Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, May 14, 2013

Chag sameach!

Shavuot starts tonight, and I will not be blogging until at least Thursday night.

Meanwhile, I'll be eating way to much of this:

Sure, I have a bit of lactose intolerance - but it is worth it.

Israelis saving the world, again

From Science Daily:

Some parts of the body, like the liver, can regenerate themselves after damage. But others, such as our nervous system, are considered either irreparable or slow to recover, leaving thousands with a lifetime of pain, limited mobility, or even paralysis.

Now a team of Tel Aviv University researchers, including Dr. Shimon Rochkind of TAU's Sackler Faculty of Medicine and Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and Prof. Zvi Nevo of TAU's Department of Human Molecular Genetics and Biochemistry, has invented a method for repairing damaged peripheral nerves. Through a biodegradable implant in combination with a newly-developed Guiding Regeneration Gel (GRG) that increases nerve growth and healing, the functionality of a torn or damaged nerve could ultimately be restored.

This innovative project is now gaining international recognition. Its initial successes were reported at several recent scientific congresses, including the World Federation of Neurological Societies and the European Neurological Society. And the therapy, already tested in animal models, is only a few years away from clinical use, says Dr. Rochkind.

A nerve is like an electrical cable. When severed or otherwise damaged, power can no longer be transferred and the cable loses its functionality. Similarly, a damaged nerve loses the ability to transfer signals for movement and feeling through the nervous system.
But Dr. Rochkind and Prof. Nevo found a way to breach the gap. In their method, two severed ends of a damaged nerve are reconnected by implanting a soft, biodegradable tube, which serves as a bridge to help the nerve ends connect. The innovative gel which lines the inside of the tube nurtures nerve fibers' growth, encouraging the nerve to reconnect the severed ends through the tube, even in cases with massive nerve damage, Dr. Rochkind says.

The key lies in the composition of the gel, the researchers say, which has three main components: anti-oxidants, which exhibit high anti-inflammatory activities; synthetic laminin peptides, which act as a railway or track for the nerve fibers to grow along; and hyaluronic acid, commonly found in the human fetus, which serves as a buffer against drying, a major danger for most implants. These components allow the nerve to heal the way a fetus does in the womb -- quickly and smoothly.

For some reason, even when so many people want to boycott the Jewish state, Israel has no problem offering its life-saving discoveries to the world.

Obviously, it is a plot.

(h/t Dror)

Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Strange way to promote peace

The Sydney Peace Foundation's stated purpose is "to promote universal human rights and peace with justice" as the building blocks of any civil society. Foundation chairman Stuart Rees, however, has cast a cloud over the organisation's bona fides by dismissing the London Declaration on Combating Anti-Semitism as "childish, thoughtless but easily populist". His condemnation of Julia Gillard and opposition education spokesman Christopher Pyne for "cowardice" in signing it almost beggars belief.

Ralph Peters: Israel is a Civilizing Force

RP: To me, when I look at Israel, I see not only a Jewish state rebuilt on the ancient Jewish homeland, I see an outpost of the civilization in which I believe. Because I do not believe that all civilizations are equivalent. I don't believe in a civilization that torments women and children, that's woefully corrupt, that in the 21st century, not only cannot build a competitive automobile, but cannot even build a competitive bicycle!
And while I wish the Arabs well—I wish no man harm, with the exception of a few terrorists here or there—nonetheless, to me, Israel is a beacon of justice, for rule of law, humanity, decency, culture... in short, Israel belongs to the Jews; it belongs to my civilization.

Michael Totten: The Muslim Brotherhood's Empty Chair

So the Washington Institute for Near East Policy invited senior Muslim Brotherhood official Helmy el-Gazzar to its annual conference in the US, booked him on a business class flight from Cairo, and put him up in the luxurious Ritz Carlton. El-Gazzar made it to Washington and checked into his room, but he refused to show up at the conference.
Why? Because Israelis—or “Zionists” as he called them—were also going to be there.

An Open Letter to the Arab League: Thanks, but no Thanks

In conclusion, dear neighbors, we – citizens of Israel – want very much to live in Peace, in a region of peace where you and we enjoy it together. But we do not think that there is any point in signing an agreement with someone who today is here and tomorrow is in a grave, and his successors won’t honor his signature. When the Middle East becomes a region of peace, give us a call, perhaps we will join the peace that you will begin in the Middle East. until then please leave us alone.

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: Déjà vu: ‘Peace in Our Time’

Were we to have a genuine peace partner, we could achieve a peace treaty and grounds for long-term coexistence in a matter of days. But until then our friends should not seek to impose upon us a Chamberlain-style “Peace in our Time” formula.

Jewish Group Honors US Ambassador to UN

The American Jewish Committee last week honored U.S. Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice with its prestigious Distinguished Public Service Award.
"I’m deeply moved to receive AJC’s Distinguished Public Service Award,” said Rice. “I’m proud to accept this honor as a tribute to the dedicated work by President Obama, his administration, and my colleagues at the U.S. Mission to the UN.”

Tel Aviv holds White City celebrations

Last weekend Tel Aviv celebrated exactly ten years since UNESCO proclaimed the historic zone of Tel Aviv, also known as the White City, as a World Cultural Heritage site.
The White City, so named for the buildings’ white walls, is the world’s largest grouping of buildings in the International Style, also known as Bauhaus.

Wolfson heart surgeons save Syrian girl

A four-year-old girl from Syria underwent successful lifesaving heart surgery at Wolfson Medical Center in Holon on Monday as part of its voluntary Save a Child’s Heart (SACH) activities. The child, whose identity is not being released to keep the family safe from extremists in her country, was referred to SACH by an American humanitarian organization operating in Israel and Jordan.

Ashton Kutcher looks to invest in Israeli high-tech
American actor tells GarageGeeks gathering in Tel Aviv that he’s looking for “original, creative startups.”

American actor Ashton Kutcher and his investment partner, Guy Oseary, a producer in the US music industry and Madonna’s personal manager, stole the spotlight at the GarageGeeks gathering in Tel Aviv last night. Yossi Vardi, unofficial ambassador of the Israeli high-tech scene, hosted Kutcher and Oseary as part of a “Meet the Industry Leaders” event.
Kutcher, on his fifth visit to Israel, came to find “interesting entrepreneurs.”

Israel Daily Picture: The Shavuot Holiday, Celebrating the Giving of the Torah

Jews around the world commemorate the holiday of Shavuot this week, the day on which tradition says the Torah was given to the people of Israel at Mt. Sinai.

The Book of Ruth Comes Alive in Antique Photos Taken 100 Years Ago

A major effort was made by the photographers to re-enact the story of Ruth. "Ruth," we believe, was a young member of the American Colony community; the remaining "cast" were villagers from the Bethlehem area who were actually harvesting, threshing and winnowing their crops. We have matched the pictures with corresponding verses from the Book of Ruth.

Don't believe anything you read in the PalArab media

The "International Middle East Media Center" says:

Monday evening, May 13 2013; a group of extremist Israeli settlers set ablaze Palestinian olive orchards and farmlands that belong the villages of Qaryout, south of the northern West Bank city of Nablus.

Local sources reported that the armed settlers burnt the agricultural lands, and prevented the villagers from reaching their lands to put the fire off.

Bashar Qaryouty, coordinator of the Popular Committee against the Wall and Settlements in Qaryout village, reported that the burnt lands were planted with wheat and olive trees.

And from Palestine Info:

Jewish settlers set ablaze more than 20 dunums of cultivated land lots in Qaryut village, south of Nablus, on Monday and prevented their owners from approaching to put it off.

Bashar Al-Qaryuti, in charge with monitoring settlement activity in the village, said that dozens of settlers from the settlement of Shilo started the fire that burnt the land cultivated with barley, wheat, and olives.

He charged that the Israeli occupation forces provided protection for the settlers and blocked the land owners, 25 individuals, from extinguishing the fire.

There are stories like this daily in the PalArab media. Unfortunately, it is all too rare to find out the other side of the story.

Luckily, this time we can.

The land is owned by a Jew and this was upheld by a court judgment. He is the only person who ever cultivated that field. He started a controlled fire to get rid of overgrown brush.

No barley, no wheat, no olives, no Arab owners. Every single word that was reported by the Arab media, and by the spokesman, was a lie.

How can anyone believe anything these people say when we have proven time and time again that they lie with impunity?

Some Zionist Torah for Shavuot

The holiday of Shavuot starts tonight, and it is traditionally known as the anniversary of God giving the Torah to the Jewish people. So here is a quick, slightly geeky and very Zionist, d'var Torah.

The first Rashi on the Torah asks and answers a famous question:

Why does the Torah, meant primarily as a means to derive Jewish laws and not meant to be a history book (the word Torah actually means "law,") start with "In the beginning of God's creation..."? Why doesn't it start with the first commandment given to Jews, about the sanctifying of new months?

The answer is based on Psalms 111:6, "He declared to His people the power of His works, in giving them the heritage of the nations."

For if the nations of the world should say to Israel, “You are robbers, for you conquered by force the lands of the seven nations [of Canaan],” they will reply, "The entire earth belongs to the Holy One, blessed be He; He created it (this we learn from the story of the Creation) and gave it to whomever He deemed proper When He wished, He gave it to them, and when He wished, He took it away from them and gave it to us.

But beyond that, the Jewish sages taught, there are three places that are indisputably owned by Jews, because they were purchased even before God fulfilled his promise to the forefathers. The three places are the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron purchased by Abraham, the Temple Mount purchased by King David, and a section of Shechem (Nablus) purchased by Jacob from the family of the Canaanite ruler Hamor.

I will not be discussing the irony of how so many tenaciously view these very places as places that Jews specifically have no rights to.

I saw something interesting about Abraham's purchase in Hebron. How large was the land he bought?

All we know is that he paid 400 silver shekels. (Gen. 23:16)

Rabbi Yitzchak bar Yehudah (13th century CE) notes that in Leviticus 27:16, it says that the value of a field sized where you could plant a "chomer" of barley seeds is fifty silver shekels.

A chomer is also known as a "kor" and it is equal to 30 se'ah in volume.

The Talmud (Eruvin 96a) defines the size of a field that could be sown with a se'ah to be 2500 square cubits (Two "beit se'ah" is equal to 5000 square amot/cubits, the size of the Temple courtyard.)

So the size of the 50-shekel measure mentioned in Leviticus, also known as a "beit kor", is 75,000 square amot.

Abraham paid 400 shekels, so at the going rate he paid for 600,000 square cubits of land.

The Talmud says that a man standing up takes up one square cubit. 600,000 is the number that is used to signify the total number of Jews, as it is roughly the number of Jews counted that left Egypt.

This means that Abraham's purchase corresponds to the number of Jews counted when the Children of Israel became a nation.

In other words, when Abraham made the first purchase of land in Israel, he bought enough to assure that every Jewish soul has a place in the Land of Israel!

(h/t Chabad)

Tuesday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Al-Qaradawi and the New Religious Conflict With Israel

Al-Qaradawi's visit has further bolstered Hamas's standing, enabling it to tighten its grip over the 1.5 million Palestinians of the Gaza Strip. Moreover, the visit has granted legitimacy to Hamas's rule in the Gaza Strip and turned it, in the Arab and Islamic countries, into an acceptable Islamic party.
But more importantly, al-Qaradawi's visit and statements also serve as a reminder that the Israeli-Arab conflict is centered, more than ever, around religion. The sheikh's message to the Palestinians and Muslims is that this is a religious conflict and not a political issue.
This is an unequivocal message that stresses that no Muslim is entitled to give up Muslim-owned land to non-Muslims. As far as al-Qaradawi, Hamas and their followers are concerned, the conflict is not about a settlement or a checkpoint. Rather, it is about Israel's presence -- its right to exist at all -- in the Middle East.

Ken Livingstone’s favourite Islamist spreads Jew-hatred in Gaza

We have slept while Islamists such as Qaradawi have built a network of ideological institutions in the West, and an internet, television and publishing empire beyond the dreams of most political movements. Swathes of the liberal-Left have done more than sleep. They have acted as cheerleaders for the Islamists. When Ken Livingstone justified his public embrace of Qaradawi in 2005, he told us the cleric was "a progressive figure” who was “moving that religion in the correct direction”.

Britain’s Lord Ahmed quits party over reported anti-Semitism

A member of Britain’s House of Lords quit the Labour Party on Monday, two days before he was due to face a hearing over allegations he made anti-Semitic remarks in a television interview.
Nazir Ahmed was suspended from the Labour Party in March following a report that he blamed a Jewish conspiracy for his 2009 prison sentence for dangerous driving.

Barry Rubin: As Benghazi Scandal Builds, Libya Falls Apart

A forgotten element in the Benghazi scandal is this one: If Obama had said it was a terrorist attack back in September 2012 he would have to have done something about it.
Now, not just on that one day of September 11, 2012 but for seven months thereafter (!) the U.S. government has done zero about the murder of four American officials.

Guardian’s Milne diligently promotes Assad propaganda

Like his ideological heroes in Damascus, Milne probably does not for one moment really believe that Israel is collaborating with Al Qaeda or – no less absurdly – that Al Qaida would agree to join forces with Israel. Such nonsense is just part of the propaganda strategy of the Assad regime.

BBC’s Bowen invents new quarter in Jerusalem

Obviously Bowen’s expertise in Jerusalem geography is about as precise as his knowledge of Jewish prayer traditions.
Somehow, this faux pas got past the Telegraph’s fact checkers. Perhaps they mistakenly relied on the assumption that the man ultimately in charge of Middle East content for the BBC would stick to the facts.

Fox’s Discredited Anti-Israel Guest Michael Scheuer

Scheuer has been out of government nine years. He has written or said little in that time to burnish what were previously thin credentials as a Middle East expert, his CIA posting notwithstanding. He also seems to be obsessed negatively with the Jewish state and its supporters, repeatedly making false generalizations. Why is Fox so hospitable to Scheuer when he has so thoroughly discredited himself by his antisemitic bias and loony Middle East comments on TV and in other venues?

Canada deports 1968 Palestinian El Al hijacker

After a 25-year legal battle, Canada has finally deported a Palestinian convicted of an attack on an Israeli airliner in 1968, Immigration Minister Jason Kenney said on Monday.
Mahmoud Mohammad Issa Mohammad, a former Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine commando, took part in the assault on an El Al jet in Athens that killed an Israeli man. He was deported to Lebanon on Saturday.

UN Watch: Iran to chair U.N. disarmament conference

Iran will chair the United Nations’ most important disarmament negotiating forum during the panel’s May session, which opened today, sparking calls by an independent monitoring group for the U.S., the EU, and UN chief Ban Ki-moon to protest.
“This is like putting Jack the Ripper in charge of a women’s shelter,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva based non-governmental organization, which announced it will hold protest events outside the UN hall featuring Iranian dissidents.

US to boycott UN anti-nuke meetings chaired by Iran

The United States said Monday it will refuse to send its ambassador to any meeting of the UN forum where nuclear disarmament is negotiated when it’s chaired by Iran because countries under UN sanctions shouldn’t be allowed to hold such positions.

Nigeria court convicts Iranian of illegal arms shipment

A Nigerian court on Monday sentenced an alleged member of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and his Nigerian accomplice to five years in jail each over an illegal arms shipment.
Azim Aghajani and Nigerian Ali Abbas Jega were detained in 2010 when authorities at a Lagos port discovered 13 containers of weapons that had been declared as construction materials.

Joseph Massad tries to equate anti-semitism with Zionism

Joseph Massad, the Columbia professor whose anti-Zionist arguments are often little more than proof by assertion, has a new piece in Al Jazeera that includes his usual pseudo-scholarship, and ends up being almost unbelievably offensive.

Here is the key section:

Scientific anti-Semitism insisted that the Jews were different from Christian Europeans. Indeed that the Jews were not European at all and that their very presence in Europe is what causes anti-Semitism. The reason why Jews caused so many problems for European Christians had to do with their alleged rootlessness, that they lacked a country, and hence country-based loyalty. In the Romantic age of European nationalisms, anti-Semites argued that Jews did not fit in the new national configurations, and disrupted national and racial purity essential to most European nationalisms. This is why if the Jews remained in Europe, the anti-Semites argued, they could only cause hostility among Christian Europeans. The only solution was for the Jews to exit from Europe and have their own country. Needless to say, religious and secular Jews opposed this horrific anti-Semitic line of thinking. Orthodox and Reform Jews, Socialist and Communist Jews, cosmopolitan and Yiddishkeit cultural Jews, all agreed that this was a dangerous ideology of hostility that sought the expulsion of Jews from their European homelands.

Is there anything wrong in this paragraph?

Massad is not your typical neanderthal Israel-hater. He is smart enough to hide his agenda and sprinkle his lies so subtly that it requires a word-by-word analysis to see where they are.

In this case, nearly all of this paragraph is slanted but accurate - except for five words.

"The only solution was for the Jews to exit from Europe and have their own country."

Nineteenth century anti-semites did not espouse Jews having their own country. They simply wanted to persecute and marginalize the Jews in their countries!

Modern Zionism did not work in concert with 19th century "scientific" anti-semitism, it was a response to it.

Here is the description of Jews in the 1898 International Yearbook describing the situation after two decades of "scientific" anti-semitism taking root in Europe:

During the year 1898, the persecution of the Jews continued in many parts of the world, taking the form of violent anti-Semitic outbreaks, especially in Austria-Hungary and France. In France the hatred of the Jews is especially marked among the lower classes of society, including the laboring classes, and it has been employed by socialistic and radical leaders for party ends. The political importance of French anti-Semitism can be seen in connection with the Dreyfus case. (See FRANCE.) In Austria-Hungary, on the other hand, it is not only the lower classes who are opposed to Jews, nor is the anti-Jewish fanaticism found exclusively in districts where the educational standard is low. Vienna is a great centre of anti-Semitism, the mayor of the city being himself an anti-Semitic agitator. A numerous element of the population in Germany and Italy are also hostile to the Jews. In Germany, the anti-Semites include some of the large landed proprietors, and old nobility. In Russia where the persecution of the Jews has led in recent years to an extensive migration of that despised sect, the persecution seems to come mainly from the official class. The Russian laws discriminate against Jews, forbidding them to live outside of certain specified districts, and to follow certain pursuits. It is this revival of the old-time spirit of persecution in Europe that has led to the so-called Zionist movement for the repeopling of Palestine by the Jews. ...

Appleton's Annual Cyclopedia of the same year makes this more explicit:

The growth of anti-Semitism within the past few decades has had much to do with the Zionistic movement, for it is only in countries where civil and religious liberty is denied to the Jew that there is a desire to colonize in Palestine under any form.

If the anti-semites wanted a state in Palestine for the Jews, where is the literature demanding this? Why were they restricting Jews to live in certain districts instead of encouraging their emigration?

Massad helpfully links to the hard-to-find pamphlet written by the apparent coiner of the word "anti-semite," Wilhelm Marr, where he explains "scientifically" why he has a problem with Jews in Europe. Not once does he say that the Jews must have their own state to solve this problem. That idea is wholly made up by Massad in order to pretend that Zionism is the same as anti-semitism.

This lying academic goes on to describe how Zionists, from Herzl onwards, allegedly collaborated with anti-semites - including, of course, Hitler - to help create Israel.

Massad is purposefully fudging cause and effect, because only with that lie can he continue to build his wholly fictional thesis and try to separate historic anti-semitism with anti-Zionism. Massad believes that anti-Arabism is the only real anti-semitism, and he goes on to ludicrously claim that German reparations to Jews after the Holocaust is only because Germans belatedly came to realize that Jews were really "white."

The article is a ludicrous and offensive twisting of history in order to demonize today's Jews. The good Jews in Massad's estimation were anti-Zionists who were wiped out in the Holocaust. He actually tries to imply that Hitler didn't target Zionist Jews:

The Jewish holocaust [note the lower case - EoZ] killed off the majority of Jews who fought and struggled against European anti-Semitism, including Zionism. With their death, the only remaining "Semites" who are fighting against Zionism and its anti-Semitism today are the Palestinian people.

This absurd piece reveals much - not about history or truth, but about Massad's seething hate and willingness to twist facts to fit his own agenda.

It is a stain on Columbia University that they keep this fraud employed.

Egyptian Christian writer incites Copts against Jews

It isn't only Arab Muslims who hate Jews.

An article by an Egyptian Christian writer, Emile Amin, that was published both in Egypt and in the UAE decries (false) reports that Copts are seeking asylum in Israel as well as the true stories that Copts have traveled to Israel to visit holy places.

In order to dissuade this awful "normalization," Amin stoops to classic Jew-hatred:

The Jews are the primary enemy for the Christians, who have been suffering from them for seven centuries before Islam. The Jewish Talmud shows the spirit according to which Jews should behave towards Christians: "You can, nay, you must kill the best among the Christians."
[Of course, this quote is fabricated - EoZ}

And what are the Freemasonry and other global organizations anyway, if not secret organizations which were established in 33 AD in order to fight Christianity which was developing secretly, after the Jews couldn't fight it in the open?

The previous Coptic Pope harshly criticized the Vatican for exonerating Jews for the death of Jesus.

If you want to know what medieval Christian antisemitism looked like, the Egyptian Coptic community is a good place to start. Like their Muslim neighbors, they have managed to jealously preserve their 15th century traditions of Jew hatred.

Maybe UNESCO will offer to honor their admirable steadfastness in adhering to their antisemitic beliefs and culture for so many centuries.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Egyptian preacher calls on Allah to annihilate the Jews. @HRW, @Amnesty silent.

Nothing genocidal about this:

Following are excerpts from a public address delivered by Egyptian cleric Sami Abu Al-'Ala, which aired on Al-Hafez TV on May 3, 2013:

Sami Abu Al-'Ala: Oh Allah, make the conspiracies of the Jews their own ruin. Oh Allah, crush their soldiers and their weapons, destroy their homes, freeze the blood in their veins, disperse them, make their children orphans and their women widows, and shake the earth under their feet. Oh Allah, annihilate the Jews as you annihilated the peoples of 'Aad and Thamud. Oh Allah, make the Jews annihilate themselves.

In related news, today a Jordanian newspaper had a major feature article about the upcoming Ramadan TV series "Khaybar" that is pure Jew-hatred. Anticipation of this TV series is very high, which the article seems to say is being readied for this upcoming Ramadan that starts in July "thanks to the technical team which works day and night to complete editing the scenes." (I thought they were aiming at Ramadan 2014.)

Again, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty are silent about Arab and Muslim antisemitism, broadcast on TV. A single tweet or short report from them could put the Arab broadcasters on the defensive about their antisemitism, but they refuse to say a word, even though they are on the record as saying that antisemitism is a human rights issue.

Tweet them, email them and post on their Facebook pages demanding that they condemn this upcoming series. Demand a response. Their silence in the face of imminent incitement of hundreds of millions of Arabs against Jews is unconscionable.

An enterprising Gaza entrepreneur has hooked up with a counterpart in Egypt to provide restaurant take-out services to Gaza from El Arish, Egypt.

A Gaza food service company director, Khalil Efranji, stated that "a company that offers delivery service started about two weeks ago to take food orders from the Egyptian town of El Arish to the Gaza Strip, and these requests are for meals from the worldwide Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant."

He added: "The idea of transferring meals from El Arish to Gaza came after repeated requests from people who are accustomed to travel, and eating in restaurants around the world""

The time it takes to cover the distance between El Arish and Gaza is less than three hours and the demand is great, according to Efranji.

It appears that the meals are smuggled in via tunnels; I don't believe that Egypt would allow food delivery through the Rafah crossings.

It is nice to know that starving Gazans have an alternative to basic food commodities like flour, rice and Chanukah chocolate coins.

Here is El Arish's KFC Facebook page.

Return of the Jordan option?

I had missed this essay in Al Monitor last week:

A recent visitor to Amman reports some senior Jordanians declaring openly that “there never was a place called Palestine. There is no such thing as Palestine, only Jordan.” Such sentiments, while still a minority view, mark a sea change in the long-standing Jordanian deference to the PLO on developments west of the Jordan River. According to one Palestinian, such views are being encouraged by some voices in Fatah, who fear Hamas' baton more than Amman's reluctant embrace, and who no doubt believe, as many veterans in Fatah do, that all it will take to turn Jordan into Palestine is a Palestinian decision to do so.

“Jordan is Palestine” is the mirror image of “Palestine is Jordan." Jordanians identified with the latter are not contemplating a confederal agreement between respective Jordanian and and Palestinian states, but rather the restoration of Jordan's uncontested place in Jerusalem and the West Bank on the eve of the June 1967 war.
...
The feasting on the corpse that was once Syria poses the most immediate challenge to Jordan, and it was at the heart of recent discussions during the King's recent visit to Washington in the last week of April. But Jordan's cascading problem managing the fallout from Syria complements the more essential challenge that has always been uppermost in the mind of Jordan's political elite as well as its growing Islamic opposition. This challenge, of course, relates to the Palestinian dimension of Jordan's national identity, and the King's ability to manage this without his Hashemite or Transjordanian identity suffering as a consequence.
It is against Jordan's basic nature to make precipitous moves in any direction, yet a dynamic trend favoring a “New Look” in Jordan's Palestine policy — one that is viewed sympathetically in both Jerusalem and Washington — is hard to ignore.

For many years now Jordan has been confronting a most unwelcome strategic environment to its west, across the Jordan River. Fatah has failed to end Israel's occupation of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the growing power of Hamas as a political factor has proceeded in tandem. Fatah is no friend of Jordan, where memories of Black September remain etched in the consciousness of the Jordanian elite. But Jordan long ago was forced by its own failures and by circumstances beyond its control to make its peace with the PLO, not only as the recognized representative of the Palestinian people — at least those residing east of the Jordan River —- but also as a strategic buffer against Israeli, American and Islamic/Arab claims against Amman. The PLO, notably after King Hussein's 1988 disengagement from the West Bank, became Jordan’s insurance policy against the imposition of a solution at Jordan's expense to Palestine's problems in West Bank and Gaza Strip.

To Jordan's dismay, it is being forced to realize that Fatah and the PLO it embodies cannot perform this task. This conclusion has been debated from time to time in recent years. The barometer of these discussions is Amman's on-again, off-again dance with Khaled Meshaal and Hamas, most notably the 2009 thaw in relations engineered by Gen. Mohammad Dhahabi, who was at the time head of Jordan's General Intelligence Department. If Fatah cannot be a Palestinian shield protecting Jordanian interests in a quiescent West Bank, it is argued, then perhaps Hamas should be given a go.

The other option, and the one today at the center of Jordan's agenda, suggests a fundamental rethinking of Jordan's exit from the West Bank that began with King Hussein's failure in 1972 to reach an agreement on Israeli withdrawal with Moshe Dayan and that gained momentum with the Arab League decision to recognize the PLO as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people in 1974. Like Jordan's unenthusiastic turn in Hamas' direction, this option reflects Jordan's despair at Fatah's failure and is a hedge against Fatah’s capitulation to Israel in a deal that would endanger Jordan's interest in preventing an influx of Palestinians eastward across the Jordan River.

One example of this trend is the “historic,” if precipitous, agreement between King Abdullah and PLO head Mahmoud Abbas in March confirming the Jordanian king’s stewardship of the holy places in Jerusalem.

"In this historic agreement, Abbas reiterated that the king is the custodian of holy sites in Jerusalem and that he has the right to exert all legal efforts to preserve them, especially Al-Aqsa mosque," the palace said in a statement. Abbas said that the agreement confirmed "Jordan's role since the era of the late King Hussein" and that it consolidated agreements established decades ago.

Abbas' signature marks the first formal Palestinian recognition of Jordan's central role in Jerusalem and it complements the understanding detailed in Jordan’s treaty with Israel in 1994. The treaty notes that “Israel respects the present special role of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in Muslim Holy shrines in Jerusalem. When negotiations on the permanent status will take place, Israel will give high priority to the Jordanian historic role in these shrines.”

Abbas' interest in formalizing Jordan’s role is a function of Palestinian weakness and stands in ironic contrast to the nominal, and apparently symbolic boost for sovereignty won at the UN last November.

It appears that the Arab world has known for years what the West still cannot grasp: the Palestinian Arab national project has been an abject failure, and it is time to start thinking of creative alternatives.

Jordan is a country that needs stability and the uncertainly in the West Bank is a threat.

Normal Palestinian Arabs who haven't been thoroughly brainwashed yet simply want to live their lives and raise their families with honor, and they don't give a damn if they are citizens of "Palestine," Jordan or Saudi Arabia as long as they are no longer treated like pariahs in the Arab world.

Even with the uncertainty of Jordan's political climate, Israel would trust Abdullah far more than they can ever trust the lying, corrupt, self-proclaimed leaders of the Palestinian Arabs.

Once upon a time, King Abdullah's namesake envisioned a Jordan that would include Syria. That might not be such a bad idea today.

Nice piece on the truth behind "grassroots" campus BDS campaigns

From Max Samarov at The (LA) Jewish Journal:

Over the last month the UC Santa Barbara student government has been voting on a resolution to divest from companies doing business with Israel. As a UCSB graduate and former student leader, I spoke at two senate hearings and worked with current students to defeat the resolution. It should now be very clear that what we are fighting at UCSB is the local face of an organized, global propaganda campaign against Israel.

Divestment activists at UCSB attempted to portray their campaign as grassroots and local. But evidence to the contrary abounds. Indeed, divestment is part of an increasingly organized and global movement. The language of the resolution introduced atUCSB was strikingly similar to those recently presented at UC San Diego, UC Berkeley, UC Davis, and elsewhere. The Facebook pages set up in support of divestment at the different campuses werealso very similar. These campaigns were carefully synchronized. They hit Stanford first, then UC Riverside, then UC San Diego, then UC Santa Barbara, then UC Berkeley, and finally UC Davis. As the drama was ending at one university it would begin anew at the next one down the line.

Divestment did not happen overnight. It is the result of years of work by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and similar campus organizations. Their modus operandi is simple and extremely effective. They get involved in student politics, build relationships with student leaders, hone their talking points, and lobby. At some campuses, like UCSB, this issue has been elevated to the point where some candidates for student government run on a platform of divestment. The anti-Israel movement has evolved, drastically increasing its participation in the democratic process.

It is clear that there is a well-oiled machine organizing and orchestrating this campaign behind the scenes....

BDS portrays itself as a progressive human rights movement, but nothing could be further from the truth. BDS uses anti-Israel propaganda to promote a fundamentally immoral and illiberal political agenda: the elimination of Israel as the democratic state of the Jewish people. Some BDS leaders and organizations hide this or avoid stating it explicitly. But the undeniable reality is that the third core demand of the BDS movement, the return of millions of Palestinian refugees to Israel, is a call to replace the Jewish state with a Palestinian state.

It is a very nice reference piece on the state of the campus BDS movement and their deceptions.