US now hints Assad can stay for a while

Yes, the Obama foreign policy is now officially worse than Jimmy Carter's:

Western nations have indicated to the Syrian opposition that peace next month talks may not lead to the removal of President Bashar al-Assad and that his Alawite minority will remain key in any transitional administration, opposition sources said.

The message, delivered to senior members of the Syrian National Coalition at a meeting of the anti-Assad Friends of Syria alliance in London last week, was prompted by rise of al-Qaeda and other militant groups, and their takeover of a border crossing and arms depots near Turkey belonging to the moderate Free Syrian Army, the sources told Reuters.

“Our Western friends made it clear in London that Assad cannot be allowed to go now because they think chaos and an Islamist militant takeover would ensue,” said one senior member of the Coalition who is close to officials from Saudi Arabia.

Noting the possibility of Assad holding a presidential election when his term formally ends next year, the Coalition member added: “Some do not even seem to mind if he runs again next year, forgetting he gassed his own people.”

The shift in Western priorities, particularly the United States and Britain, from removing Assad towards combating Islamist militants is causing divisions within international powers backing the nearly three-year-old revolt, according to diplomats and senior members of the coalition.

Like U.S. President Barack Obama’s rejection of air strikes against Syria in September after he accused Assad’s forces of using poison gas, such a diplomatic compromise on a transition could narrow Western differences with Russia, which has blocked United Nations action against Assad, but also widen a gap in approach with the rebels’ allies in the Middle East.

The only consistent thread is that the US policy is now consistent with Iran's foreign policy objectives.

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When will the EU condemn this latest settlement expansion?

Seen in Karmei Tzur:

This is an affront to the peace process, a slap in the face of John Kerry and a provocation that could inflame the Arab world. 

H/t Missing Peace

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12/17 Links Pt2: Kerry’s frequent failure program, The 'refugee' diversion, Dershowitz retires.

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Kerry forces Israel’s moment of decision

There was a ghoulish creepiness to US Secretary of State John Kerry’s visit to Israel last week. Here we were, beset by the greatest winter storm in a hundred years. All roads to Jerusalem were sealed off. Tens of thousands of Jerusalemites and residents of surrounding areas were locked down in their houses, without power, heat, telephone service or water.
And all of the sudden, out of nowhere, Kerry appeared. As Hamas-ruled Gazans begged the supposedly hated IDF to come and save them from the floods, and as Israel took over rescue operations for stranded Palestinians living under the rule of the PLO ’s gangster kleptocracy in Judea and Samaria, here was Kerry, telling us that we’d better accept the deal he plans to present us next month, or face the wrath of the US and Europe, and suffer another Palestinian terror war.

Michele Bachmann: Israel must never be betrayed

Israel has always been a beacon of hope and the best chance for peace in the Middle East. Secretary Kerry misses the positive humanity of Jews and Arabs living side by side, working together, and making a life together. This is a present reality, that can and should be encouraged to improve.
While Israelis have reason to question the commitment of the Obama administration, they should never doubt the strong bipartisan contingent of support for Israel in the United States Congress, and the constituents we represent.

John Kerry’s frequent failure program

According to various press reports, Kerry put forward a proposal under which Israel would forgo sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and instead maintain a security presence in the area for 10 to 15 years, one that would ostensibly be bolstered by various technological gizmos designed to enhance border defense.
Of all the dumb and dangerous designs to emerge from the depths of the US State Department, Kerry’s latest scheme is one of the more dreadful duds in recent memory.
To begin with, take a quick glance at a map and you will see that the Jordan Valley effectively serves as Israel’s buffer to the east, a line of defense against any potential threat emanating from over the horizon.

Foreign Troops Won’t Solve Peace Tangle

But the key to the problem isn’t so much the technical difficulties of a scheme or the fact that a war-weary American public isn’t likely to be enthusiastic about placing U.S. troops in harm’s way in the West Bank or to be more pro-active about keeping the peace there than are peacekeepers elsewhere in the region. Rather, it is the same basic problem that has always been the greatest obstacle to peace: the Palestinian refusal to give up their war on Israel rather than merely accepting a temporary truce that would allow them to continue the conflict on more favorable terms in the future. Until a sea change in Palestinian political culture occurs that enables leaders like Abbas to sign a peace deal without fear of losing power to more radical factions like Hamas, Kerry’s plans will remain irrelevant details.(h/t Norman F)

EU vows 'unprecedented' aid to Israel, Palestinians for peace deal

The EU’s foreign ministers, who often fill their periodic conclusions on the “Middle East peace process” with vinegar toward Israel, decided this month to add some honey, promising unparalleled support for Israel and the Palestinians if a peace accord is signed.
“The EU will provide an unprecedented package of European political, economic and security support to both parties in the context of a final status agreement,” the conclusions read at the end of Monday’s monthly meeting of 28 EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

The 'refugee' diversion

When people speak about the millions of "refugees" who will return to their homes, it is obvious that no type of peace accord can be reached which is based on one state for the Jewish people and a Palestinian state. However, if people would correctly only discuss the tens of thousands of actual refugees, all over the age of 65, the question would then receive its proper proportions and a solution to the problem could be rationally discussed.
As long as negotiations are ongoing and no final-status deal has yet been signed, it would behoove at least the Israeli side to refrain from using the Palestinian term with all its inherent meanings and connotations, instead using the accurate term, "descendants," who are not the same as refugees. (h/t NormanF)

Mahmoud Abbas: I Refuse to Allow 'Israelis' into 'Palestine'

The PLO official also stated that Abbas has thrown a wrench into discussions by stating that he will not allow any "Israelis" onto Palestinian Authority lands in the event of a two-state solution - including, ostensibly, Israeli Arabs. According to al-Hadi, Abbas has lumped all Israeli Arabs with Israeli Jews, and has expressed hatred against both as a group.
The report corroborates statements Abbas made earlier this year in Cairo, where he also claimed that he would not tolerate "any Israeli - civilian or soldier - on [Palestinian Authority] lands." While the two-state solution would effectively make a Palestinian State "Judenrein" - a Nazi Germany term meaning "free of Jews" - Israel would still allow Israeli Arabs full citizenship if they so desired.

Quote of Note: Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi (1937)

Between 1936 and 1939 the Arabs of the British Mandate of Jerusalem went on a rampage that became known as the “Arab revolt.” The Mufti of Jerusalem, Amin el-Husseini, cried to the heavens that the Jews were destroying the al-Aqsa Mosque and agitated his easily agitated people into bloody rampages that lasted for years. The British, seeking to calm the situation, initiated the Peel Commission which recommended a division of the land between Arabs and Jews in order to ease tensions and create peace between the vast Arab majority and the tiny Jewish minority in the Middle East.
During their investigations they met with Syrian Arab leader, Auni Bey Abdul-Hadi, who told them:

"There is no such country as Palestine. ‘Palestine’ is a term the Zionists invented. There is no Palestine in the Bible. Our country was for centuries part of Syria. ‘Palestine’ is alien to us. It is the Zionists who introduced it."

US Military Chiefs Advised Against Judea-Samaria Pullout in '67

The heads of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff were of the opinion, shortly after the 1967 Six Day War, that Israel cannot afford to give up Judea and Samaria, for strategic reasons.
A declassified document obtained exclusively by Mark Langfan for Arutz Sheva reveals that the military opinion of the US military leadership after the war is in line with that of present-day nationalist Israelis who say that Israel must not, under any circumstances, relinquish control of the Jordan Valley. In fact, the map drawn by the Joint Chiefs shows Israel keeping a swathe of land that stretches from the Jordan River in the east, all the way up to the center of the mountainous ridge in Judea and Samaria in the west.
And they should feel assured, without any equivocation, we will always be proudly standing together with them, in their corner, side by side.

Khaled Abu Toameh: A Slap in the Face for Anti-Israel BDS Movement

The claim that Abbas does not represent the Palestinian "consensus" regarding a boycott of Israel is inaccurate. In fact, many Palestinians seem to share Abbas's view, which supports a boycott only of settlement products.
That is why many Palestinians continue to do business with Israelis on a daily business. That is also why, despite the BDS campaign, Palestinians and Israelis continue to hold joint seminars and conferences in Israel and different parts of the world.
In wake of Abbas's statements, the BDS movement should reconsider its strategy. Calls for boycotting any party do not contribute to the cause of peace. Abbas's stance against the BDS should also serve as a wake-up call to its supporters, especially those who are not Palestinians, that negative campaigns only serve to promote hatred and extremism in the region.

UN Watch: Israel is ‘genocidal,’ says UN’s Richard Falk in TV interview

Falk uses his imprimatur as a UN official to make the grievously false accusation that Israel is acting with “genocidal intent” and perpetrating a “Holocaust.”
If Israel really is “genocidal,” it only follows logically that Falk will justify violence against Israelis, as he did in a recent blog post, berating “demands by Israel that Palestinians renounce violence” while Israel “sustains a structure of occupation and oppression.”
It’s time for the the U.S. to at least attempt to remove the 9/11 conspiracy theorist and Hamas supporter from his post—and to eliminate his prejudicial and outdated Human Rights Council mandate.

Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein: Free Pollard

Supreme Court Justice Elyakim Rubinstein became the latest voice for the release of Jonathan Pollard last Wednesday, in a panel discussion held at the Institute for National Security Studies (INSS).
The panel discussion, entitled "Legality and Legitimacy," included esteemed legal advocate Alan Dershowitz, who Rubinstein praised for his work on the Pollard case. "He was an early critic of the harsh sentencing of Jonathan Pollard, in a period when few Jews or Jewish organizations would have said anything," he related. "They wouldn't speak of the guilt, only of the 'sentencing'."

Alan Dershowitz retiring from Harvard Law School

Alan Dershowitz, one of the country’s most prominent lawyers and a passionate advocate for Israel, is retiring from Harvard Law School.
Dershowitz, 75, who is known for taking on high-profile and often unpopular causes and clients, has taught at Harvard Law for half a century. His retirement becomes official at the end of the week.

Croatian player to miss World Cup over pro-Nazi chant

FIFA has banned Croatia defender Josip Simunic for 10 games — including the entire World Cup — for leading fans in a pro-Nazi chant after the team qualified for the tournament in Brazil.
Simunic invoked a World War II-era slogan used by Croatia’s then-puppet regime following a 2-0 playoff victory against Iceland last month.

French Court Convicts ‘L’Antisémite’ Director

In other instances the proceedings have been entirely predictable. As the waves lap against the beach and the seasons wax and wane, so has a French court found the Cameroonian actor, comedian, and recidivist bigot Dieudonné M’bala M’bala guilty of defamation, libel, and incitement to hatred and racial discrimination. Dieudonné, whose grotesque directorial debut L’Antisémite I wrote about for Tablet last year, has recently added yet another perverse accomplishment to his overlong list: he may or may not have invented the ‘Quenelle’—a reverse body Hitler salute now becoming all the rage amongst French youth—but he is certainly the man most responsible for popularizing the gesture. (The French army is now in the midst of the unseemly business of disciplining soldiers who flashed the gesture to worshippers at synagogues they had been stationed to guard.)

Italian Leader Justifies Hitler With Jewish Conspiracy

Andrea Zunino, the protest leader of the Pitchfork Movement which is leading current anti-government protests in Italy, gave an interview to the Italian La Repubblica.
In his interview, Zunino espoused classic tropes of Jewish global domination. He remarked "we want the government to resign. We want the sovereignty of Italy, which is the slave of bankers like the Rothschilds. It's curious that five or six of the richest people in the world are Jewish."

Report: First Israeli Natural Gas Export Deal May Be With Jordanian Company

In what would be the first deal to export Israel’s newly found natural gas, the owners of the Tamar field, may be selling energy directly to the Arab Potash Company, in Jordan, The Wall Street Journal reported.
The deal would be Israel’s first ever energy export, and could open the door to larger deals with Jordan or Egypt in the future, Israel’s Globes business daily said on Monday.

An Israeli start-up’s solution for the ‘customer service blues’

All too often, a foray into a “help” conversation with a representative of a retailer, manufacturer, or utility is anything but helpful. With so many companies outsourcing and offloading their customer service to third parties – often halfway around the world – customers often feel more confused after a conversation with a help representative than they did before they sought assistance with their problem.
To that end, Israeli start-up CallVU has developed a system where a help seeker can actually see what the person on the other end of the phone is talking about. Designed for mobile phone users, CallVU integrates the direct contact of a phone conversation with the clarity of images on a web site. And last month, the company won a major start-up competition.

Spanish ruling party submits bill on Jewish return

Spain’s ruling party has submitted a bill proposing to put in place a procedure for granting Spanish citizenship to descendants of expelled Sephardi Jews, a Spanish news agency reported.
The bill by the Popular Party proposes to naturalize applicants irrespective of their country of residence and without requiring them to relinquish any other nationalities they may already possess, according to a report Friday by the Servimedia news agency.
In the bill, the party “recalls that [the exiled] tenaciously adhered with reverence to its Spanish customs and roots through which they zealously preserved not only their love of Spain but also their traditions, culture and language,” Servimedia reported.

World malaria experts look to Israel’s past for future solutions

The mosquito-borne parasites that cause malaria were wiped out in Israel several years before the state’s founding in 1948. So why did leading malaria experts choose Jerusalem as the place to meet last week to formulate a new strategy for African nations?
Because the tactics that proved successful here in the 1920 and 1930s, coupled with new technologies, could be exactly what sub-Saharan Africa needs to address its malaria epidemic, which causes the death of a child every 30 seconds. Some 250 million people worldwide are infected by the parasite.

In first, Sheba doctors save Syrian refugee boy's life

A 4-year-old Syrian refugee from the besieged city of Homs underwent surgery recently at the Sheba Medical Center in Tel Hashomer, the first time a Syrian has been operated on at the pediatric cardiology ward.
The boy, Mohammed Hamudi, was born with a rare heart condition, reversed ventricles. A surgical team led by Dr. Dudi Mishali operated on Hamudi, who arrived in Israel accompanied by his father. The surgeons managed to implant a pacemaker in the boy's heart with a long-lasting battery, probably saving his life.

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UNRWA official uses sarcasm to falsely blame Israel alone for Gaza woes

Chris Gunness, UNRWA's liar-in-chief, continues to blame Israel for Gaza's lack of fuel and lack of infrastructure to handle the flooding.

As with Amnesty and others, UNRWA is using Gaza as an excuse to blame Israel for everything. The word "Hamas" and "Egypt" and "PA" hardly ever pass through these people's lips - the entire purpose for these NGOs to be in the Middle East is to blame Israel.

As thousands in the Gaza Strip remain displaced and streets across the coastal enclave are still flooded Tuesday, it is increasingly clear that the devastation caused by storm Alexa was not a purely natural phenomenon.

Emergency response crews have been crippled by a lack of electricity to pump water and a lack of fuel to operate generators. But these conditions of scarcity are not a result of the storm. They were a fact of life even before the rain started falling, due to the Israeli-led siege and the severe limitations placed by Israel on imports and exports.

The severity of the storm’s effects and the seven years of siege the region has endured are connected by a near-total economic blockade that has led to a slow but steady collapse of infrastructure as well as a deeply weakened capacity for emergency response, a United Nations official charged Sunday.

"Long term de-development of Gaza is the context in which (the storm) occurred," Chris Gunness of the UN's Palestine refugee agency UNRWA said in an interview.

"Before the rains, there was sewage flooding in the streets because sewage pumps did not have electricity to pump waste water," Gunness said, referring to a number of incidents in recent weeks.

"You don't have to be a rocket scientist to figure out who's responsible for that."

UNRWA knows as well as anyone the reason Gaza was without power for the past six weeks and it was not at all because of Israel.  I would also tend to doubt that Israel has had any restrictions on water pumps for Gaza since 2009. Hamas doesn't know how to run a statelet and it doesn't know how to plan for emergencies.

If UNRWA had a shred of integrity, it would fire Gunness for his obvious bias and hate towards Israel. However, an organization that is built on lies - to support a group or "refugees" who are 99% non-refugees - is not bothered at all.

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Going back a little further to the 1920 Syrian boycott of Jews

Yesterday I blogged about an Arab boycott of Jews in 1921 and 1922.

Michael Pitkowsky tweeted me with a reference to an earlier boycott call that is more interesting for the other things it says than for the boycott call itself. This comes from the book "The Israel-Palestine Conflict: One Hundred Years of War" by James L. Gelvin:

Palestine is our Country!

The Decision of the Palestinian General Congress

On Friday, 27 February 1920, at 3:00 in the afternoon, a meeting was held at the Arab Club, which included delegates from the Higher National Committee, the Syrian General Congress, and representatives from the Arab Independence Party, the Syrian National Party, the Syrian Union, the Syrian Pact, the Iraqi Pact, the Democratic Party, the Moral Revival Association, the Arab Club, leaders from the Hawrani, Dandashli, Karak, Fadl, Sakhur, and Circassian tribes and communities; finally, a large number of religious leaders, lawyers, journalists, merchants, secondary school students, and the heads of the guilds of Damascus.

Having considered the Palestinian situation, they agreed on the following five points:

1. We confirm what we have always said, that Palestine is an integral part of Syria. We demand that it remain so, and shall use all measures to the last drop of our blood and the last breath of our children to achieve this end.

2..Because we come from all parts of Syria, we consider the Zionist danger to be directed against us and against our political and economic existence in the future. We shall therefore throw back the Zionists with all our force. If the allies continue to let them pursue their activities we shall oppose them by all means possible....

O Arab sons of Palestine:

The Syrian nation and the Palestinian associations are incensed that the [allies] would seek to detach Palestine from its motherland, Syria, under the guise of establishing a national government. How can we accept the life of slaves to the Jews and foreigners and not defend our political and natural rights? Raise your voice, protest this treachery, and never fear threats or intimidation....lf there exists a man among you who, bribed by gold or honors, rallies to the occupation government, stay away from him, boycott him, and show him your scorn, for he is a traitor to his country and his nation. Likewise, boycott the Jews; sell them nothing and buy nothing from them. Boycott those who sustain them and serve them as underlings....

Life, life, O Brothers! 

After I wrote this up, I see that I had been alerted to this quote back in 2009.

And as I noted previously to that, guess how the "Paletinians" of 1920 referred to the split of Syria and Palestine?

They called it "the Naqba."

Yes, one of the great ironies of history is that the term used today to describe the 1948 setback for Palestinian Arab nationalism  is same term that the same people's ancestors used to describe the beginning of Palestinian Arab nationalism.

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12/17 Links Pt1: The un-American Studies Association, Is Hamas on the verge of bankruptcy?

From Ian:

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American Studies Association members ratify anti-Israel academic boycott

I’m most shocked at the low turnout for the vote. Given the time and energy devoted by the anti-Israel backers of the boycott, only 825 or so votes were in favor. At the same time, opponents (who were ambushed by the proposal) only managed to get about 375 people interested. Effectively, most people didn’t care. Apathy is perhaps the saddest lesson from this given the odious nature of the proposal, and it’s how anti-Israel zealots are able to drive issues far out of proportion to their actual numbers.
In a nation that overwhelmingly supports Israel at historically high levels, a highly organized cadre of anti-Israel radicals was able to pull off a multi-year effort successfully. They put their people in charge of a previously non-partisan academic organization, waited to ambush the opposition, made sure the flow of information was one-sided, and in the end used a relatively small but motivated group of symathizers to commit the entire organization to an act widely condemned outside the anti-Israel community.
It’s a lesson in how good people let bad people win, and should be a wake up call to supporters of Israel and/or academic freedom.

ASA issues member talking points to counter university pushback over Israel boycott

Apparently ASA is so concerned about how its academic boycott will be received at Universities around the country that it has posted talking points on its website.

The un-American Studies Association

There are 200,000 dead in Syria and millions of refugees, zero academic freedom in China ... well, why go on; none of these matters seems worthy of notice by the ASA. It is illuminating that one of the endorsers of this move (actually, it is the second name that appears) on the ASA website is Angela Davis, former Communist Party candidate for national office and now a distinguished professor emerita of feminist studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She, like the ASA, has long been blind to human rights abuses -- except in Israel.
This move by the ASA will not harm Israel, but it is enlightening for anyone with children attending or soon to be attending college that this group of academics harbors such an extraordinary bias. The much larger American Association of University Professors has opposed this and all academic boycotts, but that is only partial comfort. The AAUP opposition means that ASA members had a principled and academically defensible basis for voting against the boycott of Israel, yet they voted for it. Those votes express not only bias against Israel, for the reasons Summers notes, but a bias as well against the spirit of free inquiry that is supposed to infuse American academia.

Israel, Jewish groups slam ASA academic boycott

ASA President Curtis Marez was quoted by The New York Times as admitting that the organization had never before endorsed a boycott of any kind against any other nation's universities.
According to the report, Marez did not dispute the fact that other countries, including some in the Middle East, have far worse human rights records, saying, "One has to start somewhere. … There is a particular responsibility to answer the call for boycott because [the U.S.] is the largest supplier of military aid to the State of Israel."

The ASA’s Guide to World Peace

Earlier today, members of the American Studies Association voted to confirm the organization’s decision to boycott Israel. As far as we can tell, this is an historic occasion—with the exception of South Africa, no other country has been deemed so vile by American academics as to warrant banning all collaboration with its universities and scholars. In the spirit of public service, then, and to commemorate this occasion, we offer the following chart, the ASA’s Guide to World Peace.

World Jewish Congress denounces "Orwellian anti-Semitism" of US academic group's Israel boycott move

"This vote to boycott Israel, one of the most democratic and academically free nations on the globe, shows the Orwellian anti-Semitism and moral bankruptcy of the American Studies Association (ASA).
“The Middle East is literally filled with dead from governments’ reaction to the convulsions of the ‘Arab Spring,’ but the American Studies Association singles out the Jewish State, the one Middle Eastern country that shares American values, for opprobrium? No wonder many Americans dismiss the academy as deeply biased and disconnected with reality."

JPost Ed: Tragedy in the North

On Sunday, a soldier from the Lebanese Army murdered St.-Sgt.-Maj. Shlomi Cohen, 31, of Afula. Two of about ten bullets fired from the Lebanese side of the border hit Cohen in the chest and neck and he lost control of the civilian vehicle he was driving on the Israeli side of the border near a naval base next to Rosh Hanikra.
In August, near the same spot, a bomb blew up an army jeep, injuring four soldiers. And in 2010, Lebanese snipers shot at Israeli soldiers on the border, killing one and injuring another. Relatively speaking, however, since the second Lebanon war in 2006, the border has remained fairly quiet.
The tragic killing of Cohen, father of a baby girl, does not appear to be a sign of an escalation of tensions.

Security Council condemns shooting death of IDF soldier near Lebanon border

The 15-member body said that a UN investigation confirmed that a Lebanese soldier had acted on his own volition and opened fire at an IDF non-commissioned officer who was in his vehicle at the time the shots were fired.
The Council said it was "a serious contravention of the existing operational rules and procedures as related to resolution 1701," a reference to the resolution which effectively ended the Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah in August 2006.

Analysis: Israel opts for restraint in face of Lebanese provocation

Urgent questions remain unanswered: Why did the LAF soldier pull the trigger? If he was indeed a rogue attacker, how will the LAF deal with him? And why did the IDF allow St.-Sgt. Maj. Shlomi Cohen, 31, to travel alone near the border in an unarmored vehicle at night? As the IDF investigates, the incident will serve as a reminder that the Lebanese border, usually calm and stable since the ceasefire that ended the 2006 Second Lebanon War, can still produce sudden outbursts of deadly violence at any time.
In today’s increasingly volatile region, such incidents have the potential to spark a wider escalation, one that could see Hezbollah and the IDF begin to trade blows. In fact, senior IDF commanders are seeing large-scale preparations by Hezbollah for its next clash with Israel.

Rivals Abbas and Mashaal Hold Rare Telephone Call

Hamas's leader-in-exile Khaled Mashaal telephoned Palestinian Authority Chairman and Fatah head Mahmoud Abbas this past weekend, in a rare telephone call between leaders of the rival parties, the official news agency Wafa said.
"Mashaal telephoned president Abbas to thank him for his efforts at different levels, particularly sending aid to the Gaza Strip," Wafa reported, referring to the support sent by the PA to Gaza as it recovers following the major winter storm in recent days.

Is Hamas on the verge of bankruptcy?

Isolated and alone, the Hamas government in Gaza has lost nearly all of their external support, and internally they are attempting to keep a lid on any disquiet. The wave of optimism felt in the tiny enclave after Muhammad Morsi rode into power in Egypt must now feel like a distant memory. Morsi never fulfilled the promise that was expected from Hamas' Muslim Brotherhood cousins. Now with the once ruling party being hounded out of Egypt, Hamas has to look elsewhere for support.
Two key historical allies of Hamas have also possibly fallen by the wayside. The relationships with both Iran and Qatar’s look uncertain in the future.

Car bomb targets Hezbollah post in eastern Lebanon

However, there were conflicting reports on the source of the explosion and the number of casualties resulting from the blast in the remote, scarcely inhabited area was not immediately clear.
The Lebanese National News Agency said it was a suicide bomber, adding that the driver detonated his vehicle near the village of Sbouba in the Baalbek region, about two kilometers (a mile) from a base belonging to the Iranian-backed group. The report said the explosion caused an unspecified number of casualties among Hezbollah members and civilians.

Kerry’s Self-Defeat Ahead of Syria Conference

Sometimes it seems that Secretary of State John Kerry lives in an alternate universe, one in which the Palestinian Authority seeks peace, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood is liberal, Iran’s Islamic Republic seeks only to generate electricity, and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is a leader who for the good of humanity might give up power to an opposition against whom he maintains a military edge.
Hence, Kerry is moving full-steam ahead with plans for the “Geneva II” conference to discuss Syria’s future. Thirty-two countries—including Iran—will participate, because in Kerry world, having as many countries as possible attend a conference makes it easier to reach a solution. Even Iran will attend because, again in Kerry’s alternate reality, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps answers to Iranian diplomats.

Syria: Turkey Supplied 47 Tons of Weapons to Islamist Rebels

The Turkish government has supplied Syrian rebel forces with more than 47 tons of weapons in the past few months it has been revealed - this despite the Islamist government strenuously denying such charges in the past.
According to official documents filed under UN Comtrade (the United Nations Commodity Trade Statistics Database), Turkish arms have been flowing into Syria since June. Recent months have seen the highest volume of traffic, with almost 29 tons of weaponry transferred in September alone.

Convicted Terror Supporter Attends Congressional Briefing

A convicted terrorist supporter who is currently under house arrest attended a Capitol Hill briefing hosted by a pro-Muslim Brotherhood group in a congressional office building earlier this month, according to reports.
Sami Al-Arian, a former engineering professor at the University of South Florida, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to aid the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ) in 2006. He has been under house detention in Northern Virginia since 2008 for refusing to testify in a subsequent terror financing trial.

Taxi driver killed by lynch mob after running over pro-Morsi protester

Supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood killed a taxi driver by slitting his throat after he ran over a female protester on Monday in Egypt's Nile Delta governorate of Daqahliya.
According to a preliminary medical report, 24-year-old Mohamed Othman died from a deep cut in his neck, Al-Ahram Arabic news website reported.
Eyewitnesses told Al-Ahram that the taxi driver ran over the protester after he demanded a crowd let him pass and they refused. Members of the crowd killed him and torched his car.

Russia, Egypt Ink $2 Billion Weapons Deal

The Egyptian military could purchase up to $2 billion worth of attack planes, air defenses, and short-range anti-tank missiles, according to the Russian newspaper Vedomosti, which quoted sources in Moscow’s Defense Ministry and elsewhere.
The deal was announced days after Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu concluded a series of high-level meetings in Egypt.

AFP: Disputes Over Geneva Language Mean “No End in Sight” for Negotiations to Even Begin Nuke Deal Implementation

There is ‘no end in sight’ for talks aimed at implementing the Geneva interim agreement announced last month between the global P5+1 powers and Iran, according to an Agence France-Presse article that was published last week.
“There are definite differences of opinion on the interpretation (of the Geneva text). Not that I am saying these are insurmountable but both sides are looking to negotiate the most robust deal they can,” one Western diplomat involved in the talks told AFP. “What this means, and this is not a surprise, is that we will not get this resolved by the end of this week…. They are going to have to get together more frequently than they thought.”

Calls Mount to Free 2 Iranian Opposition Leaders

A stone’s throw from President Hassan Rouhani’s office, in an alley blocked off by security forces, Iran’s main opposition leader has been living under house arrest together with his wife for the past thousand days or so.
Only months ago, merely uttering in public the name of the leader, Mir Hussein Moussavi, could have led to arrest; a newspaper’s printing it invited almost certain shutdown.
Last week, however, calls for the release of Mr. Moussavi and another prominent opposition leader, Mehdi Karroubi, echoed over the campus of Shahid Behesti University in Tehran, shouted by students who carried a green banner, the color of the 2009 anti-government protests that propelled both men, presidential candidates at the time, into their opposition roles — and ultimately house arrest.

Saudi political activist sentenced to 300 lashes, 4 years in prison, rights group says

A political and human rights activist in Saudi Arabia was sentenced to 300 lashes and four years in prison for defying the king and calling for democracy, a rights group said Sunday.
Omar al-Saeed, a member of the Saudi Civil and Political Rights Association (ACPRA), was sentenced in the city of Buraidah on Dec. 12 and is the fourth of his group to be imprisoned this year.

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Arabs near Nablus riot over power outages

Parts of the Nablus area were without power for the fourth day.

So how do residents respond?

Why, by rioting, of course!

Dozens of Arabs Monday blocked roads, burned tires and threw stones in protest of the power shortage brought about by the severe snowstorms.

This is what normal citizens of a normal state do, right?

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Kuwaiti MP denounces celebrations of Christmas

From Al Arabiya:

Perhaps not so merry, a Kuwaiti MP has called for a crackdown on Christmas celebrations in the country saying the promotion of foreign occasions in the state amounted to a “mockery” of the Islamic culture.

Less than two months after slamming the sale of Halloween items as “signs of Satanism,” MP Hamdan al-Azmi stated that allowing Christmas to be celebrated in Kuwait was “offensive.

“Allowing activities that promote occasions that are strange to our Islamic society is ridiculous and an offence to our religious teachings,” he said in a statement made available to the press on Sunday.

He further urged the Deputy Premier Sheikh Mohammad al-Khalid al-Sabah to monitor activities in camps and chalets, claiming youths in the country were planning to host Christmas parties in those locations.

Al-Azmi added that celebrating such events was “inappropriate” in an Islamic state and cautioned the authorities to bar anyone from profiting from such activities, local media reported.

In October, the MP labeled the selling of Halloween items in Muslim countries a “travesty and mockery of our religious sensibilities.

“Such items ... are commonly known to be signs of Satanism,” the Kuwait Times newspaper reported him as saying.

“Allowing shops to continue selling these items is a stab at the Kuwaiti society’s identity, and we cannot accept this,” he added.

However, no action was taken by the relevant ministries and Kuwait continues to allow for the sale of products related to Christmas.

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Arab media report "Antichrist" born in Tel Aviv! With video!

Firas Press reports that Arab social media is buzzing about a baby born in Tel Aviv with one eye and no nose, who must be the Islamic "Dajjal" (equivalent to the Christian Antichrist.)

Muslim "experts" are explaining how this baby fits into Koranic prophecy, and how when he is 40 years old he will lead an army of 70,000 Jews and 70,000 Tatars and ignorant people will follow him and crown him King of Kings.

Here's the future destroyer of worlds:



Only one small problem.

This "cyclops baby" was really born in 2008 in Bolivia.

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Iran's supreme leader tweets his approval of a Holocaust denier

Another notable tweet from Iran's "Supreme Leader" ayatollah Kahamenei:

Roger Garaudy (who converted to Islam in 1982 wrote a book that contained Holocaust denial, which was banned by the French government and he was put on trial for denying crimes against humanity. He lost.

As a result he has become a hero of those who hate Jews and Israel. People like Ayatollah Khamenei.

Remember, so many weeks ago, that the media was so thrilled at how moderate Iran had become and how its antisemitism and Holocaust denial was a thing of the past? Good times.

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12/16 Links Pt2: The ASA Advances the Longstanding Anti-Zionist War on Academia

From Ian:

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Gil Troy: The ASA Advances the Longstanding Anti-Zionist War on Academia

The American Studies Association’s rushed deadline of December 15 to vote on boycotting Israeli universities has provoked intense debate about the move and the manipulative tactics deployed, including exploiting this time of year when professors are busy grading. But the boycott is one skirmish in a larger fight. In their sustained war against Israel, anti-Zionists have launched a war against academia itself, repeatedly desecrating academic ideals.
The academic world is majestically broad. Scholars delight in our range of disciplines, methodologies, and approaches. Still, despite our delicious chaos, most of us leave graduate school with certain guiding principles. Most academics remain committed to intellectual processes that: ensure information’s accuracy; appreciate the world’s complexity; defend ideas’ permeability; applaud diversity; and preserve scholarly objectivity. Since the 1970s, campus anti-Zionists have violated these standards – while trying to enlist organizations like the ASA as allies in this unscholarly war.
“Israel Apartheid Week,” the annual anti-Israel festival on dozen of campuses, is particularly outrageous. Israel’s critics could use many words to express their disapproval. However, all academics, wherever we stand politically, should object to the sloppy, demagogic use of “apartheid” to describe the national not racial conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. South Africa’s apartheid system was rooted in racial distinctions, defining individuals and determining their rights -- or lack thereof – based on skin color. By contrast, there are dark-skinned Israelis and light-skinned Palestinians. No Israeli legislation has ever been based on race or any biological difference.

American Studies Association about to pass odious equivalent of Zionism is Racism resolution

The U.N. General Assembly in 1975 passed the odious Zionism is Racism resolution, which has since been rescinded.
Voting closes today at the American Studies Association on an equally odious resolution singling out Israel, and Israel alone, for academic boycott. It is, as former Harvard President Lawrence Summers notes, “anti-Semitic” in its effect “if not in intent.”
The resolution has been harshly criticized by the American Association of University Professors and eight Past Presidents of the ASA as an abominable attack on academic freedom, among many other denunciations:

DivestThis!: Proposed ASA boycott of Israeli academics is a guaranteed moral fail

Perhaps it is the sheer number of pathologies on display that forced me out of hiatus to comment on the recent BDS outburst having to do with the American Studies Association’s upcoming vote on an academic boycott.
First, you’ve got the usual breathless “This time for sure!!!” BDS bombast radiating out from the Israel-hating press, regardless of the fact that practically no one outside of the field of American Studies had even heard of ASA before they put themselves on the map by announcing their intention to flush the organization’s commitment to academic freedom down the toilet in order to strike a political pose.

Schooling the ASA on boycotting Israel

Shurat HaDin — the Israel Law Center, is a non-governmental organization that brings together a network of lawyers from across the world to prosecute institutions, governments and private companies responsible for abusing the human rights of Jews, Israelis and others.
Such a boycott and the intended curtailing of the academic freedom of Israelis and others who study in Israeli academic institutions would be high on our list of priorities. Indeed, only recently, in Australia we brought a case under the Racial Discrimination Act against a professor at the University of Sydney who voiced support for boycotting Israel.
The members of the ASA need to school themselves on the legality of their proposed anti-Israel boycott before they further embarrass themselves. The implementation of a boycott of Israel’s academics is as illegal as it is morally repugnant, and we will not hesitate in seeking all legal avenues against those who employ discrimination against the Jewish State in this way.

Europe is impinging on Israeli sovereignty

More than legislation, we should focus on international activities against European countries, speaking openly against the gall and absurdity inherent in jeopardizing our sovereignty and interfering in the conflict in favor of one side, which represents a new kind of European neocolonialism. Only Israel is treated with such unique norms, especially by Europe. Meddling in our affairs impinges on our democratic values and does nothing to advance peace. Why do the Palestinians even try? The Europeans are helping lay the pressure on Israel, mudslinging and supporting boycott movements.
When all is said and done, instead of responding through legislation, we should broaden the purview of conservative Zionist organizations. That would be a substantive answer to the organizations trying to rip us apart.

Sanctions against Israel are a crime

The 70 nations ignore, for some reason, the fact that the Land of Israel was our home at a time when most of them -- the Palestinians included -- lived in tents and caves. They seek to use the crime of sanctions, the new face of anti-Semitism, as their weapon of destruction. Just like in Alterman's poem: "We are upon you with 70 decrees and 70 hatchets." This is a belligerent attempt to force us back to "that" death house.
In our world, power is the only thing of significance. When the nations, including Iran, come to realize just "how great the strength of Avraham is" they will relent, and that is word enough to the wise.

NGO Monitor: Response to Proposed Restrictions on Foreign Government Funding for Israeli Political Advocacy NGOs

Extensive foreign-government funding for non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that lead international campaigns demonizing Israel is a serious source of concern. The false allegations and immoral exploitation of universal human rights, in order to promote “lawfare” (efforts to arrest elected leaders and IDF soldiers abroad) and boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS), warrant widespread condemnation across the Israeli political spectrum.
However, as NGO Monitor has repeatedly stated, legislative proposals that go beyond democratic transparency and accountability for these NGOs are ill advised, not enforceable, and damage Israel’s vital national interests.
NGO Monitor notes that in February 2011, the Knesset adopted the NGO Funding Transparency Law. Both the secrecy of funding procedures and the external manipulation of civil society were understood to violate the accepted norms and practices among sovereign democratic nations.

SWU: Why Does the Myth of Apartheid Persist in Israel?

Meshoe [fmr. S.A. MP] told the story of young man who needed special lenses to see. His doctor ordered them. When they didn't arrive he contacted the customs officials in South Africa only to be told that they had been refused because they had been manufactured in Israel.
Meshoe suggested that in order to continue to rationalize the 40-year policy of shunning Israel, leaders have promoted the false accusation of Israeli apartheid. They play on the memories of apartheid which are still strong and painful. By attaching the label apartheid to Israel, these leaders can justify denying their people access to innovative Israeli technology and assistance that can lift Africa out of poverty.
Politics prioritized over people.
John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, "The great enemy of the truth is very often not the lie but the myth, persistent, persuasive and unrealistic."

UK: Women barred from speaking at university seminar

Female students were banned from speaking during a seminar run by an Islamic society at a leading university.
They were also forced to walk through a “sisters only” entrance to attend the event at Queen Mary University of London, and were segregated from men by being seated at the back of the lecture theatre.
Men were able to ask questions by raising their hands but female students had to write down their queries for Ustadh Abu Abdillah, the speaker of the event, which was hosted by the Queen Mary Islamic Society, and pass them to the front.

Roger Waters’s Anti-Jewish Paranoia

Waters has not been adequately coached. In the BDS movement, you are supposed to refer to your targets as “Zionists” (because it is all right to view people who support Israel’s national project as proto-Nazis) or as “pro-Israel.” With that one “Jewish lobby,” the mask slipped. One does not have to think that Roger Waters dislikes Jews to think that his general way of thinking, along with the way of thinking of many of his comrades in arms, is infected with anti-Semitic mythology. To repeat: Roger Waters thinks that there is a powerful Jewish lobby in the music industry that may just be out to kill him.
Waters has not apologized for these remarks, and his fans in the pro-boycott community remain “comfortably numb” about Waters’s record. They continue to regard his support as a great blessing.

Pigs are flying! And Norwegian NGO criticizes red-green govt’s political agenda in humanitarian aid

Doctors Without Borders believe several states receive more humanitarian aid than the actual needs would suggest. This applies to the Palestinian territories, which have played a central role in Norwegian foreign policy since Norway’s participation in the negotiations that led to the Oslo Accords .
Critical to aid for Palestinians
The report points out that health indicators in Palestine is good , with a life expectancy on par with Hungary.
- A child in Chad is over six times as likely to die before the age of five , as a Palestinian child. Nevertheless Palestine received 3.5 percent of the total humanitarian aid from Norway in 2012, while Chad received 0.00022 percent.

I'm Dreaming of a White Jesus

The most recent manifestation of the desire to de-Judaize Jesus has come not from European Christian churches, but from anti-Israel activists in the Arab world, who have engaged in a campaign to assert that Jesus was, in fact, a Palestinian (in other words, a member of a people that did not come into being until roughly 100 years ago), and that the Jews are guilty of deicide and genocide, among other -cides.
The most famous proponent of this idea has been the Reverend Naim Ateek of the Sabeel Center in Jerusalem, which was established to argue against the historical and theological claims of the Jewish people to the land of Israel. Ateek foments anti-Semitism by making terrible accusations such as this one: “Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. … The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily.”
Aslan is a critic of Israel, and he gave a telling answer when Fisher asked him to describe what Jesus might have looked like. “Well, what we know about him is that he was a Galilean. As a Galilean, he would have been what is referred to as a Palestinian Jew.
He would look the way that the average Palestinian would look today. So that would mean dark features, hairy, probably a longer nose, black hair.”
Aslan is not in the camp of those who deny, or minimize, Jesus’s connection to Judaism, but in this answer, he made an obvious attempt to associate Jesus with the Palestinians, rather than with the Israelis of today.

Swedish police detain 28 after neo-Nazi attack

Swedish police detained 28 people Sunday after a group of neo-Nazis attacked an anti-Nazism demonstration in a Stockholm suburb by hurling bottles, torches and firecrackers.
Two people were hospitalized and a policeman was injured in the back after being hit by a heavy object, police spokesman Sven-Erik Olsson said.

Despite ban, institute vows to publish Mein Kampf

The Institute for Contemporary History vowed to press ahead with the publication of an annotated version of “Mein Kampf” despite a ban by the Bavarian state.
In a statement, the institute said it would not abandon the project, which it considers an “important contribution toward historical-political education” and the book’s “demystification.”

Holocaust conference in Tunisia commemorates forced labor, deportations

Historians, scholars and authors spoke at Saturday’s conference, which remembered the 5,000 Jews subjected to forced labor in Tunisia during a six-month Nazi occupation of the country in 1942-43. Some were deported to Nazi death camps on the European mainland.
It was among the first events focusing on the Holocaust to be held in an Arab country.

Exclusive: Hungary seeks Israeli gas as alternative to Russian supply

Hungary is looking to Israel and its newfound natural gas to help it shake its dependency on Russian energy, State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and External Economic Relations Péter Szijjártó told The Jerusalem Post in an exclusive interview in Tel Aviv on Friday, following a two-day visit.
“Hungary is very dependent on Russian gas. We heat 80% of our houses with gas and import 90% of our gas from Russia,” Szijjártó said. “Being so dependent means that you’re quite defenseless."

Frutarom buys Hagelin for $52.4 million

Israel’s Frutarom Industries, one of the world’s 10 biggest companies in the flavors and fine ingredients trade, recently announced its fourth acquisition this year of 100 percent of the share capital of US-based Hagelin for a cash consideration of $52.4 million. The acquisition strengthens Frutarom’s foothold in the world’s biggest flavor market.
“The acquisition of this lucrative company will intensify Frutarom’s technological capabilities, especially in the growing and profitable beverage flavors sector, and adds to its R&D capabilities, sales and marketing infrastructure and cross-selling opportunities. In this acquisition, we will enjoy a significant reinforcement of excellent managers, R&D, sales and marketing personnel,” said Ori Yehudai, President and CEO of Frutarom.

Shark Tank’s Daymond John Invests in Jewish Decorations for Christmas Trees (VIDEO)

A Jewish entrepreneur, whose marriage to a Christian woman prompted him to start selling Jewish decorations for Christmas trees, won a deal with fashion mogul Daymond John, in the latest episode of the hit TV series “Shark Tank.”
In the show, which features pitches from businessmen to the investor “sharks,” Morri Chowaiki introduces his product with a decidedly Jewish themed pitch, opening with “hello gefilte sharks.”

Ritz-Carlton opens its doors in Israel, eyes more branches

Ritz-Carlton cut the ribbon of its first hotel in Israel Sunday at the Herzliya Marina, featuring the branch’s first kosher restaurant, after over four years of preparation and NIS 600 million of investment.
“The Ritz-Carlton chain is happy to open its first hotel in Israel and provide its guests from all over the world the opportunity to enjoy the service whose name precedes it and the award-winning guest experience,” said Ritz-Carlton president Hervé Humler.
The Ritz-Carlton is the first of a wave of international luxury hotels slated to open in Israel, including a Waldorf-Astoria in Jerusalem and a W Hotel in Jaffa.

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