A 211-page report issued by Amnesty International in the United Kingdom is pouring a deeper foundation on top of an already dangerous and insidious path to delegitimize Israel. The report charges Israel "with oppression and domination of Palestinians, through cruel policies of segregation, dispossession and exclusion," in what it further describes as crimes against humanity.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram

Disturbingly, this report joins a malicious piling on against the world's only Jewish state.

Last April, the organization Human Rights Watch issued a 213-page report charging Israel with inflicting on the Palestinians "deprivations so severe that they amount to the crimes against humanity of apartheid and persecution."

The apartheid charge has been a staple of the BDS movement for years. Human Rights Watch has long been at the forefront of those seeking to undermine Israel's legitimacy, aided by its cachet among those who are like-minded or who look past its selective use of the term "human rights."

Then, in May of last year, the UN Human Rights Council – long a hotbed of bias against Israel – established a Commission of Inquiry (COI) "to investigate violations in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, in East Jerusalem and in Israel." For decades, the annually funded, so-called "Palestinian committees" in the United Nations, and the dozens of anti-Israel resolutions adopted each year in the General Assembly and in its various agencies, focused largely on the West Bank and Gaza.

What separates this COI from all that preceded it inside the world body is its investigation into practices in Israel proper – and its open-ended mandate. In other words, a permanent star chamber has been set in place to flog Israel at will now and on into the future. Indeed, the three members of the commission – led by its chair, Navi Pillay, a former UN High Commissioner for Human Rights – are known for their incessant, blind bias against the Jewish state. Based on the pronouncements and writing of its members, the fix is in: Don't expect the COI, which is expected to issue its first report in June, to deliver anything other than a lengthy, one-sided rant, which will only further demonize and incite against Israel.

Amnesty UK also includes Israel proper in its report and says that an Israeli system of "legal segregation" treats Palestinians as an "inferior racial group." The report also freely uses the "apartheid" charge against Israel.

The group's secretary general, Agnès Callamard, calls Israeli policies "prolonged oppression of millions of people." For decades now, Amnesty International, running on the same fuel as Human Rights Watch, has had a Jewish problem. The two organizations are two sides of the same coin with frequent, obsessive criticism of Israel becoming a staple of press releases and annual reports.

The Amnesty UK report, though, telegraphs its objectives in several places. It calls for a "right of return" for Palestinian refugees, a transparent, demographic prescription for the demise of Israel as a Jewish state. It charges Israel with pursuing, since 1948, "a policy of establishing and then maintaining control over land and resources to benefit Jewish Israelis."

It further charges Israel with "Judaizing" not only areas of the West Bank but in Israel itself. And it calls on the UN Security Council "to impose a comprehensive arms embargo on Israel," covering "all weapons and munitions as well as law-enforcement equipment." Additionally, it recommends that the Security Council impose "targeted sanctions, such as asset freezes, against Israel officials … ."

The report also calls on the International Criminal Court, which already has charges of crimes against humanity against Israel on its docket, to consider "the crime of apartheid in its current investigation into the occupied Palestinian territories" and even calls for the application of the concept of universal jurisdiction to bring those "perpetrators (Israelis) of apartheid crimes to justice."

The upshot of the report? A call for a "major reassessment" of the UK's policy position on Israel. The government of Boris Johnson has generally enjoyed good bilateral relations with Israel. Amnesty calls for a change in that relationship in order "to confront and begin to tackle the scale and systematic nature of Israel's apartheid crimes."

Tucked somewhere deep in the report is a bogus throw-away line about Amnesty recognizing Israel's "desire to be a home for Jews," suggesting that Israel has no right to an independent existence. Someone in the organization's office in London must have cynically suggested, after placing Israel on the rack, tossing in a few words to cover charges of not being "even-handed."

One will never see in these lengthy screeds anything at all about Israel being the only democracy in the Middle East. About its widely respected independent judiciary, about the fact that Israeli Arabs now sit in the current government coalition – that an Israeli Arab sits on Israel's Supreme Court, that thousands of Israeli Arab students attend Israeli universities or that Arabic is an official language of Israel. The sponsors and writers of these reports – or should we say indictments – have no interest whatsoever in seeing beyond their interest in soiling Israel in the court of public opinion.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The similarity of language in the Human Rights Watch and Amnesty UK reports, and the stated goals of the COI are not coincidental. It's the vernacular of the BDS campaign, of the strident accusers of Israel within the United Nations and its agencies, of the Palestinian leadership itself, of some leading media outlets, and now, disturbingly, by some members of the U.S. Congress and other global parliamentary bodies.

The length of this report is matched only by the vehemence of its hatred towards Israel, and by extension, those who support it. It will resonate among those who share its warped view of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, who disregard the series of wars since 1948 to destroy Israel, the Palestinian terrorists whose families are rewarded with lifelong stipends, the showers of Hamas rockets from Gaza on Israeli cities and the nihilistic zero-sum policies of the Palestinian Authority.

Amnesty UK's report is nothing more than another bald-faced attempt to exile, demean, marginalize, and, yes, ultimately eliminate the world's only sovereign Jewish state. It is addressed to the government of the United Kingdom, but it is clearly meant for international consumption. It deserves to be thoroughly discredited as the work of utterly prejudiced operatives. No person who seriously cares about seeing the Middle East at peace ought to read beyond page one.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Amnesty's anti-Israel report fuels delegitimization fire appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter 

The Trump administration withdrew from the pact in May 2018, citing inherent weaknesses and loopholes on such issues as Iran's ballistic-missile program, snap inspections of nuclear sites and sunset clauses, as well as its malign behavior in the region. In tandem with that decision, it imposed a policy of "maximum pressure" on Iran, including a series of sanctions on an array of Iranian political, quasi-military and commercial figures and front organizations.

The regime in Tehran has clearly been waiting for the day these policies will be reversed and has positioned itself steadily over the past few months by playing hard-to-get. Reverting to form and week by week, it has generated new developments designed to make Western negotiators (the "P-5+1" made up of the United States, United Kingdom, France, China and Russia, plus Germany) nervous.

First, it was increasing enrichment of nuclear fuel to the 20 percent level, followed by reports of the installation of more advanced centrifuges at its Natanz nuclear installation. That was followed by reports that Iran had begun production of uranium metal, which can be used as a component in nuclear weapons.

All of these developments are in breach of the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the agreement touted as keeping Iran from developing nuclear weapons, but in fact only sidelining it because of sunset clauses that are getting near to expiration by the day.

Less than two weeks ago, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on a list of seven conditions laid out by Tehran that must be met before it returns to a negotiating table. Among them, the demand that the United States lift all sanctions imposed against it; that there be no connection made between Iran's nuclear program and other issues, such as its ballistic-missile program or its support for terrorist organizations like Hezbollah and Hamas; that it will not permit other regional actors to enter into the JCPOA discussions; and that it refuses to back a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Already, angst on the part of our P-5+1 partners is being felt. The French Foreign Minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said Iran "is in the process of acquiring a nuclear weapons capacity," due largely to the previous administration's maximum pressure policy. He called for a quick resumption of the JCPOA talks.

That begs a question: If the original agreement, in which France was a participant, was as watertight as it was marketed at the time, why is Iran moving headlong into developing nuclear weapons?

The answer lies elsewhere, in plain view. As the treasure trove of documents on Iran's nuclear program – ferreted out of Tehran by Israeli agents in 2018 show – the Iranian regime never had any intention of exiting the nuclear-weapons business to begin with. With stealth and a measure of patience unknown in the West, Iran has been willing to wait out "maximum pressure" while raising the temperatures of its threats and its international bullying, hoping that appearance of its headlong drive to produce a weapon will instill enough trepidation for the P5+1 to prematurely offer a basket of incentives, including the removal of sanctions, to return to the table.

The Biden administration has said that before there is any resumption of talks with Tehran, it must return to full compliance with its assurances on enrichment, the installation of centrifuges and the production of uranium metal, among other provisions.

But so brazen is Tehran in believing that the P5+1 is eager to have it back at the negotiating table that the leading Iranian nuclear official recently told the International Atomic Energy Commission (IAEA) that in order to prevent "any misunderstanding," it should avoid publishing "unnecessary details" of its nuclear program.

Much has been written of late about how much things have changed on the ground, and that lessons have been learned since the JCPOA agreement was announced five years ago.

Time passes quickly: Sunset clauses agreed to in 2015, after which Iran can proceed with its objective of producing nuclear weapons, are now five years closer to expiration. Iran continues to pursue a ballistic-missile program unfettered.

It also continues to build up Hezbollah's arsenal with shipments of precision-guided missiles and to be present in Syria, where it has no business other than to expand it hegemonist objectives. Its terrorist friends and proxies – Hamas in Gaza, and the Houthis in Yemen – are also beneficiaries of its cash and weapons. It is seeking to establish a naval presence in the Mediterranean. And the regime remains a serial abuser of the rights of women, LGBTI, juvenile offenders and, of course, its political opponents.

Meanwhile, hardly a day goes by that the Iranians are not making genocidal threats "to level Tel Aviv and Haifa," and calling for the "Zionist cancer" to be excised. Policymakers in London, Paris and Berlin may pass this off as simply rhetoric for home consumption, but Israel, its supporters and Jews everywhere take it seriously. If an Iranian bomb were to become a reality, these threats would dramatically affect the stability of the entire region.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

Iran's intentionally ratcheting up its threats and its nuclear program tells us precisely about its real intentions. If it feels pressure to agree to talks on an "improved JCPOA agreement," in its mind it needs to be wired in such a way as to repeat what happened in 2015 – gain advance concessions in exchange for talks, and then to prevaricate and obfuscate its way into another loophole-filled agreement that will be just enough to satisfy our nervous partners in Europe.

Iran has demonstrated – and not only in these past five years – that it cannot be trusted. Our objective should be to put it permanently out of the nuclear-weapons business. It is on that objective that our eagerness should be focused.

Daniel S. Mariaschin is the CEO of B'nai B'rith International. 

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Put Iran out of the nuclear-weapons business for good appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

As the Jewish people close the book on the last year and look ahead to the new one, there is much to be grateful for, especially as Israel seems closer to regional peace than ever before. But, while Israel celebrated its historic normalization of relations with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain, Hamas marked the occasion with a salvo of rocket attacks on the southern Israeli cities of Ashkelon and Ashdod. Hamas's frequent targeting of civilian areas will come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the terror group.

For decades, Hamas has perpetrated gruesome and unprovoked attacks on Israeli civilians, leaving no demographic unharmed. Its long list of victims ranges from infants to the elderly. Further aggravating these acts of terror is Hamas's pathological rationale that no one in Israel is considered a non-combatant, or to quote Hamas co-founder Mahmoud al-Zahar during a 2016 conversation with an international human-rights group: "There are no civilians in Israel."

  Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter 

This "principle" extends beyond terror victims and is currently being used to justify the incommunicado detention of Avraham "Avera" Mengistu and Hisham al-Sayed, two young Israeli citizens who have no affiliation with the Israel Defense Forces and documented histories of mental illness.

Mengistu was born in Ethiopia and made aliyah with his family at age 5. After settling in Ashkelon, the family endured a series of hardships, both economic and personal. Mengistu's older brother, Masrashau, died in 2011. According to friends and family, it was around this time that Mengistu began to exhibit a psychological disorder that purportedly intensified in the months before his detainment by Hamas in Gaza and his subsequent disappearance.

On Sept. 7, 2014, the then 32-year-old Mengistu crossed the border into Gaza of his own volition. Despite a series of warning shots fired by an IDF patrol, he continued over the border fence. He has not been seen by an Israeli since then. Unfortunately, it is impossible to know his current condition because in the six years since he is believed to have been captured and held captive by Hamas, there has not been a single detail about him or even confirmation that Hamas is holding him.

Al-Sayed, the young Israeli Bedouin from the southern town of Hura, who also crossed the border of his own volition in 2015, is in a similar situation. According to al-Sayed's family, he, too, suffers from mental illness. For years, his family has pleaded publicly to Hamas for his release; five years later, his fate is still unknown.

The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirms on its website that Hamas is holding captive the two men.

Hamas also refuses to return the remains of two Israeli soldiers killed in Gaza during the 2014 "Operation Protective Edge," Lt. Hadar Goldin, 23, and Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul, 20. A few hours into what was to be a ceasefire, Hamas attacked a group of IDF soldiers working to demolish a network of the terror group's cross-border tunnels.

It is believed that Goldin was killed during the attack and his body dragged into the tunnel from which Hamas militants had emerged. Two other soldiers died along with Goldin. The previous month, Shaul and six other IDF soldiers were killed in their armored personnel carrier by an anti-tank missile fired by Hamas. Shaul's body was never found. The Goldin and Shaul families have endured years without proper closure.

Hamas' complete disregard for the ethical norms that most of the world abides by is not surprising considering it is a terror organization. The interminable length of being held incommunicado, to say nothing of the unlawful detainment of mentally ill non-combatants, is in flagrant violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Under this covenant, Mengistu and al-Sayed must be brought before a local judge shortly after their initial detention, thus revealing and confirming their identity, as well as charging them with an offense.

Failing even this, their detainment now falls under the classification of an enforced disappearance. Hamas has also refused to allow the International Red Cross, or any other organization, to check on their health and well-being, yet another indication of Hamas' depravity.

This indefinite and surreptitious confinement, coupled with troubling psychological distress, amounts to cruel and inhumane torture. Violating international law further still, Hamas is attempting to use any information on the captured men as a bargaining chip in a prisoner swap for members of Hamas currently held by Israel. It appears that neither Mengistu nor al-Sayed would actually be surrendered in exchange for the Hamas prisoners; instead, Hamas would only reveal the most basic information confirming the captivity and proof of life of the two Israeli men.

Hamas's kidnapping and detaining of civilians in secret captivity is an appalling violation of human rights. Six years later, the international community remains silent on the situation. There has been a virtual blackout in the international media, as well.

While major news outlets disproportionally and unfairly focus on Israel, one would think that the enforced disappearance of two civilians at the very least would warrant a mention. Disappointing, yet not surprising, Hamas' human-rights abuses continue to go largely ignored by the media.

The Mengistu and al-Sayed families, with their limited financial resources, have reached out to countless international humanitarian organizations and attempted communication through several diplomatic channels over the years to no avail. The movement to #FreeAvera, #BringHadarHome and #BringOron home is large in Israel, and a determined group of those fighting for the return of all four refuse to give up hope. But in today's political climate, with social-justice organizations marching for the human rights of all – where is the public outcry in the West over these blatant injustices?

Those of us who engage in advocacy for Israel are not surprised by the inhumanity of Hamas, which is responsible for incessant terror toward all Israelis. We are well aware that Hamas does not play by the rules of war or the norms of humanity; that its children's television shows glorify suicide bombers; that it lynches LGBTQ people publicly; that it imprisons journalists; that it sends incendiary balloons to Israeli kindergartens; that it spends humanitarian relief funds on building underground tunnels to attack Israeli civilians instead of feed its people. But it is not the sole responsibility of Israel or its advocates to tell this story.

Subscribe to Israel Hayom's daily newsletter and never miss our top stories!

The Jewish people have just spent 10 days reflecting and asking forgiveness from God and from one another. As we move forward in the new year, we commit ourselves to helping, in any way we can, bring Mengistu and al-Sayed – and the remains of Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul – home to their families.

The topic of their return is on our agenda each time we hold policy meetings with diplomats asking them to raise their voices over this travesty. We must do all that we can to increase public outcry and demand their release. We owe it to these helpless young men who have no voice to ask.

Reprinted with permission from JNS.org.

The post Hamas holds Israelis and the world is silent appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.

In our own country, who would have thought that those attending Shabbat services would be targets of shooters intoxicated with anti-Semitism, much of it via the Internet?

Follow Israel Hayom on Facebook and Twitter

Only a few short years ago, many viewed the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement as being confined to college campuses, only to see the spread of that movement to the Women's March, to LGBTQ marches, and to such places as the United Nations Human Rights Council and to the Irish Senate.

And who would have predicted that in the House of Representatives, we'd hear charges of dual loyalty and Jewish money buying elections and political favors? Think about it: The worst thing you can say to an American Jew is that after 350-plus years on these shores, and after the many contributions we have made to the building of this country, and after the sacrifice of so many who have served to defend it, we are not loyal to our country.

Abroad, Arabic-language media outlets and social media are a repository of anti-Semitic cartoons, articles and opinion columns that portray Jews and Israelis as evil monsters. Cartoons incorporating grotesque Jewish stereotypes reminiscent of the Nazi-era propaganda of Der Sturmer appear not only throughout the Arab and Muslim world but also in much of Europe. Many absorb anti-Jewish images and polemics as well as the inflammatory, one-sided anti-Israel narrative offered by both the print press and Arabic-language satellite TV stations and websites.

Iran has hosted Holocaust cartoon competitions, reflecting the Iranian regime's attempts to expand its promotion of anti-Semitism beyond the borders of its nation. For more than 35 years the Iranian regime has been trying to delegitimize Israel through both soft and hard power. Iran spreads its anti-Semitic and anti-Israel narrative through schools, social media, television and non-stop political rhetoric. Its polemics have attracted an audience in the Middle East, as well as in the West.

In recent years we have looked at an alarming spike in anti-Semitism in Western Europe, but we now see in Central and Eastern Europe a dramatic rise in ultra-nationalist parties and movements, some of which engage in Holocaust denial or minimization, or in the veneration of those who collaborated with Nazi Germany.

B'nai B'rith is an advisory board member of the European Parliament's anti-Semitism working group and works closely with the EU Council, Justice Commissioner Věra Jourová and her Fundamental Rights unit. We also appreciate the cooperation of EU anti-Semitism coordinator Katharina von Schnurbein and her office.

Through our representation in 24 European countries, B'nai B'rith strongly emphasizes transforming policy into action with the aim of protecting and nourishing Jewish life and culture throughout Europe and the world.

To give you a few examples, B'nai B'rith Barcelona launched an educational program in cooperation with the city municipality and Yad Vashem to teach about the Holocaust in schools. The program will, after its continued success over the past six years, soon expand on a national level.

In Antwerp, Belgium, B'nai B'rith is part of a joint initiative that organizes the annual Shalom Festival to celebrate peace, tolerance, and coexistence.

In Romania, where B'nai B'rith has a rich history and robust relationships, we have organized for the past five consecutive years a series of conferences and events called "Bridges of Tolerance," which highlights the rich Jewish contribution to Romanian culture, the arts, and science.

But educational programs alone are not enough. Parallel efforts need to be undertaken in the spheres of law enforcement, the judicial system, and in the daily work of governments and organizations. How should we proceed?

Nearly 20 years into the struggle against contemporary anti-Semitism, a "hotwash" of sorts is in order, as we review what has worked, what hasn't, and what remains to be done.

That more than three centuries after Jews arrived on these shores we are still confronted with the dual loyalty charge, and that nearly 75 years after the Holocaust we are seeing a dramatic rise in anti-Semitism in the continent that witnessed the greatest tragedy to befall our people, clearly demonstrates how important it is that we substantially increase our efforts to beat back the virus of hatred in the 21st century.

The post Navigating the 'perfect storm' of modern anti-Semitism appeared first on www.israelhayom.com.