04/06 Links: Kerry can’t keep kidding himself; Staring Down the Devil at the UoM

From Ian:

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David Singer: Kerry can’t keep kidding himself

Kerry now needs to immediately focus his attention on Jordan – the last Arab State to have occupied the West Bank between 1948 -1967 and which – together with Israel – comprise the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine 1920-1948.
Redrawing Jordan’s international boundary with Israel to restore the status quo existing before the outbreak of the 1967 Six Day War – as far as is now possible given the changed circumstances on the ground – provides a realistically achievable alternative to the doomed Israel-PLO negotiations.
Lorenzo Kamel – a historian at Bologna University and a visiting fellow at Harvard’s Center for ­Middle Eastern Studies – has published an error-riddled article attempting to distance Jordan from becoming involved in any such negotiations – which Kerry should unequivocally reject.
Kamel’s following misleading claims have been corrected by my bold responses:

'Palestinianism' Doesn't Allow for The Peace Process to Succeed

Abbas reportedly issued three “No’s” in his meeting last month with President Obama: no recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; no giving up on the “right of return” of millions of Palestinian descendants of 1948 refugees to Israel; and no final end to the conflict with Israel in any agreement.
Those three “No’s” were no surprise. A “Yes” on any of those issues would give Jewish Israel legitimacy and permanence, and thus would be wholly inconsistent with Palestinian identity. Even though, from a practical standpoint, recognition of a Jewish state of Israel would cost the Palestinians nothing, it would undermine the basic tenets of Palestinianism.
The Palestinians have been offered a state three times since 2000 on virtually all of the disputed territories. They have rejected each offer. They cannot accept a “two states for two peoples” formula without compromising who they are.

Staring Down the Devil at the University of Michigan

I was not prepared to be told that, if I cared about human rights, I could not support Israel. I was not prepared to be told that my community was racist. I was not prepared to see my fellow students attacked with anti-Semitic slurs. And I was most definitely not prepared to be told that “anyone wearing the Israeli army uniform is a Ku Klux Klansman who does not deserve any place at any table in polite society because they are racist killers trying to break the back of Palestine, and they have succeeded.”
I heard these words for the first time as a newly elected student government representative in the winter of 2012. The University of Michigan’s Central Student Government (CSG) consists of a 50-person elected assembly with representatives from every undergraduate and graduate school. During the weekly assembly meetings, there is a section for Community Concerns, during which people have three minutes to address the assembly on any topic. I expected that this time slot would consist of students discussing new curriculum requirements or better dining facilities. Instead, it often consisted of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic hate speech. Every week certain individuals would urge students to take action against “the racist, Nazi state of Israel”; and every week I would sit there feeling utterly helpless.

Israeli spies ‘bugged Peel Commission’ at mufti’s Jerusalem hotel

Israel’s pre-state Haganah military force spied on the meetings of Britain’s Peel Commission in a Jerusalem hotel in 1936-7, and rushed to establish dozens of new Jewish settlements in what was then British Mandatory Palestine in part because they realized the commission would otherwise offer the Jews sovereignty in only a very small section of the Holy Land, a TV report revealed on Saturday night.
The Commission headed by Lord William Peel, which was set up to investigate the causes of unrest in Palestine and wound up recommending the partition of the Holy Land, was headquartered from late 1936 to mid-1937 in what was then the Palace Hotel near the Old City of Jerusalem. The hotel was built by the then mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, a fierce opponent of Jewish statehood who would later collaborate with Hitler’s Nazi Germany. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Netanyahu: If PA acts unilaterally, so will we

The Palestinians will achieve a state only through negotiations and not through “empty declarations or one-sided actions that only push a peace agreement further away,” Netanyahu said, speaking before the weekly cabinet meeting.
“Unilateral actions from the Palestinians will be answered with unilateral actions from our side,” the prime minister added, and decried the Palestinian decision last week to apply for state-level membership in a group of international treaties and conventions.
“Unfortunately… just when an agreement to continue the talks was getting close, the Palestinian leadership unilaterally applied to join 14 international bodies, violating the terms of the agreement that was reached,” the prime minister said.

Israeli sources say peace talks could resume

The sputtering Israeli-Palestinian peace talks could resume soon because both sides understand that this is the final opportunity to forge an agreement, Israeli sources close to the negotiations said Sunday.
American pressure to continue the talks could convince the two sides to resume formal meetings, because “the sides understand that this is the last chance,” a senior Israeli official told Yedioth Ahronoth.

Hearing Reveals PA Building 'Facts on the Ground'

MK Motti Yogev (Jewish Home), Chairman of the Subcommittee of Judea and Samaria in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, established in a special hearing on Sunday over illegal Palestinian Arab building in [Israel-controlled] Area C.
Now, in light of the PA's bid for international legitimacy at the UN and torpedoing peace talks, Yogev sharply criticized PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas for establishing facts on the ground.
"Mahmoud Abbas establishes facts on the ground against the law, with or without negotiations," he fired. "He does derides Israel, and all agreements signed with us forever, in the first place - how can we call him 'a partner for peace'?"

Bennett Calls to Bring PA to Hague Over War Crimes

Jewish Home Chairman Naftali Bennett published a manifesto on Sunday morning explaining why he believes that the Palestinian Authority (PA)'s application to international organizations for legitimacy will not do much harm to Israel - and, according to him, is really bound to hurt the PA itself.
"Every year we renew a 'festival of threats': if we don't do what the PA wants, they will go to the UN, they will turn into a country and slam us at the Hague," Bennett wrote. "This is their 'judgement day' weapon. A Defense Minister once gave it this name: the 'political tsunami."
"But it's time to change this concept," he declared. "This is not the PA's 'judgement day' weapon. The rifle is empty."

A blueprint to combat the assault on Israel’s legitimacy in Europe

Although successes of the BDS Campaign have been relatively limited in scope, the greater danger is that it keeps spinning the propellers assaulting Israel’s legitimacy. Therefore, we must remain both vigilant and take actions to combat this.
In the meantime, we must also be mindful that those leading the assault on Israel’s legitimacy are becoming increasingly clever, nuanced and manipulative in their tactics. In many parts of Europe, and indeed around the world, it is no longer socially acceptable to be openly anti-Semitic or flatly reject Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state. Instead, today’s anti-Semitism is directed not only against Jews as individuals, but also in the vilification and assault on Israel’s legitimacy, as the Jew amongst the nations, with false claims and malicious distortions of truth disguised as acceptable criticism of Zionism and Israel.

JVP Attempts to get its Foot in the Door at UCLA

Jewish Voice for Peace is desperately trying to expand its reach into college campuses. If you were JVP and were anxiously trying to scrap a foothold into UCLA, where would you do your recruiting?
Yep. You guessed it. The group most compatible with JVP's narrow focus is none other than Students for Justice in Palestine.
The Students for Justice in Palestine website is now promoting and recruiting for Jewish voice for Peace members- among its own ranks. Adding insult to injury, their meeting place of choice is Hillel's own kosher cafe.

Anti-Israel bigotry rears its ugly head at Toronto's Ryerson University VIDEO

On Wednesday evening, Jewish students were boo'd and jeered on their way out of an auditorium as the Ryerson Students Union officially boycotted Israel.
A video account paints a shameful portrait of bullying and intimidation of campus. It shows a fiercely politicized room of students squeezing out a group based on their cultural identity. It's shocking, it's in downtown Toronto, and it's subsidized by your tax dollars.

Two-Faced Tutu and the Fight for Free Speech

By defending “those who speak their conscience,” Tutu is apparently expressing concern for the free speech rights of those who want to boycott Israeli academics. Defending free speech, of course, would be a noble position for Tutu to take – if only he applied it equally across the board.
But Tutu doesn’t really care about free speech at all. He cares only about harming Israel. Otherwise, he would have joined the 250 college presidents and 134 members of Congress who reject academic boycott as an affront to academic freedom. A true fighter for free speech would have, at least, railed against both measures.
But not Tutu.

Former MK convicted of meeting with PFLP in Syria

Former MK Said Nafa (Balad) on Sunday was convicted of meeting with deputy secretary general Talal Naji,of the Popular Liberation Front for Palestine (PFLP) terror group during an illegal trip to Syria in 2007.
Nafa was found innocent of a separate charge of meeting or trying to meet with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal, though the court said it's finding of innocent on that front was more about preserving the principle of beyond a reasonable doubt than it was a show that the court believed Nafa was innocent.

Convicted terrorist to speak at Tel Aviv University

Tel Aviv University's right-wing student groups will hold a rally in Antin Square on Sunday at noon to protest the scheduled speech by a convicted terrorist to take place on Monday.
Mohammed Kana'ane was invited to speak at a conference organized by left-wing students in honor of Land Day, which commemorates the deaths of six Galilee Arabs in 1976 riots over a government decision to confiscate land.
Kana'ane served nearly five years in an Israeli prison for his involvement with Hezbollah and for funding weapons-making training.

Israel strikes targets in Gaza after rocket attack

Israeli aircraft struck targets in the Gaza Strip late Saturday night, hours after Palestinian terrorists fired a Kassam rocket at the coastal city of Ashkelon.
The rocket fell south of the city. It did not cause any damage and there were no casualties reported.
“IAF aircraft targeted 5 terror sites, 4 terror sites in the northern Gaza Strip and an additional location in the southern Gaza Strip,” the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said in an email statement. “Direct hits were confirmed.”

In Response to Ongoing Gaza Aggression, IAF Targets Terror Sites (INFOGRAPHIC)

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF Spokesman: “The retaliation this evening at Gaza terrorist aggression was precision, and intelligence based. It is our obligation to seek out those that wish to attack us, eliminate their capabilities and pursue them wherever they hide. Hamas rocket terrorism is an intolerable reality Israelis should not have to accept”.
Since last month, approximately 131 rockets were launched from Gaza at Israel, out of which 82 rockets hit Southern Israel. These figures include the massive rocket attack that took place between March 12-March 14, when a barrage of 70 rockets hit southern Israel, and 5 additional rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome Missile Defense System.

Arabs Hurl Firebombs at Jerusalem Nightclub

Arab terrorists on Saturday night hurled four firebombs towards a nightclub in the French Hill neighborhood of Jerusalem.
One of the firebombs burst just outside the nightclub. No one was hurt. Police have arrested three Arabs suspected of involvement in the attack.
The attack comes just several days after Jerusalem resident Raphael Delarosa was attacked while driving his car in the French Hill neighborhood. The attackers, from the Arab neighborhood of Issawiya, threw stones and bricks at his car, shattering the rear windshield.

Bulgaria Prosecutor Confirms Discovery of ID of Burgas Bomber

Tsartsarov was quoted on Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) saying Friday that while he could not yet divulge the identity of the suicide bomber who targeted Israeli tourists at Burgas's Sarafovo Airport, investigation material and findings, including the bomber’s identity, had been transferred to the Burgas prosecutor for the preparation of indictments.
He estimated that the indictments against the suspected culprits would be ready in several weeks.
“The trial of those involved in the attack was supposed to be opened at the end of February or early March, but recent findings about the about the identity of the third perpetrator will require a little more time to complete the preparation of the updated indictment," said Tsartsarov.

Erdogan’s game

Indeed, US President Barack Obama has held Erdogan up as a model for enlightened Islamic democracy and he has never retracted this characterization. Moreover, his administration has pressured Israel to apologize for having foiled Erdogan’s Mavi Marmara provocation and to pay compensation to the so-called victims.
Erdogan wins twice – both from having challenged Israel and manufactured a new enemy for Turkey as well as from having reduced Israel to seeming submission.
We must be exceptionally careful in our dealings with him.
Israeli knee-jerk instincts, though, are to lap up any remote indications of acceptance and a restoration of normalcy.

With YouTube Banned, Turkish Productivity Soars (satire)

Turkish economic indicators rose over the last week as the productivity figures were released, and Erdogan now says he is considering making the ban permanent. “Initially the blockage of YouTube grew out of concern for the dignity of the government and for public order,” explained the president in a statement. “But it has proven of economic value as well, with office workers in particular no longer wasting hours of their days uploading and viewing the antics of people’s cats.”
Tentative official statistics for the week that straddled the end of March and the beginning of April show an uptick of nearly 33% over the same period a year ago. Government agencies that collect and analyze the data will produce firmer numbers by the end of June that take into account other factors and adjust the numbers to reflect various changes in the workforce since last year that also affect the statistics. But the stark increase in workers simply doing their goddamn job without sharing clips of badly edited conspiracy theory propaganda already has companies and government ministries considering what other online services may be holding back productivity.

Play About Muslim Man Who Discovers His Parents Are Jewish Seeking Funds

Jewish comedian and writer David Baddiel is seeking public support to help produce a musical based on his film about a British Muslim man who discovers his parents are Jewish.
London’s Theatre Royal Stratford East is in development to premiere The Infidel in October, London’s Evening Standard reported on Wednesday. However, the theater needs another £55,000 on top of around £200,000 already raised in order to produce the show.
Baddiel, 49, retained the stage rights to the story when he wrote the 2010 film, which starred British-Iranian comedian Omid Djalili.
Music for The Infidel is written by Erran Baron Cohen, the brother of renowned comic Sacha Baron Cohen. Working with Baron Cohen, whose previous work includes music for Bruno and Borat, convinced Baddiel that The Infidel would work well as a musical, he said.

Discovering Jewish History on the Golan Heights

Although the site appears relatively small compared to the cities destroyed by the great earthquake of 749—it encompasses just 7.5 acres—Umm el Kanatir is a researcher’s paradise due to its wealth of aboveground archeological evidence, visible to the naked eye and dating primarily to a single period. It is almost as if someone pulled a tablecloth out from under a full dinner spread with the wine glasses falling like dominos.
This is not the only thing that makes the site so unique. The much larger city of Beit Shean, for example, collapsed in similar fashion and offers a larger variety of archeological remains. In Umm el Kanatir, however, unlike almost anywhere else, it is possible to reconstruct nearly 100 percent of the village’s central structure, using the original, basalt-hewn stone blocks to do so.
Even more meaningful, especially in the context of Jewish history in the Golan during the Byzantine and Talmudic periods, is that this structure has been positively identified as a synagogue; and not just any synagogue, but an intricately decorated masterpiece that testifies to the sheer wealth of the community that built it. For the first time ever, using a unique restorative technology, the world will be able to see a fully reconstructed Talmudic-era synagogue in its original form using the original building materials, just as it appeared nearly 1600 years ago on the tragic day of January 18, 749.

Breakdancing troops wow Facebook

A video clip showing a trio of break-dancing IDF soldiers was shared over a thousand times since it was uploaded to Facebook on Thursday.
The video, uploaded by a Facebook user to the page of “Son of the Drummer,” a percussion group focused on street performance with everyday objects, shows two Nahal infantry soldiers and a female soldier from an unknown unit impressing the crowd outside the Jerusalem Central Bus Station.