Showing posts sorted by relevance for query egypt explosives. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query egypt explosives. Sort by date Show all posts

Sunday, March 08, 2015

From Ian:

PMW Palestinian terrorists of the 60s - Palestinian heroes of today
A man who attacked an Israeli plane in 1968 and a woman who placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 are today's Palestinian heroes according to the Palestinian Authority and Fatah.
In 1968, PFLP terrorist Mahmoud Muhammad Issa Al-Naarani carried out an attack on an Israeli El-Al airplane at the airport in Athens with an accomplice. One passenger was killed and a stewardess seriously wounded. When terrorist Al-Naarani recently died, Fatah posted an obituary on its Facebook page, calling him a "hero":
Similarly, official PA TV recently honored Fatima Barnawi as "a role model and example and a pioneer of sacrifice." Barnawi placed a bomb in a movie theater in Jerusalem in 1967 that failed to explode. She was sentenced to life imprisonment but was released in 1977 after serving 10 years. In February, she was honored in Egypt. PA TV broadcast from the event, referring to Barnawi as "an honor to the world's female fighters" and "an honor for the [Palestinian] cause... a positive symbol of the Palestinian woman."
PA TV honors terrorist who attempted to place a bomb in a movie theater


Obama’s Main Achievement: Iran in Iraq
The president’s apologists may blame this on George W. Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq in the first place as well as his kicking the can down the road on Iran’s nuclear program. There’s some truth to that but Bush left Obama a war that was already won by the 2007 U.S. surge. Bush may have laid the groundwork for the current mess. But its shape and the scale of the disaster is Obama’s responsibility.
Iranian influence among fellow Shiites in Iraq is nothing new. But the scale of the current effort and the open nature of the way Iran’s forces are now flexing their muscles — even in the Tikrit region where Sunnis dominate — demonstrates that the rise of ISIS was not the only negative consequence of President Obama’s decision to completely pull U.S. forces out of Iraq when negotiations about their staying got sticky. That enabled him to brag during the 2012 presidential campaign that he had “ended” the Iraq War (the same campaign where he pledged Iran would not be allowed to keep a nuclear program) but neither ISIS nor Iran got that memo. The war continues but the difference is that instead of an Iraq influenced by the U.S., it is now Iran that is the dominant force.
The same is true throughout the region. President Obama spent years dithering about the collapse of Syria even while demanding that Bashar Assad give up power and enunciating “red lines” about the use of chemical weapons. But while he stalled, moderate rebels withered, ISIS grew and Iran’s ally Assad stayed in Damascus, bucked up by Iranian help and troops supplied by Tehran’s Hezbollah auxiliaries.
So when the Saudis look at a potential deal that will allow Iran to keep its nuclear infrastructure and ultimately expire in ten years, they know that it is directly connected to America’s apparent decision to acquiesce to Iranian dominance in Iraq and elsewhere in the region.
'Netanyahu never agreed to '67 borders or dividing Jerusalem'
Dennis Ross, the man allegedly behind the "concessions document" published by Yedioth Ahronoth over the weekend, told Israel Hayom that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu "never agreed to Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders, dividing Jerusalem or the right of return."
The document, which the Likud party claims is part of an orchestrated campaign to topple the current leadership, purports to have been presented in August 2013 and appears to detail the framework for peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, suggesting a willingness by the Netanyahu-led government to make dramatic concessions.
According to Ross, the American diplomat who mediated the talks between Israeli negotiator Isaac Molho and Palestinian negotiator Hussein Agha, which included the document in question, "I always felt the best way to [negotiate] would be in a brainstorming set of discussions that could be informal. To that end, starting before I left the administration and continuing after I left, I worked with two long-time friends of mine, Isaac Molho and Hussein Agha, with the aim of coming up with a U.S. proposal for a framework. The idea was that both sides would agree to negotiate using the U.S. proposal, while making clear that they had reservations about provisions that ran counter to their positions."

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

From Ian:

The US has been Committed to Land for Peace since 1948
As a result of the war, 550,000 Arabs fled the land between the river and the sea. The US and the Arabs were determined to reverse this exodus.
GA Res 194 was passed in Dec ’48. It is today quoted as the basis for the “right of return”.
Israel has usually contested this reading, pointing out that the text merely states that the refugees “should be permitted” to return to their homes at the “earliest practicable date” and this recommendation applies only to those “wishing to… live at peace with their neighbors”. Besides it was a General Assembly resolution and they aren’t binding.
The Arab League has instructed its members to deny citizenship to Palestinian Arab refugees (or their descendants) “to avoid dissolution of their identity and protect their right to return to their homeland.”
The Arab League forbade any Arab country from accepting these refugees or settling them in normal housing, preferring to leave them in squalid camps.
Even after the Oslo Accords, in the 'West Bank' and Gaza under full jurisdiction of the Palestinian Authority, the refugees continued to be confined to camps — despite the millions of UNWRA and international relief dollars which poured into PA coffers specifically for this purpose.
Two years after UNGA Res. 194, the GA passed Resolution 393 (Dec. 1950). Article 4 states that “the reintegration of the refugees into the economic life of the Near east, either by repatriation or resettlement, is essential in preparation for the time when international assistance is no longer available, and for the realization of conditions of peace and stability in the region.” It also called for the creation of a “reintegration fund” in Article 5.
But this resolution would undermine the “right of return” so no one talks about it.
Does Mahmoud Abbas want his legacy to be the third intifada?
If you were President Abbas and you knew that you couldn’t bring peace to your people, would you want to be remembered as the impotent corrupt leader of the PA, or would you erase your past and become known as the leader of the glorious third intifada? All of this may be moot as the Palestinian Authority may not be able to dictate events. As the Jerusalem Post reported: “The army has told the government that at any given moment the Palestinian Authority can collapse...
In one of the scenarios that the IDF presented, a small localized security incident, like an altercation between settlers and Palestinians, or the throwing of a Molotov cocktail could quickly escalate to rioting in the Galilee and the Triangle area. With the weakened Palestinian Authority a situation like this is liable to lead to terrorist organizations taking control of the West Bank.”
What should America do? Understand that the chaos of the Middle East and the weakness of the PA make this an inopportune time for final status negotiations.
America’s goal should be to convince Abbas not to start a third intifada and to help the Palestinians build the foundations of a future democracy, with rule of law, tolerance, freedom of the press, and freedom of speech.
In short, America should lead conflict management, not impose solutions where none exist.
EU, Qatar and Turkey
Meanwhile, Qatar's TV channel, Al-Jazeera, regularly incites terrorism against Egyptian President el-Sisi's pro-Western regime. El-Sisi's heroic pro-Western stance is apparently unreciprocated: the U.S. State Department just hosted an official meeting for his arch-enemy, the Muslim Brotherhood, father of Hamas, while Al Jazeera -- in Arabic -- encourages terrorist attacks in Egypt and Sinai Peninsula by the Muslim Brotherhood, and preaches the destruction of Israel, non-stop.
It was Al-Jazeera that created the "Arab Spring" by twisting a story about a Tunisian fruit-seller, who set himself on fire because he could not get a work permit, into a story of Tunisian oppression. The station ran the story again and again, whipping up Tunisians to overthrow their secular leaders and bring in Islamist leaders. To the Tunisians' credit, like the Egyptians, after a few years of Islamist rule, they also threw the Islamist leaders out.
Recently, Al-Jazeera has been broadcasting a "documentary" series glorifying Hamas and the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, its military-terrorist wing. The entire series is devoted to idealizing Islamist terrorism and encouraging mass-casualty terrorist attacks against Jews, in the name of radical Islamist ideology.
One of the stars of the series is the Palestinian arch-terrorist, Abd al-Karim al-Hanini, who was released from prison in Israel and found a safe haven in Qatar. He explains how to construct explosives from agricultural substances, such as chemical fertilizer and sulfur; how to fill an empty gas balloon with the explosives, and how to detonate the bomb mechanically, electronically or with a suicide-bomber (shaheed), in order to kill as many Israelis as possible.
Al-Hanini boasts about his terrorist activities killing Israeli civilians and soldiers, and details tactics that mujahideen will use in their jihadi "inner struggles," and presumably also their outer ones. These tactics can be used as blueprints by future terrorists. The series can easily be viewed by all intelligence agencies in the world, but so far no one has tried to prevent it from being broadcast -- or has even criticized Qatar for broadcasting it.
No one has even tried to prevent Qatar's participation in a global anti-terrorism forum.

Monday, February 23, 2015

From Ian:

Michael Lumish: Why is Obama so Afraid of Benjamin Netanyahu?
One has to wonder how it is that Barack Obama, a man who was once president of the Harvard Law Review, could be so afraid of spreading the idea that Iran should not be allowed to gain nuclear weaponry? That is pretty much all Netanyahu is likely to say, after all. Nothing that the man is likely to say to Congress will be earth-shattering or new.
If I am right – and I suspect that I am – all we are going to hear from Netanyahu are reasons why a nuclear-armed Iran is a terrible idea, not the least which reason is that it will lead to Middle Eastern arms race with Egypt and Saudi Arabia, not to mention Turkey and perhaps even Jordan, scrambling to gain their own nuclear weapons.
Obama is manufacturing hatred toward both Benjamin Netanyahu and the Jewish State of Israel, and thereby Jews more generally, merely because Netanyahu is going to plea to the American people to support Israel in preventing Iranian nuclear break-out capacity.
If Obama believes otherwise, he should allow Netanyahu to speak and then clearly tell the American public just how it is the Netanyahu is mistaken.
If the president of the United States cannot even bring himself to refute such an argument, then how can we possibly trust him to refute Iranian nuclear potential?
Finally, for Barack Obama to snub Netanyahu on the grounds that meeting so close to the Israeli election would amount to interfering with that election is the very height of hypocrisy. Everyone who follows Israel knows that the Obama administration has sent a team into Israel for the purpose of unseating the despised Netanyahu in favor of a US puppet like Herzog or Livni.
Obama likes his Jews soft and malleable.
Is the Era of Euphemism in Washington beginning to end?
Euphemism: The act or example of substituting a mild, indirect, or vague term for one considered harsh, blunt or offensive. (American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 1992.)
In years to come we may look back on the past week as the beginning of the end of an era of euphemism in American political history. It may be ending because the gap between the language of the government of the United States and the reality of Islamist inspired terror and barbarism has become an abyss. For two decades, various academics and political figures have warned us against committing the sins of Orientalism and then Islamophobia. Yet now millions of people see with their own eyes on television and computer screens that the sins of our error are being committed in the name of a fanaticism born of Islamist ideology. This fact is now so obvious that denying it leads officials into embarrassing linguistic acrobatics that finally make them objects of ridicule. Simply put, the past strategies of avoidance and deflection have ceased to convince because they are being contradicted by facts available to millions.
Since the attacks of September 11, 2001, two American Presidents, but especially our current one, have spoken a language of euphemism concerning the ideology inspiring the major terrorist organizations and states of our era. They have substituted mild, indirect or vague terms to refer to the causes of global terrorism in place of others considered harsh, blunt or offensive. Those terms held to be offensive and thus taboo in government statements include “radical Islam,” “Islamism,” and “Islamic fundamentalism,” or other such terms that connect interpretation of the religion of Islam to the practice of terrorism. Those who used such terms were held to be either “Islamophobic” or simply politically harmful because doing so was bound to offend over a billion Muslims and thus undermine Western counterterrorism efforts. As a result two famous euphemisms continue to shape the public stance of the United States government.
In the Bush years, the term of art was “the war on terror,” which suggested we were, absurdly, at war with a tactic. In the Obama era, the acceptable term has been a fight against unspecified sources of “violent extremism.”
'Do not hesitate': Terror group calls for 'Westgate-style' attacks on Westfield shopping centres in chilling new threat from militants behind bloody Kenya siege
An al-Qaeda linked terror group has issued a chilling propaganda video threatening Western shopping centres and singling out 'Jewish owned' Westfield malls as targets.
In a 76-minute long message issued overnight, a masked militant purportedly from the al-Shabaab organisation encouraged Islamic fundamentalists to strike at shopping centres around the world.
Dressed in military fatigues, the spokesman named complexes owned by Frank Lowy's Australian group as among potential targets, dwelling on two Westfield malls in East and West London.
'If just a handful of mujahideen fighters could bring Kenya to a complete stand-still for nearly a week, just imagine what the dedicated mujahideen could do in the West to American or Jewish shopping centres across the world,' he said.
‘What if such an attack on the Mall of America in Minnesota or the West Edmonton mall in Canada or in London’s Oxford Street. Or any of the hundred or so of the Jewish owned Westfield shopping centres.
‘Take the Westfield shopping centre in (London's) Stratford or White City for example, what would be the implications of such an attack, one can only imagine.
‘All it takes is a man with firm determination, of which our Muslim ummah (community) has plenty of.
‘So hurry up and hasten to Heaven and do not hesitate.'

Tuesday, February 17, 2015

From Ian:

Toddler injured in 2013 attack in critical condition
A 4-year-old girl seriously injured in a 2013 rock-throwing terror attack is fighting for her life, doctors said Tuesday.
Adele Bitton was readmitted to the Schneider’s Children’s Hospital in Petah Tikva earlier this week for pneumonia and on Tuesday, doctors said her condition was critical.
Bitton suffered a traumatic brain injury in March 2013 when Palestinians threw rocks at a car she was in near the West Bank settlement of Ariel, and has been largely unresponsive since then.
Medical staff at the hospital said Bitton’s condition deteriorated after developing respiratory complications from the lung infection. She was transferred to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit where doctors are working to save her life.
Speaking to Channel 2 News, Bitton’s parents urged the public to pray for their daughter’s recovery, and said they were hoping for the same miracle that saved her life two years ago.
UPDATE: Toddler injured in 2013 attack dies of pneumonia
A 4-year-old girl seriously injured in a 2013 rock-throwing terror attack died on Tuesday afternoon from complications from pneumonia, a Petah Tikva hospital said.
“With great sadness we announce the passing of Adele Bitton, who passed away this evening despite doctors’ efforts to save her. We send our condolences to the family,” the Schneider’s Children’s Hospital said in a statement.
Medical staff at the hospital said Bitton’s condition deteriorated after developing respiratory complications from a lung infection. She was transferred to the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit Tuesday where doctors attempted to save her.
As anti-Semitism makes a comeback, Obama remains ignorant
The hostility of the intellectual elites to Israel encourages these terrorists as they plot further evil. The men of evil understand that only the Americans stand in their way of realizing the dream of the worldwide caliphate, and when the leader of the Americans isn’t even sure who the enemy is they rightly figure they have little to worry about.
The 8,000 Jews in Denmark deal with anti-Semitism every day, and the Danish government, full of the usual Scandinavian piety about its wonderfulness, grants millions of kroner to activists who disguise their hatred of Jews, and lecture the Israelis about how they deal with the real-world threats to Israeli survival.
The good news is that France, which has had a habit of sleepwalking through history, seems to have pinched itself awake. Since the Charlie Hebdo and kosher supermarket attacks even the densest Frenchman can see that the Islamic radicals have him in their gunsights along with everyone else who doesn’t bow to Allah in the way of the 9th century. Prime Minister Manuel Valls has ordered the isolation of Muslim jihadis in prisons, increased spending on intelligence agencies and according security forces greater authority to monitor terrorist suspects on the Internet.
Mr. Obama wants more authority, too, but nobody in Congress can figure out why. He already has more authority than he’s willing to use. He could take to heart the admonition of Theodore Roosevelt: “I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds.” So do we all.
We'll be the Judge, episode 2
The second episode of the Israeli satire program "We'll be the Judge," from the creators of Latma's Tribal Update, Israel Channel 1, February 12, 2015. (h/t Ronin0948)


Monday, February 16, 2015

From Ian:

Defiant Mother Who Hosted Bat-Mitzva as Terror Struck Copenhagen Synagogue Recounts Harrowing Ordeal – ‘No One Can Tell Me Where I Can Live My Jewish Life’ (INTERVIEW)
Mette Bentow, the mother whose daughter’s bat-mitzva was cut short by the terror attack at the Copenhagen synagogue late last night, sounded a defiant tone in an interview with The Algemeiner on Sunday, in which she recounted her harrowing experiences of the past 24 hours.
“No one can tell me where I can live my Jewish life,” she insisted strongly, even as she admitted, “I don’t know if there will be a Danish Jewish life” for her children to live there.
“We were celebrating the bat-mitzva of our daughter Hannah and due to heightened security in Copenhagen, there were extra security personnel on the ground, both from the Jewish community but also from the police,” Bentow recounted. ”There were armed police officers, which is not a usual sight in Copenhagen.”
“We were having a wonderful party until 20 minutes to one in the morning, when one of the Jewish security guards asked us to go downstairs to the basement, and, after a short while, he took my husband aside, who has a security background, briefed him on what had happened, and gave him a radio. We then proceeded into a security room, a panic room where we were left.”
Bentow said that no gunshots were heard by guests at the party “because we were listening to music, we were dancing and the community center is behind the synagogue itself, so we didn’t hear anything.”
Douglas Murray: How many more terror attacks until we have a serious discussion about offending religions?
Another week and another completely random attack by a gunman hunting down cartoonists before inexplicably heading to the local synagogue. My guess is that events in Copenhagen yesterday have already been put down in many quarters to what President Obama describes as ‘a random bunch of folks’ being targeted by somebody who has ‘misunderstood’ what every Western leader agrees is an entirely peaceful and harmless religious tradition.
As it happens, I know the people who put together the Lars Vilks committee and had a number of friends who were in the room in Copenhagen yesterday when the gunman attacked. One of them wrote a brief account of events for us here yesterday. Of course at a time like this it is appropriate to stress how brave these individuals are. And they most certainly are. But what is more striking to me are two things.
The first is that supporting an artist in 21st century Europe should have become a brave thing to do and that a conversation about free speech in Europe in 2015 should have — and need — substantial police protection. Today’s UK newspapers refer to Vilks as ‘controversial.’ But Vilks wouldn’t be ‘controversial’ if almost the entirety of the Western media and the political and arts establishments had not in recent years abandoned their principles and chosen to avoid mentioning anything negative or worthy of satire in one single religion. The jihadists just want to kill Lars Vilks. It was the Western media and political class that made him ‘controversial’.
And then there is the second point — which is how many attacks like yesterday’s have to happen before there is a semblance of serious discussion around all this? A few years ago when the offices of Charlie Hebdo were firebombed in Paris the French Foreign Minister said about drawing cartoons of Mohammed and thus potentially ‘insulting’ Islam: ‘Is it really sensible or intelligent to pour oil on the fire?’ My reply to which is ‘Who made our societies into this powder-keg apparently able to catch fire at any moment?’
Tom Gross Nothing Random Here
Yesterday evening’s Copenhagen synagogue shooting is yet another attack on Jews as Jews -- just as we have witnessed such attacks at the Toulouse Jewish primary school, the Brussels Jewish museum, the Paris kosher supermarket, the firebombing of the synagogue in the German city of Wuppertal, and at many other places in recent years, from the Jewish communal centres in Mumbai and Casablanca, to the ancient synagogues in Istanbul and Jerba.
Nothing Random Here
Yet only last week President Obama and his spokespeople were suggesting that it was just some kind of “random” accident that Jews were being killed.
The Obama team has consistently demonstrated a willful lack of understanding about the nature of Islamism, about anti-Semitism, and about the intentions of the Islamic revolutionary government in Iran. They seem more interested in disparaging the prime minister of America’s ally Israel than in preventing the regime in Tehran going nuclear – a regime which has already de facto taken control of large swathes of Iraq, Yemen, Syria and Lebanon. Its terrorist actions outside the Middle East spread to, among other places, Thailand, Bulgaria (where Jewish tourists were blown up in 2012) and Argentina, where 85 people were murdered at the AMIA Jewish centre in Buenos Aires. Only last month an Iranian diplomat in Montevideo was expelled from Uruguay for planting a bomb designed to kill Jews. (This foiled attack was barely reported on outside the Uruguayan and Israeli media.)
As Middle East scholar Bassam Tawil wrote last week: “Does Obama really want his legacy to be, ‘The president who was an even bigger fool than Neville Chamberlain’?”

Thursday, February 05, 2015

From Ian:

PA TV sermon: Jews are "apes and pigs"

In Friday's sermon on official Palestinian Authority TV, the cleric demonized Jews as "apes and pigs."
"Many Muslims are being harmed these days by a group whose hearts were sealed by Allah. 'He made of them [Jews] apes and pigs and slaves of deities' (Quran, 5:60). They are harming the livelihood of the believers [Muslims]... They withhold their [the Palestinians'] money and collect interest on it."
[Official PA TV, Jan. 30, 2015]
A few months ago, a Palestinian youth recited a poem on official PA TV, also demonizing Jews as apes and pigs, as Palestinian Media Watch reported:
"You have been condemned to humiliation and hardship
O Sons of Zion, O most evil among creations
O barbaric apes, O wretched pigs"
[Official PA TV, Sept. 12, 2014]
PA cleric: Jews are "apes and pigs and slaves of deities"


Amb. Alan Baker: UN Commission of Inquiry Violates International Norms on Fact-Finding Missions
The recent resignation of Canadian Prof. William Schabas as Chair of the UN Gaza inquiry has raised some interesting issues in the general context of UN fact-finding procedures. Shabas’ glaring anti-Israel bias was demonstrated in statements made by him over the years and now confirmed by the revelation of the clear conflict of interest arising from his consultancy work for the PLO and concealed by him from the UN and from its Human Rights Council.
The UN fact finding procedures have developed over the years through a number of declarations and studies by prominent international organizations and legal authorities, and ostensibly should have guided the UN in determining the mandate for any such commission of inquiry and in choosing the Chair of any fact-finding mission or inquiry.
However, it appears that the UN knowingly chose to ignore these well-established procedures in appointing William Schabas to chair the Gaza inquiry, and as such, the UN itself, in addition to William Schabas, have prejudiced any findings and outcome of the Commission of Inquiry and created grave doubts as to any credibility of such findings or outcome.
The following documents set out the various rules and norms for fact finding commissions, each one stressing the importance and centrality of impartiality – both of the mandate, as well as by the head and members of the commission:
Anne Bayefsky: William Schabas’ appointment was testament to the corruption at the UN Human Rights Council
As he tells the Council in his resignation letter, he imagined his “legal opinion” to the PLO on how to capitalize on the International Criminal Court “was a tiny part” of his “enormous body of scholarly work.” (Non-lawyers and the less erudite might call this being a tiny bit pregnant.) He rants, further : “when I was asked if I would accept nomination to the Commission of Inquiry, I was not requested to provide any details of my past statements and other activities concerning Palestine and Israel.”
In a final stunning display of hubris, Schabas claims that none of this should affect the legitimacy of the inquiry’s forthcoming report, to be presented to the Council in March and then being sent to the ICC. According to Schabas, the research and evidence-gathering phase he had conducted, managed and directed for five months – which will form the basis of the entire report – was “largely completed.” Indeed, “the work on the drafting of the report is beginning.”
Obviously, the credibility of the final product is irrevocably discredited — to all but the Human Rights Council, which is simply reassigning the job of Chair to one of the two remaining inquiry members (both also chosen on the basis of their prior displays of anti-Israel bias).
It is no accident that a Council notorious for applying double-standards to Israel embraced Schabas, or that a lawyer like Schabas embraced the Council. But there is no excuse for the the free world not to shun both of them and renounce their legal pogrom.

Tuesday, January 27, 2015

From Ian:

The Delirium of Anti-Zionism
In 1975, when the UN infamously declared that Zionism is a form of racism, Daniel Patrick Moynihan defiantly stood before the General Assembly and informed the delegates that the UN had just granted “symbolic amnesty” to the murderers of the six million Jews. The increasingly common accusation that Israel is in some way replicating the crimes of Nazi Germany is certainly in part an effort to give that same amnesty, as well as to belittle the Nazi crime itself. This effort by anti-Israel activists to hijack Holocaust commemorations with an anti-Zionist message is of course a vicious–albeit clumsy–attempt to invalidate Israel’s very right to exist. These people inhabit a historically illiterate narrative in which they wrongly believe that the world powers simply handed the Jews someone else’s country as an afterthought following the Holocaust. By distracting from Nazi atrocities against Jews while accusing Jews of equal crimes against Palestinians, they seem to believe that they are nullifying the Jewish claim to statehood.
It is a similar ignorance about the history of anti-Semitism that allows everyone else not to see how this is nothing less than the latest manifestation of an ever-mutating Jew hatred. This malady has an unending appeal because of the way it always promises to liberate mankind, in one way or another, by “solving” the Jews. It was with great optimism that a former minister of the Dutch government recently expressed the opinion that transferring all the Jews from Israel to the United States would herald a new era of world peace. Of course, by the same logic it is the selfish Jews clinging to their state who bear ultimate responsibility for entrapping mankind in the ongoing horrors of war.
Anti-Semitism always expresses itself through the prevailing value system of the time. In Nazi Germany it was pseudo race-science, and in the Soviet Union Marxist doctrines, that were employed against the Jews. In the Middle Ages it was the teachings of the Church that fulfilled this role. Today, as human rights and international law are being hijacked to demonize the Jewish state, the UN is assuming a similar role to the one that the medieval papacy once had. It was encouraging then to hear Bernard Henri-Levy denouncing the delirium of anti-Zionism from the General Assembly chamber, voicing a truth that is all too rarely expressed. (h/t NormanF)
Jeffrey Goldberg: Hamas Warns: Give Us Money Or We'll Become Terrorists
Buried in an Agence France Presse article about the failure of international donors to pay the $5.4 billion they've pledged to help rebuild Gaza is an absolute gem of a quote:
A Hamas official warned recently that the territory could become a breeding ground for extremism unless promised reconstruction is accelerated.
"Our message to the world, which is scared of terrorism and extremism, is that the delay in rebuilding Gaza and the continuing blockade against it will make it a ripe environment for the spread of extremism and terrorism," Khalil al-Haya told a Gaza City meeting of the movement's representatives in the Palestinian parliament.

I'm struck more by the credulity of the reporting in this article than by the actual statement from Mr. al-Haya. Of course it is in the nature of Hamas to believe itself to be non-extremist, and of course it is in its nature to threaten violence if it doesn't get paid. (To understand Hamas and its extremist views, read its charter, and to survey a catalogue of its violence against civilians over the years, simply Google "Hamas bus bombings.")
NPR: Journalist Documents Anti-Semitism In A Swedish City
Journalist Petter Ljunggren wore a Jewish skullcap and Star of David pendant to covertly film the anti-Semitism he experienced in the Swedish city of Malmo. NPR's Robert Siegel speaks with Ljunggren.
Over the past few years, the Swedish city of Malmo has earned a reputation for anti-Semitism. Members of Malmo's small Jewish population say that walking in some of the city's Muslim neighborhoods wearing a skull cap, a kepah, is to risk verbal abuse and possibly worse. Well, that risk has now been documented by Swedish television journalist Petter Ljunggren. Ljunggren wore a cap and also a Jewish star pendant in Malmo while secretly filming. One scene captures him fleeing a group of increasingly agitated young men as eggs are thrown at him from nearby windows. Later, a young man from that neighborhood describes how on that night, he'd gotten a text telling him to egg the Jews.

Monday, January 19, 2015

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: Doing the Islamic terrorists' job
The master of history deceives us. There was a time when Jews had to be protected from Christians. Today the Christians are the ones protecting the Jews from the Muslims. Not all Muslims. Not even the majority of them. Far from that. But the threat is there. Sometimes it materializes.
In the past few decades, after the Holocaust, Europe was kind to the Jews. They integrated. They prospered. But the old anti-Semitism was in the background, joined by the new anti-Semitism – the new anti-Semitism of some of the anti-Zionist elites and the new anti-Semitism of some of the Muslims. The former turn Israel into a monster. The latter want to crush the monster's head. According to them, Europe's Jews are also part of the monster.
While the international community is forced to defend itself, and the Jews, against Islamic terror with one hand, its other hand is busy pointing an accusing finger at Israel through the International Criminal Court in The Hague. Hamas welcomes this situation. It's the same Hamas which calls for the annihilation of Jews, which carries out attacks against Jews and which welcomes every terror attack against Jews.
When Jews need protection, when the international community points an accusing finger at Israel, and when Hamas welcomes it – the Kouachi brothers and Amedy Coulibaly can smile from their graves. They won. The enlightened Europe is doing their job for them, intentionally and unintentionally.
Report: Six Iranians killed in Israeli strike in Syria, including Revolutionary Guards general
The air strike attributed in foreign media reports to Israel which killed six Hezbollah agents in Syria on Sunday also killed six Iranian soldiers, including commanders, AFP quoted a source close to Hezbollah as saying on Monday.
"The Israeli strike killed six Iranian soldiers, including commanders, as well as the six members of Hezbollah. They were all in a convoy of three cars," the source said.
An Iranian semi-official news site reported that an Iranian Revolutionary Guards general was among those killed in the strike.
"Following the Zionist aggressions against the resistance in Syria, General Mohammad Allahdadi, a former commander of the Sarollah Brigade of the Revolutionary Guard, was martyred along with Jihad Mughniyeh and three others in the same car," the Dana news website said, referring to the son of Hezbollah's late military leader Imad Mughniyeh.
Footage released allegedly showing aftermath of Israeli attack in Syria
Syrian rebels release video of Quneitra area after IAF helicopters reportedly fired missiles at two armed vehicles
Opposition groups in Syria released video footage on Monday purporting to show the moments immediately following a reported Israeli air strike in Syria that killed six Hezbollah operatives and six Iranian soldiers.
The footage appears to show a large cloud of smoke allegedly caused by the two missiles fired from IAF helicopters at two armed vehicles.
A man is later seen fleeing from the scene of the alleged Israeli attack.


Saturday, January 17, 2015

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: The problem with Islam
Any debate on Islam in Muslim countries and among Muslim communities in the West is like stepping into a minefield. When it comes to the media outlets and academe, for the most part, the subject of Islam sparks a convoluted and apologetic discourse; on the social networks, on the other hand, the discourse it prompts is a racist one.
The thing is there's a problem. It's hissing and bubbling. Many Muslims realize there's a problem. The Egyptian president spoke recently of "a need to effect a substantial change in Islam." And in 2004, Abdulrahman al-Rashed, the former general manager of the al-Arabiya television news channel, said: "It is a certain fact that not all Muslims are terrorists, but it is equally certain, and exceptionally painful, that almost all terrorists are Muslims."
The problem is not a handful of Jihadists involved in terrorism. The problem is that the Muslim world in recent years has produced most of the high-casualty conflicts across the globe. The Muslim world struggles to embrace universal values, such as the status of women. And the problem extends to the free world. Entire neighborhoods in Europe are becoming "no-go zones" for veteran residents, and the police too in some cases.
Rotterdam Mayor Ahmed Aboutaleb stated that the major problem was resistance to integration. The percentage of social misfits and individuals opposed to integration is higher among the Muslim communities than among the other minorities. In addition, many of the world's Muslims, even those who live in the West, want to see Sharia law in effect, not only for themselves, but also forcibly for others. They are basically saying in the clearest of terms: We have come here to impose our values on you.
The anti-Semitic derangement
Anti-Semitism is commonly regarded as a variety of racism, but the prolific English historian Paul Johnson suggests that it should be seen as a kind of intellectual disease, fundamentally irrational and highly infectious. It exerts great self-destructive force, Johnson wrote in a notable 2005 essay, severely harming countries and societies that engage in it. In a pattern that has recurred so predictably that he dubbed it a “historical law,” nations that make Jewish life untenable condemn themselves to decline and weakness.
For example, Spain’s expulsion of the Jews in the 1490s, and its subsequent witchhunt of the converted “New Christians” who remained behind, meant a loss of Spanish financial and managerial talent at the very moment the New World was being opened up to lucrative colonization. That had “a profoundly deleterious impact,” Johnson argued, “plunging the hitherto vigorous Spanish economy into inflation and long-term decline, and the government into repeated bankruptcy.” More than 500 years later, Spain — where, incidentally, Valls was born and lived until his teens — still regrets that self-inflicted wound, and has looked for ways to rectify it.
Johnson pointed out other prominent examples of the phenomenon. Czarist Russia’s persecution of Jews, reinforced by the encouragement of brutal pogroms, fueled a massive migration of Jews to the West, especially to Britain and the United States; those countries’ cultural and entrepreneurial gain was Russia’s debilitating loss. Germany’s descent into demonic Jew-hatred under the Nazis ended in devastating military defeat, followed by a decades-long Cold War rupture and the end of German renown as Europe’s intellectual center. The Arab world, steeped in anti-Semitism and obsessed with the Jewish state, squandered vast oil riches “on weapons of war and propaganda,” wrote Johnson. “In their flight from reason, they have failed to modernize or civilize their societies, to introduce democracy, or to consolidate the rule of law.” Arab culture once led the world in learning, innovation, and pluralism. Today it is a world leader in almost nothing, save fratricidal violence and Islamist fanaticism.
France’s Jews are leaving, and that bodes ill for the society making them unwelcome. The prime minister put his finger on it: If there is no Jewish future in France, if the anti-Semitic cancer has metastasized so alarmingly that tens of thousands of French Jews are ready to flee, then France will indeed no longer be France. It will be something darker and more deformed, wrecked by an injury it inflicted on itself.

Douglas Murray - Tracking Terror [Fox News]


Douglas Murray - Obama and Charlie Hebdo


Monday, January 05, 2015

From Ian:

Mohammad Zoabi Breaks His Silence
Mohammad Zoabi has posted his first message since being forced to leave Israel due to threats against his life for supporting Israel and the Jewish people.
Hello everybody.
First of all let me start by honestly, politely and simply saying: I HAVE MISSED YOU SO FREAKING MUCH!!!!!!!
Whew……i feel much better now..!
My dear friends, the last half year was not an easy period of my life. I had to hide, go under ground, keep a low profile like what if i have done a nasty crime.
I simply went and still going through things that teenagers rarely go through. And i do have to say that though i don’t believe that i have done anything wrong by showing my love and loyalty to my country Israel and its people, love makes me blind, and my lovely Israel with all its positive and negative sides blinded me and i was, still and will be ready to pay the price of defending and loving it!
Simply because its my country and i have no other! (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Eugene Kontorovich: Is the International Criminal Court biased against Israel?
In a prior post, I examined the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, which contains an important provision directly designed to target Israel.
Now we’ll turn to the Court as an institution. In the wake of the Palestinian turn to the International Criminal Court, several commentators have argued that there is no reason to think the institution is out to get Israel. That is true. Of course, the Court has done so little in its twelve year history, that it is hard to say much with confidence about its inclinations and proclivities. And prosecutions of Israelis (nationals of a non-member state) would be a kind of activity the Court has never engaged in without the request of the Security Council, so there is even less data.
There is no reason to think the prosecutor or Court are eager for Israel/Palestine cases, and a lot of reasons to think they are not, given the disproportionate political headaches they entail.
Yet there is cause to think that the the Court is a most improper venue for sorting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, even absent any bias, the Court is structured in a way that cannot do equal justice, and is thus properly seen as a Palestinian tool against Israel. Moreover, recent statements by the Prosecutor give troubling evidence that she may be willing to replace legal analysis with the off-the-shelf views of the “international community” on the conflict.
The Miseducation of Chris Gunness
On November 6th 2014, investigative blogger Elder of Ziyon, who is well known for his efficient foot-work when it comes to revealing incitement on social media and the internet, discovered the following alarming story: In 2010, UNRWA announced that it would take excelling Gazan students to the United States, where they would visit New-York City and the US Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. According to the media, Hamas demanded UNRWA to cancel the “suspicious” tour. Apparently, the reasons for the cancellation were far more disturbing, as written by Gaza’s UNRWA union, on February 2011
Let me sum this up: Mr. Da’las, the Deputy Chief of Staff at UNRWA’s Gaza Union, released an official statement that is even more extreme than the statement made by Hamas. In this official statement, he rejects the offer to send Palestinian students on an educational tour to the US, because it includes a “fake trip” to a museum revolving “the alleged Holocaust,” where educators will “try to feed students concepts and ideas about the fake injustices suffered by the Jews” according to a “curriculum on so-called human rights.”
Is it possible that a curriculum that was consisted with Holocaust education content was rejected by a United Nations’ agency official because of a claim that the Holocaust never happened? Ever since this disturbing story was published, I have been trying to get a clarification from UNRWA’s spokesperson, Chris Gunness at the most popular arena of our time for media personnel and news sources to exchange ideas and thoughts: Twitter. I had a good reason to believe that I will get a proper reply since Chris Gunness owns a Twitter account, which he is using on a regular basis to post UNRWA-related updates and interact with others.

Monday, December 29, 2014

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: What the Palestinian Authority Did Not Tell the UN Security Council
Last week, Jordan submitted to the Security Council a Palestinian-drafted resolution calling for an end to the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories by the end of 2017 and a peace deal within a year.
But what the Palestinians did not tell the Security Council is that the state they seek to establish is one that does not respect public freedoms, first and foremost freedom of expression.
This would be a state where people are detained and intimidated for using social media to express their views. It will also be a state where the president or any of his senior officials could order the arrest of anyone who dares to speak out against lack of democracy and reforms.
The draft resolution that was submitted to the Security Council fails to mention the fact that the Palestinian Authority is harassing and persecuting political opponents and critics, including Facebook users.
Moreover, the PA does not want the Security Council and the rest of the international community to know that, in the future Palestinian state, female journalists, writers and political activists can be detained for interrogation and threatened because of their work.
Two east Jerusalem brothers indicted for planning terrorist attack in capital
The Jerusalem District Attorney’s Office on Monday filed an indictment against two east Jerusalem brothers for working with Hamas to carry out a major terrorist attack in the capital.
According to the indictment, the brothers, aged 28 and 23, were recruited by a Hamas operative in the Gaza Strip to form a terror cell in Jerusalem to carry out the unspecified attack at a public venue.
While the details of the planned attack and the investigation into it remain unclear, the brothers have been charged with joining a terrorist organization, conspiracy, theft and other offenses.
Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld said security personnel continue to investigate potential accomplices of the suspects.
PA minister legitimizes murdering Israelis
Ali Sa’ada, a terrorist prisoner who murdered a father and his one-year-old baby, was fined 3.5 million shekels by Israel. That fine is “delegitimizing ‎the [Palestinian] national resistance,” says Prisoners’ Affairs Authority Director ‎and PA Parliament Member Issa Karake. According to Karake, who holds the rank of ‎minister, the killing of one-year-old Israelis is legitimate “resistance.”‎
In his capacity as Minister of Prisoners’ Affairs, Issa Karake has a long history of glorifying terrorist murderers, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch.
Karake defines being a victim of Palestinian terror as “being exposed to resistance by Palestinians”:
“[Israeli] courts have been... passing sentences on prisoners that force them to pay large sums in financial compensation to Israelis who have been exposed to resistance by Palestinians.” [WAFA (the official Palestinian news agency), Dec. 16, 2014]

Thursday, December 25, 2014

From Ian:

Tzipi Livni: Abbas Sabotaged Peace Process
In an interview with Roger Cohen of the NY Times, Tzipi Livni, Israel's chief negotiator with the Palestinians, detailed the events which led to the failure of the most recent talks. Despite the fact that Livni is not a supporter of Prime Minister Netanyahu and felt he was difficult to deal with during the negotiations, she placed the failure of the talks firmly at the feed of Palestinian President Abbas.
According to Livni, the U.S. presented its own framework for a peace plan, Netanyahu agreed to work with it despite his objections but Abbas never gave the U.S. an answer. Things went downhill from there.
On March 17, in a meeting in Washington, President Obama presented Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, with a long-awaited American framework for an agreement that set out the administration’s views on major issues, including borders, security, settlements, Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.
Livni considered it a fair framework, and Netanyahu had indicated willingness to proceed on the basis of it while saying he had reservations. But Abbas declined to give an answer in what his senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, later described as a “difficult” meeting with Obama. Abbas remained evasive on the framework, which was never made public.
This, in Livni’s view, amounted to an important opportunity missed by the Palestinians, not least because to get Netanyahu’s acceptance of a negotiation on the basis of the 1967 borders with agreed-upon swaps — an idea Obama embraced in 2011 — would have indicated a major shift.
Elliott Abrams: US aid to PA should not reward terrorists
The omnibus appropriations bill recently passed by Congress contains an interesting ‎provision regarding the support for terrorists and their families by the Palestinian Authority:‎
"The Secretary of State shall reduce the amount of assistance made available by this Act ‎under the heading 'Economic Support Fund' for the West Bank and Gaza by an amount the ‎Secretary determines is equivalent to that expended by the Palestinian Authority in ‎payments to individuals and the families of such individuals that are imprisoned for acts of ‎terrorism or who died committing such acts during the previous calendar year.‎"
The intent is clear: Congress was aware of the PA's practice of rewarding individuals who ‎had committed acts of terrorism with direct financial support or financial support for their ‎families while they remain in prison. And Congress wants to be sure that aid from the ‎United States isn't paying for this, so for every dollar the PA spends we will reduce aid to the ‎PA by the same amount.‎
Good idea, long overdue -- but the language quoted above won't achieve that goal. First of ‎all, why only acts committed "during the previous calendar year?" Does that mean that ‎payments to someone who committed an act of terrorism two or five or 10 years ago is ‎exempt? Does that clause about "the previous calendar year" modify "imprisoned for acts of ‎terrorism," or "who died committing such acts," or both? Or does it modify all "payments," ‎which would be the logical meaning: The amount of U.S. aid is to be reduced by the amount ‎of all payments made in the prior year? Sloppy, last minute drafting of this provision is the ‎culprit.‎
The UNRWA Shill Game and State Department Compliance
“The goal of U.S. support to UNRWA,” according to the State Department Report, “is to ensure that Palestinian refugees live in dignity with an enhanced human development potential until a comprehensive and just solution is secured.” In reality, however, UNRWA has assured that the children, grandchildren and all future descendants of Palestinian refugees will remain degraded and humiliated victims of its policy, which has no equivalent for any other refugees in the world – including more than three million Syrians from President Assad’s current reign of terror.
The stated goal of State Department largesse toward UNRWA is to “promote the human development of Palestinian refugees by improving living conditions, economic potential, livelihoods, access, and human rights.” It pledges to do so “until a just solution is achieved and UNRWA’s mandate ends.” American taxpayers should not hold their breath. A sixty-five year-old policy of unmonitored generosity to a certified rip-off organization that invents and inflates refugee numbers to justify its shnorring is unlikely to abate in the foreseeable future.
Indeed, as Romirowsky and Joffe indicate, UNRWA in Gaza has become little more than a surrogate for Hamas. During its summer rocket assault against Israel UNRWA schools were storehouses for Hamas rockets while UNRWA employees cheered the murder of Israelis. Belatedly mindful of this travesty, the new State Department Framework states, rather preposterously in light of recent events, that “the United States and UNRWA share concerns about the threat of terrorism.” Tunnels beneath and rockets above Israel’s borders are not mentioned.
On paper at least, according to impressionable State Department drafters, UNRWA is “committed to taking all possible measures to ensure that funding provided by the United States to support UNRWA is not used to provide assistance to, or otherwise support, terrorists or terrorist organizations.” The State Department notes “with appreciation efforts taken by UNRWA during the course of 2014 to strengthen the Agency’s neutrality compliance.” Gaza is ignored. Romirowsky and Joffe wonder, as anyone might, how the Facebook celebration by UNRWA teachers following the recent murder of four Jerusalem rabbis at prayer in their synagogue meets the standard of “neutrality compliance.”

Tuesday, December 23, 2014

From Ian:

The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards
Scarlett Johansson’s brave stand against Israel-bashers seems so long ago. With three teenagers kidnapped and murdered, a Gaza war, violence in Jerusalem, an escalating tug of war over the Temple Mount, and unilateral PA efforts in the UN, Israelis will be glad 2014 is over.
Don’t forget the rise of ISIS, Iranian tensions, and frayed ties with the US.
For the first time, we decided to set aside the readers’ choice for the 2014 Dishonest Reporter. We believe readers will agree. More on that below.
We thank everyone for sharing their thoughts on the roller coaster that was 2014. And so, without further ado . . .
The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards
1. The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Award Winner: Gaza War Correspondents
2. Dishonest Reporting Award (People’s Choice): New York Times
3. Most Infected Medical Journal: The Lancet
4. Worst Video: Channel 4, Jon Snow
5. Biggest Op-Ed Train Wreck: Sydney Morning Herald
6. Most Dishonest Photo: Jim Hollander, European Pressphoto Agency
7. Worst Blurring of Journalism and Advocacy: Haaretz
8. Most Insensitive Cartoon: The Guardian
9. Most Memorable Gaffe: CNN

The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards: Why the Gaza War Correspondents Won
What It All Means
Media coverage of Operation Protective Edge contributed to dramatic spikes in anti-Semitism in Europe, Australia, US campuses, South Africa, and South America. Britain alone saw a 500 percent increase.
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has been making a comeback as well.
And Israel refuses to cooperate with a UN inquiry led by William Schabas, a Canadian professor of human rights and international law who has his own axe to grind with Israel.
As 2014 draws to a close, all the players are drawing conclusions and moving forward. Hamas is already reconstructing terror tunnels, holding military exercises, and re-arming. The top US military leader, Gen. Martin Dempsey said the Pentagon was learning from the IDF how to minimize civilian casualties and deal with terror tunnels. And among other things, the IDF concluded that Hezbollah has probably dug cross-border tunnels.
Only time will tell what, if anything, Big Media has learned.
BBC chief: Anti-Semitism makes me question Jews’ future in UK
The director of BBC Television said rising anti-Semitism has made him question the long-term future for Jews in the UK.
Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, Danny Cohen said the past year had been the most difficult for him as a Jew living in the United Kingdom.
“I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK as I’ve felt in the last 12 months. And it’s made me think about, you know, is it our long-term home, actually. Because you feel it. I’ve felt it in a way I’ve never felt before actually,” he said in a conversation with Channel 2’s anchor Yonit Levi.
Cohen went on: “And you’ve seen the number of attacks rise. You’ve seen murders in France. You’ve seen murders in Belgium. It’s been pretty grim actually. And having lived all my life in the UK, I’ve never felt as I do now about anti-Semitism in Europe.”
Cohen, who grew up and went to school in London — including to a Jewish elementary school — is a TV whiz kid. Still only 40, he was previously the controller of BBC1 TV, the youngest appointee to that post, before taking over a director of BBC Television last year. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Friday, December 12, 2014

From Ian:

Danish ambassador, JPost's Caroline Glick exchange verbal blows over EU attitude toward Israel
Glick was particularly struck by Vahr’s reference to a common culture between Israel and Europe.
“We have this whole common culture, I mean really? We respect international law. You guys make it up,” she said.
In 2001, the United Nations Security Council approved a binding resolution that bars UN member states from funding or supporting terrorist organizations, Glick said.
That resolution, she said, has not stopped Europe from “funneling billions of euros into rebuilding terrorist-controlled Gaza.
“This is in contravention of binding international law that you signed onto,” she charged.
But when it comes to Israel, Europe simply invents international law, Glick said. Europe acts as if it is required by law to sanction Israel for activity over the pre-1967 lines in West Bank settlements and Jerusalem, even though there is no such binding international legislation, she said.
“There is no such binding law. You guys are funding settlements in Western Sahara. (h/t Bob Knot)
Caroline Glick tells off Danish ambassador


Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Flee Hamas, Ask Israel to Imprison Them
Hamas claims that there is no phenomenon of Palestinians fleeing to Israel. A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said that security forces in the Gaza Strip were working to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel.
But what Hamas is not prepared to admit is that it is responsible for the misery of the Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. More than three months after the military confrontation with Israel, Hamas has failed to offer the Palestinians any hope.
"Hamas has destroyed the dreams of young Palestinians," remarked a veteran Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas has destroyed the future of young people here."
Not only is Hamas unwilling to accept any kind of responsibility, but it continues to hold everyone else but itself responsible for the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas continues to hold Israel, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA responsible for the grievances of the Palestinians.
Instead of working to improve the living conditions of its people, Hamas is continuing to prepare its next war against Israel. In recent weeks, Hamas increased its rocket and mortar firing tests out to sea, according to an Israeli military source.
The tragic case of the two Palestinian youths who said they prefer Israeli jail to life in the Gaza Strip shows that some Palestinians are no longer willing to tolerate Hamas's deadly adventures and oppression. That is why the coming weeks and months could see a rise in the number of Palestinians knocking on Israel's door and asking to be imprisoned rather than return to the Gaza Strip.
Palestinian attacks family of five with acid in Gush Etzion
A family of five, including young children, were lightly wounded in the West Bank Friday afternoon when a Palestinian man hurled acid into their car, before being shot and seriously wounded.
The attack occurred near a checkpoint between the Gush Etzion settlement of Beitar Illit, where the family is from, and the Palestinian village of Husan, southwest of Jerusalem.
Palestinian news agency Ma’an identified the man as Jamal Abd al-Majid Ghayatha, 45, from the West Bank village of Nahalin. Media networks affiliated with Hamas said the man was a former Palestinian prisoner in Israel jail, Israel Radio reported.
The father of the family, in his 50s, was said to have been hit in the face with the liquid, causing burns to his eyes. He was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for treatment. The mother and three girls aged 8 to 10 were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital with light injuries.
Ghayatha was being treated at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem as well.
Police said the Ghayata approached the family’s car, posing as a hitchhiker, and hurled the chemical substance inside. He reportedly held a screwdriver in his hand, and there were conflicting reports as to whether he attempted to attack people with it or tried to flee the scene. An armed civilian shot Ghayata, seriously injuring him. He was then apprehended by Border Police.

Wednesday, December 10, 2014

From Ian:

Israeli home demolitions deter Palestinian terrorism, study finds
Israeli house demolitions effectively decrease terrorist attacks, according to a new study.
The study, “Counter-Suicide-Terrorism: Evidence from House Demolitions,” to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Politics, found that Israel’s policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian terrorists causes “an immediate, significant decrease in the number of suicide attacks.”
The study examines data on punitive house demolitions between 2000 and 2005, and precautionary demolitions — those based on the location of a house but unrelated to the identity of the house’s owner — from 2004 to 2005. The authors found that punitive house demolitions during that time led to “fewer suicide attacks in the month following,” while precautionary demolitions caused “a significant increase in the number of suicide attacks.”
Co-authored by researchers at Northwestern University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the study runs contrary to the widely held belief that punitive house demolitions do not dissuade would-be terrorists.
Eugene Kontorovich: Resolution 242 Revisited: New Evidence on the Required Scope of Israeli Withdrawal
United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed in November 1967, in the wake of the Six Day War, is widely regarded as among the most important ever. But it’s meaning is also the most debated. The resolution famously called for “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The meaning of this provision – in particular, the extent of the required withdrawal - has been contested ever since.
This article presents new evidence on the resolution’s meaning – an issue that has gained new relevance amidst current diplomatic efforts for a Security Council resolution that could effectively supersede 242. The article does not engage all the myriad disputes and questions about the resolution, nor aim at a comprehensive evaluation of it. Rather, it adds two important but previously unappreciated dimensions that bear on how 242 should be read.
First, the article examines the meaning of 242’s withdrawal provision by comparing it to all other such territorial withdrawal demands issued by the Security Council. It finds that the language of 242 differs notably from the other 18 distinct territorial withdrawal demands, all of which explicitly require a complete withdraw from the territory in question. An examination of these resolutions supports the view that 242’s unusual wording was a meaningful and substantive drafting choice.
Second, the article examines contemporaneous understandings in the United Nations about the rules concerning territorial. Discussions in the International Law Commission, involving the leading international law jurists of the post-WWII era, demonstrates that it was generally agreed that the U.N. Charter introduced a new prohibition on territorial changes as a result of war, a principle referred to in the preamble of 242. Yet the same discussions also make clear that this rule was understood to have significant limitations and exceptions. (h/t billposer)
Eugene Kontorovich: The legitimacy of Israel’s nation-state bill (I): comparative constitutionalism
These objections do not hold water. For one, ensuring Israel’s status as a Jewish nation state is a goal expressly endorsed by the same critics, when it comes to pressuring Israel into diplomatic concessions. Second, the law is far from unusual by Western standards: it actually does far less to recognize Jewish nationhood or religion than provisions common in other democratic constitutions. This post will consider the general parameters of the legislation in comparison to constitutional provisions of other Western democracies. Tomorrow, a second post will relate the law to the “two state solution.”
The nation state bills mostly constitutionalize the national anthem, symbols, holidays, and so forth. There is nothing racist, or even unusual, about having national or religious character reflected in constitutional commitments, as research by my colleagues at the Kohelet Policy Forum demonstrates. Seven EU states have constitutional “nationhood” provisions, which typically speak of the state as being the national home and locus of self-determination for the country’s majority ethnic group. This is even the case in places like the Baltics, with large and alienated minority populations.

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

From Ian:

US calls on UNRWA to ‘uphold neutrality’ after call to boycott ‘Post’
The State Department is calling on personnel at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to “uphold its stated policy of neutrality,” after its spokesman, Chris Gunness, called for a boycott of The Jerusalem Post last week.
“Our position on UNRWA and its important humanitarian role is very clear,” State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told the Post. “It is imperative that all sides respect the humanitarian and development role of UNRWA. And we expect UNRWA personnel to uphold its stated policy of neutrality so that it can carry out its critical mandate.”
Gunness claimed impartiality in an article published by the Post last week, reacting with a series of tweets critical of the newspaper and its staff. The article was an op-ed, written by Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid.
One of those tweets called for a “boycott of JPost,” interpreted by the newspaper as a breach of its commitment to neutrality.
“We have been in touch with Chris Gunness, who has made clear that, in his tweets, he was not calling for a boycott against any media outlet but instead was making his objections to a single article that we all find problematic,” one UN spokesman said, responding to the incident.
Jennifer Rubin: What is a U.N. agency for Palestinian refu­gees doing in D.C.?
The U.N. Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011 included provisions to deal with longstanding concerns about UNRWA’s use of anti-Israel textbooks, anti-Israel rhetoric, association with Hamas members and employment of some 31,000 “refugees” (“presenting a clear conflict of interest”).
But a new issue is taking center stage. As Right Turn reported:
"Early last year it set up a D.C. “liaison” office. With whom is it liaisoning? Mostly Congress, it turns out. U.S. law forbids the United Nations from lobbying Congress, but as we learned with Newt Gingrich “lobbying” or a “lobbyist” is in the eye of the beholder. UNRWA employs two full-time staffers in D.C., both of whom have loads of experience on Capitol Hill. Chris McGrath is a former aide for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.); his boss, Matthew Reynolds, worked in legislative affairs for the State Department. I was assured no “lobbying” goes on, but they do meet virtually nonstop with lawmakers — appropriators are key — to answer questions about how taxpayer dollars are spent, why UNRWA’s work is important and how it makes sure money isn’t going to terrorists.
It seems American tax dollars are going, in part, to fund this office that in effect makes sure Congress doesn’t get fed up and cut off the money flow."
Palestinian sought to recruit Texas man to kill Obama last year, Israel Police say
An unnamed Palestinian man sought to recruit a US citizen to assassinate Barack Obama when the US president visited Israel and the West Bank in March 2013, Israel police said on Tuesday.
The American, Adam Livix, was indicted in Tel Aviv on Tuesday on a separate matter, for charges that include an attempt to buy plastic explosives from Israeli soldiers with the apparent intention of harming Muslim holy sites.
Israel Police said that Livix, who lived in Hebron and Bethlehem in 2013, was asked at that time by a Palestinian operative if he could assassinate Obama with a sniper’s rifle during the president’s visit, but he refused to do so. No reference to this allegation was made in the charge sheet released Tuesday.
Livix, a Christian from Texas who pretended to be a Navy Seal, is wanted in the US for questioning regarding drug violations and has been in Israel Police custody since November 19, the police said.
The investigation of Livix in recent weeks was carried out in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

Friday, December 05, 2014

  • Friday, December 05, 2014
  • Elder of Ziyon
In 2010, I analyzed the first three UNRWA reports, documenting the history of how that organization devolved from one that genuinely tried to help genuine refugees into the bloated, self-perpetuating mess it became only a few years later.

Here's a repost of the first article, plus some additional comments:

UNRWA's first report on its progress, A/1451/Rev.1, is a fascinating document on many levels. It describes its progress in the first six months of its existence.

Here are some excerpts:
HISTORY

6. When UNRPR was set up by the General Assembly, it was presumably with the idea thatthe problem would be resolved in a matter of months. During the summer of 1949 it became obvious that some other approach was needed, and the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East was dispatched to study and report on conditions and to make recommendations concerning future activity. After three months of exhaustive study in the field, the Mission's interim report to the General Assembly in November 1949(1) recommended the creation of a new agency, which would not only carry out relief on a diminishing scale, but would inaugurate a works programme in which able-bodied refugees could become self-supporting and at the same time create works of lasting benefit to the refugees and the countries concerned. The recommendations of the report were embodied in resolution 302 (IV) which provided for the setting up of UNRWAPRNE. The final report signed in Paris in December covered the subject comprehensively and has been accepted by the Agency as its guide.2
UNRWA did not intend at first to be a permanent agency. It really tried to provide jobs for the Palestinian Arabs and to work with Arab governments to help integrate them. The Arabs' recalcitrance is the single major reason we still have so many "refugees" today, and after a few years UNRWA gave up and turned into a giant, self-perpetuating welfare system.
NUMBERS OF REFUGEES

16. The Agency has accepted as realistic the figures set forth in appendix B of the first interim report of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission, but recognizes that the numbers have increased in conformity with the extremely high birthrate of the refugees. There is reason to believe that births are always registered for ration purposes, but deaths are often, if not usually, concealed so that the family may continue to collect rations for the deceased. 

17...The figures for Lebanon (128,000) are confused due to the fact that many Lebanese nationals along the Palestinian frontier habitually worked most of the year on the farms or in the citrus groves of Palestine. With the advent of war they came back across the border and claimed status as refugees. Only an exhaustive and expensive census, now under way although ardently opposed by those concerned, will divide worthy from false claimants.

18. The former Trans-Jordan and the portion of Palestine remaining in Arab hands and now annexed to the Hashimite Kingdom of the Jordan received the greatest influx of refugees of any of the countries adjacent to Israel -- probably more than half of all the refugees. For various reasons, the largest number of fictitious names on the ration lists pertain to refugees in this area. All earlier attempts at a close census of those entitled to relief have been frustrated, but a comprehensive survey, now under way, is achieving worthwhile results in casting up names of dead people for which rations are still drawn, fraudulent claims regarding numbers of dependents (it is alleged that it is a common practice for refugees to hire children from other families at census time), and in eliminating duplications where families have two or more ration cards. The census, though stubbornly resisted, will eliminate many thousands from the lists of refugees now in receipt of rations.

19. Unauthorized movement between camps, and sometimes across international boundaries, as well as deep-rooted reluctance of refugees to reveal personal information to census-takers, make it very difficult to obtain accurate statistics concerning them.
As far as I know, the census was never completed and the problems of exaggerated numbers of refugees remain, even today. A sense of entitlement will turn many people into lazy opportunists, and if they have no disincentive to act that way this behavior gets passed on to the next generation, and the following ones as well.


MORALE

26. Strangely enough the general morale of the refugees is higher than might be expected after spending more than two years in exile under most trying conditions. Real trouble-makers are confined to a very small proportion of the total number of refugees, and food strikes and work stoppages are generally considered to be the result of organized pressure groups.

27. During August, a campaign of bitter criticism of the Agency, its motives and personnel, was carried on in a large section of the Arab Press. The rather unvaried monotony of the charges gave indication of central inspiration. An organized series of work stoppages occurred in Lebanon in early September wherein small groups threatened the workers in such a manner that they declined to work for a time. The Syrian office of the Agency, located in Damascus, was destroyed by explosives and a bomb was thrown at a truckload of workers in Lebanon. Threats of violence have been made against individual employees of the Agency. It seems likely that the two campaigns--denunciations in certain sections of the Arab Press and violence--are closely related and spring from the same source which fostered the food strikes in the early days of the Agency.
Arab governments in general considered UNRWA the enemy, and they did everything possible to thwart any chance of solving the refugee crisis, instead wanting to use the refugees as pawns to pressure Israel. This attitude has not changed in sixty years.

REFUGEES IN ISRAEL

30. In Israel, the Agency has provided relief to two types of refugees, Jews who fled inside the borders of Israel during the fighting, and Arabs in most instances displaced from one area in Palestine to another. Jewish refugees at first numbered 17,000 but, during the current summer, all but 3,000 of these have been absorbed into the economic life of the new State. Arabs on relief were first numbered at 31,000 but many have been placed in circumstances in which they are self-supporting, so that it was possible to reduce the number to 24,000 at the end of August 1950.

31. Recent discussions with the Israel Government indicate that the idea of relief distribution is repugnant to it, and the Agency was informed that already many of the 24,000 remaining refugees were employed and that all able-bodied refugees desiring employment could be absorbed on works projects if they would register at the government registry offices for that purpose. It was stated that they all have status as citizens of Israel and are entitled to treatment as such. It was claimed that after cessation of relief, aged and infirm refugees would be cared for under the normal social welfare machinery of Israel. The Agency was requested to share financially in a programme of re-establishment of displaced Arabs now within the boundaries of Israel.
How great a contrast is there between how Israel treated its Arab refugees and how the Arab nations did! Within a short time after the war, Israel managed to fully integrate every single Arab refugee as citizens (and they eventually allowed tens of thousands more to come into Israel for family re-unification.) Not only did Israel inform the UNRWA that its services would not be needed for long, but said that the very idea of an outside agency taking responsibility for its Arab citizens is repugnant!

So while the number of Arab claimants for UNRWA services went down from 31,000 to zero in a relatively short time, in every Arab country those numbers only increased.

Fully half of the report deals with specific works projects that were attempted to allow the refugees to find jobs. As we now know, most of these projects went nowhere because of fears by Arab countries that their Palestinian Arab brethren would want to actually stay in their countries as equal citizens.

The appendix of charity organizations and NGOs that contributed to help the Palestinian Arabs does not mention a single Muslim charity.


In those days, UNRWA indeed tried hard to "reintegrate" - their word, used multiple times - Palestinian Arabs into the economic life of the countries they were in, namely Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. The point was for them to become self-sufficient and no longer need aid, and they would then no longer be called "refugees."

That never happened. Arab governments resisted any moves to allow Palestinians to become citizens, except for Jordan. 

The use of the word "reintegration" as opposed to "integration" says volumes. It means that UNRWA knew quite well that many of the refugees were in fact citizens of Lebanon or Syria and had merely returned to their countries of origin. Moreover, UNRWA knew that the chances of "return" to Israel were close to zero and that Arabs still considered all Arab lands to be essentially one virtual nation as they were only a few decades earlier under Ottoman rule. To UNRWA officials at the time, it was self-evident that Arabs should re-integrate into Arab countries to solve the refugee issue, and they didn't count on how little Arab leaders cared about their Palestinian brethren

Back to Jordan: Jordan hosts some 41% of all "refugees" today. Nearly all of them are Jordanian citizens. One must wonder, why there are still refugee camps in Jordan 66 years after 1948?  Yet, because UNRWA is now a mere self-perpetuating technocracy, Jordan has no incentive to integrate these citizens into its population even today - 60 years after Israel did exactly that.

Thursday, December 04, 2014

From Ian:

UK: Britain's Terror Addiction
In Britain, declarations of disgust for specific acts of terrorism often seem designed merely to shroud tolerance for pro-terror views. The Guardian, for example, condemned the synagogue murders in Israel and described Hamas's celebrations of the attacks as "depressing"; but a mere four days before the terror attack, the newspaper published an opinion piece by Hamas official Ahmed Yousef, which set out to defend the Hamas charter, a document that explicitly calls for the eradication of not only Israelis but Jews.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Brahimi's PPDP has entertained members of the House of Lords; Interpal enjoys the support of parliamentary motions signed by dozens of British MPs and is painted as a victim of Islamophobia by prominent newspaper journalists; and the PFLP, addressing crowds of supporters in London, is considered a heroic bulwark against Western "imperialism."
Debates between politicians and commentators over the causes of radicalization and extremism in Britain invariably focus on how to tackle support for groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda. But why is it that Hamas and PFLP are deemed moderate, regardless of how many civilians they murder?
One enormous factor in the spread of Islamic extremism surely must be the networks of charities that seem to support Palestinian terrorist organizations – networks that include groups such as Interpal and the PPDP. Will these organizations ever be shut down?
Frenchman sentenced to 5 years for Israeli hit-and-run killing
Zeitouni’s parents flew to France to attend the trial and both burst out crying during the deliberations, Ynet reported. Friends of the young woman and supporters from the local Jewish community also went to the trial but were not let into the courtroom, according to the report.
“We have an opportunity to tell the world that justice can be served, and people cannot run away from it,” said Peled.
The victim’s family would have preferred the trial to have taken place in Israel, their lawyer said.
“But this is better than nothing and they have arrived with confidence,” added the lawyer, Gilles-William Goldnadel.
He described Robic as a “habitual road criminal” who showed “rare cowardice” in deciding to flee the scene.
Enough is enough
People died that day. They were people with families, histories and legacies. Yet for every story about their lives I have seen 20 about what someone else may think about them, about us, or whatever response we choose for the slaughter of our citizens in our streets. That is simply slave mentality.
We house our own killers, provide for our attackers, save the world, protect the weak and invent the uninventable, and we stand there begging for the world to see that hey, it's kind of hard to make peace with someone who insists on chopping us up, running us over, and bombing our citizens into permanent post-traumatic stress disorder.
Well, I'm done. Seriously. I will never again give that shpiel. I will not discuss what may or may not be necessary force or hand out cookies in the hope they may lay off. Nah.
Instead I will learn what I can about Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif and Rabbis Kalman Zeev Levine, Moshe Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Avraham Goldberg, may God avenge their blood, and I will know their stories and pay respect to their lives. I will not give a pound of flesh to the wolves at our door and I will not, ever again, be a public relations machine for the deaf.
Enough.
Enough.
Enough.
We have survived too much to recommit to slavery. We have too much to lose to be locked up in this prison of our own making.
Enough.

Sunday, November 23, 2014

From Ian:

Why do we keep saying it's not anti-Semitic?
There are wars, there are terrorist attacks and there are pogroms. What occurred this week at the Har Nof Synagogue in Israel was age-old anti-Semitism. It was not political, it was not anti-Zionist, it was not an attack against Israel's military actions, it was a religious pogrom; the type of which has been seen thousands of times through the ages - the type which are occurring again.
Yes, I know. It's Israel's fault, isn't it? With their military actions and settlement building, they bring it all upon themselves. And, yes, I know that the majority of Irish people consider the charge of "anti-Semitism" to be a red herring; a convenient way of deflecting attention from Israel's military and political policies in the Middle East. During the summer, some Irish politicians and media networks aired the oft-repeated view that the terrorist group Hamas were no longer anti-Semitic, and that their pre-election manifesto indicated they would remove the call for the destruction of all Jews (and the State of Israel) from their 1988 charter. But, as one of our own politicians might put it, isn't that the sort of thing you say during an election? Hamas needed to take support from the more moderate Fatah party and had no problem misleading the people of Gaza in order to do so.
But the call to kill all Jews and destroy Israel is still there in the charter and, as recently as two months, ago Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdam refused to say that they would consider removing it.
This, to put it mildly, makes Jews living in Israel, surrounded by enemies, more than a little bit nervous. (Can you imagine what would happen if Isis got in there? And we wonder why the Israeli's need to be so militarised and hard-nosed?)
Bashing Israel as Group Therapy
Your average Israeli or Israel supporter will rightly ask themselves whether this means anything. Nu? So there are Jews who think the real Israel doesn't live up to their fantasies and are throwing a fit. We have always had people like that, on both the right and the left, religious and secular. Should I really be concerned?
My answer is no and yes. No, because contrary to Peter Beinart and co., I don't believe the support of many of them matters all that much. There's a high correlation between lack of affinity with Israel and lack of affinity with Jewish identity, and the idea of chasing after such people who don't really care at the expense of the interests of millions of Israeli Jews strikes me as more than a little pointless, if not pathetic. If they want to go that badly, let them. The shortfall in donation money can be made up by opening the local and global markets as much as possible and cultivating other groups who won't treat us like we should be involuntarily committed.
Yes, because liberal Jews in elite positions – like those who write for, edit or own publications like the New Yorker – are capable of doing Israel a great deal of harm. The New Yorker is part of a select group of publications such as Haaretz, the Atlantic, the New York Times and the Guardian, which are read by a highly influential cross-national elite of journalists, professionals and government bureaucrats. Many people of real power – ambassadors, senior officials, parliamentary advisors or foreign office clerks – often rely almost exclusively on such ostensibly 'neutral' and 'balanced' publications for their information and to inform policy decisions. What's worse, if they arrive at the anti-Israel policy recommendations endorsed by such outlets, they can convince themselves that by doing so they are really Saving Israel From Itself™.
Michael Lumish: Abbas Calls for "Bridges of Love"
In a speech Friday in Ramallah, after accusing Israel of releasing wild and vicious Zionist hogs upon the innocent indigenous "Palestinian" population the Jerusalem Post tells us:
Abbas also called for establishing “bridges of love” with Israelis “instead of the racist separation fence.” He warned once again against the eruption of a religious war and called on Israelis “not to come close to our holy sites, just as we don’t come near your synagogues.”
Abbas added: “The Jews know very well that we seek peace and not war.”
So, let me get this straight.
Mahmoud Abbas, the illegitimate dictator of the corrupt terrorist organization known as "the Palestinian Authority," claims that he and his people want "bridges of love" to Jews?
He claims that they don't come near our synagogues?
He claims that we actually know that Israeli-Arabs want peace and not war?
Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!!!!!

Thursday, November 13, 2014

From Ian:

JPost Editorial: Agenda of death
The violence is not driven by an attempt to improve the lives of Palestinians. The desire to revenge the deaths of Gazans killed in this summer’s Operation Protective Edge and the police’s killing of Kheir a-Din Hamdan in Kafr Kana last Friday is part of the equation. But the underlying source of the terrorism – which also precipitated this summer’s Gaza operation – is a violently reactionary Islamic triumphalism that says non-Muslims – particularly Zionists – are vile interlopers in a consecrated land.
This applies to Jerusalem and the Temple Mount – the center of the unrest – as well as to Tel Aviv, as Aloni’s brutal murder demonstrates. The Palestinian offensive should not be seen in isolation from Islamic State’s bloody jihad, as Ynet’s Ron Ben-Yishai observed.
Suicide bombings, the second intifada and the victory of Hamas in the 2006 Palestinian Legislative Council elections soured Israelis on the prospects of negotiating peaceful cooperation with their Palestinian neighbors.
The present wave of attacks is reinforcing this pessimism.
Israelis want to believe in dialogue, but the Palestinian religious fanatics getting behind the wheel or grabbing hold of a knife have a different agenda altogether.
UN- and EU-funded Al-Quds University honors murderer
Four days after Palestinian terrorist Ibrahim Al-Akari killed two and injured more than 13 Israelis in Jerusalem, the UN- and EU-funded Al-Quds University honored him by naming a tournament after him.
Dr. Ahmad Al-Khawaja, in charge of the Physical Education Faculty of the Al-Quds University, which organized the tournament, explained that:
"The Martyr (Shahid) Ibrahim Al-Akari Tournament... it was a national activity held in honor and appreciation of the soul of the heroic Martyr Ibrahim Al-Akari." [Al-Ayyam, Nov. 11, 2014]
In July 2013, the UN announced a donation of €2.4 million (close to 3 million US dollars) from the EU and UNDP (United Nations Development Programme) to Al-Quds University, the aim of which would be to "contribute to the development and protection of Palestinian cultural heritage in the old city of Jerusalem." [UNDP website, July 2, 2013 and Al-Quds University website, accessed Nov. 12, 2014]
 Mordechai Kedar: An Intifada of Arab Disappointment - with Themselves
One of the most important characteristics of a nation is a strong feeling of unity that allows its people to achieve the goals that it deems important. A people with a strong and unified national identity is able to put aside personal, political, ideological and sectorial differences so that its citizens can work together to succeed in reaching a goal that is important and significant to all of them.
Real leaders sense the people's will to unite for the sake of a national cause and can overcome the differences between them; if they do not, they will be replaced by others who are better than they, who know what the priorities are when there is a crucial national objective at stake. A people with a strong feeling of unity can handle a democratic country that does not fear differences of opinion and changes in government, because these do not degenerate into violence and therefore do not endanger its existence.
In contrast, a nation with a weak and fragile identity has chronic disputes that spill over into rhetorical violence and violent acts between its different sectors, with very little cooperation occurring between them. Different sectors feel threatened by each other leading to serious distrust. The nation's symbols are not strong enough to unite its population groups, each of which has goals differing from the other. This kind of nation will invent an external enemy in the hope that the war against it will unify the people for the sake of a higher interest, a war. This kind of nation raises the question of whether its citizens have enough of a feeling of commonality to keep them together and allow them to form a nation-state.

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