Who's afraid of the big bad ICC?

Today, in the New York Times, George Bisharat says that "Palestine" should take Israel to the International Criminal Court in the Hague:

LAST week, the Palestinian foreign minister, Riad Malki, declared that if Israel persisted in its plans to build settlements in the currently vacant area known as E-1, which lies between Palestinian East Jerusalem and the Israeli settlement of Maale Adumim, “we will be going to the I.C.C.,” referring to the International Criminal Court. “We have no choice,” he added.

No doubt, Israel is most worried about the possibility of criminal prosecutions for its settlements policy. Israeli bluster notwithstanding, there is no doubt that Jewish settlements in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, are illegal. Israeli officials have known this since 1967, when Theodor Meron, then legal counsel to the Israeli Foreign Ministry and later president of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, wrote to one of Prime Minister Levi Eshkol’s aides: “My conclusion is that civilian settlement in the administered territories contravenes the explicit provisions of the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

Under the founding statute of the I.C.C., grave violations of the Geneva Conventions, including civilian settlements in occupied territories, are considered war crimes.

Bisharat doesn't know what he is talking about.

Eugene Kontorovich, the international legal expert I have mentioned in the past, makes these points:

1) The ICC can only act when the home state refuses to investigate crimes; that is not the case for any Israeli acts in Gaza or the territories.

2) ICC has never prosecuted a case referred by a country against nationals of a non-member state. Such an action would terrify US officials and permanently sour American relations with the Court, as it would expose U.S. military and civilian officials to liability for U.S. armed action anywhere in the world, and particularly for the controversial drone strikes program of President Obama.

3) The ICC has never even considered taking a case that does not involve killing and personal violence; a settlements suit would be far outside the kind of things they've dealt with in the past.

4) The relevant actions would have to be on the territory of Palestine, which is a problem since they do not have defined territory, and most of what the op-ed talks about precedes their nominal statehood, so that would be out of bounds.

5) The ICC would also have jurisdiction over all Palestinian war crimes.

Beyond that, the ICC only has jurisdiction on very specific categories of crimes: Genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and "the crime of aggression." The Rome Statute says that it will not prosecute the "aggression" category until it is defined; as far as the other categories are concerned, it only includes "grave breaches" of the Fourth Geneva Conventions, which does not include voluntary transfer of citizens who are not "protected persons" under Geneva.

Furthermore, the ICC has indicated that it does not subscribe the very loose definition of "war crimes" that so-called human rights activists apply to Israel. As Evelyn Gordon wrote last month in Commentary:

In a verdict ironically issued just as the world was obsessing over Palestinian civilians killed in the latest Hamas-Israel war, the court essentially upheld, in a Balkan context, all the arguments Israel routinely makes about the legitimacy of its own military operations. Consequently, the judges acquitted and freed two Croatian generals whom a trial court had convicted of war crimes and sentenced to 18 and 24 years, respectively.

The appellate court’s first important move was acknowledging the obvious fact that in wartime even the most careful army makes mistakes. The trial court had convicted the Croats of illegally shelling four towns they were trying to capture. The appeals court said the lower court’s criterion–“that any shell that landed more than 200 meters away from a military target must have been fired indiscriminately–was arbitrary and ‘devoid of any specific reasoning’,” to quote The Guardian’s apt summary. In short, it accepted the fact that soldiers are human beings who make mistakes, and errant shells don’t necessarily mean the soldiers fired indiscriminately.

Second, it acknowledged the obvious fact that even the most careful army can’t prevent civilian casualties. Some 150 civilians died in the generals’ four-day bombing campaign. But the appeals court said these deaths didn’t constitute war crimes, because the troops had aimed at legitimate military targets. In other words, it ruled that civilian casualties aren’t ipso facto illegal; they may be unavoidable consequences of legitimate military activity–especially when military targets are located in crowded urban areas.

Third, it acknowledged that even when genuine war crimes occur, they may be the acts of errant individuals rather than deliberate policy: It concluded that acts of looting and murder following the bombing campaign occurred not on the generals’ orders, but despite them.

Finally, it acknowledged the obvious fact that fleeing a war zone is normal, so a civilian exodus isn’t necessarily proof of a campaign of ethnic cleansing.

In short, the court recognized a simple truth that “human rights” activists try hard to obscure: War is always hell, but not every act of war is a war crime.

In other words, the ICC threat is more a bogeyman than something to be legitimately feared.

But the threat to go to the ICC does prove something - that the Palestinian Arab leaders are not interested in negotiations of any type. They are going to hitch their wagon, as always, on having the international community pressure Israel rather than open themselves up to the possibility of compromise.

Which shows how serious they are about really wanting a free, independent state.

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Arabs freak over Danny Ayalon Jerusalem video (UPDATE)

Arab media is claiming that this latest video from Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon shows the destruction of the Dome of the Rock.



At one point in the video he opens a book where a magical spark trailing bubbles swirls around the Dome and goes back in time, as the Dome vanishes and is replaced by the earlier Temple.

Scrubbing Bubbles!

Other Arab media are saying this is just another set of Jewish myths that they have a historic connection  to Jerusalem, also calling the video "a provocation" and "incitement" and "distorted."

The video is very cute, and it plays more to emotions than to history. Which is why the Arabs hate it so much - they try to corner the market on their emotional attachment to place, especially other people's holy places.

UPDATE: YNet shows a portion of an earlier version that does make it look like the Dome is collapsing (taken off the blog since it auto-played)



I can see how Muslims might be upset at that!

But as YNet reported, the Foreign Ministry nixed that version because it could cause offense. YNet chose to release the clip that was edited out by the FM.

Whether that is news is arguable, but YNet must have known that pro-actively releasing a video like that is potentially inflammatory. Not necessarily a wise editorial decision.

(h/t Michael Pitkowsky)

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Israeli jets strike apparent arms convoy on Syrian/Lebanese border. What's Iran up to?

From Naharnet:

Israel forces carried out a strike overnight on a weapons convoy coming from Syria in the Lebanon-Syria border area, security sources told AFP on Wednesday, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"The Israeli air force blew up a convoy which had just crossed the border from Syria into Lebanon," one source said, without giving a precise location for the attack.

The source said the convoy was believed to be carrying weapons but did not specify what type.

A second security source, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the issue, also confirmed to AFP that Israeli warplanes had hit a convoy allegedly carrying weapons to Lebanon but said the incident occurred just inside Syria.

"It was an armed convoy traveling towards Lebanon but it was hit on the Syrian side of the border at around 2330 GMT," the source said.

Ya Libnan/Reuters adds:

“There was definitely a hit in the border area,” one security source said. A Western diplomat in the region who asked about the strike said “something has happened”, without elaborating.

An activist in Syria who works with a network of opposition groups around the country said that she had heard of a strike in southern Syria from her colleagues but could not confirm it. A strike just inside Lebanon would appear a less diplomatically explosive option for Israel to avoid provoking Syrian ally Iran.

Whether the strike took place within Syrian territory, or over the border in Lebanon, could affect any escalation from the incident. Iran, Israel’s arch-foe and one of Damascus’s few allies, said on Saturday it would consider any attack on Syria as an attack on itself. During and since Israel’s 2006 war with Hezbollah, there have been unconfirmed reports of Israeli strikes on convoys just after they entered Lebanon from Syria.

Israel has long made clear it claims a right to act preemptively against enemy capabilities. Alluding to this, air force chief Major-General Amir Eshel on Tuesday said his corps was involved in a covert and far-flung “campaign between wars”.

“This campaign is 24/7, 365 days a year,” Eshel told an international conference. “We are taking action to reduce the immediate threats, to create better conditions in which we will be able to win the wars, when they happen.”

He did not elaborate on any operations, but did single out the threat Israel saw from Syria’s arsenal, calling it “huge, part of it state-of-the-art, part of it unconventional”.

Earlier this week Israel moved some Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to the northern border, eliciting much speculation as to why. This might be the answer.

Lebanon's Daily Star has photos of some of the increased IAF flights over Lebanon:

Plus this photo. I'm sure the minaret in the photo is sheer coincidence, and not in the least meant to incite any excitable people to violence:

So what was in the convoy? Given that Hezbollah already has tens of thousands of medium range missiles that can hit nearly all of Israel's population, one must guess that this convoy had something even worse - either a much more powerful conventional rocket, or something a bit more, let's say, unconventional.

Iran essentially has a laboratory between Syria and Lebanon, especially now that Syria is in such disarray. Iran can afford to dabble in increased arms smuggling between Syria and Hezbollah. If the weapons get through, they are happy; if Israel intercepts them; Iran now knows a bit more about Israeli intelligence capabilities. They are only risking the lives of Syrian and Hezbollah allies, but those lives are easily worth the intelligence about Israel that could be gathered - Iran can afford to sacrifice every last Syrian and Lebanese. Iran can also use these sorts of activities to identify Israel's "red lines."

Iran literally has no downside to keep sending these weapons, of varying types, over the border. And Israel knows that as well.

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Amnesty upset Israel not participating in biased UNHRC UPR exercise

From Amnesty:

If the Israeli government is not careful, it will ruin an important global human rights process for everybody.

The Universal Periodic Review, a process to examine states’ human rights records, has until now been truly universal: all United Nation member states were reviewed by the end of 2011 and the second cycle of reviews has already started.

But now the government of Israel is not engaging with the process. Every indication is that the Israel will not be present this afternoon when it is scheduled to be examined under the Universal Periodic Review. As the only recalcitrant state among 193, Israel’s deliberate absence would sabotage the principle of universality. Consequently the Universal Periodic Review stands to lose the compelling legitimacy it derives from being applied even-handedly to all states. Why should states that would prefer to escape scrutiny of their human rights record, or are severely resource constrained, submit to this process if Israel’s non-compliance demonstrates that it is no longer universal?

UN Watch has the truth:

In reality, the UPR is — for the most part — a mutual praise society.

Though the New York Times today praised the UPR’s “universal and collaborative characteristics,” saying it provided “a platform to scrutinize and discuss the situation of human rights in even the most closed and repressive regimes,” it apparently forgot that earlier it had reported on how Qaddafi’s Libyan regime came out of its review with top marks:

Until Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi’s violent suppression of unrest in recent weeks, the United Nations Human Rights Council was kind in its judgment of Libya. In January, it produced a draft report on the country that reads like an international roll call of fulsome praise, when not delicately suggesting improvements. Evidently, within the 47-nation council, some pots are loath to call kettles black, at least until events force their hand.

Former Amnesty USA director Suzanne Nossel called the report “abhorrent.”

It’s not for nothing that despots walk into this court with confidence and ease. See our report on yesterday’s lavish UPR party put on by the United Arab Emirates.

What is more, those accusing Israel of desecrating the temple are the same who systematically turn a blind eye to the council’s persistent and pathological lynching of Israel: the special agenda item and special day against Israel at every session; the lopsided amount of resolutions against Israel, often amounting to more than the total adopted on the rest of the world combined; Israel’s exclusion from any of the council’s regional groups; and the completely biased mandate of the council’s permanent investigator on Palestine, Richard Falk, who endorses Hamas and the 9/11 conspiracy theory.

For a council that does such things on an ongoing basis to then accuse Israel of undermining principle is the height of audacity and hypocrisy; the complainants come with unclean hands — very unclean hands.

See also UN Watch's links.

A glance comparing the previous UPR reports on Israel and Syria show that the UPR is truly a joke.

While at first glance the number of recommendations given were about the same, the phrasing for Israel was consistently combative while Syria was praised. For example, here are typical recommendations for Israel in 2008:

- 35. Acknowledge/recognize, accept and fully implement the advisory opinion of the International Court of Justice on the wall (Egypt, Maldives, Jordan, Palestine, Pakistan) that Israel immediately cease work on the construction of the wall being built in the Occupied Palestinian Territories, and begin dismantling it (Maldives); end construction of, and dismantle the already built, illegal separation wall (Cuba); dismantle the wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territories and refrain from expansion of settlements (Brazil); dismantle the separation wall (South Africa).

- 36. Take urgent and immediate steps to end its occupation of all Palestinian and Arab territories occupied since 1967; implement all Human Rights Council, General Assembly and Security Council resolutions on the Occupied Palestinian Territories and other Arab territories; introduce measures to respect the right of the Palestinian people to self-determination and their right to return; accept its obligations under international human rights and humanitarian law; cease action that would alter the demographic situation of Palestine; and grant access to safe drinking water to Syrian citizens living in the occupied Syrian Golan (South Africa);

But Syria's report includes numerous requests for it to continue to implement its wonderful existing system of human rights:

A - 100.11. Continue to implement measures to enhance national capacities for the promotion and protection of human rights (Belarus);

A - 100.12. Continue to confront attempts of foreign intervention into its domestic affairs and to exercise fully its people’s right to self-determination and the country’s sovereignty (Cuba);

A - 100.13. Continue the process of taking measures at the national level as well as the national dialogue under the guidance of its legitimate authorities as a means of a political solution to the situation in the country (Cuba);

A - 100.49. Continue the efforts to strengthen food security for all its people, particularly in rural areas (Bolivia);

A - 100.50. Continue to strengthen the achievements of health indicators, particularly related to child and maternal health, through the improvement of public health services (Bolivia);

A - 100.51. Continue policies and programs to improve the quality of basic social services provided to citizens, such as health care and education (Democratic People’s Republic of Korea);

A - 100.52. Continue to provide basic healthcare service for people living in rural areas and increase its focus on vulnerable groups such as women, children and minorities (Myanmar);

A - 100.53. Continue to strengthen free education for all its people, particularly in rural areas, through “mobile schools” (Bolivia);

A - 100.54. Continue improving the quality of public education with the aim of maintaining the
excellent level of education by which the different stages of education have been characterized
(Venezuela);

A - 100.55. Continue with its policy and its good practice to provide assistance and protect the rights of the many Palestinian refugees in the country (Ecuador);

Only one recommendation for Israel used the word "continue" and even that one was written in a combative tone; Syria was happily told to keep going with how wonderfully it was doing on 20 topics. Essentially no praise was given to Israel in its report for its health care or court system or really any achievement in any sphere, while seemingly every dictatorship's report was filled with praise as to how well they are implementing their human rights programs (and the regimes often claimed that they were implementing recommendations that they were clearly ignoring.)

While some countries, notably Canada, tried to hold brutal regimes accountable in the reports, for the most part like-minded abusers of human rights praised each other and blunted any possible usefulness that the UPR was meant to have.

The best that can be said is that the UPR is somewhat less of a joke than everything else the UNHRC does, but it is still a joke.  The UPR is essentially a continuation of the UNHRC's one-sided obsession with Israel with a superficial sheen of "universality,"  and Amnesty cannot even be bothered to point that out.

(h/t Gidon)

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Aboriginal in Canada tells Palestinian Arabs to stop comparing themselves to his people

From The Metropolotain:

I am a Métis from Northern Alberta. My father, Mervin Bellerose, co-authored the Métis Settlements Act of 1989, which was passed by the Alberta legislature in 1990 and cemented our land rights. I founded Canadians For Accountability, a native rights advocacy group, and I am an organizer and participant in the Idle No More movement in Calgary. And I am a Zionist.

...My people, the Métis, came to Alberta after the American Revolution, at the government’s request, to prevent the settling of the Americans in western Canada. We settled the land and followed the white man’s rules. But we were eventually evicted, our homes given to white pioneers. No one wanted us. We were forced to live in hiding, on road allowances, in the bush. We had no rights, and we were killed out of hand, as "nuisances". Exile fractured our nation. Our people wandered with no hope and no home. Then, in the mid 1900's, our leaders managed to secure land for us, not the land we had wanted but land that would nonetheless allow us to build a better future. We took it, built our settlements and formed a government to improve the lives of our people. We still have many problems to solve, of course, but we also have more educated people than ever and are slowly becoming self-sufficient, as our leaders envisioned. In this, the Jewish people and the Métis have walked the same road.

The Jews also suffered genocide and were expelled from their homeland. They were also rejected by everyone and forced to wander. Like us, they rebelled against imperial injustice when necessary and, despite their grievances, strived for peace whenever possible. Like us they were given a tiny sliver of their land back after centuries of suffering and persecution, land that nobody else had wanted to call home until then. Like us, they took that land despite their misgivings and forged a nation from a fractured and wounded people. And like us, they consistently show a willingness to compromise for the good of their people.

...Many claim that we Natives have more in common with the Palestinians, that their struggle is our struggle. Beyond superficial similarities, nothing could be farther from the truth. Beyond the facile co-opting of our cause, the comparison with the Palestinians is absolutely untenable. It trivializes our suffering.

...For 65 years, the Palestinians have convinced the world that they are worse off than many other stateless nations, despite all evidence to the contrary. The Palestinians claim to have been colonized but it was their own leaders who refused to negotiate and who lost the land that they want by waging a needless war on Israel. They claim to have faced genocide but they suffered no such thing: their population has exploded from a few hundred thousand in 1948 to over 4 million today. They claim deprivation but their elites live in luxury while their people live in ramshackle poverty.

What’s more, the Palestinian leaders have never been interested in a peaceful solution for their people. They were given several opportunities to have their own state – for the first time in history -- and refused each time, choosing war over peace because the offers were never deemed sufficient. They have persistently used terrorism to bring attention to their cause and their leaders have celebrated the killing of civilians by naming parks and schools after murderers. And any Palestinian that questions the maximalist rhetoric or who suggests real compromise is immediately ostracized, branded a traitor, or killed.

The Palestinians are not like us. Their fight is not our fight. We natives believe in bringing about change peacefully, and we refuse to be affiliated with anyone who engages in violence targeting civilians. I cannot remain silent and allow the Palestinians to gain credibility at our expense by claiming commonality with us. I cannot stand by while they trivialize our plight by tying it to theirs, which is largely self-inflicted. Our population of over 65 million was violently reduced to a mere 10 million, a slaughter unprecedented in human history. To compare that in whatever way to the Palestinians’ story is deeply offensive to me. The Palestinians did lose the land they claim is theirs, but they were repeatedly given the opportunity to build their state on it and to partner with the Jews -- and they persistently refused peace overtures and chose war. We were never given that chance. We never made that choice.

Read the whole thing.

(h/t Bill)

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2013 Hasby Award winners!

Right around now I should be announcing the 2013 winners of the Hasby Awards in a gala Manhattan ceremony.

And here they are, using a super-secret algorithm that involves very complex interactions of the synapses in my brain:


BEST PRO-ISRAEL TWEETER

Nominees:

•  Avi Mayer
•  David HaIvri
•  Challah Hu Akbar
•  Martin Kramer
•  Arsen Ostrovsky

WINNER:
Avi Mayer


BEST PRO-ISRAEL MEDIA OUTLET NOT EXCLUSIVE TO ISRAEL

Nominees:

•  Douglas Murray
•  Melanie Phillips
•  The Commentator
•  Gatestone Institute
•  Charles Krauthammer
•  Evelyn Gordon

WINNER:
The Commentator


BEST PRO-ISRAEL COMMENTATOR

Nominees:

•  Caroline Glick
•  Martin Kramer
•  Daniel Gordis
•  Barry Rubin

WINNER:
Barry Rubin


BEST ENGLISH-LANGUAGE PRO-ISRAEL MEDIA OUTLET

Nominees:

• Algemeiner
• Times of Israel
• Israel HaYom
• Tablet
• JPost
• Jewish Press (forgot to include in my slides, sorry!)

WINNER:

Times of Israel

BEST MAINSTREAM MEDIA WATCHDOG

Nominees:

• CAMERA
• Honest Reporting
• BBC Watch
• CiF Watch
• David G Daily Mideast Media Sampler
• Huffington Post monitor

WINNER:

Honest Reporting (very tough call)

BEST PRO-ISRAEL BLOG (PRESENT COMPANY EXCLUDED)

Nominees:

• Israellycool
• Israel Matzav
• Missing Peace
• Daphne Anson
• Augean Stables
• Sultan Knish
• Daled Amos
• This Ongoing War  
• Size Doesn't Matter

WINNERS:

Missing Peace
Daphne Anson

BEST PRO-ISRAEL VIDEO

Nominees:

• Pat Condell, Israel and the United Nations
• The Red Line (Shraga Simmons)
• Zionism without Jerusalem (Im Tirtzu)
• The Children are Ready (Temple Institute)
• The Rhythm of Israel (AJC)
• Real Apartheid in the Middle East (Stand With Us)
• IDF aid missions around the world (IDF)
• Israel vs. Palestine (cartoon)

WINNER:

The Red Line

The other suggested categories did not get enough nominations or second,, but all of them are good. Complete list of nominations and seconds is here.

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Anti-Israel activist Anna Baltzer exposed as a fraud (updated x2)

See UPDATES below.

From Lee Kaplan at Gatestone Institute:

Anna Baltzer, a pretty lady who heads the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (USCEIO) in Washington, DC., has developed a platform for herself going about the world lecturing as a Jew who once supported the State of Israel, but who had an epiphany and discovered that Israel and "Zionists" were exploiting and abusing the Palestinian people. The USCEIO is, in fact, the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) renamed for the purpose of lobbying Congress in Washington. It was created by Huwaida Arraf, one of the co-founders of the ISM who also serves on the group's steering committee.

Placing Anna Baltzer as the titular head of the Campaign was intended to convince both Jews and non-Jews that opposition to Israel's existence is fine because even Jews such as her believe in the necessity of destroying the Jewish state, especially through boycotts and divestment. Anna Baltzer is a modern day Tokyo Rose for the ISM against Israel: she speaks at anti-Israel events and promotes boycott and divestment campaigns against Israel, in support of terrorist groups such as Hamas in its plans to destroy Israel any way it can. She has participated or helped at demonstations staged by Code Pink, Global Exchange, the Gaza Flotilla, Viva Palestina and other anti-Israel groups that make up the ISM.

USCEIO has been frantically sending out fundraising email blasts and announcing on its website that Ms. Baltzer will appear in a debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to be presented by the distinguished Oxford Union in England on January 31st. According to the Oxford Union's website, "The Union is the world's most prestigious debating society, with an unparalleled reputation for bringing international guests and speakers to Oxford. It has been established for 189 years, aiming to promote debate and discussion not just in Oxford University, but across the globe."
...
In her Wikipedia entry and various speeches she has presented, mostly to Christian churches, Ms. Baltzer has claimed she comes from a Jewish family in which her grandparents were Holocaust survivors; that she was a Fulbright Scholar from Columbia University, and that at first she was pro-Israel. After touring with Fulbright in 2003 in Turkey, she alleges she visited "Palestine," Syria and Iran and met "friends" who "educated" her on the suffering of the Palestinians at Israeli hands, so that today she is a dedicated anti-Zionist. She included a cry at the end of an interview recorded in Ireland in 2010 on an anti-Israel radio station that it is her hope "Inshallah, to one day bring down Zionism" -- meaning to end the Jewish state.

More recently, Anna Baltzer, back in the United States, lent her name and prestige to an attempt by the Students for Justice in Palestine at UC San Diego to prompt the entire student body association there to boycott and divest from Israel. The appearance, presumably intended to be a springboard to spread the boycott and divestment to other campuses, failed. While the event was being debated at UC SAN Diego, Anna Baltzer made a video, which appeared on YouTube, in support of boycotts and divestments from Israel, and directed to the anti-Israel campaign at the UC Campus. In this video, she claimed that she went on a Birthright tour -- a program that provides free trips to Israel for Jewish college students and recent graduates -- in the year 2000 as an enthusiastic pro-Zionist Jewish girl. She claims that after finishing the tour, she researched the suffering of the Palestinians and became a supporter of the anti-Israel movement.

There is just one problem with this scenario: According to my research, Anna Baltzer never went on a Birthright tour of Israel in the year 2000 or any other time. Inquiries to the New York and Israel offices to ascertain if she went with Birthright, revealed absolutely no record of any Anna Baltzer attending the program ever, let alone in year 2000. In short, it seems that Anna Baltzer lied about her participation in Birthright to convey the false impression that she was once a loyal Jew who supported the Jewish homeland but had discovered the justification for Palestinians' goals to overthrow Israel.

Further, after researching Ms. Baltzer's claims of being a Fulbright Scholar from Columbia in 2003, it has been determined from both Columbia's and the Fulbright websites, as well as Fulbright officials, that Anna Baltzer was never a Fulbright scholar either. A list of Fulbright Scholars at the Fulbright website contains the names of all Fulbright scholars from the United States and abroad from the late 90's to the present. Ms. Baltzer's name is nowhere to be found.

...Baltzer claims she is the descendant of Holocaust survivors who instilled in her a need to support Palestinian aims against Israeli persecution. After researching her grandparents through the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum in Israel, as well as the Simon Wiesenthal Center and the US Holocaust Memorial Museum, to see if her family were actually in concentration camps, nothing could be found. This, too, appears to be a fabrication by Baltzer, or at best an embellishment...

The Oxford Union's President was distressed to learn these facts about Ms. Baltzer's academic fraud and said she would share such information with the faculty advisers with the possible outcome of her being removed from the debate.

An educational debate, especially at a university as august as Oxford, should feature academics or speakers who are genuine, not imposters or fakes planted to distort facts and slander and demonize a fellow democracy. Anna Baltzer seems to be neither a Fulbright scholar, not a descendant of Holocaust survivors nor an alumna of the Birthright program. She appears to be just a fraud and a fabulist. So why is Oxford having her speak?

You mean that people who are dedicated to destroying the Jewish state and who condone terrorism lie about their background?

I'm shocked. Shocked!

(h/t Ian)

UPDATE A&B: I am told that Baltzer changed her name; she did apparently receive the Fulbright grant under the name Anna J. Piller. See this article that says her real name is Baltzer and that a 2006 lecture of hers was under the name Piller.

However there is still no evidence she was a Fulbright scholar; only that she received a Fulbright grant, which is different.

One of my readers emailed me with this cogent point:

It is also true that inventing Fulbright scholarships and perhaps even survivor grandparents can have more legs as a news story and be more discrediting to her than the mere fact that she likes to invent IDF atrocities.

UPDATE 2: She also did go on a Birthright trip - here are the photos. This page ties the two together.

Apparently, Piller is her real name she uses in her personal life.

She is also virtually a 9/11 "truther."

The article is no longer at Gatestone; a modified version can be seen here.

UPDATE 3: Lee Kaplan responds in the comments.

Just to emphasize, I am in no way defending Baltzer/Piller, who at the very least is a proven liar about Israel and beneath contempt.

UPDATE 4: Lee discovered this:

In an interview afterward, she said that she had grandparents who “narrowly escaped” the Holocaust — though in response to an email she was not willing to say whether they were on her father’s or mother’s side.

She said these grandparents were born in Poland but grew up in Antwerp. When the German Nazis invaded Belgium, her grandparents fled and went “running from country to country” until they reached Portugal, from which they came to the United States, she said.

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Holocaust doubt - and outright denial - in Arabic media for Remembrance Day

An article from  Egypt's Youm7 (and copied in some other Arabic media outlets) talks about Holocaust Remembrance Day yesterday:

Jews throughout the world on Sunday marked the anniversary of the alleged "Holocaust" genocide "Holocaust" launched by the German Nazi leadership under the command of Adolf Hitler, during World War II according to the so-called Jewish history.

But that is nothing compared to Islamweb, which published a large article mentioning every major Holocaust denier or minimizer (from Faurrison to Finkelstein) as proof that the Holocaust was a myth created by Jews to take land away from the Arabs and to keep the West under their thumb.

MEMRI brings us another recent example of Holocaust denial, this one also in Egypt.

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Tuesday Links& Stuff

From Ian:

---

UN's Falk Compares Hamas to French Resistance During WWII
UN Special Rapporteur, Richard Falk, has comparing Hamas terrorists to fighters with the French resistance during the Holocaust.

"The U.S. representative to the U.N., Susan Rice, said in a statement at the time that Falk's boycott call was "irresponsible and unacceptable."
“Mr. Falk’s recommendations do nothing to further a peaceful settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and indeed poison the environment for peace,” said Rice. “His continued service in the role of a U.N. Special Rapporteur is deeply regrettable and only damages the credibility of the U.N.”

Taxpayer Funded BDS at CUNY Is Illegitimate, Racist and Anti-Semitic

"These BDS advocates single out Israel as a cover for rank anti-Semitism. It is not about saving Palestinians (who mostly need to be saved from themselves and their leaders); its purpose is to delegitimize and destroy Israel. They do NOT want a two-state solution. To them Tel Aviv and Haifa are “occupied territories” as much as Gaza, long vacated by Israel and now one of the world’s most prominent terrorist launching points. They want a one-state solution – to have yet another of the many Arab states. They deny – as anti-Semites do – the eternal connection, since recordable history, of the Jewish people to their land. They reject all peace offers by Israel. They subjugate their own people to a vile existence in the false belief that they can “wait out the Jews.”

BBC’s Paul Moss promotes politically motivated stereotypes of Israelis

"Of course Israel has not received economic aid from the US since 2008 and the vast majority of the military aid it does receive (around 1% of the Israeli economy) is spent in the United States, thus sustaining American jobs. As the Assistant Secretary of Political-Military Affairs at the State Department put it in 2011: “We don’t just support Israel because of a long-standing bond, we support Israel because it is in our national interests to do so”.
But does the fact that Israel receives US aid at all make it – as Moss claims – “not like most countries”? Hardly: not only is Israel not the biggest recipient of military aid from the US, but if we look at the subject of financial aid in general, we see that in fact, Israel is exactly like most countries."

British MEP Claims Party Leader in 'Israel's Pocket'

"A British Liberal Member of the European Parliment has accused his party leader of being “in Israel’s pocket” after the Liberal Democrat leadership condemned a party colleague for comparing Israel's treatment of the Palestinians with the Nazis' treatment of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Chris Davies, Liberal Democrat MEP for the North-West of England, posted a message to Twitter, defending party colleague and UK Member of Parliament David Ward, who said last Friday that he is “saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution during the Holocaust, could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians in the new State of Israel and continue to do so on a daily basis in the West Bank and Gaza.”

IDF: B'Tselem Report Another Defamation Attempt
Far left group B'Tselem is again using half-truths, outdated information, and suspect sources to defame the IDF, an army spokesperson said

Police Officer Hurt in Jerusalem Arab Rioting, 2 Bombs Found
Police were busy in Jerusalem and along the city's outskirts on Monday. One officer hurt in Silwan riots, two bombs found at city's edge.

Arabs Caught Red Handed Robbing Ancient Grave
Three suspects were caught inside 1st century cave near Kibbutz Metzer.

"Regretfully, heavy damage was caused to the cave and the archeological find," said Nir Distelfeld, of the Unit for Prevention of Theft in the Antiquities Authority. "Damage to archeological sites is like the erasing of complete pages from the cultural history of the nation and the land, and unfortunately, for the sake of greed and dreams of getting rich, many criminals thoughtlessly destroy the land's history and cultural assets."

Israel to Summon Argentine Ambassador Over Bombing Commission
Israel extremely disappointed by the decision to create a commission to investigate the 1994 attack on a Jewish center in Buenos Aires.

Argentine Jews Slam 'Truth Commission' Deal With Iran
Argentina's Jewish community is “vehemently opposed” to a deal between Argentina and Iran to investigate the Jewish community center attack

Large arms shipment intercepted off Yemen, Iran eyed as source
Surface-to-air missiles among weapons intercepted
Yemeni forces intercepted a ship on Jan. 23 carrying a large cache of weapons - including surface-to-air missiles - that U.S. officials suspect were being smuggled from Iran and destined for Yemeni insurgents, officials said on Monday.

Report: Hizbullah Sets Up Bases Near Syria's Chemical Arsenal
Hizbullah terrorists are setting up bases in Syria close to known chemical weapons storage facilities, according to an Israeli media outlet.

Ancient Timbuktu Manuscripts, 1 in Hebrew, Torched by Islamists
The historic manuscripts of Timbuktu, including one written in Hebrew, are no more. They were destroyed by Islamic terrorists in Mali.

Swiss Jews fault president for Holocaust statement
Ueli Maurer says his was ‘a country of freedom and law’ during the war, neglects to mention it turned away those fleeing Nazis

"But Switzerland’s main Jewish organizations complained Monday that he neglected also to mention “the refugees who were turned back to a certain death.”
A government-commissioned report concluded in 2001 that Switzerland turned back many refugees although the government knew by 1942 of the Nazis’ “final solution.”

Evangelical leader: Israel is safest place on earth
Apostolate Renê Terra Nova, who has brought thousands of Christians from Brazil, tells 'Post' tourists leave "in love."

Muslim Sheikh in Italy: Islam is Pro-Israel!

"Sheikh Abdul Hadi Palazzi, the secretary general of the Italian Muslim Assembly and the Khalifa for Europe’s Qadiri Sufi Order, is a strong supporter of Israel’s right to exist, as well as Jewish sovereignty over Jerusalem, based on his interpretation of Islam. He frequently speaks out for Israel despite the fact that it is highly unpopular within the Muslim world to do so. Sheikh Palazzi does so based on his religious convictions. He asserted, “Viewing the Jewish return to Israel as a Western invasion and Zionists as recent colonizers is new. It has no basis in the authentic Islamic faith.” As co-founder and co-chairman of the Islam-Israel Fellowship, Sheikh Palazzi argues that Muslim religious opposition to the existence of Israel was created by the Grand Mufti Haj Amin Al Husseini and is not grounded within classical Muslim religious texts, which surprisingly actually do support Israel’s right to exist."

Israel joins UN's Kiev Protocol
Environmental Protection Ministry commits to following UN protocol on air pollution; pledges to grant public access to transparent emissions data
Israel is the second country in the Middle East, after Cyprus, to join the protocol. The decision also coincides with Israel's duties as an OECD member.

Free rehab center for southern Israelis breaks ground
Sderot Medical Rehabilitation Center will provide missile-hit southern residents physical, occupational, communication, art, sensory and water therapies at no charge.

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Ten Palestinian Arabs killed Monday. Media silent.

There are reports that ten Palestinian Arabs killed on Monday.

Eight were killed in shelling, one by a sniper and one from torture.

Of course, since it happened in Syria, you won't find anything in English about it.

To the mainstream media, the value of Palestinian Arab lives is directly proportionate to how easily one can blame Jews for their deaths.

UPDATE: I pasted the wrong link in this story and cannot find the original even though I know it was in the PalTimes site. This article describes airstrikes in the Palestinian Arab camps yesterday but doesn't give a tally.

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Arabic media starts a new "Israel behind 9/11" blitz

Today, no fewer than three Arabic language news sites - from Egypt, the West Bank (Fatah) and Austria - are posting stories about a supposedly new US study that proves that Israel was behind 9/11. As of this writing, all of them were the top story in each site.

I don't see anything new; it is simply a rehashing of the anti-semitic crackpot theories that are found throughout the Internet. This "study" finds four prominent Jews who supposedly stood to profit from 9/11, like Larry Silverstein and Ronald Lauder, and then says that the Mossad put explosives in the bottom of the Twin Towers set to explode when the planes hit, or something like that. And that Israeli companies had foreknowledge of the attacks and suddenly broke their lease with the WTC, losing millions of dollars. Except those that didn't. The usual idiocy.

This "study" concludes that Netanyahu was behind the attacks, since he was prime minister at the time. Only one problem: he wasn't.

So what does it say about the Arab media that they prioritize yet another anti-semitic theory on their front pages?

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EoZ speaking at YU tonight!

Here's the (really well-done) flyer for my talk at Yeshiva University tonight:

It looks like there will be a good crowd based on the number of people who answered the invite on Facebook.

Also, I am told that the sponsors will be serving kosher Dunkin' Munchkins. Who can resist that?

So you might want to get there early to make sure you have a seat!

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