Saturday Links

From Ian:

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Honest Reporting: Maybe Israel Isn’t Behind the Middle East’s Despair

The just resolution of the Israeli-Arab conflict is impeded by a decades-old intolerance of the Jewish presence in the Middle East. Because rejecting the right to self-determination is unpalatable to a western mindset, this intolerance is disguised through inversions. It is a conflict that is passed off as territorial, but is existential. It masquerades as a concern for “human rights” but ignores true injustice. It heaps selective opprobrium on Israel alone for an impasse in peace talks but overlooks official Palestinian Authority glorification of terrorism and jihad which makes peace anathema.

Sarah Honig: While we keep kvetching

Camp David eventually flopped, according to Ben-Ami, because “the Palestinians refused to give us any inkling about where their demands would terminate. Our impression was that they constantly sought to drag us into a black hole of another concession and another, without there being anything like a discernible finish-line.”
Ben-Ami’s unavoidable conclusion was that “more than the Palestinians want their own state they want to condemn ours… They always leave loose ends… to keep viable the option that at some future point someone would pull these ends and unravel the Jewish state.”

Kerry to visit Israel, Palestinian territories next week

Secretary of state to make third trip to the region in as many months since taking the post

Stand With Us: Palestinian History of Violence


Barry Rubin: Who’s More Dangerous: Sunni or Shia Islamists?

In short, while one can make the case for Shia Islamism being the more dangerous—at least as long as Iran might get nuclear weapons—one must very carefully examine the implications of that judgment in every specific case. Promoting Sunni Islam is no panacea but rather substitutes longer-term for shorter-term threats.

From Al Jazeera to Columbia University: Joseph Massad’s obsession with Israel

Whether the resulting ideas are articulated in a Columbia University classroom or on Al Jazeera or Stormfront makes little difference as far as their substance is concerned. I tried to illustrate this point in my recent post on Massad with some quotes (I have added here two more) that are either from Massad or from Stormfront – see if you can tell them apart:

The Interfaith Racket: Passport to Credibility

Could anyone get anything more wrong? People wanted to "knock [Ahmed] down" because he was the first Muslim peer? Because Ahmed was the first Muslim peer, most people were eager to do anything they could to cover for him, forgive him, reinstate him time and again – and even now, as the rabbi has just shown, are not able to believe the words that came from his mouth in Pakistan because they so differed from the words that came from his mouth at interfaith meetings in London.

Yet Another Jewish Org Poised to Honor a BDS Enthusiast

American Friends of Soroka Medical Center are giving an award at their gala to Mandy Patinkin, an American Jewish celebrity who supports economic warfare against Jews living and working in Judea and Samaria.

Sinai Bedouin Hint: We Were Better Off Under Israel

Bedouin tribes in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula implied on Thursday that they were better off living under Israeli rule and that they have been suffering since Israel withdrew from the region as part of the peace agreement with Egypt.

One dead, dozens wounded in sectarian clashes in Egypt

One person died and dozens were wounded during clashes between Muslims and Christians late Friday night outside a Coptic church in Egypt's second city, state newspaper al-Ahram reported, in the latest violent sectarian row in the Muslim-majority country.

Assad's Government Tortured Citizens, Says HRW

Syrians were arbitrarily detained and tortured by government forces in security buildings in northern Syria, says Human Rights Watch.

Syrian rebels: Dozens hurt in chemical weapons attack in Damascus

Forces loyal to President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons-laced mortars in a Damascus neighborhood Saturday, injuring dozens, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights claimed.

Unmoved by Israel, Russia will send top air-defense system to Assad

Moscow says it must honor its deal with Damascus, even though Netanyahu warned Putin that delivery of S-300 missiles could plunge the region into war

Moroccan jailed for plotting to bomb Milan synagogue

A 22-year-old Moroccan man has been sentenced to more than five years in prison for planning terrorist attacks on Milan’s main synagogue and Jewish school.

Gush Halav: Home to the Maronites

Khalloul explained that like Father Abraham, the Maronites originated in Aram (an enormous area stretching from Mesopotamia to the Mediterranean Sea). Over time, they dispersed throughout the Middle East. When the Arabs swooped into the region early in the 7th century, they tried to force Islam on the Aramaen population in general and the Maronites in particular. Yet despite immense pressure, the Maronites, like the Jews, refused to abandon their faith. Since then, Aramaen Maronites have been continually persecuted by the Arabs. Most of the area’s Maronites eventually moved for safety into the Lebanese mountains, where they tilled the rocky hills. Thousands were killed in a bloodbath that took place in the mountains in 1860.

The Farhud – the riots against the Jews of Iraq

During Shavuot, Iraqi Jews will commemorate the 72nd anniversary of the “Farhud” – the riots that took place on Shavuot, June 1-2, 1941. In the riots reminiscent of Kristallnacht in Germany, 179 Jews were murdered, hundreds more wounded and much Jewish property looted.
The memory of the riots remains fresh in the minds of Iraqi Jews.
Similar attacks occurred against almost all Jewish communities in Arab countries, for thousands of years. The Jews did not declare war on their hosts.