Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, March 13, 2015

03/13 Links Pt1: Glick: Israel’s next 22 months; IDF prepares for multi-pronged terror attack from Sinai

From Ian:

Yet as Obama has made clear both throughout his tenure in office, and, over the past week through Malley’s appointment and Menendez’s indictment, Obama holds sole responsibility for the deterioration of our ties with our primary ally. And as his actions have also made clear, Herzog and Livni at the helm will receive no respite in US pressure. Their willingness to make concessions to the Palestinians that Netanyahu refuses to make will merely cause Obama to move the goalposts further down the field. Given his goal of abandoning the US alliance with Israel, no concession that Israel will deliver will suffice.
And so we need to ask ourselves, which leader will do a better job of limiting the danger and waiting Obama out while maintaining sufficient overall US support for Israel to rebuild the alliance after Obama has left the White House.
The answer, it seems, is self-evident.
The Left’s campaign to blame Netanyahu for Obama’s hostility will make it all but impossible for a Herzog-Livni government to withstand US pressure that they say will disappear the moment Netanyahu leaves office.
In contrast, as the US position paper leaked to Yediot indicated, Netanyahu has demonstrated great skill in parrying US pressure. He agreed to hold negotiations based on a US position that he rejected and went along with the talks for nine months until the Palestinians ended them. In so doing, he achieved a nine-month respite in open US pressure while exposing Palestinian radicalism and opposition to peaceful coexistence.
On the Iranian front, Netanyahu’s courageous speech before Congress last week energized Obama’s opponents to take action and forced Obama onto the defensive for the first time while expanding popular support for Israel.
It is clear that things will only get more difficult in the months ahead. But given the stakes, the choice of Israeli voters next Tuesday is an easy one.

Sarah Honig: Buji and the Bomb

Now there’s the rub. How things turn out even for the most well-intentioned statesmen doesn’t always depend on their own much-touted goodwill but on their antagonists’ good faith or lack thereof.
So far, Herzog must concede, Obama’s record on dealing with Iran’s despots has been far from confidence-inspiring. Whether we deem Obama complicit with a rogue’s gallery of regional bad-guys or see him as merely a jinxed serial bungler, the outlook under his stewardship is far from promising.
No sooner did Obama take over at the West Wing than it became clear for those who didn’t avert their gaze that the end is near for the Mideast’s precariously-enduring remnants of delicate equilibrium. Obama ushered in chaos via what he hyped as a trailblazing new departure by the Muslim world’s surprise soul mate. The result was the mega-disaster Obama applauded as the “Arab Spring.”
But that was only the beginning of a tortuous path on which Obama seemed incapable of dodging any pitfalls. Obama consistently betrayed allies and quasi-tolerable hangers-on but was incredibly hands-off toward the true villains of the Mideastern piece.

Michael Lumish: In the Eye of the Whirlpool

Those of us who care about the well-being of Israel and of the Jewish people are in a very curious moment.
The Speech has come and gone and the resultant anti-Netanyahu hysteria seems to be winding down a tad, but nobody is quite sure what we are facing going forward.
There are three major questions in the air at this moment and we will not know how things are shaping up until the outlines of the answers to those questions become clear.
Those questions are concerned with the upcoming Israeli elections, ISIS, and a potential Iranian nuclear weapon.
Until we begin to see the answer to these questions, we are sort-of bobbing in the eye of a political whirlpool.

An Arab Zionist from 1913

Elias el-Ayoubi was born in Acre in 1874.

He moved to Egypt where he was appointed the Director of the Department of Translation in the Senate.

Egypt held a competition for who could write the best history of Egypt under Ismail Pasha (ruled 1863-1879) and Elias won with a two part book "The history of Egypt during the Reign of Khedive Ismail." That book ended up being used as a textbook in Egyptian schools.

Ayoubi died in Egypt in 1927.

He also wrote a history of Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.

But one early work of his seems to be nearly lost to history.

In 1913, Ayoubi wrote a book called "Voice of Freedom: In defense of the Jewish Nation."

I can only find a single copy of this book, in the Iraqi National Library. (His other two books are at the University of Chicago Library and elsewhere.)

Most biographies of him nowadays do not mention this obviously Zionist book.

Maybe some researcher can track down and translate a copy. It may be very illuminating.

The Pallywood bulldozer (update)

This photo has been going around social media; I saw it on the Fatah Facebook page:

Yeah, sure. No soldiers, no buildings, just an unarmoured bulldozer driver shaking his fist in frustration at those brave Arab women.

All the world might not be a stage, but all of "Palestine" most certainly is.

UPDATE: This appears to be from 1995, as Israel was allegedly clearing land adjacent to Neve Daniel. I can't find any news of Neve Daniel being expanded in 1995. Another photo:

The acting is still acting, though.

(h/t Bob Knot)

The PLO believes that Israel and Hamas are working together to officially create a Hamastan in Gaza as a separate political entity than "Palestine."

The rumor is that Israel and Hamas are working on a plan where Hamas agrees to a five year truce "above and below ground" in exchange for building an airport and seaport from which Hamas can establish independent diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

PLO member from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Rabah Muhanna claims that they received this information from UN representative Robert Serry.

Walid Awad (People's Party) expressed deep concern , saying "the scheme will cut off the road to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state."

Secretary General of the Arab Liberation Front, Mahmoud Ismail, said this is part of the (Zionist/Western) plot to break apart Arab nations, as is happening in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and Libya.

Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf spoke of the danger of Hamas negotiating with Israel unilaterally, bypassing the PA, saying, "It does not matter how it was negotiating, directly or indirectly, or through international mediators; each are just as dangerous. It's been a goal of separating Gaza from the West Bank, and it ends our goal of an independent Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital, and the other problem is that it (undermines) the PLO leadership as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,"

"This shows us now why Hamas wriggled from the implementation of the national reconciliation agreement, they are betting on the support of Israel and other regional powers to establish their own political entity in the Gaza Strip, and therefore they have prevented the government of national reconciliation from exercising their responsibilities and functions in the Gaza Strip."

The Secretary General of the Palestinian Liberation Front Abu Yousef said that "the national project is the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of June of 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem, with the right of return for Palestinian refugees, it is clear that [Hamas] is trying to detract from this project and principles and commits a national crime can not be tolerated \."
.
Of course, the idea that Israel is going to reward Hamas - which is as weak as it has ever been - with its own means to import weapons through the sea and air, in exchange for a promise of a five year truce when most of its truces last hours, is absurd.

It was only a couple of years ago that Hamas did enjoy its political independence, its leaders traveling through Egypt to the Muslim world as if they were their own nation.

Social media hashtag #AskHamas off to a hilarious start

From World Bulletin:

Hamas media coordinator Taher al-Nounou said the group would launch a weeklong interactive campaign starting Friday on social media under the hashtag #AskHamas.

"The campaign is aimed at rejecting the labeling of the Palestinian resistance as 'terrorists'," al-Nounou told.

Al-Nounou said the campaign would primarily target western audiences, especially in the EU, in hopes of encouraging the EU to remove Hamas from its list of "terrorist organizations."

Through the #AskHamas campaign, group members – including senior leaders – will answer questions by western social media users in order to "clarify Hamas' true positions."

I contributed a couple:

#AskHamas Please rank in order of importance: 1. Healthcare 2. Housing 3. Social services 4. Defeating Fatah 5. Tunnels to kill Jews
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) March 12, 2015

#AskHamas Do you import the Israeli flags you burn, or do you manufacture them yourselves? pic.twitter.com/BX7DIyAjqU
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) March 12, 2015

But there are lots of otherslike these from @UKMediaWatch::

#AskHamas how did the audition go for the next Star Wars movie? pic.twitter.com/Lq3N2BHPAz
— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) March 12, 2015

#AskHamas what deficiency do you think this Hamas terrorist is trying to make up for? pic.twitter.com/mYL2iXqzzU
— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) March 12, 2015

And more:

#AskHamas my wife wants to change my rocket launching room into a room for our stupid baby. How should I honor kill her?
— AntiDouchebagIsraeli (@NotAntiSemitic) March 12, 2015

It's just starting, and it's going all week!

03/12 Links Pt2: Rasmea Odeh gets 18 months in prison; Friedman’s Adelson Derangement Syndrome

From Ian:

Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months in prison

Immigration fraudster who concealed Israeli bombing conviction also has U.S. citizenship revoked and will be deported.
Rasmea Odeh was convicted in Israel of the 1969 bombing of the Super Sol supermarket in Jerusalem, in which Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner were killed, in addition to the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.
Rasmea served 10 years of a life sentence before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1979 for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Rasmea later immigrated to the United States, where she has made Chicago her home since the mid-1990s.
In November 2014, Rasmea was convicted in federal court in Detroit of falsely procuring naturalization, by concealing her Israeli convictions and incarceration.
The evidence supporting both the Israeli and Detroit convictions is overwhelming and from multiple sources, as I demonstrated in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Rasmea’s claim that she confessed to the bombing only after several weeks of sexual torture was contradicted by the fact that she confessed one day after arrest, and by corroborating evidence including a filmed interview years later with a co-conspirator. (h/t Bob Knot)

University of Southampton Conference: How to be openly antisemitic in England (satire)

UK Media Watch has obtained the “official”* (*Satire), never-before-seen original program for a three-day conference in mid-April at the University of Southampton examining whether Israel has the right to exist. Though it’s currently titled “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism“, the “original” version of the program (below) was evidently titled “How to be openly antisemitic in England: International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism”. (h/t Yenta Press)

Richard Millett forced to turn off camera at Parliament event with Jenny Tonge & David Ward

Last night I went to Parliament for an event staged by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK. The event Gaza: Life in an occupied and besieged strip was obviously only concerned with the human rights of one group of Arabs.
It was chaired by the Liberal Democrat David Ward MP and the main attraction was Baroness Jenny Tonge who once said “Israel won’t be here forever”.
Tonge complained that “the Palestinians had been denied democracy because the wrong side (Hamas) won” and that Israel defies international law by denying the right of return to anyone who is not a Jew.
Her main complaint was about “the Israel lobby” which, she said, “has its claws in this country” and she claimed nothing was being done about Israel out of fear of being called anti-Semitic.
She called for a total boycott of Israel, said that Jews had led the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

Former "Donald Duck" parlays his Israel-hate into hosting X-Factor Arabia

Remember Wael Mansour?

He caused a stir as year ago with this tweet:

Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF
— Wael Mansour (@WaelMansour0) February 6, 2014

Upon further research, we saw that Mansour's original tweet was from six months earlier, and he was never employed by Disney - he was a third party contractor.

In other words, Mansour made up a story about being fired from Disney for hating Israel - and got lots of publicity for the lie.

His stunt just paid off in spades.

Wael Mansour was just named the host of X-Factor Arabia. The headlines about this story all note that he is an important anti-Zionist. It is his main claim to fame!

So there you have it. Saying you hate Israel, and making up a story about how it hurt your career, is a great way to get ahead in the Arab world.

(h/t Shawarma News)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Some 47 Republican senators led by Tom Cotton of Arkansas have written an open letter to Iranian leaders which points out that according to the US Constitution,

…we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.

Like the Iranian missile program, Democrats have gone absolutely ballistic. Fresh from groping the wife of the new Secretary of Defense on camera (see also here), dignified Joe Biden thundered that the act was “beneath the dignity” of the Senate. The New York Daily News’ headline screamedthat the Republican senators were “traitors.”

But not only is the letter entirely correct from a constitutional point of view, there is a recent example of the US reneging on a similar executive agreement, in that case concerning commitments made to Israel.

In 2004, President Bush wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he made two significant statements, which the Israeli government interpreted as commitments:

It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.

And

As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.

But by 2008, even before Bush left office, the State Department was waffling on the latter commitment. National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley said in January 2008 that,

The president obviously still stands by that letter of April of 2004, but you need to look at it, obviously, in the context of which it was issued.

The "context," of course, was that at the time the letter was written, the administration wanted Sharon to withdraw from Gaza and some of Samaria, and it would help support that move.

By the time Obama made his Cairo speech in June 2009, the Bush letter had been rendered completely inoperative. Obama insisted that any construction across the Green Line, even within settlements in those areas that were expected to remain in Israel’s hands, was unacceptable. “Settlements must stop,” said Obama, without qualification. Shortly thereafter, instead of “secure and recognized borders,” the concept of an agreement “based on” the 1949 armistice lines was introduced. And the refugee question was now considered a “final status issue” that would need to be negotiated.

On June 1, 2009, Deputy State Department Spokesperson Robert Wood was asked (copied here) by a reporter whether the Bush letter was binding on the Obama Administration. Wood simply would not give a straight answer, no matter how hard he was pressed.

Elliott Abrams, who was National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs at the time (the position recently given to anti-Israel activist Robert Malley), recalled that both sides considered that binding commitments were made, and these commitments were documented in writing. But

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on June 17 [2009] that “in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility.”

Abrams, who was certainly in a “position of responsibility” and should know, disagreed. Plenty of documentation exists that there were mutual agreements, he said. But how would Israel “enforce” an agreement that the US had reneged on, he wondered? I suppose you have us there, Ms. Clinton!

So, dear Iranians, here is an example of what a commitment from the President of the United States is worth: take it to Starbucks with three bucks and buy yourselves a latte.

Vic Rosenthal lives in Israel and blogs at abuyehuda.com.

03/12 Links Pt1: Fatah: ‎“Collect your body parts and leave!”‎; The Fatal Myth of Appeasement

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah to Israelis: ‎“Collect your body parts and leave!”‎

Fatah took pride in the terror attack, calling the terrorists “heroes,” and posting a photo of the destroyed bus in which terrorist Dalal Mughrabi and other terrorists killed 37 civilians and wounded over 70 in 1978. As in another post glorifying the attack yesterday, exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah exaggerated the number of Israelis they murdered as “exceeding 80 casualties” in order to make the attack seem more lethal:
“Collect your body parts and leave!
On this day, March 11, in 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her companions declared the birth of the Palestinian Republic in the heart of the occupied territories (i.e., Israel). The enemy admitted the death of 30 Zionists in the operation, yet according to the reports the number exceeded 80 casualties. Through this, Fatah heroes retaliated against the Verdun Operation (i.e., Israeli operation against PLO leaders, see below), following the retaliation by the Savoy [Hotel operation] members. Retaliation after retaliation and the windstorms will not subside.” [Fatah’s Facebook page, “Fatah - The Main Page,” March 11, 2015]
The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have turned Dalal Mughrabi into a role model for Palestinians.

Fatah Central Committee Member to PA TV: Dalal Mughrabi, Female Suicide Bombers, Are Our Role Models

In an interview on the official Palestinian Authority TV channel to mark International Women's Day, Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad said that Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in Israel, and female suicide bombers Wafa Idris and Rim Al-Riyashi were "role models." The interview aired on March 8, 2015.

Jake Lynch: A study in ‘Peace and Conflict’

Professor Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and an ardent opponent of Israel, shouted in the faces of students, including at a senior officer of the Jewish student union. He then proceeded to stand on chairs and film attendees. Lynch screamed that attempts to remove the protestors was a violent attack on freedom of speech by security guards. When another academic suggested that he ask a question, Lynch responded that was not what this is about, only later opting to ask a question when invited by the Colonel.
One student commented that Kemp “hadn’t even mentioned Israel or Palestine” in the time he had to talk. Another student mentioned that she did not have strong views on either side of this issue, was studying international relations and had come expecting a talk, not an ambush.
After about 20 minutes of shouting, the protestors were finally removed from the hall, having objected loudly to their treatment by the security guards and some others present. Kemp, resuming as if nothing had happened, continued to speak on engagement with non-civilian groups in armed conflict. Concluding his talk, Kemp briefly addressed what he termed a “commercial break.”
“This protest was about my perspective on the IDF… I was in Israel during the 2014 summer conflict and I do believe that the IDF in their attack on Hamas in Gaza… were doing everything they could to protect civilians… People have told me I am wrong, but no one has told me what more steps Israel could take to minimize civilian casualties.”
Students, academics and other interested people had come from all over to hear an expert speak on a topical and important subject.

Anti-Zionist-Not-Antisemite Jake Lynch Needs To Explain This

You may recall last year Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre sued Australian academic Jake Lynch for racial discrimination for his BDS activities. My friend Andrew Hamilton was the lawyer involved. Unfortunately, Shurat HaDin dropped the case and Lynch walked away.
At the time, Lynch denied his BDSholing was racially motivated against Jews.
So let him explain this.
That’s Lynch at a disruptive protest against Colonel Richard Kemp at the University of Sydney, holding money to the face of a Jewish student.
So Mr Lynch, I invited you to explain yourself. I mean, surely this was not an antisemitic gesture, right? Perhaps you just wanted change. Because your actions against Israelis are not racially motivated. I mean, you said so.

BDS PROTEST AT UNIVERSITY OF SYDNEY 11/3/15

"Not a single house has been rebuilt in Gaza"

From the far-left NGO Gisha, last week:

March 4, 2015: Gisha executive director, Eitan Diamond, was interviewed (Hebrew) yesterday on Guy Zohar’s program on Israeli radio station 103FM, where he talked about Gaza’s reconstruction: “Six months after the fighting, not a single house destroyed during the last round of hostilities has been rebuilt.

As of January, Israel had imported some 50,000 tons of construction material, and in February probably 20,000 tons more - and they were delivered to residents directly under the protocol that Israel and UNRWA worked out:

So where is all the construction materials going?

Gisha, of course, blames Israel alone for the slowness (or absence!) of reconstruction. They are willingly ignoring the facts.

It appears that Gaza residents who lost their homes are preferring to resell their construction materials to rebuilding their homes. And you can be certain that much of that material is being used to rebuild terrorist tunnels - something Hamas and Islamic Jihad are bragging about.

Based on the photos coming out of Gaza recently, not only are no houses being built - but the heavily damaged buildings haven't even been removed!

Hamas knows quite well that the photos of Gaza devastation translates into cash that will be donated for reconstruction - for materials that Hamas will end up using for terror. So Hamas has no incentive to help rebuild Gaza.

And Gisha, HRW and other anti-Israel NGOs show by their emphasis on Israel that they don't give a damn about Gaza residents. They only want to demonize Israel.

If you want to see the real reason why Gaza is having problems rebuilding, read the Israel ambassador to the UK's article in CiF from last week.

And perhaps email AP or Reuters to investigate why the truckloads of construction materials entering Gaza every day has not translated to a single house being rebuilt.

Burning Israeli ice cream in Ramallah

Yesterday, in Ramallah, the Palestinian boycotters stepped on and burned a shipment of Israeli ice cream products from Strauss:

They took the products straight off the Strauss truck.

They opened up the cases in order to spill out the contents.

And bravely step on them.

And then they burned the ice cream.

I doubt that Strauss, knowing about the boycott of their products, would send in a truck unless they were paid in advance.

Which may mean that the boycotters paid an Israeli company in order to have this photo-op.

If not, and they stole the products off the truck, it would indicate that the PA is supporting theft. Which would be interesting in itself.

Latest Israeli outrage: allowing Gaza to export vegetables to Israel

From Reuters:

Israel imported its first fruit and vegetables from the Gaza Strip in almost eight years on Thursday, in a partial easing of an economic blockade maintained since the Islamist group Hamas seized control of the Palestinian territory.

Twenty-seven tonnes of tomatoes and five tonnes of eggplants were trucked across the border under an Israeli plan to bring in around 1,200 tonnes of produce a month. The Palestinians welcomed the move, though the scale fell short of the some 3,300 tonnes they said they had previously exported to Israel monthly.

Israel has faced international calls to ease the blockade since a war with Hamas last year, the second in six years, that caused heavy devastation in Gaza and left more than 100,000 of its 1.8 million people homeless.

It had already begun to allow vegetables from Gaza as well as Palestinian merchants to transit across Israel to the occupied West Bank, and to allow Gaza's farmers to bring tractors in via Israel.

AP adds:

The Gaza vegetable exports will help devout Jews observe a farming sabbatical prescribed by the Bible that falls once every seven years.

So Gazans should be happy, right?

Ha!

Palestinian Arabic newspaper Safa describes how this is awful news for Gazans.

Produce sellers in Gaza, knowing that Israel pays more for the products than they do (2.5 shekels vs. 1.5 shekels per kilo of tomatoes) then they won't be able to get as much produce to sell, and it could drive up prices.

For their part, the Gaza minitry of agriculture says that they would block exports if the local prices increase too much - and they say they have already blocked exports to the West Bank of some products that affected the local economy.

Meanwhile, Israel is now allowing masonry mortar into Gaza for the first time since Hamas took over. I'm sure that someone will find an anti-Israel angle to that as well.