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Tuesday, June 17, 2014

06/17 Links Pt2: The peace process hoax; Could Jordan Fall?; Obama Fiddles While the World Burns

From Ian:

The peace process hoax
Over 100 years ago an impossible dream was conceived to create a state for the beleaguered Jews, where they could for the first time in 2,000 years be masters of their own destiny.
That dream has been destroyed by the peace process, with the very legitimacy of the Jewish state now contingent on the eventual formation of a Palestinian terror state.
Israel has allowed its sovereignty to be eroded bit by bit, and unless the Jewish state extricates itself from this insanity, the international community will go on perpetuating the two-state lie until Israel is weakened to such a point whereby the real “solution” of its enemies can be actualized.
Israel has been destroyed before; it might never have been reconstituted if Jewish farmers and Holocaust survivors had not vanquished seven invading Arab armies in 1948.
Brandeis Professor Slams Israel, 'Holocaustic Ethnic Cleansing'
In documents obtained by TruthRevolt, Brandeis University professor Donald Hindley slammed Israel and an initiative to plant trees in the "occupied, terrorized but still Palestinian territories" in 2007.
Under the subject line "Plant a Tree, Bury a Palestinian," the professor of politics declared, "[t]here's something wrong with this exhortation to send even more money to Israel- this time in order to plant olive trees." "We cut down Palestinian olive trees, while planting new ones on the expanding Jewish frontier."
"Zionist olive trees grow wondrously on Palestinian corpses," he added. "In that way, we combine great trees with our own holocaustic ethnic cleansing."
In April, Hindley was among 87 Brandeis faculty members who petitioned for the cancelation of the honorary degree extended to human rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali.
Could Jordan Fall?
Security officials acknowledge that ISIS already has cells in Jordan. King Abdullah II of Jordan does himself no favors. Like Mikhail Gorbachev in Russia or Ayad Allawi in Iraq, Abdullah is far more popular abroad than he is at home. Indeed, when he assumed the throne upon the death of his father, Abdullah was fluent in English but stumbled through Arabic. His wife Rania might charm Western audiences and might be imagined to attract Palestinian support because of her own heritage, but her profligate spending and tin ear to the plight of ordinary people has antagonized many Jordanians.
Many tensions Jordan faces are not Abdullah’s fault: While Jordan has, more than any other Arab state, worked to integrate the Palestinian refugee population, it has also been hit by waves of refugees, first from Iraq and then from Syria. Those working among the Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan report that they have not previously seen such a radicalized population. Jordan also does not have the natural resources of some of its neighbors: Saudi Arabia and Iraq are oil-rich and Israel now has gas.
Mudar Zahran: A Palestinian Jordan: Opportunities vs. threats
The concept of a Palestinian state in Jordan is not new. In fact, Jordan was created based on the Faisal-Weizmann agreement by which Jews agreed to give away 78 percent of the British Mandate for Palestine to the Hashemites to establish a homeland for the Palestinian Arabs.
The Hashemites have never kept their promise. Even today, the UNHCR reports that Jordan’s Palestinian majority is still treated as “refugees” by Jordan’s king.
Still, the concept of a Palestinian Jordan – and a Jewish Israel – has come back to life after the Arab Spring.



Shmuley Boteach: Obama Fiddles While the World Burns
And who most pays the biggest price for this lawlessness? Why Israel, of course, with three teenagers now kidnapped by what appears to be Hamas, an organization that the United States officially labels as terrorists but whose joint government with Mahmoud Abbas we now recognize.
Through all this, Barack Obama drifts along, meditating on his mantra of “let’s do nothing stupid.” But I have long believed that the true sins we are guilty of in life are not the sins of commission, the mistakes we make, but rather the sins of omission, the good things we fail to do.
Sometimes the dumbest thing is to fail to act because of the fear of doing dumb things.
Barack Obama is fiddling while the world is burning. Israel is already smoldering under its heat and it won’t be long before America too is cindered.
Hillary: Hamas Officials 'Largely Technocrats'
Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told an audience in Toronto on Monday that she supported President Barack Obama's decision to work with the Palestinian Authority's new unity government, even though it includes the Hamas terror organization, because the new governing officials are "largely technocrats."
"I think it's a holding position," Clinton said, describing Obama's stance. "And the reason it's a holding position is that the makeup of this joint [Fatah-Hamas] enterprise are largely technocrats. They're academics and they're business people. They don't represent sort of, what you might call hard-core Hamas leadership."
Abbas Urged to Declare 'Jihad' Against the 'Zionists'
The Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups on Monday condemned Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas over the cooperation between Israeli and PA security forces in the search for the three kidnapped yeshiva students.
The two groups said that instead of cooperating with Israel, Abbas should declare “jihad” against the “Zionists.”
Senior Hamas official Yahya Moussa demanded that the PA renounce all the agreements it signed with Israel, and in particular on security-related issues, noting that the PA’s security cooperation with Israel is contradictory to its security strategy.
IDF blog: In Response to Rocket Fire, IDF Targets Terror Sites in Gaza
Earlier tonight, a rocket was launched at Israel from the Gaza Strip. In response, an IAF aircraft targeted a terror activity site in the southern Gaza Strip, a weapon manufacturing facility in the northern Gaza Strip and two weapon storage facilities in the central and southern Gaza Strip.
Direct hits were confirmed.
PM cancels Australia trip in light of ‘recent developments’
As the search for three Jewish teenagers kidnapped in the West Bank continued into its fifth day, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday canceled a trip to Australia, set to take place in two weeks’ time.
Netanyahu said that in light of “recent developments,” he would remain in the country at least until the end of the month, Channel 2 reported. An Israeli official told The Times of Israel that Netanyahu had canceled the visit to Australia for a number of reasons, but did not specify whether the kidnapping was one of them. He said the prime minister had considered postponing the visit even before the abduction took place.
Baby Injured in Arab Stone Throwing
Arab terror knows no age limits. On Monday evening, Arab terrorists stoned a car driving on the main road near Azun.
One rock broke through the back window, injuring a baby in the back seat from the shards of glass.
The mother managed to drive to Karnei Shomron, where the baby received medical attention.
Why is Writer for ‘The Hill’ Standing by a Palestinian Terrorist?
Securing a visa to live in the United States, and ultimately to become an American citizen, is a great privilege for immigrants seeking a safer, more prosperous life.
It is not, however, a right open to all comers. Neither is it a system to be gamed.
Josh Reubner’s column Tuesday in The Hill’s Contributors Blog, “Why is Obama’s DOJ prosecuting a torture victim?” betrays an ignorance of the law and misleads about the facts in the case against Rasmieh Odeh. (h/t Bob Knot)
Arafat's bodyguard: Arafat lied when he condemned terror attacks


Egyptian Arab Writer Says Awakening to Horror of Hamas; No Longer Sees Movement As Force for Good
Ahmed Abdel-Raheem, an Egyptian Arab poet, writer and doctoral student, said that a chance meeting with a fearful Gazan from Khan Yunis, who related the horrors his family suffered at the hands of Hamas, definitively soured his impression of the militant political party now in a unity government with former rival Fatah.
Writing in The Commentator, Abdel-Raheem said: “As an Arab, when I heard about the Fatah-Hamas unity government, I was happy and saw this as positive. In fact, like many in the Arab world, I had always thought that Hamas was a force for good and represents a majority of the Palestinian people.”
“However, my eyes were opened via a chance meeting I had recently with a Palestinian from Khan Yonis who related some horrible stories that disclosed to me a dark side of Hamas that had not been visible to me,” he wrote.
No Debate Allowed at Anti-Israel UCLA 'Debate'
While Shafir was supposed to be the focus, the speakers fawned over Areej Sabbagh-Khoury, a young Arab-Israeli woman who is project coordinator for the Mada al-Carmel Arab Center for Applied Social Research in Haifa and a PhD candidate at Tel Aviv University. A key moment in the seminar came when she asked her fellow speakers when exactly the Palestinians became indigenous and none of them, despite basing their entire narrative on the "indigenous Palestinian" story, could answer the question. She had no idea herself, nor an idea how to find the answer. Perhaps that's because the assertion that they're indigenous is based not on historical research but on modern misinformation.
The conference was rife with such lapses, but an absent-minded, biased professor is no less damaging than an effective one. Spreading the false narrative of Jews as colonizers and Palestinians as victims, Middle East studies academics are able to corrupt generations of impressionable young minds. And taxpayers are left footing the bill for what amounts to anti-Israel propaganda.
Let’s Boycott Hypocrisy
When Professors call for an academic boycott of Israel, I do not know whether to laugh or cry. Professors represent the pinnacle of scholarship and teaching. They represent the spread of discourse and positive criticism that should expand our perspectives and better our world. And then we have academic boycotts, which represent a censorship that stands antithetical to the values of education.
As scholarly teachers, it should be the professor’s job to challenge his or her students to critically interact with course material, connecting it with real-world issues that the student can bring to civic life. We must ask what professors supporting the academic and cultural boycott of Israel are encouraging their students to bring to civic life. Hypocrisy is what I see.
Sinead O'Connor says she'll back out of Israel show if she can
O'Connor, who is scheduled to perform in Caesarea on September 11, has apparently given in to the pressure.
“I was not informed by my booking agent, and was unaware myself, that a boycott of Israel had been requested by the Palestinian people," the singer said in a now-deleted statement published on her website (Google cache version). "I agreed to perform having been unaware any such boycott had been requested. Had I been aware I would not have agreed to perform."
The statement was removed several hours later, but O'Connor has not changed her mind. She later added, "If I cannot remove myself from the show without cost to myself, then I will perform because I can’t afford the legal costs involved in not performing.
"I do not appreciate being bullied by anyone on either side of this debate any more than I appreciate not being properly informed by my booking agent of the potential ramifications of accepting work in war zones."
Censorship or sanctions? Traveling art exhibit faces BDS
The exhibit is co-organized by Creative Time, a New York-based nonprofit that commissions and presents public art, and Independent Curators International (ICI), and organization that produces traveling exhibits, events and publications around the world. Creative Time’s chief curator Nato Thompson coordinated the exhibit in collaboration with 25 curators from around the world.
However, instead of generating peaceful dialogue and community engagement, a new group calling itself the BDS Arts Coalition is writing to participating artists and asking them to withdraw their pieces from the tour as it is currently based at the Technion Institute in Haifa.
Desert Island distortions on BBC Radio 4
The June 15th edition of BBC Radio 4′s ‘Desert Island Discs’, presented by Kirsty Young, featured Raja Shehadeh in the guest seat.
Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the programme is its across the board erasure of Palestinian and Arab violence over the decades, but other parts of the context-free political narrative it promotes and amplifies are also notable.
After the introduction, in which she mentions Shehadeh’s role as co-founder of Al Haq but fails to inform listeners of that organisation’s political agenda, its use of ‘lawfare’ and its support for BDS,
Pro-Israel, anti-Jihad websites still banned in Tel Aviv
Last Autumn I blogged about the fact that the Tel Aviv Municipality free wifi service (FREE_TLV) was banning pro-Israel, anti-Jihad websites. I did an updated check a few days ago and, as you can see from these iphone screenshots, the ban is still in place. So it is still the case that websites like thereligionofpeace (which simply documents jihadist attacks and news stories) is blocked for "Discrimination" while Robert Spencer's jihadwatch is blocked as (strangely) "Advocacy Organisation".
It is not surprising therefore that so many Israelis I meet continue to so drastically underestimate the level of hatred targeted at them from around the world (the main stream media in Israel is no more informative about the Islamist threat than the main stream media in Europe).
Focus below the line: Guardian readers ‘reflect’ on Israel and the Jews
Though the large volume of articles and op-eds at the Guardian and its blog ‘Comment is Free’ (CiF), and elsewhere in the UK media, containing distortions or false claims naturally keep us pretty busy, we have also – since our founding in 2009 – regularly monitored reader comments below the line at ‘CiF’ to see if the moderation process is fair and consistent with their ‘community standards‘.
This post is part of a series which will re-focus on the problem of biased moderation at CiF – particularly, reader comments which are off-topic, ad hominem or antisemitic, and yet not deleted by moderators.
Today we focus on a ‘CiF’ contributor with the moniker MikePilgrim, who left quite a few comments over the last few days.
US Jewish security arm holds international summit
The security arm of US Jewish groups held its first International Security Summit in response to recent attacks on Jewish communities.
The Secure Community Network, or SCN, convened the convocation of more than 80 senior government and law enforcement officials, homeland security and community leaders in New York last week in the wake of violent attacks targeting the Jewish communities in Kansas and Brussels.
Israel, Netherlands going Dutch on high-tech
Under the title of “Healthcare Innovation Day, The Netherlands – Israel,” held in Amsterdam last week, dozens of Israeli companies had a chance to impress Dutch business interests hoping to tap into Israeli brainpower.
Dutch electronics titan Royal Philips hosted the event at its company headquarters in Amsterdam.

“You cannot innovate by yourself,” said Bert Van Meurs, senior vice president of Philips Healthcare. “Innovation is all about cooperation.”
Ghana economy to get $100m Israeli cash injection
The visiting Israeli Foreign Minister in Ghana Igor Liberman has announced that his country was ready to invest $100 million in the Ghanaian economy.Speaking on arrival at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra on Sunday, Mr Liberman, said his visit was the follow-up of the trip he made to Ghana in 2011 where certain agreements were signed.
He said he was in the country to concretize those agreements.
Mr. Liberman is accompanied by 60 Israeli business delegates who are in Ghana to explore investment opportunities in the West African country.
IAI, Rheinmetall integrating anti-missile systems
Naval self-defense systems to counter sensor-guided missiles are being combined by Israel Aerospace Industries and Rheinmetall of Germany.
IAI said its plan will see the ELM-2222S Navguard advanced radar system integrated with the German company's Multi Ammunition Softkill System, or MASS.
In testing of the integration, the resultant system performed successfully against incoming sea-launched and land-launched missiles.