12/08 Links: UNIFIL and the Hezbollah Tunnels; Bethany Mandel: Trump’s Hanukkah Party Reminded Me Why America Is Great For Jews; NYTs columnist defends anti-Zionism ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Elliott Abrams: UNIFIL and the Hezbollah Tunnels

UNIFIL is not supposed to be merely a means of communication, or the Security Council would have bought cell phones instead of paying for a military force. Moreover, there are no "appropriate authorities" in Lebanon or Hezbollah would never have been able to dig its tunnels.

The tunnels are hardly the only brazen Hezbollah violation of the Security Council resolutions undertaken right under UNIFIL's nose. Consider this: Hezbollah is blocking roads in southern Lebanon to smooth the path of missile it is moving into the area, according to a report in the newspaper Israel Hayom. Then there is the village of Gila, just north of the Israeli border, where there is a Hezbollah headquarters and according to the Israelis about 20 warehouses with weapons, combat positions, lookout positions, dozens of underground positions. All this was built in an area supposedly patrolled by UNIFIL.

What is to be done? As I wrote in a previous post about UNIFIL and its new commander,
Del Col should test the limits. That will make Hezbollah angry, but if Hezbollah isn’t vexed by UNIFIL's presence then we are all wasting a lot of money--$500 million a year is the UNIFIL budget—and effort supporting that organization and making believe that it is enforcing resolution 1701.

This is a test of UNIFIL and its new commander. "Communicating" to "appropriate authorities" is a euphemism for doing nothing at all. Hezbollah is preparing for war. UNIFIL is supposed to get in its way. If it cannot hinder Hezbollah's war preparations in any way and is even ignorant of them, UNIFIL is a waste of time and money.

In rain and mud, IDF exposes another tunnel from Lebanon into Israel

The Israeli military on Saturday located an additional cross-border attack tunnel from southern Lebanon into Israeli territory that it says was dug into the Hezbollah attack tunnel — the second it has fully exposed and the third it has identified since the start of its operation to find and destroy such underground passages.

This fresh tunnel, whose location has been kept secret for security reasons, has been fitted with explosives in order to ensure that it cannot be used by the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah, army spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus told reporters.

According to the spokesman, excavation of the tunnel was being conducted until recently.

“It’s a fresh tunnel,” he said.

The military did not offer additional details regarding the size of the tunnel.

Conricus said Saturday’s tunnel, as with the others identified by Israel until now, was “not yet operational and does not yet pose an imminent threat to the surrounding Israeli communities.”

IDF fires toward 3 suspected Hezbollah fighters who approach border

Israeli soldiers on Saturday opened fire at three suspected Hezbollah fighters on the Israeli-Lebanese border, the army said.

A military spokeswoman said the incident took place close to Yiftah, south of Metula, a town near which a tunnel from Lebanon was found.

The military said the three men attempted to approach an “area of technological work” in an enclave north of the security fence, as the IDF continues Operation Northern Shield to destroy Hezbollah attack tunnels dug under the border.

The army said it believed the three attempted to use the cover of stormy weather to approach the Israeli forces. Troops fired towards the three “in accordance with the standard operating procedures” and they fled the scene. “Work in the area continues as usual,” it said.

Lebanon’s official NNA news agency said Israeli forces fired shots in the air east of the village of Mays Al-Jabal after they were surprised because of heavy fog by a routine Lebanese army patrol.

Israel using ‘passive seismic’ technology to expose Hezbollah’s attack tunnels

The Israeli army on Friday revealed that it has been using “passive seismic” technology to locate the attack tunnels Hezbollah has been digging under the border into Israel.

The IDF this week launched an ongoing operation to locate and destroy the tunnels, and has so far announced that two have been identified. On Tuesday, it released footage from inside the first of the two, with alleged Hezbollah members still inside, and on Thursday asked UNIFIL, the UN force in Lebanon, to deal with the second.

The IDF’s Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot announced Tuesday that Israel has “in its possession” Hezbollah’s tunnel plans. Military sources have said Israel believes several other cross-border tunnels have yet to be exposed.

An officer in the IDF’s Engineering Corps, Col. Ziv Nimni, told Israel’s Hadashot TV news Friday that the IDF, aware for years of Hezbollah’s tunnel ambitions, utilizes “passive seismic technology” throughout the northern border area in order to locate the tunnels.

The technology enables the IDF to identify where tunnel drilling is taking place — not only in limited, specific areas, but throughout the Israel-Lebanon border area, he said.

The sensors in the ground relay information to sensors at the border fence, as well as to receptors in patrol vehicles along the border, Nimni added.

He said locating and dealing with the tunnels “could take weeks or longer,” but that the IDF was operating as quickly as possible.

Bethany Mandel: Trump’s Hanukkah Party Reminded Me Why America Is Great For Jews

Several weeks ago, the Forward hosted a symposium about being Jewish in America in the wake of the Pittsburgh massacre. If I’m being honest, some of the responses annoyed me; we aren’t living in 1930s Europe, or 1900s Poland, or 1490s Spain. There is no need to keep bags packed waiting for a pogrom; we live in the most welcoming country for diaspora Jews in history.

To be sure, things here aren’t perfect, for Jews or anyone else. There have been a rash of violent assaults on visibly Jewish residents of Brooklyn for months, leading to serious injuries in plainly anti-Semitic attacks. We can never forget what happened in Pittsburgh one fall Shabbat morning; the scars of the worst attack on Jews in American history will never totally heal.

But America distinguishes itself because our government — regardless of political party — as well as our media and our neighbors are, by and large, enormously welcoming of those of us of the Jewish faith.

Are there exceptions? Of course. But how many countries in world history, or even currently, would hold a party like the one I attended last night at the White House?

For the second year, President Donald Trump hosted a party for Jewish Americans at his home and place of work, the White House. I scored the invitation via a very kind friend, who asked, “Would you want to go to the White House Hanukkah reception?”

Never having been to the White House, I eagerly accepted, just as I would have done under President Obama, or President Clinton, or any other President. It doesn’t matter who lives there; a chance to experience the pomp and history of the White House is one every American should have in their lifetime./

New York Times columnist defends anti-Zionism

The column is a big deal because while The Times opinion page is generally left wing on Israel, most of its columnists who write on the country range from liberal to conservative Zionists.

Goldberg noted that two incoming Democratic congresswoman, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib, have endorsed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS. She wrote that many people call BDS anti-Semitic because it subjects Israel to a double standard and, in endorsing a return of Palestinian refugees to Israel, could lead to the end of a Jewish-majority state.

Indeed, equating BDS with anti-Semitism is the consensus among a broad swath of Jewish organizations; last week, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, representing over 50 Jewish groups, called Pink Floyd front man Roger Waters “anti-Israel and anti-Jewish” for his vocal support of BDS.

But Goldberg said that opposing Israel and calling for a binational Israeli-Palestinian state is legitimate. She criticized Israel for its government’s close relationship to the Trump administration and right-wing nationalist governments in Europe, as well as for West Bank settlement expansion and the Israeli government’s opposition to Palestinian statehood.

“As long as the de facto policy of the Israeli government is that there should be only one state in historic Palestine,” Goldberg wrote, “it’s unreasonable to regard Palestinian demands for equal rights in that state as anti-Semitic.”

Analysis: Israel ready to challenge ICC on ‘Palestine’

Time is a funny thing.

International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda probably thought it was a good idea to take her time deciding whether to criminally investigate Israel’s conduct concerning settlements and the 2014 Gaza war.

Four years later, if she was looking to teach Israel a lesson, it seems time may not be on her side.

Incidentally, this may be why Bensouda’s report on Wednesday on the Israeli-Palestinian situation suggested that she is near a decision about whether to launch a full-fledged criminal war crimes probe against Israel and Hamas.

In November, when Attorney-General Avichai Mandelblit said that he was considering issuing a comprehensive formal legal critique of Bensouda’s acceptance of the existence of a state of Palestine for ICC purposes, there was more going on than met the eye.

The Jerusalem Post has learned that, while no one knows what the ICC will decide about Israel, the state is far more confident about its dealings with the ICC and its global standing in the event of a legal battle than it was in the past.

One might conjecture that Mandelblit and Israel publicly rehashing the issue of statehood and Palestine – which Bensouda and the ICC’s Assembly of State Parties decided on in January 2015 – comes following US criticism of the ICC.

More "Palestinian privilege" in today's Daily Express

The notion of "Palestinian privilege" is one I have continually discussed. Another aspect of this privilege is that the main stream media now increasingly censors out any mention of 'Palestinian(s)' when a story relates to them behaving badly. This is, of course, in sharp contrast to the media's obsession of talking about 'Palestinians' if they can link them as being victims in any way.

Typical of this censorship is the double page article commemorating the 30th anniversary of the Lockerbie terrorist attack in Today's Daily Express. The article focuses on Jim Swire's campaign to bring the real culprits to justice. As anybody who has followed the story knows, the Libyan who was convicted was almost certainly a convenient patsy - it was inconvenient at the time to go after the real culprits who are believed to have been the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine General Command (PFLP-GC) and their sponsors - the Iranian government - who hired them to 'retaliate' for the accidental shooting down of an Iranian plane by the US ship Vincennes.

It was partly due to 'Palestinian privilege' that the PFLP-GC were never charged with the crime. But, while the article is actually about the PFLP-GC involvement, the Express has decided - for reasons of 'Palestinian privilege' to censor out any mention of 'Palestinian' from the report. The article refers only to the acronym PFLP-GC without ever stating what it stands for to ensure readers have no idea that it is a Palestinian terrorist group. In fact, most readers would assume it was an Iranian group from the way the story is written:
Swire, like many informed Lockerbie watchers, believes the terror group, the PFLP-GC, the first suspects in the case, were the culprits, and that the bombing was ordered and paid for by Iran.

Moreover, whereas everyone else in the story is identified by their nationality, we get only the following reference to the Palestinian terrorist Mohammed Abo Talb**:
Five years ago, he travelled to Sweden to confront Mohammed Abo Talb, a convicted terrorist then recently released from a 20-year sentence in that country, hoping to question him over his suspected role in the bombing.

The Express clearly feels that readers must not be told that the terrorist is a Palestinian in case it might dampen their sympathy for the world's ultimate 'victims'.

Danny Danon: How the U.N. missed a historic chance to condemn Hamas

Since 2001, Hamas has launched more than 13,000 rockets into Israeli population centers; that’s nearly three rockets per day for 17 years. As its rockets fall on homes and schools in Israel, Hamas militants use Palestinian civilians – including children – as human shields when carrying out attacks against our soldiers. Instead of building a better life for the Palestinians,Hamas aims to destroy the lives of Israelis.

It is clear why the United States, Israel, the European Union, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and a handful of other countries have designated Hamas a terrorist organization. The question remains: why have more countries, and particularly the United Nations, not followed suit? It is unfortunate that the truth does not get the attention it deserves – or any attention, for thatmatter. Even though 1.8 million Palestinians live under Hamas’ abusive governance in the GazaStrip, an area it has controlled since 2007’s brutal civil war against the Palestinian Authority(PA), Israel alone is blamed for their situation.

Developments leading up to the vote further demonstrated that truth is often stranger than fiction. Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh wrote a protest letter – which included a clear call for violence against Israel – to the President of the General Assembly in anticipation of the US resolution. A terrorist organization pleading its case before the UN is akin to a serial killer asking the police for assistance. And in the days leading up to the vote, the PA chose to come to Hamas’ aid. Despite Hamas throwing Fatah officials off of rooftops in Gaza in 2007, Mahmoud Abbas still defended Haniyeh. Apparently, hatred for Israel is powerful enough to overcome even the most violent internal Palestinian rivalry.

The UN resolution to condemn Hamas was historic: 87 countries voted in favor of condemning Hamas, with US Ambassador Nikki Haley instrumental in helping form this unprecedented coalition that stood with Israel and against terrorism. And it was also necessary: it showed the world which countries support Hamas and which oppose terrorism, which countries turn excuse Antisemitism and which are sincere in their efforts to combat it. It put the organization on notice that we will not give up the fight against it at the UN.

In the end, instead of issuing empty promises to combat Antisemitism, making hollow statements of support for the Palestinian people, and incessantly blaming Israel, the UN could have taken the first step in recognizing that Hamas is the true threat to Israel and the Palestinian people, and finally condemned this terrorist organization.

Michael Oren: Israel and the US Stand Side-by-Side

Ever since Israel and the United States struck a strategic alliance at the end of the 1960s, the world has seen that alliance as a measure of American credibility and power worldwide. The closer US-Israel ties are, the stronger America’s status and influence in the international community are.

Despite that, in times of tension between America and the Jewish state, the US’s stature is seen as less influential. For example, when former President Barack Obama distanced himself from Israel, Russia invaded Ukraine and the Crimean Peninsula, as well as Syria. We can see the same dynamic at work today under the Trump administration, which is the friendliest Israel has known since the state was established.

This friendship isn’t merely personal. Former President George W. Bush, a friend and ally of Israel, said “the US is not a country of 300 million, but one of 308 million.” But Bush had a secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, who frequently made harsh statements against Israeli settlements and against Israeli military actions in Lebanon and Gaza, and compared the suffering of the Palestinians to that of the black population in the US prior to the civil rights movement. There is no one like Rice in the Trump administration.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is adopting unqualified pro-Israeli stances and placing responsibility for instability in the Middle East squarely on Iran. In addition, National Security Advisor John Bolton has defied the Israeli-American alliance as “a cornerstone” of US foreign policy in the Trump era.

In addition, outgoing US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley hasn’t missed a chance to defend Israel and its right to defend itself, and set a pro-Israeli precedent that others will find difficult to erase, even after she leaves the job at the end of this month. For two years, the White House has not voiced even a word of real criticism against Israel.

Hamas: Failure of US resolution will boost 'resistance' against Israel

Palestinian factions have expressed deep satisfaction over the failure of a US-sponsored resolution condemning Hamas for “repeatedly firing rockets at Israel and for inciting violence.”

A procedural vote at the UN General Assembly calling for the US resolution to be decided on a two-thirds majority passed before the main vote. Although 87 voted in favor, 58 voted against, with 32 abstentions, the resolution failed under the two-thirds ruling.

Hamas, Fatah and other Palestinian factions said that the failure of the UN to support the resolution was a “slap in the face of America” and a “victory for the Palestinian resistance.”

Hamas’s senior official, Khalil al-Haya, said that the failure of the US resolution was an “uplift for the Palestinian resistance.” Hamas, he said, “will remain committed to the option of resistance, which has been endorsed by the Palestinians.”

The failure of the US resolution, he added, is a “victory for the Palestinian resistance in spite of American bullying.” The Hamas official thanked the countries that opposed the US resolution and “prevented the US administration and Israel from crimializing the Palestinian resistance.” Addressing the countries that voted in favor of the anti-Hamas resolution, he said: “Shame on you for supporting the executioner against the victim.”

Polish Prime Minister: Poland is safe for Jews and a friend of Israel

The strong Polish-Israel alliance was tainted over the last year by a newly enacted Polish law criminalizing those who accuse Poland of being complicit in the genocide of its Jews. After months of tensions, an understanding was reached, which according to Prime Minister Morawiecki dispels the notion of a Polish Holocaust.

“I am happy that we were able to reach an understanding with Prime Minister Netanyahu,” he says. “We issued a joint declaration, stating that we should help our nations fight such a narrative. Not just because it is blatantly erroneous, but because it diminishes the responsibility of those that were responsible.”

The Polish bill sparked a renewed debate about who is to blame for the Holocaust. After World War II, as Europe needed to be rebuilt, simplifications were made including narrowing of the blame. A European narrative emerged that “we were all victims of the Nazis.” But over the years, it became evident that such a narrative is historically flawed and that the Holocaust could not have happened in such dimensions without local cooperation throughout Europe. Morawiecki makes his view clear.

“The Holocaust was conceived, orchestrated and carried out by the Germans. The murderous intent to annihilate European Jewry was not only inhumane and abhorrent, but also unique in the history of mankind.”

But the prime minister puts the Holocaust in context of other German atrocities.

“The Germans also planned the extermination of other nations – of my nation, and that of other Slavic nations, under a Generalplan Ost. The fact that they did not succeed in killing our people entirely should not allow us to forget that. Poland was Germany’s first victim. We lost more than six million Polish citizens – three million of them with Jewish roots.”

German police rolled out red carpet for Hezbollah-affiliated group

The police president in the west German city of Münster appeared for a “nice evening” in late November at a pro-Hezbollah organization that proclaims its resistance against the Jewish state, ignoring his own state’s intelligence reports about the radical Islamic Hezbollah entity.

According to a Facebook entry on the websiste of the Hezbollah-affiliated Mahdi AG organization, Münster’s police president Hajo Kuhlisch met with members of the Imam-Mahdi mosque to discuss “anti-Muslim racism and Quran learning” and more.

"It was a nice evening and productive exchange," wrote the organization that is filled with Hezbollah supporters, according to the state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) intelligence reports, where Münster is located.

A photograph dated November, 25 of a smiling polcie president Kuhlisch standing next to members of Mahdi AG can been viewed on the the Facebook site of Mahdi AG.

Last year, the chairman of the Hezbollah-affiliated Islamic center Al Mahdi urged his supporters to wage “resistance” against Israel.

“Israel is the enemy – we carry out resistance,” said Hassan Jawad, chairman of the Al Mahdi cultural center in the city of Münster. Resistance for the Lebanese Hezbollah militia means violence against Israel.

BDS declared illegal for all cities in Chile

It is illegal for municipalities to boycott Israel, the Chilean National Comptroller determined this week.

The comptroller’s decision followed complaints from Shai Agosin Weisz, president of the Chilean Jewish community, as well as the Chilean community in Israel about the Valdivia municipality’s decision to ban the city from signing contracts with any company linked to Israel.

Valdivia called on Israel’s ambassador to Chile to be expelled and declared itself to be “the first municipality in Latin America free of Israeli apartheid.” The municipality’s decision accused Israel of ethnic cleansing and confiscation of Palestinian land.

The complainants said the ban violates equality before law, as well as discrimination in economic matters.
Chile is thought to be home to the largest Palestinian diaspora community outside of the Middle East, including over 500,000 people according to some reports. According to the World Jewish Congress, there are 18,000 people who identify as Jewish in Chile.

In the decision, the comptroller determined that, while the Chilean constitution gives local government a degree of independence, it is the job of the head of state to conduct relations with foreign powers, and municipalities do not have the legal authority to do so. As such, Valdivia’s boycott of Israel is not legal.

In addition, anyone participating in a government bidding process is legally ensured “equal and non-discriminatory treatment” under Chilean law. The law also prohibits “arbitrary discrimination that is based on considerations such as nationality and that cause a deprivation, disturbance of threat of the exercise in fundamental rights,” the comptroller wrote.

Palestinian killed in Israel after accusations of selling land to Jews — report

A Palestinian man killed in an Arab Israeli town over the weekend was involved in the sale of West Bank land to Jews, Palestinian media reported Saturday.

Ahmed Salama, a resident of Jaljulia in central Israel, was shot Friday near his home and later pronounced dead at Meir Hospital in nearby Kfar Saba. Police have opened an investigation into the shooting.

Originally from the West Bank city of Qalqilya, Salama acquired residency in Israel through his marriage to an Arab Israeli woman, the Ynet news site said.

Citing an unnamed Palestinian Authority source, Ynet reported Salama was wanted by the PA for selling land to Jewish settlers, which is punishable by death under the West Bank-based government’s penal code.

However, the law requires that PA President Mahmoud Abbas approve any death sentence, and he has not signed off on any executions since 2006.

Salama had denied involvement in such land sales, according to Ynet, which said he has previously also been suspected in Israel of illegal arms dealing and was detained by police on Wednesday for unknown reasons before being released.

Palestinian court orders Palestinian mother of three, Suha Jbara, held in detention for an additional 15 days. She was arrested on Nov 3 and has been on hunger strike since Nov 22. Amnesty: She was beaten and threatened with sexual violence by interrogators. pic.twitter.com/g8mf94A8mU
— Khaled Abu Toameh (@KhaledAbuToameh) December 7, 2018

How to Prevent Saudi Arabia from Getting Nuclear Weapons

Skeptics of the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran warned that it could prompt a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. As they predicted, Saudi Arabia has been seeking assistance from the U.S. in obtaining civilian nuclear capabilities, while also speaking—in imitation of the Islamic Republic—of a “right” to enrich uranium, something it pledged not to do in a 2008 agreement with Washington. Were Riyadh to begin such enrichment, it could also produce the fuel necessary for nuclear weapons. Emily Landau and Shimon Stein warn of the dangers inherent in Saudi proliferation, and discuss how the U.S. and Israel should respond:

So long as the motivation to go nuclear remains strong, states are likely to find a way to develop [nuclear] capabilities, even if they have to pay a price for doing so. In Iran’s case, the major motivation for going nuclear is to enhance its hegemonic power in the Middle East. . . . But in the case of Saudi Arabia, if strong international powers . . . were to take a harsher stance toward Iran’s regional aggressions and missile developments and were to cooperate in order to improve the provisions of the [2015 nuclear deal], this would most likely have a direct and favorable impact on Saudi Arabia’s calculations about whether to develop nuclear capabilities.

A decision by the U.S. administration (or for that matter any other supplier) to allow Saudi Arabia to have enrichment capabilities will confront Israel with a dilemma.

On the one hand, it has been Israeli policy to do its utmost to deny any neighboring country with whom it does not have a peace treaty the means to acquire and develop a nuclear program. If Israel remains loyal to this approach, it should seek to deny Saudi Arabia enrichment capabilities. In practical terms this would imply making its opposition known in Washington.

How 'Baby, It's Cold Outside' Triggered the Godfather of the Muslim Brotherhood

A Christmas classic song heard for three-quarters of a century now has fallen victim to 21st-century political correctness and the #MeToo movement.

While “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” has been targeted for promoting date rape, ironically, its early 20th-century beginning so enraged Islamist Sayyid Qutb, it became an unintentional trigger for today’s war on terrorism and the attacks of 9/11.

A Cleveland radio station just announced it will no longer play the song as part of its around-the-clock rotation of holiday music. The song’s storyline involves a male singer endeavoring to entice a reluctant woman to spend the night, using the cold weather as an excuse. Lyrics such as “Baby, don’t hold out” are deemed inappropriate although, compared to numerous rap songs played year round, they are rather tame.

While it is doubtful the song would prompt 21st-century American males to go out and commit sexual assault, “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” does have a dark past – the unforeseen consequence of good intentions by a Midwestern American community seeking to create an atmosphere of inclusivity for Qutb. Qutb’s strong fundamentalist Islamic beliefs caused him to put a much different focus on what was offered him in a gesture of friendship.

Qutb was an Egyptian educator who arrived in Greeley, Colorado, in 1948, at age 42, to study America’s educational system. Greeley was a small, religiously conservative town which, consistent with Muslim beliefs, prohibited alcohol. Reclusive Qutb – a lifetime bachelor – was invited to a church social to welcome him to the community. After dinner, the lights were turned down low and dancing music played for the young people. But when the then-popular song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” played and dancers cozied up to their partners, Qutb wrote, he became enraged.

Qutb would later describe what he witnessed at the church social as follows:
The dance hall convulsed to the tunes on the gramophone and was full of bounding feet and seductive legs [keep in mind Qutb is describing women who were wearing the long dresses of the era – extending down to their ankles – claiming them to be “seductive.”] Arms circled waists, lips met lips, chests met chests, and the atmosphere was full of passion.

“River to the Sea” Marc Lamont Hill’s Anti-Jewish Manifest Destiny

In a recent speech before the United Nations, Marc Lamont Hill called for the elimination of Israel and endorsed Palestinian violence.

After the speech, and particularly after CNN ended its relationship with the Temple professor, who had served as a political contributor for the network before his words provoked public outcry, Hill and his supporters did their best to deny and distort the plain meaning of his words.

The cover-up might not be worse than the crime. But the response by Hill’s defenders — the feigning of innocence, the insistence that inflammatory slogans don’t mean what they’ve always meant, and the suggestions that those offended by calls to disenfranchise the Jews from the community of self-determining peoples are themselves the problem — amounts to a contemptible act of gaslighting against Jews and their supporters.

To better understand the controversy, let’s look at Hill’s actual words, the criticism of those words, and the counter-attack against Hill’s critics.

Non-Nonviolence
Two particularly inflammatory segments stand out from the anti-Israel invective that filled Hill’s Nov. 28 lecture. The first is his call for Palestinian violence.

“The words offered today by everyone in this room are a necessary component of our resistance efforts,” Hill told his audience. But not the only component. “We must also offer more than just words,” he continued.

Hill was explicit about what he had in mind. He set the stage for his call-to-action by recalling the historical experience of black Americans — though not to embrace the legacy of civil rights luminaries like Rosa Parks and Baynard Rustin, who saw their history of slavery, segregation, and discrimination as a validation of Zionism, and understood their values as a reason to admire Israel; nor to follow the example of Martin Luther King, who championed non-violence. Rather, it was to advocate violent attacks.

NYU Students Pass Divestment Resolution Targeting Israel, but Administration Condemns Boycott

Students at New York University passed a resolution on Thursday endorsing the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel — a Palestinian-led movement that the school’s administration has repeatedly denounced.

In a secret ballot vote with 35 in favor, 14 against, and 14 abstentions, NYU’s Student Government Assembly adopted legislation calling on NYU to divest from Caterpillar, General Electric, and Lockheed Martin for their alleged involvement “in the violation of Palestinian human rights and human rights globally.”

NYU spokesperson John Beckman said the university would not abide by the measure, citing President Andrew Hamilton’s previous rejection of economic and academic boycotts of Israel.

“The University opposes this proposal,” Beckman said in a statement sent to The Algemeiner. “It is at odds with the Trustees’ well understood position that the endowment should not be used for making political statements.”

He also underscored the difficulty of divestment “on an operational level,” as NYU cannot direct its financial managers to avoid certain companies, and would rather have “to liquidate assets in a time of considerable market volatility.”

The resolution — spearheaded by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) — was backed by 35 faculty members and 59 other student groups, among them the undergraduate student government of the NYU Silver School of Social Work. Many of the groups had already endorsed BDS in April, and pledged at the time to boycott both Zionist student clubs at NYU and prominent off-campus Jewish and Zionist organizations, including the Anti-Defamation League.

A Vandal Knocked Down This Menorah Near Harvard. A Pulitzer-Prize Winner Put It Back Up.

The start of the story is all too familiar. For nearly two decades, Chabad at Harvard has erected public menorahs across the city of Cambridge. Like many such public Jewish holiday displays, these menorahs have occasionally been defaced by those angered by Jews and their symbols. Usually, this happens at night, with the perpetrator hoping to avoid detection, as was the case when an Arizona menorah in 2016 was twisted into a swastika. In this case, however, the menorah Chabad had erected in Cambridge Common was toppled by a bigot in broad daylight on Sunday afternoon, which meant that many witnessed the anti-Semitic act.

The vandalism was captured on video. So was what happened next. “A group of wonderful citizens who were nearby and witnessed it immediately jumped into action to restore the menorah,” related Rabbi Hirschy Zarchi of Harvard Chabad. One of those people was Ron Suskind, a 59-year-old Pulitzer Prize-winning writer who had taught at Harvard’s various schools for years.

A resident of Harvard square, Suskind was walking through the area with his wife when “we saw a couple folks there gathered to the left of the path around something.” It was the menorah. The group explained to Suskind what had happened. “One of the women said that a guy had come up on a bike, leaped off and quite intentionally knocked over this menorah just about five minutes before we got there.” The woman had called the police.

“So there we were, waiting for the police,” recalled Suskind, “and I looked down at the menorah there facedown in the grass, and felt just how very wrong that was—this symbol of a people’s survival and triumph over many thousands of years laid low. And so I said, ‘Let’s just pick this damn thing up, it’s wrong for it to be here.'”

NYC high school bans Nazi props from ‘Sound of Music’ production

“The Sound of Music” is about a singing family that defies the Nazi takeover of Austria. But one New York City principal believes Nazi symbols and flags have no place in her high school’s production of the Tony Award winner.

Lisa Mars of LaGuardia High reportedly ordered the props removed, though the New York City Department of Education later told the New York Daily News that the symbols and flags would still appear in two scenes. The prominent performing arts school was made legendary in the musical “Fame.”

Mars did not respond to inquiries from the Daily News.

The Third Reich symbols appear in the play in the context of the family von Trapp opposing the Nazis. LaGuardia students designed the set.

“This is a very liberal school, we’re all against Nazis,” one sophomore performer told the Daily News. “But to take out the symbol is to try to erase history… Obviously the symbols are offensive. But in context, they are supposed to be.”

A portion of the show’s profits will be donated to Holocaust remembrance groups, and audience members will receive a pamphlet insert reading, in part, “When we say never again will those atrocities of war be repeated, NEVER AGAIN must be a promise kept.”

Israel’s Revolutionary Plan to Provide Europe with Natural Gas

Last month, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and Italy announced a plan to construct a pipeline for the export of natural gas from Israel’s offshore reservoirs to Europe. This plan, writes Emmanuel Navon, is a rejection of Turkey, through which it would be technically simpler to build such a pipeline. While such a project has been considered, Istanbul’s strained relations with Jerusalem under the rule of the anti-Semitic, pro-Hamas Recep Tayyip Erdogan have made it unfeasible. Navon explores the greater geopolitical implications:

Natural gas has turned Greece from a rival [of Israel] to an ally just as relations between Israel and Turkey started deteriorating. . . . In 2010, Benjamin Netanyahu became the first sitting Israeli prime minister to visit Greece, and the Israeli and Greek air forces started their first joint military exercises. In September 2011, Israel and Greece signed a security-cooperation agreement. Israel now uses Greek airspace for training purposes. Turkey, [meanwhile], is opposed to the Israel-Cypriot partnership in natural gas, but it has not been able to stop it. . . . This is a blow to Turkey as it is trying to reduce its [energy] dependency on Russia. . . .

Israel, Greece, and Cyprus all benefit from the natural-gas partnership: Israel acquires stronger leverage and strategic value vis-à-vis the European Union by becoming a natural-gas exporter; Greece is acquiring the status of an energy hub; Cyprus gains regional and international importance. . . .

The emerging eastern Mediterranean partnership for natural gas is no less than revolutionary. Historically, energy was the Achilles’ heel of Israel’s foreign policy. It is now an asset, thanks to the decline of the “oil weapon” [once wielded by Arab states] and to the increased importance of natural gas in the world’s energy market. Thanks to the new pipeline, Israel will eventually become a natural-gas exporter to Europe, without depending on Turkey. This tectonic change will grant Israel increased leverage in its relations with the EU.

Israeli Photographer Wins International Prize for Polar Bear Photo

It’s easy to see why a funny picture of a polar bear with sophisticated photography gear won Israeli photographer Roie Galitz a “highly commended” spot in the 2018 Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards.

But there’s a very serious story behind “Wildlife PhotograBear,” snapped in early April 2018 in Svalbard, an archipelago in the Arctic Ocean between Norway and the North Pole.

Galitz, 38, heads Phototeva (Nature Photo), which takes small groups on expeditions to Svalbard and other remote regions to bring attention to the devastating effects of climate change on indigenous creatures.

He speaks across the world as a voluntary wildlife photo ambassador for Greenpeace. His award-winning pictures have appeared in magazines, local and international exhibitions (including at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC) and in the BBC’s “Snow Bears” documentary aired a year ago.

“Like any good wildlife photographer, I started in Africa. Then I fell in love with the cold and snow, and that got me to Svalbard,” Galitz tells ISRAEL21c.

For kosher Instagram stars, the food is just the appetizer

There was a plate of salsa-laden, beefy homemade sausages on the table, but professional foodies Naomi Nachman and Chani Apfelbaum, with a combined following of 70,000 people on Instagram, hadn’t reached for their phones to spread the gospel. Yet.

In the world of food appreciation, whether one is a chef or a home cook, posting what one is cooking, or eating, or thinking about eating, is de rigeur. In fact, it’s been the exposure on Facebook and Instagram that have created such a following for Nachman and Apfelbaum, making them brand names in the kosher food media world.

Not to worry, though. They posted plenty during their four-day visit in Israel for the Jewish Media Conference.

Nachman, aka The Aussie Gourmet, and Apfelbaum, known as Busy in Brooklyn, had been active earlier in the day on Tuesday, when they each shared on Instagram their tastings at Cafe Kadosh, including the much-awaited seasonal doughnuts, and a table full of breakfast delicacies.

Now, after dinner and networking events, the two, along with their fellow food buddies Beth Warren (author of “Secrets of a Kosher Girl”) and Melinda Strauss (“Kitchen Tested” blog), were at Hatch, the recently opened brewery in the open air market.

These two social media leaders have each recently published new cookbooks — Nachman’s “Perfect Flavors” (her second in 19 months) and Apfelbaum’s “Millenial Kosher” (her first) — but they’ve taken different paths in their lives as social media influencers.

How tiny Ecuador had a huge impact on Jews escaping the Holocaust

While many countries did less than their all when Jews sought refuge from the Holocaust, the tiny South American nation of Ecuador made an outsized impact.

Named for the equator, the former Spanish colony became an unlikely haven for an estimated 3,200-4,000 Jews from 1933 to 1945.

Few of these refugees knew Spanish upon arrival, and many could not quite locate their new home on the map. Yet some emigres achieved success in diverse fields, from science to medicine to the arts, helping Ecuador modernize along the way.

This summer, Ecuador-based academic and author Daniel Kersffeld published a book in Spanish about this little-known story, “La migracion judia en Ecuador: Ciencia, cultura y exilio 1933-1945.” (It translates to “Jewish Immigration in Ecuador: Science, Culture and Exile 1933-1945.”) Kersffeld calls it the first academic study of Jewish immigration to Ecuador in over two decades.

The author surveyed 100 biographical accounts in writing the book. In an email interview, Kersffeld said that around 20 of the individuals he profiled hold significant importance for Ecuador’s economic, scientific, artistic and cultural development.

They include Austrian refugee Paul Engel, who became a pioneer of endocrinology in his new homeland, while maintaining a separate literary career under a pseudonym; concentration camp survivor Trude Sojka, who endured the loss of nearly all of her family and became a successful artist in Ecuador; and three Italian Jews — Alberto di Capua, Carlos Alberto Ottolenghi and Aldo Muggia — who founded a precedent-setting pharmaceutical company, Laboratorios Industriales Farmaceuticos Ecuatorianos, or LIFE.

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