Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 21, 2023

Author Susan Abulhawa is embarrassed to be outed as a terror supporter (UPDATE)

Susan Abulhawa is an award winning author who is also a supporter of terrorism.

On Monday, she tweeted, "This is your daily reminder that Zionism is the contemporary face of Nazism and white supremacy. The fairytales of Israel's benevolence, democracy, etc are promulgated by an intensely funded global propaganda machine."

I responded with a poster I had made a couple of weeks ago, showing that she prominently displayes a photo of terrorist Dalal Mughrabi in her office. Mughrabi murdered 38 Israelis, including 13 children, in the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre.

She immediately blocked me.

But the story doesn't quite end there.

I originally published that poster on February 1. I took the image from her biographical page in a site called Palestine Writes, a literature festival.

According to archive.org, the webpage that had this photo was taken down by February 4.

Either Abulhawa asked that the site take down her embarrassing photo, or the Palestine Writes people themselves decided to take it down. In fact, all mentions of her at the site have been scrubbed, although their Facebook page has a recent mention of Abulhawa, still mentioning her as a festival director.

Whoever took it down, clearly Abulhawa's posing in front of photos of terrorists like Mughrabi and Ghassan Kanafani (who worked with the Japanese Red Army on the 1972 Lod Airport massacre) has caused embarrassment among people who claim that they have the moral high ground. Instead of publicly condemning Dalal Mughrabi, they want to hide the evidence that they support the most heinous female terrorist in history.

Abulhawa herself has a long history of antisemitism, delighting in comparing Israel to Nazi Germany (h/t GnasherJew):

I hope that people tweet this poster of her Mughrabi photo every time she makes another claim about how Israel is immoral. My response gathered far more "Likes" than her original post, which is pretty rare on Twitter, so this must have stung.

UPDATE: Mark Humphrys found a larger version of her photo, from 2020 on her website:

But on her Amazon page, she doesn't have either Mughrabi and Kanafani!

There is strong evidence that the Amazon photo was taken first, which means that Abulhawa didn't have those photos on her wall - but she Photoshopped them there.

Either way, she wanted to indicate who her heroes were in the later pictures. (h/t GnasherJew)

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Arabic media and social media are reporting that Israeli rescuers in Turkey "stole" an antique Scroll of Esther. From the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

The theft of a historical manuscript by the Israeli rescue team dispatched to Turkey to help those affected by the earthquake sparked an ethical scandal after pictures and videos showed the team members displaying the stolen manuscript.

The Turkish "Haber7" website said it turned out that the Israeli search and rescue team secretly took the Book of Esther from Turkey’s earthquake-damaged Antakya Synagogue in Hatay province before the theft was discovered and the manuscript returned to Turkey.

That is not at all what happened, and Wafa knows it - because it refers to the YNet story that describes what happened:

As Israeli rescue teams were rummaging through the rubble in the Turkish city of Antakya after last week's devastating earthquake in hopes of finding survivors trapped underneath, a local elderly Jewish man approached them holding something unique in his hands — two centuries-old Book of Esther scrolls that were kept in the local synagogue before the shock.

The teary-eyed man approached Major Haim Otmazgin, commander of the ZAKA search-and-rescue force, with an unusual request.

"The last head of our community has now tragically passed and with our proximity to Syria, I'd hate to see the scrolls fall in the wrong hands. Please guard them and make sure our community is remembered," he said.

Moved by the elder's request, Maj. Otmazgin accepted the duty of keeping the artifacts safe.

"In my capacity as a ZAKA volunteer of several decades, this is one of the most moving moments of my life," he said. "I'm truly honored to save such a significant historical document and to make sure the heritage of Antakya's Jewish community remains intact, even after the quake reduced it to nearly nothing.

After the leader of the Antakya community Şaul Cenudioğlu was killed in the devastating earthquake, one of the few remaining members begged the Israelis to save the Megillah.

Assuming that the scroll belonged to the synagogue itself, and that the man was the legal guardian, this would not violate any antiquities laws I am aware of. They generally apply to artifacts discovered by researchers, not items that belong to an existing institution. Museums sell important artwork all the time.

However, the larger Jewish community in Istanbul requested the scrolls be returned and held there with the intent to rebuild the Antakya community. The community was not being declared gone. So the Israelis immediately did so. This was all reported in Turkish media:

The head of an Israeli rescue team has handed over the historical Book of Esther, which the team carefully removed from the earthquake-hit Antakya Synagogue and carried to their country, to the Jewish Chief Rabbinate in Istanbul.

Israeli media reported that the historical scrolls of the Book of Esther in Antakya Synagogue, which was damaged in the earthquakes, were taken to Israel by the Israeli search and rescue team ZAKA.

It was stated that the historical scrolls were delivered to Haim Otmazgin, the head of ZAKA, to be transported to a safe place.

The Turkish Jewish Community announced that Israel handed over the scrolls.

“The scroll of Esther was delivered from Israel and is kept in our Chief Rabbinate. It will return to its home after the renovation of our Antakya Synagogue,” it said.

“Our works belonging to all kinds of beliefs and cultures that have existed for centuries within the borders of our country will continue to be carefully protected in these lands,” the Culture and Tourism Ministry stated.

“We will restore our Antakya Synagogue, along with all other damaged registered works, and reopen it to the worship of our citizens,” the ministry said.

There was no intent to steal anything,- only to preserve, but it properly belongs to the Jewish community in Turkey which requested it and received it.

As usual, modern antisemites purposefully twist the facts and lie to make Israel and Israeli Jews appear evil no matter what they do. And there is a word for that.

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Survey: Arabs in "east" Jerusalem are more satisfied than they were 12 years ago

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research asked Arab residents of Jerusalem the same questions they asked in 2010, and their answers show that in general, things are much better for them than they were before.

For 21 out of 26 topics, the Arabs are more satisfied than they were in 2010, and in some cases significantly more. the biggest improvement was with the speed that fire and other emergency services arrive - satisfaction went up 28 percentage points from 42% to 70%, with a similar increase for satisfaction on ambulance service speed.

The poll also shows that things are much better for Jerusalemite Arabs in their standard of living, ease of travel through Ben Gurion Airport, the health system and even access to Al Aqsa Mosque and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre - things that you would not know from reading the news.

To be sure, there are plenty of things they are still unhappy with, and they are most dissatisfied with the difficulty of getting building permits.

There were other surprising results. When Jerusalem Arabs are asked to whom they turn to when they need help, most turn to family - but the Israeli authorities are not far behind.

And practically none of them trust Palestinian NGOs or the Waqf to help them.

Also, while most say they are fearful of intimidation by Jewish settler groups, there was a sharp increase of those saying they are more fearful of Palestinian groups intimidating them, from 20% to 29%.

Even though most of them are permanent residents of Jerusalem, 95% refuse to participate in municipal elections. But 92% say they would not vote in Palestinian elections, either.

If a two state solution would happen, more say they would prefer to become Palestinian citizens than Israeli citizens, but interestingly they also think that most other Arabs in their neighborhoods would prefer Israeli citizenship - which might reflect their real feelings. They had a laundry list of fears of how services and rights would be negatively affected by their neighborhoods falling under Palestinian control, from loss of freedom of speech to more corruption to worse health and municipal services.

It is an interesting survey, with no cookie-cutter results but rather a display of how complicated the issue is for the people who are most affected by any decisions on Jerusalem.

(h/t iTiIL972)

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02/20 Links Pt2: This is how antisemitism thrives; ‘Queering Anti-Zionism’ and the academic boycott of Israel; How is this pastor healing the rift between Black, Jewish communities?

From Ian:

This is how antisemitism thrives

The key point here is that this is how antisemitism became so pervasive in Labour. It wasn’t just because of people who are actively, deliberately antisemitic, though obviously it was because of them too. It was because too many left-wing journalists and thinkers, too many Labour members and online activists decided to look away. They made excuses, ignored things they didn’t like, refused to believe what was right in front of them because it was uncomfortable. This is how antisemitism thrives.

This dynamic is still happening. A couple of days ago, the Brixton branch of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC) posted a pamphlet online calling for Zionists to be sacked, calling them a “brainwashed, racist minority”, and urging the public to not speak to anyone who believes in Israel’s right to exist. Nobody on the left made any comment on this, of course, because the people involved with PSC are on the left; Jeremy Corbyn is, naturally, a patron.

In recent years, antisemitism has been demonstrated to be a real problem on the political left again and again and again. If you spend a day madly tweeting about Starmer barring Corbyn from candidacy without once mentioning antisemitism as the reason why, it becomes very apparent that you are not at all bothered by anti-Jewish racism; to you it is something to sidestep rather than confront.

It’s all very well going around calling yourself an anti-racist, but if you go silent or move into damage limitation mode the moment racism pops up on your side of the fence, you’re no fearless campaigner against bigotry. Spending your time minimising or deflecting antisemitism makes you a big part of the problem; an enabler of all the awful things which have happened these last few years. To make use of a quote Corbyn has tweeted in his time, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.

The left is still ignoring antisemitism or covering for it; it has learnt nothing these last few years. But it has at least given the rest of us a good look at how hollow the claims of “anti-racism” are. You want to oppose racism? Start by looking closer to home.

‘Queering Anti-Zionism’ and the academic boycott of Israel - review

Over the last two decades, academic spaces that had once been open for lively and heated conversations about differing opinions have become increasingly isolating and homogeneous, leaving little room for accepting those with whom you disagree, Corinne E. Blackmer states in the premise of her new book, Queering Anti-Zionism.

In Queering Anti-Zionism, Blackmer examines the way in which the BDS movement has taken over the world of academia, in particular the world of queer and feminist studies.

In 2008, Blackmer, a professor of English and Judaic studies at Southern Connecticut State University, came face to face with the discrimination that many Jewish academics endure, despite never having publicly announced her Zionist beliefs prior to that point.

However, as an openly Jewish and openly gay woman, she became the target of a series of homophobic and antisemitic hate crimes over the course of several months, paving the way for her to explore the connection between LGBTQ+ identities and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, specifically within the confines of academic freedom and campus activism.

The infringement on academic freedom
In her introduction to the book, Blackmer states that while the book acknowledges and attempts to do justice to opinions on many sides of the conflict, she believes that the BDS movement is “an infringement on open expression and academic freedom,” which in turn “undermines the respect for complex issues for which there are no right or wrong answers.”

The theme of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict having no simple answers runs throughout the book as Blackmer examines the complex identities of LGBTQ+ Palestinians and Israelis and the reality that exists on the ground, as well as the black-and-white thinking of many anti-postmodernist academic activists when it comes to Israel.

Through examining the works and writings of Sarah Schulman, Jasbit Puar, Angela Davis, Dean Spade and Judith Butler, Blackmer paints a picture of progressive academic thinkers who have all produced profoundly impactful works in their own right, but who seem to fall at the hurdle of treating Israel, and the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with the same respect and open-mindedness with which they treat their other subjects.

Heroes Amid the Holocaust

"Righteous Among the Nations" is an official title awarded by Yad Vashem—the World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Israel—on behalf of the State of Israel and the Jewish people, given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Four basic conditions are listed by Yad Vashem for granting the title. First, there must have been "active involvement of the rescuer in saving one or several Jews from the threat of death or deportation to death camps." Second, there must have been "risk to the rescuer’s life, liberty, or position." Third, the "initial motivation" must have been "the intention to help persecuted Jews: i.e. not for payment or any other reward such as religious conversion of the saved person, adoption of a child, etc." Finally, there must be "existence of testimony of those who were helped or at least unequivocal documentation establishing the nature of the rescue and its circumstances."

As of January 1, 2022, 28,217 individuals have been awarded the title, many nominated by the very people they rescued.

While there are several names that are well known—including Oskar Schindler, portrayed by Liam Neeson in Steven Spielberg’s Schindler’s List—there are thousands more whose courage and relentless morality in the face of unimaginable evil remain unknown to most.

Richard Hurowitz’s In The Garden Of The Righteous: The Heroes Who Risked Their Lives To Save Jews During The Holocaust provides a deeply emotional window into several of these lesser-known and yet equally heroic figures.

Noting that rescue during the Holocaust "remains both a celebration of what is best in us and, in its extreme scarcity, an indictment of the worst," Hurowitz establishes a central purpose of the book: to study "what motivated the rescuers" in order to "perhaps distill the values and manners we wish to cherish and to encourage," exploring 10 accounts of rescue from among the 28,217.

Richard Hurowitz in Conversation with Abe Foxman: In the Garden of the Righteous

At a moment when bigotry, intolerance and authoritarianism are once again ascendant, Richard Hurowitz has written In the Garden of the Righteous, an extraordinary volume chronicling not only the heroes and heroines who rescued Jews but, as Golda Meir once said, “saved hope and the faith in the human spirit.” In conjunction with the opening of our Violins of Hope: Every Violin Has a Story exhibition, part of the Violins of Hope programming at Temple Emanu-El’s Bernard Museum of Judaica, Hurwitz joins us on the eve of International Holocaust Remembrance Day for a conversation with Abe Foxman about the people who refused to close their eyes or immerse themselves in passivity and the lessons they pass on about kindness and conviction.

See here for more details.

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The Institute of Palestine Studies published a paper in 2014, "The ICRC and the Detention of Palestinian Civilians in Israel's 1948 POW/Labor Camps," by Salman Abu Sitta and Terry Rempel. It has been publicized in recent days anew.

Its abstract says:

The internment of thousands of Palestinian civilians in Israeli-run prisoner of war camps is a relatively little known episode in the 1948 war. This article begins to piece together the story from the dual perspective of the former civilian internees and of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Aside from the day-to-day treatment of the internees, ICRC reports focused on the legal and humanitarian implications of civilian internment and on Israel's resort to forced labor to support its war effort. Most of the 5,000 or so Palestinian civilians held in four official camps were reduced to conditions described by one ICRC official as “slavery” and then expelled from the country at the end of the war. Notwithstanding their shortcoming, the ICRC records constitute an important contribution to the story of these prisoners and also expose the organization's ineffectiveness—absent a legal framework as well as enforcement mechanisms beyond moral persuasion, the ICRC could do little to intervene on behalf of the internees.

Is this true? Did Israel use Arab civilians as slave labor in 1948?

The paper relies heavily on ICRC reports from the time. I do not have access to those. But a couple of other reports from the time, and a close reading of the paper itself, shows that there are some other facts that are very relevant that the authors do not want you to know.

It does appear that many civilians were captured and treated as prisoners of war during the 1948 war. However, the ICRC was okay with that - because the 1948 Fourth Geneva Convention on how to treat civilians during wartime had not yet been finished, while the 1929 Geneva Convention that covered the international law of how to treat prisoners of war was fairly mature.

A history of the ICRC "From Yalta to Dien Bien Phu: History of the International Committee of the Red Cross 1945 to 1955" describes what happened:

As for the Arab prisoners of war in Israel, they were in fact – some 5,000 of them – mostly civilians They were Arabs from Palestine, generally of weapon-bearing age, who had been rounded up when the Israeli armed forces occupied their towns or villages Sent to camps, where they were enlisted in work teams and paid a wage, they were nonetheless considered as prisoners of war by the Israeli authorities, which treated them accordingly While the delegation protested against the internment of civilians, who should be set free unless they have committed hostile acts, it accepted the status of prisoner of war conferred on them, as it granted them numerous advantages, which they would not have had as simple civilian internees This was precisely what the ICRC was seeking to obtain for civilian internees in the preparatory work for the adoption of the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War.

These civilians were not "slave labor" - they were paid and treated better than they would have been as civilians in a war zone!

The paper notes in passing that it was legal to give POWs work under the 1929 conventions, although not related to military work.

The Sitta/Rempel paper briefly quotes a New York Times article datelines October 12, 1948, about the civilians and POWs. But it ignores the bulk of the article, where the reporter goes on at length about how well the prisoners are treated, as well as their civilian status:

JALIL, Israel, Oct. 12-About half of the 5,000 Arab prisoners captured by the Israeli Army since May are held in a tent camp hastily thrown up on the sand and scrub of a little valley beside this former Arab village. With the exception of a few officers they are as unlikely looking a group of soldiers as any war might produce. In fact, not even the camp authorities are certain how many of them actually were soldiers in the Arab armies. The process of sorting them out is now taking place.

About 250 prisoners are Egyptian. Trans-Jordan. Syrian or Lebanese regulars whose status as prisoners of war .has been marked by painting a large blue diamond on their uniforms. There are seven young former British Army men who dispute the authorities' assertion that they fought on the Arab side. The rest are Palestinian Arabs, most of whom were picked up after the fighting for Arab villages within the new state had ended. These will probably be released when the sorting out process has been completed.

Israel Ginsburg, a former British intelligence officer and now second in command of the camp, showed a group of Israel Red Shield (Israeli equivalent of the Red Cross) representatives and this correspondent about the camp recently.

...Mr. Ginsburg readily conceded that camp conditions were not perfect but explained that "we have had no experience in this sort of thing and we have had to learn and improvise as we went along." Except for two Egyptian fliers-the "elite of the camp" as one guard described them-there were no serious complaints from the prisoners. Like prisoners of war everywhere, most of those in camp complained about the boredom of detention and the monotony of the diet.

There are separate compounds for each group of nationals and for their officers. One Oxford-educated Sudanese major named Zhir had a huge tent to himself. No one was quite sure, but either he had refused to mix with the Egyptians or the Egyptians had refused to live with him. The :seven Britons had at first been placed with the Arabs but the Arabs asked for separate quarters. The Egyptian fliers, both about 25 years of age, looked spruce and fit in their blue-gray uniforms with the bars of flight lieutenants.

The Egyptians' argument with Mr. Ginsburg and other Israeli officers about the relative merits of Israeli and Egyptian treatment of prisoners was conducted in the best possible humor. The same cordiality between prisoners and guards, particularly Palestinian Arabs, who personally knew many of the soldiers before the war, was evident throughout the camp. The relationship was far more friendly than in any prisoners' camp that this correspondent had visited on the Western Front during World War II.

The prisoners are not compelled to work and the majority don't, although work volunteers receive extra pay.

Most of the Palestinian Arabs had heard that soldiers were tortured on being .captured, Mr. Ginsburg said, as they always asserted their civilian status when brought to camp. "When they saw that we observed the Geneva Convention and that the International Red Cross inspected the camp periodically and that the soldiers actually were slightly better treated, about 400 of them owned up to having been in the fighting forces," Mr. Ginsburg said.

These two independent reports are completely at odds with the assertions of the authors. And other contemporaneous reports support the idea that these prisoners were well treated.

I cannot speak to how accurately the authors quoted the ICRC documents, or whether they took quotes out of context. They liberally and uncritically quote former POWs who say lurid stories of torture and how the Israelis would shoot them for no reason.

However, given that they did not mention the NYT article's description of the camp being at odds with their thesis, and they did not mention any of the other reports from the time that contradict their assertions, one must conclude that they were more interested in publishing an anti-Israel academic paper than in describing the facts behind a little-known aspect of the 1948 war.

(h/t GnasherJew)

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02/20 Links Pt1: How the Palestinians Lost their Way; US planned to veto UNSC resolution on settlements, PA knew this; IAEA find uranium enriched to 84% purity in Iran

From Ian:

How the Palestinians Lost their Way

From the time Israel was established in 1948, the Palestinians missed many opportunities to make peace. The late Israeli foreign minister Abba Eban put succinctly when he stated: “the Palestinians never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity,” a fact that prevented a multitude of young Palestinians from enjoying the fruits of peace and becoming constructive players in nation-building who are able to take pride in their achievements.

Starting with their refusal to accept the UN partition plan in 1947, the Palestinians have indisputably missed a number of opportunities, but it will suffice to name only a few. Following the Six Day War in 1967, the Palestinians turned down Israel’s offer to return all the territories captured in war in exchange for peace (with the exception of the final status of Jerusalem). In 1977, the Palestinians rejected the invitation to join the Israeli-Egyptian peace negotiations which could have resulted in in an Israeli-Palestinian peace along with the Israeli-Egyptian peace agreement signed in 1979.

At Camp David in 2000, the Palestinians missed another historic opportunity and walked away the last minute when a comprehensive agreement was afoot. The most violent uprising—the Second Intifada—that began a few months later stunned the Israelis who concluded that Palestinians are simply not interested in peace. And finally, in 2007-2008 the Palestinians once more walked away from negotiations, this time over a disagreement in connection with percentages of land swaps.

Since then, largely under Netanyahu’s and Abbas’ leadership, no substantive peace negotiations have taken place, and sadly a fourth generation of Palestinians is now flagging between corrupt dictatorial leadership, self-destructive extremism, and no prospect for any meaningful life. Neither the Palestinian Authority nor Hamas have any plans or strategy that will bring an end to the most destructive conflict to which they have subjected their youth for 55 years and counting.

This is how the Palestinians lost their way. As they continue to revel in the illusion that they can destroy Israel, they in fact are sowing the seeds of their own destruction. It’s time to wake up before they forfeit the next generation’s chance to live in peace and realize their dreams and aspirations to prosper in their own country, which they richly deserve if only given the opportunity.

US lawmakers introduce bills to halt flow of American tax dollars to UNRWA

U.S. Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) formally introduced The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) Accountability and Transparency Act on Friday, which aims to stop the flow of American taxpayer dollars to that body.

“UNRWA’s lengthy and detailed history of promoting anti-Semitism, violence and terrorism through ‘educational’ materials, and its continued ties to Hamas, should completely disqualify this corrupt entity from receiving any U.S. taxpayer funding,” said Roy when announcing the bill.

“UNRWA has failed to meet previous commitments to stop its hostility towards Israel, and it is an obstacle to peace. Israel is one of our greatest allies and closest friends; we cannot say we truly stand with them while helping prop up a corrupt organization like this. If our actions do not match our words, then our word means nothing,” he added.

Sen. Jim Risch (R-Idaho), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, introduced a companion bill into that chamber on Wednesday.

UNRWA, which tends to some five million descendants of Arabs displaced in Israel’s 1948 War of Independence, employs those affiliated with Hamas, and its schools have been used by the Palestinian terrorist group to store weapons and promote anti-Semitic propaganda.

The Trump Administration cut off U.S. funding to UNRWA in 2018, a move that the Biden administration reversed.

The bills would require reforms of UNRWA before any U.S. taxpayer dollars are directed to the organization. Specifically, the Biden administration would need to certify that:
• No UNRWA employee is a member of a terrorist organization such as Hamas or Hezbollah, or has advocated terrorist activity, or propagated anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric.
• No UNRWA infrastructure or resource is being used by terrorist organizations.
• UNRWA is subject to a comprehensive financial audit and has implemented a system of vetting and oversight to prevent any diversion of UNRWA resources to terrorist organizations.
• No UNRWA school or facility uses textbooks or other educational materials to disseminate anti-American, anti-Israel, or anti-Semitic rhetoric.
• No recipient of UNRWA funds is a member or affiliate of a foreign terrorist organization.
• UNRWA holds no affiliations with financial institutions that the United States deems or believes to be complicit in financing terrorism.

Inside schools in east Jerusalem: How hate is taught

What is happening inside schools in east Jerusalem? Witnesses came to speak with Israel Hayom to expose the environment in which students are taught in the eastern part of the capital. While they are not directly inciting terror, the environment in which students are taught in some schools raises difficult questions.

"Teachers sit in the teachers' room quite contently after terrorist attacks. They aren't concerned about the death of Israelis, and some of them even say 'hopefully the wounded will die'. There are others that do not publicly express joy, but in their hearts, they are happy – or at the very least, they just don't care," says one teacher who has taught for the last decade in a school in the eastern part of the city.

"Many teachers identify with the Palestinian cause. Israel's existence is a technicality for them, that they put up with as they have no choice, but they do not feel any sentiment towards Israel. You might even overhear a teacher in the hallway say to him or herself 'may God free us from the occupation, Israel must disappear'," the teacher adds.

"There are also extremist teachers teaching Islam in a way that brainwashes children, and the message that the students receive is that it's okay to persecute Jews", the teacher explains. "For example, a mathematics teacher who decides to devote the last 15 minutes of class every day to teach religion. Some will say to the kids: Don't watch television, it's against Islam. Some of these teachers support the Arab Liberation Front – a movement of radical Islam."

Not all these movements directly incite violence. However, none of these movements encourage the students to look at Israel as a partner instead of an enemy. Another teacher that taught at a girls' school in east Jerusalem explains "teachers did not discuss politics in the classroom because classes were supervised, and it is forbidden. Any teacher that does that knows that he or she is putting his or her job at risk."

The Jewish Journal and the Tikvah Fund presented a video debate yesterday between MK Simcha Rothman, who is spearheading the controversial judicial reform plan in Israel, and constitutional law expert Professor Yaniv Roznai, moderated by journalist Shmuel Rosner.

It is a very good overview of the issues that have been dividing Israeli society. A very worthwhile video to watch.

The Jewish Journal says it will post a transcript for this debate, as of this writing I do not see it.

(h/t Yoel)

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Last week, to much fanfare, the Maimonides synagogue was formally opened in Abu Dhabi as part of the Abrahamic Family House interfaith project spearheaded by the UAE royal family.

Many reports say that this is the first synagogue in Abu Dhabi, but in fact there was a modest synagogue that had been operating quietly for years in a rented villa for Jewish businesspeople in the Emirates.

Most of the Arabic language articles about the new synagogue have been respectful, but many - especially from outlets sympathetic to Iran - have been upset over this.

It appears that the articles that are upset over the complex are trying to manufacture and stoke the outrage rather than report on it.

Watanserb dug through social media to find critics of the synagogue. They found a couple of prominent critics but they also sought out Tweeters with only a few dozen followers to fill out the story.

Ahmed al Khalili, the Mufti of Oman, believes that giving equal weight to Christianity and Judaism with Islam is a violation of the Quranic decree not to take Christians and Jews as allies.

Popular tweeter HureyAksa also says that the complex is "heretical" and fights against Islam. (More recently, he took video of the "Chief Rabbi of Saudi Arabia" promoting the Saudi Neom project, saying that it will be built specifically for the use of the "occupation.")

Some Saudis seem to be afraid that the UAE is trying to supplant the Kaaba as the central religious site in the world. A Yemeni site even said that the UAE is trying to change the direction of the qiblah, the prayer direction, away from Mecca.

Of course, many in Arab media are calling this house of prayer more evidence of "normalization" with Israel, citing Israeli newspapers who are reporting on the story.

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75 years ago: War crimes by the Arab Legion, with full knowledge and encouragement of the British

Starting in 1947, the Arab Legion was placed in Jewish areas by the British. They used this opportunity to attack and murder random Jewish civilians.

From the Palestine Post, February 16, 1948:

A particularly horrific story happened the next day. Three Jews were shot at in their car, injured, forcibly pulled from their car - and then executed.

From the Palestine Post, February 17, 1948:

More details of this crime were revealed in the next day's paper. The British knew about the execution ahead of time, and essentially colluded.

These are all war crimes by any definition. And no one even remembers this.

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It had to happen: Arab media links "Team Jorge" group to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion

Over the past week, there's been a blockbuster journalistic scoop revealing the existence of an Israeli hacking team that was influencing elections and other world events. The Guardian summarizes:

A team of Israeli contractors who claim to have manipulated more than 30 elections around the world using hacking, sabotage and automated disinformation on social media has been exposed in a new investigation.

The unit is run by Tal Hanan, a 50-year-old former Israeli special forces operative who now works privately using the pseudonym “Jorge”, and appears to have been working under the radar in elections in various countries for more than two decades.

He is being unmasked by an international consortium of journalists. Hanan and his unit, which uses the codename “Team Jorge”, have been exposed by undercover footage and documents leaked to the Guardian.

From what I can tell, the reporting looks solid. A private Israeli firm does appear to have created an army of fake accounts that were being used to manipulate the news. It is highly unethical and probably illegal.

From what is being reported, there is no link to the Israeli government; this was a private company doing very shady things.

But because it is Israeli, the reporting is somewhat more sensationalist. And the Arab media is quick to associate "Team Jorge" with - the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

The crimes of the “Israeli groups” that aim to spread chaos in the world bring back to the world’s memory the controversy that took place around the truth of the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion”, which includes 24 protocols, including: brutal repression, brainwashing, abuse of power, arrest of opponents, economic wars, and methods of Invasion, the method of control, world wars, transitional governments, re-education, readiness to take over, the totalitarian state, control over the press, and others.

The global journalistic survey, with the participation of 4 major European newspapers, has revived talk about the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion", after the investigative report revealed the "dangerous" role of the Israelis in the world and through the formation of various institutions and entities that carry out tasks aimed at spreading chaos in the world.

Because...Jews.

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!

02/19 Links: David Collier: Just where on earth was ‘Palestine’?; The United Nations' antisemitism problem; LA Antisemitic Shooter Previously Cut Loose by Soros DA

From Ian:

David Collier: Just where on earth was ‘Palestine’?

“It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” (source unknown, but often attributed to Mark Twain).

The ‘success’ of ‘Palestine’-related myths provides excellent examples of how we are surrounded by Orwellian inversions of truth. From the Guardian and the BBC to the Washington Post and NYT, the mainstream media are all likely to promote some elements of the fictional tale of the history of ‘Palestine’. Given how often we see these errors, I am actually left wondering whether today’s journalists actually have access to the archives of the very newspapers that they work for. Truths that cannot be spoken

There are truths that today cannot be digested in the mainstream. Those that promote them are swiftly labelled ‘extremists’. Push these notions persistently and you will find yourself ‘cancelled’ -‘ no-platformed’ – and silenced, as a ‘racist’, or purveyor of hate.

Three examples:
Most ‘indigenous’ Palestinians are from families who migrated into the area in the last 170 years.
‘Palestine’ has no form, was alien to Muslims, and was kept alive only as a romantic thought in Christian ideology.
The notion of the Palestinian ‘refugee’ in 2023 is just an absurdity.

It doesn’t matter how these statements may disturb your inner peace – they are either true, or they are not. The modern Palestinian cause is a toxic cocktail that was originally made up from an exercise in denialism, an attempt to deprive Jews of the right to self-determination, western thirst for oil, Christian supersessionism, antisemitism, rising Arab nationalism, Islamist ideology, and political horseplay between the world’s superpowers. If you mix these all together and let the cocktail fester for 100 years, then today’s pro-Palestinian movement, which toxifies everything it touches, becomes the inevitable result.

We are witnessing a concentrated rewrite of history.

Why that Ohio town is named 'East Palestine'

Since there already was a town named “Palestine” in the western part of the state—likewise founded by religious Christians who wanted to infuse their town with “holy memories”—government officials, in assigning the new post office, added the prefix “East.”

That early account of East Palestine’s founding was published in 1905, when it was common for a married woman’s name to be hidden behind that of her husband. But a historical marker in front of the log house where the Chamberlins once lived tells us that the name of the doctor’s wife was Rebecca—an appropriately biblical name for a woman who took her Bible seriously.

Not surprisingly, numerous churches quickly sprung up in East Palestine and its environs. Lutheran and Reformed congregations established the Salem Church, choosing a name derived from “Jerusalem.” Evangelical Lutherans founded the St. Paul’s Evangelical Lutheran Church, while Methodists originally held their services in a local school—the separation between church and state was still rather fuzzy in those days—before eventually erecting their Methodist Episcopal Church. East Palestine also had a United Presbyterian Church and, later, another house of worship with a biblically-inspired name, the Zion Evangelical Lutheran Church.

When America’s religious Christian settlers thought of the Holy Land, they thought of the Hebrew bible and the area’s 3,000 years of Jewish inhabitation, not the Koran or the more recently-arrived Arab residents of the area. They thought of the many Jews who appear in the accounts of the birth of Christianity (including its founder), texts that do not mention any Palestinian Arabs since there were none..

Certainly Americans were aware that there were Arabs living in Palestine by the 19th century. Mark Twain, for example, had mentioned them in his account of his visit to the Holy Land, The Innocents Abroad (1869). So had Herman Melville in his famous Clarel: A Poem and the Pilgrimage in the Holy Land (1876).

But it was common knowledge that the Arab population of Palestine was relatively small and unsettled, and that the Arab residents of 19th-century Palestine regarded themselves as part of southern Syria, not as a separate nationality. H. Allen Tupper, Jr. wrote in the New York Times in 1896, after having “ridden on horseback more than four hundred miles through Palestine and Syria,” that virtually the only local people he encountered were “merchantmen with their long camel trains” and “wild Bedouin tribes” that “reside in one locality not more than two months.”

Today’s residents pronounce East Palestine “Palesteen,” but the original settlers undoubtedly pronounced it the more common way. Because it was the Holy Land, with its deep Jewish roots, that burned bright in the hearts and prayers of the founders of the many biblically-named towns across America. And it is for the same reason that Bible-believing Christians today—probably including more than a few residents of East Palestine, Ohio—constitute one of the major sources of pro-Israel sentiment in the United States.

The United Nations' antisemitism problem

Moratinos pointed to a number of initiatives undertaken by the UN, including the 2019 report and 2022 Action Plan to Combat Antisemitism prepared by Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, the former Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion, and ongoing educational work on the topic by UNESCO.

But, Moratinos mainly referenced UN events surrounding International Holocaust Remembrance Day, and a 2022 UN General Assembly resolution sponsored and shepherded by Israeli Ambassador Gilad Erdan to combat Holocaust denial and distortion. Erdan’s office said that resolutions voted on by UN member States instructed the UN to establish the Holocaust Outreach Department and hold specific ceremonies.

“These are not UN organizational actions,” the statement said.

The Israeli mission and Jewish groups have also expressed dismay and anger that Moratinos and other UN officials failed to call out antisemitic comments made by members of the UN Human Rights Council’s Commission of Inquiry on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and by the UN special rapporteur for the Palestinians. A pair of those comments used the term “Jewish lobby” to assert disproportionate Jewish influence, including Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s 2014 remark that the Jewish lobby had “subjugated the United States.”

Moratinos issued a tweet following one of the comments broadly calling out antisemitism without making reference to any UN official or the root of his tweet. The “subjugation” comment went without any response, as Moratinos said that the special rapporteur acts independently of the UN and “is free to say whatever.”

That doesn’t cut it for the likes of B’nai Brith CEO Dan Mariaschin, who has met with Moratinos a number of times, and says he believes Moratinos takes the issue seriously.

“They need to address this inside the UN, under the UN's roof itself. That means that the secretary-general also has to have his back,” Mariaschin said. “If it's not coming from the top, then why would country A, country B, country C- or any other UN agency for that matter- feel that they need at the very least to be careful in what they say?

Moratinos said that he expects to hash out a UN action and response plan to antisemitism at a June meeting with Jewish leaders, and noted that the UN could and will do more to root out Jew hatred within its ranks.

“But what is clear, with fact, with action, is that the UN is not antisemitic,” Moratinos said.

As Moratinos and the UN develop a response plan to antisemitism, that disconnect between what Moratinos believes and what Israel and Jewish groups see is plain as day and may very well be too much to overcome.

"Independent", yeah right.

I look forward with bated breath of the @UN's report on Palestinian incitement and running over 6 & 8 year old Jewish kids in Jerusalem! https://t.co/pWMCRnlg4t
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) February 19, 2023

UK-based Al Araby has an article titled, "Purim: A myth in the service of politics."

It is written by Ahmed el-Gendy, a professor of Jewish and Zionist studies at Cairo University.

The article argues that the story of Purim is a myth and it is not even a religious holiday for Jews, but merely a political story of fictional antisemitism and of Jewish supremacy.

As evidence, the author points to the website of the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, possibly this one, which refers to Haman as antisemitic.

Since the term "antisemitism" had not been coined until the 19th century, al-Gendy opines, it is false to refer to a man who wanted to destroy the Jews of Persia as an antisemite.

He quotes the MFA site as saying, " "Over the years, Purim, which commemorates the salvation of the Jews and the thwarting of Haman's extermination plot, became a symbol of the Jewish people's victory over the rule of antisemitic tyranny."

He therefore concludes that "The whole story of Purim, it seems, exists in order to notify the Jews everywhere that they are in imminent and permanent danger, with no crime they commit except for their being different."

Moreover, "their liberation from this danger (comes from resorting to) trickery, cunning and deceit, then taking revenge on their enemies and their descendants. Their enemies (must be punished,) even if they are innocent, if they are in a position of strength."

In short, Purim isn't the story of the miraculous salvation of Jews from their enemies, but an expression of how Jews use deceit and cunning to destroy their innocent enemies.

If anyone is politicizing the holiday, I think it is this Cairo University professor!

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!

I've been playing some more with ChatGPT - and finding it to be wholly unreliable as to its "facts."

I asked it about Egyptian attitudes towards Jews, which surveys have consistently shown to be overwhelmingly negative. The artificial intelligence tried very hard to minimize that fact:

Q: Are most Egyptians antisemitic?

It is difficult to make sweeping generalizations about an entire population, and it would not be accurate to say that most Egyptians are antisemitic. While there are certainly instances of antisemitism in Egypt, as there are in many countries around the world, it is important to recognize that attitudes toward Jews and Judaism are complex and varied.

Egypt has a long and rich history of Jewish communities, dating back thousands of years. While the majority of Jews in Egypt left the country following the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and subsequent political tensions between Egypt and Israel, a small Jewish community remains in the country today.

Yes - a very small community of approximately three people that ChatGP T brings as evidence of little Egyptian antisemitism!

That being said, there have been instances of antisemitic rhetoric and actions in Egypt, particularly in the context of the Arab-Israeli conflict. For example, there have been reports of antisemitic propaganda in Egyptian media, as well as occasional acts of violence and harassment against Jews and Jewish institutions.

It is important to recognize, however, that these incidents do not necessarily reflect the views of the entire Egyptian population, and that there are many Egyptians who do not hold antisemitic views. Like any society, Egypt is a complex and diverse place, and it is important to approach discussions of sensitive topics such as this with nuance and sensitivity.

Q: According to the ADL survey, what percentage of Egyptians hold antisemitic attitudes?

According to the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Global 100 Index survey conducted in 2014, which measured antisemitic attitudes in over 100 countries, 75% of Egyptian adults hold antisemitic attitudes. This was the highest percentage of any of the countries surveyed.

The survey asked respondents a series of 11 questions related to negative stereotypes about Jews, such as "Jews are more loyal to Israel than to this country [the respondent's country]" or "Jews have too much power in the business world." Respondents who answered "probably true" to six or more of the 11 questions were considered to hold antisemitic attitudes.

It is worth noting, however, that the survey has been criticized by some for its methodology and for the way it framed questions about Jews and Israel. Additionally, the results of the survey should not be taken as indicative of the views of all Egyptians, as attitudes toward Jews and Judaism, like any complex social issue, are multifaceted and can vary widely within a given population.

Q: Who criticized its methodology?

The ADL Global 100 Index survey has been criticized by some scholars and organizations for its methodology and framing of questions.

For example, in a paper published in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, researchers argued that the survey's definition of antisemitism was overly broad and that it conflated criticism of Israel with antisemitism. They also noted that the survey did not distinguish between different types of antisemitism, such as religious or racial antisemitism, and that it relied heavily on stereotypes and perceptions rather than actual behaviors.

The ADL survey specifically does not conflate criticism of Israel with antisemitism. More on that "paper" below.

Other scholars have criticized the survey for relying on a limited set of questions to determine attitudes toward Jews and for not taking into account cultural or historical factors that might shape attitudes in different regions.

While the ADL has defended the methodology and validity of the survey, it is worth noting that any survey on sensitive social issues is likely to be subject to some criticism and that it is important to consider a range of sources and perspectives when seeking to understand attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in different parts of the world.

Q: What other organizations have surveyed Egyptian attitudes towards Jews, and what were the results?

Several organizations have conducted surveys on Egyptian attitudes toward Jews, with varying results.

For example, in 2010, the Pew Research Center conducted a survey of public opinion in Egypt that included several questions related to attitudes toward Jews and Israel. The survey found that 95% of Egyptians held unfavorable views of Jews, while 82% expressed negative views of Israel.

A 2019 survey by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) found that 67% of Egyptians held unfavorable views of Jews, while 64% expressed unfavorable views of Israel. The survey also found that younger Egyptians were more likely to express negative views of Jews and Israel than older Egyptians.

It is worth noting that surveys on attitudes toward Jews and Israel can be sensitive and controversial in some contexts, and that different survey methodologies and question wordings can produce different results. Additionally, attitudes toward Jews and Judaism are complex and multifaceted, and it is important to approach discussions of this topic with nuance and sensitivity.

I could not find any questions about attitudes towards Jews in any poll by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) in 2019 or any other year. And when I asked ChatGPT, it couldn't either:

Q: You mentioned a 2019 survey by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) found that 67% of Egyptians held unfavorable views of Jews. I cannot find that survey, can you give me more details?
I apologize for any confusion my previous response may have caused. Upon further research, I could not locate a 2019 survey by the Egyptian Center for Public Opinion Research (Baseera) specifically on unfavorable views of Jews.

That is a very specific thing to get wrong.

I continued on:

Q: Has there been any survey of Egyptian attitudes towards Jews that show that less than half the population holds antisemitic attitudes?

I'm not aware of any recent surveys that indicate that less than half of the Egyptian population holds antisemitic attitudes. As I mentioned earlier, surveys conducted by the ADL and other organizations have found high levels of negative attitudes toward Jews in Egypt.

While the specific results of surveys on this topic can vary depending on the methodology and wording of questions, it is generally acknowledged that antisemitism remains a significant issue in many parts of the world, including Egypt. However, it is also important to recognize that attitudes toward Jews and Judaism are complex and multifaceted, and that there are likely to be significant variations in attitudes within any given population.

No matter what it answers, it always adds that things are a lot more complex, without showing any counterexamples.

I then asked about the criticism of the ADL survey that ChatGPT claimed:

Q: Could you give me a link to the paper in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism you mentioned earlier? I couldn't find it.

I apologize for the confusion earlier. Since I am an AI language model, I don't have access to external links or specific publication details on my own.

However, I believe the paper you are referring to is "Assessing Antisemitism: A Critical Review of the ADL Global 100 Index" by Brendan O'Connor and Jeffrey Wimmer, which was published in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism, Vol. 2, No. 1, 2019, pp. 118-141.

Q: I cannot find that paper in that issue: https://www.jcajournal.com/vol2iss1

I apologize for the mistake in my earlier response. It appears that I provided the wrong issue for the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism.

The paper "Assessing Antisemitism: A Critical Review of the ADL Global 100 Index" by Brendan O'Connor and Jeffrey Wimmer was actually published in Volume 2, Issue 2 of the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism in 2019.

Here is a link to the article on the journal's website: https://www.jcajournal.com/vol2iss2

Q: It's not there either.
I apologize for the confusion. It appears that the paper "Assessing Antisemitism: A Critical Review of the ADL Global 100 Index" by Brendan O'Connor and Jeffrey Wimmer is not available on the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism's website.

However, you may be able to access the paper through a database or online library subscription. Alternatively, you could try contacting the authors directly for a copy of the paper.

Q: Their table of contents doesn't list it. I cannot find any articles by them in Google Scholar. It seems very strange that I cannot find a single link to this paper.
I apologize for the confusion and inconvenience. Upon further research, it seems that I made a mistake in my earlier response. The paper "Assessing Antisemitism: A Critical Review of the ADL Global 100 Index" by Brendan O'Connor and Jeffrey Wimmer was not published in the Journal of Contemporary Antisemitism.

I apologize for any confusion or frustration that my earlier responses may have caused. As an AI language model, I strive to provide accurate and helpful information, but I am not infallible and may make mistakes.

Q: Was it published anywhere? And if so, where?
I apologize for the confusion in my earlier responses. Upon further research, I was not able to locate the paper "Assessing Antisemitism: A Critical Review of the ADL Global 100 Index" by Brendan O'Connor and Jeffrey Wimmer.

It is possible that the paper was never published or that it was published in a different venue than I originally thought. I apologize for any confusion or inconvenience this may have caused.

In the end, ChatGPT could not substantiate anything to mitigate the issue of Egyptian antisemitism, yet still insisted that it is a complex topic and that one cannot generalize that Egyptians are generally antisemitic, even though every single survey supports that conclusion.

Worse, it literally made up facts to mitigate the findings - one apparently making up an Egyptian survey were "only" 67% of Egyptians have antisemitic attitudes, and secondly making up an entire paper that does not seem to exist that criticizes the ADL methodology. (I'm sure that there are some criticisms, because anything can be criticized, but the AI engine worked harder to mitigate Egyptian antisemitism than to be concerned about it. )

And this is exactly the attitude of much of the liberal world towards clear antisemitic attitudes in most of the Arab world, as my last post about the lack of anger towards an esteemed Egyptian archaeologist's clear antisemitism indicates.

ChatGPT is more concerned with "truthiness" than truth.

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!