Elder of Ziyon 11/11 Links Pt2: David Collier: Amnesty and the left wing media, finally spill the truth; CNN Features Anti-Semite Lawrence Wilkerson; UAE and Israel building a better future for children
The removal of tentsWe know all of these reports are lies. Last week I reported on the deception. Since then both Honest Reporting and CAMERA have produced articles exposing the depth of media lies. Israel advocacy movement also published a video dealing with the deception and focusing on the outrageous 'ethnic cleansing' claims of Ilhan Omar.
We all know there was no village. Instead there was a few tents, an outpost, placed illegally inside a military firing zone. Khirbet Humsa is in an area that the Palestinians agreed would be under full Israeli control. The tents were placed their illegally There were seven of them It is a military zone The grazing outpost is new – it was only created *after* Israel had declared this area out of bounds There is no village These Beduin took their case to court and lost – they were told they had no legal right to remain They have been moved dozens of times before These people know they have no legal property rights there They also know they are lying when they say they have lived there forever Nobody gave them just 'ten minutes' to move – the authorities have been sending them notices for YEARS. They chose to ignore it all.This is an illegal outpost. Put up provocatively in a military area. Military land v sheep is not new or restricted to Israel. There are examples the world over. Farmer (Romania), finds good grazing land – builds without permits – has to move on. Yada yada yada. Farmers (UK) need to move off land when firing exercises take place – yada yada yada. Military orders (Sth Korea) expel an ACTUAL village (not imaginary one) – yada yada yada.
The misreporting raises another issue. This from the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs:
We condemn the recent demolition of 4 homes in the occupied Palestinian Territories by the Israeli authorities.
This essential infrastructure was built with Belgian funding. Our country asks Israel for compensation or restitution for the destructions.
Apparently these people receive funding and supplies from the EU. How on earth are members of the EU justifying sending funding to illegal outposts in Area C – an area under full Israeli control? This is the relevant question our media will never ask. How our irresponsible media support the conflict
Here is an ABC question.If every time that a Palestinian illegally sites a tent – even in a closed military area – Israel receives negative headline press for removing it – what do you think the outcome would be?
Hence, because our own media are tripping over themselves to publish any disinformation about Israel that they can, they enable and empower those seeking to toxify the atmosphere even further. Would these families still have deliberately sought out this ongoing confrontation (which they did) if the media were not eager to print this story?
We know that there are anti-Israel provocateurs looking for trouble in areas such as the Jordan valley. Just as we are aware the livelihood of some NGOs is dependant on frequent tensions. These are all shady groups with little or no accountability.
Our media are different. As there are real consequences to the swallowing of lies and anti-Israel propaganda that openly encourages further actions of the type – we should hold them to account for the part they play. This relationship between an anti-Israel media and willing actors inside Area 'C' is rarely fully understood.
The greatest comic book you'll read this year doesn't feature a band of intergalactic avengers staving off alien invaders. It has nothing to do with raging green beasts or playboy billionaire inventors or Norse gods locked in sibling rivalry. Unlike anything by Marvel or DC, this one isn't bloated and flashy—it's 11 pages long, and spends more time on facial expressions than on flashy effects. Which is just as well, given that its hero is a real-life person whose story is infinitely more moving, thrilling, and inspiring than any of the masked machos its creators helped bring to life.
He is Tibor Rubin, and when we first meet him, he is dug into the dirt on a Korean mountainside. He is alone, but the Chinese army is closing in quickly. The fire emanating from Rubin's machine gun isn't the silly stuff of comics; it's a hellish tongue, lapping everything in its way, a perfect visual representation of man's inhumanity to man.
And that's just the first panel; by the second, we meet Rubin again, this time as a child, dressed in a prisoner's uniform and guarded by the SS. "Rubin learned early about the depth of cruelty his fellow man was capable of," the comic book laconically informs us, and then conjures a fat-faced German who, looking bemused, tells Rubin that none of the death camp's Jewish prisoners will survive.
Rubin, thankfully, defies the odds, and when he's liberated by American soldiers he makes his way stateside and, though not yet a citizen, volunteers to become an American soldier himself.
From that point on, the comic book reads like one of those gritty montages that made old-fashioned war films so fun: Outnumbered by the enemy, Rubin's outfit, the Third Battalion, decides to withdraw to the Pusan Perimeter. But Rubin decides to stay behind, eager to give the impression that the hill is still fiercely defended by scores of men; he jumps from foxhole to foxhole, seizing carbine and machine gun and grenade, unleashing that infernal fire wherever he goes. By the time the action's over, the comic book gives us Rubin in profile, looking stoic amid the pale gray rock and the ink-blue sky. "The number of casualties he inflicted," the text curtly informs us, "was staggering."
All that would've been enough to make anyone a hero, and Rubin's colleagues moved to file the necessary paperwork to recommend him for the Medal of Honor. They never had the chance to submit it: On Nov. 1, 1950, Rubin and his friends were awakened by the sound of bugles, and soon learned that nearly 400,000 Chinese soldiers were upon them.
How Rabbi Harry Richmond viewed his historic role as a chaplain in the U.S. Army
In 1917, the year the U.S. entered World War I, Rabbi Harry Richmond was a newly minted graduate of Cincinnati's Hebrew Union College, the culmination of nine years of higher education, including a stint at the University of Chicago and an undergraduate degree from University of Cincinnati. Richmond was regarded for his keen intellect, earning the Reform seminary's top prize for academic achievement.
At a symbolic vote of the student body, Richmond had been the only student at Hebrew Union College to cast his vote opposing the U.S. entering WWI.
That same year, after Congress passed a law designating military chaplains for various religious groups, the Jewish Welfare Board was established to attend to the spiritual needs of approximately 225,000 Jewish soldiers in the American armed forces. The board set about recruiting rabbis for chaplaincy service. According to Louis Barish in his 1962 article in The American Jewish Historical Quarterly called "The American Jewish Chaplaincy," out of 400 English-speaking rabbis in the U.S., only 34 were endorsed—including Richmond, who received a JWB recommendation.
In July 1918, 28-year-old Richmond was the first rabbi to volunteer for military service in WWI, waiving his clerical exemption and enlisting as a private. It is unclear if Richmond had changed his position on the war, but his classmate and fellow chaplain, Rabbi Elkan Voorsanger, later expressed the concerns of himself and others—like Richmond—who volunteered to serve despite opposing the war; Voorsanger is quoted in Albert I. Slomowitz's book Fighting Rabbis: Jewish Military Chaplains and American History:
"I am entering this war to register my protest against the war," he wrote. "I can do that in no better way than to go to the front to alleviate the suffering of those who know not why they go."
Over the next 25 years, Richmond would serve as an Army Chaplain on the battlefield in France, witness the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, and serve as the only Jewish chaplain to represent the U.S. Army overseas in both WWI and WWII.
Democratic Senate candidate Raphael Warnock's longtime support for anti-Semitic, America-bashing pastor Rev. Jeremiah Wright is drawing new scrutiny in the Georgia runoff election, as the candidate attempts to walk back his own prior criticism of Israel.
Warnock, the senior pastor at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, has for years been one of the most vocal defenders of Wright's infamous 2003 "God Damn America" sermon, which compared U.S. leaders to al Qaeda and claimed HIV was invented by the government as a way to kill black people.
The Democratic candidate "is expected to face negative ads that target his ties to Jeremiah Wright," Politico reported on Tuesday. Warnock's opponent, Republican senator Kelly Loeffler, also highlighted his support for Wright in a statement this week.
"[Warnock] has a long history of anti-Israel extremism," Loeffler wrote on Twitter. "He defended Jeremiah Wright's anti-Semitic comments."
The renewed focus on Wright comes as Warnock faces criticism this week for signing a statement denouncing Israel as an "oppressive regime" and saying in a sermon that Israel shoots unarmed Palestinians like "birds of prey," according to a letter and video unearthed by Jewish Insider. Warnock's views on Israel could become a central issue in the election. Evangelical Christians, who tend to be highly supportive of Israel, make up 38 percent of the population in Georgia, the largest religious denomination in the state, according to the Pew Research Center.
Wright came to national attention in 2008 as the spiritual adviser and pastor to then-presidential candidate Barack Obama. After Wright's inflammatory sermons went public during the campaign, Obama denounced and cut ties with him.
Warnock has been one of Wright's most consistent public supporters. In 2014, he praised Wright's "God Damn America" sermon in a speech at the Auburn Avenue Research Library.
First, @aefeldman puzzlingly ignores yesterday's @J_Insider scoop revealing a horrendous 2018 Warnock sermon: "We saw the government of Israel shoot down unarmed Palestinian sisters and brothers like birds of prey." Pals are brothers & sisters, Israelis are birds of prey. Nice.
In 2002, when the police investigated suspected child abuse at Raphael Warnock's church camp for children, Warnock was arrested for obstructing the investigation.
Will the media ask Raphael Warnock why he interfered with the police investigation?https://t.co/oW4uMwtzmI
🚨BREAKING: Georgia Senate Democratic Candidate Raphael Warnock hosted a celebration for Communist Dictator and Mass Murderer Fidel Castro at his church in 1995 pic.twitter.com/hQM7QdUU5Z
CNN on Tuesday featured a Quincy Institute fellow known for making spurious claims about American Jews and the state of Israel.
Lawrence Wilkerson, a former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, has argued that "the Jewish lobby in America" and "AIPAC in particular" played an outsized influence in the run-up to the Iraq war and that Syrian chemical-weapons use "could've been an Israeli false-flag operation."
While CNN host Erin Burnett did not press Wilkerson on those baseless claims, she did ask him about Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, whom Wilkerson accused of "trying to capture that little kernel of Trump's base" for a potential presidential run. Wilkerson added that Biden is "one of the most experienced people, certainly in security and foreign policy, to come to the White House in a long time."
In a 2007 documentary Wilkerson said the "Jewish lobby" had more influence on the Bush administration's decision to invade Iraq than the administration's belief that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. He specifically criticized Jewish officials including Bush national security aide Elliott Abrams, former deputy secretary of defense Paul Wolfowitz, and former undersecretary of defense Doug Feith.
The Quincy Institute is funded by billionaires Charles Koch and George Soros and promotes isolationist American foreign policy. Launched in December of 2019, it has come under fire for providing anti-Semites a platform. In addition to Wilkerson, the institute has featured several experts who have accused American Jews of being more loyal to Israel than to America, an anti-Semitic trope, and who have repeatedly blamed the "Israel lobby" for American foreign policy decisions.
England's chief rabbi has spoken of his 'pride' at helping to ensure Jeremy Corbyn's defeat in last year's election.
Ephraim Mirvis, 64, made an unprecedented intervention into the December poll to warn that the vast majority of British Jews were 'gripped by anxiety' at the idea of Jeremy Corbyn in No 10.
Now almost a year on, the country's most senior Jewish leader said it 'felt good' that his decision to speak out against Mr Corbyn has been given credence by a report into Labour's antisemitism by the Equalities and Human Rights Commission (EHRC).
The former Labour leader was suspended by the party after he downplayed the seriousness of the report which found 'significant failings in the way the Labour Party has handled anti-Semitism complaints over the last four years'.
Yesterday Rabbi Mirvis said that he was 'proud' of the intervention.
'I'm also proud of the British public, in terms of how we saw how the British public has taken hatred seriously,' he told Times Radio.
'The amount of support that I personally got, and our community received, together with the EHRC report, together with Labour's outright determination to rid the party of antisemitism: I think there are many encouraging signs.'
Last year, Rabbi Mirvis accused Mr Corbyn of allowing the 'poison' of anti-Semitism to take root in Labour and said it could no longer claim to be the party of diversity, equality and anti-racism.
Bell's equivalency between an observant Jew losing his life for preaching Torah and a man losing his position for being widely viewed as personally antisemitic, and thus creating a party culture of anti-Jewish animus, is just obscene.
Not only does the cartoon falsely present Jeremy Corbyn as innocent, it also draws parallels between Starmer and the character of Salome, and, perhaps most importantly, evokes speculation regarding the identity of Herod and Herodias in today's UK politics (compared to their depiction in Caravaggio's painting, the fact that they are nowhere to be found in the cartoon raises suspicions).
Thus, it further asserts that there was a sinister deal behind Starmer's decision to suspend Corbyn, and even implies that the EHRC antisemitism report itself and Starmer's response to it was an act of treachery.
Who's the backstage political player who, in their cunning, convinced Starmer that he should seek to oust Corbyn ("Herodias")?
Whose perverted desire to subjugate Starmer to their will brought them to actually do the deed and get rid of the former leader for the new one's sake ("Herod")?
By turning readers' attention to the absence of these characters, the cartoon evokes an antisemitic interpretation along the lines of "the Jews are responsible for getting Corbyn removed from the party." In fact, we can look at Bell's depiction of Corbyn as one which mirrors how the former Labour leader appears to see himself.
As the Andrew Rawnsley argued, one of the most under-appreciated faults of Corbyn is his "self-conceited estimation of his own purity" that feeds into his belief that he's incapable of being a transgressor, and must always be the sufferer, the martyr. As with John the Baptist, it's the challenge posed by Corbyn's very piety, the narrative goes, which renders him a threat to his critics – those who are not his moral equals.
Though we're not surprised that Bell – who has depicited Corbyn as the victim of a witch hunt, and previously employed the visual language of antisemitism – would canonise the former Labour leader, the chief editor's decision to publish a cartoon legitimising those accusing Jews of treachery in their 'targeting' of him is another reason why most British Jews view the Guardian as an adversary in their fight against anti-Jewish bigotry.
A two-word modification in a hate crimes bill currently being discussed by Scotland's parliament could provide a "get out of jail free card" for Holocaust deniers, a Scottish Jewish leader warned on Tuesday.
Ephraim Borowski — director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) — was responding to Scottish Justice Secretary Hamza Yousaf's amendment of the proposed legislation that would raise the threshold from "likely" to stir up hatred to "intend only."
Borowski cautioned that such a change could give protection to Holocaust deniers on social media.
"I think that the amendment that was announced by the Cabinet Secretary is retrograde, it essentially provides a get out of jail free card for something that you'll see very often in hate-filled posts on the internet," Borowski told Scottish news outlet The Herald.
"They are now given a get out of jail free card, because they could just say 'oh we didn't intend to cause offense, we were merely asking a question about whether the Holocaust happened,'" Borowski explained.
"Unfortunately antisemitism is very much on the rise these days and I take the view, therefore, that it's the victim who needs protecting," he continued.
A New York man has been arrested for making threats to kill prominent Democrats, protestors and law enforcement officers in retaliation for the US presidential election result, according to court papers released on Tuesday.
Prosecutors said that Brian Maiorana started making the threats after Joe Biden was declared winner of the November 3 election.
After the result was called on Saturday, 54-year-old Maiorana allegedly began to make social media posts in which he cited the novel "The Turner Diaries," popular among neo-Nazis and cited as inspiration for numerous acts of terrorism, including the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. The book depicts the overthrowing of the US government and extermination of Jews and Black people.
According to reports, Maiorana said he would "blow up" an FBI building and also was said to have made a threat against the "the Jew Senator from Jew York," an apparent reference to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer.
The suspect referred to the "fraudulently stolen" election and called for people who agreed with him to "hit the streets while these scumbags are celebrating and start blowing them away," presumably referring to the celebrations by Biden supporters.
Auto racing giant NASCAR confirmed on Tuesday that it had indefinitely suspended one of its drivers over a post on social media that was deemed antisemitic.
Driver Josh Reaume — who also co-owns the Reaume Brothers Racing team — was understood to have posted an image of a Nazi swastika over the weekend in a since-deleted tweet.
A screenshot of the tweet was shared with NASCAR administrators who deemed that the 30-year-old Reaume had violated the company's rules on racism and discrimination.
They specifically cited the rule that "NASCAR Members shall not make or cause to be made a public statement and/or communication that criticizes, ridicules, or otherwise disparages another person based upon that person's race, color, creed, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, marital status, religion, age, or handicapping condition."
Reaume was told of his suspension while competing in a NASCAR event in Phoenix on Sunday.
In a tweet on Tuesday night responding to his suspension, Reaume said his original post had been lighthearted, protesting that the picture "of my evening snack…was taken out of context."
He said: "It was never meant to hurt anybody and I'm sorry if it did."
Apple on Tuesday unveiled its new laptops, the MacBook Air, Mac mini and MacBook Pro — all equipped with a new M1 chip, Apple's first chip developed and built in-house for desktops and laptops. The likelihood of much of that development having taken place in Israel is high, two people from the industry told The Times of Israel.
The "revolutionary M1," Apple said in a statement, is "by far the most powerful chip Apple has ever made." It delivers up to 3.5 times faster processing, six times faster graphic processing, and up to 15 times faster machine learning, with double the battery life.
The company also announced the Big Sur, a new Mac operating system that will run on Apple's own silicon chip.
"The introduction of three new Macs featuring Apple's breakthrough M1 chip represents a bold change that was years in the making, and marks a truly historic day for the Mac and for Apple," said Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, in the statement. "M1 is by far the most powerful chip we've ever created, and combined with Big Sur, delivers mind-blowing performance, extraordinary battery life, and access to more software and apps than ever before."
The new line of Mac computers was unveiled at Apple's virtual "One More Thing" event on Tuesday, marking the first time in Mac's 36-year history that it will be with a processor designed by Apple. The firm has been using chips made by semiconductor giant Intel Corp. in its computers since 2005, but is now moving away from its reliance on Intel and building its own chips.
The 'three nos' of the 1967 Khartoum Conference and today's potential regional shift towards the 'three yeses' underscores the contrast in these two educational systems. The move from yes to recognition, and then, yes to peace is where the true importance of education lies. The order is important. The UAE's emphasis on tolerance permits recognition of the other, of the Jew in the Middle East, of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state, and of the need to combat the antisemitism of those who deny this right. Only once mutual "recognition" takes place, is the third 'yes' — peace — possible.
This vital step of recognition, not only by the leadership but also by the population at large, underscores why the UAE's emphasis on tolerance is so important.
In the context of what was known as the Arab-Israeli conflict, and the pivot represented in the Abraham Accords, recognition also highlights the significance of adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) Working Definition of Antisemitism — a definition that enables all those to define, understand, and combat the modern-day manifestations of the oldest form of hatred, including delegitimisation of the state of Israel. Without it, recognition of Israel, the only Jewish state, is impossible. With it, peace can thrive. In this regard, just two weeks ago, Bahrain became the first Arab state to adopt the IHRA definition. We hope other Arab and Gulf states follow their courageous lead.
It is our sincere wish and prayer — as politicians and peace activists who yearn for a brighter future for our children — that together we can engage both our people in building lasting peace that can serve as a model for the region as a whole. The people-to-people collaboration between civil society, business leaders, and politicians, as well as acceptance and tolerance of our differences will be crucial in this regard.
Leaders have the responsibility to plant the seeds for recognition, the basis for negotiation and enabling peace. Education is the water that gives these seeds the life they need to flourish and grow. As stated by the late Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks, one of the great thought leaders of our time, "Tomorrow's world is born in what we teach our children today."
Normalization with the UAE opens up a huge new tourism market, if Israel can adapt its security procedures.
UAE low-cost carrier flydubai launches its Tel Aviv - Dubai flights later this month with Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. and Arkia starting daily flights next month and it is only a matter of time before El Al Israel Airlines Ltd. (TASE: ELAL), Emirates and Etihad Airways get in on the act. This week flydubai flew Israeli tourists to Dubai on a special charter flight. While there is much focus on the UAE as an attractive destination for Israeli tourists, there is less talk about the huge potential for bringing Emiratis to Israel, especially religious tourists to see the sacred Muslim sites in Jerusalem. The potential becomes even greater when adding Bahrain and Sudan to the equation, not to mention the long list of Arab countries considering normalizing ties with Israel, and then the entire Muslim world.
"These are processes that transform the status of Israel in the Middle East and the entire world," says Dr. Shahar Shilo from the Department of Tourism and Hotel Management at Ben Gurion University of the Negev and tourism manager for the Har Negev Regional Council. Shilo thinks that a change in relations with Saudi Arabia could have broad significance and make Israel a legitimate country to visit.
The reality has changed but we are waiting for Saudi ArabiaThere are 1.5 billion Muslims in the world of whom 90% are Sunnis and the rest Shiite. Shilo explains, "Most of the world's Muslims are not Arabs. Arabs make up only about 20% of Muslims worldwide and most of these Muslims have no dispute with Israel but they have refrained from coming here for other reasons. Muslim countries tend to fall in line with Saudi Arabia because of entry visas and not wanting to lose access to the holy sites in Mecca for their4 citizens that want to make the haj pilgrimage to there. If and when Saudi Arabia changes its relationship to Israel, and also due to its relations with Iran, we will see tourists flocking here." Shilo quotes figures from the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), which says that in 2050 Muslims will comprise half of the world's tourists. He adds, "Israel can also benefit from this growth as long as the attitudes of the Arab countries changes. Between 2017 and 2019, 100,000 Muslim tourists visited Israel, a large part of them pilgrims from Turkey as well as tourist groups from Indonesia."
These are LITERALLY the fruits of 🇮🇱🇦🇪 peace:
Goods from Israel are available in the #UAE to be enjoyed by our Emirati friends. 📽️👇
"Fauda" star and Israeli singer-songwriter Idan Amedi recently performed in the United Arab Emirates with an artist from Iran, as evident from a video posted last week on Twitter by "Fauda" co-creator and Amedi's costar Lior Raz.
Raz shared last Friday a short clip of Amedi performing on stage alongside a female Iranian singer at a venue in Dubai.
Raz wrote in the video's caption: "Amazing Israeli singer with an amazing Iranian singer with audience from Jordan Lebanon Syria the UAE and it all happens in Dubai this is what peace is all about."
Amazing Israeli singer with an amazing Iranian singer with audience from Jordan Lebanon Syria the UAE and it all happens in Dubai this is what peace is all about 🇦🇪 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/JFXHgQyD1N
That same day, Amedi shared on Instagram a video of Dubai's skyline at night and a caption about the week he spent in the UAE that he would remember "for many years to come."
In his Hebrew message, he also praised Emiratis as "good people, very smart and heartfelt."
HRH Prince Charles has given a private donation to the Peres Centre for Peace and Innovation. The donation comes a few months after his first official visit to Israel on behalf of the British government to attend the World Holocaust Forum at Yad Vashem, at the invitation of the Israeli President Reuven Rivlin, marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Founded by Shimon Peres in 1996, the Peres Center is a nonprofit NGO with the mission of "promoting a prosperous Israel, nurturing and highlighting Israeli innovation, and paving the way for shared-living between all of Israel's citizens and lasting peace between Israel and its neighbors," according to the center's website.
"We were honored to host the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Cambridge in Israel in past years," British Ambassador to Israel Neil Wigan said. "This private donation demonstrates the impact of those visits and the importance of the relationship between Israel and the UK."
"It is a great honor to be the first Israeli non-profit to receive support from a member of the Royal Family," Chemi Peres, chairman of the Peres Center, said. "His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales' generosity will help ensure that the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation continues Shimon Peres's legacy of building a better future for all people."
"Especially in the midst of a global pandemic, it is important to reach beyond borders for the sake of a better tomorrow. I thank His Royal Highness for joining hands with us," continued Peres.
Prince Charles also attended the late Peres's funeral in late 2016, when he then expressed his great admiration of Peres's work for peace, and his legacy.
Dating to around the time of King David 3,000 years ago, what may be the earliest fortified settlement in the Golan Heights was recently discovered during salvage excavations ahead of the construction of a new neighborhood. Incredible rock etchings of two figures holding their arms aloft — possibly at prayer with what could be a moon — were uncovered inside the unique fort, which was dated to circa 11th-9th century BCE.
The striking find is being tentatively linked to the Geshurite people, whose capital is recorded in the Bible as having been located nearby, to the north of the Sea of Galilee.
In a brief Hebrew video about the discovery, dig co-director Barak Tzin said that when the etching was found near the entrance of the fort, "We understood that we had something very, very important… We were astonished to discover a rare and exciting find: a large basalt stone with a schematic engraving of two horned figures with outspread arms."
Next to the etching was discovered a stone table or shelf, which the archaeologists believe was an altar, upon which was found another seemingly ritual object of a small figure holding what looks to be a drum.
Just which people manned the fort — built of large basalt boulders with almost 1.5 meter wide walls — is still an open question, IAA's scientific adviser in the northern region Ron Be'eri told The Times of Israel on Wednesday.
The Israel Antiquities Authority excavation at the Golan's Hispin, where a circa 11th century fort was discovered. (Yaniv Berman, Israel Antiquities Authority)
"The minute that Egyptian and Hittite empires are destroyed… there is a big vacuum. There is no historian that writes the history of the era and we return to a sort-of 'pre-history' in which we only have physical artifacts to base our assumptions upon. So we go into the realm of speculation. It is impossible to know what really happened," said Be'eri.
UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Wednesday paid a warm tribute to Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks — the former British chief rabbi who passed away last Saturday — in his weekly parliamentary question-and-answer session.
Johnson began his remarks on Wednesday by saying, "I know the House will want to join me in sending deepest sympathies to the family and friends of Lord Sacks."
As other lawmakers in the chamber chimed in with the traditional response of "hear, hear," Johnson added that Sacks's "leadership had a profound impact on our country and across the world."
Said Johnson: "May his memory be a blessing."
Opposition Leader Sir Keir Starmer responded with an endorsement of Johnson's tribute.
Lord Sacks, who was 72, had been diagnosed with cancer last month. Sacks had been treated for the disease on two previous occasions.
Sacks was chief rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of the British Commonwealth between 1991 and 2013.
He was the author of over 30 books. His most recent title, "Morality: Restoring the Common Good in Divided Times," was published this year.
Rabbi Sacks was knighted in 2005 and made a Life Peer in 2009.
Thousands of people took part in the digital commemoration of Kristallnacht – Night of Broken Glass – to mark the 82nd anniversary of the pogroms by creating commemorative signs through a website set up especially for the project.
The messages and prayers were projected on the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem on the night of Nov. 9, thanks to the support of the Jerusalem Municipality and the Coventry Cathedral in England.
In addition, hundreds of houses of worship of all religions in over 50 countries pledged to keep a candle lit overnight as a tribute to more than 1,400 synagogues burned in Germany and Austria during the 1938 pogrom.
The Westend Synagogue in Frankfurt, one of the few that remained undamaged in the wake of Kristallnacht, was the first to light a candle and was followed by hundreds of houses of worship, including synagogues in Kyiv, churches in Japan, USA and UK, Hampton Synagogue in New York, and synagogues in Bahrain and Dubai.
Among the prominent leaders that took part in the commemoration were President Reuven Rivlin, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Beni Gantz, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Israel Prize winner Miriam Peretz, Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog, Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy Chairman Natan Sharansky, formerly head of the Jewish Agency, to name a few.
"As we mark the anniversary of Kristallnacht, I commend March of the Living for uniting us with their rally cry, 'let there be light.' That night of broken glass led to humanity's darkest moments. Today, we unite against antisemitism, hatred, and intolerance. We will never let the light go out," Johnson wrote.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
In the Fall of 2012, Bibi Netanyahu and then Minister of Defense Ehud Barak had a plan to destroy Iran's capability to make nuclear weapons. The plan was not executed because of opposition from the Cabinet, the Israeli security establishment, and of course the Obama Administration, which was facing an election and secretly negotiating with Iran toward what would become the JCPOA.
The "nuclear deal" that was ultimately signed in 2015 provided Iran with cash for its Hezbollah terrorists and its expansion into Iraq and Syria, as well as fully legitimizing Iran's nuclear project in 10-15 years. Even before then, the JCPOA lacked adequate safeguards to prevent cheating, and Iran took advantage of the loopholes to pursue development of uranium and plutonium bombs.
The Obama Administration was following a playbook developed – in part by advisor Ben Rhodes – in the 2006 Iraq Study Report, which intended to extricate the US from Iraq and bring about overall stability in the region by appeasing and empowering Iran and Syria (there was still an independent Syria then) at Israel's expense. It seemed to me then, and still does today, that the negative consequences for Israel from the plan were not simply an unfortunate byproduct of it, but rather a desired outcome.
President Trump took the opposite tack, choosing to weaken Iran and empower America's traditional allies in the region, Israel and the Sunni Arab states. He took the US out of the JCPOA, re-imposed sanctions on Iran, recognized Israel's sovereignty in the Golan and Jerusalem (the 2006 plan envisioned Israel transferring the Golan to Syria), and encouraged an alliance between Israel and the Sunni Arab states.
If Trump's policy to build up a strong countervailing power while weakening and isolating Iran would continue, then it might be possible to force Iran to give up its nuclear dreams without military action. But if, as seems likely, Joe Biden takes office as President of the US on 20 January 2021, then everything may change.
The following is sheer fantasy. I don't know what the PM of Israel is thinking, I am not acquainted with anyone in the Trump Administration, the Biden team, or Israel's defense establishment, and I have no insider knowledge about anything.
By Chanukah 5781 [10 December 2020], it became clear to the Prime Minister of Israel that President-elect Biden, although personally not particularly anti-Israel, was assembling a team heavy with individuals that were less than sympathetic to our point of view, like Susan Rice, Jake Sullivan, and Daniel Benaim. Biden had also made appointments that were concessions to the extreme left wing of the Democratic party that had almost defeated him in the race for the nomination. Intelligence reports showed a continuous flow of communications between Biden and the headquarters of the group led by Barack Obama, located only about 3 km. from the White House.
The PM of Israel was worried. Biden had already announced his intention to re-engage with Iran, which would probably mean a loosening of sanctions. The PM knew that the Iranians had recently made significant progress toward the development of a nuclear arsenal. He had no confidence that the Biden Administration would have the will to stop them; he could imagine a repeat of the JCPOA process, in which Iran made a fool of US negotiators.
Israel would have to stop Iran, or nobody would.
The PM knew that during the Obama Administration the Americans considered Israel a prime target for intelligence-gathering. The Americans had been operating a radar installation in Israel since 2008 that could spot air activity anywhere in the country, even small drones. Electronic communications in Israel's defense headquarters, the Kiriya in Tel Aviv, have been tapped for some time. It would be very hard to take almost any kind of military action against Iran without the Americans finding out.
The PM decided that if Israel were to take action, it would have to be before 20 January, when Biden would be inaugurated. Indeed, considering the precedent of the incoming Obama team which aborted the ground invasion of Gaza in January 2009, it would have to be before Biden's people got themselves organized. Otherwise, he was sure the Americans would act, diplomatically or even kinetically, to prevent Israel from striking the Iranian nuclear program.
Such an operation would not be simple or easy. The Iranian assets that would need to be destroyed are buried deeply underground and defended by surface-to-air missile batteries. The moment Israel attacked, the Iranians would unleash Hezbollah in Lebanon, which had some 130,000 short range rockets and longer range missiles, some with precision guidance. They are fitted on mobile launchers and ensconced in the homes of civilians. Hezbollah has plans to invade across the northern border, and kill Israelis and take hostages.
But the IDF has been preparing for this for some time. There is a plan called tochnit zayin [Plan Z]. The Prime Minister convened his mini-security cabinet, a subset of a subset of the cabinet, including the Minister of Defense and several others, together with the IDF Chief of Staff and a few key officers, including the Air Force and Navy commanders. The meeting took all of 15 minutes. The clock began to tick on tochnit zayin.
The IDF announced that it would carry out a defensive exercise on our northern border. It was not a massive exercise, and only a small number of reserve units were called up. Several days later an Israeli submarine moved into position in the Persian Gulf (or, if you prefer, the Arabian Gulf). At 0200 on the 4th day of Hanukah, the submarine fired a missile almost straight up. The missile contained a small nuclear bomb designed to maximize the production of gamma rays, and it exploded high in the stratosphere at an altitude of about 100 km. A person on the ground might see a small dot of light if he knew where to look; he would not be injured or even feel anything.
Most of the gamma radiation from the explosion was absorbed by the air. The gamma rays ripped electrons from atoms in the air, and the electrons spun downward; their motion in the Earth's magnetic field produced a powerful pulse of electromagnetic radiation, lasting only one millionth of a second but containing an enormous amount of energy. Much of Iran was blanketed by this pulse. Electrical conductors that it passed over had high voltages induced in them, and semiconductor devices, especially those connected to power lines or antennas, were reduced to inert lumps of silicon. Telephone and cellular networks, broadcasting equipment, internet routers, the power grid, and countless other things became inoperative. Even emergency generators, with their solid-state controls, didn't start.
When Israeli aircraft arrived to bomb the nuclear sites with multiple bunker-busters, Iranian radar was dark. When eyewitnesses tried to alert their commanders, they were unable to do so. When they finally drove to Teheran to inform their leaders (most vehicles were still operative, especially older ones), their leaders could not communicate with each other, or, importantly, with Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Lebanon is too close to Israel to receive the same treatment, but units of Israeli special forces penetrated its borders and destroyed communications infrastructure and cut cables at key points. A bombing campaign followed, aimed primarily at the nervous system of the country – the power grid and communications systems. In 2006, the IDF was surprised by its inability to intercept and interrupt communications over Hezbollah's fiber optic network. Since then, it's been documented and mapped. It was quickly destroyed. Since 2006 the IDF has collected good intelligence about Hezbollah's installations, including the hiding places of mobile rocket launchers and weapons depots. Many of them were destroyed almost immediately.
The Hezbollah leadership was targeted; unlike in 2006, the IDF knew where they were and was able to kill them. Without a head and a nervous system, and without support from Iran, Hezbollah was demoralized, and was unable to sustain a massive rocket attack. There was some damage to Israel's home front, but Iron Dome and Arrow antimissile systems significantly reduced it.
All this happened in a couple of days. By the time Hanukah was over, the Lebanese government – less Hezbollah – was suing for peace. In Iran, economic paralysis had begun to set in.
The US and the Russians, who had been informed only an hour before the operation, offered to help Iran and Lebanon to rebuild, as did Israel and the Gulf states – on condition that the mullahs in Iran and what was left of Hezbollah in Lebanon would have no role in the government. They accepted.
By the time Joe Biden became president, he faced a whole new Middle East.
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Haaretz has an article praising the late Saeb Erekat, written by a group of people who were involved in negotiations between Israel and the PLO over the decades: Martin Indyk, Daniel Kurtzer, Robert Malley, Aaron David Miller, Dennis Ross, Jonathan Schwartz, and Toni Verstandig.
In their rush to say how wonderful Erekat was, they tell us a bit more about themselves.
We had our differences because at times he could be inflexible. But then, without an independent base of his own and subject to Arafat's whims, Saeb had little flexibility to depart from core Palestinian positions, and we often suspected, his bosses did not want him to do so.
And what are those core positions? A state on the 1949 armistice lines, all of east Jerusalem, Israel releasing all terrorists from prison, the "right to return" - all things that Israel cannot possibly accept if it is to remain a secure and Jewish state.
This is revealing. These negotiators knew that these are red lines for Israel. They would often say words to the effect that "everyone knows" that the Palestinians will in the end compromise on "return" or prisoners or "1967 lines." But in the actual negotiating room, what "everyone knows" was shown to be false - the Palestinians are incapable of compromise with Israel, of abandoning that they call their "constants."
This is hardly a secret. Palestinian leaders brag about how they have not modified their core positions since 1988. It is a source of pride - and once it crosses the line into becoming a matter of honor, then Palestinian leaders have purposefully painted themselves into a corner where they cannot compromise even if they wanted to because they would be branded traitors or worse.
So we know that these negotiators knew (or "suspected") that Arafat and Abbas simply had no desire for real peace with Israel. Their "constants" are not a recipe for a Palestinian state but as a stage for the destruction of Israel, entirely consistent with Arafat's "phased plan" of 1974.
Even though these professional diplomats knew this, most of them kept castigating Israel in public as the obstacle to peace and had nothing negative to say about the Palestinian side, no matter how many times the Palestinians simply responded "no" to every offer, idea and framework.
This article shows that they know the truth - that Palestinian leaders will never change their position without extreme pressure and that Israel is not the problem. Which makes the attacks on Israel by some of them unconscionable.
We are now on the verge of a new US administration that will be filled with people like these diplomats, who think the Oslo process is still alive, that if only Israel would compromise a little more there would be peace. It failed before Trump and it will fail after him - because the Palestinians aren't interested in peace.
And everyone knows it.
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Since 2015, Erekat was Secretary General of the Executive Committee of the PLO, which is a pretty high position. I don't see any moves that he made towards peace when he actually had political power of his own.
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