The European Union has not done enough to ensure that its funding to the Palestinian Authority does not support incitement to violence and human rights violations, a study published on Tuesday argued.

“Despite existing anti-terrorism regulations, the EU has not addressed funding by the Palestinian Authority to families of convicted terrorists as well as the persistent issue of incitement to hatred and widespread antisemitism in Palestinian textbooks,” wrote researchers Tommaso Virgili and Paul Stott, who previously authored a report on hidden Muslim Brotherhood networks in Europe.

The study was commissioned by B’nai Brith International, a Jewish non-profit that also advocates on behalf of Israel in the United States and abroad.

​The report slammed the EU for failing to ensure accountability in the Palestinian Authority education system. Palestinian textbooks have long been assailed by critics as containing hate speech and incitement, including by a 2021 EU study.

Brussels is the PA’s largest single donor and helps pay the salaries of many of its civil servants, including those who design PA curricula. It is also the second-largest donor to the United Nations Works and Reliefs Agency — which supports Palestinian refugees — sending over $157 million in aid in 2021.

“For many years, the EU has been criticized for failing to align its practice with principles with regard to the Palestinian Authority and Palestinian nonprofits,” B’nai Brith director Alan Schneider said during a webinar inaugurating the report.

​The report also charged that the EU does not uphold its own values when it continues to fund the PA, given the PA’s practice of paying stipends to the families of those imprisoned or killed by Israeli forces. Critics call the practice “pay for slay,” as the funds can also go to Palestinians convicted of brutal acts of terror.

The EU for too long “turned a blind eye towards the practice of payments to the families of convicted terrorists, praised as martyrs,” said European parliamentarian David Lega during the report’s launch.

​The researchers argued that Brussels should impose conditions on its aid to the PA and consider adopting legislation that bans aid as long as Ramallah continues paying out stipends to Palestinian security prisoners and their families.

While Israeli officials have consistently condemned the prisoner stipends and alleged incitement in textbooks, the government has also sought to bolster the PA, seen as more moderate than its Islamist Hamas rivals, including by increasing international aid to its rapidly draining coffers.

As recently as November, Israel lobbied international donors in Oslo — including the European Union — to step up support for the Palestinian Authority.

The report elided any mention of Ramallah’s policy of security coordination with Israel, in which Palestinian Authority forces work with Israeli intelligence to crack down on Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists in the West Bank.

Más de 300 misiles ha lanzado Hamas en las últimas 12 horas contra civiles israelíes. Es el objetivo de asesinar del terrorismo que no cesa porque lo respalda el soporte logístico de Irán,el silencio ominoso del Consejo de Seguridad que sólo se ocupa de agredir a Israel, la complicidad de todos los que callan cuando la población israelí es la víctima, y esos silencios cada día más despreciables, no son pocos y no excluyen a ningún continente.

’nai B’rith está firmemente de pie junto a nuestros hermanos en Israel,con fraterna y profunda solidaridad con quienes han sido víctimas de los ataques de hoy.

Hamas cree que multiplicando el terrorismo podría lograr sus objetivos.Se equivoca como siempre lo ha hecho.El terrorismo no es el futuro.Es el enemigo de los palestinos y es el que los tiene sumidos en dolor y miseria.

El martes recordaremos a los héroes de Israel en Iom Haazicaron y el miércoles celebraremos 71 años esplendorosos de Israel.
​
Esa es y será la respuesta al terrorismo:memoria por los que se callan y otorgan,enfrentamiento sin titubeos a los agresores y sus patrocinadores.

In light of the current wave of unrelenting attacks against Israel's legitimacy, B'nai B'rith International joined B'nai B'rith Europe, local lodges and dozens of other Jewish organization to rally in support of Israel outside of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

B’nai B’rith is highly critical of the report issued by the United Nations Human Rights Council’s (UNHRC) “independent, international commission of inquiry” into Israel’s defensive operations against Hamas in Gaza during the summer of 2014. The report inherently lacks credibility and should not be taken as a serious evaluation of the necessary counterterrorism actions of the Israel Defense Forces. 

B'nai B'rith International's Israel/Middle East policy includes issues such as fighting terrorism; supporting Israel's right to defend itself; preventing Iran's efforts to acquire nuclear weapons; preserving the unity of Jerusalem; promoting the rights of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries; and supporting direct negotiations between the parties to the Middle East conflict while affirming the importance of Israel's critical security needs.

Photos below courtesy of Israel In Switzerland:

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the fallout of Hosni Mubarak's acquittal in Egypt, Mahmoud Abbas' latest slander against Israel, and the common link of hatred toward Israel and Jews that impedes the Middle East peace process.

Listen to the full podcast below:

El director ejecutivo de la Bnai Brith Latinoamérica, Eduardo Kohn explicó en Radio Jai la situación actual entre Israel y sus vecinos. “Israel no está dispuesto a que sus ciudadanos reciban eternamente misiles. Hamás ha dicho que no reconocerá nunca a Israel y Mahmmud Abbas ha optado por la confrontación y al apoyo de los terroristas. Cuando se considera al otro como un enemigo, cuando asesinar es una misión sagrada, cuando los asesinos son mártires y las madres glorifican a sus hijos por inmolarse y cuando el terrorismo es convertido en movimiento político, el camino a la paz es una utopía”, sentenció.

Jewish leaders converged on the State Department to discuss rising anti-Semitism across the globe, which is of “deep concern” to the Obama administration, US officials said this week.

Meeting with the group for four hours on Tuesday, US Secretary of State John Kerry shared in worries over “the prevalence and pervasiveness of anti-Semitic threats and attacks,” the State Department said.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Tom Malinowski and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Ira Forman led the discussions, attended only briefly by the secretary. Several other senior State Department officials participated the meeting.

Jewish representatives included leaders from the Jewish Federations of North America, the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, B’nai B’rith, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee and European Jewish communities.

[...]

On Iran, the secretary was firm in stating that negotiations over that country’s nuclear program would not be extended past it’s November 24 deadline.

“I think he wanted us to communicate the message to Israel,” the source stated. “I think the message was quite serious: That he is frustrated about what is happening. They [the administration] feel they invested a lot in it [peace negotiations].”

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the Gaza conflict has been used as an excuse for anti-Semitic and anti-Israel views to propagate in Latin America and Europe; and anti-Israel stances in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Cuba and Uruguay make life difficult for the native Jewish populations.

Listen to the full podcast below:

"¿Qué le pasa a Latinoamérica que no se da cuenta que una vez que los demonios salen afuera es muy difícil volver atrás?", advirtió el dirigente comunitario, quien además reiteró que "el objetivo de Hamas es exterminar a los judíos donde sea que se encuentren".

Sin embargo, Kohn se mostró esperanzado, ya que "todavía hay muchos gobernantes y académicos que no quieren el terrorismo" y elogió al expresidente uruguayo, Julio María Sanguinetti, quien en las últimas semanas defendió al Estado de Israel y condenó el terrorismo de Hamas. 

El director de la B'Nai B'rith América Latina, Eduardo Kohn, aseguró que "es llamativa" la actitud del canciller Luis Almagro al utilizar una bufanda con la bandera palestina, en un momento en donde las relaciones entre Israel y Uruguay están tensas.

"Justo esto sucede en una semana en el que el Ministro de Relaciones Exteriores ha dicho que Gaza es un gran campo de concentración; campo de concentración es Treblinka, Autzwitch. No es campo de concentración un lugar en donde hay misiles en cantidades industriales, donde hay hospitales, casas, shoppings, carreteras, caminos, autos, gente viviendo. Eso es muy ofensivo, porque todos los que han pasado por campos de concentración deben sentir, como ciudadanos uruguayos que son, deben sentir que los han ofendido en una forma muy fuerte. Además, el gobierno de Uruguay ha hablado de la palabra 'genocidio' y todos sabemos lo que eso ha provocado," dijo Kohn al ser consultado por El Observador.

"Esta misma semana el ministro dijo por segunda vez de que las organizaciones judías (...) tenían que criticar la guerra y las acciones de Israel en Gaza. No es bueno que se le diga a ciudadanos uruguayos que salgan hablando en contra de Israel. Con Israel tenemos todo el afecto y sentimos como judíos que es el único país judío que hay en el mundo. Nosotros salir, como uruguayos, a emplazar o decirle algo a un gobierno que fue elegido por los ciudadanos de Israel, nos parece un emplazamiento que sólo trae confusión y puede traer otro tipo de reacciones, como grafitis y frases agresivas que estamos viendo en Montevideo."

Según Kohn, "las opiniones por este conflicto, es público y notorio, que han sido confrontacionales entre Uruguay e Israel. Pero Israel sólo quiere tener paz, tranquilidad  y la mejor relación con todos los países. En el caso de Uruguay mucho más, porque fue central en la creación del Estado de Israel."

More than 400 Jewish leaders, rabbis, and Holocaust and genocide scholars have signed a public statement denouncing accusations that Israel has committed genocide in Gaza.

The statement was organized by The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, based in Washington, D.C. It follows a July 9 claim by Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas, that Israel is "committing genocide," an August 1 assertion by Fatah foreign affairs spokesman Nabil Sha'ath that the situation in Gaza is "a Holocaust," and an August 1 accusation by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan that Israel is guilty of "Hitler-like fascism." 

"The Holocaust was the deliberate, systematic mass murder of six million innocent Jews by Nazi Germany and its collaborators," the statement by the 400 leaders notes. "By contrast, Israel is acting in legitimate self-defense against Hamas terrorism. Israel has no interest in harming innocent civilians, and indeed has done its utmost to avoid civilian casualties, whereas Hamas deliberately targets Israeli civilians. Any comparison between Israel and the Nazis outrageously distorts Israel's actions and trivializes the enormity and nature of the Holocaust."

The signatories include:

*  Prominent figures in the American Jewish leadership, including David Harris, executive director of the American Jewish Committee; Michael Siegal and Jerry Silverman, the chair and president, respectively, of the Jewish Federations of North America; David J. Michaels, Director of UN and Intercommunal Affairs for B'nai B'rith International; Rabbi Dr. Yitz Greenberg and Prof. Walter Reich, past chairman and past executive director, respectively, of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum; and leaders of the American Society for Yad Vashem, the Simon Wiesenthal Center; the National Council of Young Israel; the Religious Zionists of America; and the Wexner Foundation.

Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith International's Director of Latin American Affairs, spoke with several Uruguayan news outlets, condemning "latent anti-Semitic" graffiti found on buildings and dumpsters in Montevideo.

Kohn blames comments made by the country's president and foreign minister regarding the Israel-Gaza conflict for having incited a wave of anti-Jewish sentiment in the general population.

Here is a review of what publications in the country are writing:

“En Uruguay hay antisemitas como los hay en todo el mundo, pero decir que hay antisemitismo, como movimientos organizados, no solo es aventurado, sino que no es exacto”, dijo el director de la B’nai B’rith, Eduardo Kohn, quien elogió las leyes uruguayas que condenan toda manifestación de discriminación.

Kohn explicó que las pintadas en contra del pueblo judío no son nada nuevo, pero sí la cantidad y el tenor con que se han manifestado en los últimos días, coincidente con el conflicto entre Israel y Hamas en la franja de Gaza.
“En otros períodos de guerra, incluso con Hamas, han existido episodios antisemitas, pero no una andanada, como la que está ocurriendo en estos últimos 20 días”, agregó.

[...]

“En Uruguay hay antisemitas como los hay en todo el mundo, pero decir que hay antisemitismo, como movimientos organizados, no solo es aventurado, sino que no es exacto”, dijo el director de la B’nai B’rith, Eduardo Kohn, quien elogió las leyes uruguayas que condenan toda manifestación de discriminación.

Kohn explicó que las pintadas en contra del pueblo judío no son nada nuevo, pero sí la cantidad y el tenor con que se han manifestado en los últimos días, coincidente con el conflicto entre Israel y Hamas en la franja de Gaza.
“En otros períodos de guerra, incluso con Hamas, han existido episodios antisemitas, pero no una andanada, como la que está ocurriendo en estos últimos 20 días”, agregó.

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the anti-Semitic messaging of the Venezuelan government in criticizing Israel, and a condemnation of the Uruguayan president and foreign minister accusing Israel of "genocide," inspiring vigilante anti-Semitism.

Listen to the full podcast, below:

El director ejecutivo de la organización B'nai Brith Latinoamérica, Eduardo Kohn, se refirió en su columna semanal en Radio Jai a las repercusiones en Latinoamérica luego del operativo Margen Protector mientras rige el cese del fuego de 72 horas. 

Además criticó las convocatorias del presidente venezolano a manifestarse contra Israel y en apoyo al pueblo palestino y condenó las expresiones del mandatario uruguayo José “Pepe” Mujica contra el Estado judío. “Los que odian a Israel quieren que sea el país de la guerra. Los gobiernos han instalado el antisemitismo de Estado”, denunció.

Fifty-six of the U.N.’s members belong to the Muslim bloc and 21 to the Arab League; nine of 12 major oil-exporting states are among these. Accordingly, Israel, a democracy facing terrorists sworn to its eradication, is routinely condemned more than all other countries combined. Israel alone is excluded from its regional group at the U.N.

Only the Palestinian nationalist movement enjoys a U.N. day of solidarity, a separate refugee agency operating under politicized terms, a human rights “special rapporteur,” a General Assembly non-member seat, and multiple bodies dedicated to promoting its political narrative and goals.

Last month’s Human Rights Council session on Gaza neglected in its adopted resolution to even mention Hamas. Those prompting the session included an array of serial rights violators, none of which have ever been the subject of a special session. No such sessions are ever convened before Israel reacts to years of grave violence.‎

Despite having made peace with every willing neighbor, Israel is subjected to scrutiny at the council under an agenda item separate from one addressing all other countries. No matter that more people have been killed in three years in Syria than in some 70 years of the Arab-Israeli conflict.‎

Here, partiality is a fact, not an allegation.  


                                                                       Daniel S. Mariaschin, Executive Vice President AND

                                                                       David J. Michaels, Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs

[...]

A total of 32 Christian clergy attended the press conference, along with several rabbis, including Joseph Potasnik, executive vice president of the New York Board of Rabbis.

The press conference came after several other Christian denominations sent a letter to the White House and members of Congress calling for an “investigation” into the security assistance Israel receives from the United States.

Among the groups signing the letter were the United Church of Christ, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Pax Christi and the United Methodist Church. These same groups made a similar request in 2012 that was rebuffed.

B’nai B’rith International issued a statement decrying the letters and saying the letters make plain the fundamental misapprehensions of its signatories, who see the “underlying causes” of the conflict as Israeli “occupation” and the “siege” of Gaza, as well as the failure to reach a two-state solution.

“Are the denominations who signed this letter aware that Israel completely withdrew from Gaza nine years ago?” B’nai B’rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said. “It even uprooted every single Jewish settlement community there, yet was rewarded with relentless terrorist attacks.”

B’nai B’rith also rejected the letters’ calls for Israel to lift “the Gaza siege.”

“This, however, is clearly not the solution to ending recurring bloodshed because unconditionally ending blockade measures would allow the further, unfettered mobility of armaments and Palestinian terrorists,” the statement said.

“Why would these denominations pin the cause of the conflict on Israel, America’s key democratic ally, yet ignore those complicit in the atrocities carried out by Palestinian terrorists?” asked B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel Mariaschin in the statement. “Repeatedly over the past week, rockets have been uncovered at UN schools in Gaza and cross-border infiltration tunnels were revealed to have been constructed with imported materials, not to mention the indiscriminate firing of rockets putting innocent civilians constantly at risk. Those civilians also include a Christian community that, unlike elsewhere in the region, is free and continuously growing.”

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: a criticism of the UNHRC special report on Israel, a condemnation of the outrageous decision by Brazil to call the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, which shows contempt for Israeli civilians under Hamas bombings in the last decade.

Listen to the full podcast below:

“Hamas encontró aliados en nuestra América, que sin duda creen que es más fácil atacar a una democracia que condenar a quien usa el terror como sistema, de lo contrario no se entendería ni el lenguaje que usan ni mucho menos las acciones que toman”, analizó. 

La alta comisionada de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos, Navi Pillay, dijo ayer durante una reunión del Consejo que “hay una alta posibilidad de que algunas acciones militares de Israel en Gaza puedan constituir “crímenes de guerra” para condenar las acciones militares del Ejército de Defensa Israelí en Gaza.

“Sra Pillay, usted y toda la ONU saben que los 3.000 misiles que ha recibido Israel en estos últimos 30 días son lanzados desde casas, edificios, mezquitas, hospitales donde lógicamente viven civiles, el que los retiene y los hace morir como mártires es Hamas. Entonces no se confunda sobre quienes comenten crímenes de guerra y quien está matando a su propia gente”, arremetió Eduardo Kohn, quien además acusó a los países latinoamericanos ante el conflicto.

“Brasil ha usado la retórica del uso desproporcionado de la fuerza y ha acusado a Israel de poner en peligro la estabilidad del Medio Oriente. Ha llamado a su embajador de Israel en consultas, una expresión que en estos casos significa una sola palabra: vergüenza”, enfatizó Kohn.

The Israel-Gaza conflict has dominated international headlines, inspiring civil unrest and prompting discussions of terrorism vs. national sovereignty. 

Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, penned an op-ed offering background on these discussions for El Observador, the second largest daily newspaper in Uruguay. 

Kohn places the responsibility for Operation Protective Edge squarely on the Hamas terror network, explaining the organization's charter, philosophies and ultimate goal of Jewish annihilation.

Read the entire op-ed in Spanish, below:

El Debate De Medio Oriente Llegó A Uruguay
El director de B´nai B´rith para América Latina, Eduardo Kohn, responde sobre el carácter terrorista del grupo Hamas


Un análisis de la especialista Susana Mangana, publicado en El Observador el viernes 25 de julio, sobre diferencias y similitudes entre el grupo palestino Hamas y otros que operan en la región, provocó diferentes reacciones (principalmente en redes sociales) de integrantes de la colectividad judía del Uruguay.

El Dr. en Diplomacia Eduardo Kohn, director de B´nai B´rith Internacional para América Latina, escribió un texto, reproducido a continuación, en el que da su visión sobre Hamas.

La realidad no es teoría, son los hechos

¿Quién es Hamas?

De acuerdo con la Carta Fundacional del Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica (Hamas es un acrónimo), publicada el 18 de agosto de 1988, la misma es una organización islámica que tiene objetivos precisos.

En su preámbulo señala:”Israel existirá hasta que el Islam lo destruya, de la misma manera que destruyó a otros en el pasado”. 

En su artículo 13 establece que “Palestina es una tierra islámica. La liberación de Palestina constituye una obligación individual para cada musulmán dondequiera se encuentre. No existe ninguna solución al problema palestino que no sea por medio de la Yihad”.

Hamas no es un movimiento de resistencia como se ha podido leer en estos días, sino que es un grupo que tiene como objetivo buscar los medios posibles para exterminar a los judíos. Y en ese contexto, su primera etapa es destruir al Estado de Israel. 

¿Pueden hacerlo? Hoy, gracias a Irán tienen armas como para intentar sus objetivos. Cuentan con 10 mil misiles que llegan a cualquier parte de Israel y  les da la capacidad de asesinar a casi 4 millones de personas. 
¿Por qué no lo han logrado si lanzaron más de mil misiles? Porque Israel está decidido a defenderse, grave pecado para quienes desean su desaparición.

Hamas no basa su legitimidad en la búsqueda de un Estado Palestino, como también se ha escuchado y leído. Eso trata de hacer la Autoridad Palestina. Hamas no puede querer construir un Estado cuando el preámbulo de su carta constitutiva ya señala que el gran objetivo es matar a todos los judíos:

“El Día del Juicio no llegará hasta que todos los musulmanes luchen contra los judíos y les den muerte. Entonces, los judíos se esconderán detrás de las rocas y los árboles, y éstos últimos gritarán: ¡Oh musulmán!, un judío se esconde detrás de mí, ven a matarlo”(Artículo 7).   

Bajo esas premisas, para Hamas los civiles muertos no cuentan. Son mártires y escudos humanos; sus escuelas y hospitales son refugios para sus misiles. Porque los verdaderos refugios construidos por Hamas en Gaza son para sus  armas y sus líderes, no para sus civiles.

Los ciudadanos israelíes tienen refugios para ocultarse, el ejército tiene armas para enfrentar misiles, y esa parecería ser su culpa mayor. Se califica de desproporcionado cuando  un Estado defiende a sus ciudadanos, cuando reacciona frente a una amenaza constante. Pero así funcionan las democracias: los ciudadanos exigen seguridad a sus gobernantes, y los gobiernos deben actuar en consecuencia.

Mezclar a Hamas con procesos de paz y diálogo político es falsear los hechos que están a la vista. Para Hamas, Israel debe ser borrado del mapa; allí debe existir un estado islámico. Así lo expresó,una vez más, públicamente, hace dos días en Irán el Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, líder máximo en Irán y mentor ideológico y material de Hamas.
Bajo los objetivos de Hamas, es muy cínico hablar de paz en Gaza. Hay allí 2 millones de palestinos que son  rehenes de una idea de exterminio del vecino.

La Autoridad Palestina debería reconocer públicamente los hechos. Mientras ambos, Autoridad Palestina por debilidad, y  Hamas , por sus ataques y su  violencia, sigan alentando la confrontación, la hipocresía intelectual y política que también ronda por estos lares , que acusa de uso desproporcionado de la fuerza a quien se defiende, y legitima el terror defendiéndolo sin pudor, los palestinos seguirán siendo víctimas de un marco de vida insostenible. 

Si la ONU actuara de acuerdo a lo que escribieron y soñaron sus fundadores, no habría 200 mil muertos en Siria, ni 4 millones de israelíes amenazados por misiles, ni palestinos sin esperanzas. Pero mirando sesgadamente y acusando automáticamente, se logra que  Assad siga siendo Presidente, que Hamas reciba de Estados miembros de ONU  miles de misiles, y que Mahmoud Abbas sienta que habla a la pared cuando pasea por las capitales de países árabes muy ricos y sordos.

Los que insisten en legitimar a Hamas desde sus cómodos sillones de tecnócratas, desde sus atalayas más o menos intelectuales, o desde sus odios políticos, respaldan la sinrazón de la confrontación y avivan las hogueras. 

Ambos pueblos merecen algo bien distinto para empezar, al menos, para comenzar a superar la triste realidad de los hechos.

European Union Shows Lack of Will to Defend Israel at UNHRC

Yet again, the European Union has demonstrated a lack of will in defending a sister democracy under attack from an organization that it has included on its own terrorism list.

One day after the EU’s foreign ministers adopted a statement which called for both the disarming of Hamas and endorsed Israel’s “legitimate right to defend itself,” nine European countries abstained on a one-sided United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution harshly critical of Israel.

On July 22nd, the European Union foreign ministers, in a move uncharacteristic of their traditional voting patterns on issues relating to Israel and the Palestinians, adopted language that seemed to express a real understanding of the immense challenges Israel faces in fighting the terrorist organization in Gaza. It went so far as to call out Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, a point Israel makes several times daily, to the mostly-closed ears of  international media and a large portion of the diplomatic world.

Sunrise on July 23rd brought an immediate reversion to form for the EU.

A resolution brought to the UNHRC by such human rights luminaries as Pakistan and Venezuela, filled with hackneyed anti-Israel diatribes for which the council is well known, took off after Israel for a laundry list of human rights violations, including Israel’s pursuit of Hamas terrorists in the West Bank in June and “the most recent military assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, the latest in a series of military aggressions…” The document decries Israel’s “targeting of civilians…including medical and humanitarian personnel…that may amount to international crimes…”

The resolution supports the now discredited “national consensus government” forged by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in April, expresses deep concern over Palestinian prisoners, decries “collective punishment,” demands opening of the crossings for the flow of humanitarian “and commercial goods,” (concrete for more tunnels?) and, well, you get the picture.

Then it gets worse. It calls for Switzerland to convene the contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva convention “to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The coup de grace was to call a new “independent commission of inquiry” to investigate “all violations…of human rights law in the ‘occupied Palestinian Territory’…particularly in the Gaza Strip.”

We recall the last time an “independent” commission was set in place by the UNHRC. It was headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, who, after wrestling with his conscience over the biased anti-Israel report filed in his name, publicly renounced its findings in a celebrated New York Times op-ed.

In the entire four page, double-spaced resolution, there is not one mention of Hamas by name.

The resolution was overwhelmingly adopted, with 17 abstentions, 11 of them European and nine of those European Union countries: Austria, the Czech Republic,  Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom. Most of them consider themselves to be good friends of Israel. But in this vote, they have incredibly and hypocritically enabled an organization that they themselves consider to be a terrorist organization.

Where is the stand-alone resolution condemning the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel’s cities? Has the United Kingdom forgotten its own history, when thousands of V-1 and V-2 rockets were fired from Germany into London and South East England during WWII?

In post-mortems, some Europeans tried to defend their lack of principle by saying they had salvaged the resolution from harsher language. Harsher?  This document is a “greatest hits” of the UNHRC against Israel. All but the kitchen sink has been included in its fulminating, accusatory tone.

If the EU countries had been true to their resolution of July 22nd, they’d have not only voted against the resolution, but walked out of the hall when it came up for debate. In each capitol, policy makers know they have pointed the finger not against the perpetrator of human rights violations, but the victim. The statements of “support for Israel’s right to defend itself,” ring more hollow than ever in light of the adoption of this measure.”Defend yourself,” they are saying, but only up to a point.

Compromise on principle is not new in Europe. This abandonment of Israel at such a crucial moment is unacceptable. History will surely have some condemnatory judgments when the books about this conflict are written.

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the people of Israel are united against the ongoing attack by Hamas; anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, Europe, Latin America; the unacceptable calls for Israeli restraint by Latin American countries; Iran and the 20th anniversary of the AMIA bombings.

Listen to the full podcast below:

Eduardo Kohn, director ejecutivo de la Bnai Brith para Latinoamérica, reflexionó en Radio Jai acerca de la delicada situación que se vive en Israel, debido a los incesantes misiles que caen desde Gaza. "Mientras Hamas pide la desaparición de Israel, el Estado judío le pide a Hamas que deje de bombardear a su población civil", señaló.

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the double speech of the Palestinian president, the hypocrisy of the radical left in Latin America with regards to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the failed Fatah-Hamas agreement that proves that they cannot be partners for peace.

Listen to the full podcast below:

El director ejecutivo de la Bnai Brith Latinoamerica, Eduardo Kohn, habló en Raidio Jai sobre la hipocresía de la izquierda latinoamericana sobre la situación actual del Estado Judío y el doble discurso del lider palestino Mahmoud Abbas ante la prensa internacional, que acusa constantemente el accionar defensivo del país. "No tienen idea de lo que es vivir bajo constantes ataques, solo están para acusar a Israel," aseguró.

As Hamas rocket attacks on Israel intensify, the European Union seems to have a case of amnesia over who, exactly, is pushing the buttons. In a statement, the Europeans condemned the indiscriminate firing, but never once mentioned Hamas. 

Who exactly does the EU think is firing rockets at Israel?

One thing is for sure: the Hamas rockets have nothing to do with Israel's settlement policy. Yet, the European Union, which looked the other way when the Palestinian Authority threw the Kerry peace initiative overboard by announcing a reconciliation with Hamas, has, for years, been fixated on settlements as being the one and only impediment to peace.

This, despite it being widely known exactly what territory would remain with Israel, and what would go to the Palestinians -- if there were ever to be an agreement between the two sides.

The EU's posturing on this issue actually helps Hamas by deflecting attention from its nihilistic campaign against Israel, but also aids and abets Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority by dismissing or marginalizing Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews.

Hamas has now added social media, texts and video threats to its arsenal, telling Israelis to prepare for suicide bombings and other terror attacks. This psychological warfare coupled with the hundreds of rockets launched at Israel demonstrates, yet again, that Hamas simply seeks the destruction of Israel.

Even after the Palestinian Authority and Hamas joined forces and announced a new Palestinian “government,” and even as the news of the kidnapping of three Israeli teens was being reported, and as Israel charged Hamas with the kidnappings, the EU’s envoy in Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, was warning that Europe is “losing patience” with Israel over the settlement issue.

While all this was happening, EU member states such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom  warned investors that doing business in Israeli enterprises beyond the Green Line would transgress international law. In others words, continuing their fixation on Israeli settlements—as if it were the only issue preventing peace from breaking out.

But it is Israel that should be showing frustration with the one-note narrative the Palestinians have laid out and that the Europeans seem to be accepting, without challenge. How presumptuous for those European countries to lecture Israel on “losing patience.”

When the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, the Palestinian side solemnly promised to end incitement. It has not. Hardly a day has passed over these past two decades without inflammatory articles in the official media, sermons by paid Palestinian Authority clerics, anti-Semitic lessons in schoolbooks and glorification and praise of terrorist acts saturating the population of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Teach hatred of Israelis and Jews for more than 20-years, and you will raise a generation that sees no problem at all in taking the lives of three young men trying to get back home on that dreadful evening. More than that: you've made murder a badge of honor.

Since Oslo, the EU and most of its member states have marginalized this unending stream of hatred and have largely focused on settlements. The Palestinian spokesmen and their apologists zero in on settlements to further grind away at Israel’s international standing, and to minimize whatever concessions they must make if a deal is to be reached.

By looking past or dismissing the fomenting of hatred against Israel and Jews, the Europeans are setting back, not advancing, the cause of peace. As long as the Palestinian leadership sanctions the demonization of its erstwhile negotiating partner and its people, one can’t speak seriously about achieving an agreement, or one that can last. 

Whatever one thinks of the settlement issue, it’s not as if there has been no discussion of it in hours of face-to-face meetings. The Palestinian side would prefer to sell, and the Europeans have clearly bought into, the notion that nothing has been discussed.

Without a clear rejection of the official hatred that emanates not only from Gaza, but from official circles in the West Bank itself, we’ll not likely get to the point where real coexistence can be achieved. The Europeans should know that.

Wouldn't it better that Faaborg-Andersen and the Europeans lose their patience with those on the Palestinian side who teach children to hate and who proffer garlands and bonuses to terrorists released from prison?

Europe is losing its patience? What about Israel's patience? For years Israel has been relentlessly and repeatedly excoriated at the United Nations Human Rights Council, and yet most anti-Israel resolutions have too often been met with rote abstentions from Europe, and in certain instances, votes against Israel.

The increased hyper-criticism pouring out from a number of governments in Europe seemingly removes any pretext of objectivity in helping settle the tough issues.

In issuing declarations on settlements only, by ignoring incitement, and by not harshly criticizing Hamas by name and not calling on the Palestinian Authority to end its strange joint governing arrangement with the Gaza terrorist organization, the European states as well as the EU itself, only serve to elevate Palestinian expectations, reinforcing their belief in a zero-sum outcome to this contentious conflict. After all, why do the tough work when the European silver platter of pressure on Israel is a constant?

With Syria still burning out of control, Iraq about to split into three parts, and Iran supplying arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, along with the murder of the teens, you'd think these European countries would be "losing patience" with those developments. Instead, they zero in on Israel, which is democracy's staunchest practitioner in the region.

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the murder of the three Israeli teenagers, the unjustified demands of some governments for Israel to "restrain the use of force" and the failure of the Hamas-Fatah agreement.

Listen to the full podcast below:

Shalom TV Daily News featured B'nai B'rith International's condemnation of the newly sworn in Fatah-Hamas unity Palestinian government, emphasizing the organization's call for Congress to review Palestinian aid that will now fund a known terrorist organization.

B'nai B'rith International has stood alongside Israel in denouncing the inclusion of Hamas in Israeli-Palestinian relations, stating that it "creates an irreconcilable obstacle to restarting negotiations."

Read the full statement here.The story begins at the 4:00 mark in the video:

El director ejecutivo de Bnai Brith para América latina, Eduardo Kohn, habló sobre el acuerdo firmado entre el grupo terrorista Hamas y Al Fatah para conformar una unidad nacional con plazo para el 1° de junio. 

La reconciliación entre ambas facciones islámicas se dio en varias ocasiones desde 2005 y suspendió las negociaciones entre Israel y la Autoridad Palestina. 

Además criticó al ministro de Relaciones Exteriores de Uruguay, Luis Almagro, que había dicho que ese acuerdo "resuelve el 80% de todos los problemas de Medio Oriente". 

B'nai B'rith International was featured on Shalom TV Daily News, denouncing the Palestinian reconciliation agreement between Fatah and Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to Israel’s destruction.

Announced on April 23, the Fatah-Hamas pact has been widely criticized by Jewish organizations around the globe, and political entities committed to brokering peace talks. The move forced the end of negotiations following months of dialogue.

The story begins at the 3:43 mark in the video: