The Blood Libel Against Jews Surfaces Yet Again

Israel’s foreign minister earlier today sent a letter to Spanish authorities forbidding their country’s consulate in Jerusalem from providing services to residents of the Palestinian Authority.  The move follows last week’s decision by Spain, Ireland and Norway to recognize a Palestinian state.

“As of 1 June 2024, the Consulate General of Spain in Jerusalem may provide consular services strictly to residents of the consular district of Jerusalem,” the letter states. “The Consulate General, or anyone on its behalf, may not provide services to residents of the Palestinian Authority, nor may it perform any consular or other functions outside the district of Jerusalem, without prior written consent from the Ministry.”

The policy does not apply to consular services for Spanish citizens in Judea and Samaria.  “If this policy is not respected, the Ministry will not hesitate to take further actions,” the letter adds.  It also condemns the “inciting and hateful antisemitic statements by senior Spanish officials, including Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Diaz, who was seen chanting ‘from the river to the sea Palestine will be free.’”

Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said on Monday that Israel “will not remain silent in the face of a government that rewards terror,” adding, “The days of the Inquisition are over. Today, the Jewish people have a sovereign and independent State, and no one will force us to convert our religion or threaten our existence: those who harm us, we will harm them in return.”

On Monday, Spain’s Foreign Minister Albares called on the European Union to officially back the International Court of Justice’s ruling on Friday that Israel must “immediately halt its military offensive, and any other action in the Rafah Governorate, which may inflict on the Palestinian group in Gaza conditions of life that could bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part.”

“I am going to ask the other 26 partners to declare the backing of the International Court of Justice and its decision, and also, if Israel continues to pursue against that opinion of the Court, we would try to take the right measures to enforce that decision,” he said.

A note in passing on the accusation that Israel is practicing genocide against the Palestinians….. According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, in 1948, there were 1,380,000 Palestinians in Israel and the greater Palestine area, and as of 2022, there were 7 million. In other words, there are now five times as many Palestinians in the Palestinian territories and in Israel as there were in 1948.  Does not seem to me that Israel has perpetrated genocide and, if it has it has been a singular failure.

Israeli airstrikes near Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip on Sunday night drew outraged reactions from Palestinians, with Hamas health authorities claiming that 45 were killed and dozens injured in the attack and in an ensuing blaze in a camp housing displaced civilians. The IDF said it had targeted a Hamas compound and eliminated two commanders in the terror group’s ranks, and that it was looking into accounts of casualties among civilians.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said the strikes were carried out over “displaced persons’ tents near the United Nations headquarters northwest of Rafah,” asserting that the location was designated as a humanitarian zone by Israel.  A spokesperson for the organization said the death toll was likely to rise. The Hamas-run health ministry claimed that most of the casualties were women and children.  By Monday afternoon, the ministry said the death toll had risen to 45.

The IDF said it had struck a Hamas compound in the Tel Sultan area of northwestern Rafah where senior officials in the terror group were gathered, adding in a statement that “the attack was carried out against terrorists who are a target for attack, in accordance with international law, using precision munitions, and based on intelligence indicating the use of the area by Hamas terrorists.”

The military said it was aware of reports that the strike and a fire that spread into a camp for displaced Palestinians had caused casualties among civilians, adding that the incident was under further investigation.

In a later statement, the military said the strike had killed Yassin Rabia, the commander of Hamas’s so-called West Bank headquarters — a Hamas unit charged with advancing attacks against Israel from or in the West Bank — as well as Khaled Najjar, another senior member of the unit.

I make the assumption that all of my readers are aware that all of this could end tomorrow if Hamas would lay down their arms, return the hostages, both those alive and those who are on longer with us and give up their commitment to eliminate Israel and rid the world of Jews.  Perhaps unrealistic of me to expect that but it would end the bloodshed if that’s what the demonstrators world wide are demanding…..or is it something else altogether?