Jordan parliament debate degenerates into antisemitism. There's a lesson there.

Jordan's House of Representatives had a debate Wednesday on whether it should buy natural gas from Israel.

Many of them complained about the prospect of being dependent on Israel for their energy needs. One called on Algeria and other Arab states to provide fuel for reasonabl eprices so they don't have the shame of buying from Israel.

Attorney Tariq Khouri asked "why the government is resorting to the Zionist enemy." MP Khalil Attia asked whether Israel respects agreements and contaminated the water of the Sea of Galilee.

Yes, he is saying that the Jews were poisoning the wells.

 MP Aataiwi Majali said that this agreement is political victory for Israel, which is of course unacceptable. Attorney Assaf Shobaki said any agreement rewards the Israeli enemy and provides a service to the Jewish state.

MP Mohammed al-Abadi called on the government the need to search for alternatives, refusing to deal with the "enemy" in any way. He also called to expel any Israeli tourists in Jordan.

Attorney Khaireddin Hakouz pointed out that the negative reactions of the agreement is the result of the crimes the Jews in Palestine are doing in the holy places.

MP Mohammed Saud said that the government is able to solve the energy situation without resorting to the Jews, who don't respect agreements.

MP Atef Kawar said: "Israel aggressively usurped lands, and the Arabs can subdue the Jews only through the demolition of the Israeli economy."

MP Mohammad al-Riyati read verses from the Koran and said: "These Jews attacked the prophets."

And so it went, with the vast majority of the MPs trying to outdo the next in their public expressions of hate. One of the few exceptions was  MP Kamal Zghoul who said, "Jordan's sovereign national interest is above all other considerations, and Jordan signed a peace agreement." He pointed out that Jordan would deal with the "devil" to meet the interests of Jordan.

That's what a Jordanian "moderate" sounds like; Israel is the devil but we need them.

In the end, they will almost certainly end up buying the gas from Israel, and Israel will be a far more reliable partner with Jordan than any Arab state has been. And that will make them hate Israel even more.

Because as this debate proves, it isn't about Israel's actions - it is about he dreaded, hated, feared Jews. Not Zionists, not Israelis, not Westerners - Jews. .

This is a lesson for all those starry eyed people who believe that somehow Israel and "Palestine" would live side by side in peace. The Palestinian mentality mirrors that of Jordan. The absolute best that anyone can ever hope for is for their relationship to be as warm as Israel's relationship with Jordan, where practical considerations drive what both sides do while at the same time the Arab political leaders will posture and openly incite more hate.

UPDATE: The English version of this article didn't mention any of the times the MPs blamed Jews.

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12/10 Links Pt2: Rinsing Israel Out of Europe: The Zionistfrei Movement; Journalists Vs Jerusalem

From Ian:

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Brendan O’Neill: Rinsing Israel Out of Europe: The Zionistfrei Movement

The Zionistfrei movement isn’t really about effecting any change in the Middle East. As Leicester Councillor Mohammed Dawood admits, Israel is hardly going to be “trembling in its shoes” over the city’s boycott. Rather, the movement is about making the chattering classes in Europe feel pure and righteous, unsullied by the poisonousness of the state it’s now so fashionable to hate.
Where yesteryear’s creators of Judenfrei zones saw the Jewish people as a corrupting presence, today’s lobbyists for Zionistfrei territories see the Jewish state as corrupting, as a toxic entity whose fruit and technology and books must be shunned.
No, Jews aren’t being physically expelled from Europe, but they are being made to feel unwelcome. Given that most Jews feel affinity with the state of Israel, what must they think when they see parts of Europe being cleansed of all things Israeli? They must think: “My culture and my people are not wanted here.” And European Jews are voting with their feet. In the first eight months of this year, 4,566 Jews left France for Israel, more than the total number that left in 2013 (3,228). Last year a European Union survey found that 29% of Europe’s Jews had considered emigrating because they no longer feel safe.
BDS is one of the ugliest political movements of our time. It is shot through with double standards, treating Israel as more wicked than any other state. It is shrill and censorious, too. Its members boo and jeer and seek to expel from apparently civilized Europe not only Israeli military leaders and politicians but even Israeli violinists and actors. Now, the demand for Zionistfrei zones is taking BDS to its terrifying conclusion, that Israel and everyone associated with it (you know who) should be shunned by respectable communities everywhere.

On the False Parallel Between Gaza and Northern Ireland

One thing is certain, however: The fairy tale version of the conflict in Northern Ireland offers no useful guidance to any party in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Quite the opposite, in fact.
To the Israelis, it offers only the illusion that spontaneous concessions to their enemies will bring them something better than their enemies’ contempt followed by further demands.
In regard to the Palestinians, it misrepresents the nature of Hamas’ ideology and whitewashes the organization’s dedication to violence and even genocide. In effect, it reduces the Palestinians to colorful Orientals incapable of meaning what they actually say.
Most importantly, however, the fairy tale actually makes peace less likely by recommending capitulation to terrorism rather than a determined and patient fight against it. In fact, that determined fight was the only thing that ultimately brought the IRA to the negotiating table.
There can be no doubt that the last thing the people of the Middle East need is anything that makes peace less likely. For their sake, let us hear no more of the Northern Ireland fairy tale.

New York Teens Teach a Lesson in Helping Terror Victims

They don’t have plush offices or secretaries or gala dinners, but a group of 15 year-olds on Long Island are providing an inspiring model of leadership for the rest of the American Jewish community.
Tenth graders at the Rambam Mesivta High School in Lawrence, New York, recently initiated an online crowd sourcing campaign, which has raised an astonishing $2.4-million for the families of the four American-Israeli rabbis, and the Druze police officer, who were murdered in a Jerusalem synagogue last month.
We were all horrified and saddened by the news of the Har Nof massacre. But most people quickly returned to their usual daily affairs. The grim reality of what the widows and orphans will endure for the rest of their lives didn’t attract much attention.
When the Rambam students heard about the massacre, they asked: What can we do? And then they did something – something that will make a real difference in the lives of the victims’ families. They can’t bring back the innocents who were massacred by Palestinian terrorists. But they can ease the pain of their widows and orphans, just a little.

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2015 US spending bill limitations on funding a Palestinian government - full text

This comes from the latest version of the US budget proposal.

It is painful to read, mostly because it is written in bureaucratese. But from what I can gather, it looks like some members of Congress really tried to put into law different controls to ensure that US funds do not go towards terrorist groups - and other members (or the White House) pushed back to have veto power over almost every one of these controls.

So for example, in the first section quoted here, there are lots of limitations on funding any "State of Palestine" - and then there is a waiver for the President to determine that national security trumps it all.

(This may be standard with all foreign policy issues, but still...it seems to be, for example, the official reason why the US embassy is not moved to Jerusalem every year despite Congress passing the law mandating it.)

It looks like many of the controls are riddled with similar loopholes. For example, at the very end it seems to say that the US will not fund the PLO, This is silly because the PA reports to the PLO, even though it is not "part" of the PLO.

At the end there is a very interesting section on reducing aid by the amount that it is determined that the PA is paying terrorists in prison (or employees before they were killed while trying to kill Israelis.)  But even that seems to have lots of wiggle room.

Anyway, here it is:


PALESTINIAN STATEHOOD
2 SEC. 7036. (a) LIMITATION ON ASSISTANCE.—None
3 of the funds appropriated under titles III through VI of
4 this Act may be provided to support a Palestinian state
5 unless the Secretary of State determines and certifies to
6 the appropriate congressional committees that—
7 (1) the governing entity of a new Palestinian
8 state—
9 (A) has demonstrated a firm commitment
10 to peaceful co-existence with the State of Israel;
11 and
12 (B) is taking appropriate measures to
13 counter terrorism and terrorist financing in the
14 West Bank and Gaza, including the dismantling
15 of terrorist infrastructures, and is cooperating
16 with appropriate Israeli and other appropriate
17 security organizations; and
18 (2) the Palestinian Authority (or the governing
19 entity of a new Palestinian state) is working with
20 other countries in the region to vigorously pursue ef-
21 forts to establish a just, lasting, and comprehensive
22 peace in the Middle East that will enable Israel and
23 an independent Palestinian state to exist within the
24 context of full and normal relationships, which
25 should include—
1 (A) termination of all claims or states of
2 belligerency;
3 (B) respect for and acknowledgment of the
4 sovereignty, territorial integrity, and political
5 independence of every state in the area through
6 measures including the establishment of demili-
7 tarized zones;
8 (C) their right to live in peace within se-
9 cure and recognized boundaries free from
10 threats or acts of force;
11 (D) freedom of navigation through inter-
12 national waterways in the area; and
13 (E) a framework for achieving a just set-
14 tlement of the refugee problem.
15 (b) SENSE OF CONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-
16 gress that the governing entity should enact a constitution
17 assuring the rule of law, an independent judiciary, and
18 respect for human rights for its citizens, and should enact
19 other laws and regulations assuring transparent and ac-
20 countable governance.
21 (c) WAIVER.—The President may waive subsection
22 (a) if the President determines that it is important to the
23 national security interest of the United States to do so.

Lots more....

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Palestinians To Pay Family Of Crown Heights Stabber (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory. 

Check out their Facebook page.

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Ramallah, December 10 - The Palestinian Authority announced today that it had added the name of the man who stabbed a Lubavicher Hasid in Brooklyn early Tuesday morning to its roster of martyrs whose families receive pensions.

Late last night a 40-year-old man entered the Chabad Lubavich world headquarters building on Eastern Parkway with a knife. He attacked a 22-year-old Israeli student in the head and was shot by police after refusing to put his weapon down. The attacker later died at a local hospital. In keeping with longstanding Palestinian policy, President Mahmoud Abbas ordered officials to begin sending payments to the family of the slain attacker.

President Abbas stressed that the location of the attack on Jews should in no way prejudice the payment policy against the martyr who dies as a result of the act, and that he will ensure that such an exception is specifically negated in the regulations governing those payments. "It would be a disservice to our brave martyrs and their families to exclude such deeds from eligibility simply because they take place overseas," he said.

Even before the release of the stabber's identity by the New York Police Department, Abbas instructed his financial officials to discover the relevant information regarding the man's family so that payment could be arranged as soon as possible. The fact that the stabber was not Palestinian, stressed Abbas, or even knew his victim was Israeli, should not be factor in his family's eligibility for a pension. "The fact that this brave man died because he wielded a knife and yelled, 'Kill the Jew!' is enough," he stated.

Observers initially thought the stabbing was directly germane to the ongoing protests and violence surrounding the deaths of black men at the hands of police officers across the US. However, no direct connection has yet been made, and video of the shooting in this case includes clear footage of the stabber refusing to put down his knife and getting shot as a result. Abbas welcomed the invocation of the Palestinian cause in the demonstrations, as some activists have done, and the way in which they obscure or ignore the cases of clear justification for certain such killings on the part of police. "We urge our supporters and spiritual brothers in urban America to adopt our practice of hailing every single person who dies at the hand of better-armed authorities as a martyr whose blood must be avenged, regardless of the circumstances of that death," he continued.

Palestinian officials refused to comment on whether they would also begin formal incitement to murder Jews beyond the Middle East, or whether only post facto rewarding of such acts would be instituted.

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12/10 Links Pt1: Israeli home demolitions deter Palestinian terrorism; Election Won’t Change Israeli Policies

From Ian:

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Israeli home demolitions deter Palestinian terrorism, study finds

Israeli house demolitions effectively decrease terrorist attacks, according to a new study.
The study, “Counter-Suicide-Terrorism: Evidence from House Demolitions,” to be published in the January issue of the Journal of Politics, found that Israel’s policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian terrorists causes “an immediate, significant decrease in the number of suicide attacks.”
The study examines data on punitive house demolitions between 2000 and 2005, and precautionary demolitions — those based on the location of a house but unrelated to the identity of the house’s owner — from 2004 to 2005. The authors found that punitive house demolitions during that time led to “fewer suicide attacks in the month following,” while precautionary demolitions caused “a significant increase in the number of suicide attacks.”
Co-authored by researchers at Northwestern University and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the study runs contrary to the widely held belief that punitive house demolitions do not dissuade would-be terrorists.

Eugene Kontorovich: Resolution 242 Revisited: New Evidence on the Required Scope of Israeli Withdrawal

United Nations Security Council Resolution 242, passed in November 1967, in the wake of the Six Day War, is widely regarded as among the most important ever. But it’s meaning is also the most debated. The resolution famously called for “Withdrawal of Israel armed forces from territories occupied in the recent conflict.” The meaning of this provision – in particular, the extent of the required withdrawal - has been contested ever since.
This article presents new evidence on the resolution’s meaning – an issue that has gained new relevance amidst current diplomatic efforts for a Security Council resolution that could effectively supersede 242. The article does not engage all the myriad disputes and questions about the resolution, nor aim at a comprehensive evaluation of it. Rather, it adds two important but previously unappreciated dimensions that bear on how 242 should be read.
First, the article examines the meaning of 242’s withdrawal provision by comparing it to all other such territorial withdrawal demands issued by the Security Council. It finds that the language of 242 differs notably from the other 18 distinct territorial withdrawal demands, all of which explicitly require a complete withdraw from the territory in question. An examination of these resolutions supports the view that 242’s unusual wording was a meaningful and substantive drafting choice.
Second, the article examines contemporaneous understandings in the United Nations about the rules concerning territorial. Discussions in the International Law Commission, involving the leading international law jurists of the post-WWII era, demonstrates that it was generally agreed that the U.N. Charter introduced a new prohibition on territorial changes as a result of war, a principle referred to in the preamble of 242. Yet the same discussions also make clear that this rule was understood to have significant limitations and exceptions. (h/t billposer)

Eugene Kontorovich: The legitimacy of Israel’s nation-state bill (I): comparative constitutionalism

These objections do not hold water. For one, ensuring Israel’s status as a Jewish nation state is a goal expressly endorsed by the same critics, when it comes to pressuring Israel into diplomatic concessions. Second, the law is far from unusual by Western standards: it actually does far less to recognize Jewish nationhood or religion than provisions common in other democratic constitutions. This post will consider the general parameters of the legislation in comparison to constitutional provisions of other Western democracies. Tomorrow, a second post will relate the law to the “two state solution.”
The nation state bills mostly constitutionalize the national anthem, symbols, holidays, and so forth. There is nothing racist, or even unusual, about having national or religious character reflected in constitutional commitments, as research by my colleagues at the Kohelet Policy Forum demonstrates. Seven EU states have constitutional “nationhood” provisions, which typically speak of the state as being the national home and locus of self-determination for the country’s majority ethnic group. This is even the case in places like the Baltics, with large and alienated minority populations.

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Lavishly funded Jordanian media NGO uses a terrorist as its role model

Here's how the Jordanian Media Institute describes its goals:

Vision

JMI aims to become an unparalleled Centre of Excellence in the Middle East to help improve the standards, raise the integrity and rebuild public trust in journalism in Jordan and the region at large. Our programmes, which feature practical training, innovative curricula and world-class facilities, will enable our graduates to consistently challenge the current level of media production in the Arab world.

Mission

Our groundbreaking, home-grown programmes meet with the highest international standards and acknowledge the distinctiveness of Arab culture and philosophy. Our students are trained to become world-class journalists who possess the skills, knowledge and understanding needed to truly excel within this region’s unique media environment.

Sounds good, right? So good that JMI has attracted a Who's Who of major donors and partners:

JMI has a link to a sister site in Arabic called "JMI Journalists." On the sidebar of every page of that site there is a section called "Success Models" - to give young Jordanian journalists a role model to emulate.

The first person listed in that section is Ahlam Tamimi.

She is a terrorist, responsible for planning and implementation of the Sbarro pizza shop bombing that killed 15, including seven children.

Tamimi - who is now working as a journalist in Jordan after being released in a prisoner swap - has a fawning bio on the site, where her terror background is highlighted. They say that she went to "Martyr's University," as Birzeit University was called because of how many terrorists came from there.

The bio says that she insisted to be the first woman terrorist for Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades.

Apparently, an unrepentant murderer represents "the distinctiveness of Arab culture and philosophy" that JMI wants people to know about.

Drop what you are doing now and email to the heads of the corporations, governments and agencies listed above and ask them why they are funding a program that thinks child-murderers are heroes. They will not want to be associated with this.

In the end, they will end up pressuring JMI to only take down the article, but msot or all will keep funding an organization that enthusiastically supports terrorists. Most of them will not withdraw their funding, but one or two might. It is still worth it to shame these donors into checking how their money is spent.

There is a huge disconnect between the values that Western donors want to help spread around the world and how the recipients actually feel about those Western values - but they eagerly accept their money anyway.

Read more here, from Arnold Roth, father of one of the children Tamimi murdered.

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Palestinian "witnesses" do what they do best - lie. The media plays its part. (update)

Check out Ma'an's report of the incident in Turmsayya this morning:

The head of the Palestinian Authority committee against the separation wall and settlements died Wednesday after Israeli soldiers assaulted him in a village near Ramallah, committee sources said.

Ziad Abu Ein, 55, died after an Israeli soldier beat him on the chest with his helmet in the village of Turmsayya in the Ramallah district, the director of the committee's information center, Jamil al-Barghouthi, told Ma'an.

Abu Ein also suffered severe tear gas inhalation as Israeli soldiers fired canisters in the area.

A Palestinian security source told AFP that Israeli forces beat Abu Ein with the butts of their rifles and their helmets during a protest march.

So during peaceful protest march, multiple IDF soldiers singled out a 55-year old to attack him with their helmets and rifle butts, besides shooting tear gas, all for no reason of course.

If you believe Palestinian Arab sources.

Even without a counter-narrative, this makes no sense.

However, a reporter who was right there and took the picture above says that the soldiers did not hit him at all. Another says that he was seen clutching his chest ten minutes after the tear gas was shot. The IDF says its initial inquiry shows no physical altercation although it is investigating.

Video released after this was initially written showed a little shoving, at most. Certainly no helmet or rifle butting.

Abu Ein, who wasn't well, almost certainly died of a heart attack.

Most news stories aren't mentioning that he was also a murderer. He killed 2 teens in 1979:

That is enough to qualify him to be a PA official.

Abbas, of course, immediately jumped on the bogus story as an excuse to slam Israel for a "barbaric murder." Because he is too moderate to incite violence by amplifying lies.

The script for this incident has been played out many times before, and the media is doing its part to immediately trumpet the craziest accusations without question - just as their role demands.

UPDATE: Best video so far (h/t Yenta)



Abu Ein goes on the offensive against the policeman after being separated by the soldier, even afterwards he tries to fight back rather than act defensive, as one would if they were hurt.

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Palestinians revive the Mamilla Cemetery lies. Here's the truth.

Ma'an says:

Israeli authorities have resumed excavations in Mamilla graveyard in West Jerusalem as part of the "Museum of Tolerance" project, a local committee said Tuesday.

The head of the Islamic cemeteries preservation committee, Mustafa Abu Zahra, said large machinery was placed in the cemetery. It poured reinforced concrete in preparation for the building of the structure of the museum.

Abu Zahra added that the structure is scheduled to be built over the "remains of icons, martyrs, grandparents and parents," and he said that the project is being implemented by a California-based center in cooperation with the Jerusalem municipality and other Israeli departments.

The project was started by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in 2001, and 12 dunams of the cemetery ground were seized including 70 percent which was transformed into "Independence Park," he explained.

Abu Zahra said that the construction was a grave assault on Muslim heritage and history.

It is so easy to revive old lies.

The original Museum of Tolerance judgment, and the judgment following a further petition, show very convincingly that all graves in the construction area had been moved years ago and all the other arguments against the museum were without merit:

Museum of Tolerance Judgment by Elder of Ziyon

Mamilla Appeal Judgment by Elder of Ziyon

Furthermore, I had discovered that in 1945, the Supreme Muslim Council planned to turn this supposedly sacred ground into an office park where they would have their headquarters:

It gets better.

The Mufti of Jerusalem built a hotel across the street from the cemetery, and found human remains . He told his people to hush that little fact up. Furthermore, he had so much respect for the cemetery that he redirected sewage pipes into it to facilitate building of his hotel, as this book by Tom Segev documented:

Oh, and Muslims planted fake graves there to stop the construction - and then complained when the Jerusalem municipality destroyed them.

There are plenty of examples of Arab hypocrisy, but rarely are they as stark as we have seen with the Mamilla cemetery controversy. And the Arabs know that they can whip people up in a frenzy by recycling the same, tired lies every few years.

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4 out of 5 Palestinians support stabbing random Jews in Israel

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research just released their latest poll on Palestinian Arab attitudes.

Here is one of their findings:

80% support and 20% oppose attempts by individual Palestinians to stab or run over Israelis in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

The pollster pretends that this is partially a result of another big finding:

An overwhelming majority (86%) believes that al Haram al Sharif is in grave danger: 56% believe that Israel intends to destroy al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with a Jewish temple.

The two are related, but not in the way the pollster claims.

Both of those findings as a result of Mahmoud Abbas and his state-run media, not to mention the incitement from Hamas and other terror groups and plenty of social media, that constantly lie about Jews "desecrating" and planning to destroy Al Aqsa, as well as inciting people to defend it "by any means necessary." Arabic media has been in a frenzy over, literally, nothing and the broad-based support for murder comes directly from this incitement at both the political and media levels.

More proof comes from this other finding, also a direct reflection of what the Arabic media has been trying to push:

56% support return to an armed intifada...Three months ago, support for a return to armed intifada stood at 50% and six months ago at 41%.

Israeli policy hasn't changed. The amount of incitement in Arabic media and from "moderate" politicians, on the other hand, has increased a great deal.

And through some strange freakish logic, many Europeans and "progressives" use these sorts of findings as a reason to give the would-be murderers more and more, in the hope that they will be appeased.

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12/09 Links Pt2: Max Blumenthal: Too Extreme for German Commies, Just Right for the NYT

From Ian:

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Jewish Group Accuses New York Times of “Crossing Red Line” By Publishing American Anti-Semite Max Blumenthal

Less than one month after being indefinitely banned from entering the German parliament following an attempted violent assault on Gregor Gysi, the parliamentary leader of that country’s Left Party, the American anti-Semitic propagandist Max Blumenthal has been handed an opportunity to rescue his sullied reputation by no less than the New York Times – a move decried by a prominent American Jewish leader as “breaching a red line.”
In an article for the Times’ “Room for Debate” section on the proposed “Jewish State bill” that is being energetically discussed in Israel, Blumenthal attacks the “Zionist project” as an inherently racist endeavor.
But in an indication of Blumenthal’s contempt for accurate reporting about Israel, the paper was forced to publish a correction within hours of the piece appearing, after Blumenthal falsely claimed that the Prawer Plan – a bill that would have regulated the settlement of Beduin in the Negev area, but which was shelved last December – had been implemented.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, blasted the New York Times for “insulting” those on the Zionist left in Israel who are opposed to the bill by selecting Blumenthal, “who believes that Zionism is racism,” to make the case against it.
Cooper told The Algemeiner that he welcomed a “healthy, multi-layered” debate about the bill. “But when you invite someone who conflates the illusory crimes of Israel with the Holocaust, then a red line has been crossed,” he said.

Max Blumenthal: Too Extreme for German Commies, Just Right for the New York Times

How bad is the New York Times?
A party of East German Commies gave Max Blumenthal the boot for being a bigot. The left-wing Forward called his book the “I Hate Israel” handbook. His colleague at The Nation said it could have been put out by “The Friends of Hamas Book Club.”
One of Blumenthal’s smears about Israel was picked up by the Neo-Nazi gunman responsible for the Kansas City Jewish community center shootings.
But the influence of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal is still strong enough to get his racist son in at the New York Times. (hat tip to Jamie Kirchik for the link and headline)
Blumenthal rants about how far “rightward” Israel has gone. That’s an ironic accusation coming from a man so far to the left that even German Communists find him extreme and even critics of Israel consider him anti-Semitic.
Max Blumenthal has called for the destruction of Israel. So maybe the New York Times should have looked a little closely at his claims about Israel.

Rolling Stone Apologized. Will the Times?

Have you heard the one about the major news organization that published an abominable piece by a contributor who made no real effort to obtain a thorough account and ran instead with an impassioned story that sounds plausible and moving just as long as you don’t bother looking at the actual facts? I’m not talking about Rolling Stone’s disastrous UVA piece; I’m talking about the New York Times. This morning, the paper of record ran an opinion piece by Max Blumenthal, lambasting Israel for being perpetually predatory to its minorities and neighbors.
Let’s not mince words here: Blumenthal is an anti-Semite. He’s been labeled as such by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as well as by the leader of Germany’s Left opposition party, who cancelled a talk Blumenthal was scheduled to give in the Bundestag. The snub provoked Blumenthal to harass the politician, which got Blumenthal banned from entering the parliament building in the future.
The New York Times editors who invited Blumenthal to contribute, then, knew exactly what they’d get. They must have known, if they’ve ever read anything by or about Blumenthal, that they’d be in for nothing more than a hysterical, slanted, nonsensical account that obliterates all nuance in an effort to convince that Israel is a singularly awful nation—racist, violent, murderous—and therefore has little or no right to exist.

What It’s Like to Be an Atheist in Palestine

Waleed Al Husseini spent 10 months in Palestinian prison for being an atheist blogger. He asks why non-believers like himself are abandoned by the world.
Like many non-religious people around the world, I use the Internet to express my thoughts. It provides a relatively safe way of speaking freely, especially in a country where the vast majority believe in one religion and do not like to hear criticism. Or so I thought.
I used to run a blog in Arabic called “Nour Alakl” and ran a satirical Facebook page under the pseudonym “Allah.” But in October 2010, Palestinian security forces stormed into an Internet cafe and arrested me. Until then, I had been under the impression that I had a right to freedom of speech and to the freedom of belief. But in jail, I was told that my online statements about religion and Islam were illegal. I was told that society didn’t accept such criticisms.
I was beaten by prison guards who demanded to know who had made me write against Islam. In their minds, I could only say these things as the result of some plot, some conspiracy. The idea that I might simply want to express my independent thoughts was alien to them.
The 10 months I spent in Palestinian prison were the worse of my life. I faced constant pressure to retract my statements. I was told they had removed my blog and that I must apologize for publishing it. Even once I was freed, I was told I should never again use the Internet, nor meet with the media. (h/t Effect)

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Belly dancer video causes "furor" in Egypt

From Al Arabiya:

Controversial Egyptian belly dancer Sama al-Masry sparked controversy once again this week after appearing holding underwear in her latest video clip.

In the clip, called “Ahmed, el shebsheb daa” or “Ahmed, I lost my slipper,” the singer appears in provocative clothes and holding underwear in her hands.

After the release of the video clip, many social media users reacted to the scenes.

“The only terrorism act is Sama al-Masry being on television,” one user wrote on Twitter.

The article didn't link to the video, so here it is.

It is certainly suggestive, as the dancer washes her undergarments on a rooftop in front of a weight-lifting macho Egyptian man.

The video itself is pretty horrendous, but it doesn't show anything that wouldn't be on the Disney channel. I think that Egyptian cinema in the 1960s was more risque.

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Muslims to celebrate Chanukah on Temple Mount (in a fashion)

You can expect to see larger than usual crowds of Muslims visiting the Temple Mount on Chanukah.

Arab media are buzzing about calls from Jewish groups to visit the Temple Mount on the eve of Chanukah next Tuesday and during the holiday as well.

So the Al Aqsa Foundation is calling on all Muslims to show up and block the Jews from coming on those days.

It is always interesting to see that the biggest incentive they have to convince Muslims to visit their "holy site" is to prevent Jews from visiting their holy site.

Well, maybe I'm no being fair. Here is a video taken last weekend showing young devout followers of Islam taking classes in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound on how to show their devotion to Allah more keenly.

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