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[Editor’s note: Make sure to read Daniel Greenfield’s masterpiece contributions in Jamie Glazov’s new book: Barack Obama’s True Legacy: How He Transformed America.]
Elizabeth Tsurkov was kidnapped in Baghdad by Kata’ib Hezbollah: an Iraqi Shiite militia that has attacked Americans and answers to Iran. Even though the leftist activist had entered Iraq using her primary Russian passport, Prime Minister Netanyahu announced that Israel was doing what it could to get her out. Israel would do better to pay attention to the security of its actual citizens rather than to a career terrorist supporter who for a time used Israel as her base.
Tsurkov has been described as a “scholar” doing “fieldwork”. That might put people in mind of an archeologist or an anthropologist, in reality she is a political activist who put out a steady stream of editorials, articles and tweets: many of which attacked Israel and supported terrorists.
In recent articles like “How Israel’s Occupation Came Home” and “Israel knows it will get away with the attack on Shireen Abu Aqleh’s funeral”, Tsurkov blasted Israel. In the wake of a massive wave of Islamic terrorist violence, she shamelessly complained that, “Israeli mainstream media quickly reverted to its habit of focusing on Jewish victims of violence.”
Elizabeth Tsurkov had spent a decade spreading vile smears of Israel, accusing the Jewish State of genocide and apartheid. She was interviewed by the worst anti-Israel activists like Peter Beinart, Matt Duss and Lara Friedman, and her tweets were picked up by pro-Hamas outlets.
Tsurkov’s despicable career was built in no small part on trafficking in attacks on Israel. After 3 Israeli teens were kidnapped and murdered by Hamas in 2014, Tsurkov authored a New York Times post titled, “Israel Is Helping Hamas” in which she sneered that, “one cannot stir a hornet’s nest and claim self-defense when the hornets start biting. This is how the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas commenced.”
Then she complained that “when militant groups fired rockets from Gaza, Israel began Operation Protective Edge, even though no Israelis had been harmed by the missiles.”
While Elizabeth Tsurkov isn’t the only Hamas apologist out there, she was employed by an activist group tied closely to the Muslim Brotherhood’s leadership in America.
Media coverage has implied that Tsurkov’s kidnapping had something to do with her secondary Israeli side of her dual citizenship with Russia. The real reason that Tsurkov was kidnapped had nothing to do with Israel and everything to do with the focus of her work on Syria.
Tsurkov was harshly critical of the Shiite Assad regime in Syria, backed by Iran, and very interested in the various Sunni militias operating in Syria. It’s not surprising that a Shiite militia in Iraq snapped her up, the only surprise is that it took them so long to get around to it.
The media has been predictably incurious about who was employing her and why.
Stories have mentioned that she “is a fellow at the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy” based out of Washington D.C. without clarifying what that is. The New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy was founded by Ahmed Alwani, an Iraqi immigrant businessman operating out of Virginia, who serves as the vice president of the International Institute of Islamic Thought.
The original tagline of the IIIT was “towards Islamization of Knowledge”. Ahmed is the son of Taha Jabir Alwani: described as a founding figure of the Muslim Brotherhood in America.
Kyle Shideler, the Senior Analyst for Counterterrorism at the Center for Security Policy, has called IIT “one of the earliest founded U.S. Muslim Brotherhood organizations, which was linked to a post-9/11 federal investigation into terrorism fundraising, and which has supplied much of the ideological material for U.S. Islamist groups since its founding in the early 1980s.”
Not only wasn’t Elizabeth Tsurkov working for Israel, as some have alleged, she was working for a group tied to the parent organization of Hamas which is an arm of the Muslim Brotherhood.
The Syrian Civil War was initially viewed as an extension of the Muslim Brotherhood and allied Islamist coups that had temporarily brought them to power in Egypt, Tunisia, Libya and across the region. The Muslim Brotherhood’s operations in America put every effort into campaigning for American intervention against Assad, and then later bemoaning the rise of ISIS, Al Qaeda and hostile Sunni Islamist groups that were trying to carve up Syria for themselves.
That is the context within which Tsurkov’s ill-fated expedition needs to be seen. She was not kidnapped because she had a secondary Israeli citizenship (to which she was so loyal that she never gave up her primary Russian citizenship) or because she may be of Jewish ancestry, but because she was an activist in a Sunni-Shiite power struggle in Syria on behalf of the Sunnis.
In 2016, Tsurkov published an interview with the spokesman for Jaysh al-Islam or the Army of Islam, which had a sizable contingent of Muslim Brotherhood Jihadists, titled, “Rebels at the Gates of Damascus”. How did she get access to a spokesman for a major Jihadist group?
The Shiite media supportive of the Assad regime dug and found that Tsurkov had a secondary Israeli citizenship and accused Jaysh al-Islam of being a bunch of Zionists. The spokesman resigned and Tsurkov, if she had any sense, would have left the region.
Instead she used Syria to build up her career. By 2018, she was listed as a consultant to George Soros’ International Crisis Group for her “interviews with rebel commanders, foot-soldiers, activists, community leaders and civilians in southwestern Syria.” Then, similarly, with the Atlantic Council, the European Institute for Peace, the Foreign Policy Research Institute, Freedom House and finally New Lines, advocating for the Sunni Arabs in Syria.
Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnapping is not an Israeli problem or a Jewish one, it’s a Sunni Arab one. The Muslim Brotherhood is welcome to negotiate her release, not that they are likely to bother being that she is an infidel woman and therefore they place a low value on her life, but Israel shouldn’t. The last thing Israel or the free world needs is more terrorist apologists.
After a career of bashing Israel and excusing Islamic terrorists, Tsurkov is now in the hands of Islamic terrorists. It may prove to be an educational experience for the terror apologist.
Tsurkov has traveled the familiar path of other leftist activists like James Foley and Kayla Mueller who rushed to the Middle East to side with Sunni Arab Islamists over America and Israel, only to end up a hostage. They may be victims, but they’re far from innocent. And their leftist politics have cost the lives of innocent people while aiding Islamic terrorists.
The same is true of Tsurkov who followed the familiar academic radicalization pipeline in Israel, working for open borders migrant groups in Israel, and then pro-terror anti-Israel activism, getting political science degrees in America and advocating for the Sunni Jihadists in Syria.
When the New York Times reported on poor living conditions at a camp for ISIS families in Syria, Tsurkov was quoted as complaining that, “living in conditions that are difficult and being surrounded by people who are highly radical — is that conducive to deradicalisation?”
Elizabeth Tsurkov was radicalized by the Israeli Left. Her sympathy for Islamic terrorists led her to devalue the lives of Israelis and other non-Muslim targets of Islamic terrorism. The only tragedy is that none of her former allies and supporters will learn any lessons from her plight
she should rot in a rat infested iraqi prison
I hope she is visited by a nice bunch of basiji…
It seems these “warriors” are also ugly too. I wonder if there’s a scientific connection.
To Jeff- I agree with your “take” on her motives. She probably sees Arabic/Iraqi /Muslim men as very virile and sexy. Some people, will do anything to achieve orgasm. From Linde Barrera, July 8, 2023 @ 8:58 pm EST
She probably buys her Ben & Jerry’s at Target.
Two scoops of Rachel Corrie Crunch, straight from Nancy Pelosi’s deep freeze . . .
Rimshot! 🥁 👍
That seething bitch would’ve eventually chocked on her own bile, but instead she earned herself a Darwin Award.
Ha ha, ha, ha, HAW! Good one.
I think the best approach would be to rescue her, take her to Jerusalem and surround her with Orthodox Jews with Israeli flags cheering her release.
What better way to show her.
Not worth the risk to Israeli lives to rescue her.
Not even a cockroach should be risked to save that skank.
Whoever keeps down voting me is a rim jobber bitch.
How’s that spooge taste, you goo gobblers? Does it taste salty and creamy? You would know.
I would think that every time Netanyahu says that Biden has been a friend of Israel for fifty years, he’s telling himself not to gag.
Israel’s enemies drag Israel into everything. Everything. They create situations to drag in Israel. Ceaselessly plotting, they can’t leave the land of God and the people of the Torah alone.
This sounds like another one of those engineered situations to drag in Israel.
So Israel goes along with this charade called politics
and diplomacy until it can’t. Israel must stay in the game to keep an eye on its mortal enemies.
Ideally, Israel shouldn’t have any need for politicians. This is the land of prophets, righteousness and God’s will.
It’s probably more a matter of israel not really wanting to burn bridges with the US. Netanyahu knows Biden won’t last forever. That we may get stuck with Harris is a concern, but israel got through 8 years of Obama . We do not want to alienate our many friends in the US.. A and despite Biden and his handlers, a robust cooperation does exist on many fronts between the US and Israel.
Tsurkov. Rhymes with jerk-. . .
I guess Rachel Corrie gets a playmate. Winning.
Good one! I really did LOL.
Again. the knee-jerk homo who keeps down voting me sucks dead dog dicks.
This is what self hating Jews sound like
JDate is brimming with her type–as are most American Jewish families. Thats why we’re going extinct.
We’re not going extinct. Self hating Jews are extinctioning themselves
Yes, and they also support abortion on demand and claim that Judaism supports this garbage. They are self-hating pagans. This woman should be left to rot.
Ethno-masochists are hard to take seriously.
Extinction? No. But a dilution of the bloodline among many Jews? Definitely.
But you people have survived and thrived for at least three thousand years now so I don’t see you fading away.
I wish I could say the same for America.
What’s surviving is the underground cash economy, or the mass of people who operate in the economy outside of government control to a certain extent. That’s why the government wants to eliminate cash and control bank accounts. There is like this huge amorphous blob of people leading an economic life partly away from government control.
I’m one of those people, brother. I use cash and debit cards I bought from Walmart and nothing else. No bank account. Even if my ex wife were dead and gone, Douglas County Nebraska would pilfer every penny I earn, and if not that despicable agency, the federal government will eventually rob all of us.
Put your money offshore. Big Brother will eventually take it otherwise. It’s only a matter of time. Leave something for your descendants. They’re going to need it if things here continue in the direction they’re going..
Never heard of her before. Hope to never hear of her again. Another delusional Leftist whose beliefs causes them to ignore reality until reality bites back.
There is an undeniable sense of karmic/natural/Divine justice when morally bankrupt and stupid dhimmis who enable, whitewash and rationalize Muslim supremacists’/terrorists’ violence, totalitarianism and hatred of non-Muslims, end up being consumed by the very evil that they’ve long collaborated with and lent moral and rhetorical support to.
Yes, I dedicate the last crap I took to Tsurkov. That’s all she’s worth. A piece of shit. She’ll be flushed soon, too. Good riddance.
She made her bet, let her live with it.. Bibi should make her an example and remind to all Israeli lefties. Being anti Israeli Jew doesn’t pay.
Has NPR started working on a documentary featuring Ms. Tsurkov, her “scholarly fieldwork,” and her plight as a victim of kidnapping? This story is right up their alley.
they need an angle for blaming it on America/Israel/Capitalism/Global Warming first
Yes, I read about her, you can see it in her face. If Netanyahu tries to extract her from her new home and loses one soldier, I hope there is hell to pay. I mean, surely she is in the best place to do her “research”….
She has a big rack but still manages to be fugly. Leftists usually look like they deserve to look.
I cannot help but wonder at Israel’s suicidal tendencies, which are not as strong as our own. Israel should be hostile to her and expel her when she is among them. Now that she has been kidnapped by those who share her politics, Israel should do nothing. It could be a trap. But if it is not, let her live with her choices. God can use them for her good.
The prodigal son has to come to his senses before his father welcomes him home. Luke 15: 11 – 32.
One does not deliberately bring vermin into the house.
Lefties do. And we get cocaine in the White House and trannies in our schools.
Maybe she’s a double agent 🙂
Double dumb, that’s for sure.
She’s so over the top, there has to be something wrong. With a Russian passport on top of everything else, she has to have been in contact with some intelligence agencies.
Hopefully, they’re passing the stupid ifidel b—h around.
They definitely are. It’s the islamopithecine custom.
Tsurkov captured? Aloha Snackbar!
She might get more sympathy and money being kidnapped. If she has violated Israeli law, then Israel should rescue her and try her so that her activities are clear to the world.
One would have to be pretty cheeky – not to mention offensive – to utter that “Israel began Operation Protective Edge, even though no Israelis had been harmed by the missiles.” As per that reasoning, let’s wait until she has been raped, tortured or killed, to try to rescue her. Fine with me, in that particular case.
Done, done and soon.
Tsurkov is a reincarnation of Theobald of Cambridge. Theobald of Cambridge was an apostate Jew who had been spreading blood libel in 1146 England. I had been reading about him 55 years ago. I don’t know what demons possessed this monk, but I have learned that such monsters exist and that they appear among Jews in every generation. In the old days, they converted first before spreading their venom. In our secular times, they claim that they are Jews even if they really converted to Arafatism. We cannot understand them. We just have to recognize them.
Tsurcov is a fellow in Islamist groups connected to Muslim Brotherhood. Like Theobald of Cambridge she is using her Israeli citizenship to give them cover for their anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda. That’s what her organizations claim:
“Many people believe that Jews today are linked to the ancient Judeans, even though no evidence supports this assertion. City of David is an organization that was founded to act on that belief: not only to create a narrative about continued Jewish presence in Jerusalem’s ancient past and today, but also to claim ownership of the area and dispossess the Palestinians who have been living there for generations.”
The Mizrahim are real.
Why does Jane Fonda come to mind ???
Outstanding investigative reporting, Daniel! Thank you!
care factor has gone out the window .
Turkoff may well be part of the scam. She might have suggested it as a way to raise money with a side reason she hoped someone would rape her or add her to their harem. Martyrdom is appealing to Lesbians and lib/orcs are all messiahs rushing in to save the unwashed masses., Imagine no script for this cow, just naked ambition.
The last women’s rights activist in Baghdad. It never occurs to these people that the familiar academic radicalization pipeline is unfamiliar mostly to them.
I think she will make a wonderful “war bride” for a Shiite “freedom fighter”
She’ll be the junior wife to a couple of nanny goats. And she deserves it.
Probably working for the Russian FSB (the successor to the KGB)
This is an apologist for terror plain and simple. Who will have no gratitude if released
Unfortunately, Bibi is intent on freeing this pos:
Report: Tehran Set Up Russian-Israeli’s Abduction in Iraq to Secure Iranian’s Release – Lazar Berman (Times of Israel)
The kidnapping of Russian-Israeli researcher Elizabeth Tsurkov in Baghdad three months ago was carried out to pressure Israel to release an Iranian operative held by Israel, according to Asharq Al-Awsat.
Sources said talks were being mediated by Russia, “which may result in the release of Tsurkov in the coming days.”