Thursday, April 27, 2023
- Thursday, April 27, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- Alma, Hezbollah, Hypocrisy, Lebanon, Marwahin, media silence, NGO lies, NGO silence, secur, terror training, twitter, UNIFIL
- Thursday, April 27, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- antisemitism, Arab education, education, Egypt, Good news, IMPACT-se, Israel, unesco, Ynet
A newly released study showed Egypt was successful in removing antisemitism and other hatred from its school books, The Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education (IMPACT-se) found. The research and policy institute that analyzes curricula around the world through UNESCO-defined standards, has released its second full report on the Egyptian curriculum, from its London office.This latest IMPACT-se report evaluated 271 textbooks from the Egyptian national curricula, published between 2018 and 2023. The study focuses on the Arabic language, Islamic and Christian religious education, social studies, values and respect for others, history, geography, philosophy, and more. Egypt has the largest education system in the Middle East and North Africa, with 25 million children currently enrolled in its schools - the largest in the Arab world."Our findings show major improvements in attitudes toward Jews and Judaism in the revised textbooks, part of the year-by-year reform of the Egyptian national curriculum between 2018-2030 across all grades, which has already reached Grade 5," IMPACT-se said."Promisingly, elementary school textbooks rewritten since 2021 do not include traditional, harmful antisemitic stereotypes such as attributing evil deeds and negative traits like disloyalty, fraud, greediness, and violation of contracts to Jewish people. These were replaced with values of tolerance and coexistence between Islam and Judaism, highlighting common ground such as Islam's recognition of the Torah, and permission for Muslims to eat Kosher food."Students are required to memorize the provisions of the peace treaty, and describe the “advantages of peace for Egypt and the Arab states.” A photograph of the peace treaty signing at the White House is shown for the first time. Passages such as “recognition of the sovereignty of each side in the conflict over its territory” were changed to “respect by each side of the other’s sovereignty and independence,” and establishing “normal relations” between the two countries, was changed to establishing “friendly relations.”
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! |
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Wednesday, April 26, 2023
Douglas Murray: The pathology of anti-Semitism
It has always been like this. So tell me exactly how you propose to ‘root out’ or ‘end for good’ a pathology which blames Jews for being poor and for being rich, for integrating and for not integrating, for being stateless and for having a state.Mohammed El-Kurd, An Anti-Israel Activist Journalist Accused Of Antisemitism & Glorifying Palestinian Terrorism To Receive “Peace Prize” By Mount Royal University In Calgary
People who have thought about this at a facile level can be relied upon to back schemes such as Holocaust education centres and memorials almost everywhere on Earth. One reason why so many MPs back an ugly Holocaust memorial in Victoria Tower Gardens is because they imagine troops of schoolchildren being ‘educated’ about how not to hate Jews. They say that it is important to ‘learn the lessons’ of the Holocaust, as though these lessons are straightforward; as though it was almost generous of Herr Hitler to provide such a massive historical reference point for our own moral betterment.
Such people should read the most recent work of Dara Horn (author of People Love Dead Jews), who recently showed in the Atlantic how the proliferation of Holocaust education centres in America might actually be increasing anti-Semitism among the schoolchildren who are taken there. Well-meaning (generally non-Jewish) curators and guides have no time to analyse the centuries of Jew-hatred that led up to the Holocaust. Instead, the visitor is simply left with the knowledge that in the 1930s and 1940s something terrible happened. A surprising number come away with the belief that the Jews must have done something to provoke such an outrage – that they were, perhaps, disproportionately rich, for instance. What all these displays have in common is that they finish with a sort of facile generalised lesson. Don’t be mean to people. Or the question ‘Who are the Jews of today? What forms of prejudice exist in our own day that should be tackled in order not to end up with Auschwitz again?’
As Horn notes, the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington does not finish by generalising the black American experience. It does not ask whom we treat today in the fashion that American blacks were once treated. It is recognised to be an evil of its own, worthy of its own respect and historical treatment.
Not so with dead Jews. They must forever be used to improve us, available to be used by anyone wishing to make a point about – say – border security in the 21st century.
What Abbott and others consistently demonstrate is precisely what Grossman said: anti-Semitism is a mirror. We use the Jews as victims in our society because we live in a society which celebrates victimhood: victimhood without much serious suffering, of course. And we become so high on that search for victimhood that we can even forget the peoples more victimised than any other.
Tear that out.
On May 18, Mount Royal University in Calgary will be presenting the “Calgary Peace Prize 2023” to Mohammed El-Kurd, which according to the university’s official flyer, will recognize El-Kurd “for his exemplary contribution toward peace and justice in the struggle for a more humane, dignified, and free life for oppressed people in Palestine and beyond.”Why the Jewish Race Question Matters
If Mount Royal University wants to honour an activist for their efforts in making a more humane and dignified life for anyone, Mohammed El-Kurd is hardly the candidate for such an award.
In recent years, Mohammed El-Kurd, the “Palestine correspondent” for The Nation, has become a fixture of the anti-Israel cause.
The 24-year-old resident of eastern Jerusalem describes himself on his official website as an “internationally touring and award-winning poet, writer, journalist, and organizer from Jerusalem, occupied Palestine.”
Alongside his twin sister Mona, Mohammed El-Kurd is regularly interviewed by news media outlets and boasts more than 700,000 followers on Instagram and more than 250,000 on Twitter. In 2021, the El-Kurd siblings were featured by Time Magazine as among the 100 most influential people of the year.
But El-Kurd is no human rights activist, nor is he an objective journalist. He has been accused of spreading hateful anti-Israel propaganda, of publishing antisemitic tropes and inciting violence on social media.
Over the weekend, UK Labour MP Diane Abbott made some ignorant comments about racism. She has since apologized, and is now suspended, but this is not the first time that well-known leaders and/or celebrities have publicly questioned whether Jews (or others) should be considered a race for protections against racial discrimination.This article will just focus on Jews.
Instead of just getting angry, it is time for us to set the record straight, so that people actually understand why the question fundamentally matters.
First, whether Jews are or are not a scientifically separate race may be debatable, as much of modern science regards the category of race itself as a social construct. But that is a wholly different question than whether Jews have experienced and do still face racism and racial discrimination.
Racism is the belief that innate inherited characteristics biologically determine human behavior. It often involves the color of a person’s skin, but not always. Racial discrimination, or discriminating based on race, takes place when people treat other people differently (usually in a bad way) because of their perception of that other person’s race, whether their perception is scientifically accurate or not.
For example, whether or not Jews are scientifically a race, it is undeniably true that the Nazis killed six million Jewish men, women, and children because they believed (as enshrined in the Nuremberg Race Laws) that Jews were racially inferior.
At the same time in the United States, immigration laws (i.e.the Johnson-Reed Act) treated Jews as a distinct racial group — and a less desirable one — thus limiting their immigration, and condemning untold numbers to death in Europe.
So Jews have clearly faced their share of racism and racial discrimination throughout history, and often lost their lives for it. Even today, the vast majority of antisemitic incidents targeting Jewish people in the United States have nothing to do with this or that religious Jewish practice, and everything to do with the target’s perceived race or national origin.
That is why, from a legal perspective, the question about Jews and race is simple: Jews are considered a distinct race for the purposes of civil rights laws.
- Wednesday, April 26, 2023
- Varda Meyers Epstein (Judean Rose)
- ADL, antisemitism, conspiracy theories, iran, Israel, Jonathan Greenblatt, Judean Rose, Kanye West, Tucker Carlson, Varda Opinion
Tucker Carlson is in the news because he just got dumped by Fox News. Some say it’s because of the lawsuit filed by former head of booking for the Tucker Carlson Tonight show, Abby Grossberg, against the network and several individuals at Fox, including Carlson. Grossberg says she “endured an extremely hostile work environment” and was subjected to antisemitic treatment by Alexander McCaskill and Justin Wells, both senior producers for Carlson’s show.
Carlson is accused of misogyny in Abby Grossberg’s suit—though not antisemitism. That hasn’t stopped the media from suggesting otherwise by
seeming to lump him together with McCaskill in blaring headlines about the suit
and perhaps with good reason: the scent of antisemitism does seem to cling to
Carlson, though there is never anything overt one can point to—no proof that
Tucker Carlson hates Israel or the Jews.
In a 2021 piece for Haaretz, “Tucker Carlson Is Now a Big Problem for pro-Israel Conservatives” Jonathan S. Tobin writes, “One of the things that sets Carlson apart from virtually any other prominent conservative figure is his distinct lack of enthusiasm for Israel.”
On the Carlson show, the barbarous Assad regime in Syria is justified for its supposed defense of Syrian Christians. Worries about Iran or even criticism of President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Tehran — as much of a Republican mantra as opposition to Obamacare — is never heard.
Nor, for that matter, is any direct criticism of Israel. It is, like Sherlock Holmes' "Hound of the Baskervilles," the dog that never barks on Fox at 8pm EST.
Even when he hosts figures from the left who are well-known for their hate for Israel, such as Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters, a notorious BDS advocate, the Jewish state never gets mentioned. The same is true for frequent guest journalist Glenn Greenwald, another supporter of the Palestinians. Greenwald discusses his disdain for Big Tech censorship on Carlson’s show, but not the Middle East.
While Carlson never bashed Trump for his historic support for Israel, he seized any chance he could to single out the administration figures most closely associated with the Jewish state for attention and often vicious critique.
Presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner was a particular object of Carlson’s vitriol. Former UN ambassador Nikki Haley — a favorite for Republican Jews and a 2024 hopeful who can likely count on the pro-Israel community’s support if she runs — is another Carlson punching bag.
Tucker Carlson: "No one has more contempt for Donald Trump's voters than Jared Kushner and no one expresses it more frequently." https://t.co/x9PtN3TIry
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) June 2, 2020
That lack of enthusiasm has expressed itself is through his pooh-poohing of the Iranian nuclear threat and its quest for regional hegemony. More from Jonathan Tobin, this time from his 2021 piece, Why are Tucker Carlson and Peter Beinart trying to help Iran?:
[While] Trump was careful not to get suckered into a war, [his] vigorous approach to Iran, including the killing of its top terrorist—the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Gen. Qassem Soleimani—met with Carlson’s disapproval. To his dismay, Trump’s policies on Iran were not much different from the positions of the dreaded neo-conservatives that Carlson despises . . .
Carlson’s reaction to Biden’s attack on the terrorists who killed an American last week was brutal, accusing the administration of “killing strangers” in a “far-away land” and bringing “war back to the Middle East after four years.” He mocked the idea that ISIS was a threat to the West and sees no need for “counter-terrorism” measures. He also defended the brutal Assad regime in Syria. Like Beinart, despite its genocidal threats towards Israel and his aggression towards Arab states in the region, Carlson dismisses the whole idea that the United States needs to do anything about Iran.
Curiously, Carlson is an outlier when it comes to the issue on which nearly all Republicans move in lockstep: Israel . . . In contrast with other Fox shows and other conservative venues, Israel is almost never mentioned on his show. But though liberals and Democrats are the main targets of his scorn, he reserves his greatest disdain for “neoconservatives” and others whom he believes have duped America into fighting “forever wars” in the Mideast instead of taking care of the needs of those at home. He seems particularly angry at Republicans who have become beloved by the pro-Israel community like former U.S. Ambassador the United Nations Nikki Haley.
Carlson is right that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been costly failures. But, like Beinart, he goes further and now claims that Syria and its ally Iran aren’t worth bothering about.
These Iran apologists may start out from different points and have different end goals. But both have little use for the alliance with Israel and bend over backwards to dismiss concerns that Iran, and its Islamist and authoritarian allies, are threats to America’s interests and values.
Many of those accusing Carlson of anti-Israelism and
antisemitism, both now and in the past, have pointed to ADL CEO and National
Director Jonathan Greenblatt’s call—to the World Federation of Advertisers—to boycott
Fox, pointing to Carlson’s “open endorsement of the Great Replacement
Theory.”:
Before I pause for Q&A, let me share with you another vivid example of how hate speech and white supremacy is moving from the margins into the mainstream.
Just two weeks ago on his Fox News program, Tucker Carlson openly endorsed the white supremacist “Great Replacement Theory.” If you haven’t heard of it, this is a virulently racist and antisemitic conspiracy theory that holds a secret group of Jewish people are plotting to flood the United States with non-whites and immigrants in order to commit “white genocide.”
Lots of us see the ADL and Greenblatt as irredeemably radical
left, among them, this writer. We tend to discredit anything Greenblatt says or
does. Some, in fact, point to Greenblatt’s decrial of the former Fox employee
as proof that Tucker Carlson is innocent of these accusations and is neither a
conspiracy theorist nor an
antisemite. But even Greenblatt and the ADL sometimes get it right—just as a
broken clock is right, twice a day.
Ben
Sales expands on Greenblatt’s assertions:
On Monday, [Tucker Carlson] delivered a 20-minute defense of his “replacement” idea. At the end he took aim at the ADL, saying its defense of Israel’s Jewish majority and opposition to the return of Palestinian refugees contradicts its advocacy for immigrants in the United States.
“In the words of the ADL, why would a government subvert its own sovereign existence?” he wondered, referring to an essay on the ADL’s website. “Good question. Maybe ADL President Jonathan Greenblatt will join ‘Tucker Carlson Tonight’ some time to explain and tell us whether that same principle applies to the United States.”
Perhaps this sounded simply like Carlson going after a group that has been challenging him.
But for far-right extremists, his question went beyond a debate about immigration policy. Carlson was alluding to a meme that has traversed white supremacist circles for years and is a direct corollary to the “replacement” theory: Jews want to replace white people in the United States through mass immigration, the theory goes, but in Israel they protect their own race by restricting immigration.
White supremacists often refer to this idea by calling for “Open borders for Israel” — trollishly suggesting that American Jews should support similar immigration policy for the US as they do for Israel.
“Open borders for Israel” was a rallying cry at the 2017 rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where far-right marchers chanted “Jews will not replace us.” A Facebook group called Open Borders for Israel features Pepe the Frog, a cartoon appropriated by the “alt-right.” An “Open Borders for Israel” face mask featuring an anti-Semitic caricature is available for purchase on at least one website, and a white supremacist group distributed flyers with the slogan at Texas Christian University last year, according to TCU360, a campus news website.
The contradiction only works in white supremacists’ imaginations. In reality, while American Jews tend to sympathize with immigrants and refugees, few Jews actually call for “open borders” in the US And many Jews and Jewish groups, including the ADL, are particularly critical of Israel’s restrictive refugee policy, which has been a topic of heated debate there for a decade.
In the “open borders for Israel” meme, white supremacists take substantive debate beyond the pale of legitimacy. Beyond critiquing policy, they suggest (falsely) that Israel’s immigration system is one more piece of a Jewish conspiracy to destroy white society, and that Jews are playing a dishonest double game by advocating separate policies for the United States and Israel.
Responding to Carlson’s salvo, directed at Greenblatt and
the ADL, CAMERA Senior Research Analyst Gilead Ini tweeted:
Tucker is wrong because the ADL opposing a "right of return" is about preserving a single, functioning refuge for an oppressed people, slaughtered in the millions *as Jews,* expelled from their countries *as Jews,* whose population today is still below pre-Shoah numbers.
Surely Tucker understands the difference between what's described above and the situation of, say, Americans of English descent. But he doesn't care. He's about dulling rather than sharpening viewers understanding, for the sake of scoring his point.
1/ Tucker is wrong because the ADL opposing a "right of return" is about preserving a single, functioning refuge for an oppressed people, slaughtered in the millions *as Jews,* expelled from their countries *as Jews,* whose population today is still below pre-Shoah numbers. https://t.co/pNK9M9Mcw8
— Gilead Ini (@GileadIni) April 13, 2021
Ini isn’t shy here. He says it very clearly: Tucker “understands
the difference” between Israel’s “right of return” and the Biden
Administration’s “open borders” policy in the United States. Carlson is
being cagey and misleading here, suggesting to his viewers that when Jews make Aliyah
to their indigenous territory, it is exactly the same as illegal immigrants
flooding the border in Texas.
There is more than a hint of antisemitism here, but only if
you’re willing to let go of loyalty to Tucker for the sake of loyalty to Israel
and the Jewish people. Tucker knows better—knows exactly what he is doing when
he says these things about Israel. The now-terminated Fox News employee is too
smart not to understand the import of his own words, and the theory that some
conclude lies behind these words. In other words, those who so “reasonably”
deduce that Tucker was pointing only to what he sees as the double standard of
the ADL, and not really suggesting that Jews have no right to immigrate to the
Jewish State, delude themselves. Otherwise, he would not leave the matter
fuzzy, unclarified, and open to interpretation.
Where do we draw the line in our understanding of Tucker’s equivocal
rant? Did his words mean nothing more than a pointed rebuke of the liberal,
two-faced ADL? Or was he couching his words to avoid outing himself as someone
who, at the very least, thinks that Jews demand special treatment. At worst,
Tucker may be, as Greenblatt asserts—though I am loathe to give the ADL credence
or legitimacy in these matters—a firm believer in the Great Replacement Theory.
In January of this year, Tucker insulted Ahinoam Nini, a singer of international renown, known simply as “Noa,” no last name, outside of Israel—her real name is probably too difficult for most non-Hebrew speakers to pronounce. Nini is rabidly far-left, and her political views are anathema to Israelis on the right. Under the cover of Nini’s leftwing politics, Tucker gave himself permission to mock her singing and hand gestures. Then Carlson went further, drawing attention to the fact that Noa is Jewish: “Yeah, and those people run the world? They are so impressive!”
Let's check in on our lizard overlords in Davos, Switzerland. pic.twitter.com/fF9t609dj4
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 21, 2023
Was Tucker making fun of the Great Replacement Theory,
leftists, the singer herself, or the Jewish people? All of the above? Who
knows? Only those of us who have come to believe that where there’s antisemitic
smoke, there’s antisemitic fire, will interpret these words as yet more
evidence that Tucker Carlson is, indeed, an antisemite.
On October 6, 2022, Tucker Carlson hosted Kanye (Ye) West on
his show. Not long after, Kanye took to Twitter, in his now famous antisemitic
rant. You know—the one where he said, “I’m a bit sleepy now, but when I wake
up, I’m going death
con 3 on the JEWISH PEOPLE.”
The indefatigable Jonathan Tobin once more documented the evidence
of and the slippery nature of Tucker
Carlson’s probable antisemitism six days later, when he drew a line between
the Ye’s appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight, and the “death con 3” tweet:
Carlson became something of a tribune for conservatives for his forthright condemnations of the Black Lives Matter riots in 2020 and willingness to speak out on other issues dear to the hearts of those on the political right. That made him a target for the left, with groups like the Anti-Defamation League seeking to de-platform him for his discussions of so-called “replacement theory” about immigration. This said more about the ADL’s partisanship than Carlson, since the idea that demographic change will alter American politics is one that originated with and continues to be advocated for by Democrats.
Here again, the fact that liberal groups have already “cried wolf’” about Carlson makes it easier for him to dismiss criticisms when he actually does something to mainstream hatred. This is what happened in the wake of the West interview.
Carlson embraced West because some of what he says is in line with conservative views about race-baiting (his endorsement of a “White Lives Matter” shirt) and opposition to abortion. On the program, the rapper/fashion mogul was allowed to claim that Jared Kushner pursued the Abraham Accords for financial profit rather than to advance peace.
Carlson is unique among leading conservative media figures in that he is not a supporter of Israel. He is careful, however, to stay away from discussions about the Jewish state, lest he run afoul of mainstream conservative opinion, which is overwhelmingly Zionist.
The word “Israel,” thus, is a word almost never heard from 8-9 p.m. on Fox News. And it is not surprising that Carlson would allow one of the Trump administration’s greatest triumphs to be denigrated in this particular manner.
While Carlson trumpeted the interview as proof that West was not, as many claim, a disturbed individual or a hatemonger, what was left out of the broadcast was as interesting as what was left in. In outtakes that have subsequently been published, West made numerous allusions to hateful Jewish stereotypes.
He even echoed assertions of the Black Israelite sect that African-Americans were the real Jews—effectually denying the existence of a Jewish people. That Carlson would leave this out of his show demonstrates that he was attempting to hide West’s anti-Semitism.
Days later, West dropped the veil. In a series of tweets, he announced that he was going to “def con 3 against the Jewish people.” Yet conservative talk-show host Candace Owens defended him, in essence instructing Jews on what does or does not constitute anti-Semitism.
Like liberals circling the wagons around left-wing haters of Israel and the Jews, Carlson and Owens are doing the same for West and for the same reason. In each case, legitimizing anti-Semitism is considered justified if it defends a political ally, regardless of the consequences.
Though Carlson censored the interview with Ye, editing out all West’s antisemitic crazy talk, Tucker ended the show by, according to Vice: “declaring that the artist—whose erratic behavior has for years been at the center of discussions about mental health and how Black men with mental health issues are treated— is ‘not crazy’ and ‘worth listening to.’ He also added, approvingly, that Ye was ‘getting bolder’ in what he has to say.”
Listen to Kanye here: "the thing about it being Adidas I can say antisemitic things and Adidas can't drop me ... now what ... now what ..." @adidas pic.twitter.com/Qu5LcZnmJj
— StopAntisemitism (@StopAntisemites) October 20, 2022
Was Ye emboldened by the interview with Tucker? Did the fact that Tucker hid Ye’s hateful ravings from the public, encourage the bipolar rapper that Carlson actually approved of these antisemitic sentiments? Why did Tucker tell his audience that Ye is “not crazy,” “worth listening to” and “getting bolder in what he has to say” if not to show admiration and approval for Ye’s virulent dislike of the Jewish people?
The mask is slipping and some of us already see Tucker Carlson for what he is: a covert antisemite. Maybe it's time for Tucker to come out of the closet and put all doubt to rest. Unless, of course, he's afraid to be canceled—a process Fox News appears to have already begun.
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! |
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- Wednesday, April 26, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- anti-Israel, Ayat, End the Occupation, media bias, media silence, NYT, Palestinian culture, Palestinian propaganda
Arsen Ostrovsky: Israel's Miraculous 75th Birthday
The country today has become a homeland for the Jewish people, yet all its citizens—even those who are not Jewish—are treated equally and afforded full civil rights. It has a unified capital again in the Holy city of Jerusalem; and a strong army, capable to thwarting any foe near or far. Israel's innovation, technology, and a dynamic creativity has become the envy of the world. The ancient language of Hebrew has been revived and is spoken by its people again.JPost Editorial: Israel Independence Day, Remembrance Day: A hard-won miracle
And in Israel—unlike Europe or even parts of the United States—we do not have to fear walking the streets looking "too Jewish" or celebrating Jewish festivals.
Today, Israel has become a source of inspiration to the champions of hope and dignity, serving as a role model for all those fighting for their right to self-determination.
And all this has been achieved against insurmountable odds, against implacable enemies who still today refuse to accept the Jewish state's very existence.
In 1878, 70 years before the State of Israel was born, a young Jewish poet from Europe, Naphtali Herz Imber, penned the lyrics to the poem "Tikvateinu," meaning 'Our Hope' in Hebrew. In it he says, "Our hope is not yet lost, the ancient hope, to return to the land of our fathers."
In 1948, when modern Israel was established, the hope our people had carried for millennia became a reality and "Tikvateinu" became its national anthem.
Israel is a major military power, an economic marvel and a technological hub for the entire world. It wins Eurovision Song Contests and Nobel Prizes, develops cutting-edge innovations and agricultural wonders, and has produced a Wonder Woman.
According to the Central Bureau of Statistics, 9.7 million Israelis inhabit this tiny land – 12 times the country’s population at the time of its founding – of whom 7.1 million are Jewish, two million are Arab, and a little more than half a million are of other backgrounds. Some 79% of the country’s Jewish population are tzabarim – Israeli-born – and 46% of the world’s Jews live in Israel.
Israel’s society is vibrant and its democracy is robust. The hundreds of thousands of Israelis who have poured into city streets every Saturday night for four months now, protesting for and against the government’s proposed judicial overhaul, may have different visions of Israel’s future, but they are fighting to ensure that the country their children inhabit is better than the Israel of today.
There are few songs that capture the complexities of life in Israel as simply but poignantly as Naomi Shemer’s ballad “Al Kol Eleh” (“For All of These”): “For the honey and for the sting, for the bitter and the sweet, for our baby girl, please preserve, my good Lord.”
The honey and the sting, the bitter and the sweet have always been a part of the Israeli experience, and they remain so today. As yesterday’s terrible terrorist attack – which took place just a few blocks from The Jerusalem Post’s downtown Jerusalem offices – illustrated so painfully, the fight to be a free people in our land continues.
Today we will shed tears of grief for the young men and women who have fallen in battle, and for the civilians of all ages – men, women, teens and children – who have been killed in acts of terrorism since before Israel’s birth.
Then, in an act as incomprehensible as it is natural to us, we will wipe away our tears and come together to rejoice in what we have built in this special corner of the world.
As the sun sets this evening, let us give thanks for all those who gave the ultimate sacrifice so that we might celebrate 75 years of one of the greatest miracles of the modern era.
Chag Atzma’ut Same’ach – Happy Independence Day, Israel.
- Wednesday, April 26, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- celebrating terror, desecration, double standards, Felesteen, hamas, Hatem Al-Bakri, Hypocrisy, Ibrahimi Mosque, Israel Independence Day, Issa Amro, Itamar Ben-Gvir, Talmudic rituals, Wafa News Agency
The Minister of National Security in the extremist occupation government, Itamar Ben Gvir, stormed today, Wednesday, the Ibrahimi Mosque, in the city of Hebron.And local sources reported that the storming of Ben Gvir comes as part of a series of continuous incursions by the occupation and its settlers into the Haram since yesterday, Tuesday, as the settlers performed Talmudic dances inside it, to celebrate the so-called "Independence Day."The Minister of Endowments and Religious Affairs, Sheikh Hatem Al-Bakri, denounced this incursion, considering it a flagrant violation of the holy places and places of worship.Al-Bakri warned that the occupation, and through the continuous Judaization operations, including broadcasting pictures of settlers dancing inside and outside it with comfort and reassurance, is working to displace Palestinian citizens from the places that it wants to control in Old Hebron in particular, according to a systematic plan implemented by the occupation government with the settlers.He pointed out that what the occupation is doing is a flagrant violation of the sanctity of the Ibrahimi Mosque and a special endowment property for Muslims that no one else has the right to practice worship in, and this requires serious work to stop it and limit it completely and with all force by flocking to the sanctuary.
Today, Wednesday, the extremist minister of the settler government, Itamar Ben Gvir, performed Talmudic dances in the courtyards of the Ibrahimi Mosque in Hebron. And "Ben Gvir" appeared in a video clip, accompanied by a number of settlers, while they were performing Talmudic dances and Jewish rituals inside the Ibrahimi Mosque.
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! |
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- Wednesday, April 26, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- 1948, 1948 terror, antisemitism, Arab antisemitism, Life Of Jews In Arab Lands, murder, pogrom, Zionists not Jews
A large number of Jews, most of whom were born in Egypt and whose families have lived there for generations, were ordered to leave the country this week-end or “face the alternative of imprisonment in desert concentration camps,” the American Jewish Committee reported in a telegram to Acting Secretary of State Herbert C. Hoover, Jr.The Committee disclosed that leaders of the Jewish Communities of Cairo and Alexandria “have already been placed in concentration camps.” At the same time, it reported that the property of Jews in Egypt has been seized as “enemy property” and placed under the custodianship of the Egyptian government.
The situation of the Jews in Egypt was termed today as "highly alarming" by a Frenchman who returned from Cairo and gave the first detailed and uncensored report of the pogroms, mob violence, mass looting and terrorism which is now taking place throughout Egypt against the Jewish population.Egyptian mobs, he revealed, killed three rabbis by splitting their throats, after dragging them into a Cairo slaughter house. He estimated that at least 150 Jews had either been killed or had "disappeared" in Cairo incidents during the last four weeks. A substantial number of Jews had been wounded, he said. The pogroms and anti-Jewish terrorism are tacitly encouraged by the passive attitude of the Egyptian Government, he charged.The gravest single incident, he reported, occurred on July 20 at one of Cairo’s chief street car junctions, in Malika Farida Placo. An organized group of Egyptians ejected all the European passengers from several trolleys. All passengers suspected of being Jews were savagely killed on the spot, and many had their eyes pierced or were knifed, while non-Jews and Europeans were robbed of all cash and belongings. The police made no effort to intervene, the French visitor emphasized.Of the large number of Jews in Cairo who have been wounded, he continued, 120 are now undergoing treatment in the Jewish hospital there and an unannounced number are in government or private institutions. Scattered incidents of knifing of Jews are repeatedly reported in various parts of the Egyptian capital, he said. The killing of three rabbis in the slaughter house took place on July 21, he reported.
- Wednesday, April 26, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- 1968, Israel Independence Day, Jews have always been Zionist, kiddush Hashem, Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik
I always enjoy when I read in the general press - I don't
know why I enjoy it, perhaps its vanity on my part, but I believe it is more than vanity - when I
read in the general press that no
statements were issued by the Israeli government in Yerushalayim because it is the Sabbath today and all
offices are closed.
I enjoyed very
much when I read in the (Boston) Globe yesterday that actually the proclamation of the State
of Israel was on the 14th of May but
since the State of Israel observes the Hebrew calendar, it was the fifth of
Iyar, and since the fifth of Iyar
coincided this year with Friday they
were afraid that the Shabbos not be desecrated by the celebrations, [so] they
advanced it to Thursday. Particularly
when the Christian Science Monitor [wrote it].
This means
kiddush Hashem.
Alright, I am not
completely in agreement at all times with the government of Israel, there are many policies which are wrong and
fallacious. However, we have to have a
look. Those are small details, peripheral matters. The main idea is correct and there is no doubt that hashgacha
(Providence) is planning something it is
far from geulah (redemption) yet, but hashgacha is planning something something in hashgacha holds something in
store for us I don't know. We are still
groping in the dark I don't know what
will... to me the chapter has not been
closed yet It is as if we are in the
middle of the writing of a chapter The
hashgacha is in the middle of writing a chapter... What the continuation will follow, what the
continuation will be I don't know; no
one knows. I have faith in God that it
will lead to geulah sheleimah (the complete redemption).
Whatever happens and transpires is
magnificent, and has tremendous significance
to the Jewish community as such and to individuals as well. Not only the community as such, but every
Jewish individual. After all, Jewish
nevuah (prophecy) has been realized - certain prophecies have been realized, I
wouldn't say in full [but] certain
prophecies have found their fulfillment and realization.Not every generation in
the last 2000 years could take pride in
the fact that ...this time a prophecy by Isaiah was realized. Our generation has been fortunate that
somehow the hashgacha found it necessary
to implement certain prophecies, and
we have been waiting for it thousands of years.
You will ask why
our generation? Why not the generation
of the Vilna Gaon? This question has
been raised. This question has been raised by the Satmarer. If, actually, the establishment of the State
of Israel is so important, you say it is
actually a result of the will of God, not,
as they call it, the will of the Satan, (we have Satanists somehow in the house,
Satan as an autonomous power which rules the world.) He actuality has a duality, the man has a
certain duality of darkness and light. It’s a very strange, strange distorted
philosophy he advocates Never mind his
argument with Zionism, I'm not interested in that The question should be answered - the
question should never be thrown into a waste basket. If you don't know how to answer a question,
say that you don't know.
Don't try to ignore
a question; this is one of our shortcomings, particularly of Orthodoxy We ignore questions. The question which is
unpleasant, we ignore. We don't care. We
don't hear the question. A question
addressed should either be answered or one should admit that it is insolvable There are many equations in mathematics which
are insolvable but still mathematics
retains its dignity If mathematics
should try to ignore an equation which is insolvable (....)
The same thing
with Orthodoxy; ask a question of a Rosh Yeshiva, the question has got to be
answered. "No, ah..." this is
no answer. Either answer the question,
resolve the problem or admit your inability, that you are not competent to
answer certain problems
The problem is a
big problem: This great miracle not happen in the 12th century when Maimonides
was alive Is it because our generation
is worthier? More worthy than the
generation of Maimonides, or the
generation of the Vilna Gaon, or the generation of the Baal Shem Tov? Why did this happen now?
Because
Maimonides could get along without Eretz Yisrael and as a matter of fact we did get along
without Eretz Yisrael! We got along very
well without Eretz Yisrael. Chazal says מדברך נאוה
(Shir Hashirim.) We interpret מדברך נאוה
[to mean] "Your speech is pleasant"
Chazal say מדברך נאוה means "your desert is
pleasant". Chazal say that in the
exile the Jews have excelled themselves have
exhibited excellence, displayed so much
tenacity and so much consecration, and so much loyalty
The Jews in the
first commonwealth could not stand up
and claim as much credit as the Jew in exile in Germany during the Crusades or in 1648 during the Khmelnitsky pogroms The Jew in exile was a proud Jew, a Jew who
was ready to sacrifice
But however,
after the Holocaust of Hitler, six
million people disappeared, actually one third [of the world's Jews] perished Missionaries...you don't know what was going
on in European countries In America it
was not so noticeable because we live in ...Jewish ghettoes But the Jews living in France, in England, in
Italy, there was actually a swarm of missionaries who descended upon them "Don't you see that the words of the
Gospel has been fulfilled? That God is angry at you?" "Do you still believe that your attitude
vis a vis Christ was the right one?"
"Now, if you will just accept baptism all problems will be
resolved"
I'll tell you if
not for the State of Israel, I don't what would have happened to the small
communities throughout Diaspora Shmad
(spiritual destruction), assimilation.....
disintegration, because of black despair. Because of simply not being able to understand
what happened. Do we understand what
happened? Can you explain, can any
theologian explain it? Can any philosopher interpret? Just accept the will of God. But for the real believer, for the man who
has indomitable faith in God, alright, it's possible, but for the people who are just on the
borderline, we don't understand what happened,
we cannot explain it. It was a time of hester
panim, complete hiding of the Face, God actually turned His back on our
people. If not for Eretz Yisrael...it's
impossible to imagine what would have happened to the Jewish diaspora, with the
dispersion. That's why our generation
has something which previous generations didn't, because our generation was in
despair and was in need of it.
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
- Tuesday, April 25, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- Israel, Israel Independence Day, Its hard to be a Jew, media bias, Opinion, Proud to be Zionist, This is Zionism
Daniel Greenfield: Israel is Fighting the World’s War
The Muslim world convinced the international community to pressure Israel by promising that the Jihad would stop there. “Give us Israel and it will end,” they urged. Despite all those promises, the Islamic war against civilization has spread across the world. Most of the world’s major nations and some of the minor ones have their own Islamic insurgency that plays by the same rules: alternating political demands with brutal massacres in the name of Islamic rule.
Generations of Israelis have gone to an endless war, sacrificed sons and daughters, to hold back the tide. They did it in defiance of the ignorance, hostility and pressures of the world.
They did it because they believed, they did it because they refused to die and they did it because surrendering to an enemy that gleefully butchers children was unthinkable.
Despite everything that has happened in the last generation, the world has learned little. But the Israelis have learned that peace is an illusion and that all they can do is hold the line.
When the torches are lit and loved ones weep, when the ‘blood of the maccabees’ blooms, a nation reckons again with the price that it pays for survival. Whatever myths pacifists may harbor and anti-war activists preach, there is no escape for any nation from paying that price.
Some nations have it paid by others, as the United States of America has done for so much of the globe, but in a world where evil is a reality writ in the black ink of the Koran, there can only be temporary refuges from the reckoning.
Israel still relies on a draft army. The price paid for war is a shared burden, but so is the price paid for appeasement. The fallen and their families come from all walks of life. These men and women, grandmothers, sisters, sons and nephews, have paid the world’s price in tears. They did not do it for the world, but their nation’s memorial day is nonetheless a lesson for the world.
Paying the price for freedom has long since become a cliche. Israelis do not pay the price for freedom. They pay it so that their children, their loved ones and their people are not eradicated from the earth by a brutal enemy that has no concept of mercy and worships barbarism.
The Israelis have come up against a choice that we will all have to make sooner or later. They chose not to die. The day will come when we may face that choice as starkly as they do.
Let us hope and pray that we choose well.
UN Watch: Your Tax Dollars Are Being Used to Teach Hate
UNRWA knows it has a problem, and its method of dealing with the problem not only doesn't solve it, but it reveals how deep the rot is. In response to a previous report in 2022, UNRWA's response was a brief suspension of six teachers and no subsequent action.Bassam Tawil: Palestinians: The Real Human Rights Violations
In 2018, following an earlier report on the violent and bigoted online activity of UNRWA's teachers, the organization put out a fact sheet, "UNRWA and Neutrality," touting its new social media policies and training. But as our new report shows, that training focused on encouraging staff to "limit online exposure" by "taking advantage of privacy and other settings."
In other words, antisemitism and support for terrorism don't disqualify a teacher from working at an UNRWA school, but teachers are taught how to avoid getting caught for it.
And not even taught well. From what we were able to turn up for our report, the picture is dire indeed.
Among UNRWA teachers we can find Riad Nimer in Lebanon liking a post praising a gruesome mass murder in a synagogue and Arwa al-Najjar Umm Islam, a math teacher at a West Bank UNRWA school praising a teenager who, with his brother, went on a stabbing rampage in Jerusalem. Another West Bank UNRWA teacher, Nizar Khalil Abu Shaheen, shares a complex antisemitic conspiracy theory about wealthy Jews controlling the United Arab Emirates. An UNRWA employee in Syria, Labibeh Iskandarani, calls on Hitler to "wake up" because "there are still some people you need to burn."
Though UNRWA angrily dismissed the latest report as "an attempt to sensationalize" and "overstate" the problem, the organization did suspend Nimer—only to then quickly reinstate him after news of the suspension led to a teacher walkout in its Lebanese facilities. There were no confirmed reports of any other actions against other teachers mentioned in the report. Iskandarani deleted pictures of Hitler from her Facebook profile and one other teacher adjusted his privacy settings to hide his inflammatory posts.
But the problem isn't just online. UNRWA routinely deflects criticism of antisemitism in its educational materials with the excuse that it is only using material from its "host countries," specifically the approved textbooks of Jordan, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Authority. It's a wholly inadequate excuse for an organization that derives all its funding from donor countries like the United States, Canada, and the European Commission, and it's not even true.
A 2021 study showed that UNRWA's own material used during the coronavirus pandemic was rife with bigotry and glorification of terrorists, including the infamous Dalal Mughrabi who carried out the Coastal Road Massacre in 1978 that killed 38 Israelis. UNRWA's response then was typical: denial followed by verifiably false claims that the problem had been rectified, peppered throughout with criticism for those organizations doing the hard work they refused to do and uncovering the problems in their curriculum and hiring practices.
Other UNRWA-created materials promote "armed struggle" against Israel and encourage "martyrdom." Textbooks routinely demonize Israelis and Jews, and one even describes the firebombing of an Israeli bus as a "barbecue party."
A separate discussion is needed about UNRWA's mandate and its mission and whether so many Western governments should be funneling so much money into an organization with the sole purpose perpetuating, rather than mitigating the conflict in the Middle East.
In the meantime, as long as governments are funding UNRWA to the tune of over $1 billion a year, they should be demanding both accountability in its hiring and an educational curriculum that lives up to their promised neutrality.
When Palestinians commit human rights violations against Palestinians, the European Union and the UN are beyond indifferent. It is only when Israel takes a decision to defend itself against terrorism that we hear their supposedly righteous cries.
The Europeans and the UN seem to be more concerned about the rights of organizations that are affiliated with terrorism than the rights of organizations that speak out against human rights violations perpetrated by Palestinians.
The PFLP, in fact, has long been a headache for Mahmoud Abbas and his Palestinian Authority (PA). That is why the closure of PFLP-affiliated organizations in the West Bank actually serves the interests of the PA: it weakens its political rivals.
Recently, even Abbas himself decided to punish the PFLP, which is part of his own Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). He cut off all funds to the organization.
While he has been accusing Israel of targeting Palestinian NGOs, he has ordered his security forces to crack down on Lawyers for Justice, an independent Palestinian group of lawyers based in Ramallah, the de facto capital of the Palestinians.
Lawyers for Justice works to support Palestinian human rights activists and political prisoners detained by the Palestinian Authority. It also monitors and documents human rights violations committed by the PA security forces.
In one of its recent reports, Lawyers for Justice revealed that the number of Palestinian political activists arrested by the PA has significantly increased, while peaceful demonstrations and assemblies were being suppressed.
It is no wonder, then, that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are trying to get rid of Lawyers for Justice.
- Tuesday, April 25, 2023
- Elder of Ziyon
- 2020, Al-Aqsa Mosque, Bab al-Rahma, conspiracy theories, Har haBayit, Jerusalem Post, Matti Friedman, Safa, Temple Mount
The controversy surrounding the Bab al-Rahma (Gate of Mercy or Golden Gate) prayer hall, located east of al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount, resurfaced on Saturday after the Wakf claimed that Israel Police officers halted renovation work at the site.The site was closed by court order in 2003 after the police discovered that members of the Islamic Movement in the Israel-Northern Branch were using it for political activities. Despite the closure, Palestinian activists have made repeated attempts to reopen it.In 2019, activists reopened the entrance to the prayer hall, allowing hundreds of Muslim worshipers to pray. When the police tried to close the area again, they were met with protests by Muslim worshipers, the Jordanian-controlled Wakf Islamic religious trust and the Palestinian Authority.In the aftermath of the 2019 protests, Israel reportedly reached an agreement with the Wakf to keep the site closed, while allowing Muslim worshipers to pray near it.
There are no photos or video of the Israeli police doing anything at the prayer hall on Saturday, so this may be an excuse to start something up again. There have been condemnations across the Arab world for this event that may have never happened. (As is too often the case, I don't see any official statements from the Israeli authorities.)
Predictably, the rumors are starting. Palestinian news agency Safa says that Israel plans to turn the building into a synagogue:
The ambitions of the Israeli occupation did not stop the chapel of Bab al-Rahma, east of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque. Rather, it is actively seeking to re-close it again, and empty it of worshipers and stationed, in a dangerous attempt to convert it into a Jewish synagogue, and impose spatial division in the mosque.
The building is built into the wall surrounding the Temple Mount. It would actually make a wonderful synagogue (Yisrael Medad joked to me when he gave me a tour of the Temple Mount that it already has separate entrances for men and women). But the chances that the Israeli government is planning to do such a thing is exactly zero.
Palestinians made the same accusations in 2020. I noted then:
In a fair world, though, the Bab al Rahma prayer room would be an excellent place for a synagogue on the Temple Mount.
I have been interested in the site for a while. To the immediate left of the structure are some old beams of wood, barely covered in canvas. (Here is a screenshot from a video I made in 2019.)
There is serious evidence that some of these beams could be from the First and Second Temple periods, and conceivably from the Temples themselves.
Matti Friedman wrote a fascinating article about them in 2013.
Which is as good a reason as any to keep people away from the site until the beams could be properly secured.