Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, March 25, 2023

03/25 Links: Sham and shame at Sharm el-Sheikh; Don’t believe the Jimmy Carter revisionists; Two soldiers wounded in shooting in Huwara

From Ian:

Sham and shame at Sharm el-Sheikh

Earlier this week, I made the mistake of reading the communiqué published at the end of the March 19 Sharm el-Sheikh multilateral conference.

I say “mistake” because the document, which sums up various points agreed upon by Israeli, Palestinian, American, Egyptian and Jordanian political and security leaders, is so one-sided and infuriating that it is difficult to comprehend how the government could have agreed to such shameful terms.

Thankfully, the decisions published in such communiqués are usually worth little more than the cost of the ink used to print them. But that does not take away from just how deplorable the summit’s statement is.

Israel gives concessions, the Palestinians give nothing
Over the course of two pages, one will not find a single Palestinian concession – not one! – while in exchange, Israel offered up several overly generous gestures regarding important issues.

After an initial standard boilerplate text invoking the usual vacuous diplomatic phrases such as “enhancing mutual trust,” the second paragraph states that both Israel and the Palestinians “reaffirmed their joint readiness and commitment to immediately work to end unilateral measures for a period of three to six months.”

This is followed immediately by the declaration that Israel has made a “commitment to stop discussion of any new settlement units for four months and to stop authorization of any outposts for six months.” In other words, the Jewish state has agreed to a wholesale freeze on Jewish construction in Judea and Samaria through at least the summer.

By contrast, the document fails to list any concrete steps to be taken by the Palestinians, such as halting their massive land grab and spate of illegal building throughout Judea and Samaria.

Jonathan Tobin: Don’t believe the Jimmy Carter revisionists

Carter is also given credit by his apologists for helping to broker peace between Israel and Egypt at the 1978 Camp David Summit. That’s true, but it must also be remembered that the peace process was begun by Egyptian President Anwar Sadat with his historic 1977 flight to Jerusalem took place in spite of Carter, not because of him. Carter had tried initially to involve the Soviets in Mideast peace efforts, something the Egyptians rightly feared.

Carter despised Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin for his tenacious defense of Jewish rights and unwillingness to bow to U.S. pressure. He always blamed Begin for somehow deceiving him about Israel’s intention to defend the right of Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria, which the president wanted to end. But that was not true since, if anything, Carter deceived himself about what Begin’s promise of limited autonomy for Palestinian Arabs in the territories really meant.

Carter’s hostility to Israel was no secret, and it played a part in the failure of his bid for re-election in 1980. Reagan achieved a modern record of 40% of the Jewish vote not so much because of his appeal but because of Carter’s unpopularity—something that Republicans have failed to remember as they’ve sought in vain to replicate that feat.

Carter blamed the Jews for his defeat; it colored his post-presidency as he began a decades-long effort to promote Palestinian statehood and to smear Israel. He was not the only person to be wrong about the necessity for a two-state solution, but few matched the virulence with which he assailed Israel, and especially its American supporters, for their refusal to listen to his bad advice.

That culminated in the publication of his 2006 book—Palestine, Peace Not Apartheid, which in no small measure began the effort, at least in the United States, to mainstream the big lie that the Middle East’s only democracy was in some ways morally equivalent to apartheid-era South Africa.

For all of the applause he has received for his life as an ex-president, Carter’s animus against the Jewish state and willingness to use his moral standing and influence to besmirch it and aid the efforts of antisemitic hate-mongers and terrorists to undermine its existence is also part of his legacy.

So, when assessing his life, how do we weigh that against the many good things that can be said for Jimmy Carter as an individual? There is no calculus by which these competing arguments can be measured exactly. Like everyone, his life was a mixture of good and bad. It is entirely possible to acknowledge his outstanding personal qualities and even his undoubted positive intentions, but to also judge his presidency to be a disaster and his post-presidential efforts to have also done as much harm as good.

We should all wish him and his family well and, whenever it does happen, his passing should be acknowledged with the solemnity and respect due to a former president of the United States. But we should not let that desire to think well of a historic figure color the verdict of contemporary public opinion or history. Jimmy Carter may have been a very decent man in many respects, but he was still a bad president and someone whose unfair attacks on the Jewish state deserve to be held against him.

US, UN officials use ‘puzzling’ language equating tensions with Ramadan, Passover and Easter

Briefing the U.N. Security Council from Jerusalem on March 22, Tor Wennesland, U.N. special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, urged “all sides to refrain from unilateral steps that escalate tensions” ahead of Ramadan, Passover and Easter. “This should be a period for safe and peaceful religious reflection and celebration for all,” he said.

Twice the day before, on March 21, U.S. State Department officials issued similar calls for calm ahead of the three overlapping holidays.

When Wendy Sherman, U.S. deputy secretary of state, summoned Michael Herzog, Israel’s ambassador to the United States, the two discussed the disengagement law. Sherman stressed “the importance of all parties refraining from actions or rhetoric that could further inflame tensions leading into the Ramadan, Passover and Easter holidays,” per Vedant Patel, principal deputy spokesman at the State Department.

And at the podium during the department’s daily press briefing, Patel said the Knesset vote came “at a time of heightened tensions” and was “particularly provocative and counterproductive to efforts to restore some measures of calm as we head into the Ramadan, Passover and the Easter holidays.”

Violence from terrorists who self-identify as Muslim during Ramadan is documented, but suggesting that Jewish and Christian extremists act more violently during Passover and Easter respectively appears to be Foggy Bottom’s religious holiday adaptation of “all lives matter.” Subscribe to The JNS Daily Syndicate by email and never miss our top stories

“This formulation is puzzling, and that’s being generous,” Jonathan Schanzer, senior vice president for research at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told JNS. “In fact, there is nothing inherently violent about Ramadan, Easter or Passover. With this statement, the State Department has effectively given Palestinian groups a green light to attack Israel.”

Officials, who lump the holidays together, also imply that Jews, Christians and Muslims “wield their holidays as tools of political violence,” added Schanzer. “So much for diplomacy.”

03/24 Links Pt2: David Friedman: The battle for Israel’s soul: If either side wins, everyone loses; New report slams CUNY as 'most systemically antisemitic US university'

From Ian:

David Friedman: The battle for Israel’s soul: If either side wins, everyone loses

To all my friends in Israel, Right, Center and Left, religious and secular, the first thing I need to say is that “I love you all.” The State of Israel, which you have created, has sustained me and countless other Jews in the Diaspora for generations.

Most of us see no future in Judaism without Israel and, whether you realize it or not, we are all deeply invested, in ways far more important than financially, in Israel’s future. Israel has done much for the Diaspora, but now it’s time for Israel to learn something from the Diaspora.

We in the Diaspora see the value of all Israel’s citizens. We think the Israel Defense Force is holy; it is not only one of the most powerful, but also one of the most moral, armies on earth. A Jew risking his life in the military defending the Jewish state, even if entirely secular, is performing a great mitzvah, perhaps equal in magnitude to all others.

And a Jew committing his life to the study of the Torah, accepting the poverty and self-sacrifice that accompanies such a choice, is performing a great mitzvah as well. Indeed, the midrash on the Book of Genesis speaks approvingly of the relationship between Jacob’s fifth and sixth sons, Issachar and Zevulun, by which the latter went to work to provide support for his brother’s Torah study.

Perhaps you in Israel are too close to the trees to see the entire forest. But in the Diaspora, we can see the entirety of Israel and it is a glorious, diverse, proud and miraculous manifestation of the Jewish people.

We need you all to keep Israeli society together; to keep things from boiling over. To the leaders of Israel, whether in the coalition or the opposition, this is your sacred task. The entire Jewish world is depending upon you, not to win your side of the internal conflict, but rather to find a solution in keeping with the dignity and holiness of every Israeli. If either side wins, we all lose.

I understand politics well, having lived in that world for several years. I understand campaign promises and the expectations of one’s political base. But in the end, the unity of Israeli society within its diverse population is its greatest asset. Any government that jeopardizes such unity cannot succeed, no matter how much it believes in the righteousness of its cause.

I suspect that I speak for the vast majority of Jews in the Diaspora and probably an equal amount in Israel when I say, please work harder to find a consensual resolution. End the vile rhetoric on both sides.

There are no dictators and there are no anarchists, there are only Jews trying in good faith to address a highly complex situation as best they can. Please lower the volume and give the process time to succeed. May God bless you all.

Netanyahu violated High Court ruling in judicial reform speech - A-G

The Incapacitation Law, which was passed Late Wednesday night, altered a Basic Law: The Government provision on determining a prime minister's incapability to serve to clarify that it only pertained to medical issues. The amendment also afforded the decision of incapacitation to the government and Knesset.

In late January, Israeli media had reported that Baharav-Miara had been considering declaring Netanyahu unfit for the prime minister's office due to his conflict of interest, though her office denied these reports.

Netanyahu referred to attempts to remove him through incapacitation on Thursday night, and said that until then "my hands were tied."

Baharav-Miara reminded Netanyahu that the High Court of Justice ruled in two 2020 cases, that his forming of a government was conditioned by requirements to avoid reasonable concern about abuse of power impacting his three corruption trials and his binding to a conflict of interest agreement.

The conflict of interest agreement, organized by her predecessor Avichai Mandelblit, forbade Netanyahu from involvement in law official appointments. A chief component of the judicial reforms would alter the manner in which judgeships were awarded. Mandelblit sought a situation in which a judge appointed by Netanyahu's government would not hear appeals on his corruption case, the Likud said on Friday.

Baharav-Miara announced the conflict of interest agreement still in effect in late January. She said in her Friday letter that she had sent Netanyahu a missive on February 1 notifying him that involvement in the judicial reform was against the Mandelblit agreement. Netanyahu's speech violated the conflict of interest agreement.

The Likud countered on Friday saying that Netanyahu did not and would not deal personally with the reform, judges, or systems. He was merely attempting to stem the unfolding chaos and protests and understand what legislation could be passed in the Knesset.

National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir also issued support for Netanyahu, saying the Attorney-General's threatening and ordering of the prime minister in public constituted a "coup." Ben-Gvir also insisted that it was in fact Baharav-Miara that was in conflict of interest by interfering in the matter.

"The Attorney-General's letter is more proof of why she should be fired," said Ben-Gvir.

The Movement for Quality Government in Israel, which had filed the petitions that led to the two cases referenced in Baharav-Miara's Friday letter, said that it would soon be filing a motion for contempt of court.

The petition would "demand that the sanctions prescribed by law be imposed on the prime minister, including heavy fines and imprisonment."

Lapid rebuffs call to halt protests on Independence Day: ‘We’re not celebrating together’

Israeli opposition leader Yair Lapid refused on Thursday to sign a joint statement with Israeli Minister of Transportation, National Infrastructure and Road Safety Miri Regev calling for a halt to anti-judicial reform protests on Yom Ha’aztmaut, Israel’s Independence Day.

“We will not pretend that we are celebrating together and that everything is fine while the government is tearing apart the people of Israel and erasing democracy,” said Lapid in a statement.

The move comes after Knesset member Chili Tropper, a member of Benny Gantz’s National Unity Party, called on Wednesday for a pause to the demonstrations on Israel’s Memorial Day, held annually the day before Independence Day.

Gantz reportedly signed the agreement; however, Regev, a member of the ruling Likud Party, refused to sign unless the deal was extended to Independence Day as well.

Israel again braced for major disruptions across the country on Thursday as thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in opposition to the government’s judicial reform push.

With more than 150 demonstrations scheduled, the “Day of Paralysis” began in the morning with a protest at the Airport City business park adjacent to the eastern entrance to Ben-Gurion International Airport. The protesters were blocking the roads ahead of a conference featuring the participation of Agriculture Minister Avi Dichter and Economy Minister Nir Barkat. Israeli media reported that the protesters broke into the conference complex, shouting “shame.”

A reporter from conservative Israeli news station Channel 14 was harassed by protesters at the Airport City complex and was unable to finish her live report.

Israel, earlier today: One side is dancing peacefully, the other engaging in the ancient anti-Semitic practice of throwing money at Jews. This struggle isn't about judicial reform; it's about the soul of this nation and its future. https://t.co/6nBOMeZnp6
— liel leibovitz (@liel) March 23, 2023

This is the most beautiful moment in Bnei Brak ??

A secular man entered the Haredi neighborhood wearing a helmet expecting to be pelted with eggs,but instead broke down in tears as he was greeted by residents with warm chulent and the heartwarming music of “shalom aleichem.” ?? pic.twitter.com/U6RjFzS9kZ
— Ittay Flescher (@ittay78) March 23, 2023

Richard A,. Posner

In 2007, The New Republic published an article by Richard A. Posner reviewing The Judge in a Democracy by Israel's former chief justice Aharon Barak, who had spearheaded the judicial revolution that many in Israel now want to turn back.

Posner is one of the most influential legal scholars in the United States and the most-cited legal scholar of the 20th century.

It is worth reading his pretty scathing critique from 16 years ago, as the issues being wrestled with in Israel as the same that Barak justified in his book.

Enlightened Despot

Aharon Barak, a long-serving justice (eventually the chief justice) of the Supreme Court of Israel, who recently reached mandatory retirement age, is a prolific writer, and this is his most recent book. It is an important document, less for its intrinsic merits than for its aptness to be considered Exhibit A for why American judges should be extremely wary about citing foreign judicial decisions. Barak is a world-famous judge who dominated his court as completely as John Marshall dominated our Supreme Court. If there were a Nobel Prize for law, Barak would probably be an early recipient. But although he is familiar with the American legal system and supposes himself to be in some sort of sync with liberal American judges, he actually inhabits a completely different--and,to an American, a weirdly different--juristic universe. I have my differences with Robert Bork, but when he remarked, in a review of The Judge in a Democracy, that Barak "establishes a world record for judicial hubris," he came very near the truth.

Barak is John Marshall without a constitution to expound--or to "expand," as Barak once revealingly misquoted a famous phrase of Marshall's ("we must never forget it is a constitution that we are expounding"). Israel does not have a constitution. It has "Basic Laws" passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament, which Barak has equated to a constitution by holding that the Knesset cannot repeal them. That is an amazing idea: could our Congress pass a law authorizing every American to carry a concealed weapon, and the Supreme Court declare that the law could never be repealed? And only one-quarter of the Knesset's members voted for those laws!

What Barak created out of whole cloth was a degree of judicial power undreamed of even by our most aggressive Supreme Court justices. He puts Marshall, who did less with more, in the shade. Among the rules of law that Barak's judicial opinions have been instrumental in creating that have no counterpart in American law are that judges cannot be removed by the legislature, but only by other judges; that any citizen can ask a court to block illegal action by a government official, even if the citizen is not personally affected by it (or lacks "standing" to sue, in the American sense); that any government action that is "unreasonable" is illegal ("put simply, the executive must act reasonably, for an unreasonable act is an unlawful act"); that a court can forbid the government to appoint an official who had committed a crime (even though he had been pardoned) or is otherwise ethically challenged, and can order the dismissal of a cabinet minister because he faces criminal proceedings; that in the name of "human dignity" a court can compel the government to alleviate homelessness and poverty; and that a court can countermand military orders, decide "whether to prevent the release of a terrorist within the framework of apolitical 'package deal,'" and direct the government to move the security wall that keeps suicide bombers from entering Israel from the West Bank.

These are powers that a nation could grant its judges. For example, many European nations and even some states in the United States authorize "abstract" constitutional review--that is, judicial determination of a statute's constitutionality without waiting for a suit by someone actually harmed by the statute. But only in Israel (as far as I know) do judges confer the power of abstract review on themselves, without benefit of a constitutional or legislative provision. One is reminded of Napoleon's taking the crown out of the pope's hands and putting it on his own head.

Barak does not attempt to defend his judicial practice by reference to orthodox legal materials; even the "Basic Laws" are mentioned only in passing. His method, lacking as it does any but incidental references to enacted provisions, may seem the method of the common law (the judge-made law that continues to dominate many areas of Anglo-American law, such as contracts and torts), except that common-law rules are subject to legislative override, and his rules are not. The significance of this point seems to elude him. He takes for granted that judges have inherent authority to override statutes. Such an approach can accurately be described as usurpative.

Barak bases his conception of judicial authority on abstract principles that in his hands are plays on words. The leading abstraction is "democracy." Political democracy in the modern sense means a system of government in which the key officials stand for election at relatively short intervals and thus are accountable to the citizenry. A judiciary that is free to override the decisions of those officials curtails democracy. For Barak, however, democracy has a "substantive" component, namely a set of rights ("human rights" not limited to political rights, such as the right to criticize public officials, that support democracy), enforced by the judiciary, that clips the wings of the elected officials. That is not a justification for a hyperactive judiciary, it is merely a definition of it.

Another portmanteau word that Barak abuses is "interpretation," which for him is remote from a search for the meaning intended by the authors of legislation. He says that the task of a legislature in passing statutes is "to bridge the gap between law and society, "and that the task of the judge in interpreting a statute is to "ensure that the law in fact bridges the gap between law and society." This is very odd--isn't the statute the law, rather than the intermediary between the law and the society? What he seems to mean, as further suggested by his statement that "whoever enforces a statute enforces the whole legal system," is that a statute should be interpreted so that it is harmonious with the spirit or values of the legal system as a whole, which as a practical matter means with the judge's ideal system, since no real legal system has a unitary spirit or common set of values.

This understanding of Barak's approach is further suggested by his statement that a judge, in addition to considering the language and background and apparent purpose of a statute, should consider its "objective purpose ... to realize the fundamental values of democracy." This opens up a vast realm for discretionary judgment (the antithesis of "objective"); and when a judge has discretion in interpreting a statute, Barak's "advice is that ... the judge should aspire to achieve justice." So a regulation that authorizes military censorship of publications that the censor "deems likely to harm state security, public security, or the public peace" was interpreted by Barak's court to mean "would create a near certainty of grave harm to state security, public security, or public peace." It is thus the court that makes Israel's statutory law, using the statutes themselves as first drafts that the court is free to rewrite.

Barak invokes the "separation of powers" as further support for his aggressive conception of the judicial role. What he means by separation of powers is that the executive and legislative branches are to have no degree of control over the judicial branch. What we mean by separation of powers, so far as judicial authority is concerned, is that something called the judicial power of the United States has been consigned to the judicial branch. That doesn't mean the branch is independent of the other branches. If each of the powers (executive, legislative, and judicial) were administered by a branch that was wholly independent and thus could ignore the others, the result would be chaos. The branches have to be mutually dependent, in order to force cooperation. So "separation of powers" implies "checks and balances," and the judicial branch has to be checked by the other branches, and not just do the checking. And so rather than our judiciary being a self-perpetuating oligarchy, the president nominates and the Senate confirms (or rejects) federal judges, and Congress fixes their salaries, regulates the Supreme Court's appellate jurisdiction, decides whether to create other federal courts, determines the federal judiciary's budget, and can remove judges by means of the impeachment process. Moreover, the judicial power of the United States can be exercised only in suits brought by persons who have standing to sue in the sense of having a tangible grievance that can be remedied by the court. And because the judicial power is not the only federal power--there are executive and legislative powers of constitutional dignity as well--the judiciary cannot tell the president whom to appoint to his cabinet.

In Barak's conception of the separation of powers, the judicial power is unlimited and the legislature cannot remove judges. (And in Israel, judges participate in the selection of judges.) Outfitted with such abstractions as "democracy," "interpretation," "separation of powers," "objectivity," "reasonableness" (it is "the concept of reasonableness" that Barak would have used to adjudicate the "package deal" for the release of the terrorist), and of course "justice" ("I try to be guided by my North Star, which is justice. I try to make law and justice converge, so that the Justice will do justice"), a judge is a law unto himself.

None of this means that the judicial reform being pushed by the Israeli government is the correct response, but at the same time no one can argue that the status quo that gives unlimited power to the unelected Israeli judiciary is not in serious need of reform.

(h/t Alex)

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03/24 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: The Biden Administration's Sinister Turn Against Israel; Israel offered PA full security duties over city as pilot, Ramallah refused

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The Biden Administration's Sinister Turn Against Israel

On Tuesday, the State Department summoned Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog to demand an explanation for the Knesset's abrogation of the 2005 law banning Jews from living in four communities in northern Samaria. That law was passed in the framework of Israel's failed plan to disengage from the Gaza Strip and northern Samaria.

In August 2005, Israel expelled 10,000 Jewish citizens from Gaza and northern Samaria in the hopes that the Palestinians would take the areas and build a mini-Singapore. Instead, they built a mini-Afghanistan.

The Knesset's decision to abrogate the law was a rare example of a democracy acting to correct its prior mistake. But that's not how the Biden administration saw it.

Around the same time Ambassador Herzog was summoned, the White House said the law was a breach of Israel's 2004 agreement with the Bush administration. That agreement, which was given expression in an April 2004 letter then-President George W. Bush sent to then-Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, essentially said that in exchange for Israel's forcible uprooting of the Jewish communities in Gaza and northern Samaria, the Bush administration would accept the permanence of major Jewish communities in the rest of Judea and Samaria.

What is notable about the Biden administration's accusation is that not only did the Obama administration breach the 2004 deal—it denied the deal existed, in the first place. In June 2009, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said, "in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or...enforceable agreements."

Merely denying documented history would be bad enough. But the broader policy framework that informed the Biden administration's outburst is much worse than a dispute about whether northern Samaria should be Judenrein or not.

On March 13, the Office of Palestinian Affairs in the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem posted on Twitter photos of its director, George Noll, visiting the Tomb of Lazarus north of Jerusalem. The post referred to the tomb as "an important religious site...maintained by the Palestinian Authority's (PA's) Ministry of Tourism." It praised the PA's "work preserving beautiful historical and religious sites like this throughout the West Bank."

Many Israelis were shocked by the post because far from "preserving beautiful historical and religious sites" throughout Judea and Samaria, the PA is deliberately destroying them.

Caroline Glick: America, Israel and the era of false messiahs

On the eve of the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq 20 years ago this month, the anticipated war was accompanied by a sense of idealistic triumphalism. It was fueled by a still-righteous rage following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks and empowered by the U.S.’s recent early victories over the Taliban in Afghanistan.

The overriding sense of U.S. troops as they gathered in force across the border in the Kuwaiti desert was that they were the great liberators who would free the Iraqi people from Saddam Hussein just as their grandfathers liberated Paris from the Nazis.

As an embedded reporter with the U.S. Army’s 3rd Infantry Division at the time, I can attest that the enthusiasm was infectious and, frankly, inspiring.

But there was a bug in the system that, over time, devoured the system itself. That bug was reality. Americans had told themselves a story about Iraq and Iraqis that had nothing to do with Iraq or Iraqis.

Then-President George W. Bush and his top advisors were guided by an ideology of American messianism. By their lights, all men were latent Americans. Everyone aspired to the same freedoms that Americans enjoyed. Release the people of Iraq from the bondage of Saddam’s tyranny, so the thinking went, and freedom would reign from Nasiriya to Baghdad, Tikrit to Kirkuk, as Shi’ites, Sunnis, Kurds, Christians, Yazidis—Iraqis all—would join together and build a new American-style free Iraq.

After the initial exhilaration of being welcomed with smiles by Shiites at the sides of the highways, the brutal reality of the real Iraq and the non-universality of American ideals became ever clearer with each passing day. In the end, that reality consumed the American war effort.

Report: Israel offered PA full security duties over city as pilot, Ramallah refused

Israel and Jordan recently offered the Palestinian Authority a pilot program that would leave security responsibility over a single West Bank city entirely in the hands of the PA, in an attempt to reduce tensions caused by recent deadly Israeli raids, according to a Thursday report.

According to an unsourced Channel 12 news report, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Jordan’s King Abdullah II secretly discussed the proposal in their meeting in January. The plan would reportedly see Palestinian security forces given sole responsibility for conducting arrests of suspected terror operatives and maintaining law and order in either the city of Tulkarem or Qalqilya, thereby avoiding violent, often deadly clashes between locals and Israeli troops.

If the pilot were successful, it could then be expanded to other cities, the report said.

According to Channel 12, the PA was uninterested in the offer, believing that it would weaken its already-dire status in the eyes of many Palestinians, as they would be seen as fully cooperating with Jerusalem on arrests.

Although Tulkarem and Qalqilya are part of Area A — West Bank land under PA civilian and security control — the IDF regularly enters the territory to conduct arrests.

Such incursions have increased significantly over the past year as Israel has sought to combat an ongoing terror wave stemming largely from the northern West Bank, where the PA has lost significant control.

On Thursday, a wanted Palestinian gunman behind a series of shooting attacks in the West Bank was shot dead during a raid by Israeli forces near Tulkarem.

The purported pilot program was not included in a communiqué released after a summit between Israel and the PA at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday. However, the document highlighted the “legal right” of the PA to exercise its security responsibility over Area A of the West Bank.

That territory with predominantly Palestinian contiguity makes up roughly 20 percent of the West Bank and was placed under PA security and civilian control in the 1995 Oslo II Agreement.

Israeli and Jewish media reported on Monday:

Israel is the fourth happiest country in the world, according to the 2023 World Happiness Report (WHR), which was released on Monday.

The publication ranks happiness on a national level each year. This year, Israel earned the fourth spot out of 109 ranked countries, an improvement over last year’s ranking of ninth.

Well, most of Israeli and Jewish media, that is.

Haaretz, which pretends to be Israel's leading newspaper to Western audiences, ignored the story.

You can argue that the World Happiness Report is a meaningless index, but surely a jump from ninth to fourth place is newsworthy, isn't it?

In previous years, Haaretz did cover the release of the report. And more than once it would go out of its way to disparage and ridicule the results - for example, this insane 2018 article by Rogel Alpher:

The only op-ed I could find that said anything positive about Israel's rankings in the annual poll was written in the wake of the Israeli election that Netanyahu lost, listing it as one of the positive signs that things are looking up in Israel. And that year, Israel was in 12th place!

Haaretz' pages are filled with how terrible Israel is and how miserable its far-Left bubble is. From just this week:

When Secular Israelis Stand Up to Their ultra-Orthodox Overlords
Is Germany and Israel's 'Special Relationship' About to Blow Up?
Netanyahu’s Insane Government Faces Crises on All Fronts
Israelis Know That True Democracy Will Spell the End of Zionism
Israel's Democracy Commandos Stand Up to the Despicable Destroyers in Power
Will Netanyahu Destroy the Israel I Left America For?
Israelis Who Moved to the UAE: 'The Smartest Decision I’ve Made'

Obviously, Haaretz can stress the bad and write op-eds about its perspective that Israel is unparalleled evil - bad news sells newspapers, after all. But to withhold news that contradicts its editorial policy is an entirely different matter.

Not reporting a story that Haaretz considered newsworthy every other year is trying to shape the news, not report it.

This is one reason why Haaretz cannot be considered a newspaper anymore. It is a propaganda outlet.

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The Detroit Free Press, July 13, 1919, writes about the Arab reactions to Zionism.

The article is very negative towards the Zionist movement and it describes it as a "peril" to the Arab population. It describes in detail how the Zionists are buying up land at 500% of its value, how Tel Aviv and Haifa have become beautiful Jewish communities - and how resentful the Arabs are about this.

The reporter spoke to a new group of Muslim and Christian anti-Zionists in Palestine where they describe why they believe Zionism is a peril to them. Some of their arguments can be seen today to be proving the opposite of what they intend.

"If the Jews have a right to Palestine, then...the Indians have a right to New York," went one argument, that unwittingly conceded that Jews were there first.

The most interesting argument was this one:

'If a Jewish army had beaten us in battle and had taken our land away from us by force of arms, we would have no word to say against Zionism. While our Jewish conquerors occupied our country, we would bow our heads and remain silent."

Somehow, between 1919 and 1949, that attitude changed dramatically. And what became clear is that there was no issue with living under the rule of non-Arabs, as they had for centuries, but living under the rule of Jews.

The article, and others from the region in the years immediately following the end of World War I, also shows that what little Palestinian nationalism that existed was purely a reaction to Zionism. And this article says that explicitly: that Zionism has managed to awaken Arabs in Palestine to "such a degree of national consciousness that they have never known before."

Many critics of Bezalel Smotrich's assertion that there was no such thing as a Palestinian people a century ago say, quite reasonably, that this is irrelevant: there are a Palestinian people today and that is all that matters. But if Palestinian nationalism and peoplehood are completely or even mostly an angry response to Zionism, and if their main goal is not the creation of a nation but rather the destruction of another, then it is not a nationalism at all.

It is a weaponization of an entire population against Jewish self-determination.

That is not nationalism. That is sabotage pretending to be nationalism.

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About that poll saying Democrats favor Palestinians over Israelis - it doesn't.

Israel haters are absolutely gloating over a recent Gallup poll. As NBC reports:

More Democrats have sympathy for Palestinians than for Israelis amid their ongoing conflict, according to recent polling from Gallup. The shift marks the first time since Gallup began collecting this data in 2001 that members of either party have been more sympathetic to the Palestinians.

The survey finds 49% of Democrats saying they're more sympathetic to Palestinians, while 38% say they’re more sympathetic to the Israelis.

Now, it is true that this is the first time that the question garnered more sympathy for Palestinian than for Israelis. But there is another part of the poll that, for some reason, the Israel haters and mainstream media are ignoring.

The poll had one other question: "I’d like your overall opinion of some foreign countries. What is your overall opinion of [country]? Is it very favorable, mostly favorable, mostly unfavorable or very unfavorable?"

For that question, 56% of Democrats answered that their opinion of Israel was favorable, while only 36% felt favorably towards the Palestinian entity.

In fact, the "favorable" question has shown a large preference for Israel that has been fairly consistent of more that 40 percentage points over time.

And while the media loves to make it sound like Democratic support for Israel is at an all-time low, it isn't so - they gave worse ratings in 2004 and 2010, for example.

To be sure, the Democratic support for Israel among the young has been flagging. There is reason for concern, as the anti-Israel players have the media and academia solidly on their side. But more Americans, including Democrats, feel warmly towards Israel and far fewer feel that way towards the Palestinian Authority even now.

There's another problem with the "sympathy" question. It reflects an either/or mentality, and there are good reasons to sympathize with Palestinians - I myself do. They are led by corrupt leaders and intimidated by their own terror groups, their leaders are against any serious peace deal, kids are taught in schools that their highest aspiration is to die as martyrs - there are very good reasons to sympathize with Palestinians. And if forced to choose between two sides for sympathy, Palestinians are in much worse shape than Israelis are.

The proper response should be that the question is flawed. It assumes a zero-sum game - that you can only pick one side for sympathy, that there is a winner and loser.

That is false.

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03/23 Links Pt2: Netanyahu: I'm 'taking over' judicial reform despite conflict of interest; Antisemitic Incidents in US Hit Record High in 2022; Bali governor rejects hosting Israel for FIFA under-20 World Cup

From Ian:

‘I am one of those liberals who got mugged by reality’: An Interview with Gadi Taub

Introduction by Gabriel Noah Brahm
Senior Lecturer in the School of Public Policy and the Department of Communications at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Dr. Gadi Taub is an Israeli historian, novelist, screenwriter, political commentator and influencer of wide repute, ubiquitous on television, social media, podcasts and in print.

Once a man of the left, Taub says he is ‘one of those liberals who got mugged by reality’ and is now a prominent intellectual on the Israeli right and host of Israel’s leading conservative podcast, Gatekeeper (שומר סף). He recently conducted an exclusive hour-long interview with Justice Minister, Yariv Levin, who laid out the details of his proposed reform. (The interview is now available with English subtitles on the Gatekeeper channel.)

Moreover, some on the left have come to consider Taub so dangerous that his long-running column in Haaretz was terminated by its publisher, Amos Schocken, who justified the decision on the grounds that Taub’s columns were, he claimed, giving a ‘tailwind’ to a ‘coup’.

The following is a transcript, lightly edited for readability, of a recent conversation conducted at Taub’s home in the heart of Tel Aviv, not far from Allenby Street, which gave its name to the hit Israeli TV show, based on his novel, Allenby.

The Reform is Needed
Gabriel Noah Brahm: Professor Taub, you seem to have become a polarising figure these days. In any case, you’re in the eye of the storm concerning legal reform, for one thing. But you’ve also had some ups and downs with a longtime publisher of some of your more public-facing work—Israel’s leading highbrow daily, Haaretz, which seems to have ‘cancelled’ you. First of all, how are you doing? How do you handle being caught up by such a whirlwind of attention? Moreover, are you optimistic or pessimistic about the country’s future and your own prospects?

Gadi Taub: I’m optimistic, because I think Israel’s democracy is proving much more vigorous than Israel’s elites assume. Their hysteria is not a result of any danger to democracy. It stems from their fear that their hegemonic rule is at an end—which it is. Their ability to rule us from above, from the bench of the Supreme Court, is crumbling. It cannot be saved, even if they defeat the judicial reform now, which can only be done if the chaos they are trying to cause spirals out of control, causing a split in the coalition.

Look at this battle over reform and the way it is conducted. The reform itself is clearly needed. An arrangement where 15 unelected judges hold the final power of decision over any and all matters—political, legislative, economic, social, while also holding a veto over the appointment of their own associates—cannot be called democratic by any stretch. Keep in mind that on many of the most important issues of the day these 15 individuals mostly hold to the opinions of Meretz, a progressive political party that did not pass the threshold [to hold seats in the Knesset], and you’ll get the picture of just how distorted politics have become in this country.

This is only sustainable if you prevent the public from realising what’s really going on. But you can’t do that forever. ‘You can’t fool all of the people all of the time’, said Honest Abe. Israelis, educated and uneducated alike, are tired of seeing their ballots shredded by judges. And since in this country existential threats are ever close and vivid, so are reality checks. This puts progressive pipe dreams at a permanent disadvantage.

Israel in the Eyes of New Immigrants

Even when Israel is embroiled in intense disputes, new immigrants continue to arrive. A Young New Immigrants Fair for those interested in studying at Bar-Ilan University saw many attendees from Russia and Ukraine, as well as immigrants from Turkey, Ethiopia, and Peru.

Shelly Shuver, 20, who immigrated from Paris, said, "In France, the situation has become less safe, and not just for Jews. There have been many attacks, so as a Jew and generally as a human being, I personally prefer the country and the security here....Nothing will make me leave because I have no other place to be."

Georgi Zaves, 18, from Belarus, said, "The security situation in Israel doesn't worry me at all....Those of us coming from Russia, with all the tensions there, the war with Ukraine, the economic pressure, not to mention the violation of freedom of expression and violent repression - I fear nothing....You in Israel simply don't know how to appreciate the freedom you have, the ability to express an opinion freely without someone handcuffing, arresting, or severely punishing you for it. In Russia, you can only dream of a free democracy like you have in Israel."

Tefra Gethon, who immigrated from Ethiopia, said, "The State of Israel is known for its democracy and the ability of every person to express their opinions freely, unlike in Ethiopia." Bayilan Worku, 25, also from Ethiopia, said, "Many people in the world admire the State of Israel and its democracy. This is precisely the reason that more and more young people, including immigrants from all over the world, choose to live there and start a family there, to raise children in peace. Israel is a good place to live."

Netanyahu: I'm 'taking over' judicial reform despite conflict of interest

The coalition will not freeze its "softened" proposal to restructure the Judicial Selection Committee, but will do all it can to arrive at a solution and calm tensions on the streets, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a press conference on Thursday at the end of a dramatic day, which included security warnings against the reform, a "Day of Paralysis" and political drama.

After explaining the concerns of both the supporters and detractors of the reform, the prime minister stated that his government was "determined to advance with responsibility a reform that will bring back the proper balance between the branches [of government]," which will provide a solution for all of the sides involved.

The reform will end decades of what the prime minister said was the High Court of Justice taking authorities unilaterally and end the lack of proper representation amongst the judges, but will also promise and fortify the rights of all citizens and minorities, the prime minister said.

Specifically, Netanyahu said that there would not be an unlimited Override Clause, but he stressed that the coalition would continue with its proposal for the Judicial Selection Committee and will pass it next week – despite the opposition, protests leaders and legal authorities' claims that it would still lead to the politicization of the court system. The bill gives every coalition the power to appoint two judges as it wishes and will give the current coalition the power to appoint the next Chief Justice, who in turn controls the makeup of specific hearings and has other powers such as appointing senior election officials.

Netanyahu is standing trial for corruption charges but said that he would now begin to enter the heart of the issue after his "hands were tied" due to a threat of the attorney general deeming him unfit for service due to violation of a conflict-of-interest agreement, which bars him from engaging in issues that could affect his trial.

Netanyahu is still bound by the agreement, but the coalition on Thursday morning passed the Incapacitation Bill, which blocks the attorney-general from removing him.

A little-known but very cool illuminated Haggadah

The University of Cambridge has a small but impressive collection of digitized Hebrew manuscripts. I mentioned their 15th century complete Mishna yesterday.

They have two illuminated siddurim (prayer books), both of which include Passover Haggadot. Since they are not standalone, they seem to be more obscure than some of the more famous illuminated Haggadot.

The more interesting one, from the 14th or 15th century CE, doesn't even have a name - it is an incomplete siddur, missing many pages, and its drawings are a bit faded - but it is a very impressive work, especially since the entire siddur is illuminated.

Some of the creatures drawn remind me of Dr. Seuss. But as the page above shows, the scribe had no problem with drawing human figures.

The word "אומר" in this section seems to use a concatenation of the "mem" and "resh" as a single letter, a ligature I had never seen before (you can see on the last line the more well-known "aleph-lamed" ligature, while rarely used today it is part of the Unicode font set.)

I just did a brief search and I cannot find any mention of a mem-resh ligature, so maybe I (and jamie t) made a real discovery. That's the sort of thing that can launch entire academic papers.

The Cambridge notes mention that a couple of sections were crudely blacked out, and they theorize this is because of fear of Christian censors. I'm not so sure - the Haggadah's "שפוך חמתך" is not touched, and one would think that would be the first section to be censored.

Since it has more than a Haggadah, we can see pictures like this one of Moses at the beginning of Pirke Avot!

Who wrote it? We don't know, but in the Grace After Meals there are crowns over the names "Abraham" and "Isaac" with a small note saying that this was the scribe and the person who inserted the vowels - so it appears that one was named Avraham and the other Yitzhak.

Now, that's humility.

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Palestinian History Museum: Roman Conquest Bad, Arab Conquest Good (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Ramallah, March 23 - Staff at an institution dedicated to displaying indigenous artifacts of the Arab people of this part of the Levant struggled again today to articulate the difference in tone the exhibits take toward two different periods in which a colonizing foreign entity swept through the land and imposed hegemony on its inhabitants, with periods prior to the seventh century and after the nineteenth portrayed in frightful terms, while those in between are characterized in neutral, benign, or glorious terms, a discrepancy that curators and docents have grappled with unsuccessfully since the venue opened to guests several years ago.

The Palestinian History Museum in the de facto Palestinian capital has long faced an uphill campaign to collect and present artifacts consistent with the premise of Palestinian Arab indigeneity. Spokesmen for the institution have at various times accused Zionists of destroying or fabricating evidence, only to become stymied in the face of Arab pronouncements from previous ages that assume as a matter of fact, for example, that Jews were sovereign here long before Arabs imposing Islam arrived in the first half of the eighth century CE. A prominent instance of the phenomenon involves a guide to the Haram al-Sharif - the compound housing the Dome of Rock and the Al-Aqsa Mosque - by the Islamic Waqf itself - stating the established fact that the site held both ancient Jewish temples.

"The Islamic expansion into Palestine brought peace and prosperity," the staff and exhibit notes insist, with similar effusive treatment of Seljuk, Mameluk, Ottoman, and other brutal conquests by repressive rulers under the banner of Islam. "Byzantine corruption and repression caused untold suffering," on the other hand, depicts a population in torment under regimes that followed anything but Islam, with special venom reserved for Jews reasserting their claim to the land.

Museum officials changed the subject when visitors asked, in the context of their insistence that Palestinians have lived in the land since long before Judaism existed, about the pride with which so many Palestinians boast of their Arabian Bedouin heritage and ancestry, their nomadic ancestors having migrated into the land in the last several centuries. "You misunderstand," they argued, but preferred to point to shiny new artifacts rather than clarify the misunderstanding.

"Look, we just got this in," they rushed to interject. "It's a collection of arrowheads from the Seleucid campaign in the mid-second-century BCE."

"Whom were they fighting?" asked a visitor.

"Next exhibit!" the docent yelled. "We really have to get through, we're running out of time."

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03/23 Links Pt1: Glick: America, Israel and the era of false messiahs; Mahmoud Abbas: The rise and fall of the Palestinian leader; Hollywood-Style ‘Documentary’ Invites Sympathy for Paranoid Palestinian Terrorists

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: America, Israel and the era of false messiahs

Obama hated Israel because, to him, the Jewish state is a microcosm of the America he believed was responsible for the wars of the region. He turned against America’s Sunni allies in the Persian Gulf and against Egypt because they viewed the United States as a positive rather than a negative force in the region.

For failing to hate American power as he did, Obama determined that the Sunni regimes weren’t “authentic” and he worked to destabilize them by supporting the Iranian mullahs and their allies in the Muslim Brotherhood.

Since jihad was a reasoned response to American aggression, so the thinking went and still goes, by empowering jihadists at the expense of Israel and the Sunni regimes, America could convince them to leave America alone or provide it with moral exculpation.

America’s spurned Sunni allies responded to Washington’s betrayal by casting about for other options. First, they turned to Israel. Then they turned to Russia and China. China’s mediation of the Saudi-Iranian dispute is a testament to the Sunnis’ conviction that the United States can no longer be trusted.

The report this week that the UAE is considering downgrading its relations with Israel is a testament to the growing sense among the Arabs that Israel is going down with America.

The Biden administration’s open support for the revolt of Israel’s post-Zionist elites seems to support this assessment. Those elites have a long record of scuttling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s efforts to develop strategic independence and the means to physically destroy Iran’s nuclear program. Instead, they favor support for U.S.-led nuclear diplomacy and appeasement of the ayatollahs. If Israel will not serve as a counterweight to Iran, then it has no value to the threatened Sunnis.

Israel’s takeaway from a generation of failed U.S. messianism must be that the time has come to end Israel’s strategic dependence on Uncle Sam. A restored alliance can only be based on mutual respect and sovereign independence. The mutinous elites must be brought to heel.

America’s takeaway from its generational flight from reality must be to restore reality to its proper place as the basis for American foreign policy. This doesn’t mean that the mythmakers and dreamers should be sent off to pasture. But the image of America that will rebuild its power and vitality isn’t a crusading banner of universal freedom. It isn’t an LGBT flag with a Black Lives Matter fist in the middle.

A restored America will be one that presents an updated version of the icons of the past—Horatio Alger and the Lone Ranger. Theirs told the story of a free people who persevered and prospered because they were willing to pay the price for freedom. They stood up for themselves and succeeded through hard work, courage and grit.

That was the dream Americans had and the one they shared with the world. If it is restored, America may still return to greatness. If it remains elusive, the American dream for its people and the world will disappear.

Mark Regev: Mahmoud Abbas: The rise and fall of the Palestinian leader

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas will be celebrating his 88th birthday this year – although a certain amount of online confusion exists as to the precise date, either March 26 or November 15. There is however no dispute about the year (1935), city (Safed) and country (British Mandatory Palestine) of his birth.

Despite his advanced age, Abbas continues to hold three crucial positions: He is president of the Palestinian Authority, chair of the Palestine Liberation Organization, and head of the Fatah political movement.

Abbas assumed these roles following the death of Yasser Arafat in 2004. Arafat had established Fatah in 1959, took control of the PLO in 1969, and became the PA’s founding president in 1994.

For more than a generation, Arafat’s defiant persona, with his trademark black and white checkered keffiyeh, habitual unshaven stubble, and ubiquitous green battle fatigues, was synonymous with the Palestinian cause.

Compared to Arafat’s larger-than-life presence, Abbas is a dry suit-and-tie technocrat. But upon inheriting the leadership, Abbas’ more restrained manner was widely perceived as an advantage, given what his predecessor’s maximalist revolutionary agenda did to hopes for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Mahmoud Abbas, the failed nation-builder
The initial enthusiasm for Abbas’ governance seemed to be vindicated in his January 2005 campaign slogan for the PA presidency: “One authority, one law, one gun.” For many, this indicated that instead of persevering with Arafat’s terrorist war against Israel, the new Palestinian chief would be focusing on positive nation-building.

Such a view was seemingly affirmed with Abbas’ June 2007 appointment of Nablus-born Salam Fayyad as PA prime minister. Fayyad holds a PhD in economics from the University of Texas and had previously been the International Monetary Fund’s representative to the Palestinian territories. He served as Ramallah’s finance minister under both Arafat and Abbas, and was respected as a reformer committed to strengthening the PA’s institutions and economy.

But Fayyad’s plans for modernization, while very popular with international donors, threatened the way Fatah does business and challenged its system of political and economic control. Tellingly, Abbas sided with his Fatah cronies and Fayyad was forced to resign the premiership in April 2013.

Amb Alan Baker: Legal Perspectives on Israel's Legal Rights to Rescind Parts of Its 2005 Disengagement Law

In a press briefing on March 21, 2023, State Department Principle Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel expressed U.S. concern at new Israeli legislation rescinding parts of a 2005 disengagement law. Similar concerns were voiced by Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman to Israel's ambassador Michael Herzog.

The 2005 law, which implemented Israel's 2004 Disengagement plan, had called inter alia to remove four Israeli settlements – Homesh, Sa-Nur, Ganim, and Kadim – in the northern part of the West Bank area of Samaria, prohibiting further residence there by Israelis.

The new legislation rescinded this 2005 prohibition on residence in the four localities on the principal grounds that it had overlooked the basic property rights of the residents and, as such, was discriminatory, and that it had failed to result in any reduction in Palestinian hostility and terror.

The new legislation would enable the return of the residents to their homes and properties after the implementation of requisite legal and security arrangements and the resolution of land ownership claims by Palestinians. (The sites of Ganim and Kadim are reported to now be part of Jenin's municipal boundaries in Area A, effectively putting them off-limits to Israelis.)

U.S. spokespersons and former Ambassador to Israel Dan Kurtzer wrongly claim that the new legislation contradicts previous undertakings by the Israeli Government to the U.S. "to evacuate these settlements and outposts in the northern West Bank in order to stabilize the situation and reduce frictions."

In fact, the 2004 unilateral and independent Israeli plan to evacuate those villages, even after implementation, failed in its stated purpose to secure and encourage a reduction in Palestinian hostility and violence.

Israel's new legislation rescinding the provisions prohibiting residence in the four settlements is distinctly not intended to enable new settlement construction but merely to allow the return of those residents previously removed from their homes and the concomitant restoration of their rights.

The reciprocal U.S.-Israeli commitments of 2004, which served as the premise for the implementation of Israel's disengagement plan, contained an essential affirmation by President George W. Bush that "it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion."

As I've been reporting, ever since the Abraham Accords were announced, some Arab commentators have sounded the alarm, saying that this is the beginning of a new "Abrahamic" religion meant by Jews to destroy Islam.

Those fears were multiplied by the opening of the multifaith Abrahamic Family House in Dubai.

Now the head of the Egyptian Islamist Nour party is putting all the pieces together:

Sameh Bassiouni, head of the Supreme Committee of the Nour Party, said that the world order is now promoting the model of the so-called “Abrahamic House.” It is not a call for peaceful coexistence, as the supporters claim, or the deceived repeat. It is a tactical phased step to domesticate future generations through multiple and disparate devotional rituals in one complex under the deception of the unified Abrahamic creed.

In an article published by Al-Fath on its website, Bassiouni stressed that the deception of the Abrahamic religion is a prelude to dissolving the concept of Islamic faith and identity in Arab-Islamic countries, and then pushing for a federation of the alleged Abrahamic states in the region. This will dissolve the concepts of the unity and cohesion of the homeland.

Then the door opens wide to achieve the fixed strategic Zionist plans to implement the Talmudic dream of a Jewish state "from the Nile to the Euphrates" without objection from future generations in the Arab Islamic countries.

It is all so clear now!

I wish that Israel was half as strategic as the Arabs think it is.

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Earlier this month I reported on an antisemitic Arabic article published on MSN, Microsoft's news network. It said that Israel is inflicting a "Holocaust" on Palestinians.

It is hardly the only example.

Just today, MSN published one article saying that modern Jews have no relationship with the Jews of Biblical times (while accusing modern Jews of racism, naturally), and another from a Jordanian who writes Israel is "an entire entity of murderous terrorists, who have pursued policies of apartheid and genocide against Palestinians and Arabs for nearly a century" and then concludes that Palestine is all Jordanian.

MSN gets many of its Arabic articles from a company called SyndiGate, which strikes deals with Arab and other international media companies to syndicate their content.

SyndiGate is owned by the Jordanian Albawaba Group. (Albawaba means "the gate" in Arabic.)

While Albawaba's news site is not nearly as antisemitic as much of Jordanian media, it publishes its share. Here, for example, is an English language article about how Jordanians protested a preacher attending a seminar in Abu Dhabi with a non-Israeli rabbi, with no mention that this was a classic example of pure antisemitism. They have pushed the discredited antisemitic Khazar theory as well. Last year they claimed, with no fact checking, that Jews in Hebron burned a Quran - which is pure incitement to violence among Muslims.

SyndiGate's editorial standards for republishing Arabic content are even lower than Albawaba's. They appear to blindly re-copy anything from their own content providers, with little regard for what they actually say. After all, that's their business model - content equates to cash from their client like MSN.

And just as SyndiGate blindly grabs content from its sources, Microsoft blindly publishes the SyndiGate content. It does it with other content providers as well - last year republishing a number of obvious hoax articles without even the pretense of editing.

MSN is the default page for new tabs in Microsoft browsers, and their articles show up by default on all computers with Windows. MSN gets nearly a billion views a month. By any definition, it is a media giant even if it has little original content.

Microsoft is complicit with spreading hate to a large global audience.

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!