Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 28, 2023

08/28 Links Pt1: The Deadly Militia "Spotters" of Jenin; IDF kills Palestinian kids without recourse, claims HRW; Libyan foreign minister fired after meeting with Israel, fleeing country

From Ian:

JCPA: The Deadly Militia "Spotters" of Jenin

In recent months, Palestinian militias in the West Bank have introduced improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and roadside bombs into their arsenal.

Palestinian spotters alert other units of the approach of an Israeli vehicle so ambushes can be set and roadside bombs triggered.

Palestinian Salim Awad showed CNN a 16-minute video of Israeli military vehicles in Jenin during the fighting in which Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh was killed.

The footage tells us that the spotter was filming and transmitting the location of Israeli armored vehicles.

A plausible answer to the question of Abu Akleh's death is that she stood between Israeli soldiers who believed they were in danger and spotter Salim Awad, filming their location and transmitting his video.

Daniel Greenfield: Biden’s Terror Funding Just Killed an Israeli Preschool Teacher

Batsheva’s murder, like that of the 74 terror victims killed under Biden, was paid for directly and indirectly through foreign aid to terrorists and sanctions relief on Iran’s terror regime. These policies were not undertaken in ignorance, the OFAC documents provide clear evidence that the Biden administration had been warned that it was funding terrorism and that people would die.

That’s why the number of Israelis continues to climb every year that Biden has been in office.

After 7 Israelis, including a 14-year-old boy, were killed in a Sabbath terrorist attack outside a synagogue in January 2023, Secretary of State Blinken met with Mahmoud Abbas and promised another $50 million to UNRWA which acts as the employment agency for Hamas. Earlier that same month, the Biden administration warned Israel to turn over $39 million in tax revenues to terrorists rather than providing that money to help terror victims rebuild their lives.

In August, with 4 Israelis already murdered, the Biden administration demanded that Republicans stop blocking $75 million in “humanitarian aid” to the UN agency. Sen. Jim Risch and Rep. Michael McCaul are determined to block that aid until Secretary of State Blinken certifies that UNRWA “is not affiliated with U.S. designated foreign terrorist organizations”. And yet the Biden administration can’t seem to even manage to clear that lowest of legal bars.

In Batsheva’s hometown of Efrat, which the Biden administration considers an “illegal settlement” despite being referenced numerous times in the bible, the children have lost a teacher and a friend.

The murdered preschool teacher had been on the way to “prepare the kindergarten for the start of the year.” A woman who worked with her described how “every time I entered the kindergarten, she welcomed me with a beaming smile that always accompanied her. The children were everything to her, she always hugged them and gave what she could to the children, the staff, the parents.”

Batsheva did not have to die. None of the 26 already killed this year did. The 3 dead in 2020 show what’s possible. The Biden administration is knowingly funding the murder of the innocent.

Bassam Tawil: How US Politicians Empower Anti-American Jihadists and Other Aggressors

When people such as Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for the Republican Party nomination in the 2024 US presidential election, call for decreasing aid to Israel, they are actually sending a message of support to the mullahs in Tehran and their proxies, Hamas and PIJ, as well as the Iran-funded Hezbollah terrorist militia in Lebanon and to nations that would like to see Israel and America "out of the way."

For Israel's enemies, statements such as "cutting aid" are a sign that America is about to throw Israel under the bus, paving the way for them to proceed with their plan to destroy Israel.

The timing of Ramaswamy's call for cutting US aid to Israel could not have been worse. It came at a time when Jews are being murdered by Palestinians on an almost weekly basis. The terrorists are waging their campaign of murder because they want to drive all Jews out of Israel. The terrorists are undoubtedly happy to hear a Republican candidate talk about decreasing aid to Israel. They are hoping Israel will be made weaker. With less US backing, it will be easier to destroy.

The terrorists and others have, even more, long been seeking to end US "hegemony" in the Middle East. They consider the US an enemy of Arabs and Muslims and dictators everyplace. Ending US aid to Israel would not just be the first step toward undermining Israel, it would also be the first step to ending US influence in the Middle East -- the way then US President Barack Obama's abandoned Syria -- the best gift the US could ever give to Iran, Russia, China, Turkey, Qatar, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Pakistan, Algeria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Somalia and on and on.

The terrorists who want to destroy Israel also want to destroy the United States -- for supporting exactly those freedoms both countries embrace, and which their detractors falsify as "biased."

"Instead of prioritizing social programs and economic development, the PA rewards and encourages this violence, spending more than $300 million a year incentivizing murder. This "pay to slay" policy, funded by the UN, EU, and many governments, rewards those who commit violence (including children) with cash payments. The greater the crime and the more victims injured or killed, the more money received. This campaign targeting children begins from birth and continues throughout childhood and the teenage years. It takes place through state media, schools (including those run by UNRWA), youth groups and centers, and sporting and cultural events in both the West Bank and Gaza." — NGO Monitor, March 1, 2023.

The US doesn’t write Israel a blank check. The strategic alliance between the two countries is mutually beneficial.

Let’s break it down… pic.twitter.com/PkSAILF2f2
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) August 27, 2023

The winners write the history books (Forest Rain) (update)

The winners write the history books

by Forest Rain

Ironically, a book that just might hold one of the most important messages of our time is least likely to be read.

“The Great Revolt” by Dr. Michael Ben Ari tells of one of the most dramatic times in Jewish history: the Jewish revolt against Rome that ultimately led to the destruction of the Second Temple (70 CE), exile, and the loss of the Jewish homeland until it’s reestablishment almost two thousand years later (1948).

This pivotal moment in history has been discussed by many people. Interestingly, the story is always told a certain way, from a very specific perspective.

Dr. Ben Ari tells the story differently and therein lies the importance of this book.

Standard discussions about the Great Revolt are based on the accounting of Josephus Flavius. The explanation of what led to the destruction of the Temple and the shattering of Jewish life, culture, and sovereignty is repeated without question, so much so that it has become a trope: “baseless hatred between brothers [between Jews] led to the destruction.”

Dr. Ben Ari, a historian with a Ph.D. in Land of Israel and Archaeology studies, a rabbi and teacher brings the perspective of the Jewish rebels while raising many questions about the “history” we thought we knew: Why did the Jews revolt against Rome? Did they not understand that they had no chance against the all-powerful empire? Why did the Romans feel it necessary to obliterate the culture of our tiny nation? Who were the rebels? Did baseless hatred cause the revolt to fail? Whose baseless hatred?

As I read the book, I felt horror growing inside me.

By bringing alternative historical sources Dr. Ben Ari tells a story of Jewish rebellion that most of us have never heard. Most importantly he explains the sources of rebellion and the connection between rebellion and sovereignty – a message of utmost importance and obvious parallels to current events in Israel (which echo in America as well).

The Nation of Israel is a nation divided. In ancient times there were those who wanted to belong to the greater empire, placing individual comfort over traditions that root us in this Land. Today we also have those who prefer individual comforts, wishing to be part of the “family of Nations,” unconcerned (or even feeling repelled) by the ancient and tribal traditions that make our family a Nation, separate and unique. Today, like the ancient story of the Revolt, we are receiving our “knowledge” about who we are as a People, our past, and even our future through the filter of other people who have a vested interest in fostering certain beliefs about who we are, what we are capable of and what we deserve.

Today, our People are divided between those who believe the media narrative and the stubborn rebels who do not. The ancient Jewish Revolt is taught through the perspective of Josephus, a Jewish military commander during the revolt who betrayed his People and joined forces with the Roman enemy to save his own skin. Is the fact that he detailed events extensively proof that he did so accurately? Does someone who turns on his own People not have a motive for recounting events in a way that makes his actions sound reasonable and right?

The winners write the history books. That doesn’t mean that they are written truthfully.

Dr. Michael Ben Ari investigates what we really know about the ancient Jewish rebels. Were they the hate-filled, irrational, violent bandits we are told they were? What if the truth is exactly the opposite? Perhaps the faith, courage, and collaboration of these heroes is the source of Jewish hope for 2000 years that the sovereignty we lost then can be regained.

Considering the Revolt from the perspective of the rebels it begins to become clear why it might be in the interest of foreign occupiers to make us believe that the Jewish warriors of old were twisted in their ideology and morality and as such, people that should not be emulated.

Dr. Michael Ben Ari is himself a rebel. It is no wonder that his heart would be drawn to our ancestors, the rebels of ancient times whose story remains untold at best, at worst – deliberately mistold. A soft-spoken man, Dr. Ben Ari was ejected from Israeli politics for extremist views. He considers himself a student of Rabbi Meir Kahane who advocated for Jews arming and defending themselves and expelling enemy Arabs from Israel. In the past, Dr. Ben Ari explained that despite everything that was said about him, his perspective is not one of hating Arabs but rather concern for Jewish survival.

Many people, including many Jews, are very uncomfortable with the idea of warrior Jews, capable of defending themselves and even vanquishing their enemies. It is easier to express horror at Jews who are too brash, aggressive, or quick to violence than to address the existential threat that drove them to conclude this was the best way to proceed. It is easier to assume fault than to question why people behave as they did or to discover what really happened.

There will be people who will not read “The Great Revolt” because it was written by a man labeled an “extremist”, ignoring the fact that he is a historian, teacher, and rabbi with knowledge that most of us do not have.

Unfortunately, this important book is written more like an academic thesis than the dramatic and compelling story it conveys. So much research and knowledge went into its making that it is hard for the average person (myself included) to absorb all the details. Most of us, particularly those who had little or no religious studies in our background are shockingly ignorant about the history of our own People.

The winners write the history books but it is up to us to uncover where the truth lies.
It is our action – or inaction – that determines who “wins”.

************************
This book was privately published and is not yet set up to be ordered online.
You can connect with the author via this Google form and indicate where you are from and what type of order you would like to make.

https://tinyurl.com/GreatRevolt

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!

The Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs is a quasi-governmental Jordanian organization, with many members who are also ministers of the Jordanian government, whose purpose is "working to raise awareness of the importance of the issue of Jerusalem and not to separate it from its Arab and Islamic dimension, expose the Judaization and daily Israeli violations it is subjected to, and increase efforts working to stabilize Jerusalemites, support their steadfastness and publicize their suffering."

It issues a multi-page daily bulletin on supposed Israeli "violations" of the city - like Jews strolling on the Temple Mount.

Its latest accusations are particularly ludicrous - and antisemitic.

As reported in the official Jordanian news agency Petra:

The Israeli occupation exploits many occasions and events as a climate to conduct Talmudic rituals, incursions and attacks against Islamic and Christian sanctities in Palestine, and Jerusalem in particular.

Abdullah Kanaan, Secretary-General of the Royal Committee for Jerusalem Affairs, says that the Israeli occupation is trying to take advantage of the month of August (Av) in a systematic and deliberate process, which includes Israeli measures to create an alleged history and culture through a dramatic industry that shows the Jews as victims to win the positions of the superpowers and sympathize with public opinion towards them.

He said to the Jordan News Agency (Petra) "The Jews claim that on Av 9, 586 BC, the alleged temple was destroyed, and the Jews were taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar, and that on Av 9, 70 AD, the alleged temple was destroyed again by Titus the Roman, and on August 8 1877 AD, the Jews established the first settlement north of Jaffa, and it was called Petah Tikva, and in August 1897 AD, the First Zionist Congress was held, which transformed Zionist thought into a political movement seeking to establish a national home for the Jews in historical Palestine."

He continues, “On August 21, 1969 AD, the Zionist Dennis Rohan burned parts of the Al-Qibli Mosque, and in August 1979 AD, an extremist group (Gush Emunim) planned to destroy the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, but it failed. On August 3, 2011 AD, the Knesset discussed the project to build a cable car to link the western and eastern parts of Jerusalem with the aim of changing the historical identity of the city and facilitating the transportation of settlers. to occupied cities."

And he goes on to say: "These are maliciously invented occasions to consolidate the legend of the Temple and the Promised Land."

He called for educating the world public opinion through all the media about the seriousness of the so-called sad month of Av for the Jews, and stressing that it is a Talmudic, political, settlement month that has nothing to do with historical facts that confirm the absence of the alleged temple or any archaeological evidence that supports Zionist myths in historical Palestine.

This committee, whose entire purpose is to deny any Jewish ties to Jerusalem, is respected and has been quoted by the UN.

Temple denial and the claim that there is no proof of the Temples is ludicrous and antisemitic. As I've mentioned before, the entire Temple Mount was built by Jews, in sections, from the time of the Biblical kings to the Hasmonean extensions to the Herodian extensions. These extensions with their differing characteristics can be seen from the Eastern Wall of the Mount.

The entire Temple Mount is proof of the Jewish Temples and Biblical history!

It is bad enough that Jordanian media spouts pure antisemitism every day. Just this past weekend one writer quoted 18th century antisemitic philosophers to "prove" that Jews are selfish, greedy, ugly, and their consciousness is that of animals.

But this is an official Jordanian organization, whose members are in the government, and which was established by the Jordanian royal family. They deny even Islamic sources that prove the deep connection of Jews to Jerusalem and the existence of the Temples, and Islamic tradition admits that the Dome of the Rock was purposely built on the site of the Temples in order replace them.

Their Jew-hatred runs so deep that they are willing to discard even their own historians.

Accusing Jews of inventing a new history for Jerusalem is a perfect example of Arab psychological projection.

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!

The US negotiations with Saudi Arabia over recognizing Israel looks more and more like using Israel as a pawn for a US-Saudi deal than anything that will have huge benefits for Israel.

The Saudis want from Washington a NATO-style defense pact and a civilian nuclear program. The Saudis want from Israel access to intelligence (which they probably already have indirectly), access to Israeli technology and investment opportunities there.

The US would get more leverage over the Saudis vis a vis their growing relationship with China, and for them not to abandon the US dollar as their currency. The US would prefer the Saudis be in their orbit than with BRICS (although normalization with Israel has not stopped the UAE from joining BRICS.) The Saudis would also give the US more military options in case of a war with Iran erupting.

While Israel would reap some benefits from normalization with Saudi Arabia, I don't think it adds up to much.

As I wrote on Twitter/X yesterday:

* There is already a cold peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and it is unlikely to get that much warmer with an agreement. The Saudis are not and are unlikely to become a military enemy of Israel.

* Israel can already sell things to the Saudis via the UAE if they want the products, with the exception of weapons and similar items. I'm sure that this trade already started a while ago.

* Saudi Arabia may be modernizing but it is still one of the most repressive, anti-human rights regimes on Earth. Anything bad they do will be used as ammunition against Israel.

* It isn't as if the Saudis would start suddenly voting against anti-Israel resolutions at the UN and dragging the rest of the Arab world with them.

* Only a small percentage of Saudis would visit Israel, and that would almost all be to Al Aqsa.

* Speaking of, the Saudis almost certainly want influence over the Temple Mount to add to their control of the top two Sunni Islamic holy sites. This could adversely affect Israel's relations with Jordan.

* If Iran started a war in the region that threatened the Saudis, Israel would help them out regardless. Covertly, but certainly.

* Joint projects and investments would be nice, but they would benefit the Saudis more than the Israelis.

The Abraham Accords was a game-changer. It broke the united Arab front against Israel. It gave Israel an economic and political foothold in the Gulf, bolstered by Bahrain.

What more would a Saudi deal give to Israel? I don't see huge advantages for Israel, especially when the US is dangling the Saudis as a means to restrict Israeli actions.

Not that there are no advantages t Israel at all - of course there are. It would be very nice if the Israeli and Saudi air force could cooperate and practice together, and engage in war games against an Iranian threat. Normalization would solidify the idea that there is no going back in the Arab world to the days when Israel was a pariah. Open trade would benefit both parties. But these are nice-to-haves, not must-haves.

The US is taking it for granted that the Israelis are salivating over a deal. President Herzog said to Congress that Israel prays for such a deal. But I simply don't see what Israel would get from it that they aren't getting now, or wouldn't get in case of an emergency.

Both the Saudis and the Americans are negotiating with the idea that Israel needs no prodding to join any deal. Israel needs to signal that it expects some additional concrete benefits, from both Washington and Riyadh, to join in. Because as of now, it looks like the Americans and Saudis would gain more from such a deal than Israel would.

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!

Gladys Kravitz, Jewish heroine of "Bewitched"

Last year, I wrote a short essay on the Jewish themes of the classic "Bewitched" sitcom.

But there is one character in Bewitched that I omitted, and she was the most recognizable Jewish character on the show. I'm referring, of course, to neighbor Gladys Kravitz (nee Gruber), who lives with her long suffering husband Abner.

The character was played by two actresses, Alice Pearce and Sandra Gould. (Pearce had clearly "Jewish" facial features but was not Jewish; Gould was.) Kravitz was the butt of jokes on the show as the nosy neighbor who would get hysterical when she witnessed the magical goings-on at her neighbor Samantha Stevens' house, but she was never able to prove it to anyone else.

Her husband Abner had recently retired and was not interested in anything she saw, and belittled her in a way that was not unusual between couples for sitcoms of the era. However, they loved each other in their own way, although not with the public displays of affection that Samantha and Darrin would display.

But what made Gladys perhaps the most Jewish character in 1960s sitcoms was not her name or her stereotypical whiny voice.

It was that even though no one else could see it, and they all thought she was crazy, she was telling the truth. And she never stopped telling the truth even though she knew that she would be insulted, mocked and marginalized for it.

There is an old expression: "It's not paranoia if they're really out to get you." In many ways this is a Jewish motto, but it applies to Gladys Kravitz as well. She is a truth-teller in a world of both lies and those who don't want to believe the truth because it is too uncomfortable.

Gladys Kravitz is, in a way, a type of Biblical Jewish prophetess who warns others of what the reality is.

There have been other Jewish characters on TV who are the only seemingly sane people surrounded by kooks, with no one around to back them up and no friends who believe them - Joel Fleischman in the initial seasons of Northern Exposure, and Josh Segal in the hilarious Trial and Error. In those shows, the Jews are the straight men for the jokes while Gladys is the comic foil in Bewitched, but the concept is roughly the same - the Jew who has to navigate a strange world while trying to maintain their sanity.

Telling the truth in a world of lies is a lonely task. So I salute Gladys Kravitz, the sometimes shrill but usually accurate witness who tenaciously reports the truth to a world that is increasingly willing to believe lies.

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!

08/27 Links: Israelophobia is the one hatred that polite society embraces; Israeli and Libyan FMs talk normalization; Palestinian: ‘our parents always trusted Israeli leaders more than our own’

From Ian:

The EU Usurps Power from Democracies and Bestows It Upon Itself

This is Part 5 of a 10-part series exposing the underreported joint European and Palestinian program to bypass international law and establish a de facto Palestinian state on Israeli land.

While the European Union Parliament is generally considered a great seat of power, in fact, as a member, James Carver did not have the ability to initiate legislation.

He explains that it is actually the purview of the EU Commission to initiate laws, which only then go before Parliament, where they are chewed over by the different political groups until a consensus is reached.

Unlike parliamentarians, who are elected by individual states, the commissioners are appointed. As such, their loyalty lies with the EU over its member states.

An ideologically driven entity that arrogantly revels in the belief that it has the moral right to usurp power from democracies and bestow it upon itself, passing legislation that overrides national laws, the EU has swallowed the Palestinian narrative hook, line and sinker.

And, according to Carver, the Palestinian lobby is more successful than it is given credit for. Noisy and well-organized, its members are vociferous compared to the far calmer and more reflective Israeli advocates.

Attempted legal action against the EU on the basis of its undermining of the Oslo Accords is met with the claim that its funding for the Palestinian Authority merely amounts to “humanitarian aid” and that the EU has full “diplomatic immunity.”

But Carver argues that this defense is invalid because the Vienna Convention stipulates that diplomats may only be granted immunity if they do not interfere in the internal affairs of the state, which the EU is actively doing by seizing land that is universally recognized as being under Israeli jurisdiction. By hiding behind its credentials, the EU is also disregarding the principle of non-intervention, a foundational element of the UN charter.

The Europeans appear to want it both ways, on the one hand paying lip service to the Oslo Accords to criticize Israel, while on the other hand actively helping the PA ignore the terms of Oslo.

The discord between behavior and proclaimed intention renders any commitment to peace groundless. And the irony of the Europeans peddling ad nauseam condemnation of Israel for its expropriation of Palestinian land when they themselves are helping the Palestinians expropriate land is lost on the public at large.

Jake Wallis Simons: Israelophobia is the one hatred that polite society embraces

What’s with Israelophobia? From one point of view, the Jewish state shouldn’t matter very much. Accounting for just a quarter of 1 per cent of the Middle East, its area is the size of Wales, with a population the size of London.

Despite all the controversies, it is the only liberal democracy in the region. It’s not particularly violent; in its 75-year history, its conflicts with the Arab world have claimed 86,000 lives. The 2003 Iraq invasion killed 600,000 people in three years.

It is not a bad place to live. Its health system is excellent, its economy thriving. It is ranked above Britain and the United States for freedom of expression and, according to the UN, is the fourth happiest country in the world, behind only Finland, Denmark and Iceland.

Yet there is not one Israel but two. As the American novelist Saul Bellow observed, the Israel of facts is “territorially insignificant”. The second, however, is “as broad as all history and perhaps as deep as sleep”. This is where the fever-dream of Israelophobia takes hold.

However secular Western society becomes, it remains steeped in Christianity. The Bible elevated the Jewish land to the Holy Land, the Jewish city to the Holy City and a Jewish prophet to the Son of God; yet the Chosen People were blamed for killing Christ. This fetishisation and demonisation of Jews lies at the very foundation of our civilisation.

In the Middle Ages, Jews were accused of murdering Christian children to drink their blood; last month, a BBC presenter was forced to apologise after remarking that Israel was “happy to kill children”. As the novelist Howard Jacobson put it, Israelophobia is “the old hatred decanted into new bottles”.

Like the anti-Semitism of previous centuries, the bigotry is based on conspiracy theories and falsehoods. Israel is accused of pulling the strings of politicians, finance and the media.

The country is labelled “white supremacist”, despite being at least 60 per cent non-white. It is blamed for “genocide”, even though the Palestinian population has grown five-fold since its birth. There are no concentration camps or execution pits in the Jewish state.

It is accused of “apartheid” when its national football team contains more Arabs than Jews. Although it is the Middle East’s only democracy – the only country in the region to protect the rights of women and minorities – it is routinely compared to the Nazis.

Kylie Moore-Gilbert: Iran Will Keep Taking Hostages If the Money Keeps Flowing

Six billion dollars is an awfully large amount of money. It could cover a hell of a lot of arms shipped to Hezbollah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and Ansarullah. It could cover the salaries of thousands of Basij and IRGC militiamen, with additional bonuses for torturing, raping, and beating protesters. And it could keep the children of regime officials in overseas property and luxury goods for many lifetimes.

Cash-for-hostages deals encourage regimes like Iran’s to view innocent human lives as commodities that can be bought and traded for profit. Over the decades, the Islamic Republic has refined its hostage-taking business model into an extortion racket that is one of its most powerful foreign-policy levers. As long as countries like the United States are willing to acquiesce to its insatiable demands for ever-increasing sums of ransom, we can expect Iran to commodify a seemingly endless supply of hostages.

International cooperation is clearly necessary if Iran’s behaviour is to be curtailed in any systematic way. The Islamic Republic now targets the citizens of a wide array of Western nations; our governments should be on the same page as to how to respond when a citizen is taken, so that the approach of one country does not inadvertently undermine another’s. But even in the absence of such a multilateral accord, the United States can adopt a much stronger response than it has done.

Financial payments, regardless of where the funds come from, provide an incentive for hostage-taking, and as such they are fundamentally at odds with the U.S. government’s responsibility to ensure the security of its citizens. They are also a slap in the face to the brave people of Iran, many of whom are in the streets, risking their life to denounce the regime in the name of freedom, democracy, and gender equality—values that America professes to hold dear. The U.S. government should be no less steadfast in refusing to pay state-backed hostage-takers like the IRGC (a proscribed terrorist organisation) than it is when the Islamic State (also a proscribed terrorist organisation) or another non-state actor captures an American.

The U.S. government needs to understand that Iran’s regime views conciliatory measures, such as declining to enforce sanctions, not as friendly gestures to smooth the path to negotiation, but as signals of weakness. Instead the United States should come up with a firm, punitive response to any further Iranian hostage-taking and announce this policy publicly, leaving the Islamic Republic no doubt as to America’s determination to follow through. Punishing and wide-ranging sanctions should be on the table, as should a crackdown on assets and visas for the family members of top regime officials, many thousands of whom live or study in the West. Such an approach could be modeled on the successful campaign targeting Russia’s oligarchs that followed the invasion of Ukraine. The United States should also press allied countries to follow its lead in listing the IRGC as a terrorist organisation.

What does it mean to be "pro-Palestinian?"

To most people who define themselves that way, it means to be anti-Israel.

Even though NGOs spend tens of millions of dollars in their anti-Israel efforts, writing yet another report finding yet another way Israel is supposedly the worst abuser in the world doesn't help Palestinians one bit.

Google just announced an initiative that will help more Palestinians improve their lives than anything Human Rights Watch, Amnesty, B'Tselem, the UN and the EU does - combined.

Apply to Palestine Launchpad with Google
Future-proof your skills for the digital economy

In our dynamic world, time and technology are vital. The digital and gig economies transcend borders, leveling opportunities for talent and ideas. The Palestine Launchpad with Google equips you with the skills, knowledge, and network to enter the global tech talent pool and become a top earner.

• Fully funded scholarship for a Nanodegree Programme
• Line-by-line code review with personalised project feedback
• Flexible self-paced learning schedule
• Live virtual sessions with top-tier mentors
• Career workshops (resume building, interview preparations, etc.)
• Exposure to freelancing and career growth opportunities
• Networking with local and international employers

💻 Become a Web Developer
🤖 Become an AI Engineer
📊 Become a Data Analyst

You are eligible for this programme if you are

• Currently residing in Palestine
• Looking to be part of tomorrow’s tech-powered economy
• Recently graduated from a computer science related field (or are in your final years of study)
• Want to upskill, reskill, or specialise in the various fields shaping this economy, this programme is your springboard.

They are offering free scholarships for 6,000 Palestinians to learn cutting edge skills where they can make money working for companies worldwide without leaving home.

I have been mystified that the EU and USAID have not prioritized this sort of training - training that would actually help Palestinians more than their other initiatives. The average Palestinian salary is now about $20,000 a year - imagine the impact from thousands making Western high tech salaries quintuple that.

The supreme irony is that while Google is doing more to help Palestinians than any other organization in the world, it is being targeted by BDS because it also does work with Israel.

We've shown that BDS actually opposed Cisco doing a similar program to promote high tech jobs among Palestinians.

Israel doesn't mind Palestinians getting high paid tech jobs. But "pro-Palestinian activists" do!

Which again goes to prove that the anti-Israel crowd really doesn't give a damn about helping Palestinians.

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!

Teaching Israel to children, "warts and all"? No! Teaching the truth? Yes!

Haaretz writes:

It’s hard to get Diaspora Jewish schoolchildren to love Israel when most of what they hear about the country outside the comfort of their Sunday school classes tends to spark a mix of discomfort and shame.

Indeed, what is a kid being raised in a progressive Jewish home – as many are – supposed to feel about a place that is often compared to apartheid South Africa and is now being run by a governing coalition of racist, misogynist and homophobic parties?

The dissonance between what these Jewish kids are taught about Israel in their supplementary religious school classes and what they discover when they start doing some research on their own, or simply watching the news, goes a long way toward explaining the growing disillusionment of young Diaspora Jews with Zionism.

For Rabbi Lawrence Englander, a prominent Reform educator from Canada, the conclusion is clear: If the goal is to prevent these disillusioned kids from cutting themselves off entirely from Israel, then the way Israel is taught needs to be changed radically.

“If you want kids to love Israel, then they’re going to unlove it as soon as they learn what’s going on there,” says Englander, a former chairman of the international Reform movement’s political branch, Arzenu. “So we need to stop talking about getting them to love Israel. Instead, our goal needs to be deep engagement – which means teaching them about Israel, warts-and-all.”

A brand-new program Englander helped create for teaching school-age children about Israel and encouraging “critical thinking” about the country, as he terms it, was introduced in several Jewish supplementary schools in Canada this past year on a pilot basis.

It will have its official launch in the upcoming school year in supplementary religious schools run by the Reform movement across Canada.

“To my knowledge, this is a unique effort in Jewish education,” says Englander. “We strongly feel that this curriculum will produce a sea change for younger generations on how they relate to Israel – a crucial need in Jewish life today.”

The lesson plans that were used in the pilot program will be presented at a special three-day conference scheduled for early next week in Toronto, which will be attended by some 40 teachers and educators from across Canada. Englander hopes many of them will choose to incorporate the new curriculum at their schools.

“I’ve been long concerned about what was being taught or probably not taught in our Reform religious schools,” says Englander, the founding rabbi of the Solel Reform congregation in Toronto. “It seemed to me that a lot of what our kids are being taught is very superficial, a kind of ‘Israel Disneyland’ sort of thing, and many of the teachers don’t feel competent or confident teaching about Israel because of everything going on there.”

Englander gathered together a group of educators with the goal of creating a new curriculum from scratch – one he says is based more on encouraging questions rather than providing answers, “because there’s not going to be just one answer to many of the questions these kids have.”

The team that created the lesson plan was headed by Dr. Lesley Litman, a Jewish curriculum expert from Hebrew Union College who also consults for the iCenter in Chicago – an institution dedicated to improving Israel education programs.

“What makes this curriculum unique is that it is geared toward much younger children and is inquiry-based,” she says. “In other words, we’re not coming to these children with answers, but rather, trying to open Israel to them and let them engage with it from the world they know.”

I cannot critique the curriculum because I haven't seen it, and from looking at materials at Arza Canada as well as the iCenter mentioned here, it looks like the people involved are competent educators and want to get kids to love Israel. It is possible (and even likely) that Haaretz is misrepresenting the effort.

I hope I'm wrong, but I fear that this initiative is missing the boat.

The fear is real: kids who learn a "Disneyland" version of Israel go to college and they are not equipped to respond to the hate that they see. Then they get disillusioned about how they were not taught the truth and they reject everything they thought they knew. The Israel haters are excellent at pulling the emotional strings to generate this whiplash and to turn teens who thought they knew Israel into anti-Zionists.

Certainly, there are multiple narratives about Israel, and it is important for Israel education to teach the major ones, even the anti-Israel ones. But they should not be taught as if each narrative has equal weight and value.

The curriculum must have a mature, accurate viewpoint about Israel that is meant to get kids to love Israel and its people - and then it should teach the other narratives in a critical manner.

Just like kids must be taught morality yet also taught why immoral ideas are bad, Jewish kids must be taught that Israel is a central part of their belief system, that its rebirth was miraculous, and that there are still antisemites out there who have substituted Israel for Jews as the object of their lies.

Leaving kids with questions at the end of the day or the school year is not education. It is abdicating the responsibility of educators.

The most important thing that Jewish schools, Reform or Orthodox, must do is to equip their teachers with the information they need. As the article says, "many of the teachers don’t feel competent or confident teaching about Israel" - it is obvious that those teachers must be educated before they teach children, not that they should teach children their own immature and ambiguous viewpoints.

When teachers themselves are conflicted or don't strongly believe what they are teaching, the kids are not taught anything. First teach the teachers, and have competent Zionist educators answer their questions.

I once gave a lecture on how to answer the top 20 anti-Israel arguments. (I broke it up into separate posts here.) If Hebrew school teachers (or Jewish organization workers altogether) do not know everything in my lecture, how can they possibly teach kids enough to stand up for Israel when they confront the haters on campus (or, increasingly, high school)?

Educate the educators. If they aren't competent to confidently teach how to love Israel while countering the anti-Israel arguments, they aren't competent to teach about Israel.

Since the danger of not being able to respond to anti-Israel arguments on campus is the real fear here, then that skill is what must be taught before they arrive on campus.

Like it or not, Sunday school and afternoon Hebrew school programs are never going to be intensive enough to teach kids a comprehensive view of Israel and the Middle East. But they can teach enough on the specific topics that Israel haters use to counter their arguments.

This has far reaching effects that make the students improve in other important ways.

When teaching how to dismantle anti-Israel arguments, the kids will also be taught how to use primary research materials to find out what really happened in the first half of the 20th century. They will be be taught critical thinking skills to understand how anti-Israel propaganda works and how they could be manipulated, skills that translate to numerous real-world scenarios outside of Zionism. They can and must be taught how today's anti-Israel propaganda is a direct continuation of traditional antisemitic propaganda, and how they themselves are threatened by it today.

Teaching about Israel, "warts and all," is not the way to teach children to identify with and love Israel. What needs to be done is to teach children the beauty and importance of Israel - and then to teach the anti-Israel positions, but only in the context of refuting them.

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!

An example of 1941 Nazi antisemitism that has re-emerged today

In September 1941, AP reported on the latest Nazi war crime - and the excuse given for it

Herding Jews Into Chapel Of Cemetery

HANNOVER Germany, Sept 8 (AP)
German authorities began herding Hannover's Jews into the mortuary hall of the Jewish Cemetery here tonight following the mayor's order evicting them from their homes on 24 hour's notice.

Scores of men, women and children were conducted to this fastcrowding provisional abode. The eviction orders also provided for the sale of their property, the proceeds to be turned over to them "at a given time."

The orders cited, as one reason for the ousters, a book written by "The Jew Kaufman in New York," ("Germany Must Perish" by Theodore N. Kaufman) demanding "sterilization of all Germans and employment of German soldiers as coolies in foreign lands."

So because an obscure Jew wrote an anti-German book, all Jews must be punished. In the end, nearly all the Jews of Hanover were murdered.

The book itself was self-published by Kaufman, an advertising man. It received a little coverage because Kaufman sent copies to newspapers and magazines with a miniature coffin to drum up publicity. I can find no one who took the book seriously or praised it.

It was mentioned in Time magazine where Kaufman was dismissed as a nutjob who, in 1939, suggested that all Americans be sterilized "so that their children might not become homicidal monsters."

The book itself, more a pamphlet, does not mention the word "Jew" once. It was an obscure text by a publicity-seeker whose eugenics ideas were no more accepted in the West than those of the Nazis he opposed.

But today's Nazis are resurrecting the book - not mentioning that it was used as an excuse to murder Jews.

A scumbag named Keith Woods (who boasts 50,000 followers on Twitter as well as on Youtube) resurrected the Nazi propaganda for today's antisemites, blaming Jews for German suffering, just like the Nazis did.

Nearly a thousand people "liked" this incitement against Jews.

Antisemitism is alive and well, and Jew-haters are as open about it as they were in the 1930s.

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!

08/26 Links: Is it racist to prioritize freedom from terror?; U.S. Warns Israel Normalization with Saudis Must Include Palestinian Concessions

From Ian:

Jews need to protect themselves against modern antisemitism

IT IS our responsibility to accept reality. Anti-Israelism/antisemitism is not going away. This is not the fault of Israelis any more than it was the fault of Jews in the past. Nor is it the fault of Jews living in the US.

The current iteration of antisemitism, as anti-Israelism suggests, is that you can say “I’m a Jew but I don’t like Israel” and then you will not be harmed or discriminated against. But this is not the case.

None of the recent attackers of Jews have stopped to ask their victims about their views on Israel or anything else. Orthodox, Reform, and Conservative congregations have been vandalized and attacked. Jewish sports clubs have been attacked. Jewish grocery stores. Jewish-owned cafes. Jewish students and professors have been denigrated and treated unfairly.

Although there are more attacks against Jews than any other group, Jews are not the only ones experiencing violence. Clearly, there is an uptick in violence generally in the US, Canada, UK, and EU countries – places where Jews still live. People feel unsafe, especially in the big cities, and working with these like-minded people will help. Certainly, the vast majority of Americans are not promoters of violence; they, too, fear and are angry about rising chaos in the US.

And we must protect ourselves. Krav Maga, legal weapons training, and neighborhood watch are important. Every synagogue, Jewish school, and Jewish-owned business must have security. We cannot depend on police arriving in time or there being enough police to handle confrontations.

Of course, Israel is not always safe, either. But it is safer and more protected than big cities in the US. The major difference is that when Israel is attacked, the IDF can fight back, even if much of the world still seems to object to us Jews standing up for ourselves.

Jonathan Tobin: Is it racist to prioritize freedom from terror?

This is not an extreme position. Support in Israel for the checkpoints and security fence that helped to prevent terrorist attacks and essentially ended the horror of the Second Intifada in the early 2000s is a matter of national consensus. Actions taken by all governments to curtail terrorism inevitably involve some impingement if not abrogation of rights.

But in the case of the Jews who do live in Judea and Samaria, the position taken by most Palestinians and their foreign cheerleaders is that Jews have no right to be in the “West Bank” and are therefore legitimate targets for attacks, be they civilians or soldiers.

In most discussions of the situation in the territories, the onus is on the violence allegedly committed by Jews, coupled with the notion that the presence of Jews in Judea and Samaria is illegal. That is what the international community thinks, but that position is itself mistaken. Jews were guaranteed the right to live in the land that is now called the West Bank by the United Nations’ predecessor, the League of Nations, dating back to the 1920s and the San Remo agreement. No other country has a recognized legal title to the land and, at best, Palestinian ambitions for statehood make it disputed rather than “occupied.”

Even if you think it’s unwise for Israel to build communities in what is the heart of the ancient Jewish homeland, the idea that the hundreds of thousands of Jews who live there should be treated as legitimate targets for terrorism is both legally untenable and immoral.

Yet that is exactly the position that Palestinians assert.

It is demonstrated by celebrations held by Palestinians on the streets of their cities—handing candy to children to encourage them—as well as on social media every time there is a terrorist attack on Jews. Were terror against Jews not such a routine occurrence—and if they were treated as the act of deranged outliers by the Arabs—then measures like checkpoints or fences would be unnecessary. Yet not only are they commonplace, they are widely supported by the Palestinian street and financially rewarded by the Palestinian Authority.

So, when Ben-Gvir says that the right of Jews “to life” takes precedence over the right of Arabs to freedom of movement, he’s not making a theoretical racist statement. If Palestinians think that it’s open season on Jews—something clearly shown by the unending string of lethal terror attacks and the applause they generate—then the authorities are obligated to take measures that limit their ability to carry out those murders.

Whatever one may think about Ben-Gvir, he was doing no more than stating the obvious about an intolerable situation that is in no small measure responsible for the support he has among Israelis. At stake in this debate is not the right of Palestinians to freedom of movement or even the right of Jews to settle in Judea and Samaria. Rather, it is whether there is a right to commit terrorism against Jews.

Unless you support such an immoral “right” (and those who believe Palestinians are justified in murdering Jews who have the temerity to live in the one Jewish state on the planet do just that), then what Ben-Gvir said is not only not racist, it’s entirely reasonable. More than that, it’s also not a question of him being, in the State Department’s words, “inflammatory,” he’s actually shining a light on an issue that can’t be ignored. While Ben-Gvir’s presence in the government and the things he says are always bound to be controversial, it is imperative that this debate not be about him, but instead, about the belief of Israel’s enemies that every Jew on either side of the “Green Line” is fair game.

History Warns Us of the Dangers of Unintended Consequences

Soon after the fire subsided, Nero dispatched his good friend Gessius Florus to be the procurator in Judaea, so that he could raise money to rebuild Rome. According to Josephus, “this Florus was so wicked and so violent in the use of his authority,” that the Jews of Judaea yearned for his predecessor, Lucceius Albinus, whose rule had itself been marred by problems and difficulties.

Florus’ unrepressed hostility to Jews and the Jewish faith, and his unquenchable thirst for money by any means at his disposal, soon raised tensions, which then escalated to a fever pitch when Florus helped himself to 17 talents of gold from the Temple treasury — equivalent to $28,500,000 in today’s value.

The local population began to publicly disparage the procurator, which prompted him to have Jewish leaders arrested and publicly crucified. This only inflamed tensions further, and a rebellion erupted. Within days, insurgents had overrun the main Roman garrison in Jerusalem, prompting the pro-Roman Jewish king Herod Agrippa II and Roman officials to flee.

Cestius Gallus, the Syrian legate, decided to intervene, and sent in the Syrian Legion XII Fulminata, together with auxiliary forces. Although they initially captured Jaffa, the Roman army ultimately suffered a major defeat at the Battle of Beth Horon, where 6,000 Romans were killed and the Legion’s prized eagle standard was lost.

By this time, Jerusalem was totally under the control of extremist rebels, who battened down the hatches and decided to fight Rome to the death. Things spiraled out of control, and Nero dispatched his best general, Vespasian, to crush the revolt.

The battle between Vespasian and his son Titus on one side, and fanatical Jewish militants on the other, endlessly accelerated until the Romans finally ransacked Jerusalem and obliterated the Temple, thereby relegating Judaea to the margins of relevance in the Roman Empire. Judaea was shattered, and the whole area would struggle economically as well as battle invaders of every color and stripe for almost two millennia, only reemerging from its depressed state with the establishment of the State of Israel in the 20th century.

What I learned from Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook was a tiny factoid that I’d previously missed, despite having intensively studied this era of history in general, and the Jewish Revolt in particular: that the destruction of Jerusalem came about as an indirect result of the Great Fire of Rome. Had Nero not sent Gessius Florus to milk money out of the citizens of Judaea, things might have turned out very differently.

As John Locke warned, “Beware the danger of unintended consequences.” The trajectory of life and history is unpredictably random, and the end results may be way off one’s initial expectations. Seemingly insignificant aspects of an event that may seem marginal at the time take center stage, and before you know it — you are somewhere you didn’t expect to be.

08/25 Links Pt2: The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion Threats to Legal Principles and Security; Social Media a ‘Megaphone’ for ‘Normalizing’ Antisemitism

From Ian:

The Pending Israel-Palestine ICJ Advisory Opinion Threats to Legal Principles and Security

The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is poised to eviscerate the longstanding “land for peace” legal framework for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which was established by UN Security Council (UNSC) resolutions and the Oslo Accords. It is the only framework for achieving peace that has been endorsed by Israel and all Arab League member States. Yet the ICJ—at the behest of the UN General Assembly (UNGA)—may soon advise that international law requires Israel to unilaterally and unconditionally withdraw from the disputed Palestinian territories.

Western interests in the case may appear limited to defending Israel, whose current government and policies regarding the territories are controversial. But the western allies in fact have their own additional fundamental national security interests at stake. Unless they take robust action in this case, the ICJ could not only eviscerate the sole agreed framework for achieving Israeli-Palestinian peace but also undercut the inherent rights of States to self-defense and sovereignty, undermine the UNSC’s authority to maintain international peace and security, and subvert the law of armed conflict (LOAC).

Threat to National Sovereignty
The pending ICJ advisory proceedings also threaten to expand upon the dangerous precedent, set by the Wall opinion, that the UNGA and ICJ can use advisory opinions to circumvent the sovereign right of nation States to determine whether to submit to the Court a particular dispute to which they are a party. The United States argued unsuccessfully in the Wall proceedings that for the ICJ to issue an advisory opinion over Israel’s objections would set a precedent threatening “the independence of States” and their ability to “retain sovereign control over whether to submit a dispute to which they are a party to the Court.” Those concerns remain valid, as do similar concerns expressed by Australia, Canada, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom.

Danger to UNSC Authority Regarding International Peace and Security
The pending proceedings also risk undermining the UNSC’s fundamental authority to maintain international peace and security. The UNGA plurality is seeking to use the ICJ to replace the UNSC’s “land for peace” framework with its preferred unconditional withdrawal framework.

Chapter VII of the UN Charter empowers the UNSC, not the UNGA, to “decide what measures shall be taken to maintain or restore international peace and security.” The UNGA does not have the authority to overrule the UNSC. But it is trying to do so indirectly, by pressuring the ICJ to opine that international law is contrary to the legal framework established by the UNSC. The predetermined conclusions in the December 30 resolution are designed to box the ICJ into declaring that the UNGA plurality’s preferred resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is required by international law.

Fortunately, an ICJ advisory opinion contrary to the “land for peace” framework cannot cancel the UNSC resolutions containing that formulation. But it may politically delegitimize the “land for peace” framework so as to largely negate its value for promoting international peace and security.

The United States and its allies who favor an effective UNSC should urge the ICJ to decline to hear the case, on the grounds that it undermines the UNSC. Washington and its allies made similar jurisdictional arguments in the Wall proceedings, albeit unsuccessfully. However, the UNGA questions relating to the “land for peace” framework are far more central to the UNSC’s mandate and authority than were the questions relating to the security wall.

Risk to LOAC’s Stability
Additionally, an ICJ opinion that Israel’s initially legal occupation has been rendered illegal by Israeli conduct during that occupation could destabilize LOAC by negating one of LOAC’s core principles.

The law of war includes two basic types of restrictions: jus ad bellum (addressing the legality of a State’s resort to force) and jus in bello (governing the conduct of armed conflict once it has commenced). A core LOAC principle is that a party’s compliance with or violation of the jus ad bellum is separate from its jus in bello compliance, and vice versa. For example, the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 1991 was clearly legal, including because it was authorized by UNSC Resolution 678. If U.S. troops violated LOAC during the conduct of that invasion or a resulting occupation of Iraq, such breaches would be unlawful but would not render illegal either the invasion or the resulting occupation. This separation of jus ad bellum from jus in bello provides crucial protection during armed conflict. It guarantees that the laws governing the conduct of armed conflict apply to all parties, regardless of the cause of the conflict.

The ICJ advisory opinion that the UNGA resolution is designed to elicit could severely undercut this core LOAC principle. If the ICJ decides that a jus in bello violation can alter the jus ad bellum analysis of the legality of an occupation, it will embolden warfighters arguing the inverse, namely that the justice of their cause, the jus ad bellum reason for their attack, exempts them from the jus in bello rules governing their conduct during the conflict.

Conclusion
The United States and its allies have a number of persuasive arguments they can and should make in the pending ICJ case. Indeed, they may have begun to make some of these arguments in their first round of written submissions.

The United States and its allies can and should urge the ICJ to determine it lacks jurisdiction over the case. They can also call upon the ICJ to exercise its discretionary power to decline to issue an advisory opinion even if determines it does have jurisdiction over the case.

The United States and its allies can also encourage the ICJ to use its authority, described by the Wall majority, to “broaden, interpret and even reformulate the questions put to it.” The ICJ used its authority to narrowly interpret a question posed to it by the General Assembly in its Kosovo advisory opinion, where it reportedly took such an approach in order to calm hostilities and facilitate future negotiations between Kosovo and Serbia.

Finally, the United States and its allies can and should also engage more substantively on the LOAC and other aspects of the case. In doing so, they will want to tread carefully, so as to avoid inadvertently encouraging the Court to address any of the underlying permanent status issues that are for the parties to resolve under the “land for peace” framework. But engage they must, in order to avert an ICJ advisory opinion that otherwise will undercut their own sovereignty and right of self-defense, undermine the UNSC’s authority to maintain international peace and security, subvert LOAC, and demolish the sole agreed formula for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

Social Media a ‘Megaphone’ for Hate Speech, ‘Normalizing’ Antisemitism, Nonprofit Chief Warns

Social media is acting as a “megaphone” for antisemitism and other forms of hate speech to thrive, with teenagers falling prey to lies and hatred on various online platforms, according to the head of a nonprofit group confronting Big Tech firms directly.

“Between [the ages of] 14 and 24, that’s this incredibly Lord of the Flies period in our development where we’re being socialized by peers,” Imran Ahmed, CEO of the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), told The Algemeiner in an interview this week. “And social media [tries] to tell us what our peers feel, but actually what they’re doing is giving a megaphone to hate and lies. The more that those lies are able to spread without consequences and pushback, the more these ideas become lethal.”

CCDH — which is currently being sued by X Corp, the parent company of the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, for its public criticism of the tech giant — released a new poll last week revealing 49 percent of Americans agree with at least four statements that promote common conspiracy theories related to white supremacy, antisemitism, vaccines, and climate change.

This belief in conspiracy theories was even more common among 13-17 year olds (60 percent), and higher among teenagers who are “heavy social media users” (69 percent) — meaning that they spend four or more hours a day on any single social media platform.

According to the poll, 43 percent of teens agreed with the statement, “Jewish people have a disproportionate amount of control over the media, politics, and the economy.” The number rose to 54 percent among teens who are heavy social media users. (h/t MtTB)

Holocaust survivor faces torrent of online abuse on Elon Musk’s X platform

Lucy Lipiner is no stranger to antisemitism. A 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, she was forced to live through one of the worst atrocities to ever take place in human history. Yet her lived experience still hasn’t prevented the torrent of antisemitic abuse that she, and all Jewish people, currently are experiencing on social media – in particular on Elon Musk’s “X” (formerly known as Twitter). This week was no exception.

Lipiner, who boasts just under 30,000 followers on the platform, says she regularly uses social media to engage and push back against the rising antisemitism that she is seeing. “I was appalled at the rise in antisemitism that seemed more blatant – less hidden than in the past and more like what we had seen before the war in Europe. … I felt, as a survivor, compelled to speak up,” she told Ynet.

And she has definitely spoken up. Lipiner regularly uses social media to call out Holocaust denial and revisionism, using her own personal story from Nazi-occupied Poland, as well as her own collection of family photos from the Holocaust, to share the truth.

From taking on former UFC fighter Jake Shields for spreading antisemitic conspiracies to calling out anti-feminist right-wing pundit Pearl Davis for her antisemitic song, to exposing the antisemitism in UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese’s tweets, Lipiner is extremely active in the conversation on the X platform.

Lipiner considers anti-Zionism a form of antisemitism.

“I also thought the rise of BDS was simply a veiled form of antisemitism in the guise of anti-Zionism, which increasingly felt like nothing less than today’s version of age-old hatred of Jews,” she said.

Trying a different AI art app....

AI art applications tend not to do exactly what you ask it to do. Getting the right prompts is almost...an art.

Shabbat shalom!

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!

Nazis put an academic face on Jew-hatred. Now their heirs have "The Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism."

The Nazis famously subverted academia by creating an entire new field of “Jewish research” (Judenforschung) where respected academics from various fields produced a corpus of academic papers to justify the Nazi policy of genocide of Jews. One early example of this perversion of academia is described in Studying the Jew: Scholarly Antisemitism inNazi Germany by Alan E. Steinweis:

Early in the [Nazi] regime, when the universities’ embrace of antisemitic Jewish studies still seemed tentative, Nazi supporters decided to fill the gap by creating their own free-standing Jewish studies institute. The main force behind this initiative was the historian Walter Frank. In 1935, with support from high-ranking Nazis such as Alfred Rosenberg and Rudolf Hess, Frank founded the Institute for History of the New Germany (Institut für Geschichte des neuen Deutschlands), the purpose of which was to infuse a National Socialist perspective into German historical scholarship. A short time later, this so-called Reich Institute established its special Research Department for the Jewish Question, based in Munich, and placed it under the direction of the historian Wilhelm Grau. ..Operating under the administrative protection of the Reich Education Ministry, during the second half of the 1930s the Research Department occupied a central position in the emerging field of Nazi Jewish studies. It sponsored research projects at universities, convened conferences that drew participants from a variety of academic disciplines, and published the conference proceedings in a scholarly yearbook, Forschungen zur Judenfrage (Research on the Jewish Question).

What's old is new again.

Modern heirs of Nazi antisemitism have just created their own pseudo-academic institution, the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism.

Don't be fooled by the phrase "critical study." It is just as intellectually dishonest as the Nazi academic studies of Jews were.

The Mondoweiss article "Why we created the Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism" proves that this institute is a masquerade for making antisemitism academically acceptable in its very first paragraph:

In recent years, the Israeli flag has increasingly appeared around the world alongside racial supremacist political messaging– for instance, at the January 6th riot in Washington D.C., Hindutva rallies in India, Nazi rallies in Europe, and, most potently, in anti-Palestinian pogroms in the West Bank. At this point, it could not be clearer that Zionism is a political ideology tightly enmeshed with racism, fascism, and colonial dispossession.

It doesn't take a graduate level logic course to understand that "racists embrace the Israeli flag" does not mean "Zionist are racist." That's like saying that KKK use of crosses prove all Christians are racists.

But the intent of this new "Institute for the Critical Study of Zionism" is not detached academic study of Zionism. It is purely political - and it is antisemitic.

The very first of the group's "Points of Unity" is an antisemitic lie: "Zionism is a settler colonial racial project. Like the US, Israel is a settler colonial state. The Institute opposes Zionism and colonialism."

Zionists don't define themselves this way. Only anti-Zionists do. "Critical studies" of a topic are impossible when you pre-determine the results of the studies. These are no "studies" at all - just compiling evidence, no matter how flimsy, on one side of the scale and ignoring any counter evidence.

Zionism is the self-determination movement of the Jewish people. It seeks the return of Jews to their ancestral lands. It is anti-colonialist. It is not racist. However, denying that Jews are a people with national rights - and labeling those Jews who assert those rights as being inherently racist - is indeed antisemitism.

Their political agenda and disinterest in objective studies is made clear in other "points of unity:" "Academic research is not politically or morally neutral....The Institute’s project is to support research from below, produced by a community led by people who are the targets of Zionist and state repression, with a research agenda determined in collaboration with communities resisting repression."

In other words, if you believe that Jews have rights - rights to a state, rights to self-defense, rights not to be murdered by Palestinian terrorists - you are not welcome in this space.

This is not "critical studies." It is anti-Zionist propaganda. And once you get past their name, they don't even pretend to hide it. To study Zionism, they demand that you reject Zionism and Jewish peoplehood as a prerequisite.

This section of the manifesto is most enlightening:

Studying Zionism through such a comprehensive [sic!] lens means, for instance, looking at the role of Zionist institutions in arenas beyond Palestine as well as the range of Jewish communities, organizations, and institutions where it is not as readily transparent.

These modern Jew-haters are embracing David Miller's paranoid concept of looking for, and magically finding, links between Jewish organizations and whatever they are hating today. It presupposes that Zionist Jews have a single, nefarious agenda, all controlled by a small group of Jews who secretly direct all these projects -and always with immoral aims.

The entire project is putting an academic face on pure hate. Its basic principles are based on bigotry and lies.

Antisemitism is becoming mainstream, and it is people like this who are in the forefront.

(h/t Andrew)

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!