Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, October 21, 2018

Cairo International Film Festival caves to pressure, rescinds honor to a Jewish director

The Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF) will no longer be honoring French film director Claude Lelouch during the festival’s 40th edition, which runs from November 20 to 29.

The CIFF came under harsh criticism by artists and intellectuals who rejected the festival’s recognition of Lelouch, as said he had cooperated with the Israeli army during its occupation to Lebanon.

They also said that the director was previously honored by an Israeli university.

Around 150 people signed a document demanding the CIFF to back down on its plan to award Lelouch, threatening to boycott the festival in case the CIFF didn’t respond to their demands, which comes in support for the Palestinian case and a rejection to celebrating artists who cooperated with Israel.

President of CIFF Mohamed Hefzy told Al-Masry Al-Youm that he would issue an official statement clarifying the reasons behind the decision in canceling Lelouch’s honoring.

Arabic media shows what happened behind the scenes, and it is clear that Lelouch was criticized by being Jewish as much as being pro-Israel.

Immediately after the announcement of the honor to Lelouch, a number of filmmakers objected to the presence of the French director in Cairo and to celebrate it, saying that not only is he a Jew, but also a supporter of Israel's political positions. He said he loved Israel.

Festival president Mohamed Hafez defended Lelouche in a statement last Tuesday. he noted hat many of the world's filmmakers are Jews, many are sympathetic to Israel. He said that Lelouch he did not have a hostile attitude to Arabs or peace. "Not every director or artist who has visited Israel considers himself an enemy of the Arabs. If we acted in this way, we would end up in isolation and only addressing ourselves, especially since Claude Lelouche loves Egypt and welcomed the honor and wants to attend the Cairo Festival," Hafez said.

The pressure mounted though and very quickly the Supreme Advisory Committee of the Cairo International Film Festival issued a statement on Wednesday urging anyone to provide any proof whatspever that would prove that Lelouch was a Zionist or was against Palestinian or Arab rights. They pretty much begged for a reason to turn down the honor, knowing that they didn't have enough, and the prestige of the festival was on the line.

Meanwhile the antisemitic filmmakers and "intellectuals" issued another statement Wednesday evening, announcing their objection to this honor. They also declared their rejection of all forms of "normalization" with Israel "or support for anyone who supports the brutal Zionist enemy until the Arab lands are liberated."

The film festival organizers, meanwhile, found the "smoking gun" evidence that they were seeking giving them cover for rescinding the honor. In 1990, Lelouche visited Israel along with 250 Russian Jewish immigrants and 250 French donors to the Keren Or organization that helps kids with multiple disabilities. During that visit he, along with violinist Ivry Gitlis did "parachute training" with the IDF, and were captured in this picture while clowning around.

That was the excuse that the festival organizers were looking for. On Thursday night, the news was leaked that the honor was canceled.

It is clear that Lelouche's Judaism was the main reason for the initial complaints. After all, Sylvester Stallone - who is a supporter of Israel - was honored at a different Egyptian film festival recently without any objection.

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10/21 Links: Farrakhan’s termite problem; PA TV: Israel stole the Palestinian falafel and hummus; Iran, Assad Regime Using Palestinians to Train Bahraini Terrorists

From Ian:

Farrakhan’s termite problem

How long, we wonder, did it take for Farrakhan to come up with that quip, about his not being an anti-Semite, but rather “anti-termite.”

Words to choke on, you would think.

Lucky for him, had he indeed choked, the Heimlich Maneuver would have saved him, as it has already saved millions around the world, thanks to Jewish scientist Henry Heimlich.

But no thanks from Farrakhan and the multitudes who think like Farrakhan…and who know not the debt they owe to such “termites” for their longevity.

Or maybe we can chalk it up to willful ignorance. They know, but would rather ignore the laboratory work that keeps them ticking.

Asking them to appreciate the enormous Jewish contribution to medical science, why that would be asking for an end to the disease of anti-Semitism.

As we can see, for that, even our finest minds have yet to find a cure.

Doctors for mind and body, Freud and Salk, never asked for gratitude. Jewish scientists just get back to work.

It is the kind of work that surely keeps Farrakhan going. He is 85 years-old, this leader of the Nation of Islam, and he seems healthy enough. Quite vigorous, in fact.

We wonder what ailments and diseases would have cut him short, if not for medicines that were developed by Jewish doctors against syphilis, polio, cholera, diphtheria and smallpox.

PMW: PA TV: Israel stole the Palestinian falafel and hummus along with the rest of the Palestinian heritage

One of the more flavorful accusations against Israel by the Palestinian Authority is that Israel has "stolen the falafel and the hummus." This "theft," according to official PA TV, is part of a "brutal attack" against the entire "Palestinian heritage":
Official PA TV reporter: "We are talking about a brutal attack against the Palestinian heritage in general, including Palestinian foods. There has been theft of the Palestinian falafel, the Palestinian hummus, and some popular foods by the occupation. Holding [food] festivals like these is essential in order to preserve the heritage and also the Palestinian foods." [Official PA TV, Palestine This Morning, Oct. 3, 2018]

This particular accusation is part of the overall PA lie that there is no Jewish history anywhere in the Land of Israel in general and in Jerusalem in particular. The PA falsely claims that everything in the land testifies to a "Palestinian history," and to justify this goes to great lengths to falsify such a Palestinian history. The accusation that Israel has "stolen" the falafel and the hummus, which is Middle Eastern in its origin, is part of the PA's denial of the existence of anything that can be associated with Jewish or Israeli history, and at the same time presenting everything as part of "Palestinian history."

One of the more flavorful accusations against Israel by the PA is that Israel has "stolen the falafel and the hummus." This "theft," according to official PA TV, is part of a "brutal attack" against the entire "Palestinian heritage."
Read more here: https://t.co/a79OSE5Yiz pic.twitter.com/JPEEDGZaDT
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) 21 October 2018

Hamas rejects Egyptian demand to stop Gaza border protests

Hamas has rejected an Egyptian request to halt the weekly demonstrations along the border between the Gaza Strip and Israel, Palestinian sources said on Saturday.

The sources said the Egyptian intelligence officials who met with Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Gaza City last Thursday also demanded that the protesters stay at least 500 meters away from the border. However, Hamas also rejected this demand, the sources told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.

But it did appear to have called for restrained action at Friday’s weekly demonstration, which left the IDF and Hamas in a tense standoff, but failed to ignite a major escalation.

The weekend events were expected to have a significant impact on whether Israel would launch a military operation in Gaza. But the low level of activity kept the situation’s status quo.

On Friday, 10,000 Palestinians again demonstrated near the border, burning tires and hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at IDF troops. There were three attempted infiltrations, in which Palestinians crossed into Israel and then went back to Gaza, the IDF said.

Sources in the Gaza Strip said approximately 130 Palestinians were injured by gunfire and tear-gas inhalation.

Jordan wants Naharayim land. Only one problem...

I mentioned last week that today was the deadline for Jordan to decide not to renew Israel's 25 year rights to land in the Naharayim (Baquoura) and Zofar (Ghamar) areas as stipulated in the 1994 peace treaty.

Jordan's King Abdullah announced on Twitter that he will seek not to renew the agreement.

“Baqoura and Ghumar were at the top of our priorities,” the King tweeted. “Our decision is to terminate the Baquoura and Ghamar annexes from the (1994 Jordan-Israel) peace treaty out of our keenness to take all decisions that would serve Jordan and Jordanians,” said the King in his tweet.

There may be a legal wrinkle in the case of Naharayim, however.

The peace treaty explicitly recognizes that this area is privately owned by Jews:

For the purpose of this Annex the area is detailed in Appendix IV, Recognizing that in the area which is under Jordan's sovereignty with Israeli private land ownership rights and property interests ("Land Owners") in the land comprising the area ("the land").

If Jordan wants the land, it will have to pay. The fee will have to have an amount acceptable to the heirs of the owner.

Netanyahu said that he will renegotiate the agreement. This will get more interesting.

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Ninth-rate academic Juan Cole calls a student going to university in Israel a "BDS WIn"

I haven't looked at idiot academic Juan Cole for a while, but here's his blog headline for a Ma'an story:

Ma'an's headline also called it a "BDS victory" but Cole rewrote it - and he still considers this a "win" for BDS even though the BDS movement is explicitly against students coming to Israel to study.

To think that Cole still tries to pass himself off as a Middle East expert....

(h/t Dan)

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Official PA news agency Wafa reports on an "intellectual seminar" in Tunisia where "experts" discussed Israel's nation-state law.

The seminar apparently called the law "racist" before the meeting occurred.

One of the "experts" who spoke at the seminar shows how "intellectual" the event was.

The President of the Solidarity Society of the Palestinian community in Tunisia said that the main aim of the law was to expel one and a half million Muslim and Christian Arabs to the West Bank. Phase 2 is to expand the border of Israel to reach from the Nile to the Euphrates.

It's a good thing we have Arab experts to explain things for us.

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10/20 Links: Ben-Dror Yemini: An unreasonable ruling; Is Canada Knowingly Funding Extremism and Terrorism — Including Through UNRWA?; Nikki Haley Jokes About Getting ‘Shiksa’

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: An unreasonable ruling

It is possible, it is definitely possible, that the State of Israel should've allowed Lara Alqasem to enter the country from the outset. The damage that may have been done to Israel by denying her entry, as quite a few articles argued, sometimes exceeds the benefits of enforcing the law.

But with all due respect to the writers of these articles, article D(2) of the Entry Into Israel Law clearly states that: an entry permit will not be granted to someone who is not an Israeli national "if he, the organization or the body he acts on behalf of knowingly issues a public call for boycotting Israel."

Alqasem headed a local chapter of the Students for Justice in Palestine, the body that leads the boycott against the State of Israel, and whose heads reject the very existence of the State of Israel.

There is no argument that the government's ministers acted in accordance with their authority. But the Supreme Court reversed the decision on Thursday because, in the opinion of the honorable justices, it is unreasonable: "Alqasem's desire to study in Israel is in contradiction with the idea of boycotting Israel." Excuse me?! Do these judges live in Israel? After all, Israel's universities have both lecturers and students who support the boycott movement. And the boycott movement's most prominent leader, Omar Barghouti, was, and perhaps still is, a student at Tel Aviv University. He's travelling around the world and preaching for the eradication of Israel. Is his or Alqasem's insistence to study at an Israeli university an indication of anything?

I could go on with more and more arguments mentioned in the decision, but there is not enough space to cover all of them. Because the problem with the ruling was and remains in the determination that the decision to deny Alqasem entry was unreasonable.

The range of reasonable responses is supposed to be broad. Very broad. Otherwise, the executive branch's discretion should be revoked and transferred to the jurists. Some citizens would disapprove of the decisions made under the executive branch's discretion. But if everything citizens—mostly if they belong to the media and academic elite—disapprove of becomes unreasonable, we could declare democracy dead. (h/t IsaacStorm)

Is Canada Knowingly Funding Extremism and Terrorism — Including Through UNRWA?

Canadian taxpayer money may be finding its way to Hamas, a known and documented terrorist group. The Criminal Code of Canada forbids funding terrorism, as well as the facilitation of those funding terrorism.

But last Friday, Minister of International Development Marie-Claude Bibeau announced that Canada would send $50 million in the next two years to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). This is in addition to the $110 million that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has committed to UNRWA since 2016. UNRWA has been repeatedly accused of supporting extremism, promoting violence, and not checking beneficiaries against a list of known terrorists provided by the police.

The Canadian announcement made no reference to UNRWA’s alleged connections, and said the money is meant to help provide education and health services to Palestinians.

Funding UNWRA is not illegal in Canada, although given the agency’s reputation, it is a questionable use of taxpayer money. For instance, in August President Donald Trump withdrew $300 million in UNRWA funding. The US government would no longer “shoulder the very disproportionate share of the burden of UNRWA’s costs,” a US State Department press release said, calling it an “irredeemably flawed operation.”

In addition to funding UNRWA, the Trudeau government gave millions of taxpayers’ dollars to Islamic Relief Canada. Some of this money is forwarded to Islamic Relief Worldwide (UK), which has been repeatedly linked to Hamas.

UK: Anjem Choudary Released from Prison

"I believe we are underestimating the potency and danger of the radicalizers who don't carry knives, guns and overtly plot terrorist attacks but who pollute the minds of young Muslim men." — Richard Walton, former head of Scotland Yard's counter-terrorism command.

"I asked the guy who spoke to him if the de-radicalization program had worked and he said, 'No, he's got worse. He's hardened. He speaks in the mind-set of the victim. He sees himself as a martyr the state tried to silence.'" — Fiyaz Mughal, head of the anti-extremist group Faith Matters.

Choudary is now considering mounting a legal challenge to the strict conditions of his release, according to the Telegraph. It reported that he has applied for legal aid funding, at taxpayer expense, to bring his action against government ministers, and arguing the parole conditions breach his human rights.

10/19 Links Pt2: Glick: Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss, Lara Alqasem's Enablers; The Shame of the Anti-Defamation League; Farrakhan Uses CNN's Marc Lamont Hill to Promote $260 Music Box Set

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss, Lara Alqasem's Enablers

Israel’s big mistake was letting Alqasem land at the airport. It tried to correct its mistake when authorities apprehended Alqasem at the border. But as events show, it was too late. As should have been predicted, as soon as she landed at the airport, Alqasem immediately began carrying out her propaganda stunt. In doing so, she demonstrated how important it is for Israeli authorities to properly enforce the entry ban on BDS operatives.

But the incompetence of Israeli immigration officials aside, they aren’t they real culprits in the Alqasem affair.

The culprits in this sordid story are Alqasem and her comrades in her racist movement — as well as their self-serving enablers on the Israeli Left; the American Jewish Left; and, perhaps most critically, Stephens and Weiss.

All of them viewed joining the BDS pile-on over Alqasem as a way to buy credibility — at Israel’s expense.

Media pundits are always quick to proclaim that they are not responsible for anything that happens subsequent to their writing. “We aren’t the decision-makers,” they bleat, as if they are convinced that all of their harping is utterly inconsequential.

These protestations are absurd, however. Pundits chose their profession to influence policymakers and the public. If they didn’t recognize their importance, they would have chosen a different profession. The Stephens-Weiss column was decisive in this absurd anti-Israel propaganda play.

Now that Israel’s Supreme Court has permitted Alqasem to spend a year in Israel, given what we know about the BDS campaign, and what we have observed about her over the past two weeks, we can be certain she will use her time, and her newfound celebrity to harm Israel far more.

She and the bigoted BDS movement she serves have her many enablers — including, and perhaps especially, “unhinged Zionists” Stephens and Weiss — to thank for the opportunity.

Seth Mandel: The Shame of the Anti-Defamation League

The integration of the two into mainstream Democratic Party politics is not a theoretical matter—refer back to the aforementioned Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, Democrats’ praise of Corbyn, etc. Or watch the fusion in action: The confirmation of the judge Greenblatt came out so hard against, Brett Kavanaugh, saw a protest in Washington at which Democratic Senator Kirsten Gillibrand was introduced glowingly by Linda Sarsour. It’s a mutual-admiration society: Last year in Time magazine, the senator extolled the “courage” of “extraordinary women”—Sarsour, Mallory, and two of their colleagues.

If this is Greenblatt’s idea of “branding,” it’s understandable that those who want to fight anti-Semitism but who have been abandoned by Greenblatt—college students, political conservatives, strident pro-Israel advocates—would look to fill the gap. And it’s certainly reasonable for the existing Jewish establishment to be alarmed at the wrecking-ball revolutionary who wants to replace it with one that finds the very idea of criticizing anti-Semitism outrageous.

Greenblatt appears to see himself as a “disruptor,” the Silicon Valley self-designation that supposed rebels wear with pride. At a speech on philanthropy in Israel in 2017, he boasted of his work at the Obama White House, where he led the Office of Social Innovation and instituted “outcome-based payments, civic hackathons, and hybrid value chains.” His efforts “catalyzed new public-private partnerships that facilitated the flow of large-scale capital on long-standing problems.”

When he segued into his new responsibilities as head of the Anti-Defamation League, he didn’t leave his inner Elon Musk behind: “The question that animates me every day is, How can I apply what I learned in business and government to the social sector, how can I infuse our work with innovation and impact?”

He warned: “We have crossed a threshold that is less about the micro-economics of individual labor markets and more about the meta-economics of our common humanity. Facing planetary challenges like accelerating climate change, shrinking water and food access, and widening income gaps, we urgently need new response strategies.”

You almost expect Greenblatt to announce how to prevent cemetery vandalism using blockchain. Good luck solving climate change by catalyzing partnerships of civic hackathons that address the meta-economics of our common humanity, I guess. But the Anti-Defamation League isn’t the vehicle for it.

And it is apparently the vehicle for the study of anti-Semitic outburst against journalists only when the journalists share Greenblatt’s ideological presumptions. During the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, a combination of alt-right agitators and Russian trolls began making life online hellish for conservative opponents of Trump. Writers and pundits would be tweeted pictures of their faces imposed on a Jew locked in a gas chamber with Donald Trump about to push the button, or some other explicit Nazi threat. Soon the harassment moved off Twitter. My family was doxxed by a neo-Nazi site. My wife, Bethany Mandel, started getting phone calls of recordings of Hitler speeches. This became a common occurrence, but groups like the ADL seemed to notice only when Trump won the nomination and the harassers turned their attention to liberal journalists like Julia Ioffe. Then, and only then, was the anti-Semitic social-media wave treated as a new and terrifying crisis.

The ADL, which boasts that it “has been a pioneer in confronting cyberhate” since 1985, was revealed to be living in a partisan bubble. It convened a study, released in October 2016, to get to the bottom of the anti-Semitic cyber targeting. It turned out that my wife was one of the 10 most-harassed Jewish journalists during the election. Significantly, the top target—by a mile—was the conservative pundit Ben Shapiro, who received nearly 40 percent of the hate tweets. Conservative Jewish journalists were the ones most in need of a group like the ADL—and they continue to be least served by it.

Louis Farrakhan Uses CNN's Marc Lamont Hill to Promote $260 Music Box Set

Louis Farrakhan is using a photo with CNN contributor Marc Lamont Hill to promote a $260 box set of music on his Nation of Islam website, TheWrap has learned.

Hill, a political commentator for CNN touted on the site as “one of the leading intellectual voices in the country,” told TheWrap that he was not aware his image was being used for commercial purposes and will ask for its removal.

“I don’t want to be used to promote anybody’s materials,” he said. “I am going to ask for it to be taken down as I don’t think it’s consistent with my values and my professional standards.”

Hill said the photo was taken sometime in the autumn of 2016 after the minister invited a number of people to a Wyoming farm to listen to the new album. “It wasn’t like one big event it was just people, cycling in and out,” he said. “It was good music actually.”

If you worry that people might look at history and see that Jews are indigenous to Israel, flipping the script of who is a colonialist and who is native, we have "scholars" who are ready to say that the ancient Israelites were also settler colonialists:

This essay looks at ancient Israel as a settler colonial society. After an introductory paragraph that describes the significance of the study of ancient Israel for the study of settler colonialism, it summarises various approaches to the study of the history of ancient Israel. It then presents evidence for seeing the Israelite documents and early history in settler colonial terms. Finally, it looks at some aspects of decolonisation of the biblical narrative based on acknowledging at least the very possibility of a settler colonial nature of early Israel.

The same author seems a little obsessed with looking at Jews, and only Jews, in settler colonialist terms. He has also written

Ancient Israelite population economy: ger, toshav, nakhri and karat as settler colonial categories

A Commentary on Numbers: Narrative, Ritual, and Colonialism

Pitkänen, Pekka M A (2016) The ecological-evolutionary theory, migration, settler colonialism, sociology of violence and the origins of ancient Israel. Cogent Social Sciences, 2 (1). pp. 1-23. ISSN 2331-1886

Pitkänen, Pekka M A (2015) Ancient Israel and Philistia: Settler Colonialism and Ethnocultural Interaction. Ugarit Forschungen, 45. pp. 233-263. ISSN 978-3-86835-137-8

Pitkänen, Pekka M A (2015) Reading Genesis–Joshua as a Unified Document from an Early Date: A Settler Colonial Perspective. Biblical Theology Bulletin: Journal of Bible and Culture, 45 (1). pp. 3-31. ISSN 0146-1079

Pitkänen, Pekka M A (2014) Pentateuch–Joshua: a settler-colonial document of a supplanting society. Settler Colonial Studies, 4 (3). pp. 245-276. ISSN 2201-473X

A quick look at indexes of scholarly literature does not find any articles on Arab colonialism in the Middle East.

Think about that.

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10/19 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick: Mowing the lawn in Gaza; Jerusalem embassy is logical step in Australia-Israel relationship; Hamas Makes It Clear It Has No Interest in Peace with Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Mowing the lawn in Gaza

According to media reports, the cabinet decided Wednesday night to “change the rules of the game” in relation to Hamas, and particularly in relation to its riots along the border every Friday afternoon. What this means remains to be seen.

Perhaps the IDF will assert control over the security perimeter it controlled on the Gaza side of the border until the end of 2012. Israel abandoned its security perimeter, which was 300 meters wide, and permitted Gazans to farm along the border fence, (and so set the conditions for Hamas’s current border aggression) in the framework of cease-fire talks at the end of Operation Pillar of Defense – the mini-war it fought against Hamas in 2012. Such a move would certainly constitute a significant improvement over the current situation.

Perhaps Israel will carry out major air assaults that could destroy a significant number of Hamas’s missile and mortar stocks. Perhaps Israel could retaliate for Wednesday’s missile strike by destroying the homes of Hamas leaders.

Whatever it does, and whatever military moves Israel makes, the fact is that Israel cannot end the menace it faces from Hamas. It can and should weaken Hamas’s war-fighting capability and perhaps intimidate Hamas leaders into cooling their jets for a few months or a year or two. But the next round will come whenever Hamas decides to open one and Israel will be forced to respond again.

As for Judea and Samaria, Israel has no reason to be concerned about who is in charge and to what degree they are in charge in the Palestinian population centers so long as Israel retains overall security control of the area. We don’t have a dog in the fight. None of the possible successors to Mahmoud Abbas or to his kleptocratic PA are any better than he is. And none of them are significantly worse.

The main strategic takeaway from Gaza and from Judea and Samaria is that there is no solution, military or otherwise to the Palestinians’ never-ending war against the Jewish state.

All Israel can do is secure its control over what it already controls by, among other things, applying its law to Area C, and use military force to limit the Palestinians’ ability to attack its civilians and its territory.

The coming days and weeks may and should see a significant escalation in IDF offensive strikes against Hamas targets in Gaza. But no matter how successful they may or may not be, they shouldn’t be seen as anything more than a military version of mowing the lawn. And just as grass grows back, so Hamas will rebuild its strength. Israel’s challenge is not to uproot the grass, but to maintain the capability to keep it as short as possible.

Who knows? Maybe one day the Palestinians will get tired of fighting and there will be peace.

Dueling Op Eds in the Australian press
Colin Rubenstein: Jerusalem embassy is logical step in Australia-Israel relationship

However, an examination of trade data between the US and Arab and Muslim states since President Donald Trump’s announcement in December 2017 of his decision on this issue and subsequent move of the US embassy to Jerusalem shows no evidence that the announcement had any negative effect on US trade with most Arab and Muslim countries.

As federal Trade Minister Simon Birmingham argued regarding the resilience of Australia’s trade ties with Indonesia: you “don't … expect that two nations will always agree in terms of foreign policy positions as they relate to a third nation. But that shouldn't get in the way of a strong bilateral relationship".

Similarly, claims that there is something diplomatically improper about recognising Israel’s sovereignty in west Jerusalem or moving our embassy there has no historical basis. In 1966, 20 countries, including the Netherlands, located their embassies to Israel in Jerusalem. The Arab oil embargo of the 1970s and feeble defence by the US Carter administration against Palestinian pressure at the UN on this issue in 1980 eventually led to an embassy flight. Since 1995 it has been US law to recognise Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the US embassy to Jerusalem, mandates that the Trump administration has boldly implemented.

Moreover, there is a strong case to be made that an embassy move may help unlock the peace-process deadlock. The US embassy move has been part of a range of measures under a strategy by the Trump administration to break through the current impasse by signalling to the Palestinian leadership that time is not on their side. Australia’s bipartisan policy of supporting a negotiated two-state peace would be best served by doing what we can to assist these efforts to encourage a return to direct negotiations.

It should be further recognised that the PM's reviews of both the Iran and Jerusalem issues will also be well received by our most important strategic ally in Washington – a critical national interest consideration at a time when Australian security and economic concerns vis-a-vis North Korea and China loom larger than ever.

Scott Morrison, who has reaffirmed his decision to evaluate the potential policy shifts in the face of misplaced criticisms and intense pressure, should be commended for his tenacity and his unwillingness to buckle under threats both foreign and domestic.

Colin Rubenstein is executive director of The Australia/Israel & Jewish Affairs Council.

Izzat Abdulhadi: What Australian embassy move would really mean

In consideration of all this, one thing should be exceedingly clear: successive Israeli governments have not distinguished between East and West Jerusalem. Why then, do the supporters of unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital insist that such a move would be confined to only the western part of the city when Israel itself has and continues to ignore this crucial distinction?

Recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel would mean, in practical terms, legitimising the de facto realities (which are clear for all to see), and affirming Israel’s ultimate vision for the city. If Israel considers Jerusalem one and the same city, then it will similarly consider Australia’s recognition and embassy relocation as affirmation of this, regardless of whether our diplomatic presence would be physically located in the west.

Morrison is right on one point, though. His assertion that “you don’t keep doing the same thing and expecting different results” is sage advice. If Australia, as a so-called “middle power”, seeks to use what leverage it has to push both parties closer to a two-state peace – and to prevent the toxic and unsustainable status quo from continuing unaddressed – then the most sensible course of action would be to restore legitimacy to the weaker and exploited side by recognising a Palestinian state on 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital. And to not embolden Netanyahu’s government in ignoring legitimate Palestinian claims in its pursuit of an exclusive and “greater Israel”.

Izzat Abdulhadi is Palestinian envoy to Canberra. Co-written with Cam Brady.

Australia can not sit on the fence when an ally is repeatedly attacked by despot nations that have corrupted the UN. Let's not forget that the UNHRC is full of brutal regimes with deplorable human rights records.

MORE: https://t.co/lhOiV09pAF #TheFridayShow pic.twitter.com/6pT9EWFUnJ
— Sky News Australia (@SkyNewsAust) October 19, 2018

J-Street takes credit for what the Israeli Supreme Court did

From an email by J-Street:

On Tuesday, J Street joined with a broad coalition of Jewish organizations to oppose the detention and possible expulsion of American student Lara Alqasem by telling the Israeli government to #LetHerStay.

Today, we have some good news to report. Lara Alqasem has won her appeal and will be allowed to study human rights at Hebrew University.

By making calls to Israeli diplomatic missions, tweeting to diplomats and showing your support online and in the streets, YOU stood up for Israel’s democracy and helped to protect the education of a future human rights advocate in the region.

Does J-Street think that Israel's Supreme Court was swayed by a bunch of left-wing American Jews?

Perhaps J-Street doesn't want to give any credit to Israel's Supreme Court as looking at the case with an unbiased view based on only the facts and the law.

Because if J-Street would admit that Israel's Supreme Court actually cares about the law and human rights, it wouldn't be able to write things like this:

Recently, in a very controversial move, the Israeli Supreme Court gave the Netanyahu government the green light to demolish the Palestinian village of Khan al-Ahmar. The move would displace 180 Palestinians and clear the way for Israel to expand settlements into the contentious E1 Area, thereby forming a block that would separate East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.

If J-Street would admit that Israel's Supreme Court makes decisions based on the law, including human rights law, then it cannot complain that Israeli policies that are upheld by the court are wrong, as it likes to do.

When Jews are forcibly removed from their homes based on High Court decisions, J-Street applauds and agrees that the homes were built illegally. When Arabs are to be removed from homes that Israel's High Court say were built illegally (with compensation and with new towns built for them!) J-Street complains that it is immoral.

J-Street doesn't care about the law or morality or consistency. It wants to push its far-left agenda under the pretense of caring about "justice."

Justice is the least concern of J-Street.

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PLO intends to hijack Islamophobia conference in Istanbul

There is a conference on Islamophobia in Istanbul this weekend sponsored by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. (and a separate scholarly conference on the same topic next week.)

The aim of the conference is to "establish a dialogue among those interested in analyzing the phenomenon of Islamophobia objectively by tracing the roots and practices of discriminatory policies against Muslim societies in order to understand the context in which racism against Islam has developed and the role it plays today in undermining Muslim human rights."

The PLO was invited to the conference, and - as it does when it joins any international initiative - it will attempt to hijack the conference to make it into an anti-Israel hatefest.

The Palestinian representative has stated that he will demand that the final communique of the conference include "a clear condemnation of Israel for its role in supporting a campaign of Islamophobia, and it should stress that confronting Islamophobia in the world requires solving the Palestinian issue in a just solution that guarantees the rights of the Palestinian people in an independent state according to international resolutions with Jerusalem as its capital."

Keep in mind that by any reasonable metric, Israel gives Muslims more rights and freedoms than most Western countries do - no limits on minarets, no limits on women wearing Islamic dress, and a higher percentage of Muslims in official roles than probably any other Western country. (Even Algeria just passed a law limiting women wearing burqas.)

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A new video by Hamas threatens Israel with more rockets, warning Israel not to make any "mistakes":

Meanwhile, apparently some Hamas official said that the Palestinian Authority might have shot the rockets in order to force Israel to start a war with Gaza. Fatah responded by pointing out Hamas' hypocrisy; when the PA controlled Gaza and asked Hamas not to fire rockets it responded then by insisting on its rights to fire them and calling those who opposed them "traitors" - eventually expelling them from Gaza. Now it is coming out against rocket fire.

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10/18 Links Pt2: Phillips: Corbyn is not the cause of left-wing Jew hate, he's the result of it; Even after 46 years, Fatah still lauds its Olympics massacre

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Jeremy Corbyn is not the cause of left-wing Jew hate, he's the result of it

There are two two principal reasons why the left is institutionally antisemitic.

The first is that “Palestine” is its signature cause of causes. And the “Palestine” cause inescapably rests upon the extermination of Israel and the obliteration of the Jewish people from their own national story in their ancient homeland — the triple connection which constitutes Judaism itself.

The second is that, for the left, the world is divided into the powerful and the powerless. Those with power can never be good; those without power can never be bad. So every group deemed to be powerless claims victim status.

But grotesquely, Jews aren’t seen as victims because, as everyone “knows”, they emerged from the Holocaust to run the financial world, the media, the law, the arts, American foreign policy.

What’s more, since Israel is highly armed (solely for its defence) the Jews are seen as an all-powerful global force.

And so ancient anti-Jewish paranoia has been given loathsome legs on the left. And hence also the left’s extreme reluctance to acknowledge the disproportionate involvement of Muslims in antisemitic incidents in Britain and Europe.

The frequency of overt antisemitism on the left is not the key issue. It’s rather the collusion by Jeremy Corbyn with this bigotry — not only his refusal to deal with it in his party, but the fact that he himself is associated with these attitudes.

This is a cultural poison of long standing of which Corbyn is not the cause but the extremely problematic result.

Caroline Glick: Jewish Democrats Increasingly Anti-Israel

The current election cycle makes this point very clearly. As JTA reported this week, there are 36 Jewish candidates running as Democrats in House races. Half are incumbents, and half are challengers.

Over two-thirds of the Jewish Democratic incumbents (13 of 18) supported President Barack Obama’s nuclear deal with Iran. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was the most outspoken critic of the deal, arguing that it posed an existential danger to Israel by giving Iran an open path to a nuclear arsenal. Three-quarters of Israeli Jews agreed with him.

Nearly half of the Jewish Democratic incumbents (7 of 18) have received contributions from J Street, the anti-Israel Jewish political group founded with help from George Soros. Throughout Obama’s years in office, J Street served as the administration’s Jewish fig leaf.

J Street was a central actor in the campaign to block a Senate veto of the Iran deal. It has placed the blame for the failure of the Israel-Palestinian peace process squarely on Israel’s shoulders, and campus chapters of J Street have reportedly aided anti-Israel activists in attempts to support the antisemitic “boycott, divestment and sanctions” (BDS) campaign against Israel. The organization is considered so hostile to Israel that Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Ron Dermer, refuses to meet with its representatives.

Among the Democratic challengers, five of 18 have received funding from J Street, according to JTA’s report. Ten have received money from other far-left PACs or were endorsed by Obama.

One of the Democratic candidates, Dan Kohl, who is running in Wisconsin’s 6th District against two-term Republican incumbent Glenn Grothman, is one of J Street’s founders, and its first political director. His uncle, Herb Kohl, served as a Senator from Wisconsin for four terms and was staunchly supportive of Israel.

The Story Of David And Goliath Gets Archaeological Evidence Backing It Up

Scoffers beware: the Biblical tale of David and Goliath just got more real than ever, thanks to an archaeological discovery that fits the Biblical description of Goliath’s armor.

In the Biblical tale, roughly 3,000 years ago, David, when he was still a young shepherd and not yet the immortal king, engaged in single combat on behalf of the Jews against Goliath, the huge champion of the Jews’ arch-enemies: the Philistines. The story read like this:

A champion named Goliath, who was from Gath, came out of the Philistine camp. His height was six cubits and a span. He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze weighing five thousand shekels; on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back. His spear shaft was like a weaver’s rod, and its iron point weighed six hundred shekels. His shield bearer went ahead of him.

Goliath stood and shouted to the ranks of Israel, “Why do you come out and line up for battle? Am I not a Philistine, and are you not the servants of Saul? Choose a man and have him come down to me. If he is able to fight and kill me, we will become your subjects; but if I overcome him and kill him, you will become our subjects and serve us.”

After David volunteered to fight Goliath, David confronted him: “As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him. Reaching into his bag and taking out a stone, he slung it and struck the Philistine on the forehead. The stone sank into his forehead, and he fell facedown on the ground. So David triumphed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone; without a sword in his hand he struck down the Philistine and killed him. David ran and stood over him. He took hold of the Philistine’s sword and drew it from the sheath. After he killed him, he cut off his head with the sword.”

As Haaretz reports, in 2017 archaeologists found shards of pottery in Philistine Gath that were inscribed with names similar to Goliath’s. In the first book of Samuel, it states, “He had a bronze helmet on his head and wore a coat of scale armor of bronze ... on his legs he wore bronze greaves, and a bronze javelin was slung on his back.”

More about the mother who saved her kids from the Gaza rocket

A short Twitter thread from Lenny Ben David, slightly edited:

________________

Beer Sheva mother's called national hero.

She woke to sirens in middle of night, ran upstairs to grab 3 sleeping kids from 3 bedrooms, ran downstairs; got all into bomb shelter and shut the blast door just as the rocket hit.

Commentators say that had there been casualties, #Israel would be at war.

Her house was totaled. The woman, Miri Tamano, raising her 3 kids, is a divorcee who was laid off 6 months ago. With a BA and writing skills.
BTW, she's a Ethiopian Jew.

Here is picture of Miri Tamano who was interviewed on Israeli TV. She detailed her rescue of her 3 boys, the terror of the rocket hitting her house, telling her boys to hold their crying in to say from Psalms "Give thanks to God for He is good, for His goodness endured forever"

"The bomb shelter's door was blocked, gas leaking, water, then the rescue team got us out. It was a miracle.

"Maybe I am God's messenger to tell people to take the sirens seriously and get into the shelters."

JPost adds:

“I heard the alarm,” she told the media. “I thought it was dream. When I came to my senses, I hurried to take the children to the security room. I was trembling and I was afraid.”

Her sister Ora said that Tamano was sleeping on the first floor, ran up the stairs, and woke her three sons, ages eight, 10 and 12, who all slept in different rooms.

“Two of them didn’t want to wake up and she had to drag them out of bed,” Ora said.

The two-story home, located on a small cul-de-sac off a main road, was completely destroyed.

“I no longer have a home,” she said. “The memories are gone. Inside the house, the closets were stuffed with all kinds of things – and now there’s nothing left.”

Those asking about sending funds, Miri and family received a few thousand dollars for immediate needs from the Jewish Agency for Israel and from the Jewish community of Montreal, Beer Sheva's sister city.

Israeli government agencies have lots of experience in such cases, unfortunately.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism in the US recently published an op-ed in Ha’aretz entitled “The One Speech Netanyahu Will Never Make to Diaspora Jews,” a not-too-clever attempt to imagine what it would be like for our PM to agree with him. He is quite right that Netanyahu would never say the things he has put in his mouth.

Jacobs seems to believe that he knows what’s best for Israel better than those who live here, send their children to the army, and duck when rockets are launched at them. His movement has taken up the cause of transforming Israeli society into a replica of liberal America, whether Israelis like it or not.

In the spirit of providing free speechwriting services to important people, I have generously written a similar speech for Rabbi Jacobs to deliver to Israeli Jews. I hope he will use it someday, although the likelihood of that approaches zero. Much of what he wrote for our PM to say can be reused with minor changes, so that’s what I did. The portions in italics are direct quotations from Rabbi Jacobs’ proposed speech for PM Netanyahu. My additions and changes are in boldface.

***

Dear Israeli Jews,

It’s truly a gift to see so many of you here for this dialogue between our two Jewish communities, North American and Israeli Jewry. I realize that things have been tense recently between our communities. In the spirit of Yom Kippur, lingering after the gates have closed, I want to acknowledge my responsibility here.

Let’s start with the Kotel, a place that should unite – not divide – all Jews. American Reform and Conservative Jews practice mixed-gender prayer, and we would like to be able to pray our way when we visit the Kotel in Israel. We would like the members of our Israeli movements to be able to do so as well. But the 40% of Israelis that see themselves as religious or traditional – ranging from the 12% who are Haredi (“ultra-Orthodox”) to those for whom “the synagogue they don’t go to is Orthodox” – do not pray that way. Indeed, Haredim and some others on the observant side of the spectrum find mixed-gender prayer highly offensive, especially at the Kotel, which they treat as an Orthodox synagogue. And fewer than one-half of one percent of Israeli Jews are affiliated with the Reform and Conservative movements (no, the figure is not as high as 12%. Read the linked article).

Now, I strongly disagree with those who find offensive what I find beautiful. But because I care about Jewish unity and shalom bayit, I believe it would be wrong to impose my American-oriented views and those of a handful of Israelis on a much larger number of more traditional ones. And so I am withdrawing my demand to allow mixed-gender prayer at the Kotel.

I have accused you of “disenfranchising the largest segment of practicing Jewry in the world.” But perhaps I engaged in a bit of hyperbole. What you do in Israel doesn’t “disenfranchise” anyone in the Diaspora, where Jews are free to practice Judaism however they want. And while I strongly disapprove of the way conversion and marriage are handled in Israel (and on this, many Israelis agree with me!), I realize that this is up to Israelis to decide. After all, Israel is a sovereign state!

I believe [the recently-passed Nation-State Law] is an important one that expresses the recognition by all of us that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people. I also know, however, that there are many concerns among Israelis, North American Jews, and other friends and allies. Let me set everyone’s minds at rest. The Nation-State Law does not damage the rights of minorities of any kind. And those rights are enshrined in other Basic Laws, so there is no need to repeat them here. In particular, there is no need for a “principle of equality,” which could be interpreted to grant national rights in addition to the civil and political rights that your minorities enjoy. And while my country, the US, is a “state of all of its citizens,” I understand that Israel is not. Didn’t I just say that at the beginning of this paragraph?

And, let me say something about BDS. You are a strong enough people to handle criticism from those who object to your self-defense. In this spirit, you ought to prevent entrance to Israel of those who would exploit open borders for the purpose of delegitimizing and demonizing your state. Entry to Israel for non-Israelis is a privilege, not a right.

Meanwhile, I am awaiting the Trump peace plan. I have no confidence in President Trump, perhaps, even lessthan many of you. What can I say? I hate the guy. I see myself as part of the “resistance.” [Scattered nervous laughter.]

But, I am not myopic. I know that you cannot have a secure Israel with a terrorist Palestinian state by your side. There, I said it. [Some light applause.]

My friends, your country’s security is intimately tied to the friendship of the United States of America. I pledge that I will do everything possible to rebuild bipartisan consensus in Washington, so vital to Israel that I, following the lead of President Obama, tried so hard to wreck.

I will never sacrifice the deep bonds that exist between Israel and North American Jewry, including among progressive Jews who love Israel as dearly as I do. Yes, you [pointing to someone on stage who looks confused] heard me correctly.

In closing, I want to say you are welcome … as our dear partners and that I will try to work on my boundary issues and act as though Israel is a sovereign state, hard as that may be for me.

Thank you.

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