Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, April 26, 2014

04/26 Links: Why Does Jimmy Carter Ignore Hamas Terrorism?; NYU SJP Denies Israel's Right to Exist

From Ian:

LATMA 2012: Hamas and Fatah with the song "Anyone You Can Fool I Can Fool Better"

Why Does Jimmy Carter Ignore Hamas Terrorism?

Here is the Elders’ statement applauding the Palestinian unity deal. In the past, Elder delegations have traveled to Gaza to parlay with Hamas and have called for the lifting of a blockade which, of course, did not prevent the import of food, medicine, or building materials, but only mandated an inspection given Hamas’s predilection for rocketry, explosives, and terrorism. Carter and his fellow Elders have ignored Hamas terrorism and remained completely uninterested in details or facts that would interfere in their narrative of demonizing Israel. Indeed, Carter has even gone so far as to falsify his own notes in order to rewrite history to exculpate Syrian dictator Hafez al-Assad.
That Mary Robinson has joined Carter in the most recent statement praising the Hamas deal also shouldn’t surprise. After all, she was the sponsor of the UN’s so-called “World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance” which, under her leadership, became an orgy of anti-Semitic hatred. And, while she led the UN Human Rights Commission, she presided over the passage of a resolution that endorsed suicide bombing against civilians as legitimate under international law. Hence, her love affair with Hamas seems par for the course.

NYU SJP Denies Israel's Legal Right to Exist

A day after the New York University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine distributed anti-Semitic mock eviction notices on campus, the group doubled down on its Jew hatred. The group took to Twitter to deny Israel's legal right to exist.

@Laura_E_Adkins @WildFTracks @MaxBlumenthal The existence of Israel is in undeniably a flagrant violation of UN Resolutions and int'l law
— NYU SJP (@NYUSJP) April 24, 2014
NYU SJP also claimed that Israel is a settler colonial state guilty of ethnically cleansing Palestinians:

CNN's Jim Clancy's 'Jaw-Droppingly Awful' Interview About Palestinian Unification Deal

On Friday, CNN Reporter Jim Clancy conducted an eight-minute interview with Palestinian spokesperson Hanan Ashrawi and former Israeli Ambassador Dore Gold that was unique in its level of bias and lack of professionalism of the interviewer.
Clancy allowed Ashrawi to regurgitate the Palestinian talking points about the Fatah/Hamas reconciliation deal for the first four minutes of the interview and trash Israel in the last minute and in-between accusingly asked Gold if an Israeli attack on terrorists in Gaza was done to try and scuttle the reconciliation deal (and ignored his answer).
When he turned to Ambassador Gold, his first question was, "Did he [Prime Minister Netanyahu] personally order that strike on Gaza as they were in the midst of celebrating this deal?" making the implication that the strike was done to break up the celebration. Gold responded that Israeli military actions in Gaza had no link to the deal or its celebration. Cutting off Gold in the middle of his answer, Clancy asked about the civilian casualties. Finally the former Ambassador was able to return to the Hamas/Fatah deal and Hamas' long record of terrorism.

Carter Center accepts Mohammed as its prophet

From a report by the Carter Center about Syria last month:

While it is true that at least the Carter Center is reporting on Syria when most organizations ignore it, the use of "PBUH" (and "Prophet", for that matter) indicates a less than objective viewpoint from Jimmy.

Just in case it crosses your mind that Carter is simply adopting the terminology used by locals as a gesture of respect, the Carter Center consistently refers to the Kotel, or Western Wall, as the "Wailing Wall" - a name that Jews never use and one that is, frankly, a little offensive in this day and age.

(h/t @hahussain)

04/25 Links Pt2: Jews in NYU dorm served ‘eviction notices’; Chloe Valdary interviewed at AIPAC

From Ian:

Jews in NYU dorm served ‘eviction notices’

Jewish students living in an NYU dorm woke up to “eviction notices” posted on their doors, apparently by activists from the organization Students for Justice in Palestine.
“We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in three days,” read the notices, according to a Times of Israel blog post by NYU student Laura Adkins.
“If you do not vacate the premise by midnight on 25 April, 2014, we reserve the right to destroy all remaining belongings,” the notices continued. “We cannot be held responsible for property or persons remaining inside the premises. Charges for demolition will be applied to your student accounts.” (h/t jzaik)

Dorm storming at NYU targets Jewish students (Updates)

The latest dorm storming was at Palladium Hall at New York University early this morning, before students awoke, as reported by NYU student Laura Adkins at The Times of Israel. (added) According to an email forwarded to me, such dorm storming would violated Palladium policy: “All people/clubs must have their flyers approved for posting at the Palladium RC. No flyers are permitted to be slid under apartment doors.”
An important point, Adkins makes, is that Palladium Hall is known on campus for having a high concentration of Jewish students to the extent that it is the only dorm with a Shabbat elevator (which runs automatically during the Sabbath, so religious Jewish students do not have to press the buttons to go to and from their dorm rooms):

Major Islam conference said mired by anti-Semitism

The speeches were given “a place of honor” at Wednesday’s 31st congress of the Union of Islamic Organizations in France, or UOIF, sociologist Michele Tribalat wrote in the Le Figaro daily Thursday. He singled out a speech by Hani Ramadan, a prominent Muslim leader from Geneva who spoke before thousands of congress participants.
According to the news site europe-israel org, Ramadan said during his address: “All the evil in the world originates from the Jews and the Zionist barbarism.”
The UOIF congress is one of France’s largest and most prominent Islamic events.

Video: Chloe Valdary discusses her passion for Israel and her battle with Richard Silverstein

Before viewing the following interview of Chloe Valdary, filmed at the AIPAC convention in March, you can first get up to speed on the racial abuse hurled at the African-American Zionist by Richard Silverstein (a blogger and ‘Comment is Free’ contributor) in CiF Watch posts here, here and here.

Chloe Valdary at AIPAC '14

Al Wafd is starting a series of articles by Ramsey Zikilma about, what else, Jews.

And the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

And the Talmud.

He starts off by recommending that people read the Protocols, and something called the "fifth edition of the Talmud."

He talks about the bogus "Benjamin Franklin prophecy" warning about how Jews are evil and would take over the US. Naturally, the Jews and their Freemasons are trying to destroy Egypt.

The second article introduces his idea of the Talmud, which we are told is a book that was taken by the Zionist gangs to control the world and and not only Arab peoples. And he goes on to say that Jews killed Christians in Egypt to use their blood for the cakes used in the "Feast of Yom Kippur."

Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

The writer has written for other mainstream Arabic media like Asharq al-Awsat and El Shorouk.

04/25 Links Pt1: What Is Abbas Trying to Achieve?; Waiting for the Palestinian Godot

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Time for consequences

It’s hard not to admire Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s brazenness.
Two weeks ago, Abbas signed on to 15 international agreements that among other things require the PA to respect human rights and punish war criminals.
And this week, he signed a unity deal with two genocidal terror groups all of whose leaders are war criminals. Every leader of Hamas and Islamic Jihad, the two parties that signed the deal with the PLO, are war criminals. Under the Geneva Conventions, which Abbas signed onto just a couple of weeks ago, he is required to put them on trial, for their war crimes.
Here it is worth noting that under the Geneva Conventions, every single rocket launch from Gaza into Israeli territory is a separate war crime.

Khaled Abu Toameh: What Is Abbas Trying to Achieve?

Abbas seems to be enjoying that each time he does something dramatic, the U.S. launches another big diplomatic offensive to try to convince him to backtrack. Abbas wants his people and the Arabs to see him as a hero who can stand up to the Americans.
Abbas's biggest fear is that the U.S. will cut off financial aid to the Palestinian Authority and work toward isolating him, as the Bush Administration did to Yasser Arafat in 2002. He is aware that neither the Europeans nor the Russians nor the Chinese will be able to replace American sponsorship.
Abbas is now waiting to see what the Americans will offer him for rescinding his plan to join forces with Hamas. When this happens, Abbas will most probably come up with new demands and conditions, as he has done all these past weeks.

Netanyahu: Palestinian Pact with Hamas Killed Peace Talks

Netanyahu issued a strong warning to those hoping for renewed talks between the Israelis and Palestinians while Hamas is still involved, telling Mitchell “We will not sit and negotiate with a Palestinian government that is backed by Hamas in which Hamas has effective share of power.”
The Israeli prime minister expressed his disappointment with the Palestinian unity pact, saying “[They] have taken a giant leap backward and embraced the very people who call for the eradication of the Jewish state. That’s incompatible with peace. He can’t think he can have both. He made a terrible decision for peace and his own people…”

Abu Mazen Says NO to Peace

Yet another #BDSFail as UC Santa Barbara votes against divestment

From the UCSB Daily Nexus:

After an intense nine-and-a-half hour meeting, the Associated Students Senate voted not to pass a resolution to “Divest From Companies that Profit from Apartheid” in a secret ballot, with 8 supporting and 16 opposing.

Hundreds attended and nearly 100 students and community members spoke at public forum to voice opposition or support for the divestment legislation, which focuses on divesting from five Israeli companies that the University works with. The meeting was held at Corwin Pavilion to accommodate the large crowd expected due to last year’s divestment hearings, during which Senate meetings ran well into the early morning several weeks in a row before the resolution was ultimately struck down.

What is most interesting is that there was a similar resolution last year:

A revised resolution aimed at divesting from companies that “profit from the military occupation of Palestine” failed to pass — despite a 12-11-1 vote — after it was reintroduced during Wednesday’s 11-hour Associated Students Senate meeting.

The burden of deciding the resolution’s fate ultimately fell to Internal Vice President Mayra Segovia, who was forced to determine whether or not the 12 senators in favor constituted enough of a majority to pass the resolution based on the A.S. Legal Code. Under Legal code, a simple majority is 50 percent of Senators plus one, not counting abstentions — meaning that passage of the resolution would have required a “yes” vote from 13 of the 23 senators present (rounded up from 12.5).

In other words, last year the Israel-haters at UCSB managed to get a bare majority to vote for divestment but not enough to pass; this year it was decisively defeated by a 2-1 margin.

Can there be a better illustration that the tide is turning against the Israel-haters on campus? And this is in California!

Following the even more lopsided vote at SDSU also on Wednesday night, the vote against even having a committee looking at the topic in Dearborn earlier this month, the Cornell resolution failure, the University of Michigan failure last month, and the UCLA failure (and meltdown) in February, the haters don't have much to point to in their effort to portray BDS as gaining steam. They won in the University of Windsor by using illegal methods - and that was overturned. In one of their very few victories, they barely squeaked by a vote in UC Riverside. They also lost at Loyola, University of New Mexico and elsewhere.

Electronic Intifada doesn't even bother to cover all of these losses anymore. They'll have articles leading up to a vote, and then...silence. Or at best, claiming victory by even having the vote take place, so that antisemitism and Israel-hatred can be publicly aired at universities - because that's the entire point, isn't it?

Tunisia spurns Arab League and allows Israeli Jews to visit pilgrimage site

From JTA:

Tunisia’s tourism minister has been summoned to appear before the country’s parliament to explain her decision to allow Israelis to enter the country on their passports for a religious festival.

Tunisia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel; the lawmakers say that allowing the religious pilgrims to use their Israeli passports is tantamount to recognizing Israel.

It is the first time that Israelis traveling to Tunisia for the traditional festive procession on Lag B’Omer near the Ghriba synagogue on the Tunisian island of Djerba will be allowed to enter the country on their passports, rather than use a special visa issued by the Tunisian embassy, the Associated Press reported .

Eighty-five lawmakers in the 217-member parliament signed a petition requiring Tourism Minister Amel Karboul to appear and defend her actions.

Tunisia’s interim Prime Minister, Mehdi Jomaa, on Tuesday defended the decision, which is seen as a way to boost tourism to the country.

“We must dispense with these political arguments and focus on the essential,” Jomaa said, according to AP. “All the previous government authorized Jews from Israel to come to Tunisia for the annual pilgrimage; we just decided to do it in total transparence.”

The details from Arabic website El Badil are interesting:

"The success of the tourist season is essential Because tourism is an activity that generates revenue quickly," [Jomaa] said of the Constituent Assembly a few days ago...

Tunisia is facing a serious economic crisis since 2011, and Israeli tourism - especially the pilgrimage to the Jewish Temple in Djerba - is essential for the development of this [tourist] sector, which is facing difficulties.

Some of the MPs objected to this reminding all that Tunisia is still officially "in a state of war " with Israel.

The Web site of the Secretary General of the Democratic Alliance, Mohammed Hamdi, said, "The Pilgrimage to the Temple of Djerba is not a problem in itself, but there is a political problem, Tunisia as a member of the Arab League must respect its obligations."

He added, "We must not forget that our country has ratified the decisions of the Arab League, and, therefore, Tunisia is still in a state of war with Israel, and should not turn this pilgrimage to a pretext for the normalization of relations with the Zionist entity."

The Prime Minister, in response to these accusations, said, "Let us be frank. Normalization, not normalization, set aside these big issues," calling on lawmakers to leave the "history" aside, stressing that these are procedures followed for years by all governments.

According to Elaph, only 61 Israeli tourists are expected to go to Tunisia, so the direct economic benefit to Tunisia cannot be that great. However, if Tunisia can point to them as proof that it is a safe place even for tourists from enemy countries to visit, it can be a big win.

This also shows the importance of the economy in bringing peace (or at least detente.) Here we have Tunisia's acting prime minister essentially thumbing his nose at the entire Arab world saying that their economy is more important than any number of anti-Israel slogans. No doubt this is why there is a small but growing underground trade between Israel and many Arab states.

But, as he stressed, he didn't want to make a big deal out of this because the haters are very, very loud.

The Hamas mouthpiece Palestine Information Center has an exclusive interview with Hamas sheikh and MP Hassan Youssef, where he confirms that Hamas will never recognize Israel.

Reacting to statements by PLO officials that a unity government will recognize Israel and be against terrorism, and that even Hamas will recognize Israel, Youssef asked rhetorically, "Does it make sense to ask [Hamas] to recognize Israel? The concept has nothing to do with logic and righteousness."

For the most part, Hamas leaders and media have been silent about the issue of them adhering to the existing positions of Mahmoud Abbas supposedly against terror and recognizing Israel, knowing that ambiguity is the only chance they have for unity.

Hamas political head Khaled Meshal told Al Jazeera that Hamas would do the "impossible" to facilitate an agreement with Fatah, in order for both of them together to "better able to meet the challenge of Israel, which shed lives and violated sanctities and usurped the land."

(h't Alex)

Hebrew is now fashionable - on clothing

From Haaretz:

With the official opening of the Soccer World Cup in June in Brazil, we can predict that the area on and near the pitch will be filled with players and fans wearing short sweatshirts with the word heshbon in Hebrew on the left side, right above the heart. How do we know? It’s simple: Over the past month, well-known soccer players from Europe’s leading teams, including Mario Balotelli, Didier Drogba, Seydou Keita, Eden Hazard and Marco Verratti, have done it. And the numbers are growing.

The reason is the launch of a new Paris brand last month, H’echbone Paris, with that very Hebrew word on the front. The people behind it are Yoan Barouk and Souleymane Kamissoko, two friends from the Parisian suburb of Sarcelles, the former Jewish and the latter, Muslim. Given that information, the word heshbon, which means “account” or “bill” in Hebrew, could be loaded with significance. But it turns out that the birth of the brand was fairly prosaic − it all started on a joint visit by Barouk and Kamissoko to Israel in 2011.

“We were sitting in a restaurant in Tel Aviv and when we were given the heshbon − the bill − Souleymane fell in love with the word, the way it was written and the way it was pronounced, “Barouk says. “When we founded the label last month, it was only natural that we would pick that word.”

The pair put together a small collection of shirts, manufactured them quickly and got a few of their friends involved − soccer stars who had their pictures snapped while wearing the shirts, posted them on Instagram and directed people to their homepage, which is also their sole sales outlet.

Hechbone Paris co-owner Souleymane Kamissoko, left, with AC Milan star Mario Balotelli.

Do you think anyone would notice if someone changed the logo a little?

It would be nice to see this on fashionable Europeans!

(For the Hebrew-challenged, it says "Hebron.")

04/24 Links Pt2: PA Incentives for murdering Jews; Germany funds the demonization of Israel

From Ian:

The Origins of Palestinian Refugee Relief Efforts (REVIEW)

Romirowsky and Joffe’s book Religion, Politics and the Origins of Palestine Refugee Relief is an important volume for those interested in truly understanding the origins of the Palestinian refugee issue. Utilizing a treasure trove of newly released documents, the authors link UNRWA’s (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine) origins to the Quakers/American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). For those readers who thought they knew most of the Middle East story, Romirowsky and Joffe’s version provides another twist. The authors meticulously show how prior to UNRWAs founding in 1949, the AFSC played a leading role and influence in decisions and choices.
It turns out that for the first ten years of UNRWA’s existence, repatriation of Palestinian refugees to Israel was of no interest. Numerous surprising actors from the U.S. State Department, the United Nations (UN), the AFSC and multiple Arab interest groups believed that Palestinians who left when Israel declared statehood, would be absorbed into surrounding Arab territories. More complicated was the process of identifying and defining refugee status given the frenetic frauds perpetrated by non-Israeli Bedouins, riot victims, inflated child counts and those who never resided in Israel e.g. Bedouins. Factor in religion, Holocaust memory and instead of a welcoming by neighboring Arab nations, refugee status is conferred and a politics of Palestinians is born.

NGO Monitor: Why does Germany fund demonization of Israel?

However, there is a vast gap between the words of the leaders and the actions of their government – specifically in the form of taxpayer money provided to non-governmental organizations (NGOs), political foundations and church groups that are central to delegitimization. European money, in general, and German funds in particular, pay for the fuel and ammunition for the political warfare strategy adopted at the infamous NGO Forum of the 2001 Durban Conference, whose participants declared their objective of “the complete international isolation of Israel as an apartheid state.” In many parts of Europe, including Germany, particularly on university campuses, churches and trade unions, this insidious form of warfare has been successful in demonizing Israel.
One of the most egregious examples is the German support for and cooperation with a notorious “one-state” (meaning no Israel) NGO known as Zochrot, whose mission is to “raise public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba” and to support the so-called Palestinian “right of return.” Zochrot repeats modern blood libels, in the form of accusations of “ethnic cleansing” and “forcible displacement and dispossession of the Palestinian people.”

Isi Leibler: Incentives for murdering Jews

It is a damning reflection on the civilized world that one rarely hears a word of condemnation of the criminal Palestinian society in which the murder of Jews is not only considered laudable, but has today effectively become a vehicle for achieving upward social mobility, both socially and financially.
Let us relate hypothetically to Ahmed, a typical youngster in a large and impoverished Palestinian family.
Like his peers, Ahmed has been brainwashed – since kindergarten and throughout his schooling, by the mullahs at his mosque and in the daily media – into believing that the highest level of piety is attained by killing the Israeli enemy. He knows that if he were killed while attacking a Jew, he too would become a shaheed – a martyr – and be compensated for his sacrifice by the rewards and pleasures of Paradise. Moreover, his family would be honored and would receive a lifelong state pension from our “peace partner” Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority.
Ahmed recollects the interviews he watched on PA state television of mothers displaying pride in their offspring’s sacrifice on behalf of Islam, and their frequently expressed hope that some of their remaining children follow the example of the blessed martyr.

The Serpent's Tongue - An Open Letter To Catherine Ashton, EU Policy Chief

Does that bother you at all, Lady Ashton, to be a part of providing an incentive for all those murders? In legal terms, Lady Ashton, doesn't that make you and the EU accessories to those murders? Have you even once forcefully condemned the Palestinian Authority's practice of rewarding and making heroes out of those who murder innocent men, women and children? Has the EU ever once threatened to end the cash flow unless it stopped?
And to add insult to injury, in your remarks, the murder of Baruch Mizrachi barely rates a sentence, almost an afterthought. And you equivocate by calling for 'an immediate end to all acts of violence', as though Israelis were likewise targeting Arab families for murder on the highways. And then you call on Israel and Israel alone to mend its ways and reverse these so-called punitive actions that you deplore so much.
Are you that dead to shame, Lady Ashton? Are you that blind to justice?
Do you sleep well at night?

No, no. It's one of by land, TWO if by sea.

On Sunday, Hamas announced the martyrdom of one of its heroic jihadist fighters in the playground of death, Ashraf Nassar, who was killed in an unspecified training accident while preparing to wage war against the evil Zionist usurping enemy.

Today, they found his bloated corpse floating in the Mediterranean:

Fishermen in the Gaza Strip on Thursday found the body of a Palestinian fighter affiliated with Hamas' al-Qassam Brigades, Gaza security services said.

Fishermen spotted the body off the coast of Rafah and Hamas naval units immediately rushed to recover it from the sea.

It is believed to be the body of Ashraf Nassar, 22, who was killed last week during a military drill.

What sort of accident happened at sea where he was declared dead days before they had a body? Did he just fall overboard, or was there an explosion?

Hamas appears to be trying to smuggle weapons by sea from Egyptians masquerading as fishermen, which is probably the major job of Hamas "naval forces."

Hamas and other terror groups continue to kill their fellows at higher rates than the IDF has this year.

Hamas accepting Israel? Oh, please

Haaretz reports:

The reconciliation agreement between the two major Palestinian factions, Fatah and Hamas, which was signed in Gaza on Wednesday, is based on a two-state solution and recognizes the State of Israel, senior Fatah official Jibril Rajoub said on Thursday.

"The reconciliation that we achieved will be implemented according to the program of Abu Mazen [Palestinian President Mahmuod Abbas] which recognizes the state of Israel," Rajoub said, in an interview with Army Radio's Good Morning Israel program.

He added that the two-state solution envisages "a Palestinian state in the 1967 borders and the state of Israel with its capital in West Jerusalem." Hamas leader Ismail Haniya "is obliged to uphold Abu Mazen's policy," Rajoub stressed.

He stressed that "when the government is established with Abu Mazen at its head, he will express clearly and unequivocally that he accepts the terms of the Quartet and that his government accepts the two-state solution."

So why isn't Haniyeh saying this?

Not one Hamas media outlet says that it accepts Israel's existence.

When a Hamas official steps forward and says that, sure, Hamas accepts the terms given by the Quartet, and lives past that evening, then maybe there is something to talk about.

Until then, why is a Fatah official telling the world Hamas' supposed position?

We know Fatah is playing games. Fatah knows it is playing games.

Haaretz is a bit too dim to realize it.

Only two months ago this same Jibril Rajoub was in Iran saying that Fatah never abandoned terror. Too bad Haaretz (and Army Radio) didn't think of mentioning that when relaying his wonderful, optimistic words.