

It is the same conceit that kept the daily attacks on Orthodox Jews in Brooklyn out of the news cycle for so long.

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!

09/20 Links Pt1: Ebrahim Raisi's predictable 'CBS News' performance; Germany wake up! Do you know what Holocaust denial you are funding?; Is Ireland going to recognize a Palestinian state?

From Ian:

Ruthie Blum: Ebrahim Raisi's predictable 'CBS News' performance

The brouhaha surrounding Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi's comments about the Nazi genocide of the Jews, during an interview that aired on Sunday with CBS News's "60 Minutes," is puzzling.

Anyone who expected the radical political figurehead of the mullah-ruled Islamic Republic to acknowledge, let alone denounce, the acts of the Third Reich – when his regime makes no bones about wanting to finish the job that Adolf Hitler started – is living in an alternate universe.

Nevertheless, the short exchange he had on the topic with correspondent Lesley Stahl made international headlines and was circulated widely on social media. When asked by Stahl whether he "believe[d] the Holocaust happened – that 6 million Jews were slaughtered," Raisi replied, "Look, historical events should be investigated by researchers and historians. There are some signs that it happened. If so, they should allow it to be investigated and researched."

The only thing noteworthy about this was his willingness to point to "some signs that it happened." It was almost amusing of him to suggest that it be "investigated and researched."

As though he had no idea that it's been studied for decades and verified by historians and survivors. And as if his role-model ayatollahs aren't keen to emulate the Holocaust, albeit Islamist-style: first, through terrorist proxies in Syria, Lebanon, Judea and Samaria and Gaza, and ultimately with nukes.

"So, you're not sure; I'm getting that you're not sure," Stahl said quietly, being careful to avoid causing her interviewee to rue over having agreed to be challenged by a woman.

"What about Israel's right to exist?" she then queried.

Here, Raisi didn't hesitate or moderate his answer. But he did, however, refrain from repeating the name of the Jewish state that's in the crosshairs of his massive arsenal of weapons, both in Iran and along Israel's borders.

"You see, the people of Palestine are the reality," he said. "This is the right of the people of Palestine who were forced to leave their houses and motherland. The Americans are supporting this false regime there to take root and to be established there."

Stahl failed to remind Raisi that the ancient homeland of the Jewish people became a state in 1948, 13 years before he was born. Instead, she invoked the Abraham Accords.

Starving the terrorists of cash -opinion

Israel’s security forces closed down seven Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in the West Bank on August 19.

The reason given was that those particular NGOs had been diverting to the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) charitable funding provided to them for their own use. The PFLP is designated a terrorist organization by Israel, as well as by the US, the EU, Japan, Canada and Australia. The UN immediately condemned the closures as “totally arbitrary.”

In October 2021, Israel accused six Palestinian civil society groups of funneling donor aid to militants, in particular the PFLP, and consequently designated them terrorist organizations. Justification for this can be traced back to a document published by the Israeli government in February 2019 titled: “Terrorists in Suits.”

It presented dozens of examples of ties between NGO activists who delegitimize Israel, and the PFLP and Hamas. The ideological connection between them is that all reject the right of Israel to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, and oppose any normalization between Israel and its neighbors.

The report, which lists in detail the ties between the various bodies, also found that many of these NGOs were led or staffed by members and operatives of known terrorist organizations.

In designating the six NGOs as terrorist-linked, the Defense Ministry said that the groups had “received large sums of money from European countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery and deceit,” and that the money had been passed to the PFLP to support its activities.

“Those organizations present themselves as acting for humanitarian purposes,” it said. ”However, they serve as a cover for the ‘Popular Front’ promotion and financing.”

“Terrorists in Suits” is not the only exposé of this connection between non-governmental and terrorist organizations. In November 2021, the Institute for National Security Studies, a research body associated with Tel Aviv University, published an 11,000-word academic research paper.

It analyzed the extent to which the EU, as well as individual European nations, consistently pour millions into the coffers of certain Palestinian NGOs nominally concerned with economic development, peace and human rights.

The recipients, however, are “substantial political and economic actors, and are among the leaders of intense soft power conflict, voicing repeated allegations of fundamental Israeli wrong-doing and encouraging anti-Israel campaigns through boycotts and lawfare.”

PMW: Germany wake up! Do you know what Holocaust denial you are funding?

The hate speech above was disseminated on PA TV by Saed Erziqat, head of PA’s General Union of Palestinian Teachers and is far more odious than PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas’ libel that “Israel committed 50 holocausts.” German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he was “disgusted” by Abbas’ “outrageous… intolerable and unacceptable,” statement. Now Abbas’ hate-speech has been repeated and compounded by a top PA educator on official PA TV, and was included in a letter written on behalf of 60,000 Palestinian teachers, whose salaries are paid by Germany and the EU. This is what Palestinian teachers are taught to believe and is what Palestinian children are learning from their teachers, that Germany is funding.

Ironically, German and the EU are funding PA teachers specifically because the donors don’t want their money to go to PA hate and terror promotion. After Palestinian Media Watch presented US and European donors to the PA with documentation that the PA was using their donor money to pay salaries to terrorist prisoners, many donor countries stopped funding the PA’s general budget in order not to fund the terror salaries. Among the projects the EU and Germany chose to fund instead were the salaries of the PA teachers, thinking this was a secure, non-terror and non-hate related contribution.

But now Saed Erziqat, the head of the PA’s General Union of Palestinian Teachers that represents 60,000 educators, has revealed that the teachers’ union has adopted a hate ideology of Holocaust “relativization” and Antisemitism. Erziqat came to the defense of Abbas’ “50 holocausts” libel. The teachers’ union leader repeatedly compared Israel to Nazis, saying that what Israel has done to the Palestinians is “worse than the Holocaust itself”:
Secretary-General of the General Union of Palestinian Teachers Saed Erziqat: “A blessing to His Honor [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, He is the one who wrote about Nazism and Zionism, that they are two sides of the same coin… When His Honor the President spoke [in Germany] about [50 Palestinian] holocaust[s] he did not deny what happened to the entity- and the Jews in Germany, rather he attempted to show that the Palestinian people has also been subjected to massacres, more than the Jews in Germany experienced… We in the Palestinian Teachers’ Union sent a letter to the German teachers’ union that there are massacres that have happened to the Palestinian people that were worse than the Holocaust itself.”

Host: “And it is happening now, not in 1945.”

Erziqat: “Yes. Also, the Palestinian holocaust has not ended. The occupation’s (i.e., Israel’s) daily measures are a holocaust that renews every day... It attempts to do to our Palestinian people what they did to [the Jews] in Germany… He [Abbas] is the most knowledgeable person on the thinking of the occupation and the thinking of Zionism, because he wrote [a thesis] about the comparison between Zionism and Nazism. Therefore, he is the person who most understands the importance of [this] narrative to the world.”

[Official PA TV program Topic of the Day, Aug. 20, 2022]

There was a single Muslim poem about Jerusalem written before 1967. It is about revenge against Crusaders.

I have always been interested in finding any evidence that Muslims venerated Jerusalem before Zionism.

Jews, of course, have written hundreds of poems in the forms of psalms, piyyutim, zemirot and classic poetry continuously since the time of David.

Up until now, I have never seen a single Muslim poem about the holy city that predates Zionism (or 1967, for that matter.) Every article I had seen on poems about Jerusalem and Palestine have been about recent poetry.

At Raya.com, Dr. Ayman Al-Atoum wrote a series of three articles on "Jerusalem in Arabic poetry" where he says, "Jerusalem was the hearth of poets' hearts, the compass of their love, the beacon of their words, and the melting of their hearts."

In part one, he quotes from poems about Baghdad and Damascus, to show that Arabs have shown great affection for their capitals, so of course - he says - Jerusalem would be one of them. He provides a quick Arab history of Jerusalem. But he doesn't quote any of the poems he refers to.

In part two, al-Atoum asserts that there were lots of Arabic poems about Jerusalem:

If you go and research these huge events that Jerusalem has gone through, you will find their impact in every aspect, whether social, political, economic or cultural. These events inflamed the sentiments of poets, ancient and modern, and perhaps the history books that recorded the poetry of conquests at the beginning of the Islamic rule of Jerusalem, are the ones that re-recorded the poetry of occupation at the beginning of the Crusades, and not more famous than what Al-Abiwardi wrote.

Presumably, al-Atoum is a scholar and he looked for these Arabic poems of Jerusalem - and couldn't find any from before the Crusaders took over the city. So he pretends that there must have been many such poems, and they were copied by Al Abiwardi, who wrote what seems to be the only semi-famous Arabic poem about Jerusalem.

Al Abiwardi's poem is named Jerusalem, but it doesn't mention the city. It doesn't mention anything about Jerusalem. It doesn't extol the beauty of the city. It is all about the indignity of losing to the Christians ("Romans") and is a call to arms to take it back.

We mingled blood with blazing tears
So there was no mercy left in us.
And the wickedness of a person's weapon is a tear that sheds
This war caught its fire with the swarms

Al-Atoum then moves on to his next poem about Jerusalem, written in....1967.

So it appears that the only Arabic poem that may have been peripherally about Jerusalem was written at the time of the Crusades by an Iraqi poet.

Not exactly a tradition of showing veneration for Jerusalem.

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!

WJC president Ronald Lauder acts chummy with antisemite Mahmoud Abbas. He has lost the plot.

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is in New York to give his annual anti-Israel speech filled with lies to the UN.

This comes on the heels of his Fatah party bragging about its terror wing attacking Israel in recent weeks. It has been only a month since Abbas said that Israel has inflicted 50 "holocausts" on Palestinians, only the latest of his many explicitly antisemitic statements he has made publicly.

Abbas' Wafa news agency has hundreds of articles trying to make Abbas look like a statesman, reporting breathlessly on his sending letters of congratulations to various world leaders on their national days and every meeting he has in Ramallah with even minor officials from countries or NGOs. For the New York visit, Wafa has a bonanza of photo ops trying to make Abbas look important showing him meeting with major officials.

One of the featured photos is with Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, smiling while putting his arm around Holocaust denier Abbas.

Compare with with Abbas' publicity photos with other dignitaries in New York.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez:

President of the International Committee of the Red Cross Peter Maurer:

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres:

No other official gives Abbas more than a handshake.

But the head of the WJC, which is committed to fighting antisemitism worldwide, puts his arm around a dyed in the wool antisemite like Mahmoud Abbas. While smiling. As if it is an honor to be in the same room as a supporter of terror.

The WJC issues several statements a week, but it did not condemn Mahmoud Abbas' "holocausts" statement, even though it was widely reported.

I have no problem with the head of a Jewish organization meeting Abbas, as a means to convey messages from the Jewish community or to encourage moves towards peace and away from terror. But it needs to be accompanied with a public message of what the meeting is meant to accomplish and a strong statement of condemnation of Abbas' antisemitic statements.

In this case, as in other meetings between Lauder and Abbas, the subject matter is opaque - and all we see are the photo-ops which the Palestinians use as propaganda to pretend that they have no problem with Jews, but only with Israel.

When the leader of a Jewish organization seemingly goes out of its way to treat an antisemite with more respect than anyone else does, we have a problem with our Jewish leadership.

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!

Suddenly, after weeks of his Fatah party taking responsibility and bragging about terror attacks, Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority arrested Hamas terrorist Mosab Shtayyeh in Nablus.

This caused Palestinian fans of terror to protest in Nablus and Jenin, and Hamas condemned the arrest.

Meanwhile, the Palestinian Authority also confiscated a cache of weapons in Hebron, plus "the arrest of a number of outlaws and instigators of sedition and security chaos in the Hebron Governorate."

So what's going on? Why is the PA suddenly acting how it is supposed to when it has been openly supportive of terror recently?

The reason is that Mahmoud Abbas is in New York this week to give a speech at the UN. He has been under pressure from the US and Israel to flex his muscles against terror, and he doesn't want to look bad when he gives his annual anti-Israel speech to the world.

Next week, we'll find out if this is a real change or just optics. My bet is the latter.

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!

09/19 Links Pt2: The Bones of the Blood Libel; PBS Holocaust doco perpetuates well-worn myths to glorify FDR; Ben & Jerry’s founders say Unilever ‘usurped’ authority with Israel spin off

From Ian:

Meir Y. Soloveichik: The Bones of the Blood Libel

This reminds us of a dialectic in the story of England and the Jews. One aspect was documented by the historian Gertrude Himmelfarb in her book The People of the Book: Philosemitism in England, from Cromwell to Churchill. As she illustrated, a remarkable admiration for Jews made itself manifest at various moments in the country’s history- from Oliver Cromwell’s charitable treatment of Rabbi Menasseh Ben Israel, to the Christian proto-Zionism of the Earl of Shaftesbury, to the success of novels such as Tancred, Ivanhoe, and Daniel Deronda. But from England also emerged the blood libel as well as one of the most perniciously influential images in literature, the character of Shylock, which then lived on in Fagin and other figures in English literature.

The libels born with the death of William of Norwich, and propagated by The Merchant of Venice, survive to this day around the world, and the confirmation of the Jewishness of the bones of Norwich should inspire us to ponder the haunting lessons they offer. One of the scientists involved in the genetic analysis of the skeletons reflected that “Ralph de Diceto’s account of the 1190 a.d. attacks is evocative, but a deep well containing the bodies of Jewish men, women, and especially children forces us to confront the real horror of what happened.” This is admirable, and true, but it does not capture the true horror of what originated in Norwich. The readiness of all today to denounce the massacres of medieval Jewish communities often highlights how, as the writer Dara Horn put it, “people love dead Jews.” The blood libel is not a thing of the past. It is ongoing. The world is all too prepared to bemoan the injustice against Jews in the past and yet all too ready to overlook those who purvey blood libels today.

Such a phenomenon can be seen in the successful career of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. As Seth Mandel has noted in these pages, the congresswoman has taken rhetorical dishonesty about Israel to entirely new level, linking—like the libelists of old—purported Jewish activity to grievances around the world. Commenting on the situation at the Mexican-American border, she accused, without offering any evidence, Israel of placing Palestinian children in cages. During one debate, standing on the floor of the House next to an image of a dead Palestinian child, she linked Israel’s airstrikes to the Naval base in Vieques, Puerto Rico. “When I saw those [Israeli] airstrikes that are supported with U.S. funds,” she said, “I could not help but wonder if our communities were practice for this.” As Mandel put it, Ocasio-Cortez’s career reminds us that “There are blood libels and then there are blood libels on steroids. Her presence in Congress is an embarrassment and her incitement goes almost totally unremarked on.” The sad fact is that from Thomas of Monmouth to today, purveyors of libels against the Jews have all too often enhanced their own celebrity.

The bones of murdered Jews may have been exhumed from the soil of the site where the blood libel was born, but what has yet to be exhumed from the present is the blood libel itself. And it is only if we do all we can to identify, and call out, the liars and the libelists that we can honestly hope that the murdered Jews of Norwich will rest in peace.

Can Countries with Grave Human-Rights Records Help Fight Anti-Semitism?

For several decades, Deborah Lipstadt has been known as one of the most prominent and prolific writers on the dark history of anti-Semitism. In 2000, she won a judgment after being sued in a British court by the Holocaust denier David Irving, a case which was later made into a film starring Rachel Weisz. Since then, Lipstadt has published a book on the Eichmann trial and an investigation into anti-Semitism, among others. She is a professor of Jewish history at Emory, but is currently on leave because she was tapped by President Biden as the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. In her new role, she has been travelling around the Middle East—she recently returned from a trip to Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.

Lipstadt and I spoke several years ago; we talked again by phone last week. During our conversation, which has been edited for length and clarity, we discussed the compromises involved in transitioning from scholar to diplomat, how Israel’s relationship with its neighbors impacts her job, and whether the Saudi government is interested in improving its human-rights record.

What made you want to take this job?

Initially, I wasn’t really interested, even though there were a lot of people who were pressing me to put my name in the hopper, including people from the Administration. Then someone said to me, “You can make a difference.” At this stage of my career, I feel I’ve accomplished a lot. I feel very lucky and blessed in what I’ve been able to do, but the chance to make a difference was something that really intrigued me.

At first, I thought of the job as mainly putting out fires: there’s a tragedy in Paris, there’s a tragedy wherever, and you have to make it clear to the government that America takes this very seriously. Then I thought about the Abraham Accords—here was a chance possibly to do something positive to change the nature of Muslim-Jewish relations, certainly as they’ve emanated from the Gulf. That intrigued me a lot.

You mentioned the Abraham Accords, signed during the Trump Administration, which sought to normalize relations between neighboring Arab states and Israel. I’m curious to what degree you view the fight against anti-Semitism and the fight for the recognition of Israel as part of the same battle.

They’re related. You can’t completely bifurcate them. That would be wrong. I think to make one dependent on the other is also wrong. When I was in Saudi Arabia, someone said to me, “Oh, if Israel would just solve the Israel-Palestine issue, there’d be no anti-Semitism.” I said that there was a millennia of anti-Semitic behavior and attitudes before there ever was a state of Israel or a Palestine issue. What I found in Saudi Arabia—particularly among younger people that I met, and I met quite a few under forty—is a willingness to separate the very crucial, important, significant geopolitical issue of Israel and Palestine from attitudes toward Jews. If you go back and you think about it, in the seventies, eighties, nineties, even a little bit into the aughts, Saudi Arabia, among other Gulf countries, was one of the leading countries in dispersing anti-Semitic material. I’m not suggesting that the Saudis sent imams out and said, “Go preach anti-Semitism in Europe or the United States or wherever,” but that’s what imams did. The Saudis were funding the dissemination of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”

That’s changing, and I wanted to encourage that kind of change. I will talk to anyone who is serious about addressing the issue of anti-Semitism, which is one of the reasons why I chose to make Saudi Arabia the first stop on my travels. If it can lessen anti-Semitism, that’s a good thing all around. It’s certainly good for Jews who might be impacted by it, but it’s also good in terms of easing tensions. If you can get a government or an entity to stop othering one group of people, it’s possible that that will spill over to other groups or segments of the society.

A powerful new account of how Washington abandoned Hitler’s victims

On Jan. 30, 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn in as the chancellor of Germany. Over the next 100 days, American newspapers published more than 3,000 stories about the eruption of antisemitic attacks whipped up by the new regime.

“Bands of Nazis throughout Germany carried out wholesale raids calculated to intimidate the opposition, particularly the Jews,” reported Edmond Taylor of the Chicago Tribune. “Men and women were insulted, slapped, punched in the face, hit over the head with blackjacks, dragged from their homes in night clothes. Never have I seen law-abiding citizens living in such terror.”

Taylor’s story is quoted early in “The US and the Holocaust,” a six-hour documentary by Ken Burns, Lynn Novick, and Sarah Botstein that premieres tonight on PBS and will air in three parts this week. The story is cited to make the point that for Americans who cared to know what was happening to the Jews under the new German government, the information was readily available. News accounts like Taylor’s fueled widespread protests. On March 27, more than 20,000 New Yorkers packed Madison Square Garden, with 35,000 more outside, to condemn the Nazis’ wave of terror. Similar rallies were held in scores of cities across the country.

Pressure to suppress both the news coverage and the protests was not long in coming. Some of that pressure came from Germany, where Nazi officials denied that they were targeting Jews and claimed that the negative stories were “Jewish lies.” But efforts to downplay the truth, the new documentary makes clear, also came from the US government.

“The American embassy in Berlin cabled Secretary of State Cordell Hull that it was the Nazis who were lying and that the Jewish situation was rapidly taking a turn for the worse,” the film’s narrator says. “But Hull insisted that the mistreatment was coming to an end and that things would revert to normal — if the protests in America would stop.”

There are a number of interlocking themes in “The US and the Holocaust.” Among them: the entrenched antisemitism of prewar America, the stiff anti-immigration laws that excluded most refugees from the United States, and the way Jim Crow segregation in the American South provided a model for the Nazis’ infamous Nuremberg laws stripping German Jews of their rights. In his trademark fashion, Burns interweaves gripping human stories, some recounted by survivors who managed to avoid the fate that befell 6 million of Europe’s Jews, and others told about those who struggled in vain for permission to enter America but ended up as corpses in the Nazi ghettos, execution pits, and death camps.

Through it all, the US government, with some rare and heroic exceptions, not only refused to help Europe’s Jews escape the Nazi genocide but went to extremes to suppress or downplay reports of the horror that was underway. Hull’s grotesque contention in the spring of 1933 that putting a lid on anti-Nazi criticism in America was the best way to ease anti-Jewish attacks in Germany was no aberration. Again and again, the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and especially the State Department, where FDR’s close friend and financial backer Breckinridge Long was a powerful assistant secretary of state, worked assiduously to thwart refugees from reaching safe haven in the United States.