Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 01, 2012

Abbas and Fayyad's secret condolences to Netanyahu

From JPost:

In an unusual gesture Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud and PA Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday sent separate condolence letters to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who is sitting in mourning for his father in Jerusalem.

Direct communication between Palestinian and Israeli leaders has been scant since Netanyahu took office in March 2009.

This is a very nice gesture, and I am sure that both Bibi Netanyahu and the people of Israel appreciate it.

The PA's official WAFA news agency notes every single diplomatic move that Mahmoud Abbas and Salam Fayyad. do - every meeting, every letter, every phone call, especially with politicians from other countries.

But it didn't mention a word about these condolence letters.

Are they afraid that their people would riot if they publicize a simple act of humanity towards an Israeli leader? Are they concerned that it would make them look weak? Do they think they would be accused of being "Zionist"? Are they trying to make sure that Hamas doesn't use this as a weapon against them?

Again, it is commendable that they took the time to do the right thing. But the fact that there was clearly a decision made not to publicize these letters in Arabic says a lot about how the Palestinian Arab leaders think about their own people.

There are only two alternatives: either they know that releasing such information would create a backlash, or they mistakenly think that.

Either way, if the leaders of a wannabe nation think so little of their own people that they cannot defend a simple condolence gesture, how can anyone expect that there would ever be real peace? If they feel that their positions are so tenuous that publicizing a tiny gesture of humanity is considered dangerous to themselves, how can anyone expect them to make the truly difficult decisions necessary for peace?

(h/t @BibiReport and @ChallahHuAkbar)

Today's BDS fail: Finland to buy Israeli drones

Finnish media are reporting that Finland is going to purchase Israeli Orbiter UAVs with a value of 23.6 million euros ($31 million.) They are part of a plan to put up a new line of defense to replace land mines banned in the Ottawa treaty.

This might be the same UAV tender that many Israel-haters fought tooth and nail against last year.

So this isn't just a BDS fail - but one where the BDSers spent months to try to derail. All for nought.

(h/t Dan)

St Andrews student who defaced Israeli flag loses appeal

Last year I reported about Chanan Reitblat, the St. Andrews University student who was victimized by Paul Donnachie, when Donnachie fondled his own genitals and then wiped his hands on Reitblat's Israeli flag in his own dorm room.

In August, Donnachie was found guilty of racism. He was expelled from the school.

The convicted racist appealed the verdict - and yesterday, he lost his appeal.

A man who called a Jewish student a terrorist has lost his appeal to have his conviction for racially aggravated behaviour quashed.

Paul Donnachie, 19, was given 150 hours for putting his hands down his trousers before rubbing them on Jewish student Chanan Reitblat's Israeli flag.

Lawyers acting for Donnachie were told by appeal court judges a sheriff did not make a mistake when sentencing him.

The 19-year-old from Blackpool, Lancs, was convicted at Cupar Sheriff Court in September last year of defiling a flag that hung on the wall of American student Mr Reitblat's room.

He also called Mr Reitblat, from New York, a terrorist during the incident.

Sheriff Charles Macnair QC also ordered Donnachie to pay £300 compensation towards his victim, who studies at Yeshiva University, also in New York.

However, Donnachie's legal team believed Sheriff Macnair committed a miscarriage of justice when he did not allow members of a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign group to give evidence during proceedings against Donnachie.

The protesters were expected to tell the court about the political situation in Israel - something which solicitors acting for Donnachie thought was relevant to his defence.

On Tuesday, three judges at the Court of Appeal in Edinburgh refused to grant Donnachie's appeal to have his conviction overturned.

In proceedings that lasted less than a minute, Mr Donnachie's lawyers were told that the appeal had failed.

In a written judgement, The Lord Justice Clerk, Lord Gill, said that Sheriff Macnair had acted correctly when dealing with Donnachie.

He wrote: "There was therefore no substantive miscarriage of justice nor was there an appearance of injustice."

His fellow judges, Lord Mackay of Drumadoon and Lord Bonomy, also refused to overturn Donnachie's conviction.

Donnachie was thrown out of St Andrews University after being found guilty of racially abusing Mr Reitblat following the two day trial at Cupar Sheriff Court.

It looks like Donnachie's defense was to try to convince the judge that Israel was so evil that Donnachie should be allowed to do whatever crimes he feels like.

And that is not necessarily a bad strategy in some British courtrooms.

Luckily, this wasn't one of them.

Just a little Egyptian hypocrisy on free speech (updated)

Bikya Masr has an article decrying Israel's "Nakba law":

The Nakba Law, upheld in a constitutional court in January of 2012, symbolizes a major setback for the proponents of free speech. The absurd idea that historical perception can be regulated by the state is self-defeating: time and time again such efforts have strengthened the very forces they aimed at eliminating.

For the proponents of such a bizarre and reactionary law, the danger lies not merely in emboldening the opposition, but also in setting a dubious precedent that almost certainly will one day work against them. “Every time you violate– or propose to violate –the right to free speech of someone else,” the late Christopher Hitchens said, “you in potentia are making a rod for your own back.”

Of course, the law doesn't inhibit free speech; it says that the state of Israel does not need to fund "alternative narratives" that are meant to call into question its very right to exist. But it will not stop anyone else from saying or publishing whatever they want.

So yesterday I wrote a comment to the article pointing that out.

Then I added a small experiment. I asked if the author could please point me to anywhere an Egyptian discusses the end of the Yom Kippur War, where the Egyptian Third Army was surrounded by Israeli forces and on the verge of being destroyed before Egypt begged for a cease fire.

Of course, Egypt regards that war as a complete military victory - and never talks about the end of the war.

Take a guess as to whether Bikya Masr published my comment.

Which tells you all you need to know about free speech in Egypt.

UPDATE: After I wrote this, they did put my comment up. (h/t sshender)

Canadian aboriginal leaders visit Israel (plus a little Leftist racism)

From JTA:

Thirty young aboriginal leaders from Canada will travel to Israel to study culture and society in the Jewish state.

The Youth Leadership Development Mission to Israel will take place April 29 to May 6.

Under the auspices of Canada's Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs and the Jewish Federation of Winnipeg, the First Nations leaders will visit Christian and Jewish holy sites, study the Israeli immigrant absorption experience, and skate at Israel's only full-sized hockey rink, located at the Canada Centre in Metulla.

"The objective of this trip is to help develop leaders among First Nations youth," said Ron Evans, chief of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, who will lead the mission. "I visited Israel for the first time last year and I was overwhelmingly inspired. The Jewish people are the historic, indigenous people of Israel. For Canada's First Nations, Israel's story demonstrates how an ancient people can maintain their heritage while embracing the modern world, and in so doing achieve self-determination."

I found this in a tweet from Max Blumenthal, who called this "redwashing."

Calling the indigenous people of North America "redskins" is considered offensive to many, so Blumenthal's comment is blatantly racist. But since it comes for a good cause of trying to bash Israel, don't expect any of his fellow, ever-sensitive leftists to call him on it. They save their indignation for perceived racism exclusively from the other side.

From Israel's MFA:

The remains of a building dating to the end of the First Temple period were discovered below the base of the ancient drainage channel that is currently being exposed in Israel Antiquities Authority excavations beneath Robinson’s Arch in the Jerusalem Archaeological Garden, adjacent to the Western Wall of the Temple Mount. This building is the closest structure to the First Temple found to date in archaeological excavations.

In the excavations, underwritten by the Ir David Foundation, a personal Hebrew seal from the end of the First Temple period was discovered on the floor of the ancient building. The seal is made of a semi-precious stone and is engraved with the name of its owner: "Lematanyahu Ben Ho…" ("למתניהו בן הו..." meaning: "Belonging to Matanyahu Ben Ho…"). The rest of the inscription is erased.

From the very start of the excavations in this area the archaeologists decided that all of the soil removed from there would be meticulously sifted (including wet-sifting and thorough sorting of the material remnants left in the sieve). This scientific measure is being done in cooperation with thousands of pupils in the Tzurim Valley National Park. It was during the sieving process that the tiny seal was discovered.

People used personal seals in the First Temple period for the purpose of signing letters and they were set in a signet ring. The seals served to identify their owner, just as they identify officials today.

According to Eli Shukron, excavation director on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority, "the name Matanyahu, like the name Netanyahu, means giving to God. These names are mentioned several times in the Bible. They are typical of the names in the Kingdom of Judah in latter part of the First Temple period - from the end of the eighth century BCE until the destruction of the Temple in 586 BCE. To find a seal from the First Temple period at the foot of the Temple Mount walls is rare and very exciting. This is a tangible greeting of sorts from a man named Matanyahu who lived here more than 2,700 years ago. We also found pottery sherds characteristic of the period on the floor in the ancient building beneath the base of the drainage channel, as well as stone collapse and evidence of a fire."

Arutz 7 adds:

The name Matanyahu appears twice in Chronicles 1:25, in a section listing names of Hebrews whom King David had appointed to sing G-d's praise and perform other functions at the Holy Tabernacle. A few lines away, the name Netanyahu also appears. Both names are etymologically very close and mean the same thing: "Gift to [or from] G-d."

The seal is about 2 cm. (less than one inch) in diameter. Private seals in First Temple times served people for signing documents and were set on rings.

The archeologists had decided in advance that all of the dirt to come out of this dig would be thoroughly sifted – through use of "wet sifting" and meticulous sorting of the remaining materials in the sieve. The sifting is carried out with the help of thousands of school children from all over Israel, at the Emek Tzurim National Park. About 4,500 pupils participated in the work in the last few months.

Qatar cancels "Music and Dialogue Festival": too "Zionist"

If you want to find an Israeli who is "pro-Palestinian", you won't be able to do better than Daniel Barenboim.

The Israeli pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim has been granted Palestinian citizenship for his work in promoting cultural exchange between young people in Israel and the Arab world.

The Argentine-born musician is believed to be the first person in the world to possess both Israeli and Palestinian passports after receiving his new documentation at the end of a piano recital in Ramallah in the West Bank at the weekend.

"Under the most difficult circumstances he has shown solidarity with the Palestinian people," Mustafa Barghouti, a Palestinian MP and presidential candidate, said at the recital held to raise money for medical aid for children in the Gaza Strip.

Barenboim even managed to enter Hamas-controlled Gaza last year to perform with his mixed Arab-Jewish orchestra.

And for the past few years, that same orchestra - the West Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded with Edward Said - has performed in a festival in Qatar.

But not this year.

The event was supposed to include three concerts featuring the orchestra under Barenboim's lead as well as a debate at a local university on the subject of "music as a contribution to peace."

Said died nine years ago, his widow was among those invited to the debate. Everything was ready, thousands of tickets were sold, but just a few days ago Barenboim was surprised to hear that the Qatari authorities announced that the festival was cancelled.

The reason? "Sensitivity to the developments in the Arab world." The official announcement further stated: "We are aware of Maestro Barenboim's special talents, but the festival under his lead is cancelled."

Apparently this is only a diplomatic pretext and the reality may be that the Qatari authorities surrendered to the pressure that was put on them by the Palestinian organization for boycott on Israel.

The Arab media insisting that the reason for the cancellation is the fact that "Barenboim represents the occupation."

Editorials in newspapers throughout the Arab world stated: "This isn't the time or place to entertain Israelis and a Zionist conductor. Qatari authorities are giving the Zionist maestro an opportunity to present a seemingly positive aspect of Israel."

Omar Barghouti, the hypocrite leader of the Israel boycott movement who has no problem getting his doctorate from an Israeli university, explains why Barenboim is such a horrible Zionist:

Although he rejects the 1967 occupation, he also rejects the return of refugees to the homes they were thrown out of during the nakba [in 1948].

Barenboim attempts to cleverly clean up Israel’s image by accepting some Palestinian rights, but at the same time he repudiates the most significant of Palestinian rights.

Meaning the right to destroy the Jewish state.

Barghouti has an entire op-ed in Al Akhbar about this, decrying how Arab countries are "normalizing" relations with Israel in academia, the arts and even sports. He loves to self-righteously force his agenda to boycott Israel on everyone but himself.

Barenboim might be spending his entire life trying to achieve peace and dialogue between Israel and the Arab world, but he still accepts that Israel has a right to exist. That is an unpardonable crime.

And Qatar cannot appear to be "Zionist" by hosting a pro-peace artist who was honored by the Palestinian Authority. That is too controversial.

This episode also neatly proves that the BDS movement is not merely against "occupation" but against the very existence of Israel itself.

Spot the offensive part of this photo!

According to Palestine Press Agency, Palestinian Arabs are very upset over an advertising campaign by JawwaL, a mobile phone provider.

Here's the offensive ad that was seen, scandalously, on billboards and banners:

Can you see why they are seething?

No?

Here's a hint:

Now is it clear?

OK, I'll have to give it away:

One of the hundred-odd flags in the deep background of this canned clip-art appears to be the Israeli flag!

According to PalPress, residents were surprised and displeased by this sickening image, especially so soon after Israel celebrated its Independence Day.

Yes. Really.

IOC: Israel and "Palestine" are on different continents

According to Israeli media, last week the official Olympics site said that Jerusalem was the capital of "Palestine" but Israel had no capital:

After inquiries and complaints, the website swapped things:

(Also note that their population of "Palestine" does not include Gaza!)

But if you go now to the site you see that they scrapped the idea of listing "capital" altogether.

Yet there is still one bizarre "fact" about "Palestine" and Israel remaining on the site.

"Palestine" is in Asia:

While Israel is in Europe!

The reason, of course, is that Arab nations never accepted Israel to become a member of the Asian region, so Israel must compete in European competitions. But it is still a little nutty to say that Israel is physically located in Europe.

Although Helen Thomas and Arab leaders would suggest that Israelis indeed belong in Europe.

I am a little surprised that the Olympics website crack fact checkers didn't claim that Palestine's Olympics Committee was created in 1932.

Don't forget, you can still buy official London 2012 Zionist Games apparel and products (based on Iran's complaints about the logo.)

Ben White proves the hypocrisy of the anti-Israel crowd

Ben White, who is apparently a writer specializing in hating Israel, wrote an article in Electronic Intifada criticizing my post pointing out the hypocrisy of the British Co-op boycott of Agrexco, which I noted also effectively hurts the livelihood of most Palestinian Arab farmers. In his critique, White unwittingly shows exactly the hypocrisy that I am talking about.

Following the decision of major UK supermaket chain the Co-op to boycott four Israeli suppliers, Israel’s apologists have responded with an ‘argument’ of unintentional hilarity: that BDS harms the Palestinians it claims to help.

One would be forgiven for viewing this newly discovered concern for Palestinian farmers living under Israel’s colonial occupation with scepticism, given that the same folks downplay, deny, or whitewash the routine apartheid policies enforced by Israel’s military.

I have noted numerous times, including in the linked post, that people who claim to be pro-Palestinian are almost always really anti-Israel and show no real concern for Palestinians. I have also pointed out that while Zionists have the tendency of trying to find win-win solutions, Arabs and the anti-Israel crowd tend to think in terms of the conflict being a zero-sum game. And I have also shown that what the anti-Israel crowd accuses Israel of is almost always something that they are far more guilty of - and they are projecting their own hate onto Israel.

Until this little screed by White, I never connected these three themes.

White assumes that I hate Palestinian Arabs. He says that I have a "newly found concern" for them, implying that I am only defending Israel and conveniently using this issue as an excuse, when in fact I would be happy seeing Palestinian Arab farmers drop dead.

This is of course nonsense. I challenge White or anyone to go through my 14,000+ posts over the years and find anything where I show hatred for ordinary Palestinians. Because yet another theme I have used throughout the years is that the highest priority for most ordinary Palestinian Arabs is to raise their families and live in dignity. Politics, for the majority of Palestinians, are secondary to living a normal, dignified life. They don't care if they work for Israelis or Arabs or British or Turks. Tens of thousands don't even care if they work for Jewish settlers! They just want to live without having to worry about artificial obstacles caused by political or other factors. And if Jews happen to pay a higher salary than Arabs do, they will invariably make the best decision for their families.

I have nothing whatsoever against that desire. As a committed Zionist, I want to give Arabs as many rights as possible - as long as they do not violate the rights of Jews to live in security within their ancestral homeland. It is sometimes a hard line to draw between the two competing sets of rights, but that is my view and that has been the mainstream Zionist viewpoint as well since the 1910s (for those who actually read real Zionist literature and not the cherry-picked, out of context quotes that are shown so prominently on sites such as the ones White writes for.)

When White assumes that I hate Palestinian Arabs, it is because he is projecting his own hate - that towards Zionist Jews.

At this point in time, there is no question that the best thing for Palestinian Arab farmers is to continue to export their goods to the West, and the only way for them to do that in any real quantities is through Agrexco. At this point in time, it is a win-win for Israel and for the Palestinian Arabs, where both work together to achieve the common goal of growing and marketing produce.

Now, White could have argued that this is not good in the long run for the farmers. He could be advocating for an alternative distribution channel that would bypass Agrexco and presumably leave more money in their pockets. He could be proposing a five year plan to keep the farmers at the status quo and migrate them to a better solution, without losing anything in the meanwhile, and in the end cutting out Agrexco. He could be pushing the expansion of existing small but growing alternate, non-Israeli channels for export to other markets (something that the Israeli government is actually supporting!)

That is what a real pro-Palestinian activist would say.

But White doesn't say that.

No, he wants the boycott to happen now, today - and consequences to his pet Palestinians be damned. (Yes, his attitude towards them is more akin to performing animals than real people.) It is obviously not possible to create a marketing and distribution channel to various European markets overnight, and someone who loves Palestinians would never, ever propose that they lose their livelihoods in the hope that somehow such a channel might be built without Israeli cooperation. But someone who hates Zionists - and doesn't give a damn about Palestinians - would definitely say exactly what White is saying.

White thinks he can buttress his argument, however - by quoting a spokesman for the Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees in favor of the boycott. Since this union supports BDS, then the farmers must support it too, according to White.

In the real world, however, this is also nonsense. Palestinian unions are notoriously political and out of touch with what ordinary people want. They spout the largest amount of anti-Israel invective but they cannot stop normal Palestinians from buying Israeli goods, or working for the hated Zionists, of their own free will. There is a huge disconnect between the politicians and the people, and the union heads represent, literally, no one but themselves. BDSers love to quote "Palestinian civil society" as supporting BDS but for the most part these are a bunch of tiny organizations with no real constituency.

To see what real Palestinian Arabs want, look at their companies who attend Israeli trade shows and fairs to increase their market. Look at those who visit the ports at Ashdod and Haifa to better understand import/export procedures. Does White expect people to believe that the "Palestinian Union of Agricultural Work Committees" represent farmers more than the actual dozens of West Bank farmers who attended an Israeli-sponsored R&D seminar? It is a joke. Real Palestinians, like people everywhere, act out of self-interest - and if that self-interest coincides with Zionist interests, that is not a problem to them.

People blinded by hate, however - like Ben White - will reflexively push any policy that they believe hurts Israel in the naive hope that eventually they can destroy the state. They have no conception - none - of trying to find solutions that can benefit everyone. For all the thousands of words they churn out, their message always comes down to nothing more nuanced than "Israel bad."

And that is the difference between Zionists and anti-Zionists. Zionists want to find solutions that can benefit even their supposed enemies; anti-Zionists just blindly push whatever they think will hurt Zionists. And anti-Zionists pretend that their hate is meant to help Palestinians - which is the biggest lie of all.

Ben White proves this, unwittingly but brilliantly.

It is a heck of a family tree

From Wikipedia:

Nathan Mileikowsky
(Writer and Zionist activist)

Benzion Netanyahu
(Professor of History and Zionist activist)

Elisha Netanyahu
(Professor for Mathematics)

Shoshana Shenburg
(Justice at the Supreme Court of Israel)

Yonatan Netanyahu
(Commander of Sayeret Matkal)

Benjamin Netanyahu
(Prime Minister of Israel)

Iddo Netanyahu
(A radiologist, author and playwright)

Nathan Netanyahu
(Professor of Computer Science)

Baruch Dayan ha-Emet for BenZion Netanyahu.

BDS Fail: $50M in trade between Israel and Morocco

Morocco's Hespress reports that trade between Israel and Morocco is now more than $50 million annually.

Quoting a Slate Afrique article from last year, it notes that the trade keeps growing despite the noisy Moroccan groups that are against "normalization" with Israel.

There is a lot of trade in agriculture, the Slate article says that much of it goes through European middlemen. But, surprisingly, much of the trade is in spare parts for Morocco's armed forces - parts for F-16s as well as for armored vehicles, which may be the only instance where Israel provides parts for an Arab army.

Other items being sold by Israel to Morocco include telecommunications equipment.

(The illustration to the article, showing a protest against Moroccan normalization with Israel, indicates that the people opposed to such trade are not exactly "anti-Zionist":)

To put this in perspective, this means that every year, a single, medium sized Arab country buys about 100 times the amount of goods from Israel that the British Co-Operative supermarket chain did from the Israeli companies it decided to boycott. The increase in goods sold to Morocco alone this year alone will be far greater than the amount Israel might lose from any conceivable BDS action.

When Israel is making inroads into Arab(!) markets at rates that are orders of magnitude greater than "progressive" Westerners manage to boycott Israeli goods, it seems that BDS is not just a failure, but a spectacular failure.