Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Elder of ZiyonGaza kids pretending to be Hamas tunnel fighters:
And when the tunnel collapses, they can play martyr!
(h/t Bob Knot)
And when the tunnel collapses, they can play martyr!
(h/t Bob Knot)
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Tuesday, February 10, 2015
Elder of Ziyon
The Houthis, Shiite Muslim rebels who announced that they were taking control of Yemen's government last week, don't seem much like natural allies of the United States.US foreign policy seems to be that anyone who screams "Death to America" the loudest is a potential ally who must be cultivated.
One of their favorite slogans is “Death to America, death to Israel, damn the Jews.” U.S. officials say they've received money, weapons and training from Iran. An Iranian official boasted recently that thanks to the Houthis, Yemen's capital is now “in the hands of Iran,” along with those of Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.
Should we be worried that the enemy of our enemy Al Qaeda is also friends with our other enemies -- adversaries, anyway -- in Tehran?
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And yet, last week, Obama administration officials were scrambling to contact Houthi leaders and assure them that the United States doesn't consider them an enemy. “We're talking with everybody,” an official told me — “everybody who will talk with us.” The Houthis' top leaders haven't been willing to meet so far, but the Americans are working on it.
Why so much eagerness for a working relationship with a group that wants less U.S. influence in its homeland, not more? Because the Houthis and their allies are now in charge in Yemen, one of the main battlegrounds in the long U.S. war against Al Qaeda. And the Houthis hate Al Qaeda.
Hey, Iran also says "death to America" - and look what great buddies they are!
The poor Saudis and Egyptians and other Arab nations who have tried for decades to be closer to the US are treated like enemies. (Except when Egypt was briefly ruled by the Muslim Brotherhood, another group who hates America and who Obama loves back.)
When the leader of the free world chooses to ignore explicit statements of hate for his country and instead rely on wishful thinking for his foreign policy decisions to treat avowed enemies as potential partners, we have a serious problem.
- Tuesday, February 10, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
On January 30th, he said "We no longer recognize the rules of engagement....We have the right to respond to any kind of aggression, anywhere, with any kind of confrontation, anywhere and any time."
That is a thinly disguised call for terror attacks.
The crowd loved it, chanting "We respond to your call, O Nasrallah."
From MEMRI:
In a televised speech on January 30, 2015, during a ceremony "commemorating the Quneitra martyrs," Hizbullah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah said: "We no longer recognize the rules of engagement... We no longer accept the separation of the battle fronts.
Following are excerpts:
Hassan Nasrallah: If the Israeli enemy believes that the resistance has been deterred, and that it fears war, let me say today, as we commemorate the Quneitra martyrs, and after the high-profile operation in the Shebaa Farms, that the enemy is hereby informed that we do not fear war, that we will not hesitate to wage this war if it is imposed upon us, and that we will prevail in it, Allah willing.
Crowd: We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
[…]
Hassan Nasrallah: We in the Islamic resistance in Lebanon no longer care about the rules of engagement. We no longer recognize the rules of engagement. It's over. There are no rules of engagement when one confronts aggression and assassinations. We no longer accept the separation of the battle fronts. Get it? We have the legitimate, moral, legal, and human right – and even according to international law, if anyone wants to argue legalities with us… We have the right to respond to any kind of aggression, anywhere, with any kind of confrontation, anywhere and any time.
Crowd: We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
We respond to your call, oh Nasrallah.
- Tuesday, February 10, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
For months, the State Department has been heralding two deadlines for Iran negotiations: A political agreement by the end of March and a technical agreement by the end of June. Here are three examples where they used that language.
From the November 24 State Department press briefing:
January 21 briefing:
Press briefing January 28th:
On Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei rejected the entire idea of a political agreement at all as well as deadlines:
And within a single day, the State Department backpedaled on the idea of a political deadline:
What a great example of "diplomacy in action:"
It would be funny if the end result wouldn't be the US giving Iran all the time in the world to continue to build its nuclear weapons program as well as the ballistic missile capability to deliver those nuclear weapons.
(h/t OC)
From the November 24 State Department press briefing:
QUESTION: Why is that wrong? Why shouldn’t they pass more sanctions? Why shouldn’t the President not veto them? And why shouldn’t – why doesn’t that send you to into the negotiating room over the next seven months with a stronger hand?
MR. RATHKE: Well, the Secretary, when he was in the Senate, played a central role in putting into place the sanctions regime that exists now and that – as I discussed with Lara – that has been essential to bringing Iran to the negotiating table. Now the factors that went into the JPOA that you outlined, those remain the case. We are committed to the negotiating process not for negotiation’s sake but because we believe progress is being made. And that’s why we have on the one hand the four-month deadline for a political agreement and then three months after that to do the technical work. The Secretary outlined all that in detail. And our reasoning about the efficacy of additional sanctions during that period also remains the same as it has been throughout the period when the JPOA has been in effect.
January 21 briefing:
MS. PSAKI: Sure. So Deputy Secretary Blinken spoke about this a little bit during his hearing, but let me reiterate some of the points he made. So on the deadline question, which I know you’ve had in the past, the P5+1, coordinated by the EU and Iran, agreed to extend the nuclear talks until March 31st to reach a political agreement, and then June 30th to reach all of the technical details. So a political agreement means, in our view, a political understanding on the elements of a deal so that we can use the remaining months to work out the technical details by June 30th.
Press briefing January 28th:
Q Okay, and just one other topic. On the question of Iran, of course the President made it clear he would veto the sanctions bill if Congress did it -- saying it would interfere with negotiations. Now Senator Menendez and nine other Democrats who all support that bill have conceded to the White House that they will not support a sanctions bill until March 24th; that’s the date that you’re supposed to have a framework agreement. So does the veto threat go away after March 24th? Because they say they want to vote on it right after March 24th if Iran has not agreed to that framework agreement. So will you -- they’ve now made a big concession to the White House that they’re going to hold off. Will that veto threat be dropped on March 24th if there is no framework agreement?
MR. SCHULTZ: Jon, the President does indeed appreciate the recognition that our negotiators need continued time and space to pursue this diplomatic option. We welcome the commitment by Senator Menendez and others to vote against, as you point out, the sanctions bill on the floor right now. We’re going to continue to work closely with Congress on this.
Q But my question is, does the veto threat go away on March 24th if there is no agreement, if the Iranians have not agreed to a broad framework?
MR. SCHULTZ: Jon, the President has made clear the importance of the end-of-March deadline in our own pursuit of a political framework there. So we’re going to certainly engage Congress at that point, just like we have been thus far. And if we determine that negotiations have failed, we have always said we’ll be the first ones to move for sanctions; I think the President has said that. We’ll take a day or two, but that’s a determination we’re going to make based on the progress of the negotiations at that point.
On Sunday, Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei rejected the entire idea of a political agreement at all as well as deadlines:
I do not favor remarks that we should agree on some principles and later on details. I dislike it when they say that there should be a deal on general principles at one stage and then we can talk about details. Given our experience with the other side, they will use this as a tool for repeatedly making excuses regarding details. If they want a deal, they should cover both generalities and details in a single session, instead of leaving details for later and separating generalities which are vague and leave room for different interpretations. This is not logical.
And within a single day, the State Department backpedaled on the idea of a political deadline:
QUESTION: So just to understand that, the extension that if you had an agreement on some sort of – so essentially, you’re not thinking about potentially extending the March deadline, but if you have something by March and the technical details go on, then the June one could be a softer deadline. Is that the way to read it?Deadlines? Who ever said anything about deadlines? They were just "goals!"
MS. PSAKI: No. I think we see the end of June as the – that’s when technically the JPOA is extended until. Our goal remains coming to a political framework by the end of March. And I think what you heard from the Secretary and the President is that the longer time goes on, it doesn’t become easier. And so that remains our goal and our focus, and there are – is a lot of technical work that would need to be done with annexes, et cetera. So that would be what that time would be spent on.
QUESTION: Right. I just asked – I think the President said you couldn’t do it without a basis for an extension, along the lines of you need a reason for it.
MS. PSAKI: Sure.
QUESTION: But that seems to me that the March is a fixed deadline; there can’t be an extension since the framework is supposed to be the basis, right? You can’t have a basis of a basis, right?
MS. PSAKI: Well, there’s no – but the JPOA is technically extended through the end of June.
QUESTION: Right.
MS. PSAKI: That doesn’t change the fact that the Secretary and many other senior officials have been very vocal about our goal of achieving a political framework by the end of March, because we need the time to go through the annexes and the very difficult technical details.
QUESTION: So that – so what you just said seems to imply to me that that’s not a fixed hard deadline, the end of March, because that’s not actually part of the JPOA extension. Is that right?
MS. PSAKI: No. What I was conveying is --
QUESTION: It’s a goal, but --
MS. PSAKI: Yes. It is a goal, it remains a goal. But – and the Secretary has been very vocal about that. So I don’t – we’ve never called it a deadline; we’ve called it a goal of when we want to achieve the political framework.
QUESTION: Okay. So if it’s March 31st – sorry to beat on this point -- If it’s March 31st and you still think there’s scope to reach a deal by the end of June but you don’t have all of the details of your framework or basis or principles agreed upon, that doesn’t mean the talks are over. You can go into April to get a framework.
MS. PSAKI: I think we’ll have to discuss that and determine at that point in time. We’re not there yet.
What a great example of "diplomacy in action:"
It would be funny if the end result wouldn't be the US giving Iran all the time in the world to continue to build its nuclear weapons program as well as the ballistic missile capability to deliver those nuclear weapons.
(h/t OC)
Monday, February 09, 2015
From Ian:
Sherri Mandell: How Brian Williams (and Tom Brokaw) betrayed my family
Sherri Mandell: How Brian Williams (and Tom Brokaw) betrayed my family
After talking about how we came to Israel, we told Mr. Williams that Koby and Yosef had been eighth-grade boys who cut school, went hiking in the canyon behind our home in 2001, and were murdered by Palestinians terrorists, beaten with rocks.Douglas Murray: Obama Makes Up Facts - Again
He sympathized and then asked whether Seth had a gun. Seth said yes—he had one locked in a safe upstairs in the bedroom.
“Would you mind going upstairs and getting the gun so we can film you with it?” his producer asked Seth.
Seth said no. We both realized that they wanted to stage a scene – to reinforce a stereotype, a visual of the angry rifle-toting, trigger-happy settler.
A few days later, we saw the interview on the Internet. I was furious. I wasn’t upset by what Seth and I had said. We were distraught about the way our story was framed. To open the segment, NBC interviewed an Israeli – an English speaker from Tel Aviv – about her views on the intifada. She sat on the couch in her Tel Aviv apartment and said: The settlers are a cancer on today’s society. They are the reason for all of the problems in Israel.
Then the newscaster said: And here is an example of the people she is talking about: Seth and Sherri Mandell. Settlers from Tekoa. And the camera panned to show us sitting on our couch in our sunroom.
Of course I knew the station wanted to use us to ignite emotion in its viewers. I knew that the media was about conflict, drama and ratings. But how could they malign and betray us like that? How could they mislead us into thinking that they were going to tell our story, our story alone? Nobody had informed us that my son’s murder would be folded into a specious debate about the settlements.
The next morning I wrote to Brian Williams and Tom Brokaw. I sent them an email that said that the way they had framed the broadcast was outrageous, and that they had done us—and the memory of our son Koby — an injustice. They had let the woman from Tel Aviv attack us without giving us a chance to defend ourselves. It was as if she and they had personally called us a cancer.
Tom Brokaw emailed me back. He wrote that the night the program had aired, he had been out to dinner with a Jewish couple, friends of his who had seen the broadcast and thought that it was just fine. A lovely Jewish couple who he had dined with had found the broadcast unobjectionable. Indeed they had felt that we, the settlers, were portrayed very positively.
Since it was President Obama who brought these up, you might have thought he would have had the information to know a little about the background. In particular that the Crusades -- gruesome as they were -- were not some early outbreak of "Islamophobia." They were an effort, by Christian nations in Europe, to defend Christians in the Middle East who were being slaughtered by Muslim tribes, and specifically to take back the city of Jerusalem from the Muslim armies who had conquered it. The question of whom Jerusalem ought to have belonged to is a long and interesting one, but unless you think that Muslim armies should have been allowed to conquer Jerusalem and wipe out Christians across the Middle East a millennium ago, it is hard to see why the Crusades should be regarded as a particular sin of Christians. And Christian Americans in particular might rightly wonder what guilt they are meant to feel for a religious war that took place centuries before America as a country even existed.Edgar Davidson: Obama: Nazis were not Nazis and were no worse than the Jews who slaughtered Amalekites* (satire)
As for slavery, do we really need to keep going around this one? Because while it is true that you can find religious people who endorsed slavery -- in the Bible and elsewhere -- any historian would find it hard to deny that the movement to abolish slavery was also led by Christians. Slavery is still practiced by Muslims in Mauritania and, as recently seen, by Boko Haram. It is a very strange interpretation of history that is willing to put the blame for slavery (a worldwide practice at most times in history) on Christians, but to ignore William Wilberforce, Abraham Lincoln (a Republican) and other Christians who led the world in fighting to abolish it.
Only someone ignorant would claim that Islam is the only religion in whose name bad things have been done. But only a historian with an agenda would try to kick over the actual complexities to invent his own set of facts. In Britain, this effort to manipulate the facts in order to come to a pre-ordained conclusion is known as the "Whig interpretation of history." Perhaps Americans might rename it the "Obama interpretation of history."
Following his National Prayer Breakfast speech (in which he said Islamist terrorists are not Islamist and that Christians were just as brutal as ISIS) President Obama addressed Jewish prayer leaders today, telling them that the vast majority of those who claimed to be Nazis during World War 2 were not Nazis at all:Palestinian Dictator Mahmoud Abbas Gets a Free Pass
"Everybody knows that 99.9999999999% of all Nazis were peace-loving folk who wanted exactly the same things as leftist, casually anti-semitic American/Kenyans like me. The tiny proportion who murdered people to further the cause of Nazism were, by definition, anti-Nazis rather than Nazis because nowhere in Hitler's Mein Kampf was it written that they had to do this.
Moreover, the so-called Nazis who murdered 6 million Jews actually did far more damage to Nazis than they did to the Jews, because they gave Nazis a really bad name and there was a terrible backlash against normal, peace-loving Nazis. So, basically the real victims of so-called Nazism were in fact Nazis who wanted nothing to do with what those anti-Nazis were doing in the name of Nazism. Had I been President during World War 2 absolutely none of this would have happened because I would have made sure that the word Nazi and all its derivations could never have been used in a negative context."
President Obama went on to admonish Jews who complained of brutal mistreatment under the so-called Nazis who we now know were really anti-Nazis:
"You Jews of all people need to get off of your high horses on this one. It was, after all, less than 4,000 years since the Jews slaughtered the Amalekites and less than 3,000 years since they slaughtered the harmless Persian Minister Haman and his followers at the very same time as diplomats were trying to arrange a peaceful final solution with King Ahasuerus to the Jewish problem in Persia."
Which “moderate” Arab president publicly hugged the genocidal leader of Sudan last week? Which Middle Eastern “reformer” just entered his 10th year of a four-year term? Which Western “ally” days ago ordered an investigation into a cartoonist for possibly drawing Mohammed?
The answer is Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
These three stories barely made it into Western press. Why? Put simply, the bar has been set so low that they were not deemed newsworthy. An Arab leader who doesn’t allow elections? Yawn. A Middle Eastern president who embraces one of the worst mass murderers in recent history? Nothing to see here.
There is a tragic disconnect between Western rhetoric and Arab reality. Abbas, if one listens to leaders of the free world, is a moderate, reformer and ally. He is better than Hamas, after all, isn’t he?
- Monday, February 09, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
The official Palestinian Authority tourism site, TravelPalestine.ps, is about as interested in facts as any other official Palestinian Authority site.
Here are a couple of their whoppers:
From their front page:
Luckily, I found the details behind this history in one of their booklets:
Ah, the Lower Paleolithic! I'm surprised they didn't mention the Big Bang as one of the major events in Palestine's history.
Notice who is missing in this little chronology. Besides the British, that is.
That's not the only place that Jews are erased from history in this site. the only mentions of Jews are when they claim that "The Golden Gate, called Bab-Dahiriyeh in Arabic or Gate of Eternity, on the east is blocked pending the arrival of the Messiah, according to Jewish religious zealots." and that a synagogue in Jericho from the 8th century is interesting. Otherwise, there have been no Jews in the Holy Land, according to this site.
Here's a much smaller lie but one that can easily be overlooked.
In the "Palestine Destination Overview 2014" they say:
Pope Francis' prayer at the security barrier was silent. No one knows what he prayed for. As far as I could tell, in none of the public prayers or speeches during his visit did he say a word about "ending occupation."
(h/t Messy57)
UPDATE: By request:
If I had time I'd put Raquel Welch in a hijab.
Here are a couple of their whoppers:
From their front page:
With a history that envelops more than one million years, Palestine has played an important role in human civilisation.A million year history! That's even longer than Saeb Erekat's 9,000 year history!
Luckily, I found the details behind this history in one of their booklets:
Ah, the Lower Paleolithic! I'm surprised they didn't mention the Big Bang as one of the major events in Palestine's history.
Notice who is missing in this little chronology. Besides the British, that is.
That's not the only place that Jews are erased from history in this site. the only mentions of Jews are when they claim that "The Golden Gate, called Bab-Dahiriyeh in Arabic or Gate of Eternity, on the east is blocked pending the arrival of the Messiah, according to Jewish religious zealots." and that a synagogue in Jericho from the 8th century is interesting. Otherwise, there have been no Jews in the Holy Land, according to this site.
Here's a much smaller lie but one that can easily be overlooked.
In the "Palestine Destination Overview 2014" they say:
(h/t Messy57)
UPDATE: By request:
If I had time I'd put Raquel Welch in a hijab.
From Ian:
Is Jordan’s response to ISIS “proportionate”? (asks no one)
Is Jordan’s response to ISIS “proportionate”? (asks no one)
Hey, remember when Hamas was lobbing thousands of missiles at Israeli cities, trying to kidnap people, and killing when they got lucky?Abbas’ Fatah: “Martyrdom-death is a destiny we assume willingly and serenely”
Of course you remember it. It has happened every couple of years since Hamas took over Gaza.
And before that, the Palestinians strapped bombs on their loved ones and sent them to blow up restaurants, supermarkets, buses, and anything else they could sneak into.
And before that ….
But always the question is whether Israel’s response is proportionate,
ISIS just killed a Jordanian pilot, brutally by setting him on fire. No justification, but one person.
Jordan is now bombing the hell out of ISIS positions, including in cities and civilian areas, certainly killing civilians.
And has vowed to continue Till we run ‘out of fuel and bullets’:
Some of those who Fatah has exalted as "Martyrs" in recent months and whom the movement honored in its statement with its "highest praise" and "appreciation" are the following terrorists, as documented by Palestinian Media Watch:Abbas book tying Nazism to Zionism to be translated to Hebrew
The synagogue murderers Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal murdered 4 worshippers and a policeman in a Jerusalem synagogue (Nov. 18, 2014).
Fatah posted a picture of the graves of the two terrorists on its official Facebook page, with the text: "This is the place of eternal rest of Martyrs Ghassan and Uday Abu Jamal."
Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shaloudi murdered a three-month-old baby and a young woman, when he intentionally drove his car into people waiting for a train.
Fatah posted an obituary for the murderer on its official Facebook page, calling him "heroic Martyr."
Dalal Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, known as the Coastal Road massacre, in 1978, when she and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus on Israel's Coastal Highway, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70. Fatah organized a tournament named after her, and Fatah-run Awdah TV broadcast at length from a party commemorating the terrorist, referring to her as "Martyr" and stating that "we renew the promise to her and its fulfillment... [she] will remain a path for the next generations to follow."
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's 1984 book linking Nazism to Zionism, as part of his pursuit of a doctorate degree at a Moscow institution, is set to be translated into Hebrew, Walla! news reported Monday.Hamas MP: Jewish treachery and conspiracies led to the Holocaust
The work, titled The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and Zionism was first released in Jordan and has, since then, seen light in academic libraries across the globe - particularly in Arab-speaking nations - and is accessible on the PA's official website.
Spanning 252 pages and 16-chapters, Abbas's published work claims that Nazi and Zionist ideologies aligned. He outlined their cooperative relationship and went as far as to say that David Ben-Gurion and Adolf Hitler were "good friends."
Abbas's text accuses the Zionist movement of participating in the Holocaust, cooperating with the Third Reich, and actively foiling plots to rescue Jews, their guiding motive being the formation of a national state in "Palestine."
Jewish "conspiracies and treachery" led to the Holocaust, a Hamas MP said in a recent speech translated by MEMRI on Monday.
In a speech aired on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV on January 23, Hamas MP Marwan Abu Ras charged that Germany supports Israel to the detriment of the Palestinians in order to "to make amends for its historical sin toward the Jews."
He attacked Germany and the West for arming Israel at Hamas's expense.
"How is it our fault? What did we have to do with your burning of the Jews? Were the Jews burned for no fault of their own?" he queried.
"Their conspiracies and treachery are what led to their being burned. Their deception and plots against humanity led to their being burned. They conspired against all people - even against people who were benevolent toward them," he said.
- Monday, February 09, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
The BDS crowd has a new challenge, one that has failed miserably every time they tried it previously.
They are trying to get Palestinian Arabs to boycott Israeli products.
Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi has called all Palestinians to a wider boycott of Israeli goods in response to Israel's withholding tax revenue from Fatah while they try to unify with terror groups.
This time, they are trying to use similar methods that they have used in the West. Instead of asking them to boycott all Israeli products, they have come out with a list that seems more manageable. Thsi is from the Fatah Facebook page:
Also borrowing from Western haters of Israel, the BDS crowd in the West Bank have been putting labels on Israeli products in Arab markets to try to dissuade people from buying them, like this one under Tnuva milk.
The sticker says "By buying this product you are donating 16% to the Israeli army."
If history is any guide, the next thing that will happen is that Fatah thugs will start threatening shopowners who do not want to boycott Israeli goods. Then will come the firebombings.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
They are trying to get Palestinian Arabs to boycott Israeli products.
Fatah spokesman Osama Qawasmi has called all Palestinians to a wider boycott of Israeli goods in response to Israel's withholding tax revenue from Fatah while they try to unify with terror groups.
This time, they are trying to use similar methods that they have used in the West. Instead of asking them to boycott all Israeli products, they have come out with a list that seems more manageable. Thsi is from the Fatah Facebook page:
1. Strauss with all its products.
2. Tnuva with all its products.
3. Osem with all its products.
4. Elite with all its products.
5. Prigat with all its products.
6. Jafora with all its products.
Also borrowing from Western haters of Israel, the BDS crowd in the West Bank have been putting labels on Israeli products in Arab markets to try to dissuade people from buying them, like this one under Tnuva milk.
The sticker says "By buying this product you are donating 16% to the Israeli army."
If history is any guide, the next thing that will happen is that Fatah thugs will start threatening shopowners who do not want to boycott Israeli goods. Then will come the firebombings.
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
Here is UNRWA's chart describing the number of registered "refugees" under its purview in each of the five areas it works.If you look at the American Friends of UNRWA fundraising site, however, you find that there is a hugely disproportionate effort meant to appeal to help less than half the people in the chart.
UNRWA-USA is hosting four separate 5K runs this year, specifically for Gaza children.
Besides that, UNRWA-USA has a Gaza emergency appeal, a "protect civilians" appeal that is specifically for Arabs in Area C and Jerusalem (that heavily invokes "settlers,") a shelter rehabilitation appeal specifically for the West Bank, and a "job creation program/Olive Tree Initiative" that is also specifically for the West Bank.
Oh, and a very general Syria Emergency Appeal.
Unlike the five fundraising programs in the territories, the Syria program does not specify whether it is for shelter or food or schools or mental health; it is a very generic, general appeal because things in Syria are really bad too. Unlike their articles about WB and Gaza aid recipients, there is nothing about specific needs of Syrian Palestinians like food or clothing or medicine.
UNRWA-USA does not have any specific appeals for Lebanese UNRWA aid recipients, even though the situation in Lebanese camps is far, far worse than they are on the West Bank. UNRWA-USA does not appeal for any funds for the 2.1 million Jordanians receiving aid, including those who are not Jordanian citizens who are even further discriminated against by Jordan.
Here is a chart of the keyword tags in UNRWA-USA articles that are region-specific:
| Lebanon | 3 |
| Jordan | 3 |
| Demolition Watch (WB) | 8 |
| Syria | 9 |
| Settler Violence (WB) | 10 |
| Gaza Solidarity 5K | 11 |
| West Bank | 17 |
| Gaza | 27 |
In other words, UNRWA-USA spends at least 83% of its fundraising effort in region-specific appeals to areas whose problems can be blamed on Israel and on Jews, even though only 40% of UNRWA aid recipients actually live in those areas.
No more than 0.2% of all Palestinian "refugees" receiving UNRWA aid live in Area C of the West Bank, where those evil "settlers" live, yet UNRWA-USA expends more effort appealing for funds to help the tiny number allegedly affected by "settler violence" than for the millions of aid recipients in Jordan and Lebanon combined.
This is especially incredible given that most of the Syrian Palestinian population have lost their homes and are forced to live in horrible conditions in Lebanon and Jordan, yet their plight is little more than a footnote in UNRWA-USA's fundraising efforts.
No one is saying that the lives of Gazans are great, but Israel is not stopping any legitimate rebuilding efforts. Lebanon, on the other hand, blocks any new building entirely, even as hundreds of thousands of new real refugees are flooding in. But UNRWA-USA is silent about that.
The subconscious message being given is that UNRWA donors care about the "refugees" only when their plight can be blamed on Israel or on Jewish "settlers," and UNRWA aid recipients in other areas aren't nearly as important.
This means that whether they mean to or not, UNRWA-USA is using latent antisemitism as a fundraising gimmick - and also fueling that same antisemitism by implying that Palestinians who can blame their plight on Jews are somehow more worthy of aid than those whose lives are made hell by their fellow Arabs.
Which further means that UNRWA-USA cares more about demonizing Jews and Israelis than about objectively helping the people who need the most help.
It looks like American Friends of UNRWA cares more about demonizing Jews than they do about helping Palestinians.
There are no UNRWA-USA fundraisers to raise cash for Nahr el-Bared and Yarmouk and the Jerash camp in Jordan while there are multiple fundraisers for Gaza and the West Bank (where there shouldn't be any "refugee camps" anyway.) If there is a better explanation as to why American Friends of UNRWA believe that one set of Palestinian "refugees" is more deserving of funds than the others, I'd love to hear it.
- Monday, February 09, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
From Israel Hayom:
Fatah's Facebook page, and the home page of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Nedal division, are happily reporting this Israel Hayom story. They seem a bit amused that the terror forces that they have been openly publicizing for years is finally getting noticed in Israeli media.
Here is the Al Aqsa Brigades' poster for Fatah's 50th anniversary of their first terror attack in January. It says "The path of Al-'Asifa (the storm): The end of Israel... the Liberation of Palestine."
Get this old piece of news: After leading the waves of terrorism in Judea and Samaria during the Second Intifada and masterminding mass terrorist attacks inside the Green Line before being dissolved in 2007 by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' "presidential order," and having allegedly laid down arms and having even been granted an official Israeli pardon, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades are reinventing themselves. For the past year, their fingerprints have been all over a string of shooting attacks in Binyamin, Samaria, Gush Etzion and the communities surrounding Jerusalem. Now we also know that they were involved in firing rockets into Israel during Operation Protective Edge. The warning signal is flashing in red and Israeli defense officials are not indifferent to it.I've been saying this for years - the Al Aqsa Brigades never disappeared, and they were responsible for hundreds if not thousands of rockets during the Gaza war.
The writing has been on the wall for several years. It was only recently that the declaration that Mecca is for worship and Jerusalem is for martyrdom was posted on the official Facebook page of the Palestinian Fatah party. This month, Fatah posted a photo of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu standing beside a hangman's noose, saying that he will be hanged "soon."
Did Abbas give his permission for the re-establishment of the Fatah military wing? Did he sanction the resumption of Fatah terrorist attacks? Yoni Dahuh-Halevy, a lieutenant colonel (res.) in the intelligence corps, says these questions require further investigation.
"If Abbas approved the brigades' activities, he is party to terrorism. If not, it suggests that he is weak both as a leader and as a diplomatic partner," he said.
In July 2007, 178 Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades operatives across Judea and Samaria agreed to lay down their arms and quit terrorism and violence against Israel. They handed their weapons to the Palestinian authorities, and in return, Israel promised to stop pursuing them.
In 2008, 150 additional operatives joined in on the agreement, in coordination with Israel. They were even kept in Palestinian custody for three months before being granted their freedom. This arrangement lasted several years, but every so often, the group violated the agreement with Israel and the Palestinian Authority and perpetrated terrorist attacks. Two that come to mind are the murder of Rabbi Meir Avshalom Chai near the settlement of Shavei Shomron in 2009, and the kidnapping and subsequent murder of soldier Tomer Hazan in 2013.
Now, the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade command center has announced that they are breaking all the rules. They declared "open war against the Zionist enemy using all possible means and surprises, granting the Palestinian people the right to armed struggle in efforts to banish the occupation from all Palestinian land." The brigades' announcement declared further that "this will be a war of attrition, in which all the options are available, including our military cells." This announcement was accompanied by a claiming of responsibility for the firing of dozens of rockets into Israel during Operation Protective Edge, together with photographs documenting said rocket fire.
Fatah's Facebook page, and the home page of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades Nedal division, are happily reporting this Israel Hayom story. They seem a bit amused that the terror forces that they have been openly publicizing for years is finally getting noticed in Israeli media.
Here is the Al Aqsa Brigades' poster for Fatah's 50th anniversary of their first terror attack in January. It says "The path of Al-'Asifa (the storm): The end of Israel... the Liberation of Palestine."
Sunday, February 08, 2015
- Sunday, February 08, 2015
- Elder of Ziyon
The Temple Mount Institute Facebook page reports:
(h/t Yenta)
The Muslim supremacists who dominate the Temple Mount are constantly improving their methods of warfare against Jewish presence on the Mount.So you think that they are exaggerating? Well, here's a video made by Muslims, ironically entitled "Al Aqsa Child Care," that documents Muslim children harassing Jews - something that was not seen until recently.
Their latest gambit, paying men and women to inhabit the Temple Mount during the hours that it is open to Jews and follow the Jewish worshipers every where they go on the Temple Mount, screaming curses and allahu achbars at the top of their lungs, got a flat tire when the Israel police and security services shut down the organizations which were funneling the money from Hamas to the agitators.
The newest Islamic projectile aimed at the heart of Jewish worshipers on the Temple Mount is little girls. Young, pre-pubescent girls can now be found aplenty on the Temple Mount. Because they are Muslim, young and female, the Israel police won't touch them. The young girls, following the instruction and encouragement of their elders, feel free to leap in front of Jewish worshipers, screaming in their high pitched voices "allahu achbar," "the Jews are dogs," and whatever else comes to their innocent minds, while at the same time jabbing their fingers in the faces of the Jewish worshipers. Sometimes the little angels get so wrapped up in their game of 'harass the Jews' that they even begin pushing the Jewish worshipers.
(h/t Yenta)
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