Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 27, 2022

12/27 Links Pt1: The World Has Forgotten Two Israelis Held by Palestinian Terrorists; ISIS-inspired terrorist arrested for deadly Jerusalem bombings

From Ian:

The World Has Forgotten Two Israelis Held by Palestinian Terrorists

Where is Hisham? Where is Avera? It has been more than 3,000 days since Avera Mengistu, an Israeli citizen and member of the Ashkelon Ethiopian community, climbed over the border fence in Gaza and was captured by Hamas. His family has had zero contact with him since.

Roughly six months later, the same fate befell a 34-year-old who is part of Israel’s Bedouin community, Hisham al-Sayed, who crossed over into the terrorist-controlled enclave.What was the reason these young men ended up in the Gaza Strip? They have a long history of suffering from mental illness, and often wandered hundreds of kilometers from their homes.

On September 7, 2014, Avera was highly agitated; his mental well-being had begun to deteriorate after the tragic death of his brother. As a result, Avera left home and began to wander. Video surveillance showed that he took off and walked approximately 10 kilometers, where he was eventually spotted, unusually close to the Gaza border fence, by Israeli soldiers. The soldiers tried to get his attention; instead, he was startled and climbed over the border fence and disappeared into Gaza.

Hisham has a similar story. In the past, he had entered Jordan, the West Bank, and even Gaza, but he was always returned by security personnel who were aware of his mental status and vulnerability. In 2015, however, he was taken hostage by Hamas. Fast forward to now, and Hamas only released a video clip this year, which appears to show Hisham lying in a bed, looking dazed, and wearing an oxygen mask — the first sighting of him since he disappeared seven years ago.

The holding of Hisham and Avera is a human rights violation on several counts.

Firstly, they are civilians who have no part in the war between Israel and Hamas, and cannot be held or treated as enemy combatants.

Secondly, withholding information about captives, as Hamas has done, amounts to an “Enforced Disappearance” and is illegal under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which has been signed by the Palestinians. It also goes against another piece of international law they signed, called The Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, which provides protections for people with psycho-social, or mental health disabilities, including freedom from inhuman treatment and equal access to justice.

Finally, any detainees have the right to contact their families and receive visits from the International Committee of the Red Cross. All of these international rights are violated each moment that Hamas continues to hold Hisham and Avera hostage. Even the likes of Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, a fierce critic of Israel, has said that “Hamas’s refusal to confirm its apparent prolonged detention of men with mental health conditions and no connection to the hostilities is cruel and indefensible.”

David Singer: Israel set to uncork Hashemite Kingdom genie at UN

The UN stands to become totally irrelevant if it continues to refuse to discuss the Saudi Solution following Danny Danon - Israel's former ambassador to the United Nations – claiming at the first Abraham Accords Global Leadership Summit - that Saudi Arabia may be one of the next nations to normalize relations with Israel.

Danon stated:
“We have been in contact with the Saudis for years. I worked personally with them at the United Nations on matters of regional stability and security. It’s just a matter of time before courageous leaders step out of the shadows and full peace is achieved between all the children of Abraham. .. I expect we’ll see an agreement between Israel and Saudi Arabia this year”

This was good news for those seeking an end to the 100 years-old Jewish/Arab conflict – but bad news for the UN which continues to stubbornly support the two-state solution whilst refusing to even acknowledge the existence of the game-changing Saudi Solution since its publication six months ago.

It beggars belief that on 30 November the UN General Assembly adopted five resolutions on the questions of 'Palestine' and the Middle East without one speaker uttering the words. “Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine Solution” - whose successful implementation would see the Arab populations in Gaza, part of the 'West Bank' and the wretched UNRWA camps in Lebanon and Syria becoming citizens of that newly-created territorial entity.

Cheikh Niang (Senegal) - Chair of the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People - introduced its annual report containing developments relating to the question of Palestine between 1 September 2021 and 31 August 2022 – which contained not one reference to the Saudi Solution in its 27 pages.

Israeli Prime Minister designate Bibi Netanyahu has made his intentions crystal-clear:
“I think the big prize is peace with Saudi Arabia, which I intend to achieve if I go back into office… The rise of Israeli power facilitated the Abraham Accords, and the continual nurturing of Israeli power will also nurture a broader peace with Saudi Arabia and nearly all of the rest of the Arab world. I intend to bring the Arab-Israeli conflict to a close.”

The 2022 Saudi Solution offers Israel:
sole sovereignty in Jerusalem,
sovereignty in part of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) and
abandonment of the 74 years-old Arab claim to return to Israel
The UN must respond to the hope of peace offered by the Hashemite Kingdom of Palestine genie.

Abdullah in the middle

Millions of Jordanian citizens descend from families who lived in eastern Palestine when it was ruled by the British Empire or, before that, the Ottoman Empire. Others moved to Jordan, fleeing wars launched by Israel’s Arab neighbors—Jordan among them—in 1948 and 1967. In other words, millions of Jordanians identify as Palestinians.

“While Jordanian officials may not say so explicitly,” Dr. Schanzer writes, “the animosity harbored by Jordan’s Palestinian population toward Israel has a significant influence on the kingdom’s foreign policies.”

A chapter of history Israeli leaders seldom discuss publicly: When the first Arab-Israeli war came to a halt in 1949, Jordanian forces had conquered the biblical lands of Judea and Samaria (quickly renamed “the West Bank”), from which they expelled the Jewish population. Even Jews living in the Jewish Quarter of the Old City of Jerusalem were driven out, and their homes and synagogues destroyed.

Upon taking east Jerusalem in the defensive war of 1967, then-Defense Minister Moshe Dayan decided to award a Jordanian waqf (a government-controlled religious entity) authority over the two important Muslim sites—Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock—that stand atop the Temple Mount, the holiest of all Jewish sites. This profound gesture of conciliation has never been fully appreciated, much less reciprocated.

Nor do Jordanians express gratitude for the essential goods Israel currently provides, for example, water (Israel is a world leader in desalination technology) and energy (40 percent of Jordan’s electricity comes from Israeli gas). Israel also cooperates closely with Jordan on “a wide range of security-related issues.”

Dr. Schanzer notes that King Abdullah, in a conversation with former U.S. National Security Advisor H.R. McMaster last May, “voiced concerns that Iranian forces in Syria could soon destabilize his country…Jordan also faces a threat from Iran-backed militias in Iraq to the north. Additional threats loom in the south, with Iranian assets reportedly operating in the Red Sea.”

Though the enemy of Jordan’s enemy should be Jordan’s friend, Dr. Schanzer expects relations with Israel to deteriorate further. He notes the king’s “unabashed distaste” for Benjamin Netanyahu, who is now forming a new government.

Netanyahu, for his part, is undoubtedly reading with distress “reports that Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has been spending more time in Jordan with the approval of the Hashemite Kingdom.”

The king of Jordan is a moderate, modern and savvy sovereign. But without Israeli support, his future and that of his country will be precarious.

And if there is to be peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Jordan will need to join the pragmatic Arab states advocating for a new regional order, one based on stability and prosperity.

For King Abdullah to explain all this to his subjects—penetrating the fog of Palestinian irredentism and rejectionism—will not be easy. But that is his job.

75 years ago: Arab terrorist attacks on Jews intensify, and an early "BDS" from Egypt

In the Palestine Post of December 26 and 27, 1947, Arab terror attacks on Jews were as bad as they were during the second intifada.

No one talks about that today.

It is worthwhile to study them. The Palestinian mentality and antisemitism, their making no distinction between Jewish civilians and armed forces, remains exactly the same today.

The December 26 edition mentions the murder of a Jewish Olympic athlete, Elias "Elo" Katz, who had won the silver and gold medals in the Paris Games in 1924 (the article is mistaken.)

While any Palestinian terrorists who ever kicked a ball are trumpeted to the world as if Israel targets athletes (this article today from the official Palestinian news agency claims Israel has targeted and killed over 700 Palestinian athletes!), here was a real Olympics gold medalist who was murdered by Palestinians.

The December 27 Palestine Post reports on two more convoys - meant to bring food and supplies to isolated Jews - ambushed and seven Jews murdered:

The Arab Legion of Transjordan at the time partnered with the British to help keep things calm - but instead, this professional army shot at two civilian buses near Haifa, killing one Jew and wounding others, originally claiming that the Jews attacked first but it was found to be a lie.

An absolutely heartbreaking story of a little girl in bed killed by Arab gunfire.

Violence was so prevalent that here we see four separate incidents - including an attack on a Jewish children's home, a Jew killed - are thrown together on a single Page 3 story (the newspaper was only four pages long.)

Palestinian Arabs openly threatened Jews - from London.

Egypt decided that since it was impossible to ensure that they were only boycotting Jews in Palestine, they should boycott everyone in Palestine.

Like today's BDSers, the point isn't to help Palestinian Arabs but to try to hurt the Jews. Like today's BDSers, they would swear that they are doing this to help the Palestinian Arabs. Like today's BDSers, they never actually asked the affected Arabs if they want to be collateral damage.

Other news from that paper are also echoes of today: a huge blizzard in the US that kills many people, and a fatal cholera outbreak in Syria that people are desperate to contain.

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!

Palestinians celebrate how many Jews they murdered this year

To the West, Palestinians cry about the number of them - mostly terrorists - who were killed this year.

In Arabic, though, they brag about how many Jews they managed to kill - which is the entire reason the IDF was forced to respond to begin with.

This poster celebrates the attacks.

It says, "Palestine in numbers. 2022 was a year of resistance par excellence.

* 14,000 resistance acts during the year

* 31 Israeli dead

* 770 shooting operations

This graphic celebrates 31 Israelis killed, listing out each attack:

Here is the list of attacks from the Jewish Virtual Library; I didn't try to reconcile the two lists.

November 23	Aryeh Shechopek (15), Tadese Tashume Ben Ma’ada (50)	Two explosions at a bus station near the entrance to Jerusalem killed two and injured 22. Aryeh Shechopek died on the day of the attack, Tadese Tashume Ben Ma’ada, several days later.
November 15	Tamir Avihai (50), Michael Ladygin (36), Motti Ashkenazi (59)	Muhammed Soof, a cleaner in the Ariel industrial zone. stabbed seven people, killing three, in Ariel.
October 25	Shalom Sofer (55)	Died two weeks after being seriously wounded in a stabbing attack near Kedumim.
May 5	Boaz Gol (49), Yonatan Havakuk (44), Oren Ben Yitfah (35)	A terrorist attack in the city of Elad left three men dead and eight injured, one critically.
April 29	Vyacheslav Golev (23)	Two Palestinian terrorists murdered Vyacheslav Golev, a security guard, at the entrance to Ariel.
April 7	Tomer Morad (28), Eytam Magini (27), Barak Lufan (35)	A shooting at a downtown Tel Aviv bar left three people dead and seven others were wounded and hospitalized.
March 29	Amir Khoury (32), Ya’akov Shalom (36), Avishai Yehezkel (29), Victor Sorokopot (38), Dimitri Mitrik (23)	Five people were killed during a series of drive-by shootings in Bnei Brak. The perpetrator was Diaa Hamarsheh who had been imprisoned in 2015 for charges of supporting terrorism as well as arms trafficking.
March 27	Yezen Falah and Shirel Abukarat, both 19	Two Border Police officers were killed by two terrorists believed to be supporters of the Islamic State.
March 22	Doris Yahbas (49), Laura Yitzhak (43), Rabbi Moshe Kravitzky and Menahem Yehezkel, (67)	Four people were killed and two more were injured during a stabbing and vehicle-ramming attack by an Islamic State supporter in Be’er Sheva.

Here are some Felesteen cartoons this year that are either antisemitic or that glorify 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!

"Daddy, why do you hate Israel?" "You see, honey, it's because it is filled with dirty, scheming Jews."

This article by Hussein al-Samnoudi in Egypt's El Ghad explains why Israel should be hated: because of Jews.

My daughter asked me this morning, why do you hate Israel?

I responded that we Arabs in general, and the people of Egypt in particular, do not like Israel. This is because every calamity that happened to us in Egypt was not devoid of their dirty fingers, which are always drawing and plotting to undermine that homeland on whose land we live.

And I began with her saying: There is no war waged on the earth since ancient times until today, except that these people have a hand in it. They are people of cunning, deceit, corruption and corruption. They are people who ignite wars, ruin and destruction. They love bloodshed and thirst for it.

They tried in the modern era when Adolf Hitler, President of Germany, besieged and killed them everywhere they were, because they sought to ignite wars and corruption that they sought everywhere.

Israel covets the land of the Arabs and wants to expand more than that to confirm its plan that its state is from the Nile to the Euphrates. .... Israel covets the occupation of the Sinai Peninsula.

In one aspect, this is the most antisemitic article I've ever seen in Arab media.

Not because of his Elders of Zion and "Hitler was right" worldview - there are plenty of articles that go into much more detail about how Jews are awful people.

But Samnoudi is proud that he is teaching his daughter hate.

Even though we know this happens all the time, usually the bigot has enough self-awareness to understand that it looks bad to teach hate to a little girl.

El Ghad is the newspaper of the El Ghad political party. You might think, based on this article, that El Ghad is an Islamist party, or perhaps a Nasserist party.

Actually, it is a centrist liberal secularist party, whose platform includes political and economic reform and the rights of the disabled.

This represents the most progressive of Egyptian parties.

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!

12/26 Links Pt2: It’s time for Jews to say, ‘Sorry, not sorry’; The American Jewish left’s endorsement of antisemitism; Glick: Jason Greenblatt: Two State Solution is meaningless

From Ian:

It’s time for Jews to say, ‘Sorry, not sorry’

There are many Jews out there who blame Israel for antisemitism:

“If only we didn’t ‘occupy’ the ‘Palestinians,’ there would be no antisemitism.”

“If only those ultra-Orthodox Jews wouldn’t dress like that and stick to their ‘primitive ways,’ people wouldn’t hate us so much.”

But they’ll never accept our apology, so it’s time we stop apologizing.

The new government is too right-wing for you? You must have confused me for someone who cares about your opinion.

Foreign aid? Go ahead, Biden, try to pull it. Try to boycott Israel, BDS. Go for it, let’s see how that goes for you.

We don’t need you any more than you need us.

Allow me to officially declare that the era of the apologetic Jew is dead. It should rest in peace.

Now let me introduce you to a new creature: the proud Jew.

We have a lot to be proud of.

20% of all Nobel prizes have been awarded to Jews. We have the most moral army in the world. We are able to balance our military power with our unwavering need to behave morally and ethically, sometimes too ethically.

We lead the world in life-changing tech: Medicine, food, you name it, we are at the forefront of it all.

We took a desert that Mark Twain famously referred to as “a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land” and transformed it into one of the most flourishing societies in the Middle East and the world, and it only took us 75 years.

So, it’s time we all declared the apologetic Jew dead and introduced the world to a new breed of Jew, the proud Jew.

If we don’t respect ourselves, how can we expect the world to?

Our new government, despite its shortcomings, represents the proud Jew. There has never been more Torah learning than there is right now. We have never been stronger physically or economically. That’s something to be proud of.

This new government will support Torah. It will support the land of Israel—all of it. It will support our needs, not the needs of our enemies.

We have always talked about and prayed for the people of Israel, with the Torah of Israel, in the land of Israel. And now, we have arrived, not yet to the final destination, but we are well on the way.

For that, we, the Jewish people, should be proud, not ashamed and apologetic.

Or, in other words: Sorry, not sorry.

The American Jewish left’s endorsement of antisemitism

Once upon a time, identifying an antisemite required the proverbial duck test. If it quacked like an antisemite, then it probably was an antisemite.

Back then, antisemites had ways to avoid responsibility, but this has changed in recent years due to the widespread adoption of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s Working Definition of Antisemitism, which is now used by 38 countries, including the United States.

The IHRA definition, which includes examples of antisemitism directed against Israel, fits Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) perfectly.

For years, Omar has used the vocabulary of antisemitism delineated in the IHRA definition, such as tweeting “Israel has hypnotized the world” and that U.S. politicians’ support for Israel is “all about the benjamins”—a reference to hundred-dollar bills.

Even the Democratic House leadership, headed by outgoing speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said that Omar “engaged in deeply offensive antisemitic tropes.”

One of the IHRA definition’s most important examples of antisemitism is “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel.”

Omar did precisely that in Feb. 2019, when she angered fellow House Democrats Eliot Engel and Nita Lowey (both of New York) by saying in reference to Israel, “I want to talk about the political influence in this country that says it is OK for people to push for allegiance to a foreign country.”

Omar has also repeatedly applied double standards to Israel and singled out the world’s only Jewish state for her attacks, both of which are also included in the IHRA definition. She even equated Israel and the U.S. with Hamas, Afghanistan and the Taliban.

But despite all that quacking, several left-wing groups that label themselves “Jewish” and “pro-Israel” recently had the audacity to pretend that Omar is not a duck.

Who came to Omar’s defense when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) pledged to remove Omar from the House Foreign Affairs Committee?

It was J Street, Ameinu, Americans for Peace Now, Bend the Arc: Jewish Action, Habonim Dror North America, the New Israel Fund, T’ruah and the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

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!

From the official English translation of Mahmoud Abbas' Christmas message:

Today we are facing the policies and actions of our occupier with unity, commitment to our national values, steadfastness on our land, and with the world standing on the side of truth and justice. We will not accept the continuation of the occupation’s colonial-settlement policies targeting the Christian presence and Christianity in our region, which is an integral part of the social fabric of our people and of our region, something we always affirm and will continue to encourage all to preserve the mosaic of religious heritage that Palestine is proud of.

On this occasion we commend the positions of the Heads of Churches in Jerusalem, in which they accused extremist Zionist groups of carrying out continuous attacks on churches, intimidating Christians, attempting at expelling them and seizing their property.

We assure that we will continue to present our Palestinian narrative, refuting the false Zionist narrative, confronting any racist measures aimed at erasing our national identity, including our Christian and Muslim heritage. We will confront attacks on the Al-Aqsa Mosque, the Holy Sepulcher, Mount of Olives, Jaffa Gate, New Gate, the Armenian Quarter and others and attacks on every inch of the homeland.

We will not accept the practices of the colonial-settlement occupation and will confront them with peaceful popular resistance, in all international forums and courts. On this blessed occasion we call upon the international community break its silence and take concrete measures to stop Israeli crimes, including colonial-settlement expansion and ongoing annexation, the consolidation of a racist Apartheid regime, attempts at changing the identity and the character of the city of Jerusalem, the desecration of its Christian and Muslim holy sites , the seizure of church properties and all Palestinian properties, the forcible displacement of Palestinians from their homes, demolitions, as well as murders and other crimes and violations of international law. The homeland is mourning its martyrs, and we shall do everything we can to hold the criminals accountable.

Our hearts are squeezed with pain and suffering due to the killings of the Israeli occupation that led to the martyrdom of hundreds during this year, including the martyr journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, as well as the recent martyrdom of the hero Nasser Abu Hmeid, who died denied of his basic human rights as he was in the last stages of his struggle with cancer. We insist in the need for the international community to assume its responsibility to protect our people.

We affirm that the only way for our people, and all peoples of the region, to enjoy security, stability, prosperity and good neighborliness is for Palestinians to fulfil their legitimate and long overdue rights in accordance with international law and resolutions, including the end of the Israeli occupation and the freedom of the State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital, including our Muslims and Christian sanctities, the right of return of our people and living in our homeland in freedom and dignity.

I extend my greetings and congratulations to our people wherever they are, and I say to them, be proud of your history and identity, tell the world that Christmas is a Palestinian message of hope which our people continues to embrace with love and hope to achieve justice, freedom and peace in the Holy Land.

In short: Jews are criminals who have no business to live here, people who murder Jews are heroes and we intend to destroy the Jewish state via "return."

7 paragraphs that were anti-Israel, and only two that talked about the usual Christmas messages of peace on Earth, goodwill towards men,

This is what happens when you define your entire purpose - and the purpose of your people - as destroying the Jewish state.

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!

12/26 Links Pt1: EU document proves ‘what we’ve been seeing on the ground’; PA’s incitement to terror and murder continues; Shin Bet foils Palestinian bomb plot targeting inside Israel

From Ian:

EU document proves ‘what we’ve been seeing on the ground’

A recently leaked European Union document outlining E.U. strategy to help extend Palestinian control over Area C of Judea and Samaria reveals “a gross violation of Israel’s sovereignty and jurisdiction by purported allies,” Naomi Kahn, director of the International Division for Regavim, an Israeli NGO that deals with land issues, told JNS.

Under the Oslo Accords, Area C, covering 60% of Judea and Samaria, commonly known as the West Bank, falls fully under Israeli authority.

The document, which came to light last week, for the first time reveals that official E.U. policy is to help the Palestinian Authority take over Area C, Kahn said. The document declares the ultimate objective is to integrate Area C with Areas A and B, which fall under Palestinian control.

“The goal of the Europeans is to encourage Palestinians to register land in Area C; land under someone else’s legal jurisdiction. It’s a violation of international law and treaty,” Kahn said. “The government of Israel has to make it clear to the European Union that foreign intervention that is changing the map and undermining its ability to negotiate a resolution will no longer be accepted.”

Forty Knesset members sent a strongly worded protest to E.U. leaders saying it constituted a “grave breach” of the Israel-E.U. relationship. A Knesset committee will hold a special hearing on the issue.

The E.U. document, dating from June and obtained by JNS, was composed by the E.U.’s mission in eastern Jerusalem and is marked “confidential—not for circulation.” It outlines a plan for “defending the rights of Palestinians living in Area C and preserving Area C as part of a future Palestinian State, in line with the Oslo Accords.”

The document focuses on the E.U.’s plan to strengthen the P.A.’s illegal holdings in Area C and suggests various improvements— a “strategic evolution”—to that plan. The document said the current plan rests on four pillars: 1) Planning and mapping; 2) Social and public infrastructure projects; 3) Private sector development, particularly in agriculture and green energy; and 4) Local governance.

“It’s essentially proof of what we’ve been seeing on the ground,” Kahn said. “Mapping, first of all, is an act that expresses some sort of sovereignty. If something is registered, that is legally binding and can be acted upon. It accrues rights and responsibilities.”

The P.A., which employs 600 people in its land registry department, doesn’t hesitate to register Israeli territory.

“Palestinians have shown up in Israeli courts when there’s a dispute over land, and said, ‘It’s registered to my name, or it’s registered in the State of Palestine.’ The [Israeli] Supreme Court hasn’t yet accepted these land registrations, but neither has it thrown them out,” Kahn said.

In 1967, Israel suspended land registration in Judea and Samaria. “We’ve created a vacuum and we’re allowing the other side to fill the vacuum,” she said.

Emmanuel Navon, a senior fellow at the Jerusalem Institute for Security Studies (JISS), agreed that Israel shares responsibility for the situation.

PMW: PA’s incitement to terror and murder continues

The incitement of the Palestinian Authority to murder Israelis takes many forms. In some instances, the incitement is clear and direct, such as when PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas called to take revenge for the death of three terrorists and “dish out to them [Israel] twice as much as we’ve received.” In other instances, the incitement is more complex and subtle, and takes the form of glorifying imprisoned terrorist murderers and inventing libels to blame Israel for their deaths.

While the latter form of incitement is less direct, for the PA it is often sufficient in order to drive Palestinians to participate in terror, especially when the claim is made over and over and over again, ad nauseam.

This was the case with terrorist Muhammad Kabha, who cited the insidious PA incitement regarding the death of his imprisoned terrorist murderer friend, as his reasoning and motivation to murder Israeli Esther Horgen, on December 20, 2020.

Imprisoned terrorist murderer Nasser Abu Hmeid died on Dec. 20, 2022 after a year and a half long battle with lung cancer. He was serving 7 life sentences and 50 additional years in prison for his part in the murder of 7 Israeli civilians and the injury of many others in multiple terror attacks, during the 2000-2005 PA-instigated terror war.

Following the same pattern of incitement that drove Kabha to murder Ester Horgen, and as if they were quoting from a pre-prepared message sheet the PA, its officials and other Palestinians are again banging the same drum of incitement. According to the PA libel, Abu Hmeid died as a result of cancer, that was intentionally injected into his body, and was then left to die in his cell as part of a premeditated policy of medical negligence.

While the incitement was led, as Palestinian Media Watch already exposed, by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh, and their Fatah party, many others also joined the effort.

PLO Executive Committee Secretary Hussein Al-Sheikh, who also serves as Head of the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department, Fatah Central Committee member, and Head of Civil Affairs in the PA combined the “medical neglect” libel with praise for the terrorist, whose body he said should be returned to his family to “honor him as is fitting for a Martyr,” and for his extended family:
For a long time we have been investing great efforts on the regional and international level to release Nasser Abu Hmeid, who was subjected to deliberate and planned medical neglect. What interests us now is that we sent a direct request to hand over his body to his family, his friends, and his people, so that they will honor him as is fitting for a Martyr and fitting for his family, the fighting family, which all words are dumbstruck before the greatness of this family and this mother.”

[Official PA TV News, Dec. 20, 2022]

Abu Hmeid’s family, especially the mother of the family Latifa Abu Hmeid, who is also known as Um Nasser Abu Hmeid, enjoys a special status in the PA since 6 of their children actively participated in terror and murdering Israelis. Prior to Nasser Abu Hemid’s death, the family claimed one “Martyr” - i.e. a dead terrorist - and 5 sons serving life sentences for murder. In recognition of her terrorist children, as PMW exposed, Abbas even asked Latifa Abu Hmeid to symbolically lead the PA’s effort to gain full state membership in the UN.

Shin Bet foils Palestinian bomb plot targeting inside Israel

The Shin Bet domestic intelligence agency announced on Monday that it thwarted a Palestinian terrorist bomb plot and a separate suicide bombing targeting areas inside Green Line Israel, involving operatives from Judea and Samaria who were being directed by handlers from the Gaza Strip.

A working bomb hidden in a fire extinguisher was seized.

According to the Shin Bet, a joint investigation with the Israel Defense Forces saw the plot foiled on Dec. 14, adding that the Popular Resistance Committees directed it together with Shuhada Al-Aqsa, both of them terrorist organizations based in the Gaza Strip.

Four suspected terror operatives from Judea and Samaria are under arrest, the Shin Bet said.

The Israeli security operation focused on known terrorist operatives in the Strip headed by Ahmad Fathi Hajaj, an explosives expert who lives in Jabalia in northern Gaza, the agency said.

The thwarting of the plot is “part of an ongoing campaign that the Shin Bet together with the IDF and the Israel Police are conducting, to foil terrorism in Israel while using a range of techniques and tools,” the Shin Bet said.

Prime Minister Yair Lapid said, “Following an operation that lasted several weeks, the security forces have arrested terrorists in Judea and Samaria who were planning to carry out a large-scale bomb attack in Israel, assisted by terrorist organizations from the Gaza Strip. The war against terrorists and their cells continues on a daily basis in all sectors. The security forces are constantly working to thwart all attempts to attack us.”

Lying is part and parcel of Palestinian NGOs

The International Commission to Support Palestinian Rights called on the international community and humanitarian organizations to intervene immediately to stop Israel from opening up nonexistent dams that are being blamed for flooding Gaza during torrential rains.

It would be easy to dismiss the hysterical lies of a tiny NGO in Gaza. Like many Palestinian NGOs, ICSPR is essentially a one man operation meant to attract funding.

Its chairman is Salah Abdel Ati, a "human rights lawyer" who is involved in a lot of other Palestinian NGOs. He is on the Board of Trustees of Law Palestine, and his bio there says that he is also "member of the Board of Trustees of the Institute for Middle East Studies, Canada, former director of the Palestinian Center for Policy Research & Strategic (Masarat) in the Gaza Strip (2015-2019), and former director of the Independent Commission for Human Rights in Gaza (2004-2015), Director of Programs and Training at Canaan Educational Development Institute (1997-2004). Besides, Abdel Ati is a researcher and writer who has published many books, studies, research papers, and articles in the fields of politics, law, human rights, and society. He has worked with the United Nations agencies and international, Arab and Palestinian organizations and has trained thousands of lawyers and human rights activists, judges, workers in civil society organizations, and he is the founder and a board member in several Palestinian, Arab and international NGOs and institutions."

So now we can link an obvious liar to numerous other NGOs and, according to him, "thousands of lawyers and human rights activists, judges, workers in civil society organizations" who he helped train.

There is an almost incestuous relationship between Palestinian NGOs and international NGOs who work in Gaza and the West Bank. They all build on each others' "research" and compete in who will innovate the latest anti-Israel libel.

Their funding - and salaries - depend on it.

Lying is not a disqualification from being an honored member of this cabal - it is a prerequisite.

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!

Whoopi Goldberg's perverted mindset is a manifestation of the larger phenomenon of Black antisemitism

Over the weekend, the Times of London reported that actress, producer and TV commentator Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her statements earlier this year that the Holocaust was not about race (and, incidentally, showing that her apology at the time was meaningless:)

Whoopi Goldberg doubled down on her comments that the Holocaust was "not about race," which she made before temporarily being suspended from cohosting the TV talk show "The View" in February.

In a new interview with The Times of London, Goldberg said the Holocaust was not "originally" about race.

"Remember who they were killing first. They were not killing racial; they were killing physical. They were killing people they considered to be mentally defective," she said.

She also questioned whether Jewish people were a "race" compared to herself as a Black person.

"It doesn't change the fact that you could not tell a Jew on a street," Goldberg said. "You could find me. You couldn't find them. That was the point I was making. But you would have thought that I'd taken a big old stinky dump on the table, butt naked."

When Goldberg was asked about the fact that the Nazis classified Jewish people as a race, she responded: "The oppressor is telling you what you are. Why are you believing them? They're Nazis. Why believe what they're saying?"

This is so ignorant that one does not know where to begin.

The two important facts that The View pundit gets completely wrong are:

1. For Nazis, everything was about race.

It is true that the Nazis started their extermination program with the disabled (not only mentally but physically.) But the reason for that was purely racial: to weed out what Nazis believed were undesirable genetic traits in order to breed a Master Race. It was a trial run for their genocide against Jews, targeted also because of their supposedly inferior genetic traits. (Indeed, the Jewish disabled were wiped out first.)

2. Race is a social construct that has no bearing on biological reality.

Whoopi Goldberg's question, "Why believe what they are saying?' also applies to her. She believes that race is critically important because it is often visible, but in reality there is no "Black" gene. There are no significant genetic differences between people whose ancestors come from Europe, Asia or Africa, and the genetic variation within each group is larger than between groups.

Goldberg says that Nazi misconceptions about race are meaningless, but anti-Black racist opinions are of the highest importance.

It gets worse. She seems to be saying that Jews in Europe could have blended into the larger population and not have been persecuted. For religious Jews, this would mean cutting off their beards and payos, changing their clothing, language and accents, and abandoning their religion.

That is as offensive as saying that Black people could simply bleach their skin to defeat racism. And in both cases, it wouldn't work.

In fact, Goldberg is being more offensive, because her theory appears to be that the Holocaust was partially the Jews' fault - it was white people fighting with white people, both sides responsible, and if only the Jews would have acted differently, they would still be alive today.

There is a deeper issue here, though. How does someone as intelligent and accomplished as Whoopi Goldberg believe such stupidity?

And the reason is because she is an antisemitic bigot herself.

When you ask Caryn Elaine Johnson why she chose the stage name "Goldberg," she says, "The true story is that my family is Jewish, Buddhist, Baptist and Catholic . . So I took the last name from a Jewish ancestor."

This is a lie. She has no Jewish ancestors that anyone could find. But according to one account, her mother thought that her last name Johnson was "not Jewish enough" to make her a star.

Taking a Jewish name was a career move because Jews control Hollywood.

But there is something deeper here, and it relates to the current flavor of Black antisemitism.

As we have seen in recent years, it has become fashionable in even mainstream Black circles to claim that Blacks are the real Jews, making Jews imposters. The logic is not based on facts, but on the idea that victimhood is the coin of the realm and since Jews have been history's most prominent victims, Blacks must be the real Jews.

When being a victim is considered desirable, and anti-Black racism is defined as the ultimate evil, then the Holocaust becomes an ideological roadblock. The Nazi genocide, which dwarfs the evils of slavery by orders of magnitude, is a problem that must be minimized and explained away to maintain the idea that (anti-Black) racism is the alpha and omega of inhumanity.

Goldberg needs the Holocaust to not be about racism, because that means that Jews have been much bigger, much more recent victims of racism than Blacks have been - and that waters down the effectiveness of claiming that everything is about anti-Black racism.

Saying that Jews aren't really Jews and are just other white people also becomes a way for some Blacks to rationalize why Jews went from being a despised minority to a successful group in only one or two generations while most Black people are still at a great disadvantage. It couldn't be that Jews worked hard to transcend anti-Jewish bigotry: that implies that anti-Black racism can be overcome just as anti-Jewish racism was. That is not an acceptable message in a society that values victimhood over accomplishments. Easier to push the lie that white people always accepted Jews as fellow whites.

The irony is that the main purveyors of the new Black antisemitism are some of the richest, most powerful and most famous Black celebrities - the very people who managed to become successful despite racism. The Whoopi Goldbergs, Professor Griffs and Ice Cubes prefer to cut Jews down than to bring their fellow Blacks up.

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A Palestinian environmentalist who loves his land

The problem with hyperbole is that it eventually loses its effectiveness - and to keep it going, one has to keep upping the ante.

The UK-based Al Araby, which publishes in English as "The New Arab," has an editorial whose headline declares that "The Zionist occupation is a threat to humanity."

Sounds ominous!

It starts off with the usual supposed crimes against Palestinians - "the ethnic liquidation of the people of Palestine," that somehow keeps growing; "destruction of the economy, cutting off livelihoods, and reducing job opportunities to a minimum" (even though record numbers of Palestinians have well-paying jobs in Israel,) "destroying the health sector and limiting the Palestinian’s access to appropriate and urgent medicine," even though it is the PA that no longer allows Palestinians to be treated in Israeli hospitals - except for their own VIPs.

But that's hardly enough for an op-ed. So the newspaper editors have to add that Israel is trying to eliminate Palestinians from existence by "destroying the Palestinian environment, by uprooting trees, confiscating lands, and polluting water and soil."

Given that Palestinians burn Israeli lands, burn tires in protests and ruin the groundwater, this is as absurd as the previous accusations. But here is where the editorial makes its leap:

It is clear that the disastrous repercussions of the Zionist project/occupation affect all human, animal, plant and environmental life, which represents a threat to all of humanity, which struggles to survive in light of other environmental threats. Therefore, it can be said that the liberation of Palestine from this cancerous project is a human necessity as much as it is a Palestinian necessity.

Whoa! So Israel's supposed crimes against the Palestinian environment is threatening to destroy the entire world! Therefore, this mainstream, moderate UK-based paper says, every country must work together to destroy Israel in order to save the world!

Now, that's a new take!

Every bizarre accusation against Israel starts off just as fringe and as untethered to truth as this one, but in a couple of decades, with enough Big Lie type repetition, it is entirely possible that Amnesty and Human Rights Watch will adopt this narrative as well.

It's happened before.

Of course, the English language edition did not publish this editorial. Arabs know when they are spewing nonsense that would make them lose their friends if they were reading themselves. It will take a couple of years of conditioning from SJP and JVP, and then the New York Times congratulating itself for publishing such a provocative op-ed. Only then will this new narrative of Jews trying to destroy the world be mainstream enough to spread it without fear of looking like idiots.

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Chanukah Music Video night 8: V'Kavu (TABC High School) plus Boys Town Jerusalem

Catchy.

Plus:

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"Death to Israel"

El Bashayer reports:

On Friday, a demonstration took place in the Sitra area of Bahrain, rejecting the holding of Hanukkah activities in the country, and all forms of normalization with the Israeli entity, and in support of the Palestinian cause.

"Chanukah is a Zionist project and normalization program"

Palestine Today reports that the demonstration was repeated today, and managed to cancel a Chanukah event tonight.

Sunday evening, a massive demonstration took place in Bahrain to condemn the normalization of Manama with the Israeli occupation.

Activists circulated on social media, video clips, the moment a mass demonstration began near Bab Al Bahrain, denouncing normalization and holding Hanukkah events in the country.

The participants raised banners denouncing the condemnation and slogans of "Death to Israel".

The demonstration led to the cancellation of the first Hanukkah activities scheduled to start this evening at Bab Al Bahrain.

Here's video with plenty of chants of "Death to Israel."

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12/25 Links: Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!; Israel should terminate the Oslo Accords; Israeli mayor attends funeral of terrorist who wounded 3 policemen

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Happy inclusive holidays!

What a minefield this whole identity thing is. Thank goodness Chanukah doesn’t present this problem, eh?

For many diaspora Jews, Chanukah is regarded as Christmas-lite with gifts, diet-destroying delicacies and a lighted menorah in place of a glittering tree.

And there can hardly be much danger of offending anyone with a card displaying a chanukiah, dreidel or doughnut, or standard anodyne message such as “Festival of lights”, “Love, light, latkes” or “Peace, love and miracles”.

Hold on a minute. Chanukah is not actually a festival of peace and love. It celebrates instead the victory of the Maccabees who went to war against both the Seleucid Greeks and the Hellenists, Jews who were themselves drawn to the pagan ways of their Greek overlords.

The Maccabees were not apostles of peace. They were more like resistance commandos, fierce and uncompromising warriors who fought their Greek oppressors.

Moreover, they also committed violent atrocities against the Hellenised Jews who had absorbed Greek universalism and as a result had taken aim at circumcision, Shabbat observance and Torah study.

The Maccabees regarded those overly-assimilated Jews as traitors to Judaism and dealt with them accordingly.

In the saccharine world of much Chanukah observance, the Maccabees are commonly presented as heroes fighting and defeating the tyrannical Greeks. This was undoubtedly true.

But other commentators equally plausibly describe them as zealots, violent religious extremists who forced Jews to conform to a strict interpretation of Judaism and expelled non-Jews from the land. To the Hellenised Jews, they were religious nuts.

Ring any bells? Today, many diaspora Jews (and liberal Israelis) are hyper-ventilating over the likely inclusion in the new Israeli government of three men whose agenda has distinct echoes of the Maccabees.

Itamar Ben-Gvir, the putative security minister, called in his younger days for the expulsion of the Arabs from Israel (although he says he has changed his views). Bezalel Smotrich, tipped as a finance minister, has said his ultimate aim is an Israeli theocracy.

And Avi Maoz, who is set to run an office of “Jewish identity”, has taken explicit aim at the “Hellenising Jews” of the Israeli left and progressive denominations whom he terms “the real darkness”.

Celebrating the Maccabees might therefore be seen as celebrating Ben-Gvir, Smotrich and Maoz.

Well that’s the end of Chanukah cards, then.

PMW: Jesus the Palestinian terrorist and his 72 dark-eyed virgins

One of the many ways in which the Palestinian Authority distorts history in order to invent a centuries-old Palestinian identity, is to turn Jesus the Judean (Jew), who promoted peace on earth, into a Palestinian terrorist who was murdered by the Israelis, thus becoming the first Palestinian “Martyr,” who is now reveling in heaven with Allah, in the arms of 72 dark-eyed virgins.

While the language the PA uses to describe Jesus as a terrorist and as someone enjoying his virgins is less direct, the meaning is the same.

When referring to Palestinian terrorists, the PA calls them “self-sacrificing fighters,” or “fidai”. So, when the PA and its officials use the same terms to describe Jesus, they are in fact saying he is a terrorist.

As Palestinian Media Watch has shown, here, here, here, here, and here, among other places, the definition of Jesus as a terrorist enjoying his virgins is not a fringe idea, but rather one expressed by the highest order in the PA.

Jesus the “Palestinian” terrorist murdered by the Jews

When PA Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh sought to declare Jesus a terrorist, and link him to Palestinian terror, he referred to him as a “Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter” who, similar to the PA descriptions of suicide bombers, “paid for his mission with his life” and whose birth takes place “at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution” – i.e the anniversary of the first Fatah terror attack:
“The birthday of our lord Jesus, peace be upon him - the first Palestinian self-sacrificing fighter from whom we learned Martyrdom-death, and who paid for his mission with his life - takes place at the same time as the anniversary of the outbreak of the Palestinian revolution (i.e., the anniversary of “the Launch” of Fatah, counted from its first terror attack against Israel), for which thousands of Martyrs have paid with their lives so that we will live and remain, and so that our children will dream of a better future.”

[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 28, 2020]

Muwaffaq Matar, a member of the Revolutionary Council of PA leader Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah party and regular columnist for the official PA daily similarly adopted Jesus as a Palestinian and compared him to terrorists calling him a “self-sacrificing fighter”:

By Daled Amos

This week, America First Legal sued President Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken for violating the Taylor Force Act. The group represents Stuart and Robbi Force, the parents of Taylor Force who was murdered by Palestinian terrorists, Sarri Singer, a survivor of a 2003 terrorist attack, and US Congressman Ronny Jackson (R-TX).

Taylor Force was murdered on March 8, 2016, and despite the fact that he was neither Jewish nor Israeli, the Palestinian Authority repeatedly praised the terrorist who killed Taylor as a martyr:

Biden was Vice President at the time and was in Israel, in Tel Aviv where the attack took place.

“I don’t know exactly whether it was a hundred meters or a thousand meters,” Biden, on a visit to Israel, told reporters about Tuesday’s assault.

“It brings home that it can happen, it can happen anywhere, at any time,” he said, after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem.

Meanwhile, Abbas offered condolences at the same time that the official PA News was praising the murderer.

The Taylor Force Act was signed into law in 2018 to stop Abbas and the PA from incentivizing terrorism. According to the summary of the bill:

(Sec. 4) This bill prohibits certain FY2018-FY2023 economic support assistance that directly benefits the Palestinian Authority (PA) from being made available for the West Bank and Gaza unless the Department of State certifies that the PA, the Palestine Liberation Organization, and any successor or affiliated organizations:

o  are taking steps to end acts of violence against U.S. and Israeli citizens perpetrated by individuals under their jurisdictional control, such as the March 2016 attack that killed former Army officer Taylor Force;

o have revoked any law, decree, or document authorizing or implementing a system of compensation for imprisoned individuals that uses the sentence or incarceration period to determine compensation;

o  have terminated payments for acts of terrorism against U.S. and Israeli citizens to any individual who has been fairly tried and imprisoned for such acts, to any individual who died committing such acts, and to family members of such an individual; and

o  are publicly condemning such acts of violence and are investigating such acts.

During the Trump administration, payments to the PA were frozen. When he first started resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority, Biden did more than simply undo Trump's policy -- he attempted to bypass the law passed by Congress. When it was announced in March 2021 that the Biden administration would renew funding of the PA despite their refusal to stop "pay for slay" payments to the families of terrorists, it was unclear how the administration intended to avoid the restrictions of the Taylor Force Act:

The State Department has yet to explain how it will resume U.S. aid without violating that law, known as the Taylor Force Act.

A State Department official familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon that "any decisions related to resuming assistance to the West Bank and Gaza will be consistent with requirements under relevant U.S. law."

The question is how the Biden administration will attempt to explain away its violation of the Taylor Force Act.

Concerns were already raised back in 2020 on how they would do this. Yossi Kuperwasser, a senior intelligence and security expert, expected the PA to continue its claim that the payments were based merely on financial considerations. He expected that the Biden administration would pull the same trick as the Obama administration in 2014, when it asked the PA to move the agency in charge of the payments from the PA to the PLO. On that basis alone, the State Department then claimed that the PA was making efforts and that things were moving in the right direction.

But nothing really changed and no action to prevent the payments was taken.

Instead, in April 2021, a package was put together for the Palestinian Arabs that was supposed to avoid circumventing the Taylor Force Act:

o $150 million went to UNRWA
o $75 went to economic development programs in the West Bank and Gaza
o $10 million went to "peace building" initiatives.

According to Blinken at the time, the money would not violate the Taylor Force Act because it would not go directly to the PA. Instead, the money would go to agencies that are independent of both the Abbas government and Hamas.

Jonathan Tobin notes that according to a Government Accounting Office report that preceded Trump's cutoff of funds, money given to the Palestinian government by US officials was not closely monitored and wound up in the hands of terrorists. While the report indicated that better oversight could solve the problem, it remains unclear how the Biden White House and the usual bureaucracy are going to succeed what they have previously failed to do.

Another issue is that Palestinian NGOs receiving the funding are not really independent of the Palestinian governments, whether these groups deal with Abbas and Fatah in the West Bank or Hamas in Gaza.

An additional point Tobin makes is that the money itself is fungible. The money received by the NGOs is money that the Abbas government might otherwise have had to spend for those non-government purposes. The money from the US thus allows Abbas to divert the money it saves due to US largesse on other purposes, including those that are terror-related.

The State Department itself acknowledged that there is a problem of Abbas funneling money to terrorists. In a March 18 non-public report in 2021,

The State Department admitted it was "unable to certify" to Congress that the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization are complying with the Taylor Force Act, primarily because they have "not terminated payments for acts of terrorism to any individual, after being fairly tried, who has been imprisoned for such acts of terrorism and to any individual who died committing such acts of terrorism, including to a family member of such individuals," according to the report. [emphasis added]

In a separate memo, the State Department also admitted that the PA had "not taken proactive steps to counter incitement to violence against Israel." In other words, they could not certify for Congress that the PA had fulfilled repeated promises to end incitement and recommit itself to peace negotiations.

There is a problem of Abbas encouraging terrorist attacks.
The State Department admits there is a problem.
The Biden Administration has failed to present a clear plan on how provide funding for Palestinian Arabs without it being used for encouraging the murder of Israelis.

Maybe its time to let the Taylor Force Act do the job it was intended for.

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