Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: StateDept

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Tuesday, September 26, 2023

Irony of ironies: Palestinians complain about Bibi's map

At the State Department press briefing yesterday, there was this exchange between spokesperson Matthew Miller and Said Arikat of Al Quds:

ARIKAT: I have a quick question on Mr. Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations at UNGA last Friday. He showed a map that completely erases the Palestinians. I wonder if you saw the map and I wonder if you have any comment on it.

MR MILLER: I did see it. I’m not going to get into any discussion about the map that the prime minister chose to use. I will say that the President has been clear, this administration has been clear that the United States will continue to support a two-state solution.

QUESTION: So it doesn’t bother you at all that the map shows the Palestinians just evaporated and so on? I mean, isn’t that like a cause for concern, a cause for saying “that’s our position and we state it very strongly; there will be no normalization without it or anything of such” – or just maybe a mishap on part of the prime minister?

MR MILLER: I did just state what our position is. In addition to my just stating what our position is, that we support a two-state solution

Whether the US or Palestinians like it, Israel still claims that Judea and Samaria are disputed territories, not occupied, and as such there is nothing wrong with an Israeli map including them as part of Israel before there is a peace agreement. (Admittedly, Gaza should not have been included in this map.)

His map of 1948 that showed an Israel that included the entire British Mandate could arguably include all of the territories because of the legal concept of uti possidetis juris which gave Israel, as the only state that existed after the 1948 war, the presumed borders of the entire Mandate.

But the PLO and the Palestinian Authority have, since 1993, consistently claimed that they accept a two state solution with Israel within what they call the "1967 borders."

Yet their maps consistently show a "Palestine" with no Israel.

Looking through recent photographs on Mahmoud Abbas' Facebook page, we see his receiving a report from the Palestinian Lands Authority which has a logo that erases Israel:

Here's Abbas lighting a torch to commemorate the anniversary of the PLO's founding, with the PLO logo that erases Israel:

Palestinian Media Watch has scores of examples of official Palestinian erasure of Israel.

Every major Palestinian political party has logos that erase Israel.

If they accept the two state solution, and insist that their borders are the "pre-1967" borders and nothing beyond, than what is their excuse for consistently erasing Israel from their maps?

I would say that their hypocrisy is stunning, but it isn't. It is business as usual.

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Because Tunisia complained, US State Department modifies post which implied Black Africans are indigenous

Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken gave out the first annual Secretary’s Global Anti-Racism Champions Awards.  

One of the awardees is Saadia Mosbah of Tunisia:

Saadia Mosbah is a Tunisian activist who has dedicated her life to fighting racial discrimination and prejudice, as well as defending the rights of Black Tunisians.  In 2013, after several unsuccessful attempts to launch an association that fights racial discrimination during President Ben Ali’s rule, she finally established Mnemty, “My Dream,” an association that endeavors to raise awareness about the value of diversity and importance of equality, to denounce racism in public spaces, ensure legal protection for all, elevate the profile of the Black population in the cultural sphere, and promote socio-economic development in predominantly black communities.  Saadia’s activism, alongside that of several human rights activists, contributed to the adoption of the law in Tunisia criminalizing racial discrimination on October 9, 2018.   For Mosbah, the law is an achievement, but incomplete, as it lacks a universal declaration that denounces all forms of discrimination irrespective of religion, language, or skin color.

In their Arabic social media posts, the US Embassy in Tunis described the award this way:

Congratulations Saadia Mesbah for winning the Secretary of State's 2023 International Anti-Racism Champions Award. The Tunisian activist has dedicated her life to fighting racial discrimination and intolerance and defending the rights of black Tunisians. This award is in recognition of her exceptional courage, leadership and commitment to advancing the human rights of members of marginalized racial, ethnic and indigenous communities. Let's continue to fight against systemic racism, and promote positive change in both the United States and the world.

Tunisian racists freaked out at the term "indigenous communities" - because that implies that Black people whose cause Mesbah champions are indigenous to the region.

Last month, Al Jazeera reported:

Tunis, Tunisia – In February, Tunisian President Kais Saied warned his country of a plan to change Tunisia’s “demographic make-up”, to turn it into “just another African country that doesn’t belong to the Arab and Islamic nations any more”.

As part of this plan, “hordes of irregular migrants from sub-Saharan Africa” had travelled to Tunisia, bringing “all the violence, crime, and unacceptable practices that entails”.

The dubious warning, which has been widely criticised and dubbed racist by human rights groups as well as by regional and international bodies, gave official approval to a mentality that has been spreading through the North African country over recent years.

It led to round-ups of Black sub-Saharan Africans, their eviction from rented properties, and African countries mobilising to repatriate their citizens.

And now, with reports of mobs forcing their way into the homes of Black migrants and refugees, attacking occupants with fists, clubs and machetes, Tunisia’s own native black population, long used to the bigotry that exists in many parts of their own society, are braced for the assault.

The US Embassy use of the word "indigenous communities" fueled the racist fears that there was some sort of plot to flood Tunisia with Black Africans and to declare them to be indigenous to the area.

So the US Embassy caved and removed the phrase. It re-posted the item, now saying "This award recognizes her exceptional courage, leadership, and commitment to advancing human rights for marginalized communities worldwide. "

Yet this is the exact time to call out Tunisia's racism and recognize Mesbah's work to eliminate it, not to water it down.

Even more bizarrely, the US Embassy in Tunisia page has apparently removed the entire paragraph describing her getting the award - the headline of the page includes her name along with the photo shown above, but it only lists the other awardees with the reasons for their awards, and not Mesbah. Her paragraph must have been part of that page originally, since it was copied and pasted from the State Department page.

The US Embassy in Tunisia removed the description of the Tunisian awardee!

Does the State Department consider Black Africans to be indigenous to the region? Or are the seventh century Arab invaders the only "indigenous" people of Tunisia?

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So is it US policy that some Jews must be banned from the Temple Mount?

From the Jerusalem Post:

The United States slammed as “unacceptable” National Security Minister Ben-Gvir’s visit to the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on the Temple Mount on Thursday, to mark the annual Tisha Be’av fast.

“We reaffirm our long-standing US position in support of the historic status quo at Jerusalem’s holy sites,” State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington.

“Any unilateral action or rhetoric that deviates or jeopardizes the status quo is completely unacceptable,” Patel emphasized.

The US Embassy in Jerusalem issued a similar statement and US Ambassador Robert Wood echoed his country’s displeasure in a speech he delivered to the United Nations Security Council.

“This holy place should not be used for political purposes. We call on all parties to respect its sanctity,” he said.

No matter what one thinks of Ben Gvir, what is unacceptable is for the US to say that some Jews have a very limited right to visit their holiest spot, which is bad enough, and then to make it worse by saying that some Jews should have no rights to visit it at all.

From a Jewish perspective, it is the Muslims who visit the Dome of the Rock and the areas around it who are desecrating the holy spot. Every single day.

Jewish sensitivities towards the most sacred spot in Judaism are meaningless to the State Department.

But for some reason, Muslim sensitivities to make the entire area Judenrein is not something to be condemned by the US government..

Even when they give antisemitic speeches there.

Even when they wave Hamas flags.

Even when they stockpile projectiles and fireworks.

When those things happen, the State Department never issues sanctimonious statements urging Muslims to "respect its sanctity."

Anything and everything that Muslims do on the Temple Mount is somehow part of the mythical "status quo" while anything Jews do is a threat and a potential powder keg.

There is something very wrong here.

Ben Gvir did nothing provocative and said nothing that is offensive, certainly when compared to the Jew-hatred being spouted regularly on Al Aqsa. But the State Department feels that they can attack him without repercussions from the Jewish community, because he is so reviled by so many.

What Jews need to realize is that this attack on him was couched in terms of an attack on all Jews who want to assert historic rights to our most sacred place, and that is what is "completely unacceptable."

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Cartoon of the Day: "They hate me because I criticize Israel!" and other lies of antisemites

Inspired by this tweet:

He didn't merely "criticize Israel." He accused a member of Congress of being bought and controlled by the Jewish lobby.

This is not the first time that blatant antisemitism was justified as mere "criticism of Israel." And when people like Cavallaro and Ken Roth explain the reasons they didn't get the positions they wanted, the media doesn't bother to wonder - hey, maybe there is a conflict of interest here in the description of the reasons they give.

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Just a video of Palestinian terrorists firing on Jewish homes

During the State Department briefing yesterday, Said Arikat badgered spokesperson Vedant Patel trying to get him to condemn Israel, and in part of his diatribe he said, "Now, who guarantees that equality? Who will guarantee that Palestinians and Israelis can actually have the same equal measures, as you keep repeating? It’s not the Palestinians that keep going day after day into Israeli villages and towns and so on and attack them during night raids..."

Actually, Palestinians attack Jews literally every day. They brag about it. They keep detailed statistics, is this poster of last week's attacks shows:

Today, Islamic Jihad issued a press release: "The Al-Quds Brigades - Jaba Groups announced, this morning, Friday 27-1-2023, that they were able to target the Homesh settlement with dense and successive salvoes of bullets."

What exactly does that look like?

On January 15, another division of the Al Quds Brigades published a similar statement saying they attacked the village of Hermesh. This time they included a video showing automatic machine gun fire aiming at random Jewish homes.

Do the residents of Hermesh deserve to live in peace, without worry that they would be subject to automatic gunfire randomly shot at their houses?

Does any human rights group ever say that?

Do any of the reporters at the State Department even know that this happens every day?

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FIVE Palestinian child soldiers killed so far this year

On Wednesday, Muhammad Ali Abd Musa Muhammad Ali, 16, was killed after aiming a (fake) gun at IDF soldiers in Shuafat.

Hamas said that he was a member.

That is the fifth Palestinian child soldier killed this year - fully 25% of all the Palestinian militants killed by Israel this year have been children.

All of them were claimed as members of terror groups.

These include:

1/2 Fuad Mohammad ‘Aabed, 17 (Hamas)

1/3 Adam Essam Ayyad, 15 (PFLP)

1/5 Amer Abu Zeitoun, 16 (Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades)

1/16 Amro Khaled Al-Khumour, 14 (PFLP)

1/25 Muhammad Ali Abd Musa Muhammad Ali, 16 (Hamas)

These kids are being groomed to be cannon fodder. Some of them wrote notes to their families, meaning that they intended to be killed.

I have not seen one word from "human rights groups." about Palestinian child soldiers this year. Nothing from UNICEF. Nothing from Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese. Nothing from the EU. Nothing from the State Department. Nothing in the Western media.

And each "child" is promoted as an innocent victim by those who want to destroy Israel,with no fact checking.

The child soldiers is a scandal. The lack of information about them in the West (indeed, the fact that the media has not once mentioned that nearly every Palestinian killed was participating in fighting at the time) is perhaps an even greater scandal.

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Apparently, the only unilateral moves opposed by the US and EU are those by Israel

In yesterday's State Department briefing there was this exchange between Said Arikat and spokesperson Ned Price:

Q: The Arab press and the Israeli press are both reporting that Israel is planning a – like a – to accelerate the demolishing of – the demolition of Palestinian homes in Area C and in other areas. Do you have a comment on that?

MR PRICE: Our comment on this is – remains the fact that we believe it’s critical for Israel and the Palestinian Authority to refrain from unilateral steps that exacerbate tensions and undercut efforts to advance a negotiated two-state solution. This includes the annexation of territory, settlement activity, and demolitions.

I just went through a selection of press briefings that used the word "unilateral" in respect to Israel and Palestinians over the past year, and while the spokesperson often says that the US is against either side making any unilateral moves that could increase tensions, I cannot find a single example where any Palestinian actions are considered unilateral.

Not them submitting complaints to the ICC. Not them building entirely new Arab settlements in Area C. Not them praising suicide bombers and other terrorists. Not paying terrorists and their families lifetime salaries.

Someone should ask Ned Price explicitly what Palestinian unilateral moves the US opposes.

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

Or order from your favorite bookseller, using ISBN 9798985708424.

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