Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, April 29, 2014

04/29 Links Pt1: Krauthammer: Kerry Should Resign; EU Doublethink on the Palestinians

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: John Kerry's Jewish best friends

Anti-Semitism is not a simple bigotry. It is a complex neurosis. It involves assigning malign intent to Jews where none exists on the one hand, and rejecting reason as a basis for understanding the world and operating within it on the other hand.
John Kerry’s recent use of the term “Apartheid” in reference to Israel’s future was an anti-Semitic act.
In remarks before the Trilateral Commission a few days after PLO chief Mahmoud Abbas signed a unity deal with the Hamas and Islamic Jihad terror groups, Kerry said that if Israel doesn’t cut a deal with the Palestinians soon, it will either cease to be a Jewish state or it will become “an apartheid state.”
Leave aside the fact that Kerry’s scenarios are based on phony demographic data. As I demonstrate in my book The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East, Israel will maintain a strong and growing Jewish majority in a “unitary state” that includes the territory within the 1949 armistice lines and Judea and Samaria. But even if Kerry’s fictional data were correct, the only “Apartheid state” that has any chance of emerging is the Palestinian state that Kerry claims Israel’s survival depends on. The Palestinians demand that the territory that would comprise their state must be ethnically cleansed of all Jewish presence before they will agree to accept sovereign responsibility for it.

Isi Leibler: Candidly speaking: Proposed PA-Hamas union based on common objectives

This is the time for the government to launch a passionate global campaign to disseminate the truth. The PA-Hamas union is still far from implementation.
The personal hatred between the leaders remains intense and the negotiations could fall apart at any time. Israel would again face renewed pressures to make further concessions to the “moderate” Palestinians. As of now, our case can be presented in absolute black-and-white terms and we should maximize this opportunity.
The government must rally all the resources of the Jewish people including the Foreign Ministry, the Jewish Agency, global and national Jewish organizations and Jewish personalities and all friends of Israel.
The prime minister should consider convening a global conference, along the lines of the successful gathering inaugurated by the Shamir-Peres national unity government which invited Jewish and non-Jewish friends of Israel to Jerusalem to demonstrate solidarity with the Jewish state. Ideally, this should precede the UN General Assembly convening in New York in October – which the Palestinians will undoubtedly seek to transform into a bigger-than-normal hate fest against us.

Dennis Prager - The Middle East Problem

PA fabricates racist Israeli textbooks

The Palestinian Ministry of Information has been creating a series of reports about supposed Israeli incitement against Arabs.

I looked at the first one in January, and proved not only that they were fabricating supposed bigoted quotes by Israeli leaders, but that their report in itself was a far better exampley of incitement against Israel than any of their examples were proof of incitement against Arabs!

The same ministry just released a new report on the same topic, and one of its sections discusses alleged incitement in Israeli schoolbooks.

Israeli educational curricula does not talk about peace with the Palestinians, yet, where peace in china, India, and Europe is mentioned in the school books, not a single word about peace between Palestinians and Israelis can be found.
Instead, Israel brought soldiers to Kindergartens on national events to tell stories about an “Imminent” danger that comes from Arabs and about glorification of war, and Holocaust.

In addition to that, there are no immutable borders for the state of Israel, in the school books, because Israeli borders stretching from Nile to Euphrates River, as mentioned in the book titled “Geography of our country Israel”. Written by Elishaa Afrat.

In geography book for the third grade, the authors (B. Ahia and M. Hervas) claimed “That the Jews have owned every inch of Palestine even in Galil, West Bank, on shores, or in the desert”.

In the book of “National Education” for high school the author (Shalom Abker) mentioned that “Israel is located in the middle of Arab countries, that are planning to eradicate Israel from world map, and if they don’t carry out their threats today, that is not because they don’t want to, but rather because they could not, so Israel must keep them unable to do so”.

In a story for kids that is taught in the Israeli education curriculum titled “Dust in the eye”, there’s a Jew who advises another one saying:”Arabs are like dogs, if they realize that you are afraid of them and you do nothing, then they will attack you, but if you hit them they will be afraid of you….they will run away”.

In other short story titled “The Old Warrior” which was written by “Yore Evans”, the story starts with this dialogue:
“The little girl asked me: who stole the moon? I said: Arabs, she asked: what will they do with it. I answered: They hang it on their walls. She wondered: What about us? I told her: We turn the moon into small lamps to light the land of Israel… all of it. Since that time, the little girl still dreams about the moon and she still hates Arabs because they stole her dreams and her father’s too”.

Following is a Poem full of hate to Palestinians, titled:”Tale”. The poem is taught in Israeli schools:
“Tale”
Zaeev is a small child….he lived on this land … When the invaders (Palestinians) surrounded the city.. Zaeev died…how did he die? …Nobody knows.. Did he die of hunger?...Or under torture? …Was it a stray shaft? Or under horse hooves? ... Nobody knows. But… do you want to die like Zaeev?..NO....So point your guns to Arabs”.

Only one problem: These quotes, and the schoolbooks themselves, don't exist!

A far left Israeli writer, with the blog name Goodwin was Right, who normally harshly criticizes Israeli reports of incitement by the PA (and believes that there is plenty of real Israeli incitement against Arabs), decided to look at this report - and found that literally everything was a lie. The stories don't exist and the books themselves don't exist.

The information was originally fabricated in a paper written by a Hamam Siam, a student at the Islamic University in Gaza. The Palestinian Authority, using its usual concern for truth and honesty, simply copied the "proof" that the student literally made up out of thin air. (Apparently his professor had no problem with his research as well.)

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)
(h/t Yenta Press for correction)

(h/t the Ziyonists in the comments)

Reported explosion on "Gaza Ark" stunt boat

"Gaza Ark" is a planned stunt where instead of attempting to send boats to Gaza, Israel-haters are planning to sail a boat from Gaza, where Israel can enforce its legal naval blockade and stop them. They hope to get lots of media attention.

This morning, they say, there was a "mysterious explosion" on their boat:

At 3:45 AM Gaza time on April 29th, the night guard on board Gaza's Ark received a call to leave the boat because it was going to be attacked.

The guard left, but when nothing happened, he returned after 5 minutes. A few minutes later, a large explosion rocked the boat causing extensive damage.

The boat sank part way and is now sitting on the shallow sea floor. The guard was not injured but was taken to hospital for tests.

Mahfouz Kabariti, Gaza’s Ark Project Manager, says: “The extent and nature of the damage are currently being investigated. We will provide an update when available.”

"Gaza’s Ark and all our partners in the Freedom Flotilla Coalition are considering our next move in response to this cowardly act of terrorism, but our position remains clear: Neither this nor any other attack will stop our efforts to challenge the blockade of Gaza until it ends," adds David Heap of Gaza's Ark Steering Committee.

"Freedom Flotilla boats have been sabotaged before. This attack comes as we were almost ready to sail. You can sink a boat but you can't sink a movement," concludes Ehab Lotayef, another member of the Steering Committee.

Given that the people behind this stunt are accomplished liars, the story cannot be taken at face value. The photo above is very high resolution but I see no evidence of smoke or fire. It seems strange to hire a guard to protect a boat and have that guard leave his post from a phone call. It seems doubly strange that the guard would remove himself so far away so as not to notice someone planting explosives.

For Israel to have done this suggests an extensive operation - a silent Israeli boat, frogmen with underwater explosives - where the target is not worth it and there was no guarantee the guard would leave after a mere phone call. (Of course, Israel haters assume that the all-powerful Mossad did it.)

I can imagine the flotidiots ticking off Gaza groups but it still seems unlikely that they would attack the boat in this manner - they would do it in broad daylight.

Perhaps the guard accidentally did something stupid and created this story as a coverup. Or perhaps the flotidiots - who have not reached their fundraising goal of $300,000 to refurbish the boat - made the whole thing up when the boat sank on its own.

Jordan holds conference to deny Jewish rights in Jerusalem

Jordan is holding a conference that aims to ensure that Jews have no rights in Jerusalem.

From Jordan's official Petra News Agency:

Deputizing for His Majesty King Abdullah II, HRH Prince Ghazi Bin Mohammad, the King's Advisor for Religious and Cultural Affairs, on Monday opened "The Road to Jerusalem" Conference that is being attended by a number of Muslim and Christian religious scholars, parliamentarians and politicians from across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

Organised by the World Islamic Sciences and Education (WISE) University, the Lower House Palestine Committee and the Muslim World League, the conference will tackle topics such as the religious significance of Al Aqsa Mosque and other Muslim and Christians sites in Jerusalem, and ways in which the Arab and Muslim worlds and the international community can come to the aid of the occupied city.

The Rapporteur of the Higher Committee and spokesperson of the Conference, Deputy Yahia Al Saud, said in his opening remarks that the developments in Arab countries over the past few years and the so-called Arab Spring affected the Palestinian issue and led to an increase in Israeli arrogance and violations against the Palestinians in the West Bank.

He also highlighted efforts of His Majesty the King in defense of the Al Aqsa Mosque and called for Arab and Islamic support to confront the Israeli schemes.

Palestinian Awqaf Minister Mahmoud Al Habbash also made remarks in which he stressed the importance of the topics to be tackled during the conference, pointing to the historic and religious importance of Jerusalem.

He said that the Israeli occupation authorities allocated $4 billion this year to complete the Judaization of the holy city and urged Arabs and Muslims to confront the Israeli plans that target Islamic and Christian holy sites in the occupied city.

President of the Arab Parliament Ahmad Al Jarwan pointed to the agreement signed by Jordan and Palestine under which the Palestinian side "reaffirmed" the status of His Majesty King Abdullah as the custodian of the holy sites in Jerusalem. The agreement, he said, aimed to preserve the Arab identity of the holy city.

This conference, as is usual in the Arab and Muslim world, does not admit that Jews have any historic or religious attachment to Jerusalem. Which is ironic because their official English news reports call it by its Hebrew-derived name, not "Al Quds."

Jordan, of course, is the country that destroyed scores of synagogues within days of taking control of Jerusalem's Old City in 1948. It also stole gravestones from the ancient Jewish cemetery at the Mount of Olives and used them for latrines and to pave roads.

Now this enlightened country is demanding that Israel, which allows all religions to have free access to Jerusalem, to bring back the situation between 1948 and 1967 when the Old City was Judenrein.

Because, you see, the Jordanian hypocrites and antisemites are claiming that Jews are the ones who are dishonoring Jerusalem!

As I've pointed out before, the proof of Arab antisemitism isn't finding lots and lots of newspaper articles about events like these that deny Jewish ties to Jerusalem, or that deny the Holocaust, or claim that Jews drink the blood of Gentiles.

The proof is that no Arabs are willing to protest them.

04/28 Links Pt2: Palestinian Student Defends Her Visit to Auschwitz; Life of Begin

From Ian:

A Palestinian Student Defends Her Visit to Auschwitz

When my fellow Palestinian travelers talk among themselves and with friends and family about the accusation that they “sold out to the Jews” by visiting Auschwitz, they tend to cite their love for their country, noting that their travel makes them no less patriotic or nationalistic than their critics. Although the public outcry has silenced most of them, they all went to Auschwitz out of the belief that deepening their knowledge of the Holocaust could help pave the road to peace. Not only did they choose to reject ignorance, but they displayed remarkable moral courage by choosing to respect the past suffering of “the other.”
Our experience reminds me of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” The great philosopher asks you to imagine that you have been imprisoned all your life in a dark cave, with your hands and feet shackled and your head restrained so that you can only look at the wall in front of you. Behind you is a blazing fire, and between you and the fire there is a walkway where others move back and forth. The shadows cast on the wall by those objects are the only things you see. Those shadows become your reality. Suppose you are released from your shackles and freed to walk around the cave. Dazzled at first by the fire, you would gradually come to understand the origin of the shadows that you thought were real. Finally, you are allowed out of the cave and into the sunlit world, where you see the fullness of reality. But if you go back to the cave and tell others what you saw, will they believe you? No, they will condemn you. That is what happened to us, the Palestinian students who dared to visit Auschwitz. We simply left the cave.
Some of Professor Dajani’s colleagues believe this entire exercise has been a curse, given the attacks and criticism we have suffered since we returned home. Yet Professor Dajani, the eternal optimist, sees only a blessing in what we have done. We have opened a crack in the wall of ignorance. We have made Palestinians talk publicly about a topic that was once taboo.

Life of Begin

Review: ‘Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul’ by Daniel Gordis
Menachem Begin: The Battle for Israel’s Soul is a pleasure to read. The author, Daniel Gordis, a fellow at Jerusalem’s Shalem College, has a gift for clearly summarizing complex events, including key incidents about which much nonsense has been written.
Begin was born in the Polish town of Brisk in 1913. His most important early influence was his father Ze’ev Dov Begin, a deeply religious man who helped organize Jewish self-defense.

Gordis does point out Carter’s cluelessness about what made Begin tick. “His public protestation of Christian piety notwithstanding, Carter had none of the biblical sensibilities or knowledge that were central to who Begin was,” Gordis says. This ignorance continues today. Kerry blames Israel for the failure in negotiations without any idea of Jewish history, of the difficulties Israel faces, and of the nature of the enmity against it, rooted in Islam and the absolute refusal to accept a Jewish state in the heart of the Islamic world.
Begin’s Jewishness is a running theme in the book. Begin was, the author notes, the “most Jewish of Israel’s prime ministers.”

A couple of days ago Saeb Erekat made some headlines in Israeli media by declaring that "“Hamas is not and will never be a terrorist organization to us.”

He has now added to that theme, by saying that not only is Hamas not a terror group, but Israel is the real terrorist entity.

Arabic media is reporting that Erekat said that "the occupation is the worst kind of terrorism under international law."

He repeated himself to Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, saying: “The real terrorism is the [Israeli] occupation and settlement construction, and not Hamas."

No doubt the Quartet just nodded their collective heads, thinking that Erekat has the right to his own narrative where terror is peace, right is wrong and black is white.

Muslim "human rights expert" slams Judaism as an extremist, violent religion

Here is the cover of a new book on human rights in Islam.

Really.

The author of the book is Amna Nasir, and on Sunday she gave a talk to promote the book at a library in Egypt. According to this article, however, she didn't speak about human rights in Islam, but about how evil Judaism is.

The Jewish religion is violent and extreme, and this is because of the nature of the Jews of Biblical times who were marred by violence and aggression, she said.

Nasir noted that Jews kept complaining to Moses in the desert about not enough food and water, and they worshiped the golden calf. There are many examples of "grumbliong Jews," she notes.

Nasir added that when Jesus came on the scene his message of peace was like a slap in the face to the extremist Jews, but they refused to come to terms with their inherent violent nature.

We've spoken before about Arab projection, but this is off the charts.

It is also interesting that in so many of my recent stories about Egyptian antisemitism, the haters are women.

04/28 Links Pt1: Kerry the false prophet; Holocaust denial -- part of Palestinian narrative

From Ian:

Kerry the false prophet

US Secretary of State John Kerry continues to sermonize, disseminating self-fulfilling prophecies, whose incendiary warnings not only place the onus on Israel for failed peace talks, but worse could be construed as justification for the Arabs to spill Israeli Jewish blood in greater quantities.
In his latest statements as reported on Monday, Kerry warned that Israel could become an “apartheid state,” like South Africa if it doesn’t continue on its ‘two-state solution’ path, which of course involves Israel making suicidal land concessions to the Palestinian Authority.
While official Israeli Hasbara outlets were quick to point out that last week’s reported Hamas/PA unity agreement reveals the PA’s true disposition, those of us who have been awake during the past 20+ years of Oslo, never doubted that the PA/PLO remains till this day a ruthless anti-Semitic terror organization bent on Israel’s destruction.
Nevertheless, while reportedly Kerry had something to say about both sides, it was Israel, the only democracy in the region, which this false prophet felt necessary to drop the A-bomb (apartheid) on.

Ariel: Ashton 'Spit in Our Face on Holocaust Memorial Day'

Housing Minister Uri Ariel slammed European Union Foreign Minister Catherine Ashton Sunday for supporting the Hamas-Fatah unity deal. “On the eve of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Day, she spit in the face of those who fight against terror around the world," he accused. "European support for the deal will encourage Hamas terror, and will ensure that Europe loses it moral authority as a party that can help solve the conflict.
In a statement, Ashton said that even if Hamas was considered to be a terror group by the EU itself, negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority must continue. “Negotiations are the best way forward,” she said. “The extensive efforts deployed in recent months must not go to waste. The EU calls on all sides to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any action which may further undermine peace efforts and the viability of a two-state solution. The fact that President Abbas will remain fully in charge of the negotiation process and have a mandate to negotiate in the name of all Palestinians provides further assurance that the peace negotiations can and must proceed," she added.

Holocaust denial -- part of Palestinian narrative

When Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas finally says that "the Holocaust is the most awful crime every committed against humanity in the modern age" and accepts that Holocaust Remembrance Day is "an especially mournful day," the burden of proof is on him to show he's not just sputtering remarks to be left by the wayside. The Palestinian experience, you should know, has for years conveyed conflicting messages, sometimes even antitheses.
And it is within the framework of this existence that Abbas' rehashed Gaza partner puts on a children's play complete with ovens "showing how Israel burns Palestinians inside"; a crossword puzzle in the official PA newspaper defines Yad Vashem as "the center for perpetuating the Holocaust and such lies"; and even Jibril Rajoub, a popular interviewee in Israeli media, lets himself flip historical incidents from the Holocaust on their heads.

Official PA daily: Israel "enthusiastically imitates everything the Nazis did to them"

This evening is Israel's annual Holocaust and Heroism Remembrance Day. Sadly, the Palestinian Authority continues to demonize Israel, libeling it as behaving like the Nazis in its treatment of Palestinians. In op-eds that appeared recently in the official PA daily, Israel was accused of "enthusiastically imitat[ing] everything the Nazis did to them" and Zionism was said to be based on "racism," "arrogance" and the "Masada Complex." One article also stated that Israel built its security fence not in response to Palestinian terror attacks, but because of Israel's "Jewish ghetto worldview."
Palestinian Media Watch reported that senior PA official Jibril Rajoub recently referred to Israel as "this criminal, fascist, Nazi occupation " [Official PA TV Live, Feb. 26, 2014], and he subsequently stated that Hitler "could have learned" from Israel "about the concentration camps, the extermination camps." [Official PA TV, April 4, 2014]

The "Apartheid" canard, and others - from 1961

From The Daily Beast:

If there’s no two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict soon, Israel risks becoming “an apartheid state,” Secretary of State John Kerry told a room of influential world leaders in a closed-door meeting Friday.

Senior American officials have rarely, if ever, used the term “apartheid” in reference to Israel, and President Obama has previously rejected the idea that the word should apply to the Jewish state. Kerry's use of the loaded term is already rankling Jewish leaders in America—and it could attract unwanted attention in Israel, as well.

By claiming that Israel could become an "apartheid state," even in a closed-door session, Kerry has just handed a huge victory to the Israel haters. It proves that a lie, told often enough, convinces people who want to be convinced.

The earliest accusation of "apartheid" against Israel dates not from the Six Day War but from as early as 1961. Here is the description of part of several UN debates in September-October 1961 between the Saudi representative Ahmed Shukairy, later to become the first head of the PLO, and Golda Meir. The "apartheid" charge is towards the end but it is worth reading all of it to see how all the arguments we hear today against Israel pre-date "occupation."

The representative of Saudi Arabia, Ahmad Shukairy, [in a strongly anti-Western speech], chided the Western powers because to them "divided Berlin is everything, and Jerusalem, the holy, is nothing," although "the Berlin hardships can be found multiplied a thousand times in Palestine.” He deplored the plight of “the hundreds of Arabs who are machine-gunned yearly by Israel forces” only because “they attempt to cross to their homes or their fields on the other side of the barbed wire.” Addressing himself to the newly-independent nations of Asia and Africa, Shukairy declared that Israel's emergence to independence was not the legitimate establishment of a legitimate state, since Israel was “the embodiment of imperialism, the symbol of colonialism, the fruition of capitalism, and the author . . . of anti-Semitism.” He concluded by denouncing what he termed the United States’ “support for this flagrant injustice calledIsrael” and its treatment of Israel as if it were "the fiftieth state of the United States."

The representative of Israel, Foreign Minister Golda Meir,said with reference to the situation in the ME that the majority of the area's inhabitants were non-Arab, and that Israel enjoyed relations of friendship with all ME countries except those belonging to the Arab League. She further pointed out that the Arab-Israel conflict was only one source of tension in the area, hostility to Israel being "largely a means used by Arab leaders to divert the attention of their peoples from their own unsolved problems and hardships." Referring to Shul:airy’s speech Mrs Meir observed that she “could not help wondering
why he did not worry less about other countries and worry more about the state of affairs in his own.”

As regards the Arab population of Israel, Mrs Meir stated that she challenged any Ar-ab country to match the social and economic progress achieved by the Israel Arabs. Border incidents, she said, were only the result of Arab belligerence against Israel. Concluding her state-ent, Mrs Meir declared that “no Israel-Arab issue can be solved without negotiation; every one of the issues can be solved by negotiation.” Pending Arab willingness to conclude a final peace settlement, she proposed that these should be an Arab-Israel non-aggression pact and that a fresh effort be made to bring about regional cooperation in development programmes.

Taking the floor again on Oct 17 under the right of reply, Shultairy said that “the lady from Israel” had challenged the Arabs to find fault with the situation of the Israel Arabs. He quoted from a number of newspapers and books to prove his thesis that "the apartheid of South Africa is being practised by Israel” against the Arab minority. He denied Israel'sright to try Eichmann since Israel was “another Eichmann in a State.” In conclusion Shultairy made three“concrete proposals”: the establishment of a UN commission to implement the UN resolutions on Palestine; the appointment of a UN "committee of inquiry” to ascertain the conditions of the Israel Arabs; and an investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency of "the true nature of the atomic reactors recently built in Israel."

Notice also Shukairy's comparing Israel to the Nazis, his claim that antisemitism is Israel's fault and the statement that Israel has no claim on any part of Jerusalem.

Nothing has changed, but now the US State Department is starting to repeat Shukairy's talking points of 1961. And to the Arabs, who think strategically in terms of decades and centuries, Shukairy's 1961 lies have just borne fruit.

(h/t EoL)

Egypt paper lets readers decide if Holocaust was real

Egypt's Masrawy newspaper decided to perform a public service and tell its readers what the Holocaust was.

The beginning of the article isn't bad at all. It gives a fairly good overview of the highlights of the Nazi attempt to destroy Jews and others.

However, the article ends with "But there are many who deny the Holocaust and who provide evidence to prove their opinion, including that the extermination of 6 million Jews is grossly exaggerated, and the lack of a single document that talks about the details of what was done in the gas camps or concentration camps." It then lists the names of some Holocaust deniers and their qualifications ("famous historian," "philosopher," etc.)

So thanks to Masrawy, Egyptian readers can decide for themselves what the truth is.

Given the endemic antisemitism in Egyptian media, it isn't hard to figure out what most of them would decide.

"Comrade" Kayed al-Ghoul, a member of the political bureau of the Marxist Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, spoke about Mahmoud Abbas' acknowledgment of the Holocaust during a television interview.

Ghoul said, "These statements reflect the principled and ethical position of the Palestinian people against Nazi fascism against humanity, including Jews, regardless of the numbers that are being circulated as victims of the Holocaust.

Ghoul added, "The Zionist movement has exploited the Holocaust and Jewish suffering in the promotion and establishment of its racist, fascist colonial entity at the expense of the Palestinian people, and the governments of the Israeli occupation of successive did not draw the lessons of the Holocaust, but rather re-produced and practiced the policies that the Nazis perpetrated, including massacres and violations of the rights of the Palestinian people and the rights of the Arab peoples. This requires the international community to deal with the state of the occupation and its policies the same way that they dealt with Nazism and its crimes against humanity."

This seems to be much closer to what Abbas really meant than how his statement is being spun by the media.