January 7, 2021

Not since 1954, when four Puerto Rican nationalists shot 30 semi-automatic rounds from the gallery of the U.S. House in support of independence for their homeland — injuring five — has chaos reigned in the U.S. Capitol building as it did Wednesday.

I have had the high honor of working in those halls for decades — particularly in the 1970s and 1980s but also since — and I have never seen anything remotely like that remarkable and despicable day.

I have always had great respect for the U.S. Capitol Police — notwithstanding the routine inconvenience of standing in line to pass through their metal detectors or other necessary security precautions I have often felt burdened by — and for their leadership and the Sergeants at Arms to whom they report. But Wednesday showed a different side to the Capitol police, as I watched them protect individual members of Congress, many of whom took cover under desks and chairs on the floor of the House or literally hid in their respective offices. Some members barricaded their doors — and who could blame them? It was all truly unbelievable, even for a Hill veteran.

I first came to Washington in the summer of 1975, having finished only one year of college, to work for my hometown Arizona congressman,  then the chair of the House Interior Committee and a former pro basketball player, a tall, lanky man, who was no doubt the single funniest member of Congress ever. I became his national youth coordinator at age 18, only to see him come in second in nearly every Democratic presidential primary to some Georgia peanut farmer.

After college, I returned to Washington to work for a string of more losing presidential candidates — my childhood friends called me “The Kiss of Death.” I could work on two or three losing campaigns in the same cycle: one in the primary and another in the general. But my luck changed when I worked for another non-Washingtonian — the sitting governor of Arkansas — in 1992, and I subsequently followed him to Washington as something of a combination press aide and ultimate advance person/image decisor.

Having worked on the other end of Pennsylvania Ave. for a time, I can tell you nothing like what happened Wednesday at the Capitol building could ever have happened at that big white house. Well, not something that didn’t also involve British troops, anyway. And that was WAY before I was born (not just three years before). You breach the fence there — you don’t get told to stop; you get shot.

In all my time in DC, I have never seen nor imagined anything such as Wednesday.

As for Wednesday’s criminal “protesters” — let’s call them what they really were: rioters. I have seen my share of terrible stuff in the 45 years I have been in Washington, including more than a few protests, a lot of behind-the-scenes security, plenty of the politics-of-strange-bedfellows and even self-described political crusades. But in all my time here, I have never seen nor imagined anything such as Wednesday. It was sickening, even for someone with a cast-iron stomach. Neither TV nor a bad movie could realistically have depicted such a scene.

I truly hope the rioters get the justice they deserve — soon, or maybe beginning in a couple of weeks — and for those who egged them on, you are who are. And for all whom they represent — denying the true results of November’s presidential election and trying to overturn it, seeking every possible recount and supporting every ridiculous court challenge, conspiracy theory and endless presidential lie — these are not just your compatriots and fellow countrymen; this is your reflection in the political mirror.

You must be very proud.

Steve Rabinowitz is founder and president of Bluelight Strategies, a Washington, DC public affairs firm, and a veteran of the national staffs of nine U.S. presidential campaigns. @steverabinowitz

Powerful organizations claiming moral agendas have increasingly gained political influence, especially through human rights and international law. In particular, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) with massive budgets for public relations and lobbying have focused worldwide attention on favored targets — in some cases with justification, but in others to promote hate and conflict.

Israel has long been a target for demonization based on false claims, and the template NGOs use is familiar. It begins when NGO officials with a history of Israel-bashing launch a campaign based on allegations of dastardly deeds. The facts are twisted or invented, but since they are made by ostensible “experts,” the media — from fringe groups dedicated to the anti-Israel cause to mainstream journalists — repeat and amplify these falsities.

NGOs’ latest accusation is that Israel is violating its legal obligations by failing to provide vaccines to the Palestinians that live under Israeli occupation. As Israel’s success vaccinating its citizens became more visible and gained praise from around the world, the NGO conspiracy machine went into action, applying their standard template used so successfully in the past twenty years.

NGOs ignored convenient truths, such as the fact that the Palestinian Authority had no interest in Israeli assistance and had already ordered vaccines, in part via Russia and in part through the World Health Organization. Organizations and the media also dismissed the Oslo framework agreement governing relations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which states that “Powers and responsibilities in the sphere of Health in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip will be transferred to the Palestinian side, including the health insurance system.” Acknowledging the reality would have aborted the political campaign before it could get off the ground.

The NGO attack involved numerous organizations, many funded by European governments under the façade of promoting human rights, democracy and international law. The Palestinian Centre for Human Rights and Al Mezan took the lead, issuing a statement under the heading “Israel must provide necessary vaccines to Palestinian health care systems” and including the hand waving claims attributed to international law.

Officials of both organizations are involved with or linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, a recognized terror group by the United States, the European Union (EU), Canada and other governments. These connections notwithstanding, both NGOs are funded primarily by the EU and western European governments and act as policy subcontractors. In addition, a number of Israeli opposition NGOs promoting the Palestinian narrative and also funded by Europe joined the public relations push.

To get the vaccine campaign out of the fringe anti-Israel arena, global NGO superpowers must enter the fray. Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Amnesty International did exactly that, repeating the accusations word for word. Kenneth Roth, the head of HRW with a long record of singling out Israel tweeted the package of libels to his 350,000 Twitter followers, declaring, “the Israeli government has already vaccinated 10% of its citizens ….but as the occupying power it has not vaccinated a single Palestinian.” Roth’s second tweet went for the emotional jugular by falsely invoking discrimination: “Someone doesn’t want you to know about Israel’s discriminatory treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza in distributing the Covid vaccine.” Presumably, Roth’s followers will not know that Israel’s Arab citizens are receiving vaccinations exactly as their Jewish neighbors do, and that Palestinians outside of Israel are not citizens and have their own government and health system.

To get the vaccine campaign out of the fringe anti-Israel arena, global NGO superpowers must enter the fray.

At this point, the propaganda campaign jumped the tracks to the mainstream media, and from there, was ready to be quoted in the United Nations and by diplomats and politicians. Some outlets and journalists cited the various NGO accusations against Israel verbatim, without bothering to examine their accuracy or relevance. One headline in The Guardian read “Palestinians excluded from Israeli Covid vaccine rollout as jabs go to settlers.” Others were more circumspect in their coverage, referring to anonymous “Legal experts and human rights activists [who] said Israel was obliged to provide the Palestinians with vaccines.”

Like many previous NGO campaigns on Israel, the COVID-19 vaccination conspiracy theory is likely to remain and be cited for many years, regardless of the facts or the absence thereof. In 2002, during the height of Palestinian terror bombings, many of the same NGOs led the false allegation of an Israeli “massacre” and “war crimes” in the Jenin refugee camp. These attacks remain on their websites and in Wikipedia entries, available for student papers.  The same is true for many similar examples in the intervening years, all following the same pattern.

The result is not only more hate directed at Israel and Jews, contributing to violent attacks, but also the continuing erosion of human rights and international law as little more than propaganda tools. For those remaining committed to these principles, confronting the abuses of the ideological NGO industry is essential.

Gerald M. Steinberg is emeritus professor of political science at Bar Ilan University in Israel, and heads the Institute for NGO Research in Jerusalem. 

On March 17, the doctors at Miami University Hospital told me that the coronavirus had gotten into my lungs and that they would have to sedate me. At the time, I hadn’t yet heard of anyone who had suffered from the disease as I had. Other people I knew who had contracted the disease were mildly sick. I thought that there was no chance that this could happen to me. I was so careful, and I was doing good things for Am Yisrael in raising money for United Hatzalah, a volunteer Emergency Medical Service organization that I founded. My whole life has been dedicated to saving others, so how could this happen to me?

In the last video I sent to everyone from my hospital bed, I begged people to pray for me and to do good deeds as a merit for my recovery. The doctors then put me into an induced coma. I recall them putting an injection in my arm and coming with the blade of the intubation tube to intubate me.

That is the last thing I remember.

Nearly 30 days later, I woke up, and the world had changed. It wasn’t the same world that I knew before. When I walked into the hospital, everything in the world was normal, open and functioning. When I woke up, everything was shut down.

It took me two days to come back to myself. I couldn’t even open my phone. The only communication I had was a few phone calls with my wife and children through the hospital phone, and I was too weak to talk. I had tubes everywhere, and I wasn’t able to walk or even talk. I had lost 36 pounds of muscle and body weight.

One of the things that hit me hardest was when I saw a notice that a close friend of mine and one of the greatest people I know, Rabbi Zvi Ryzman, was also in serious condition at Cedars-Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles. Rabbi Ryzman is a humble man, successful businessman and one of the greatest Torah scholars that I have had the pleasure of knowing. He was a big supporter of so many great organizations, including United Hatzalah. I used to talk to him quite often, and I was very close to him. He was a very strong man physically, and I never heard of him suffering from anything. That is when it hit me — other people were suffering from what I suffered from, too.

I called up one of Rabbi Ryzman’s sons, and he told me that most of the family was sick with COVID-19, but most weren’t in critical condition. At one point, the doctors in Los Angeles almost gave up on Ryzman, until the President of the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem, Professor Jonathan Halevy, called up Rabbi Ryzman’s wife and doctors and provided medical advice. Upon hearing this, I decided that I needed to pray for him.

I started praying for him multiple times per day. I knew that he was praying for me when I got sick, so it was the least I could do to return the favor.

Two weeks later, to my great relief, he woke up. I knew about the difficulty of the recuperation process firsthand and was so thrilled when he got better. I know that Hashem can’t give up on people like him, even though he faced tremendous challenges in this disease and recovery process.

Sometime later, he called me up to thank me for praying for him. I was so humbled and replied that I was just one of many thousands of people who were praying for him. He told me that he was calling everyone who prayed for him.

A few weeks ago, I was in Los Angeles, and I called Rabbi Ryzman to tell him that I was in town. He invited me for Shabbat, and we spent a few hours talking about our stories and our similar experiences. We also talked about how we can help Am Yisrael, now that we both survived. I told him that I want to save more lives. He told me that he wants to write more books on Jewish thought (sefarim) and help more organizations.

I am honored that people like Rabbi Zvi and his wife Betty are my friends and support the lifesaving mission I have undertaken with United Hatzalah. When we were able to take a photo on Saturday night after Shabbat was over, I reflected on just how many miracles occurred in making the picture, just how much each of us had to go through in order to be standing next to each other. I am going to hang the photo up in my office and keep it with me always.

Rabbi Ryzman and I survived some of the hardest experiences that this disease could throw at us. And in so doing, I learned what it means to be successful in achieving your goals and in maintaining a level of humility that can allow you to be approachable by anyone. I am so thankful that God chose to spare both of us so that we may each return to our respective missions with renewed vigor and continue to help the people of Israel.

Thank you, Rabbi Zvi Ryzman.

Eli Beer is the President of United Hatzalah in Israel, the volunteer paramedic organization.