Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

02/25 Links Pt1: The Myth of Israel’s Refusal to Make “Tough Decisions” for Peace

From Ian:

The Myth of Israel’s Refusal to Make “Tough Decisions” for Peace

The relentless calls for Israel to take difficult decisions for peace not only neglect to account for the attitude of the Palestinian side but also of the extensive concessions already offered by the Israelis. Both under Ehud Barak during the Camp David talks in 2000 and certainly under Ehud Olmert in 2008, Israel’s offers for peace went just about as far as possible without Israel either ceasing to exist as a Jewish state or rendering its remaining territory indefensible. Similarly, the current Israeli negotiating position does not appear to be measurably different from that of Barak or Olmert’s. Certainly, if Prime Minister Netanyahu’s negotiating stance was falling significantly short of previous offers then his dovish chief negotiator, Tzipi Livni, who served in the Olmert government and remains a political rival to Netanyahu, would doubtless call him out on this. Israel is once again offering as much as it can without ceasing to survive as Israel. But then this is the crux of the matter. It really looks as if it may just be the case that no offer that leaves the Jewish state in existence will be acceptable to Palestinians. (h/t Bob Knot)

Challenging the Long-Held Notion That Israeli Settlements Are ‘Illegal’

In a 2010 column for the American Interest, Nicholas Rostow, then-counsel and vice chancellor for legal affairs at the State University of New York and today director of the Center for Strategic Research at National Defense University’s Institute for National Strategic Studies, described five of the arguments made by those who disagree that the Geneva Convention prohibits Jewish Israelis from living legally in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
In their view, the Geneva Convention is inapplicable because under Article 2, the Convention applies only to territory that is occupied by “a High Contracting Party.” Because no country has a legally recognized claim to the “occupied territories,” the argument goes, the West Bank, Gaza and east Jerusalem do not belong to any contracting party.
Rostow wrote: “In making this argument, advocates of legality stress that the international community did not recognize Jordan’s annexation of the West Bank and that now Jordan has withdrawn its claim.”

Terrorism pays – literally

Nor is jail time a deterrent. “Nobody believes they’re going to serve [a full] sentence,” he said, “because they are going to be part of the next prisoner release, or of the next discussion even to have a discussion about a prisoner release.”
Indeed.
This travesty is supervised by the Palestinian Ministry for Prisoners and written into PA legislation. The law determines an ascending pay scale for terrorists: The more the carnage and the longer the prison term, the higher the salary.
According to [Edwin] Black, “This takes up $5-7 million a month – approximately six percent – of the PA budget. If you add in the other payments [to terrorists] for weddings, social events, special bonuses, academic scholarships, it comes to 16% of the Palestinian budget.
"And where does the money come from? From American and European taxpayers.”
Until the blood-for-money law is rescinded, he said, “There can be no peace between Palestinians and Israelis.”

Ukranian, Arab, Iranian, French antisemites together blame Jews for Ukraine violence

It seems to have started with an Iranian PressTV reporting:

Ukrainian media have reported that a former Israeli army officer is playing a leading role in the anti-government protests in the former Soviet republic.

According to reports, the unnamed Israeli commands a group of 20 Ukrainian militants.

Four other Israelis, who had previously served in the army, were recently reported to have taken part in opposition rallies in Ukraine’s capital, Kiev.

They were born in Ukraine but migrated to Israel and joined its armed forces before returning to the European country for the demonstrations.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian media said that an Israeli tycoon provides financial support to the opposition in Ukraine, adding that Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency is one of the instigators of the unrest in the country.

That's it. No names, no source listed, nothing. Yet it was quoted by International Business Times (UK). (UPDATE: There are sources for this.)

Then a little known French antisemitic website named "PlanetNonViolence" claimed that "the Jewish mafia" is behind the Ukrainian protests, that Israel is sending "surveillance equipment and other high tech gadgets ostensibly to protect Jews" to the region, and that Israel is fomenting violence in order to get Jews to leave the Ukraine and move to Israel.

Now mainstream Arab media is reporting all of this as fact, adding that a Jewish Ukranian businessman, Viktor Pinchuk, is also acting behind the scenes to foment revolution so he can get the Ukraine to get into the orbit of the EU to help his fortune.

No doubt the Jew-haters will claim that the Mossad was behind this Molotov cocktail attack on a synagogue in Zaporozhye on Monday, captured by security cameras.

State Dept envoy met with viciously anti-Israel Palestinian Christians

Yesterday I reported that the US State Department silently sent its new head of Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, Shaun Casey, to meet with Palestinian Christian leaders, although apparently not to meet with Jewish leaders.

The leaders that Casey chose to meet with are anti-Israel (and antisemitic) extremists.

Yisrael Medad points out that Bishop Munib Younan of the Lutheran Church, who Casey met, signed the Kairos Palestine document which argues, on theological grounds, that the concept of a Jewish state is illegitimate and an affront to human rights. It also implicitly supports anti-Israel terror and it implies that the "occupation" is over all of British Mandate Palestine, not just the portions over the Green Line.

However, Younan is not only a signatory to this anti-Israel screed - he was one of the authors. He later asked to have that role erased so he could maintain his relationship with Israeli and Jewish leaders.

Another bishop that Casey met with is even worse. In an interview with Famiglia Cristiana he said:

The Talmud, the holy book studied by the ultra-orthodox, more highly venerated than the Bible itself, invites religious hatred, speaks badly of Jesus, and even worse of Mary and, in general, of Christians” he said, adding that “in Israeli schools love for the other is not taught but rather the destruction of the other.

His statements on the Talmud echo those of the most vicious antisemites through history, and his blanket statement that Israeli schools teach genocide is reprehensible.

And this is one of the people Casey decided to meet.

The fact that Casey chose these people to meet, combined with the secrecy over the trip altogether, is concerning. If he would have met with any Jews who would argue that non-Jews should have no political rights between the Mediterranean and the Jordan river he would be universally condemned, yet the people he met with make the same argument about Jews, and worse.

What is Casey's - and the State Department's - objective in choosing to meet with these anti-Jewish extremists?

Egyptian siege on Gaza continues; Rafah open only 5 days in February

Egypt said it will close the Rafah crossing "indefinitely" after opening it for limited travel on Sunday and Monday.

It had been closed for over two weeks beforehand.

Here is my best approximation for days when Rafah has been opened and closed since October:

Rafah Crossings calendar 2013-2014

S	M	Tu	W	Th	F	S
Oct 27	28	29	30	31	Nov 1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14	15	16
17	18	19	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30
Dec 1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9 (only one bus)	10 (computer problems)	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24 (very few)	25	26	27	28
29	30	31	Jan 1	2	3	4
5	6	7	8	9	10	11
12	13	14	15	16	17	18
19	20	21	22	23	24	25
26	27 Pilgrims only	28	29	30	31	Feb 1
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
9	10	11	12	13	14	15
16	17	18	19	20	21	22
23	24	25	26	27	28	Mar 1

Egypt is letting far fewer Gazans into Egypt than Israel is allowing Gazans into Israel. In January, 15,000 people traveled through the Erez crossing, while only 4,400 people crossed Rafah.

But if you do a Google News search on "Egyptian siege" you will find only a tiny fraction of the articles that mention "Israeli siege."

BDS news from 1929

02/24 Links Pt2: S.A. MP Meshoe -Israeli Apartheid Week is a Scam; Israel-EU Exports up 6.3%

From Ian:

Vicious and Deceptive anti-Israel Propaganda Hate Week starts

“Israel Apartheid Week” as part of the BDS movement is the direct by-product of the Durban anti-Jewish hatred — a history few of its participants probably realize.
In reality, Israel is nothing like South Africa under Apartheid.
First and foremost, Israel is a majority rule democracy. South African Apartheid was the subjugation of the majority by the minority based on racial classifications — the exact opposite of Israel.
Israel is a multi-racial and multi-ethnic society in which the dividing lines, as in many countries and certainly all Mideast countries, is religion not race. In Israel the religious minority has full voting rights, members in the parliament and in the Supreme Court, and all the civil freedoms of the majority. Even the Jewish majority (about 80%) is multi-racial and multi-ethnic, including half the population being refugees and their descendants from Arab countries, Ethiopia, and other non-Western places.

South African MP Kenneth Meshoe: Discover the Scam Israeli Apartheid Week 2014

Palestinian Refugees Welcome Arab Apartheid; ‘For Our Own Good’ (satire)

In the Palestinian-administered territories themselves, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has made it clear that for their own good, refugees would not be granted citizenship in the eventual State of Palestine, because that might imply acceptance of Israel’s refusal to be inundated with a population that would erase the Jewish identity of the world’s only Jewish State. It would be better for everybody, explained Abbas, to create yet another Arab country instead of somehow absorbing Palestinian Arabs into the 22 Arab states in the region.
“I know the surveys say only a minority of refugees are actually interested in returning to their ancestral homes,” concedes Abbas, “but do the refugees really know what’s best for them? I mean, we’re talking about people holding on to the house keys of places destroyed ages ago. Talk about unrealistic.”

The usual stupid argument given by Arabs against accepting Israel as a Jewish state is that it would result in the expulsion of all Arab citizens of Israel.

But Abdel Bari Atwan, former editor of UK-based al Quds al-Arabi and now head of a HuffPo-style Arab outlet called Rai al-Youm, has upped the stupidity factor.

Speaking at a lecture in Jordan, Atwan said that if the PLO would recognize Israel as a Jewish state it would ultimately result in Arabs being shipped out of their homes in the West Bank as well, because Israel considers it to be part of Israel.

This is the state of Arab intelligentsia, where creating wild rumors out of thin air has more gravitas than serious political analysis.

Haaretz doing its part to push BDS from "settlements"

Haaretz writes::

Boycott = anti-Semitism? Some Israelis avoid settlement products, too

There are no official figures, but probably thousands of Israeli consumers check the labels before they buy.

Long before Scarlett Johansson came under international fire for promoting the West Bank SodaStream factory, these Israelis were getting their seltzer elsewhere.

And long before world Jewish leaders pronounced the international boycott movement anti-Semitism in its latest manifestation , these Israelis steered clear of products sold by Jewish-owned businesses located beyond the country’s internationally recognized borders. [sic]

It’s hard to know their exact numbers, but they are boycotters too, many for as long as they can remember: These Israelis do not, as a matter of principle, buy goods or produce from Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Vardit Shalfy, a theater director from Tel Aviv, not only checks every label carefully when she does her own supermarket shopping, but she also makes a point of alerting other customers who might not be aware that what they’re throwing into their carts was made in contested territory. “I’m absolutely shameless about it,” she acknowledges, “and very often, I get people to return products to the shelves. They simply didn’t know until I told them that what they were about to buy was made in the settlements and that by buying it they are supporting the occupation. Once, a woman almost smacked me, but more often than not, people listen.”

If she’s invited to an event where food is being served, says Shalfy, she has no qualms about calling over the chef to ascertain where exactly the ingredients in each dish came from. At the home of an acquaintance, she recounts, she once noticed her daughter innocently take a bite out of a cookie made by a factory in the East Jerusalem industrial park of Atarot. “I pulled it out of her mouth and reminded her that we don’t eat such things,” she says.

Netta Hazan, a facilitator for interfaith groups who lives in Jerusalem, admits she doesn’t take things that far. “I’m not going to lie and say that I check every label, and it’s not that I never drank something made with SodaStream, but if I know something’s made in a Jewish settlement, I won’t buy it,” she says. “On the other hand, I do make a point of buying things in Bethlehem in order to support the Palestinian economy.”

...Adam Keller, the spokesman of Gush Shalom, estimates that “tens of thousands” of Israelis who oppose the occupation boycott products from the settlements. “I’m basing that on the number of people who downloaded the list from our site when it was still up and the number who’ve signed up to receive our pamphlets,” he said.

...Longtime peace activist Naftali Raz...puts the number of Israelis who boycott products from the settlements at “many thousands.”

Here is a classic example where Haaretz is reporting what it sincerely hopes to be true rather than what is true.

When lists of "settlement" products are offered, I download them myself. Why? So I can make sure that I buy from them! And I'm sure that many other people do the same thing.

I'm also certain that many, if not most, of those who download such lists don't live in Israel to begin with.

In other words, while there are certainly some fanatics who go out of their way to ensure that not a crumb of Jewish-made food from across the Green Line passes their lips, saying that there are "probably thousands" is nothing but a myth that Haaretz believes (and that the people they interview want to promulgate) - because Haaretz still thinks that it represents more than a tiny minority of ultra leftists.

Just for fun, imagine one of these uber-liberal parties. Imagine what would happen if one of the guests badgered the chef about whether he bought kosher ingredients and prepared the food according to Jewish law. Imagine the reaction if the guest would loudly announce "I will never eat food that is not kosher!"

Just think how upset the guests would be, how embarrassed that one of their friends would dare embarrass them this way, with such an uncivil display of self-righteousness. How gauche!

That person would never be invited to another party, that's for sure.

Of course, Muslim guests who insist on eating Halal would be admired for being true to their culture.

(h/t Alex)

02/24 Links Pt1: Follow the blood money Banks Fund Bombers; Chloe Valdary In Defense Of Liberty

From Ian:

Follow the blood money: Exposing the secret US banking operations that help fund suicide bombers

Turner, who has taken part in negotiations with Arab Bank that were overseen by a mediator, has been asking for $2 billion to settle. The price could get a lot higher if it goes before a jury, he points out, since the Anti-Terrorism Act provides for a tripling of damages.
He doesn’t mince words when characterizing Arab Bank executives. Turner calls them “criminals,” “roaches” who “move around in the dark of night, inciting terrorism for profit. There’s no lower form of humanity than a guy in a suit making money off a teenager detonating a bomb on a bus, then slithering home to watch CNN.”
Arab Bank isn’t the only bank in lawyers’ crosshairs. Osen has levied lawsuits against Crédit Lyonnais, and NatWest, which he also accuses of maintaining accounts tied to Hamas, and others have filed suit against Bank of China and Lebanese Canadian Bank, which allegedly used an account in New York City to transfer millions to the financing arm of another terrorist group, Hezbollah.

"American Taxpayers Must Not Subsidize anti-Semitism ... Stop Funding the United Nations"

The Washington, DC-based American Center for Law and Justice (ACLJ), headed by Jay Sekulow, and with offices in several countries, concerns itself with constitutional and human rights law worldwide. Here is the text of a petition it has initiated, addressed to Barack Obama and John Kerry, requesting the United States government to cease funding the United Nations:

Chloe Valdary: In defense of liberty

On February 22, a gentleman by the name of Richard Silverstein took considerable issue with an article I wrote in the The Times of Israel about the contentions of one Judith Butler, professor at the University of California, Berkley. I find Butler’s analysis regarding the Arab-Israeli conflict lamentably disagreeable.
Silverstein did not point out any possible faulty premises in my column. He did not question the evidence I presented. He did not find I was lacking in my analysis. Instead, to illustrate his (ahem) intellectual prowess, he shared a Facebook status linking to my column and in his commentary, wrote: “They finally did it: found a Negro Zionist: Uncle Tom is dancin’ for joy!”

Yemenis upset at woman who said Jews should have equal rights

Arabic media reports:

"People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones" is applicable for Tawakkul Karman, a hijab-wearing Yemeni Muslim woman, who demanded (on video) that Yemeni Jews be given the right to be nominated to presidency, local councils and the parliament, in a step that Yemenis described as "outrageous".

Yemeni activists said: "It is not strange for someone who belongs to the (Muslim) Brotherhood to say this. After all, Issam Eryan also demanded that the Jews return to Egypt and that their possessions be given back to them. This video is the price that Tawakkul paid for getting the Nobel Peace Prize."

Karman did receive the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011.

Here's the video, from a UN webcast, that is getting her these insults:

Kerman: Concerning the religious minorities: We stress the necessity of equality for Jewish Yemeni citizens to their fellow citizens in enjoying all political rights, including the right to be nominated to the parliament, to local councils and the presidency.

Kerman has been repeatedly accused by her political opponents in Yemen and also Egypt of supporting the Muslim Brotherhood. The political party she belongs to includes Muslim Brotherhood members and she has railed against the rule of Egypt's Sisi, but it is unclear if she supports the Muslim Brotherhood directly - and this statement does not sound like something that the Ikhwan would support.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

Who is the State Dept.'s Shaun Casey and why did he visit the West Bank?

From the US State Department website:

The Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives is the State Department’s portal for engagement with religious leaders and organizations around the world. Headed by Special Advisor Shaun Casey, the office reaches out to faith-based communities to ensure that their voices are heard in the policy process, and it works with those communities to advance U.S. diplomacy and development objectives. In accordance with the U.S. Strategy on Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement, the office guarantees that engagement with faith-based communities is a priority for Department bureaus and for posts abroad, and helps equip our foreign and civil service officers with the skills necessary to engage faith-communities effectively and respectfully. The office collaborates regularly with other government officials and offices focused on religious issues, including the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Religion News Service has a little more about Casey:

Amid persistent criticism that the U.S. marginalizes religion and religious people in its foreign policy, Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday (Aug. 7) tapped ethicist and campaign adviser Shaun Casey to lead the State Department’s new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives.

Casey is a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and advised President Obama’s campaign and other Democrats on outreach to religious voters.

Kerry praised Casey as someone who understands how the U.S. can engage religious communities around the world to foster peace and development.

“In a world where people of all faiths are migrating and mingling like never before,” Kerry said, “we ignore the global impact of religion at our peril.”

So what has Casey been doing?

The only press release at the website is the announcement of this new office's launch last August.

Yet he did pop up recently - in PA-controlled areas - to speak to Palestinian Christians:

Mr. Shaun Casey, head of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, visited Bishop Munib Younan and the Lay Preachers Academy on Friday, February 14th, to discuss the peace process and the role of the Lutheran church in peace.

Mr. Casey met Bishop Munib Younan in Jerusalem and asked Bishop Younan to speak on how the church sees its role as peacemakers in the Middle East.

Mr. Casey then traveled to Abrahams Herberge in Beit Jala to speak with the members of the Lay Preachers Academy and ask for their candid opinions on the peace process and to ask how Palestinian Christians view themselves and their community. Mr. Casey spent 90 minutes listening to the Lutheran Christian voices of Palestine on their concerns about the current peace talks and their hopes for the future.

And:

During a meeting [Monday] with the Latin Patriarch, Mr. Casey revealed how John Kerry is aware of the power of faith in the peace process and how he has been attentive to the concerns of Christians in the Holy Land in the design of a peace agreement between the two parties. Kerry hopes even to put in place the framework of the agreement before the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land. “What is certain however is that speaking to the Pope during his next visit to the Vatican will be important to help the two peoples to move in this direction,” noted Shaun A. Casey.

There is nothing wrong with getting input from religious leaders on matters that are important to them involving negotiations.. What is worrisome is that this visit seems to have been done way under the radar; no press coverage and no State Department press releases. We don't know who else Casey visited or even what day he arrived and whether he is still in the region. Did he visit Muslim leaders - and if so, who? Did he visit Jewish religious leaders? Did he arrive via Israel or Jordan? Was there any discussion on matters such as the habitual Muslim usurping of Jewish holy places, as we saw yesterday? Were the Christian leaders he met with forthcoming about oppression by Muslims or did they spend the whole time talking about Israel? Is he in the region to buttress any ideas he already has or to actually learn something?

This lack of transparency from the State Department is troubling.

It is also troubling that Casey was originally hired by the Obama campaign to attract evangelical voters. I know that the tradition to reward people who help get presidents elected with cushy jobs (such as becoming ambassadors to friendly countries) is a common practice, but what little we know of Casey indicates that he may not be the most qualified person to wade into Middle East politics. For example, in 2008 he was quoted to be politicizing the New Testament by saying that "Jesus was an illegal alien."

There are a lot of unanswered questions here, and silently sending someone with unorthodox religious views into the Middle East as an amateur diplomat seems to be a recipe for disaster.

(h/t Donna)

Samantha Power: Getting your head hacked off teaches "individual accountability and reconciliation"

This tweet from the US ambassador to the UN is mind boggling:

Excuse me? A man whose head was sawed off on video, specifically because he was a Jew, reminds us about how to break "cycles of violence?"

This incomprehensible leftist gobbledygook would be worthy of derision of it was spouted by some leftist professor at Berkeley. But for the US ambassador to the UN to publicly write this is breathtakingly naive and, really, offensive to Pearl's family. It is almost as if she is saying that Daniel Pearl would still be alive if he had only been more interested in "accountability and reconciliation" with Al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamists.

Is this what the US has become? Is the official position of the US government that all that is needed for world peace is for Westerners to be more sensitive to the feelings of murderous Islamists?

If Jew-hatred is part of a "cycle of violence" then antisemitism must be partially Jews' fault.

This indicates that the official American position is no longer one of pride and leadership, but one of apologetics and beseeching to be loved by our enemies, who hate us because we just aren't working hard enough at reconciliation.

This is outrageous and scandalous, and in a sane world Power should be forced to resign by the end of the day. No one that says anything this sickening should represent the United States to the world.

UPDATE: See also Israellycool.