Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, January 21, 2016

01/21 Links Pt1: Western Media's Ignorance and Bias; PA official: Palestinian state in WB just a phase

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Western Media's Ignorance and Bias

Two Western journalists recently asked to be accompanied to the Gaza Strip to interview Jewish settlers living there.
No, this is not the opening line of a joke. These journalists were in Israel at the end of 2015, and they were deadly serious.
Imagine their embarrassment when it was pointed out to them that Israel had completely pulled out of the Gaza Strip ten years ago.
You have to have some pity for them. These foreign colleagues were rookies who aimed to make an impression by traveling to a "dangerous" place such as the Gaza Strip to report on the "settlers" living there. Their request, however, did not take anyone, even my local colleagues, by surprise.
These "parachute journalists," as they are occasionally called, are catapulted into the region without being briefed on the basic facts of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Sadly, correspondents such as these are more the rule than the exception. A particular clueless British reporter springs to mind:
When Israel assassinated Hamas's founder and spiritual leader, Ahmed Yasmin, in 2004, a British newspaper dispatched its crime reporter to Jerusalem to cover the event. To this reporter, the region, as well as Hamas, were virgin territory. His editors had sent him to the Middle East, he said, because no one else was willing to go.
Well, our hero reported on the assassination of Ahmed Yassin from the bar of the American Colony Hotel. His byline claimed that he was in the Gaza Strip and had interviewed relatives of the slain leader of Hamas.
Sometimes one feels as if one is some sort of a lightning rod for these tales. Another Ramallah-based colleague shared that a few years ago he received a request from a cub correspondent to help arrange an interview with Yasser Arafat. Except at that point, Arafat had been dead for several years. Fresh out of journalism school and unknowledgeable about the Middle East, the journalist was apparently considered by his editors a fine candidate for covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

PMW: Palestinian Greek Orthodox leader inadvertently honors murderer of Greek Orthodox monk

Last month, the Bethlehem municipality decided to honor 52 terrorist prisoners from Bethlehem - all of whom are serving life sentences. The unveiling of the exhibit “in honor of the [Bethlehem] district’s 52 prisoners sentenced to life,” was “a salute of loyalty and commitment,” speakers at the event stated. [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 31, 2015]
Among the participants in the unveiling “sponsored and supervised by the Bethlehem municipality” in honor of the murderers, was Palestinian Greek Orthodox Archbishop of Sebastia Atallah Hanna.
By his participation in the event, Archbishop Hanna inadvertently glorified a terrorist who murdered one of Hanna’s fellow clergy, Greek Orthodox monk Gur Pzipokatsatakis.
On June 12, 2002, Greek Orthodox monk Gur Pzipokatsatakis was murdered in a drive-by shooting near Maale Adumim. Palestinian terrorist and a member of the Tanzim (Fatah terror faction) Yasser Rabai’ah from Bethlehem participated in the attack and was later arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment.

Amb. Alan Baker: Are There Double Standards in Israel’s Application of the Rule of Law in the Territories?

Regrettably, there would appear to be a lack of understanding – whether by Ambassador Shapiro himself or by those senior State Department and White House officials who instruct him – as to the legal situation prevalent in the West Bank areas of Judea and Samaria.
Indeed, there exist two legal frameworks.
The one applied by Israel’s Civil Administration vis-à-vis the Palestinian residents of Judea and Samaria is based on the international norms regarding the administration of territory occupied or administered following armed conflict and pending a peace agreement. These norms, set out in the 1907 Hague Rules and 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention, enable an administering power, in administering a hostile local population, to impose various limitations on the basic freedoms that exist in any ordinary civil legal system. All this pending a permanent peace arrangement regarding the fate of the territory.
The second legal framework covers the Israeli residents of towns, villages and other forms of settlement within the territory, who, not being part of the local Palestinian population, are subject on an ad-personam basis to Israeli law. As such, they are not covered by those limitations that apply solely vis-à-vis the local population of the territory.
Unlike the insinuations in Ambassador Shapiro’s statement, this dual set of legal frameworks is not based on any double standards, but on a clear division of legal authorities dictated by both international humanitarian law and Israeli law. (h/t Yenta Press)

From TheJC:

The organisers of a pro-Israel rally claim they have been forced to postpone the event because the venue pulled out after “gross intimidation” from boycott activists.

North West Friends of Israel (NWFOI) said that despite the Sheridan Suite function rooms in Manchester “accepting the booking in full knowledge of the event purpose,” the venue had “fallen victim to an orchestrated campaign by specific pressure groups whose sole aim is to delegitimise the existence of the state of Israel.

“Sadly, by caving in to this external pressure, the Sheridan Suite has succumbed to gross intimidation and allowed itself to become a target of the antisemitic boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement, all of which only serves to strengthen our resolve to do everything in our power to oppose their ongoing delegitimisation.”

Around 2,000 people had been expected to attend the “Say No To Terror: Stand With Israel” national rally, on January 31.

It had received support from the Chief Rabbi, Board of Deputies, Jewish Leadership Council, Zionist Federation and the Israeli embassy, as well as grassroots groups around Britain.

Board president Jonathan Arkush said: “I utterly condemn the decision of this venue to cave in to a few random voices calling for the event to be cancelled.

“They seem to have been browbeaten into this and have acted in a craven fashion."

The venue advertises itself as "a perfect venue for memorable Jewish weddings".

The Sheridan Suite has been contacted for comment, but has not yet responded to the JC.

The hotel tweeted a Mark Twain quote in response:

Yet it still has not commented about its side of the story, two days later.

Which sure makes it seem like the NWFOI is portraying this accurately - the venue caved to a handful of screeching haters on their Facebook page.

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This video, from January 10, shows Muslims using bulldozers being used to rip up areas of the Temple Mount adjacent to the Dome of the Rock, ostensibly to fix a water channel.

Where is the Israel Antiquities Authority which is supposed to supervise all excavations in archaeologically important areas (and there is no more important area in the world than this one)?

This is of course minor compared to the whole-scale destruction done by the Waqf in the 1990s, especially when they excavated tons of land containing priceless objects to illegally build an underground mosque.

Yet when a single Jewish couple visits the Temple Mount, they must be protected by several police from being murdered - and the Arab media says that the Jews are the ones desecrating the holy site.

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Bushinsky

It started in Ha'aretz:

A former advisor of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu used the derogatory Hebrew term “Yehudon” - loosely translated as “little Jew boy” to characterize remarks by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Daniel Shapiro.

On a Tuesday morning political panel show, on Israel’s Channel 2, commentator Aviv Bushinsky reacted to remarks Shapiro made in his speech to the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS) conference. Shapiro said "too much Israeli vigilantism in the West Bank goes on unchecked," adding that "there is a lack of thorough investigations… at times it seems Israel has two standards of adherence to rule of law in the West Bank - one for Israelis and one for Palestinians."

After viewing a clip of Shapiro’s remarks, Bushinsky declared, “To put it bluntly, it was a statement typical of a little Jew boy (Yehudon).”

How could the media resist tying Netanyahu, through his former advisor, to a stupid slur on a TV show where people are rewarded for saying outrageous things?

Within hours, Reuters picked it up. So did The Financial Times. Time magazine. The Huffington Post.

What most of the Western media didn't bother reporting was that Bushinsky had not worked for Netanyahu for nearly twelve years.

His relationship with Netanyahu is quite tenuous. His top level description in Wikipedia doesn't even mention his political career:

Aviv Bushinsky (born April 13, 1967) is a journalist, CEO, business man and an undergraduate program communications lecturer. He is the chairman of the Israel Squash Association. He served as chairman of Maccabi Tel Aviv F.C. and as chairman of the Israeli Chess Federation.

The implication that Ha'aretz made, that this slur is somehow emblematic of the Israeli political right when Bushinsky has literally nothing to do with them, has been swallowed whole by the mainstream media in record time.

Ha'aretz, always looking to denigrate its country, can write whatever it wants and it knows that while few in Israel will read it, their inane stories will often get amplified by the world's reporters who are too lazy to bother to check the context. In this sense, the Jews at Ha'aretz really do control the media - - filled with journalists too lazy and ignorant to bother to check the facts.

A stupid comment by a person with literally no connection to the government receives worldwide attention.

But statements condoning terrorism made by the current leader of the Palestinian Arab government get routinely ignored by that same media.

There is a much bigger story here than a pundit making a stupid comment on a TV show. The story is why Bushinsky is a story while the bile and threats and lies and hate that are said by current Palestinian leaders are ignored by Reuters and Time and the Financial Times and the Huffington Post.

But the media won't cover stories about why the media won't do their jobs.

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Wednesday, January 20, 2016

.@Amnesty starts a petition for a terror-loving clown (EoZTV)

Amnesty USA has another wonderful cause to rally people behind:

.@Amnesty ACTION Cirucus performer, Mohammad Abu Sakha, held w/out charge, trial by Israel. https://t.co/qkXISLaXHj https://t.co/dd0J8uIanD
— AIUSA Israel/OPT/PA (@IOTPA) January 20, 2016

But Abu Sakha is not exactly the most peaceful clown.

For example, he advocates using violence to ethnically cleanse Jews from Israel on his Facebook page.

Watch the entire story on EoZTV, the fledgling videocast from me and Mrs. Elder.

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01/20 Links Pt2: Police called to anti-Israel riot at London Uni; ‘Death To Israel’ Prof an ISIS Recruiter

From Ian:

Richard Millett: Disruption at Kings College shows there’s no ‘safe space’ for Israeli Jews at UK universities

I was patiently queuing for Ami Ayalon’s joint KCL and LSE Israel Society’s’ talk outside the Norfolk Building of King’s College, London tonight. I had arrived early and was near the front of the queue but soon the doors were closed as the room held only 50.
Some 50 to 60 people were left shut outside on the street, among them 15 fuming anti-Israel activists who had planned to get in and disrupt the talk.
These activists from SOAS, KLC and LSE Palestine Societies had already handed out leaflets attacking Ami Ayalon and Israel. But with their being shut outside chaos ensued, and the police had to be called.
Ayalon was head of Israel’s Shin Bet between 1996 and 2000 and then served as a Labour MK. He also launched a peace initiative called The People’s Voice. He’s now in the UK being whisked around by Yachad to give various talks, the gist of which seem to be Israel needs to mend its ways.
The activists’ leaflets, after incriminating Ayalon and Shin Bet in war crimes, accused Ayalon of being “overtly racist” for supporting a two state solution because this implies “Israeli Jews must always be a majority…due to a fear of losing the ethnic and colonial supremacy Israel has enjoyed since 1948”.
As soon as the doors shut the frustrated anti-Israel activists pounded the doors and the windows looking into the talk. They screamed “Free Free Palestine”, “Viva Viva Palestina” and “From the River to the Sea Palestine will be free” and smashed a window.
They then climbed the windows to unfurl a banner. A fire alarm was set off and eventually police vans and police cars pulled up and 20 police constables protected the building.

Assassin's aid: British taxpayers' cash given to group accused of helping Middle East death squads

BRITISH AID was paid to left-wing activists in the Middle East accused of helping death squads torture and kill Palestinians, The Sun can reveal.
The Foreign Office were under fire last night after giving £227,988 of taxpayers’ cash to the B’Tselem group – who are accused by the Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu of sending “innocents” to “torture and execution”.
An activist from the “human rights group” was exposed for helping the Palestinian Authority’s secret police detain, beat up and even kill Palestinians caught selling land to Israeli Jews.
But last night the British government came under attack for funding the group who are at the centre of a political storm in Israel following an TV exposé of their activities.
Secret footage of B’Tselem employee Nasser Nawaja and another activist Ezra Nawi was broadcast last week by Israel’s Uvda programme.
In the explosive film, Nawi boasted he would send “pictures and phone numbers” of Palestinians who sold land to Israelis “to the Palestinian security services,” who “catch these guys and they kill them”.
Chillingly, he added: “But before it kills them, they get beat up a lot.” (h/t Bob Knot)

Shocker: ‘Death To Israel’ Prof Investigated As Possible ISIS Recruiter

A professor at Kent State University (KSU) in Ohio famous for his anti-Israel outbursts is now being investigated by the FBI for possibly being an Islamic State recruiter.
An unnamed FBI special agent told KentWired, KSU’s student newspaper, that associate history professor Julio Pino has been under investigation for about a year and a half.
According to KentWired, several faculty members and over 20 students have been interviewed about Pino’s behavior. The FBI is looking into possible connections between Pino and ISIS, as well as allegations that Pino attempted to recruit Kent State students to join the extremist group.
The investigation was confirmed by a Kent State official.
In 2002, Pino, a convert to Islam, wrote a column praising a teenaged Palestinian suicide bomber as a martyr, saying her actions should be “pronounced ‘justice’ and spelled C-O-U-R-A-G-E.'” At the time, a colleague of Pino’s noted that he enjoyed wearing military-style camouflage around town, but described it as a “fashion statement.”
In 2011, Pino attracted national attention when he shouted “Death to Israel!” during a lecture on campus by an Israeli diplomat.

It looks like Hezbollah thinks it has exacted revenge for Samir Kuntar

In the weeks after Israel apparently eliminated arch-terrorist Samir Kuntar, Hezbollah threatened terror attacks in retaliation.

Usually Hezbollah follows through with its threats.

But from reading Hezbollah's media, it appears that they believe that they have already avenged Kuntar's death, with this January 4 incident as recounted in Long War Journal:

At 3:15 PM on Jan. 4, Hezbollah targeted an Israeli military patrol with an IED attack across the Blue Line on the Zabadeen-Kafra road in the Shebaa Farms. Hezbollah quickly claimed responsibility, sayingits “Martyr Samir Quntar Group” carried out the attack. The group’s statement alleged that the explosive had damaged one Israeli Humvee and completely destroyed another, killing its four occupants. A “security source” told Hezbollah’s Al-Manar that the destroyed vehicle was carrying a high-ranking Israeli officer. However, Israeli sources said that the attack targeted two heavy-armored vehicles (one of which was a D-9 bulldozer), not a Humvee, and did not result in any Israeli casualties.

Hezbollah's Al Manar website was quite proud with two articles on the attack:

It looks like Hezbollah really only wanted a symbolic victory and not an escalation, despite its rhetoric.

It is true that Hezbollah is also working on creating terror cells in the West Bank but that is not in response to Kuntar's death, but rather on the command of Iran.

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Dark Chocolate Snobs Preferred Marah Water When It Was Bitter (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Marah, Sinai Peninsula, January 20 - Aficionados of high-percentage cocoa-solid chocolates expressed disappointment this week after Moses sweetened the lakes here for the benefit of the Israelites, Hebrew representatives reported this afternoon.

A group of Hebrews consisting of those who insist unsweetened, or, in a pinch, bittersweet, chocolate is the only acceptable form in which to consume the confection voiced disdain for the millions of Israelites who complained the waters at Marah were so bitter as to be undrinkable. The group asserted that anyone with a modicum of good culinary taste would agree that only Philistines prefer the non-bitter flavor.

Marah took its name from the bitterness of its water, as "Marah" is one form of the term for "bitter" in Semitic languages. When the Hebrews camped there in the aftermath of crossing the Sea of Reeds, they complained to Moses of the water's quality. The Lord instructed Moses to sweeten the waters by throwing a tree into them, and the masses were able to drink. Dark chocolate aficionados scoffed at such hoi polloi sensibilities, and insisted that Moses and God should not have catered to those Plebeian aesthetics.

"We know that God has big plans for this people, given the unprecedented wonders involved in His redemption of us from bondage," explained Anin Taam, a spokesman for the group. "Would it not be more fitting, then, to require that this people destined for greatness develop and demonstrate the most refined sensibilities? We cannot have a 'treasured nation' charged with revealing God's plan for humanity walking around with the culinary tastes of five-year-olds. Next you'll tell me God wants us to arrange the Song at the Sea as an 80's glam-rock ballad," he added with a grimace.

"I hope this doesn't presage what awaits us in the Land of Milk and Honey," echoed fellow aficionado Baal Gaava. "It better not be cow milk, which anybody who's anybody knows is crap. Goat milk is the way to go. Anyway, so many of us are lactose intolerant - lactose tolerance is a northern European thing, don't you know? And the dates - if they're not Medjoul dates, there's nothing to talk about. Might as well call the whole operation off."

Similar minor protest occurred before the Hebrews' departure from Egypt. At the time, the Lord had commanded the people to prepare a paschal lamb or kid in a specific manner, one that notably did not allow for the preparation and application of a proper marinade. The culinary snobs balked at the oversight, and only grudgingly ate of the roasted animals.

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01/20 Links Pt1: Fatah Official Praises Hitler; Hamas: Jihad, not despair, behind violence

From Ian:

PMW: ‎“Hitler was not morally corrupt, he was daring” says Fatah leader

"Hitler was not morally corrupt, he was daring," according to Fatah leader and Central Committee Member Tawfiq Tirawi. After these words the moderator on independent Ma'an TV stopped the interview saying: "Let's drink some tea and take a break. It would be a pity to be put in jail because of this interview."
Fatah Central Committee Member Tawfiq Tirawi: "There is a difference between an officer's discipline and loyalty to a leader. The leader could be morally corrupt."
Ma'an host: "And how would you know?"
Tawfiq Tirawi: "You have to know. Is there anyone who does not know his leader?"
Ma'an host: "The German people did not know that Hitler was morally corrupt."
Tawfiq Tirawi: "He was not morally corrupt."
Ma'an host: "The French think that de Gaulle was half a prophet. Churchill, I don't know what his story was, but people see him as one of the most important statesmen."
Tawfiq Tirawi: "Let us talk logically. Hitler was not morally corrupt. He was daring."
Ma'an host: "Is that the way to talk? I say: Let's drink some tea and take a break. It would be a pity to be put in jail because of this interview. We will drink tea and take a break. Let's leave Hitler." [Ma'an TV, independent Palestinian channel, Jan. 16, 2016]

Senior Fatah official:‎ "Hitler wasn't morally corrupt, he was daring"

Khaled Abu Toameh: Netanyahu in Otniel: Boundless Palestinian hatred caused by incitement

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited the town of Otniel, south of Hebron, on Tuesday morning and slammed the Palestinian Authority for the incitement that propelled a 15-year-old boy to murder a 38-year-old mother of six there.
“Whoever wants to see the truth about the roots of the conflict between us and the Palestinians should come to Otniel and see here a wonderful family that only wants coexistence and peace,” he said, after paying a shiva (mourning period) call to the family of Dafna Meir, murdered on Sunday by the 15-year-old terrorist arrested earlier in the day.
“They should see the young people, inflamed by incitement, who come to murder women here, a mother of six, and in Tekoa, a pregnant woman; they come to murder them and say, ‘We will destroy you all, in Tel Aviv and Jaffa as well,’” the prime minister continued.
On one side there is “humanity and a desire for coexistence, and on the other side boundless hatred,” he added. “That hatred has an address: it is the incitement of the Palestinian Authority and other actors, such as the Islamic Movement and Hamas. The time has come for the international community to stop its hypocrisy and to call the child by its name.”

Two More Middle East Martyrs

That’s a lesson the Obama administration has steadfastly refused to learn in its seven years in office. More than any other of his predecessors, President Obama beat up on Israel over the presence of Jews in the West Bank and broke new ground by also stigmatizing the Jewish presence and the building of homes in Jerusalem. The Obama administration sent the message that Jews in the West Bank were illegitimate and the result is that the Palestinians haven’t been forced to reassess their obsession with driving them out of their homes and instead make peace. Worse than that, they’ve refused to understand that the Palestinians make no real distinctions between the “occupation” of the West Bank and the “occupation” of pre-1967 Israel.
Unless and until Palestinians stop seeing the murder of Jews, whether in Tel Aviv or in the Hebron hills, as not merely defensible but laudable, there will be no peace and their lives won’t get better. That’s because, so long as they are trapped in the mindset of a century-long war on Zionism, they will continue to allow their political leaders to refuse to make peace and to mire their society in hate and corruption.
Until then Israelis, even the majority that would happily trade land for true peace, know that any more territorial concessions will only lead to more terrorism and death as the 2005 withdrawal from Gaza did. So long as Palestinians prefer to make martyrs — a true martyr in the form of a woman who died defending her children and a false on in the form of her heartless murderer — to making peace the rest of the world should refuse to play along with their propaganda demonizing the Jews of Otniel or those of Tel Aviv. Instead, they should realize that the hate that drives these Palestinian murderers is no different from the Islamists that murdered the people of Paris and San Bernardino.

Islamic Jihad has released a video showing all major terror groups - Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad, PFLP and one other I couldn't immediately recognize - working together to murder Jews.

It celebrates rockets, suicide bombings, knife attacks and car rammings where the targets are ordinary Jews.

It is also notable that the video ends with the motif of the Dome of the Rock. The video contradicts the assertion that Mahmoud Abbas tells the West, that the terror attacks come from "desperation." As every Palestinian Arab knows, the excuse they gave for the attacks wasn't "poverty" or "occupation" but the Temple Mount.

In fact, Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh hade this exact point in a sermon earlier this month, as Arutz-7 reports based on a report by Jonathan D. HaLevi at JCPA:

Hamas leader, Ismail Haniyeh, rejected claims made by Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, according to which the current terror wave stems from the deep sense of despair among PA youths.

“The intifada is not a result of despair,” Haniyeh told Hamas members. “This intifada is a jihad, a holy war of the ‘Palestinian nation’ against the Zionist occupiers.”

(h/t Yoel)

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The latest Human Rights Watch report on Israel (discussed here) has sentences like these:

Israel operates a two-tiered system in the West Bank that provides preferential treatment to Jewish Israeli settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.

Businesses contribute to and benefit from the two-tiered system of laws, rules, and services that Israel operates in the parts of the West Bank that are under its exclusive control, which provides preferential services, development, and benefits for Jewish settlers while imposing harsh conditions on Palestinians.

In Human Rights Watch’s view, businesses servicing settlements often benefit from Israel’s discriminatory policies and practices that harm Palestinians while privileging Jewish Israelis.

Given the character of settlements as almost exclusively Jewish and the rules that effectively bar Palestinian residents of the West Bank from living there, agents selling property there effectively contribute to discrimination against Palestinians.

"Almost exclusively Jewish?" But if they are not exclusively Jewish, who else lives there?

The answer is in the report, even though HRW tries to minimize it:

Palestinians with Israeli citizenship or residency are legally allowed to live in settlements, but, according to the most recent census, only 400 live in West Bank settlements and slightly more live in settlements in East Jerusalem.

Hold on a second. If hundreds of Israeli Arabs actually live in settlements, and HRW calls them "Palestinians," then HRW cannot say that Israel discriminates against Palestinians!

The best they can say is that Israel treats its citizens different than its non-citizens - which happens to be the case with every other nation on Earth.

But Arab Israelis do buy houses on the other side of the Green Line. They do have businesses there as well, as we have shown.

Why do HRW and other "human rights" NGOs only have a problem with Jewish Israelis buying houses and no problem with Israeli Arabs doing the exact samething? Indeed, the fact that no NGO ever complains when Israeli Arabs move or open businesses across the Green Line shows it isn't the Israeli government that is bigoted - but the NGOs themselves!

HRW writes reports that try so hard to give the impression that Israel is evil. They really, really want to use the "apartheid" word. But this shows that they know the truth - there is no discrimination.

But that doesn't stop them from writing 50,000 page hit pieces that say otherwise.

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The NY Times doesn't call murdering Jews terror. It calls it "resistance."

From The New York Times:

The New York Times will no longer use the word "terrorism" to describe the murder of Israeli Jews. That's bad enough. But now the "newspaper of record" has adopted the Palestinian terminology of terror attacks as being "resistance to Israel," with its connotations of heroism and bravery that the word implies.

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Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Murderer's father changes his story twice, from "proud of murderous son" to "I'm a victim" to "boy is innocent"

Abu Adham (left)

As soon as Israeli security announced that they had found Morad Bader Abdullah Adais, the teenage murderer of Dafna Meir, the terrorist's father Abu Adham said "Morad was the attacker, and I am proud of him."

A few hours later, after he was told that Israel might demolish his home, he said to Channel 2 that had he known about his son's actions, he very possibly might have turned him in. He also asked, “Why should I be punished for what the kid did?”

Now he is changing his story again, claiming that Morad didn't do anything.

Abu Adham now says that his son was playing in a school near his home during the murder, 3 kilometers away from Otniel. "I do not believe the lies of the Israeli occupation that my son did the killing in the settlement. My son played with his brother in the playground near the school and returned to the house, and slept Sunday night with his grandmother, and when I went in the next day, Monday, to visit my mother in law, Morad returned with me and slept in the house."

And his brother Qais said: "We were playing football in the school playground and we heard the siren in the settlement, and we came back home."

A family of liars raised a murderer.

Notice how the prospect of having his home demolished has changed the father from a proud advocate of murdering Jews to an innocent victim of his son's actions and then to his son becoming innocent himself.

Which is a pretty good indication that the prospect of home demolitions can potentially save lives.

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01/19 Links Pt2: Palestine? No, Southern Syria; The Departure of the Jews and the Decline of Western Europe

From Ian:

Palestine? No, Southern Syria

LEAGUE OF NATIONS PERMANENT MANDATES COMMISSION
MINUTES OF THE NINTH SESSION
Held at Geneva from June 8th to 25th, 1926
Arab Grievances.
M. PALACIOS, returning to the concrete questions of a general character of which the Arabs complained, recalled those concerning the national title, the national hymn and the flag. These were really thorny questions, like all sentimental and patriotic questions, regarding which it was necessary to observe complete prudence and tact.
As regards the first point, the Arabs claimed that it was not in conformity with Article 22 of the Mandate to print the initials and even the words "Eretz Israel" after the name "Palestine" while refusing the Arabs the title "Surial Janonbiah" ("Southern Syria"). The British Government had not accepted the use of this Arab title, but gave the place of honour to the Hebrew word used for 2,000 years and decided that the official name in Hebrew was "Palestina" followed by the initials signifying "Aleph Jod", the regular Hebrew name. Was the question still under discussion and could the accredited representative give the Commission any further information?
Colonel SYMES explained that the country was described as "Palestine" by Europeans and as "Falestin" by the Arabs. The Hebrew name for the country was the designation "Land of Israel", and the Government, to meet Jewish wishes, had agreed that the word "Palestine" in Hebrew characters should be followed in all official documents by the initials which stood for that designation. As a set-off to this, certain of the Arab politicians suggested that the country should be called "Southern Syria" in order to emphasise its close relation with another Arab State.

Breaking the Silence's Smear Campaign Only Serves Israel's Enemies

The operation of NATO air and ground forces in Bosnia and Kosovo in 1999 can hardly be held up as an example of moral standards in warfare for the IDF. Not to mention the Vietnam War. And who dares to look for earlier examples? All this is relevant to Breaking the Silence because of the funding this campaign receives from abroad. Close to 70 percent of the budget for this campaign comes from foreign governments. Which governments? Among them are the European Union, Norway, Germany, Holland, Britain and others whose armed forces participated in the NATO operations in Bosnia and Kosovo, where you would have to look very hard to find examples of moral standards that equal those of the IDF.
The best proof of the recognition by Israel’s enemies of the IDF’s moral standards and its attempts to minimize, as far as possible, civilian casualties is the strategy adopted by Hamas and Hezbollah of emplacing their weapons and command centers among the civilian population, and even in schools and hospitals, counting on Israel’s reticence to attack such targets. This is unprecedented in the annals of warfare. Armies in past wars saw no use in hiding behind civilians, knowing well that both sides to the conflict had little concern for civilian casualties.
Yes, the IDF can serve as an example of high moral standards to the armed forces of nations in the world. And yet, if the activists of Breaking the Silence were simply trying to bring to the attention of the IDF brass some infractions committed by soldiers that have come to their attention and that may have escaped their notice, it would be praiseworthy. But hawking these infractions, some no doubt imaginary, abroad, is an obvious attempt to smear Israel. Those who eagerly lap up the “stories’ they provide are the activists of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement, the haters of Israel and anti-Semites around the world. They surely know that. The “silence” they claim to be breaking does not exist. They are simply aiding Israel’s enemies using funds provided by foreign governments. (h/t Bob Knot)

Michael Lumish: The Departure of the Jews and the Decline of Western Europe

Jews in Europe are not only losing their rights to walk in safety in the streets of their towns and neighborhoods, they are even being robbed of their public identity as Jews so that their "filthy-footed" presence does not incite the local Jihadis or Islamists into fits of bloody genocidal rage.
Meotti writes:
Before the attack in Copenhagen, a year ago, there were 23 children in the Jewish kindergarten in Malmö: today there are only 5 left. The armed guards in front of the school triggered panic and parents prefer to enroll their children in public school. It is the end of Jewish identity. Some people whispered that the synagogue of the city will soon be turned into a museum. From 2010 to today, the synagogue lost a third of the faithful. The rabbi, Shneur Kesselman, is constantly attacked in the streets: almost 200 episodes of anti-Semitism in ten years.
But this kind of thing has been going on for the Jews of western Europe, and particularly towns with high rates of Arab-Muslim immigration like Malmö, for many years now. It is not an exaggeration to say that traditional Arab-Muslim violent prejudice against Jews, now justified through the demonization of the Jewish state, is driving Jews out of their homes in Europe.
If a Jew cannot walk down the streets of Marseille without looking over his shoulder for the sudden appearance of a knife-wielding maniac screeching "Alahu Akbar" then Jews have lost their freedom to live like normal human beings in the European countries of their birth.
According to Meotti, a European Jewish Congress poll shows that around one-third of European Jewry, about 700,000 people, is considering emigration out of what is becoming a European nightmare.

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On Sunday 17^th January the populist British newspaper the Daily Mail, in an article headed “Terrifying echoes of Kristallnacht,” reported that Burkhard Jung, Mayor of Leipzig,

“has condemned the 'naked violence that took place' after doner kebab fast food restaurants were destroyed, cars were set ablaze and shop windows were smashed by around 250 hooligans of LEGIDA [Leipzig’s branch of the anti-Islam PEGIDA movement]”.

The paper (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3395246/Hundreds-far-right-protesters-rampage-German-town-Leipzig-destroying-ethnic-restaurants-takeaways-latest-anti-migrant-demonstrations.html) then engaged in some ludicrous hyperbole foreshadowed by its heading.

Readers were informed:

“The rampage in Leipzig evoked memories of the wave of violence against Jews that erupted across Nazi Germany and parts of Austria on November 9, 1938.”

To bolster this nonsensical interpretation of events in Leipzig, more particularly the immigrant neighbourhood of Connewitz where the damage took place, the article contained photos of the “Night of the Broken Glass” pogrom in Germany interposed with photos of damage to shops in Connewitz.

Obviously, the damage in Connewitz was unconscionable and deserving of condemnation, but the comparison of events with Kristallnacht is unjustified, and even somewhat obscene.

The damage in Connewitz was done by rogue hotheads who broke off from the main LEGIDA demonstration in Leipzig, an orderly enough rally protesting the multiple sex assaults on German women by mobs of young male newcomers from North Africa and the Middle East who have brought their culture’s odious misogynistic attitude towards women with them.

The damage on Kristallnacht, immeasurably vaster in its scale, its violence, its wickedness, and its aftermath, was unleashed by SA (Storm Trooper) and Hitler Youth units (many of whom wore civilian clothes to give the impression that it was unplanned) upon the Reich’s Jews by order of Nazi Party officials taking their cue from Goebbels and Heydrich upon a highly assimilated, peaceable and patriotic section of German society for no other reason than that it consisted of Jews.

To quote a reputable online source (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005201):

‘Violence began to erupt in various parts of the Reich throughout the late evening and early morning hours of November 9–10…. Despite the outward appearance of spontaneous violence, and the local cast which the pogrom took on in various regions throughout the Reich, the central orders Heydrich relayed gave specific instructions: the "spontaneous" rioters were to take no measures endangering non-Jewish German life or property; they were not to subject foreigners (even Jewish foreigners) to violence; and they were to remove all synagogue archives prior to vandalizing synagogues and other properties of the Jewish communities, and to transfer that archival material to the Security Service (Sicherheitsdienst, or SD). The orders also indicated that police officials should arrest as many Jews as local jails could hold, preferably young, healthy men.
The rioters destroyed 267 synagogues throughout Germany, Austria, and the Sudetenland. Many synagogues burned throughout the night in full view of the public and of local firefighters, who had received orders to intervene only to prevent flames from spreading to nearby buildings. SA and Hitler Youth members across the country shattered the shop windows of an estimated 7,500 Jewish-owned commercial establishments and looted their wares. Jewish cemeteries became a particular object of desecration in many regions.
The pogrom proved especially destructive in Berlin and Vienna, home to the two largest Jewish communities in the German Reich. Mobs of SA men roamed the streets, attacking Jews in their houses and forcing Jews they encountered to perform acts of public humiliation. Although murder did not figure in the central directives, Kristallnacht claimed the lives of at least 91 Jews between 9 and 10 November. Police records of the period document a high number of rapes and of suicides in the aftermath of the violence.
As the pogrom spread, units of the SS and Gestapo (Secret State Police), following Heydrich's instructions, arrested up to 30,000 Jewish males, and transferred most of them from local prisons to Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, and other concentration camps.
Significantly, Kristallnacht marks the first instance in which the Nazi regime incarcerated Jews on a massive scale simply on the basis of their ethnicity. Hundreds died in the camps as a result of the brutal treatment they endured. Most did obtain release over the next three months on the condition that they begin the process of emigration from Germany. Indeed, the effects of Kristallnacht would serve as a spur to the emigration of Jews from Germany in the months to come….’

The Daily Mail nonsense is another brick in that increasingly sturdy edifice which likens today’s so-called “Islamophobia” to historic European antisemitism.

It’s an edifice with very frail foundations, since today’s antipathy towards Muslim immigration on the part of growing numbers of Europeans is due to Islamist violence and the ongoing terror threat, to the extremist statements of certain imams and others justifying wife-beating and calling for the implementation of sharia law in the nations that have taken them in, to the de facto tolerance of polygamy among Muslims by weak and hypocritical Western states, and to displays of aggression and misogyny such as “honour” killings, to the importation (and non-prosecution) of female genital mutilation by some Muslim communities, and the vile assaults on women that were witnessed in Cologne and elsewhere on Christmas Eve.

It is precisely this sort of conduct on the immigrants’ part that feeds the establishment of groups like PEGIDA. A crystal clear indication of this can be seen in the video dating to early this month of the launch before press cameras of PEGIDA UK, led by Paul Weston of Liberty GB along with Tommy Robinson and women’s rights advocate Anne-Marie Waters in reaction to the continuing stupor of the political elites towards what may be the most pressing problem confronting Britain and the West in the 21^st century.

In launching their movement Weston, Robinson and Ms Waters are at pains to disavow the “far right” label; they vigorously deny the “racist” epithet; they insist that their movement is one in which “ordinary, decent British people” (as Ms Waters puts it) can demonstrate their concerns regarding the perceived threats to Western democracies, to the Western way of life, and to the equality of women and girls if demographic trends continue as they are.

But they emphasis, too, the presence of numerous “moderate” Muslims in Britain, maintaining that such persons are afraid to speak out against the extremists, and say that they hope that in time their movement will provide those moderates with a vehicle in which to voice their condemnation of extremism and their support for British values. “We are not spreading hate, we are responding to hate,” stresses Ms Waters with feeling.

Whether you are inclined to love the trio in the video or loathe them, they make some very pertinent points. I hold no brief for PEGIDA, but please take a look.

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01/19 Links Pt1: Shapiro’s Delegitimization Speech; Father of terrorist murderer 'proud' of his son

From Ian:

Ambassador Shapiro’s Delegitimization Speech

Like the other speakers at the conference, Shapiro condemned the above. Briefly, that is, until getting to the real purpose of his talk: to chastise Israel. Naturally, he did this in perfect Obama pitch, professing his country’s great friendship and alliance with Israel, while calling on the Jewish state to stop causing all the trouble.
These were not his exact words. Shapiro is a professional diplomat, after all. But the language he did use was bad enough.
“Too many attacks on Palestinians lack a vigorous investigation or response by Israeli authorities; too much vigilantism goes unchecked; and at times there seem to be two standards of adherence to the rule of law: one for Israelis and another for Palestinians,” he said, while also condemning “barbaric acts of terrorism” against Israelis.
And then he said his administration is “concerned and perplexed” by Israel’s settlement policy, which raises “honest questions about Israel’s long-term intentions” where a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians is concerned.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was right to call Shapiro’s comments “incorrect and unacceptable,” but his response was insufficient. Because what Shapiro did was first to equate Palestinian and Israeli violence, and then to fault “settlement policy” for the daily assault on Israel’s very right to exist. The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement could not have made a better case for delegitimization.
To be fair, Shapiro is not an independent agent. He is an envoy sent to Israel to iterate the official positions of the Obama administration — a government that just signed off on its final capitulation to the Islamic Republic of Iran.
This dangerous act, involving the lifting of sanctions and the transfer of billions of dollars to the mullah-led regime in Tehran, took place after the Iranian navy seized and held captive 10 U.S. sailors; demanded an apology from Washington upon their release; received a hearty “thank you” from Kerry; and then boasted about having caused the American servicemen (and one woman) to weep.
Is it any wonder, then, that the United States, who was treated throughout the negotiations with Iran like a pariah on the one hand and a wimp on the other, would expect Israel to roll over and play dead with the Palestinian Authority?
The answer is no. It is also the reason that Israel must pray for a Republican victory in this year’s U.S. presidential election. If and when that happens, we might be treated to a book by Shapiro, in which he reveals the lies he was forced to spew during his term as ambassador.

Caroline Glick: Israel and the Russian challenge

Obama was undoubtedly relishing the moment as he declared diplomatic victory over his political opponents, but even if he was unhappy about Iran’s behavior he couldn’t have done anything about it.
Obama brags that he was able to reach a nuclear deal where all his predecessors failed. But this hides the main distinction between him and those who came before him.
None of Obama’s predecessors concluded a nuclear deal with Iran because unlike Obama, none of his predecessors were willing to abandon US interests – including the interest of preventing the world’s leading sponsor of terrorism from acquiring nuclear weapons – in order to get a deal. Obama cannot attack Iran’s aggression on the high seas without calling into question the wisdom of his nuclear diplomacy.
He cannot take action against Russia without calling into question his belief that US power in the Middle East is the chief cause of all the region’s problems.
Israel’s military and political leaders are right to be concerned about the implications of Russia’s return to Syria. And it is far from clear that there is a way to credibly minimize the dangers. But, since we’re not going anywhere, we will have to make the best of a bad situation.
Whatever we do, we must reconcile ourselves to the fact that unless the next US president rejects Obama’s entire Middle East policy and shepherds the military and financial resources to abandon it, on Russia, Iran and beyond, Israel will have to fend for itself for the foreseeable future.

Obama’s Make-Believe Peace With Iran Ushers in a Wild 2016 in the Middle East

It’s hardly surprising that during his State of the Union address last week, President Barack Obama made no mention of American sailors detained by the naval command of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Sure, the president didn’t want a major speech about his achievements at home and abroad overshadowed by some episode the White House believed would be soon resolved by diplomacy. But there’s another reason—no matter what the occasion, the Obama White House systematically looks the other way whenever Iran does something intended to provoke the United States.
In the last several months alone, Iran has at least twice tested ballistic missiles, in violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions. Its military also fired rockets within 1,500 yards of a U.S. aircraft carrier in the Straits of Hormuz. It sentenced, in a secret trial, American journalist Jason Rezaian and imprisoned another Iranian-American national. A few days into the new year, the regime directed Iranian mobs to set fire to two diplomatic missions belonging to longtime U.S. regional partner Saudi Arabia. That was before they ritually humiliated America by taking its sailors into custody, photographing them kneeling on deck with their hands on their heads, and then broadcasting those images throughout the Middle East.
Yet from the White House’s perspective, appearances can be deceiving. Despite photographs showing how the Iranians paraded the U.S. seamen on Iranian TV like circus animals, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “All our indications suggest our sailors were well taken care of.” After the clerical regime directed mobs to attack two of Saudi Arabia’s diplomatic missions in Iran, the administration’s first move was not to condemn Iran but to chastise Riyadh for provoking Iran by executing a Saudi citizen whom Tehran regarded as a protégé. When the Obama Administration moved to sanction Iran for its ballistic missile tests, the Iranians protested, and the administration shelved sanctions, indefinitely.

From the Sudan Tribune:

Members of the Foreign Relations Committee of Sudan’s national dialogue conference have reacted differently to a proposal calling for normalizing ties with Israel.

The national dialogue initiated by president Omer Hassan al-Bashir last year has officially started in Khartoum last October amid boycott by main opposition parties and armed rebel groups.

Last November, the head of the little-known Independent party and member of the dialogue conference made a request for normalization with Israel arguing that there was no justification for hostility towards Israel. He pointed out that this stance took a toll on the country politically and economically.

In press statements Monday, the committee member Ibrahim Suleiman said views on normalizing relations with Israel have varied between those calling for full normalization and those who reject the idea categorically, saying few members indicated the proposal could be adopted under specific conditions.

He described the voices which rejected the normalization proposal as “weak”, saying they don’t rule out the final recommendations of the conference could include the normalization proposal.

“If the proposal was approved, it would be incorporated into the constitution”, he said.

Suleiman described the position of the ruling National Congress Party (NCP) towards the normalization proposal as “unclear”, saying the view which the latter presented at the conference calls for establishing good relations with all nations.

It is worth to mention that the NCP’s head of political sector, Mustafa Osman Ismail, had earlier said the decision to normalize relations with Israel must be made by the committees of dialogue conference.

Also, Sudan’s foreign minister Ibrahim Ghandour said his country wouldn’t mind considering the possibility of normalizing ties with Israel, underlining that Sudan doesn’t establish relations with one country at the expense of another country.

Suleiman added that those who support the idea of normalizing ties with Israel think the move would help achieve Sudan’s interests.

“The United States and Israel are two sides of the same coin and if the government underscores the importance to establish relation with America, why does it not establish ties with Israel?”

It is interesting that the only reason given for normalization with Israel is to cozy up with the US.

Even so, this is quite a turnaround for a country whose passports said until recently that they were valid for “All Countries Except Israel”.

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