If, in the eyes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership, normalization with Israel is an act of "treason," a "crime" and a "big political and national sin," the Trump administration may well be wasting its time and prestige on a peace plan that envisions peace between the Arab countries and Israel, at least at this time.
To achieve peace with Israel, Palestinian leaders need to prepare their people -- and all Arabs and Muslims -- for peace and compromise with Israel, and not, as they are now doing, the exact opposite. Shaming and denouncing Arabs who visit Israel is hardly a way to prepare anyone for peace, or the possibility of any compromise.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration and the international community would be doing a real service to the Palestinians if they start paying attention to assaults on public freedoms, including freedom of the media, in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Holding Palestinian leaders accountable for their systematic abuses of public freedoms, assaults on journalists and incitement is the only way to encourage badly needed moderate and pragmatic Palestinians and Arabs to speak out.
A top Palestinian official on Tuesday asked the United Nations to deploy a permanent international force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, a day after Israel said it would not extend the operations of a temporary observer force in the city of Hebron after more than 20 years.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office announced Monday it would not extend the mandate of the Temporary International Presence in Hebron, an international observer group, following a number of incidents over the past year in which its members scrapped with settlers in the flashpoint West Bank city.
“We will not allow the continuation of an international force that acts against us,” Netanyahu said.
Palestinian diplomat Saeb Erekat responded in a statement that the UN should “guarantee the safety and protection of the people of Palestine not only ensuring the continued presence of TIPH in Hebron but also to deploy permanent international presence in Occupied Palestine, including East Jerusalem, until the end of Israel’s belligerent occupation.”
Erekat called Netanyahu’s announcement “an additional step towards Israel’s nullification of all signed treaties” and “further evidence that Israel is a rogue state that abhors international legitimacy and places itself above and beyond international order and the international community.”
Israel announced that it will not renew the mandate for a group of international peace monitors stationed in Hebron.
The UN-affiliated Temporary International Presence in Hebron (TIPH) has been stationed in Hebron for more than 20 years. Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Sweden, Italy and Turkey have contributed civilians to act as monitors on the ground in Hebron since the organization’s establishment in established in 1994 following the Tomb of the Patriarchs massacre, during which Baruch Goldstein killed 29 Palestinians at the holy site. Because the Hebron monitors’ mission was originally meant to be “temporary,” its mandate had to be renewed twice a year by both Israel and the Palestinian Authority.
The announcement to send the Hebron monitors packing was picked up the three main international wire services: Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse (AFP) — none of whom shed any light on the questions of why.
So why are the Hebron monitors no longer welcome? Why is this happening now?
Reuters and AFP cited vague Israeli accusations of TIPH bias but reported that the Prime Minister’s announcement didn’t offer any reason for the move. AP’s four-paragraph piece didn’t even say that.
You’d think the nasty Israelis booted out the observers for no good reason.
It's common to think that Farrakhan's poisonous antisemitic rhetoric carries no consequences with it.
o There are no condemnations from African American leaders. o Politicians show no reluctance to appear with him o Community leaders in general do not condemn his Anti-Jewish attacks o Farrakhan is a popular leader among African Americans
That is why the backlash against Women's March is so surprising.
Apart from the antisemitism of the Women's March leadership itself, as documented by Tablet Magazine and The New York Times, their ties to Louis Farrakhan and their refusal to condemn his ongoing antisemitic attacks have been a stain on that movement.
But historically, the Women's March is not alone in bearing the consequences of the albatross that is Louis Farrakhan.
Edwin Black, the author of "IBM and the Holocaust: The Strategic Alliance between Nazi Germany and America's Most Powerful Corporation," wrote a background article in 1986 about Louis Farrakhan.
Black reveals Farrakhan's plan in the 1980's for a project known as POWER, People Organized and Working for Economic Rebirth, which included a plan for selling toiletries and personal products to African Americans:
Black toiletry manufacturers would be subcontracted for production. POWER consumers would commit to a minimum monthly purchase of $20, ordering via an 800 telephone number. Merchandise would be delivered from POWER directly to the consumer's door. Distributors and retailers would be eliminated, doubling POWER's sales income. By this brilliant strategy—combining the best capitalistic experience of Avon, Proctor & Gamble, Fuller Brush, and the Book-of-the-Month Club—the Nation of Islam would make money every time a black customer gargled or went to the bathroom.
POWER had the potential to be the biggest African American enterprise in the country, capable of sales of over $150 million within its first 5 years and $1 billion within its first 10 years.
The Nation of Islam sought support in Chicago of Johnson Products, which manufactured cosmetics and household products. Farrakhan suggested raising the necessary capital to start production by selling tapes of his speeches at $10 each at various rallies he would hold around the country, with the expectations of drawing 6,000-10,000 people at each rally, in order to raise the necessary millions.
So in 1985, Farrakhan launched a well-publicized speaking tour, starting in Detroit on January 19. But between cold weather and technical difficulties, sales were less than expected.
That is when Farrakhan turned elsewhere for the help raising the money: Muammar Khaddafi.
This is the same Khaddafi who, in 1975, gave NOI leader Elijah Muhammad a $3 million interest-free loan to build a national mosque. Now, on February 24, 1985, Khaddafi had a special address beamed by satellite to a Chicago meeting hall as the climax to the Nation of Islam's annual "Savior's Day" convention. The Libyan leader, who financed terrorist groups around the world, did what came naturally. On a large TV screen, Khaddafi
called upon American black servicemen to desert from the military and engage in wide-spread sabotage and rebellion with weapons he would provide.
A few days later, Farrakhan held a Washington press conference, where he formally renounced the offer of weapons. As Farrakhan put it, the offer "was appreciated but unacceptable unless [Khaddafi] wanted to offer monetary weapons to get the proposed program off the ground."
In the end, Farrakhan got a $5 million interest-free loan from Khaddafi. Khaddafi, of course, was not Farrakhan's only favorite Arab despot. During a 1985 tour of the Middle East:
o He visited Syria, where he had visited earlier with Jesse Jackson to win the release of downed pilot Robert Goodman o In the UAE, Farrakhan met with Dr. Ibrahim Ezzadine, an adviser to the leading Emirate sheikhs o He visited Saudi Arabia, where he located and spoke with Idi Amin, who he claimed was a great man o In Sudan, he met with Omar al-Bashir who had recently come to power as a result of a coup and would later be accused of war crimes
So his attacks on Jews helped Farrakhan cement his friendship with Arab despots, as well as energize his base.
In fact, when he returned home, Farrakhan's attacks increased, targeting the US, Christians and Jews which had the effect of increasing the size of his audiences among Black Americans even further.
And that is when the problems started:
It was one thing to enter a pro-black business venture. It was quite another to participate in an enterprise conceived and advertised as anti-American, anti-Christian, anti-white, and anti-Semitic.
Eventually, word got out about Khaddafi's involvement in the POWER project and that Johnson Products was involved, tying the company with an Arab despot who was an enemy of the US.
And Farrakhan just kept digging:
Farrakhan began publicly mentioning Johnson as a courageous black manufacturer willing to stand up to white society and the Jews. The Minister even asked blacks to increase their purchases of Ultra Sheen as a gesture of thanks. Johnson's Jewish business associates were shocked at his involvement, and soon the heat was on.
Farrakhan's antisemitic statements combined with pressure from Jews who helped Johnson start his business and invested in it forced him to call Farrakhan and tell him that his company could not be associated with Farrakhan in any way. Farrakhan took the news badly and insisted Johnson was backing out because Jews wanted POWER to fail because it would do something to help black people.
At a rally at Madison Square Garden a little later, Farrakhan publicly lashed out at Jews, whom he accused of being "bloodsuckers of the poor." Soon after, George Johnson issued a formal written statement disassociating himself from Farrakhan and POWER. He gave Farrakhan's antisemitism as the main reason.
The problem didn't stop there.
Farrakhan's connection with Khaddafi became a headache for the small black-owned Independence Bank in Chicago, where Farrakhan deposited the $5 million he received from him. Black notes in his article that Khaddafi's $5 million, provided $50,000 in annual profit, about 5% of the bank's total. At the time of the article, the bank had canceled the lock-box service for contributions to POWER and from tape purchases. A bank source indicated that in any case, very few checks had come in since the bank had terminated the service -- and it was considering further measures.
Black points out that Farrakhan mixed his personal politics with the product line that formed the basis of POWER, undermining the project.
Farrakhan's friends in the Women's March leadership seem to be doing the same. Phyllis Chesler, a feminist leader starting in the 1960's, writes "The Women’s March is a Con Job":
Most concerning, though, is that the Women’s March leadership appears to have no particular interest in the independent women’s liberation movements. I have read their literature extensively and all I can find are issues, which, however worthy they may be, are not, strictly speaking, feminist issues. The Women’s March addresses things like “immigration reform” and “police violence against black men.” They say they are “anti-racists,” more than they are “anti-sexists.” And they prioritize “queer and transgender” politics, but never plain old garden variety women’s issues.
Women’s issues — even those that are impacted by race, class, religion, and ethnicity — are still woman-specific: sexual harassment on the job; rape; incest; domestic violence; economic, social, and legal discrimination; and of course reproductive rights, including access to birth control, abortion, and prenatal care.
...Sex trafficking? Child marriage? FGM? Forced face veiling? Honor Killing? None of these issues are being addressed by the American Women’s March leadership.
What is going on?
Back in 1985, Farrakhan made his product line for POWER secondary to his politics and the rhetoric of hate that he is dependent on to energize his base. The leadership of Women's March, with its admitted admiration for Farrakhan, has sublimated women's issues to their own politics.
Both are strident in their anti-Jewish and anti-Israel rhetoric.
In the end, a project that had the potential to benefit the black community fell apart.
Whether the same fate will befall The Women's March remains to be seen.
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The stories of Hebron are the stories of the absent and the unseen. They are the stories of the occupation and of Palestinian life that has been caged in or displaced. No one who lives in Hebron, and very few of those who visit the city, can see the entirety of the displacement or appreciate the scale of the absence. Hebron is divided in such a way that some will only ever see the empty streets, while others see a crowded and bustling town—one bound by fences, walls, and barbed wire, beyond which the emptiness begins. To see the emptiness is to understand some of the effects of the occupation; to see it from the point of view of Palestinians, who have been rendered almost entirely invisible, is to understand much more.
For those who want to attack Israel over the "occupation," Hebron is not invisible - it is the alpha and omega of everything evil about Israel. There are thousands of articles, videos and photos of Shuhada Street, the tiny part of Hebron that Arabs no longer can easily live in since the 1990s. To say that the stories of Hebron are untold and unheard of is ridiculous.
For several years, two activist groups, one Israeli and one Palestinian, have been leading tours of the occupation of Hebron. I recently went on both, crossing from the living city of Hebron to its hollow shadow and back several times.
Both of these tours - from Issa Amro and Breaking the Silence - are critical of Israel, of "settlers" and of the idea of Jews living in their second holiest city. The article frames going to both tours as showing all sides of Hebron from the Israeli and Arab sides - and this is not even close.
Because the author didn't bother to speak to a single Jewish resident of the area.
I have. I've visited the apartments of Jews who live in Hebron. I have seen the bullet holes from Arab snipers that are still there. I have spoken to relatives of those killed - not only in 1929 but after Jews returned to the city after it was ethnically cleansed.
In 1997, as part of the Oslo peace process, Israel and the Palestinian Authority drew a line splitting Hebron in two. The area designated as H-1 is controlled by the Palestinian Authority; in H-2, the Palestinian Authority has civil administration over Palestinian residents and the Israeli military controls everything else. H-1 is far larger, and in the past two years its population has roughly doubled, while H-2’s has dwindled because settler violence and I.D.F. restrictions have made life unbearable for Palestinians. But H-2 contains the city’s historic center, its most popular square, and its wholesale, vegetable, spice, and other markets—all of them now hollowed out.
Gessen here briefly touches on, and then ignores, the salient fact that Hebron itself is a huge, bustling, successful city where Arabs flock to live - and where Jews are forbidden to live in practically all of it. But the vegetable market is now closed.
Why is that? From reading the article one would think it was because Israel simply wants to grab land it has no rights to. Any excuse is used to oppress Palestinians.
But for the residents of Hebron, the memories of the terror attacks are real. Jews walking home from prayers on a Friday night ambushed and slaughtered in 2002. An infant who was shot by a sniper, specifically aiming for her, in 2001.
Screams of terror and pain pierced the silent Hebron night. The screams were coming from the bedroom where Rabbi Shlomo Ra’anan, was preparing to retire for the night. Chaya Ra’anan, who was in the dining room, barely recognized the sound of her husband’s voice, whom in their thirty-five years of marriage, had never been heard to raise his voice. Seconds later, the rabbi, covered in blood, staggered out of the bedroom, while the terrorist, who held a long and bloody butcher knife in one hand, tried with the other hand to drag him back into the bedroom. Stunned, Chaya screamed while she instinctively tried to pull her husband out of the terrorist’s grasp. A tug-of-war ensued until finally the terrorist let go, not before hurdling the butcher knife at the mortally wounded rabbi and setting the trailer on fire. It was too late to save her husband. Chaya, being a nurse, knew from the gaping wound in her husband’s main artery that his condition was fatal. Seeing the flames around her it was now up to her to alert the six other families living in the neighboring inflammable trailers before they too went up in flames. Chaya threw open the door and shouted, “Fire! Fire!”
How many articles have you ever seen that humanize the Palestinians of Hebron - and how many that humanize the Jews who live there? And this is only one of dozens killed by Palestinian terrorists in the area over the years.
Gessen isn't interested in speaking to Rabbi Ra'anan's daughter. No one is. The only people that the world media is interested in are the Arabs.
The Jews who heroically want to maintain a presence in the holy city of Hebron, where Jews lived for 1500 years before Islam even existed, are the ones who are silenced.
You can legitimately discuss whether Palestinians should be treated better in Hebron, but articles like this commit two crimes: they only tell one side of the story, and they pretend that Hebron is somehow a microcosm of the West Bank when in fact it is the only place (outside Jerusalem) where Arabs and Jews live in such close proximity.
And when that happens, it is the Jews what need protection far more than the Arabs. If the Arabs would have left the Jews alone, there would be no army there.
That is the real story, and it is one that The New Yorker will never touch.
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In the Jewish Journal/Sun Sentinel of Florida, Rabbi Bruce Warshal writes a quite false op-ed about Birthright, under the headline "How morally silent do you have to be for Birthright?"
Two months ago, Birthright began to require that all participants sign a new contract with Birthright in which they agree they will not “coerce, force or suppress opinions, hijack a discussion or create an unwarranted provocation.” Translation: don’t ask anything about Israeli Arabs, the West Bank, Gaza or the Occupation.
How do we know that this is its intent? Six weeks ago, Emily Bloch wrote in the Forward: “On the fifth day of my Birthright trip…I asked our trip leader if the towering concrete wall I could see from my window was the wall that separates the West Bank from Israel. Two hours later, I stood on a street corner in Tel Aviv with two other participants, watching our trip’s bus drive away without us; we were officially kicked off of Birthright.”
She further writes that Birthright indicated that..."for engaging in the most Jewish way possible – asking questions about injustice – I was told that I am not welcome.”
This is an outrageous mischaracterization of what happened, of course. Emily Bloch and her friends had pre-planned to hijack the conversation. They are members of IfNotNow, an organization that is explicitly against Birthright's very existence as a program to instill pride in Jewish youth. In reality, Birthright guides deal honestly and forthrightly with questions about Arabs, although from an Israeli perspective. Dozens of Birthright participants report that they ask questions about Palestinians and Arabs all the time without any incident.
The only issue of morality here is the morality of knowingly lying about the incident and about Birthright.
Surprisingly, the Sun Sentinel doesn't mention that Warshal is a leader of Peace Now, showing that he leads an organization dedicated to hiding any facts about Israel that show it in a good light. He had previously written an op-ed defending BDS.
Warshal isn't the only one to misrepresent Birthright. In December, the Forward and Haaretz were very happy to report the news that there was a "Sharp Decline In Number Of American Jews On Birthright Trips" this season. They gave lots of reasons for this alleged 20%-50% drop, which Warshal mentions as well - American Jewish youth don't care about Israel, they do care about Palestinian perspectives, and lots of other conjectures.
But what they didn't say is that if you add up all the seasons, Birthright had a record year in 2018, with 48,000 participants from abroad visiting Israel on the trips.
“As anticipated, 2018 saw a record volume of participants,”Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark said. “The project continues to excite young Jews around the world and participants say the tours are extremely meaningful.”
The people who are so upset over Birthright's supposed "silence" on topics it actually does address are themselves silent over the truth about Birthright as well as over their own affiliation with anti-Birthright organizations.
That is the only moral issue happening here.
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Actress Emma Maembong publicly apologises for her intimate photos which went viral today.
In her latest entry on her Instagram, she wrote: "I’d like to apologise to everyone for being careless. It (being photographed without a hijab and in close proximity with a man) was my mistake, not others. Thank you for your advice, and to those who are disappointed and upset with my actions, I sincerely apologise... Thank you for your support too. Love you guys so much. Again, I’m sorry."
The photos showed her sans the headscarf and in a rather intimate position with Syed Abdullah Syed Abdul Rahman, the elder brother of Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq.
In a photo, Emma had her hand over Syed Abdullah’s shoulder, at a dining table, while another, depicted the pair in a room. Emma was sitting in between his legs.
According to a news report today, the photos had been taken sometime last week.
Here are the photos that upset the Malaysians so much (but no too much to avoid sharing them over social media):
The man's brother was the sports minister who claimed that banning Israeli athletes from Malaysia was necessary because of Malaysia's concern for "human rights."
Malaysia does not mandate women wear hijab. Emma Maembong seems to have built her career on being covered, which is why these pictures are so controversial.
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On April 27, 1945, a young soldier of the 12th Armored Division of the United States Army wrote these astonishing words to his wife in the United States: “Although I may never talk about what I have witnessed today. I will never forget what I have seen.” Aaron A. Eiferman’s division was moving to a new position near Dachau when they “came across a prison camp.” His historic account, like all subsequent descriptions, lacked the words to adequately convey the horror and the suffering that occurred at Dachau and in the other concentration and death camps of the Holocaust.
The Third Reich, and its collaborators, pursued the complete elimination of the entire Jewish people. Six million Jews were systematically slaughtered in horrific ways. The Nazis also enslaved and murdered Slavs, Roma, gays, people with disabilities, religious leaders, and others who courageously opposed their cruel regime. The brutality of the Holocaust was a crime against men, women, and children. It was a crime against humanity. It was a crime against God.
On International Holocaust Remembrance Day, we hold in our hearts the memory of every man, woman, and child who was abused, tortured, or murdered during the Holocaust. To remember these men and women—those who perished and those who survived—is to strive to prevent such suffering from happening again. Any denial or indifference to the horror of this chapter in the history of humankind diminishes all men and women everywhere and invites repetition of this great evil. We remain committed to the post-Holocaust imperative, “Never Again.” “Never Again” means not only remembering—in a profound and lasting way—the evils of the Holocaust, but it also means remembering the individual men and women in this Nation, and throughout the world, who have devoted their lives to the preservation and security of the Jewish people and to the betterment of all mankind.
Until she spoke out against the plague of Jew hatred that has infected the British Labor Party of Jeremy Corbyn, Channel 4 game show hostess Rachel Riley was known chiefly for high heels and short skirts. Now, as detailed in a recent address, she is a designated target of the Left
If you told me this time last year that, come January 2019, I’d be standing in Parliament, addressing a room full of people at a Holocaust memorial event, describing the hideous abuse I’ve been receiving daily since I started speaking about the growing problem of antisemitism in the UK, I wouldn’t know where to begin with my incredulity.
My own identity as a Jew has been a confusing one. As I often joke, my mum’s Jewish and my dad’s Man United, and we’ve worshipped far more often at the Theatre of Dreams than I’ve ever been to shul. As a child, I knew not to sing the Jesus bit in the assembly hymns but the bacon sandwiches mum would feed us meant I didn’t quite know where we fit into all of this.
But one part of my Jewish identity, that forms part of my very being, is the deep and irreparable sorrow I feel in relation to the Holocaust.
I’ve always known that having just one Jewish grandparent, in the lifetime of my own Jewish grandparents, was enough for some to feel justified in carrying out unspeakable acts of inhumanity against them, like ripping babies out of mothers’ arms and smashing them against walls.
I visited Auschwitz for the first time in November. Most memorable to me were the videos in the Shoah exhibition of normal looking people in the 1930s – Jews – having fun in swim suits on the beach, playing cricket, enjoying family together, who would soon be reduced to dust.
The enormous mountain of hair, including little girls’ plaits, some blonde, some brunette, tied neatly, presumably by their loving mothers, before they would have to say goodbye forever, with all that would be left of them, cut off to be made into fabric. I’ve never experienced the literal feeling of being emotionally punched in the stomach like I did standing by that display.
International Holocaust Remembrance Day takes place on January 27 every year, on the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau on this day in 1945. Remembering the Holocaust provides us with universal lessons on the depth human evil can reach, and, conversely, the love of life and the heroism of adults and even children who thwarted human barbarity with their own survival.
I think about my dear relatives who were murdered at Sobibor and Auschwitz. They included Poles and Italians, as well as my father's little brothers who, while my father just barely escaped deportation, were killed, and my heart is filled with unbearable pain.
What hurts the most is that in Europe, the mother of genocidal anti-Semitism, its contemporary growth is all too visible. 58% of French Jews and nearly half of the Jews in Germany are worried about physical attacks. The bottom line is that we need to address the memory of the Holocaust in contemporary terms.
Most European schools and universities continue to teach Israel's history as a continuation of European colonialism in which the Palestinians are occupied and exploited by "evil" Jews who practice apartheid or even genocide. Traditional tools against anti-Semitism do not work when the cultural platforms endorse claims that the Palestinians are victims of the Jews.
The State of Israel has achieved a political miracle at all levels to the point where it has exported to Europe and America its technology and shares military plans with them.
The miracle of Israel was achieved thanks to honest politicians and heroes who loved their country and sacrificed for it, and presented creative ideas for it and did everything for the purpose of progress.
In 1924, 24 years before the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel, the Jewish community established a university and a research institute in the present Land of Israel, it established an army and various institutions and it was ready at the moment of the declaration of the establishment of the State of Israel. ...
In Israel, they have achieved a miracle within a miracle. The community has achieved the highest degree of success in teamwork. You find Jewish institutions operating in different parts of the world....We don't hear about disagreements and struggles for leadership and theft of public money.
Another miracle is the Israeli patriotism, which blended religion with politics and employed it to serve the interests of the country. The Israeli reached the peak of feeling of national belonging and sacrifice, imagining the Jews leaving their work and original homeland in Europe and America and joining the army to perform military service and then returning to their native country.
By the way, the daughter of US President Trump is Jewish and persuaded his wife to change her Christian religion to Judaism. Although he is a US citizen, he has traveled to Israel to serve in Israel. He serves as president's adviser several times a day.
The question is: Why did not Iraq produce sovereign national politicians like Israeli politicians?
My personal opinion after seeing the failure of the Iraqis and Arabs residing in Europe, America, Canada and Australia to absorb and digest the civilization .... they have a lack of respect for the law and democracy and public freedoms and their lack of values of sincerity and honor of belonging to these countries to credit them ...
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In a stunning victory
for the Divestment,
Boycott and Sanctions (DBS) movement against Apartheid Palestine and
its partners in the anti-Semitic Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS)
“movement,” a federal judge threw
out attempts by anti-Israel partisans to quash sanctions imposed
against their illegal and bigoted project by democratically elected legislators
across the United States.
US District Judge
Brian Miller made it clear that discrimination, whether against blacks, women,
LGBTQIA, or those choosing to do business with the world’s only Jewish state,
is discrimination – an illegal activity – not protected speech.
Making clear what
anyone involved with fighting bigotry directed against any minority group
already knows, the judge pointed out that an organization can “call upon others
to boycott Israel, write in support of such boycotts, and engage in picketing
and pamphleteering to that effect,” but that this did not mean “its decision to
refuse to deal, or to refrain from purchasing certain goods, is protected by
the First Amendment.”
This victory preceded
by just a few days the unprecedented decision by the International Committee
for the Paralympics to pull their upcoming qualifying event from Malaysia
after that country’s right-wing government refused to allow Israeli
Paralympians to participate in the event.
As stated by the
organization, the decision “reinforces the IPC’s [International Paralympic
Committee’s] commitment to our fundamental moral and ethical principles that
encompass inclusivity of all eligible Para athletes and nations to compete at
IPC sanctioned events.”
Just two more examples
of how your commitment and efforts are leading to more sweeping successes for
DBS!
I thought I’d take a break from measured prose to recount a
few recent events in the kind of breathless verbiage made famous in BDS press
releases that inflates every tiny (or pretend) victory into world-shattering
significance.
The irony is that the real victories noted above are each
orders of magnitude greater than anything the BDSers have accomplished in the
last decade and a half in the category they consider most significant:
sanctions.
Consider for a moment the kind of hyperbole and fireworks
that would accompany even one state passing anti-Israel divestment or boycott
legislation, not matter how trivial. In
fact, you don’t have to imagine it since the boycotters have routinely touted
“victories” offered by must smaller political entities such as Somerville
MA (where they failed) or local government councils (where victories
have been, at most, miniscule or fleeting).
Yet in just the last few years, a majority of US states have
passed or floated anti-BDS “sanctions” bills which were passed nearly
unanimously by democratically elected bodies (vs. the back-room, last-minute
deals the BDSers rely on for their “wins”).
Similarly, the international Paralympics Committee didn’t
just slap Malaysia on the wrist or find some common ground between their
principles and Malaysia’s anti-Semitic policy, but instead refused to allow
their event to continue if it was to be marred by anti-Israel bigotry.
Three lessons we can draw from these events and the contrast
in coverage of pro- and anti-BDS votes and measures include:
(1)Honest and sensible people
still understand the difference between virtuous principles like free speech
and the fight against discrimination, and those who engage in bigotry while
claiming the mantle of anti-racism
(2)There are ways to present
events that make us look defensive (by stressing, for example, our opponent’s
free-speech arguments against anti-boycott legislation) vs. casting these same
events in terms that put opponents in the dock (by calling them successful
sanctions by democratically elected bodies against racists and right-wingers,
for example).
(3)That the Israel haters are
playing a long game that can absorb these sorts of setbacks, a strategy I’ll
discuss more next time…
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Mohammed Shtayyeh, another senior Fatah official and former member of the Palestinian negotiating team with Israel, said that the Palestinians were frustrated and saddened by the normalization of relations between the Arabs and Israel. In an interview with the Palestinian Authority's Voice of Palestine radio station, Shtayyeh attributed the apparent rapprochement between Israel and some Arabs to the "state of decline" in the Arab and Islamic countries.
Three Palestinian groups — the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP), and Hamas — have also called on the Arabs to resist any attempt by their leaders to make peace with Israel, and said that the time has come to take "serious measures to confront the dangers of normalization with Israel."
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah also joined the chorus, by urging the Arabs to refrain from any form of normalization with Israel. In a speech before an Arab economic conference in Lebanon on January 20, Hamdallah said that Arab normalization with Israel should not happen before the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, with east Jerusalem as its capital, on the pre-1967 lines. He called on all Arab institutions and companies to abide by Arab League instructions to boycott Israel.
It is, at the very least, pure hypocrisy for the Palestinian Authority and its leaders to demand that Arabs boycott Israel when they themselves are speaking and working with Israel. The same Hamdallah who is calling on Arabs to boycott Israel, holds regular meetings with Israeli Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon in Jerusalem. Another Palestinian minister who holds regular meetings with Israeli officials is Hussein al-Sheikh, who is also a senior Fatah official.
The Palestinian strategy is now based on inciting Arabs against their leaders. This is the message that Abbas and his officials are sending to the Arabs: "You need to join us in our campaign to stop Arab leaders from making peace with Israel. You must condemn any leader who seeks normalization with Israel as a traitor."
The Palestinians' "anti-normalization" campaign is also part of their effort to thwart Trump's "deal of the century," which, according to some reports, will call for normalization between the Arabs and Israel. The Palestinians say that they are determined to foil Trump's unseen peace plan and its attempt to normalize relations between the Arab countries and Israel. This, then, is what Palestinian "diplomacy" boils down to these days: foiling peace plans and Israeli-Arab normalization. That is what happens when Mahmoud Abbas and his officials have nothing good to offer their people. It now remains to be seen whether the Arab countries will surrender to the latest campaign of Palestinian incitement and intimidation.
A major economic conference was supposed to take place last week. There was no international clamor, there were no demonstrations on campuses, the BDS anti-Israel brigade were nowhere in sight, but the conference still failed due to a boycott.
Surprisingly, this wasn't a conference that was supposed to be held in Tel Aviv or Jerusalem—it was the Fourth Arab Economic and Social Development Summit, held in Beirut and boycotted by the leaders of the Arab countries, with the exception of Qatar and Mauritania.
Is the Arab world boycotting Lebanon? Officially, no. In practice, yes. Like so many problems in the Middle East, Iran was the reason this time as well. Lebanon could have been the most prosperous country in the Arab world, wrote Abdulrahman al-Rashed, former editor of the Asharq Al-Awsat daily and current director-general of Al-Arabiya, but that will never happen because Iran controls Lebanon.
Al-Rashed wrote: "The region is experiencing a series of crises, whose common denominator is a connection to Iran. Unfortunately Lebanon will not be stable, the Palestinians will achieve neither statehood nor normal life, in Yemen, Iraq and Syria there is no hope for a better future for as long as Iran continues with its policy of causing chaos there," he said.
As opposed to former US president Jimmy Carter and Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom, who subscribe to the belief that everything wrong in the region is down to "the oppression of the Palestinians by Israel," courageous elements in the Arab world, such as al-Rashid, are pointing the finger at Iran.
The tension between the Palestinian Authority and the Hamas Organization in Gaza is approaching the boiling point, as a result of several factors:
The dire economic situation in Gaza, the unbridgeable chasm between Hamas and Fatah's outlook, a stalemate in Israel-PLO negotiations, the postponement of any attempts at progress between Israel and the Palestinians during the election period, the approaching date for announcing the US government's "deal of the century" - and the constant leaks about its content - the strengthening of relations between Israel and several Arab states and, of course, the lack of any chance on the political horizon that Israel will pack its bags and return to the 1949 lines.
Hamas is in financial straits because its flow of Iranian support has dried up as a result of the economic sanctions on Iran, while the economic crisis in Turkey casts a shadow on Sultan Erdogan's proteges, the heads of Hamas in Gaza. Hamas members in Judea and Samaria are being hunted down by Israeli and PA security forces, who work hand in hand 24/7 against the terror organization.
The article I have brought below (in translation), with my clarifications in parentheses, appeared on a pro-Hamas site n early January 2019.
Kuwaiti jiu jitsu champion Abdullah Al Anjari has been very public on social media about his decision on Saturday to drop out of a jiu jitsu tournament in Los Angeles.
He's being hailed as a "hero" in Kuwaiti media and by the BDS Arabic account. As of this writing, I have not seen any other coverage of this story.
I also cannot find the bracket that he reproduces here. The Los Angeles championships aren't until March and I didn't see them issue any brackets.
As far as I can tell, the IBJFF does not have any written rules about penalizing athletes who refuse to compete. But it might be worth Tweeting them about this.
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Here is a memo written by the US Joint Chiefs of Staff after the Six Day War where they describe which territory Israel must retain for peace. It was declassified in 1979.
It is sort of amazing that this document has not received more publicity. There was an article detailing the full text in the Journal of Palestine Studies and Wall Street Journal had an article about this memo in 1983.
The recommendations included keeping most of the West Bank, all the Golan Heights, all of Gaza and only limited amounts of the Sinai (all assuming the Arab nations remain enemies, of course.)
JCSM-373-67 29 JUN 1967 1. Reference is made to your memorandum, dated 19 June 1967, subject as above, which requested the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, without regard to political factors, on the minimum territory, in addition to that held on 4 June 1967, Israel might be justified in retaining in order to permit a more effective defense against possible conventional Arab attack and terrorist raids.
2. From a strictly military point of view, Israel would require the retention of some captured territory in order to provide militarily defensible borders. Determination of territory to be retained should be based on accepted tactical principles such as control of commanding terrain, use of natural obstacles, elimination of enemy held salients, and provision of defense in depth for important facilities and installations. More detailed discussions of the key border areas mentioned in the reference are contained in the Appendix hereto. In summary, the views of the Joint Chiefs of Staff regarding these areas are as follows:
a. The Jordanian West Bank. Control of
the prominent high ground running
north-south through the middle of West
Jordan generally east of the main north-south highway along the axis Jenin-Nablus-Bira-Jerusalem and then southeast to a junction with the Dead Sea at
the Wadi el Daraja would provide Israel
with a militarily defensible border. The
envisioned defensive line would run just
east of Jerusalem; however, provision
could be made for internationalization
of the city without significant detriment
to Israel's defensive posture.
b. Syrian Territory Contiguous to Israel.
Israel is particularly sensitive to the prevalence of terrorist raids and border incidents in this area. The presently occupied territory, the high ground running
generally north-south on a line with
Qunaitra about 15 miles inside the Syrian
border, would give Israel control of the
terrain which Syria has used effectively
in harassing the border area.
c. The Jerusalem-Latrun Area. See subparagraph 2a, above.
d. The Gaza Strip. By occupying the
Gaza Strip, Israel would trade approximately 45 miles of hostile border for
eight. Configured as it is, the strip serves
as a salient for introduction of Arab
subversion and terrorism, and its retention would be to Israel's military
advantage.
e. The Negev-Sinai Border. Except for
retention of the demilitarized zone
around Al Awja and some territory for
the protection of the port of Eilat, discussed below, continued occupation of
the Sinai would present Israel with problems outweighing any military gains.
f. The Negev-Jordan-Aqaba-Strait of Tiran
Area. Israel's objectives here would be
innocent passage through the Gulf of
Aqaba and protection of its port of Eilat.
Israel could occupy Sharm ash-Shaykh
with considerable inconvenience but
could rely on some form of internationalization to secure free access to the gulf.
Failing this, Israel would require key terrain in the Sinai to protect its use of the
Strait of Tiran. Eilat, situated at the apex
of Israel's narrow southern tip, is
vulnerable to direct ground action from
Egyptian territory. Israel would lessen
the threat by retention of a portion of
the Sinai Peninsula south and east of the
Wadi el Gerafi then east to an intersection with the Gulf of Aqaba at approximately 29^20' north latitude.
3. It is emphasized that the above conclusions, in accordance with your terms of
reference, are based solely on military
considerations from the Israeli point of
view. For the Joint Chiefs of Staff: Signed
Earle G. Wheeler Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff
Here is the part of the Appendix relevant to the areas in Judea and Samaria:
b. Requirement. A boundary along the commanding terrain overlooking the Jordan River from the west could provide a shorter defense line. However, as a minimum, Israel would need a defense line generally along the axis Bardala-Tubas-Nablus-Bira-Jerusalem and then to the northern part of the Dead Sea. This line would widen the narrow portion of Israel and provide additional terrain for the defense of Tel Aviv. It would provide additional buffer for the air base at Beersheba. In addition, this line would give a portion of the foothills to Israel and avoid interdiction by artillery in the Israeli villages in the lowlands. This line would also provide a shorter defense line than the border of 4 June 1967 and would reduce the Jordanian salient into Israel. It also provides adequate lines of communications for lateral movement.
Here is the map showing what that US defense experts felt Israel would need to maintain its defensive capabilities. Notice that the line is to the east even of today's Ariel.
It is likely that this map is what the Americans had in mind when UNSC Resolution 242 was drafted, which insisted that Israel must be in "secure and recognized boundaries."
(h/t Irene)
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The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center has examined the names of every person killed in the Gaza "return marches" every Friday since last March.
The events of the “return marches” in the Gaza Strip have continued for 42 weeks. In most cases, these events are characterized by a high level of violence, resulting in casualties among the rioters, mainly among those in the front line confronting the IDF troops. According to the ITIC’s examination, based on reports of the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health in combination with other sources, since the beginning of the “return marches” on March 30, 2018, a total of 187 Palestinians were killed in those events. As for the identity of the fatalities (updated to January 16, 2019), 150 of them were found to be affiliated with Hamas or with other terrorist organizations (about 80%). Prominent among the fatalities are those belonging to Hamas or affiliated with it (96 fatalities, about 51% of the total number of fatalities). A total of 45 fatalities are operatives of the Hamas military wing (about 24% of the total number of fatalities, about 47% of the total of the Hamas fatalities). ... The large number of fatalities from the terrorist organizations on the front line demonstrates that the violence against the IDF near the border is not “popular,” as the false Palestinian propaganda wishes to convey. It is orchestrated by Hamas and significantly involves operatives of Hamas’s military wing or operatives affiliated with Hamas. It also shows that the IDF soldiers do not shoot indiscriminately at “innocent” demonstrators but instead, in most cases, target and hit specific terrorist operatives. It should be noted that the Gaza Strip Health Ministry, whose reports are used as a source for media outlets worldwide (as well as in Israel), does not provide information on the organizational affiliation of the fatalities, thus helping to convey a false idea of killing “innocent” demonstrators by the IDF.
Hamas is encouraging civilians to charge the fence and to be in the line of any Israeli bullets - and even so, Israel has managed an incredible rate of 80% terrorists killed - in fields where the majority of people are civilians who are bused in by Hamas to enjoy the demonstrations.
The Meir Amit Center keeps track of the identities and affiliations of all the dead, based on information from funerals, terrorist websites and other sources.
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Six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.
Here is part 20.
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A poll released to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day has found that 1 in 20 British adults does not believe the Holocaust happened and 12 percent think the scale of the genocide has been exaggerated.
Nearly half of those questioned said they did not know how many Jews were murdered by the Nazis, The Guardian reported, and one in five people thought fewer than two million Jews were killed. Some six million Jews were murdered in the Holocaust.
Olivia Marks-Woldman from the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust, which commissioned the poll, responded to the findings, telling the BBC: “Such widespread ignorance and even denial is shocking.
“Without a basic understanding of this recent history, we are in danger of failing to learn where a lack of respect for difference and hostility to others can ultimately lead.”
In a statement to The Guardian, Marks-Woldman clarified that, “I must stress that I don’t think [the poll respondents] are active Holocaust deniers — people who deliberately propagate and disseminate vile distortions. But their ignorance means they are susceptible to myths and distortions.”
Rambam has come to realize that “[Nazis] had a 99.9 percent chance of dying in their bed. No prosecution, exposure, no so-called hunting.”
After he’d seek out people who had committed murder with their own hands, his biggest shock was how unafraid they were. They were not concerned, and were certain they had nothing to fear, that nobody was going to bother them, Rambam said.
“The vast majority of these war criminals were true believers,” he said.
That included Antanas Ceponis, who had a picture of Hitler on his fridge. Rambam took a photo of him posing with his rifle next to the photo in his Ceponis’s Toronto area home.
“No shame, no fear. He confessed, talked about chasing and shooting Jews,” he said.
The result? Authorities seized the rifle.
Rambam believes significant blame for the lack of prosecution falls on the Jewish establishment who failed their moral responsibility. He said the Jewish leadership was beyond livid with him at exposing their passivity with these embarrassing revelations.
“There’s no reason why these Nazis couldn’t have been found and pursued. I proved that,” he claimed.
In August 1943, the height of the Holocaust, Ethiopian Jewish leaders approached the Emperor of Ethiopia with a daring proposal. They asked Haile Selassie to help Jews in Europe flee to Ethiopia and assist Jewish refugees by hosting them in Ethiopian Jewish villages.
Three months after the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and two months after all four of the Auschwitz crematoria were functioning, the Palestine Post, ancestor of today’s Jerusalem Post, published an article detailing Jewish immigration to Ethiopia. “Possibilities of Jewish immigration into Abyssinia were discussed by the Ethiopian Minister in London with Mr. Harry Goodman and Dr. Springer of Agudath Israel,” the August 8, 1943 article says. “A leading member of the Falasha (black Jewish) community expressed the desire to assist European Jewry and to welcome them in Falasha towns.” Falasha was the term used to describe Jews in Ethiopia at the time.
Discussions were ongoing in Addis Ababa where the emperor, who had returned to Ethiopia in May 1941 after it was liberated from Italian occupation with British help, was showing support for the plan. 1,500 Greek refugees, including Greek Jews, had arrived in Ethiopia in 1943, the article says. Emperor Selassie had stayed at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem in 1936 and was familiar with the Jewish minority in his country. Selassie also worked closely with Orde Wingate, the British officer who was a passionate Zionist and who led Gideon Force which helped defeat the Italians in Ethiopia. Ethiopian leaders and the Ethiopian Jewish community were therefore familiar with the local Jewish community and the plight of Jews worldwide at the time.
Ethiopian Jews suffered under the Italian occupation but by 1943 they were able to reach out to the emperor to suggest hosting Jews fleeing Europe. By that time it was too late for many of the Jews of Europe ensnared in the Nazi noose. The full story of the 1943 effort to convince Ethiopia to re-settle Jews fleeing Europe has not been researched and details about it remain unknown. For instance Harry Goodman, who is mentioned in the article, was a well known member of the Orthodox Agudath Israel World Organization. He published articles in the Jewish Weekly and broadcast messages to Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe.
Malaysia prioritises human rights, says Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
That is the stand taken by the Youth and Sports Minister after the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) stripped Malaysia of the right to host the 2019 World Para Swimming Championships.
He said that if hosting an international sporting event is more important than standing up for Palestinians, that means Malaysia has truly lost its moral compass.
"We would like to kindly remind the IPC that even Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch have reported that the (Israeli prime minister Benjamin) Netanyahu government is an active perpetrator of war crimes.
"As the leader of Israel, he represents the collective will of the Israeli government. The Israeli state is the locus of their collective moral actions.
"Malaysia stands firmly with our decision on the ground of humanity and compassion for the Palestinian plight. We will not compromise," he said in a statement issued to the press on Sunday (Jan 27).
Freedom of expression
The government continued to harass, detain and prosecute critics through the use of restrictive laws such as the Sedition Act and the Communications and Multimedia Act....
Freedom of movement
In July, the Court of Appeal ruled that the government has absolute discretion to bar any citizen from travelling abroad without needing to provide a reason. This ruling facilitated continued violations of the right to freedom of movement and the work of human rights defenders...
Freedoms of association and assembly
Human rights defenders and opposition parliamentarians continued to stand trial for participating in peaceful protests. ...
Indigenous Peoples’ rights
In January, following peaceful protests against logging licences granted by local authorities, 21 Indigenous human rights defenders from the Temiar people in the northern state of Kelantan were detained. Two journalists were also arrested. ....
Arbitrary arrests and detentions
Preventive detention laws such as the Prevention of Terrorism Act and Security Offences (Special Measures) Act (SOSMA) continued to be used to detain, prosecute and imprison people alleged to have committed security offences. ....
On 26 April, the Kuala Lumpur High Court sentenced Siti Noor Aishah to five years’ imprisonment for possession of 12 books, under a sweeping provision of the SOSMA prohibiting the possession, custody or control of any item associated with any terrorist group or the commission of a terrorist act. The books owned by Siti Noor Aishah had not been banned, which raised further concerns about the arbitrary nature of the law and the way it was applied.
Police and security forces
Impunity for deaths in custody and excessive use of force and firearms persisted. There were at least five deaths in custody during the year. ...
Death penalty
The death penalty continued to be retained as the mandatory punishment for offences including drug trafficking, murder and discharge of firearms with intent to kill or harm in certain circumstances....
Rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex people
Discrimination against LGBTI people continued both in law and practice. Section 377A of the Penal Code criminalizes consensual sexual relations between adult men.
Apparently Malaysia's concern for human rights doesn't extend to its own citizens.
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Tuesday, January 29, 2019
