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Thursday, November 30, 2023

JTA reports:
Nearly 50 days after Hamas’ attack on Israel left 1,200 dead, and after weeks of criticism over its silence about allegations of sexual violence during the attack, the  women’s rights group UN Women issued a statement condemning the terror group on Friday.

Then it deleted the post.

“We condemn the brutal attacks by Hamas on October 7 and continue to call for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages,” read the initial statement, posted on UN Women’s instagram page. It was soon replaced with a statement that dropped the condemnation of Hamas and only called for the release of the hostages.

Reached for comment, UN Women told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that the Instagram post had been scheduled in advance and was deleted because the message in it no longer reflected where the organization wanted to put its main focus.

Here is the initial post and what replaced it.

It is pretty obvious that the real reason they took down the post condemning Hamas is that there are a lot of Hamas fans in the UN that were upset.. 

CNN anchor Bianna Golodryga asked UN Women Deputy Executive Director Sarah Hendriks why they couldn't specifically call out Hamas atrocities. Her response was a word salad about independent investigations that didn't come close to answering the question.


This is all a way to say that UN Women doesn't care about Israeli women victims of war. And it isn't only from October 7 - Hamas sent thousands of rockets all over Israel and women were the targets of those attacks as well. Today there was a terror attack that murdered two women in Jerusalem. Where is UN Women?

UN Women has published about 16 posts on Instagram specifically calling to protect Gazans without mentioning or even hinting at Israeli victims. It cannot be bothered to call out Israeli victims or to condemn Hamas. 

But perhaps there is a UN organ that is even worse.

The UN has an Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict. It's X account is named @EndRapeInWar. If any UN organization should condemn the brutal rapes and sexual assaults against Israeli women on October 7, this should be the one.

It hasn't said a word.

The message is clear: Israeli and Jewish women are not a concern to the UN. On the contrary: it actively tries to hide and obfuscate the violence that is  aimed specifically at them by Palestinian terror groups.  





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Who said this?
The Zionist entity knows no mercy and violates all humanitarian laws by killing children.

The Zionist entity does not abide by any international laws, and it seems that this entity came in contravention of international laws and built the state on crimes and blood.

The occupying entity does not know the language of peace, negotiations, and laws, and only knows killing, blood, and committing massacres against civilians.
Sounds like Hamas, doesn't it?

But it is actually a quote from Dr. Haitham Abu Saeed,  Permanent Special Representative of the International Human Rights Commission to the United Nations in Geneva, speaking on the Arabic DMC channel.

When "human rights" NGO statements are indistinguishable from those of international terror organizations, there is something seriously wrong. with this world.




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Wednesday, November 29, 2023


It looks like this letter was written within a week or two after October 7. I randomly looked up several of the 300 signatories and all of them are real legal experts, at major law schools. 

Public Statement by International Law Experts

On October 7th, 2023, over a thousand terrorists, members of Hamas and the Islamic Jihad, infiltrated and captured civilian villages and towns in Israel, as well as a number of military bases. The terrorists massacred over 1300 people, including women, children, elderly people and young adults who were celebrating at an outdoor party.  Thousands of people were severely wounded. The numbers of those slaughtered are still not final, and details about the magnitude of the atrocities are still unfolding. These acts constitute gross violation of international law, and, in particular, of international criminal law.  As these widespread, horrendous acts appear to have been carried out with an “intent to destroy, in whole or in part” a national group – Israelis – a goal explicitly declared by Hamas, they most probably constitute an international crime of genocide, proscribed by the Genocide Convention and the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

In addition to those murdered and wounded, it is estimated that over 150 people were kidnapped and taken hostage. The majority of the hostages are civilians, and they include Israeli as well as non-Israeli citizens. Among those abducted there are women, children, infants, elderly people in need of medical care and people with disabilities. According to media reports, some kidnapped persons were murdered following their abduction. Videos, released mostly by Hamas, posted on social media, document acts of torture, sexual violence, violence towards children and molestation of bodies. Hamas leader Salah Al-Arouri and Abu Obeida, spokesman of Izz ad-Din al-Kassam confirmed that they were holding Israeli abductees. No information has been provided regarding the current location, status and condition of hostages. They are being held without any communication with the outside world, and the ICRC has not had access to them.  There is every reason to believe that their lives and basic rights are under immediate threat of the gravest nature.  

War Crimes

International law prohibits the taking of hostages, defined in the International Convention Against the Taking of Hostages as seizing or detaining and threatening to kill, to injure or to continue to detain another person “in order to compel a third party, namely, a State, an international intergovernmental organization, a natural or juridical person, or a group of persons, to do or abstain from doing any act as an explicit or implicit condition for the release of the hostage”. The customary international law prohibition on the taking of hostages applies both to international armed conflicts and to non-international armed conflicts. It thus applies to the armed conflict between Israel and Hamas.  

The taking of hostages is defined as a war crime, including by article 8 (2) (c) (iii)of the Rome Statue, reflecting customary international law. The laws pertaining to the holding of prisoners of war do not apply to terrorist organizations. Thus, holding both civilian and soldier hostages constitutes a war crime. The circumstances surrounding the kidnapping of all hostages, civilian and soldiers, reveals that they were taken with the purpose of holding them hostage. Hamas must release all hostages immediately.

In addition to taking hostages, according to information posted on social media and testimonials of survivors, members of Hamas deliberately targeted their attacks against large numbers of civilians, committing murder, torture, rape, mutilation and molestation of bodies. Each of these acts constitutes a war crime, for which perpetrators must bear full accountability.

Crimes Against Humanity

Crimes against humanity refers to acts conducted as part of a “widespread or systematic attack directed against a civilian population”. The acts that may constitute crimes against humanity include, among others, enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence and persecution. The abduction of people without provision of information regarding their whereabouts constitutes the crime of enforced disappearances. Furthermore, available information indicates that many abductees were tortured by their captors.  These acts were multiply committed by Hamas towards the hostages in execution of its policy to attack civilians, and thus constitute crimes against humanity, for which perpetrators must bear full accountability.

Pending the release of hostages, Hamas must provide under international law information regarding the hostages, including their medical condition, and provide them with the necessary medical care. International law imposes additional particular duties of care towards women and children.

It is the legal and moral duty of all states to act swiftly to halt these crimes.

The international community, including all states and relevant international organizations, must take all measures necessary to ensure immediate release of all hostages held by Hamas. Any delay in action will result in more loss of human life and aggravated human suffering.

Pending release of the abductees, all states must demand Hamas to immediately provide clear information as to the actual whereabouts and condition of all abductees.

Pending release, humanitarian organizations, including the ICRC and all relevant UN agencies should demand from Hamas to provide them with access to the abductees. These organizations must also do their utmost to ensure that essential foodstuff and appropriate medical treatment are provided.

Pending release, all states should use all available means to support Israel, the ICRC and all other relevant organizations and states to gain access to the abductees and to receive information about their fate and whereabouts. Such assistance should include, at the least, providing all possible logistical assistance and available intelligence and supporting relevant diplomatic efforts.

Without derogating from the duty to demand the immediate and unconditional release of all abductees, all states and international organization have a duty to use all available means at their disposal in order to pressure Hamas to give precedence to the immediate release of those abductees who belong to specially protected groups: children, women, older persons, people with disabilities and those in need of medical treatment.


Isn't it interesting that  the media has so few articles that mention these self-evident points?

And isn't it equally interesting that open letters that accuse Israel of "genocide" or other crimes get far more publicity than letters like this one?

No legal expert can seriously contest anything written here. Which is a large reason why we have never heard anything about it. 

(h/t JW)




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Christmas is canceled in Bethlehem, and Jews are to blame.

That's the message from the Washington Post's Ishaan Tharoor:
In Bethlehem, Christmas is canceled. Palestinian Christian leaders across denominations in the West Bank city decided last week that they will forgo all festivities this year as a mark of solidarity with their brethren in Gaza. There will be no public celebrations, no twinkling Christmas lights and no decorated tree in Manger Square — not as long, they say, as a state of war reigns over the embattled Gaza Strip, and the majority of its residents cope with Israeli bombardments, the devastation of their homes and a spiraling humanitarian crisis.

“This is madness,” Munther Isaac, pastor of Bethlehem’s Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, told me. “This has become a genocide with 1.7 million people displaced.”

But what about Hamas? Oh, they're pretty cool, according to Isaac:

 The delegation’s members condemned Hamas’s actions and deplored its killing of innocent civilians and abduction of hostages. But they questioned Israel’s declared intention to wipe out an organization that is part of the fabric of Palestinian society and seen as a standard-bearer of resistance to decades of Israeli military occupation and domination. “As horrifying as October 7 was, things did not start there,” Isaac said. “And you cannot just begin the story from there and as such, give a green light for Israel to do what it’s doing right now, which goes way beyond, which is a revenge campaign.”
In other words, empty words of condemnation for generic violence on both sides is the worst that Hamas can expect from these Palestinian Christian leaders.

Why? Because Palestinian Christian leaders are antisemitic on a theological as well as deeply emotional level. 

The churches in Jerusalem issued a statement on October 7  that didn't condemn Hamas, but instead implied that Israel was responsible for all violence, using the standard keywords of "justice and respect for human rights" which are only applied to Israel. 

They didn't even hint at the pogrom before first blaming Israel for violating the "status quo" in Jerusalem - another dog-whistle for Jews visiting the Temple Mount. 

Compare this wishy-washy, passive-voiced, both-sides call for ending hostilities with their sharply phrased condemnation of the "criminal attack" on the Al Ahli Baptist Hospital, which is obviously worded to blame Israel ("Military Forces") even though it was actually done by Islamic Jihad:


While the churches in Jerusalem, Bethlehem and Gaza pretend to care about all human lives, Jewish lives really don't matter to them. 

And that is because they are doctrinally antisemitic. 

The churches in the region still espouse replacement theology, saying that all the Biblical promises to the Jews really apply to Christians (although the curses still apply only to the Jews.) The existence of Jews and Israel itself is a huge challenge to these churches. They still adhere to the worst forms of historic Christian Jew-hatred. The "Kairos Document" that they wrote concretizes this antisemitism as official Palestinian church policy that promotes supersessionism and denies any Jewish connection to the land.

This is the background that needs to be understood before examining why the churches in the region decide to "cancel Christmas" and send representatives to lobby America. Antisemitism in the region has always been at least as prevalent among Christians as it has been among Muslims. Nothing has changed theologically for those churches in their approach to Jews - we are still guilty of deicide and we are still a challenge to their very existence. 

In 1864, way before modern Zionism, an observer described how much Jerusalem's Christians hated Jews:

 On Good Friday the Jews cannot quit their own quarters, as the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians would insult and otherwise illtreat them. On some occasions the pasha has been obliged to guard the entrances of their streets with bodies of soldiers and police to protect them from the fanatical Christians, who would have made an attack upon them. No Jew, who lives at Jerusalem, dares to pass in front of the court of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, for he well knows how great a risk he runs of suffering for his curiosity. If, on an occasion like this, he were murdered, the malefactors would not be severely punished; for all the native population unfortunately hold the opinion that to injure a Jew is a work well pleasing in the sight of God. This is due to the fact that the Jews, although numerous, do not know how to make themselves respected; and to the sermons constantly delivered by the Latins, Greeks, and Armenians, in which the most opprobrious and unseemly epithets are heaped upon them, even in the churches themselves, and of course still more in less sacred places. These are all believed by the faithful, who are thus excited by their priests to insult all whom they meet. Again, the poorer Jews when going or returning from pilgrimages between Jerusalem and Hebron, avoid passing through Bethlehem to escape the insults which the "good Christians" of that place, excited by their monks, always inflict upon them. 

And that is the problem with all coverage of  Israel. Antisemitism, both Christian and Muslim, has permeated the region for hundreds of years before modern Zionism. The worst insult an Arab could call another has always been "Jew." 

Nothing has changed for Palestinian Christians since then. They are taught the exact same hate, lately refined by specifically anti-Israel "liberation theology." . They have not accepted the 1965 Nostra Aetate of the Vatican that re-evaluated the relationship between the church and Jews. Palestinian Arabs, both Christian and Muslim, rank among the most antisemitic people on Earth. 

It may not be politically correct to call all Palestinians antisemitic, but every survey shows that the overwhelming majority indeed are. Ignoring that is ignoring the very foundation of the conflict.  And covering, say, a visit by Palestinian Christians to the US without acknowledging this hatred is simply another dimension of antisemitism itself - because to deny the long history of Palestinian antisemitism is to excuse it. 

Munther Isaac is entirely correct when he says, "As horrifying as October 7 was, things did not start there." They started long before October 7, with historic Arab prejudice against Jews that remains a constant through today. 






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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Noon is a Saudi-based e-commerce site, much like Amazon, that markets and sells a wide variety of items. 

Over the past couple of days, Arabic media have been asking the question: does Noon support the Jews or not?



The answer given is yes, Noon does support "Jews" and therefore must be anti-Palestinian. 

This may sound surprising, especially since its website homepage says solicits funds for Gaza and offers multiple ways it will donate to Gaza charities.



So what's going on?

It turns out that the founder and owner of much of Noon, Mohamed Alabbar, is a billionaire business tycoon. His company also owns the Burj al-Khalifa Tower in the UAE. 

In 2021, it was revealed that he, together with four other mega-rich people, donated $170 million to feed poor people in Israel between 2003 and 2021. Alabbar himself only started donating in 2018 so his share was significantly less.

Donating to the "hungry in Israel" means that probably half of the funds would go to the Arab community there. 

This charity towards Arabs and Jews in Israel is now being spun as "supporting the Jews" or "funding Israel's war" or being "anti-Palestinian."

It is pretty clear that Arabs who boycott a company because its owner gives charity to poor Jews and Muslims in Israel are all antisemitic. 

Levels of antisemitism have been rising steeply over the past seven weeks, and Arabs are in for forefront of that bigotry. 

There is a cottage industry in Arabic media trying to determine which multinational companies support Israel, by their own bizarre standards. Cinnabon does not but Dunkin Donuts does - because someone took a photo of a donut with a blue Star of David on it.  Dominos Pizza does but Nike does not. (Actually, Nike has a store in Tel Aviv. Sorry, boycotters.)




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Tuesday, November 28, 2023

By Daled Amos

Varda Meyers Epstein lives in Eretz Yisrael and contributes to the Elder of Ziyon blog under the pseudonym Judean Rose. I wanted to get her perspective on the repercussions we are seeing in the wake of October 7.


Judean Rose


In the 2 weeks following the Hamas Massacre on October 7, there was a 400% increase in antisemitism, according to the ADL. Were you surprised by the breadth and intensity of these antisemitic protests and their violence?

No. I was not surprised, only sad. I’m sad that there was no other way for Diaspora Jewry to understand that this is still with us, other than for October 7th to happen. Now they understand and it’s heartbreaking. We feel it. They feel it, too.


What do you think caused this ferocity?

It was a powder keg getting ready to blow. When Hamas did what it did on October 7th, the call went out to make excuses for this in the context of supposed Israeli occupation and oppression, which of course is delusional propaganda. But the West that wants to hate Jews doesn’t care to examine things any too closely.


Do you think there is anything that can be done?

No. But while I don’t believe in boycotts, I do believe in individuals taking a stand against giving antisemitic actors, for example, royalties. I read about Susan Sarandon spouting falsehoods about Israel and I said to myself, “I will never watch another movie with her in it, again.”

The majority of creatives really hate the Jews. Sure, there are the actors who wrote a letter in support of Israel and against terror and antisemitism, but it’s all a numbers game. There are more haters than there are moral people on the side of right.

Protecting yourselves is another thing. If you want your Jewish child to get an education, you have to leave. It’s no longer safe for them to go to school. The hatred is no longer just on isolated college campuses. Antisemitism and antisemitic attacks have even hit elementary schools in the US and Canada.

I’m assuming you get where I think all Jews should be. I believe that were every Jew to make Aliyah today, the world would be too afraid of us to ever mess with us, again. Here too, it’s a numbers game. There needs to be more of us in Israel, since there are not more of us in the world. The terrorists, for example, are terrified of the God of Israel. When they see the Jews massing and banding together, they quake in their boots. It subdues them, and the world quiets down for a bit, maybe goes into hiding for decades. But it always returns at full force at some point.


While Israel retaliates, we have seen media bias as Israel strikes back against Hamas. But have there been any differences this time in the media? Considering the callousness of the Hamas massacre, do you think the media has been more circumspect?

No. But perhaps they get caught lying more frequently. Look how the BBC had to retract what they wrote about the al Shifa Hospital. 

They reported the exact opposite of what happened, stating as if it were fact that Israel targeted medical teams as well as Arabic speakers. Unbelievable chutzpa, or as they might say over at the Beeb: “cheek.”

I read a lot of news and listen to a lot of podcasts and talk shows. Israel is more in the news now, and I am impressed that Fox News is sympathetic to Israel. But they get so much of it wrong! Dana Perino, whom I really like, has spoken about how people are so ignorant of the history of the region, so they come to the wrong conclusions. She mentions, for example, that Israel left Gaza in 2005 and that claims of occupation are therefore imaginary.

Dana Perino



But if Perino is so knowledgeable about the region, why does she refer to Gaza as “Palestine.” One after the other, I have heard Fox news people refer to “Palestine” as if it were a thing. It is not. They get it wrong, and by doing so, they perpetuate the violence. They think they’re on the side of right, but in their smug ignorance, they are anything but. They’re spreading propaganda, thus carrying water for the other side and perpetuating falsehoods.


What do you see as the cause of this bias -- is it ignorance or maliciousness?

Malice. If it were merely ignorance, they would still be culpable for malice, because they didn’t care enough to discover the truth and were willing to smear Israel and the Jews without doing even minimal research.

There are codes of ethics for journalists. They have to follow the rules because otherwise people get hurt. But if no one is following the rules, they can get away with it, especially in a Jew-hating, Israel-hating world.


Are there any in the media you would single out, one way or the other?

By far, the BBC is the worst. 

Their blatant bias is the norm. It’s never an accident. The incident with Jeremy Bowen reporting that Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza “was flattened” is a good example. The network was forced to issue a vague apology when the story was discovered to be a complete fabrication.

Asked if he regretted the damning report, in which Bowen, citing a Hamas source, also claimed that hundreds had been killed and thousands injured, the reporter said he didn’t “feel bad at all.” He went with what the photos looked like to him at that time. Is this proper journalism? No. It’s the unspoken policy at the BBC. Make Israel the lede; make it, Israel, bleed.






What about Israel and Hasbara -- What else can be done?


I’m not big on Hasbara. I’m big on the truth, which is why I think there should be more support for independent bloggers advocating for Israel. We say things you won’t hear in the media, and right now our people are thirsty for accurate information. The best bloggers always bring reputable sources, which they link to for credibility so you can read more deeply on the subject.


The media bias parallels the overall anti-Israel propaganda that we have seen. In what areas has anti-Israel propaganda been successful?


The anti-Israel propaganda has been so rip-roaringly successful on so many levels that it’s difficult to know where to begin. But let’s start with the worst one, in my opinion, legitimizing the massacre. There is no context that makes the events of October 7th okay. Anyone who parrots such thoughts, even if they don’t really care and just want to be popular, should not be part of normative society.

Ripping down posters of captives? Why is that a thing? Because they’ve legitimized the massacre.

Why does a professor say he is "exhilarated" by the massacre? He says it to let you know that the massacre was not only legitimate but indicated. He also says it in order to normalize genocide, to laud terrorists for murdering Jews in cruel ways.


The success of this propaganda is enabled in part by the distancing of American Jews from Israel. What do you think has led to this alienation of American Jewry?


Jews are very vulnerable to Stockholm Syndrome. In order to be accepted by the predominantly non-Jewish world, they adopted beliefs antithetical to the good of their own people—of themselves. Why does any Jew call for a two-state solution? Don’t they know that the Arabs got 78% of the British Mandate for Palestine? Don’t they know that when they sing “Next year in Jerusalem” at their Passover seder they are actually affirming the right to return to their indigenous territory?


Do you think the Hamas massacre has served as a wake-up call?

Yes. Just as Kristallnacht served as a wake-up call. So tell me: why do we still need wake-up calls? When will we understand antisemitism as a permanent feature of life that can only be dealt with by strengthening Israel?





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Peter Coy is "a veteran business and economics columnist [who] unpacks the biggest headlines" at the New York Times.

Looking at world events through the prism of economics is usually a useful endeavor. But Coy, and the experts he consults, completely misread Hamas and its rationality. They are making the same mistakes that most analysts do.

In an influential article in 1995, James Fearon, a Stanford political scientist, then at the University of Chicago, showed that in most cases (not all), a rational leader should be able to clear up confusion and make decisions with sound information. Given how destructive and deadly wars are, political leaders have a strong incentive to use “diplomacy or other forms of communication to avoid such costly miscommunications,” Fearon wrote in “Rationalist Explanations for War,” which was published in the journal International Organization.

...Fearon specified three cases where leaders might miscalculate even while behaving rationally. One is where one side or the other has private information about its power or resolve and incentives to misrepresent such information to the other side. Bluffing, for example. Another is where one or both parties can’t reliably commit to an agreement to keep the peace because they have an incentive to renege on the terms. A third is where the parties can’t compromise by splitting the prize down the middle because the prize is indivisible — say, a throne that two princes are vying to occupy.

The second of the problems that Fearon highlighted, the commitment problem, comes up again and again in diplomacy, [Eli] Berman [an economist who studies war at UCSD] told me. Combatants do battle for years because neither trusts the other to abide by a peace agreement — and there’s no third party that has the power or motivation to force them to do so. The United Nations is too weak. The United States has lost interest in serving as the world’s policeman.

The decades-long failure to reach a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine is a classic example of a commitment problem. Israel resists the formation of Palestine as an independent state in the West Bank and Gaza out of fear that it would become a base for attacking and destroying Israel. And to many, attacks like the one by Hamas on Oct. 7 justify those concerns, pushing the prospect for peace even further into the distance. Each side believes that the other understands only force.
No, the Israel-Palestinian conflict is not "a classic example of a commitment problem." It is a classic example of the "indivisible prize" problem, the third situation Fearson mentions, not the second. 

The "prize" - Israel's existence - is what the conflict is about.

Hamas leaders have described their desire to eradicate Israel consistently and virtually daily since it was founded in 1987. There is no ambiguity there. They aren't trying to hide it. Hamas wants to destroy Israel and Israel doesn't want to be destroyed. There can be no compromise between the two. 

Yet these very smart people like Coy and Berman simply cannot wrap their heads around this concept. They want to look at the conflict as a "commitment problem," hoping that if only Israel would give up more, then the goodwill would be reciprocated. There is literally zero evidence that this is true - Israel already gave the Palestinians Gaza with no strings attached! -  but these academics want it to be true so badly that they ignore all the evidence.

(Fearon's article also downplays the possibility of a true indivisibility problem in real life: "the issues over which states bargain typically are complex and multidimensional; side-payments or linkages with other issues typically are possible; and in principle states could alternate or randomize among a fixed number of possible solutions to a dispute. War-prone international issues may often be effectively indivisible, but the cause of this indivisibility lies in domestic political and other mechanisms rather than in the nature of the issues themselves." That is probably true in most of the world, but certainly not with Hamas or the other Palestinian terror groups.)

Moreover, Hamas is also explicit in its other goals: to murder all the Jews in the world, and to create not a Palestinian state but a pan-Islamic 'ummah that is ruled by Islamic law. 

Given Hamas' stated aims, its leaders are indeed acting rationally. 

From an economist's perspective, Hamas miscalculated - if you assume that Hamas cares about the two million people living under its control. On October 6, the Gaza economy was the best it had been since Hamas took over the territory. There were more imports and exports from Gaza than there had been in decades. Thousands of Gazans had well-paying jobs in Israel, an experiment that appeared to be doing quite well. The "siege" was over by any objective measure. 
But Hamas is indeed rational in its irrational goal to destroy Israel and murder all Jews. Hamas never cared about its own people. Just as with Nazi Germany, murdering Jews is a higher priority than the wellbeing of its own population. Once you understand that about Hamas, everything that seems crazy makes sense. 

But doesn't Hamas at least want to survive?  Of course it does - and the hostages are its life insurance policy. Israel cannot destroy Hamas while ensuring the safety of its own people. This is all supremely rational once you understand Hamas is truly evil. 

Anyone who bothered to read its charter that is still in force would know that. 

The real question is how intelligent people can be so self-delusional as to not believe Hamas when Hamas has stated its goals and its jihadist strategy as clearly as possible for 36 years.




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

NPR's Ailsa Chang spoke with Liz Cathcart, executive director of the non-profit Hostage U.S., about "what life can be like for hostages once they’re free."

Clueless doesn't begin to describe this interview.

I'm sure that Cathcart is an earnest person who deals with Americans who are held hostage abroad for various reasons. But she clearly doesn't know anything about what the Israeli hostages went through.   

She says things like "The best story of hope that we can give is that the vast majority of cases that we deal with end with a family who is whole again, who recognizes that they went through an incredibly traumatic experience and they are built stronger and have learned coping mechanisms that they can apply to many different scenarios in their lives."

The hostage families are not whole again. Most of them have family members who were murdered. Some of them  witnessed the murder or rape of their loved ones or friends. Certainly all of them lost friends and neighbors. Many have husbands or fathers still in captivity.  They are not living in their own homes and won't be for months, and many homes were destroyed. The trauma is not just for the hostages themselves but for the other surviving members of their families, and for their entire communities who have lost so many.

Chang and Cathcart use a tone of voice indicating how much they care, but they couldn't be bothered to do even a modicum of research. They don't care. They just thought this would be a good segment, and pretending to care is what they need to do for their audience. 

The entire segment is an advertisement for Hostage US. The "advice" given is utterly useless in helping any Israeli hostage who was released, and it is tone deaf about what they went through. It trivializes the real trauma that they are continuing to go through and instead it recommends vacuous kumbaya cheerleading.

(h/t Irene)



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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Monday, November 27, 2023

Not Jordan or Pakistan - this is London.


A new survey by the Campaign Against Antisemitism is being released.

According to CAA officials, it shows that nearly half of British Jews are considering leaving the country because of the huge increase in antisemitism. 

Binyomin Gilbert, engagement manager for the group, told LBC News that "we have seen a 1300% increase in anti-Semitism" since the October 7 pogrom.

The survey also shows that 69% of British Jews say they are less likely to show visible signs of their religion.

Moreover, "more than six in 10 British Jews have either personally experienced or have witnessed an anti-Semitic incident since October 7 or that they know somebody who has."

The survey was carried out between 12th and 17th November 2023, with a total of 3,744 responses.

Gilbert continued, "This is not a situation that can continue. We have seen week after week central London become a no go zone for Jews.

"We've seen mass criminality, we've seen glorification of terrorism, support for banned terrorist organisations like Hamas and, and incitement to racial, religious hatred against Jews.

"I think the sad truth is that British Jews currently do not feel safe in our capital city.

"And it's important that we now draw a line."

During the anti-Israel demonstrations two weeks ago, the Campaign Against Antisemitism observed:

Once again, the marches featured genocidal chants, Hamas headbands, antisemitic signs comparing Israel to Nazis and others caricaturing prominent minority politicians as coconuts, and the marchers who may not have engaged in these activities knowingly and readily marched alongside those who did. They are just as complicit.

We are also aware of Jewish families being targeted on their way out of synagogue and have received multiple reports of police having to escort congregants away in groups for their own safety.

Islamist extremists, the far-left, and the far-right were out on the streets, all on one day. What a day to be a Jew in London.



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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Front Porch is an online magazine run by the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods, part of the City of Seattle.

They write, "In celebration of Native American Heritage Month, we invited journalist, Luna Reyna, to curate a series of stories to amplify and honor the people and experiences of Seattle’s Native American community." At the end of the article they write that these stories were commissioned - meaning almost certainly that seattle tax dollars were used to pay Luna Reyna toi write these articles.

One article, "Land Back from Turtle Island to Palestine," drew analogies between Native Americans and Palestinians - and is filled with antisemitic lies. 

It includes these three astonishing paragraphs in which every single sentence is a lie.

Israel is a settler colonial state that has embraced erasing the people who inhabited the pre-colonized land through violent resource extraction, environmental desecration, displacement and genocide. Israel has accomplished this through widespread dehumanization. Palestinians have been called “human beasts” and “children of darkness” who live by the “laws of the jungle,” while settlers are told they have the “right” to the land based on the Book of Genesis, resulting in at least 120,286 Palestinian people being murdered by the Israeli government and settlers in just the last 15 years.

It’s important that we acknowledge the throughline of settler colonialism globally and the impact that continues to have on the Land that each of our nations stewarded since time immemorial.

Being in solidarity with Palestinians who want to remain in their homelands does not equate to condoning the actions of Hamas or any violence. Context is also important. Hamas was created after decades of violence by the occupying Israeli government. The cruelty, violence and bloodshed of Palestinian people by the Israeli government has been unconscionable for over 75 years. It’s this occupation, the tactics of a colonial military backed by world powers, and now the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people in Gaza, that many Native people connect with. There is a direct correlation with the tactics used by the occupying Israeli government and the U.S. government to the Indigenous people of what is now the United States.
Where to begin? Israel is not settler-colonialist. Zionism is an indigenous rights movement. It is not based on promises in Genesis but on the very deep emotional  and historic attachment of Jews to the Land of Israel. Even if you accept the most absurd accusations of the Hamas government, Israel hasn't killed anything remotely close to 120,000 Palestinians in the past 15 years - or the past 75 years, for that matter - and most of those who were killed were terrorists. The ""context" given indeed justifies Hamas violence. And even the context is wrong, since anti-Jewish violence in Palestine was there long before modern Zionism. 

All of these lies are pure incitement against Jews and Judaism which centers our prayers and practices on Eretz Yisrael, the Jewish homeland that pre-dates Arab control of the area (and, indeed, Islam) by many centuries. 

If these lies and incitement were published in a college newspaper, it would be bad enough. But despite the article's disclaimer that "the opinions expressed and information contained herein do not necessarily reflect the policies, plans, beliefs, conclusions, or ideas of the City of Seattle," the fact is that this article officially commissioned by the City of Seattle is incitement against Jews and Jewish beliefs. it makes it open season on proud Jews. 

And this is not theoretical incitement. Seattle's anti-Israel rhetoric directly leads to antisemitic violence in the area.

The day after this article was published, the City Council in Seattle had a five hour meeting in which the main topic was bashing Israel. 

The day after that, a synagogue in Mercer Island right outside Seattle was desecrated and covered with anti-Israel, antisemitic graffiti.





This isn't "anti-Zionism." This is antisemitic hate. This is a hate crime against Jews. And it is all supported by the incitement that the City of Seattle not only allows but directly encourages.

Jews in Seattle are simply not safe. And instead of protecting them, the city is encouraging the attackers by justifying their hate of Jews. 

(h/t Mike Report)




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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 


Sunday, November 26, 2023

The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor is an anti-Israel NGO that pretends to care about human rights. 

We've caught them in lies many times in the past - they literally make stuff up.

Like this new press release from them:

The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor called for the formation of an independent international investigation committee into the Israeli army’s detention of the bodies of dozens of Palestinians killed during its war on the Gaza Strip since last October 7, and suspicions of the theft of organs from them....

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory documented that the army detained dead bodies from the Shifa Medical Complex in Gaza, the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip, and others from the vicinity of the displacement corridor to the center and south of the Gaza Strip, which it designated on the main Salah al-Din Road.

Euro-Med reported that the Israeli army also exhumed a mass grave that had been established more than ten days ago in one of the courtyards of the Shifa Medical Complex, and extracted the bodies of the dead from it and detained them.

The Euro-Mediterranean Observatory raised suspicions of the theft of organs from the bodies of dead people, including observations made by doctors in Gaza who conducted a quick examination of some of the bodies after their release and noticed the theft of organs such as the cornea of ​​the eye and the cochlea, and other vital organs such as the liver, kidneys and heart.
Doctors working in several hospitals told the Euro-Mediterranean team that the forensic medical examination is not sufficient to prove or deny the theft of organs, especially in light of the presence of previous surgical interventions on several bodies.
They stated that it was impossible for them to conduct an accurate analytical examination of the bodies of the dead that were being held by the Israeli army under intense air and artillery attacks and the continuing influx of wounded, but they detected several signs of possible organ theft.
Of course this is absurd. Organs are useless more than a few minutes after death (with the exception of corneas, which can still be used for a day or two under the proper conditions.) The NGO is claiming that somehow Israel exhumed bodies and then stole their organs, or took bodies that had been in the hospital morgue for who knows how long to steal organs.

There is really no limit to the lies of today's antisemites. 





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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

Saturday, November 25, 2023

From Ian:

Douglas Murray: In Israel, a long wait of hope and fear to see if their children will be freed from hell
Singing broke out on the streets of Tel Aviv last night as the first hostages arrived back home to Israel after seven weeks in the hell of Gaza.

Late last night two helicopters brought the four released children and their mothers to the children´s hospital.

Another two helicopters brought the elderly hostages to a nearby hospital.

It was one step in an agonizing waiting game this week in Israel.

At times the promise of a deal surrounding the women and children abducted on Oct. 7 seemed almost impossible.

On Wednesday night I was with the families of many hostages who had gathered in Tel Aviv to receive the news of whether their loved ones were on the lists.

At first it seemed as though all the stolen children might be in the first round of releases.

That caused both relief and fear.

The parents of 21-year old Omer, stolen from the Nova Party, were, like all the parents, relieved to hear that some hostages might be on their way back from Gaza.

But there was a cruelty in the news. Including the knowledge that their son would not be released soon.

It was already clear that Hamas were going to drag out this process like water-torture on the Israelis.

And everyone knew that the hostage release would come at a terrible price.

Three Palestinian prisoners – including people in prison for stabbing and killing Jews – were to be released for every one Israeli hostage.

It isn´t the worst deal Israel has done to get its captives home.

But still.
Seth Frantzman: Israel at war: What does Hezbollah accomplish by fighting IDF?
Essentially this meant that Tehran wanted to coalesce attacks by several groups such as Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, Palestinian Islamic Jihad as well as groups in Syria and Iraq against Israel. Iran knows it can’t defeat the Jewish state in a conventional war, but thinks it can challenge Israel by coordinating numerous types of threats against it.

Hezbollah is the strongest Iranian proxy with up to 150,000 rockets and missiles, and thousands of drones and anti-tank missiles, as well as other munitions. Iran’s own media now provides an insight into Hezbollah accomplishments over 50 days of fighting, which included daily attacks on Israel using rockets, mortars and anti-tank missiles. More recently they involved the heavy missile called “Burkan” which has a large warhead. Iran has frequently praised and highlighted these attacks.

The Iranian article at Tasnim News, which is close to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, the IRGC, says that “what is certain is that the first phase of the resistance conflict with the Zionist enemy during the Gaza war has ended, and if the Zionists resume their aggression after the end of the temporary ceasefire, we will enter the second phase of the war, which may be more severe than the first phase.”

Hezbollah has said it is ready for the next phase of the war, with the Lebanese terrorist organization’s Secretary General Naim Qassem saying that Israel “will see something from the resistance that they have not seen before,” the report said.

Hezbollah, a new front?
Hezbollah can already claim to have opened another front against Israel, and was quick to do so, likely on orders from Iran. “Hezbollah clearly declared that it will not be neutral in this war and Hezbollah fighters have fought the enemy side by side with Palestinian fighters,” Iran’s Tasnim says.

Iran has also praised Hezbollah for the volume of its attacks, which it says “caused Israelis to flee.” This refers to the 40 Israeli communities evacuated after the attacks began, including the city of Kiryat Shmona.

“In this way, it can be said that Hezbollah played a significant role in forcing the Zionist regime to accept the ceasefire,” the report said.
Israel’s Leading Investigative News Show Produces Film Series of Reports on Hamas War for Global Distribution
Israel’s top investigative and current affairs program Uvda (Fact in Hebrew) has produced a package of documentary films highlighting news reports from inside Israel covering events from the deadly Hamas massacre on Oct. 7 and Israel’s war against Hamas terrorists controlling Gaza.

The series, titled Inside Israel: This Is War, is currently comprised of seven films, each running between 20 and 30 minutes long, and is available as either individual shorts or a package. Global producer and distributor Keshet International (KI) will handle international distribution for the series, which it announced on Friday. The content will be available to different broadcasters around the world for them to buy and broadcast on their platforms or channels.

The film series includes an in-depth and first-hand look at the the Oct. 7 attacks by filmmaker and Uvda correspondent Itai Anghel, who visited Kibbutz Nir Oz, where 25 percent of the residents were kidnapped or murdered by Hamas terrorists. Anghel’s film features footage from the kibbutz’s CCTV cameras and testimonies from families of the terror victims.

Another film in the series shows how a security coordinator and her team held back the Palestinian terrorists for hours from the farming community Kibbutz Nir Am on Oct. 7, and how their bravery resulted in not a single member of the kibbutz being kidnapped or murdered that day.

In Be’eri’s Nurse, investigative reporter Ben Shani visits Kibbutz Be’eri, which was almost completely burnt down by Hamas terrorists and had a third of its members either kidnapped or killed. He also speaks to survivors of the kibbutz, including a nurse, who were evacuated to a hotel near the Dead Sea that has been turned into a refugee camp.

“We have hand-picked this package of films with our colleagues at Keshet 12 and Uvda, following requests from our clients for in-depth reporting from inside Israel on the horrifying events of October 7th,” said Kelly Wright, KI’s MD of distribution. “Produced by Uvda‘s internationally recognized team of award-winning filmmakers, these reports offer a different perspective from foreign news coverage — one more focused on the individuals affected by these devastating attacks, and their personal stories of bravery, resilience, and trauma. We hope these films will give international viewers a greater understanding of the devastating impact of October 7th attacks on the people of Israel.”

Uvda is Israel’s longest–running long-form news magazine show, reporting on both domestic and international topics. It first aired in 1993 and is produced for Israel’s television channel Keshet 12.

KI said that as Uvda continues to report on the Israel-Hamas war, more reports will be included in the Inside Israel: This Is War package.


13 Israelis, including 8 kids, freed by Hamas after 50 days as Gaza hostages

LIVEBLOG: 2nd group of hostages handed over to Red Cross, arrive in Sinai

Emily Hand, 9, Irish-Israeli girl whose family was initially told was killed

Yahel Haran, 3, and 5 members of her wider family freed; her father still held in Gaza

Hila Rotem, 13, released without her mother Raya, who is still a Hamas captive

Noam and Alma Or released after 50 days, as father and cousin still captive in Gaza

Maya Regev released after 50 days in Gaza, while brother Itai still captive

In photos and videos, first freed hostages hold emotional reunions with families

'There wasn’t a dry eye in the hospital’ as hostages reunite with family
According to hospital staff at Wolfson Medical Centre, there wasn’t a dry eye in the room as some families were reunited with loved ones who were taken hostage by the terror group Hamas.

CNN reporter Oren Liebermann said the five elderly women who were released in the first group of hostages held by Hamas were given a private area of the Wolfson Medical Center.

“As they came in, they have been receiving medical checks and that includes their physical condition but also their mental conditions for nearly 50 days of captivity at the hands of Hamas,” Mr Liebermann told Sky News Australia.

“They have been given a special area of the hospital which is secluded so they can maintain their privacy and that’s for the freed hostages and their families,” he said.

It comes as two dozen hostages who were held for almost seven weeks at the hands of Hamas were released from captivity under a temporary truce on Friday afternoon (local time).




Kibbutz Nir Oz Welcomes Release of Filipino Caretaker of Murdered Israeli

Red Cross shows clear anti-Israel bias, Jerusalem Institute of Justice claims

Israel threatens to renew war after Hamas delays release of hostages

Hamas Stalls Release of Second Group of Hostages, Israel Sets Deadline to Resume Military Operations

How feminists have failed Israeli victims of sexual violence

Matthew Levitt: Hezbollah Terrorist Cells in America - Danger Close with Jack Carr
Today’s guest is counterterrorism and intelligence expert, Matthew Levitt.

Matthew is a Fromer-Wexler Fellow at The Washington Institute and the director of its Jeanette and Eli Reinhard Program on Counterterrorism and Intelligence. He previously worked as deputy assistant secretary for intelligence and analysis at the U.S. Department of the Treasury and as a counterterrorism intelligence analyst at the FBI.

He has also held fellowships with the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and with the Center for Cyber and Homeland Security at George Washington University. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and serves as a member of the international advisory board for both the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism in Israel and the International Centre for Political Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore. Matthew serves on the advisory board of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance and formerly served on the academic advisory board for the Emirati Center for Strategic Studies and Research.

Matthew’s writings on the Middle East, terrorism, illicit finance and sanctions have appeared in publications including The Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, and Foreign Policy.

He is the author of Hamas: Politics, Charity, and Terrorism in the Service of Jihad, Negotiating Under Fire: Preserving Peace Talks in the Face of Terror Attacks, and Hezbollah: The Global Footprint of Lebanon's Party of God. He is also the host of the BREAKING HEZBOLLAH'S GOLDEN RULE podcast.




Miss Universe judge hit with death threats after debate against Palestinian activist

Montrealers share their thoughts on the anti-Israel protest
On November 22, questions were asked to citizens on Saint-Catherine Street in Montreal, where one person stated, 'Hamas is a terrorist organization, but the word terrorism has been manipulated a lot over the last 20 years. So there's no excuse for the attack of October 7th, and there's no excuse for trying to wipe out everyone that lives in Gaza.'




Greta Thunberg Takes the Mask Off Fully, as She Chants to 'Crush Zionism' at Disturbing Rally

Teen Disney channel actress is arrested for vandalizing Israeli company's offices in New Hampshire

Palestine protesters defy hate speech warning banners: Thousands march on London shouting controversial 'from the river to the sea' chant - as seven are arrested

That will stop them! Met unveils bizarre plan to hand out LEAFLETS to pro-Palestine activists explaining what protest phrases might break the law when chanted or displayed at marches

Gigi Hadid DELETES 'anti-Semitic' post claiming Israel is 'only country that keeps children as prisoners of war' - while Israeli kids are still kept captive by Hamas - and calls terrorist who tried to murder Jews a POW

Pro-Israel teacher hides in Queens high school as ‘radicalized’ students riot: ‘They want her fired’

'Free Palestine' protesters interrupt  Nantucket Christmas tree lighting with president and his family: Biden is accused of 'genocide' at event with Jill, Hunter and baby Beau

Anti-Israel Protesters Disrupt Black Friday Shopping Across the Country

Comic Relief chief Eric Salama quits over charity's Gaza ceasefire stance which he thought was 'profoundly wrong' and that he 'could not live with'

Video of Massive Terror Complex Under Al Shifa Hospital Makes Media Look Ridiculous

Switzerland to Ban Hamas as ‘Terrorist Organization’ and Support Israel’s ‘Right to Self-Defense’

'Jordan is Palestine,' claims Dutch far-right senior politician Geert

Israeli-owned ship attacked by Iranian drone in Indian Ocean

Hamas executes three West Bank Palestinians for 'spying for Israel'

Palestinians in ‘West Bank’ Celebrate Terrorists Release By Hanging Alleged Collaborators While Waving Hamas Flags
Context: Yom Kippur War, By 24 October, the Israelis had improved their positions considerably and completed their encirclement of the Egyptian Third Army and Suez City, bringing them within 100 kilometres (62 mi) of the Egyptian capital of Cairo. This development led to dangerously heightened tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union, and a second ceasefire was imposed cooperatively on 25 October 1973, to officially end the war.






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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424. 

Read all about it here!

 

 

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