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Monday, July 31, 2017

Have an easy fast

I will not be blogging until Tuesday afternoon (EDT)  to mark Tisha B'Av.

Have an easy and meaningful fast.

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07/31 Links Pt2: Anti-Semitism is still alive — even on the left; Israel Losing The PR War

From Ian:
What victory looks like
I once heard Bill Maher say that: “Israel has won every war she ever had to fight because she has to, she has no choice. If she loses she will be wiped off the map.”
So true.
In 2006, Israel was attacked by Hezbollah and was forced to go to war in Lebanon. The war had no frontline, it was Israelis in their home who were under attack by terrorists shooting missiles from the neighboring country, Lebanon. For 34 days Israelis in northern Israel (me included) hunkered down in bomb shelters while missiles slammed into our towns, our homes. We waited patiently while our soldiers took the battle to the terrorists who were attacking us, doing everything possible to make it stop.
We waited, never knowing when the next missile would come, never knowing where it would hit. Sometimes the air-raid siren worked. Sometimes it didn’t. I will never forget stepping outside after a missile slammed down behind my home and hearing the neighbor across the street screaming: “Why didn’t the siren go off??” That was the only warning we had to race to the bomb shelter, the only hope of protection. There was no Iron Dome then.
While our soldiers were battling for their lives and ours, we waited. Scary and difficult, we would wait however long it took. We didn’t mind.
Because we knew our soldiers would win.
The war ended with a UN brokered ceasefire on August 14, 2006. Israeli news commentators and security analysts told the people that while there was no visual that showed our decisive victory, Israel had won the war, Lebanon had been bombed back into the stone age (poor Lebanon that was being used as a launching pad for Hezbollah to wage a war) and that the IDF had destroyed much of Hezbollah’s missile arsenal.
Victory is similar to pornography. You might not know how to define what it is but you recognize it when you see it. Victory is not something that necessitates interpretation.
Since then, the Israeli government has carefully defined wars as “military operations.” Part of this is for financial reasons (the government is obligated to compensate citizens for financial loss due to war). I believe that this definition also has something to do with the idea that wars have to be won.

Anti-Semitism is still alive — even on the left
In late June, thousands from across the Midwest congregated in Chicago to demonstrate their support for legal rights, recognition and cultural heritage of LGBT communities in the city’s annual Pride Parade. The event, which typically emphasizes inclusion regardless of ethnic or religious background, left Laurel Grauer feeling discriminated against after being removed from the parade for carrying a rainbow flag adorning the Jewish Star of David. Organizers of the program, justifying her removal, claimed that the flag was deemed unacceptable due to its association with the State of Israel.
Unfortunately, this incident signals a trend of increasing anti-Semitism masquerading under the guise of anti-Zionism in the United States and abroad. Although not every rejection of the Zionist movement stems from racially-motivated sentiments, the lack of adequate justification for much of the anti-Zionist movement and an active unwillingness to dissect the complexities of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict reflect a malignant underlying reason for opposition to the Jewish state.
Perhaps one of the worst perpetrators of anti-Zionist bias is the United Nations. The international organization has dealt disproportional criticism to Israel in relation to other, arguably far-more-guilty member nations. In its 2015 session, the U.N. passed a whopping total of 20 resolutions condemning Israel, while only passing 3 condemning resolutions against other member nations. In June, U.S. Ambassadors threatened to pull out of the U.N. Human Rights Council for its consistent discrimination against Israel. The 78 resolutions and decisions passed against Israel dwarf the 29 passed against the next biggest offender, Syria. Meanwhile, Russia, China and Saudi Arabia have faced no condemnations at all.
In the words of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel is a country where “women fly fighter jets, lead major corporations, head universities, preside over the Supreme Court, and have served as Speaker of the Knesset and as Prime Minister.” Contrast these conditions to Saudi Arabia’s, where women are not only denied their autonomy, but also (quite literally) enslaved into arranged marriages.
Jewish Summer Camp Flies Palestinian Flag, Teaches Kids Bad Lesson in Politics
Camp Solomon Schechter, one of the Pacific Northwest’s longest-serving and best-loved Jewish summer camps, caused a bit of a stir this weekend after it hosted a group of 14 children, including Christian and Muslim Palestinians, and flew the Palestinian flag in their honor. This upset some campers, parents, and alumni, who wailed that the black-white-green-and-red had no place among the blue-and-white, and that a camp committed to Zionism and Israel shouldn’t kowtow to the enemy.
Those outraged—and I say this as an uncompromising supporter of Israel’s right to defend itself against Palestinian terrorism and incitement—are missing the point. The problem here isn’t that the camp chose to welcome its Palestinian guests by flying their colors; that alone is a sweet gesture, especially when the Palestinians in question are prepubescents, not armed members of the Tanzim. The problem is that the camp chose to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a mindless, morally preening way, treating it not as something concrete but as a collection of grand symbolic gestures.
Here, for example, is the email the camp sent out in the aftermath of the controversy:
“For the sake of a teachable moment, we did raise the Palestinian flag as a sign of friendship and acceptance. It was met with uncertainty by some campers and staff, especially the Israeli’s [sic], but all understood that the message of hope for peace by flying the Israeli flag alongside helped develop empathy. Still we plan to take down all the flags for Shabbat since there is no peace and also to relieve the sadness and anger that some feel by the site of the flag. It was so fun to watch the kids from Jerusalem play soccer with our chanichim and madrichim!”
Ignore, if you can, the writer’s tenuous grasp on grammar, or the jarring shifts in tone between talk of sadness and anger and peppy reports of a spirited soccer game. But consider the logic at play here: we flew the flag because we hope for peace, then we took it down because there is no peace, and also because some people were upset.
You hardly have to be a great educator to realize just how profoundly idiotic this sentiment truly is, and how likely it is to raise a generation of children who are thoroughly confused. First, it reduces a thorny issue with real complexities and uncomfortable truths to one easy empty gesture. Why bother with facts and figures and nuance when you can just wave a piece of colorful cloth? And then, rather than use this gesture responsibly and invite the campers and staffers to talk about why the flag makes them uncomfortable—maybe, say, because the authority it represents spends a considerable portion of its budget promoting and rewarding the systemic murder of Jews—the camp opted to double down on the symbolism and take the flag down as a way to bemoan the elusiveness of peace. This is how you do bad performance art; it’s not how you educate children.
IsraellyCool: Jewish Camp Doubles Down on Palestinian Flag Fiasco
The clumsily worded statement in fact doubled down on the offending act, elevating the raising of the Palestinian flag as a demonstration of “the Jewish value of Hachnasat Orchim (welcoming guests)”, the guests being a Palestinian delegation spending several days with the Jewish camp under the auspices of Kids4Peace. Adding insult to insult, the Schechter administration further justified the Palestinian flag raising as an attempt to create a “safe space for all”, disregarding the emotional impact the flying of the Palestinian flag would have on their young Jewish campers. Despite the jumbled messaging the camp firmly maintains their Zionist bona fides.
While many in the tight-knit Pacific Northwest Jewish community expressed indignation at the flying of the Palestinian flag at the legacy Jewish camp, radical anti-Israel blogger, BDS supporter and terror apologist Richard Silverstein endorsed the camp, adding that “there should be nothing wrong with raising a Palestinian flag”.
Terror apologist Silverstein declared his support of the Palestinian flag raising.
Rabbi Yohanna Kinberg, who recently marched alongside anti-Israel group IfNotNow, posted a broadside attack against me (I broke the story on my own blog before posting here):
“This blog [The Mike Report] is a vile piece of trash it is truly anti-Jewish and anti-Israel in promoting hate. Camp Solomon Schechter is a very very Zionist camp and bringing kids 4 peace into their community was Jewish leadership at the highest level shame on all of you for reading this man’s blog.
Which leads us to ask the question, with endorsements like these, who needs endorsements?

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Some more explicit Arab media antisemitism



Hamrin News, a Saudi news outlet, describes a favorite topic: Jews. Here are some excerpts.

The Jews believe that their Lord has created Gentiles to serve them. ..The world is divided into two groups: the Jews and the Goyim, and the creation of non-Jews is to serve Jews, enslave them, steal from them, but this is forbidden for them to do among themselves.

The Gentiles are the donkeys whom the Lord created for the chosen people of God.When Abraham went to slaughter his son, Isaac, he was accompanied by his servants, and he said to them: Stay here with the donkey, while I and my son go to the mountain,  hence it is known that non-Jews are donkeys!

Whoever kills a Christian or a foreigner or a pagan is rewarded with immortality in paradise and sitting there in the fourth palace. ...If a Jew intends to kill an animal, kill someone wrongly, or want to kill a pagan or an alien who kills a Jew, his sin is forgiven, and whoever kills a Christian or an alien or a pagan is rewarded with immortality in paradise and sitting there in the fourth palace.

The difference between the Jewish nation and other nations is similar to the difference between man and the rest of the animals. Some rabbis say that only Jews are created in the image of God (despite what is said in Genesis 1:27 on the creation of God in His image). ... In the Book of the Prophets, the Gentiles are considered beasts, and the non-Jew is no different from the wild boar....The Jewish doctor should avoid breaking the sanctity of the Sabbath in order to treat the gentiles. The Jew should not remove the rubble of a house that was destroyed on Saturday [if a Gentile is inside]. If one of the pagans  falls into a pit, the Jew must close the opening with a stone.

In the Talmud it is common to find phrases such as "Kill the righteous from the Gentiles" and "The Jew should feed the dogs and not feed the Gentiles."

The Jews have the right to rape non-Jewish women, the wives of foreigners are permissible; because women are non-Jewish beasts.

The Jew is not permitted to be polite with the non-Jew , or to claim his love, unless he is afraid of harm.

It is not permissible to offer charity to non-Jews.

On the Day of Atonement all of the sins committed by Jews during the year are wiped out.

If the Gentiles steal something - even if its value is very trivial - they deserve to die; because they have violated the commandments that the Lord commanded them

If a foreigner and a Jew come before you in a lawsuit, and you can make the Jew a winner, then say to the foreigner: This is what our law requires...

The religious leaders must curse the heads of the religions (Muhammad, Christ, peace be upon them and the scholars of the unholy) three times every day,

Anyone who sees the tombs of the Goyim should curse them and curse them with specific words found in the Talmud.

All the goods of the land belong to the children of Israel, the land and all that is in it, and it all belongs only to the Jews, and they have full disposition in them; Jehovah gave the Jews control over the money of the rest of the nations and their blood.

The use of foreigners as practical animals has produced a profession in Palestine called "Shabbos Goy", which is mostly Arabs, and their function is to do what is forbidden to the religious Jew to do on Saturday.
 See? Now you know all about Jews!


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The Washington Post’s pathetic whitewashing of a call to kill Jews (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

By Petra Marquardt-Bigman

It’s not going to be easy, but let’s imagine for a moment that Christians would firmly believe Jesus prophesized the rise of Islam and told his followers: “The last day will not come unless you fight the Muslims. A Muslim will hide himself behind stones and trees and stones and trees will say, ‘O servant of God, o Christian, there is a Muslim behind me, come and kill him.’” Let’s also imagine that recently, a Christian preacher repeatedly referred to this belief during a long sermon about a topic that would inflame the passions of his audience – like Islamist terrorism and the dire situation of Christians in the Muslim world – and that he would call for Christian unity and ask God to “liberate” Christian sites “from the filth of the Muslims;” he would also pray: “Oh God, count them one by one and annihilate them down to the very last one. Do not spare any of them.” Finally, let’s imagine that when this sermon was highlighted in the news and widely condemned, the Washington Post would rush to publish an article defending the preacher and trying desperately to downplay his vile incitement.

It’s unimaginable, you say? Well, yes, it is.

But it happened – though the preacher was a Muslim, and the people he railed against and wished to see killed were the Jews… Obviously, this makes a big difference, right?

What the Washington Post’s “religion reporter” Michelle Boorstein was doing with her utterly disgraceful article was already described by Martin Kramer when he wrote years ago about a similar incident and concluded:

“the hadith [that calls for the killing of Jews] predates the State of Israel by well over a millennium, so it certainly can’t be attributed to Israeli provocation. Those who invoke it—the Muslim Brotherhood, Hamas, Bin Laden—root their hatred of Israel in a much deeper stratum of Islamic animosity toward the Jews. Those who downplay that sort of Judeophobia just help to perpetuate it.”

While the Washington Post was publishing its craven apologia for the antisemitic incitement, and while the Islamic Center of Davis was demanding the vile sermon should be seen in the proper context, pious Palestinian Muslims were providing a very relevant context by rioting in Jerusalem and shouting “Khaybar, Khaybar, ya yahud.”

Of course, we can’t know what this really truly means in context until the Washington Post gets around to asking expert apologists for Muslim Jew-hatred about it… So until the Washington Post enlightens us about the real meaning and the proper context, we will have to try hard to ignore that Muhammad’s jihadists won a spectacular victory in their bloody battle against the Jews of Khaybar, and that this victory was the first step in the subjugation and eventual ethnic cleansing of the Jews from the Arabian peninsula. We will also have to try hard to ignore that Muslim efforts to justify the war waged against the Jews by the founder of their religion have spawned a demonization of Jews that is more than a millennium old and remains popular to this day.

And there’s so much more to ignore!!! Among the very important issues that must be ignored are all the hate-filled writings and speeches of Sheik Yusuf Qaradawi, who has been regarded for decades as a great scholar by many millions of Muslims, and who has even been described as the “Global Mufti” due to his enormous influence. And of course, it’s also very important to ignore the fact that the kind of hateful sermon and vile prayer that the Washington Post defended so valiantly are a regular occurrence at the Al-Aqsa mosque, which is usually described as “Islam’s third-holiest” site.

If you find it hard to keep up with all the issues you have to ignore, the Washington Post offers a not-so-subtle clue that makes it real easy. And it’s obvious enough: without the translations provided by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), any incitement spread by Arab preachers, politicians and journalists could be savored by the intended audiences, without foreigners who need translations getting all worked up. You see, MEMRI “monitors media coverage, particularly about Israel” – AHA!!! – and a trustworthy academic expert from Georgetown University’s Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Arab and Islamic Studies has expressed “concern that MEMRI was hoping to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment at a time when Muslim Americans feel under siege.”
Yeah, that’s obviously a reasonable concern: first, it shifts the blame away from the Muslim preacher who called for killing Jews; and second, this kind of “concern” has some tradition – after all, already Muhammad felt there was reason to be concerned about the anti-Muslim sentiment stirred up by the Jews of Khaybar…

So it’s really wonderful that Georgetown University has a Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding in Arab and Islamic Studies with experts who can be consulted when a Muslim preacher cites an ancient and well-known call for killing Jews… And the “understanding” that the center works so hard to foster doesn’t include Jews, right? Incidentally, since 2005, when the center “received a $20 million dollar gift from HRH Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal”, it is known as the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding. If you’re impressed by the sum, read Martin Kramer’s fascinating post on the “Georgetown Yankees in Prince Alwaleed’s court” and take into account that since the late 1970s, Saudi Arabia “has invested at least 76 billion euros ($86 billion)” to promote “Wahhabi extremism, the ideological basis of extremist and jihadist movements throughout the world.”

So it’s a great investment to spend a measly 20 million dollars on a center at a prestigious western university in America’s capital – which is really a good location for academics who have always worked hard to downplay Muslim extremism and who stand ready to provide the Washington Post with some soothing mumblings about “oral traditions about Muslims fighting Jews” when a Muslim preacher in the US bases his sermon on a well-known hadith that calls on Muslims to slaughter Jews. And you are a real expert when you not only manage to downplay this incident and pretend it’s an isolated one, but also turn it around by insinuating that those who drew attention to it by providing a translation should be suspected of trying “to stir up anti-Muslim sentiment.”



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07/31 Links Pt1: PA uses half of foreign aid to reward terror; The Islamization of History

From Ian:
Palestinian Authority now uses half of all foreign aid to reward terror
Your tax dollars at work: The Palestinian Authority is now using half of its foreign aid to reward terrorism.
The new PA budget boosts support to terrorists in prison by 13 percent and aid for the families of those killed “in the struggle against Zion” 4 percent, reports the Institute for Contemporary Affairs.
The total, $344 million, equals 49.6 percent of all foreign aid to the PA. In other words, cash from Uncle Sam, Europe and even Israel is subsidizing “welfare for terrorists.”
The PA sends a salary to each Palestinian imprisoned for an attack on Israelis, hitting over $3,000 a month after 30 years. Other stipends go to families of “martyrs” killed in the act. That’s $344 million for 2017 that’s not going to build roads or hospitals.
Knowing that you or your family will be taken care of is a clear incentive to kill. That’s why President Trump is threatening to end US aid if the PA doesn’t quit it.
The PA budget is a clear “no” to Trump’s demand. Ball’s in your court, Mr. President. (h/t Yenta Press/Cliff)

PM Justin Trudeau: "Canadian pressure on UNRWA"
PM Justin Tudeau forced to respond on Canada's funding of UNRWA after UN Watch exposed UNRWA teachers inciting terrorism. On April 9, 2017, UN Watch released a report at the Canadian Parliament entitled “Enhanced Due Diligence? An Examination of Canada’s pledge to stop UNRWA teachers from inciting Jihadist terrorism and anti-Semitism.” The report sparked a firestorm in the Canadian parliament. Numerous opposition MPs quoted from UN Watch’s report, sharply criticizing the government for reinstating funding to UNRWA. “Why are we funding teachers, principals, UNRWA workers who support antisemitism?” asked Conservative MP Dean Allison, Chair of the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs. Equally outspoken on the UN Watch report was Conservative MP Peter Kent. The questions caused the government to pledge accountability. International Development Minister Marie Claude Bibeau insisted that Canada was “closely monitoring the activities of UNRWA.” On further questioning by Kent, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau himself was forced to respond. He spoke of "Canadian pressure" and promised that Canada would ensure that “the help is going to where it is needed.”


The UN doesn't like this free, liberal world
"The United Nations has become a threat to the liberal international order. It weakens the constitution of liberal democratic states by attacking the political and cultural conditions required for their survival. It attacks the security of free-world countries and the common values that underpin free societies. In recent years, UN leadership has become more hostile to free citizens and politicians who dissent from illiberal supranational rule.
The UN often acts against the free world by targeting politicians who defend the liberty, security and safety of free citizens. In particular, UN chiefs target pro-Western politicians who defend the free world by upholding democratic rule over supranational rule and adopt secure border policy to keep free societies free. During the US presidential campaign, UN human rights chief Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein said he didn't intend to interfere with political campaigns but declared Donald Trump 'dangerous from an international point of view'.
UN members attack the free world by smearing pro-Western politicians with propaganda terms such as xenophobia, Islamophobia, racism and populism. Its leadership has framed democratic citizens' defence of free-world countries as 'xenophobia'. They call democratically elected politicians who represent their people and protect them from harm 'populist'. They claim secure border policy is a form of nationalism and by extension (in UN thought), an abuse of human rights. And they depict the UN as a bastion of benevolent internationalism, despite its track record...
The UN rails against conservative party politicians who defend secure border policy so that Western democracy and open society and can flourish. Human rights chief Hussein described right-wing Western politicians as 'demagogues' and compared their 'tactics' with those of genocidal Islamic State.
However, the UN adopts a comparatively accommodationist approach to closed and illiberal -societies under Islamist and communist rule. Last year, the UN General Assembly honoured communist dictator Fidel Castro with a minute of silence. On that day, as on so many others, it entertained attacks on Israel's sovereignty by Islamists. And the UN is yet to explain how its benevolent internationalism includes the Organisation of Islamic Co¬operation's redefinition of human rights to disallow freedoms 'contrary to the principles of the sharia'... Liberal internationalists need to ¬acknowledge there's something rotten in the state of the UN."

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Hamas continues to taunt family of Hadar Goldin on anniversary of his death

In April, Hamas released a music video - in Hebrew - implying that the two Israeli soldiers whose bodies they are holding are still alive and that Israel's claims to the contrary are lies.

The video ghoulishly appeals to the families of Staff Sgt. Oron Shaul and Lt. Hadar Goldin to pressure Israel to do a prisoner swap by showing pictures of the dead soldiers juxtaposed with their parents.


Lyrics of the song include "“Mother, Mother I’m here. Why are they saying that I’m dead?”, “Mother, Mother, the state is responsible for the lost ones. A day will come when those responsible will be judged,” and “Mom, Dad, I’m in the prison of the Qassam Brigades. Do all you can so the truth will come out.”

Now Hamas' Felesteen newspaper has added a cartoon depicting Hadar Goldin and his mother:


The cartoon shows the IDF ("Occupation Army") about to destroy the dreams of Goldin's mother that he can be returned home.

Tomorrow is the third anniversary of Goldin's death.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)


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UK-based pan-Arab newspaper praises murder of Jewish civilians, may violate 2006 Terrorism Act



An op-ed in the UK-based pan-Arab newspaper Al Quds al Arabi effusively praises the man who murdered Yosef, Chaya and Elad Salomon.

The murder had already been praised by Hamas and by Fatah's military wing.

In this article, Abdel Halim Qandil says that no Arab leader had done anything to fight against Israeli actions. Fatah and Hamas and Arab national leaders were all mute about Israel's actions until this brave young man murdered a 70 year old man and his two children:
The response came from a young man, no older than 18, Omar al-Abd. He was not known for religious extremism, and there was no suspicion of him belonging to any faction of jihad. On that day, an immediate response was made, and with one individual, a "balance of terror", was created with an occupation army claiming to be invincible....He went to what he planned with God. The new Palestinian icons, the new title of the movement of new generations of Palestinians, have lost confidence in their leaders and the inherited factions, and took the cause of their people into their own hands, and triggered a new Palestinian popular uprising...
I believe that this article may violate the 2006 UK Terrorism Act:
1 Encouragement of terrorism
(1)This section applies to a statement that is likely to be understood by some or all of the members of the public to whom it is published as a direct or indirect encouragement or other inducement to them to the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences.
(2)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he publishes a statement to which this section applies or causes another to publish such a statement; and
(b)at the time he publishes it or causes it to be published, he—
(i)intends members of the public to be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate acts of terrorism or Convention offences; or
(ii)is reckless as to whether members of the public will be directly or indirectly encouraged or otherwise induced by the statement to commit, prepare or instigate such acts or offences.
(3)For the purposes of this section, the statements that are likely to be understood by members of the public as indirectly encouraging the commission or preparation of acts of terrorism or Convention offences include every statement which—
(a)glorifies the commission or preparation (whether in the past, in the future or generally) of such acts or offences; and
(b)is a statement from which those members of the public could reasonably be expected to infer that what is being glorified is being glorified as conduct that should be emulated by them in existing circumstances.
Qandil is calling a terrorist a hero, and as such his words being published in the United Kingdom seem to violate this law.

Qandil is Egyptian, a Nasserist activist and newspaper editor.

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"Israeli spy eagle" shot down over Syria



It's happened again.

Ma'an reports today that Mossad Agent Eagle S99 has been shot down and killed from over the skies of Idlib, near the Turkish border, by the Free Syrian Army.

The independent, supposedly professional newspaper says that the bird was carrying "Israeli spy equipment."

Too bad they don't do the slightest amount of fact checking. Because this story was already debunked in Arab media days ago.

The bird was shot down in Daraa province near Israel, not in Idlib. The email address that was attached to the bird belonged to an Israeli research center in the Golan. A local fisherman, Mohammed Merad, was concerned when the bird was perched on his roof. He shot it down with a rifle and saw the email address, and sent an email where he found out that it was a research project.

There were conflicting reports about what happened to the bird but apparently it was buried in Syria, not handed over to Israel as some articles say.



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Sunday, July 30, 2017

Muslim Sages meeting Monday in Abu Dhabi to discuss "Zionist violations against Al Aqsa"



From the Standard Republic:
Grand Imam Ahmed Al-Tayeb, Sheikh arrived in Abu Dhabi where he is set to chair the emergency council meeting of the Muslim sages tomorrow.

The meeting will discuss the Zionist violations against Al-Aqsa mosque.

The Grand Imam was received by Minister of Higher Education Dr. Ahmed Bahloul Al-Falasi, General Secretary of the Council of Muslim Sages Dr. Ali Al-Nuaimi, and Chairman of the General Authority of Islamic Affairs in Abu Dhabi Dr. Mohammed Mattar Al-Kaabi.
The meeting isn't about defending the Al Aqsa Mosque from Israel. The meeting is how to leverage the Al Aqsa Mosque to fan more Arab anger towards Israel and Jews.

It isn't as if the "crisis" is still going on, unless you define the crisis as Jews existing in Jerusalem.

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Report: UAE sending fuel ship to Gaza shore. Wouldn't that break the blockade?



Palestine Today reports that the UAE is sending a ship filled with natural gas  to help run the Gaza power plant.

According to the story, this ship will be moored off the coast of Gaza - and that Israel has no objection because it does not want a Gaza power crisis.

This effort is reportedly another attempt by Mohammed Dahlan to assert his role in Gaza, cooperating with Hamas and Egypt in bringing this about.

This sounds unlikely, because Israel's naval blockade of Gaza would be broken by such a vessel. My guess is that if the story is true the ship will go to the coast of Egypt adjacent to Gaza and the fuel will be offloaded there.

Israel's reaction as the ship approaches will be very interesting.

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07/30 Links: Secretary Tillerson should resign; Imams incite murder; American Muslim leaders silent

From Ian:
Melanie Phillips: Weakness and indifference over Temple Mount incitement
Join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network why the Arab violence over Temple Mount is not the result of “clashes”, as the western media claim, but the incitement of emotionally overwrought and hysterical Arabs to murder and mayhem.



David Collier: The hard-core antisemitism of the Scottish PSC (SPSC)
Significant representation & Jews providing cover
The report sought to quantify antisemitic tendency and sheds light on concentration levels of antisemitic ideology in anti-Israel activism. One of the case studies looked at the Jackie Walker event in Glasgow. Using a sample of thirty-two activists, the study found that 44% of those present had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts. This level of Jew hate found at an event set up to deny the problem of antisemitism.
Whether deliberate or not, people like Jackie Walker are currently expending large amounts of energy providing antisemites with a defence. You cannot deny such significant representation and pretend it is only a ‘fringe’. These people are the core activists at the SPSC. But it is not just Jackie Walker giving cover to Jew hate. Here is Max Blumenthal with two of the activists picked up in the report:
In February I published a report on antisemitism in the England & Wales PSC. Following the publication I was hounded, threatened and stalked. Yet those few Jews who sit in the camp criticising Israel, did not read the report and acknowledge the hate. They attacked me instead. Jonathan Ofir wrote a piece in Mondoweiss attacking someone who had uncovered antisemitism. That article was then gleefully headlined by the Jewish led group ‘Free Speech in Israel’ (my response). There is nothing in any of these reports that has anything to do with Israel. It focuses on classic antisemitic tropes. Why on earth are Jewish people, even if they are a small minority, giving cover to people who share posts about Holocaust denial? Is the ’cause’ so infected with Jew hate, that a level of 40-50% is tolerable because as activists, there is not enough power to start the engine if they actually clean the group of racism?
The results for the second case study are even more frightening. Last August, outside a peace festival set up to celebrate Israeli diversity and culture, the SPSC gathered to protest. About one-hundred and twenty demonstrators. Over sixty activists were identified. More than 50% of them had shared numerous hard core antisemitic posts.
Statistical breakdownIn the small crowd, there were at least ten who spread material denying the Holocaust.
Findings
The findings of the report were almost self-evident.
*The inevitable conclusion is that antisemitic tendency is a primary driver of anti-Israel activism*
Following on from this:
*There is a strong probability that those who are introduced to anti-Israel material by SPSC activists on the streets are being influenced by people who adhere to an antisemitic mindset*
And also:
*Much of this activity seeks to spread antisemitic thought*

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Some are fighting the anti-Israel narrative from Germany

The Jerusalem Post reported last week:

The online editor-in-chief of the mass-circulation Bild published Sunday a column filled with blistering criticism over the anti-Israel media in Germany during the Temple Mount clashes.
“No other country, which suffers under permanent terror, is reported on in Germany in the cynical, ice-cold and heartless manner like Israel is,” wrote Julian Reichelt. His commentary was at one point the second most read article on the popular website.

The title of his column reads: “Middle East coverage in the German media: Perpetrators turned into victims.”

Reichelt wrote that “Metal detectors at the entry to the Temple Mount are described as injuring religious feelings. And the German media briskly spreads this fairy tale from an Israeli attack on religious freedom.”

He lambasted the German press for “routinely interchanging perpetrator and victim.” Reichelt cited the example of the German public news show Tagesschau’s rationale for terrorism against Israeli Jews.

“The Taggeschau permitted the father of a young Palestinian, who slaughtered a Jewish family, to justify his son because the ‘honor of Muslims’ is endangered.”

His media criticism took headline writers to task. “When terrorists attack soldiers, it reads: ‘Two Palestinians killed by Israeli military action.’ That is as if one would write about the terrorist from Nice: ‘Truck driver shot by police.’”

Reichelt noted that “Israel is on the front line in the battle against a murderous ideology that envisions annihilation of us... we Germans should back the Israelis in this battle instead of expecting that they nicely allow themselves to be destroyed.”

 Die Welt had another op-ed, by Richard Herzinger,  that questioned the reflexive support for Palestinians in Germany:
The conflict over the Temple Mount is not about injured religious feelings of Muslims nor about mistakes of the Israeli security authorities: Jewish history is to be delegitimized.

Israel dismantles the metal detectors on the Temple Mount, which have given the Palestinian Authority (PA) the pretext to stir up rebellion against the hated "Zionist occupation". But no one should believe that this concession could end the recent, religiously charged Palestinian hate-wave against the Jewish state.

In German and international media it has often been felt that the increased security measures taken by the Netanyahu government after the shooting of two Israeli police by Palestinian terrorists are the cause of the current unrest. But this represents a breathtaking reversal of cause and effect as well as the offender-victim relationship .

In fact, the conflict over the Temple Mount is not about any injured religious feelings of Muslims nor about possible mistakes of the Israeli security authorities. The latest confrontation is the result of a strategically conceived, systematically driven campaign by the PA leadership to discredit and isolate Israel.

These are baby steps but they may be hiding a much larger sea change in European opinion that most are not yet comfortable saying out loud.

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Palestinians were chanting slogans against Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt during protests

This video was taken during the Jerusalem protests last week:


According to this tweet from Al Jazeera's Line Alsaffin, the people are chanting "Down with Al Saud"; and "Son of Hussein [King Abdullah] you coward" and [Egyptian president] Sisi son of a dog."

Here is the full text of what they are chanting. Notice how important the honor/shame motif is ("We are the people who are the deciding factor!/Death rather than humiliation!")
Down with the Saud clan!
Down with the Saud clan!
Down with the son of Hussein!
Down with the son of Hussein!
Oh Sisi, you son of a dog!
We are the people who are the deciding factor!
Oh Sisi, you coward!
You agent of the Americans!
Oh son of Hussein, you coward!
You agent of the Americans!
From Jerusalem to Amman!
Our honor will not be trampled upon!
From Jerusalem hear oh Amman!
Our honor will not be trampled upon!
Hear oh Mahmoud Abbas!
Our Al-Aqsa is the foundation!( i.e. the most important thing for us)
Hear hear oh Abbas!
Our Al-Aqsa is the foundation!
Netanyahu you son of a dog!
We are the people who are the deciding factor!
Netanyahu you coward!
The people of Jerusalem will not be humiliated!
Raise your hands and shout loudly!
Death rather than humiliation!

The Palestinians are publicly burning their bridges with the Arab leaders who have traditionally  been their staunchest supporters. They know that the moderate Arab states are getting more and more impatient with their antics and instead of looking at themselves, they are lashing out, a product of years of coddling them and enabling their childishness.

But the Palestinians aren't quite in a powerful enough position to be able to spit in the face of those who have been trying to help them grow up and accept peace with Israel. 

Palestinians, like children, have a short memory. They've been treated horribly by Jordan, by Lebanon, by Kuwait - whenever they are perceived as a threat, their Arab brethren can turn on them on a dime. By inciting against the only nations that are in a position to help them, and by framing their relationship with those nations in terms of humiliation, they are cutting off their legs.

Their only friends left are Qatar and Iran. Together with regular Arab op-eds that support them, the Palestinians are turning a blind eye to what is really happening, and what has been happening for a while, as Arab leaders have been turning cooler towards them with every passing year.

This implosion of support for them from moderate Arab states is not being covered in the West, but it is a huge story that will catch everyone by surprise sooner rather than later.  

In a hundred years, scholarly papers will be written about why so many invested so much time and effort to help a group of people whose only accomplishments have been to create modern terrorism and a remarkable ability to consistently back the wrong horse.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)


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UAE op-ed says Arab-Israeli peace would help Arabs be enslaved by the Jews



UAE newspaper Al Khaleej has an op-ed by Hayat al Haweeq Attiya talking about the dangers of a comprehensive peace with Israel.

The author opens with a story where she and a group of students in Lebanon met with an Israeli peacenik in the 1970s. The man, supposedly a rabbi named Marr Berger, was against war. The reasons he was against war is what the author is upset about: she says he was only against war to save Jewish lives, which he claimed were priceless. So his solution was to end war and instead integrate Israel into the region economically and culturally, to benefit everyone.

This is terrible. But the reason isn't quite clear yet.

She goes on to say that Shimon Peres was just as "bad." His vision was for the Arabs and the peoples of the Middle East to act as raw materials and labor for Israeli and multinational corporations to exploit.

"This formula of bondage is much worse than the military occupation," Attiya says.

She concludes, "In the name of combating terrorism we come to a humiliating Judeo-Arabization that actually achieves the process of cultural Judaization that paves the way for the completion of economic Judaization" of the entire Arab Muslim world.

Yes, any economic agreement between Israel and the Arab world is essentially slavery, according to this Arab French intellectual.

She doesn't say it, but obviously the only acceptable Arab peace plan for the region is the elimination of Israel.

Attiya considers herself a human rights activist and an intellectual, who has appeared on TV hundreds of times (including in France) and has written thousands of articles.

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Saturday, July 29, 2017

07/29 Links: Jordan’s king says he is preventing ‘judaization’ of Jerusalem; Balfour’s Shadow

From Ian:
Jordan’s king says Amman preventing ‘judaization’ of holy sites in Jerusalem
Jordan’s King Abdullah II praised on Saturday his country’s handling of the Temple Mount crisis in Jerusalem in recent weeks and said Jordan would continue to fulfill its “historic role” of protecting “Islamic and Christian holy sites” in the Israeli capital and preventing their “Judaization” while ensuring the maintenance of the status quo at the sensitive compound.
Speaking to a group of local journalists, the Jordanian monarch said Amman worked continuously to “contain the ramifications” of Israel’s imposed security measures at entrances to the Temple Mount, known to Muslims as the Haram al-Sharif which houses the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock sanctuary, and to pressure Israel to roll back the installations and “through our common stand with our Palestinian brethren.”
Israel took the rare step of briefly shutting down the Temple Mount in the wake of a July 14 terror attack in which three terrorists killed two Israeli police officers with weapons they had smuggled onto the holy site, and reopened it two days later with metal detectors and cameras in place.
Amid heavy Jordanian pressure, Israel announces probe into Amman embassy attack
The Israeli Foreign Ministry on Friday announced that a preliminary probe was launched into the attack Sunday near the Israeli Embassy in Amman where an Israeli security guard killed two Jordanian nationals, including a teen assailant who was attacking him with a screwdriver.
The announcement came after Jordan announced that Israeli embassy staff, who came back to Israel on Monday following the violent incident, would not be allowed to return to Amman until an investigation was opened. Jordan has been pressing Israel to probe the incident, which has promoted a major diplomatic dispute between the two countries, which were already navigating tense relations surrounding violence at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, administered by a Jordanian-controlled trust.
On Friday, hundreds of Jordanians held a protest near the Israeli embassy in Amman over the incident, calling on the government to shut it down and cancel the 1994 peace treaty with Israel.
The Foreign Ministry said in a statement Friday that Israel was “launching a probe process into the incident, in accordance with the appropriate legal proceedings in such matters.”
Jonathan Hoffman: Balfour’s Shadow
Remember David Cronin? He’s the campaigning Irish ‘journalist’ who tried to arrest Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman in Brussels in 2011. Now he’s contributed to the growing pile of Israel-traducing books offered at markdown prices by Amazon, ahead of the Balfour Centenary in November. His book is called ‘Balfour’s Shadow’ and it focuses in particular on relations between the UK and the Israeli Arabs and Palestinians (he wrongly calls them all ’Palestinians’) between 1917 and the present day. The book is published by Pluto Press, the former publishing arm of the far-Left SWP. Cronin spoke about the book at a meeting on 27 July.
Mistake #1 comes with his timeline. In spring/summer 1948 he writes that ‘Zionist forces undertake major ethnic cleansing programme in Palestine’. Not true, see Efraim Karsh. Only a handful of Arabs were attacked by Jewish irregular forces. The vast majority left because their leaders told them to go. They were told to leave for their own safety and that they would be able to return after the fighting. The Mayor of Haifa begged the Arabs to stay.
Mistake #2: Cronin says it’s a myth that Balfour was acting benevolently in issuing the Declaration. No it’s not. Balfour’s appreciation of the history of the Jews was genuine. See for example this quote:
“Here you have a small race, originally inhabiting a small country ….., at no time in its history wielding anything that can be described as material power, crushed between great Oriental monarchies, its inhabitants deported, then scattered, then driven out of the country to every part of the world and yet maintaining continuity of religion and racial tradition of which there is no parallel elsewhere…. We cannot forget how they have been treated during long centuries. Our whole religious organization of Europe has proved itself guilty of great crimes against this race. [Speech to the Lords (1922); Quoted in Lord Turnberg’s book ‘Beyond the Balfour Declaration’]
In fact Balfour and Weizmann became good friends. So much so that in 1930 when Balfour was on his deathbed, Weizmann was the only non-family member allowed to see him.
Mistake #4: Cronin writes that at the time of the Balfour Declaration, the most prominent Jews in the UK opposed Zionism. Some did, others (Lord Rothschild, Herbert Samuel for example) didn’t. The President of the Board of Deputies opposed Zionism but for this he was voted out of office (see this book).

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Friday, July 28, 2017

07/28 Links Pt2: A tale of 2 Israeli heroes; What kind of society has the PA created?

From Ian:
Ruthie Blum: A tale of 2 Israeli heroes
Last Friday night, an Israeli soldier on leave for the weekend acted coolly and courageously, ‎rushing to the rescue of neighbors he heard screaming. "Sgt. O.," whose full name cannot be ‎disclosed due to the sensitive nature of the elite IDF special forces unit in which he serves, ran to ‎the home of the nearby Salomon family to investigate. When he saw through their window that ‎they were being butchered, he promptly grabbed his rifle and shot the perpetrator.‎
By the time the scene was over, Yosef Salomon, 70, his daughter Chaya Salomon, 46, and son ‎Elad Salomon, 36, were lying in pools of blood on the kitchen floor. Tova Salomon, 68, would ‎only learn of the death of her husband and two of her children upon awakening from the surgery ‎she underwent to repair the multiple injuries she sustained in the knife attack.‎
The terrorist who maimed and murdered the Salomons was evacuated to an Israeli hospital, ‎where he was treated for the bullet wound from Sgt. O.'s weapon.‎
Sgt. O. is an Israeli hero whose identity cannot be published, but whose life is intact. A ‎different Israeli hero -- one who has been a household name in the country for his decades of ‎musical prowess and gay-rights activism -- was not so fortunate last weekend.
Amir Fryszer Guttman, 41, died on Saturday of organ failure, after rescuing his 9-year-old ‎niece from drowning off the coast of Atlit. Fryszer Guttman held the flailing child, his brother's ‎daughter, above the surface of the waves, forcing himself to stay conscious while bobbing up and ‎down in the water until help arrived. It was not until he was told that the little girl was safe that ‎he passed out for good. He was rushed to the hospital in a coma, and died the following day.
Fryszer Guttman's story gripped the nation more profoundly than the international crisis ‎surrounding the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The ongoing chaos, sparked by an Arab terrorist ‎attack on July 14 -- in which two Druze Israeli Border Police officers were killed outside Al-‎Aqsa mosque -- feels like yet another chapter in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. By now, the ‎matter-of-fact heroism displayed by people like Sgt. O. is something that the public has ‎come to take for granted.‎
But Fryszer Guttman's death caused everyone -- even the most secular of his peers in the ‎entertainment industry and LGBT community -- to gasp at its eerily divine significance. This is ‎because he lost his life on the very day that he and his friends and family were celebrating the ‎anniversary of the beginning of his new life.‎
David Harris: Stop Infantilizing the Palestinians
It's high time for the international community to wake up to certain Palestinian realities that many would rather avoid. I write as the representative of an organization, AJC, long committed to the search for an enduring two-state agreement, coexistence between Muslims and Jews, and friendly ties with moderate Arab countries.
An obsession with Israel and what it should (and should not) do blinds too many observers of the region to the other side of the equation - what the Palestinians should (and should not) do. Why doesn't the international community show more backbone in insisting that Palestinians take responsibility for their own behavior?
The Palestinians could have had a state on more than one occasion between 1947 and 2017, yet they rejected each opportunity. The price was recognition of Israel as a sovereign nation alongside the Palestinian state, a price they have been unwilling to pay.
While Israel has come to accept Palestinian nationalism, there has been no reciprocal movement on the Palestinian side to accept Jewish self-determination as its complement.
Moreover, the popular Palestinian belief that Jews are "outsiders," "interlopers," "colonialists," and "crusaders" must be confronted. Jews are indigenous to the region. The age-old link between the Jewish people and the land is documented and irrefutable.
Indulging the Palestinians in their fanciful history allows them to live in an alternate universe, one where Israel doesn't exist, or, if it does, is only a "temporary and illegitimate" phenomenon.
Ending the infantilization of the Palestinians - and beginning to hold them responsible for their actions - could be one promising way forward for the peacemakers.
What kind of society has the Palestinian Authority created?
On July 14th, Palestinian terrorists smuggled guns into their own holy site, then used those guns to murder two Israeli Druze police officers guarding one of the entrances to the al-Aqsa Mosque. Yet, it's the installation of metal detectors and cameras - nothing more nothing less, not the heinous use of a holy site as a launch pad for murder and terrorism that has the Palestinians enraged.
To an objective observer, the crisis that erupted in the aftermath of a bloody terror attack makes no sense. Israel’s placing security devices at the entrance to all al-Aqsa entrances was a preventive security matter plain and simple and designed to detect metal objects being carried onto the Temple Mount to prevent a recurrence of the crime and to protect worshipers coming to pray.
Sadly, mere rumors by Palestinians regarding al-Aqsa are enough to ignite a conflagration. In effect, by pretending that the al-Aqsa mosque is under Israeli attack, Palestinian political and religious leaders have deliberately drummed up senseless violence. Nor is this sham new. Palestinian leaders have been making false claims of Jewish threats to the al-Aqsa mosque since 1929.As a result, the predictable response from Palestinians was general outrage and mass riots if the security devices were not removed. So the question arises, how could the installation of metal detectors and high-tech cameras to protect a holy site be considered a cause of war or worse - a new holy war?
Even the King of Saudi Arabia said he saw no problem with the installation of electronic means of inspection, which are the same ones used at Islam's holiest shrines in Mecca and Medina. In Mecca, for example, there are 5,000 closed-circuit television cameras (overseen by a British company, G4S) and, as a security measure, an electronic bracelet is attached to each of the millions of pilgrims throughout their entire stay in the kingdom, allowing the authorities to monitor them. That hasn’t stopped the pilgrimage.

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You learn interesting Jewish history from Arab websites

Here's what I learned today:
Jerusalem among the Jews is the capital of the Messiah of salvation coming from the descendants of David. In the Talmudic textbook, "The Jews will come to Jerusalem and take it, and its borders will be filled with wealth." In the interpretation of the Kabbalah, it was portrayed as a place that would flow from the sky and spread to the rest of the world.
The demolition of Al-Aqsa Mosque is an integral part of Zionist ideology. Christ will not return to battle (Armageddon) at the end of time except by the demolition of the Al-Aqsa Mosque and the establishment of Solomon's Temple. And of course we know that this doctrine has loyal followers of the United States Christians, fanatical and red-headed Protestants called Jesus Freaks. Let us know from a long history of excavations and tunnels that the land under the mosque became like an ant house. 


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Work accident!



Another Hamas "martyr" has ascended to Paradise.

Omar Abu Nimah was electrocuted while working in a terror tunnel in southern Gaza.

He was such a happy terrorist, too.



Here is the uncorrected, autotranslated eulogy from the Hamas Al Qassam website.


"We ask Allah to accept him and to make him live in peace, to make his struggle pure for his holy face, to persevere his people and his loved ones, and to improve their consolation, and the blood of our martyrs will remain a shining light in the path of liberating Palestine and burning the occupiers until they are defeated from our land." On the road of the thorn, the Mujahideen of the Qassams spend the heroes, do not know to rest or sit in a way, their silence is only a jihad and preparation for as long as the enemy and the friend saw his fruit in the battlefields of the battle, from training to industrialization to digging tunnels of pride and dignity to the positions of the homeland, some, the young believer dedicated himself to God sacrificing all dear and precious, dug in the rock despite the blockade and restrictions near and distant and give up, held out the promise of the afterlife , which is coming inevitably on getting worse Mujahdona faces of the Zionists , God willing, and expel from the land of Isra ' submissive and they are humble. " She continued:" We ask Allaah to accept Him and dwell in Him Melt downpeace, and make his struggle purely for His sake, and that patient and his family loved ones and improves find relief, and blood our martyrs will remain guiding light in way liberation Palestine and fire burn until occupiers from our land Andhroa God willing. " 


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07/28 Links Pt1: The ‘Al-Aqsa libel’ lives on; The Palestinian plot to end-run Trump at the UN

From Ian:
Ben-Dror Yemin: The ‘Al-Aqsa libel’ lives on
As the years went by, the format of “an external enemy with self-killing” exacerbated, and not just among the Palestinians. The Muslims are regularly furious with the West. In the past few decades, the “forces of progress” have been adding fuel to the fire. Thousands of academics, journalists and human rights activists are pointing an accusing finger at the West, at the United States, as the Great Satan, and at Israel, as the Little Satan. Everything the Islamists say the ultra-enlightened people say a bit better.
But the rage against the West, which is mostly based on lies and self-deception, is entering an improved format of “an external enemy and self-killing,” because in recent decades the Muslims have mainly been massacring themselves. The massacre exists wherever there are Islamists, and they always find excuses to invigorate the “industry of death”—the title of Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan al-Banna’s article.
From 2002 to late 2016, 202,697 people were murdered in acts of terror. I’m not talking about the casualties of war in the Muslim world, where the death toll in that period almost reached one million. I’m talking about the victims of terror, the absolute majority of whom are Muslim, in Muslim countries or in Muslim population centers. Iraq, Afghanistan and Nigeria top the list. Israel is almost at the bottom. So with all due respect to the sensitivity towards the Temple Mount, which does exist, it’s the Muslim world’s last problem.
Terror doesn’t appear because it wants to improve something. It doesn’t seek peace. And in our case, it doesn’t seek two states for two people, it doesn’t want an end to the occupation. Terror appears because of incitement and hatred and blood libels. It seeks destruction and ruin, and it will find any excuse to reappear.
When the Palestinians suffer because of the occupation—they have an excellent reason, and one can be confident that the representatives of the forces of progress will turn into terrorism’s propaganda and justification arm. When things are good, despite the occupation—and in the past two years there have been signs of prosperity—it makes the jihadists’ blood boil even more and they rise up against the normalization. And, in the background, there are always the instigators and the agitators and the funders. The young man who went out to murder on Friday night believed that the Jews are desecrating one of Islam’s holiest symbols. He believed the campaign of lies, beginning with al-Jazeera and Hamas to Sheikh Raed Salah and the Palestinian media.
That doesn’t mean that our decision makers did the right thing. But before pulling out knives, and before starting an argument between the Shin Bet and the police, and before pointing an accusing finger at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, we must remember that we are talking about a much deeper problem. A problem which the Arab world must solve with itself, because the Muslims are an absolute majority of the victims of Islamic terror. The Temple Mount, with all due respect, is not a jot of this problem. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Israel must disabuse Abbas of the delusion he can bully Israel
Then Israel should stop facilitating the business interests of Abbas’s cronies, whose cartels control the Palestinian economy. The international donor community, too, might usefully rethink the huge sums of cash it pours into Abbas’s coffers every year.
Then Israel can and should revoke the VIP permits that allow Abbas and his ministers to fly in and out of Ben-Gurion Airport on their luxury private jets. Let them beg King Abdullah in Amman for travel privileges.
Simultaneously, Israel should clamp down on the activities in eastern Jerusalem of rabble- rousers like Sheikh Ekrima Sa’id Sabri, the lead agent in the city for Erdogan’s Turkey and the Muslim Brotherhood; Sheikh Issam Amira, the lead agent in the city for the Islamic Liberation Party (Hizb ut-Tahrir); and Abbas’s hand-picked henchmen, the intemperate Temple Mount Mufti Muhammad Hussein and the fanatic former chief justice of the PA’s religious court, Sheikh Tayseer al-Tamimi.
Their sermons, “charitable” enterprises and educational programs glorify terrorists and explicitly call for violent resistance to Israel. Their networks (along with Fatah social media) also are the source for the libel that al-Aksa is in danger from Israel. It would also not be too hard to arrest their key street-activists, who are leading the riots in the city.
Israel should unsheathe its sovereign power and put the extremists down. This is the decisive action that one day might allow for Palestinian moderates to emerge.
Arab humiliation and the Temple Mount
With Donald Trump’s electoral victory, Palestinian hopes of luring the international community into a dictated agreement suffered an enormous setback. Meanwhile the Gulf states have come to view Israel as an ally against Iran, while Egyptian security cooperation with Israel is stronger than ever in history. The Palestinians are the odd man out. And President Trump himself went to the Western Wall of the destroyed Temple in Jerusalem, the first US president ever to do so – as a private citizen, to be sure, and without any Israeli official presence – in a powerful gesture of sympathy for Jewish national aspirations.
The last wedge that the Palestinians can drive between Washington and its Arab allies is the Temple Mount itself. This is not a matter of Muslim theology, nor a question of sentimental attachment: rather, it is the embodiment of the last hope that the hated Zionist presence will be temporary, and the prayers of a billion and a half Muslims for “success” eventually will be granted. Whether last week’s murder of Israeli policemen with guns hidden on the Temple Mount was a fortuitous pretext for the protests, or a provocation intended to produce a wave of outrage in the Arab world, is unclear.
That explains why Arab governments were “conspicuously silent” on the matter, as the Israeli daily Ha’aretz reported July 24. One can only imagine the content of the telephone traffic between Washington and Arab capitals over the weekend. Israel at length removed the metal detectors to the official praise of the White House.
Washington and Jerusalem only have unpleasant choices in the short term. The so-called Arab Street has been quiet for several years. But life in the Arab world remains difficult to bear, and the danger of an eruption of popular rage is ever present. The Israelis (and above all the Israeli security services) do not want another Intifada and hope the issue will go away. Feeding the Arab’s refusal to admit defeat, though, will only encourage behavior that has come to resemble the Black Knight’s one-sided battle with King Arthur in Monty Python’s Holy Grail film. Peace isn’t made when one side is defeated, but when one side admits that it is defeated. Delaying this admission keeps the war going. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

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Saudi king takes credit for Israel backing down on Temple Mount

While Mahmoud Abbas' media is praising him for his "victory" over Israel, others are claiming that they are the ones who were instrumental in Israel's decision to take down the metal detectors outside the Temple Mount.

One of them is King Salman of Saudi Arabia, who took credit for the decision in a press release:

PROTESTS and pressure from world leaders, led by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman, forced Israel to remove all security measures at Al-Aqsa Mosque. The move felicitates the return of Palestinian worshipers to the mosque, in what may be a turning point in the two-week standoff.

King Salman had a telephonic conversation with several world leaders in order to resolve the Al-Aqsa Mosque impasse after Israel’s security measures last week.

During the calls, King Salman asserted the rights of Palestinian Muslims to access Al-Aqsa Mosque. According to a Royal Court statement issued on Thursday, King Salman’s communications with world leaders succeeded in resolving the Al-Aqsa confrontations.

The Saudi government contacted the US administration and urged it to facilitate the opening of Al-Aqsa Mosque to Muslims, and for allowing them the right to worship after restrictions on access to the mosque were imposed by Israeli forces, the Royal Court statement said.

The statement added that King Salman’s efforts have been successful in a way that contributed to restoring stability and provided reassurance to the worshipers. It helped safeguard their dignity and security.
There are two messages here. One is the normal attempt by any national leader to make themselves look more important than they are by taking far more credit for world events than they deserve.

But the other is to downplay the political importance of Mahmoud Abbas.

A real ally would be sensitive to how a statement like this would play in the territories. King Salman doesn't really care.

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Amnesty says Israel "attacked peaceful crowds" at Al Aqsa



Amnesty International continued its anti-Israel bias, contradicting every non-Arab eyewitness account on the events on Thursday:

Israeli forces attacked peaceful crowds of Palestinians as they gathered at al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem this afternoon for the first time since Israel lifted recent security measures imposed at the site, according to Amnesty International staff at the scene.
“Israeli forces started firing stun grenades, tear gas and sponge-tipped bullets into a peaceful crowd as they stood at the entrance of the al-Aqsa mosque compound and inside. It appeared to be an entirely unprovoked attack. Some Palestinians threw empty water bottles in return. Others, began to throw stones as well,” said Magdalena Mughrabi, Deputy Middle East and North Africa Director at Amnesty International.

Freelance journalist Jake Hanrahan tweeted in response:


Even Asaf Ronel, Haaretz' World News editor and  an avowed anti-Zionist, took issue with this description:


Amnesty's bias is even more egregious when you consider that for the past two weeks Israel has done everything it could to calm things down while the Palestinian leadership has done everything it could to inflame and incite.

Such background is irrelevant to Amnesty, which is wedded to its own anti-Israel narrative that trumps facts, so much so that it ignores proof that it is wrong.


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