Monday, January 01, 2018
Even the Beatles preceded the Palestinians
Since then…since 1964…the “Palestinians” have been the world’s number one concern, even though they have been nothing but a headache and exist in no history books. Nothing to be found about them before June 2, 1964. That’s when the Arab League certified them as the PLO.Hezbollah and Hamas rank at top of Forbes’ ‘Richest Terror Groups’ list
That’s when they became a “people” -- a people still in search of an ancestry. So far, no luck.
Abbas keeps trying. He names himself and his “people” heirs to every ancient civilization on record.
But there is not even a single page about them; not in the Hebrew Bible, or the Christian Bible. The Koran never heard of them, and neither did Josephus.
Consider the Beatles. They made their splash February 7, 1964. That’s four months BEFORE the “Palestinians” got noticed...
If the 1960s are your idea of “ancient times,” okay; consider the Beatles. They made their splash February 7, 1964.
That’s four months BEFORE the “Palestinians” got noticed and they, The Beatles, never asked for favors besides “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”
It’s the song that launched them on “The Ed Sullivan Show.” (Originally known as “Toast of the Town.”) Anybody remember Ed Sullivan? Of course not.
Yes, Millennials, we did have TV back then, though to change channels Americans had to get up off the couch. Imagine such a thing!
Since math is not my strength, I will trust you to check my figures, to which I say that the “Palestinian people” have been around for 54 years.
For that, they want their own country deep in the heart of Israel, where the Jews go back 3,800 years – and a share of Jerusalem, Israel’s capital for 3,000 years.
Eight of the ‘Top Ten’ terror groups in terms of income are Muslim, with Hezbollah and Hamas ranked #1 and #3 respectively.Riyadh chess champion criticizes Saudi visa discrimination against Israeli players
One of the more far-reaching consequences of former President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran is on display in Forbes Israel’s latest ranking of the richest terrorist groups in the world, as in 2017 Iran-backed Hezbollah leaped to the top of list with a whopping $1.1 billion in revenue.
That is not to say that all their income stems from Iran. Terrorist organizations in general also fund their purchase of arms, training and salary payments to their members from such criminal activities as drug smuggling, money laundering, kickbacks, kidnappings, ‘protection’, etc., just as organized crime does.
But the nuclear deal, it should be recalled, allowed for the release of billions of dollars into Iran’s state coffers from the lifting of internationally imposed sanctions, and the unfreezing of its assets abroad. This, in turn, allowed the world’s largest sponsor of terrorism to open the spigots to its proxies, and the results can clearly be seen by comparing this year’s “Top Ten” list with the previous one, made in 2014. Lebanese group Hezbollah, which has been fighting in Syria for years for Iranian ally Bashar al-Assad, was then ranked fourth, with $500 million – only half of what it has today.
Hamas has $700 million
The Gaza Strip’s Hamas, meanwhile, is now in third place, having actually dropped a rung from 2014. (The Taliban now occupy second place, with a revenue of $800 million). Forbes lists them as currently receiving about $700 million a year, vs. a billion dollars three years ago. They have two well-known state sponsors, Qatar and, again, Iran. But in the decade since it took over Gaza, Hamas also became expert in extracting money from its own citizens.
According to Forbes’ 2014 report, Hamas makes most of its money from a sophisticated tax system aimed at, among other things, pocketing large portions of the international aid that flows into Gaza. It also runs hundreds of businesses, controls several banks, and has levies on all consumer goods entering the Gaza Strip. All in all, the report says, about 15% of Gaza’s economy ends up in this organization’s pocket.
Winner of the world speed chess championship in Riyadh, grandmaster Magnus Carlsen from Norway, said in an interview with the Norwegian NRK broadcasting network that if the Saudi visa issue is not regulated until next year, Saudi Arabia should not host the next tournament. “I really hope they solve the issue of visas for all countries,” said Carlsen.
The four-day chess championship ended December 30 amid controversy surrounding Riyadh’s refusal to provide visas for Israeli players. Seven Israeli chess players reportedly requested visas for the event. Head of the English Chess Federation Dominic Lawson said on Tuesday that Saudi Arabia should be stripped of the right to host chess championships. "This contract for the World Rapid Chess Championship was signed on the understanding that the Saudis would ensure that Israeli masters would be able to play,” Lawson said.
Criticism surrounding the tournament also concerned the Kingdom’s treatment of its women. This year will reportedly be the first-year female chess players were not forced to wear an Islamic abaya garment to the games; instead, they were apparently permitted to wear a long blouse. Ukrainian chess champion Anna Muzychuk told reporters she decided to turn down a chance to participate in the event due to Saudi human right violations and its treatment of women. (h/t Zvi)
Palestinian Hostility to Peace Overlooked Following Trump’s Jerusalem Decision
Commentators far and wide have made it sound like President Donald Trump’s decision to formally recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is the death knell of the Palestinian-Israeli peace process. In the process, they are perpetuating their continual blindness to the fact the Palestinian Authority (PA), headed by President Mahmoud Abbas, considers all of Israel part of the disputed territories — and wishes for Israel’s destruction.Assessing the Islamic World’s Ho-Hum Response to Trump’s Jerusalem Declaration
“This looks like a declaration of war on 1.6 [billion] Muslims, basically. They consider Jerusalem … they consider the holy site, the Aqsa mosque, the Dome of the Rock, as the most important, the third basically most important holy site for all of them,” University of Miami Visiting Professor Rula Jebreal, also an Israeli-Arab citizen, said during a December 6 appearance on MSNBC‘s “All In With Chris Hayes.” “… [T]here is no peace process anymore because Trump destroyed it de facto — and I think also the Israelis and the settlements [ended it].”
She conveniently ignored that Israel’s seat of government has been in Jerusalem since late 1949. President Trump’s decision also doesn’t prevent future Palestinian and Israeli governments from making East Jerusalem a Palestinian capital. Jebreal’s statement also ignores that Jordan, not Israel, has custodianship of the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount.
Jebreal’s hyperbole isn’t surprising, considering her pro-Islamist bias, as evidenced by her praise for Tunisian Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi and Mauritanian Sheikh Abdullah Bin Bayyah, both of whom endorse jihadist terror against Israel.
Islam forbids normalizing relations with Israel, the International Union of Resistance Scholars declared in October. The conference’s theme was, “The Extinction of Israel is an historical, definitive and Quranic fact.”
Ominous warnings about Arab fury characterized the reactions of most Arab and Western leaders to President Trump’s decision to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, despite Trump’s clear statement that the decision in no way jeopardizes final status talks over Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinians.Don’t Forget Christian Community Helped Push Trump on Jerusalem Decision
The Arab League, which is composed of 22 mostly Arabic-speaking states, warned that the announcement “deepens tension, ignites anger, and threatens to plunge the region into more violence and chaos.” Hamas was even more graphic: Trump’s decision, the movement assured, “opens the gates of hell.”
According to Riyad Mansour, the ambassador and permanent observer of Palestine at the UN, the decision heightened tensions, and risks “the complete destabilization of this volatile situation.”
The Israeli authorities braced for a possible conflagration, by announcing the dispatch of several battalions to the West Bank to augment the forces already in the area.
So what happened?
By far the largest and most persistent demonstrations took place in Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia.
President Donald Trump’s recent announcement recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital — and declaring that the US will eventually move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem — did not happen in a vacuum, or come out of nowhere. And it did not happen solely because of Jewish influence, either. It also happened because millions of Christians in America urged the president to do so.Pence visit indefinitely postponed due to ‘scheduling conflicts’
But where did this groundswell of Christian support come from?
It was exactly 40 years ago when I initiated some of the earliest dialogues between evangelical Christians and Jews. Little did I realize then that these Christians, whom most people never even heard of, would grow in numbers and influence both in America and around the world, and would become such a crucial base of support for Israel and the Jewish people.
Five years later, in 1983, I founded the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (the Fellowship), with the goal of building bridges of cooperation and understanding between evangelical Christians and Jews, as well as broad, grassroots support for the State of Israel.
The notion of changing 2,000 years of bitter history and replacing it with a partnership marked by friendship and acts of unconditional love (without missionary activity) was regarded at the time as an unattainable pipe dream. But I went ahead nonetheless, despite the criticism, skepticism and attacks. I began bringing evangelical leaders to Israel to meet various prime ministers, starting with Menachem Begin, and to the White House to advocate for pro-Israel policies. Later, we launched the “Christian tourism to Israel” industry, in partnership with the National Religious Broadcasters, the umbrella organization of all those involved in evangelical Christian media. Today, more than 1 million Christians visit Israel each year.
US Vice President Mike Pence’s planned trip to Israel has been indefinitely delayed beyond January, Foreign Ministry officials said Monday.
Pence was originally scheduled to arrive in the region in late December, but postponed the trip due to the US administration’s efforts to push a tax reform through Congress.
It had also been speculated that the vice president canceled his trip due to the fact that Palestinian officials and leading Muslim and Christian clerics no longer wanted to receive him in protest of US President Donald Trump’s December 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.
On Monday, the Foreign Ministry published its list of foreign dignitaries due in Israel this month. Pence’s name does not appear on this list.
Asked to clarify, Israeli officials said that “due to various scheduling difficulties,” no new date has yet been set for the vice president’s visit.
Why does the @UN needs to be monitored? Director of @UNWatch explains and also brings #Israel in the picture. @HillelNeuer @AmiKaufman @UN_News_Centre pic.twitter.com/kVokmKAV2G
— i24NEWS English (@i24NEWS_EN) December 31, 2017
Ruthie Blum: The NGO Industry's Terror Trail
Gatestone's Person of the Week: Dr. Gerald SteinbergNGO Monitor: #NOWAYTOTREATACHILD: A CYNICAL CAMPAIGN TO MANIPULATE PALESTINIAN CHILDREN
All a group has to say to garner the support of many European politicians is that its mission is to promote human rights. The words have a "halo effect," a term used in psychology to describe the tendency to favorably judge people, companies, groups, products, and so forth, based on the image of morality or some other positive factor. In the context of NGOs, groups that claim to promote values seen as universally good -- such as peace, human rights, justice and coexistence -- are automatically perceived as credible and above criticism or investigation.
After World War II and the Communist period, the concept of "civil society" -- later called "NGOs" by the UN -- became holy in Europe. Civil society was supposed to be the antidote to manipulative democracy, like that of the Weimar Republic. But they forgot to ask what happens when civil society is itself the manipulating force. There are no checks and balances imposed on it.
The NGO lobby at the UN plays a crucial role, because it is a multi-billion-dollar-a-year business. It is an industry, and it needs to be called just that.
In a video that has gone viral, a young Palestinian approaches two Israeli soldiers. She hits, prods and slaps them. She is trying to provoke a reaction that will be caught on camera and show the ugly violence of the Israeli army. The soldiers respond with professionalism and restraint, and ignore her attack.Exposé: Israeli Hospitals Heavily Favor Palestinian Authority Patients over Israelis
Following the release of the video, Tamimi was arrested for her assault. Despite the ambiguity about her age, this triggered a widespread Twitter campaign calling for her release, under the hashtag #NoWayToTreat- AChild.
The leading group behind the campaign is a Palestinian NGO, Defense for Children International – Palestine (DCI-P). The organization, reportedly tied to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist organization, has joined with American BDS groups such as American Friends Service Committee and Jewish Voice for Peace to lobby the US government to “use all available means to pressure relevant Israeli authorities to end the detention and abuse of Palestinian children.”
Media outlets have joined in the propaganda efforts. Earlier this month, Al Jazeera’s AJ+ posted a video on its Twitter, alleging that Israel “systematically harasses and abuses Palestinian kids.” The video parrots NWTTAC’s blatantly false or misleading claims. An employee of Human Rights Watch even claimed that Israel has no reason to arrest minors – regardless of the fact that some minors are perpetrators of violent terrorist attacks, including murder. Human Rights Watch Executive director Ken Roth disseminated the video in an offensive tweet.
NGO Monitor research shows that campaign participants also make numerous false and misleading allegations about the IDF and Israeli military courts. One brazen NWTTAC distortion is the claim that Palestinian minors are subject to solitary confinement. Rather, Israel’s separation of minors from adult detainees stems from international standards and Israeli law geared toward protecting children.
The Lavi organization on Monday revealed its interview with a staff member of Hadassah Ein Karem Medical Center in Jerusalem, who confirmed that only one Jewish patient is hospitalized in the Hematology/Oncology Department there, and the rest are Palestinian Authority Arabs. Lavi issued a statement saying, “Israeli parents struggle over a bed for their sick child – while in recent years the scope of medical treatment for Palestinian residents has doubled – it’s absurd”NGO Monitor: NGO Monitor's response to accusations comments made by Dutch Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Mr. Halbe Zijlstra
Ahead of a debate on Monday at the Knesset Labor, Welfare and Health Committee, headed by MK Elie Elalouf (Kulanu), the Lavi organization published a shocking report on the number of patients from the Palestinian Authority who are being treated in Israeli hospitals. According to the report, , the number of PA residents treated in Israeli hospitals has doubled over the past five years, to reach 75,291 hospitalization days only in oncology departments, which notoriously endure a huge demand for treatment.
Advertisement
According to the report, the number of PA patients in some of the oncology departments is three times the number of patients from abroad (health tourism), and twice the number of Israeli patients.
The Lavi report cites the State Comptroller’s Report of 2015, which examined the state of advanced imaging tests in Israel, and found that foreign patients and PA Arabs are given a significant preference over Israeli patients in access to CT, MRI, and PETCT.
Dear Mr. ZijlstraLegal Insurrection: The 2017 story that defined my years, the conviction and deportation of terrorist Rasmea Odeh
It has come to our attention that you mentioned NGO Monitor and our work during a public debate held in the Lower House of the Dutch Parliament (Tweede Kamer) on November 15, 2017.1 In your address, you made some serious accusations and questioned the integrity of our research. We wish to address these allegations.
NGO Monitor is an independent research institute that provides information and analysis, and supports discussion on the reports and activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) involved in the Arab-Israeli conflict. All information in our reports is based on publically available sources and is presented with citations.
Given that we have no access to classified intelligence information on terror related activities, we can only provide publically available facts on reported ties between Dutch funded non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), a designated terrorist organization in the EU2 and Israel.3 These are mainly based on court rulings or on original PFLP sources. Do you consider these credible sources, and if not can you explain why?
Given the seriousness of the allegations, we urge all relevant governments that support the organizations in question to conduct independent investigations in order to make sure no public funds are mistakenly allocated to terror related activities. We welcomed4 such investigation run by the Dutch government on WATC, which ended in the government defunding the organization.
We also question whether such organizations should be considered suitable partners for human rights projects.
Many of our authors are compiling lists of their favorite posts and stories from this past year.Rabbi calls Lorde a bigot in full-page Washington Post ad
I don’t have a list.
There is one story that so outweighed every other thing I’ve written about this year, and perhaps since we turned the website live on October 12, 2008, that no list is needed.
I’m talking about my coverage of the trial, appeal, potential re-trial, and ultimate deportation of Rasmea Odeh. Seeing that miserable lying little terrorist murderer kicked out of this country was the consummation of almost three years of coverage. But it was about so much more.
If you have been reading Legal Insurrection for any amount of time, you know the story. If you are new here, the very, very short version is that Rasmea Odeh masterminded the 1969 bombing of the SuperSol supermarket in Jerusalem, killing Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.
The evidence against Rasmea was and is overwhelming, and she received a full trial that even an observer from the International Red Cross said at the time was fair.
In later years Rasmea’s co-conspirators would record videos, after release from prison, attesting to Rasmea’s involvement
Yet Rasmea falsely claimed she was convicted only because she gave a false confession after 25 days of sexual torture. In fact, she confessed after just one day. She carried on that lie for the next several decades, including in her U.S. court proceedings.
US celebrity rabbi Shmuley Boteach attacked New Zealand pop singer Lorde in a full page Washington Post advertisement published Monday in which he denounced the performer as a Jew-hating “bigot” for boycotting Israel.
The 21-year-old singer said last week she would be pulling out of a June 5 Tel Aviv concert, according to the Israeli promoter. The move drew scads of criticism in Israel that she had caved to pressure from the pro-Palestinian Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement, with the government announcing multi-million dollar plans to combat a boycott of the Jewish state.
The ad by Boteach, an outspoken rabbi and political advocate, shows a photo of Lorde superimposed on a background of men carrying babies through rubble from bombed-out buildings, apparently in Syria, alongside a photo of Israeli flags flying on top of buildings.
“Lorde and New Zealand ignore Syria to attack Israel,” reads the text at top, followed by “21 is young to become a bigot.”
The ad was paid for by Boteach’s World Values Network. Boteach set up a GoFundMe web page to finance the advertisement with donations. As of Monday, he had raised $26,000 out of a stated goal of $100,000.
Boteach called Lorde a hypocrite for going ahead with two planned shows in Russia, despite Russian President Vladimir Putin’s backing of the Assad regime in the Syrian civil war, a point others had previously noted.
Rabbis for Human Rights demands probe of Arutz 7
The left-wing organization Rabbis for Human Rights has sent a letter to Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit demanding an investigation of Rabbi Meir Goldmintz, head of the Havat Gilad yeshiva as well as an investigation of the Arutz Sheva website, both on suspicion of encouraging the perpetration of an offense in an op-ed published in Hebrew on December 5th and written by Rabbi Goldmintz.Armenians Demand US Recognize the ‘Rachael Ray Genocide’ (satire)
The article states, "If an Arab is ready to sell [land], we will agree to buy the land, but when it is impossible to buy it, the original law repeats that the land is ours and we should take it out of our eternal right to the Land of Israel."
It also says, "As long as we do not raise our flag high, and declare that we have the right to build our homes and communities on 'private Palestinian land,' and as long as it is not clearly stated that what was true in the Sharon and the coastal plain [of Israel] is also true in Samaria and Judea, maybe we'll win 'points' [in world opinion], but we'll lose the entire campaign."
The leftist organization claims that this is a clear call to ratify the theft of private Arab land, to which the Arutz 7 site gave a podium.
Recently, the left has pushed for the closure of Channel 20, the only right-wing Israeli television channel. Accusations accuse the channel of violating the terms of its license in broadcasting news and current affairs.
Saying that their own struggle for recognition should take a backseat, Armenians are demanding that the US acknowledge the ‘Rachael Ray Genocide,’ during which the celebrity chef and alleged war criminal called hummus “Israeli.”New York Times: Lebanon Is Only Possible Exception in LGBT Intolerant Region
James Zogby, the president of the Arab American Institute, was the first to note the international law implications of Ray’s message, tweeting back “Damn it @rachaelray. This is cultural #genocide.” The Armenians, whose own massacre at the hands of the Ottoman Empire remains unrecognized in the US, echoed Zogby’s message, followed by survivors of a number of other recent genocides.
“Rachael Ray’s tweet was a crime against humanity, and it is imperative that she be pulled before The Hague,” said one Tutsi whose family was massacred in Rwanda. “While I thought I knew suffering, my pain is nothing compared to that of those poor meze stuffed grape leaves.”
The New York Times finishes off the year with another low in its Middle East coverage, with a feature yesterday (and in print today) which argues that if there is "one exception" in a region intolerant towards gay, lesbian and transgender people, it is Lebanon ("Coming Out in Lebanon"). The "Paper of Record" completely ignores Israel, the only Middle Eastern country in which consensual sexual activity between individuals of the same sex is legal, according to the World Economic Forum, and in which the LGBT population enjoys rights far exceeding those in neighboring countries.BBC News report on 2017 ‘fake news’ excludes its own
The online subheadline is: "Openly gay, lesbian and transgender people face persecution across the Middle East. The exception may be in Lebanon, which has slowly grown more tolerant thanks to the work of activists."
The article by Laura Boushnak and Mona Boshnaq, which is accompanied by numerous photographs of Lebanese lesbian, gay and transgender activists, repeats the false claim that Lebanon is the only possible exception to the persecution that these populations face "[t]hroughout the Middle East." At no point does the article even mention Israel.
Unsurprisingly, the BBC’s article about ‘fake news’ in 2017 does not include any of its own content – which would not fall under the definition it has chosen to promote.Second New York Times Obituary of Harvard Figure Again Omits Clashes With Jews
However, BBC Watch has recorded numerous examples of misinformation promoted by the BBC throughout the past year. Among the inaccurate claims made by the BBC to which we have managed to secure corrections are the following:
1) The claim that most Gulf Arab countries “now accept the existence of the Jewish state”:
BBC partially corrects ‘The World Tonight’ inaccuracies
2) The claim that Jerusalem as a whole is “occupied”:
Following complaint, BBC Arabic corrects partisan terminology
3) The claim that nine people murdered in a terror attack in 2002 were “Jewish settlers”:
BBC Watch secures another correction to a BBC Arabic article
4) The claim that an attack in Syria was carried out by Israel:
BBC News website amends claim of Israeli strike in Syria
5) The claim that Tel Aviv is “the Israeli capital”:
BBC Watch prompts edit of BBC WS inaccurate location of Israel’s capital
6) The claim that Jews rioted in Manchester in the 1940s:
After nearly 3 months, BBC finally corrects Manchester inaccuracy
Error acknowledged, complaint upheld – yet BBC inaccuracy still remains online
7) The claim that Israel was “carved out of land which had belonged to the Palestinians”:
BBC WS acknowledges inaccurate claim in history show
8) The claim that Mt Scopus and the Hebrew University are “Israeli settlements”:
BBC Watch prompts amendment to inaccurate BBC map
9) The claim that the Battle of Beersheba “led to” the Balfour Declaration:
Inaccurate BBC Balfour Declaration claim misleads audiences
10) The claim that “most Jewish organisations” rejected the 1947 Partition Plan:
BBC Watch complaint on Partition Plan inaccuracy upheld
11) The claim that a convicted soldier held the rank of sergeant:
BBC News website twice reports convicted soldier’s rank inaccurately
12) The claim that attacks on Israeli communities were carried out using “mortars”:
Correction secured to inaccurate BBC News website claim about Gaza attacks
Back in July, when the New York Times ran a sanitized, highly laudatory obituary of S. Allen Counter, who was director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations, I faulted it for failing to include any mention of his acrimonious relations with the university’s Jewish community.Reviewing BBC coverage of the UN GA Jerusalem vote – part one
Now the Times has repeated the error and compounded it. The New York Times Magazine’s annual year-end “The Lives They Lived” issue, which includes essays about some notable figures who died in the past year, has another article about Counter. This one claims:
It was as founding director of the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations that Counter perhaps found his most powerful voice, trying to improve relations between racial and ethnic groups on campus. He stood up for Peter Gomes, the black minister at Harvard who announced he was gay. He stood up for the idea that Palestinians and Jews, if only at Harvard, must find rapprochement.
That’s the only apparent way that Jews figure in the Times article. It’s astonishing. Again, as I pointed out the last time around, here is the record:
As the Harvard Crimson reported:
In 1982, The Crimson filed a formal complaint with the University against Counter, charging religious discrimination.
Counter had allegedly referred to a Crimson reporter as a “militant Jew” in a conversation with another Crimson staff member. According to the reporter, Adam S. Cohen ’84, Counter had never met him and knew nothing about him except his name.
The College created a three-person committee to investigate the complaint…
In summary, the BBC News website published five articles pertaining to the December 21st UN GA vote, three of which included inadequate historic background and promoted a partisan map produced by a political NGO. The additional two articles did not provide any information whatsoever that would enhance audience understanding of the background to the story.Reviewing BBC coverage of the UN GA Jerusalem vote – part two
Once again we see that the BBC’s coverage of the topic of Jerusalem is focused on promoting a specific political narrative rather than on providing audiences with the full range of information and opinions needed for them to make up their own minds on the subject.
Franks next interviewed Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to the UN, Abdallah al-Mouallimi and began by asking him if he was “concerned about that threat from Nikki Haley and indeed from President Trump”.Reviewing BBC coverage of the UN GA Jerusalem vote – part three
Al Mouallimi: “Yes I do hope that this vote will be remembered by the United States because it is a vote in which the entire [sic] international community is making the point that the move taken by the United States is not within its right and it’s not appropriate and should not have been made – certainly not at this time and not outside the parameters of an agreed solution to the situation.”
Franks later asked the Saudi Arabian ambassador what he thought about the statement made by Nikki Haley according to which – in Franks’ own words – “the UN seems to have a particular thing about Israel and a particular thing about Jerusalem and its business is skewed towards taking what they hope are free hits against Israel and against Jerusalem”. Audiences heard the following unchallenged response.
Al Mouallimi: “Well the United Nations should have a special thing about Israel because Israel is an occupying power. It continues to occupy the Palestinian land for now more than 50 years. It continues to deny the Palestinians the right for self-determination. It continues to claim Jerusalem as its own capital without regard to the interests of the Palestinian Muslims and Christians in the city and in the area.”
As we see, the BBC World Service was far more preoccupied with informing audiences about what it portrayed as “threats” issued by the United States than it was with providing them with the context to this UN GA resolution and vote. Notably, with the exception of the recording of Nikki Haley speaking at the General Assembly, listeners did not hear the views of either American or Israeli officials on the story.
While Ley made no attempt to relieve listeners of the erroneous impression promoted by Aybet according to which the US decision to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital breaches international law, he did allow her the time to praise her employer’s “leadership […] that will not be forgotten”.Chanting "Jews, remember Khaybar" in Italy
Ley’s second interviewee on the topic was retired US general and former vice Chief of Staff Jack Keane. During that conversation, Ley referred to Nikki Haley’s statement at the UN GA as “kind of almost cash for votes” and “tawdry”.
Like BBC World Service radio, Radio 4 focused extensively on what it chose to portray as “threats” made by the US Administration prior to the UN GA vote and failed to provide audiences with relevant context and historical background to the story. However, as we see, listeners to BBC Radio 4 also heard inaccurate claims concerning ‘international law’ and the US announcement recognising Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in both these programmes.
All the relevant UN Security Council resolutions are non-binding (Chapter VI) and do not create any legal obligations. Neither do they relate to announcements concerning Jerusalem.
Clearly BBC Radio 4 listeners were materially misled on this issue and corrections are in order.
In recent weeks, Malmö made the headlines in many newspapers all over the world for the anti-Semitic slogans seen and shouted at demonstrations, particularly one of them. Then it was the turn of Berlin, where, under the Brandenburg Gate, the protesters used the same slogan. But in recent days, even in Milan, the same slogans were heard in one of the two demonstrations organized against the recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.Neturei Karta attend Islamic conference in Toronto
In Milan I saw a girl carrying the sign "The Nazis are still around and now they call themselves Zionists", heard hymns dedicated to the "victory of the Intifada", this in addition to banners against Zionism and songs like "A stone for freedom", in support of Palestinian violence.
In Milan there were imams at the head of the event organized by the Palestinian Association in Italy.
In Milan's Place Cavour, on December 9th, the same terrible anti-Semitic slogan of Malmö resounded: "Khaybar, khaybar ya yahud, jaish Muhammad saya'ud". Translated, it reads: "Khaybar, Khaybar, oh Jews, the army of Muhammad will return". A thunderous chorus repeated eight times by the protestors.
Khaybar is the name of the oasis inhabited by Jews that Muhammad conquered in 628. The place has a legendary and mythical meaning in the Islamist perspective of a final and violent submission of the Jews. Muhammad, at the head of an army of sixteen hundred men, assaulted, submitted, enslaved and killed the peaceful Jews settled in the oasis of Khaybar, north of Medina.
Members of the radical anti-Zionist Neturei Karta group participated in the annual “Reviving the Islamic Spirit” convention which took place in Toronto last week.8 exciting Israeli gadgets hitting the market in 2018
A member of the group, identified as "Rabbi David", said in a conversation with Imam Ahmad Shehab that Neturei Karta activists distributed a flier which claimed that U.S. President Donald Trump's decision to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital is incompatible with Judaism and that the entire "occupation" contradicts Judaism.
He further said that Neturei Karta is trying to convince the public that Israel is not a Jewish state and does not represent the entire Jewish people, and that they oppose the propaganda and "atrocities" committed by Israel.
Israeli minds are always dreaming up inventions to bring more fun, convenience or connectivity into our lives. Only time will tell if the gadgets listed below — a small sampling of many Israeli consumer products expected to hit the market in 2018 — will prove to be as successful as predecessors such as the Mifold grab-and-go booster seat or the Otentik portable sunshade.2,700-year-old seal impression cements existence of biblical Jerusalem governor
Stikbox
It’s not every day that a product video goes viral, but when Insider Design posted the promo for Stikbox in June 2016 on Facebook, it garnered 10 million views and several hundred thousand more on YouTube.
Invented in Jerusalem by a father-and-son team, Stikbox was the first full-length telescoping selfie stick built into a smartphone case. Many copycats are now on the market, so the developers got back on the case, so to speak, and are gearing up to release a line of all-new lightweight versions for popular smartphone models. One of these will feature images from the upcoming sci-fi movie “Bumblebee,” thanks to a licensing deal with Hasbro.
TytoCare
This line of telemedicine kits provides modular tools for anyone -– say, a parent or a healthcare practitioner at a remote point of care — to perform standard throat, ear, eye, skin, heart and lung examinations of high enough quality to enable a remote diagnosis by a physician via a HIPAA-compliant secure connection.
The TytoHome, TytoPro and TytoClinic products currently are rolling out to select health systems, providers, employers and strategic partners. They are expected to be available for retail sometime in the next year. Initially, Tyto will be sold through doctors’ offices.
Past and present collided last week when an extremely rare seal impression discovered in Jerusalem’s Western Wall plaza and bearing the inscription “Belonging to the governor of the city” was presented to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat.Fly with the birds in Israel
According to site excavator Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, “This is the first time that such an impression was found in an authorized excavation. It supports the biblical rendering of the existence of a governor of the city in Jerusalem 2,700 years ago.”
At the presentation, Barkat said, “It is very overwhelming to receive greetings from First Temple-period Jerusalem. This shows that already 2,700 years ago, Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, was a strong and central city.”
The presentation of the sealing bearing the inscription ‘Belonging to the governor of the city’ to Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat in December 2017. From right to left: Dr. Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, excavator on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority; Nir Barkat, mayor of Jerusalem; Dr. Yuval Baruch, head of the Jerusalem Region at the Israel Antiquities Authority; and Herzl Ben Ari, general manager of the Jewish Quarter Development Company. (Yoli Schwartz, Israel Antiquities Authority)
The minuscule clay seal impression, or docket, was found while researchers were examining the dust from a First Temple structure 100 meters northwest of the Western Wall at a site the Israel Antiquity Authorities has been excavating since 2005. The excavations have offered up insights into Jerusalem’s Second Temple and Roman periods, as well as a massive Iron Age four-room building where an eclectic collection of six other seals were uncovered, whose origins point to a thriving cosmopolitan Iron Age center or settlement.
“The seal impression had been attached to an important transport and served as some sort of logo, or as a tiny souvenir, which was sent on behalf of the governor of the city,” said Weksler-Bdolah in an IAA release.
Videographer Yuval Dax takes a bird's eye view of Israel's biannual migration.
