Friday, September 14, 2018
Melanie Phillips: Demonizing Israel and the hijacking of language
Some may say this is merely to hijack the language in the opposite direction. Not so. This is using it to express truths backed by evidence rather than lies. To claim the Israelis are Nazis is an obscene lie; but Abbas really is a sympathizer with the would-be leader of the Nazi extermination program in the Middle East.Melanie Phillips: Conversation with John Anderson: freedom under threat
And truth and evidence cannot ever be said to be hijacking the language.
As a result, background verbal noise composed of truth would begin to permeate the collective Western brain in place of the current background verbal noise of lies.
The consequence would be that the verbal conditioning which is so essential to influencing the collective mind would produce a very different outcome. The falsehoods and distortions about Israel would begin to jar badly against the story implicitly understood by the term “Palestinian colonialists.”
Totalitarian regimes understand the connection between language and thinking. The Soviet communists repeated formulaic slogans over and over again.
In his book The Language of the Third Reich, Victor Klemperer wrote that the Nazis used language to indoctrinate virtually the entire population. Through their repeated use of particular words in propaganda, speeches and publications, they changed their meaning and context to serve their purposes.
Exactly the same tactics of language control and the hijacking of meaning are being used by today’s “progressive” cultural totalitarians against both Israel and the West – where words and phrases such as “liberal,” “social justice” or “equality” have been turned into their precise opposite.
Language and thinking are linked. The issue is whether that link is to be used to service truth or lies.
Words are being used to twist and enslave the Western mind and to empower the destroyers of the innocent. Language has to be reclaimed from its hijackers and restored to its real meaning if truth, justice and collective sanity are to be restored.
Australia’s former deputy Prime Minister, John Anderson, recently interviewed me in London as part of series of conversations he has conducted for his website.
Anderson is himself deeply concerned about the increasing eclipse of freedom. The “Great Financial Crisis”, he has written, has exposed the economic and social vulnerability of many seemingly strong and prosperous nations. “Even Australia, free of commonwealth debt and enjoying the benefits of its trade with China, rapidly lost its way”.
So we talked about the sources of political and personal liberty in Britain and the west, the current threats to that liberty and what can be done to preserve it. You can watch the interview here.
Nikki Haley Talks Syrian Red Lines And Punishing The Palestinian Leadership For Bad Behavior
On Wednesday, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley appeared on Fox News to speak with anchor Bret Baier about "global hot spots."
While Haley touched on numerous such hot spots, two of her more pointed remarks came when speaking about the Palestinian leadership and Syria.
On the Palestinians (4:10):
BAIER: The Palestinian aid pulled back; the PLO kicked out of Washington. Is there still a hope that by doing the hard-stick approach with the Palestinians, that they’re somehow going to turn around?
HALEY: It’s totally up to the Palestinians at this point. If the leadership of the Palestinians came to the table, automatically, you’re gonna have a peace plan, negotiations are gonna happen. Neither side is gonna like it, but the Palestinians have more to gain than Israel ever will. And so all they have done is had their hand out asking for money, badmouthed the United States, not come to the table on the peace deal. Why would we have a PLO office? Why would we continue to fund the Palestinians?
This isn’t gonna stop our work on the peace deal – we’re moving forward, we’re gonna continue to push it, we’re gonna continue to hope that they see the error of what they’ve done and they come back to the table, and we’ll welcome them when they do.
PMW: Fatah mocks 9/11 in cartoon
On the 17th anniversary of the terror attack on 9/11, Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah Movement posted the above cartoon, mocking the horrific attack in which nearly 3,000 Americans were murdered.
The cartoon shows US President Donald Trump about to fly a plane into a building shaped like the PA map of "Palestine" that presents all of Israel as "Palestine" together with the PA areas. The building is painted in the colors of the Palestinian flag and smoke is already rising from it.
Text on building: "The Palestinian cause"
Text on cartoon and in Facebook post: "[US President Donald] Trump's decision to eliminate the Palestinian cause"
[Official Fatah Facebook page, Sept. 11, 2018]
The cartoon follows the US Administration's recent decision to cut all US funding to UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East). The US sees UNRWA as an organization that perpetuates the human tragedy for millions of refugee camp residents, by imposing on them the status of "refugees" and preventing them from moving on to a productive life. The PA and Fatah prefer to impose the status of refugees on millions of people so they will see themselves as victims of Israel, demanding to "return" to "Palestine."
Palestinian Media Watch has documented other Palestinian cartoons commenting on the terror attack on 9/11.
Another cartoon, published in the official PA daily, criticized Trump for being Israel's "puppet":
Douglas Feith: The Process Begun at Oslo Was Never about Peace, Only about Israeli Concessions
Having worked to craft Middle East policy in both the Reagan and George W. Bush administrations, Douglas Feith saw up close much of the unfolding negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords and those that followed. From early on, he concluded that the term “peace process” really described nothing of the sort, but rather a framework by which Israel withdrew unilaterally from territories and hoped for the best. Feith writes:The Grim Cost of the "Oslo War"
[A]t the end of August 1993, the first Oslo agreement—known as the Declaration of Principles (DOP) —was published. There were a few vague words in the preamble about striving for peaceful coexistence, but in the operative sections there were no actual peace promises. The DOP said simply that Israel would withdraw from parts of the territories and transfer responsibilities to the Arab party. The Arab party, labeled “the Arab team representing the Palestinian people,” said only that it would take over whatever Israel relinquished.
The DOP was an exchange of land for nothing. But immediately after it became public, Yasir Arafat wanted Israel to recognize the PLO as the representative of the Palestinian people. Rabin said he would do that only if Arafat promised peace and renounced terrorism, commitments that were absent from the DOP.
The PLO and the Israeli government then spent a week-and-a-half negotiating side letters on peace and recognition. During those days, journalists asked Israeli officials what would happen if there were no agreement on the side letters. The officials said the DOP would be implemented anyway. That was revealing. It showed that the Israeli government was determined to make territorial withdrawals whether or not Arafat made a commitment to peace. . . .
Twenty-five years after Oslo, the balance sheet is more like what in 2003 the historian Efraim Karsh called the start of the "Oslo war". In this war, he wrote, Israel had conceded from the beginning a major victory to its worst enemies by giving them a respectability they did not deserve, and thus placed itself in a losing position from which it never fully recovered.Robert Satloff: The Myth of "Failed" Peace (PDF)
"Contrary to Rabin's slogan, one does not 'make [peace] with very unsavory enemies' but rather with former very unsavory enemies. That is, enemies that have been defeated... Wars end, the historical record shows, not through goodwill but through defeat. He who does not win loses. Wars usually end when failure causes one side to despair, when that side has abandoned its war aims and accepted defeat, and when that defeat has exhausted its will to fight. Conversely, so long as both combatants still hope to achieve their war objectives, fighting either goes on or it potentially will resume." — Daniel Pipes, Commentary, January 2017.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism." — PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen , interview in Trouw, March, 1977.
The Middle East peace process, marshaled largely under U.S. aegis, has been a resounding success. Most of the Arab states and Israel have not only embraced a diplomatic alternative to conflict but effectively renounced war as a way to resolve their differences. The October 1973 War was the last inter-state war between Arabs and Israelis.The Grim Cost of the "Oslo War"
Both Arab states and Israel have forged much closer ties with the U.S. over the 40 years since the dawn of the modern peace process, building strategic partnerships with Washington that extend to all levels of diplomatic, military, and intelligence relations. Some of those Arab states have even developed important, if quiet, ties with Israel.
The political breach between Israel and the Palestinians masks a deeper, more enduring strategic reality. The Palestinian Authority created by the Oslo Accords is a reasonably well-functioning entity, certainly by regional standards. On the World Happiness Index, the Palestinian territories came in ahead of Tunisia and Egypt, as well as such war-torn Arab countries as Syria, Iraq, and Yemen.
Despite Israel's security barrier, the border between Israel and the PA is not nearly the hermetically sealed cage it is widely thought to be. About 80,000 Palestinians work in Israel every day, half with legal working papers and half with Israeli authorities looking the other way. When salaries to Palestinian workers in Israel are included, direct Israeli-Palestinian trade totals about $6 billion.
Even in terms of security, while the total number of Israelis killed by terrorists originating in PA-administered West Bank territory over the ten-year period from 2007 to 2016 was 70, this amounts to about one-fifth of the number of homicides that the city of Baltimore suffered in just one year (343 in 2017).
Twenty-five years after Oslo, the balance sheet is more like what in 2003 the historian Efraim Karsh called the start of the "Oslo war". In this war, he wrote, Israel had conceded from the beginning a major victory to its worst enemies by giving them a respectability they did not deserve, and thus placed itself in a losing position from which it never fully recovered.The promise of the Oslo Peace Accords - and the reality 25 years later
"Contrary to Rabin's slogan, one does not 'make [peace] with very unsavory enemies' but rather with former very unsavory enemies. That is, enemies that have been defeated... Wars end, the historical record shows, not through goodwill but through defeat. He who does not win loses. Wars usually end when failure causes one side to despair, when that side has abandoned its war aims and accepted defeat, and when that defeat has exhausted its will to fight. Conversely, so long as both combatants still hope to achieve their war objectives, fighting either goes on or it potentially will resume." — Daniel Pipes, Commentary, January 2017.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct Palestinian people to oppose Zionism." — PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen , interview in Trouw, March, 1977.
While Herzog, Sher and Oren all supported Oslo in the beginning, Dore Gold – the former Foreign Ministry director-general who is currently head of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs – opposed it from the outset.Support for the Oslo peace accord’s principles at all-time low
Yet he, too, said there are lessons to be learned.
The first, he said, is that “you have to be consistent in your diplomacy. People have to understand your position. You can’t be for peace one day, and then be seen fighting the Palestinians tooth-and-nail the next.
You need as consistent a policy as possible. That is the only way you will earn the trust of the international community.”
The second lesson, he said, is that incitement needs to be taken very seriously.
Rather than being understood as a true indicator of Palestinian policy, Palestinian incitement – during the earlier Oslo years – was “swept under the rug and not fully addressed. And that was a huge error,” he maintained.
Gold explained that diplomacy is about understanding not only the capabilities of the other side but also their intentions, and this is determined by listening – and paying attention – to what they say.
He noted that some eight months after the signing ceremony, Arafat went to a Johannesburg mosque, where he called for a “jihad” to liberate Jerusalem and suggested the Oslo accord was a tactical measure that could be reversed.
Arafat’s comments were allowed to pass. “Everybody wanted to advance the process, and no one wanted to be a party pooper by pointing out the inconvenient truth of Palestinian incitement,” Gold said.
And the final lesson of Oslo, he concluded, is the danger of extrapolating from other conflicts onto the Israeli-Palestinian one.
“What underlined some of the thinking of the Oslo advocates was that Yasser Arafat was the Palestinian Nelson Mandela, and that the PLO had gone through the same transformation as the African National Congress,” he said. “A variation of that was expressed in the late 1990s by British officials, Gold recalled, “who said that just as the Good Friday Agreement worked with the IRA, so Oslo will work with Israel and the PLO.”
But all of those analogies were completely false, he argued, “because the PLO never really jettisoned the right to engage in armed conflict. And as a result, areas that came under its control under the Oslo agreement became launching pads for terrorism in the heart of Israeli cities. That is a fundamental breach of the entire agreement, and it was never really addressed.”
As to the lesson in that, Gold said, “Don’t blithely apply the experience from other conflicts here. And don’t learn the wrong lessons.”
When the first Oslo Accord was signed 25 years ago, and the second two years later, the Israeli Right filled the streets in mass demonstrations protesting the decisions of then-prime minister Yitzhak Rabin’s government.Richard Landes: Fisking the NYT on Oslo at 25
The protesters in 1993 complained that the narrow coalition of the 62 MKs of Labor, Meretz, and Shas that Rabin formed could not make such monumental decisions for Israel’s future, and certainly not the minority coalition that relied on Arab parties after Shas quit. The protesters against both accords questioned whether corruption was involved in their passage.
Shas granted legitimacy to the first Oslo Accord by abstaining on it and enabling its passage. The accord was first presented to the cabinet the day Shas leader Arye Deri resigned from the same interior minister job he holds now, not due to Oslo but due to the bribery charges that landed him in jail six years later.
There was speculation at the time that Labor got Deri’s trial postponed in return for his party’s not stopping Oslo. In a no-confidence motion brought to the Knesset on September 23, 1993, after the historic signing ceremony on the White House lawn, 61 MKs voted in favor of Rabin’s government, with 50 against and eight abstentions. Shas’s six MKs abstained and five MKs from Arab parties voted in favor.
The second Oslo Accord was even more controversial, passing 61 to 59 on October 6, 1995, thanks to the vote of Gonen Segev, who left the right-wing Tzomet Party for a cabinet post. Since then, Segev has been convicted of smuggling ecstasy pills, credit card fraud and attempting to receive benefits fraudulently and apprehended for allegedly spying for Iran.
LOOKING BACK 25 years after the signing ceremony and demonstrations, there is no doubt who won the intense political battle over the accords, and it was not those who signed them with such great fanfare alongside US president Bill Clinton and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat.
The NYT published a piece by their own reporters on Oslo at 25. It is a treasure trove of Y2KMind. On one level it’s yeoman-level journalism: a background, he-said, she-said, survey. It’s in the PCP1 packaging that the real problem lies.Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians call on Abbas to dump Oslo Accords
It is not so much frozen in amber as subtly updated, with the only signs of intelligence to be found in the smooth introduction of perspective as fact, and conclusion as self-evident, and literally not a glimmer of new understanding. My fisking will focus on the alternative narrative/paradigm (HSJP) to which the NYT, and so many other high-level information professionals, have studiously avoided exposing their 21st century readership.
The governing assumption, the sine-qua-non of the analysis is a simple axiom, an axiom launched by Oslo in 1993, and turned into dogma in 2000: the Palestinians want a state, their own independent state. Any analysis that questions that dogma is, by definition, not fit to print. When you see the “Oslo Dream” referring to Palestinian hopes for a “democratic state living side by side in peace” with Israel, you’re reading the workings of Westsplaining Y2KMind.
And Israel has expanded settlements, not only seizing more land but also demoralizing its Palestinian neighbors, said Daniel C. Kurtzer, a former American ambassador to Israel. “On one side of the road is a Palestinian village, and on the other side is a brand-new Israeli town with red-roofed houses, swimming pools, greenery and trees, and on a commanding hill,” he said.
All of which could be theirs had they said yes to Oslo Peace.
But there is also much for the Palestinians to rue in their own decisions and actions.
Once again, assuming that the Palestinians rued spoiling a two-state land-for-peace deal.
Whatever the justification, Palestinian violence crippled the peace process and led to other lasting setbacks: Israel’s re-invasion of West Bank cities in 2002, when it destroyed much the authority had built,
As if what it had built was an infrastructure for a civil society, rather than one for war and terrorism.
Palestinian factions and activists have called for the abrogation of the Olso Accords, and said that the agreements that were signed between the PLO and Israel 25 years ago have failed to fulfill Palestinian aspirations for statehood and independence.PMW: The Oslo Accords according to the PA - 25 years in review
Israel, they claimed, took advantage of the Oslo Accords to create irreversible facts on the ground, especially by increasing “settlement construction.”
In Ramallah, a senior official belonging to the ruling Fatah faction dismissed the calls for annulling the Oslo Accords as “unrealistic” and “hypocritical.”
The official told The Jerusalem Post that many of those who were calling on the Palestinians to abandon the Oslo Accords “are the among the first to stand in line at ATM machines to receive their salaries [from the PA government].”
The official said that while he understood much of the criticism against the Oslo Accords, “there’s no denying that today we are in a much better situation than we were more than 25 years ago. We have our own government, our own security forces and our own state institutions – thanks to the Oslo Accords.”
In the Gaza Strip, Hamas and several extremist Palestinian factions issued separate statements on Thursday calling on the PA leadership to dump the “failed” and “disastrous” Oslo Accords.
1: Were the Oslo Accords signed by the PLO as a long-term peace treaty with Israel?Poll: One-Third of Palestinians, Half of Gazans, Want to Emigrate; Three-Quarters Say Life Was Better Before Oslo Accords
2: What did the PLO hope to achieve through Oslo?
3: Didn't Yasser Arafat commit to stop all violence?
4: Wasn't the 5-year terror campaign, the "intifada," a tragedy for Israelis and Palestinians alike? The PA's terror cost 1,200 Israeli and 3,000 Palestinians lives.
5: What borders does the PLO seek in a final status solution with Israel?
PA and Fatah leaders answer these questions in videos and texts below.
Today, September 13, is the 25th anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords. Prior to the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Israel suffered from occasional terror orchestrated by the PLO terror organization, which was based 3,000 kilometers away in Tunisia. The signing of the Oslo Accords turned the PLO into Israel's close neighbor and enabled the establishment of Palestinian terror bases within striking distance of all Israeli cities. Since then, Israel has suffered from ongoing terror, terror campaigns, and terror waves. 1,600 Israelis have been murdered and tens of thousands have been injured from Palestinian terror since the Oslo Accords. For Israel, Oslo was a disastrous failure and an appalling tragedy.
Not so for the PLO and its administrative arm the Palestinian Authority. Since the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, the Palestinian Authority leadership has made it clear to their own people that the goal of Oslo was never a long-term peace with Israel. The model for Oslo, explained Yasser Arafat and many other PA leaders, was to mimic the "Treaty of Hudaybiyyah" - a 10-year peace treaty signed by Islam's Prophet Muhammad with the Quraysh Tribe of Mecca. The treaty did not last because two years after signing the treaty, Muhammad attacked, and conquered Mecca.
The first stage of Oslo, PA leaders have explained, was transferring the PLO's base - which had been in distant Tunisia - to be inside "Palestine," together with the building of a military infrastructure in order to resume violence against Israel. The return to violence was the goal from the beginning. Arafat told a journalist that Oslo eventually would cause the Israelis to "run away." The 5-year terror campaign, the "intifada," which for Israel was the proof of Oslo's failure, was for the PA the proof of Oslo's success.
Since the signing of Oslo and until today, Palestinian leaders have told Palestinians that "Palestine" is "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea" and encompasses all of Israel. The goal of Oslo, they have explained, is to increase the land under Palestinian control in stages. Israel will eventually disappear and be replaced by "Palestine."
A new poll conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research revealed that one-third of all Palestinians and one-half of Gazans want to emigrate.Hamas: Oslo Accords paved the way for Judaization of Jerusalem
“One third of the public says it wants to emigrate due to political, security, and economic conditions,” PSR states. “The percentage rises in the Gaza Strip to half and declines in the West Bank to 22%.”
In another surprising result, PSR found that Palestinians believe life was better before the 1993 Oslo Accords.
“Almost three quarters (73%) said conditions today are worse than those prevailing before Oslo,” says PSR. “13% said conditions today are better; and 10% said conditions today are the same as those before Oslo.”
Khalil al-Hayya, a member of the Hamas political bureau, said on Thursday that the Oslo Accords tore the unity of the "Palestinian people" when members of the Palestinian Authority leadership signed the agreement, which he called the “new Balfour accord”.David Collier: From boycotting Jews to attacking MPs, the bullying thuggery of BDS
In a speech in Gaza marking the anniversary of the signing of the Oslo Accords, al-Hayya said that "the Palestinian people in Palestine and the diaspora" are opposed to the Oslo Accords and demand that the Palestinian Authority declare that they have been cancelled.
"We tell the isolated people that they have only the legitimacy of the occupation: What remains of Oslo except for the security coordination?" he said, adding, "The time has come for the isolated and failed Oslo group to cease the continuation of this destructive policy. This group renewed the Balfour Declaration in the worst way in history, relying on dubious legitimacy."
Al-Hayya continued by saying that the Oslo Accords paved the way for the Judaization of Jerusalem and for the so-called “Deal of the Century” being promoted by the Trump administration, which Hamas opposes, will fight against and has already paid in blood for.
By almost any measure of freedom, Israel is a Garden of Eden compared to every single one of its neighbours. The obsession people have with that *TINY* state is simply astonishing. Of all the nations in the world, Israel is the one people want to boycott (BDS)? No less astonishing is the obsession some people have with the *TINY* global Jewish population. You cannot simply ignore that ‘coincidence’.Rabbi Sacks Warns House of Lords on Danger of Anti-Semitism in Britain
They say that the entire argument over antisemitism is about freedom to ‘criticise Israel’. That is a lie. There is nothing stopping anybody criticising Israel. The truth is that none of the people on the ‘anti-Israel’ front-line are moderates who seek peace and just want to ‘criticise’. In actual fact, when you kick the rock, the only thing that comes out from underneath is a cultist. A thug who buys into conspiracy theory, wants Israel destroyed and doesn’t like Jews.
Look around you. Look closely at each of those leading the attack.
The BDS logic
- They want Israel gone
- Support Jeremy Corbyn (in the UK, for non UK – just pick the nearest anti-Zionist politician)
- Suggest the entire antisemitism argument is a sham
- Support BDS
- Suggest BDS isn’t about the destruction of Israel even though they themselves want it destroyed
- Many have made antisemitic statements themselves. If not, they are certainly busy defending anti-Jewish racists.
If the central logic underpinning the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement (BDS) had no value whatsoever, it would never have made it off the drawing board. Therefore an important part of fighting the antisemitic attack from within BDS is to understand the simplicity of the argument upon which it is built. Free speech, individual choice and the right to protest. These are all basic values inherent in our democratic freedoms. Given the correct set of circumstances, popular sanction (through boycott) is a powerful and useful tool.
Former UK Chief Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks told the House of Lords on Thursday: "The greatest danger any civilization faces is when it suffers collective amnesia. We forget how small beginnings lead to truly terrible endings. A thousand years of Jewish history in Europe added certain words to the human vocabulary: forced conversion, inquisition, expulsion, ghetto, pogrom, Holocaust. They happened because hate went unchecked. No one said 'stop.'"
"It pains me to speak about anti-Semitism, the world's oldest hatred. But I cannot keep silent. One of the enduring facts of history is that most anti-Semites do not think of themselves as anti-Semites. We don't hate Jews, they said in the Middle Ages, just their religion. We don't hate Jews, they said in the nineteenth century, just their race. We don't hate Jews, they say now, just their nation state."
"Anti-Semitism is the hardest of all hatreds to defeat because, like a virus, it mutates. But one thing stays the same. Jews, whether as a religion or a race or as the State of Israel, are made scapegoats for problems for which all sides are responsible. That is how the road to tragedy begins. Anti-Semitism, or any hate, becomes dangerous when three things happen. First, when it moves from the fringes of politics to a mainstream party and its leadership. Second, when the party sees that its popularity with the general public is not harmed thereby. And three, when those who stand up and protest are vilified and abused for doing so."
"All three factors exist in Britain now. I never thought I would see this in my lifetime. That is why I cannot stay silent. For it is not only Jews who are at risk. So too is our humanity.
"My Lords, it pains me to speak about antisemitism, the world’s oldest hatred. But I cannot keep silent." Here is my speech from today's debate in the House of Lords about #antisemitism in Britain. pic.twitter.com/JYWSaRxuVt— Rabbi Sacks (@rabbisacks) September 13, 2018
Lord Sugar: The day Corbyn leads this country will be 'the day Britain died'
Lord Sugar has urged the UK government to “use all efforts to ensure that Jeremy Corbyn does not become the leader of our country”, warning that it will be "be the day Britain died" if the Labour leader comes to power.
The Jewish peer and Apprentice host was speaking in a debate on antisemitism, held in the House of Lords on Thursday afternoon, during which he suggested that political calculations were one reason for the Labour leader’s inaction on the issue.
He said: “I think Corbyn allowed matters to ramble on because he, frankly, does not give two hoots about what Jews in the UK think. He simply does not care, that of the 250,000 Jews, let’s say 220,000 are eligible to vote, if it came to an election, 220,000 votes are a drop in the ocean. We mean nothing to him."
Lord Sugar told the House: “The Labour leader allowed the issue of alleged antisemitism in the Labour Party to ramble on for months. What kind of leader is he not to take his party by the scruff of the neck and make them see sense and kill the matter off once and for all?”
He called on Mr Corbyn to “terminate the obsession of the hard left with Israel and Palestine and focus on the far more pressing matters of Brexit and jobs.”
MUST WATCH!@Lord_Sugar addressing @UKHouseofLords during the debate on #antisemitism
— SussexFriendsIsrael (@SussexFriends) September 13, 2018
"My request to the UK government is to extinguish the flame and use all efforts to ensure that @JeremyCorbyn does not become the leader of our country because that will be the day Britain died!" pic.twitter.com/X25e55iMrB
UK union boss suggests Israel is behind Labour anti-Semitism row
The leader of one of the UK’s main unions implied on Thursday that Israel was responsible for the recent anti-Semitism row that has engulfed the Labour Party, claiming it was designed to mask “atrocities” against the Palestinians.
Mark Serwotka, head of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), told delegates at the Trades Union Congress (TUC) conference that Israel may have created a “story that does not exist.” A recording of the speech was published in the UK’s Independent newspaper.
At the event organized by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, held on the sidelines of the TUC conference, Serwotka suggested the Jewish state was responsible for the fight over anti-Semitism plaguing the party and its leader Jeremy Corbyn.
“Now, I’m not a conspiracy theorist,” he said. “But I’ll tell you what — one of the best forms of actually trying to hide from the atrocities that you are committing is to go on the offensive and actually create a story that does not exist for people on this platform, the trade union movement or I have to say, for the leader of the Labour Party.”
He told the delegates in Manchester that there had been “the most systematic attempt to shut down all those advocating justice for the Palestinians in a way that should trouble all those who want to expose injustices.”
In other news @wikileaks shares unbridled hate site (which brands me a baby murderer).— 🇮🇱Dr Brian of London (@brianoflondon) September 14, 2018
For the record I have murdered no babies. https://t.co/E9SLSVj9oK
Church of England adopts full IHRA anti-Semitism definition
The Church of England’s College of Bishops voted to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of anti-Semitism, including all its examples.President of UK’s Jewish students union resigns from Labour over anti-Semitism
The action comes after the Labour Party in July adopted the definition but omitted four points that identify certain types of anti-Israel rhetoric as anti-Semitic. Following criticism, the Labour Party adopted the full definition but added a clause about free speech on issues such as Israel.
The statement issued by the Bishops “notes the necessity of adopting the IHRA working definition “including all examples, without qualification or exemption.”
The church’s action was taken on behalf of the entire church at the College of Bishops annual meeting in Oxford this week.
The Bishops also “issued a call to everyone in public life to reject any language or action which could cause prejudice, stigma or hatred towards people on the grounds of their religion, culture, origins, identity or beliefs,” according to the Church of England’s website.
The comes days after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, spoke of the need for the full backing of the definition during a pre-Rosh Hashanah video at the house of British Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis.
The president of the Union of Jewish Students announced her resignation from the British Labour Party, citing the party’s “complete inability and lack of political will to tackle anti-Semitism.”More than 85 per cent of British Jews think Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic
“My position as the President of the Union of Jewish Students means I cannot, in good faith, continue as a member of a political party which has deliberately and recklessly allowed antisemitism to emerge, and even more concerningly, flourish,” Hannah Rose wrote in a letter sent to the general secretary of the Labour Party, Jennie Formby, on Wednesday.
“I commend the efforts of many Jewish students who stay and fight for the party I still wish I could call my political home. However, both in my personal and professional capacity, I cannot give support or succor to a party which its own MPs consider to be institutionally racist,” she wrote in the letter, which was published in the Huffington Post UK.
“I did not join the Labour Party to watch racism against Jews make headlines every single day,” she added.
Rose, who was elected over the summer, said the causes the union would champion during her presidency are aiding the plight of refugees in Europe and tackling the mental health crisis in youth. Causes, she wrote, “that are meant to also drive the Labour Party, but instead it seems more concerned with a battle between internal factions, rather than fighting for the very values it was founded on.”
“The Jewish community stands united in opposition to antisemitism. It does not stand in opposition to one political leader, or one political party,” she said. “Like so many others in my community, I do not leave the Labour Party because my politics or values have changed, rather because the Party has made clear through its actions that I am not welcome. Words mean nothing when the actions of so many speak louder.”
More than 85 per cent of British Jews think Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic, according to polling carried out for the JC. A similar percentage believe there are significant levels of antisemitism at all levels of the Labour Party.Revealed: Corbyn's special adviser who has worked for SEVEN MONTHS in Parliament without a security pass and his link to Hezbollah terror chief
The survey, undertaken by polling company Survation between August 12 and September 4, shows that 85.9 per cent of British Jews regard the Labour leader as antisemitic, while just 8.3 per cent believe he is not.
In a recent Survation poll among the general public, 39 per cent said Mr Corbyn was antisemitic.
Among British Jews, only 1.7 per cent believe Prime Minister Theresa May to be antisemitic, with 89.9 per cent saying she is not. Just 6.1 per cent say that Liberal Democrat leader Vince Cable is antisemitic.
Survation also asked British Jews for their views on the main parties. Respondents were asked to rank Labour, the Conservatives, the Liberal Democrats and UKIP on a scale of 1-5, where 1 corresponds to the statement hat “there are very low levels of antisemitism among the political party’s members and elected representatives”, 4 to the belief that “there are high levels of antisemitism with the party’s members and elected representatives” and 5 to “very high” levels.
Jeremy Corbyn's aide who worked for months in Parliament without security clearance called for Nato be 'defeated' and has been linked to a terror group, MailOnline can reveal.Andrew Gillum Encouraged Attendees at CAIR-Hosted Conference Promoting Boycott of Israel
Andrew Murray, chief of staff of the Unite union and one of the Mr Corbyn's closest allies, came out openly in support of terrorists at a rally at which the Labour leader also spoke.
He took the stage to read out a message sent to him by Ali Fayyad, a Hezbollah terror chief.
The letter began, 'Greetings to you from the freedom fighters of Hezbollah,' and included an extended anti-British, anti-American and anti-Israeli rant that justified kidnap and violence.
'Hezbollah's only fault is that it is a Lebanese resistance movement,' it said, calling British policy on the Middle East a 'shameful position'.
People at the rally carried banners saying 'victory to the intifada' and 'we are all Hezbollah' and waved the communist flag. Mr Corbyn himself also spoke, railing against Israeli 'state terrorism'.
Florida Democratic Gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum delivered an in person welcome and message of encouragement to attendees at an event organized by the controversial Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) that boasted as one of its main two agenda items support for the extremist Boycott, Divest and Sanctions (BDS) movement targeting Israel.Salazar Backs Off Claims She Founded PLO (satire)
Gillum’s participation in the CAIR-led event, which took place in 2016, seems at odds with statements over the past few days from associates of his campaign saying that Gillum opposes the BDS movement.
A CAIR-Florida press release from February 12, 2016, documents that Gillum delivered a “personal welcome” to attendees of that year’s annual Florida Muslim Capitol Day event, which was held at the Islamic Center of Tallahassee, the city where Gillum serves as mayor.
Florida Muslim Capitol Day is organized by CAIR. CAIR employees are listed as the contacts for the event on flyers and promotional material, and Florida Muslim Capital Day’s website is hosted by CAIR-Florida’s main website. The Facebook page for the event says it is hosted by CAIR-Florida.
Following her convincing win in the Democratic primary, New York State Senate candidate Julia Salazar is walking back claims that she both founded the Palestine Liberation Organization and helped launch the First Intifada.MEMRI: YouTube Censors MEMRI, Removing – For 'Inappropriate Content' – MEMRI TV Clip Exposing Anti-Gay Statements By Sheikh Abu Abdillah In Queens, N.Y.
Salazar, who first made headlines when her claims to be a Jewish immigrant from a working class family unraveled, looked to appeal voters on the far left by positioning herself as a leader in the Palestinian movement.
“I just got so fed up with the Israeli occupation that I decided to pick up a rock and hurl it at the first tank I saw,” Salazar said in an interview, recounting events that in fact took place years before her birth. “Next thing I knew, everyone was throwing stones, and we had started a revolution.”
But with the Democrat now having to appeal to general election voters, she has returned to touting her Zionist credentials.
“I am the one who came up with the idea of a Jewish state in the first place,” Salazar said at her acceptance speech, delivered at Ariel University in the West Bank. “I said, ‘If you will it, it is not a dream,’ and you know what? I willed it.”
A MEMRI TV clip posted on February 26, 2018 on the MEMRI TV YouTube channel exposed Sheikh Abu Abdillah Ismaeel making anti-gay statements in a Friday sermon at the Masjid Ahlul Quran Wa Sunnah mosque in Queens, N.Y. In the MEMRI TV clip, Sheikh said: "Satan slowly but surely is getting at the Muslims, trying to get our religion to change... either to become extreme bloodthirsty murderers... or to become fags." He continued: "As far as I am concerned, it's not politically incorrect, it doesn't go against any constitutional laws to call them a fag, a homosexual, a lowlife, a savage." People, he said, were trying "to take a Quranic verse and misconstrue it, to take a hadith and misconstrue it, to justify homosexuality, to justify terrorism, to justify murder, to justify stealing or violating people's property."Prof Tries To Redefine ‘Disabled’ For Palestinians
On August 26, YouTube removed this MEMRI TV clip from the channel, posting the message "Video Removed: Inappropriate content."
YouTube also posted on the page a notification explaining that the video had been "flagged for review" – that is, by YouTube users – and that YouTube had subsequently "determined that it violates our guidelines." It added, "We've removed it from YouTube and assigned a Community Guidelines strike, or temporary penalty, to your account" and warned: "If you receive three or more of one of the types of strikes listed above, we may have to disable your account."
So the National Women’s Studies Association gave out a book prize this month to Rutgers University professor Jasbir K. Puar, for her book entitled “The Right to Maim,” reported The College Fix. Who has the right to maim? Well, Israelis have the right to maim Palestinians, at least, according to Professor Puar.
“Drawing on a stunning array of theoretical and methodological frameworks, Puar uses the concept of ‘debility’— bodily injury and social exclusion brought on by economic and political factors—to disrupt the category of disability,” the book’s description says on Amazon.
So by this point, if you have experience with the hivemind that is social justice, you might be starting to see what’s going to happen. Remember those victimhood categories? Race, gender, sexuality? Well, disability is also one of them and we’ve now apparently reached the stage where, to create empathy for Palestinians, we’re actually redefining the concept of disabled to include not just actual disability, but also whatever we choose, as your progressive overlords, to categorize as economic or social oppression.
“Puar’s analysis culminates in an interrogation of Israel’s policies toward Palestine” — what’s Palestine? You say that almost as if it’s a separate country or something! — “in which she outlines how Israel brings Palestinians into biopolitical being by designating them available for injury. Supplementing its right to kill with what Puar calls the right to maim, the Israeli state relies on liberal frameworks of disability to obscure and enable the mass debilitation of Palestinian bodies.”
Wow. That’s a lot of drivel, or what George Orwell would call duckspeak. Anyway, I wonder if this award-winning book of Puar’s includes anything about, oh let’s say, the fact that at least 50 out of the 62 Palestinians killed by Israel during the moving of the US embassy to Jerusalem were, indeed, Hamas or Islamic jihad terrorists, according to CNN. And speaking of Palestinian terrorism, what about the Avivim school bus massacre or the Dolphinarium discotheque suicide bombing? Do any of those deaths or injuries of Israeli children fit under your definition of “disability,” Professor Puar?
BBC’s Hardtalk presenter claims Israel ‘slaughters civilian protesters’
As Danon then tried to explain, the out of context and edited quote employed by Sackur in fact related to Iranian threats against Israel. Interrupting him, Sackur however persisted.Warsaw prosecutor won’t investigate anti-Semitic letter to historians
Sackur: “No, no Ambassador. With respect my question…my question is not about Iran. My question is about civilian protesters in the Gaza Strip who for many months have been protesting along the border fence. They do not carry guns. Admittedly some of them throw stones; they even fly kites with flaming torches on them at times. But what they do not have is guns and the Israeli military responds with live fire.”
After Danon had noted that the ‘Great Return March’ is “orchestrated by Hamas”, that violent rioters have indeed used guns and Molotov cocktails and tried to infiltrate Israeli territory and that calling the events of the past five months a peaceful demonstration “is a lie”, Sackur retorted:
Sackur: “You’re sitting in New York. I’m sitting in London. I’m inclined to take the word of a very experienced Israeli human rights lawyer, Michael Sfard, who has looked at cases where the Israeli military opened fire in the last five months and he says it is quite clear lethal force against unarmed civilians who do not pose a danger is illegal and this is the crux of many cases there on the Gaza border.”
Sackur of course did not bother to inform BBC audiences of the fact that the “human rights lawyer” whose word he is “inclined to take” and the political NGOs cast as ‘human rights groups’ which Sfard represents come from a very specific side of the political spectrum.
As regular readers know the BBC refrained from providing its audiences with information concerning the organisations and motives behind the ‘Great Return March’ events that have been staged since March 30th – even though that information was publicly available in advance.
The Warsaw prosecutor’s office has decided not to investigate an anti-Semitic letter directed at staff members of the Center for Holocaust Research.Russian social network hosts ‘Miss Hitler’ beauty pageant
In March, an anonymous person left the letter at the center’s door that called its historians “stupid dirty Jews” and “liars.” Barbara Engelking was described as a “lying jewess” and Jan Grabowski as “crazed with hatred of Poland and Poles.”
A printout of a study describing Jews as the perpetrators of their own persecution during World War II accompanied the letter.
The prosecutor’s office decided not to initiate an investigation into the “racial insulting of persons of Jewish nationality by person unknown” but did not provide any reasons for its decision.
Grabowski in response said the prosecutor “seems to march in lockstep with the spirit of times, at least with the spirit dominant in Poland today.”
A page on a popular Russian social media network devoted to Adolf Hitler was suspended Thursday for hosting an online beauty pageant dubbed “Miss Hitler.”UAE Permits Israel to Display Flag, Sing Anthem at Judo Grand Slam Championship
The competition, hosted by the Adolf Hitler page on VKontakte (also known as VK), Europe’s largest social media network with half a billion users — a Russian equivalent of Facebook — drew contestants from Germany, Italy, Russia, and the US, Hadashot television news reported.
After the Israeli TV network contacted VKontakte, the company suspended the competition and issued a statement condemning hate speech.
The competition site was replaced with a page saying, “This community has been blocked due to calls to violence.”
The group had encouraged women to enter the competition by posting sexy Nazi-themed selfies together with an entry explaining why they “love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler.”
Hundreds of users voted in an online poll while thousands viewed the competition’s pages. Entrants used their full names and unabashedly wrote of their neo-Nazi values and the organizations to which they belonged.
Israel will be allowed to compete in the International Judo Federation (IJF) Grand Slam competition in the United Arab Emirates capital of Abu Dhabi, complete with flag and national anthem during medal ceremonies.Israel, Greece, Cyprus plan underwater gas pipeline
The federation had canceled competitions in Tunisia and Abu Dhabi after those locations discriminated against Israeli judokas.
“The historic decision will allow all nations, including Israel, to be accompanied by their national symbols and anthem,” said the IJF in an official statement. “The IJF salutes the efforts of the UAE for taking a major step toward promoting peaceful relations between all countries of the world. The UAE, along with our partners, remains committed to the struggle against all discrimination in sports, which should be used as a tool for reconciliation and promotion of peace in the world.”
In 2017, Israel’s Tal Flicker won the gold medal at the Grand Slam in Abu Dhabi, but the country refused to raise Israel’s flag or play Israel’s national anthem, which Flicker sung on the podium by himself.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu on Thursday, at the Prime Minister's Office in Jerusalem, held a trilateral meeting with Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Cypriot Foreign Minister Nikos Christodoulides. He also met with both men separately.More countries confirm attendance of Eurovision as Tel Aviv named host
The three discussed, in continuation of previous meetings, the laying of a joint Israel-Cyprus-Greece East-Med gas pipeline in order to export gas to Europe. They also discussed – inter alia – regional issues, the deepening of cooperation and the initiative to establish a multi-national firefighting force.
"Foreign Minister Christodoulides and Foreign Minister Kotzias, this is one of our regular meetings between Israel, Greece and Cyprus. We have many things that we cooperate on—the environment, energy, security, emergency services, tourism, many others,” said Netanyahu.
“Our prime focus right now is on energy, on developing the eastern Mediterranean pipeline. It’s a great project, could be one of the great underwater projects in the world. And obviously it’s something that we think is important.
You can’t please all of the people all of the time.Actor Jon Voight Reveals Close Connection to Jewish Culture, Says He Feels ‘Responsibility’ to Combat Antisemitism
No matter which city the European Broadcasting Union announced on Thursday to host the 2019 Eurovision – Tel Aviv or Jerusalem – someone was bound to be upset.
But the decision to host it in Tel Aviv on the third week in May made it clear that the EBU and KAN are working hard to ruffle as few feathers as possible.
And so far, they seem to be succeeding.
While every country that hosts the Eurovision has a bidding process, few are as fraught as the one this year, which managed to combine the normal considerations with political tensions and religious sensibilities.
While many will see the decision to host the competition in Tel Aviv instead of the capital as a political one, EBU officials indicated that one of the major sticking points was in fact activity on Saturday.
The Eurovision grand finale is always held on a Saturday night, and rehearsals are staged all week long, including Friday evening and Saturday morning.
Actor Jon Voight opened up on Sunday about his close connection to Jewish culture, stemming from his father’s childhood, and why he feels it is his duty to fight antisemitism.
The veteran actor, and father of Angelina Jolie, said on the Fox News program “Life, Liberty & Levin” that his strong relationship with the Jewish people, and his exposure to antisemitism, began through his father, who used to work at a Jewish country club in Scarsdale, NY. The club was started by German Jews who came to the US and wanted to play golf but “weren’t allowed in the clubs,” Voight said.
“They didn’t complain,” the actor, 79, explained to the show’s host, Mark Levin. “They went around raising the money to buy land and they built the club, and because of their ingenuity and because of their flexibility and vision, my dad had this job. So I knew at a very early age the insanity of antisemitism.”
Voight, who was raised Catholic, added that he remembered seeing in the 1940s a magazine photo of a young boy behind barbed wire and it resonated with him. He told Levin, “I identified with that boy. I said, ‘That could be me. What are they doing to these people?’ And for — that stayed with me all my life, so I’ve felt a real responsibility in a certain sense to stand up against antisemitism. And in that journey, I’ve gotten very close to the Jewish people.”
Texan baptist pastor finds calling in restoring post-Holocaust Jewish cemeteries
Steven Reece pulls a shield over his face, takes a weed whacker in hand, and begins trimming tall grass in an overgrown, tick-infested Jewish cemetery in western Ukraine where tombstones lie toppled and broken.IDF Promotes Israel's Top Fighter Ace at Age 80
For years now, Reece, an ordained Southern Baptist minister from Texas, has been cleaning Jewish cemeteries and erecting memorial plaques at mass grave sites in Poland, and recently Ukraine. The region, once Europe’s Jewish heartland, saw millions of Jews shot and gassed by Nazi German forces during World War II, sometimes with the help of local collaborators.
The 63-year-old American says cleaning up old cemeteries is his way, as a Christian, of honoring Holocaust victims while supporting the surviving Jewish communities here.
He also hopes his mission can help alleviate the bitterness and misunderstanding that still festers sometimes between Christians and Jews. Reece explains that he is troubled by the failure of European Christians who mostly stood by passively as the Nazis marginalized, then persecuted and killed their Jewish neighbors.
IDF Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eisenkot and Israel Air Force (IAF) Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin awarded the rank of Brigadier-General to Giora "Hawkeye" Epstein, 80, former IAI pilot and the world's flying aces champion on Wednesday.
The ceremony was held at the IAF headquarters in the presence of air force veterans, Epstein's family members, and other distinguished guests.
Brigadier General Epstein joined the IDF in 1956. He was initially rejected by the Israeli Air Force Flight Academy due to medical reasons, and served as an IAF ordnance soldier instead. He later volunteered in the Paratroopers Brigade and served in the Efah Battalion (890th).
In 1959 Epstein left the IDF, and three years later the Brig. General joined the regular service as a parachuting instructor.
During his service in the Paratroopers Brigade, Epstein appealed the flight academy's decision, and, after gaining medical clearance, he enlisted in the academy.
Epstein completed the flight course with distinction in 1963 and served as an IAF helicopter pilot. After he filed another appeal to the IAF, he was assigned to a combat pilot position.
His first victory was against an Egyptian Sukhoi Su-7 during the Six-Day War.
Shabbat Shalom from the oldest brigade in the IDF! pic.twitter.com/uZedGtEBD9— Israel Defense Forces (@IDFSpokesperson) September 14, 2018
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