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Monday, July 14, 2014

07/14 Links Pt2: Another Blood Libel from the PA; Sticks And Stones Do Break My Bones

From Ian:

Official PA daily: Jews' God demands "Passover Matzah made from the blood of our children"
The following is the article in the PA daily claiming that the Protocols of the Elders of Zion teaches Jews that their God wants Passover "Matzah made from the blood of our children"
"Under the fire that has been burning against us for a month now, our national unity has endured in an exceptional manner. Our unity, which extends from the northern tip of the Galilee (northern Israel) to the southern tip of the Negev (southern Israel); from Gaza to the West Bank and Jerusalem, from the farthest place of exile to the homeland...
We are one nation, one cause, one entity, one hope and one right, and we will not leave this land, for it is our land. All tales and myths can go to hell; Jerusalem will remain our capital, even if they use their nuclear bombs against us...
We have nothing with which to speak to these Israeli murderers, who go too far with their crimes, and whose God, 'Yahweh', is called the Lord of Hosts and demands, according to the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, that they offer him sacrifices during Passover in the form of Matzah made from the blood of our children. We have nothing with which to open a dialogue but these rockets. Have all the Arab, Islamic and Palestinian peace initiatives managed to draw even a single voice to engage in dialogue with us?"
EXCLUSIVE: Inside Brandeis University's Faculty Listserv
This listserv, entitled “Concerned,” was created in 2002. It began “out of concern about possible war with Iraq.” It contains 92 subscribers, including professors from outside of the university. Participants express their fear and disdain on issues ranging from United States foreign and domestic policy, the “American system,” and “the Israelists,” to “President ‘Obomber’” and “ Hillary ‘Obliterate Iran!’ Clinton.”
“Houston, we have a problem,” warned Mary Baine Campbell, a Brandeis English professor. “Ayaan Hirsi Ali claims to have had a difficult early life, and it may be true. However, she's an ignorant, ultra-right-wing extremist, abusively, shockingly vocal in her hatred for Muslim culture and Muslims, a purveyor of the dangerous and imaginary concept, born of European distaste for the influx of immigrants from its former colonies, ‘Islamofascism’ – which has died on the vine even of the new European right wing. To call her a ‘woman's rights activist’ is like calling Squeaky Fromm an environmentalist.”
“To honor someone at graduation who is notorious for inciting hate, defending violence and insulting the bearers of one of the world's most populous faiths, including many students and faculty, not to mention parents, is not 'hosting.' It's complicity in defamation,” she added.
Giving Turkey a dose of its own medicine?
An Israeli NGO has assisted Cypriots in filing a war crimes complaint with the International Criminal Court prosecutor against Turkey over its occupation of Northern Cyprus. The complaint, filed on Tuesday and referred to as a communication, was made on the 40th anniversary of Turkey’s occupation of the northern part of Cyprus.
The NGO, Shurat HaDin-Israel Law Center, has been involved in a wide range of human-rights cases and substantially assisted in researching and drafting the complaint on behalf of Greek Cypriot groups, including Cypriots Against Turkish War Crimes (CATWR) and MEP Costas Mavrides.
CATWR is an association comprised mainly of Cypriots and refugees from the Turkish invasion of Cyprus.
The petitioners call on the ICC prosecutor to open an investigation into ongoing alleged Turkish crimes against Cyprus, in particular the continued maintenance and establishment of Turkish settlements in the occupied territory. (h/t Bob Knot)
Israel Under Fire: HonestReporting Statement on the Media
As the IDF’s military operation enters its second week, HonestReporting is increasingly concerned about media coverage casting Israel as the aggressor against innocent Palestinians in Gaza.
We emphasize that the casualty figures reported in the media do not represent the true intentions of the two parties. Israel has made and continues to make every possible effort to save the lives of civilians on both sides while the Hamas terrorist organization fires rockets indiscriminately at Israeli civilians and calls on its own people to act as human shields, even at the cost of their lives.
Regardless of the outcome on the ground, victory in the current conflict will be determined in the court of public opinion. We therefore call on all media outlets to report fairly and accurately on the conflict, provide proper context, and acknowledge the true aims of both sides so that people can be informed enough to make a proper assessment of the conflict.



Honest Reporting: Carpet Bombing Gaza
Let's look at the following report from France 24 correspondent Gallagher Fenwick. What he says is so shocking, that you had better click on this link and watch the video and listen to his words (rather than the edited quotation.) If you don't have time, here is what he says:
"It sounded, of course we were not up there to witness it, but it sounded very much like what was going on was almost what could be described as carpet bombing of entire buildings and areas and in those neighborhoods in Northern Gaza creating scenes of panic and chaos with tens of thousands trying to flee."
War is war: Why I stand with Israel
As my list above implies, I can't pretend to be entirely neutral: I stand with Israel, as the hashtag has it. Even if I didn't find the Zionist claim to a state in the historical Jewish homeland compelling, I'd still feel inclined towards Israel for reasons of solidarity.
What I mean by this was expressed beautifully by Howard Jacobson in 2009. So little has changed since then that, after I read it for the first time recently, I assumed it had been written this week. You should take the time to read the whole thing, but the nub is this: there is legitimate criticism of Israeli government policy, and then there is the international anti-Zionist movement, and the two bear scant relation to one another.
Tyson, Toddlers, and Balance
There is much to learn from Owen Jones’ much retweeted Guardian post last week about the alleged “imbalance” in Israel’s favor at the BBC and, by implication, the rest of Western media and politics, but not necessarily what Jones intends. Jones extrapolates from one solitary headline on the BBC’s website two discernible arguments. Neither argument stands up to the barest of scrutiny, but let’s start with the headline.
“Israel under renewed Hamas attack” was the “perverse” headline that the BBC ran from which Jones deduces the “macabre truth that Israeli life is deemed by the western media to be worth more than a Palestinian life.” If this were the only headline the BBC ran on the violent escalation over the past week, Jones might have a point. But it wasn’t even the only headline that day. All week, there have been from five. to ten stories on the fighting. Some stories are filed from Israel and focus on the Gazan rocket attacks; some are filed from Gaza and focus on Israeli air and naval attacks; others are diplomatic stories or personal stories or focus on one particular incident which the BBC editors seem to think is interesting or noteworthy. The story Jones references was filed from Ashqelon, a city in southern Israel that absorbed a large number of rocket attacks from nearby Gaza. The day before the report, Hamas in Gaza had gone from a policy of tolerating and encouraging other militant groups in the Strip to fire rockets at Israeli civilian centers, as it had for the previous two weeks, to actively participating in these attacks itself with its much larger, more numerous, and more sophisticated rockets. Hamas had, literally, renewed its attacks on Israel after twenty months of cease-fire. This was a significant development because it meant a large Israeli military operation would inevitably follow. This is lost on Jones who picks one headline to make a sweeping and falsifiable generalization.
Independent demonizes Sderot residents for cheering IDF strikes on Hamas
Sderot, dubbed the bomb shelter capital of the world, is a working-class community located 2.5 km from Gaza, and has absorbed the largest percentage of the thousands of rockets fired from Gaza at Israel since 2001. Such ubiquitous attacks have killed 13 Sderot residents, wounded dozens and profoundly disrupted daily life.
Post-traumatic stress disorder incidences among young children of Sderot, as with depression and miscarriages among the adult population, are abnormally high.
Naturally, they are not too fond of Hamas, the movement most responsible for the terror their community has suffered, and are pleased whenever the IDF attempts to reign in their rocket launching capacity.
Yet, a surreal report by Adam Winthall at the Independent on July 13th, which focuses on fifty Sderot residents who gathered to watch the conflict unfold at a lookout point northwest of the city last week, frames their pleasure at the periodic sight of Hamas terror sites being shelled as nothing short of sadistic.
Hamas uses BBC brand for fauxtography propaganda
As readers are no doubt aware, last week BBC Trending put out a video report on the use of misleading pictures on Twitter under the hashtag GazaUnderFire, mostly by people outside the Gaza Strip. That report – which appeared on the BBC News website – was an offshoot of a radio programme on the same topic which we discussed here.
However, neither BBC Trending nor any other department has shown any interest whatsoever in the topic of the use of conventional and social media by Hamas for propaganda purposes - despite the fact that there are numerous recent examples.
That lack of interest appears to have caused the BBC to fail to notice that it has itself been co-opted to Hamas propaganda.
A picture circulated by Hamas purporting to show a teenager in Gaza killed by an Israeli airstrike is in fact a still image from the Hollywood horror film ‘Final Destination 4′, as can be seen in this video below.
Hamas propaganda uses Hollywood - The Final Destination4 (NSFW language, graphic)


BBC fails again to report Hamas order to civilians to act as human shields
Notably, Knell makes no effort to inform BBC audiences why those civilians were warned to leave the area. She fails to make any mention of the fact that the northern part of the Gaza Strip is used by terrorist organisations as a launching site for missiles. And she too refrains from informing viewers about the demand made by Hamas and the Palestinian Ministry of the Interior that those people to return to their homes and act as human shields for those terrorists.
Clearly the deliberate omission of any mention of Hamas’ use of human shields in any of the BBC’s written and filmed reports means that audiences are being denied essential information necessary for them to form an informed opinion on this issue.
Yasmin Alibhai-Brown: Vicious and Misdirected
One of the ugliest responses to Israel’s Operation Protective Edge comes courtesy of serial Israel basher Yasmin Alibhai-Brown in The Independent under the headline “Israel’s reaction has been vicious and misdirected.”
Referring to a personal confrontation with a “spitting mad British Jewish businessman,” Alibhai-Brown writes:
"This vignette dramatised the mindset of hardline Zionists. It is a combination of paranoia, indiscriminate loyalty and odium towards any person or group opposed to Israel’s violent oppression of Palestinians."
France’s Simmering Intifada
No one can predict when the next explosion will come, but come it surely will. As Hussy points out, the rioters in the banlieues often describe themselves as soldiers in a “long war.” Nonetheless, the French government tries to deny that Islamic jihadists can be behind the violence. It prefers to call the periodic uprisings merely a “spontaneous popular revolt” by kids reacting to racism and poverty, and similar euphemisms. As one prime minister put it after some serious car-burning, cop-baiting riots, “There have been no riots in France, only some social unrest.” This at least has the merit of historical consistency: Denial until events forced sudden, catastrophic change was how France mismanaged revolt in Vietnam and Algeria—and how French kings of the ancien rĂ©gime dealt with popular unrest in the eighteenth century.
The mainstream media generally go along with this, downplaying the rioting as just another form of the usual rebellion by malcontents against the powers that be. “Many French political commentators are blind,” says Gilles Kepel, a professor at Paris’s Institut d’Etudes Politiques who has studied and written extensively about Muslims in France. “They do not want to see the world beyond France. And so they do not understand that what happens here is because of our relationship with the Arab world, and our history there.” He likens the current tensions to the convulsive 2011 Arab Spring revolts in the Muslim world.
Abbas, Auschwitz, and Palestinian Strategy
It was often remarked that the late Palestine Liberation Organization leader, Yasser Arafat, would sound moderate when speaking in English and utterly intransigent when speaking in Arabic. Much of the same could be said about his successor, Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority.
In an exclusive op-ed for Haaretz—published to coincide with the Israeli newspaper’s one-day conference on peace in Tel Aviv that was rudely interrupted by a barrage of rockets from Gaza—Abbas sounded rather statesmanlike. “As the president of the Palestinian people I am totally committed to the vision of a two-state solution, normalization and peace with our neighbor—Israel,” Abbas wrote.
Such statements are music to the ears of the White House. In his own Haaretz op-ed, President Barack Obama stated admiringly that in Abbas, “Israel has a counterpart committed to a two-state solution and security cooperation with Israel.” Obama could not, however, bring himself to say something positive about Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Real issue: no peace partner for Israel
The real problem is the lack of a peace partner. The Palestinian government is made up of Fatah, which has walked away from generous Israeli offers of a state in 2000, 2001 and 2008, has now walked away from negotiations, and insists on flooding Israel with millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees; and Hamas, which is committed to Israel's destruction.
There will only be peace when both sides are prepared to negotiate in good faith and make painful concessions, and true friends of the Palestinians should be trying to convince them of this essential truth, rather than serving as apologists for their misdeeds.
Killer of Eden Atias receives life sentence
The Palestinian teenager who stabbed IDF soldier Eden Atias to death on an Afula bus last November was sentenced to life, plus three years on Monday.
The 16-year-old, whose name was withheld due to his age, is a resident of the West Bank city of Jenin and was residing illegally in Israel prior to perpetrating the attack.
Atias, 19, was asleep on the bus when he was stabbed 17 times by his attacker.
Police: We Failed During Gil-Ad’s SOS Call
Police Chief Yohanan Danino told the Knesset Internal Affairs and Environment Committee that 540 Israeli Arabs have been arrested during rioting following the kidnap/murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
In addition, Assistant Commander Moshe Barkat noted the police emergency hotline’s “failure” to deal with the SOS call from Gil-Ad Sha’ar on June 12. He said officers manning the hotline should have dealt with the call as an emergency.
Barkat also said that officers that failed to act appropriately had been summoned to the police disciplinary committee.
Nanino added that officers are scheduled to be fired, but added that like all employees in the State of Israel they have rights and that those rights must be respected.
Israelis Visit Family of Slain Palestinian Boy, Criticized for 'PR Exercise'
A group of Israelis who visited the family of slain Palestinian teen Muhammed Abu Khdeir found the family split between warm welcomes and open hostility towards what some perceived as a publicity stunt to justify attacks on Gaza.
The Christian Science Monitor reports that the experiment, in which a group of Israelis unrelated to the incident visited the family, was met with mixed results. The elder members of the family were warm and appreciative of the visit. In one instance, an Israeli woman who asked not to be named cried with Khdeir's mother--one over the lost 16-year-old child, the other over her current inability to have a child. “[Suha Abu Khudeir] told me, ‘I hope you will have a child and know what it’s like to be a mother, and that nothing will happen to your child,’ ” the woman told the publication.
Others did not achieve such a connection with the family. One of the participants told the paper he felt "duped" for coming to the visit at all, after leaving the group upon one of the Palestinians insisting the Knesset, the Jewish legislature, was "evil." He explained that he wanted to visit the Palestinian side of Jerusalem to make a point: “I came because it is abundantly clear in the Arab world that Jews condemn the murder of Israeli Jews. But it is not abundantly clear that Jews condemn the murder of innocent Arabs."
Sticks And Stones Do Break My Bones
Palestinian activists often describe rock throwing with a general disregard for its hazards. They often justify the rock throwing by saying Jews don’t belong in the land and that the West Bank should be Judenrein (Jew-clean). Additional justifications tend to revolve around the argument that the land was stolen from the Palestinians, which completely, and erroneously, negates the history of Arab belligerence against Israel.
Despite Palestinian rock throwers being seen by the international community as ‘unarmed civilians,’ rocks are deadly weapons meant for one purpose: To injure, maim and kill. Over the years there have been countless incidents of Palestinian rock throwing against Jews resulting in the injury and deaths of many innocent Israeli adults and children.
Instead of rebuking such heinous acts from its citizens, Palestinian authorities have reward violence against Israel and Jews by naming schools, hospitals, and streets after the murderers. A recent Palestinian opinion poll, from the Washington Institute for Near East Policy shows that an overwhelming majority of Palestinians opposes any goal other than the elimination the State of Israel.
Dutch pass motion against PA paying terrorists
The motion, which passed unanimously, was supported by the 148 lawmakers who voted on the motion. The Dutch lower house, or the Tweede Kamer, has 150 members.
“The parliament asserts that since 2011, the Palestinian Authority transfers money to Palestinian convicts in Israeli prisons [and] that these moneys can have a negative effect, in which criminality and terrorism are rewarded,” read the motion which was submitted by Joel Voordewind and Kees Van der Staaij of the Christian Union and SGP: Reformed Political Party parties, respectively.
In the motion passed July 3, the Dutch parliamentarians also “request the government to take effort, also in European Union frameworks, for ending this Palestinian policy” and “to inform branches of government and parliament” of the policy before the annual vote on the foreign ministry’s budget.
Denver clergyman called out on "Jewish problem"
In the 1920s and '30s, Nazi supporters of Adolf Hitler took to the German streets: "Juden Raus!" ... "Jews Out!" ... "Jews to Palestine."
In our time, European supporters of Hamas hold banners aloft: "Jews out of Palestine!" Now comes a new wrinkle in the never-ending quest to solve the "Jewish problem."
In a comment on Facebook, the Rev. Larry Grimm of Capitol Heights Presbyterian Church in Denver makes this offer to the 6 million Jewish citizens of Israel: "America is the Promised Land. We all know this. Come to the land of opportunity. Quit feeling guilt about what you are doing in Palestine, Jewish friends. Stop it. Come home to America!"
The Corrosive Self-Delusion of the Presbyterian Church’s Israel Divestment Vote
Self-Delusion No. 5: “Divestment does not reflect anti-Semitism.” It does. After the divestment vote, PCUSA leaders protested that they “love their Jewish brothers and sisters”—clear evidence they were worried about anti-Semitism. JVP activists trumpeted their Jewish identity, declared their support for divestment, and reassured PCUSA members that many Jews actually support the measure, even though JVP is a fringe group far outside the mainstream of American Jewry.
The obsession with Israel was another tell-tale sign. All 14 resolutions in the committee were about Israel and the Palestinians. The silence about the atrocities in Syria, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere, and about the persecution of Christians, exposed the committee’s double standards and yes, anti-Semitism.
US Human Rights Council envoy to target anti-Israel bias
Keith Harper is the first Native American to be confirmed to a US ambassadorial post
The new US ambassador to the United Nations Human Rights Council said battling anti-Israel bias on the body was a “key priority.”
Keith Harper, addressing a conference of pro-Israel groups meeting in the US Capitol on Wednesday, also advocated for continued US engagement on the council.
Of the council’s anti-Israel bias, Harper said, “It’s not going to be easy, this bias is deep, its continual, its structural. No country should have to deal with the kind of bias that has occurred with the council from year to year.”
Israel fights academic boycott
The Committee of University Heads in Israel on Tuesday announced the establishment of a forum against academic boycotts of Israel.
"This type of boycott is a dangerous process that is contrary to the spirit of research," said committee chairman and Hebrew University of Jerusalem President Professor Menachem Ben-Sasson.
The forum will examine and map out the boycott phenomenon, and plan to work with other countries to minimize the damage it causes.
HRC Secures CTV News On-Air Correction: Israeli Forces Did Not Kill Palestinian Teenager
For example, on July 4, HonestReporting Canada contacted CTV News asking senior executives to issue an immediate on air-correction to remedy an erroneous statement made by anchor Jacqueline Milczarek at around 9:50am that day. In a brief report which you can view below or by clicking here, CTV claimed that Israeli forces had killed an Arab teenager, Mohammed Abu Khdeir, whereas Jewish extremists have confessed to the abhorrent murder.
Again, Israel’s armed forces had nothing to do with the grisly murder of this Arab teen.
US Treasury targets Hezbollah procurement network
The Treasury placed sanctions against brothers Kamel and Issam Mohamad Amhaz and their Beirut electronics business, Stars Group Holding, as well as the company's subsidiaries in Lebanon, China and the United Arab Emirates and managers and individuals linked to them.
"With disturbing reach far beyond Lebanon, Hezbollah's extensive procurement networks exploit the international financial system to enhance its military capabilities in Syria and its terrorist activities worldwide," said Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence David Cohen.
Lebanon on edge again after spate of bombings
Anxiety is gripping Lebanon following a spate of suicide bombings, and an ongoing security sweep targeting militants — some of them who had been staying in four-star Beirut hotels — has triggered a wave of cancellations of hotel and flight bookings in a country already on edge.
The militants involved are said by security officials to be part of a network of alleged terrorist sleeper cells planning suicide bombings targeting security leaders and civilians alike. That has fueled concerns that Sunni extremists surging in Iraq and Syria were taking their fight to Lebanon next.
Netanyahu: Leaving Iran with Nuke Enrichment 'Catastrophic'
"It would be a disaster for the United States and for everyone else," Netanyahu said as a deadline loomed for an agreement on Iran's nuclear program between the West and the Islamic Republic.
Netanyahu's comments in an interview with Fox News Sunday came as foreign ministers of the United States, France, Britain and Germany gathered in Vienna to face off with Iranian counterpart Mohammad Javad Zarif.
A six-month interim deal with Iran expires July 20 and US Secretary of State John Kerry said "significant gaps" remain before a final deal can be reached.
Anti-Semitic Protests Rage in Algeria Against Synagogue Plans
Salafists protested on Friday against government plans to reopen synagogues which were closed for security reasons during Algeria's civil war of the 1990s.
After weekly Friday prayers at Al-Mouminine mosque in the poor Belcourt district of Algiers, dozens of worshippers tried to march in the streets but were blocked by police, an AFP journalist reported.
"No to the Judaization of Algeria!" and "Muslim Algeria!" were among slogans chanted by the Islamist demonstrators, who also condemned Israel's defensive operation in Gaza.
Holocaust denied by students in Rialto school assignment
Dozens of Rialto eighth-graders questioned whether the Holocaust occurred in essays written for an in-class assignment this spring.
Rialto Unified School District administrators, besieged by criticism after the assignment became public in May, claimed at the time that none of the students who completed the assignment questioned or denied the Holocaust, but a survey of the students’ work by this news organization found numerous examples of students expressing doubt or flatly denying that the Holocaust occurred.
“I believe the event was fake, according to source 2 the event was exhaggerated,” one student wrote. (Students’ and teachers’ original spelling and grammar are retained throughout this story.) “I felt that was strong enogh evidence to persuade me the event was a hoax.”
In some cases, students earned high marks and praise for arguing the Holocaust never occurred, with teachers praising their well-reasoned arguments:
“you did well using the evidence to support your claim,” the above student’s teacher wrote on his assignment.
Man gets three years in prison for hate crimes in LA
Hason was shown in two separate surveillance videos taken in April driving up to the Van Nuys store and painting a swastika and “Adolf was right. Kill Jews!” on the rear fence and a trash bin.
“Hate crimes will not be tolerated in this city and my office will continue to take swift and decisive action whenever these incidents occur,” Feuer said.
Prosecutors stated that Hason had targeted the same Jewish business owner previously, although the two had never met.
Study: Israeli ALS patients survive longer than anywhere in the world
A study encompassing data collected from Israel for the first time found that the survival rate among Israelis suffering from Lou Gehrig's disease (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) is two to four times that of patients in other countries.
In global terms, between 5 and 10 percent of ALS sufferers survive more than 10 years after being diagnosed. But in Israel, 20 percent of ALS patients survive longer.
ALS is a degenerative disease with no known cure.
World War II massacre at Jedwabne commemorated
Jews from Poland and Belarus, representatives of Poland’s Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister’s Office, and residents of Jedwabne commemorated the massacre that took place there on July 10, 1941.
On that day, dozens of residents of the Polish town murdered hundreds of their Jewish neighbors. Most of the victims were burned alive in a barn.
The massacre was one of several that summer committed by ordinary Poles against Jews. Three days earlier, hundreds of Jews were murdered in Radzilow, also with more than half burned alive. A pogrom also took place in Wasosz and, that August, Poles murdered dozens of Jewish women in Szczuczyn.
New book explores 50 children rescued from Nazis by US Jews
Steven Pressman is a journalist, author and, now, a documentary filmmaker. His hour-long feature “50 Children: The Rescue Mission of Mr. and Mrs. Kraus,” debuted on HBO last year. A follow-up book has just been released by HarperCollins.
“50 Children” tells the remarkable story of two Philadelphia-area Jews who, at the dawn of World War II, went to extraordinary lengths fighting red tape on both sides of the Atlantic to try and save lives. (The documentary is currently available to those with access to an HBO Go password.)
The film details the hurdles Mr. and Mrs. Kraus went through to secure visas for Viennese children whose parents recognized there would be no future in the land of their birth. The obstacles the couple faced came from some surprising places. It is not recommended to watch this documentary near any easily flippable tables; the facts of this film are frustrating.