Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 13, 2023

Amnesty International again proves it twists international law against Israel

Amnesty released a quite predictable report on the mini-war in Gaza last month.

As is always the case, Amnesty assumed that ay Israeli actions were war crimes before writing a single word and then fit the facts to their predetermined conclusion.

Amnesty International investigated nine Israeli airstrikes that resulted in the killing of civilians and in the damage and destruction of residential buildings in the Gaza Strip. Three separate attacks on the first night of bombing on 9 May, in which precision-guided bombs targeted three senior Al-Quds Brigades commanders, killed 10 Palestinian civilians, and injured at least 20 others. They were launched into densely populated urban areas at 2am when families were sleeping at home, which suggests that those who planned and authorized the attacks anticipated – and likely disregarded – the disproportionate harm to civilians. Intentionally launching disproportionate attacks, a pattern Amnesty International has documented in previous Israeli operations, is a war crime.

The ICRC says

The principle of proportionality prohibits attacks against military objectives which are “expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to civilians, damage to civilian objects, or a combination thereof, which would be excessive in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated”.

The legal definition of proportionality demands that the attacker weigh the military advantage of the attack against the expected loss of innocent life. Israel clearly did this: Amnesty admits the targets were senior terrorist commanders, and Amnesty agrees that Israel used precision weapons meant to minimize collateral damage. But even so, it declares the attacks "disproportionate" without a grain of evidence that the military advantage was not great enough.

Of course, Amnesty doesn't have a clue as to the military advantage of killing senior PIJ terrorists. It doesn't even try to quantify that. But that is the entire point of the principle of proportionality to begin with.

Amnesty is saying that any civilian deaths, even when the attack is clearly against significant military targets, are war crimes - and that is exactly the opposite of what international law says.

Ironically, one of the ICRC's main sources for a detailed discussion of proportionality and the difficulty of defining it comes from....the Israeli High Court. Israel has teams of international law experts who approve these kinds of airstrikes. In this case, certainly Israel knew ahead of time - based on huge amounts of intelligence - that civilians were going to be killed, and it determined that this was a necessary but unfortunate consequence of defending itself legally. Amnesty, with next to no information about the military targets, breezily declares them not to be very important.

As a reminder, the international law standard on what is proportionate allows far, far more dead civilians for far less military advantage.

Amnesty's obsessive hate for Israel and willful ignorance of international law doesn't end there. It describes an airstrike that destroyed a building but didn't hurt anyone:

Israel’s deliberate destruction of civilian homes also took a heavy toll on civilians in the Gaza Strip, including on people living with disabilities.

On 13 May, Israeli forces targeted a four-storey building in the Jabalia refugee camp. The building was home to 42 people from the extended Nabhan family. Five members of the family live with disabilities, including three being wheelchair users.

Hussam Nabhan, an eyewitness to the attack, told Amnesty International he had received a call he believed to be from an Israeli intelligence officer at around 6pm, saying residents of the building had 15 minutes to evacuate. Hussam told the caller that there were people with disabilities in the building and they needed more time, but the caller just repeated the warning.

After the strike, 22-year-old Haneen Nabhan was so traumatized she found it hard to talk, saying that her wheelchair had been buried under the rubble of her home so she could no longer move around independently.

Research by Amnesty International found no evidence that the Nabhan building – and other residential buildings destroyed or damaged during the last two days of the offensive – had been used to store weapons or any other military equipment or that rockets had been launched from their direct vicinity.

“The root cause of this unspeakable violence is Israel’s system of apartheid. This system must be dismantled, the blockade of the Gaza Strip immediately lifted, and those responsible for the crime of apartheid, war crimes and other crimes under international law must be held to account,” said Morayef.

The bias here is undeniable. According to Amnesty, Israel - for no reason whatsoever - targeted a building filled with disabled people, and ensured that it was empty before attacking.

This is a blood libel.

Israel has an extensive methodology for determining valid military targets. Only the most rabid antisemite would claim that Israel went through all the effort - determining a target, warning residents, choosing the appropriate weapons - just to make civilian lives miserable. And only Amnesty International is so self-righteous to assume that their parachuting in and talking to a few residents who are frightened of Hamas is enough of an investigation to determine that the targeted buildings had no military value.

An expert on the laws of armed conflict states, accurately:

For commission of a war crime, a culpable state of mind is an essential element. Article 8 of the ICC’s Rome Statute requires a showing of either intent to harm civilians or recklessness: ordering an attack with the knowledge that the resulting harm to civilians would be “clearly excessive in relation to the … military advantage anticipated.” The high threshold for proof of a culpable state of mind is no accident. Rather, it is a recognition that a less demanding test would not adequately acknowledge the risk of harm that inevitably flows from the fog of war.

Amnesty is not interpreting international law. It is twisting international law to damn Israel - without any evidence whatsoever that Israeli actions were reckless or meant to intentionally harm civilians.

We've come to expect such libels from Amnesty and Human Rights Watch, but it is important to call it out each time. Because the pattern of ignoring facts, and blaming Israel for war crimes that all evidence proves otherwise, and of determining the outcome of the faux "investigations" before they even occur - this pattern proves that these NGOs are not interested in the truth, in international law or even in human rights.

Their entire aim is to demonize Israel.

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!

Keith Wheeler, a Chicago Sun-Times correspondent, reported on how the Jews fought War of Independence in this article published by the Palestine Post on June 14, 1948.

He found that the Haganah soldiers were very informal with their own officers; rank meant little besides authority. Most Arab towns at that point were captured with very little fighting; the Arab fighters would run away after a short firefight and then the residents would follow. Only one town, from which the residents would shoot at convoys, was mentioned as being destroyed (to avoid anyone using those buildings as cover again.)

The Jews "are distinctly not looters. "

WITH THE HAGANAH ON THE LEBANESE BORDER, June 5. — From the G.I’s point of view, this war seems about like any other war — 99 percent griping and waiting and one percent action.

During the last two days, I have ranged most of what—for lack of better name—can be called the Lebanese front. The trip has Carried us northward from captured Acre through the scenes of four recent battles, along the border where Jewish and Arab soldiers watch one another politely at pistol point. ‘This was one of those waiting periods, In 48 hours, I failed to hear a single shot fired in anger.

Meanwhile, however, I enjoyed the opportunity to Iearn something about the techniques of this perplexing war and the personalities of the Jewish G.I.s.

One discovers that the Jewish soldier resembles any other soldier. He loves to brag. He holds his enemy in vast contempt. He collects souvenirs as ardently as a United States marine. On the slightest provocation, he whips out snap-shots of children, wives and sweethearts, He is hospitality personified.

He is distinguished from other soldiers by several singular differences. He doesn’t want his name in the papers. By habit of many years, he yearns almost pathologically for anonymity. He is completely without rank consciousness and if so moved, never ‘hesitates to call a company commander “fathead” in his presence.

There is no “brass” in the Haganah, which seems to account for the lack of class distinction between officer and enlisted man. Nobody salutes anybody and nobody wears any insignia of rank. Indeed, no hard, fast classification appears to exist between enlisted men and officers. To an outsider, soldiers refer to themselves vaguely as “bren gunner,” “sniper” or “commander”. Such tags as private first class, sergeant or colonel just don't exist. Commanders and G.I.s eat together, bunk together and on leave drink in the same bars.

“The only difference is authority, and that is never questioned,” the commander of an outfit on the border told me while lunching on macaroni and liberated Arab chicken in his abode, a house once occupied by an Arab pasha.

In this talent for liberating such enemy captives as chickens and donkeys, the Jewish soldier likewise resembles his colleagues in other armies.

The kind of war they have been fighting leaves remarkably little destruction in its wake. Except for the Arab village Assumeria [al-Sumayriyya], straddling the road north of Acre, there is scarcely a dented building in all of Northern Palestine. The Jews got sore at Assumeria because its denizens persistently ambushed Jewish convoys and shot up drivers. And as soon as they captured the place, they systematically blew it up with dynamite leaving only the mosque standing out of the town’s hundred buildings.

Acre town itself and such Arab border towns as Azzib and Bassa show hardly any scars of battle except for a weird air of desertion.

The Haganah is remarkably shy of discussing weapons or tactics.

Nevertheless, one gathers that the average village attack runs something like this: Jews open up on the town with small mortars, rifles, Sten-guns and machine-guns in the middle of the night. Generally, they have the defenders previously spotted in such buildings as police stations. A few hours of. this commonly serves to discourage the defenders, who then take to the hills followed by the entire population except the cats and dogs and those humans too sick or old for walking.

One may be pardoned for suspecting that the Haganah —-especially the top commanders-— are inclined to exaggerate the enemy's strength. The Area Commander, for example, solemnly swore his soldiers drove 1,500 fanatic Iraqi warriors out of Bassa. More realistic Jewish soldiers on the actual scene guessed the enemy at. around 300.

Except for small portable souvenirs, such as daggers and abandoned tarbushes, Jewish soldiers leave captured towns pretty much intact. They are distinctly not looters.

It should be said, however, that the average Jewish soldier regards the enemy as fearfully unsanitary as well as unheroic, There is very little an Arab leaves behind that the averape Jew would touch with a ten foot pole.

With the possible but unlikely exception of Jerusalem, there his been no battle anywhere in this war which could compare in any way with the intensity, weight of weapons, destruction or wholesale death as, for example, the most insignificant Pacific Island battle of the recent world war. On the other hand, this observation is not meant as a reflection on the quality of this war. To the soldier fighting it, the biggest war is no bigger than the bullet which hits him.

’

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!

06/12 Links Pt2: Lipstadt: Aware of CAIR's antisemitic past, giving them a chance to overcome; An anti-Israel center for Israel studies

From Ian:

MEMRI: The New U.S. National Strategy To Counter Antisemitism Reveals Ignorance About The Reality Of Antisemitism In America

On May 25, 2023, the Biden administration published the first-ever U.S. National Strategy to Counter Antisemitism,[1] a 60-page document full of calls to Congress and "Whole-of-Society" calls to action. Notably, the strategy includes several instances of placing Islamophobia on par with antisemitism.[2]

Hatred of Muslims is indeed a real phenomenon in the United States. However, antisemitism cannot be put together with other phenomena, such as Islamophobia. Antisemitism is not only an ideology – rather, it is manifested in action, and there are more antisemitic hate crimes than there are for any other hateful ideology in America. In November 2022, FBI Director Christopher Wray said that 63% of religious hate crimes are motivated by antisemitism, despite the fact that Jews only comprise less than 3% of the U.S. population.[3] In addition, the FBI, the ADL, and even police departments have recorded a significant increase in antisemitic attacks in recent years.[4]

Moreover, many Muslim clerics in America themselves preach antisemitism and call for violence against Jews. The MEMRI archives contain dozens of videos of American imams calling for the annihilation of the Jews, predicting that the Muslims will slaughter the Jews on Judgment Day, referring to Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs, and referring to the corruption, mischief, and "filth" of the Jews.

It would have been valuable for those who authored the new strategy to familiarize themselves with this reality. Had they done so, they would not have made the mistake of putting the victim and the victimizer together in a document dedicated to countering antisemitism.

Indeed, the strategy does touch briefly on reality – on page 37, it states: "The President has long called for fundamental reforms to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, and Congress should remove special immunity for online platforms." Unfortunately, this too reveals the ignorance behind the strategy – instead of taking swift and decisive action as the executive branch to reform Section 230, the administration appears to be satisfied with issuing just another "call to action" among dozens of other empty calls. Section 230 is the root cause of the online spread of hateful ideologies (including jihad and antisemitism), and the administration has failed to reform the legislation and make social media companies and their owners accountable for the content on their platforms – even though all other forms of media are accountable. Social media can be compared to nuclear energy: It carries a great amount of potential and benefit, but nobody in their right mind would allow it to remain unregulated.

Below are examples of American Muslim clerics preaching hate of Jews and calling to violence against them:

Lipstadt: Aware of CAIR's antisemitic past, giving them a chance to overcome

Deborah Lipstadt, United States Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Antisemitism, knows that there are Jewish leaders who are upset about the way her historic Combating Antisemitism Strategy was launched a few weeks ago at the White House, but she stands firm behind it.

“I’m not naive,” she told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday in an exclusive interview. She is in Israel in honor of the annual Global Forum of the American Jewish Committee in Tel Aviv.

One of the main criticisms was about allowing an organization with antisemitic statements in its past to participate in implementing the plan. According to the fact sheet that has been sent out by the White House, “the Council on American-Islamic Relations [CAIR] will launch a tour to educate religious communities about steps they can take to protect their houses of worship from hate incidents, such as instituting appropriate security measures, developing strong relationships with other faith communities and maintaining open lines of communication with local law enforcement.”

CAIR is a self-declared Muslim civil rights and advocacy group headquartered on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, with regional offices nationwide. CAIR is America’s largest Muslim civil liberties organization. Yet according to an official document of the US Department of Justice in 2013, the FBI cut off ties with CAIR. “

The guidance specifically stated that, until the FBI could determine whether there continued to be a connection between CAIR or its executives and Hamas, ‘the FBI does not view CAIR as an appropriate liaison partner’ for non-investigative activities,” the document stated.

In addition, according to a background document of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), some members of CAIR’s leadership have used inflammatory anti-Zionist rhetoric that on a number of occasions has veered into antisemitic tropes related to Jewish influence over the media or political affairs. According to the ADL, CAIR frequently partnered with vehemently anti-Zionist and anti-Israel groups like Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) and American Muslims for Palestine, many of whose members employ extreme rhetoric and questionable tactics to demonize Zionism and Zionists and disrupt pro-Israel activity.

“It had nothing to do with the document itself, nothing to do with the formulation of the policy,” Lipstadt said of the mention of CAIR in the fact sheet that was attached to the strategy text.

Stephen Daisley: Tucker Carlson and the danger of antisemitism

It’s hard to believe Carlson is a victim of ignorance or coincidence. It is more likely that he dropped these tropes into his monologue because he knew it would scandalise his progressive and liberal critics. A little thumb in the eye, just because he can. This is part of his schtick, alongside the smug chuckle, the caricature voices, and the goofy mugging for the camera.

Carlson is a troll, but he is a troll with significant standing across the various strands of the American right, including the less pleasant ones. As Tamara Berens observes in a thoughtful essay for Mosaic: ‘Antisemitism is not only the glue holding disparate parts of the far right together. It’s also the building block of a wall being constructed to define who is and isn’t part of this loose constellation of movements.’

Not all of the people watching Carlson will pick up on these tropes but some will be only too familiar because they’re looking for them. For these people, talk of dead-eyed rats and shifty persecutors of Christians is more than obvious bait for Media Matters and the New York Times. To them it is a nod and a wink, a subtle salute to the fringe from the mainstream right. They will have come away from Tucker Carlson’s first Twitter monologue emboldened and hungry for more.

For decades, every since Israel divided up the Tomb of the Patriarchs into Muslim and Jewish sections to avoid bloodshed, Palestinians have been warning that Israel plans to do the same with the Temple Mount, dividing it up "temporally and spatially."

Last week, an obscure Likud MP named Amit Halevi gave them lots of ammunition.

A Likud lawmaker is proposing a plan to divide Jerusalem’s Temple Mount between Muslims and Jews and to remove Jordan’s custodial status over the holy site.

Speaking to the Zman Yisrael Hebrew news site, Knesset member Amit Halevi outlined a plan whereby Muslims would control the southern end of the 37-acre complex which contains the Al-Aqsa mosque, while Jews would receive the central and northern area, where the Dome of the Rock sits.

It would also allow Jews to enter from any gate, and it would get rid of the Waqf as custodian of the site.

Palestinian sites are reporting this as a "draft law" (it isn't) and they are certain that the current Israeli government is planning to do this.

In his weekly cabinet meeting, Palestinian prime minister Mohammad Shtayyeh said "taking this step would cause overwhelming anger whose results cannot be controlled, because of the sanctity and religious value that Al-Aqsa Mosque constitutes for the Palestinian people and for Arabs and Muslims."

President of the Palestinian National Council, Ruhi Fattouh, called it "a fascist step by the racist settlement government to impose its control over the city of Jerusalem and its religious and historical places, especially the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque." He also called this a prelude to a religious war that will ignite the region.

Hamas media today quotes an analyst who says that this plan proves that they were right all along about Israel planning to divide up the area. And there have been daily articles across all Palestinian media railing against this idea.

The chances of such a plan becoming law is just about zero. It probably won't even be drafted.

Not that it is a bad idea. It would be more fair than the absurd situation now. But there is no way it would ever happen. Halevi is a marginal figure in Likud, and I haven't seen any grassroots support for the plan by anyone.

It is to Palestinians what the "Palestine is Jordan" plan is to Jordan - something they are intensely worried about but for which there is no realistic path. But it gives them endless nourishment for outlandish conspiracy theories.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

I'm in the middle of reading "Betrayal: The Failure of American Jewish Leadership," collection of essays edited by Charles Jacobs and Avi Goldwasser:

This book—perhaps the first devoted to this topic—documents the devastating failure of the Jewish establishment, including its leaders and major donors, to defend and protect American Jews as anti-Semitism surges across the country....Betrayed by their leaders, the essayists argue, American Jews require new, strong leadership.

While it is not an American Jewish organization, the World Jewish Congress - led by Ronald Lauder - may be a perfect example of this problem.

The World Jewish Congress issued this statement this morning:

World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder issued the following statement praising the return of the United States to UNESCO:

“The World Jewish Congress welcomes the decision by the United States to rejoin UNESCO after a five-year absence.

“Under the leadership of Director-General Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO has made an immeasurable impact on the world stage by safeguarding history amid tumultuous and complex global events, so that current and future generations can be exposed to and better understand the lessons of the past.

“WJC, a longtime UNESCO partner on Holocaust remembrance and interfaith initiatives, is hopeful that the agency will now be able to share its critical work with even broader audiences.”

One of the themes of this site is Jewish unity, and infighting among Jews is one of the organized Jewish community's worst problems. I do not like to attack Jewish organizations. But this statement is outrageous.

The entire reason the US left UNESCO in 2017 was because if its anti-Israel and anti-Jewish bias. That bias was consistent for years, with UNESCO regularly issuing biased reports and statements:

Denying any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount and even the Western Wall

Deploring Jews visiting the Temple Mount

Ignored Israeli casualties in the May 2019 Gaza war

Complimenting Jordan's plan for rebuilding the public ramp to the Temple Mount while condemning Israel's

Calling Maimonides a Muslim named Moussa ibn Maïmoun and refusing to apologize

I'm not saying that there might not be good reasons for the US to rejoin UNESCO. After months of lobbying by current UNESCO director-general Audrey Azoulay where she tried to reassure Israel she won’t allow anti-Israeli bias in the organization, Israel told the Biden administration last year that it wouldn't oppose the US re-joining. The US is concerned that China is now leading UNESCO in ways against US interests.

All this may be true, but:

The WJC claims that it "protects Jews everywhere and constantly defends the State of Israel against these threats." But Jews and Israel are missing in this press release. Instead, it is cheerleading an organization with a history of horrifying antisemitism and anti-Zionism.

How could it welcome the US decision, and praise UNESCO, without saying a word about UNESCO's antisemitic history? This is not the time for celebratory press release, but for a warning that UNESCO will be watched closely to see if there has been any significant change in its anti-Israel, antisemitic bias.

But the WJC is not saying that UNESCO is on its radar. On the contrary, WJC is giving UNESCO a kosher certification.

It is true that UNESCO has become less noxious under the leadership of Azoulay, but it has hardly ended its bias. Every year UNESCO reaffirms all previous resolutions minimizing the Jewish connection to Jewish holy sites (although it has returned to including the non-Muslim names of the Temple Mount, Tomb of the Patriarchs and Rachel's Tomb) as it condemns every Israeli move at all those sites. All the bias and hate are still there, but "softer."

This is hardly reason for celebration.

This is not Jewish leadership. This is capitulation. This is giving the message to world Jewry that their self-appointed leaders care more about access to powerful people than actually fighting for Jewish interests.

Real leaders tell the truth even if that will upset the powers that be. Ronald Lauder is a billionaire - he can say what he wants without any fear of personal consequences. This episode shows that he is no Jewish leader.

(Graphic courtesy of @iTil972)

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!

06/12 Links Pt1: Israel shouldn’t make concessions to Biden for Saudi normalization; UN Targets 35 U.S. States over Laws Banning Anti-Israel Bias; UN postpones conference on antisemitism

From Ian:

Jonathan Tobin: Israel shouldn’t make concessions to Biden for Saudi normalization

The truth is that the obstacles to Saudi normalization are entirely American.

As The Wall Street Journal reported back in March, the Saudis made clear what they need in exchange for normalization with Israel. They want the United States to formally commit to guarantee their security. And, in addition to more arms sales, they want aid for a civilian nuclear program, though that is widely interpreted as the beginning of a Saudi quest for a bomb with which they can deter Iran. Conspicuous by its absence from the list of Saudi demands was any assurance from the United States or Israel about creating an independent Palestinian state.

Most of all, they don’t want the Americans concluding a new weak Iran deal that will, despite their recent pact with Tehran, pose a direct threat to the existence of the Saudi monarchy. Yet as reports continue to indicate, and despite official denials of an imminent agreement, the Americans are pressing ahead with efforts to achieve a new accord with the Iranians.

Even if no nuclear deal emerges, Biden is unlikely to give the Saudis what they want.

No American administration wants to give them nuclear capability of any kind. But the Chinese will, especially if a new Iran pact guarantees, as Obama’s did, that Tehran will eventually get a bomb.

Just as much of an obstacle is the fact that his own party is unlikely to go along with arms sales or other concessions to the Saudis. The liberal corporate press has been working hard to demonize the Saudis for years, portraying MBS as a monster. The Saudis’ unpopularity was on display this week after the announced merger of the massively funded Saudi-sponsored upstart LIV Golf tour this week with the long-established PGA tour.

Even Americans who don’t care about golf seemed to be dismayed that Saudi oil billionaires successfully bought effective control of the sport. Liberal journalists have been raising the specter of that country’s responsibility for the 9/11 attacks to bash the deal, in spite of the fact that the whole point of the changes MBS has been pushing forward is to demonstrate that the desert kingdom wants to turn away from its past as a funder of fundamentalist Islam and terrorism.

In this atmosphere, most Democrats are not going to vote to give anything to the Saudis.

There has always been a school of thought that believed the Saudis will never jeopardize their standing as the guardians of Islam’s holy places by formalizing their strategic alliance with Israel. But even if they have decided, as they should, that the economic, diplomatic and military benefits of normalization far outweigh the damage it will do to their reputation among Muslims, the inducements that will convince them to do so can only come from the United States, not Israel.

Beleaguered as he is by the anti-judicial reform demonstrations, Netanyahu is, if anything, even more in need of a diplomatic triumph and a distraction from his political woes than Biden. Still, he should be smart enough to know that giving the Americans any concessions—no matter how valuable—will not guarantee Saudi normalization, stop a new Iran deal or secure Washington’s acquiescence for a strike on Tehran’s nuclear facilities if it comes to that. As he has in the past, Netanyahu must say “no” to Washington’s latest diktats.

Bassam Tawil: The United Nations' Jihad Against Israel

The UN, ostensibly dedicated to protecting human rights, and has, in fact, devolved into hurling bogus, tabloid-style allegations as it joins other blood-libel false charges by considering the addition of Israel to its list of blacklisted entities in its 2023 Children and Armed Conflict (CAAC) Report.

The UN resolution draft bizarrely, with no evidence, "accuses Israel of recruiting three Palestinian minors as human shields and combatants," among other offenses....

One of the leaders, in the zeal unjustly to add Israel to the UN blacklist, is World Vision International. It circulated an open letter -- with 18 co-signatory NGOs -- addressed to UN Secretary General António Guterres, repeating the phony and libelous charges against Israel regarding child recruitment.

In addition to this evangelical missionary organization's own anti-Israel history -- which features comparing Israel to Hitler's army and falsely accuses it of funding Hamas -- World Vision International's list of co-signers features a "Who's Who" of anti-Israel organizations, including Human Rights Watch, authors of the notorious report accusing Israel of "apartheid" and "crimes against humanity".

Importantly, Israel is recommended for blacklisting while Palestinian and Iranian armed groups are distinctly not.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) disassociates itself, when it is convenient, from its armed wing, Fatah, and other terror groups while "unofficially" inciting them to violence and even genocide. This is the PA we are talking about -- dominated by the ruling Fatah faction headed by Mahmoud Abbas -- not Hamas or Islamic Jihad,

"In response to threat that this posed to IDF forces, the IDF repeatedly conveyed warnings to the hospital staff, Palestinian officials, and international aid organizations, including the World Health Organization, requesting that they act in order to stop the hospital from being used for military purposes." — Mission of Israel to the UN in Geneva, July 27, 2104.

UN Report Targets 35 U.S. States over Laws Banning Anti-Israel Bias

The UN Commission of Inquiry (COI) on Thursday issued a new report that attacked rights of U.S. states to pass legislation banning discrimination against Israel via boycotts and whitewashed the antisemitism of Palestinian political organizations, said Israel's UN Ambassador Gilad Erdan.

"Yet again, the biased COI has released another sham report about Israel. This illegitimate committee, composed of three antisemites, is incapable of writing an impartial report on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The proof is their inability to include any references to Palestinian antisemitism in their latest attack on the Jewish state despite the Palestinian Authority which continually incites Jew-hatred and Hamas which seeks the destruction of Israel."

In what critics see as UN interference in domestic U.S. politics, the COI singled out states that bar anti-Israel boycott measures, including Florida, New York, New Jersey, Illinois and Texas.

A Florida history professor outs himself as incompetent about history - and as an antisemite

Yesterday, I tweeted my post about the hypocrisy about how the media and NGOs ignore the deliberate murder of a Gaza child by his stepmother while dozens of articles were written about Israel's accidental killing of a similar child.

One of the responses was most illuminating, but not in the way that the tweeter intended.

The surest way to know I've hit a nerve with the anti-Israel crowd is when they respond with anti-Israel tweets that have nothing to do with the original tweet. They are so incensed that anyone could give a perspective on the conflict that doesn't make Israel into an ogre that they want to ensure that their lying narrative of unrelenting Israeli evil overwhelms any other perspective.

In this case the tweeter clearly didn't even read the Haaretz article he was referring to. It is a very interesting account about how many Nazis were employed by everyone after the war - the US, England, the Soviets, and a significant number made their way to Syria and Egypt to continue their unfinished war against Jews. One who was expelled from Syria was then convinced to give the Mossad intelligence about Syria, intel that would save the lives of Jews. Another was recruited to help Israel hurt Egyptian plans for rockets that would be used against Jews in Israel. In that case, the ex-Nazi asked to be immune from any future Israeli reprisals for his activity during the war, and the Mossad refused to give that to him.

At any rate, one recruits spies from one's enemies. That's how spycraft works.

(The article also shows how the same Mossad that sometimes decided that an ex-Nazi might help save Jewish lives also went after Nazis, sending letter bombs in attempted assassinations, for example. )

What do you call it when Jews are expected to adhere to imaginary moral standards that the rest of the world is not expected to? Yes, that is antisemitism. Of course, so is any claim that Israel has nothing to do with Jews - no one can disagree that a Hebrew speaking state with a Jewish majority on the historic land of the Jews has something to do with Jews.

Normally I would ignore this stupidity, but the PhD in his name made me look at his profile.

This moron is a professor?

Sure enough, he is a part-time professor at American Military University and full-time professor at Indian River State College in Florida.

I looked up some of his publications, and didn't see anything particularly offensive. However, Shelby recently wrote a book about US policy in the Middle East during the Johnson administration and it took me seconds to find both his bias and his sloppiness with facts when it comes to Israel:

The 1947 partition plan gave the Negev to the Jewish state, not the Arabs. And the Arabs didn't reject partition because of the distribution of land - they rejected the idea of a Jewish state on any borders, as they made quite clear in all their public statements at the time.

This is propaganda to minimize Arab intolerance, not history.

So we know that Alex Shelby, who is of Palestinian ancestry, is a poor researcher and that his tweet to me showed he has an antisemitic double standard. But is he really an antisemite?

This pair of tweets, from April 2022 and April 2023, show clearly Shelby's blatant disregard for honesty and consistency as well as his antisemitism.

The first tweet is just sloppy - Byzantines built a church on the site.

But Shelby changes his theory about the Temples that he admits existed in 2022 and then in 2023 claims not only that there is no evidence that they existed, and that Jews "abandoned" it for "over 3000 years."

A history professor claims, against all evidence from the Bible to Josephus to hundreds of First and Second Temple artifacts found there to the different sections of the Temple Mount itself that testify to the dates of its building and expansions, that there is "no empirical evidence" that is ever existed?

That's merely enough to entirely discredit any credentials he has as a historian. But he goes beyond that, claiming that Jews "abandoned" their holiest spot, when for 2000 (not 3000) years we have been praying three times daily towards that exact spot for the restoral of the Temple

No, these are not simple mistakes. This is not a simple example of lying about history This is an attack on Jews today, meant to offend Jews today, about our history and prayers, our art and poetry, all centered on Jerusalem, Zion and the restoration of the Temple. And the earlier tweet about the Temple proves that Shelby knows he is lying but his desire to attack Jews overwhelms his desire to write anything accurate about history.

This is what makes him an antisemite. And Indian River State College as well as American Military University should carefully consider whether they want to employ someone who is so filled with hate that he is willing to lie about history just to offend Jews.

They should at least wonder what other lies he is telling his students.

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Armenian Quarter parking lot

Last week, AP wrote a long article about a planned land sale in the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem to become a luxury hotel that is sending residents into a panic:

A real estate deal in Jerusalem's Old City, the latest epicenter over the battle over the Judaization of the city, has sent the historic Armenian community there into a panic as residents search for answers about the feared loss of their homes to a mysterious investor.

The 99-year lease of some 25 percent of the Old City's Armenian Quarter has touched sensitive nerves in the Holy Land and sparked a controversy extending far beyond the Old City walls. The fallout has forced the highest authority of the Armenian Orthodox Church to cloister himself in a convent and prompted a disgraced priest who is allegedly behind the deal to flee to a Los Angeles suburb.

...Alarm over the lease spread in April, following a surprise visit by Israeli land surveyors. Word got around that an Australian-Israeli investor, whose company sign appeared on the site, planned to transform the parking lot and limestone fortress of Armenian apartments and shops into an ultra-luxury hotel.

As anger, confusion and fears of possible evictions mounted, the Armenian patriarchate — the body managing the community’s civil and religious affairs — acknowledged that the church had signed away the patch of land.

The entire article goes on and on about the fear of residents of being displaced, before paragraph 21:

Renowned Israeli architect Moshe Safdie told the AP that Rothman would fund the project and that he would design it. Construction, he said, would start following excavations at the parking lot. It is unclear whether residents will be evicted, but the patriarchate has promised to assist any residents who are displaced.

As far as anyone knows, nothing was sold beyond the parking lot, which is a significant part of the Armenian Quarter. As Media Line reported last month:

A large portion of the Armenian Quarter in Jerusalem’s Old City has been sold to a Jewish developer in a move that could erase the centuries-old Armenian presence in the city and further squeeze the Christian minority in Israel.

Though details of the deal remain unclear, the Armenian Quarter parking lot was taken over two weeks ago by a private company, Xana Capital.

The parking lot is a significant portion of the Armenian Quarter, on the southwest corner of the Old City:

There is no evidence at all in any of the articles about this sale that any land beyond the parking lot was purchased or that a single person will be displaced. Rumors about sale (actually, lease) to someone Jewish (even though the property will be managed by a Dubai-based group) have spun into a huge conspiracy to evict Jerusalem Armenians.

As bad as the AP story is, Haaretz made it even worse. Haaretz' subhead for this story doesn't even include the very few caveats that AP wrote:

Haaretz falsely claims, as fact, that the community's "apartments and shops" will be torn down and turned into an "ultra luxury hotel." You have to read the entire article very carefully to realize that all the hubbub is about the sale of a parking lot.

Even then you wouldn't know that the parking lot takes up a lot of the sparse open Old City space, and is probably the largest section of the Old City that has not been developed outside of the Temple Mount.. It is even larger than the Western Wall plaza.

The parking lot has plenty of room for a hotel without any need for any other land or buildings. Why would an investor even want to have the headache and PR problems of evicting businesses and families when the parking lot itself is very large? The entire story is based on rumors that have no basis.

Instead of emphasizing the facts and providing context, AP and especially Haaretz are making up a story about evil, shadowy Jews slyly buying land to Judaize Jerusalem and make innocent non-Jews homeless. That is the narrative that the world believes about Israel and it is the only narrative that is acceptable to be reported in international media.

A businessman buying a parking lot is not news.

(h/t Tomer Ilan)

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From Arab News:

There was uproar in Lebanon on Thursday after Kuwaiti media writer and producer Fajer Al-Saeed was prevented from entering the country.

Al-Saeed was stopped at Beirut’s Rafic Hariri International Airport on Wednesday evening, with Lebanon’s General Security rejecting a request from Kuwaiti Embassy officials to allow her to spend the night there before leaving on the first flight to Kuwait.

Instead, she was deported back to her country on Thursday morning after spending the night at the airport.

Joseph Al-Kosseifi, head of the Lebanese Press Editors’ Syndicate, told Arab News: “We are against obstructing the work of any journalist in Lebanon — whether Lebanese or visiting from abroad.

“What happened requires clarification. Some claim that Al-Saeed was prevented from entering Lebanon due to an Israeli stamp on her passport, while others argue that her bold stance against Hezbollah was the reason...."

Ya Libnan also blamed Hezbollah:

One analyst who did not want to be named for fear on his life told Ya Libnan, "There is always a Hezbollah official at the airport who decides if a person can enter Lebanon or not , because the General Security is controlled by Hezbollah."

Hezbollah itself (via Al Akhbar) claimed that the reason she was barred was because there was an Israeli stamp on her passport.

But Fajer Al-Saeed herself said that was a lie - she has visited the West Bank more than once at the invitation of the PA, but she doesn't have an Israeli stamp. Which is almost certainly true since Israel doesn't generally stamp passports but inserts a piece of paper to allow visitors avoid exactly these sorts of situations.

Al Saeed has also been a guest on Israeli social media and has publicly called for peace between Arab states and Israel.

So there were plenty of reasons that Hezbollah would not want Al-Saeed to enter the country. And apparently they make the real decisions in some aspects of Lebanese life.

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Latest EoZ memes, posters, &c. making fun of the anti-Israel idiots

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06/11 Links: The EU must stop supporting anti-Israel efforts; Ten ways to ‘work on’ ending the pay-for-slay; PA holds military funeral for terrorist who was also PA officer

From Ian:

Israel acts as UN poised to keep anti-Zionism out of antisemitism definition

Israel is working to thwart an initiative at the United Nations that would not define anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism.

The initiative was proposed by UN High-Representative for the Alliance of Civilizations Miguel Moratinos, former foreign minister of Spain, who had earlier been appointed the organization's point man on Jew-hatred.

Moratinos was tasked with enhancing a system-wide response, a plan for which he is scheduled to present in Córdoba in about two weeks. However, contrary to Israel's requests, he advocates for the adoption of a more lenient term for antisemitism, which, as mentioned above, would not equate anti-Zionism with Jew-hatred.

Under the IHRA definition of antisemitism, which Israel is trying to get the UN to adopt, any attempt to deny the Jewish people their right to sovereignty is considered antisemitism. The definition has been accepted by several European countries, including Britain and Germany, and other EU bodies, as well as the United States State Department.

Israel's Ambassador to the UN Gilad Erdan met with Mortinos when the former began his term. At the time, Mortinoc made it seem that he would promote the more accepted version of the definition, however, two years later, his plans have changed, and he has refrained from consulting with Israel and is promoting his plan unilaterally.

The EU must stop supporting anti-Israel efforts

We are currently in the 30th year since the signing of the Declaration of Principles on Interim Self-Government Arrangements which formally began the Oslo Process.

These accords were supported and witnessed by many international actors, including the European Union.

Over the years, the Oslo Accords were used against Israel on countless occasions, whether to voice anger over the building of Israeli communities in Area C, something permitted under Oslo, or when Israel demolished illegal Palestinian buildings in the same area, also allowed under the Accords.

Prominent members of the international community constantly rail against Israel for all manner of mostly imagined infractions under the guise of not acting according to its commitments in signed agreements.

Nonetheless, this only appears to be one-way criticism. The Palestinian Authority is rarely criticized for its daily infractions of the Oslo Accords, in spirit and in deed.

Most significantly, one would be hard-pressed to show how the Palestinian position hasn’t regressed and hardened over the last three decades and an end to the conflict is more elusive than ever.

Most Israelis know that the Oslo Accords have been a resounding disaster for Israel. It did not stop the terrorism, nor did it bring the sides closer to peace.

Despite the early optimism which turned sour with unending terrorism and bloodshed, the massive unrequited compromises, the generous peace offers and the disengagement from major swathes of territory, while there is little enthusiasm for Oslo across the Israeli political spectrum, the Jewish State continues to play by the Oslo rules.

Remarkably, the Palestinians’ regular disregard for the Oslo rules has been backed and even buttressed by much of the international community, chiefly the European Union.

Ten ways to ‘work on’ ending the pay-for-slay

No matter how many times the PA-controlled news media slander the United States, no matter how many times PA officials accuse the US of orchestrating the 9/11 attacks or poisoning Arab children, the Biden administration continues to embrace and praise the PA – and pay its bills.

That’s how the administration gets around the Taylor Force Act’s ban on US aid to the PA – the American money goes through non-governmental channels to pay various expenses that the PA would otherwise have to pay. By the end of 2022, Biden had sent the Palestinian Arabs close to $1 billion in this manner.

CLEARLY, THIS approach hasn’t persuaded the PA to end pay-for-slay, as Assistant Secretary Leaf acknowledged. So maybe the administration needs some new ideas. Here are ten: The ten methods

Stop paying the PA’s expenses. Let them pay their own bills.

Suspend US assistance to the Palestinian security forces – and publish a list of the names of the many Palestinian security forces members who have taken part in terrorist attacks.

Publish a list of the names of the imprisoned terrorists and dead terrorists’ families who are receiving PA funds, including the exact amounts they are receiving each month.

Halt all meetings between US representatives and PA officials, including the office of the Special Representative for Palestinian Affairs.

Issue a public warning to American tourists that visiting PA-controlled territory is dangerous, since the PA government finances terrorists.

Offer financial rewards for the capture of fugitive Palestinian Arab terrorists who were involved in the murders of American citizens. Currently the Justice Department’s Rewards for Justice Program offers such rewards in only three of those cases, even though there are many dozens – perhaps hundreds – of such terrorists at large. Order the Justice Department’s Office of Justice for Victims of Overseas Terrorism to publish quarterly reports on the whereabouts of Palestinian killers of Americans and what the US is doing to apprehend them.

Organize a major conference in Washington, featuring Israelis and Americans who were wounded by Palestinian Arab terrorists, or whose loved ones were murdered in terrorist attacks.

Sponsor public memorial events honoring American victims of Palestinian Arab terrorism.

Instruct the Justice Department to actively support legal efforts by terror victims’ families to seek compensation from the PA.

Considering the bowing-and-scraping tenor of US policy toward the Palestinian Authority in recent years, undertaking even one of these steps would provide quite a shock to the system. Try a few of them, and the PA might even be convinced to end pay-for-slay.

There was a heinous crime in Gaza this weekend.

A two and a half year old child, Mustafa Nahed Muhammad Saqr, was drowned in a barrel of water.

His stepmother admitted to the murder. She was jealous that she couldn't have children of her own so she decided to murder her husband's child to avoid that feeling of shame. It was a twist on honor killing.

There were reports in Gaza media on Friday when it appeared to be an accidental drowning, but now that the mother has confessed, instead of showing more interest in the story, Palestinian media has become mostly silent. I only saw this mentioned in a couple of relatively independent but obscure sites.

Which makes this a double honor crime - one the murder itself, and the other by Palestinian media not wanting to cover a horrific murder because it makes them look bad, and it detracts from the narrative that Israel is the only source of evil in the region.

As of this writing, Defence for Children International Palestine has not mentioned this murder. Chances are they won't. Because they aren't trying to defend Palestinian children's lives - their entire purpose is to demonize Israel.

Western media showed intense interest in the accidental killing of Mohammed Tamimi, who was about the same age as Mustafa when he died last week. Social media erupted with memes and photos of the child, alive and dead. But only the most extreme anti-Israel activists accused Israel of deliberate murder.

Here we have a deliberate murder of a Palestinian child, and Western media will shun the story, a week after they eagerly embraced a story of a Palestinian child tragically but mistakenly killed by Israel.

By any objective standard, the murder of Mustafa is a much more important story.

But there are no objective standards when it comes to media coverage of Palestinians.

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A new survey of Jordanians by the Washington Institute reveals that Jordanian hate for Israel reaches the level of self-harm.

The Washington Institute’s Program on Arab Politics/Fikra Forum regularly surveys the Arab world. Its latest poll shows that Jordanians remain implacably anti-Israel and would rather Jordan suffer than allow even the most beneficial ties with the hated Jewish state.

84% of Jordanians across all age groups are opposed to having business deals with Israeli companies even if it would help their economy.

Previous polls do not seem to have asked similar questions in quite the same way; in 2020 89% disagreed that "people who want to have business or sports contacts with Israelis should be allowed to do so." But that question was worded that the only person to lose out would be the would-be businessperson; here they were asked if they themselves would prefer to have a worse economy rather than allowing business deals with Israeli (meaning Jewish-owned Israeli) companies.

The psychosis gets even worse in the answer to the question of whether, in case of a natural disaster like an earthquake, Arab countries should refuse aid from Israel. 76% agreed with that statement, meaning that they are willing to sacrifice their own or other Arab lives rather than even see Israelis helping them.

This is beyond spite. With spite, there is at least the concept that one's pain is worth the satisfaction of hurting the other party. But refusing aid does not hurt Israel in the least - the only victims are the refusers themselves.

This cannot be explained by standard psychological descriptions of racism or hate. Very few racists would walk out of the hospital when they see the doctor about to treat them is of another race. In that case, self-preservation would trump racism; for Jordanians the hate overcomes the bigotry. How can that be?

As with much else in the Middle East, it can be explained by another framework: that of the honor/shame mentality. To allow themselves to be helped by the hated Israelis - again, exclusively meaning Israeli Jews - would be an affront to the Arab honor, because it means that the Jews can provide something they cannot provide adequately themselves. Accepting aid from people they consider inferior dhimmis is shameful, and that shame is more powerful than physical health, or economic gains, or human life itself.

This is a fundamentally different type of antisemitic mindset than the ones we are familiar with in the Western world. And it is one that is barely dealt with in psychological texts, which often try to lump all kinds of bigotry and racism into the same bucket.

The Jordanian response to this poll prove that Arab antisemitism, as expressed today, is different from that of traditional antisemites. Honor/shame is a powerful incentive that goes beyond the idea of self preservation. It cannot be combatted with outreach programs - it requires a fundamental change in the very way much of the Arab world thinks.

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He was released from Israeli prison last month. Now he's dead. And Palestinians killed him.

Khalil Mesbah Khalil Ahmed Musa was sentenced in 2003 to 20 years in prison for a terror attack.

He was a leader of the Al Aqsa Brigades in Jenin, and was convicted for shooting, setting explosive devices, and attempted murder.

His 20 year sentence ended in May, and he was released, to a large celebration with his fellow Fatah terrorists.

Now, a month later, justice was served - but in an unexpected way.

43-year old Khalil Musa was killed on Saturday during a family quarrel in Jenin.

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06/10 Links: ‘Pathological,’ Hillel Neuer says of UN efforts to discredit Israel; Dore Gold: 'Haaretz' columnist is a strange opponent to Israeli-Saudi peace

From Ian:

‘New heights of obsession’ in UN inquiry report, says NGO Monitor

A new report published by a commission of inquiry of the U.N. Human Rights Council is methodologically flawed and reflects “extreme ideological bias.” That’s according to the pro-Israel organization NGO Monitor.

NGO Monitor analyzed the 56-page report of the United Nations Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel.

The commission “has reached new heights of obsession,” stated Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor’s legal advisor and U.N. representative. The report “firmly demonstrates that its work is not that of a legitimate investigatory body but rather one engaged in producing disinformation.”

The report will “bolster BDS and marginalize Jews that speak out against terrorism and antisemitism,” she added.

Arsen Ostrovsky, CEO of the International Legal Form, described the report as “another obscene inversion of reality, without any factual or legal basis and where Israel’s guilt was fixed from the outset.”

This sort of “unhinged assault on Israel” has become the Human Rights Council’s status quo, according to Ostrovsky, who accused it of “unrelenting Jew-hatred” for its opposition to the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism.

Both Ostrovsky and Herzberg called for the commission of inquiry, which the Israel mission has called a “kangaroo court,” to be defunded.

‘Pathological,’ Hillel Neuer says of UN efforts to discredit Israel

Hillel Neuer’s most famous salvo is likely a 2017 speech in which the UN Watch executive director singled out several Arab countries before the United Nations Human Rights Council.

“Where are your Jews?” he asked each.

A recording on YouTube, which more than a million people have viewed, includes a 2018 speech in which Neuer answered his own question—that Jewish refugees from many Arab countries fled to Israel, the United States, Canada, France and others.

“These Jewish refugees from Arab lands—whose suffering and losses the U.N. has never addressed—put their hardship behind them and built great lives for their families,” he said. “Now, let us contrast this with the situation of those descended from Arab refugees, who fled the area of British Mandatory Palestine during the invasion of nascent Israel by Arab armies. What is holding them back?”

Again, Neuer answered his own question. Palestinians are the only population in the world “not eligible for services by the U.N. Refugee Agency,” he said. “Instead, these descendants are governed by UNRWA, which holds generation after generation trapped in refugee camps, denied integration in the Arab countries they were born in and denied resettlement elsewhere.” (UNRWA is the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.)

In a recent phone interview from Geneva, headquarters of the 30-year-old human-rights NGO, Neuer told JNS—as he approaches his 20th anniversary at the helm of UN Watch—that the nonprofit is a leading force against “the pathological discrimination and delegitimization of Israel” at the United Nations.

He and colleagues “give a voice to the voiceless, which is what the U.N. should be doing, living up to its charter,” he told JNS. “They should be spotlighting urgent human-rights violations that too often go ignored.”

Must watch, 4-minute masterclass by PM @netanyahu on Sky News, making the case for the Jewish people’s right to Judea & Samaria (‘West Bank’) and why Israel’s presence there is not an impediment to peace!pic.twitter.com/WpwDRGio2V
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) June 10, 2023

Dore Gold: 'Haaretz' columnist is a strange opponent to Israeli-Saudi peace

Haaretz featured an op-ed this week by one of its chief opinion writers, Rogel Alpher, provocatively titled “I oppose peace with Saudi Arabia.”

In the past, the author was well known for writing highly controversial pieces attacking the ideas of the Israeli mainstream, including the center-Left. Once talk of Israel concluding a peace treaty with Riyadh began to surface, as has been the case over the last year, Saudi Arabia became one of his new targets.

The main issue Saudi critics dealt with during that period were the allegations about the possible role of the Saudi Crown Prince Muhammad bin Salman (MBS) in authorizing the assassination of Saudi journalist and regime critic, Jamal Khashoggi, in Istanbul five years ago.

But Khashoggi was not even mentioned in the Haaretz piece. Neither was MBS. If Rogel Alpher was opposing an Israeli-Saudi peace, his position had nothing to do with this episode. What he did make clear, however, was that his considerations for the position he was taking primarily emanated from the impact of an Israeli-Saudi peace on Israeli domestic politics in the future, and its role in strengthening the present Israeli government.