Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, March 10, 2014

Comparison of Amnesty coverage of Syria and Israel

Amnesty just released a report about the Palestinian Arabs who have died since last July in the Yarmouk camp in Syria.

A comparison between that report and its most recent report slamming Israel shows in stark terms how biased Amnesty is against Israel.

For Yarmouk, as with Amnesty reports from Egypt and other Arab countries, victims are just statistics. An appendix lists their names here but the report itself gives no detail as to the heartbreaking circumstances of their deaths.

Only when Israel is being blamed are the victims humanized- sometimes three pages dedicated to the circumstances of the death of a single person, plus photos and interviews with their distraught family members.

Here, in black and white, one can see how hard Amnesty works to demonize Israel while letting real crimes against Palestinian Arabs go relatively lightly.

Amnesty reports	Israel/WB	Syria/Yarmouk
Title of report	Trigger-happy	Squeezing the life out of Yarmouk
Number of pages in the report	87	39
Number of civilians killed according to Amnesty	22	194
Time period covered	12 months	8 months
Circumstances of their deaths	Mostly while participating in or near violent acts	Starvation, sniper fire, bombings
Number of extensive personal stories given for victims	At least 18, some three pages long	Zero
Number of photos of victims (dead and injured)	At least 14	Zero
Number of times it uses the word “impunity”	14	1
Number of times it uses the phrase “International law”	24	9
Video produced to support report?	Yes, 4 minutes	No
Placement on Amnesty webpage	Linked from front page, 2 weeks after report issued	On front page the day it was released

160 kilometers, illustrated

The Iranian arms ship is now confirmed to have held some 40 rockets with a range of up to 160 kilometers.

Here is an illustration of 160 km radii, from the northern tip of Gaza and from the northern part of the Sinai, in case the weapons would have ended up in the hands of Sinai jihadists.

Virtually all of Israel, except for Eilat and the far northern parts, would be in range of terror groups in Gaza. Most of Israel, including Eilat and almost all of Judea and Samaria, would be in range of terror groups in the Sinai.

If you assume a very conservative range of 100 km from Hezbollah rockets, then Israel would be entirely within rocket range of Iran-backed terrorists.

Interestingly, the capitals of Jordan and Egypt would also have been in range of Islamist groups in Gaza and the Sinai had these rockets been smuggled in successfully.

Iran would have had all of Israel and critical parts of Jordan and Egypt under direct rocket threat.

Infographic: Goodwill Gestures (2014)

This is a followup to a 2012 version.

The evidence for "Threats" is here.

Fatah's entire political platform of 2009 in English

This is the official Fatah platform, in English, referred to by Abbas Zaki in this interview posted earlier today.

The main strategic goals are "Liberating the homeland, ending its settler occupation and attaining the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people." Note that these are separate goals - the "homeland" is all of British Mandate Palestine while the "occupation" is the areas Israel gained in 1967 and the "inalienable rights" include the "right to return."

The platform makes it very clear that Fatah still subscribes to "armed resistance" as a "right":" "The Palestinian people’s right to practice armed resistance against the military occupation of their land remains a constant right confirmed by international law and international legality."

Unintentionally proving how tenuous Palestinian peoplehood is, the platform tries to shore it up by saying "The Palestinians are a genuine people with a clear identity and clear affiliation to their homeland. They maintained their attachment to this identity and to their homeland through their national struggle for almost a century."

Two of their tactics include:

Boycotting Israeli products at home and abroad through popular movement, particularly those goods for which there is local substitute. Performing new forms of civil disobedience against the occupation and launching an international campaign to boycott Israel, its products, and its institutions benefiting from the experience of South Africa against Apartheid....

Restoring our direct and strong relations with the Israeli peace camp, and revitalizing our joint action for a just peace, without mingling it with normalization with Israel, which is rejected while occupation continues.

It also calls to strengthen the culture of terror:

Continued commitment to the culture of struggle, and the permanent readiness to engage in resisting the occupation, and sacrifice for the homeland. Continuous education through regular organizational meetings and training courses. The issuing of Fatah circulars, to continue mobilizing the cadres of the movement and masses with the heritage of the Palestinian armed struggle. Celebrating our battles, and commemorating the history of our struggle and the permanent readiness to sacrifice.

Every single thing that is incompatible with true peace is enshrined in this platform. These are not negotiable positions, according to this document.

I am certain that neither John Kerry nor President Obama, nor Thomas Friedman nor any supposed mainstream media "expert" ever read this.

In fact, practically no one in the West has read this platform, although Mahmoud Abbas has been acting entirely consistently with it. I translated some of it when it was released, but this official English translation seems to have been released over a year later. I found it at the Palestinian Press Office of Denmark.

This is essential reading in order to understand the strategy of the PLO and Mahmoud Abbas.

Fatah Political Platform by Eldad Tzioni

"Destroy the hopes of 'Palestinian return'"

From Ben Dror Yemini in Maariv, quoting Mati Golan in Globes:

I used to think that Binyamin Netanyahu's requirement to recognize Israel as a Jewish state is unnecessary, but lately I have heard things that made me see things differently and I've changed my mind. Mostly from Palestinian leaders in responseto this demand.

Now it seems to me that not only is this demand not unnecessary, but it's actually the essence of the negotiations. This is not some quirk or Bibi trick, but the substance. Recognition of the Jewishness of the state defines recognition in all areas - Israel's existence, borders, [everything.]

The more Palestinians oppose recognition, the more necessary it becomes. What does it say when they do not want it? It means that for them there in another country, where there are a majority of Jews today, tomorrow it can (and should) be Palestinian or anything, just not Jewish. That is, the refusal to recognize Jewish state is not just a semantic issue, it means that for them Israel exists for them conditionally.

Once the majority is Arab Palestinian, she will not be the state of Israel. That is, the Arab position is not ethnic, not just religious - is simply a strategy, how to destroy a state without firing a shot, with only patience and forbearance.

Palestinians know and believe that if they are only given time they will become the majority. Not just by birth, but also through the "right of return of refugees." Nabil Shaath said so explicitly yesterday: "Netanyahu is not interested in solving the refugee problem and requires that we recognize the state of Israel as a Jewish state." Here is the Palestinian equation: non-recognition of the Jewish state = return of refugees.

Therein lies the immense importance of the demand for recognition. As long as the Palestinians continue to dream of the "return of refugees" to "their land," there can be no peace and there nothing resembling peace. We in Israel must be assured that they intend real peace, and not giving them time to take over the country.

If they were really aiming for peace, there should not be a problem for them to recognize the Jewish state. But they hope ... and the existence of this hope is basically a declaration of war on us...

Therefore, this hope should be eliminated before giving up land or anything else. We need to know the dream of return is no longer available. Only then can we be "two states for two peoples", and not two countries for the Palestinian people.

(h/t YM, Bob Knot [corrected source])

Moroccan Christian preacher makes fun of Arabs boycotting Jews (video)

From Mida Video Channel:

Brother Rashid, a charismatic and popular Moroccan Christian television preacher, has a few choice words for those who would divest themselves of Jewish inventions and products.

I don't know when and where this was broadcast.

(h/t Avi W)

03/09 Links: Scarlett Johansson- I believe in SodaStream; Do Palestinians Really Want a State?

From Ian:

Scarlett Johansson: I believe in SodaStream

Johansson stirred a vehement debate in January when she accepted the role of spokeswoman for SodaStream, which makes home carbonation machines and operates a plant in Ma’ale Adumim, a large West Bank settlement near Jerusalem.
“I’m not an expert on the history of this conflict, and I’ve never professed to be,” Johansson told the British newspaper the Telegraph in an interview published Friday.
“But it is a company that I believe in, that I think has the ability to make a huge difference, environmentally. [CEO] Daniel Birnbaum has said many times that this factory is one he inherited, and that he doesn’t want to fire people – the majority of those people being Palestinian,” she said.

Mordechai Kedar: Time to put an end to the fantasy of a Palestinian people

Despite the benefits of this ambiguous situation, Israel should adopt a clearer policy: Since the PLO has not abandoned its plan to destroy Israel, it must end the dream of establishing a state under the rule of this organization. The Hamas movement began the process in Gaza, and Israel must continue it in Judea and Samaria in order to establish seven city-states and to leave the rural areas under Israeli control.
The seven city-states will free most of the Arab population in Judea and Samaria from Israeli control and Israel can offer citizenship to residents of the rural space. These city-states based on local clans will be real entities and not the fantasies of some Palestinian intellectuals and tired Israeli souls regarding the existence of a single united Palestinian people in Gaza and in Judea and Samaria.

Hevron Children Tackle Left-Wing Extremists - With Sweets

Chief among those groups is Breaking the Silence, a far-left NGO funded by foreign donors (some 45% of its funding comes directly from the European Union), which encourages ex-soldiers to speak out against the IDF to international audiences. Much of the group's activities center on Hevron, where it conducts regular tours and demonstrations, alleging war crimes by both IDF soldiers and local Jewish residents - allegations based almost entirely on hearsay and which have been emphatically rejected as "slander" by residents and the military alike.
Recently, the organization helped bring some 200 people to the holy city to demand the opening of King David Street - also known as Shuhada Street - which was closed to Arab locals after being used as a launchpad for numerous terrorist atrocities against Jewish residents.
But on Friday, as another Breaking the Silence group entered the city's Jewish neighborhood, they were greeted by an unexpected sight: dozens of Jewish children handing out sweets in honor of the upcoming Jewish festival of Purim.

Recent antisemitic cartoons in Arab media

Yisrael Medad found these at Al Quds al Arabi, a UK-based pan-Arab newspaper that is run by Palestinian Arab expatriates:

But don't call them antisemitic! They are really only anti-Israel! Really! They insist that you understand that clearly!

They have no problem with Jews!

As long as the Jews don't demand actual rights, that is.

American Halloween costumes making Ethiopian kids in Hadera happy for Purim

From the JCC at Durham-Chapel Hill:

Thank you to all of you who donated your Halloween costumes. They have arrived in Hadera, Israel just in time for Purim. As you can see from the pictures below – the costumes have made a lot of kids very happy!

The community held a “costume bazaar” where kids could come by and pick out the costumes (that you donated)! It was a great event- and we hope you enjoy seeing the smiles on their faces as much as we do!

(h/t Jeanette)

Now Egyptians are saying the Muslim Brotherhood are part of the Elders of Zion. Really.

Egypt's Karama Press just started a series, that seems to be based on a new book, claiming that the Muslim Brotherhood is really part of the Elders of Zion.

Here's the cover of the book, showing prominent Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas members entwined in that Jewish web of intrigue.

This is hardly the first time that the Muslim Brotherhood has been accused by Egyptian secularists of being secret Zionists or Jews, as we've seen before.

The Jew is the gold standard as a hate object in the Arab world. All others who are despised must be compared to Jews.

The antisemitism is thoroughly embedded in Arab culture. It isn't only a Muslim thing. The Copts, as oppressed as they are, hate the Jews too.

Yet there are still idiots who pretend that it is all because of Israel. Sorry, it isn't.

The seething hatred of Israel isn't because of anything Israel has done - it is because weak, despised Jews have humiliated the great fictional Arab nation.

So anyone else who is hated must be a secret Jew.

Work accident!

From Ma'an:

The military wing of Hamas said on Saturday evening that a field commander was killed in an accidental "internal explosion" in the Hashashin neighborhood of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, while medical sources said that nine others were wounded.

The Qassam Brigades said that Ibrahim Nagib al-Ghoul, 30, was killed in the explosion.

A spokesman for the Gaza Strip Ministry of Health Ashraf al-Qidra said that the majority of the nine individuals wounded in the explosion were suffering from serious injuries.

Al-Qidra said that five of the wounded were taken to Abu Yousef al-Najjar Hospital in Rafah, while the four others were transferred to the European Gaza Hospital.

No details of the cause of the explosion were released.

Let's all pray for the injured Hamas terrorists to become elevated to the status of martyrs, just like al-Ghoul.

Hamas does have a "training camp" in that neighborhood.

03/08 Links: Chloe Valdary- A letter to the all-knowing Max Blumenthal; Surviving Obama

From Ian:

Chloe Valdary: A letter to the all-knowing Max Blumenthal: Co-written by Daniel Mael

Since you have found us out, we may as well list a few other things the Zionists are planning: We actually work for an organization called ‘The Elders of Zion.’ Perhaps you’ve heard of them? At any rate, we are two of their agents. As you can imagine, we are paid hefty sums of money, $4.6 billion a year to be exact. We are in charge of disseminating information around the globe, regulating U.N. meetings in New York, controlling seagull calls, and sending signals to sharks in the deep blue sea. We elders also work closely with Santa Claus, the Tooth Fairy, and Cinderella’s stepsisters in controlling things that occur in the world. You see, we were the ones who made Cinderella’s glass slipper come off when the clock struck “12.”
We are also behind the misinformation campaign that mischaracterizes Iran’s regime as evil and sinister. The Iranian regime is actually a democracy ruled by angels and ponies. The images on television of Iranian civilians being persecuted and oppressed is actually a vast conspiracy, a television show put on by Zionist actors and directors. The Iranian people are actually treated with kindness and goodness by their leaders; They are even given cute little treats from Candy Crush every day, and some are even selected to visit Willie Wonka’s Chocolate Factory if they really behave.

Caroline Glick: Surviving Obama

In his speech at the AIPAC Conference on Tuesday, Netanyahu rebutted every position Obama has staked out on the Palestinians and Iran without ever mentioning Obama’s name. By doing so he energized Israel’s supporters while denying Obama the ability to claim that Netanyahu is unsupportive of his policies.
In other words, he humored the White House while staking out an independent Israeli policy for which he secured the support of Israel’s American backers.
But Netanyahu’s skill in maneuvering around Obama is not enough for Israel to safely weather his presidency. Israel needs an overall strategy for securing its interests.

Richard Millett: Bibi declared “most dangerous political world leader today” at Centre for Palestine Studies, SOAS.

Khalidi is the Godfather of “Palestine Studies”. Gilbert Achcar introduced him as “the founder of the scientific study on the question of Palestine”. But at the Centre for Palestine Studies on Wednesday night Ilan Pappe had referred to the “so-called scientific research” of Zionism as nothing more than “marketing” by Israel.
Hypocrisy doesn’t come bigger than that. While the study of “Palestine” is “scientific”, the study of Israel is mere “marketing”!
The glitterati of the Palestine Lobby, including “Ambassador” Manuel Hassassian, were present to hear Khalidi describe the Balfour Declaration as “the single most destructive political document on the Middle East in the twentieth century”. But the 16 million dead of WW1 were not even mentioned by Khalidi.