Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, February 09, 2014

02/09 Links: State Dept: No Guarantee Arab League Will Recognize Israel; Historic 'Palestine'

From Ian:

Israel may pay for tolerance it shows to killers

IF most Palestinians thought like most Israelis, peace would come to their lands.
If most Israelis thought like so many Palestinians — from its leader Mahmoud Abbas down to the shiftless youths seeking to meet Allah via Semtex and Jewish blood — there would be many fewer than the 4.3 million of them.
The tolerance of Israel, as its neighbours bait it, bomb it and demand its destruction, surprises me. Three rockets were fired from Gaza in to southern Israel as I wrote this piece.

Historic Palestine

So there you have it, from the Encyclopedia Britannica, 1911 edition. Rather than being an "indigenous" populations, the Arab population of "Palestine" is composed of Bosnians, Sudanese, Algerians, Armenians, Greek, Kurds and many many others. There is no mention of a group called the "Palestinians".
Colonizers. All of them
Hard to imagine how the indigenous "Palestinians" could have escaped historical scrutiny for so many years. (h/t Bob Knot)

BBC Correspondent Apologizes For Omitting Anti-Israel Bias (satire)

In a news item last week, Philips was seen narrating a segment about a crash on Route 443, part of which runs through the West Bank. A number of Palestinian men were hurling stones and Molotov cocktails at passing Israeli cars, and the driver of one such vehicle stopped his car and chased the group while wielding a handgun, scattering them and stopping the attacks. Philips devoted almost the same amount of time discussing the attack on the motorist as on his brief pursuit, thus departing from BBC policy of specifically painting Israel and Israelis as at fault in confrontations with Palestinians.
“I apologise first to the Palestinians, who depend on the BBC for unstinting propaganda support; second, to my colleagues at the BBC, for showing what could be construed as disrespect for our journalistic standards; and of course to our viewership, who might become confused if we do not paint Israel as thoroughly evil,” Philips wrote in a statement. He attributed the lack of sufficient spin to deadline pressures, but admitted he could have done better.

A powerful video from a Belgian Jewish family fleeing to the US

(h/t Philip S)

Iranian TV shows simulation of attack against Israeli civilians, US aircraft carrier

From Lenz Iran, an 11 minute Iranian video with amateurish graphics showing a simulation of Iranian drones and rockets attacking Israeli targets and a US aircraft carrier.

Note that the Israeli targets include civilian targets, such as Ben Gurion airport and many of Tel Aviv's skyscrapers. (They also seem to think that Ehud Olmert is Israel's prime minister and that the US and Israel have no air defenses whatsoever.)

Even though the video is ridiculous even to non-military types like me, a real expert goes into detail about how comical these scenarios are.

(h/t Bob Knot)

BDS trying mightily to spin Scarlett into some sort of victory

By any objective yardstick, the SodaStream/Scarlett Johansson episode was an unmitigated disaster for BDS. But Max Blumenthal, whose rabid anti-Zionism and series of provable and verified lies have ensured that he can no longer be published except in Mondoweiss and Arab news outlets, writes a fantasy about Scarlett Johansson to try to fit the facts of the past couple of weeks into his very limited worldview - and try to spin a major BDS loss.

Writing in the UAE's "The National," Blumenthal talks about how Hollywood celebrities used to publicly embrace Israel, but are less likely to do so today.

The reason?

These days, celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried and forced to declare where they stand on Israel’s ongoing dispossession of Palestinians.

For those who have attached themselves to humanitarian do-gooder causes, the potential for PR damage is considerable — certainly enough to give them second thoughts. As the price tag on pro-Israel activity rises, some performers are quietly opting out of attractive deals before the controversy shatters their image.

But others like Scarlett Johansson, the comely blonde starlet described by Woody Allen as “sexually overwhelming” were not willing to let apartheid get in the way of a sizeable profit.

In January, the Israeli company Sodastream signed Johansson to promote its home soda-making machines in a $16 million (Dh58.8m) Super Bowl ad that featured her sucking suggestively on a straw off-and-on for two minutes.

Johansson, a standard-fare Hollywood liberal who proclaimed in 2008 that her “heart belongs to Barack”, cast her deal with Sodastream as a shining example of “conscious consumerism and transparency”.

She seemed oblivious to the fact that Sodastream operates out of Maale Adumim, an illegal Israeli mega-settlement built on privately owned Palestinian land whose master plan would eventually bisect the West Bank.

Blumenthal exposes his usual disregard for journalistic ethics and basic facts, of course - one minute of Super Bowl advertising cost about $8 million, not $16 million; the ad was only one minute long, Maale Adumim was not built on privately owned Arab land (except for 0.5% of it,) none of Mishor Adumim where SodaStream's factory is located was built on Arab land, even Israel's far left accepts that Maale Adumim would be part of Israel in any peace agreement, and in no way does it "bisect the West Bank."

He even says that Oxfam forced Johansson out, when the truth is the exact opposite.

Proving that Blumenthal is a liar is too easy.

The funny part is how desperately Blumenthal is trying to spin an episode that was a huge disaster for BDS into a victory.

His thesis that no major Hollywood figure today would support Israel as they did in the past is quite demolished by what Scarlett Johansson actually did do - although he blames her love of money, and doesn't mention that she isn't exactly hurting for cash.

True, there are some B-listers - washed-up rock stars and second-rate acts - that have bowed to pressure and joined the boycott of Israel. Why did they do that? Well, according to Blumenthal, it has nothing to do with what they really believe in.

It is because the Israel haters who push the boycott are bullies! And they are proud of it!

Blumenthal says it explicitly: "celebrities who shill for Israel can expect to be relentlessly harried." The haters expect that thin-skinned celebrities, who are allergic to controversy, will scamper away from any hint of trouble. Sometimes, they are right. It has absolutely nothing to do with the righteousness of their cause - it has to do with the fact that the haters can instantly raise an army of brainless Facebook drones to threaten people who are often not very self-confident to begin with.

Johansson not only pushed back against the BDSers she pushed back on humanitarian grounds! She explained why the BDS goals actually would hurt the people they pretend to care about. She exposed their hypocrisy in a very public way. (This is another point that Blumenthal studiously avoids mentioning.)

This episode did not damage Johansson's star power one bit.

The biggest losers were Oxfam and the BDS movement itself.

Oxfam is now sputtering and making itself look idiotic as it tries to justify its desire to throw hundreds of Arabs out into the street without salaries or healthcare. The halo effect of Oxfam being a humanitarian organization has been considerably dimmed.

But Oxfam, in trying to defend itself, has in turn thrown the BDS movement under the bus! It has been publicly forced to say that it does not support boycotting Israel and it is distancing itself from haters like Max Blumenthal.

Whether that is true or not is besides the point - Oxfam does give plenty of money to organizations that do support BDS - but nevertheless a major humanitarian NGO is publicly saying that boycotting Israel is immoral and beyond the pale, and it is jumping through hoops to make fine distinctions so that it cannot be accused of supporting BDS explicitly.

How on Earth can anyone think that BDS won?

The only people who can believe that are those who spend so much time lying that they can no longer distinguish truth from fantasy.

Like Max Blumenthal.

Hating Israel is a good career move in Egypt

Here is a tweet from Wael Mansour a couple of days ago, who says that he was the voice of Donald Duck in Arabic-dubbed Disney films:

Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF
— Wael Mansour (@Wa2elMansour) February 6, 2014

In Arabic, he tweeted much the same thing, saying that Disney dropped him because of his anti-Zionist tweet, and he said both in English and Arabic that he is proud about this.

He received thousands of retweets for this.

Here's the funny part: His anti-Israel tweets were last August. The Washington Free Beacon got hold of Disney:

Mansour has previously done Donald Duck voiceover work but is no longer under contract with the company, a Disney spokesperson told the Washington Free Beacon.

“He was a third party contractor,” the spokesperson said. “He doesn’t represent the company in any way.”

Mansour was not under contract with Disney when he made his controversial remarks about Israel, the spokesperson said.

Asked if Mansour would be hired for future voice over work, the spokesperson said, “What do you think?”

In other words, he was not fired from Disney - he wasn't working for them at all. However, they won't hire him again, for obvious reasons.

Now, this all happened six months ago. Apparently, Mansour decided to turn himself into a martyr now, and he (correctly) assumed that thousands of Egyptians would rally to support his desire to see Israel destroyed.

In other words, to publicly say you hate Israel in Egypt is a great career move!

Not that we didn't know this already.

In 2001, an overweight, third rate Egyptian singer made a hit record called "I Hate Israel."

In 2012, another Egyptian singer made a sarcastically titled song called "I Love Israel" with lyrics like “May it [Israel] be destroyed. May it be colonized. May it be wiped off the map. May a wall fall on it. May it disappear from the universe. God, please have it banished....May it dangle from the noose. May I get to see it burning, Amen. I will pour gasoline on it. I am an Egyptian man. I am not a coward...May it be targeted. May it go up in flames that will never subside. From the bottom of my heart – may a wall fall on it.”

This is what "peace" looks like.

02/08 Links: Scarlett, soda and Samaria; Truman, The Jewish State, and the NYTs Decline

From Ian:

Richard Millett: Labour MP Yasmin Qureshi apologises for comparing Gaza to the Holocaust

The response to Qureshi’s remarks from the Labour Party itself was an utter disgrace:
“These remarks were taken completely out of context. Yasmin Qureshi was not equating events in Gaza with the Holocaust. As an MP who has visited Auschwitz and has campaigned all her life against racism and anti-Semitism she would not do so.”
However, soon after, Qureshi must have had a pang of conscience and came out with this apology:
“The debate was about the plight of the Palestinian people and in no way did I mean to equate events in Gaza with the Holocaust. I apologise for any offence caused. I am also personally hurt if people thought I meant this. As someone who has visited the crematoria and gas chambers of Auschwitz I know the Holocaust was the most brutal act of genocide of the 20th Century and no-one should seek to underestimate its impact.”
So Qureshi is “personally hurt”? Poor her. Not as “personally hurt” as those who were in Auschwitz or Belsen etc or lost family there.

Truman, The Jewish State, and the Decline in New York Times Standards

The New York Times referred to this presidential statement twice in the past five years, and the way the did so exposes an unfortunate decline in the newspaper's standards. In both articles, reporters mentioned recent Palestinian attempts to cast a last minute change in the language of the statement — one of the letter's two references to "Jewish state" was changed to "State of Israel" — as supposedly showing that Truman did not support the idea of a Jewish state. But while the earlier article gave some clarifying context that suggested Palestinian leaders are misusing the letter, the more recent piece relayed the misinformation with no qualification, leaving New York Times readers severely misinformed about Truman's position.

Melanie Phillips: Scarlett, soda and Samaria

But, as the attacks on her by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions crowd reached fever pitch, Ms Johansson stunned everyone by sacking Oxfam, on the grounds that she was a supporter of “economic co-operation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine”. Which, by implication, Oxfam was not.
With this put-down, she achieved more than all the anti-BDS activists put together (not to devalue their heroic efforts). For the first time that I can remember, a glamorous personality went on to the front foot against the peddlers of anti-Israel bigotry.
She did not adopt a cringing, defensive posture. She strode on to the moral high ground and, at long last, delegitimised the delegitimisers.
For Oxfam’s part, it dug itself further and further into its ridiculous hole. Its mantra that Israeli “settlements” such as Ma’ale Adumim – the city to which Mishor Adumim belongs — are illegal under international law is simply false.

Lecture by Shahar Azani of NYC Israel Consulate (video)

Long but entertaining:

(h/t Lance)

02/07 Links Pt2: Israel is...By Natalie Portman; The PA’s Self-Inflicted Financial Wounds

From Ian:

Chloe Valdary: Race & politics: From the classroom to the UN

The professor’s lesson plans include scholarly documents written by academics who purport to show that every form of inequality is unjust and proof positive of the racial hierarchy plaguing society today. Historical figures like Che Guevara and Lenin are praised; their crimes against humanity obfuscated because they allegedly represent the great fight against “the system”–which is always dominated by the white colonialist capitalist. Terrorists who lob bombs at buses full of children are depicted as freedom fighters who simply wanted to get a break from the white /capitalist man. And that tired line that nonwhites can never be called racists since they are perpetual victims of the system persists in the professor’s textbooks and syllabi.
Of all the great disputes that plague the world, the Arab-Israeli conflict is perhaps the one that proponents of this ideology obsess over the most. Incessant fixation on the peoples involved, the politics at play, and the absolute necessity of the destruction of Israel as the only pragmatic solution to the conflict are the factors that are discussed by the academics that promote this ideology. Why?

Richard Millett: A day of anti-Israel hatred and Holocaust minimization in Parliament

This is how Britain’s Parliament is sometimes so abused. While innocent Syrians are being murdered and left permanently disabled by barrel bombs dropped out of the sky by Assad’s forces certain MPs are offensive about Israel, Israelis and the Holocaust instead.
While Kaufman voted against any intervention in Syria, Qureshi couldn’t even be bothered to turn up to that vote last August!
Last night’s event launching the “Jerusalem Report” was sold out but due to the strike on the London underground not many people could get there.
It must be galling that when so much effort has been put into producing an evening of hatred, lies and Holocaust minimization so few people are there to appreciate your efforts.

Israel committing Holocaust in UK Parliament

There was a debate in the British Parliament on Wednesday during which Members of Parliament (MPs) took turns to attack Israel. There was a literal barrage of filth heaped upon the Jewish state by MPs from Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrats. It must be said that the chair of Conservative Friends of Israel, James Clappison MP was trying to make Israel’s case, though no one was interested in listening.
The woes of the people of Gaza were laid squarely at Israel’s feet and it was “the occupying power’s responsibility” to deal with them. It seems in the British Parliament the IDF never withdrew from the territory. It seems that in the British Parliament the democratically elected government of Hamas cannot be expected to provide any kind of services for Gazans at all. In the British Parliament there is “no greater priority” than dealing with Israel.

On Tuesday, I noted that during a two week period in January, some 37% of rockets from Gaza aimed at Israel fell short or exploded on the launch pad. Over the years a number of Gazans have been killed and injured from these projectiles.

Now, there is a new addition to the list of Gazans killed by their own projectiles, and it is a worthy one.

A mortar exploded, apparently while being launched, on Friday night east of the Bureij refugee camp in central Gaza, killing one terrorist named Ibrahim Mohammed Saidi and injuring two others.

Shabbat shalom!

Getting harder to tell the difference between Arab and European antisemites

From TheJC:

It has emerged that far-right Belgian politician Laurent Louis gave three Nazi-style salutes in parliament.

A supporter of Dieudonné’s Anti-Zionist Party, he was filmed performing the quenelles — made famous by the French comedian — in succession in January.

Returning the compliment, Dieudonné called on Belgians to vote for Louis’s party, Debout les Belges (Down with Belgians), in May’s federal elections.

Louis performed the quenelles after a speech in which he claimed that “the Holocaust was set up and financed by the pioneers of Zionism”.

At the same time, an Amman-based Iraqi "independent news" outlet named Mustaqila has an extensive article denying the Holocaust.

That article notes that the word "Holocaust" comes from the Greek word "holokauston" meaning "completely burnt offering." This, the author says, proves how historically predatory Jews have been - because they stole the word from the Greeks.

The article goes on to say that Hitler was the first Western leader to call for a homeland for the Jews in Palestine (note that this was some 15 years after the Balfour Declaration) and that Jews colluded with him to kill the old Jews but allow the young ones to go to Israel.

The Jews, we are told, are smart and managed to deceive the world about their genocide. But there were no gas chambers, according to this article. Not that the Jews don't deserve it - in the Talmud it says that the world is divided into two groups, Jews and the "goyim" who are slaves.

Human rights groups will defend Lauent Louis' right to free speech, and they will ignore Arab antisemitism. Because that's how they roll.

02/07 Links Pt1: The Eve of the Fourth Palestinian “No”; Abbas the “moderate”

From Ian:

Sarah Honig: We feel the earth move…

Besides, the aforementioned hostility was exposed during Obama’s first term. Israelis have every reason to be ultra-leery of second-term Obama, well after he had waged his last campaign and has become invulnerable to voter backlash.
Obama is anything but an honest broker and he plainly doesn’t deserve the benefit of our doubt. If anything, his established predispositions should dispel our timidity – for the sake of our own self-preservation. To paraphrase Carole king’s classic:
We must not lose control
Down to our very soul
There is no danger that Israeli steadfastness would turn Obama all the more against us. He, Kerry and crew already are against us. We have nothing to lose by saying “no.”

Caroline Glick: Iran’s bomb in the basement

Our leaders continue to hope that a proper mix of concessions to the PLO will convince Obama to stand by his empty pledge to prevent Iran from becoming a nuclear power.
Obama will do no such thing. Concessions to the Palestinians will weaken us militarily and politically. And they will give us no advantage over Iran. While it is important to deal with the administration’ hostile insistence on unreciprocated Israeli concessions to the PLO, we cannot ignore Iran.
Iran either has a bomb already or is about to get one. And, having been abandoned by the White House, we face this threat alone.
We must now, immediately and consistently, do whatever we can still do to diminish the Iranian threat.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah and the "Armed Struggle" against Israel

While in English Abbas was voicing his opposition to an armed struggle, in Arabic Palestinian officials were issuing statements in support of "armed resistance" against Israel.
When senior figures of the Fatah urge Palestinians to be prepared for the possibility of "armed struggle"against Israel, they are actually instructing Fatah militiamen to be prepared to launch terrorist attacks.

Father of three "martyrs" dies in Gaza

Islamic Jihad offers condolences to whatever family is remaining of Deeb Osman Alersaana of northern Gaza.

Alersaana, 72, died of a heart attack after evening prayers last night.

He was celebrated by the terrorist organization because three of his sons - Ayman, Mohammed and Osman - have all been "martyred."

At least he was old enough to see his children die, which is a positive thing in the Palestinian Arab culture of death.

Here he is, showing the overabundance of love and kindness that he was known for and that he successfully taught his children.