Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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"Pro-Palestinian" lobby hijacks Boston mourners for political point scoring

An image being circulation of "young Palestinian children" expressing sympathy with the victims of Boston appears to be from Iraq, rather than the Palestinian territories
That so called "pro-peace" activists can hijack such images for their own political ends speaks to the lengths to which many will go to in order to either demonise their opposition, propogate lies on behalf of corrupt and violent regimes, or indeed simply try to naiveily paper over the cracks.
The attempts are not thought to be directly related to the latest Pew poll statistics showing that 40 percent of Palestinians polled belive that suicide bombings are justified, the highest of any Muslim country in which the poll occured.

Keeping prejudice under control

The pro-divestment movement wants you to believe that its cause is a struggle between the ethnic minority Palestinians and the “white” and “privileged” Jews and Israelis. By pretending that Jews are white Europeans, they argue that Israelis are foreign occupiers. But Jews are not a homogenous group of white people; we are an ethnically Middle Eastern people, comprising many unique communities from across the globe. After centuries of persecution, we have found security in this country and in our nation’s first home, Israel. And although we have achieved the privilege of statehood, our personal histories are defined by our recent struggles.

Richard Millett: From the Warsaw Ghetto to John Lewis for Palestine Solidarity Campaign’s Ewa Jaciewicz.

But what Jaciewicz, a member of the Polish Campaign of Solidarity with Palestine, never wrote about for The Guardian was her trip a few years ago to the Warsaw Ghetto.
Now, what would a reasonable human being do if they visited a site where some 400,000 Jewish people (or people of any religion for that matter) lost their lives? Say a prayer, lay a flower, place a simple stone in remembrance?
Jaciewicz helped daub the words “Free Gaza and Palestine” on one of the nearby walls. What did any of those 400,000 innocent lost souls ever do to her?

Honest Reporting Canada: CBC Airs Unsubstantiated Allegation Claiming Israel used Chemical Weapons on Palestinian Children

Ms. Glynn’s statement was tantamount to accusing Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity on vulnerable Palestinian children. These were incredibly serious unfounded charges that came from a pre-recorded comment. CBC journalists heard this comment before it went to air and chose to broadcast it over CBC airwaves. As such, CBC must take responsibility for this inflammatory and unfounded allegation it gave a platform to.

What the West Should Learn from the Fayyad-Cohen Spat

For a Palestinian, it’s always safest to accuse Israel of brutality and abuse, even if the accusations are completely false, because Israeli soldiers won’t kill him for such libels–whereas Palestinian gunmen very well might murder him as a “collaborator” if he went on record as saying, for instance, that Israeli soldiers treated him decently.
So perhaps next time, Westerners should stop and think before uncritically accepting Palestinian atrocity tales as truth. For if Fayyad could so brazenly lie about Cohen, then other Palestinians could just as easily be lying about Israel.

Michael Totten: Israel Bombs Syria, Syrians Blame Each Other

Assad is especially adept at this game. Everyone, especially journalists who quote people for a living, needs to understand that. Yet they don’t. The BBC let Assad write their headline. Israeli strikes on Syria 'co-ordinated with terrorists' it says. That’s the actual headline. It was literally written by Assad’s foreign ministry.
Of course the words “co-ordinated with terrorists” are inside quotation marks, and the article makes it clear that this accusation comes from the Syrian government, but most people who see the headline won’t read the article. Casual readers of the BBC Web site won’t even notice the quote marks. Israel is coordinating with Al Qaeda in Syria? Really, BBC? You’re broadcasting that ludicrous accusation with a straight face? (h/t Zvi)

CIF Watch: Robert Fisk convinces himself that Israel has ‘dragged the West into Syrian war’

It seems that the ethically challenged British ‘journalist’ Robert Fisk wanted desperately to impute the worst motives to Israel in analyzing reports of up to a dozen IAF strikes over the last few days on advanced Syrian weapons to prevent their transfer to Hezbollah. However, the weakness of his latest essay suggests that he may have found the case against Israel’s sober decision not to allow Iranian made Fateh-110 missiles to fall into the hands of the Shiite terror movement allied with Bashar al-Assad was simply too difficult.

Syria vows to retaliate for any future Israeli attack

The Syrian government extended the authority of the army to respond to “Israeli aggression” immediately and without prior governmental authorization, and granted Palestinian factions leave to carry out attacks against Israel on the Golan Heights, a Syrian government daily reported on Tuesday.
According to Al-Watan, the Syrian army has compiled a “target bank” inside Israel that will be showered by missiles immediately in case of another Israeli strike on Syria. The daily also quoted “high-ranking sources” who said that Syria was willing to provide the Lebanon-based terror group Hezbollah with “all types of weapons, including new and quality weapons not previously provided.”

Israel strikes a blow to conventional Arab thinking

‘Israel is still my enemy, but when my enemy does a neat job — I admit it,’ writes one Syrian commentator
As the quintessential enemy of the Arab and Islamic world, Israel must be aligned with Assad, went the logic of many domestic Assad opponents. Now, though, Israel’s apparently brazen confrontation with the Assad regime — while many Arab leaders have spent the last two years merely verbally endorsing (or secretly dreaming) of such a move — has created something of a cognitive dissonance for these oppositionists.

Third Syrian Shell in 24 Hours Hits Golan

A stray mortar shell causes no casualties or damage. Two rockets were fired from Syria Monday.

Dayan: Israel Has a Choice Between Bad and Worse

Former IDF general says Israelis should give thanks each day for the Golan.
Israel has two choices regarding the ongoing civil war in Syria: bad and worse, said former IDF general Uzi Dayan, speaking to Arutz Sheva.
The Assad regime is anti-Israel, but several of the groups fighting him are affiliated with Al-Qaeda. “Obviously we shouldn’t support Assad’s ouster, because a weak plague is better than a terror virus that is growing stronger,” he said.
Israel must prepare for any scenario, and prevent unconventional weapons from reaching terrorist groups, he said.

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Palestinian death toll in Syria rises above 1000

From the beginning of the Syrian uprising until the end of February, 1036 Palestinian Arabs have been killed, according to the "Working Group of Syrian Palestinians."

Since then, it appears that several more are being killed every day:

4 on March 2
5 on March 5
12 on March 6
5 on March 9
8 on March 10

You must have seen the news coverage of the many "pro-Palestinian" demonstrations outside world embassies protesting these deaths every day, right?

Here's a video that claims to be of a Palestinian Syrian woman in front of her sister's husband's body who was hung for allegedly being a "spy" for the government.

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Over 1000 Palestinian Arabs killed in Syria. Ho-hum.

From Hamas' Qassam website:

The workgroup for Palestinians in Syria has said that 1038 Palestinians were killed in Syria since eruption of the popular revolution in that country almost two years ago.

It said in a statement on Sunday that 14 Palestinian refugees were killed last week due to the continued attacks and sniper fire in refugee camps.

Good luck finding a negative word about Syria in website of the "pro-Palestinian" International Solidarity Movement.

Or the "pro-Palestinian" BDS movement webpage.

Or "Students for Justice in Palestine."

Or the blog of the "Free Gaza" movement.

It makes you wonder what exactly "pro-Palestinian" means, doesn't it?

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Five more Palestinian Arabs killed without the media noticing

On Wednesday, five more Palestinian Arabs were killed in Syria.

A rocket shot at the Yarmouk camp killed three, including a mother expecting her sixth child.

Another was killed in Jobar and one in Homs.

Of course, "pro-Palestinian" groups have been silent.

Meanwhile, the Free Syrian Army warned Hezbollah to stop interfering in Syria or else they might attack Hezbollah in Lebanon.

And Reuters has a story on the increased numbers of refugees streaming into Jordan from Syria - but doesn't mention that Jordan still turns Palestinian Arabs back at the Syrian border, another small fact that "pro-Palestinian" groups are ignoring.

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4 more Pals killed in Syria - but by mentioning it I'm engaging in "Assad-washing"

Palestine Today reports four more Palestinian Arabs killed in Syria in the past couple of days.

But don't expect to find anything about this in the "pro-Palestinian" Electronic Intifada site.

In fact, if I dare to mention Palestinian Arabs being killed in Syria, I'm engaging in a horrible crime myself. One that the human rights defenders in EI call "Assad-washing."

Really!

Already last April, they were getting nervous that the tens of thousands being killed in Syria were taking world attention away from the Palestinian Arabs who are living in comparative safety. So Electronic Intifada wrote an op-ed saying that evil Zionists are using massacres in Syria to divert the world's attention from Palestinian Arabs in the territories getting what are, in comparison, papercuts.

The Israeli government and its supporters have long utilized a wide range of propaganda tools to sugarcoat Israel’s atrocities against the Palestinians. In addition to pinkwashing (using Israel’s relative support of gay rights to sugarcoat the country’s apartheid nature) and greenwashing (perpetuating the perception that Israel has environmentally-friendly policies to do the same), Zionist advocates are now using a different method: Assadwashing.

So this is how the liberals at EI justify their relative silence when Palestinian Arabs - whom they pretend to love so much - are being slaughtered.

They don't want to be Assadwashers!

Keep in mind that since the Syrian revolution began, far more Palestinian Arabs have been killed in Syria than in Gaza and the West Bank combined. But keep that under your hat, because even mentioning Palestinian Arabs being killed by Syria is evidently a strict taboo among the "pro-Palestinian" crowd.

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5 Palestinian Arabs killed, 12 injured. But it was in Syria, so no one cares

Yesterday 5 Palestinian Arabs were killed in Syria, and 12 more wounded.

Four were killed in the Yarmouk camp by Syrian shelling, and one more was killed by a sniper in the Adra camp.

"Pro-Palestinian" groups have not commented. Nor will they. Because Arabs killed by Arabs are a dog-bites-man story that can be buried or ignored, but those killed by Jews are a war crime and a propaganda bonanza.

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Jordan tells Syrian Palestinians to drop dead. No one cares.

From Times of Israel earlier this week:

Jordan has turned away dozens of Palestinian refugees on the Syrian border fleeing regime bombardment of the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus.

Palestinian refugees living in the Yarmouk refugee camp south of Damascus have tried to enter Jordan through the Jaber border crossing after their camp was bombarded by Assad regime forces in previous weeks. They told Al-Jazeera earlier this week that while Palestinian refugees carrying Jordanian IDs were allowed to enter Jordan, children of Jordanian women who were not citizens are being refused.

Jordan has absorbed some 126,000 Syrian refugees, but Palestinians fleeing Syria are placed in a separate refugee camp at the Cyber City compound, under stricter conditions, and are banned from entering Jordanian cities. The Jordanian government fears that an influx of Palestinian refugees may tilt the demographic balance in Jordan even more towards the Palestinians, who are already believed to comprise a large majority of the population.

“Jordan is not obligated to pay a political price for the Syrian crisis,” Jordanian government spokesman Samih Maaytah told Al-Jazeera when asked why the Palestinians were not being let in.

More from today:

Jordan will not allow Palestinian refugees fleeing Syria to enter the kingdom, for fear that doing so would encourage Israel to deport Palestinians to Jordan, Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour said on Thursday.

“There are those who want to absolve Israel once again of its responsibility for banishing Palestinians from their homes,” Ensour said in an extensive interview with the London-based Arab daily al-Hayat. “Jordan is not the place to solve Israel’s problems. Jordan has taken a sovereign and explicit decision not to allow Palestinians carrying Syrian [travel] documents to enter Jordan.”

“Receiving these brethren is a red line for us, because it will be a prelude for another wave of deportation, which is what the Israeli government wants,” Ensour added. “Our Palestinian brothers in Syria have rights in their country of origin, and they should remain there until the crisis is over.”

The Arab world is in an uproar over this blatant apartheid against Palestinian Arabs, as well as Mahmoud Abbas' disgraceful refusal to save the lives of Syrian Palestinians as well. Human rights groups are appealing every day to the UN to save the lives of these hapless victims of Syrian violence. Electronic Intifada and 972Mag are all over these displays of hypocrisy and callous disregard for the lives of Palestinian Arabs.

Just kidding!

No one gives a damn if Palestinian Arabs live or die if they cannot be used as weapons against Israel. The silence from the "pro-Palestinian" community is deafening - and very, very telling.

(h/t Josh)

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25 PalArabs killed in Syrian mosque airstrike. "Pro-Palestinian" groups silent.

From France24:

Syrian fighter jets bombed the Palestinian Yarmouk camp in Damascus on Sunday, killing at least 25 people sheltering in a mosque in an area where Syrian rebels have been trying to advance into the capital, opposition activists said.

The attack was part of a month-long campaign by President Bashar al-Assad’s forces to eject rebels fighting to overthrow him from positions hemming in Damascus. It came a day after warplanes bombed rebels on the road to Damascus international airport.

A video posted on YouTube showed bodies and body parts scattered on the stairs of what appeared to be the mosque.

Here's the video (GRAPHIC):



Somehow, Electronic Intifada hasn't covered this story yet although it is six hours old. Neither has Free Gaza.

Dead Syrians of Palestinian origin aren't really worth getting too upset over if Israel can't be blamed.

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500 dead - and hypocritical "pro-Palestinian activists" are silent

You know how all the Israel-haters pretend to be "pro-Palestinian"?

Here's more proof that they are anything but.

It appears that as of today, more than 500 Palestinian Arabs have been murdered in Syria by Bashir Assad's regime.

(Calculation: 482 documented on October 7, 8 killed last Friday, 12 killed today.)

Have any of the supposedly "pro-Palestinian" groups, like "Ship to Gaza" or "Miles of Smiles," said anything about this?

Have there been any press releases from passionate advocates of the "Palestinian cause" about "genocide" being perpetrated by the Syrian regime?

Have you read any articles written by them about how terribly Syria is treating Palestinian Arabs?

No, of course not. No fundraising, no speeches, no tours of college campuses, no flotillas, no op-eds - nothing.

Here's another interesting proof of Arab hatred for their Palestinian brothers that "pro-Palestinian activists" completely ignored, buried at the end of an AP article yesterday:

The U.N. refugee agency said Thursday the number of Syrian refugees who have fled their country's civil war and found shelter in Egypt has now topped 150,000 — a significant jump from last month's figure of 95,000.

The director of UNHCR in Egypt, Mohamed Dayri, said that despite the growing number of refugees in Egypt, only 4,800 Syrians have registered with the agency in Cairo. He called on Egyptian authorities to help UNHCR deal with the "rising emergency" of Syrian refugees here.

...[Dayri] said that the U.N. is urging Egypt to maintain an "open door policy" not only for Syrians, but also for Palestinian refugees in Syria who also are fleeing the civil war.

"The Palestinian refugees should be treated equally like Syrians who are fleeing violence and insecurity," Dayri said.

It doesn't take much reading between the lines to see that Egypt is not treating Palestinian Syrian refugees as they are treating the rest; it is possible that Egypt is not even allowing any of them to enter Egypt.

And it is not only Egypt. Other countries are singling them out too:

Syria's roughly 500,000 Palestinians "have been been thrust into the crisis since June and July," Radhouane Nouicer, the UN Regional Humanitarian Coordinator for Syria, said at a Cairo press conference.

"Many of them have been displaced like Syrians and we are trying to encourage neighbouring countries to adopt an open door policy with them, like Syrians," he said, adding that he hoped Palestinians would not be forced out of Syria.

He is apparently referring to Jordan and Lebanon, although probably those fleeing to Iraq are having similar issues.

UNHCR knows this, and of course the Palestinian Arabs who tried to flee to Egypt know this, but I have not seen a single article anywhere that discusses the extent of Egypt's discrimination against Palestinians.

In the end, the "pro-Palestinian activists" don't give a damn about their Palestinians. Like the Arab leaders for the past 65 years, they only want to use them as pawns to destroy Israel.

And their silence when hundreds of Palestinians are killed and tens of thousands singled out by their Arab hosts is all the proof you need of their hypocrisy.

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Of course, the media is also burying the stories of discrimination against Palestinian Arabs by Syria's neighbors, even after UN officials point it out explicitly. No follow up questions, no independent investigations as to the extent of this discrimination and the hypocrisy of Arab governments who pretend to support Palestinians but treat them differently than every other Arab.

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Will anyone call this Jordanian action "apartheid"?

I noted back in April that Jordan was segregating Palestinian Syrians from other Syrians fleeing across the border, not allowing most of them to enter the country.

HRW just caught up:

The Jordanian authorities have forcibly returned some newly arriving Palestinians from Syria and threatened others with deportation, Human Rights Watch said today.Since April 2012, the authorities have also arbitrarily detained Palestinians fleeing Syria in a refugee holding center without any options for release other than return to Syria. The Jordanian authorities should treat all Palestinians from Syria seeking refuge in Jordan the same as Syrian asylum seekers, who are allowed to remain and can move freely in Jordan after passing security screening and finding a sponsor.

“To its credit, Jordan has allowed tens of thousands of Syrians to cross its borders irregularly and move freely in Jordan, but it treats Palestinians fleeing the same way differently,” said Gerry Simpson, senior refugee researcher and advocate for Human Rights Watch. “All those fleeing Syria – Syrians and Palestinians alike – have a right to seek asylum in Jordan, move freely in Jordan, and shouldn’t be forced back into a war zone.”

Since April, Jordanian authorities have automatically detained all Palestinians who enter Jordan without passing through an official border post, without the possibility of release. No such policy exists for thousands of Syrians entering the same way.

The Palestinians are arriving under the same circumstances as the fleeing Syrians and should not face threats of forced return, Human Rights Watch said. None should be detained unless for compelling and legally prescribed reasons and for a limited period of time, with judicial review. Like Syrian refugees, Palestinians from Syria interviewed by Human Rights Watch in Jordan said they had fled the country due to violence and general insecurity in their home areas.

Isn't this "apartheid"?

Where are the protests, the boycotts, the empty-headed entertainers who are so keen on showing how well they understand human rights? Where are the "pro-Palestinian" groups? Where are the petitions and Twitter hashtags and Facebook groups?

I mean, these are Palestinian Arabs being discriminated against, which usually elicits outrage because they are so victimized.

I can't figure out why this issue has been essentially ignored.

A real mystery.

(h/t Ian)

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Extremist Muslims get their wish; riots on Temple Mount

From YNet:

Friday prayers at Jerusalem's Temple Mount turned into a scene of major riots as protesters hurled stones at security forces who in turn broke into the al-Aqsa Mosque compound.

Hundreds of Muslim worshippers at the Mughrabi Gate hurled stones at police and Border Guard forces who raided the compound to evacuate them. No injuries or arrests were reported as of yet. Dozens are currently refusing to leave the mosque itself.

Islamist extremists have been calling for Muslims to "defend" Al Aqsa for the past couple of weeks because some Jews publicized that they would peacefully visit among the hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish visitors who visit every year.

Here is video from earlier this week as Muslims broke chairs and tables to find projectiles to hurl at Israeli police outside who were escorting peaceful visitors:



Here is the view from the outside as pieces of wood are hurled at the police from within, with the Muslims clearly starting the violence (starting around 1:15, also around 2:20). At the end you can see all the tables and chairs broken to be used as weapons.



In watching dozens of Muslim videos on the Temple Mount showing Jews "storming" the area, I have not once seen any actions by the Jewish visitors that was the least bit provocative. Invariably, they walk around quietly. But I've seen plenty of videos of Muslims hurling objects and screaming at the Jews.

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Palestinian Arab hysteria increases as Jews visit Temple Mount

The amount of incitement (and bigotry) in Palestinian Arab media about Jews visiting the Temple Mount has reached new heights in recent days.

Today, Rosh Chodesh Adar, a group of Jews peacefully went up to the Mount to visit. It was described in Palestine Today this way:

Zionist extremist groups on Thursday morning stormed the courtyards of Al Aqsa Mosque from the Mughrabi Gate, with the occupation forces protecting them.

Our correspondent in Jerusalem said that the first batch of 12 extremists stormed the mosque, under police protection of the occupation, as occupation forces arrested four young men and took guard Samer Abu Qwaider out of the Haram al Sharif courtyard.

Also another group of settlers entered into the courtyards of Haram, 9 women and 8 men, as their numbers rose to 36. The "Israel" police restricted [Muslim] worshipers entering to be 45 years old or older.

Our correspondent reports that groups of settlers are walking around in the Old City of Jerusalem and in the vicinity of the Haram, joyfully singing to bring in the Hebrew month.

Palestine Times has photos of the "usurpers" walking around:

Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh charged Israel with calling on Jews to "storm" the Mount with the goal of Judaizing Judaism's holiest site and performing religious rituals there. For some reason he also mentioned that Zionist women were allowed there; apparently this is an especially grievous sin.

What does that moderate Mahmoud Abbas, who supposedly supports full access to holy sites by everyone, have to say? Why, he implicitly threatened violence, like always!

The President condemned intrusions ongoing Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Presidential spokesman Nabil Abu Rdainah said in a press statement on Thursday, "This is a serious escalation and provocation, and completes a series of attacks by extremists on the sanctuaries of the mosques and churches, and will have serious and ominous consequences '.

Abu Rdainah said Israelis are responsible for this escalation, and demanded that the international community intervene to force the Israeli authorities to stop such provocative actions that affect the freedom of worship.

Well, the freedom for Jews to worship there is still pretty much zero.

Is today's group visit a huge provocation on the part of Israel?

Not at all.

Makor Rishon reported some statistics. In January, 1,119 Jews visited the Temple Mount. In 2011, some 9,000 Jews visited, among 370,000 tourists.

In other words, if thirty Jews visited today, that is pretty much the average number of Jews who visited every day for the past year (excluding Shabbat.)

This is a manufactured hysteria that is meant to incite Muslim Arabs against Jews and to try to pressure Israel to ban Jews from their holiest spot.

Thankfully, the Israeli police allowed Jews to visit anyway despite the rhetoric and threats.

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Latest dangerous Arab rumor: Israel to divide Al Aqsa into Jewish, Muslim sections

Over the past two weekends, Muslim clerics and officials have been pushing false rumors about Israeli designs on the Al Aqsa Mosque. The first time they got Israeli police to bar Jews from peacefully visiting; the second time they started stoning Christian tourists who they claimed were Jewish extremists.

Clearly, spreading false rumors is an effective weapon.

So, emboldened by their success in keeping Judaism's holy site free of Jewish tourists, they have started a new rumor for this week.

The Al Aqsa Center has released a statement saying that they have received information that Israel plans to divide up the Temple Mount into separate Jewish and Muslim sections, they way that the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron is divided. Jews would be able to - horrors! - perform "Talmudic rituals" (i.e., pray) in the sacred site.

They say that under this plan, Israeli police will cleanse the Mount of Muslims under flimsy pretexts (like, for example, they are stoning Christian tourists).

Another plan has Jews freely entering the mosque between 8 AM and 11 AM, between Muslim prayer times.

These alleged plans will be implemented this year, according to the inciters of violence who released the statement.

There is only one reason why these rumors are started - to keep Jews off of the holiest site in Judaism. They want to stir up riots because, according to these defenders of Islam, it is better than no one go to the Temple Mount than to allow Jewish "filth" from "desecrating" it.

These incitements have worked in the past, so the Al Aqsa defenders will keep churning out the lies that Arab Muslims are more than happy to believe, fed by hateful terrorist-supporting media like Palestine Today.

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Palestinian Arabs stone Christian tourists on Temple Mount

First, the lie that is being published by countless Arab media:

Dozens of Palestinian residents foiled, on Sunday morning, an attempt by dozens of fundamentalist Israeli Zionist settlers to break into the Al-Aqsa Mosque in occupied Jerusalem.

Local sources reported that the settlers gathered near the Al-Magharba Bridge, that leads to the Al-Magharba Gate, west of the Al-Aqsa mosque, while dozens of Israeli policemen were deployed in the area.

The police allowed the settlers through and prevented all Palestinians, aged 45 of under, from entering the area while on their way to pray at the Al-Aqsa mosque, an issue that led to clashes between the Palestinians, and the Israeli soldiers and settlers.

Now, what really happened:

Police arrested three Palestinians during clashes with stone-throwers who targeted tourists at the Temple Mount on Sunday.

Three officers were wounded during the clashes, Police Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, describing the incident as a "disturbance on the Temple Mount."

Stone-throwers attacked a group of Christian tourists that were visiting the site. At least 40 officers entered the Temple Mount to deal with the situation, where Rosenfeld said some 50 Palestinians were participating in the rock throwing.

Police arrested three suspects on the scene who were involved directly in the attacks.

Despite Palestinian claims of religious Jews trying to storm the Temple Mount, police said that no Jews were around the site.

The incident came after unfounded Palestinians reports that a group of "religious [Jewish] Israelis" tried to "storm" the Temple Mount - where the Aksa mosque and Dome of the Rock are located - on Sunday morning, according to Jordanian semi-official newspaper Ad-Dustour.

Palestinian sources claimed over the weekend that a group of Jews would attempt to storm the Temple Mount in order to "strengthen Israeli sovereignty over the site," according to the Jordanian newspaper.

The official PA news agency, of course, is pushing the lie, making it indistiguishable from Hezbollah's media in embracing incitement and falsehoods rather than the truth.

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"Israel weakening Al Aqsa with underground chemicals"

The Hamas-run, British-based Palestine Info site "reports":

The Israeli occupation authority (IOA) is using chemical materials to accelerate excavation underneath the Aqsa mosque in occupied Jerusalem, Kamal Al-Khatib, the deputy leader of the Islamic movement in 1948 occupied Palestine, said.

He said in a press release on Tuesday that the use of chemical materials was meant to speed up the erosion of the rocky layer or foundation that protects the Aqsa mosque.

He opined that the IOA was planning to weaken the foundation of the holy site in preparation for demolishing it and building the alleged temple in its place.

The network of tunnels underneath the mosque had caused a big hole and any explosion of any kind or a minor earthquake could pose a dangerous and permanent threat to the Aqsa mosque, Khatib warned.

He charged that the IOA was hoping that such a natural phenomenon would occur in order to appear as if the mosque was destroyed due to a natural cause.

Challah Hu Akbar reported on this a couple of days ago; Arab media even ran photos of the tunnels that are adjacent to the Temple Mount and the newly re-opened Roman-era Jerusalem water channel as "proof" somehow of this chemical attack.

I'm sure that people who build tunnels underneath mountains would be most interested in this new, high-tech method of excavating tunnels using only chemicals.

And who is pushing this absurd story in English? Why, Mondoweiss, of course! Because according to the high journalistic standards of the anti-Zionist crowd, any accusation against Israel must be true by definition.

(h/t Dan C)

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Arabs claim photos of a Jew urinating on Temple Mount

The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation has another series of photos of Jews, and especially IDF soldiers, "storming" the Temple Mount.

Most of it is pretty typical stuff:

One photo, apparently taken inside one of the buildings, is clearly a different set of tourists but meant to make people think that the soldiers barged in:

The Muslims are accusing the Jews of performing "Talmudic rituals" as usual. 

But there is a new twist here. They claim to have photos of a man from the group urinating on an outer wall of the compound:

I did not see this man in any of the other photos that would show that he was part of this group. (One man in the group dressed similarly but wore a kippah and glasses and carried a cane, so this wasn't him.) 

Obviously, if someone did urinate there (and I cannot find a stain on the wall showing he did,) it would be an outrageous act of sacrilege both for Muslims and for Jews. Needless to say, no religious Jew would ever consider doing such a thing. Even pretending to do so is astonishingly bad taste and poor judgment. 

Or, it could be a set-up,  in order to enrage Muslims against Jews, something the Al Aqsa Foundation tries to do literally every day. 

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Israel building more "Talmudic Gardens", says PA

The official PA Wafa news agency reports that Israel is building new "Talmudic gardens" all around Jerusalem:

Israeli bulldozers Sunday increased its work speed to establish Talmudic gardens between Damascus Gate and Herod’s Gate (Bab el-Amoud and Bab al-Sahira in Arabic, respectively), two of the most famous gates of the Old City of Jerusalem, aiming to judaize the city and change its historical and cultural character, according to WAFA correspondent.

He said that several Israeli bulldozers increased their work pace more than usual, after finishing the first part of work in the area near the Damascus Gate and in Sultan Suleiman street, adjacent to the Old City's walls, which character was completely changed through the establishment of car parking lots, a Talmudic garden near Sulaiman cave (Mgharet Sulaiman) in Sultan Sulaiman Street.

Similar works are under way in Tantur Faron, an area south of Al-Aqsa mosque, which is considered an archaeological area that extends back thousands of years.

The committee for the defense of Silwan uncovered the building of fake Jewish graves in Tantur Faron area in an attempt to seize the land permanently to connect it to nearby settlement outposts.

In addition, similar works are also under way in Wadi al-Rababa, an area in Silwan south of Al-Aqsa Mosque in order to establish Talmudic gardens, near al-Bustan neighborhood in Silwan.

What exactly is a "Talmudic garden?"

Are they growing Mishnah flowers, Baraita bushes and Tosefta trees?

As we mentioned the last time we came across this term, it seems that the Arabs use the word "Talmudic" as an epithet when they really, really hate something. So we hear about, for example, "Talmudic rituals" being practiced by Jews who visit the Temple Mount.

Most archaeological tourist sites in Jerusalem show a Jewish presence in Israel that far pre-dates the Talmud (which itself pre-dates Islam.) The mention of the "Talmud" in relation with these shows that what the PA hates and fears more than anything is Judaism - not Zionism, not Jews, but actual living Judaism that shows an unbroken connection to the Land for thousands of years.

After all, the Mishna and Talmud Yerushalmi were all written in Israel - well after the destruction of the Second Temple. They show that there was a vibrant Jewish community in Israel up until the Muslim invasion.   The recent discovery of a Menorah stamp in Acre, apparently to tag bread as kosher, was created in the 6th century.

When you include Talmudic times in the Jewish history of Israel, it is the Muslim presence that appears to be anomalous and temporary - not the modern manifestation of Jewish statehood.

This might be why the word "Talmud" gets the Arabs so riled up. It reminds them that they are the interlopers, invaders and colonialists - not the Jews.

(h/t CHA)

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ISESCO denies Jewish Temples existed; publishes "media plan" on how to defeat Zionism

A press release from ISESCO, the Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization:

The Islamic Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (ISESCO) strongly denounced the Israeli occupation army’s publication of a photo of the Holy Aqsa Mosque without Qubat Al-Sakhra (the Dome of the Rock).

In a communiqué released today, ISESCO affirmed its rejection of what the so-called religious authority of the Israeli occupation army in the occupied city of Al-Quds did when they published a photo of Al-Aqsa Mosque without the Dome of the Rock. This photo, ISESCO underlined, depicts the true intention of the Israeli occupation authorities to judaize the city and establish the alleged Temple in the so-called “Temple Mount” on “the ruins” of Al-Aqsa Mosque, especially as a model of the Temple has been built in front of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and the calls of the Jewish rabbis to demolish the First Qibla and the Third Holy Mosque have increased.

"Alleged" Temple? "So-called" Temple Mount?

I guess we can see the importance of education, science and culture to ISESCO.

Elsewhere, ISESCO makes its Temple denial more explicit:

[N]o trace was found of this temple after many excavations and archaeology digs carried out by Israeli and western archaeologists. An increasing number of Israelis refute the Jewish allegations about the temple, having conducted their own investigations, excavations and studies which all point to the non-existence of the temple in the alleged site at any time in history.

It is this document that proves that ISESCO is a sham organization, whose purpose has nothing to do with Islamic culture or history - but rather to uproot any vestige of Jewish history.

The document is called "Media Plan for Publicising the Cause of Al Quds Al Sharif in the West and Mechanisms for its Implementation." It looks like it was written in late 2004. ISESCO is the architect of a plan on how to spread Islamic propaganda in the West and how to counter Jewish claims to Israel and Jerusalem.

And it makes its goals quite clear, in this paragraph describing its idea of the Jewish view of Jerusalem:

Jerusalem is at the heart of the Jewish faith, the cornerstone of its spiritual and intellectual edifice and of the dream of rebuilding the Hebrew state in accordance with the false Zionist slogan of the “Return to Zion”, or “Return to Jerusalem”, ensuring its continuity and the continuity of the Israeli presence in the Arab region. This presence is vital for the West since Israel acts as a shield that protects the western civilisation from confronting the so called “Arab backwardness, barbarity and savagery”. Thus, Jerusalem is the cornerstone of the spiritual edifice and the Zionist Jewish entity. Were it to be dislodged, the whole edifice and the Zionist entity itself would crumble like a deck of cards.

That is the entire goal of this media plan! It describes short, medium and long term goals to do exactly this dislodging of Jerusalem from Judaism.

For example, do these objectives sound familiar?

1- Gaining the support of some intellectual, cultural and political role-players who can impact on the Western public opinion about the Arab-Israeli conflict and the question of Al Quds, by adopting the international resolutions of legitimacy and the related UN resolutions as a starting point in the media plan.

2- Penetrating Western activities or fields of activities, particularly those of influential media, cultural, intellectual and economic spheres in such a way as to ensure their responsiveness to the other’s point of view and their outlook on the official stance of their countries as subservient to and reflective of the interests of the Zionist movement with its various formations and bodies, and not of the interests of their own countries, in particular economic and vital interests.

3- Discreetly and indirectly encouraging trends critical of Zionism and the Israeli judaisation policies in Jerusalem within western circles and in a way that would prevent the targeting, isolation and annihilation of these trends by the Zionists movement and its concealed and visible tentacles.

It is almost as if Walt, Mearsheimer, Blumenthal, Friedman, Mondoweiss and others are acting in a play written by ISESCO!

Can you imagine a genuine cultural or educational organization creating a document on how to spread propaganda in order to destroy an entire culture?

Anyone who wants to truly understand how the anti-Israel crowd is using the media should read this document.

(h/t CHA)

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Kotel Photoshop kerfuffle causes Ha'aretz to incite Muslims

From Ha'aretz:

IDF rabbinate edits out Dome of the Rock from picture of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount

Israel’s military rabbinate released an educational document ahead of the holiday of Hanukkah last month, featuring a photo of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount without the Dome of the Rock, Haaretz learned on Thursday.

The photo was featured in a packet prepared by the Military Rabbinate issued to Israel Defense Forces bases ahead of Hanukkah, under the section titled “The Festival of Jewish Heroism,” which included an article and a quiz on the Jewish struggle against Hellenistic rule.

One reserves officer talking with Haaretz said that when he “received the materials from the battalion rabbi something seemed strange about that picture.”

“We get material from the rabbinate every week and it’s mostly positive things,” the IDF officer said, adding that the edited picture was part of an “official release, which is why it’s problematic the army is distributing it.”

The IDF Spokesman’s Office said in the response that Haaretz’s description was “absurd and biased, a fact which we can only regret,” adding that the educational packet included a photo meant to illustrate Jerusalem during the period of the Second Temple.

“As was explained to the reporter, the Dome of the Rock did not exist at that time, so there was no need for it to appear in the picture,” the IDF said.

Based on the photo in the story, I tracked down the original.

It was definitely Photoshopped, as the base of the Dome of the Rock is still there.

The original photographer/artist is Mikhail Levit, who apparently did the editing. I've seen the photo on websites as far back as 2008.

So obviously the IDF rabbinate did not edit the photo. It was a nice picture, the people behind the pamphlet found it somewhere online, and put it on the pamphlet. (The IDF's explanation that it represents the time of the Second Temple is silly as well - where is the Temple? Moreover, notice that the photograph still includes the Al Aqsa Mosque on the far right side!)

This does not look deliberate. It is easy enough to take or find a photo of the Kotel where the Dome of the Rock isn't visible - without editing. Here's one I took a couple of years ago:

Or a painting of the Temple could have been used.

The graphic designer probably just Googled "kotel" and picked the nicest photo he or she could find. This is not a huge story about IDF hate for Islam.

But the officer who brought it to the attention of Ha'aretz, and Ha'aretz itself by quoting him approvingly, show more than a little hypocrisy:

Speaking with Haaretz, the reserves officer said he expected “the Military Rabbinate to be more alert about the educational messages it passes on, especially considering the Temple Mount’s history,” adding: “A world war could break if someone would try to do something about that place, and I think they should be more cautious when approaching the subject.”

“It’s infuriating that the rabbinate isn’t more being more responsible about this,” the officer added.

He's infuriated that the rabbinate wasn't more careful? Because it is so incendiary?

Let's see. Chanukah ended weeks ago.


No one noticed this photo. No Arab riots, no angry op-eds in Al Jazeera, nothing.

Now, this incensed officer is so angry about how dangerous this pamphlet cover photo is that he brings it to Ha'aretz weeks later, which splashes the story prominently in its online edition. Where everyone can see it!

The story got picked up by Islamic Jihad (top story), Hamas and Fatah websites, and probably around the Arabic press worldwide. Tens of millions of easily excited Muslims will see the story and potentially be incited to violence.

Thanks to Ha'aretz for bringing this story to their attention!

Because it is responsible journalism to publicize something silly the IDF rabbinate did with little intent and twist it into a story that could incite millions of people to believe that it is an attack directly on their souls. And to pretend that you are doing it because of potential problems that didn't occur!

Ha'aretz, by pretending to position this story as a warning against incitement, has done far more to incite hate against the IDF than the rabbinate did.

But Ha'aretz doesn't have to follow the same rules it insists the IDF does.

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First Temple-period bulla found

From Bible History Daily and The Temple Mount Sifting Project:

Jerusalem archaeologist Gabriel Barkay announced this week that the Temple Mount Sifting Project has discovered a fragment of a seventh-century B.C.E. clay bulla impressed with the ancient Hebrew inscription [g]b’n lmlk, or “Gibeon, for the king.” According to Barkay, the bulla is evidence for royal taxation of different Judahite cities, in this case the town of Gibeon. More than 50 other such “fiscal bullae” are already known, but most lack contextual information. “All the fiscal bullae known until now come from the antiquities market, and our bulla is the first one to come from a controlled archaeological project,” wrote Barkay on the project’s Web site. “This bulla enables us to fully illuminate and discuss the entire phenomenon of the fiscal bullae.”

The bulla originates from the eastern slope of the Temple Mount, descending into the Kidron Valley.

The [full collection of] bullae include names of 19 different cities of Judah, and dates of the reign of one of the Judean kings, usually in hieratic numerals, as well as the particle “lmlk“, “for the king”. ...The fiscal bullae represent a taxation system from the different Judean cities, based on yearly taxes, which probably replaced the previous one, reflected in the royal Judean jars and their seal impressions, from the time of King Hezekiah. The discussion includes the characteristic details of the taxation systems of the Samaria Ostraca and the “lmlk” jars, in comparison to the fiscal bullae. A detailed discussion of 13 different arguments is brought to suggest the dating of the fiscal bullae to the time of King Manasseh, Hezekiah’s son (698-642 BCE). The mentioning of Lachish in some of the bullae is directly connected to the question of the date of the reconstruction of that city’s level II. The city is mentioned to pay its taxes in the 19th and 21st regnal years, which could not be in the reign of Hezekiah as the city was destroyed by Sennacherib in 701 BCE, which was Hezekiah’s 14th regnal year. According to our suggestion, Lachish was restored after being in ruins for about 16 years, by King Manasseh, rather than Josiah, as previously suggested.

The discovery of the fiscal bulla with the name of Gibeon from the slope of the Temple Mount, authenticates all the other fiscal bullae, and enables us to study a variety of subjects connected to the history of Judah in the 7th century BCE.

Those Jews, always pretending to have been in Israel for more than 63 years.

(h/t Dan)

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