Wednesday, October 29, 2014
Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Stop the Children's Intifada!
The exploitation of children in the fight against Israel has attracted little attention from the international community and the media. Human rights groups and the UN have chosen to turn a blind eye to this human rights abuse. Instead of condemning it, these groups are busy denouncing Israel for targeting minors.Jeffrey Goldberg: The Crisis in U.S.-Israel Relations Is Officially Here
This strategy works out well for Hamas and Fatah, who can always blame Israel for "deliberately targeting" Palestinian children — an allegation the media in the West often endorses without asking questions.
Even more worrying is that the Palestinian groups often reward the families, who then become less motivated to stop their children from risking their lives.
Adult activists who encourage and send children to take part in violence should be held accountable, not only by Israel but by their own people. If these adults want an intifada, they should be the first to go out and confront Israeli policemen and soldiers.
The other day I was talking to a senior Obama administration official about the foreign leader who seems to frustrate the White House and the State Department the most. “The thing about Bibi is, he’s a chickenshit,” this official said, referring to the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, by his nickname.Obama, Not Bibi, Created U.S.-Israel Crisis
This comment is representative of the gloves-off manner in which American and Israeli officials now talk about each other behind closed doors, and is yet another sign that relations between the Obama and Netanyahu governments have moved toward a full-blown crisis. The relationship between these two administrations— dual guarantors of the putatively “unbreakable” bond between the U.S. and Israel—is now the worst it's ever been, and it stands to get significantly worse after the November midterm elections. By next year, the Obama administration may actually withdraw diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations, but even before that, both sides are expecting a showdown over Iran, should an agreement be reached about the future of its nuclear program.
The fault for this breakdown in relations can be assigned in good part to the junior partner in the relationship, Netanyahu, and in particular, to the behavior of his cabinet. Netanyahu has told several people I’ve spoken to in recent days that he has “written off” the Obama administration, and plans to speak directly to Congress and to the American people should an Iran nuclear deal be reached. For their part, Obama administration officials express, in the words of one official, a “red-hot anger” at Netanyahu for pursuing settlement policies on the West Bank, and building policies in Jerusalem, that they believe have fatally undermined Secretary of State John Kerry’s peace process.
The real reason to target Netanyahu is that it is easier to scapegoat the Israelis than to own up to the administration’s mistakes. Rather than usher in a new era of good feelings with the Arab world in keeping with his 2009 Cairo speech, Obama has been the author of policies that have left an already messy Middle East far more dangerous. Rather than ending wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, his decision to withdraw U.S. troops and to dither over the crisis in Syria led to more conflict and the rise of ISIS. Instead of ending the Iranian nuclear threat, Obama is on the road to enabling it. And rather than manage an Israeli-Palestinian standoff that no serious person thought was on the verge of resolution, Obama made things worse with his and Kerry’s hubristic initiatives and constant bickering with Israel.
Despite the administration’s insults, it is not Netanyahu who is weak. He has shown great courage and good judgment in defending his country’s interests even as Obama has encouraged the Palestinians to believe they can hold out for even more unrealistic terms while denying Israel the ammunition it needed to fight Hamas terrorists. While we don’t know whether, as Goldberg believes, it is too late for Israel to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities, it is Obama that Iran considers weak as it plays U.S. negotiators for suckers in the firm belief that the U.S. is a paper tiger that is not to be feared any longer.
If there is a crisis, it is one that was created by Obama’s failures and inability to grasp that his ideological prejudices were out of touch with Middle East realities. (h/t Bob Knot)
PM: Personal attacks will not deter me from defending state
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that he will not be deterred from “defending Israel” by personal attacks, in response to a report that quoted an anonymous US official calling him a “chickenshit.”US-Israel tensions confirmed, with some exceptions, after Goldberg report
“I was personally attacked purely because I defend Israel, and despite all the attacks against me, I will continue to defend our country, I will continue to defend the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu told the Knesset.
The prime minister added that he remained confident that the current disagreements between the US and Israel would not affect the two countries’ “deep connection.”
“I respect and appreciate the deep ties with the United States we’ve had since the establishment of the state,” he said. “We’ve had arguments before, and we’ll have them again, but this will not come at the expense of the deep connection between our peoples and our countries.”
National Security Council spokesperson Alistair Baskey publicly rejected a new column by Jeffrey Goldberg, a prominent columnist on matters concerning the Israeli and American Jewish communities, on Tuesday night, suggesting Goldberg's assertion in the piece that relations are in "crisis" is a simplification.Jeffrey Goldberg's Problem With 'Chickens**t' Netanyahu
"We do not believe there is a crisis in the relationship," Baskey said in an e-mail. "The relationship remains as strong as ever and the ties between our nations are unshakable."
"However, there are times," he continued, "when we disagree with actions of the Israeli government and we must raise our concerns, such as our concerns about Israel’s settlement policy. We raise these concerns as a partner who is deeply concerned about Israel’s future and wants to see Israel living side by side in peace and security with its neighbors."
But US officials confirm to the Post that the frustrations behind Goldberg's article are real.
Whether Goldberg accurately depicted the policy implications of those tensions is another matter.
What we are reading in his article then is essentially projection. This kind of antipathy from the non-Jewish world is the worst nightmare to someone like Goldberg, and so he naturally opts to use it as a weapon to pressure Israel into changing its policies. This is a tried-and-tested tactic of the Israeli left and of the Jewish left in the Diaspora, and as the influence of the legitimately-elected political left in Israel wanes, such illegitimate attempts to foist a concessionist agenda on Israel using means outside of the democratic process have predictably increased.Jeffrey Goldberg's 'Chickensh*t' Article Blames Bibi for U.S.-Israel Breakdown
So yes, it is vindictive and petty in an almost childlike way - but Goldberg's article must be read by anyone striving to understand precisely the self-defeating neuroses a free and independent Jewish state must avoid if it is to remain as such. The Israeli government must not allow these kinds of blatantly political broadsides to influence our own legitimate, internal political discourse, which should be conducted confidently, if cautiously, and with a level-head.
That is not to ignore the harmful impact of such personal antipathy. Of course, a professional relationship on any level is extremely difficult to maintain in the face of personal animosity between parties who are meant to be cooperating.
But if Goldberg is correct that the Obama administration is genuinely considering something as radical as throwing its most dependable ally in the Middle East under a bus because some top officials feel personally slighted, or because Bibi is not an agreeable person to work with, that is simply a reflection of how and why American foreign policy under this current administration will not, and should not, be taken seriously by anyone.
Jeffrey Goldberg, who has become something of a stenographer to President Barack Obama on foreign policy, has broken the dog-bites-man news that the Obama administration dislikes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. He adds that an Obama official referred to Netanyahu as "chickenshit," though Goldberg uses that as an excuse to vent his own bile at Bibi, whom he says bears most blame for the crisis in U.S.-Israel relations.5 Takeaways From Obama Admin Calling Netanyahu 'A Chickens**t'
Goldberg blames Netanyahu's "settlements," ignoring the fact that Netanyahu enacted a settlement freeze. He admits that "Jews have a moral right to live anywhere they want in Jerusalem," and understands that the areas of Jerusalem that have irked Obama are hardly "settlements," yet he still says Bibi is to blame for building there. The problem, he says, is that Israel has not created the conditions that make a Palestinian state possible.
Nowhere in Goldberg's article is there any acknowledgment that Gaza rockets, Hamas tunnels, and Fatah/PA incitement are what have made a Palestinian state in the West Bank unthinkable, for the moment, to the vast majority of Israelis. Nor is there any admission that Obama--and Vice President Joe Biden, and Secretaries of State Hillary Clinton and John Kerry--have inflamed relations by publicly berating Israel on various occasions.
5.) What does this obvious hostility toward Netanyahu and Israel by the Obama administration portend for the Jewish state after the midterm elections? If the GOP takes the Senate, Obama’s domestic agenda will be even more stymied than it has been. But presidents have more latitude on foreign policy than they do on domestic policy. They can do much more without the need to consult Congress. If he faces two hostile chambers in Congress, will Obama focus his attention on foreign policy and, perhaps, pressure Israel to agree to a bad peace deal with the Palestinians while at the same time agree to a bad nuclear deal with Iran?RNC: Administration Insult of Netanyahu ‘Inexplicable and Dangerous’
Indeed, Goldberg — who actually places the blame for the soured U.S.-Israel relationship mostly on Netanyahu — hints at what we might see, including the White House possibly “withdraw[ing] diplomatic cover for Israel at the United Nations.”
“It would also be unsurprising, post-November, to see the Obama administration take a step Netanyahu is loath to see it take: a public, full lay-down of the administration’s vision for a two-state solution, including maps delineating Israel’s borders,” Goldberg adds.
In other words, expect the U.S.-Israel relationship only to get worse as long as President Barack Obama is in the White House.
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus just issued a statement firing back at a senior administration official calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “chickenshit” in an interview with The Atlantic.Leading Likud MK Blasts Obama's 'Chutzpah'
“ISIS is on a rampage through the Middle East, slaughtering innocents and committing mass murder while plotting to kill more Americans,” Priebus said. “The priority of the Obama administration should be defeating our enemies; instead they are once again insulting our allies. It’s inexplicable and dangerous.”
“This administration consistently gets it wrong on foreign policy. Instead of taking the ISIS threat seriously, President Obama called them the ‘JV’ team. Now, instead of working with our allies in the region to protect democracy and innocent lives, the administration is hurling expletives at Prime Minister Netanyahu.”
A leading Likud MK, Miri Regev, who chairs the Knesset's Interior Committee, fired back at US President Barack Obama after an interview by a White House official in which Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu was referred to as “chickens**t.”Officials Reveal US is Cozying Up to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas
"With all due respect for Obama, who is he to hand out grades to the prime minister?” – Regev asked rhetorically in an interview with Arutz Sheva. “The utterances exhibit chutzpah, are unacceptable and constitute intervention in Israel's affairs by President Obama.
She added: "With all due respect to Obama, and I recognize the importance of our relationship with the Americans, but to say that Netanyahu has no courage and to compare him to other leaders? We do not want to say what we think of Obama out of respect and because of the elections.”
"Jews will build homes everywhere in the Land of Israel, including eastern Jerusalem, and the Arabs can also live anywhere in the state of Israel,” she said, regarding a major point of contention between the US and Israel.
The same Tuesday night that a senior official in US President Barack Obama's administration was quoted calling Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu "chickens**t," yet more officials indicated the US is warming up to cooperation with Iran - the Islamic regime seeking nuclear weapons that has repeatedly declared its desire to destroy Israel.Ben-Dror Yemini: ISIS has nothing to do with Israel
Senior US and Arab officials were cited by the Wall Street Journal saying that in recent months, America and Iran have grown closer through cooperation against their "common enemy", the Islamic State (ISIS), as well as over a shared interest in "stability" in Iraq and Afghanistan.
American officials revealed to the paper that Obama's administration has been sending secretive messages to Iran through Iraq's new Shi'ite prime minister Haider al-Abadi, as well as through Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, the highest ranking Shi'ite cleric in Iraq.
The statement confirms the assessment of a senior Israeli diplomatic source, who two weeks ago warned Obama may be holding secret talks with Iran - just as he was revealed last November to have been holding secret talks for over half a year prior to the recent controversial temporary nuclear agreement, and likewise reportedly had been easing sanctions on Iran for five months ahead of the deal.
The new reality has also caused US President Barack Obama to issue quite a revolutionary statement in his last address to the United Nations General Assembly, when he clarified that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not the main source of problems in the Middle East.John Bolton: The Latest Push for a Palestinian State
And now, when ISIS is going to the trouble of clarifying that it has nothing to do with Israel, when most ISIS volunteers are not from the Palestinian Authority territories, but actually from Tunisia and Chechnya, Livni of all people comes along and says that the solution to the ISIS problem is through Israel.
Livni should be reminded of one more thing. The terror – of ISIS, of Hamas, of Boko Haram, of the Taliban – is not aimed at promoting anything. Definitely not any agreement. It's just terror for the sake of intimidation in order to impose the dark Islam. An Israeli-Palestinian agreement is an important issue, but it won't calm the jihad extensions, as they have no interest in peace.
Twenty-five years ago, President Bush and Secretary Baker conveyed their determination to squelch fanciful maneuverings in the international system, rather than addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict through direct negotiations between the parties themselves. United States resolve prevailed.Diplomats, Statesmen Blast EU Recognition of Palestine as “Counterproductive”
Under President Obama, by contrast, we saw American weakness, with long lamentations about the devastating effects that would befall UNESCO if U.S. funding were cut off, and promises by Obama diplomats to seek repeals of the legislation axing our contributions. Sensing weakness, the Palestinians and their supporters struck, something they had feared to do for over twenty years.
Accordingly, today’s Palestinian gambit will turn not on what happens in Stockholm, London or UN headquarters in Turtle Bay. It will turn on how officials in Washington decide to react.
History is clear: American strength can stop this effort, and American weakness will facilitate it.
Over to you, President Obama.
A group of global leaders—including politicians, diplomats, and members of the military—who are members of the Friends of Israel Initiative contributed an op-ed to The Times of London on Saturday, calling the efforts among elements of various European governments to formally recognize a Palestinian state to be “inappropriate, counterproductive and unwarranted.”UN Security Council to Meet over Israeli Building in Jerusalem
The op-ed points out that support of the declaration of a “State of Palestine” contradicts the intent of the Oslo Accords that peace between Israel and the Palestinians must come through negotiations.
The op-ed concludes, “If we want to have a democratic, free, peaceful and prosperous Palestinian state alongside Israel, recognising an entity that is far from democratic, free, peaceful and prosperous will only thwart any possibility that any such state will exist in the future.”
The op-ed was written by former Spanish Prime Minister José María Aznar and signed by, among others, former United States Ambassadors to the United Nations John Bolton and Bill Richardson, former foreign minister of Italy Giulio Terzi, former president of Peru Alejandro Toledo, and Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan.
The UN Security Council will hold an "emergency meeting" on Wednesday to discuss Israeli plans to build more Jewish homes in Jerusalem, diplomats said.469 Israelis petition Spain to recognize a Palestine state
The "urgent" talks were requested by Jordan following a letter from Palestinian Authority envoy Riyad Mansour who called on the 15-member council to "address this crisis situation in occupied east Jerusalem."
The announcement follows harsh criticism by senior Israeli officials of the negative international response to building projects for Jews in Jerusalem.
Contrary to Mansour's statement, the building plans announced include neighborhoods throughout Jerusalem, and not just in its eastern sector. "East Jerusalem" is a euphemism for parts of the capital liberated from Jordanian forces, when Jerusalem was reunited by Israeli forces after the 1967 Six Day War.
An Israeli petition calling on the Spanish parliament to recognize a Palestinian state in November, when it is expected to hold a nonbinding vote on the matter, is gaining steam on the Internet, garnering 469 signatures.New EU foreign policy chief’s first destination: Israel
Among those spearheading the Israeli initiative is former Foreign Ministry director-general Alon Liel, in hopes that Palestinian statehood recognition would help break the stalemate in the peace process.
“We are horrified by the possibility, almost a reality, of a single state,” Liel told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday. “We are afraid that such a state will end up being an apartheid state.”
There is broad consensus in the international community that the two-state solution should be based on the pre-1967 lines, with some land swaps, Liel said as he called on the Israeli government to accept this position as well.
On November 1, Federica Mogherini will succeed Catherine Ashton as the union’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy. Less than a week later, she is scheduled to arrive in Israel for her first official visit, sources in Jerusalem confirmed Tuesday. Mogherini — currently Italy’s foreign minister — will arrive in the region on November 7 and stay for two days. She is expected to also visit senior Palestinian Authority officials in Ramallah.Prosecutors seek trial for firebrand Arab MK over cop threats
“It’s very important that Ms. Mogherini comes to Israel on November 7. It’s her first official visit,” said Fulvio Martusciello, a member of the European Parliament from Italy and the new president of its delegation for relations with Israel. Having known her for a while, he believes she understands Israel’s many predicaments, he added, but refused to elaborate.
“I hope we will be able to work together,” Martusciello, who is currently visiting Israel at the invitation of B’nai Brith International, told The Times of Israel Tuesday during an interview in the Knesset.
In August police recommended that Zoabi be put on trial for incitement, threats and maligning a civil servant after questioning her for hours over an incident in which she insulted two policemen. At the time Zoabi threatened that, if put on trial, she would make the hearings “the most political trial in the State of Israel.”Liberman moves to outlaw Islamic Movement’s northern branch
Weinstein decided to open an investigation against Zoabi after two policemen complained that, during hearings on extending the detention of Israeli-Arabs who demonstrated against Operation Protective Edge, she insulted them with a spiteful outburst.
According to Ynet, Zoabi called the two Arab Israeli policemen “collaborators with the oppressors of their own people” and said that “they should be used to wipe the floor.”
On the instructions of Liberman, his Knesset whip MK Alex Miller submitted a bill seeking to outlaw the group, Yedioth Ahronoth reported Tuesday.Demo Outside Jerusalem Police HQ Demands End to Arab Violence
“Recently we have witnessed the strengthening of radical Islam in our region, spreading massive death and destruction, while destroying the rule of law,” the bill reads. “The northern branch of the Islamic Movement operates openly under the sovereignty of the State of Israel, while cynically taking advantage of the institutions and basic values of a Jewish and democratic state.”
The bill accused the group of cooperation with Hamas. “Over time, we have witnessed the activities of the northern branch leading to the outbreak of violence and unrest among the Arab minority in Israel, while maintaining close relations with the terror organization Hamas. These activities are even more destructive, since they are done from within the institutions of the state.”
The Islamic Movement’s northern branch is led by extremist Arab-Israeli cleric Sheikh Raed Salah, who has been convicted in Israel on a number of charges, including incitement to violence and spitting on a police officer. The organization is tolerated in Israel but is under constant surveillance because of its ideological and believed institutional links with Hamas, as well as with other Muslim groups worldwide.
A small but loud demonstration took place today outside the National Headquarters of the Israel Police in Jerusalem's Ammunition Hill, close to the site of last week's deadly terrorist attack. Activists from the Im Tirzu organization were joined by ordinary Jerusalemites and Jerusalem university students in calling for police to crack down on ongoing Arab violence in the capital.Jerusalem Launches Surveillance Balloons to Fight Terror
Three-month-old Chaya Zissel Braun and 21-year-old Karen Jemima Mosquera were murdered by a Palestinian terrorist who plowed his car into a crowd of Israeli pedestrians at a Jerusalem Light Rail station.
The protesters, equipped with whistles and drums, were seeking to call attention to the so-called "silent intifada" - a term coined by Jewish residents as well as Israeli media outlets for the Arab violence in Jerusalem, which has raged since early this summer.
As part of its countermeasures to deal with the "silent intifada" of Arab terror gripping the capital, the Jerusalem Municipality last week launched an aerial surveillance unit to aid the police and enforcement officials in their struggle against Arab violence.Israel denies barring Palestinians from buses
The Municipality explained that the new unit will provide real-time intelligence information to aid forces working in eastern Jerusalem to locate rioters, massive mobs, protests, rock and molotov cocktail throwing, firework shooting and all the rest of the attacks that have plagued the city of late.
The balloons are also to be used in locating the wounded, identifying illegal construction, infractions of business licensing and waste management, food trafficking and other crimes.
An Israeli Defense Ministry official denied accusations Tuesday that the Defense Ministry had ordered a blanket ban on Palestinians sharing buses with Jews in the West Bank, after Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon reportedly decided to implement a policy that would, in effect, prevent some Palestinian day laborers from the West Bank from returning home at day’s end on Israeli buses.PA Official Compares Netanyahu to ISIS Leader, Has VIP Revoked
“There is no prohibition on traveling on buses with Israelis,” a senior source at the Defense Ministry wrote in response to a query from AFP.
Tens of thousands of West Bank Palestinians head to work each day in Israeli towns and cities through multiple crossings throughout the West Bank, where they undergo security checks before being allowed across the Green Line. Those who go to work in Tel Aviv or other central Israeli cities pass through the Eyal crossing near the West Bank city of Qalqiliya. Once through the crossing, the workers are free to move throughout Israel, and return to the West Bank by any avenue they choose, often via Israeli buses that service West Bank Jewish settlements.
Israel revoked the VIP status of the spokesman for the Palestinian Authority’s security forces, after he compared Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to the leader of the Islamic State (ISIS), Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi.Jordanian Speaker: Israel's 'Aggression' Worse than ISIS
According to a report in Haaretz, the coordinator of government activities in Judea and Samaria, Yoav Mordechai, informed his Palestinian counterparts Monday that General Adnan Damiri’s VIP pass had been cancelled, according to a senior Israeli official.
Damiri had been warned a few months ago to moderate his statements against Israel, which bordered on incitement, the official said.
Monday’s step against Damiri is extraordinary because Israel has refrained from invoking sanctions against senior Palestinian security officials in recent years, noted Haaretz.
The Iranian PressTV news agency quoted the remarks of the speaker, Atef Tarawneh, made during a meeting with visiting Maltese Foreign Minister George William Vella.Hamas-hired civil servants receive long-awaited wage from Palestinian unity government
According to the report, Tarawneh called on the international community to pressure Israel to resume talks with the Palestinian Arabs and put an end to its “repeated violations against the holy sites” in Jerusalem, as well as construction in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria.
He reportedly said that Israel's “aggression” against the Palestinians is "no less than ISIS actions."
Jordan, which signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, has several times criticized Israel over the past few weeks.
Some 24,000 civil servants hired by the Islamist group Hamas, many of whom have not received a full salary in almost a year, finally got some pay on Wednesday from the new Palestinian unity government based in the West Bank.Call from Al-Aqsa Mosque to Sever Economic Ties with China
The funds were supplied by the gas-rich kingdom of Qatar, which is an ally of Hamas. But the fact the cash was delivered by the West Bank administration gave a boost to hopes that the unity pact between Palestinian rivals might bear fruit.
Egypt begins work on Gaza buffer zone
The move, which is set to result in the demolition of hundreds of homes, comes after a suicide bombing in the Sinai Peninsula killed at least 30 soldiers on Friday.Forced evacuations and homes destroyed on Gaza border - world is silent
A senior official in northern Sinai said the creation of the buffer with the Palestinian territory was “vital for national security and stability.”
The authorities want to establish a 500-meter wide buffer along about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) of the border with Gaza, according to officials.
They said about 800 homes would be demolished.
Witnesses in the border town of Rafah reported seeing dozens of families leaving along with trucks loaded with furniture.
Bulldozers were reported to have begun destroying several long-abandoned houses along the frontier.
Egypt has also sealed its Rafah border with Gaza, is maintaining a complete blockade and is systematically destroying all tunnels from Gaza into Egypt.Egypt Says Hamas Provided Weapons for Lethal Sinai Attack
If Israel was doing exactly what Egypt was doing now it would be the only news story being reported. But because it is Egypt and not Israel, it is being completely ignored by the main stream media. Indeed the only news story from the area being reported is the hysterical US and EU condemnation of Israel's plan to build a few more housing units in its capital city; the Obama adminstration (which has still failed to condemn any of the current wave of Palestinian terrorism in Jerusalem) said the housing plan was 'poisen' to the peace process. (h/t Bob Knot)
Egyptian security sources report that the two deadly attacks last Friday on El-Arish in the Sinai peninsula that killed at least 31 Egyptian soldiers was aided by none other than Hamas.Saudi Scholar Sami Habib: Israel Is Responsible for 9/11
According to the sources quoted by Channel 10, those actually carrying out the suicide bombing at a checkpoint and a shooting in the city were Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis jihadists, members of a group sympathetic to Islamic State (ISIS).
However, the sources added that the weapons used in carrying out the attack were given to the group in Sinai by Hamas terrorists, who transferred the weapons through one of the myriad of tunnels breaching the Sinai border with Gaza.
Israeli Scientists Find Way To Spread Autism With Ebola Cure (satire)
Some activists remain less than pleased. Omar Barghouti, a leader of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, decried the Israeli breakthrough. “This is just another attempt to portray Israel as a leader in medicine. It’s the medical version of pinkwashing or greenwashing,” he declared, using terms that dismiss Israel’s achievements in gay rights and environmentalism as publicity stunts to distract from the country’s true, dark nature. “Israel’s attempt to Ebola-wash is doomed to failure. No amount of bathing in the sweet fragrance of Ebola will ever be able to rid the Zionist Entity of the stench of occupation” he added.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon also voiced concern. “We are always concerned with possible violations of international law by Israel, and that is why we have appointed Iran and Syria to the UN human rights council to monitor Israeli activities in the territories. We at the UN also feel Israeli breakthroughs in medicine should similarly be investigated, and we are therefore appointing representatives from Sierra Leone and Liberia to monitor Israel’s compliance with international health code standards,” Ban said.
In what analysts consider a surprise, Palestinian leaders welcomed the breakthrough. “Ebola is a serious disease, and if Israel can cure it, that benefits us all,” said Chief Negotiator with Israel Saeb Erekat. “Furthermore, if Israel can in fact make more people autistic, those patients are more likely to support the Palestinian cause later on.”
