Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 09, 2017

Egyptian diplomats refuse to participate in ceremony marking 40th anniversary of Sadat visit

This month is the 40th anniversary of Egyptian President Anwar Sadat's historic visit to Israel.

Arabic media are quoting Israeli news as saying that there will be an official ceremony marking the occasion.....but the Egyptian ambassador to Israel won't be there.

The ceremony is scheduled for November 22 at the home of President Reuven Rivlin. According to the report, no Egyptian officials accepted the invitation to the event.

And this is when there is pretty close cooperation between Israel and Egypt on security matters.

People who talk about peace in the Middle East who think that peace means actual acceptance of a Jewish state are fooling themselves. A formal cold peace is a hell of a lot better than war, but it isn't true peace until the Arabs are taught that Jews have the right to self-determination. Until there is actual, real normalization.

That's not going to happen. Ever.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/08 Links P2: Col Kemp: Israel as a Strategic Asset of the West; Morrissey: Israel haters are just ‘jealous’ of the country

From Ian:

Col Kemp: Israel as a Strategic Asset of the West

This visit came just weeks after the publication of the infamous Goldstone Report – which alleged that Israel had committed war crimes by deliberately targeting civilians in Gaza.

The contrast was striking: within weeks of the European Parliament endorsing the report, the European Chairman of NATO’s Military Committee was visiting Israel, for the third time in four years, to study ethical methods for dealing with terrorist insurgencies without causing undue harm to civilians.

Why do European countries exploit Israel’s capabilities with one hand and stab her in the back with the other?
One word sums it up: appeasement.

Every European country has a large and growing Muslim population and an increasing fear of Islamic terrorism.
Political leaders believe that a harsh approach toward Israel will give electoral advantage in respect of their Muslim populations and also discourage Islamic terrorists from attacking at home.

A much longer-standing target of their appeasement is the Arab world itself and concern about the negative impact that their dealings with Israel will have on their relations with other countries in the Middle East.
But the balance has been shifting and European diplomacy has struggled to keep up.

For many years Israel has had close strategic relations with two of its main Arab neighbours.

And today in the face of a growing fear of Iran and the rise of radical jihadism, other Arab countries are increasingly, if cautiously and quietly, looking toward Israel for protection and assistance.

The Arab world will not suddenly fall in love with the Jewish State, but the sands are shifting and in their own security interests, Western states also now need to re-evaluate their relationships with Israel and appreciate what is the balance of cost and benefit to them.

Perhaps the time has come for a new Balfour Declaration.
President Trump has called for an overhaul of NATO which he rightly considers obsolete.

The key to making NATO relevant in the modern world is re-focusing its efforts primarily against the central strategic issue of our time, global jihad.

There has been increasing cooperation in recent years between NATO and Israel, and even today there is a NATO parliamentary delegation here in Jerusalem.
The Balfour Declaration symbolised the British government’s recognition of the strategic value of the Jews of Palestine in the global struggle that was then in progress.

A modern day Balfour Declaration could be recognition of the strategic value of the Jewish state in today’s global struggle in the form of full membership of a reformed NATO, which would benefit all of our strategic interests and serve also to undermine international efforts to isolate Israel.

Alan Dershowitz: Berkeley's student newspaper refuses to publish my response to an anti-Semitic op-ed, so here it is

On Nov. 3, the Daily Californian published an op-ed by Matthew Taylor, explicitly accusing me of having “blood on his [my] hands” and being “culpable for the perpetuation of … [Israeli] atrocities.” The article was worse than the cartoon itself. But when I tried to write a factual response to his false accusations, the Daily Californian categorically refused to publish it, thus demonstrating their obvious bias. I have attached my response here so it can be widely read.

Taylor crosses his own line into bigotry By Alan M. Dershowitz

A recent op-ed by Matthew Taylor in the Daily Californian condemns the cartoonist for caricaturing me as a predatory spider. He argues, however, that it was “fair criticism” to portray me with “blood on [my] hands” and “crushing a Palestinian with one foot and holding up an IDF soldier who assassinates a Palestinian civilian.” In support of this conclusion he proclaims, without citing any evidence, that Israel is “in fact an egregious human rights abuser,” murders unarmed and innocent civilians, including “underage Palestinians,” commits “intentional … atrocities” and engages in “pinkwashing.” He calls me a “privileged professor who is culpable for the perpetuation of Israel’s atrocities,” despite my long record of advocating a peaceful two-state outcome.

I would not usually reply to such ignorance and oversimplified ad hominems. But because these false accusations have become a staple of hard-left attacks singling out only the nation-state of the Jewish people for such defamation, I will disprove each of them in turn.

Op. Harpoon: How the Mossad and an Israeli NGO destroyed terrorist money networks

Former government sources have told The Jerusalem Post that Israel’s Operation Harpoon, carried out by a range of Mossad, Shin Bet and other operatives, was revolutionary in that it was “not just about following the money, but about destroying terrorists’ money networks.”

Sources who had close personal contact with Meir Dagan (1945-2016) indicate that the idea of elevating the thwarting of terrorism financing to a primary mission of intelligence agencies was an uphill battle for the legendary Mossad chief and Harpoon founder.

“When Dagan started Harpoon as part of his role at the National Security Council, no one was interested. Not the Mossad, Shin Bet, IDF intelligence..., and there was almost nothing in place to combat terrorism financing,” the sources told the Post.

With his close relationship with then-prime minister Ariel Sharon, his ingenuity and singular will power, Dagan, who later became Mossad chief, turned Harpoon into an operation that dealt Hezbollah, Hamas, Fatah’s Yasser Arafat and other terrorist groups major blows.

The development and achievements of Harpoon against terrorism financing, including by groups of lawyers such as the Shurat Hadin NGO, is capturing the headlines now as a new book about the operations and the lawsuits has been released.

Though Harpoon has been previously revealed in its general outlines, Harpoon: Inside the Covert War Against Terrorism’s Money Masters, by Shurat Hadin director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner and Samuel Katz, breaks new ground on several fronts.

Taken from Mudar Zahran's Facebook page, photo of Michael Ross, Ted Belman, and Arieh Eldad at Jordan is Palestine Conference

Michael Ross has been somewhat of an enigma to those of us with an interest in the Jordanian Option. Referred to as "Chief of Staff/Secretary of State for Peace" in the Jordanian Opposition Cabinet's shadow government, and a prominent speaker at the recent Jerusalem Jordan is Palestine conference, we actually know very little about him. Two key players in the Jordanian Option, Mudar Zahran and Rachel Avraham, have vaguely referred to Ross as a "Republican lobbyist."

In a recent article relating to the Jordanian Option, I asked a question about Ross: "What is his area of interest as a lobbyist? Corn?"

It seems I was close. Not corn, but rather, something that rhymes with corn.

As it turns out, there's something called the Lobbying Disclosure Act, which calls for lobbyists to register significant lobbying activities with the Clerk of the United States House of Representatives. This is by way of bringing accountability to federal lobbying practices. The Lobbying Disclosure Act means that the public can access details of significant lobbying by way of a government database.

When the name Michael Ross is entered into the Lobbying Disclosure Act Database, two entries come up, both from 1999, for a lobbyist named Michael C. Ross. The first entry is Ross' client, the "Adult Entertainment Education Fund." The second entry is for the Michael Ross client called the "National Cabaret Association."

Is this Michael Ross the same Michael Ross who addressed hundreds of people at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center last month? The same Ross who shared a stage with Temple Mount activist and Member of Knesset Yehudah Glick? Is he the Michael Ross who is executive director (and sole board member) of the International Jewish Muslim Dialogue Center?

Let's take a look.

Here is the Michael C. Ross who spoke at the Jordan is Palestine conference (guy on the left).

Here is his Facebook profile.

Here is a photo of Michael C. Ross from the California Lobbying Directory of 2011-2012 (when he last appears, it seems.)

The address listed in the above California lobbying directory mirrors the one listed in the "Jordanian Constitution," drafted by Ross in February 2016.

This same document has Ross down with the middle initial "C." Michael C. Ross.

Here's his LinkedIn profile. Can't really tell if it's the same dude, because no beard. But he's Michael Ross from San Mateo, a lobbyist.

The LinkedIn profile URL: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ssorleahcim/ uses the same backwards name as per his email address as listed in his draft of the Jordanian "constitution" (third screenshot above)

What do we know so far? We know that the Michael Ross who spoke at the Jordan is Palestine conference is a California lobbyist. We can't say with 100% certainty that there are two men in San Mateo named Michael C. Ross who were lobbyists from the 1990's through 2000 and on.

But we do know that a Michael C Ross from Sacramento (different home address) attempted to form a national PAC for topless clubs, the National Cabaret Association, in 1999.

A simple online background check confirms Michael C Ross from San Mateo once lived at the Sacramento address in the above screenshot (blacked out), which Ross used in his capacity as a lobbyist for the National Cabaret Association.

We know that the very same Michael Ross invested in Tail Feathers, a Sacramento strip club believed to have been owned, in part, by a convicted rapist. Here's part of an article from April, 1997:

Michael Ross, a Tail Feathers investor and a lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry, last week filed protests with Sacramento County for approving the name change. He wants the Board of Supervisors to rescind the change in Dove's business license.

He's making that request, he said, to protect both his ownership rights and the community.

Unfortunately for that particular Michael Ross, "lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry," Tail Feathers filed for bankruptcy 18 months later:

Michael Ross, a disgruntled Tail Feathers investor and a lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry, plans to watch the bankruptcy process very carefully. "I think this is all a smokescreen," he said of Dove's bankruptcy filing. He and other parties who had disputes with Dove had been trying to resolve matters through arbitration, he said. Ross contends Dove owes him $125,000, although he said Dove believes that amount to be about $30,000.

Is this Michael Ross, "lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry," the same Michael Ross as the Republican lobbyist from California who would serve to negotiate peace between Israel and Jordan, if the Jordanian Option were to be implemented? Is this the same guy who would serve as Mudar Zahran's chief of staff? The same man who wrote an article smearing award-winning Israeli Arab journalist Khaled Abu Toameh under the pen names Michael Ben Avraham and Michael Ben Abraham?

If so, what is the connection between the adult entertainment industry and the Jordanian Option? And what is the connection between Michael C. Ross and Mudar Zahran? How did they stumble upon each other?

Because, if they're the same guy, you have to wonder why a lobbyist for the adult entertainment industry would take so keen an interest in an Israeli Arab journalist that he would up and write an article smearing the guy, just out of the blue. And then subsequently send it to Mudar Zahran. Who would subsequently send it to Rachel Avraham, to be printed under a pseudonym.

Screenshot from Rachel Avraham's Facebook page, since deleted.

How do we know Michael Ben Abraham is Michael Ross? Well, Rachel Avraham told us so. HERE, for instance. An excerpt from the linked article:

How did these unlikely characters, Ross, Zahran, and Avraham, happen to meet, to know one another?

And why would Ross print an article about Abu Toameh under a pen name? Why not send the article directly to Avraham, rather than through a third party?

Ross' only other writing experience, up to that time, was a single op-ed, penned under his real byline and posted by Jerusalem Online, by then editor Rachel Avraham. Why would Ross not send the second piece as a direct submission then, since Avraham had already printed his earlier work?

Troubling questions, to say the least.

One has to wonder if any of the speakers or their guests at the Jordan is Palestine conference bothered to check the identity of Ross, a man who suddenly shows up to take part in a controversial conference, someone whom no one has ever heard of before?

And what is behind Ross' involvement in the Jordanian Option? How did someone in the adult entertainment industry come to ally with Mudar Zahran, a man apparently running away from prosecution for avoiding repaying a sizable loan from a Jordanian bank, while pretending to be a political refugee?

How did hundreds of people pay money to hear either of these men speak?

Why did men of such high caliber, members of Knesset and important writers, share a stage with Ross, and debate him?

Why did Jews on the right so easily fall into step with plotting to overthrow the king of another country, without seeing how this would look to the world? How did we just accept people like Ross and Zahran, without knowing what kind of people they are, without knowing their history, their deeds?

To be fair, the Jordan is Palestine idea is a valid one, one to be explored and pursued, but perhaps through different means, by persuasion.

Because it is not our place to direct a coup or overthrow a king. This is not a good place for Jews to be.

The fact that Mudar Zahran and Ross managed to grab this much fealty among the Jews is rather pathetic actually. You want to know why they did this, you want to know more.

If you're a thinking person.

It leaves you feeling dirty. Used. Zahran is using the Jews to position himself as a political refugee, apparently to avoid prosecution for refusal to repay a loan.. But we are so desperate we bought into him completely. Him and his henchman, Ross.

How did these two men meet? What is their plot? Is Mudar Zahran duping the Jews to save himself? What is Ross' role in all this?

I don't know.

But we have a right to learn the truth.

Which is why I sent some questions to Michael Ross and also to Ted Belman, organizer of the Jordan is Palestine Conference.

Belman refused to answer my questions.

But I will be certain to let you know, should Michael C. Ross respond.

UPDATE: And here is Michael Ross' response. As published on his friend's page. (It's a good thing Ross knows how to Start Your Own Country. He's going to need one.)

UPDATE (from EoZ): Mudar Zahran objects to the characterization of why he left Jordan. In an email exchange where he (again) threatened legal action against me, he wrote:

I did NOT flee any loans in Jordan. I left because there was a substantial threat to my life by the Jordanian government and the UK government has granted me asylum after fully-verifying my claim for asylum and seeing it to be valid and beyond reasonable doubts.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Bakery Waits Week After Sukkot To Make Sufganiyot, Loses Kosher Status (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, November 7 - A confectionery and baked goods establishment in the nation's capital has been forced to forfeit certification that its products conform to Jewish dietary practice, after inspectors from the Rabbinate discovered the business had failed to start producing Hanukkah pastries right after Sukkot finished.

Uggat Hen, a bakery in the Mahane Yehuda market in central Jerusalem, was stripped of its kashrut certificate Tuesday morning after Jerusalem Rabbinate representatives ascertained that sufganiyot - the deep-fried, filled donuts associated with Hanukkah - only went up for sale there a full seven days after the October 11 conclusion of Sukkot this year, while such establishments are expected to begin selling the pastries as soon as Sukkot ends. Hanukkah begins this year the night of Tuesday, December 12.

"This delay is unacceptable," stated Rabbi Amok Tiegen. "Protocol calls for consumers to encounter Hanukkah pastries in the bakeries as soon as Sukkot ends, so that not a single day is lost for commercializing and monetizing the Jewish calendar. In principle, the full two months between the end of Sukkot and the onset of Hanukkah must not be left fallow of such exploitation, though we acknowledge the difficulty of initiating sufganiyah production immediately at the close of Sukkot. We therefore allow a few days' leeway. In this case, however, the proprietors made no apparent effort to sell sufganiyot right away."

A bakery representative who requested not to be identified lamented the harsh ruling. "People are going to get sick of it by the time Hanukkah actually comes," he complained. "It's become a pathology. When I was a kid we never had to worry about this nonsense - as we got closer to Hanukkah more and more places would start selling sufganiyot, but it was organic, not mandated. The soul of it is gone."

Consumers voiced ambivalence. "I mean, rules are rules," responded passerby Zach Veyashar. "The bakery agreed to follow the rules. On the other hand, it's a little beyond the mandate of kashrut, isn't it? It's not as if the bakery people are withholding their monthly bribe payments to a supervisor not to make a thorough inspection. Unless, of course, that's really what happened here, and the sufganiyah thing is just a pretext."

"Let 'em close," declared Tiv Oni. "Their stuff isn't even organic, and sufganiyot are full of gluten. They probably use commercial oil too, not from free-range olives. Are they trying to kill people? Meat is murder! No more animal testing! What was the question again?"

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/08 Links P1: Why Israel Threatened Military Action to Save an Enemy; Osama bin Laden's secret diary

From Ian:

In recording, John Kerry says Israeli government doesn’t want peace

Former US secretary of state John Kerry blamed the Israeli government’s resistance to the establishment of a Palestinian state for harming the prospects of a peace deal, while warning Israel could face a future violent Palestinian uprising if there was no progress in peace talks.

In recordings published Tuesday by Channel 10, America’s former top diplomat can be heard praising the Palestinian Authority’s commitment to nonviolence following a wave of terror attacks beginning in the fall of 2015, which he said has been ignored by Israelis due to right-wing configuration of the current government.

“The Palestinians have done an extraordinary job of remaining committed to nonviolence. And in fact when the [knife] intifada took place they delivered non-violence in the West Bank,” Kerry is heard saying in the recording.

“This is overlooked by the general [Israeli] population because it is not a topic of discussion. Why? Because the majority of the cabinet currently in the current Israeli government has publicly declared they are not ever for a Palestinian state,” he adds.

Channel 10 said the recording was made at a conference in Dubai in the past year attended by Middle East leaders and Israel’s Joint (Arab) List chief Ayman Odeh. The television channel also said opposition leader Isaac Herzog (Zionist Union) addressed the conference by video.

It was not clear if Kerry was aware he was being recorded or if the segments released were his full remarks.

IsraellyCool: Recordings Demonstrate the Dangerous Ignorance of John Kerry

Recordings just released by Israel’s Channel 10 reveal that Former US Secretary of State John Kerry really had no John “F*cking” Kerry of a clue about anything.
It is actually scary just out of touch with reality he was, and presumably still is.
For instance:

He praised the PA for their supposed commitment to nonviolence, despite the fact they continue to incite violence and pay the families of terrorists to this day

Compared palestinian ‘resistance’ to civil rights movements

Kerry warned in the recording that frustrations among Palestinians could boil over into violence and that the current status quo cannot last.

“If you see 40,000 kids marching up to the wall everyday with signs saying ‘give us are rights,’ I mean, I don’t think Palestine is going to be immune forever to the civil rights movements that have swept other nations in the world,” he says.

Criticized Israel’s leadership (not the palestinian leadership) as being ones not wanting peace

Despite this, Kerry said Israel is ignoring the threat posed by the diplomatic stalemate. “That is not leadership,” says Kerry.

“If you don’t have leaders who don’t want to make peace, if the equation doesn’t change, I’ll be amazed if within the next 10 years if we don’t see some young [Palestinian] leader come along who says we have tried non-violence for the last 30 years and look, it hasn’t gotten us anything,” he says.

Evelyn Gordon: Why Israel Threatened Military Action to Save an Enemy

For many, it is assumed that Israel is a racist state that considers its Arab minority second-class citizens. I wonder, then, how they explain what happened last Friday?

For the third time in the last two years, Israel threatened military action to stop an attack by extremist Syrian rebels on the Syrian Druze village of Khader. It did so despite the fact that Syrian Druze have sided with the Assad regime in that war, meaning they’re aligned with Israel’s arch-enemies, Iran and Hezbollah; despite the fact that Khader itself has been the source of several anti-Israel terror attacks; and despite the fact that such intervention risks entangling Israel in Syria’s civil war, something it has hitherto tried hard to avoid–and all just because it was asked to do so by its own Druze minority, which was worried about its coreligionists across the border.

To most Israelis, it seems both obvious and unremarkable that Israel should accede to this request. But in fact, though Israel has always considered itself obligated as a Jewish state to try to protect Jews anywhere, it’s not at all obvious that it would consider itself equally obligated to try to protect Druze beyond its borders. Threatening cross-border military action on behalf of foreign nationals aligned with your worst enemies, simply because they’re the coreligionists of one of your own ethnic minorities, isn’t an obvious step for any country. And it’s especially not obvious for a country accused of considering said minorities to be second-class citizens.

Thus, the fact that Israel has repeatedly taken action to protect the Syrian Druze says a lot about the true state of anti-Arab “racism” in the country. But to understand exactly what it says, it’s first necessary to understand the difference between Israeli Druze and other Arab Israelis.

"All of Israel is an illegal settlement"

The Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir issued a statement from Jerusalem today saying that "the entity of all Jews on the blessed land has no legitimacy on any centimeter, and therefore the entire Jewish entity is a large settlement based on usurped Islamic land, whether on the borders of the occupier in 1948 or the occupier in 67, there is no difference between Jewish settlements in Haifa and Galilee or the Golan or Hebron or Nablus or the Negev or any other part of Palestine."

Spokesperson Dr. Musab Abu Arkoub called on the Islamic Umma to "assume its responsibilities and move their armies immediately to uproot the Jewish entity and liberate the blessed land."

The statement itself isn't surprising (although it is interesting that Hizb ut-Tahrir accepts that Israel is the "Jewish" entity, not the "Zionist" entity, so it doesn't hide its Jew-hatred.)

But the fact is that practically every single Arab agrees with every word. The only reason they don't attack Israel is because they would lose. It isn't moderation or a desire for peace that causes stability in the Middle East - it is Israel's strength.

That is one of the basic facts that most of the world chooses to ignore.

But if you don't believe me....then please send me a single Facebook post or a single tweet in Arabic that denounces Hizb ut-Tahrir's statement.

Just one out of the hundreds of millions of Arabs online.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

"If UNRWA goes, the refugee issue is over"

Sometimes you can unearth gems even in the cesspool of Electronic Intifada.

In an article about how some Palestinian Arabs are biased against their "refugee" brethren, it says:

Ghassan Weshah, head of the history and archaeology department at the Islamic University of Gaza, says the role of institutions supporting refugees should not be reduced to simply providing relief. UNRWA, he notes as an example, plays an important relief role, especially as the general economic situation has deteriorated in Palestine. But its function is more than economic.

“The responsibility of UNRWA is to help refugees, but it must also continue this work to remind the world of the refugee issue and the right of return. If UNRWA goes, the refugee issue is over.”

In two sentences, Weshah accurately describes UNRWA's real purpose - not to help refugees but to perpetuate them.

If it would disappear or merge with UNHCR, the UN organization for all the other refugees in the world, then the refugee issue would go "poof."

The article mentions how the Palestinians resent their UNRWA-supported fellows:

Such social stratification is not unusual in Palestinian society. It is mirrored across the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip where refugees wound up with their UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) ration cards, poverty and homelessness.
As a sense of shared Palestinian kinship competed with, and often came out second to, traditional ties to village and town, refugees came to be seen as outsiders to be treated with “a mixture of pity and contempt,” according to George Bisharat, a lawyer and commentator on Palestinian affairs.
Every city in occupied territory has refugee camps attached to it, and these often organize themselves in parallel to the city.
Refugees have their own schools – run by UNRWA, which was originally set up as a stopgap measure until refugees could return – often their own soccer teams and it is common for people to speak of themselves as being from either the camp or the city.

UNRWA's very existence has caused a decades-old rift in Palestinian society. Instead of helping their brethren, they resent them for getting free food and medical care and schooling. SO they look down on them.

UNRWA didn't do anything to integrate Palestinians with their fellow Arabs, within or without the Mandate area. As a result, UNRWA has helped ensure that they are perpetual outsiders - who therefore need more UNRWA help.

The exact opposite of what a refugee agency is supposed to do.

Normal people want to solve refugee problems. Getting rid of UNRWA is the simple formula to do so.

I've been giving specific ideas on how to dismantle UNRWA for years. most recently last summer. Now we know that even the Palestinians themselves know that UNRWA's only real purpose is antithetical to human rights and refugee rights.

(h/t Andrea)

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

Three months after riots, Israel quietly reinstalls cameras at entrances to Temple Mount

After the riots that accompanied Israels' placing metal detectors at the entrances to the Temple Mount in response to a terror attack that originated there killing two policemen, Israel has quietly added what appear to be sophisticated surveillance cameras at nearly all the entrances of the Mount.

Channel 10 reports that Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan was behind this plan.

According to reports over the summer, the cameras and their software can recognize known terrorists and security threats. I do not think they can fully replace metal detectors, but they may deter known troublemakers from using the Temple Mount as a weapons depot, as the terrorists did in July.

Rioters over the summer, the Waqf and the Palestinian Authority insisted that even cameras were not acceptable to them, and they celebrated when Israel backed down and removed them.

Lion's Gate, where most of the protests were centered in the summer, is the only remaining Muslim entrance to the Mount without the cameras at this time.

The Waqf says that they were not told about these new cameras. Which is hardly surprising.

Now the question is whether the Waqf can whip up the frenzy of antisemitic hate that they managed to incite over the summer, even though it is obvious that the cameras will not impeded anyone from going to the Al Aqsa mosque - unless they have weapons.

Here are all the photos I could find of these new cameras.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/07 Links Pt2: The Balfour Declaration and British Leftist anti-Semitism; The shameless hypocrisy of JVP

From Ian:

Michael Curtis: The Balfour Declaration and British Leftist anti-Semitism

What is significant is that at the dinner honoring Balfour, attended among others by Benjamin Netanyahu, the leader of the Labour Party Jeremy Corbyn did was absent.

Corbyn himself is not regarded as anti-Semitic but he is the head of the Labour party that contains a significant section that can be described in this way. Allegations of these members are rife: the modern state of Israel was created by the Rothschilds not by God; Jews control Wall Street; Hollywood; the media; TV networks; law courts; international spying; sex trafficking; and the statement that every Jew who died in the Holocaust was a blessing.

It is disappointing that training sessions over the last 14 months about anti-Semitism for 1,200 Labour Party members have had little effect. Jewish Labour members have been held responsible for a Jewish conspiracy, and control of media.

This also brings up the matter of social media itself. The latest example is a Tweet that said, with uncomplimentary remarks, that Stamford Hill in northeast London was riddled with Jews. It is indeed the case that 20,000 Haredi jews, the largest orthodox community in the UK, live there. Twitter refused to remove the post.

The twin problems seem out of control. Twitter must be held accountable for what appears on its site. And the British Labour Party must root out anti-Semitism once and for all.

Labour is a party which claims the mantle of progress. It is a sad, but telling, state of affairs that a British Lord had a more enlightened attitude to the Jewish people a century ago than many in the Labour Party do today.

BBC report on UK Balfour dinner follows standard formula

Once again, the fact that the armed forces of five Arab countries invaded Israel the day after independence was declared was airbrushed from the BBC’s account, as was the fact that a considerable number of the Palestinian Arabs who left their homes around that time did so at the advice of Arab leaders.

“The British Mandate terminated on 14 May 1948 and the Jewish leadership in Palestine declared an independent Israeli state. In the Arab-Israeli war that followed, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs fled or were forced from their homes.”

The above-mentioned insert of analysis from Jonathan Marcus encouraged readers to believe that there are two “competing narratives” concerning the Balfour Declaration (while of course ‘impartially’ refraining from discussing their validity) but avoided the topic of the Palestinian Authority’s long-standing politicisation of that document.

“Much of the current focus on the Balfour Declaration is due to the fact that it supports the competing narratives of the Israeli government and the Palestinian leadership.

For the Israelis it highlights the legitimacy of the Jewish national enterprise, while for Palestinians, it underscores the role of the major powers in helping to create Israel, while – in their view – the legitimate Palestinian aspirations to statehood were ignored or side-lined.

Thus both sides have a very different interpretation of the declaration’s significance – one that serves today’s arguments about one of the region’s longest unresolved struggles.”

As we see from this report and others, BBC coverage of the Balfour Declaration centenary has conformed to a standard formula focusing on unquestioning amplification of PA/PLO messaging while completely erasing the part of the document relating to “the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country” and the topic of Jewish refugees from Arab lands.

Zionism during World War 1 I THE GREAT WAR Special

Zionism, the movement for the establishment of a Jewish homeland, got new momentum during World War 1. Zionists, like Chaim Weizmann rallied for support in their respective home countries, others wanted to actively advance the zionist idea by taking part in the war and fought with the Jewish Legions. The Balfour Declaration of 1917 was another step towards fulfilling the idea of a home for the Jewish people. (h/t MtTB)

Battle of Beersheba - Canadian Frustration - Balfour Declaration I THE GREAT WAR Week 171

On the Western Front this week, the Canadians under Sir Arthur Currie attempt to advance once more, whilst Haig remains optimistic about an imminent breakthrough. Following Caporetto, the Italian retreat continues, whilst the British Army enjoys success on the Palestine Front, with a little help from mounted ANZAC troops. With Lenin’s return, the revolution looms over the Russian capital, whilst the Balfour Declaration is issued in Britain. (h/t MtTB)

From The Art Newspaper:

In an historic agreement signed today (7 November) between Russia and Israel, one of the most important private collections of Hebrew manuscripts and books in the world is being digitised and shared with the National Library of Israel in Jerusalem.
The Gunzburg Collection, consisting of more than 14,000 books and 2,000 manuscripts, has been housed at the Russian State Library in Moscow since around 1920, but Israel has long contested Russia’s ownership.
“Even before the State of Israel, there were many attempts to persuade the Soviets to bring [the collection] to Ottoman Palestine. Albert Einstein spent a lot of time trying to persuade them,” says Aviad Stollman, the head of collections at the National Library of Israel.
The current deal, which will allow the public to access online biblical texts, prayer books, mystical works of Kabbalah and books of Jewish and Aristotelian philosophy, is the result of negotiations between the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Russian president Vladimir Putin. The project is supported by the Moscow-based Peri Foundation and the British investment banker Jacob Rothschild.
“Putin and Netanyahu have been speaking about this issue in the general bilateral talks over the past few years,” Stollman says. “Around five years ago, when Netanyahu went to Russia, he wrote to us saying that he had raised the issue and asked the Russians to digitise the collection as the first step.”
The collection was amassed by three generations of the Gunzburg family in Europe at the beginning of the 20th century. Begun by Joseph Gunzburg (1812-1878), the family acquired manuscripts from various sources, including the estates of deceased scholars such as Seligmann Baer, Eliakim Carmoly and Nathan Coronel.
“Baron David Gunzburg [the grandson of Joseph Gunzburg] died in 1910 and at the time the Zionist movement expressed an interest in buying the collection,” Stollman says. “The library only had around 30,000 books then, but that was still significant. The Zionist movement was able to buy it between the two revolutions of 1917, but they were unable to transfer it to Ottoman Palestine because of the First World War. By the time they got their acts together the Soviets got hold of the collection, moving it from St Petersburg to Moscow.”
The addition of the digitised Gunzburg Collection marks a significant milestone in the renewal process of the National Library of Israel, which is moving in 2021 to a new Herzog & de Meuron-designed building located steps from the Knesset in the heart of Jerusalem.
Stollman says the question over ownership of the Gunzburg Collection still lingers, but that today’s deal is an important first step. “I hope eventually [the collection] will come to the National Library of Israel, but in the meanwhile the most important thing is to digitise it and make it accessible.”

So the Soviets stole it and Russia keeps it. Good to know.

At least it will be available online.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

2014 meeting

From TOI:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas traveled to Saudi Arabia unexpectedly on Monday to meet with King Salman and Crown Prince Muhammed Bin Salman, with the Gulf kingdom at the height of a major crackdown on members of the royal family.

Abbas had been in Egypt, where he was scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, when he was summoned to Riyadh to meet with the Saudi rulers, according to the official PA news site Wafa.

The timing is very curious, as this sudden invitation came at the same time of the current upheaval in Saudi Arabia where some leaders were placed under house arrest.

Palestinians are making jokes about it:

Some social media users suggested that Abbas had been summoned to Saudi Arabia to hand in his resignation letter, in the same manner as Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri, who resigned from Riyadh on Saturday.

Others tried to guess which luxury hotel Abbas would be placed under house arrest in.

The tweets were in reference to the wave of arrests of tens of Saudi princes and businessmen and their detention at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, as well as Saad's resignation.

One Arab analyst did float an interesting idea, though.

As the PA is slowly working to take over parts of Gaza, Hamas plans to maintain its military forces - exactly the way Hezbollah does in Lebanon outside the Lebanese army.

And Hamas has been very chummy with Iran, with their leaders visiting Iran only a couple of weeks ago.

Saudi Arabia is sufficiently worried about Iran that it may be possible that this is meant to push Abbas to stop any more encroachment by the mullahs into Gaza.

If this was only about the moribund "peace process" it could have waited. But when it comes to threats from Iran, and during the ongoing negotiations between the PA and Hamas under Egyptian oversight, this theory makes as much sense as any other.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

11/07 Links Pt1: Fatah glorifies the second Intifada, promises more terror; The Real Arab Spring

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah glorifies the second Intifada, promises more terror

Fatah's Bethlehem Branch glorified the Palestinian Authority's terror campaign (2000-2005) - the second Intifada, posting on Facebook the photo above with the text:

"A souvenir picture from the Al-Aqsa Intifada The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades - Bethlehem."
[Facebook page of the Fatah Movement - Bethlehem Branch, Oct. 26, 2017]

Over 1,000 Israelis, of which the vast majority were civilians, were murdered during the PA terror campaign, mostly in suicide bombings by Hamas and Fatah's Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades is considered a terror organization by the US and the EU. The image shows rows of masked men, apparently belonging to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigades, dressed in black clothes, wearing keffiyehs (Arab headdresses) and yellow Fatah headbands, and carrying various types of rifles.

Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous times that Fatah continues to promote violence and refuses to lay down its weapons. On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the Balfour Declaration, Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein wrote: "The only way to freedom and liberation is resistance to the occupier... There is no honor for the weak
." [Facebook page of Mahmoud Abbas' Advisor to NGOs Sultan Abu Al-Einein, Nov. 2, 2017]

"Resistance" is in PA terminology often a euphemism for violence and terror.

The Real Arab Spring

Washington’s liberal foreign-policy establishment sees an ambitious would-be autocrat overreaching at home and abroad. But the Saudi leadership was never going to sit still in response to Tehran’s growing hegemony, a threat that was abetted by the Obama administration’s nuclear diplomacy and failure to check Iranian aggression across the geopolitical board. Feeling abandoned by Washington, and with their own system’s weaknesses bearing down on them, the Saudis were due for a big shakeup.

MBS’s [Mohammed bin Salman] project makes sense against this backdrop. His reform vision is by no means democratic. But it is populist, nationalist, and shorn of illusions. Which is to say, it is deeply attuned to the needs of the Arabs today and the worldwide spirit of the age.

Start with populism. By targeting graft, MBS is vindicating average Saudis, who stewed as they watched the well-connected cash in on public money. By granting women the right to drive and loosening social restrictions that made the kingdom one of the worst places to be young, MBS is creating a constituency that is invested in his success. Saudis won’t shed tears for princes locked up in the Riyadh Ritz.

Then there is nationalism. By liberalizing the economy and seeking revenue beyond oil, MBS is shoring up the national foundations of Saudi power–crucial in the confrontation with Tehran. With oil prices depressed, Riyadh can no longer afford to run a colossal welfare state. Weaning Saudis off petro-entitlements is likely to foster a healthier, more accountable sense of belonging and citizenship than the kingdom has afforded citizens since its founding. More philosophically, MBS views the nation-state form as an enduring mechanism for confronting 21st-century challenges. MBS is thus one among a rising group of like-minded world leaders, including Narendra Modi, Benjamin Netanyahu, and, of course, Donald Trump.

Finally, MBS’s reform vision is realistic. As the likes of Bernard Lewis warned and subsequent events showed, Arab society isn’t configured to representative democracy as we in the West understand it. With the precious exception of Tunisia, Arab “democracy” has yielded Islamism, state failure, and civil war. Top-down change, driven by a popular figure like MBS, promises a less perilous path to reform and prosperity for the Saudis and their neighborhood. The U.S. should embrace this vision–and lend a hand.

Caroline Glick: Saudi purges and duty to act

There can be little doubt that there was coordination between the Saudi regime and the Trump administration regarding Saturday’s actions. The timing of the administration’s release last week of most of the files US special forces seized during their 2011 raid of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan was likely not a coincidence.

The files, which the Obama administration refused to release, make clear that Obama’s two chief pretensions – that al-Qaida was a spent force by the time US forces killed bin Laden, and that Iran was interested in moderating its behavior were both untrue. The documents showed that al-Qaida’s operations remained a significant worldwide threat to US interests.

And perhaps more significantly, they showed that Iran was al-Qaida’s chief state sponsor. Much of al-Qaida’s leadership, including bin Laden’s sons, operated from Iran. The notion – touted by Obama and his administration – that Shi’ite Iranians and Sunni terrorists from al-Qaida and other groups were incapable of cooperating was demonstrated to be an utter fiction by the documents.

Their publication now, as Saudi Arabia takes more determined steps to slash its support for radical Islamists, and separate itself from Wahhabist Islam, draws a clear distinction between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Given Saudi Arabia’s record, and the kingdom’s 70-year alliance with Wahhabist clerics, it is hard to know whether Mohammed’s move signals an irrevocable breach between the House of Saud and the Wahhabists.

But the direction is clear. With Hariri’s removal from Lebanon, the lines between the forces of jihad and terrorism led by Iran, and the forces that oppose them are clearer than ever before. And the necessity of acting against the former and helping the latter has similarly never been more obvious.