Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, June 17, 2014

Newest "Apartheid?" Poster: Col. Ghassan Alian

English story about the proposed appointment last October here. The actual appointment happened earlier this month.

(h/t Kramerica)

Anti-BDS resolution passes at Western Washington U

I missed this remarkable story from last week. (Yeah, I know, Ian probably caught it because he doesn't miss much, but I have been really busy....)

Associated Students of Western Washington University (ASWWU) became the first North American university student government to pass a proactive resolution against the anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

In a 7-0 vote, ASWWU resolved that it would not consider BDS resolutions based on national origin because of the “tensions between students related to foreign conflicts should be managed in a healthy and collaborative manner rather than be exacerbated.”

Additionally, the resolution noted that BDS campaigns could result in students being targeted based on their nationality and lead to “disrespectful bias, hostility, hate, or harassment.”

The initiative to pass the anti-BDS resolution was led by Western Washington University (WWU) student Alysa Kipersztok, who brought the resolution to the student government after hearing about how the boycott issue has sharply divided student bodies at other schools.

“I’ve seen how divisive anti-Israel BDS campaigns have been on campuses across the country. [WWU] is a warm, respectful, inclusive community,” Kipersztok said in a statement.

Here's the resolution:

WHEREAS, universities should foster an environment of peace and promotion of global welfare; and,

WHEREAS, Western Washington University is a liberal arts institution that values holistic and multi-faceted approaches to complex issues; and,

WHEREAS, it is the mission of Western Washington University to “bring together individuals of diverse backgrounds and perspectives in an inclusive, student-centered university”; and,

WHEREAS, inclusion is one of the core values of the Associated Students as expressed in the Strategic Plan; and,

WHEREAS, it is the duty of ASWWU to fairly represent the diverse interests and views of all students at Western Washington University and to foster dialogue, learning, and an inclusive campus environment; and,

WHEREAS, ASWWU has an obligation to focus its attention and resources primarily on addressing issues directly impacting the general welfare of the student body; and,

WHEREAS, to maintain a safe and inclusive campus environment, tensions between students related to foreign conflicts should be managed in a healthy and collaborative manner rather than be exacerbated; and,

WHEREAS, boycott, divestment, and sanction measures rooted in national origin or other identity-based features can cause students to be targeted on the basis of nationality; and,

WHEREAS, isolation of student groups can lead to the perpetration of disrespectful bias, hostility, hate, or harassment, against those groups; therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED, the ASWWU shall not take positions advocating divestment from, boycott of, sanctioning, or ceasing collaboration with companies, products, or organizations due to their nation of origin.

If BDS folks celebrate their victories as well as their defeats, how do they react to the complete crushing of their entire raison d'être?

06/16 Links Pt2: War of Independence isn't over; Starbucks uses wireless Israeli phone chargers

From Ian:

War of Independence isn't over

The difference between extremist Palestinians and Palestinians with whom we hold peace talks is an imaginary one created by the Israeli Left, which has tired of bearing the burden of maintaining the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. If a poll was taken of the Palestinian public, it is certain that the kidnappers would be seen as heroes at the forefront of the effort to realize the dream of removing the Jews from their homeland. The only difference between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is that Haniyeh says what he really thinks, while Abbas masks his intentions with sweet words and doublespeak. It is a great shame that there are Israelis who have been captivated by the charm of the false rhetoric of Yasser Arafat's disciples, exalting the victims of the peace process.
While the Israel Defense Forces and other Israeli security entities are doing everything they can to find the kidnapped teens and the citizens of Israel are united in prayer and concern, some Israeli media commentators have rushed to explain that the kidnapping was the result of a lack of a political horizon and the fact that Jews live in Gush Etzion. This interpretation is an evil distortion of reality. The truth is completely different. The teens were kidnapped because they were Jews living in their historic homeland, regardless of the location of their place of study or residence. Jews were maliciously murdered in the past by Palestinian terrorists at the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv, a hotel in Netanya, a restaurant in Haifa and on the streets of Jerusalem. Only people with short memories have forgotten the history of our modern-day return to Zion, in which many Jews were killed for no reason, even before the Six-Day War and the liberation of our homeland.

Video: Arabs Attack Jews in Jerusalem's Old City

Jews were walking back from the mass prayer that was held at the Western Wall (Kotel) Sunday for the teens abducted by Hamas Thursday, when Arabs attacked with chairs and rocks. The Jews held their ground until police intervened.

Arabs attack Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem

Michael Lumish: Why Shouldn't They Kidnap Jews?

Within recent decades Arab and old Soviet propaganda convinced the well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) in the progressive-left that Jews are "Occupying" the innocent "indigenous" population of "historical Palestine."
The progressives - in the years since the 1967 war allegedly turned Jewish Israelis into "Goliath" - convinced the majority of diaspora Jews that Israel is somehow "illegally occupying" what is, in fact, the current and historical land of the Jewish people.
Jews are accused of illegally occupying the very land that we come from and many diaspora Jews unwittingly (or so one hopes) promote the notion.

From CBC News:

James ‘Jim’ Keegstra, a prominent Canadian holocaust denier and former high school teacher in Eckville, Alta., is dead at the age of 80, CBC News learned late Thursday night.

Keegstra made international headlines in 1983 when he was accused of teaching students that the history of the Holocaust was fraudulent, and that a Jewish conspiracy was responsible for many of the world’s problems.

It was alleged that Keegstra had been teaching his anti-Semitic views to his social studies class for 14 years before a parent complained to the local school board about his lessons.

In January 1984, Keegstra was stripped of his teaching certificate and charged with “wilfully promoting hatred against an identifiable group” under the Criminal Code of Canada.

At the time, no one had been successfully convicted under Canada’s hate propaganda laws enacted in 1970.

Keegstra was represented at trial by attorney Doug Christie, a political activist originally from B.C., who would go on to defend some of Canada’s most high-profile Holocaust deniers.

Keegstra was convicted at his original trial and fined $5,000. His lawyers appealed the decision, arguing that the law was unconstitutional and that it violated provisions on freedom of expression in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

After multiple trials and appeals the case eventually reached the Supreme Court of Canada, who in 1990 and again in 1996 upheld Keegstra’s conviction in a landmark ruling that found that the Criminal Code section on public incitement of hatred did infringe on Charter rights, but that infringement was justified.

Keegstra received a one-year suspended sentence, one year of probation, and community service.

Here are details from the 1990 Supreme Court proceedings, listed as the facts of the case:

Mr. Keegstra, a secondary school teacher in Eckville, a small town in Alberta, was convicted of unlawfully promoting hatred under s. 319(2). The evidence established that he had systematically denigrated Jews and Judaism in his classes. He described Jews by such epithets as "revolutionists", "treacherous", "imposters", "communists", "secret", "sneaky", "manipulative", and "deceptive". He taught that the Jewish people are "barbaric", "subversive", "sadistic", "materialistic", "money-loving" and "power hungry". He maintained that anyone Jewish must be evil and that anyone evil must be Jewish. Not only did he maintain these things; he advised the students that they must accept his views as true unless they were able to contradict them. Moreover, he expected his students to regurgitate these notions in essays and examinations. If they did so, they received good marks. If they did not, their marks were poor.

Naturally, Iran's PressTV offers a eulogy of sorts saying that Keegstra was a patriot who was unfairly attacked by those evil Jews. Upset over the story about his death in Sun News, the writer says:

While masquerading as defenders of liberty, the kosher talking heads of Sun News are little more than gatekeepers tasked with shifting the blame for the loss of civil liberties in Canada away from its true architects: the organized Jewish-Zionist community.

I love how antisemites defend antisemites by engaging in antisemitism - which Iran, of course, strenuously denies engaging in.

From USA Today:

U.S.-Iranian military cooperation to stem advancing Sunni extremists in Iraq moved a theoretical step closer Monday after Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington is "open to discussions" with Tehran over the idea and would not rule anything out.

"I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together, the integrity of the country and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart," Kerry said in an interview with Yahoo! News. He said President Obama was vetting "every option that is available," including drone strikes.

My how things change. It seems only yesterday that the State Department was ferociously accusing Iran of supporting terror in Iraq.

But it wasn't yesterday. It was six long weeks ago, when it released its 2013 State Sponsors of Terror report.

Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran continued its terrorist-related activity, including support for Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and for Hizballah. It has also increased its presence in Africa and attempted to smuggle arms to Houthi separatists in Yemen and Shia oppositionists in Bahrain. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its regional proxy groups to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations, and create instability in the Middle East. The IRGC-QF is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad.

...
Despite its pledge to support Iraq’s stabilization, Iran trained, funded, and provided guidance to Iraqi Shia militant groups. The IRGC-QF, in concert with Hizballah, provided training outside of Iraq as well as advisors inside Iraq for Shia militants in the construction and use of sophisticated improvised explosive device technology and other advanced weaponry. Similar to Hizballah fighters, many of these trained Shia militants then use these skills to fight for the Asad regime in Syria, often at the behest of Iran.

On January 23, 2013, Yemeni authorities seized an Iranian dhow, the Jihan, off the coast of Yemen. The dhow was carrying sophisticated Chinese antiaircraft missiles, C-4 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and a number of other weapons and explosives. The shipment of lethal aid was likely headed to Houthi separatists in Northern Yemen. Iran actively supports members of the Houthi movement, including activities intended to build military capabilities, which could pose a greater threat to security and stability in Yemen and the surrounding region.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members it continued to detain, and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran allowed AQ facilitators Muhsin al-Fadhli and Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and also to Syria. Al-Fadhli is a veteran AQ operative who has been active for years. Al-Fadhli began working with the Iran-based AQ facilitation network in 2009 and was later arrested by Iranian authorities. He was released in 2011 and assumed leadership of the Iran-based AQ facilitation network.

Iran remains a state of proliferation concern. Despite multiple UNSCRs requiring Iran to suspend its sensitive nuclear proliferation activities, Iran continued to violate its international obligations regarding its nuclear program. For further information, see the Report to Congress on Iran-related Multilateral Sanctions Regime Efforts (November 2013), and the Report on the Status of Bilateral and Multilateral Efforts Aimed at Curtailing the Pursuit of Iran of Nuclear Weapons Technology (September 2012).

So now the State Department is interested in allying with a state that has helped Sunni terrorists from Al Qaeda in order to...fight Sunni terrorists in Iraq. While at the same time it arms Shiite terrorists. Because they are so much better. The state terrorists are now wonderful people, because Shiites - like Hezbollah - are so much nicer than those mean Sunnis. Don't be overly concerned about the unintended consequences of supporting Shiite terrorists, just like you shouldn't worry about the unintended consequences of abandoning a nation before it had a chance to learn how to deal with terrorists.

And to be fair, Iran was only considered a state sponsor of terror from 1984 until, um, late April 2014. That was a long time ago.

Now that Iran's support of Shiite terrorists is in fashion, maybe the US will award them with less restrictions on building a nuclear weapon.. After all, you have to reward bloodthirsty jihadists when their interests appear to temporarily coincide with yours, don't you? It's the decent, human thing to do.

(h/t TIP)

06/16 Links Pt1: Abduction Roundup: News, Support, Sherri Mandel, #BringBackOurBoys

From Ian:

#BringBackOurBoys

Obviously, we know that posting pictures and news updates with the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys ISN’T going to bring back our boys. But it is going to do SOMETHING: In an online environment where so many people condemn Israel, where major international newspapers send out alerts about a freaking golf tournament (seriously) and NOT about these 3 kidnapped boys, where so many people are separated by continents and oceans and are longing for some kind of community as we wait and we wait and we wait, this hashtag helps.
And apparently, the parents of these boys notice, too, and they receive some measure of comfort from it. And that should be reason enough.

#Bringbackourboys goes viral

Israel’s digital diplomacy has already had an amazing success. Initiated by graduates of the University of Haifa’s Ambassadors Online program, the “Bring Back Our Boys” online campaign on behalf of the three kidnapped teenagers has attracted global attention.Over 79000 people have :liked” their facebook page.

Israeli Celebrities Join BringBackOurBoys Campaign to Free Kidnapped Kids

Popular singer Shai Gabso also joined in, posing with a photo of himself, hold his hand up with each of the words written with a marker on his fingers, adding the word “#peace.”
Legendary studio guitarist Avi Singolda posted a photo of himself with the hashtag written on a piece of paper stuck between the strings of his guitar.
Israeli basketball player, Omri Casspi, of the Houston Rockets, posted an Israeli flag with the hashtag and a sign reading “Am Yisrael Chai!” (“The people of Israel live!”) on his Facebook page. He also added a traditional ancient Hebrew prayer for the release of captives in text below the photo.

Watch: Israeli Hollywood Star Protests for Teens in Times Square

Israeli Hollywood actress and internationally renowned model Moran Atias protested in New York's landmark Times Square on Sunday, calling for the return of the three Israeli yeshiva students who were kidnapped by terrorists last Thursday night from Kfar Etzion, Judea.
Atias stood alone in Times Square, holding a sign with "three Israeli teens kidnapped from their homeland" written on it, with their names Eyal (Yifrah), Naftali (Frenkel) and Gilad (Sha'ar) written below.

Australian Jewry rallies for kidnapped teens

Jewish community members “felt something needed to be done and were looking for ways to help,” Rafi Lawrence, the head of Sydney’s Bnei Akiva branch, told the Times of Israel. “While it’s hard to bridge the physical gap between us, we can still try and help on a spiritual level.”
“All movements, madrichim [leaders] and chanichim [participants], as the active face of Zionism in Australia, are invited to attend and participate. This issue is very close to home — the people kidnapped are the same age as our chanichim,” he wrote in an email. The movements’ plight didn’t fall on deaf ears.

Watch: Kidnapped Teen Sings at Cousin's Wedding

A heart-wrenching YouTube video shows Eyal Yifrah, the 19-year-old yeshiva student who was kidnapped along with two other students last Thursday by terrorists, in happier times.
Yifrah can be seen in the video playing the guitar and singing at the April 10 wedding of a cousin of his. The video was posted to YouTube two days after the wedding as a present to them, and shared on Facebook on Monday by David Ha'ivri, a local activist and resident of Kfar Tapuach in Samaria.

Why peace is impossible, reasons #8270 and #8271

An image of a young Palestinian Arab boy celebrating the kidnapping of three Jewish teens:

That's not why peace is impossible.

The reason peace is impossible is because you cannot find any public voices of disgust in the Arab world at images like these.

While there is no shortage of Westerners, and Israelis, who will empathize with people who declare themselves to be the enemy, the number of Arabs who empathize with innocent people on the other side is essentially zero. There is an utter lack of ability to see things from the perspective of the other side.

Even worse, there is no desire to do so.

Without empathy, there can be no understanding or compromise. Peace is literally impossible.

The same Facebook page, of the Quds News Network, shares "The last picture of the kidnapped, two minutes before the abduction" - showing a stock photo of three dogs.

That's really the difference. To Israelis, Arabs are human beings who they desperately want to make peace with and to work with in the future as part of an integrated Middle East. They will protect themselves when necessary but they pray for the day when it is not necessary.

To Arabs, Jews are nothing more than dogs.

And almost no one - not "moderate" Arabs, not human rights groups, not "enlightened" Europeans and Americans - is willing to denounce the sickening hate that is at the root of the Arab world.

PLO says IDF attempts to #BringBackTheBoys are racist pretexts to oppress Palestinians

The Executive Committee of the PLO issued a statement saying that everything the IDF is doing to find the three boys kidnapped by Hamas in the West Bank is just a smokescreen for the real Israeli purpose of making life miserable for Arabs.

The official Wafa news agency reported it this way in English:

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned, in a statement Sunday, the “racist” campaign, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against the Palestinian people and their leadership, under the pretext that ‘the three settlers, who disappeared on Thursday, were kidnapped’.

The committee, during a meeting headed by president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, rejected Nentyahu’s ‘foul accusations’, which it stressed aim to cover up his failure.

It warned of Israel’s clear intentions to expand settlements in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of ‘intra-Palestinian reconciliation and the alleged kidnapping of three settlers.’

In Arabic, their statement goes further.

This is the method of Netanyahu government, to divert attention from the real reason behind the cycle of violence and their sponsorship of actual acts of terrorism carried out by "price tag" gangs and other killings and land grabbing, cutting of trees and plantings, and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and the violation of holy sites , especially the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Palestinian Authority does not give up its duties and responsibilities, but she refuses to be cast on the responsibility of the occupation crimes and violations practiced by including a poisoned atmosphere, through state terrorism which the occupation continues on our land in an unprecedented way.

You see, Israeli Jews are always looking for flimsy excuses to perform massive, expensive operations in hostile territory, simply because they hate Arabs that much. Kids scrawling graffiti on mosques (which the statement claims is Israeli policy) are the real terrorists - kidnapping a few Israeli boys isn't. If the boys were even kidnapped to begin with.

From reading bizarre statements like these, there is only one conclusion: Reality is just another enemy of the Palestinian people, and it must be fought tooth and nail.

Wiesenthal Center will boycott PCUSA conference, and their "tough love" of Israel

From the Wiesenthal Center website:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest Jewish human rights organizations, is urging the rank and file of the U.S. Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) flocking to Detroit this weekend for the group's national meeting to defeat the leadership's embrace of extreme anti-Israel positions, including a report that called Israel racist and Illegal.

"We are severing all dialogue with PCUSA, because of a pattern of malicious behavior on the part of church administration," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Center, pointing to Zionism Unsettled, a 74-page document released in December and sold on PCUSA's website. "This demonization of an entire nation and its supporters around the world is an outrage that makes further conversation with this church impossible. Zionism Unsettled does not merely attack Israeli policies, but calls the quest for a Jewish State racist and illegal. This invokes memories of the UN's notorious 'Zionism is racism' resolution of 1974—which was repealed in 1991 – but this time PCUSA has substituted theological language to dismiss the Jewish people's 3,500 year presence in and association with the Holy Land," Cooper added. "The long-standing protocols of interfaith dialogue have always demanded that no partner attack the core beliefs of the other. This document, and the cynical response of church leaders to criticism of it from other Presbyterians, is a frontal assault on the central place of the Jewish State in Jewish life and thought," the rabbi said.

From Yitzchak Alderstein and Abraham Cooper in JPost:

We will be sitting it out not because we wouldn’t be welcome. The laity and clergy of this church – whether they’ve agreed or disagreed –always welcomed us as observers, and we’ve been enriched by our dialogue. This Church’s administration has been quite a different story.

PCUSA was, in 2004, the first mainline church to adopt a resolution calling for divestment from Israel.

Immensely unpopular with the people in the pews, it was undone in 2006, but the minority pledged never to give up the fight. So every two years Jewish organizations squandered months of time, beating back the latest anti-Israel resolutions encouraged by the salaried and agendized “insiders” at corporate headquarters in Louisville. The good ordinary folks of the denomination, whatever their views on Israel/Palestine, were dismayed by the investment of valuable time on resolutions that didn’t bring the Middle East closer to peace, but alienated Jews and Presbyterians from each other.

Other denominations got it, and avoided incendiary moves. PCUSA’s leaders chose not to. After each defeat at a biennial General Assembly, they raised the ante, backing the anti-peace Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that openly seeks the eradication of the Jewish state – even though it flies in the face of the decades-long stated policy of the church. At each GA they pushed for ever more outrageous resolutions, forcing Jewish organizations to debate not Israel’s policies, but her very existence.

Enough! For years before, we tolerated double crosses, broken deals, deception. We watched as church officials had to resign after visiting with terrorist leaders. We participated in midnight meetings that brokered new “understandings” – only to learn weeks later that words were cheap to these church leaders. We saw crucial committees stacked with supposedly neutral but always pro-Palestinian “resource personnel” who were allowed unlimited time to testify (while we had 60 seconds to testify on the most complex conflict on the globe).

We saw real, unadulterated anti-Semitism on the webpages of the Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) – one of the radical groups behind the incessant anti-Israel resolutions. When we pointed this out, church leadership denied that IPMN spoke for the church – even as it continued to link to them from its own webpages and provided their IRS charitable organization status.

We recently witnessed a chairman of the committee scheduled to debate anti-Israel measures, a person known for his fairness and neutrality, summarily asked to resign because he had visited Israel on a Jewish-sponsored tour. No matter that the church pushes its own, carefully designed pro-Palestinian tours. We watched in disgust as they trotted out “Jewish voices” to allege that Jews themselves were now completely divided about Israel, despite the fact that those spokespeople were as representative of the Jewish community as flatearth advocates are of geographers.

The entire piece is possibly the best, single-article indictment of the PCUSA's actions.

Meanwhile, Israel-haters within and outside the church are pretending that the church leadership's antisemitism and single-minded hate for Zionism is merely "tough love."

Oh, so this is love?

Larry Grimm, a leading Presbyterian advocate of boycotting Israel, wrote a Facebook message that shows his "tough love" immediately before endorsing that article. He was quoted as saying "Come home to America, Jewish friends." He then followed up by saying "America is the Promised Land. We all know this. Come to the land of opportunity. Quit feeling guilt about what you are doing in Palestine, Jewish friends. Stop it. Come home to America!"

The irony of an American with a name that indicates German ancestry advocating that Jews should abandon their historic homeland and occupy Native American territory is apparently lost on most Presbyterian Church leaders.

Luckily, within the PCUSA there are prominent members who disagree with the direction the church is heading:

AS PASTORS AND LEADERS, we are deeply disturbed by the escalating conflict within the PC(USA) over the Church’s policies toward Israel/Palestine. Conflict over these issues, of course, is nothing new; what is new is the focus and tone of that conflict. For decades, the PC(USA) has argued passionately over how best to express our opposition to the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. But through all that time, we have consistently maintained that we oppose the occupation, not Israel.

This has now changed. With the publication of Zionism Unsettled, a “study guide” on Zionism produced by the PC(USA)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network, and a series of overtures pending before the 2014 General Assembly that reflect its arguments, we are no longer debating how the occupation should end, but whether Israel should exist. Zionism Unsettled announces this shift from its opening section, saying: “put simply, the problem is Zionism.” It makes no distinction between different forms of Zionism, arguing that any form of Zionism is inherently discriminatory. Some forms of Zionism have been violent and exclusionary; the same is true of any form of nationalism (American, British, Chinese, Palestinian, etc.). But to argue that any Jewish desire for any form of statehood within their historic homeland is inherently discriminatory is not only patently false but morally indefensible. And the conclusion is obvious: if Zionism is the problem, then ending Zionism (i.e., Israel) is the solution.

It is telling that one of the earliest and loudest affirmations of Zionism Unsettled was by David Duke, perhaps the most notorious white supremacist and anti-Semite in the United States today, who said: In a major breakthrough in the worldwide struggle against Zionist extremism, the largest Presbyterian church in the United States, the PC(USA), has issued a formal statement calling Zionism “Jewish Supremacism” — a term first coined and made popular by Dr. David Duke.

The reality that David Duke would endorse a Presbyterian study guide available for purchase on the PC(USA) website is sickening to us, and should give all Presbyterians great pause in considering the arguments and language of this document and Zionism Unsettled’s ideological relationship to the overtures coming before the General Assembly.

Of course, they are being shouted down (and their points completely ignored) by those who pretend to want "peace" but are silent when Jews are attacked.

Arabs, and Israeli far-leftists, mystified by thousands of Jews praying for kidnapped boys

Arab media have been covering the massive prayer vigils at the Kotel and in synagogues, especially fascinated by the idea of so many people crying for the safety of three kidnapped teenagers:

Apparently, praying for the welfare of others is an alien concept to these Arab newspapers. The impression is not so much that they are gloating over the Jews' tears as that they are surprised.

Interestingly, the Arab papers refer to all the people praying as "settlers."

But they are not alone. This tweet from +972 writer and Haaretz news editor Mairav Zonszein seems to be also ill at ease over the idea that so many Jews care so much as to pour their hearts out to God:

Israelis praying in Tel Aviv and Western Wall for return of kidnapped teens. With all due respect, they should pray that government wise up
— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) June 15, 2014

The spaghetti logic of Israeli leftists is sometimes hard to decipher, but I think she is saying that if only the government would finally move back behind those safe 1949 armistice lines, nothing bad would ever happen, since Arabs don't hate Jews but only "settlers." Because Israelis before 1967 were not endangered one bit.

So why pray, when you can implement her brilliant plan to save so many Israeli lives? Hamas would be finally satisfied, right? Islamic Jihad would lay down their weapons in joy! The Salafists would move out to find other infidel countries to fight! Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades would finally be dissolved!

Yup...Zonszein is just as clueless as the Arabs are.

Interview with African American Zionist Dumisani Washington

Dumisani Washington is the founder of IBSI, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.

From Mida:

IBSI was formed in July 2013 as a pro-Israel group that focused on cultural issues not always addressed in other organizations.

This includes emphasizing:

Israel’s ethnic diversity: The fact that the Jewish people are ethnically diverse, and that some 90 nations are represented in Israel (Jew and non-Jew) is important to many Black people. Diversity and inclusion are signs of a healthily pluralistic society. Seeing people living, working, thriving in Israel that look like people from all over the world helps combat the Israel racism/apartheid lie.

Israel’s historical work in African nations: People aware of Israel’s history (or the history of Zionism) are aware of Theodor Herzl’s vision to help realize the “redemption of the African”. That vision has been a major part of Israel’s history since her rebirth in 1948. Long before she was Israel’s first female Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Golda Meir was so active on the Continent that Tanzania’s president, Julius Nyerer called her, “the mother of Africa.”

As my friend and colleague, Professor Gil Troy said in his book “Moynihan’s Moment”, "by the early 1970s, Israel had diplomatic ties with thirty-two African countries, more African embassies than any country other than the United States.” To this day, Israeli organizations continue to partner with African nations bringing technologies of every kind, while empowering the people to build strong infrastructures.

The oppression of the Palestinian people by their own leaders: One of the greatest tragedies of anti-Israel propaganda is the focus that is removed from the true plight of the Palestinian people. The people of Gaza and the West Bank are suffering human rights abuses replete throughout the Islamist world, yet the media is dominated by story after story of Israel’s “crimes against humanity”. Since the 1960s, no weapon has been used more frequently in bludgeoning Israel than racism; and no people have been more exploited in the campaign than Africans or African-Americans.

I wrote an article in Times of Israel entitled, “7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis & the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike”. I will expound on it in my upcoming book, “Zionism & the Black Church: Why Standing With Israel Will be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century.”

We have colleagues and associates across the US as well as in Israel, Kenya and Nigeria. In Nigeria, we are very proud to be working with author, attorney and leader within the Igbo community, Remy Ilona. Remy is doing a wonderful work among the Igbo Jews that have been discussed more and more in the news. His seminal work "The Igbos and Israel: An Inter-cultural Study of the Oldest and Largest Jewish Diaspora” is a must read for anyone interested in the topic.

IBSI has no official membership numbers as we have not begun formal enrollment. We plan to open our first American field offices this fall.

Read the whole thing.

Washington has some very nice videos on YouTube.

"Peace" Imam at Vatican said "Grant us victory over unbelievers"

A controversy, which some call "Imamgate," has erupted over the official Vatican translation and video of the interfaith summit at the Vatican with Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas.

From Novus Ordo Watch:

Don’t you hate it when that happens? You’re hosting a big interfaith peace event with Jews, Muslims, and “Christians”, and then the Muslim imam ad libs the text he had previously submitted and adds a prayer for “victory over the infidels.” Bummer!

Is this what happened on Pentecost Sunday in the Vatican Gardens?

We’re not entirely sure. A controversy has erupted in Europe over this. According to Egyptian-German political scientist, historian, and author Hamed Abdel-Samad, who could be described as the Modernist version of a Muslim, the Islamic clergyman who offered the “prayers for peace” in the Vatican on Sunday did not stick verbatim to the prepared text of the prayers as published beforehand, but instead ended with a quotation from the last verse of Sura 2 in the Koran, which reads, “You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people”. The “disbelieving people” can alternatively be rendered “unbelievers” or “infidels.” In any case, what is meant is victory over people who are not Muslim.

Practically no one in the Vatican understands Arabic, but, not unexpectedly, Vatican Radio has already denied Abdel-Samad’s claim. “Fr.” Bernd Hagenkord, SJ, editor at the German-speaking offices of Vatican Radio, says the claim that the Muslim cleric ended his prayer with a quote from the Koran or with a petition against infidels is “nonsense” (source here — in German but further down includes English translation of all prayers “verbatim as prayed”, allegedly).

A commenter at Gates of Vienna confirms this:

I do understand Quranic Arabic very well. I also know Quran itself rather well. I am an ex-Muslim. This link that you have posted was cut! The full recitation from the Quran by this imam that I watched on the Al Arabiya channel two days ago had his recitation up until the final verses, and without a shadow of a doubt he recited the second sura Al Bagharah’s last few verses till the very end where he did say, “and pardon us and forgive us and have mercy on us, you are our guardian, so make us victorious over the tribe of disbelievers [or ‘deniers’, as the word kafir really means]”.

Now the question is: who chopped this video to take out the controversial part out of it? It is cut literally in the middle of the verse where the controversial part starts, and jumps to the imam’s prayer in his own words, which are not controversial. You can recognize the end of recitation and beginning of his own prayer by the fact that he stopped singing and start speaking normally. If you pay attention you will notice the place where it was cut. It is noticeable.

They kept his recitation until the end of the of “forgive us and have mercy on us.” But the last two clauses — “you are our guardian, so grant us victory over unbelievers” was neatly and in very Stalinesque fashion airbrushed out!

I also confirmed this with a friend who knows Arabic well.

After being shown the evidence, Radio Vatican admitted that the Imam did call for victory over unbelievers, but they then quoted Father Felix Körner, a Jesuit who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, who tries to contextualize it!

We must put ourselves in the early period of Islam, here we are perhaps still in Mecca or in the early years in Medina; Islam is a small group that is persecuted by polytheists, pagan groups who want to get rid of Muhammad and his followers. Disbelief in this case means people who do not recognize the one God. Therefore, in this Koran instead of the unbelievers is mentioned, against which we will ask for help to God, not the Jews nor the Christians who clearly, of course, recognize the oneness of God!

...This verse, perhaps spontaneously chosen by someone who then recited the Koran by heart, actually fit very well into the overall context of the peace prayer! There were always three steps in the three religions. We know the Creator and praise him, we acknowledge our sins and confess them, and we ask for the gift of peace. And all this comes in these three Quranic verses which are still very beautiful. You, God, know everything. We repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness. And we need your help, so that peace and justice may arise. This is the content of these three verses, so that was an understandable choice - Perhaps made spontaneously, but in any case a good choice.

Wow! Dhimmitude is an understatement!

In a similar vein, when the Pope visited Jerusalem, he met with Mufti Mumannad Hussein: