Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Ramallah

Showing posts with label Ramallah. Show all posts

Monday, August 07, 2023

PA prime minister Shtayyeh tells members of Congress a litany of lies

From the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh Monday met with a delegation of members of the US Congress, which included 22 members of the Democratic Party, headed by Senator Hakeem Jeffries, leader of the Democratic Caucus in the House of Representatives, in his office in the occupied West Bank city of Ramallah.

Ramallah isn't occupied. There is not one Israeli soldier there. It has its own governance structure that has nothing to do with Israel. There is no sane definition of "occupation" that makes Ramallah occupied.

The meeting discussed ways to revive the political process and the role of the US Congress in protecting the two-state solution, as the Prime Minister called on Congress to vote in favor of recognizing the State of Palestine.

Shtayyeh has no problem representing all of Israel as part of Palestine, showing how important the "two state solution" is to him.

The Prime Minister affirmed that Israel violates international law on a daily basis through killing, storming and building settlement, stressing that this causes the systematic destruction of the two-state solution.

"Storming"? According to Shtayyeh, Jews visiting their holiest spot are somehow violating international law. Which shows that his interest in real international law is also nil.

Shtayyeh called on Congress to pressure Israel to allow holding of Palestinian elections, including Jerusalem, in accordance with the signed agreements, considering that Israel's failure to allow this is an attempt to fight Palestinian democracy.

Israel isn't what is stopping elections. Mahmoud Abbas is. Jerusalem Arabs can vote in any Palestinian elections as they have in the past.

Did any members of Congress have the backbone to contradict Shtayyeh's lies? I tend to doubt it.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

11/29 Links Pt1: The Palestinians had a great Thanksgiving; Israel not so much; Female Israeli soldier wounded in West Bank car ramming attack; Israeli Children Attacked by Terrorists in Hebron

From Ian:

The Palestinians had a great Thanksgiving; Israel not so much

Over Thanksgiving week, the administration announced the creation of a special representative post focused solely on the Palestinians. This will be an enormous upgrade in relations. A State Department official said, "As the president reiterated in Israel and the West Bank, we remain committed to reopening our Consulate General in Jerusalem and to the vision of a two-state solution."

While the Palestinians are cosseted and rewarded for intransigence and violence, the Biden administration is attacking Israel by upgrading Israel's enemies, undermining its ability to defend itself and calling its democratic bona fides into question.

First, the administration called the Abraham Accords "normalization agreements," rather than the historic peace accords they are. But that was a minor slap compared to the gifts Israel's chief nemesis Iran received. The administration lifted sanctions on Iran's proxy terror organization, the Houthis. It pressured South Korea to free up more than a billion dollars in frozen Iranian funds. It provided sanctions waivers that allowed Iran to sell more oil to China – a boon for both countries.

And the administration did all of this while the US sat outside the room in Vienna where talks on reviving the 2015 nuclear accord are underway. The US, in other words, acted like the pariah Iran should be, and allowed Russia, China and the EU to offer Iran "inducements" to rejoin an agreement Iran has been violating for years. There has been no penalty for stealing US technology, putting it in Iranian drones and exporting the drones to Russia in violation of U.N. sanctions.

In addition, Iran's proxy Hezbollah was gifted with a maritime gas agreement between Israel and Lebanon brokered by the US The Biden administration put heavy pressure on Israel's outgoing government to reach a deal before the Israeli elections. Worst of all was that Israel received unspecified American "security assurances" should Hezbollah attack. This undermined Israel's decades-long policy that it would "defend itself by itself" and not ask the US to provide American soldiers for its security.

The administration also undermined Israel's position as a democratic ally by announcing the opening of an FBI investigation into the battlefield death of an Al Jazeera journalist, having previously accepted the findings of Israeli and Palestinian investigations and declaring the case closed. The announcement brought cheers from the PA, which demanded that the case go to the International Criminal Court.

The only saving grace was that US Ambassador Thomas Nides and President Joe Biden later said they had no idea such an investigation had been ordered by the attorney general. Really? President Biden didn't know? The US has a rogue attorney general?

The Palestinians had a very good Thanksgiving week. The Israelis much less so. Most Americans were too busy to notice.

A Book of Psalms saved a victim's life in Jerusalem terror attack

A man who was seriously injured in Tuesday’s Jerusalem bombing was spared from what could have been a fatal fate by none other than his book of Psalms – or Tehillim in Hebrew – which blocked a shard of debris from piercing his body, said Shaare Zedek Medical Center.

The victim, a 62-year-old man, arrived to Shaare Zedek hospital in serious condition and underwent a series of operations to remove shrapnel from his body.

While the man was recovering, visitors were stunned to discover that he had a book of psalms in his possession that was pierced almost entirely through by a shard of debris resulting from the explosion. The shard hit the back cover of the book and penetrated nearly all the way through – though stopping just short and potentially saving the man’s life.

Coincidence or divine intervention?
The shard penetrated the book up to the 124th chapter of the Psalms before stopping at the line: "Our soul is like a bird that escaped from a box of hardships."

The psalm that the shrapnel stopped is obviously very notable, as the message in the psalm is about being saved from hardship. The bus station bombing in Jerusalem on Tuesday killed two, including a 16-year-old boy, and wounded 18 others – including the fortunate man who had this book of psalms with him.

The IDF’s Judea and Samaria challenge: A spike in attacks and anti-terror raids

‘A synergy of explosive factors can produce a new intifada’
According to Col. (res.) David Hacham, a senior research associate at the MirYam Institute and a former adviser on Arab affairs to seven Israeli defense ministers, the dramatic rise in terrorist incidents is linked to a number of factors.

He detailed the first two as follows: “A rise in violent clashes between the IDF, as well as Israelis in Judea and Samaria, and Palestinians, often leading to casualties. A rise in tensions surrounding the Temple Mount and ongoing Palestinian incitement encouraging violent passions around this issue based on claims that Israel is changing the status quo. This can form a big potential for escalation because it plays on very sensitive strings.”

Terror factions led by Hamas have been promoting murderous incitement on social media using the Temple Mount issue as a key theme to call for attacks on Israelis.

A third factor, said Hacham, is the ongoing and escalating succession battle within Fatah over who will succeed Abbas. “The combination of these elements leads to an atmosphere filled with gasoline fumes, and can lead to an explosion and a new intifada, he warned.

“Other factors include the sense among Palestinians of a lack of any progress in the diplomatic process with Israel and the sense that the PA is unable to make Israel budge here. The Palestinians fear the formation of a new right-wing Israeli coalition that will promote the building of settlements, legalize outposts, build new bypass roads, and create an obstacle to the establishment of a future Palestinian state,” said Hacham.

“They fear the next government will not take the Palestinians into account at all. On the Palestinian side, Abbas, 87, is tired and sick. He is trying to prepare the ground for his chosen successor, Hussein al-Sheikh, whom he appointed as PLO Executive Committee secretary-general in May 2022,” he continued.

Israel has to keep its finger “closely on the pulse of every event in Judea and Samaria, which is at the gates, inside our home. It has to be able to detect and move to prevent negative events such as a Hamas takeover,” Hacham stressed.

Al-Sheikh, unpopular on the Palestinian street, would only acquire legitimacy if he won elections like Abbas did in 2005 to become PA president. “Here, there is an Israeli, Jordanian and Egyptian interest to prevent a civil war between Palestinians and to avoid a scenario in which the militias of the candidates fight each other, which could be dangerous for us,” Hacham added.

Palestinian media claims EU expressed regret over 6 terrorists killed. It didn't.

From Ramallah News:

Today, Tuesday, the European Union expressed its regret over the death of six Palestinian martyrs as a result of the Israeli occupation’s aggression on the governorates of Nablus, Ramallah and Al-Bireh, in the West Bank.

In response to a question by Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) at a press conference in Brussels, European Union Spokesman for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Peter Stano affirmed that the European Union "is closely following developments in the occupied territories and the West Bank."

He said that "the disturbances, provocations and violence will continue until a solution and a vision for solving the problems is produced," expressing "regret for the loss of lives, especially the innocent."

Stano actually said, "We also regret loss of life - unnecessary loss of life - especially if it's innocent civilians."

This doesn't sound like it fits the dead terrorists.

He also strongly condemned terrorist attacks, and gave the usual support for a two-state "solution," which would not be a solution in any sense at any time soon.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Last night, IDF troops killed five members of the Lion's Den terror group in Nablus, including its founder and leader, Wadih al-Houh.

One other terrorist was killed in Ramallah.

According to Khaled Abu Toameh, al-Houh had written on his Facebook page that the Palestinian Authority had tried to convince his group to put down their weapons - and to join the PA security services. Al-Houh wasn't interested, and he criticized the PA.

Yet the PA is now treating al-Houh and his group as heroes.

PA prime minister Mohamed Shtayyeh, considered a "moderate," issued a statement. "Glory and eternity to the six satellites of Palestine, who rose at dawn today in Nablus and Ramallah, and they engraved their names in the hearts of their people, that they are those who are protesting with certainty and the inevitability of the victory of the owner of the land over the occupier, and shame for this criminal occupation that finances its elections with Palestinian blood."

On behalf of the PA cabinet, Shtayyeh offered his "deepest and sincere condolences to the families of the martyrs, asking the Almighty to bless them with the vastness of his mercy, dwell in his vast gardens, and inspire their families patience."

The official Palestinian Wafa news agency also wrote two articles solidly in support of Wadih al-Houh and the Lion's Den.

Those moments that the people of Nablus experienced, when they rushed by the thousands to the hospital, they will never forget when their throats shouted in the name of the martyr Wadih Houh, after the doctors announced his martyrdom, so that the state of sadness overcame the situation again and he was carried on the shoulders as a martyr.

They even paid the terrorists the highest compliment possible, comparing them to Yasir Arafat:

The same Al-Atoot area inside the old city of Nablus bears many tales and stories with the martyr Yasser Arafat when he sought refuge there in 1967, after he arrived on foot from Damascus, carrying his rifle and announcing the start of the secret preparation for the Palestinian revolution from the same area.

One can argue that the PA is forced to express this support for terror because they are just trying to survive politically and they cannot risk the anger of their people for opposing a popular terror group. There is no indication as yet that Abbas wants to return to an armed intifada. And he has not done anything to curtail the activities of the Al Aqsa Brigades which are part of his Fatah party.

This explicit support for terrorists sends messages to the world of which side the PA is on. But neither the Biden administration nor the EU nor the UN nor NGOs nor the Western media are reporting, let alone condemning, these statements.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Palestinian Museum: The museum of the intifada, complete with virtual rock throwing

Throwing rocks at Jews is all the rage lately.

Right after two Lebanese ministers proudly videoed themselves hurling rocks towards the border with Israel, Palestinian Media Watch found this news story about the Palestinian Museum in Ramallah, where there is a new interactive "intifada" exhibit.

Director of The Palestinian Museum’s Information and Communication Technology Unit Nasri Shtayyeh: “The user can choose one of these interactive stories. The first story is the intifada, and they have a kind of emotion, because the moment [the museum visitor] enters the story he needs to respond, since he is entering an environment of intifada that could contain throwing rocks, it could have road closures, it could have vehicles entering.”
…

Official PA TV host: “Let’s try it.”

Nasri Shtayyeh: “It’s really nice, and it’s interactive.”

[Official PA TV, At the Museum, Aug. 24, 2022]

We always wondered what a Palestinian museum would include. Now we know - it glorifies terror, the major Palestinian accomplishment.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

First Palestinians fly from Israel's Ramon Airport - and who they are may surprise you

Times of Israel reports:

A group of Palestinians took off to Cyprus on Monday, for the first time using Ramon Airport outside the southern city of Eilat as part of a pilot program allowing the facility to be used by residents of the West Bank for certain flights, part of a series of gestures from Israel aimed at easing the lives of Palestinians.

Until today, Palestinians wishing to fly abroad needed to travel to Jordan and board a flight from there, or secure a hard-to-come-by entry permit into Israel to fly from Ben Gurion Airport.

Arkia Airlines is operating the inaugural service, which is flying 40 residents of Bethlehem and Hebron from Ramon Airport at 11:30 a.m. to Larnaca. A return flight is scheduled for Friday. The route will also serve Israelis, who will be seated alongside the Palestinian passengers.

So much for "apartheid."

Who are the Palestinians traveling to Cyprus?

According to Ultrapal, they are doctors and pharmacists who work for a Ramallah-based pharmaceutical company who is paying for the trip. Their families are coming as well.

The employees were given a choice of whether they prefer to fly out via Amman or Ramon Airport. About 40 are leaving through Israel.

I wish my employer would pay for a free vacation for my family!

I can't determine which company is behind this. The Palestinian pharmaceutical sector is pretty successful; the largest company Jerusalem Pharmaceuticals has manufacturing facilities in Jordan and Algeria as well. There are several other major pharmaceutical companies in Ramallah.

Israel Hayom reports that when this initiative was first announced, many Palestinians expressed interest in taking the hours-long trip to Eilat to fly from Ramon, because travel to and from Jordan has been a nightmare.The Palestinian Authority has been discouraging Palestinians from using Ramon Airport, because anything that makes Israel look like anything other than a monstrous regime is anathema to them, and they would prefer their own people suffer than to allow them to benefit from anything Israel does to make Palestinian lives easier.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Before 1948, Jews could cool down at hotels in Ramallah

Yisrael Medad found this ad in Haaretz from 1935:

It says that Ramallah is the nicest place in Eretz Yisrael, and invites people who want to escape the heat and enjoy the clean air to visit the Grand Hotel Ramallah. The hotel featured dances and tennis as well as running water.

I found the equivalent ad in English in the Palestine Post:

It turns out that hotels in Ramallah before 1948 enjoyed holding dance contests on weekends. Here's an ad for the Harb Hotel Kit-Kat Casino from 1933:

The interesting thing is that while these ads attempted to attract Jews to the hotels, the main clientele for the dances was Arab.

Just as in Egypt, the social scene for Arabs in Palestine in the 1930s and 1940s was far more liberal than today.

The Grand Park Hotel in Ramallah today has a pool, but there are restrictions on who can go, as this 2019 poster (the most recent one I could find) states in the small print:

A woman visiting the hotel alone who wants to swim is out of luck. And you simply cannot find photos of people swimming in that pool because photos of women swimming would cause an uproar.

A mixed-couples dance is severely restricted under Palestinian rule today - in fact, the rare times it happens, trouble follows, and the dance scene there is mostly under the radar.

It is ironic that the more conservative Palestinian society becomes, the more "progressive" its supporters are.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

US envoy: Biden told Abbas that his demands could only be fulfilled by Jesus Christ

On Thursday, the highest ranking US liaison to the Palestinians Arabs gave a wide ranging interview to Palestinian media in Ramallah.

On Thursday, a high-ranking US official spoke about the meeting between US President Joe Biden and his Palestinian counterpart, Mahmoud Abbas, in Bethlehem, during his visit to the region on the thirteenth of this month.

During his meeting with a number of journalists in the city of Ramallah, the head of the American office for Palestinian affairs, George Noll, confirmed that President Abbas presented Biden with his demands, which he aspires to achieve, for the Palestinian people.

Noel said: "President Biden responded to his Palestinian counterpart that these demands need the Lord Jesus Christ, the miracle maker, to fulfill them."

Noll made no secret that President Biden had felt great sympathy for the Palestinians, indicating that there were limits to what America could do to put pressure on Israel to end the occupation.

The US official added: "America is against the occupation and against settlements, but there are those who believe that the United States is able to pick up the phone and ask Israel to do such and such. I wish it were this way, but it is not."

He pointed out that Biden empathized with the violation of the dignity of the Palestinians, indicating that this was what prompted him to stress the importance of preserving the dignity of the Palestinian people.

Noll also pointed out that President Biden has reaffirmed America's position of a negotiated political solution on the basis of the two-state solution, finding a negotiated solution in Jerusalem, halting settlements, and obtaining equal measures for the Palestinians with the Israelis.

The head of the American office for Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem stressed that the idea of Palestinians traveling through Ramon Airport in southern occupied Palestine(sic) is not an American idea, explaining that they are intensifying their efforts to solve the problem of the Karama crossing bridge (to Jordan.)

The US official indicated that his country is still pressuring Israel to open the US consulate office in occupied Jerusalem.

He pointed out that the matter is still in the hands of Israel, especially since the law states that the country hosting the consulate is the one that gives approval for the residency decision.

He explained that the US office for Palestinian affairs in Jerusalem is carrying out the same tasks and procedures that the consulate is supposed to carry out.

Regarding the opening of the office of the Palestine Liberation Organization in Washington, Noel stressed that this matter requires the organization to amend some procedures in American law...

In a related context, Noel confirmed that the US administration continues to follow up on the results of the investigations into the killing of journalist Sherine Abu Akleh, noting that the legal procedures take a long time.

I was at first skeptical when I saw this story, but it is being reported in multiple outlets without being copied, so it really appears that George Noll said all these things.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

If Palestinians consider Jerusalem their capital, they should WANT the US consulate in Ramallah!

As President Biden prepares for his upcoming trip to Israel, the question of his promise to reopen the US Consulate in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinian population is coming up again.

Last year, Israeli officials suggested that while opening it up in Jerusalem is an affront to the Israeli claim to Jerusalem, they have no problem if the US opens it up in the de facto capital of the Palestinian Authority of Ramallah.

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman of Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas rejected the idea, saying, "We will only accept a U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, the capital of the Palestinian state."

But consulates aren't opened in capitals. They are opened in other important cities. Capitals usually host embassies, not consulates.

Meaning that if the Palestinian Authority insists that Jerusalem is their capital, they should insist that a US consulate be opened in Ramallah or Nablus or Hebron, and that eventually - in their hope - an embassy would be opened in Jerusalem.

As usual with Palestinians, facts are not a factor. Everything is about symbolism. Many of their "red lines" are symbolic and have nothing to do with their ostensible demand for a Palestinian state. Jerusalem isn't even mentioned in the PLO charter of 1968 - they created that demand to take Jerusalem away from Jews. Their insistence on Jerusalem being their capital is a completely different topic than statehood, and any links are imaginary.

And then we read this insanity:

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is considering suspending its recognition of Israel ahead of U.S. President Joe Biden's upcoming visit to Israel, Palestinian sources told Ynet on Thursday.

The Palestinian leadership has agreed on a tactic of gradually upping the ante against Jerusalem in a bid to stir international pressure and turn the screws on the White House in order to score lucrative overtures from the Americans.

As part of the measures, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is considering adopting the Palestinian Central Council's decision to suspend its 1994 recognition of Israel until the latter withdraws from territories it seized in the 1967 Six-Day War and recognizes a Palestinian state within their border. Ramallah is also considering suspending security ties with Jerusalem.

Normal countries are penalized for acting against American interests. The Palestinians are not only rewarded for bad behavior - they expect to be rewarded for acting irresponsibly!

The West needs to distinguish between Palestinian demands and reality, and insist that they will not negotiate fantasies.

Buy the EoZ book, PROTOCOLS: Exposing Modern Antisemitism today at Amazon!

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

Read all about it here!

Qatar cancels "Music and Dialogue Festival": too "Zionist"

If you want to find an Israeli who is "pro-Palestinian", you won't be able to do better than Daniel Barenboim.

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship for his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.

The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both Israeli and Palestinian passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano recital in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP and presidential candidate, said at the recital held to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim even managed to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza last year to perform with his mixed Arab-Jewish orchestra.

And for the past few years, that same orchestra - the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with Edward Said - has performed in a festival in Qatar.

But not this year.

The event was supposed to include three concerts featuring the orchestra under Barenboim's lead as well as a debate at a local university on the subject of "music as a contribution to peace."

Said died nine years ago, his widow was among those invited to the debate. Everything was ready, thousands of tickets were sold, but just a few days ago Barenboim was surprised to hear that the Qatari authorities announced that the festival was cancelled.

The reason? "Sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world." The official announcement further stated: "We are aware of Maestro Barenboim's special talents, but the festival under his lead is cancelled."

Apparently this is only a diplomatic pretext and the reality may be that the Qatari authorities surrendered to the pressure that was put on them by the Palestinian organization for boycott on Israel.

The Arab media insisting that the reason for the cancellation is the fact that "Barenboim represents the occupation."

Editorials in newspapers throughout the Arab world stated: "This isn't the time or place to entertain Israelis and a Zionist conductor. Qatari authorities are giving the Zionist maestro an opportunity to present a seemingly positive aspect of Israel."

Omar Barghouti, the hypocrite leader of the Israel boycott movement who has no problem getting his doctorate from an Israeli university, explains why Barenboim is such a horrible Zionist:

Although he rejects the 1967 occupation, he also rejects the return of refugees to the homes they were thrown out of during the nakba [in 1948].

Barenboim attempts to cleverly clean up Israel’s image by accepting some Palestinian rights, but at the same time he repudiates the most significant of Palestinian rights.

Meaning the right to destroy the Jewish state.

Barghouti has an entire op-ed in Al Akhbar about this, decrying how Arab countries are "normalizing" relations with Israel in academia, the arts and even sports. He loves to self-righteously force his agenda to boycott Israel on everyone but himself.

Barenboim might be spending his entire life trying to achieve peace and dialogue between Israel and the Arab world, but he still accepts that Israel has a right to exist. That is an unpardonable crime.

And Qatar cannot appear to be "Zionist" by hosting a pro-peace artist who was honored by the Palestinian Authority. That is too controversial.

This episode also neatly proves that the BDS movement is not merely against "occupation" but against the very existence of Israel itself.