Sunday, October 30, 2016
Palestinians funded UK Labour leader’s 2009 trip to meet Assad
The leader of the UK’s Labour party visited Syria in 2009 on a trip paid for by a Palestinian rights group and met with Syrian President Bashar Assad.Trump Threatens to Release Video Proving Obama, Clinton Carried out Harambe Murder (satire)
Jeremy Corbyn made the trip along with other members of parliament from all three of Britain’s major political parties, the Daily Mail reported on Saturday.
A far-left politician who in 2009 called Hezbollah and Hamas his “friends” – an expression he recently said for the first time he regretted using – Corbyn has been accused of encouraging vitriolic speech against Israel as well as Jews by befriending anti-Semitic movements and individuals.
The Syria trip seven years ago was funded by the Palestinian Return Centre, which recently organized an event in the House of Lords during which one member of the audience won applause for claiming that Jews were to blame for the Holocaust and comparing Israel to the Islamic State group.
Members’ Register of Interests records showed Corbyn reported the Syria visit as costing £1,300 ($1,500) and that the purpose was “to visit Iraqi and Palestinian refugee camps in Syria.”
The visit was held to mark the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration of 1917, in which the United Kingdom committed to viewing favorably the establishment of a Jewish national home in what would later become the British Mandate on Palestine.
Following his return to Britain, Corbyn told parliament at the time that “I pay tribute to the fact that Syria has accommodated a very large number of refugees and ensured that they are able to live in that country in safety.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)
At his most recent rally in New Hampshire, Donald Trump dropped a bombshell that has the general public scared, confused and shocked.IsraellyCool: Citi Should Follow The Lead Of American Express
“Folks, it seems that creating the most violent terrorist organization in the world was not enough for Obama and Crooked Hillary, and nor is the current “reinvestigation” by the FBI into Clinton’s emails. No, something far more nefarious is going on in the Democratic Party,” the Republican nominee told an enraptured crowd of supporters hanging on to his every word. “I have proof from a very not-credible source that they together, Hussein and Crooked, shot and killed Harambe, that poor innocent gorilla. Terrible, just terrible.”
When questioned whether he was implying that government policies indirectly resulted in Harambe’s death, he quickly clarified that he meant they literally shot the Gorilla themselves. “Listen, I saw the video, I saw it, you will see it too (thank you, Assange). It shows Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary setting up an M40 sniper rifle in the meerkat exhibit, lying on either side of the rifle, and pulling the trigger together. The only part of Hillary that isn’t crooked is her shot when killing innocent gorillas. They are really dangerous! Really bad people!”
Republican supporter Nathan Edelpitz commended the republican candidate for bringing out the truth. “We all knew Harambe was an inside job. Finally we have someone courageous enough to tell it like it is.”
When asked to comment on the allegation, Clinton was visibly confused “I’m pretty sure I never left that video on my email server….not that I killed Harambe with a well-placed sniper shot…that would be silly.”
Citibank is the largest foreign bank in Israel. It placed its Citibank Innovation Lab in Tel Aviv. It invests so much in Israeli innovation because to quote a Citibank representative himself it was a “no brainer” to use Israeli talents for this purpose.
Roger Waters has campaigned to prevent every single act from appearing in Israel and sometimes succeeds in doing so using classic antisemitic tropes and lies. He considers Hamas a “peaceful” organisation and actively promotes violence against Israelis calling it “legitimate resistance”.
Considering how much Citibank invests in Israel, and considering the hate and violence Waters represents we ask that Citibank follow the lead of American Express and drop their sponsorship of Roger Waters.
I have complete respect for Citi in Israel. They utilize our innovative workforce, I’ve banked with them. Maybe it’s someone in their corporate office who is simply unaware of who Roger Waters is and represents. But we need to get the message out.
I don’t know who put up this petition, but I signed it and so should you.
US calls for end to anti-Israel bias as it regains UN Human Rights Council seat
The United States reclaimed its seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council on Friday and immediately called for a change in its treatment of Israel.New UN Palestine Rapporteur Defends Ties to "Very Mainstream" Palestinian Lobby Groups
“While important challenges remain, including ending the council’s excessive and biased focus on Israel, we look forward to cooperating with other council members to address human rights concerns, advance human rights around the world, and ensure the Council fully realizes its purpose,” US Secretary of State John Kerry said.
He spoke following a UN General Assembly vote to elect 14 new council members.
The elections are held annually, for three-year terms, and no member state can sit on the council for more than two consecutive terms.
The US ended its six years on the council in 2015. During that time, it was the one consistent vote in support of Israel on the UNHRC, which spends more time condemning the Jewish state than any genuine human rights abusers.
Aside from the US, the following countries will begin serving on the council in 2017: Brazil, Croatia, Egypt, Hungary, Iraq, Japan, Rwanda and Tunisia. Cuba, Saudi Arabia, China, South Africa and Great Britain are already on the council and will be serving second terms.
“The re-election of China, Cuba and Saudi Arabia – regimes which systematically violate the human rights of their citizens – casts a shadow upon the reputation of the United Nations,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.
Michael Lynk, new UN Special Rapporteur on Palestine, responded to accusations that he lied on his UN application concerning past links and failed to disclose his board membership on three pro-Palestinian lobby groups, Friends of Sabeel, the Canadian-Palestinian Education Exchange (CEPAL), and the National Council on Canada-Arab Relations. Lynk said that the organizations were "entirely mainstream" and "very mainstream." His connection to them was "not long." He said they accepted the international consensus on how to achieve peace, but then asked whether UN Watch did.
Russia kicked out of UN Human Rights Council
In the wake US claims of Russian war crimes in Syria, the United Nations General Assembly voted Russia off the UN Human Rights Council during a general vote this week. The United States was re-elected to its position on the council.Vying for a Seat on the UN Human Rights Council, Iraq Touts Jewish Life in the Country, While Hiding the Truth of Persecution, Exile
Forty-seven countries participated votes on Russia's continued involvement, with only 2 votes more to kick Russia off than to keep them on. Some participants termed the vote "historic."
This is the first time Russia has not been part of the UNHRC since the council's inception in 2006.
80 different human rights organizations signed a petition asking Russia be removed from UNHRC after Russia's involvement in Syria's civil war caused many to believe Russia is guilty of war crimes.
In a bid to land a seat on the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), the Iraqi government is touting thousands of years of Jewish life in its country, ignoring the destruction of Iraqi Jewry over the course of the Arab-Israeli conflict.Iran's sole Jewish MP: Iran is safer for Jews than France
In a brochure posted online, Iraq promoted its human-rights record ahead of the annual election for the 47-seat UNHRC, being held Friday. “Jewish Iraqis have lived in the region for thousands of years, as early as the Sassanians of the Talmudic era,” it boasts.
However, by the end of the 1950s, all but 6,000 of Iraq’s 130,000 Jews, stripped of their citizenship, had fled the country, after Iraq declared that Zionism was a crime punishable by death, and economic and political persecution of Jews had become the norm.
“Iraq’s UNHRC election brochure says, ‘#Jews have lived in Iraq for thousands of years;’ right — but were all chased out decades ago,” tweeted Hillel C. Neuer of UNWatch, an advocacy group highly critical of the diplomatic organization.
“Iraq’s absurd @UN_HRC election campaign brochure also cites the happy condition of their #Christian minority — who have been decimated,” Neuer continued, citing the Iraqis’ statement that Mosul — currently being held by the Islamic State — “has the highest proportion of Christians of all the Iraqi cities.”
Some dubbed him "Rouhani's Jew," and before that, "Ahmedinejad's Jew," but Siamak Morsadegh (Moreh Tzadek - righteous teacher in Hebrew), is an impressive, stout man who is much more than this: he's "the number one Jew" in Iran.Iranian-Jewish MP: Tehran knows war with Israel would be ‘suicide’
He was recently sent to Paris as part of a delegation led by the chairman of the Iranian Parliament's Foreign Policy and National Security Committee, Alaeddin Boroujerdi, who introduced him during his speech to the Diplomatic Academy in Paris as Iran's only Jewish MP, emphasizing how honored he was by his presence.
This is Morsadegh's third term as an Iranian MP, totaling nine years. Last year he was re-elected with 70% of the Jewish population's vote, which he says numbers some 25,000 people. Like other religious groups in Iran, the Jewish community has a reserved seat in parliament.
"As the representatives of the religions, we are not so involved in political life," Morsadegh explained, as we sat in the comfortable lounge chairs of the International Diplomatic Academy. "Our main role is regulating minority life through the government and improving the situation of our coreligionists. Generally, we are in the Center, not Left or Right. As a small community, we are not interested in factions and political disagreements. Religious minorities have different political activity. I was chosen by a heterogeneous political group, and I should have a moderate stance and deal mainly with cultural and social issues. Not as a political representative."
Iran’s sole Jewish parliamentarian said the Islamic Republic is not seeking war with Israel and asserted that Tehran knows that launching an attack on the Jewish state would amount to “suicide.”Netanyahu to visit 3 states never-before visited by sitting Israeli PM
“Iran does not want to start a war against Israel, because they know that everyone who starts a war in the Middle East is doing suicide,” Siamak Moreh Sedgh told Israel Radio in an English-language interview aired Sunday morning.
Sedgh said he believed the Iranian leadership to be “healthy and wise enough to avoid a war with Israel.”
“Relations between Iran and Israel [are] more stable than ever before since the signing of the nuclear agreement last year,” he said.
“Two, three years ago I was suspicious about [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu, I think he is crazy enough to start a war, but today, the condition of the world after the agreement is better, and the Middle East is more stable,” Sedgh said.
He added that war was not “probable” at the moment.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced at Sunday's cabinet meeting that within the next three months he will travel to four countries, including three where no sitting Israeli prime minister has ever visited: Australia, Singapore and Kazakhstan.Marmara families won't drop lawsuits against Israel
The fourth country is Azerbaijan, a strategic country on Iran's border. Like Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan is a majority Muslim country. He visited there briefly in 1997 on the way back from a visit to the East, and met in the airport in Baku with late Azerbaijani President Heydar Aliyev, the father of the current president.
Israel purchases most of its oil from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan. Starting in January, Kazakhstan will have a seat on the 15-member UN Security Council.
Netanyahu's visit to Singapore will be a reciprocal visit to one that country's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong made to Israel in April, and the trip by an Israeli prime minister to Australia has been discussed for months, in order to demonstrate to Canberra that it's strong, consistent support for Israel is not taken for granted.
Netanyahu did not give the exact dates of his trip. He is also expected to travel to Togo in the Spring for a summit there with the leaders of a number of West African countries.
Despite the reconciliation deal between Turkey and Israel, the families of the Turkish Islamists who were killed in the 2010 Israeli raid on the Gaza-bound Mavi Marmara ship have vowed to pursue criminal cases against the Jewish state.AFP's Error, Editorializing and Omissions
Under the agreement between the two countries, Israel earlier this month paid $20 million in compensation to Turkey for the Mavi Marmara flotilla incident in 2010, which led to the suspension of diplomatic ties between the two countries.
The Mavi Marmara incident occurred when IDF soldiers boarded the ship after the Islamists on board, who claimed they were carrying humanitarian aid for Gaza, refused to reverse course and dock at the Ashdod Port.
When they boarded the ship, the soldiers were attacked by the Islamists with clubs and knives, forcing the troops to open fire and killing 10 of those on board.
Upon inspection it was discovered that there was no humanitarian aid whatsoever aboard the Marmara.
Turkey angrily cut off ties with Israel following the incident, but the sides announced a reconciliation agreement this past June after months of talks.
"We have no intention to drop the lawsuits," Cigdem Topcuoglu, whose husband was killed on the Marmara, told the AFP news agency on Friday. "We are certainly not accepting the compensation."
Agence France Presse, an influential news service, ran two articles yesterday which between them contained a factual error, key omissions, and editorializing.Israel offers earthquake aid to stricken Italy
In a factual error, the first sentence of yesterday's article ("Gaza flotilla raid victims' kin vow legal battle against Israel") incorrectly characterized the "Mavi Marmara" as "a Gaza-bound aid ship."
The "Mavi Marmara" was not an “aid ship” at all. As documented in the UN’s Palmer Report (p. 47), it carried 546 passengers but no humanitarian aid supplies for the people of the Gaza Strip:
Israel is willing and ready to send assistance to Italy in the wake of Sunday's earthquake, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting, shortly after yet another earthquake hit central Italy.Likud MK rapped for saying Italy earthquake was divine punishment for UNESCO vote
“I would like to say to my friend, the Prime Minister of Italy, Matteo Renzi, Israel is prepared to send aid to the best of its ability,” Netanyahu said.
The prime minister said that Israel remains in a high level of readiness for these types of disasters, as witnessed by the search and rescue efforts last month following the collapse of a parking lot under construction in Tel Aviv.
Israel, he said, is “ready to help our friends the Italians.
Netanyahu also took the opportunity to welcome Italy's President Sergio Mattarella, who arrived in the country for a four day visit on Saturday night. Netanyahu said that Israel “appreciates the strong and clear statement that we heard from Italy on many issues important to us.”
Italy was one of the 26 countries that abstained in the October 13 UNESCO executive board vote that erased any Jewish connection to Temple Mount.
The Foreign Ministry on Saturday condemned Deputy Minister Ayoub Kara’s remark earlier this week that the earthquake that rattled Italy was divine retribution for UNESCO’s vote on the Temple Mount.Heads To Roll At Mossad After Earthquake Hits Italy Instead Of Ramallah (satire)
On Wednesday, the same day the UN’s culture body voted for a resolution whitewashing any Jewish connection to the Temple Mount, Kara, a Likud MK who serves as deputy minister for regional cooperation, said during a visit to Vatican that “I am sure that the earthquake happened because of UNESCO’s decision that the pope really didn’t love; and (he) even publicly expressed that the Holy Land belongs to the Jewish people.”
A pair of strong aftershocks shook central Italy late Wednesday, crumbling churches and buildings, knocking out power and sending panicked residents into the rain-drenched streets just two months after a powerful earthquake killed nearly 300 people. But hours after the temblors hit, there were no reports of serious injuries or signs of people trapped in rubble, said the head of Italy’s civil protection agency, Fabrizio Curcio.
Kara’s statement, made days before a state visit by Italian President Sergio Mattarella to Israel, provoked outrage in Italy.
The ministry said in a statement Saturday that Kara’s comments were inappropriate and shouldn’t have been made, and that they are not reflective of the strong ties Israel and Italy share.
Officials at Israel’s intelligence and clandestine operations agency promised a full inquiry today after the device intended to inflict an earthquake on the de facto Palestinian capital city instead hit Rome.3 Border Police lightly hurt in apparent West Bank car-ramming
A 6.6-magnitude tremor struck the Italian capital this morning after a technician input faulty data into the Mossad’s earthquake generator. Mossad chief Tamir Pardo called an emergency session of all department heads and odered an immediate halt to all operations involving the device until an investigation determines what allowed such a mishap to occur. Even before the first reported casualties from the quake emerged Sunday morning, Pardo convened all department heads and deputies to the session to coordinate the investigation and implement whatever measures may be necessary to prevent a recurrence, including possible disciplinary action against, or dsimissal of, anyone proven negligent in the fiasco.
Operation Re’ida was intended to sow further instability in Palestinian-administered territories by crippling Ramallah’s infrastructure and preoccupying the city’s rescue and maintenance workers for weeks, if not months, while Israel then moved to consolidate its hold on the area. According to preliminary indicators, however, a technician operating the earthquake device, which carries the code name Korach, mistakenly allowed the software to autocomplete the initial “R” of “Ramallah” to read “Rome,” and the machine proceeded to affect the tectonic movements on the Italian peninsula instead of the Judean Mountains. As a result, at least eighteen current Mossad operations have been suspended as the agency reviews its oversight procedures and revamps them.
“There should have been another layer of review before the go-ahead was given to the machine,” explained a department head who spoke on condition of anonymity. “That safety mechanism itself was put in place after a previous mess-up, when a landslide hit the Pacific Northwest of the US instead of China back in 2014. There’s going to be hell to pay if this is the same problem.” A landslide in April of that year killed 18 people and injured many more, and prompted a rare apology from the International Zionist Conspiracy to the people of Washington State.
Three Border Police officers were lightly injured Sunday afternoon in an apparent car-ramming attack in the West Bank.Israel sentences 3 Palestinians for 2015 terror plot
The incident occurred on Route 60 near Beit Ummar, north of Hebron.
The driver of the vehicle was shot dead by security forces at the scene. The Palestinian health ministry identified him as Khaled Ahmad Aylan, 23 years old, of Beit Ummar.
The policemen were taken to Jerusalem’s Shaarei Tzedek Hospital for treatment. They suffered injuries to the lower extremities.
Also Sunday, an Israeli child was injured in the same area when a number of Palestinians threw rocks at cars along the highway. The rocks hit two vehicles, according to the IDF, including the one near the settlement of Ma’ale Amos in which the five-year-old boy was travelling. A rock shattered one of the windows, lightly wounding the child. He was taken to Hadassah Ein Kerem Hospital in Jerusalem for treatment.
Forces in the vicinity launched a searched for the perpetrators following the attack. An IDF spokesman said the search was ongoing.
The Nazareth District Court sentenced on Sunday three Palestinians for conspiracy to carry out a terror attack in December 2015 in the northern town of Afula. Through a plea bargain, two minors were sentenced to 25 months in prison, and one legal adult will serve 28 months in prison.Tensions rising between Palestinian Authority and refugee camp residents
The case was under a gag order until now, but according to the official sentencing decision, the defendants witnessed friction between Israeli soldiers and a Muslim woman on December 8, 2015 in Jerusalem.
According to the sentencing, this event angered them to the point that they sought to murder Jewish people in revenge.
One of the minor defendants bought three knives from a store in Umm el-Fahm, and they hid them in their clothes and boarded a bus to Afula in December 2015. Some civilians thought they looked suspicious and called police, who arrested the defendants upon investigation.
Clashes between the Palestinian Authority security forces and residents of the Balata refugee camp broke out for the third time in ten days early Saturday morning, highlighting growing tensions between the PA and the Balata refugee camp.Dana Bergen of Jewish Voice for Peace: A personal vendetta against the truth.
“PA security forces entered Balata at 2:30AM to carry out arrests, but immediately met resistance from armed residents,” a local leader in Balata told The Jerusalem Post. “Both sides exchanged fire until the security forces withdrew four hours later.”
The clashes left two residents and one PA security force injured.
After the PA security forces left the camp, Palestinian social media showed hundreds of Balata residents gathered to protest the security forces’ entry to Balata, yelling chants against Nidal Abu Dukhan, the head of the PA’s National Security Forces. “Abu Dukhan, you spy…we want to step all over your head,” the residents chanted.
Some younger Balata residents then marched to Jerusalem street, adjacent to Balata, blocking traffic and throwing burning tires into the middle of the street.
On October 26, San Francisco for Democracy sponsored a debate on BDS. Dana Bergen, a board member of Jewish Voice for Peace advocated in favor of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel. Community educator, Dr. Michael Harris argued against it.Another anti-Israel academic boycott professor who plays victim
The debate was filmed, and clips will be released shortly.
Unfortunately, the format of the debate allowed a shocking free flow of abject lies from Dana Berger to go unchecked.
Until now.
During the debate, Dana Bergen stated
"About Gaza. Gaza has been under siege for many years now. Israeli is strangling Gaza. Gaza is not occupying Gaza in the sense that they are inside Gaza but they are controlling the perimeter of Gaza. They decide how much food goes into Gaza. Gaza has been obliterated by massive bombardment twice in recent years. They don't allow building supplies back in Gaza so there is just rubble. They have calculated how many calories they should allow into Gaza so that people are hungry but don't die because they are trying to torment the population. that is what they are trying to do."
Lies. Complete lies.
Saree Makdisi, professor of English and comparative literature at UCLA, has endorsed and is a vocal advocate for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel, as demanded by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.Fight against BDS in European, US schools to get $13M boost
The American Association of University Professors considers systematic academic boycotts, such as the BDS academic boycott of Israel, to be a violation of academic freedom and a threat to the free exchange of ideas necessary for academic and scientific progress. Over 250 university presidents and large university associations have condemned the BDS academic boycott for these reasons.
Which means Makdisi wants to violate the academic freedom not only of Israelis, but of those who want to deal with Israelis. If the academic boycott Makdisi supports succeeded, breakthrough cancer research conducted by and with Israeli universities would have to be boycotted.
How many people must die so that Makdisi and his fellow boycotters can fulfill some emotional need to bash Israeli universities and faculty? I asked that question of Marc Lamont Hill, another professor who supports the academic boycott, but never got an answer, Question for @MarcLamontHill – How many must die for academic boycott of Israel?
The tactics used to implement the academic boycott are crude, including shout downs and obstructions of Israeli and pro-Israeli speakers on campuses.
Israel's national program to fight the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is slated to receive an additional budget of 50 million shekels ($13 million), Israel Hayom learned over the weekend.International Lawyers Petition World Soccer Federation to Investigate Palestinian Association for ‘Egregious’ Statute Violations
Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan and the Jewish Agency head the program, which focuses, among other thing, on countering BDS activities on U.S. and European university campuses.
"The program aims to undermine the BDS movement's activities on campuses, while simultaneously bolstering Jewish students," a source involved with the program said.
The program includes a plan to better prepare Jewish students to deal with BDS activities on campuses, including anti-Semitism and anti-Zionist claims, as well as provide them with the tools to counter the allegations the BDS movement makes against Israel.
Erdan and the Jewish Agency plan to increase the number of Jewish Agency emissaries on campuses by 20% in 2017 and by a further 20% in 2018.
International lawyers are calling on the world soccer organization to investigate “egregious” violations by the Palestinian Football Association (PFA).Former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks Says Only Time During Tenure He Felt ‘Genuinely Afraid’ as a Jew Was Lecturing at Oxford
In a letter to the chair of the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) Monitoring Committee for Israel and Palestine, the Lawfare Project — a nonprofit legal organization — and a host of international lawyers brought attention to the PFA’s violations of the FIFA statutes.
“If FIFA officials plan to take action against the Israeli clubs in disputed territories, they must also be prepared to acknowledge and punish the Palestinian Football Association for these brazen violations of FIFA codes,” the letter stated. “FIFA must protect itself and all institutions of international sport from being politicized and dishonored in Palestinian attempts to ostracize the Jewish state.”
The FIFA violations cited include: the PFA punishing Palestinians who participate in soccer games with Israelis; PFA officials regularly denigrating Israel and Israelis; the promotion and glorification of terrorism by Palestinian soccer clubs; and the use of the PFA to promote a political agenda and to politicize FIFA.
The former chief rabbi of the UK said the only time during his tenure when he felt “genuinely afraid” was when he gave a talk at Oxford, the Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.Hack in a Flak Jacket
Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks recounted this during a cross-party debate at the House of Lords Thursday on the recently released House of Commons Home Affairs Select Committee (HASC) report on antisemitism.
“Just before the start of my lecture, a whole group of rather menacing Muslim students came in and occupied the center of the front row. It was blatant attempt at intimidation,” he said, arguing for “zero tolerance for intimidation of any group of students,” in the face of increasing expressions of the phenomenon at UK institutions of higher learning.
Among others participating in the debate was Baroness Ruth Deech. Saying that universities have turned into “hotbeds of anti-Jewish incidents,” Deech criticized the “weakness” of previous governmental inquiries into the phenomenon — such as those investigating Oxford University and the Labour Party — for “includ[ing] racism and Islamophobia, thereby sidelining antisemitism and its special characteristics, and failing to deal with the tricky issue of when hatred of Israel become antisemitism.”
Hack in the Flak Jacket is a story about parachute journalism although the author doesn’t use that term. Not surprising really. Wikipedia defines the term as the practice of thrusting journalists into an area to report on a story in which the reporter has little knowledge or experience. The lack of knowledge and tight deadlines often result in inaccurate or distorted news reports, especially during breaking news. If, as this case, the journo is based in London and takes his knowledge from the BBC he will probably be not just uninformed but misinformed on Israel.Honest Reporting: Muddling the Mayhem of a Palestinian Protest
There is an additional element to that definition. Let the story go to blazes. If a more ‘important’ story arises or the conditions become really dangerous the parachute journalist is out of there faster than Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.
As the parachutist knows little about the region, the culture or the conflict; nothing about the locality; doesn’t know anyone and doesn’t speak the language or languages, as Stefanovic acknowledges, he requires a fixer. ‘Without them you are useless’.
What he doesn’t acknowledge is the vital quality without which the Gazan fixer would be useless to him. He or she must be in good standing with Hamas.
Hamas media instructions
… and there’s the rub. The real job of the fixer is to show foreign journalists what Hamas wants them to see and avoid what Hamas doesn’t want; arrange interviews with those who will say what Hamas wants the journalist to hear or to mistranslate in the event that person goes off script and avoid anything that departs from the narrative.
They needn’t necessarily be members or even supporters of Hamas. Perhaps that is even an advantage as it makes them look more credible. They know that when the journalist offends and leaves they stay and Hamas knows where they live. That is more than enough to keep them in line.
During the 2014 war Israeli troops captured a wealth of Hamas intelligence material including their directions to journalists. This confirmed what those following the reporting from Gaza had always suspected. Journalists were not to show rockets launching or even the sites they had been launched from or Hamas fighters, either in action, wounded or killed. However they were to show injured civilians especially children, always to be described as innocent victims, never referring to Hamas policy of human shields.
Two Papers Blew ItGerman guesthouse turns away Israelis: 'Our apartments are not for them'
While the Daily Telegraph, Times of London, LBC, Daily Mail, and the Jewish News responsibly reported the story, two papers botched their coverage.
First, The Independent, in which a misleading headline and statement in the reporter’s voice say pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian students “clashed,” implying that both sides were equally responsible — a distortion of facts.
In a separate report, the Evening Standard refers to the “IOF” in the reporter’s voice. It stands for “Israel Occupation Forces,” an abusive term used by Israel-bashers. I presume this reference was used by one of the protesters interviewed by the Standard, in which case “IOF” should have been put in quotation marks. So either the Evening Standard is guilty of gross ignorance (at best, misleading terminology), or even worse, offering a blatant opinion disguised as news.
A group of Israeli tourists looking for board while planning a trip to Germany next summer were shocked after a guesthouse in the southwestern region of Bavaria last week urged them to cancel their reservation due to their nationality.IsraellyCool: Is There An Occupation?
While planning a vacation for next August, the four Israeli families reserved lodging at the Mattenhof guesthouse in the Black Forest town of Zell am Harmersbach, explained one of the party's members, Igor Tsehansky.
However, shortly after confirming the reservation, the administrators of the guesthouse contacted the Israelis with a slew of messages and notified them that they should cancel the booking.
Tsehansky said that he and his friends received the German-language notice less than week after making the arrangements.
"We don't Want have Guests from Israel, because our apartments are Not for them [sic]. Please cancel the Booking," read a Google translated message that Tsehansky posted to Facebook.
In order to believe Israel is occupying “Palestinian land” you have to believe there is such a thing as “Palestinian land”.Ancient Muslim inscription proves Jewish ties to Temple Mount
You have to believe there is a Palestinian Arab nation which is a distinct people with its own history which has existed for centuries.
You have to believe Palestinian culture exists without any recorded archaeological evidence, works of literature, music, distinct foods, linguistic connections to the land, religious observances tied directly to the land and a host of other problems with their claims to be Indigenous.
To believe in an Israeli occupation of “Palestinian land” you have to believe the same, insane, UNESCO/Palestinian “history” or “narrative” as the one which says the Jewish Temple Mount is not sacred to Jews. Narrative is just a fancy word meaning “made up stuff”.
You have to believe this Palestinian people have a distinct culture that is “Palestinian” and separate from wider Arab culture, different from Arabs in Jordan or Syria or Sinai or any of the other parts of the Arab world. Despite the fact even the name they adopted for themselves is not Arabic in origin and begins with a letter not even in their alphabet.
And because this “Palestinian narrative” is so obviously an identity theft of the impregnably strong Jewish indigenous identity, you have to also disbelieve all evidence of Jewish history in the Holy Land. You also have to negate Christian ties to Israel, by the way.
A 1,000-year-old early Muslim inscription provides yet more crucial proof of Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and Jerusalem.
At a conference on Thursday, archaeologists Assaf Avraham and Perez Reuven presented an ancient Muslim inscription that refers to the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount as "Bait al-Maqdess," an Arabicized version of the Hebrew words for the Temple, Beit Hamikdash.
The inscription was discovered at a recently excavated central mosque in the village of Nuba near Hebron.
The conference also presented other sources from the early Muslim period referring to the Dome of the Rock as "al-Maqdess." These findings demonstrate how Jewish tradition influenced the religious worldview of nascent Islam in the seventh century.
"At the start of the Muslim period, religious rites were held inside the Dome of the Rock compound that imitated the ceremonies conducted in the Jewish Temple," Avraham said at the conference.
"The people who conducted those ceremonies would purify themselves, change their clothes, burn incense, anoint the rock with oil, place curtains around the Foundation Stone, just like the ornamental curtain that existed in the [Jewish] Temple.
