Whenever I Need A Laugh, I Think Of All Those People Assuming Palestine Will Be A Liberal Democracy
By Mahmoud Abbas
Nobody ever promised me the position of President of the Palestinian National Authority would be easy. I never expected it to be. Combine it with - or consider it a subsidiary role of - my position as Chairman of the Fatah faction and Palestine Liberation Organization, and you get one long work day after another. Tensions run high. Usually I thrive on that - it gives me a sense of vitality - but occasionally I need to dissipate that tension, and there's no better way to do that than to laugh. When I need a good laugh, I think of all those fools who see the nascent State of Palestine as a liberal democracy.
It never fails to crack me up. Other people's idiocy can be an amazing thing to behold, and a hilarious one. In the almost twenty-four years since the Authority was created, there has been a steady erosion - one might describe it as an active weakening - of any semblance of democratic values, leaving precious little around which one might build a democratic state. We've had the occasional elections - I was voted into this four-year term twelve years ago, and the Palestinian parliamentarians a year later - but other than that, I chuckle every time I consider what our supporters in the West believe will happen once we gain full state status. Somehow our violent political culture, our endemic corruption, our all-important tribal loyalties, and our irrational genocidal hatred of Jews will dissipate in favor of transparency, robust institutions, and rule of law. Excuse me for a moment, I'm about to lose my composure...
Well. As you can see, that stuff is hella funny. It just doesn't get old. I could spend hours rewatching clips of my advisers pontificating on democratic values being trampled by Israel, and how all the dysfunction of our society going back a thousand years is all Israel's fault - and these people eat it up! they can't get enough! We started playing a game back in the 1980's who could get the Western press to take the most outrageous thing at face value, and we've yet to hit rock bottom. Most of us thought we'd grow tired of it, or discover the limits those imbeciles' credulousness, within a couple of months, but we've yet to encounter either phenomenon. New vistas of ridiculousness open up daily.
Don't ever stop, Western liberals. Please. We desperately need you for comic relief.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Twice this month Palestinian Authority TV’s children’s program The Best Home had young children recite poems encouraging violence. One poem called for murder of Israelis “as we slaughtered them in your streets, Beirut.” The poem also urged Palestinians to seek death, emphasizing that if you are a member of Fatah, Mahmoud Abbas’ party, your “blood is food for the revolution”:
Boy: “Today, O our West Bank, our Gaza, raise your voice
O our land, the time has still not passed
As we expelled them from Gaza and Sderot
As we slaughtered them in your streets, Beirut
For you, Yasser Arafat, for you we shall die
After the night comes the light of day, and the fig leave will be removed...
Tomorrow we will take our vengeance, and their leader will be carried in a coffin
We, Fatah, are a storm, and our blood is food for the revolution...”
PA TV host: “Bravo, Muhammad, thank you, thank you, thank you!”
[Official PA TV, The Best Home, Jan. 6, 2017]
What's Holding the Arab World Back?
What's holding the Arab world back? Why, by nearly every measure, are Muslim nations so far behind the West economically, culturally and scientifically? Bret Stephens, Global View columnist for the Wall Street Journal, explains.
Nikki Haley, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, phoned her Israeli counterpart on Monday to reinforce America's "ironclad support" for the Jewish state.
Haley pledged to Ambassador Danny Danon that she would block anti-Israel actions taken by the U.N., citing the security council's decision last month to condemn Israel for erecting settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
During her confirmation hearing before the Senate earlier this month, Haley vowed a pivot in U.S. policy toward Israel. The former South Carolina governor criticized the Obama administration's decision to abstain from the U.N. vote, calling the resolution a "terrible mistake."
"I will not go to New York and abstain when the U.N. seeks to create an international environment that encourages boycotts of Israel," Haley said on Jan. 18. "I will never abstain when the United Nations takes any action that comes in direct conflict with the interests and values of the United States."
At the Amnesty International Australia Facebook page, after they criticized the US ban on some travelers from some countries, someone asked if they were also against Arab states banning Israelis.
Their response? Not at all!
After people complained, Amnesty removed the post and claimed that it was a mistake:
So Amnesty Australia staffs its official social media accounts with volunteers who know absolutely nothing about what they are talking about? Who think that Arab nations started boycotting Israel after "occupation"? Who think that Palestinians are being displaced from their homes by "illegal settlements"?
And even the apology doesn't include a specific condemnation of Arab nations. It was just a backtrack saying that freedom of movement is a human right, and that Amnesty won't speak out against Arab violations of human rights because they only have finite resources.
You know how expensive it is to post a statement on your own Facebook account. It would strain the resources of any multi-million dollar NGO.
Even with this poor apology, we can see that Amnesty will hire people who are reflexively anti-Israel. You will never see any "mistake" that is pro-Israel on any of their social media accounts.
You cannot blame the poor "volunteers" either. They only know what they see from Amnesty, after all, and while Amnesty's official statements strive to be technically accurate, they know very well that their readers won't parse the statements to the degree necessary to figure out the truth. Any casual reader of Amnesty and HRW press releases would be convinced, just like this supposed volunteer, that Israel is evil, that Arab nations bravely stand behind Palestinians with their boycott of Israel that began before there was a state of Israel, that "illegal settlements" are displacing hundreds of thousands of Arabs, and that the IDF routinely engages in "atrocities."
This is the message that Amnesty gives out even if they won't say it explicitly, and they know very well how their statements are read.
But Arab antisemitism? PA arrests of dissidents? Hamas expelling people from homes? The PLO paying terrorists? No, that cannot be discussed - because there are only so many hours in the day and so many dollars in their budget, and the 741st anti-Israel report takes precedence over any research that might show Arabs as being anything other than poor victims of Israeli brutality.
(h/t Yenta)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
I noted on Sunday that Fatah and a Palestinian Authority minister had slammed UN Secretary General António Guterres for mentioning the Temple in Jerusalem during his Holocaust Remembrance Day speech.
Now the PLO itself (which is the self-styled representative of all Palestinians worldwide and which the Palestinian Authority reports to) has officially stated that Jews have no history to speak of in Jerusalem, by denying that there was ever any Temple on the Temple Mount.
Guterres had told Israel Radio that it is “completely clear that the Temple that the Romans destroyed in Jerusalem was a Jewish temple.”
The PLO issued a statement saying that the entire area (including the "walls," a reference to the Western Wall) is entirely Muslim and no others have any claim, and that UNESCO agrees with this.
The PLO slammed the Secretary-General, questioning his neutrality, saying that his remarks showed that he openly sides with the state of the Israel and its "occupation" and that his words "betrays his ignorance of clear international resolutions on Jerusalem."
The PLO went on to demand an apology from the United Nations and from Gutteres himself for "these dangerous statements, which are contrary to international law, which the United Nations has the task of maintaining and applying."
It went further, calling on the international community and NGOs in general, and Arab and Islamic countries in particular, to "play their role and respond to those allegations."
This isn't the first time that major Palestinian officials have denied any Jewish history in Jerusalem. Yasir Arafat famously denied that the Jewish Temple was in Jerusalem during peace negotiations. There are many other examples. Yet I had never seen it as an official statement from the PLO before.
This is a perfect topic to ask Saeb Erekat or Hanan Ashrawi about the next time they are interviewed. Too bad reporters aren't willing to challenge these liars on basic questions.
Fantasy and lies are part and parcel of the PLO's positions. Which means that any agreement with them is impossible, since they cannot be trusted to tell the truth about anything.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Mondoweiss has an article that says that there is a "Zionist connection" to the Quebec mosque shooter - because he "liked" the IDF on his Facebook page.
This is the level of discourse that the anti-Israel crowd uses. They know it is garbage but they always try to find the most ridiculous connections between anything Israel-related and any mass murderer or reprehensible human being in a pathetic attempt to discredit Zionists. (In one example they tried to link me to mass murderer Anders Breivik by falsely claiming that I praised his manifesto in an article where I called him "evil" and a "psychopath.")
I tweeted how ridiculous this logic is after Max Blumenthal did the same thing:
Quebec massacre suspect "Liked" Sprite on his Facebook page, proving that Sprite drinkers are terrorists according to @MaxBlumenthal
So I decided to see how easy it is to link Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada and Blumenthal to the neo-Nazi site, Stormfront, using their own methods.
Stormfront doesn't just put a Facebook "like" to these anti-Israel sites. It quotes them repeatedly.
Stormfront has quoted both Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada over 100 times each! Ali Abunimah himself is quoted by the neo-Nazi site some 36 times. Philip Weiss manages to get quoted 90 times. Max Blumenthal gets quoted (almost always approvingly) over 80 times.
Clearly, neo-Nazis have a warm space in their hearts for Philip Weiss, Ali Abunimah and Max Blumenthal.
Keep in mind that I am in no way saying that these anti-Israel sites and writers are neo-Nazi. They are politically distant from the far-Right (except for the fact that both the far Left and far Right are antisemitic.)
But I am saying that if you accept the stupid methodologies of Mondoweiss and EI and Blumenthal, then you must accept that they themselves have a lot in common with and inspire neo-Nazis, by their own stunning pseudo-logic.
Joking aside, the neo-Nazi ties to these individuals and sites are far deeper than the supposed Zionist links of the neo-Nazis. Hundreds of quotes linking them are far more significant than a Facebook "like."
EI and Mondoweiss truly are the research arm for neo-Nazis. And that is beyond dispute.
So every time they claim that some far right murderer and terrorist is linked to Zionists, point out that they are much more "guilty" of this linkage than Zionists are - by their own methodology. Feel free to use the image I created. Let's see how much they like taking their own medicine.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
For years, foreign policy critics, politicians and outraged members of the general public have been urging the US to defund and quit the United Nations. Some have advocated that a rival or successor organization should be established. Now there is a movement calling to “defund and replace” the troubled organization with a new world body: The Covenant of Democratic Nations. This writer has been a participating witness to the birth of that movement.
Just days after controversial UN Security Council Resolution 2334 declared, among other things, that Israel’s Jewish connection to the Western Wall was effectively illegal, concrete replacement action began. It started with proposing an official international conference to endorse a diplomatic convention that would be ratified by countries as a binding treaty. The entire process would be limited to nations governed by democratic principles. Each member would or could defund the United Nations, while it labored to construct a successor entity dedicated to world peace along democratic principles with equal respect for all people regardless of religion, gender, race, identity or national origin. This body would also include a mechanism to resolve disputes.
A prime mission of the new world organization would be to re-ratify, amend or nullify all acts and resolutions of the United Nations and its agencies such as UNESCO. Just as unjust American laws perpetrating slavery, Jim Crow, segregation and institutional inequality were overturned, updated and reformed, so too could the damage done by the UN. Sensibly, most CDN nations would remain as vestigial members of the UN, overseeing its collapse — just like when the League of Nations was dissolved after World War II and replaced with the present UN.
The American Jewish uproar at Trump’s actions shows first and foremost the cynicism of the leftist Jewish leadership.
It isn’t simply that left-wing activists like Hetfield and Eisner cynically ignore that Trump’s order is based on Obama’s policies, which they didn’t oppose.
It is that in their expressed concerned for would-be Muslim refugees to the US they refuse to recognize that the plight of Muslims as Muslims in places like Syria and Iraq is not the same as the plight of Christians and Yazidis as Christians and Yazidis in these lands.
The “Jews” in the present circumstances are not the Muslims, who are nowhere targeted for genocide.
The “Jews” in the present circumstances are the Christians and Yazidis and other religious minorities, whom Trump’s impassioned Jewish opponents and Obama’s impassioned Jewish champions fail to defend.
Trump’s executive order is far from perfect. But in making the distinction between the hunters and the hunted and siding with the latter against the former, Trump is showing that he is not a bigot.
Unlike his critics, he has learned the lessons of Roosevelt’s moral failure and is working to ensure that the US acts differently today.
The gravest sin he committed, however, one which should disqualify him for any association with the Holocaust Museum, is his complicity in the genocide in Syria.
Like Nero, Obama has figuratively fiddled while Syria burned. After stating that Bashar Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his opponents would cross a red line that would trigger a US military response, Obama failed to back up his threat. This cowardly act was universally viewed by friends and foes alike in the Middle East as a sign of weakness, and left allies, including Israel, questioning whether they could depend on the US to protect their interests.
Fortunately for Obama, he had Rhodes to manipulate the “echo chamber” and sell the amoral narrative that America could not act to stop war crimes and genocide in Syria because it would jeopardize nuclear talks with Iran.
A bystander to genocide has no business in a position of honor or responsibility at an institution devoted to documenting past genocides and preventing future ones.
Rhodes was worse than a bystander, he was an active participant in the decision not to act to prevent the slaughter.
President Trump should call for Rhodes’ immediate resignation. In addition, a campaign should be conducted through the echo chamber calling on the chairman and the rest of the museum’s council to remove Rhodes forthwith to prevent his presence from tarnishing the reputation and mission of this vital institution.
Islam Maquosi, a man in his twenties, died from burns suffered after setting himself on fire a few days ago in from of a charity for people with disabilities in the Bureij camp in Gaza
Maquosi poured gasoline on himself and set himself on fire to protest against how he has been treated.
A few years ago, a Hamas jeep hit Maquosi, injuring him. Hamas refused to take responsibility for the accident that cause years of suffering to the young man.
Just another story from Gaza that you won't read about in the media.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
In Jerusalem there is no comment on the assassination in Sfax, although the military reporters, a small caste of about thirty "trusted" journalists with access to classified information, have eyes that sparkle and smile in the corner [when asked]. In private, most of them suggest that the services of other countries would not be alien to the operation. Others stressed that Egypt also wanted to put an end to the engineer since Hamas would have helped the Islamists linked to Daesh who are fighting the Cairo army in the Sinai desert.
In any case, the "liquidation" of Al Zoari was conducted like a James Bond movie: a truck blocked his car and two European-type killers riddled it of with about twenty bullets, of which three hit him in the thorax.
According to the Tunisian police, at least eight men were involved in the case. Four suspects, including a Belgian of Moroccan origin and a mysterious Hungarian "journalist" who met Al Zoari on the eve of his assassination before disappearing without a trace, are currently being sought. In addition, four cars (including two rental) linked to the assassination were found as well as two pistols equipped with silencers.
In order to erase the traces of the operation, hackers broke into the surveillance system of a restaurant near the place of the assassination and erased the contents of the recordings made by the cameras.
Hamas, as always, vowed revenge.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, almost everything has changed. Above all, new threats have emerged with a previously unknown military logic of their own.
The Oslo idea, in its quest to end Israeli control over Palestinian citizens, was largely realized by 1996, when Israel concluded the withdrawal of its forces from the populated territories of the West Bank. Some 90% of the total Palestinian population of the West Bank has been controlled since then by the Palestinian Authority (PA). Moreover, the Israeli presence in Gaza ended in 2005.
Eastern Jerusalem and Area C in the West Bank, held by Israel, are the minimum required for the conservation of a defensible territory. Without the buffer area of the Jordan Valley, it would be impossible to prevent the quick arming of Palestinian terrorists in Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, in his last speech in the Knesset (October 1995), was resolute on Jerusalem and emphasized the crucial hold by Israel of the Jordan Valley and the lateral routes leading to it. Rabin envisaged a political entity short of a fully-fledged Palestinian state.
Rabin implemented the Oslo Accords to reshape the area delineated by Israeli security interests. As part of this effort, he led a drive to construct a network of bypass roads in Area C, without which the IDF would have had great difficulty advancing its forces during Operation Defensive Shield (2002).
Without a constant hold on Area C, Israel has no defensible borders. The way Rabin delineated the expanse of Area C demonstrates his farsighted understanding of the importance of those areas beyond the 1967 borders, which must be in Israel's full control.
(Kontovorich starts at 23:30, the first guy is terrible)
Since the Obama administration abstained from the United Nations Security Council vote on Resolution 2334 that condemns Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Jerusalem, there has been much speculation as to the force, effect, and consequence of this Resolution. There are many concerns, including that this United Nations declaration may enable boycotts of Israel and that the Palestinian government might attempt to utilize the pronouncement to bring Israel before the International Criminal Court. President Trump’s has stated that he intends to alter or blunt the instrument. What will be the effect of this United Nations censure, and what are the options available to President Trump?
Featuring:
Prof. Bernard Avishai, Adjunct Professor of Business, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Visiting Professor of Government, Dartmouth College
Prof. Orde Kittrie, Senior Fellow, Foundation for Defense of Democracies, Professor of Law, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University
Prof. Eugene Kontovorich, Professor of Law, Northwestern Pritzker School of Law
A music video broadcast twice on the Fatah-run TV station Awdah featured photos of suicide bombers while the lyrics promoted death as a Martyr for the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
The music video opens with a recording of Yasser Arafat infamously saying: "They [the Israelis] want me captive, exiled or dead - but I tell them: [I will be] a Martyr! Martyr! Martyr!" Excerpts from the song promote Martyrdom as an ideal. The video includes photos of two female suicide bombers who in total murdered 3 Israelis and wounded over a hundred during the PA terror campaign in 2000-2005 (the Second Intifada).
"Al-Aqsa has called, and its call is precious
For its sake, life is insignificant, even if it's precious...
God, grant us Martyrdom there
God, promise us, we beg of you...
A million grooms and brides at the celebration
Have written the marriage contract in blood on the veil
(visual of suicide bomber Wafa Idris, killed 1 and wounded over 100, in Jerusalem attack)
A million grooms and brides at the celebration
Have written the marriage contract in blood on the veil
(visual of suicide bomber Ayyat Al-Akhras, killed 2 and wounded 28, in Jerusalem attack)
Filled with desire, they are going to the Paradise of immortals
To a wedding procession with angels that fill Palestine with light."
[Fatah-run Awdah TV, Jan. 23-24, 2017]
The clip also shows pictures of two Palestinian children who died during the PA terror campaign.
It is 1967. What would become known as the Six Day War has begun and Menachem Begin, invited by Prime Minister Levi Eshkol to join an expanded emergency cabinet, has an idea.
There is a meeting in the basement shelter of the Knesset and the news is announced that Jordan has decided to join Egypt and Syria in battle. Begin and Labor Minister Yigal Allon suggest that the reaction to Jordan's shelling of Israel should be the liberation of the Old City of Jerusalem, lost in the 1948 War following a UN ceasefire. Begin urges quick action before a similar ceasefire again leave the city divided.
Moshe Dayan opposes the idea based on the human cost of expected house-to-house fighting in addition to the potential damage to Christian and Muslim holy places -- leading to a world-wide outcry against Israel and opposition to Israeli control over Christian and Muslim holy places. Instead, Dayan suggests it would be enough to just surround the Old City and wait for it to fall.
Allon responds that the Jordanian lines were crumbling and Israel could go in. More to the point, it is essential for there to be a Jewish presence both deep within the Old City and on the Temple Mount itself.
In the end, a 4am news report from the BBC that the UN is planning to declare a ceasefire leads to another meeting where it is agreed to recapture the Old City. [Source: The Prime Minsters, by Yehuda Avner, p157-9]
The rest is history.
---
The issues then have not changed over the years when discussing the step of moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The Israeli reaction has.
The question of Congressional legislation to move the embassy came up during the 1984 presidential campaign. Democrats Walter Mondale and Gary Hart both came out in favor of the bill introduced by Senator Daniel Patrick Moynnihan, while President Reagen threatened to veto such a bill.
The response of an Israeli Foreign Ministry official at the time was less warm: "I'm very leery of trying to tread on a Congressional debate and an argument between the President and Congress, a constitutional problem of who runs foreign policy."
A decade later, in May 1995, news about what would become enacted that November as the Jerusalem Embassy Act, did not excite Israelis either. Prime Minister Rabin, suggested the Likud was behind it with the aim of "torpedoing" peace negotiations. Foreign Minister Peres tried to distance Israel from the bill, saying there was "no need for our involvement."
Fast-forward to today. During his presidential campaign, Trump made a point of talking about moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
And now he is the President.
Again, it is not so simple.
Moshe Feiglin, founder and chairman of the Zehut party, was interviewed the day after the elections -- and he predicted that once moving the embassy became a very real possibility, Netanyahu would not be any more enthusiastic or outspoken than past Israeli officials. See the video below, starting at 1:03:
Events seem to justify Feiglin's pessimism.
This past Friday, Marc Zell, chairman of Republicans overseas Israel indicated that the Israeli government did in fact have cold feet:
Jerusalem Embassy delay not due to #Trump. Sadly Israeli government is dragging feet. Time to grow a backbonehttps://t.co/r6JMcKH4ub
The co-chair of the Republicans Overseas organization in Israel, Marc Zell, says that recent foot-dragging by Donald Trump's White House on moving the U.S. embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, is happening at Israel’s request.
Zell told Haaretz, citing both Israeli and U.S. sources, that “Trump has been unequivocally in favor of moving the embassy and remains so” but “he is proceeding cautiously because of concerns raised by Israeli officials.”
...Zell used Twitter again -- this time to walk back what he said:
Well I didn't quite put it that way. However it would be a shame to miss this historic opportunity. https://t.co/E0B7m5O1Ve
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu voiced support on Sunday for moving the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem but mentioned no time frame, after a Republican activist accused Israel of pressing the Trump administration to delay the pledged step.
Even in welcoming the idea, Netanyahu appears cautious.
Now as in 1967, a mix of of the threat of Arab violence and world disapproval appears to be the issue.
Back then, there was no time to delay, as the threat of a missed opportunity was very real. Then again, who today is as blunt and influencial as Menachem Begin?
The question is how much time does Israel really have to take Trump up on his offer, before he too decides to put the offer on the back burner or take it off the table altogether.
After all, at heart -- Trump is a businessman.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Donald Trump’s ban on travel to the US from some Muslim-majority countries has been denounced by the UN's rights chief as “mean-spirited” and illegal under international human rights law.
Zeid Ra'ad al Hussein said: “Discrimination on nationality alone is forbidden under human rights law."
The UN Human Rights Council that al Hussein heads includes Bangladesh, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Refugees are in the news. People are pledging to help them any way they can.
And UNRWA USA is trying to cynically make money off of the phenomenon - even though the organization does not want a single "refugee" under its mandate to ever move to the US and become a citizen.
The entire point of the protests is to allow refugees to come and live safely in the US. The entire point of UNRWA is to keep Palestinians in Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria, not to give them opportunities to become citizens anywhere in the world. UNRWA teaches generations of kids that they will one day "return" and therefore they should not seek better lives elsewhere.
UNRWA calls some 2 million Jordanian citizens "refugees." They aren't.
But UNRWA-USA wants to call them that so they can raise money.
UNRWA calls some 2 million people who actually live in the areas of British Mandate Palestine "refugees" - even though they live in the land they are supposedly refugees from. They aren't refugees.
But UNRWA-USA wants to call them that so they can raise money.
UNRWA claims there are twice the number of Palestinian "refugees" in Lebanon than are actually there. Lebanon discriminates against them and they suffer horribly - but "non-political" UNRWA, not shy about attacking Israel, won't say a negative word against Lebanon. It raises money based on 200,000 phantom "refugees" who are now in Europe or spread through the Arab world.
I have no problem with UNWRA helping Syrian Palestinians with food and shelter, but UNRWA's very existence means that they cannot be taken care of by UNHCR. These real refugees from Syria cannot take advantage of UNHCR's efforts to find homes for the other Syrian refugees.
UNRWA refuses to remove any "refugees" from that status - even if they become citizens elsewhere, even if their great-grandparents weren't born in the area of the Mandate Many are descended from people who were never refugees to begin with, but UNRWA refused to remove them from the rolls even in the 1950s. . There is no cessation clause in UNRWA's rules and regulations. Once a "refugee," your descendants can claim benefits from UNRWA for centuries to come.
This campaign is pure cynicism, and it is immoral in that UNRWA-USA is trying to fool well-meaning people who truly want to help refugees into instead donating to a giant self-perpetuating bureaucracy that wasn't meant to exist past 1951.
If you want to help refugees, give to UNHCR - which actually tries to solve the problem of refugees. Don't give to UNRWA whose existence is based on perpetuating the Palestinian "refugee" problem for generations to come.
And they know that - because the slogan here implies that UNRWA will continue to exist forever, as the number of fake "refugees" increases every year.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
The New York Times has an article about Israeli discussions of annexing Maaleh Adumim.
Buried in the article, not noticeable unless you really pay attention, are a couple of things that the media usually ignores altogether.
Here's one, in paragraph 15:
After eight years of little building, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu just allotted 100 new building units to Ma’ale Adumim, part of 2,500 new proposed housing units around the West Bank settlements, and another 560 in East Jerusalem.
For eight years we have been hearing about how Israel is building a huge number of houses in the territories and how that was preventing a two-state solution. And many of these charges came from Obama and Kerry.
Now that they are gone, the NYT admits that this is largely false - Israel hasn't built much at all during that time period.
Why was there no fact checking when Obama and Kerry made their statements? It isn't as if the facts were hidden; the numbers of new housing starts are public information and Peace Now has the numbers, also buried under the 8-fold counting of every single stage of building approvals making it appear that there were far more units being built than was true.
If the New York Times cares about truth, and is so keen to call the current president a liar, than why did they not do the same for Obama's false claims?
Here's the second piece of truth that accidentally was revealed by the NYT article: a photo of the mall in Maaleh Adumim.
Two Muslim girls (and an Ethiopian child) hanging out in the mall of this "settlement."
If you read the New York Times or other media, you wouldn't think that Arabs ever appear in the Jewish communities (except as laborers.)
Here we have Arabs voluntarily going shopping in the "Jewish only settlement" without any fear whatsoever.
Yes, sometimes the NYT reports the truth. But even when it does, you need to discover it - it won't be in the headlines or in the first several paragraphs of text.
(h/t Charlie in NY)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
There is only one example in Jewish history to which such behavior can be compared. The Jewish Bolsheviks also turned against their own people and ultimately the revolution consumed them. Unfortunately, the vociferous anti-Trump Jewish activists are a far greater proportion of the American Jewish community than Jewish Bolsheviks were among Russian Jews.
It is clear that in the Diaspora, committed Jews will remain overwhelmingly supportive of Israel while the pseudo-liberal or progressive Jews will become less interested in Israel and ultimately lose their identity. Indeed, Christian evangelicals now play a far greater role in promoting Israel than some of the mainstream Jewish groups.
We live in a world of chaos and upheaval.
Now is the time for all committed Jews to unite, stand together and concentrate primarily on securing their own rights. Diaspora Jews who, from their comfortable armchairs, claim a better understanding than Israelis of what is good for their security, should be treated with contempt. Israel is entitled to expect support from committed Jews over the next few years until it stabilizes its relationship with the world and creates an iron barrier to deter its genocidal enemies.
Once the threats to the Jewish people have been overcome, we can and will become more directly involved in tikkun olam and fulfilling Rabbi Hillel's wise advice. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Wednesday 25 January 2017 will go down as a sad day in the annals of the French Republic. It was the day when France’s freedom of thought and expression went on trial: one of France’s leading historians, Georges Bensoussan, 64, was hauled up before a criminal court accused of ‘incitement to hatred.’
Arraigned against him was the Collective Against Islamophobia in France, together with various other ‘anti-racism’ groups. The hearing went on for a gruelling 12 hours. At the end, a weary Bensoussan announced: ‘for the first time in my life I am having thoughts of leaving the country.’
The drama had begun 18 months earlier. During a TV discussion broadcast on 10 October 2015, Repliques, Bensoussan commented that France could not hope to integrate its Maghrebi immigrants unless it recognised that these immigrants imbibe antisemitism ‘with their mother’s milk’.
Georges Bensoussan, the son of Moroccan Jews, is one of France’s leading historians and editorial director at the Holocaust Memorial in Paris. The author of an 800-page volume on the uprooting of Jews from Arab countries, Juifs en pays Arabes: le grand deracinement 1850-1975, he claims that he was merely paraphrasing the words of a ‘brave’ Algerian sociologist, Smain Laachar. “Everyone knows it but nobody will say it,” Laachar had declared of Arab/Muslim antisemitism.
(h/t Elder of Lobby)
In 2014, the Telos Group was outed as an anti-Israel organization not living up to its "pro-Israeli, pro-Palestinian, and pro-peace" self-description.
Instead of building substantive bridges between Palestinians and Israelis, the bridge Telos appears most intent on building is a financial one between America and Ramallah. Telos's actions demonstrate the organization is pro-PLO/Palestinian Authority, not pro-Palestinian.
Telos is focusing its efforts on enabling a corrupt, oppressive PLO/PA government that has opposed peace on multiple occasions, oppressed its citizens by denying them freedom of speech and protection from religious persecution, and jailed journalists who dare to criticize the PA's undemocratic government and its abuses of its citizenry -- certainly not a pro-Israeli/pro-Palestinian/pro-peace agenda.
Peace with Israel is premised on Palestinians no longer supporting their children engaging in terrorist acts against Israel.
While Khalil appeals to UN Resolution 242's "inadmissibility of the acquisition of territory by war" to justify his position on Israeli settlements, he neglects to mention that this "land-for-peace" resolution was premised on the Palestinians halting all violence against Israelis and recognizing the State of Israel.
It is time to call the Telos Group for what it really is: Anti/Anti/Anti: anti-Israeli, anti-Palestinian, and anti-peace.
We've noted many times that Palestinians blame Israel for the many attacks by wild boars they experience. Mahmoud Abbas himself claims that Israeli Jews raise the animals (with rabbinic approval) just to train them to attack Palestinian Arabs and farms.
Now we finally have proof.
YNet reports that wild boars were found roaming around Bat Yam. Residents called police who tranquilized the animals and released them in an open area in Rishon LeZion.
Note that they didn't kill the beasts. They kept them alive, obviously for future mayhem against Palestinians!
The article notes that wold boars are a protected species in Israel - yet more proof that Israel is protecting the animals for their nefarious purposes of releasing them in Palestinian areas.
YNet notes that the wild boars can be found in the Sharon region, the coastal plain, the northern Negev, the Dead Sea and in some cities as well.
The Jews stop at nothing to raise them everywhere.
(h/t Bob Knot)
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
It isn't only in America that criticism of leadership gets unhinged.
I occasionally look at the "divrei Torah" from Rabbis for Human Rights, and the one from Parashat Shemot (Exodus 1) was a doozy:
In these days of rock bottom in leadership in Israeli society (and perhaps not only here…) – it appears that there is no avoiding being suspicious and skeptical of leaders, and thinking of them in negative terms — for instance their pursuit of power, corruption and hatred of “the other”.
And so, the first leader we meet in the parasha of Exodus, the new king of Egypt, also strengthens this feeling. This is a cruel and unscrupulous leader who is willing to use all and any means to achieve his goals. He uses tactics well-known to us, unfortunately, until this very day: instilling fear, creating a collective sense of threat, labeling one group as “enemies of the people”, and the systematic repression of that group as a solution. It might be the case that the king thinks he represents the true interest of the Egyptian people, but in the end he brings great suffering also upon his own people.
If comparing Israel to Nazi Germany is antisemitic - and it is - then so is comparing Israeli leaders to Pharaoh.
Rabbis for Human Rights is using the tradition of modern antisemites to paint Jews with the brush of those who tried to kill the Jews. Pharaoh, after all, also planned and attempted genocide against the Jewish people, and like Hitler he prioritized enslaving and murdering Jews over all else.
There is no moral difference between this sick parody of a Torah lesson and the modern Jew-haters who take great pleasure in saying that Jews have learned from their would-be exterminators.
People who call themselves rabbis have a moral obligation. This is immoral. It proves that "Rabbis for Human Rights" have far more in common with the antisemites than their targets do.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Because it is not Israelis who are perpetrating the abuse, the reports are ho-hum to these journalists.
Hamas is an extremist Islamist movement that does not consider itself obliged to abide by international laws and treaties concerning basic human rights. Indeed, the concept of human rights simply does not exist under Hamas in the Gaza Strip, where public freedoms, including freedom of speech and of the press, are non-existent.
In 2013, two Palestinian detainees reportedly died of torture in the Jericho Central Prison.
A London-based human rights organization reported 3,175 cases of human rights violations, including arbitrary detentions, by the Palestinian Authority (PA) security forces in the West Bank during 2016. Hundreds of those detained include university students and lecturers, as well as schoolteachers. During the same year, the PA security forces also detained 27 Palestinian journalists.
Unfortunately for them, they are not going on hunger strikes in an Israeli prison, where such actions garner the immediate interest of the mainstream media.
Many are willing to tell their stories. But who is willing to listen? Not Western governments, human rights organizations and journalists. Most of them seek evil in Israel, and Israel alone.
A senior Hamas official, Osama Hamdan, told Al-Jazeera recently that the organization was going to revise its charter and “addresses the antisemitic language.”
The new charter would remove references to “religion and race.” Hamas would make clear that it was only “against the Zionists, against the occupation of our lands.”
The Hamas admission that its 1988 charter is anti-semitic leads to the question: why did so many commentators, including Jewish journalists and Israeli academics, claim for so long that Hamas was moderate and ignore the antisemitism? The same voices who condemn President Donald Trump for racism and accuse his advisers of antisemitism eschew any mention of Hamas antisemitism.
A Jewish Voice for Peace “fact sheet” from 2015 about Gaza barely mentions Hamas and when it does it portrays it as a victim of Israel “breaking” truces with it and complains “most disturbingly” that Israel assassinated Hamas leader Ahmad Jabari. For years the public has been subjected to a misinformation campaign about Hamas. Those who call for a more liberal Israeli and Western society have often sought to whitewash Hamas.
The truth about Hamas antisemitism is readily available.
Israeli professor Dina Porat wrote in 2014 that throughout the Hamas charter’s 36 articles there are descriptions that “contain clearly antisemitic motifs that are expressed without mincing words. Zionism constitutes a Nazi- and Tatar-like invasion of Palestine, the charter states that, and Jewish Nazism is an evil enemy (article 20) that conducts itself like Nazism... the historical description is informed by and directly based on The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.”
Professor Meir Litvak wrote in 2005 in the Palestine-Israel Journal (PIJ) that “the harsh expressions made by Hamas should not be dismissed as mere rhetoric, as they serve to inculcate a state of mind among the movement’s activists and followers as well as socialize a younger generation of Palestinians.”
In short, Hamas provides education designed to create extreme antisemitism, welfare that comes with the Protocols attached.
Obama had the same schemes in mind as per Haman, consider his final trick at the last hour of his presidency.
No less than $221 million he parceled over to the same Palestinian Arabs whose main business is murdering Israelis.
Trump has since foiled the plot by placing a hold on the gift.
But there was much that could not be stopped as over a period of eight years Obama proved again and again that he had no love for the Jewish people.
No love for Christians, either, by the way. He would never bow to the Queen of England. But for the King of Saudi Arabia, yes he bowed.
He bowed to that type throughout his two terms. Never forget his joining the wolves at the UN to pass Resolution 2334 that was intended to devour the Jewish State.
Never forget his snubbing of Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu, the prime minister of America’s only true friend in the entire Middle East.
Never forget his secret deals with Iran – those billions of our money he forked over to his pals the mullahs.
The only reason for that was to give them the means to build bombs and rockets aimed at Israel and the United States.
Obama had no love for either country, certainly not Israel, and not even America, where by hook and by crook he got himself elected those two times.
One of the things I remember vividly from years spent
traveling in Europe (Eastern and Western) in the 1980s was the prevalence of
soldiers everywhere I went.
The machine guns carried by police in France and Italy
certainly caught me by surprise (especially after a stint in England where
bobbies still relied on their billy clubs).
But it was large numbers of men (really boys) in uniform clogging up the
trains I took from one city to another that was most jarring.
After all, despite America’s superpower status (rivaled back
then by the Soviet Union), my interaction with military personnel at home had
been quite limited. A few friends joined
the National Guard after high school, and occasionally a Dad who worked on a
nearby Air Force base would show up at a Boy Scout meeting in fatigues. But
even today, the sight of large numbers of military personnel (like a line of
soldiers getting off an airplane) seems so unusual that non-soldiers seeing
such an “event” feel the need to act as if something extraordinary is happening
(often by breaking into applause).
If my own experience raising members of the next generation
is any indication, the connection between the people who defend the nation and those
of us they defend has only grown more distant and abstract since the Cold War
ended. That airport applause is meant to
show that the sacrifices others are making on our behalf is appreciated, but
that appreciation is as much for the professional soldier giving us the space
to “get on with our lives” in ways that don’t require us to strap on a weapon
and go into battle ourselves.
The gap between what the soldier sacrifices to defend us
(including killing and dying) and what we sacrifice to be defended (paying
taxes and “supporting the troops”) is similar to the one a person might
experience when contemplating an object they purchased (be it a house, a boat
or a toy) vs. one they made with their own hands. In fact, much of modern anxiety (at least in
the West) likely stems from the disconnect between the things we enjoy
(comfort, entertainment, freedom) and what we have actually created or
sacrificed to possess those treasures.
I bring this up in the context of a point I’ve made
before about why Israel seems so unusual, even to those of us dedicated to
that nation and her people. Some of that
unusualness is the lack of a soldier-citizen distinction we experience at home,
represented by men and women in uniform everywhere in Israel, an armed
citizenry, and ubiquitous machine guns. But I would also highlight that the
average Israeli you run into can list things they, their parents and
grandparents did to actually create and build a nation – something few of us
can do beyond listing a “Greatest Generation” relative who might have fought in
World War II.
If happiness derives from purpose, this might explain why
Israelis are among the happiest people on earth, despite living under constant
threats ranging from random knifing to complete annihilation. In recent posts,
I’ve alluded to Israel’s early days when the nation was founded, exiles became
citizens and the nation triumphed in war after war with far larger deadly
rivals – all without the patronage of a superpower.
Some might attribute this spectacular success to God or
Jewish genius. But examples of other
nations (such as South Korea) picking themselves up and transforming through
commitment and will demonstrates that a citizenry with a sense of purpose and
mission can do stunning things, beyond even what can be accomplished by much
larger nations with far more resources whose citizens act as if they inherited
vs. built their society.
Getting back to our old friend BDS, I suppose it’s possible
that getting a few B-list celebrities to cancel gigs in Israel or getting a
West Coast food coop to stop selling Israeli bouillon cubes will completely
demoralize a people whose sense of shared purpose allowed them to build a country,
resurrect a language and culture, rescue men and women who survived genocide,
helped citizens achieve meaningful lives, and emerge victorious through nearly
a century of armed conflict. It doesn’t
seem like a good bet to me, but if any BDSers out there want to commit another
decade or three to the effort: knock yourself out.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
His speech had little to do with Africa and was filled with Israel bashing. Excerpts:
It is my pleasure, dear brothers and friends, for your kind invitation to us to attend your esteemed summit, here in Addis Ababa, and I highly value the support your association and its member states gives the State of Palestine in international forums, hoping for the continuation of this initial support and solidarity with the rights of our people to freedom, sovereignty and independence, and salvation from the Israeli occupation and its devastating effects on our people, and leading a comprehensive, just and lasting peace which guarantees the independence of the state of Palestine with its capital East Jerusalem, to achieve, to live in peace and security with the State of Israel on the borders of June 1967.
...We commend your efforts against the face of terrorism, we express our full support to cooperate with your association and your nations to combat terrorism, which we condemn in all its forms in our region and everywhere in the world.
...The achievement of a just and comprehensive peace that we seek, through the two-state solution, is in danger, because Israel's occupation means to undermine the chances of establishing an independent state of Palestine with its capital in East Jerusalem, and by continuing its occupation and control of the land of the State of Palestine occupied since the year 1967, and establishment of settlements, and the transfer of its own citizens to it, which creates a one-state reality on the ground with an Apartheid system imposed on the Palestinian people.
Here we emphasize that any prejudice to the status quo in the city of occupied East Jerusalem, and all the occupied Palestinian territories in 1967 would undermine the chances of achieving peace and laying the foundations of stability in our region.
The State of Israel is the occupying power in Palestine, it is still carrying on the same occupation, which was rejected by your predecessors the top leaders of Africa in the sixties and seventies of the last century, but they have increased their extreme and racist occupation and daily oppress the Palestinian people.
On this occasion, we thank and appreciation to all the members of the Security Council, particularly the African countries Senegal, Angola and Egypt which voted in favor of Resolution 2334, which condemns the settlements, and calls for suspending them as devastating to the two-state solution, and we urge the international community to work on the application of the protection of security and stability, and the chances of achieving peace in the our region. This will contribute to eliminate the forces of extremism and terrorism in our region and the world.
This is the most interesting part:
...We know very well that you have your interests, and that Israel is seeking to gain relationships with your countries.
But we ask you, dear friends and brothers, that this not be at the expense of the cause of the Palestinian people, and that as you stand with them over the past decades, which is still in need for cohesion of your positions and persistence in support, solidarity and support for Palestine, for the salvation from the obnoxious Israeli occupation .
Of course Abbas lobbied against any sort of cooperation between Africa and Israel, and he realizes that he has lost. So instead he is begging to maintain the solidly pro-Palestinian political positions of the African states, worried that he might lose that too.
Abbas also offered help to African nations, although what he can actually offer is not clear.
One wonders what the African nations' delegates think when they are subjected to another attempt by Palestinians to hijack a world forum for their own interests. Abbas paid lip service to Africa but that was window dressing for the main point of this speech - don't become too pro-Israel.
Observers say that the official proceedings of the African Union summit have little to do with what actually happens there in closed-room meetings, so this was a symbolic victory for Abbas and it was practically meaningless.
I have some thoughts on that, for an upcoming post.
ـــــــ
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
After his girlfriend called him a “Zionist Jew” and a “Jew lover,” an Arab Israeli man allegedly carried out two shooting attacks, which left one man dead and another seriously wounded, in the northern port city of Haifa earlier this month, the Shin Bet security service said.
On Monday, the suspect — 21-year-old Muhammad Shinawi — was charged with murder and attempted murder in a Haifa court for the attacks, along with two other men accused of helping him.
Yehiel Iluz, 48, a senior judge on a Haifa rabbinic conversion court, was moderately wounded at 9:30 a.m. on January 3, in the first shooting on the city’s Haatzma’ut Road. A few minutes later, the shooter opened fire at a Jewish woman, but missed. And a few minutes after that, Guy Kafri, 47, a van driver from Haifa’s Nesher neighborhood, was shot and killed on the nearby Hagiborim Street.
During his interrogation, Shinawi said he carried out the attacks “out of a nationalist motivation and hatred of Jews,” the Shin Bet said Monday in a statement.
According to the Shin Bet, before the attacks, Shinawi adopted more radical Islamic beliefs, considering Jews to be “unbelievers whose judgment is death.”
The “catalyst” for the attack, the Shin Bet said, was Shinawi’s girlfriend calling him “Jew lover” and “Zionist Jew.”
Rafat Asadi, a lawyer who lives in the neighborhood, told Ynet that he was surprised by the identity of the suspect, “an honors student” who comes from a “completely normal family, an exemplary family, that has had no run-ins with the law.”
In 2006, Shinawi also set fire to a Jewish family’s car, during the Second Lebanon War, the Shin Bet said.
So how else can a self-respecting Arab respond to being called a "Jew-lover," the worst of all insults, except to murder Jews?
Once again, the impetus is being shamed and a desire for honor.
In a couple of hours we will see Palestinian groups say that this is a "natural response to the crimes of the Zionist entity." Bit for now we are still in the stage where his lawyer insists he is innocent.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 14 years and 30,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
Steve Kramer – Is This a Joke (Iran)?
-
Steve Kramer – Is This a Joke (Iran)? A Christian, a Muslim, and a Jew
enter a bar. The bartender asks, “Is this a joke?” That’s how I feel after
reading...
Weekend long read
-
1) At the Fathom journal, David Hirsh explains ‘The Meaning of David
Miller’. “According to Bristol University Professor David Miller, ‘Britain
is in the...
Weekend long read
-
1) At the Fathom journal, David Hirsh explains ‘The Meaning of David
Miller’. “According to Bristol University Professor David Miller, ‘Britain
is in the...
TE Lawrence's "the Jewish section"
-
On September 7, 1917, this covering letter was sent by TE Lawrence to Gilbert
F. Clayton who was a British Army intelligence officer and after World War
...
SHINGLES!
-
[image: Dry Bones cartoon, 2021,shingles, birthday, International Women's
Day,]Note 1: I've missed a few days of Dry Bones cartooning because I have "
*Shin...
“Who’s a Jew?” Hits the Headlines, Again
-
Israel’s Supreme Court decided a few days ago that conversions to Judaism
by the Reform and Conservative movements in Israel must be recognized by
the stat...
Rosh Chodesh Women's Prayers
-
The Jewish Month of Nissan is rapidly approaching. Ladies, please join us
for Rosh Chodesh Prayers at Tel Shiloh.
Rosh Chodesh is traditionally consider...
Coke Goes Woke and Broke
-
“Get woke, go broke”, is a conservative meme about the cost of political
correctness that has it the wrong way around. Brands don’t go broke because
they g...
Good News Friday – Purim Same’ach edition
-
Purim has started (or is starting) around the Jewish world, and we are
celebrating a “triple Purim” which is quite a rare event. It started
tonight at sund...
‘Test & Trace’ is a mirage
-
Lockdown II thoughts: Day 1 Opposition politicians have been banging on
about the need for a ‘working’ Test & Trace system even more loudly than
the govern...
Oped in the Jerusalem Post (with links)
-
The Jerusalem Post published an oped of mine on the Al Durah affair. Here
it is, unedited, with links: Al Durah Affair 20 Years On Today is the 20th
annive...