04/02 Links: PA slammed by EU Committee for producing new antisemitic textbooks; European blood libels continue, but now there's a solution; Three terrorists dead in firefight with Counterterrorism Unit ~ EoZ

From Ian:

PA slammed by EU Committee for producing new antisemitic textbooks

The European Parliament’s Budgetary Control Committee passed a motion condemning the Palestinian Authority for creating new school textbooks containing violent and hateful material using funding provided by the EU.

The motion is part of the union's annual budgetary procedure that examines exactly how European taxpayer funds have been spent on projects it carries out.

This motion has effectively frozen EU funding to the PA during its deliberation, while funding conditionality is being examined.

The motion was proposed by the left-leaning Renew Europe Party and supported by the centrist European People's Party. It demands that the Palestinian Authority be “closely scrutinized” and that the curriculum be modified “expeditiously.”

The EU “deplores that problematic and hateful material in Palestinian school textbooks has still not been removed and is concerned about the continued failure to act effectively against hate speech and violence in school textbooks and especially in the newly created study cards,” the motion reads.

The EU "requests, therefore, the Commission to closely scrutinize that the Palestinian Authority and relevant experts modify the curriculum expeditiously,” it says.

European blood libels continue, but now there's a solution

Once again, the psychological warfare is directed toward the area of Judaism that is most offensive to the Jews. As Jewish religiosity and insularity dramatically receded over the last century, the core Jewish value of Tikun Olam has been taking an increasingly central role: Repairing the world, being a light unto the nations and protecting human rights.

Not surprisingly, this is where the assault on Judaism is now taking place. In the last few months alone, the Jewish state has been accused of engaging in genocide, ethnic cleanings, apartheid, war crimes, crimes against humanity and even committing a holocaust.

This is not just coming from a few “rotten apples.” It is coming from mainstream media outlets and credible organizations, such as the United Nations and Amnesty International.

As the organizing principle of the Jewish nation-religion has shifted from its religious aspect (Rabbinic Judaism – Judaism 2.0) to its national aspect (Zionism – Judaism 3.0), so has the currency of age-old opposition to Judaism.

Just as it was pointless back then for a Jew to try to convince a European murdered at his doorstep that Jews do not use the blood of Christian children to prepare matzos, it is pointless today to convince some Europeans and others who are infected with the cancerous Israel-bashing epidemic that the Jewish state does not engage in crimes against humanity.

Similarly, just like back then there was nothing the Jew could do to self-correct his “bad behavior” short of self-annihilation, there is nothing the Jewish state can do to alleviate the attacks against it: It cannot stop assaulting Palestinian women in roadblocks, because it does not assault them; it cannot stop the genocide of Palestinians, because it does not do that either. Once again, the attackers left no path for the Jews to appease them. The only available option of redemption once again, as Wagner put it, is “self-annihilation.”

Addressing the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations, Defense Minister Benny Gantz said: “when Amnesty publishes their outrageous apartheid report, houses of prayers in California are targeted.” In Herzl’s time, during the early days of the antisemitism movement, it was “only” houses of worship and individual Jews that were being targeted. Soon, it was a well-organized onslaught on all of Judaism. This is precisely the trajectory of the Israel-bashing movement today.

INSS: The Russian Bear and the Molotov Cocktail: The Palestinians and the Crisis in Ukraine

The strong sanctions imposed swiftly on Russia increase the sense of injustice. For over a decade the BDS movement tried to generate political pressure that leads to harsh sanctions against Israel, but to no avail, and its voice faded after 2016 during the Trump presidency. In contrast, the quick coalescing of many countries throughout the world around sanctions against Russia, even at a heavy economic price, surprised the Palestinians, who complained that these players had sided with Israel and refrained from sanctions against Jerusalem. Major corporations, which did not acquiesce in the BDS campaigns and refused to halt their activity in Israel, have discontinued their activity in Russia – a development that surprised many.

In contrast to the PA, Hamas was of two minds concerning the crisis in Ukraine. Russia hosts permanent Hamas delegations and maintains contact with its leaders, and Hamas too, like the PA, has an interest in Russia's growing dominance in the Middle East at the expense of the United States. When the Russian invasion began, Palestinian and international media quoted Hamas political bureau member Khaled Mashal as calling on Putin to stop killing civilians and halt the invasion. However, Hisham Qasem, a senior external Hamas leader, quickly denied that Mashal had said this. Mousa Abu Marzouk, another member of the Hamas political bureau, was among the few leaders to comment on the events. He criticized the United States for failing to stop Russia and said that the US had lost its control of international politics.

An open question concerns the significance of an expression of neutrality, and how the failure to decide whom to support (itself tantamount to a decision) services Palestinian interests. In recent years, the Palestinians have framed their national claims against Israel in human rights discourse. In this context, it has been said that the international community should stop focusing on a search for a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict (the liberal discourse and discussion of a solution in terms of one or two states), and instead address the fact that the Palestinians' basic rights – in particular, freedom of movement and equality under the law – are denied. Israel should therefore be pressured to grant them these rights, as they are granted to Israel's own citizens. The Palestinian silence at this time, however, combined with its denigration of the Western commitment to the Ukrainian people, showcases these efforts negatively. The lack of response to the United States demand to support Ukraine alienates the Western world, yet the Palestinians seek Western support. For its part, Russia regards the Palestinian question as a means to further its standing in the Middle East and to bait the United States. It is doubtful whether Russia will increase its involvement in the Israeli-Palestinian question in the foreseeable future beyond its statements in the media. It therefore follows that if the war in Ukraine is prolonged and the Palestinians do not side with the West, they are liable to find themselves even more isolated than they are now.

Continued relegation of the Palestinian question to the sidelines of the agenda when the political deadlock continues and no change is on the horizon is liable to lead to escalation, particularly in the West Bank and East Jerusalem. Escalation in the Gaza Strip is less likely in the short term, because Hamas is aware that as long as the fighting in Ukraine continues, it will not gain international attention and will have difficulty raising money for reconstruction. Hamas can therefore be expected to refrain from destabilizing the security situation in the Gaza Strip. At the same time, however, it is likely to continue its incitement efforts in the PA territories on the West Bank and in East Jerusalem. The upcoming Land Day and month of Ramadan have the potential to spark such unrest, as do the rising prices and economic distress afflicting the PA. At the same time, rising prices also affect the public in the Gaza Strip, and are likely to have a negative impact on internationally financed infrastructure projects in the region. If the war in Ukraine continues and raises the cost of fuel and basic commodities, the risk of unrest in the Gaza Strip will also increase. For Israel, an increase in Palestinian frustration caused by the crisis in Europe, on top of disappointment with the Biden administration, growing economic distress, and a feeling of betrayal following the normalization agreements, will augment the security challenge that it faces.

Going on the Attack: The Theoretical Foundation of the Israel Defense Forces’ Momentum Plan

Principle 3: Negating Enemy Capabilities
In the past, the IDF defeated Arab armies by using maneuvers in enemy territory to threaten encirclement and to cause them to collapse. This is how the IDF brought about the collapse of the Egyptian army in the Negev and in the Sinai deserts in the four major wars from 1948 to 1973, forced both the Jordanian army to retreat from the West Bank and the Syrian army from the Golan Heights in 1967. However, against fire-based terror armies, it is unlikely that in a future conflict capturing territory and threatening to surround them will achieve similar results. Territory is an important asset for the enemy system, but it is no longer the ultimate purpose of the system. The new enemy fights to maintain continuous fire into Israeli territory. Since the IDF cannot stop the fire attack through intelligence/stand-off fires alone, the central aim of the Momentum Plan is to design a force that can negate the enemy’s combat capabilities, first and foremost fire capabilities.

In conclusion, two central elements of the response to the enemy’s defense-strike complex threat are being developed, utilizing the technological potential of the fourth industrial revolution:
A quicker and more precise ability to locate enemy forces—This is attainable primarily during tactical contact that forces the defender to take actions that emit signatures. Locating the enemy and striking its prepared hideouts or as the enemy moves between them will neutralize the enemy’s ability to operate as a system.
Fire suppression—The tactical purpose of enemy actions is to enable fire on Israel’s civilian home front and fire against the IDF’s maneuvering forces. Enemy fire is the only time that the enemy reveals himself in an unequivocal fashion. The moment of fire is thus the main weakness of an adversary whose main strength is stealth. This moment must become a core component of the effort to locate the enemy. Destroying the sources of fire in this window of time will neutralize the combat capabilities of fire-based adversaries.

Conclusion
The new operational concept comes largely from the new understanding that the nature of threats facing the State of Israel and the opportunities inviting the IDF to change. At the heart of the updated IDF operational concept and the Momentum Plan is a fundamental change. The challenge of the Momentum Plan is to match the IDF’s existing might to the evolved threat, and to enable Israel to go on the attack—to return to short wars, decisive victory, and removal of the main military threat to Israel, that of rocket fire. Negating the threat of rocket fire will give Israel significant strategic freedom of action and will thwart the adversary’s rebuilding efforts after the war. The Momentum Plan aims to address this challenge by taking full advantage of the emergent technological potential in order to make the IDF a “smart” war machine.

JPost Editorial: UK-Israel ties are at a level not seen before

Israeli and British ties have reached a new level of intimacy. That is the message that came out from all of the different officials who participated last week at The Jerusalem Post conference in London. The conference opened with a reception at the House of Lords hosted by Lord Jon Mendelsohn of the Labour Party and Lord Stuart Polak of the Conservative Party.

Lord Ian Austin, Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s official trade envoy to the State of Israel, spoke at the event and explained how trade has been on an upward trajectory in recent years and how the United Kingdom is Israel’s third largest trade partner.

At the day-long conference at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium the following day, Lord David Wolfson, the undersecretary of state for justice, spoke out against the double standard that is sometimes applied to Israel as illustrated by Amnesty International’s recent report about Israel in which it accused the Jewish state of apartheid.

“Antisemitism is hate speech, and all democracies have drawn a line between free speech and hate speech,” Wolfson said. “There are things you cannot say because they are defamatory, and there are things you cannot say because they are racist.

Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked was in London and following her participation in the conference met with Home Secretary Priti Patel who was one of the engines behind a recent decision by the UK to declare all of Hamas a terrorist organization and not just its military wing.

Keir Starmer’s attempt to portray the Labour Party as having ‘closed the door’ on antisemitism is premature

The Missing Mea Culpa
Perhaps one factor holding back the leadership from mounting that kind of a challenge to the base is their record of support for Jeremy Corbyn. There has been an almost total absence of self-criticism among today’s Labour leadership, many of whom served as enablers of Corbyn and Corbynism for four years.

Take the example of David Lammy. As the former Labour MP Ian Austin pointed out in the Jewish Chronicle, Lammy’s December 2021 apology for nominating Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership in 2015 fell short. In 2017, after two years in which the antisemitism problem was as clear as day, Lammy was praising Corbyn as ‘bloody brilliant. @JeremyCorbyn is heading to No 10’. In 2020, after five years of disgrace culminating in an EHRC inquiry into Labour antisemitism, Lammy wrote, ‘I’m very, very grateful that Jeremy Corbyn has given up his time to deliver this lecture. I know the words are going to be powerful. I can’t wait for every single sentence, and I hope that, in time, this speech and a few others will be published by the man who has led the Labour Party for this last period.’

Nor did Lammy seek to explain or apologise for his comments on his LBC show in the run-up to the 2019 General Election when, in relation to Corbyn’s antisemitism and his suitability for the role of prime minister, he blithely said (referring to Margaret Thatcher) ‘We’ve had leaders before with prejudices.’

Lammy’s attempt to now secure the moral high ground on the cheap is brazen, but not atypical. As one former Labour MP remarked to me privately, ‘now Corbyn is over they [Labour MPs] will all pretend they were part of the resistance.’ As my colleague Emma Feltham has noted. Labour MPs have yet to acknowledge or apologise for their own agency in the antisemitism crisis, and this failure needs to be understood to ensure there is no repeat.

Labour’s antisemitism crisis is not over, whatever the claims of a public relations strategy adopted by the Labour leadership and some Jewish organisations. Large parts of the party remain in thrall to antisemitic forms of ‘antizionism’. The door remains open and until it is closed the potential threat from a Labour government to the British Jewish community remains.

Israeli delegation secretly met Sudanese military officials in Khartoum – report

An Israeli delegation of security officials met with Sudanese military officials during a secret visit to Khartoum earlier this week, public broadcaster Kan reported Friday, citing Sudanese sources.

There were no further details given.

Israeli delegations have reportedly visited the north African country several times since Sudan’s top general, Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, seized power in a coup last October.

And in February, reports indicated that a top Sudanese official secretly visited Israel in order to advance relations between the countries. The reports did not identify the representative or provide further details about the visit.

In an interview with the Al Arabiya network published in December, al-Burhan said that normalization with Israel was “necessary to return Sudan to the international community.”

It was the military, not the civilian leadership, in Sudan that has played a more active role in advancing normalization with Israel. Al-Burhan had been a prominent player leading normalization efforts with Israel.

Since then, however, he has repeatedly said that Sudan’s relations with the Jewish state were strictly focused on security, intelligence and military cooperation.

Azerbaijan opens official tourism office in Israel, signs cooperation agreement

Azerbaijan has opened its first tourism office in Israel and signed a cooperation agreement to work together to further the industry, Israeli Ambassador to Azerbaijan George Deek announced on Thursday.

The document was signed by the chairman of the State Tourism Agency of Azerbaijan Fuad Naghiyev and Israel’s Minister of Tourism Yoel Razvozov.

Azerbaijan’s official tourism representation office is at the Herbert Samuel Dock in Tel Aviv. The office will work with all major travel agents, tour operators and airlines, which are currently conducting direct three-hour flights from Israel to Baku, reported The Jerusalem Post.

The Azerbaijan Tourism Board first announced the new office last week.

CEO Florian Sengstschmid said: “This office will serve to establish fruitful collaborations with our Israeli counterparts while increasing awareness about Azerbaijan among Israelis; maintaining day-to-day management and administration related to tourism promotion, along with detailed market research; and bring Azerbaijan and Israel even closer.”

Q: "Does the Secretary-General have a position on Russia's removal from the UN Human Rights Council?"

UN Spokesperson: "There is a certain level of concern about the setting of a dangerous precedent and I will leave it at that." pic.twitter.com/sUnhNqBwqW
— UN Watch (@UNWatch) March 31, 2022

MEMRI: At Organization Of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Foreign Ministers Meeting In Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan Urges OIC To Create 'An Islamic Block,' OIC Resolution Calls For Self-Determination Of Kashmir And Palestine

Speaking at the 48th Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers in Islamabad, Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has called for creating "an Islamic block" in the international state system to protect the interests of Muslim countries.[1] The conference of OIC foreign ministers was held on the theme of "Partnering for Unity, Justice, And Development" on March 22-23, 2022, in the Pakistani capital and was attended, among others, by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.

"We have failed both the Palestinians and the people of Kashmir. I am sad to say that we have been able to make no impact at all," Khan said, adding: "We (Muslims) are 1.5 billion people and yet our voice to stop this blatant injustice is insignificant."[2]

The OIC foreign ministers conference was held on March 22-23, 2022

Speaking on the inaugural day of the conference, Imran Khan noted that the Western countries do "not take the OIC seriously" and added: "The only hope I have is that for the first time because of social media, there is awareness in Western countries. Much more than the OIC, it is the mobile phone and the spread of information of the injustices being done to the Palestinians... at the moment, that is the best way to protect them, not us."[3]

Imran Khan is known for his views in favor of Islamist and jihadi organizations, declaring in recent years: "War in Afghanistan is jihad"; "Over 80% of the Pakistanis think that the U.S. is an enemy; Why...? Because they think that the U.S. is not fighting a war against terror; It's a war against Islam"; "The Jewish lobby... controls the global media"; "There is a very big lobby in America... that's basically the Israeli lobby; It wants the Pakistani nuclear program rolled back"; "When I wage a war for my freedom, it is jihad; It's a verse of the Koran; It's straight clear"; "It is shameful that we call ourselves Muslims and fear shari'a."[4][5]

The Pakistani prime minister congratulated the Muslim world for the UN General Assembly's declaration of March 15 asan International Day to Combat Islamophobia, a topic dear to him. Khan said it was unfortunate that the Muslim world was not able to combat this image of Muslims. However, the two-day conference's main focus was on Kashmir and Palestine.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi too raised the two issues, stating: "The Muslim world is faced with conflicts in the Middle East, prolonged foreign occupation, and the denial of the right to self-determination, most notably to the people of Palestine and Kashmir."[6] These two themes are also articulated in the resolution adopted by the OIC foreign ministers' conference.

Three terrorists dead in firefight with Counterterrorism Unit

Three members of a terror cell were killed in a firefight with Border Police's Counterterrorism Unit officers in Araba near Jenin on Friday night, according to the Shin Bet (Israel Security Service).

They were later identified as belonging to the armed wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), which vowed after the incident to continue fighting Israel "in the name of the Palestinian people."

The movement "held the enemy fully responsible for this crime, stressing that this blood will not be in vain, and they will continue to fight the enemy, confront it, and respond to its crimes with determination and steadfastness, no matter how much the sacrifices may be,” according to the statement shared by them.

The terrorists were responsible for a previous terror attack in Tulkarm, and intelligence determined that they were on the way to carry out another large-scale attack; they were defined by the Shin Bet as "ticking time-bombs."

Security forces were monitoring the cell for hours on Friday and eventually began a car chase after their car. The terrorists eventually opened fire at the forces, who fired back and killed them.

Four officers were injured in the fight. Two of them were lightly injured, one was moderately injured with wounds to his lower body, and the fourth was severely injured and was taken to the hospital where he underwent surgery and is in stable condition, according to Dr. Hani Bacchus, head of the Trauma Unit at Haifa's Rambam Medical Center.

Various weapons were found in their car, including guns and grenades.

A will was also found in the car, encouraging the continuation of terror attacks against Israelis. A video on social media showed one of the terrorists reading out the will prior to setting out for the attack.

Additional terror attacks thwarted by @IDF and ISA today. Terrorists apprehended prior to imminent attacks. pic.twitter.com/ScfMTN9oux
— The Mossad: The Social Media Account (@TheMossadIL) April 2, 2022

Bennett says troops foiled ‘ticking time bomb’ in raid on Islamic Jihad cell

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett on Saturday warned the country may face “many more” attempted terror attacks in the near future, after troops killed three Palestinian gunmen allegedly en route to committing an attack in Israel.

“We are in the midst of a joint effort of all the security forces to stop the wave of recent attacks and restore security to Israeli citizens,” Bennett said in a video statement alongside Shin Bet chief Ronen Bar and his military secretary Avi Gil, ahead of a meeting with top officials at the security agency’s headquarters.

Referring to the overnight raid in which three Islamic Jihad operatives were killed, Bennett said security forces “thwarted a ticking time bomb.” Officials said the cell planned to cross into Israel from the West Bank and carry out a shooting attack.

“We certainly assume there will be many more attempts and we are working right now to prevent them,” Bennett said. “Our people act with great bravery, around the clock, in a hostile and violent environment, and I want to send a speedy recovery to the wounded in the operation.”

Speaking about an elite officer seriously hurt in the operation, Bennett said “he is one of the State of Israel’s best field commanders.” Chief Superintendent S. reportedly played a key role in several deadly counter-terror operations and arrests of “prominent terrorists” in the last 20 years.

A series of deadly terror attacks killed 11 people in Israel in a week, including a shooting that killed five people on Tuesday, putting Israeli security forces on heightened alert. The escalation has come as the Muslim holy month of Ramadan began — often a period of high tension in Israel and the West Bank.

Elite officer seriously hurt in West Bank raid led team that nabbed Gilboa fugitives

A police officer seriously wounded in a gunbattle with members of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group early Saturday was identified as a senior commander in the Yamam counter-terrorism unit.

Chief Superintendent (the police equivalent of Lieutenant Colonel) S. — who can only be identified by his rank and the first letter of his name — was the commander of a squad responsible for capturing two of six terror convicts who escaped from a prison in northern Israel last year.

According to the Ynet news site, S. played a key role in several deadly counter-terror operations and arrests of “prominent terrorists” in the last 20 years.

S. was hurt in the pre-dawn hours Saturday when his unit attempted to arrest a cell of Islamic Jihad members in the northern West Bank village of Arraba, near Jenin, as they were allegedly en route to commit an attack in Israel.

The gunmen opened fire at the troops, seriously wounding S., and lightly hurting four others. He underwent surgery and was hospitalized in intensive care at Rambam Medical Center in Haifa, where he was listed in stable condition.

The three suspects were killed in the gunbattle and the military later arrested an alleged fourth member of the cell in a rare daylight operation in the town of Shuweika, near the West Bank city of Tulkarem.

Member of Islamic Jihad cell boasted he planned ‘something very big in Israel’ — TV

A member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad cell killed during a raid by Israeli security forces early Saturday had been on the Shin Bet’s radar since firing at troops in the West Bank earlier this week, Israeli television reported.

Saif Abu Libdeh, a 25-year-old resident of Tulkarm, fired over 50 bullets at IDF troops patrolling along the so-called seam line on Tuesday, according to Channel 12 news. No soldiers were hurt.

The network said the Shin Bet has been on Abu Libdeh’s tail since and tracked him during a rally Friday in Jenin, where he appeared armed with an M-16 rifle.

“Soon you’ll hear about me,” he allegedly said. “I’m going to do something very big in Israel.”

The unsourced report said security officials believe he intended to carry out a killing spree similar to the recent terror attacks in Beersheba, Hadera, and Bnei Brak, in which 11 people were killed in total.

Two of the three Palestinians killed tonight near Jenin in a counter-terrorism operation were members of Palestinian Islamic Jihad in the West Bank, likely Katibat Jenin (Jenin Branch of PIJ.) Two of the members with posters of Mahmoud Tawalbe, a famous West Bank PIJ figure. pic.twitter.com/BPwGziavvd
— Joe Truzman (@JoeTruzman) April 2, 2022

Palestinians vow to avenge three gunmen killed near Jenin

Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), Hamas and other Palestinian groups have pledged to continue the fight against Israel after the killing of three Palestinian gunmen during an armed clash with Israeli security forces near Jenin on Friday night.

The Palestinian Authority, for its part, strongly condemned the killing of the gunmen and repeated its call to the international community to provide protection for the Palestinians.

PIJ said in a statement that the three gunmen – Saeb Abahreh, 30, Khalil Tawalbeh, 24, and Saif Abu Libdeh, 25 – were members of its military wing, the Al-Quds Brigades.

“The Zionist enemy committed an aggressive crime against three of our heroic mujahideen [warriors] on the first day of the holy month of Ramadan,” the statement read.

The organization vowed to avenge the death of the gunmen. “As we hold the enemy fully responsible for this crime, we affirm that the blood of our children will not be shed in vain,” it said. “The mujahideen will continue the jihad and resistance and the fight against the enemy, regardless of the sacrifices.”

Hamas described the killing of the gunmen as a “cowardly assassination.”

“The enemy’s policy of killings and assassination against our people in the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem will not provide them with the security that they are looking for, nor will they grant them legitimacy on our land,” Hamas said, also vowing retaliation.

Jews.
Druze.
Christian Arabs.

Terrorism doesn't discriminate against any identity.

We will continue operating against the threat of terror to protect all of our civilians. pic.twitter.com/0zTLWhljhZ
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) April 1, 2022

Difference between ‘us’ and ‘them’: As Israelis mourn our dead, they rejoice and celebrate in the murder of innocent people. What a sick society! pic.twitter.com/Ahz2ApyEhU
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 1, 2022

Erdogan calls Herzog to ‘sharply condemn’ recent terror attacks against Israelis

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called President Isaac Herzog on Friday and “sharply condemned” the terror attacks that killed 11 Israelis over the last two weeks.

“President Erdogan asked to send his condolences to the bereaved families who have lost their loved ones and wished a speedy recovery to the injured,” a statement from Herzog’s office quoted him as saying.

“Both presidents emphasized that on the eve of the holidays of Ramadan, Passover and Easter there is a need for action to maintain calm in the whole region,” the statement said.

The call comes amid efforts by Ankara and Jerusalem to improve long-tense ties between the two nations.

Once robust regional allies, Israel and Turkey saw their ties fray during Erdogan’s tenure. He has been an outspoken critic of Israel’s policies toward the Palestinians.

Israel has been upset by Erdogan’s warm relations with Hamas, the terror group that controls the Gaza Strip.

The countries reciprocally withdrew their ambassadors in 2010 after Israeli forces were attacked when they boarded a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying humanitarian aid for the Palestinians that attempted to break an Israeli blockade, and killed 10 Turkish citizens in the altercation.

Seriously? 11 Israelis massacred by Palestinian and Islamic terrorists these past 2 weeks and you still choose to push the apartheid lie? You disgusting Jew haters!@KenRoth @hrw @AgnesCallamard @amnesty pic.twitter.com/cctThYEy5J
— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) April 2, 2022

New Iran Nuclear Deal Could Allow Iranian Terrorists Into US

The Biden administration's new nuclear accord with Iran is likely to include a loophole that will "allow Iranian nationals linked to terrorism to enter and stay in the United States," according to a new Republican-authored policy analysis circulating on Capitol Hill and reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.

With negotiations over a revamped nuclear deal inching closer to completion, the Biden administration is considering a concession that will remove Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) from the U.S.-designated terrorist list.

The removal of this designation remains one of the final sticking points in diplomatic talks surrounding a new accord. Delisting the IRGC will "open the gates for Iranian terrorists to enter the United States" and make it harder for law enforcement agencies to target IRGC affiliates operating in the United States, according to a new assessment of policy implications authored by the Republican Study Committee (RSC), Congress's largest Republican caucus and a principal opponent of a new accord.

"Removing the IRGC from the Foreign Terrorist Organization list is a non-nuclear related concession to Iran which would reward terrorist blackmail, allow Iranian nationals linked to terrorism to enter and stay in the United States, weaken law enforcement's ability to go after those providing support or resources to the IRGC, and make it harder to hold those outside U.S. soil criminally accountable for helping the IRGC," according to the policy analysis, which was distributed on Friday to 160 congressional offices and obtained exclusively by the Free Beacon.

The Biden administration's bid to remove sanctions on the IRGC is fueling opposition to the deal from Democratic and Republican foreign policy leaders, who worry this concession will embolden Iran's global terrorism and spy operations. Bipartisan legislation introduced in the House on Thursday and first reported by the Free Beacon seeks to force the Biden administration into disclosing how sanctions relief for Iran will boost the IRGC's capabilities.

The Trump administration designated the IRGC as a foreign terrorist organization to cripple Tehran's paramilitary fighting force, which is responsible for killing more than 600 Americans and orchestrating scores of regional terror attacks on U.S. forces, as the Free Beacon first reported last week.

Anti-Israel Reverend Is a Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

On March 16th, the College Dean’s Office at American University (AU) announced that the university would drop its co-sponsorship of a March 17th event featuring virulent antisemite Mohammed El-Kurd.

AU’s rescission of sponsorship came after more than 30 concerned students brought a series of libelous and inflammatory comments made by El-Kurd to the administration’s attention. The letter requested that AU drop its co-sponsorship of the event.

A few included El-Kurd’s expressed support for the internationally recognized terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, his idolized descriptions of “intifadas” and waves of terror against Israelis, casual comparisons of Israelis to Nazis, and numerous antisemitic tropes.

This behavior was apparently enough to convince American University officials to distance the school from the event. Still, it wasn’t enough to deter Reverend Graylan S. Hagler of Plymouth United Church of Christ, located a few miles from American University, from hosting El-Kurd at his church.

On the evening of March 17th, El-Kurd recited 35 minutes of poetry from the pulpit, including a poem featuring an antisemitic blood libel. After El-Kurd completed his segment, Hagler spoke enthusiastically about hosting El-Kurd, and stressed his commitment to the anti-Zionist cause.

Hagler argued that “white supremacy must be defeated; that’s what we have to deal with, from South Africa to Palestine to Washington D.C.”

Hagler’s words are just a thinly-veiled contemporization of classic antisemitism: vilify Jews and the world’s only Jewish state — one of the most historically persecuted minorities — by conflating them with contemporary evil.

Never mind the 850,000 Jews expelled from Arab lands after Israel’s creation; that more than half of modern-day Israel is composed of Jews of Middle East origin; or that Jews faced brutal persecution in Europe, despite being “white,” as Hagler would describe them.

Students at Ohio State University Push Back Against ‘Emergency’ BDS Measure

Students at the Ohio State University (OSU) are urging the student government to reject an effort to divest from two companies operating in Israel.

On Wednesday night, according to the campus newspaper The Lantern, the OSU Undergraduate Student Government’s General Assembly debated an “emergency resolution” demanding the university divest its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Caterpillar Inc., which it accused of abetting alleged human rights abuses of Palestinians.

The session, which adjourned late at night before the measure could be introduced, was attended by 200 students during an open forum, The Lantern reported.

In a petition posted Wednesday on Change.org, a group calling itself OSU Students described the resolution as “hateful” — arguing that it would stoke antisemitism on campus while undermining the university’s mission to foster “a more inclusive campus while doing nothing to advance peace” in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

“At a time when antisemitism is at its highest rate since the 1970s and an uptick in anti-Israel sentiment has been linked to a substantial increase in antisemitic violence, endorsing the BDS movement ostracizes Jewish students for supporting their indigenous homeland,” OSU Students said. “BDS has been most successful in fanning the flames of antisemitism worldwide. With antisemitic attacks up 90% in 2022 compared to 2021, we must do everything in our power to ensure are safe against bigoted attacks.”

OSU Students’ petition, which on Friday had over 350 signatures, also said the resolution’s advancement through OSU SGA was shrouded in secrecy even as it “alienated” Jewish students “simply for supporting Israel’s right to exist.”

NYU ‘Deeply Disappointed’ in MESA, Urges Reversal of Academic Boycott of Israel

New York University on Wednesday denounced the Middle East Studies Association’s recent endorsement of an academic boycott of Israel.

The school joined growing calls for MESA to reverse its embrace of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel, which was approved by members of the scholarly association in a vote earlier this month.

“NYU rejects and is deeply disappointed by the Middle East Studies Association’s recently passed resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israel,” university spokesperson John Beckman said in a statement issued Wednesday. “NYU’s opposition to academic boycotts is longstanding and is grounded in the belief that academic boycotts are at odds with the principles of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas.”

Beckman also cited several examples of NYU’s opposition to BDS, going as far back as 2013, when President David McLaughlin expressed “disappointment, disagreement, and opposition” to an American Studies Association’s resolution to boycott Israel. NYU rejected BDS again in 2016 after it was endorsed by the NYU Graduate Student Union, and in 2018, when the NYU Student Government Assembly passed a pro-BDS resolution accusing Israel of “ongoing violation of [Palestinians’] human rights.”

“For the sake of academic freedom, we urge MESA to reconsider its ill-advised resolution,” Beckman continued.

Last Thursday, Brandeis University said the association’s support for BDS has led it to dissociate from it “as a matter of principle,” while a leading civil liberties group, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), voiced concerns about restrictions on “the free exchange of ideas.”

MESA has not responded to The Algemeiner’s requests for comment on universities, including Florida State University, that have ended their memberships since the vote to consider an Israel boycott was first initiated last year.

Amid Terror Wave in Israel, New York BDS Group Calls to ‘Globalize Intifada’ at Rally

Amid the ongoing terror wave that has killed nearly a dozen Israelis in the past week, a pro-BDS group in New York City held a rally in front of the offices of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) on Wednesday urging to “globalize the intifada.”

During the event, the leader of the group Nerdeen Kiswani, who heads the group Within Our Lifetime (WOL), led the chant ”from New York to Palestine, globalize the intifada,” in what can be perceived as a call to conduct acts of terror against Israelis or Jews in other places around the world.

Attendees there chanted: “There is only one solution, intifada revolution” and “whose streets? Our streets!”

WOL also handed out a map to participants with 10 specific addresses of Jewish and Zionist NGOs and foundations across New York City.

Videos from the event were uploaded to WOL’s Instagram account, which was briefly suspended last month by Instagram for glorifying a female PFLP terrorist in a post celebrating International Women’s Day on March 8. Not long afterwards, the social media account was reinstated.

In addition to Palestinian flags, at least three attendees were flying the flag of the Israel-designated terror group Samidoun, which is affiliated with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP)—a US-designated foreign terror group.

MEMRI: NYC Pro-Palestinian Rally: Zionist Professors Should Be Banned from Colleges

On March 30, 2022, several pro-Palestinian organizations held a Land Day march in New York City. In video footage posted on DataInput on Twitter, protesters chanted “We don’t want no two states, we want all of it,” and “No justice, no peace.” Fatima Mohammed of the CUNY Law Students for Justice in Palestine said that the same forces who are bombing people in Yemen and incarcerating black people in America are killing Palestinians. She urged the crowd to demand that “Zionist” professors be banned from college campuses and that “Zionist” students not be allowed in the same “spaces” as Palestinians. Mohammed also explained that this is because Zionism is a “genocidal threat to us.” In addition, she said that the Ukraine crisis has taught Americans the meaning of occupation and genocide and the meaning of defending one's land “by any means necessary.”

However, Mohammed added, “we are the ones who can’t defend our lands,” and she said that in “this Islamophobic and genocidal country” people cannot rely on the media or government to find their will to fight. Nerdeen Kiswani of Within Our Lifetime led the crowd in chants of “From the River to the Sea Palestine, will be free.” For more information about Nerdeen Kiswani and Within Our Lifetime,

Edwin Black: Ben & Jerry’s tries to force Food Apartheid

By way of history, for centuries, Judea and Samaria were the essence of Jewish identity. The very word “Jewish” arises from the land’s name, Judea. In 1948, after the newly independent British protectorate Jordan illegally invaded Israel, Jordanian-occupied territory became known as “the West Bank,” referring to the left bank of the Jordan River. For generations, Jewish Zionists were known worldwide as “Palestinians,” even at the United Nations.

Meanwhile, during the first six decades of the 20th century, Arabs in Jewish Palestine vehemently denied a land called Palestine, or that a people called Palestinians even existed—precisely because Palestinians were Zionists. After Jordan invaded Israel, local Arabs resolved in three major conferences—held in Hebron, Jericho and Ramallah— to deny themselves any independent national identity, choosing instead to become citizens of Jordan. Winston Churchill invented the previously never-existent country of Jordan by issuing a mere memo—known as the Trans-Jordan Memorandum—to the League of Nations on Sept. 16, 1922.

In 1964, after the Arab League, in concert with the Soviet KGB, formed the Palestinian Liberation Organization, the Jewish identity as “Palestinian” was co-opted by local Arabs as part of a Soviet-inspired agitation campaign. There is no record of any local, international or diplomatic document, and no headline, signage or name usage where Arabs of the area are called Palestinians or called themselves Palestinians—an identity they reviled. In the 1967 Six-Day War, Israel regained its original territory, and name confusion set in on a global basis.

Fast forward to the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, originally started by Hitler’s Nazis, adopted by the Reich-allied Arab Higher Committee during World War II and then extended post-war by the re-constituted Arab League. A generation of misinformed, misguided activists perpetuated a false ethos and false facts to uproot a democratic government and a historic people by any means—from belligerence to boycott to food apartheid.

Despite the hate-mongering by Ben & Jerry’s board and the hate specialists at the 21st century United Nations, Judea and Samaria are not occupied territories. They are disputed territories, yes—but about 61 percent is internationally recognized as approved for Israeli control and presence, namely Area C, by virtue of the globally accepted Oslo Accords.

To fight back against Ben & Jerry’s corporate headquarters and Unilever, Zinger has recruited some of the most accomplished civil rights and corporate misconduct attorneys on the planet. These include constitutional law legend Nathan Lewin, civil-rights crusader Alyza Lewin of the Brandeis Center, Brandeis Center vice chair Rachel Lerman, Israeli issues advocate Marc Zell, former New Jersey Assistant Attorney General Edward J. Dauber and New Jersey commercial superlawyer Linda G. Harvey.

Ben and Jerry thought they could control who gets to eat what in the Holy Land. To borrow from their famous flavors, these two half-baked chunky monkeys may discover that a very rocky road lies ahead.

Beinart Is Back at New York Times With Column Assailing Defense Contractor Work as Unethical

Peter Beinart is back at the New York Times. Or, perhaps it’s more accurate to say that, while Beinart lost his “contributing opinion writer” status, the Times has kept publishing the formerly-Zionist journalist’s articles at pretty much the same steady pace as it did before.

Beinart has been described by the Times itself as “perhaps the community’s prime apostate… once a hawkish New Republic editor who now favors a single binational state — rather than a Jewish nation-state — an observant Jew who during the conflict in May made his call for Israel to permit the full return of Palestinian refugees in the name of teshuvah, the atonement required of all Jews every year before Yom Kippur.”

Since April 28, 2021, when The Algemeiner reported that the New York Times was stripping Peter Beinart of his “contributing opinion writer” status and downgrading his work to the opinion page category of “guest essay,” Beinart has published in the New York Times just about as frequently.

Between October 6, 2020, when he was promoted to “contributing opinion writer,” and April 28, 2021, when the Times made its “bye-bye Beinart” announcement, Beinart had six articles in the Times — a rate of nearly one a month. In the 11 months since then, he’s published an additional seven New York Times articles, and in that same span he’s also been quoted as a source in at least one Times article and cited as an authority in at least two others. It’s about as much Beinart as before he went “bye-bye.”

When Times editorial page editor Kathleen Kingsbury cut back the list of contributing opinion writers, she claimed that “a smaller roster of regular contributors will allow space for even more outside views.” Alas for Times readers, in Beinart’s case, no such luck.

To Stop Online Hate, Big Tech Must Let Those Being Targeted Lead the Way

Billions of people log onto social media platforms every day. As we spend an increasing portion of our lives online, our exposure to hate-based content becomes routine. The Anti-Defamation League’s 2021 survey of hate and harassment on social media found that 41 percent of Americans experienced online harassment, while 27 percent experience severe harassment, which includes sexual harassment, stalking, physical threats, swatting, doxing, and sustained harassment. We are inundated with conspiracy theories, scams, misinformation, or racist speech that frustrate users — or, worse, threaten our safety.

One way technology companies can create safer and more equitable online spaces is to moderate content more consistently and comprehensively. Tech companies have been frequently criticized for inconsistently enforcing their stated policies at the scale of billions of users, causing seismic levels of harm. It is unclear how content moderation teams are trained to recognize and address various forms of hate, such as antisemitism. Their training materials or even operational definitions have not been made public or shared privately with civil society. Additionally, as tech companies increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to remove offensive posts on social media platforms, we have no idea whether the perspective of targets of online hate is used to create these technologies.

For example, evidence from the leaked Facebook documents submitted by whistleblower Frances Haughen to the SEC in 2021 suggest that the haphazard way automated content moderation technologies are developed are overbroad in their understanding of hate and ineffective. The document states that current automated methods are removing “less than 5% of all of the hate speech posted to Facebook.” Furthermore, studies have shown that algorithms that detect hate speech online can often be racially biased.

Security Guard at Ohio Jewish Day School Charged With Making Terroristic Threats

Authorities in Columbus, Ohio, have charged a man who threatened to commit a mass shooting at a Jewish day school with making terroristic threats, according to local reports.

On Friday, a CBS affiliate reported that Thomas Develin photographed himself holding a semi-automatic handgun, and posted the image on social media with the caption, “I’m at a Jewish school and about to make it everyone’s problem … This playground is about to turn into a self-defense situation.”

Develin, who said in a second post that he “wanted to shoot parents coming to pick up their children,” made the posts while working security at Columbus Torah Academy.

Arraigned on Friday, Develin’s bond is set at $1 million.

“For a security guard at a Jewish school to allegedly make deadly, terroristic threats is unthinkable,” commented the regional Anti-Defamation League division.

“For millennia, Jews have been threatened, intimidated, and persecuted,” the ADL continued. “This is yet another sobering reminder that antisemitism left unchecked breeds extremism and violence. Antisemitism has no place in Columbus, Ohio, or anywhere.”

Columbus Torah Academy told WBNS 10 that the campus faces no immediate threat. On Friday, the Columbus Division of Police assigned officers to the campus to supplement its security forces.

Defendants named:
- Hackensack Board of Education
- former Board of Ed. President Lancelot Powell
- 2 employees of the district (Julio Morel, fellow asst. principal at Hackensack Middle & Michael DeOrio, English teacher at Hackensack Middle)

More: https://t.co/yBhXq2N4ND
— StopAntisemitism.org (@StopAntisemites) April 2, 2022

Israeli-German Sci-Fi Series Set to Film at Space Center in Israel’s Negev Simulating Life on Mars

Israeli and German networks have given the green light to a new live-action series about a group of teens who attempt to fly to Mars, only to land in the wrong place and be cut off from communication with Earth, Deadline reported.

DreaMars is being filmed in the first space simulation center in Israel, which simulates life on the Red Planet. The facility is in the area of the Ramon Crater (Makhtesh Ramon) in the southern Negev desert.

The 20-part series for teenagers is set in 2045 and focuses on a group of eight teens who go on a critical mission to Mars but fail — having only a few hours left before the electricity in their space suits runs out. The lead character is Emma, whose older sister was killed in a prior, failed space mission. She goes on the trip under a false identity and, together with the space minister’s daughter, helps the rest of the crew discover the truth about the previously failed expedition.

The show will air in 2023 on Israeli network HOT’s kids channel Zoom and Germany’s KiKA, and is a co-production between STORYZ Productions, SKLAN&KA, SAMKA and German broadcasters NDR, HR, SWR and RBB, Deadline reported.

Israeli Actor Michael Aloni on ‘Jewish Revenge’ at US Premiere of ‘Plan A’ Film About Holocaust Survivors’ Plot Against Germans

Israeli actor Michael Aloni and the filmmakers behind his post-World War II-era film “Plan A” discussed moral justice, revenge and antisemitism during the movie’s US premiere in New York City on Thursday night.

“Plan A” is based on the true story of young Holocaust survivors and Jewish vigilantes in 1945 who formed a group called Nakam, which is the Hebrew word for revenge. They plotted to avenge the murder of 6 million Jews by the Nazis by killing 6 million Germans, in a scheme — called Plan A — to poison the country’s drinking water.

Aloni stars as Michael, a member of Israel’s Haganah — the main Zionist paramilitary organization of Jews in pre-state Israel — who attempts to stop Nakam before they carry out their plan. The film was written and directed by Israeli brothers Yoav and Doron Paz.

In a panel discussion after the film’s screening on Thursday night at The Temple Emanu-El Streicker Center, Aloni said his character was a way to honor to his grandfather, who was a partisan in Poland.

“My own personal family history dates back to kind of exactly the same point,” he explained. “My mom, when she watched this movie, she was very excited and brought up in tears because for her its kind of like a way to glorify the memory of my grandfather. He was a partisan in Poland that stayed after the war and was also a professor for international law. He was a representative in the Nuremberg Trials where he received the SS officers, recognized each and every one of them, and sat through all the trials.”

Doron said he and Yoav conceived of the idea for the film after learning about a friend’s grandfather who, after surviving the Holocaust, located the neighbor that informed the Nazis about him and his family — and then killed him.

“Me and Yoav thought about the story and started thinking, ‘Wow this is an amazing personal revenge story,'” Doron said. “Once we started diving into the research and read about the revenge side of the Holocaust, we encountered the story about Plan A and this blew our mind because it wasn’t a personal revenge story, it was a national revenge story. And then on the spot, me and Yoav decided this is going to be our next movie.”

An Israeli Arab, Amir Zoabi is leading the laboratory at #Israel's "Shining star" field hospital in #Ukraine. Watch: pic.twitter.com/Kbeek4nVjj
— Emily Schrader - ????? ?????? (@emilykschrader) April 2, 2022