Zionism: An irrational and misunderstood fear ADNAN OKTAR 6-6-16

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Zionism-An-irrational-and-misunderstood-fear-456102

The writer is a Turkish Muslim TV commentator who has authored more than 300 books in 73 languages on political, faith-related and scientific topics.

Born of the Westphalian peace of 1648, nationalism spread across the world in earnest with the onset of the French Revolution in 1789 – so much so that the dreams of a nation state shaped international politics for 150 years. It was nationalist enthusiasm which fueled wars of independence. Those who were responsible for these wars burned with the desire to unite those of the same cultural background, the same language and living in the same region under one banner. However among the hundreds of nationalist liberation movements, one is invariably singled out, maligned and placed at the center of sinister conspiracy theories.

Aspiring to reunite and emancipate the Jewish people scattered around the globe under one state, this movement for independence, named after the Mount Zion in Israel, came to be called Zionism. The Jewish people, a diaspora community, banished from everywhere it had sought refuge, determined to establish its own state in its ancestral lands. While every contemporary nationalist movement enjoyed friends and suffered enemies, Zionism faced unique, unbridled hostility from virtually every political current (save, in large part, Protestant Liberalism).

Following suit, non-aligned nations vehemently opposed the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in any part of the historic Jewish homeland. /6943/Home_Page/Article_Pages/in_read_TOP

Today, anti-Israelism under the guise of anti-Zionism has become the main expression of anti-Semitism, of enmity to Jews.

An entire nation is targeted, for verbal or physical violence, women, children, elderly, innocent and oppressed alike – simply because of their Jewish nationality, and their demand to be seated at the table of nations with all of their peers. Despite the presence of 22 Arab countries, tied to a single ethnic origin, only the desire of the Jewish people to establish its own sovereign state has been subject to fierce opposition.

Nevertheless, Israel is concurrently a safe haven for millions of persecuted people, those who fled the Nazi genocide, Soviet brutality or violence in many other countries. /6943/Home_Page/Article_Pages/in_read_middle 

Nearly one million Jews, leaving all of their assets behind, were forced to immigrate from Arab countries in the aftermath of the 1948 war.

Yet, Jewishness is not understood in racial or traditional ethnic terms in the State of Israel, unlike its counterparts. It is a country of multiculturalism, one which hosts varying faiths and diverse ethnic backgrounds, in contrast to its Arab neighbor countries. One-fifth of the Israeli population is Arab, while the overall, majority Jewish population is comprised of over 70 cultures speaking 35 languages and dialects. Additionally, Arabic is an official language, alongside Hebrew, in the state of the Jews. The sacred places of all faiths are protected: There are nearly 400 mosques, all safeguarded since the declaration of Independence of the State of Israel.

Despite this fact, Zionism is equated in ever widening circles with a conspiracy to control and exploit the whole world.

Anti-Semitism is the only explanation for this phenomenon, a modern rendition of old, irrational Judeophobic rhetoric. Zionism, despite the well-accepted consensus in the Middle East, is simply the aspiration of the Jewish nation, who have been oppressed, persecuted and suffered greatly throughout history, to live freely and in safety in their ancestral lands. The Jewish people have been a part of these lands for 3,500 years, and were expelled from there long ago by the oppressive hand of the Roman Empire. The emergence of the State of Israel is the realization of this small nation’s dream of a homeland where they can ultimately live in safety and govern themselves.

Many if not most Muslims are unaware of the true meaning of Zionism. When asked about the reasons they oppose it, they define Zionism as “an evil system which aims to destroy the world order” and falsely believe that Zionism is the source of all evil. Moreover, many Muslims are under the illusion that anti-Israelism is piety, and this makes them unjust when it comes to Jews. Therefore, it is crucial to properly define Zionism to the Muslim-Arab public and to put an end to so much senseless Jewish hatred.

Hatred of the State of Israel and Zionism do not comply with the spirit of the Koran.

Murdering innocent Israelis or promoting expulsion of Israelis from their ancestral homeland, as is increasingly common not only in the Arab world but in European leftist circles, is symptomatic of a lack of conscience. The state of Israel may have its faults – which state does not? For its excesses and where it has committed crimes, it should be judged based on the law. Islam has a principle of “individual criminal responsibility” just as we see in international law. An entire state cannot be incriminated or punished without making any discrimination between the innocent and the guilty or the right and the wrong, and irrespective of context. The claim of some Muslims that “they fight against the Jewish people in the name of the Koran” is an act of ignorance and in violation of the Koran since God explicitly grants the Jewish people the right to live in the Holy Land: “Remember when Moses said to his people, ‘My people! Remember God’s blessing to you when He appointed Prophets among you and appointed kings for you, and gave you what He had not given to anyone else in all the worlds. My people! Enter the Holy Land which God has ordained for you. Do not turn back in your tracks and so become transformed into losers’” (Koran 5:20-21).

God informs us in the Koran – this is also promised in the Torah (Deuteronomy 30) – that the Jewish people shall gather and live in these lands in the End Times: “We said to the Children of Israel after that, ‘Dwell in the land and, when the promise of the hereafter comes, We will gather you as a mingled crowd’” (Koran 17:104).

Despite these unambiguous Koranic injunctions, no one in the Middle East seems to support or approve of Zionism.

On the contrary, hostility to Zionism is now assumed, and to buck that trend is to risk one’s life. In truth, Muslims are ordered by the Koran to act fairly and conscientiously, hence should advocate not only for the rights of the Palestinians but also the Jewish people as well.

Muslim intellectuals, religious scholars and politicians should stand out among others not by fueling the existing hatred for the Jewish people but by emphasizing the beauty of coexistence in these Holy Lands. They should explain that advocating for the rights of Palestinians is not tantamount to exhibiting hostility to Jews.

It is an incontestable right for Israelis to have the desire for self-determination, as the Palestinians do. When the Arab-Muslim world recognizes Israel’s right to exist as an independent and sovereign state, this century-long bloodshed will cease.

The greatest benefit here would certainly be shared by the Palestinian people, who suffer due to war and security precautions.

Needless to say, the spirit of peace and brotherhood is an urgent need for the local community. The sporadic warfare has cost a fortune, which could have been used for the welfare of people instead. More important, this useless war has claimed the lives of thousands of young and elderly, civilian and soldiers alike. Once the Arab world decides to acknowledge Israel as a neighbor, it can focus on developing the well-being of the Palestinian people, and of the other Arab peoples doing far less well than the Palestinians, too. The effort and means spent on conflict, destruction and hostility will be transferred to the construction and embellishment of the region; swords made into plowshares, hatred turned to science, art and technology.

The biased, baseless outlook regarding Zionism in the Islamic world has over time warped into a misplaced phobia of Jewish people. It is now high time to put an end to this pointless, anti-Koranic opposition to Israel and the Jewish people. Explaining Zionism in an accurate way and ending this cycle of hatred is incumbent on Muslim intellectuals everywhere.

The writer is a Turkish Muslim TV commentator who has authored more than 300 books in 73 languages on political, faith-related and scientific topics.

THERE ARE NO MODERATES IN THE IRANIAN REGIME! by Karmel Melamed Jewish Journal of Los Angeles (online)

http://www.jewishjournal.com/iranianamericanjews/item/there_are_no_moderates_in_the_iranian_regime

Last year around this time many of my friends in the American Ashkenazi community were troubled by the strong opposition many Iranian American Jews including myself had to the “Iran Deal”. Unfortunately they believed the “talking points” put out by the Obama administration that the Iranian regime had somehow magically became “moderate” overnight with the election of Hassan Rouhani as Iran’s president. This month as a year has passed after the signing of the “Iran Deal” it seems as if many in the American Jewish community are finally and slowly waking up from their slumber to realize that they were fed lies by the current U.S. administration about the Iranian regime being “moderate” as the behavior and actions of the Iranian regime has been more dangerous and even more radical than before.

A large number of Iranian Jews now living in the U.S. either fled Iran or escaped that totalitarian radical Islamic regime in the months and years since its 1979 Islamic revolution. I know this personally as my family and I fled Iran in 1980 after our innocent Jewish family member was wrongly executed on false charges of spying for America and Israel. As the Jews of Iran, we quickly realized that the new Islamic regime that took power in Iran turned religious minorities including Jews into third class citizens and left them in constant fear for their lives or fear of seizure of their assets by the regime on fabricated charges. We all quickly realized the true anti-Semitic nature of this Islamic regime and fled Iran because of the dangerous actions of the ayatollahs ruling the country. This regime in Iran continues to be a regime that not only has zero tolerance for Jews, Christians, Zoroastrians and Baha’is, but imprisons and executes Iranian Muslims who oppose the regime’s brutal Islamic dictatorship.

Over the last near four decades, we the Jews of Iran who live in the West, have spoken out about the anti-Semitic, violent and unpredictable nature of the current Iranian regime to our brethren in America by retelling our stories of imprisonment, torture, property confiscation, anti-Semitism and even execution of our family members. Our stories have all fallen on deaf ears as American Jews and other Americans who supported the Obama administration falsely believed administration officials who made claims that Rouhani and his regime had spontaneously turned a page and miraculously become “moderate”. They believed the propaganda put out by the “smiling and quietly spoken Rouhani” during his 2013 media blitz of the U.S. They believed the false stories of the Iranian regime becoming instantly “moderate” that was put out by the regime’s apologist groups such as the National Iranian American Council (NIAC) and J-Street. Yet today after one year, the hard facts about the Iranian regime’s evil actions and dismal human rights record are indeed unpleasant and should stir the conscious of anyone who values life, liberty, tolerance and human decency.

Actions speak louder than words and the Iranian regime’s actions during the Rouhani years are anything but moderate. According to Ahmed Shaheed, the United Nations top expert on the human rights in Iran, in 2015, executions in Iran were at “the highest rate in over two decades,” with at least 966 individuals being executed. According to Shaheed’s recent report, in 2014, 753 people were executed in Iran and “at least 73 juvenile offenders were reportedly executed between 2005 and 2015”. Shaheed’s report also states that since the implementation of the amended Islamic Penal Code in 2013, many prisoners in Iran reportedly convicted of “national security crimes” were arrested merely for the peaceful exercise of a right to freedom of assembly and association. Just last week more than 30 students who partied at a graduation ceremony in northern Iran had each received 99 lashes each for violating the Islamic regime’s morality code since they danced and drank alcohol at their festivities. Likewise the Iranian regime has not stopped its segregation of men and women in public areas, nor stopped its harassment and imprisonment of LGBT, nor stopped the arrest and torture of union and labor organizers, nor stopped the censorship of journalists, writers, artists, and musicians.

Despite what Iran’s foreign minister Mohammed Javad Zarif might say to U.S. media outlets, the Iranian regime continues to spread anti-Western and anti-Semitic propaganda on their state-sponsored television programs and online sites. Just recently, the Iranian regime’s Islamic Propaganda Organization that runs the “Sarcheshmeh Cultural Institute” organized the second official Holocaust Cartoon competition in Tehran that offer up to $50,000 to cartoonist who featured the most “interesting Holocaust denial and anti-Israel cartoon”. Another backer of this Holocaust cartoon competition is the “Owj Media and Arts Organization” that is directly affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards. Both of these organizations and Iranian state-run media outlets boasted about their organization of such disgusting anti-Semitic events. Again how can anyone in their right mind believe the Iranian regime today under Rouhani has become “moderate” when such revolting events are funded and sponsored by entities affiliated with the regime. If Rouhani was such a “peace-loving” and “moderate” leader, then why has he not once spoken out against these vile Holocaust denial events or ordered them shut down? The reason is simple, he’s no moderate and has no objections to such events.

But the anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial garbage spewed by the Iranian regime is nothing new for the Iranian regime or a recent development under Rouhani. This disgusting behavior has a long and proud tradition dating back to the inception of the Islamic republic in Iran. The regime has always maintained warm relations with notorious anti-Semites, including former KKK Grand Wizard David Duke and other American neo-Nazi groups. Furthermore, the Iranian regime has a long history of ties to European neo-Nazis groups and Holocaust deniers. For example, the Iranian regime proudly announced many years ago that it paid for the legal defense in France of French Holocaust denier Roger Garaudy, who was convicted and fined $80,000 in 1998 in France for denying the Holocaust. Garaudy was subsequently welcomed in Tehran as a hero, where he met with the Iranian Supreme leader Ali Khamenei. In 2012, Khamenei publicly grieved the death of Garaudy in a personal Twitter message. Additionally Iranian state-run media outlets have also frequently cited the writings of the neo-Nazi American leader William Pierce. In October 2014, the Anti-Defamation League reported that the regime’s annual Holocaust denial conference in Tehran hosted Maria Poumier, a French denier; Claudio Moffa, an Italian denier; and Kevin Barrett, an anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist and frequent contributor to Iran’s English-language, state-run news network, Press TV.

According to Iranian Jewish activists I have interviewed in Los Angeles, many believe the sources of anti-Semitism in Iran today not only come from Iranian regime “hardliners”, but also other more “moderate” factions in the regime. Long before Ahmadinejad made a name for himself among the anti-Semites, the Iranian regime, under the supposed “moderate” President Mohammad Khatami, had begun funding Holocaust deniers and publishing their materials in Iran and all over the world. During the Green Revolution in Iran from 2009 to 2010, several “moderate” leaders in Iran staged public media campaigns of attacking the Islamic hardliners in Iran, not for their atrocities against the Iranian population or their Islamist fanaticism, but for allegedly being of Jewish descent! To accuse someone of being Jewish in Iran is equivalent to calling someone a child molester in the U.S.

Yet even worse, the regime’s anti-Semitism is not only limited to within Iran, but the Iranian ayatollahs have also tried to export it to the U.S. in recent years. I reported myself in March 2015 that Los Angeles based Iranian-Jewish activists launched a grass-roots campaign to boycott performances by Akbar Abdi, a notorious Iranian-Muslim anti-Semitic comedian who had received a visa from the U.S. State Department and planned to perform at various venues in the U.S., including performing Farsi-language shows in Southern California. A video on YouTube from 2013 shows Abdi being given a film award by Ahmadinejad and using derogatory terms to describe Jews. The campaign against Abdi ultimately resulted in the cancellation of his show in Los Angeles, as well as other shows in Southern California.

As if all of these actions and recent history of radical anti-Semitism were not proof enough of the Iranian regime’s lack of “moderate” leaders and “moderate behavior”, the Iranian regime’s leadership throughout this year has gone above and beyond to show America and the world that they are anything but moderate. For example, despite the recently signed “Nuclear Deal”, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard launched two ballistic missiles in recent months. On each missile’s side, printed in both Farsi and Hebrew, were the words “Israel must be wiped off the face of the earth.” Both missiles had a reported range of 1,250 miles and actually flew some 850 miles in tests. (By the way, Israel is only 600 miles from the Iranian border). The Iranian regime’s Navy has also fired missiles near U.S. warships in the Persian Gulf and also piloted a drone above an American aircraft carrier earlier this year in the same area. Then, just to ensure that there was no misunderstanding, in January, the “moderate” Rouhani ordered his defense minister to speed up production and testing of long range missiles. Let us of course not forget the Iranian regime’s thugs at sea who seized two boats manned by U.S. sailors in the Persian Gulf, held them captive and then humiliated them in front of international media news outlets.

Again and again, if American Jews and even American non-Jews look at the very real facts and crystal clear actions of the current Iranian regime, they will realize that there are indeed no moderates operating in the regime. The term “moderate” is a misnomer and lie spun by Obama administration officials and pro-Iranian regime lobby groups in the U.S. who want to hide the clear brutality and dangerous nature of Iran’s radical Islamic regime. These individuals are either totally delusional about the dangerous nature of Iran’s regime or in some way stand to economically benefit from sanctions being removed on the Iranian regime’s officials, ayatollahs and Iranian Revolutionary Guard. We in America and in the free world must recognize the true brutal and dangerous nature of this current Iranian regime by re-imposing sanctions on this regime before it regains its economic strength and then spreads its cancerous form of radical Shiite Islamic dogma and terrorism to our shores. Wake up America, there are no moderates in the Iranian regime! Just take it from us in the Iranian American Jewish community whose families suffered tremendously at the hands of this evil Iranian regime during the last 37 years.

Note to Obama: Iran Isn’t Changing

JONATHAN S. TOBIN / MAY 31, 2016

https://www.commentarymagazine.com/foreign-policy/middle-east/note-obama-iran-isnt-changing/

In recent months, the Obama administration has been trying to pay as little attention to what is going on in Iran as it can. The reason is that, while it was trying to sell the country on the Iran nuclear deal, the foundation of many of their arguments was that the agreement was part of a process that, as President Obama put it, to help Iran “get right with the world.” The decision to enter into secret negotiations with the Islamist government were depicted as a reaction to the election of a supposed moderate, Hassan Rouhani, as president of that country and therefore a response to a shift toward a more liberal attitude from Tehran at home and abroad that needed to be encouraged. This was recently exposed as a fraud when Obama advisor Ben Rhodes boasted of the White House’s ability to spin a credulous press in a New York Times profile. But with every passing month since the deal began to be implemented, it has become crystal clear that the only thing that is changing about Iran is that the regime is getting richer.

The latest evidence that the radical Islamists are still very much in charge in Tehran comes with the election of Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati as the chairman of the Assembly of Experts, the body that is tasked with electing and removing the country’s Supreme Leader as well as supervising his activities. In other words, Jannati will be in charge of replacing the current Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. That’s a critical position since the person in that post and not President Rouhani that truly runs the country. If Jannati and his cronies are in charge of a succession for Khamenei, then there is no doubt that his successor will be just as, if not even more of an opponent of rapprochement with the West and a supporter of Iran’s current policy that aid terrorists and seeks regional hegemony.

Moreover, Jannati is among the most hard-line radicals in a ruling elite full of hard-line radicals. He not only hates Israel and advocates the maintenance of the theocratic government’s suppression of rights, especially for women, he’s also an exponent of the most virulent hate against the United States and the West. Coupled with the election of a new speaker of Iran’s parliament, Ali Larijani, who is also seen as an opponent of the not-terribly-moderate Iranian moderates, it appears that the Tehran government remains completely in the grip of the radicals.

That may be a bad thing but what has it to do with the nuclear deal? The administration argues that despite the evidence of Iran’s misbehavior in recent months, including its illegal missile tests and aggressive funding of terror groups, it is abiding by the terms of the nuclear agreement. That may or may not be strictly true since the monitoring of Iran’s nuclear program isn’t nearly as intrusive as we were promised. But even if Iran isn’t cheating, the direction of the regime matters greatly.

That’s because in a decade the Iran deal will expire. At that point, the only thing stopping the highly advanced nuclear program that Iran was allowed to keep in the agreement from developing a nuclear weapon is a sea change in Tehran. If Khamenei’s successor and the rest of the clerics running things there are as filled with “Death to America” fervor as Jannati, then you can bet that it will mean more than just a government where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps has the freedom to do as it likes. It will ensure an Islamist regime that is determined to use the wealth the West is showering it with to amass even greater power and the invulnerability that a bomb would give it.

But when confronted with this evidence that Iran had no interest in “getting right with the world,” the United States had nothing to say about Jannati’s elevation. State Department spokesman Mark Toner was asked about it and said, “we don’t have any comment” on this not insignificant piece of news.

That was curious, especially when compared to Toner’s willingness to pipe up about recent changes in Israel. As Times of Israel editor David Horovitz aptly pointed out in his column, the juxtaposition of the silence about Jannati and Washington’s comments about Prime Minister Netanyahu’s appointment of Avigdor Lieberman as minister of defense was curious.

Toner said Lieberman’s joining the Cabinet “raises legitimate questions about what direction it may be heading in and what policies it may adopt.” Interestingly, Toner added to that by saying he had “seen reports from Israel” about the coalition and noted that some of the new government’s ministers “oppose a two-state solution.” That may be, but Lieberman is not one of them since he has always backed two states though the lines he would draw would not be the same as some liberals.

The State Department has the right to raise questions about anything it likes, but it is remarkable that the administration feels free to bash a democratically elected government while remaining circumspect about an oligarchic radical theocracy that it has also correctly labeled as the leading state sponsor of terrorism in the world.

How do we explain this difference?

One might argue that the U.S. is more invested in the affairs of an allied government as opposed to that of a foe like Iran. But the distinction goes further than that. The Obama administration has, in fact, been doing its best to maintain good relations with Iran and to avoid any behavior that might be interpreted as undermining its radical theocrats. On the other hand, it has been actively plotting to change Israel’s government. If it is particularly upset about Lieberman, it is not because they think he will interfere with peace negotiations that Palestinians don’t want or that he will start a war. It’s because Secretary of State Kerry was actively involved in the maneuvering by which it was hoped that the opposition Zionist Union Party would join Netanyahu’s government. The idea, like past efforts to topple or hamstring Netanyahu, was to use U.S. influence to tilt Israel to the left as opposed to the intentions of its voters that gave a majority to the current center-right coalition. The collapse of that gambit was yet another humiliation for Kerry and a triumph for Netanyahu, though whether it will work out well for him in the long run is a matter of opinion.

But what these two stories show us is that despite Obama’s occasional claim to the contrary, U.S. policy in the Middle East is now oriented toward appeasing Iran and isolating Israel. This is no way to treat an enemy or ally. Whoever succeeds Obama needs to realize that Iran isn’t moderating but unless the U.S. is really willing to write off the strategic Middle East, It’s U.S. policy that has to change.

The Sham of Iranian Elections: The Supreme Leader Still Reigns Supreme

REZA PARCHIZADEH  5-30-16

Reza Parchizadeh is an Iranian-born political theorist and activist. He is the co-editor-in-chief of TahlilRooz, a Persian-language think thank. Reza has authored five books and many articles, both in English and Persian.

http://www.algemeiner.com/author/reza-parchizadeh/

With the election of Ahmad Jannati as chairman of the Iranian Assembly of Experts and Ali Larijani as parliament speaker, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei once again proved that it is he who reigns supreme. Jannati and Larijani are both members of his camp, and regarded as part of his inner circle.

The hardline Jannati, 90, secured 51 of the 86 votes cast, and has been a regular member of the Assembly of Experts for the past couple of decades. Furthermore, since 1992, he has chaired the overwhelmingly powerful Guardian Council, the non-elective body whose members are installed by the Supreme Leader in a complex process, and whose task is to vet candidates in all sorts of “elections,” as well as oversee the passage of laws in the Majlis (the parliament) so that they don’t violate the wishes of the Supreme Leader.

In addition to Jannati, Mohammad Ali Movahedi Kermani, another hardliner, became Assembly of Experts first deputy; and Mohammad Hashemi Shahroudi, yet another hardliner, became second deputy. The Assembly of Experts is the political body whose supposed task is to “oversee” the acts of the incumbent Supreme Leader and to “elect” the next one.

On the other hand, Ibrahim Amini, whom the centrist/reformist/moderate bloc had supported for the chairmanship, managed to secure only 21 votes. Amini was not even elected to the board of directors of the Assembly.

It is to be noted that Amini himself is a so-called conservative, and therefore closer to the hardliners. He had indeed been put on the list of their candidates by both the conservatives/hardliners and the centrist/reformist/moderate bloc.

Former president Hashemi, a moderate, advocated on Amini’s behalf — presumably to no avail. Hashemi himself explicitly endorsed the elections by saying that “the election of the board of directors was conducted very properly… It was done fast and in a peaceful environment, clear of any dispute.” However, Hashemi’s unquestioning approval of the results flies in the face of the truth: that Jannati was hand-picked.

Khamenei immediately welcomed Jannati’s election, calling for the Assembly’s “accurate and all-encompassing protection of the Islamic and revolutionary identity of the nation, and management of the intertwined apparatus of the Islamic system.”

Less than a week later, Larijani, yet another conservative, was re-elected to the post that he has continuously held since 2008. Larijani received 173 out of the 281 votes cast. His centrist/reformist/moderate rival, Mohmmad-Reza Aref, only received 103 votes. The reformist, Masoud Pezeshkian, with 154 votes, and the conservative, Mohammad Dehghan, with 136 out of the 279 votes cast, became the first and second deputies of the parliament. The tentative board of directors is also populated with an assortment of major conservative characters.

Larijani, 58, comes from an exceedingly influential clan of conservatives, whose other members also hold high positions in the Islamic Republic. Sadeq is chief justice of Iran and a member of the Assembly of Experts; Mohammad-Javad is a top foreign-affairs adviser to the Supreme Leader; and Bagher and Fazel have held various important posts so far.

Like Amini, Larijani had also been supported by both the hardliners/conservatives and the centrists/reformists/moderates, but he chose to thank only the former after his re-election. These eccentricities all demonstrate the vagaries of the convoluted process of “elections” in a country whose government is an “Islamic Republic.”

As I explained many times prior to and following the February elections, elections in Iran are generally a sham, and these recent elections were in particular a total fraud. There is no difference in principle between the hardliners/conservatives and the centrists/reformists/moderates. The role of the Assembly of Experts in electing the next Supreme Leader is more nominal than real, and the Majlis has absolutely no say in the higher affairs of the state. Therefore, the whole process is only a showcase for the media and the outside world.

However, giving the chair of the Assembly of Experts and the parliament to two individuals close to the Supreme Leader has “symbolic” significance. It shows us that Khamenei is fearful of his future, and therefore has resolved to assign his own men to the high offices of the state. This will lead to more terror, violence and bloodshed. Simply put, it means more executions, more intervention, more “Export of Revolution,” and more “Death to Israel” and “Death to America.”

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Robert Kraft's 2016 Yeshiva University Commencement Address https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBkAADb09BY&feature=youtu.be&ab_channel=YeshivaUniversity

  YeshivaUniversity Published on May 26, 2016

Robert Kraft, founder, chairman and CEO of The Kraft Group and owner of the New England Patriots, delivers the keynote address and received an honorary doctorate at Yeshiva University’s 85th Commencement Ceremony on May 25, 2016.

 New England Patriots owner Bob Kraft delivered the commencement address for Yeshiva University tat Madison Square Garden: 

After receiving a strong welcoming applause at the beginning of his speech, Kraft joked "that's not the reception I typically get when entering sports arenas in New York" (laughter). 

"One of my father’s favorite teachings was from Pirkei Avot: Ben Zoma taught 'eizehu ashir? hasameach bechelko' -- who is rich? The person who is happy with their portion. What do people want in life? They want to feel connected; to something larger than themselves... That sense of being connected applies to great sports teams like the Patriots and the Minnesota Vikings [owners Zygi & Mark Wilf are on the YU board], it applies to great universities like Yeshiva [University], and it applies to the State of Israel, where so many sacrifice so much that the Jewish homeland can live and be a strong inspiration to the Diaspora."

“The best things we do, the businesses we build, the people we help, the championships we win, the tzedakah (charity) we give, and the communities we strengthen, are truly a gift from God. My father left me an ethical will. In that will he told me something that I think about, literally, every day of my life. He said: ‘At the end of every day, as we lay our head on our pillow, WE SHOULD ASK OURSELVES A SIMPLE QUESTION: ARE THE PEOPLE YOU TOUCHED TODAY RICHER AND BETTER FOR HAVING KNOWN YOU?’ 

Go forward from here, my friends, and make people’s lives richer and better because they have known all of you.

The soldier who fired a defense minister End Breadcrumbs

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OPINION

The soldier who fired a defense minister

 MOSHE FEIGLIN  5-28-16

The goal of the terrorism of the first and second intifadas was to force the IDF to retreat from Judea, Samaria and Gaza.

In 1996, after prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s assassination, Shimon Peres was asked in an interview: who lost the elections? To which he answered “Us, the Israelis.” When asked who won, he replied: “The Jews.

The Jews defeated the Israelis.”

Peres was wrong. The “Jews” did not exactly win. And the “Israelis” did not lose at all. In the 20 years that have ensued, an ongoing, low-intensity cold war has been waged between the Jews and the Israelis. /6943/Home_Page/Article_Pages/in_read_TOP

On Rosh Hashana 2016, Alexander Levlovitz was murdered by an Arab, signaling the beginning of a new kind of intifada. Every few hours, on average, a lone terrorist would attempt to kill Jews with whatever weapon was at hand.

The goal of the terrorism of the first and second intifadas was to force the IDF to retreat from Judea, Samaria and Gaza. It was a “nationalist” struggle. In the new intifada, all the “nationalist” masks have been removed. The goal is simply to kill Jews. The statement these terrorists are making is one we heard 70 years ago: I will kill you no matter how you define yourself; Israeli, secular, Tel-Avivian or New Yorker – you are really just a Jew.

This created a serious problem for Peres’ “Israelis.” When confronted with the new anti-Judaism, they preferred to deny their Jewish identity; there is nothing unique about the Jews and everyone can be a Nazi. /6943/Home_Page/Article_Pages/in_read_middle 

IDF soldiers killed many of the attacking terrorists. This was a healthy, Jewish response. It was the spontaneous reaction of a nation that identifies the monster and has no intention of allowing it to reawaken.

It declares that there is indeed a unique, Jewish identity.

The bullet shot in Hebron by soldier Elor Azariah into a neutralized terrorist turned the cold war between the Jews and the Israelis into an overt war that is getting hotter all the time.

It obligated the “Israelis” to stand up and defend their right to blur their identity. The entire justice system, media and other power resources in the hands of the Old Israel – Ashkenazi, leftist, secular, hegemonic – activated an orchestrated campaign to delegitimize his act.

But a frightening surprise was waiting for Old Israel. Social media allowed the New Israel – Mizrahi, traditional, far-removed from power – to stand up for the soldier. The division was very clear: the Israeli minority will do all in its power to convict the soldier, while the Jewish majority supports him.

The war intensified. The many local protests for the soldier melded into a major rally in Tel Aviv’s Rabin Square, boycotted and scorned by the media and political establishment.

Old Israel fought back. At the Holocaust memorial ceremony on Remembrance Day, deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan hinted that Elor Azariah and his supporters are Israel’s fascists. The prime minister condemned the speech, But defense minister Moshe Ya’alon supported Golan unreservedly.

The judge’s suggested compromise during Azariah’s trial was rejected by the military prosecution. After all, this is not a private case: it is a war between Israelis and Jews. Elor has become a symbol and Old Israel has no intention of giving up.

And then the war escalated to a new, much more frightening phase.

A Haaretz article titled “The First Jewish Military Coup” seemed to implicitly call upon the IDF to impose the will of the Israeli minority upon the Jewish majority. The defense minister again praised the scandalous speech of Maj.-Gen. Yair Golan and even encouraged every soldier to learn from him and follow in his footsteps. It was a military coup in the making, with the defense minister as the Left’s point man.

When Ya’alon was ousted, journalist Yigal Sarna wrote that “the ouster is a civilian putsch against the army.” The radical Left, despairing of ever winning democratic elections, turned to the IDF to save its ideology.

Now it decries the “putsch” carried out by the citizens against the army.

Who will win this war? The Jews, or the Israelis? Just like the elections of 1996, the Jews will win on the tactical plane.

But again just like those elections, on the strategic plane the Israelis will win. For the Jews to really win, they need leadership that can create a completely new strategy, informed by its Jewish identity.

To create real change, the new defense minister must say: “The security strategy of the Jewish nation and the State of Israel is ‘Kill those who come to kill you – first.’ Any soldier who does not accept this principle should remove his uniform and release the IDF from the attitudes that are preventing it from doing its job.”

Obviously, that will not happen.

Netanyahu will never face off directly against Old Israel. The IDF will continue to clone its senior commanders according to the values of the radical Left. All of us will continue to be perceived as the new Nazis of the world, Israel’s legitimacy and diplomatic and security options will continue to contract – until the Jews realize that they must do more than win the elections: they must also lead the nation according to their values.

And what about the soldier, Elor Azariah? Has this entire episode brought us nothing more than a meaningless change of personnel in the defense ministry? Not exactly – nobody in the media will say this, but the undeniable fact is that immediately following the shooting in Hebron, the new intifada disappeared into thin air.

It is impossible to know how much time will pass until the monster rears its head once again. But one thing is clear: with the one moral bullet that Azariah shot into reality, he has – at least temporarily – neutralized the venom of the new anti-Judaism.

And that is a lot more than Netanyahu, Ya’alon, the IDF and its generals managed to do in an entire half-year of violent terrorism.

Former MK and deputy speaker of the Knesset Moshe Feiglin is chairman of the Zehut political party, dedicated to providing Israel with authentic Jewish leadership based on Jewish identity and liberty.