Wednesday, April 10, 2019
Airbnb rescinds ban on Jewish settlement home listings in “West Bank”
We previously covered the policy implemented by Airbnb last November to ban listings from Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”).ADL, Simon Wiesenthal Center applaud Airbnb decision not to delist W. Bank
That amounted to a de facto Jewish boycott because Jews are forbidden under Palestinian Authority law and practice from buying homes outside the settlements, and Palestinians could be killed for selling or renting to a Jew.
That policy arguably violated U.S. law as applied to Americans who wanted to list their West Bank properties as well as Israeli law.
One of the federal lawsuits, pending in the District of Delaware, has been settled, and Airbnb agreed to rescind the policy. Shurat HaDin Law Center released this statement:
Dear Friends,
We just scored a tremendous victory in the lawsuit we launched against Airbnb! The online hosting platform has agreed to completely retract its policy of delisting Jewish homes in Judea & Samaria. This is an important and precedential decision in the battle against the racist BDS movement.
Over the past few weeks we have been negotiating a settlement agreement with the hospitality giant Airbnb to rescind its discriminatory policy redlining Jewish-owned properties in the Judea and Samaria region. That policy, announced in November 2018, had banned Jewish property owners in Judea and Samaria from listing properties on Airbnb, while allowing Muslim and Christian property owners to list properties in the same area. Under the terms of the settlement agreement, Airbnb has agreed to repeal the discriminatory policy, thereby resolving the discrimination lawsuit.
The plaintiffs, a group of twelve Jewish American families had filed a civil rights lawsuit against Airbnb in the United States Federal District Court for the District of Delaware. The lawsuit was captionedSliber, et al. v. Airbnb, 1:18-cv-01884-RGA. The lawsuit was brought in Delaware because Airbnb is incorporated in Delaware. In their lawsuit, the plaintiffs alleged that the policy of the San Francisco-based internet hospitality company discriminated against them based upon their religion.
Jewish groups, including the Anti-Defamation League and the Simon Wiesenthal Center, have applauded Airbnb's decision not to delist properties within the West Bank.
“The Simon Wiesenthal Center, which denounced Airbnb’s initial decision to drop Jewish homeowners living on the West Bank as antisemitic, is pleased that the company has rescinded its ill-conceived political move,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the SWC associate dean and director of Global Social Action. “Airbnb can now return to its mandate of bringing people of all backgrounds together around the world, whatever their nationality, race, or religion.”
"We appreciate that Airbnb and Brian Chesky listened to us and the wider community, and course-corrected on how they implement their listing policy," said Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO of the Anti-Defamation League. "We also welcome their clear rejection of BDS and embrace of the Israeli market."
Airbnb announced on Tuesday that it would rescind its decision to remove ads of Jewish homeowners in Judea and Samaria following a settlement of a Shurat Hadin lawsuit.
The rental giant had said in November 2018 that it would ban Jewish property owners living in the West Bank from advertising on its site following objections from groups seeking to boycott Israel.
Melanie Phillips: Our crazy world Golan, Brexit, Labour antisemitism
We talk about my recent article for the Jewish News Syndicate on the common factor between President Trump’s recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights and the Brexit issue. What’s the connection between these obviously divergent issues? Simply this: that the uproar over the recognition of the Golan annexation is rooted in the false belief that the Arab war against Israel is an argument over land boundaries and that Israel has no right to overstep these.
But it isn’t; it’s a war of extermination against Israel. Wars of extermination are not negotiable; any compromise is an act of surrender. Moreover, as the victim of Syrian aggression Israel is well within its legal rights under international law to retain the Golan heights for the forseeable future in order to defend itself.
We also talk about the latest in Britain’s agonising Brexit trauma, as well as the Sunday Times splash on the shocking extent of Labour antisemitism and evidence that the party leadership is actively interfering to stop the disciplining of Jew-hating members.
JCPA: Israel’s Election and the Palestinian Authority
Abbas Rejects Entreaties to Reconcile with the U.S.Pompeo, in testimony to Senate, refuses to back two-state solution
The result of Abbas’ policy toward the Trump administration will only be further harm to Palestinian interests. Abbas is currently in a difficult situation. There is a deep division within Palestinian society and a rift between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The PA chairman is opposed to an armed intifada against Israel, but his strategy of “popular resistance through peaceful means” has been a resounding failure in the West Bank territories.
Fatah sources fear that Netanyahu’s election victory and the growth of the right-wing bloc in the Knesset will give Netanyahu the impetus to advance the process of imposing Israeli sovereignty over lands in the West Bank and evacuating the Bedouin settlement of Khan al-Ahmar on the road to the Jordan Valley.
Abbas’s stubbornness forces the Palestinians to get used to any new situation imposed upon them by the Trump administration and Israel. Abbas does not have the political courage to “hang up his hat” and resign from his position.
The PA chairman continues to stick to his seat and take care of his and his two sons’ sizeable economic interests. The PA leadership is afraid of him, and senior Fatah officials prefer to avoid disputes with him because of the battle for the succession. Abbas is an obstinate politician who does not appreciate criticism. Anyone who argues with his policies will find himself isolated and outside the political game. The Palestinians themselves, rather than their leadership, are paying the price for this.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Tuesday refused to reaffirm American support for a Palestinian state after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pledged to extend Israeli sovereignty over West Bank settlements.Egypt's Mubarak: Golan could have been Syria's if it recognized Israel
Testifying before a Senate subcommittee just as Israel wrapped up tight elections, Pompeo declined to respond when Democrats asked him to back a two-state solution.
“Ultimately, the Israelis and Palestinians will decide how to resolve this,” Pompeo replied.
Pompeo said that US President Donald Trump’s aides Jared Kushner and Jason Greenblatt would soon lay out a proposal “to resolve a problem that’s been going on for decades and decades that previous administrations couldn’t solve.”
“We’re hopeful that we have some ideas that are different, unique, which will allow the Israelis and the Palestinian people to come to a resolution of the conflict,” Pompeo said.
Days before the Israeli election, Netanyahu broke precedent by saying that he planned to extend Israeli sovereignty over all West Bank settlements, home to some 400,000 Israeli Jews.
Syria rejected an Israeli offer to return the Golan Heights in exchange for the normalization of relations and the opening of embassies in the two countries, former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak told Egyptian media.Israeli Elections Results: Likud Tied With Blue and White, But Right-Wing Bloc Remains Larger, Handing Netanyahu the Victory
“I contacted the Israelis to try to recover the Golan Heights, but they demanded the opening of an Israeli embassy in Damascus and a Syrian one on their land as a kind of Syrian recognition of the Israeli state,” he told al-Hayat.
According to the report, the discussions in 1998 between Israel, led at the time by Benjamin Netanyahu, was rejected by former Syrian President Hafez al-Assad.
The recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights by US President Donald Trump on March 25 “was the result” of the failed talks, the former Egyptian strongman said.
Mubarak was quoted as telling al-Hayat that while former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was more amenable to collaboration, “Netanyahu is one of the most difficult people” that he dealt with.
Last year Uzi Arad, a former adviser to Netanyahu told Israel’s Army Radio that the prime minister held two rounds of “serious” negotiations over the past decade with Damascus over relinquishing the Israeli Golan Heights to Syria.
According to the near-final results of Tuesday’s general election in Israel, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won a narrow but decisive victory. Netanyahu’s Likud party and former IDF chief of staff Benny Gantz’s Blue and White party have tied for first place in the voting, but the right-wing bloc that will likely recommend Netanyahu as prime minister remains comfortably larger.Israel Knesset Election Results - 2019
According to Israeli news site Walla, with 97 percent of the vote counted, Likud and Blue and White both received 35 Knesset seats. However, the right-religious bloc that has supported Netanyahu in previous governments controls 65 seats, while the center-left that would support Gantz has only 55.
As a result, it will almost certainly be Netanyahu who is called upon by President Reuven Rivlin to form the next government.
Further results showed the religious parties Shas and Yahadut HaTorah receiving eight seats apiece. The center-left Labor party and Arab party Hadash-Ta’al received six seats respectively. Center-right Yisrael Beiteinu and religious-right Union of Right-Wing Parties won five seats each. Four seats apiece went to left-wing Meretz, centrist Kulanu, and Arab party Ra’am-Balad.
The results come after a tense night in which exit polls showed uncertain results. One indicated a Blue and White victory, while two others showed a tie and an advantage for the right-wing bloc, which appears to have been accurate.
Both Netanyahu and Gantz declared victory overnight before the final results came in.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu clinched a clear victory early Wednesday morning in Israel’s general elections.Trump: Netanyahu win a 'good sign for peace'
With some 97 percent of votes in Tuesday’s contest counted, his Likud party was tied with Blue and White, but his right-wing/ultra-Orthodox bloc held a decisive lead and Netanyahu was thus safely en route to forming a majority governing coalition.
With more than four million votes counted as of 9 a.m., Likud had snagged 26.27% of the vote, or 35 seats in the 120-seat legislature — the party’s best result since the 2003 election (when it won 38 seats under Ariel Sharon), and its best under Netanyahu.
Likud’s main rival in the election, the Blue and White party led by Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid, won 25.94% of the vote, which would also give it 35 seats, but had insufficient support from other parties to prevent Netanyahu staying in power for what will be a fifth term.
In actual numbers, only some 14,000 votes separated the two biggest parties.
No other party appeared to break double digits in number of seats.
With his Likud at 35, and five right-wing and ultra-Orthodox parties managing to get some 30 seats together, Netanyahu could confidently work to form a government similar to his current right-wing coalition, with a solid 65 seats.
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s winning re-election was “a good sign for peace.”
“Everybody said you can’t have peace in the Middle East with Israel and the Palestinians. … I think we have now a better chance with Bibi having won,” Trump said.
“He’s been a great ally and he’s a friend. I’d like to congratulate him on a well-thought-out race,” Trump continued. Later Trump called Netanyahu form Air Force One to congratulate him.
Trump made the remarks to reporters at the White House hours after Netanyahu secured a fifth term in office, which will likely make him the longest-serving prime minister in Israeli history.
Earlier on Wednesday, Trump’s National Security Adviser John Bolton said the administration’s peace plan was likely to be released soon. “I think we’re going to see that coming out in the very near future,” Bolton said on Wednesday.
#IsraelElections2019 #IsraElections2019 results explained https://t.co/QJQOa1aiF4
— Ozraeli Dave (((דיויד לנג))) (@Israellycool) April 10, 2019
And it’s official Gadeer Mreeh becomes Israel’s first female Druze MP.❤️ congratulations!! pic.twitter.com/402eKRlTwF
— ☆ أماني ☆ (@Amani90__) April 9, 2019
Horribly decontextualized claim by @IshaanTharoor in his @washingtonpost column. Then he cites Yousef Munayyer, a prominent Israel-hating BDS activist.
— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) April 10, 2019
In reality, the Palestinians negotiated with Israel in the 90s and agreed to vote in the Palestinian Authority elections. pic.twitter.com/NK641PXA10
Palestinians: Israelis voted to maintain status quo, apartheid
Palestinian officials in Ramallah said on Wednesday that they were not surprised by the results of the election in Israel and expressed concern over the rise of the right-wing bloc.I’m Not Elitist – I Just Know Better Than You All What’s Good for You By Roger Cohen, New York Times Columnist (satire)
“Israelis have voted to maintain the status quo, as far as the occupation of Palestine,” said PLO secretary-general Saeb Erekat. “They voted for apartheid and to an endless occupation. Exit polls show that only 18 members of the 120 seats in the Knesset support two states on the 1967 borders.”
PLO Executive Committee member Hanan Ashrawi said that Israelis have voted for candidates “who are unequivocally committed to entrenching the status quo of oppression, occupation, annexation and dispossession in Palestine and escalating the assault on Palestinian national and human rights.”
The Israelis, she added, have “chosen an overwhelmingly right-wing, Xenophobic and anti-Palestinian parliament to represent them. Israelis chose to entrench and expand apartheid.”
Ashrawi said that the Palestinians will “overcome this dark and highly dangerous chapter and remain deeply rooted in our homeland.”
Another senior PLO official, Ahmed Majdalni, expressed deep concern over the fate of Arab Israelis in the aftermath of the results of the election. The Arab Israelis, he said, faced a “fierce campaign of racism and fascism” during the election campaign.”
My various columns over the years in which I showcase my upper-middle-class, translatlantic, more-educated-than-thou, and secular-but-culturally-Jewish-as-long-as-it-fits-my-politics-and-lifestyle outlook may have conveyed the wrong idea to many readers as to my guiding assumptions. Therefore let me state with no pretense: please view me not as one who looks down on most others and dismisses their ideas as mistaken, if not outright dangerous; instead please view me as someone who, by dint of his superior education, variety of experience, and clear thinking, simply knows more than your pathetic underclass brains could ever grasp, and my opinions must therefore hold more sway in the world than yours.Palestinian bus passenger attempts to stab guards at checkpoint; no injuries
Nowhere does this important message carry more validity than in my pontificating about Israel. Safe in my office in England, or from my first-class seat on the way to hobnob with like-minded liberals in New York or Washington, I counsel hoi polloi in Israel to make the wise choice, i.e. the same choice as I would make. Not that I have much at stake in their upcoming election, as my lifestyle would change not a whit no matter the outcome, whereas they face the real, everyday consequences of such decisions. No matter. I know what they should choose, because I, educated in Britain’s finest institutions, have freed myself of such unimportant considerations as bus bombings – no one of my status would lower himself to the level of taking public transportation! How unbecoming. I have passed the stage in my life when it was necessary to face danger. Those who continue to face it only confirm their inferior station.
One might also find it odd that I choose to devote a remarkable number of columns to discussing the Jewish state, when I have worked so hard these several decades to sever myself from the future of the Jewish people, attempting to become as universal as possible. That propensity, however, stems from the same objective: to weaken the Jewish State in whatever way possible – while appearing to adhere only to a line of reason, compassion, and sober reflection – so it cannot play any role in the heritage I do whatever I can to minimize in my own life.
A Palestinian bus passenger attempted to stab border crossing officers while they were doing a security check at the az-Za’ayyem checkpoint between Maale Adumim and Jerusalem, police said.Israeli lightly hurt as hammerhead is hurled through his windshield in West Bank
The officers fired in the air and apprehended the suspect, a female resident of Tulkarem, before anyone was injured, the police said.
The suspect has been detained for questioning.
Earlier Wednesday, an Israeli man was lightly injured by a hammer that was thrown at his car by suspects from the Palestinian village of Tuqua as he was driving down a West Bank highway near the Tekoa settlement, officials said.
Troops were searching for the attackers and the man was taken to a hospital for treatment.
A 45-year-old Israeli driver was lightly injured Wednesday when a metal hammerhead smashed the windshield of his car near the West Bank settlement of Tekoa, the IDF said.
The man was taken to the hospital for treatment and soldiers combed the area for suspects, the military said in a statement.
The hammer is suspected of being thrown from a nearby Palestinian school, the Walla news site reported. The metal head of the hammer shattered the windshield and landed inside the car.
Israel’s Shin Bet security service reported 89 attacks in February by Palestinians in the West Bank, down from 116 in January. Those attacks included 80 firebombs, 11 pipe bombs, one stabbing, two grenade attacks and one attack using a gas tank IED.
However, the security agency does not report on rock attacks against Israeli drivers and those attacks are not included in the monthly totals.
NOTE: There are **no** non-Hamas approved journalists in Gaza. Meaning, these people are activists (at best), actual terrorists (at worst). https://t.co/p7uS1Epm63
— David Reaboi (@davereaboi) April 9, 2019
New poll finds Palestinians deeply distrust their leaders
A new public opinion survey showed the overwhelming majority of Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip are disillusioned with their leaders and desperate for presidential elections.German police raid Islamic organizations over suspected Hamas support
The poll, conducted by the Jerusalem Media and Communication Center and released Tuesday, showed that only 11 percent of Palestinians trust Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, the leader of Fatah, and 6% trust rival Hamas leader Ismael Haniyeh.
Around 48% said they don’t trust any political figure, and 87% are demanding elections.
Abbas’s 14-year rule has been marked by corruption and deepening Palestinian division.
The survey, which had a margin of error of 3%, was based on the responses of 1,200 people.
The Palestinian Authority hasn’t held elections since 2006 due to a bitter split between the West Bank’s governing Fatah movement and the Gaza-ruling Hamas terror group, which violently ejected PA forces from the Strip in 2007.
German police on Wednesday raided offices belonging to Islamic organizations suspected of financing the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, which is on the European Union’s terrorism blacklist.Four Police, One Civilian Killed in Bomb Attack in North Sinai: Sources
The German interior ministry said the main targets of the raids were WorldWide Resistance-Help and Ansaar International, which are believed to have collected funds for Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, under the guise of humanitarian aid.
The organizations say on their websites that they collect donations for people in Gaza, Somalia, Syria and other countries.
“Whoever supports Hamas under the guise of humanitarian aid disregards fundamental values of our constitution and discredits the commitment of many aid organizations,” Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said in a statement.
The ministry said the two organizations also supported Hamas through propaganda campaigns.
Five people including four police personnel were killed on Tuesday when a suspected militant blew himself up near a market in the North Sinai town of Sheikh Zuweid, three security sources said.A U.S. Return to the Iran Deal Would Be a Dangerous Choice
The head of investigations in the town and his assistant were among those killed, the sources said, adding several people were wounded. No official statement has yet been given by the interior ministry.
The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack and said 15 people were killed or wounded. It identified the attacker as Abu Hagar al-Masry and said he had detonated an explosive vest when he was near a police foot patrol.
Egypt is battling an Islamist militant insurgency that has carried out attacks mainly in the remote Sinai Peninsula, where the military has been conducting a major security operation since February 2018.
The Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), achieved in 2015 between Iran and the world powers, had some immediate benefits, mainly in the rollback of the Iranian nuclear program and the 10-year slowdown, but also dangerous drawbacks. It enables Iran to continue developing its enrichment technology, and in the longer term, the "sunset" clause grants full legitimacy to Iran's unlimited nuclear program and places a nuclear weapon within Iran's immediate access from the moment Tehran decides to breakout to the bomb.Eli Lake: Trump Offers Clarity on Iran’s Terrorist Aims
Other significant shortcomings of the agreement include the limited supervision of undeclared sites and military sites, disregard for Iran's activity on the possible military dimensions of the program, lack of reference to the development of ballistic missiles, and Iran's malign activity in the region.
The four years that have elapsed since the JCPOA was implemented have shown that key assumptions made by supporters of the agreement were wrong. Iran has not only failed to moderate its hostile conduct but has even intensified it.
The call to return to the 2015 nuclear agreement in its current form is a dangerous suggestion. In 2021, we will be approaching the possibility that a murderous regime that seeks to destroy Israel and establish regional hegemony in the Middle East will receive international approval to reach the nuclear threshold - a nightmare scenario that must be prevented.
As someone who, in 1981 and in 2007, helped terminate two nuclear programs in the Middle East without precipitating war, I know that the "deal or war" framing is a false dichotomy and, therefore, the prediction that leaving the JCPOA will lead to war was detached from the strategic and military reality of the Middle East.
Iran does not rule the roost; it is a very vulnerable country that is rushing toward a direct clash with Israel and the United States. Paradoxically, a clear unwillingness to use force actually encourages Iranian aggression, while clear-eyed willingness to use it will cause the danger of war to recede.
In addition to being responsible for much of the worst domestic repression, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) manages Hizballah and similar terrorist proxies and sends its troops to fight in Iraq, Syria, and elsewhere. On Monday, the White House officially designated the IRGC as a terrorist group—a move, Eli Lake writes, with real consequences:
There is a difference between saying a state is a sponsor of terrorism and calling an arm of a state an actual terrorist organization. . . . The threshold is now lower for proving that someone is providing material support to the IRGC. The designation also makes any non-Iranians who wittingly or unwittingly do business with the IRGC vulnerable to having their U.S. visas revoked. This is [a] powerful disincentive for Europeans [investing] in Iran, . . . because the IRGC’s tentacles reach into most aspects of Iran’s economy.
[T]here are two basic objections to this move. The first is that the designation may provoke Iran to target U.S. forces. . . . Already, Iranian government officials have promised a response to the designation. The mistake is thinking that pressure is any more provocative to Tehran than entreaties. In the days leading up to the final implementation of the nuclear deal in 2016, for example, the IRGC briefly took U.S. sailors hostage and released a humiliating video of the incident after they were released.
The second objection is that the designation further undermines the 2015 nuclear deal. A progressive group chaired by alumni of the Obama administration made this point; however, some see this objection as a point in the Trump administration’s favor. “It makes it much more difficult for a Democratic president to go back into the Iran deal in 2021,” says the Iran-sanctions expert Mark Dubowitz, who favors the designation. Any future administration would have to make [an official] determination that the IRGC was out of the terrorism business [before removing the sanctions].
