Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

01/28 Links Pt2: Why Europe blames Israel for the Holocaust; Shin Bet: terror attacks doubled in 2013

From Ian:

Why Europe blames Israel for the Holocaust: Post-1945 anti-Semitism

Sacha Stawski, an expert on anti-Semitism in the German media, told The Jerusalem Post on Monday that “Israel-related anti-Semitism is probably the most common and most persistent form of anti-Semitism in all levels of society today.”
Stawski, who is a German Jew and editor-in-chief of the media watchdog website Honestly Concerned, added: “Today it is no longer fashionable to hate Jews outright, but it is perfectly acceptable to debate about and to demonstrate against the very core of the Jewish state’s existence – in a way and with emotions unlike that about any other country.”
The social-psychological theory articulated by Adorno and Horkheimer might, just might, provide a macro-level grasp of a pan-European epidemic that is fixated on turning Israel into a human punching bag.

Caroline Glick: International Holocaust Remembrance Day’s fatal flaw

Modern Zionism was conceived as having two objectives – to enable the Jews to protect ourselves from anti-Semites; and to end anti-Semitism by normalizing Jews as a nation among the nations. But as Wisse notes, like the Jews in exilic communities, the Jewish state cannot end other people’s hatred of Jews, because we didn’t cause it. Only the anti-Semites, through their own moral reckoning with their anti-Semitic past and present, can do that.
In light of the Europeans’ continued refusal to undertake such a moral reckoning, far from combating anti-Semitism, International Holocaust Remembrance Day serves as a cover for it. Israel and the Jewish people should not let the Holocaust serve as a fig leaf for their continuing, and growing, hatred.

Anne Bayefsky: Holocaust Remembrance Day -- has UN learned anything from history?

It is Holocaust remembrance time at the United Nations. Once a year, Jews from around New York, a dwindling number of Holocaust survivors, occasional celebrities, and precious few friends, file into the General Assembly Hall and grant the U.N. the privilege of appearing to care.
This year’s speakers include Steven Spielberg. When it is over, the year-round ritual censure of the Jewish state will resume.
Characteristic of “International Day of Commemoration in memory of the victims of the Holocaust” is the scarcity of express emphasis on Israel, save for the remarks of the Israeli ambassador.

40 years ago, AP described Palestinian Arabs as "statesmen of tomorrow"

This AP article from 1974 interviews different Palestinian Arabs as to their ideas about the future of the Middle East. A few are pragmatic, others are hardline.The supposed "moderates" show themselves to be anything but.

No one really expects Israel to continue to exist, certainly not for 40 more years. Some want a federation with Jordan and others a Greater Syria.

Not much has changed, except for one thing: In 1974, no one really believed that a Palestinian Arab state in the territories was economically viable. Everyone expected to either take over Israel, federate with Jordan or something else.

(Notice also how AP in 1974 did not capitalize "west bank.")

Palestinians who escaped the horror of refugee camps have taken a quiet back seat to the guerrilla leaders of today. But they are the statesmen of tomorrow.

Affluent, well-educated, more familiar with the Byzantine maze of Middle East politics, they have suffered less under the Israelis and learned to survive in other parts of the Arab world.

...“We have to forget the past and start building again,” says Hikmat Masri, the head of a large and powerful family in Israeli-held Nablus, “the guerrillas are just a passing phase.”

The Masri family owns soap and match factories, a trucking firm and a vegetable oil company. Hikmat is a former Jordanian government minister, his nephew Taher serves in King Hussein’s present cabinet in Amman, his brother. Zafer, runs the Chamber of Commerce.

Hikmat Masri says there can be peace in the Middle East if Israel withdraws from the west bank of Jordan and the Gaza Strip which it captured in 1967. He envisions a five-year “transition period” of international supervision in these territories while the Palestinians hold elections and decide whether they want independent statehood or federation with Jordan.

“We have a limited choice and we will have to accept an imposed solution,” he says. “Right now the Palestine Liberation Organization — PLO — is the only structure available to represent us, but we have plenty of leaders to choose from when the time comes.”

Not so, says his American educated nephew Taher, who administers the west bank in exile as Jordan’s “minister of occupied territories."

“We have no leader, only followers. I have to accept Yasir Arafat because the PLO is all that’s available. If the guerrillas go to Geneva the most important issues will be decided before we Palestinians can elect any other representatives.”

His reference to Geneva was to an upcoming conference of Arab and Israeli representatives to discuss ways of achieving a permanent peace in the Middle East. This was a condition of recent troop disengagement arrangement worked out with U.S. Secretary of State Henry A. Kissinger. The future of the Palestinians and the possibility of an independent Palestinian state may be discussed at Geneva.

The younger Masri agrees with his uncle that a truncated Palestinian state in the west bank and Gaza would not be economically, politically and militarily viable. Both feel there would have to be some form of federation with Jordan after an initial period of independence- “long enough to give the Palestinians an entity and make them feel they can negotiate with King Hussein as equals rather than subjects.”

Can Palestinian refugees be persuaded to give up their claims to land which became part of Israel in 1948?

“If you make them hungry enough you can force them.” said Taher Masri. "Let us face it, whatever the superpowers impose will be accepted by the Palestinians and Jordan. The United States can easily topple King Hussein if they want to form a Palestinian-Jordanian state.

“Palestinians already own half of Amman. Why should we separate?"

... “If only those people would wait a little longer, they will find that the Arabs can face up to Israel,” said Yussuf Savegh, a professor of the American University of Beirut, “I want to dynamite the Geneva peace talks."

“I do not envision anything except a military solution; not total defeat for Israel but enough to make them reassess the whole Palestinian question. We can do this with Arab support, but gradualism makes it more complicated, more costly ”

Sayegh was one of the few independent members of the PLO executive committee before he resigned earlier this year, largely because his views were not shared by Arafat. He has been replaced on the committee by three moderate west bankers, of whom the most prominent is Mohsen Abu Maizer.

Often touted as the future “premier of Palestine." Abu Maizer was a west bank lawyer before his expulsion by Israeli authorities last December because of illegal underground political activity. He is a member of the Socialist Baath party and one of the founders of the clandestine Palestine National: Front (PNF) which emerged in the occupied territories after the October war in 1973.

Abu Maizer now lives in Damascus, Syria. He supports Arafat's desire to negotiate for Palestinian statehood, but he feels that Palestinians should not be breaking down the doors to go to Geneva.

“Let the world come to us with a solution," he said. "We are the ones who have been wronged. Everyone knows there can be no peace until we are satisfied, so our attendance at a peace conference is not important.”

Hadj Rashad Shawa, the de facto ruler of the Gaza Strip. points to Israel’s paramilitary settlements in the occupied territories as a clear indication that Israel will not withdraw.

“The real aim of the Israelis is to take over every inch of land here,” he said. “Anything short of a real partition similar to 1917 will lead us to another war. I doubt that there will be peace for 130 years.

“Giving us the west bank and Gaza would delay another war for 10 years at the most. The tide has changed in favor of the Arabs. It will take us two or three more generations to eliminate Israel and liberate Palestine, but eventually the Jews will have to assimilate.

"They cannot set up a European state in an Arab society.”

Shawa has survived two assassination attempts by Palestinian guerrilla groups who felt he was collaborating with the Israelis. “Some people misunderstand my historical perspective,” said Shawa. “It is silly to think that an independent state can survive on the west bank and Gaza, just as Israel and Jordan cannot survive alone.

“The first step which would truly create independence would have to be reunification of ancient Syria, including Jordan, the west bank, Lebanon, Israel and Gaza. There will be many more wars before that comes about.”

Hasby Award: Best Watchdog (Arabic media or NGOs)

The nominees for Best Watchdog - Arabic Media or NGOs are:

MEMRI
Palestinian Media Watch

NGO Monitor

UN Watch

And the winner is...

01/28 Links Pt1: Uncensored Scarlett Johansson Advert, Why the A-list shuns BDS

From Ian:

Stand With Us: Why the A-list shuns BDS

Yes, they may co-opt D-List celebs like Roger Waters to pressure others in the industry to join BDS. Thankfully, though, A-Listers and those around them are getting better acquainted with BDS, and when they see the antisemitism that surrounds the movement, including the giant pig with a Star of David on it hoisted at the concert of Roger Waters, they run a mile.
And so to Scarlett Johansson’s classy and appropriate response to BDS: boycotts won’t bring peace, but cooperation, such as in companies like Sodastream who employ Arabs and Jews, Palestinians and Israelis to work together side by side with equal pay and benefits, is the road to peace. With her proud representation of the fizzy drinks machine-maker, Scarlett Johansson becomes yet another A-Lister to shun BDS and back peaceful cooperation.
I’ll drink to that.

BANNED Superbowl Scarlett Johansson SodaStream Sorry, Coke and Pepsi.

Demonizing Israel; Demonizing ScarJo

In the meantime, Johansson deserves applause for being willing to take the heat for standing up for SodaStream. The attack on SodaStream shows the true face of the BDS movement. They don’t care how good the company is for the regional economy or even the Palestinians who work there. They don’t care that the “settlement” in which it exists would almost certainly remain within Israel if a peace treaty with the Palestinians were to be signed. All they care about is demonizing the very existence of the Jews who live there. As the abuse from Aslan and the rest of the BDS movement shows, that same demonization will apply to anyone, even an Obama-supporting politically correct liberal Democrat like Johansson. Though this may not have been a fight that she would have chosen to engage in, Johansson must now show that she and others prepared to stand with Israel won’t be intimidated.(h/t NormanF)

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Issa Abd Rabbo is one of the terrorist murderers that Israel was forced to release from prison in order for PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas to agree to start negotiations with Israel. Palestinian Media Watch reported that the day Abd Rabbo was released, Mahmoud Abbas called him a "hero" and raised his hand victoriously.

Until his release, Issa Abd Rabbo was serving two life sentences for killing two Israeli university students, Ron Levi and Revital Seri, who were hiking south of Jerusalem on Oct. 22, 1984. At gun point he tied them up, put bags over their heads and then shot and murdered both.

Abbas' "hero" has now given an interview to the independent Palestinian news agency Ma'an on its weekly TV program Lovers' Tales, which interviews released prisoners.

Yes...."Lover's Tales."

Issa Abd Rabbo: "There was supposed to be a military operation shooting at a bus transporting Israeli soldiers... I was surprised when on my way to the area, I waited, waited and waited and the bus didn't come. I was forced to carry out an operation on my own, an improvisation, I took it upon myself. An Israeli car approached, with two in it. I said, here's a chance and I don't want to return empty-handed. They left the car... and walked towards the valley, and sat down under a pine tree. I went down to them. Of course I was masked and was carrying a rifle. He asked me: Are you a guard here? I told him: 'No, I'm in my home.' I told him: 'You are not allowed here. This is our land and our country. You stole it and occupied our land and I'm going to act against you.'

They were surprised by what I told them. I tied them up of course and then sentenced them to death by shooting, in the name of the revolution. I shot them, one bullet each, and went [hiding] in the mountains... I went to my aunt and told her: 'We have avenged Muhammad's blood.'"

Host: "She is the mother of Martyr Muhammad Abd Rabbo."

Issa Abd Rabbo: "I told her: 'Instead of one, we got two.' She cried out in joy."

[Independent Palestinian news agency Ma'an TV, Jan. 9, 2014]

Subhuman filth like Abd Rabbo and those who cheer him don't deserve a state. They don't even deserve to live.

Ma'an Network, which puts on a TV show meant to turn murderers into heroes, is funded by:

Perhaps people should ask the EU, UNESCO, the UNDP, the governments of Denmark and the Netherlands and the UK why they think it is useful to fund a TV program that celebrates the murder of Jews.

Kinder, gentler Iran threatens US again

From IRNA:

Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari lashed out at US Secretary of State John Kerryˈs recent war rhetoric against Iran.

Major General Jafariˈs remarks came in reaction to Kerry who said on January 23 that “the military option that is available to the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do” if Iran enriches uranium beyond five percent purity.

ˈYou could never understand the extent of the invasive capacity of the Islamic Republic of Iran,ˈ Major General Jafari said on Saturday.

ˈMr. Kerry must know that direct battle with the US is the biggest dream of pious and revolutionary people across the world. Your threats offer our revolutionary people the best opportunity,” said Jafari.

He added that “wise politicians” in the United States are unlikely to let the “ridiculous military option” remain on the table.

Jafari recommended Kerry to stop repeating “bankrupt strategies like the use of military option” in order to avoid the accelerated collapse of the US civilization.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader was saying...pretty much the same thing.

Our top officials should pay attention to what [the West] is saying, because they smile and say that they are interested in negotiations, but at the same time, they say that all options are on the table.

Well, what exactly are these options? What kind of action – or mistake – could they possibly take against Iran? If they are serious, they should exercise some self-restraint. All those people who utter this kind of nonsense must be stopped.

Along comes some wealthy American statesman, who makes a mistake and says: "We should drop a nuclear bomb on some Iranian desert." He makes threats and so on. Such a man should be punched in the mouth and crushed!

(h/t Yoel)

If you put together everything that every "pro-Palestinian "activist has ever done for actual, real Palestinians....

If you tally all the specific things that Omar Barghouti and Max Blumenthal and Philip Weiss and Ali Abuminah and Greta Berlin and Ben White and every single member of Free Gaza, Mondoweiss, Electronic Intifada, the BDS Movement, Students for Justice in Palestine, the ISM and others have done to improve the daily lives of Palestinian Arabs over the past twenty years....

You would not approach what Sodastream does for Palestinian Arab families every single day.

Which of these hypocrites are trying to build a factory in Ramallah or Nablus or Jericho that employs 900 workers and pays them good wages? Who among them is working to increase Palestinian exports of goods and services to the huge Arab markets? Who among them is working to create a high-tech Palestinian hub where they could charge Arab nations for their remote services - industries that require little space and can pay well?

Who among them gives a damn about the Palestinians they claim to work on behalf of?

They don't.

To them, Palestinians are props for their anti-Israel stunts. They are nothing more than pawns. Any Arab that cannot be used as ammunition against Israel is ignored or derided as a collaborator. Any happy Arab employee who works in Mishor Adumin or Atarot Industrial Park is an enemy of their cause.

You know how many stories about BDS are in Arabic media? Practically none. Because Arabs aren't being helped one bit by the vitriolic campaign against an Israeli company that does more for Arabs than every "pro-Palestinian" activist combined.

File photo

AFP reports:

Suspected militants blew up a pipeline in Egypt's Sinai that transports gas to Jordan late Monday in the third such attack in less than a month, security officials said.

The officials said there were no immediate reports of injuries, but witnesses said thick flames rose into the sky from the spot where the pipeline was struck. Witnesses also said that ambulances had rushed to the scene.

Egyptian security officials said the pipeline was blown up in an area called Muqtadiba, south of Al-Arish.

On 17 January and 31 December, militants had blown up a section of a pipeline supplying an industrial area in the restive Sinai peninsula.

As far as I can tell, this is the first attack in years that was purely against the Jordan pipeline.

In the past, it was assumed that the attacks on the pipeline to Israel and Jordan were meant purely for Israel and hurting the Arabs in Jordan was a necessary byproduct of their hate for the Jewish state. Now that the target is Jordan itself, it could mean a few things.

Maybe the jihadists hate Jordan for its anti-Islamist policies.

Maybe the jihadists were targeting an internal pipeline to hurt the Egyptian government and made a mistake.

Or maybe, just maybe, these jihadists are addicted to violence itself. When they can direct their anger at Jews they are happy to claim that they are doing it for righteous reasons, but when they can't target Israel they have to attack anything that does not meet their standards of Islam.

Maybe their anger and desire to destroy things has nothing to do with politics and everything to do with the type of Islam that they have been taught all their lives.

Which means that nothing can ever make the Islamists happy.

Which is something that Westerners simply cannot wrap their heads around.

Hasby Award: Best Pro-Israel Commentator Exclusive to Israel/ME

The nominees for the Hasby Award for Best Pro-Israel Commentator Exclusive to Israel/ME are:

Sarah Honig

And the winner is....

01/27 Links Pt2: ‘Never again’ imperatives, The myth of the Arab bystander to the Holocaust

From Ian:

JPost Ed: ‘Never again’ imperatives

On International Holocaust Day, which is being commemorated today, we are asked not just to remember. We are also asked to learn lessons from that dark period in history.
One lesson which tends to be emphasized in Israel and among world Jewry is that anti-Semitism is essentially a terminal moral disease of humanity and that Jews must never again rely solely on the kindness of others. They must instead take responsibility for their own destiny.
Much of Zionism’s moral force is derived from this “never again” imperative. Never again must the Jewish people allow itself to be in a state of powerlessness. This awareness of our potential vulnerability drives our perception of the Iranian threat and our apprehensions regarding a territorial compromise with the Palestinians.

To murder 6 million people, the Nazis showed us, you don’t even need fanatics

The Holocaust also has a clear meaning for the Jews, its paradigmatic victims: as a dismayingly vast proof that there is no safety in European pluralism, culture or “civilization,” in high-minded talk of humanism, individualism and international community, or in calming analyses that downplay future threats.
These are all important reflections on the “lessons” and “meaning” of Auschwitz, but they constitute too much of our public conversation about it, almost as though we are willing to discuss any aspect of that event except the choking, shivering bodies of the real-life gas chamber. Auschwitz too often serves as a bludgeon for our social or political agendas, an instrument to express our own fears and passions. There is a vague consensus that Auschwitz reflects something ultimate and untouchable, and so we immediately set about sullying it.

Exposing the myth of the Arab bystander to the Holocaust

Many of the current leadership in the Middle East owe their power base to the emergence of their predecessors during those dark times. The Palestinians still revere Husseini and many of terrorist groups are named after groups he founded.
The myth that the Arabs were innocent bystanders to the Nazi Holocaust is unfortunately widely accepted at face value. It is about time that this capricious fallacy was exposed, not just out of respect to those Jews who suffered at the hands of the Nazis and their allies everywhere, but also to deconstruct the simplistic notions used to explain the history of the conflict, especially that the Arabs were not responsible for the suffering that resulted from their continued incalcitrance.

Work accident!

An 18 year old man, Ashraf Zahir Faraj Allah, died Sunday night when he mishandled a bomb in the Bureij camp in Gaza.

Ma'an reports:

A Palestinian teenager died Monday from wounds sustained a day earlier in an explosion in al-Bureij refugee camp in the central Gaza Strip.

Ashraf Thahir Muhammad Farajallah, 18, died after being injured late Sunday in an "internal" explosion in the camp, Gaza medical official Ashraf al-Qidra said, without providing further details.

Farajallah was taken to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital and pronounced dead shortly after arrival.

They are calling him a martyr.

It is unclear which, if any, terrorist group he belonged to.

So it turns out that the Jews have been puppets of the Sunnis all along?

From Iran's unintentional comedy network, PressTV:

KSA behind Israel plans to replace al-Aqsa with temple: Analyst

Saudi Arabia is supporting the Israeli regime in its plan to replace the holy al-Aqsa Mosque with a temple, an analyst tells Press TV in an interview.

Saab Shaath was talking to Press TV on Saturday...

Shaath said Saudi Arabia has always provided support for the Zionist regime’s anti-Palestinian moves and “offered under-the-table support for Israel in their alliance against Syria.”

“The only thing, which will stop the Israelis from going that far, is the Arab-Palestinian resistance in the Gaza Strip and in Lebanon,” he said.

Shaath said Israel intends to “secure as much as they can from territories in the West Bank.”

“And they will go as far as the destruction of the existing al-Aqsa Mosque since now they see the Arabic masses got used to the desecration of religious sites as we notice in Syria by the Takfiri groups and the Arab masses have been shut enough to keep it quiet, that’s what they believe,” he added.

Al-Aqsa Mosque is considered the third holiest site in the Muslim world. [Not to Shiites! - EoZ]

Future headlines on PressTV:

Israel only exists because of money being paid to it directly from Gulf states!
Sunni Islam is really Judaism!
Mecca is really being leased from the Jews who lived there!
The Saudi King is an ultra-orthodox rabbi!
Kuwait's real name is "Jewait"!

(h/t Yisrael Medad)