Thursday, October 22, 2015

The world’s hate affair with the Jewish people (Vic Rosenthal)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Several Arab members of UNESCO recently proposed (on behalf of the Palestinian Arabs) that the Western Wall be declared a part of the al-Aqsa complex and therefore a Muslim holy site. The vote was supposed to take place Wednesday, but the proposal was withdrawn at the last moment, presumably as a result of US pressure.

Like most UN bodies, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization has an automatic anti-Israel majority. So if it had come to a vote, the proposal certainly would have passed, despite being a ludicrous inversion of history (as it is, UNESCO decided that Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs are Muslim sites).

This is the way things are at the UN, where a resolution that the world is flat and the Moon made of cheese would pass if it somehow could be presented as pro-Palestinian and anti-Israel.

The UN was established after WWII in order to provide a way to prevent war and to keep humankind on the path of progress. There are a lot of reasons that it hasn’t worked out; one of these is that the founders apparently didn’t envision the rise of the non-aligned bloc consisting of mostly Muslim countries, many of which were fragments of former colonial entities, that would not be responsive to the desires of the great powers.

It’s interesting the way the Palestinian issue, of all the possible grievances – including others involving Arabs or Muslims – that the UN could deal with, has managed to capture so much of the UN’s time, resources and personnel. No other issue has as many committees, working groups, divisions, or “special rapporteurs” devoted to it; and no other issue by far is the subject of as many reports and resolutions of the UN’s multifarious fora and agencies. And of course nothing soaks up as much money. This is despite the numerous wars and genocides that have occurred since the UN’s founding which the UN has been unable to prevent.

It has gotten to the point that the UN is so dysfunctional that it no longer has a reason to exist. I have on several occasions suggested that those agencies which still provide useful functions (possibly WHO, ITU, and a few others) and haven’t become simply branches of the Palestinian cause be spun off as independent entities and the UN abolished. This would save billions of dollars, probably promote peace, and improve the parking situation in lower Manhattan immeasurably.

But it has occurred to me that the UN is only one example of a more general phenomenon: that of Palestinism invading and occupying almost any kind of institution, monopolizing its resources, and preventing it from fulfilling its originally intended function. Instead, affected organizations pass BDS resolutions, sponsor anti-Israel events and speakers, support bogus ‘research’ and ‘academic’ studies, and in general engage in pro-Palestinian anti-Israel political advocacy.

Consider, for example, the Presbyterian Church (USA) and other liberal religious groups, the American Studies Association, student governments, various trade unions and political parties – the list is endless. Even the Jewish community is not immune, with Palestinism – in the form of Ameinu, J Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Open Hillel, the New Israel Fund, and others – injecting itself into organizations like the Jewish Federations and JCRCs, campus Hillel groups, and even the World Zionist Congress (which includes representatives of some of the left-wing groups listed above).

But simple counterexamples can be found to the idea that the “pro-Palestinians” are actually motivated by support for Palestinian Arabs. For example, Bashar al-Assad has starved and murdered hundreds of them in ‘refugee camps’ in Syria; and now they are being attacked by ISIS. Little, if anything, has been done by the world – or by any of the above-mentioned Palestinian cheerleaders – to help them. In 1991, some 200,000 Palestinian workers were persecuted and expelled from Kuwait, an action which in the words of Steven Rosen, was “largely ignored by the international community with neither the U.N. Security Council nor the General Assembly doing anything to assist the newly displaced refugees and punish their ethnic cleanser.”

I don’t think I have to explain this. The truth is that the impetus for the spread of the Palestinian movement in so many venues does not truly come from sympathy with Palestinian Arabs, except in one respect: their national project to destroy Israel.

The international community’s love affair with the Palestinian Arabs is actually a “hate affair” with their enemy, the state of Israel. I’m sure that if anti-Zionist Martians were to land on Earth tomorrow, they would be immediately welcomed at the UN and on many university campuses. This is the only way to explain why the devotees of human rights at the Presbyterian Church (USA) have settled on Israel to boycott rather than, for example, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and other countries that so egregiously violate human rights.

But we need to take the analysis one step further. What is it about Israel, among all nations, that makes it such a hate magnet? I can tell you that it is a wonderful country, which goes far out of its way – even to the point of endangering its existence – to do the right thing for minorities, especially including Arabs.

No, the problem is not that Israel is objectively deserving of hate. It is because Israel is a Jewish state, and there is nothing that gets the world’s goat more than the despised Jew being successful and thriving. Pharaoh didn’t trust us and made us slaves in around 1800 BCE, the English expelled us in 1290 and the Spanish in 1492. Whenever the Jews start doing too well, the nations start to worry and act against them.

That’s why Jews were kicked out of country after country, why Hitler and Stalin murdered them, and why students at Berkeley – even Jewish students – flock to join Students for Justice in Palestine. Today, thanks to the Internet and Al-Jazeera, Jew-hatred has been globalized.

The Western attitude has little to do with ‘Palestine’ and Palestinian Arabs. It is all about Israel and Israeli Jews. The West doesn’t want to see us strong and vigorous; our good economy, high birthrate and scientific and cultural achievements are a reproach to them. They prefer the Palestinian Arabs with their cruelty, intolerance and misogyny, perhaps because they can feel superior to them.

If nations had psychologists, this behavior would be considered so irrational as to imply a mental disorder.

The world’s support – via European NGOs, unrelenting American pressure for concessions, Iranian rockets, UN money, and media and academic pogromists everywhere – has had the effect of enabling, excusing and even justifying the extreme savagery of today’s “knife intifada,” in which the Arabs are daily expressing a degree of Jew-hatred unmatched since the Nazi era. Only their lack of means and our armed strength prevents another genocide. The Palestinian Arabs hold the knives, but the world cheers them from the sidelines.

How should Israel act in such an environment of irrational hate?

1. Defeat our enemies. Nobody will help, but on the other hand, if we act decisively (and quickly) nobody will intervene effectively either. Stop trying to fight wars without hurting anyone.

2. Humor the neurotic West, but do not become entangled in its initiatives.

3. Don’t talk about how moral and just we are, or how great our contributions to society. This makes them hate us more.

4. Make them respect us or even fear us if possible. We will not get their love.

5. Don’t explain too much and don’t apologize.

6. Reduce our participation in international organizations to the minimum possible. They only work against us.

7. Try to improve relations with pragmatic regimes like Russia, China, India and Eastern European countries. Nothing can be done with Western Europe and the US.

8. Understand that we can’t be as open, liberal and democratic as we might like. But we mustn’t compromise on the Jewish nature of the state, because if we lose it, we lose the state in its entirety.

We are about to enter a very difficult period of history, the proverbial ‘interesting times’. The rules will be different from those that sustained the Jewish people for the last 2000 years. We’ll survive only if we can adapt.

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Why the Mufti is important today

Someone tweeted me about how "Jews are living in the past" and the Mufti of Jerusalem is not important today.

Yet he is. And the reason is because Israel's "peace partners" look at this person who explicitly wanted to destroy all Jews as their role model.

Here is Mahmoud Abbas praising the Mufti in a 2013 speech, one where he specifically also praised Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorists as "martyrs."

History is important - because every claim of Palestinian Arabs against Israel is based on false history.

It starts with the myth that there was a separate, distinguishable "Palestinian people" before 1948. There wasn't. There were Arabs who did not think in terms of national borders, who freely moved between Syria and Palestine and Morocco and Egypt as they needed to for economic of other reasons. the idea that the people who happened to be in the area of British Mandate Palestine in 1948 are magically labeled "Palestinian" is an arbitrary fiction. They fully expected to be integrated into neighboring Arab nations the same way many of them had moved to Palestine over the previous century.

That is just one of many myths that animate the Palestinians today.

If the entire Palestinian Arab claim is based on false history, it is Israel's obligation to keep correcting it.

But the case of the Mufti is even worse, because the praise for him is happening today.

If a Confederate flag is offensive today, then how much more offensive is praise for a man who openly espoused and helped participate in the murder of millions of people?

The Mufti gave a speech in November 1943, after he was aware of the Final Solution:

26 years ago the Jews received the Balfour Declaration so they could build a national Jewish homeland. The British betrayed the Arabs and Islam by supporting the Jews. Jews are selfish.

They think they are the chosen people and that all the other people of the world are meant to serve them. The Jews are the enemy of Islam – they are the ones killed the prophet Mohammad!” The Mufti continues, “The Jewish British minister [Benjamin] Disraeli bought the Suez Canal, thus paving the way for the British to conquer Egypt. And Algerian Jews helped France occupy Algeria. ...The Arabs – and especially the Muslims – must expel the Jews from Arab countries.

This is the ultimate solution.

The prophet Mohammad used this solution 1,300 years ago.

The Treaty of Versailles was a disaster for Germany and for the Arabs, but the Germans know how to get rid of the Jews, and this is why the Arab world has such close relations with Germany.

The most important thing is that they have found the final solution to the Jewish problem. Time is working against the Jews even though the Allies are helping them.

He may have even been planning to build death camps in Palestine for the Jews (same link.)

So, yes, the Mufti is important to remember - because by praising the Mufti, the Palestinian Arabs are condoning his hate. And that is a big deal.

The irony is that this "father of Palestinian nationalism" was in the forefront of wanting Palestine to become part of Syria in the early 1920s.

Which indicates the real truth we can learn from history, and is borne out even today:

Arabs in Palestine never really wanted a state so much as they wanted to ensure that the Jews didn't have one.

Times of Israel reports:

Hamas political chief Khaled Mashaal told a government-endorsed rally in South Africa on Wednesday that the wave of stabbing attacks against Israelis would continue.

Referring to the terror attacks as “the Jerusalem intifada,” Mashaal told a crowd of several hundred supporters waving Hamas’s white-and-green flag in Cape Town that “the uprisings shall continue until freedom is achieved and the land is for Palestine and its people.”

He compared the Palestinian cause to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.

“South Africa, you have achieved your freedom, the people of Palestine are aspiring to attain their freedom,” he said.

“Do not expect that they should stop with the uprising, do not expect that they should stop with the resistance.”

The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem has expressed “shock and outrage” at South Africa’s hosting of the terror group’s leaders, and on Monday summoned South Africa’s deputy ambassador “for a reprimand,” ministry spokesperson Emmanuel Nahshon said.

The ANC’s invitation to Hamas “provided a tailwind for terrorism and blatantly and crudely ignored the position of the international community, which considers Hamas a terror organization,” Nahshon fumed.

The Hamas delegation, which also included Mashaal’s deputy Moussa Abu Marzouk, was welcomed at the airport Monday by the ANC’s deputy secretary-general Jessie Duarte, according to a senior ANC official.

“It is to demonstrate that the African National Congress is willing to talk to all people who are positive in terms of their attainment of self-determination and nationhood in Palestine,” the official told SABC News.

Mantashe, the ANC secretary-general, said Monday that his party has signed a “letter of intent” with Hamas. “We have an intention of building a long-lasting relationship,” he said at a press conference with Mashaal, calling the delegation’s visit “very important.”

Some South African media outlets covered the rally, but none noticed anything improper in Meshal's speech.

News24 reported it this way:

Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal received a massive welcome as he walked on to the stage at a rally being held for him and his delegation in Cape Town on Tuesday.

People rushed to the aisle, protected by bodyguards, to try and touch him as he bounded up the steps of the Darul Islamic Campus in Greenhaven east of Cape Town.

He smiled through a salt and pepper beard and waved back at people in the the packed hall.

The content of the speech was not mentioned.

Voice of the Cape Radio only briefly mentioned his speech but said nothing about his support for the current wave of knifing attacks against Jews.

The crowd chanted praises to God and free Palestine as the delegation entered while the nasheed group of Darul Islam, the venue where the talk is being hosted, performed nasheed songs.

The hall resounded with cheer when Hamas leader Khalid Meshaal addressed them to call for an end to the occupation of Palestine.

“You (South Africans) have attained your freedom and liberation, the people of Palestine are aspiring to attain their freedom and liberation,” Meshaal told the crowd of supporters.

After the rally people said that the address by Khalid Meshaal was inspiring.

Reza Sayed, a student said that it was very inspiring to see that the speech was not against any entity, it was against the occupiers and not just a Jewish state.

Gabiba Khan from Women Who Care said that she was humbled to be in the same room with “these kinds of people, these kind of leaders” when referring to Khalid Meshaal and other attendees from the delegation whom addressed the crowd in Cape Town.

Cape Times also quoted Meshal but ignored his terror calls.

Speaking to loud applause, Khalid said SA’s humanity could not be found anywhere else in the world.

“I admire Zuma’s bold and courageous heart to host us.

“Because of Israel, the international community knows us (only) as terrorists.

“Thanks for allowing us this rare opportunity to tell of our years of struggle against Zionist Israel,” he said.

Mishal said they were pinning their hopes on the ANC to help free the occupied Palestinian territories.

“Your struggle has inspired us to achieve our freedom. We were inspired when you liberated your country. Although we are still subjected to the inhumane brutality of Israel we still believe that one day we will be free.”

When he arrived accompanied by the ANC’s provincial chairman Marius Fransman and an executive member of the ANC David Mahlobo, a fully packed school hall reverberated with chants of “free, free Palestine. Free Al-Aqsa”.

IOL's video of the rally indicates that the speeches emphasized the dangers of "Judaizing" Jerusalem, railing against the idea of "Zionist" Jews being allowed to pray on the Temple Mount and that over 100 synagogues were built in Jerusalem. This clear antisemitic message, that Jews have no religious rights in Jerusalem, was ignored in the reporting as well..

Are there no real journalists in the entire country of South Africa?

.@UNRWA teacher really enjoying Arab attacks (update)

UNRWA teacher Jaffar Ismail is a dedicated fan of the current terror spree, with links to many videos showing Arabs attacking Jews with knives.

His current cover photo shows a knife-wielding Arab, pretending to be a journalist, chasing a soldier in Hebron seconds before he is shot dead. But the scene of an Israeli trying to save his own life is apparently worth the small price to pay of the attacker dying, in the twisted mind of Ismael.

UPDATE: Jaffar is another fan of Hitler.

But not to worry - he passed the UNRWA Ethics Course!

(h/t Bob Knot)

Bibi accurately describes the Mufti's Holocaust role (video)

Here is what Binyamin Netanyahu said about the Mufti of Jerusalem in Berlin, more accurate than what he had said earlier that caused controversy.

This is the message that needs to get out. Because it is the truth.

After the Mufti arrived in Germany, he became heavily involved in German propaganda broadcasts to Arab nations. Jeffrey Herf documents one such broadcast where the Germans explicitly called on Arabs to murder their Jewish neighbors - way beyond the propaganda that they broadcast to the West. While we don't know if the Mufti was directly involved in this particular broadcast, his arrival changed the nature of the German Arabic propaganda to combine Nazi and Quranic antisemitism:

From the Voice of Free Arabism, At 8:15 p.m. on July 7, 1942:

In the face of this barbaric procedure by the British we think it best, if the life of the Egyptian nation is to be saved, that the Egyptians rise as one man to kill the Jews before they have a chance of betraying the Egyptian people. It is the duty of the Egyptians to annihilate the Jews and to destroy their property. … You must kill the Jews, before they open fire on you. Kill the Jews, who have appropriated your wealth and who are plotting against your security. Arabs of Syria, Iraq, and Palestine, what are you waiting for? The Jews are planning to violate your women, to kill your children and to destroy you. According to the Muslim religion, the defense of your life is a duty which can only be fulfilled by annihilating the Jews. This is your best opportunity to get rid of this dirty race, which has usurped your rights and brought misfortune and destruction on your countries. Kill the Jews, burn their property, destroy their stores, annihilate these base supporters of British imperialism. Your sole hope of salvation lies in annihilating the Jews before they annihilate you.

Somehow, I don't think they were concerned about the "occupation."

10/21 Links Pt2: Abbas’ advisor mocks terror victims; Glick: France’s war against the Jews

From Ian:

PMW: Abbas’ advisor mocks terror victims

Abbas’ advisor Sultan Abu Al-Einein chose to mock terror victims running from a terrorist who shot at them with an automatic rifle. Earlier this week, terrorist Muhannad Al-Okabi entered the Be’er Sheva bus station with a knife and a pistol, murdered an off-duty soldier, then grabbed his automatic rifle and started shooting at people in the station. Security cameras showed people running from the terrorist before the security officers shot and killed him.
Abbas' advisor posted on his Facebook page the footage of people being shot at running from the scene, and expressed joy about the lethal attack. Glorifying the terrorist and possibly encouraging others to carry out attacks with knives, Abu Al-Einein focused on the knife carried by the terrorist and not the fact that he shot his victims. In the same post, Abu Al-Einein also glorified another murderer, Muhannad Halabi, who stabbed 2 Israelis to death earlier this month:
"For a long time the Israeli enemy officials have been boasting about the strength of their army, and they have described it as an 'invincible army,' which has become the fourth strongest army in the world.
Yesterday [Oct. 18, 2015], we saw the exact truth of this army: A [well-] armed army which was beaten by Martyr Muhannad Al-Okabi (i.e., terrorist who shot and killed 1 and wounded 11), and before him Muhannad Halabi (i.e., terrorist who stabbed and killed 2 and wounded 2), even though he was defenseless, and was not armed with anything but his right to his homeland and his Palestinian will - the same will which the great armies of the world have not been and will not be able to defeat or harm.
How many messages of sacrifice are showing in this scene? Armed soldiers throwing down their weapons out of fear of Muhannad's knife, others seeking a wall or fence out of fear of you, hero that you are. We loved you, Muhannad. We loved you, while you sowed life for all Palestinians.
We and the whole world saw soldiers flee, despite being armed with their weapons, the moment Martyr Muhannad [Al-Okabi] fell upon them, when he was 'defenseless' or 'pulling out a knife.' Thus he created another rung on the ladder of Palestinian praise, and has won the medal of honor as a Martyr whose name is engraved on every Palestinian's chest.
Note: I advise the enemy to arrest everyone whose name is Muhannad."
[Facebook page of Advisor to PA Chairman Abbas on NGOs
and Fatah Central Committee member Sultan Abu Al-Einein, Oct. 19, 2015]

Caroline Glick: France’s war against the Jews

France’s plan to use its position at the UN Security Council to bring about the deployment of international monitors to the Temple Mount in Jerusalem has been condemned by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ministers as biased, unhelpful and detached from reality.
Certainly it is all those things. But France’s decision to use its diplomatic position to advance a plan which if implemented would end Israeli sovereignty over Judaism’s holiest site is first and foremost a French act of aggression against the Jewish state.
Contrary to what the French government would have us believe, France’s Temple Mount gambit is not an effort to quell the violence. French protestations of concern over the loss of life in the current tempest of Palestinian terrorism ring hollow.
France doesn’t really oppose Palestinian terrorism.
To the contrary, it facilitates it.
Every year, the French government pays millions of euros, dollars and shekels to Palestinian NGOs whose stated goal is to destroy Israel. Through its NGO agents, France finances the radicalization of Palestinian society. This French-financed radicalization makes Palestinian terrorism inevitable.
Much of the current rhetoric used by the Palestinians to reject Israel’s legitimacy and justify violence against Jews is found in strategic documents that France paid Palestinian NGOs to write.

Clifford Rosen: Anti-Zionists: Stop calling yourselves friends of the Jews

Too often, I come across some rabid hater of Israel who claims that they have no problem with the Jewish people. Their problems are with just Zionists, Zionism, and Israel. In fact, some of these people claim they love and admire the Jewish people and that some of their closest friends are Jewish. And then they ask me “If my closest friends are Jewish, how can I be anti-semitic?”
These claims are superficial and lazy at best and outright dishonest at worst. Granted, there are many critics of Israel who would like to see a two state solution that sees Israel retaining both its Jewish majority and Jewish character. These people are not the subject of this article. This article is directed at the people who claim they have nothing against the Jews, yet call for the destruction of Israel as the world’s only Jewish state.
For starters, calling for Israel’s destruction is discriminatory against the Jewish people because you are quick to give the Palestinians their own country, yet deny the Jews their right to self-determination. Under their agenda, Israeli Jews would have to live as a minority under Palestinian Arabs. Considering how the Jews have fared as a minority throughout the centuries (including the Arab world), this would be a recipe for disaster.

Ryan Bellerose: How To Be An Effective Jew Hater (“Peace Activist”)

It’s a fact that even if Jews aren’t actually doing anything for us to protest, we can just make something up, and people will buy it, no matter how ridiculous it is. You don’t even have to learn anything, just go buy a white and black checkered scarf and remember to talk about the Occupation a lot. The other advantage of this “cause” is that you can get Jews who hate themselves and Jews who love themselves too much to side with you in getting people to hate Jews. Just remember one thing: anything that is anti-Jewish can also be anti-Zionist, but more on that later. The other and more important factor is that if you are a pro-Palestinian – and even better – anti-Israel activist, you don’t have to pay attention to any human rights abuses anywhere else, even if they involve Palestinians! Assad in Syria is starving Palestinians? Don’t care. King of Jordan doesn’t let Palestinians vote? Don’t care. No Jews? It’s not news.
So here’s your nifty road map to a career in anti-Judaism, antisemitism, and anti-Zionism: Don’t start screaming about the evil Jews immediately! That’s right – you’ve got to build up to that. Otherwise, it just makes you look crazy and if you want to be an effective Jew hater you have to be smarter than that. For starters, whenever you can, replace the word Jew with Zionist. Don’t worry, because people who matter will know exactly who you are talking about (and so will those Jews). You can use words like Zionazi, Ziobot, and stuff like that, too. If you can work “Nazism” into your speech, it’s gold, because it attacks those Jews (Oops! I mean, of course, Zionists!) on an emotional level while at the very same time entirely delegitimising them. I know you would rather just do stuff to kill Jews right now, but this is a long-term plan so be patient.
Now that you have that out of the way, it’s time for the next step.
Join clubs, and always make sure that everyone in that club knows what a rebel you are by wearing a keffiyeh (that black and white scarf you bought earlier) and talking about The Occupation. And remember, it’s not a preoccupation with the occupation – it’s about you being a tragic figure who supports other causes, even though your cause is being entirely ignored (no matter how often you talk about it). Good clubs to join include those having to do with minorities. The gays are a good bet too, as long as you’re certain that the conversation never gets around to the fact that the same people who hate and want to kill the Jews are often those who also hate and want to kill the gays. When at club meetings, do your best to stand out – after all, it’s not about their stupid cause (their cause is secondary to yours), but rather about yours – which is, in a nutshell, to cause Jew hate. (h/t Bob Knot)

IsraellyCool: MUST WATCH: From The River To The Sea – A Call For Genocide

Another must-watch documentary by Pierre Rehov.
According to most Palestinians, “Israeli Occupation” means Tel Aviv, Ber Sheva and Haifa, and for their leaders, Palestine should be built “From the River to the Sea”. Meaning, should replace Israel, from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.
In this disturbing film, “From the River to the Sea”, a revised version of “Hostages of Hatred” acclaimed director Pierre Rehov sets out to tell us the real story of those men, women and children, who have been shamefully used as mere pawns for over 50 years, by Arab leaders at first, by Palestinian leaders later on and until this very day but also by the United Nations’ body that was specially created to supposedly take care of them: the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, UNWRA. (h/t Bob Knot)

More violent images from an @UNRWA teacher (update)

Asmaa Qatoum is a science teacher at UNRWA.

She posted this on Facebook:

"I built a fortress out of the singing of the bullets, as a sacrifice for Islam that forgot its wound"

And she doesn't seem to keen on a two-state solution, taking a dig at her employer:

(Reading right to left):

"You have your 'state'....and I have my homeland."

It sounds like the embraces UNRWA-style tolerance in her lessons.

(h/t/ Ibn Boutros)

UPDATE: Sorry, I made a mistake; these images were posted by friends of hers who tagged her. So it only reflects her friends. (h/t Bob K)

UNESCO To Declare WTC Site Muslim; '19 Were Martyred There' (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Paris, October 20 - The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization is considering a proposal to deem the site of the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York a place of Muslim cultural heritage, since nineteen Muslims achieved martyrdom in the aircraft that struck the Twin Towers that morning.

Following deliberations on declaring the Western Wall - a holy site in Judaism - to be an integral part of the Al Aqsa Mosque atop the Temple Mount, UNESCO will discuss the terms of the World Trade Center becoming a Muslim site. If the measure passes, the organization will direct funding toward preservation of the site's Islamic heritage and religious significance, along with educational initiatives to help the public frame its perception and understanding of the site primarily in an Islamic context. As part of the effort, any attempt to obscure or reduce attention to the Islamic status of the World Trade Center site, or to alter its appearance, will trigger condemnation from UNESCO , a move that carries political and diplomatic repercussions.

"It has been fourteen years since nineteen young men, mostly from Saudi Arabia, gave their lives for Islam, and forever cementing the World Trade Center as a location of tremendous significance for the faith," explained Saudi Arabia's delegate to UNESCO, Qillemm Touaman. "But the site is located in the midst of a society that has demonstrated it does not place any particular value on Muslim heritage, so the international community, through UNESCO, must step in to safeguard the authentic heritage of the place."

Complicating matters is that the custodians of the site, an entity called the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, has overseen the construction of a 94-story office tower just north of where the Twin Towers once stood, thus disturbing the site and impinging on the sacred nature of the space by treating it as a corporate setting where tens of thousands of non-Muslim feet soil the premises daily.

If the UNESCO measure passes, the consequences for the Port Authority, and for the United States, remain unclear. Possible scenarios include the mandatory installment of memorial plaques to the nineteen men at various prominent locations throughout the facility; additional structures or sculptures to commemorate the event that forever made the World Trade Center a place of Islamic importance; and replacing the entire "Freedom Tower," as it is known, with a more suitable architectural monument to honor those who gave their lives for Islam on that spot.

Touaman said he has a number of suggestion for how to accomplish the last possibility, but that there is no rush to reach a decision, as his nephew and several friends have only just enrolled in flight school.

10/21 Links Pt1: 10 Murdered in 20 Days of Arab Terror; Cutthroats of the Holy Land; 10 Deadly Lies about Israel

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: Another self-deception produced by the free world

According to the logic of American administration spokespeople, led by Secretary of State Kerry, the US should be condemned for its bombings of the Taliban and ISIS because 'both sides must exercise restraint.'
The young man approached the group of police officers, pulled out an axe and managed to hurt two of them, who were lightly wounded. He was immediately shot, in the head, by other cops who were in the area. He was killed on the spot.
It didn’t happen in East Jerusalem. It happened in October 2014 in East New York, in the borough of Queens. The terrorist was 32-year-old Zale Thompson, an American who had converted to Islam.
No one thought for a minute that the police officers hadn't done the right thing. No one said that "both sides are required to exercise restraint." But that's exactly what the American administration's spokespeople, led by Secretary of State John Kerry, have been saying in the past week.
Why the hell is the free world finding it difficult to understand that the calls for murder and for the annihilation of heretics, Christians too, are a regular thing in the global jihad's propaganda. The use of a knife in the religious war is not random. Slaughtering has become trendy. That’s what the incited fanatics know how to do, regardless of whether they are members of the Islamic State of members of one of the jihad's branches in the world.

Cutthroats of the Holy Land

Over the years, Israelis have had to defend themselves from foreign armies, suicide bombers and missiles. Over recent weeks, they’ve been confronting a new threat: young Palestinians wielding butcher knives.
Unlike the cutthroats of the Islamic State and al Qaeda, these fanatics aren’t able to bind their victims and behead them. But videos on social media teach would-be assassins how to use sharp instruments to inflict maximum damage on unsuspecting Israelis. An imam in Gaza has been recorded on the pulpit brandishing a six-inch knife, urging his “brothers” to go out in the streets, find a Jew and “stab!”
Attacks have been occurring almost daily since the beginning of the month, claiming — at last count — eight Israeli lives, with more than 70 injured. Also last week, some 100 Palestinian youths set fire to Joseph’s Tomb in the West Bank. Add that to the growing list of religious sites — from Afghanistan to Syria to Mali — targeted by self-proclaimed jihadis.
Lies and libels spread via social media have incited the current spate of bloodletting. The three most responsible parties: the Islamic Movement in Israel, a Muslim Brotherhood affiliate; Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood branch that rules Gaza; and Mahmoud Abbas, president of the Palestinian Authority.

Ron Dermer: Ten Deadly Lies about Israel

As Israeli civilians are butchered by Palestinian terrorists, the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also being butchered by a campaign of vicious lies. Here are 10 of the most pernicious myths about the current attacks:
First: Israel is trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount.
False. Israel stringently maintains the status quo on the Temple Mount. Last year some 3.5 million Muslims visited the Temple Mount alongside some 200,000 Christians and 12,000 Jews. Only Muslims are allowed to pray on the Mount, and non-Muslims may visit only at specified times, which have not changed. Though the Temple Mount is Judaism’s holiest site—where Solomon built his Temple some 3,000 years ago—Israel will not allow a change in the status quo. The ones trying to change the status quo are Palestinians, who are violently trying to prevent Jews and Christians from even visiting a site holy to all three faiths.
Second: Israel seeks to destroy al-Aqsa mosque.
False: Since reuniting Jerusalem in 1967, Israel has vigorously protected the holy sites of all faiths, including al-Aqsa. In the Middle East, where militant Islamists desecrate and destroy churches, synagogues, world heritage sites, as well as each other's mosques, Israel is the only guarantor of Jerusalem's holy places. Palestinians have been propagating the “al-Aqsa is in danger” myth since at least 1929, when the Palestinian icon, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Husseini, used it to inspire the massacre of Jews in Hebron and elsewhere. Nearly a century later, the mosque remains unharmed, but the lie persists.

No, Mufti wasn't behind Final Solution. Yes, he was a major player in it. No, he wasn't only "anti-Zionist."

By now everyone has read about Binyamin Netanyahu's faux pas when he said that Hitler's Final Solution was prompted by the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem.

The NYT writes:

Israeli historians and opposition politicians on Wednesday joined Palestinians in denouncing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel for saying it was a Palestinian, the grand mufti of Jerusalem, who gave Hitler the idea of annihilating European Jews during World War II.

Mr. Netanyahu said in a speech to the Zionist Congress on Tuesday night that “Hitler didn’t want to exterminate the Jews at the time, he wanted to expel the Jews,” according to a transcript provided by his office. The prime minister said that the mufti, Haj Amin al-Husseini, protested to Hitler that “they’ll all come here,” referring to Palestine.

“ ‘So what should I do with them?’ ” Mr. Netanyahu quoted Hitler as asking Mr. Husseini. “He said, ‘Burn them.’ ”

Prof. Meir Litvak, a historian at Tel Aviv University, called the speech “a lie” and “a disgrace.” Prof. Moshe Zimmermann, a specialist of German history at Hebrew University, said, “With this, Netanyahu joins a long line of people that we would call Holocaust deniers.”

Isaac Herzog, leader of the opposition in the Israeli Parliament, said the accusation was “a dangerous historical distortion,” and he demanded that Mr. Netanyahu “correct it immediately.”

Even Moshe Yaalon, the defense minister and a senior member of Mr. Netanyahu’s Likud Party, said in a radio interview that “history is actually very, very clear.”

“Hitler initiated it,” he said. “Haj Amin al-Husseini joined him.”

To the newspaper's credit, they published part of Bibi's clarification:

“My intention was not to absolve Hitler of his responsibility,” he said, according to a statement provided by his office as he left Israel for Germany, where he was to meet with Chancellor Angela Merkel. “But rather to show that the forefathers of the Palestinian nation, without a country and without the so-called occupation, without land and without settlements, even then aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews.”

“Hitler was responsible for the Final Solution to exterminate six million Jews; he made the decision,” Mr. Netanyahu added. “It is equally absurd to ignore the role played by the Mufti, Haj Amin al -Husseini, a war criminal, for encouraging and urging Hitler.”

What was not quoted was Bibi's entire explanation (received via email), which included:

It is equally absurd to ignore the role played by the Mufti, Haj Amin al -Husseini, a war criminal, for encouraging and urging Hitler, Ribbentropp, Himmler and others, to exterminate European Jewry. There is much evidence about this, including the testimony of Eichmann's deputy at the Nuremberg trials, not now, but after World War II. He said:

'The Mufti was instrumental in the decision to exterminate the Jews of Europe. The importance of his role must not be ignored. The Mufti repeatedly proposed to the authorities, primarily Hitler, Ribbentropp and Himmler, to exterminate the Jews of Europe. He considered it a suitable solution for the Palestinian question'.
Eichmann's deputy, added:

'The Mufti was one of the instigators of the systematic extermination of European Jewry and was a partner and adviser to Eichmann and Hitler for carrying out this plan'.
The attempt by certain scholars and people to be apologists for the key and important role of Haj Amin al-Husseini, is clear. Many other researchers cite this testimony and others regarding the role of Haj Amin al Husseini.

My intention was not to absolve Hitler of his responsibility, but rather to show that the forefathers of the Palestinian nation, without a country and without the so-called 'occupation', without land and without settlements, even then aspired to systematic incitement to exterminate the Jews.

Unfortunately, Haj Amin al-Husseini is still a revered figure in Palestinian society, he appears in textbooks and it is taught that he is one of the founding fathers of the nation, and this incitement that started then with him, inciting the murder of Jews - continues. Not in the same format, but in a different one and this is the root of the problem. To stop the murders, it is necessary to stop the incitement.

What is important is to recognize the historical facts and not ignore them, not then and not today".

It is a shame that Netanyahu screwed up the message so that now the truth about the Mufti's role is obscured by his unfortunate wording.

Especially since the Mufti, an unrepentant Jew-hater, is considered a hero to the Palestinians - Palestinians who are now gleefully calling Bibi a Holocaust denier. (Suddenly, Hitler is a symbol of evil to them. Last week he was a hero.)

Finally, the NYT included this problematic sentence:

There is broad agreement that the mufti, who helped instigate Arab pogroms against Jews in the holy land in the 1920s, collaborated with the Nazis and promoted genocide over deportation of Europe’s Jews as part of his virulent opposition to Zionism.

No, it was his pure antisemitism. To say that the Mufti was prompted by anti-Zionism is to whitewash his hate and his crimes. His role in the Holocaust had nothing to do with Zionism - he wanted all Jews dead.

Israel's ambassador to the UN, David Roet, gave a speech last week to the UN Security Council castigating the world for ignoring the daily attacks against Israeli civilians. It didn't get much publicity, but here it is:

As we sit here today, Israel is facing an onslaught of terrorism; men, women and children are being stabbed to death on the streets on a daily basis. Yet for them there has been no demand for an emergency session at the Security Council; no calls for the Palestinian leadership to stop their incitement; and not even a whisper of condemnation of these acts in this hall.

Eitam and Naama Henkin were shot to death while driving in their car. Their 4 children were in the vehicle and watched their parents die in front of their eyes.
.
These are just a few of the silent victims of Palestinian terror. Apparently, this Council has not seen fit to honor their memories with even the slightest recognition.

Mr. President,
Over the course of the last month, 24 terror attacks have claimed the lives of 8 Israelis, and injured 70. 15 of them are still hospitalized. This tide of terror has washed over the entire nation and it spares no one: Young and old are being targeted every day.

Israelis do not feel safe walking down the street, they avoid taking the bus to work, and they fear for the lives of their children every time they walk out the door.

The root cause of this wave of terror is clear. It is inflammatory rhetoric and lies lit the fuse, and incitement that keeps feeding the flames.

The wave of violence that Israel now faces began with lies about the Temple Mount. Abbas has continually accused Israel of trying to change the Status- Quo. Just two days ago he claimed that, quote “Israel intends to make Al-Aksa Jewish”. This is a deliberate and malicious lie.

Let me be clear. Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated time and time again, including from the podium in the UN general assembly just two weeks ago: Israel is firmly committed to the status quo which protects the right of Muslims to pray in the mosque, as well as the freedom of all people, Muslims, Christians, Jews and others, to visit the Temple Mount.

Since 1967 Israel has placed the utmost importance on protecting the freedom of religion and worship for all faiths. From the outset, Israel has done everything in its power to preserve the sanctity of this site, which is sacred to the three monotheistic faiths.

In contrast, militant Islamist agitators have used the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a staging grounds for a calculated, violent provocation. On the Eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, radical Islamists stockpiled rocks, planks, wooden sheets and fireworks, as well as Molotov firebombs and explosive devices to prevent Jews and Christians from visiting the Temple Mount.

The Palestinians and the representatives of the Arab countries speak of the sacredness of their holy sites. When the Islamist militants desecrated Al-Aqsa by using it as a weapons depot, did any of them speak out?

Of course not. Instead, Mahmoud Abbas defended these rioters, and lit the spark which set our region ablaze. He declared, and I quote: “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem... With the help of Allah, every shaheed will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward … Al-Aqsa is ours, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours, everything is ours, all ours. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet." I repeat, their filthy feet.

Can you imagine the reaction if an Israeli leader, any leader, would have uttered such a hateful statement? The Security Council would have wasted no time in convening to condemn it. Yet, when the President of the Palestinian Authority makes such a blatantly prejudiced statement, the reaction of this Council is complete silence.

Mr. President,
Even now, as the violence continues and lives are lost every day, instead of calming tensions, Palestinian leaders continue to lie and use inflammatory rhetoric. They are stoking the flames by portraying terrorists as innocent victims. Just two days ago, in a television broadcast to the Palestinian people, Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of killing an innocent thirteen year old Palestinian boy.

There are two facts that Abbas did not share with his public.

First, he is not dead. He is fully conscious and is being treated in an Israeli hospital.

Second, he is not innocent. This 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist brutally attacked a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was riding his bicycle, stabbing him no less than 15 times.

When a young child decides to pick up a knife, instead of a basketball or a book, something is deeply wrong.

Such acts of terror do not occur in a vacuum. They are a product of a deliberate policy of incitement aimed at filling the minds of Palestinian children with hate.

From an early age, Palestinian children are subjected to propaganda that promotes hatred and incites to violence; Young children watch TV shows with friendly hosts that encourage them to kill all the Jews and become martyrs. Schoolchildren in the West Bank study using official Palestinian Authority textbooks that legitimize indiscriminate violence against Israelis. Palestinian teenagers follow facebook posts and twitter feeds that call on them to stab Jews and that applaud violent acts like the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin.

Mr. President,
The situation is indeed dire, but there is a way forward.

Just yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his willingness to meet with the Palestinian leadership in order to bring calm to the region.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu stood here in the UN and declared that he is ready for direct negotiations with the Palestinians without any preconditions.

If this Council is serious about promoting peace, it must join in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call, and insist that President Abbas comes to the negotiating table.

Israel’s historic agreement with Egypt and with Jordan proves that direct negotiations can lead to a real and a lasting peace. Only such negotiations can create a new reality for all the people of the region.

He was straightforward, unambiguous, and unimpeachable in his portrayal of the facts.

The PLO's UN mission couldn't stand it.

They sent out a "fact check" to journalists that supposedly pointed out all of Roet's falsehoods. The problem is, they couldn't find any, so they simply tried to change the focus of everything he said into their own falsehoods.

For example:

“Israel is facing an onslaught of terrorism; men, women and children are being stabbed to death on the streets on a daily basis. Yet for them there has been no demand for an emergency session at the Security Council.”

Fact: The Palestinian people are a defenseless and unarmed population suffering gross violations of human rights under Israel’s illegal occupation. It is in fact the Israeli occupation that is the source and context of all of the violence, violence that has been inflicted by Israel with total impunity for over 48 years on the Palestinian people.

- They couldn't dispute the fact so they instead tried to replace it with lies.

“Over the course of the last month, 24 terror attacks have claimed the lives of 8 Israelis, and injured 70.”

Fact: Israel, the occupying Power, is not a victim in this situation. -

They couldn't dispute the fact so they instead tried to replace it with lies.

"The root cause of this wave of terror is clear.”

Fact: The root cause of the current violence is Israel’s half century illegal occupation of the Palestinian land and its subjugation of the Palestinian people.

They couldn't dispute the fact so they instead tried to replace it with lies. In this case, they didn't bother to reproduce Roet's point about incitement because this entire "fact check" is incitement, saying things to justify terror like "This incessant oppression leaves little hope for a peaceful and stable future, deepens despair, and encourages the oppressed to resist injustice."

The PLO is trying desperately to allow the journalists who are usually sympathetic with them to have some threadbare cover to allow them to continue their anti-Israel bias and discard the facts.

I hope that Israel sends out their own real "fact checks" after every PLO speech. They should also point out how this "fact check" could not find a single statement that was not factual.

(h/t Golan S)

Dr. Salah Na'ami, writing in Jordanian paper Assabeel, is angry that Mahmoud Abbas is pretending that he will open a full investigation to find out who was behind the burning of Joseph's Tomb last week.

Abbas was obviously trying to send a message to the West that he is against attacks on Jewish sites, although I will bet anyone that in one year there will be no concrete results from this "investigation."

But even the sham is too much for Na'ami, a professor in Gaza.

President Mahmoud Abbas denounced the burning of the Jewish shrine «Tomb of Joseph» in the heart of the city of Nablus.

His decision to form a committee to investigate the incident and his pledge to restore the shrine is an affront to the Palestinian people and shows disregard for our national rights. It also shows leniency with the horrible crimes committed by the Jewish terrorists who visit this shrine.

This shrine is practically a Jewish settlement in the heart of the city of Nablus, attracting tens of thousands of settlers who take advantage of their presence in the region, and the protection of the Palestinian Authority security for them to provoke the Palestinians.

... Burning this shrine was an opportunity to get rid of the source of renewed terrorism, and this confirms how miserable this step by Abbas was and demonstrates his orientation.

Here is a fairly prolific Arab columnist justifying the destruction of a supposedly Muslim shrine because Jews claim them.

It is a perfect example of the absurd zero-sum mentality of most in the Arab world: if Jews like it, it must be bad for Arabs. And therefore better it is destroyed than any Jews get benefit from it.

Of course, there are no comments on the column pointing out that his hate has nothing to do with Zionism, but Jews.

PLO drops bid to call Western Wall "Muslim" - but is going after Rachel's Tomb and Machpela

From Times of Israel:

Palestinians have withdrawn their demand that the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization declare the Western Wall an “integral part” of the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount, Israeli officials said Wednesday.

The resolution — which the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) executive board is scheduled to vote on Wednesday — still contains a request to recognize Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem and the Tomb of the Patriarchs in Hebron as Muslim sites. Israeli diplomats said they would continue to fight the resolution, and try to get allied states to reject it.

In addition, the Palestinians seek condemnation of ongoing Israeli archaeological excavations near the Temple Mount and elsewhere in Jerusalem’s Old City, as well as of the “aggression and illegal measures taken against the freedom of worship and access of Muslims to Al-Aqsa Mosque and Israel’s attempts to break the status quo since 1967.”

In an effort to garner support for the motion, some of the most incendiary language was removed or exchanged for less provocative terms.

Israel’s ambassador to UNESCO, Carmel Shama Hacohen, confirmed to Israel Radio Wednesday that the Palestinian delegation had proposed a new version of the controversial resolution, removing the clause that would have declared the Western Wall a Muslim site.

He said the initial proposal had met with opposition from a range of countries including Russia, China and even Cuba.

On Tuesday, the head of the United Nations cultural agency said she “deplored” the proposal. The move, Irina Bokova warned on UNESCO’s website, “could be seen to alter the status of the Old City of Jerusalem and its Walls and incite further tensions.”

The executive board had been scheduled to vote Tuesday on a resolution submitted by Arab states that would officially recognize the Western Wall as part of the Muslim holy site, but Bokova postponed the vote until Wednesday.

In a statement, Bokova called on the UNESCO board “to take decisions that do not further inflame tensions on the ground and that encourage respect for the sanctity of the Holy Sites.”

Declaring Rachel's Tomb a Muslim site is especially egregious. I wrote in 2009 that Muslims didn't start calling it the "Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque" until the 1990s..

PA textbooks changed their name for the site from Rachel's Tomb to Bilal Bin Rabah Mosque in 2001.

Muslims have recognized Rachel's Tomb as a Jewish holy site for centuries, and that designation was codified by an Ottoman decree in 1830:

In 1830, the Turks issued the firman that gave legal force to Rachel’s Tomb being recognized as a Jewish holy site. Additionally, notes the JCPA’s Nadav Shragai, the governor of Damascus sent a written order to the mufti of Jerusalem to fulfill the sultan’s order:

“This is our order to you: [The following matter] was submitted to us by the subject of our order, the sage representative of honored Jerusalem’s Jewry and his translator that the tomb of esteemed Rachel, the mother of our Lord Joseph... They [the Jews] are accustomed to visit it from ancient days; and no one is permitted to prevent them or oppose them [from doing] this... It turned out that at this holy site, they have been visiting since ancient times, without any person preventing them or trespassing on their property and they [have it] as was their custom. In accordance with the respected judgment, I order that our commandment be issued to you so you will treat them accordingly without addition or without subtraction, without hindrance and without opposition to them by anyone in any way whatsoever – written August 10, 1830.”

An additional firman from April 1831 was issued “To inform and demonstrate to all interested parties and the appointed officials, the right of the Jews who are residents of holy Jerusalem to visit the grave of Rachel, the mother of the Prophet Joseph, peace be upon him, without hindrance... Rendered in Istanbul at the end of the month of Shawwal in the year 1246 to the Hejira. Signed: The Sublime Porte.”

This episode proves that when the PLO demanded to join UNESCO, it was not to promote any sort of educational or cultural goals - it was entirely to erase Jewish history from the Land of Israel. It is doing the opposite of UNESCO's mandate.

If UNESCO had a shred of decency, it would suspend "Palestine" as a member for its offensive and sickening attempts to politicize the institution, just as it is trying to hijack every other international body it joins to put pressure on Israel.

10/20 Links Pt2: According to the left, Israeli citizens deserve to be murdered

From Ian:

Brendan O’Neill: According to the left, Israeli citizens deserve to be murdered

Leftists are far more alarmed by Israel’s response to the stabbings than they are by the stabbings themselves. They’ve castigated Israel for putting more soldiers on the streets and for making it easier for citizens to buy guns (nothing freaks out the left more than a Jew with a gun). They seem to expect Israel to leave its citizens open to attack.
Echoing Haaretz writer Rogel Alpher, who wrote a demented column expressing his surprise that a Palestinian has never grabbed “a saw or a hammer and murdered me”, some Western radicals are not only glorifying the stabbings but are condemning those who have the temerity to protect themselves from being stabbed. Why won’t Jews let themselves be killed?
It’s so depraved. Whatever you thought of the PLO’s guerrilla activity in the 1970s, these stabbings are clearly very different. It’s anti-Semitism. That some Westerners are trying to present it as something else — a natural outburst of despair — says more about their busted moral compasses than it does about what’s happening in the Middle East.
Strip away the euphemisms, pick apart the talk of a “knife intifada”, and there’s no escaping the fact — the horrific fact — that some Westerners are defending the stabbing to death of people for being Jewish.
This is such a sad day for the left. What happened to that left which was the heir to the warriors of Enlightenment who helped liberate Europe’s Jews from their ghettos? That left which railed against the anti-Semitic “socialism of fools”? That left which, even in the darkest moment in human history — the Holocaust — risked life and limb to help Jews? It is dead. And that is a tragedy of epic proportions.
The stabbings in Israel haven’t only exposed an ugly new Islamism in the Middle East. They have also exposed the moral disarray of those in the West who pose as progressive. The universalist, tolerant left that was sensitive to the scapegoating of Jews for the world’s problems is no more. And so it is left to Jews to defend Jews, bereft of left solidarity, the West merely shrugging its shoulders.

NGO Monitor: On Europe, terrorism and demonizing Israel: Time for a reset

If nothing else, European officials at least get credit for consistency. For decades, in war and peace, terror and calm, they have not flagged in the belief that they can engineer their vision of peace for Israel.
Having failed in so many previous attempts, the European move is another step in the effort to impose its preferred policies, via the labeling of products from the post-1967 “occupied territories” in order to create economic pressure on Israel. The next step would be to ban these products, and then to single out all Israeli items. (As perpetual victims, Palestinians are deemed to be exempt from contributing to peace, real or imagined.)
In this context, the claim by the European Union’s ambassador in Tel Aviv that labeling Israeli goods from beyond the Green Line isn’t a big deal was disingenuous. “You seem to be very proud of your own settlement enterprise,” Lars Faaborg-Anderson said in an interview with journalist Raphael Ahrens, “so why is this such a big problem?” His condescension was, to put it mildly, out of line.
The marking of products from beyond the 1949 armistice lines goes far beyond another awkward EU attempt to impose its ideas on Israeli democracy. Product labeling is the embodiment of a strategy to delegitimize Israel and the right of the Jewish people to sovereign equality. It is central to the political war embodied in BDS — boycott, divestment and sanctions — whose stated objective is not peace, but rather “the complete international isolation of Israel.”

Petitions: MSNBC Must Fire ‘Terror Denier’ Reporter

A day after MSNBC was forced to apologize for factual errors made during a controversial report about Israel, supporters of the Jewish state are demanding in a series of petitions that the cable news network’s longtime Middle East correspondent be fired as a result of several inaccurate and highly biased reports wrongly accusing Israel of murdering innocents.
Ayman Mohyeldin, an NBC News foreign correspondent and MSNBC anchor, has come under fire for claiming on the air last week that he saw Israeli authorities shoot an unarmed Palestinian individual.
This turned out to be incorrect. The terrorist was holding a knife in his hand and attempting to murder Israelis.
Mohyeldin, a former Al Jazeera reporter, has long faced criticism for what many say are his efforts to portray Israel as an aggressor and dismiss Palestinian terrorism. He also has given speeches before anti-Israel organizations.
MSNBC’s pattern of biased reporting about Israel has prompted multiple petitions demanding that Mohyeldin be removed from the Middle East beat and fired.

More examples of Muslims inciting violence over Al Aqsa since the 1920s

1931, at an Islamic conference in Jerusalem:

The outstanding question was that of the protection of the Moslem Holy Places. Dr. Abd el Hamid, an Egyptian delegate, in a fiery speech punctuated by wild gesticulations, shouted, “All present must take an oath to protect this Holy Place with the last drop of their blood”. Immediately the whole assembly rose in an uproar, and the delegates shouted, “Allah, Allah!”. The cry was echoed by the shrill screams of veiled women in the adjoining female mosque.

Later an Iraqi delegate cried: “It were better that the Islamic world should be obliterated than that this jewel should fall into the hands of enemies”.

--
A boycott in all Moslem countries against Palestine Jewish products as a means of protecting the Mosque el Aqsa (Mosque of Omar) from Jewish encroachment was proclaimed by the Conference to-day in adopting a resolution moved by Hobamed Ali, former Egyptian Minister of Wakfs. If the Jews in Palestine succeed in developing their industry, the resolution argues, they will be able to acquire more land in the country, and thus may even menace the Mosque itself, so that the boycott weapon must be used as a check to further Jewish progress.

1936:

1938:

Let's skip to 1968:

The semi-official Cairo newspaper Al Ahram reported yesterday that religious leaders representing 750 million Moslems in 34 countries have called for a “holy war” on Israel to recover the shrines of Islam in East Jerusalem. According to the paper, the call to arms was sounded after the religious leaders heard a tape recording of what was purported to be Jews desecrating the El Aqsa mosque in East Jerusalem.

And this article from 1972 could have been written today:

Israeli Ambassador Yosef Tekoah yesterday accused Jordan of “falsehood and distortion” regarding freedom of worship and the protection of holy sites, and stated that “Jordan’s record in those matters, during the 19 years’ occupation of areas on the West Bank, including part of Jerusalem, is notorious.” In a letter to United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim, Tekoah denounced a letter written Dec. 11 to Waldheim by Jordan’s Ambassador to the UN referring to Israel’s desecration of the Machpela cave in Hebron which is regarded as a holy site by Arabs.

The Israeli envoy, who asked that his letter be circulated as a document of the General Assembly and the Security Council and forwarded to the Commission on Human Rights, declared: “The Government of Israel rejects with repugnance the Jordanian habit of introducing religious matters into political issues in order to stir up passions for political ends.” He added that Israel will pursue its policy of ensuring freedom of access to and worship at holy sites under its administration, including the area of the Machpela cave.

There is no difference between now and then.

And just as then the driving factor was antisemitism, so is it today.