Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 03, 2015

09/03 Links Pt1: Retired Military Leaders: Nuke Deal Makes War More Likely; Iran Is Already Gloating

From Ian:

The Democrats Now Own Iran. They’ll Soon Wish They Didn’t

Obama and the Democrats now say they will get behind Israel and strengthen its defenses even though the deal makes Iran a threshold nuclear power almost immediately. That renders talk of preserving Israel’s qualitative military edge over potential foes meaningless.
But what this means is that every act of Iranian terror, every instance of Hamas and Hezbollah using Iranian funds and material to wage war against Israel or moves against Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states must now be seen as having been enabled not just by Obama but also by his party.
If Iran cheats its way to a bomb before the deal expires or uses the wealth that Obama is lavishing on it to get them to agree to this deal to undermine regional stability it won’t be possible in the future for Democrats to say that this was simply Obama’s folly. No, by docilely following his lead for a deal that few of them were eager to embrace, the entire Democratic Party must now pray that the president is right and that Iran will seek to “get right with the world” rather than pursuing a religious and ideological agenda of conflict with the West and Israel.
Obama got his deal despite the opposition of the majority of Congress and the American people. But the Democratic Party now gets to pay the bill for it. By making Iran a partisan issue in this manner, Obama saddled his party with the blame for everything that will happen in the coming years. Munich analogies are often inappropriate but when Rep. Patrick Murphy (the likely Democratic nominee for the Senate seat Marco Rubio is vacating next year) said the deal gives us “peace in our time,” his channeling of Neville Chamberlain was no ordinary gaffe. In the years to come when Obama is retired and Iran uses the deal to make new mischief and atrocities, Democrats may regret giving in to the president’s pressure. But, like the appeasers of the 1930s, the legacy of the pro-Iran deal Democrats is now set in stone. (h/t NormanF)

Netanyahu: Majority of Americans see eye to eye with Israel on Iranian threat

In a Rosh Hashana toast with Foreign Ministry employees Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that the majority of Americans see Iran as a threat, and despite disagreements,the United States remains Israel's closest friend and ally.
"Even in the face of disputes, Israel must be mindful of its traditional allies, chiefly the United States," Netanyahu said. "And although the majority of Americans see eye to eye with us in terms of the threat Iran poses, its important that the American public understand the fact that Iran is an enemy of the United States and openly declares it."
"Israel and the United States are allies and this understanding has important implications for our continued security cooperation," Netanyahu added.

Retired Military Leaders: Iran Nuke Deal Makes War More Likely

The nuclear agreement with Iran will increase the likelihood of military conflict, according to a council of prominent retired military leaders and intelligence officials.
The Jewish Institute for National Security Affair’s (JINSA) Iran Strategy Council released a report Wednesday that contends that the United States will be in a “far worse position to prevent a nuclear Iran” after 10 to 15 years of the agreement regarding Tehran’s nuclear capacity, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA).
“Implementing JCPOA will have significant strategic consequences for our interests and allies in the region,” retired Gen. James Conway and retired Air Force Gen. Chuck Wald, who together chair the council, said in a statement.
According to the report, “the agreement increases both the probability and danger of hostilities with Iran.”
The report also suggests that the deal will allow Iran to grow more militarily capable over the next decade as the United States sees an erosion of its own forces.
“The United States is in a far better position to prevent a nuclear Iran today, even by military means if necessary, than when the JCPOA sunsets,” the authors say. “The strategic environment will grow much more treacherous in the next 15 years. Comparatively, Iran will be economically stronger, regionally more powerful and militarily more capable, while the United States will have a smaller, less capable fighting force, diminished credibility and fewer allies. ”

Survey: 67% of American National Security Professionals Say Nuke Deal is Bad for US, Allies

A survey found that two thirds of government personnel in the national security sector, including the Department of Defense and military, do not believe that the nuclear agreement with Iran is good for American interests, Defense One reported yesterday. Significantly, 58% of those surveyed serve at a managerial level or above.
Asked to evaluate the statement “The Iran nuclear deal is a good deal for the United States,” some 66 percent of responders disagreed — and two-thirds of that group “strongly disagreed.”
The group’s outlook was even dimmer about the deal’s effect on U.S. allies. Most respondents said that it would have a somewhat or mostly negative impact on the security of Israel (71%), Saudi Arabia (67%), the Gulf Arab states (67%), Jordan (59%), Iraq (58%), and Europe (53%).
Furthermore, over three fifths of respondents said that the best approach would be for the United States to walk away from agreement.
Some 62 percent said that the U.S. would be better off simply rejecting the deal and keeping current sanctions in place.

The beginning of this article in Boraq News by Abdullah bin Abdul Mohsin Sultan of King Saud University sets the tone:

Jews have historically been responsible for the deployment of all that is evil and all that is abusive; that they are the scourge of the people is proven by the fact that they are behind each and every vice and immorality.

Now that we got that out of the way, we can get to Sultan's main point, which is that the Jewish control of the media is maent to corrupt innocent Muslims. "Because of Jewish money and the media, they do spit venom through movies and television programs...they are really from the demons of human beings, and our battle with them will not stop."

He has proof! "Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon says 'It is not as much fun to kill your enemy with your hands, when your enemy can kill himself with his hand or the hand of his brother, it is a much greater pleasure!'"

Can't argue with that!

Sultan also has this quote: "The Jewish founder of Whatsapp was asked on TV: 'Why have you made Whatsapp available for free among Arabs when you know they are murderers who are the most dangerous enemy of the State of Israel ??' He replied: "we have a program to enter every house without permission and we will destroy their young before their youth with their own hands while we are watching them from afar."

Sounds legit!

But Sultan's main object of scorn is the TV talent show Star Academy, which he claims is also Jewish:

This professional program aims to degrade Muslim youth of morality and modesty, and the erosion of their values, customs and Islamic traditions which are the backbone of the Islamic community and to and keep them away from their religion and even destroy it in their minds and in the ethics of his followers, and the elimination of religious zeal and Islamic values they have. This is because the content of the program includes addressing instincts and emotions spreading moral corruption, which is forbidden and contrary to the public taste. And the targeting of women, especially Muslim, by the Jews is clear. The "Star Academy" Arabic program has proved to be created for corruption in the land and the demolition of Islamic values. ... Moreover, the program is an insult directed to those who participate in it or watch it, ... it is the media malice of the Jews.

He goes on to blame Jews for Arabs celebrating Valentine's Day, New Years and April Fools Day.

The Jewish influence in the Arab world is truly awesome. Their obsession with Jews proves it.

UNRWA school group and teacher celebrate terrorists

On Facebook, there is a community page called UNRWA Schools International - Jordan.

It is probably not an official UNRWA page, although it uses the UNRWA logo and is meant for UNRWA school employees in Jordan.

And this page is run by one of those UNRWA employees, Moh Sarrar.

On this page, there are tributes to Hamas co-founders Abdel Aziz Rantisi and Sheikh Ahmed Yassin.

And Yahya Ayyash, the "engineer" to pioneered suicide bombings.

And mass murderer Dalal Mughrabi (text autotranslated)

Another UNRWA teacher, O Abd Halim Battah, also has a thing for terrorists:

His timeline also has lots of photos of his UNRWA school and of educational materials. He is no "imposter."

The evidence against UNRWA is mounting by the day. The media is starting to notice. Chris Gunness' lies are becoming more outrageous. And the pressure is only going to increase until UNRWA decides to do the right thing and attack the problem, not the people reporting the problem.

UPDATE: The UNRWA Schools group was taken down, and so was the image on the other teacher page.

Mark Ruffalo is a fairly famous actor most well-known for playing The Incredible Hulk in The Avengers series.

Recently, he tweeted this:

Thousands homeless in #GazaOneYearOn. Time to lift the #Gaza blockade - #OpenGaza - Sign and RT: https://t.co/qJbuudQVSp
— Mark Ruffalo (@MarkRuffalo) September 1, 2015

The article he is quoting comes from the Avaaz "progressive" website/petition site:

A year after the devastating war on Gaza, thousands of children are still sleeping in the rubble of their homes.

Even though it is a clear violation of international law, Israel's blockade has restricted basic building materials going in. But no child should be made to live in the ruins of their home, study with bomb blasts through their classrooms, or not get basic health care because clinics have been destroyed.

Who doesn't support the rights of children to not have to sleep in the rubble? Obviously this is because of Israel's "blockade" of Gaza!

Too bad that Avaaz is lying.

The most recent mainstream media article on the rebuilding effort in Gaza discusses in detail the lengthy process needed for Gazans to be approved to receive building materials, and Israel is part of that process which by all accounts is not working tremendously well. But even that article, which is critical of all aspects of the process, shows that Israel is allowing huge amounts of cement and rebar into Gaza. Nearly 100,000 Gazans have received some or all of the building materials they need. The main bottleneck isn't Israel - but the international donors who have reneged on their pledges:

The trucks coming into Gaza carrying materials are checked by the Israeli authorities. Gazan contractors must also have security clearance from the Israeli government. Once in Gaza, materials are stored in warehouses surrounded by high walls that are under 24-hour surveillance by inspectors and cameras. When the homeowners have money from international agencies to buy materials, it is disbursed in stages as the homeowner proves they are indeed using the materials to build houses. For larger projects the cement is also released in stages, out of concern that it might be sold off or used for non-civilian purposes.

UN staff accompany the materials to construction sites. Representatives from the UN Office for Project Services (UNOPS), the body providing administrative support for reconstruction under the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism — an agreement between the Israeli and Palestinian governments brokered by the UN — even visit a sample of the construction sites to conduct spot checks.

You don’t have to be an expert to see how easily this process could get hung up.

WHEN THERE’S CEMENT BUT NO MONEY TO BUY IT

Sometimes the goods don’t even make it to the construction site. There are 37,000 tons of cement sitting in warehouses in Gaza because the people to whom it is allotted don’t have the money to buy it. Cement has a shelf life of about three months — so if the funds don’t come through soon, all that would-be concrete becomes useless. The import process would have to start again from the beginning.

So far around 3,000 Gazans allotted construction materials have not yet claimed them, while another 28,000 have only taken part of their order because they can’t afford to buy it all.

“Homeowners were supposed to have received money to buy the materials but have only gotten about 5-6 percent” of what they were due, says Basil Nassar, acting head of the UNDP office in Gaza.

“There’s no guarantee that they will have the money to buy the materials,” he says.

The main problem is money, not materials, The materials that are there are not being purchased.

Avaaz is lying.

Hollywood stars want to seem like they are informed and sympathetic to world issues. Unfortunately, they are easy prey to fall for faux humanitarian appeals that are really smokescreens to demonize Israel, aided by years of false reporting about Israel's "blockade" which ignores the facts that Israel doesn't stop any aid that is not on its very specific list of items that can also be used by terrorists. Anyone can view this list.

But that's not the only way Avaaz lies.

Avaaz claims to have received over 630,000 signatures for this initiative.

However, as we have proven once, Avaaz will inflate the number of signatures on its petitions by orders of magnitude.

But what self-respecting liberal reporter will go and investigate an organization like Avaaz that says it does such important, progressive work?

More about Avaaz' sketchy history in this 2011 UK Media Watch article.

EoZ interviewed by TheBlaze on UNRWA hate

Yesterday I was interviewed by TheBlaze about my research into UNRWA's online hate.

The news site nicely went through all of my research since 2012 revealing UNRWA's violations of its own policies:

The author of a pro-Israel blog who has been investigating United Nations’ employee Internet activity said he has found numerous anti-Semitic and jihad-encouraging posts from U.N. school principals and teachers.

In response to the allegations, a spokesman for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency Wednesday asserted that three postings it examined were from “imposter” accounts.

“We always investigate credible reports of neutrality violations by our staff and take appropriate action, including disciplinary action where violations by UNRWA staff members are established,” UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness told TheBlaze in an email, adding that the organization condemns “unreservedly” exhibitions of racism. He declined when asked to forward two of the offensive posts that he described as containing “racists incitement.”

If any of the allegations are true, Gunness told Israel’s Channel 10 earlier this week, “it is indeed a very big problem, and we will deal with it.”

Imposter accounts?

Let's look at the person who posted the antisemitic graphic I pointed out on Monday, Ramy Alshorbasy, making fun in Arabic of Jews being targeted by terrorists in cars:

As I noted then, his photo collection includes dozens of photos taken at his UNRWA school.

He lists scores of UNRWA employees among his many online friends.

His UNRWA affiliation is not by any measure the primary way he identifies himself, he has many posts on many topics.

You are invited to browse his page yourself. To pretend that it is an elaborate hoax, among scores of other people pretending to be UNRWA employees who also happen to post antisemitic and pro-terror images, is one of the most bizarre excuses I can imagine.

Yet Chris Gunness would rather make that claim than admit that there are serious problems with UNRWA teachers and staff.

The rest of the Blaze article is very good too. Excerpts from my interview:

One of the more incendiary images a pro-Israel blogger found posted on the Facebook page that appeared to be by an UNRWA employee. It showed a stereotypical Jew draining the blood of a child. UNRWA’s spokesman declined to comment to TheBlaze about this or 11 other images forwarded by a U.N. watchdog to the international organization. (Image courtesy: Elder of Ziyon blog)

One of the more incendiary images a pro-Israel blogger found posted on a Facebook page that appeared to belong to an UNRWA teacher. It shows a Jew draining the blood of a child, using a stars and stripes fork. UNRWA’s spokesman declined to comment to TheBlaze about this or 11 other images forwarded by a U.N. watchdog to the international organization. (Image courtesy: Elder of Ziyon blog)

“I have discovered dozens of examples of jihadist, anti-Semitic and even pro-Hitler posts on Facebook by UNRWA employees. And I find more every day,” the author of the Elder of Ziyon blog told TheBlaze.

Since starting his probe in 2012, the blogger has found posts including Jews drinking the blood of Palestinian children, Palestinians running over Jews, Jews portrayed in stereotypically negative ways, anti-Jewish citations from Islamic texts, and incitement to terrorism.

The blogger said that nearly every time he has exposed the virulent posts and alerted the U.N. agency, they have been “silently removed” from the Internet without a public acknowledgement or apology from UNRWA.

The pro-Israel blogger Elder of Ziyon last week found this photo on another apparent UNRWA teacher’s Facebook promoting Palestinian violence. (Image courtesy: Elder of Ziyon blog)

Accusing the U.N. agency of exhibiting “reprehensible” behavior, the blogger said some teachers and principals “are not embarrassed in the least about their explicit anti-Semitism.”

“There is no doubt that their attitudes are being given over to their students, many of whom become UNRWA teachers themselves,” he said.

The blogger in 2012 found an elementary school lesson posted online that appeared to glorify jihad “against the Jews and the Crusaders” and the beauty of becoming a “martyr.” He said that after his post, the link was “silently removed.”

He also found that in both 2013 and 2014, UNRWA schools in Gaza apparently claimed to cite an Islamic text to support a clean schools initiative by suggesting it was a way they differentiate themselves from unclean Jews.

As an aside, the blogger pointed out that some of the students were being taught Koran at the U.S.-funded U.N. schools, even though some of the students are Palestinian Christians. The Bible is not taught in American taxpayer-funded U.S. public schools, but at least some students at the Palestinian schools were studying with Koran teachers.

I'm keeping the pressure on UNRWA - more and more people are waking up to the fact that the system is based on lies that they tell the West, and this scandal proves it in a way that anyone can check the facts for themselves.

09/02 Links Pt2: The Original Truck People; Antisemitic Cartoon on Norwegian Credit Card

From Ian:

The Original Truck People

Austrian authorities on Thursday discovered an abandoned truck on a highway near the Hungarian border, packed with the decomposed bodies of 71 dead migrants, including four children. While migrants have perished at sea in the multitudes, this tragedy has put Europe on notice: The horrors from which the migrants flee, and that regularly play themselves out in the middle of the Mediterranean, will soon become commonplace in the heart of the continent unless something changes.
Now how addled and obsessed must one be to use this event as a stick to beat Israel? About as addled and obsessed as Juan Cole, professor at the University of Michigan and popular blogger on the edge of the left. See as evidence this post: “Austrian Truck Tragedy echoes Palestinian Story, reminding us of 7 million still stateless [Palestinians].”
What is that Palestinian story? It is a 1962 novella by the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani entitled Men in the Sun. The allegorical storyline is about three Palestinians who flee the misery of Lebanon’s refugee camps to Iraq, in the hope of reaching the Xanadu of Kuwait. They are smuggled across the desert from Basra in the empty barrel of a water tanker truck. But because of a delay at the Kuwaiti border, the three suffocate to death. (The novella was made into a film in 1972.)
I won’t make an issue of the “seven million still stateless” Palestinians. (The upper-end estimate is closer to five million.) And far be it from me to quibble with anyone’s free associations. But Cole tops off his with this statement, which purports to be historical: the Palestinians’ “home has been stolen from them by the Israelis and they were unceremoniously dumped on the neighbors or in the West Bank or in the Gaza Strip. They are stateless. They are the original truck people.”
This concluding dramatic flourish, identifying the Palestinians as “the original truck people,” jolted me. The first people made stateless, dispossessed, stripped of their humanity, and packed into sealed trucks where they died horribly, all in the very heart of Europe, were many thousands of Jewish victims of the Nazi extermination machine.

Gaza could be 'uninhabitable' by 2020, UN report warns

Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade of Gaza since the Islamic terrorist group Hamas violently seized control of the territory in 2007.
The U.N. report came as Egyptian military bulldozers pressed ahead with a project that effectively would fill Egypt's border with the Gaza Strip with water and flood the last remaining cross-border underground smuggling tunnels, which have brought both weapons and commercial items into Gaza.
The report called the economic prospects for 2015 for the Palestinian territories "bleak" because of the unstable political situation, reduced aid and the slow pace of reconstruction.

UN official to JPost: Lift blockade, reconnect Gaza to the world

The agreement "called to reconnect Gaza with the West Bank and the rest of the world and to construct a seaport in Gaza and to start negotiations on establishing or constructing an airport in Gaza," he said.
UNCTAD argues that support from donors is important for Gaza's recovery and reconstruction, but will not reverse the ongoing de-development and impoverishment in Gaza if Israel's blockade of the Strip is not ended.
"Since 2014 no major reconstruction has been done. No major rehabilitation has been done. Only minor things," Elkafif emphasized.
If the blockade is not lifted and Gaza is not given the opportunity to rebuild, "I think the situation will be even worse than what the UN has forecasted for 2020," he predicted.
Both Israel and Egypt maintain a blockade of the Gaza Strip, whose Hamas leadership they deem a terrorist organization. When asked whether the Egyptian blockade was taken into account in UNCTAD's research, the project coordinator asked, "What Egyptian blockade?" (h/t The_Kenosha_Kid)

Hillary-Sidney Emails Herald Demise of a Pro-Israel Democratic Party

Despite what Clinton may tell her many pro-Israel donors, keeping a man like Blumenthal in her inner circle is a telling indication of her true feelings about a lot of issues, but especially that of the state of Israel. If she were to become president, Sidney’s voice would continue to have great weight in her counsels. Just as dangerous, it would help legitimize Max Blumenthal’s views.
During the course of the debate about the Iran nuclear deal, we have already witnessed the collapse of the pro-Israel wing of the Democratic Party. Faced with pressure by President Obama, most liberal Democrats, even many with strong pro-Israel records, caved into administration pressure and backed the agreement despite the fact that it fell far short of Obama’s own criteria for success when the negotiations started.
Despite the rearguard efforts of some figures in the party to keep it at a distance from Obama’s antagonism to the Jewish state, Democrats are largely abandoning Israel on Iran. The Blumenthal emails make it clear this won’t be a passing fancy if Hillary becomes president.
The assumption has been that if Clinton were elected, the damage done to the U.S.-Israel alliance by Obama would begin to be undone. Clinton was, we were told, the adult in the room. Her backers assure us that she has a tougher-minded foreign policy approach than that of a president who is clearly committed to prioritizing détente with the Islamist regime in Tehran over strengthening the alliance with Israel. But so long as Sidney Blumenthal, and by extension his son Max, are going to be treated as valued voices within the Clinton camp, Hillary’s pose as a defender of Israel is no longer credible. She may not go as far as they like in distancing herself from the pro-Israel community. But the notion that she will restore the closeness Obama wrecked is obviously untrue. With Sidney whispering in her ear, there will be plenty more of the dangerous “daylight” that Obama has done so much to create between the two nations.
While Clinton has more to fear from the email issue than fallout about Blumenthal, the Hillary-Sidney emails show just that the pro-Israel community will be on thin ice if she recovers and wins in November 2016.

In 1967, shortly after the Gathering of the Tribes - or the first Human Be-In - in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco, Zen and counterculture philosopher Alan Watts held a "hippie summit" on his houseboat in Sausalito, just north of the city.

They called it the "Houseboat Summit." The idea was to push momentum coming out of the "tribal" gathering in the park and plan for the future. In attendance were Timothy Leary, Allen Ginsberg, and Gary Snyder, along with some small percentage of the Bay Area's counterculture kids at the time.

The summit actually resulted in the splitting of what historian Terry Anderson referred to as The Movement between the political-types from places like Berkeley versus the hippie-types from places like Haight-Ashbury in SF. It was Leary who did the most to split the movement by suggesting that the political-types were, essentially, young men with "geriatric minds." Leary did not want politics, which he basically considered to represent outmoded and counterproductive thinking. What he wanted was to transcend politics entirely with massive doses of lysergic acid diethylamide # 25 and then float away into the nether reaches of his own mind.

It was Ginsberg, far more than Leary, who was dedicated to strengthening the counterculture / anti-war coalition, which was the whole point of the Gathering of the Tribes to begin with. Leary, in his arrogance and stupidity, even suggested that by the turn of the century we would see deer grazing in Times Square, Manhattan, as people left the cities and joined whatever strange, hybrid, sex-and-drug-fueled kibbutzim that the guy had in his head.

I am put to mind of Alan Watts and his "houseboat summit" due to the fact that the East Coast - Boston, specifically - recently saw its own little pro-Israel / pro-Jewish "summit" at the home of professor Richard Landes of Boston University.

Ted Belman of Israpundit fame writes about it here.

There were about ten people in attendance of whom I am familiar with four. Belman, Landes, Melanie Phillips, and our friend Vic Rosenthal of both Abu Yehuda and the Elder of Ziyon. My guess is that two of the four would recognize my name... maybe three.

I was very pleased to read about this meeting and I would have loved to have been there myself.

Each of these four individuals have something important to say.

Dr. Richard Landes

Landes is a professional historian with Boston University who specializes in religious history and who has a recent book out from Oxford University Press entitled, Heaven on Earth: The Varieties of the Millennial Experience. He is also championing the case of philosophy professor Andrew Pessin who has been harassed at Connecticut College for daring to say mean things about Hamas. I cannot imagine why any Jew would compare Hamas to a vicious caged dog when they are better compared to vicious caged rats. The dog is man's best friend, after all. Hamas is nobody's best friends and screams from the hillsides for the genocide of the Jews.

Aside from his academic work, Landes is best know for maintaining the important pro-Israel Augean Stables blog. In my opinion, the most important significance of Augean Stables is Landes' work on "Pallywood" and what he sometimes calls "lethal journalism." Landes played a significant role in examining the Al Durah Affair in which the IDF was accused of killing children, thereby essentially justifying violence against Jews anywhere in the world. The analyses of Landes, and others concerned with the Al Durah case have demonstrated that this kid was not killed by the IDF, but Arab-Palestinian fighters. Nonetheless, it fueled the Second Intifada resulting in thousands of dead.

Ted Belman

There is much to be said about the excellent work that Belman is doing over at Israpundit, but the powerful and concise message that sits on the top of his page is exceedingly worthy of discussion. It reads quite simply, "THERE IS NO DIPLOMATIC SOLUTION."

Belman is probably correct and it took me quite a number of years - all through the Oslo process - to come to something approaching that conclusion. Well-meaning, left-leaning, liberal Jews want a two-state solution, as did I. Unfortunately, the two-state solution is absolutely dependent upon Arab agreement. For at least 80 solid years the Arab peoples have told us very clearly that they will not accept a Jewish state on any part of historically Jewish land for any reason whatsoever.

There must come a point when we accept the fact that "no means no." Belman got there a few years before I did.

Melanie Phillips

I have to tell you, I love Melanie Phillips not only because I agree with her on Israel - if not global warming - but I admire her audacity. I like Phillips for much the same reason that I appreciate Caroline Glick. The woman has guts and calls it like she sees it. In books like Londonistan, Phillips rings the alarm bell ("alarum bell?") about the consequences of massive Arab and North African migrations into Europe. Sometimes people despise her as a "racist" for such sentiments, but there simply is no question that the changing demographics in Europe are altering European culture in a way that directly clashes with western Enlightenment values. That is not her fault. Melanie is just delivering the news.

One of Phillips' main points, as Belman notes in his piece, is that the Israeli government has got to get out there and make its case. Belman writes:

She divides her time between London and Jerusalem and is a highly regarded journalist. She expressed her pet peeve about the Israeli government which is AWOL when it comes to public diplomacy. She said she has tried talking with government officials who she said don’t have a clue about what’s going on out there and who are unwilling to do something about it.

Vic Rosenthal

Vic started writing the exceedingly interesting Abu Yehuda blog after he made aliyah from California and thereby gave up his exceedingly interesting Fresno Zionism blog. Vic was practically a neighbor, given that Fresno is not really that far from the Bay Area, and I am pleased to say that I played a significant role in bringing him over to the Elder of Ziyon where he now publishes a weekly column.

One idea that Vic and I have in common is opposition to "politically correct" discourse when that discourse stands in the way of the truth and thereby stands in the way of the well-being of the Jewish people. As he writes:

PC is all about making rules about things that cannot be said, and punishing transgressions. But it is not ideologically neutral. It supports universalist, cultural relativist, and multiculturalist ideologies, and insists that a subjective sense of ‘injury’ can be the arbiter of legitimate discourse, rather than ideals of truth or logic. It provides a way to bypass the ideal of free speech and to shut down speech that is uncomfortable.

The Houseboat Summit

Alan Watts and his hippie-counterculture "houseboat summit" went nowhere. By the middle of the 1970s the western counterculture was dying, if not dead, and when Reagan came into office as president in January of 1981, he stomped the life out of what was left of it. By the time that I got to the University of Connecticut in the early 1980s the counterculture was over with. Students had become more interested in business than in bullshit and no one believed that LSD represented a pathway to a better life or a more "spiritual" existence.

{Or, almost no one, anyway.}

What Landes, Belman, Phillips, Rosenthal, and the rest of those sitting around that table did is different precisely because they are not counterculturalists. These are not hippies. These are people with their feet firmly grounded on planet Earth. I can say that with terrific confidence because I read each of them on a regular basis.

What is needed is for Richard Landes or Melanie Phillips, or whoever has the most pull, to turn this into an annual event and to expand on it.

I want to be there next year.

Michael Lumish is a blogger at the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular contributor/blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under.

Pre-Muhammad Quran Suggests Muslims Also Stole 'Apes And Pigs' Epithet (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Birmingham, England, September 1 - Scientists examining the newly discovered Quran segment in a Birmingham library revealed today that the document may be older than Muhammad himself, leading scholars to consider reassessing the early history of Islam. Among the issues being revisited is the origin of the depiction of Jews as the descendants of apes and pigs, since, if the document's pre-Islamic pedigree is established, it indicates that in addition to appropriating the Holy Land given to the Jews, Muslims also stole credit for originating that insult.

Descriptions of Jews as descended of simian and porcine forebears occurs multiple times in the Quran, and remains a popular motif in Islamic culture and religion. Most notably, preachers in mosques invoke the apes and pigs epithet, usually in the context of opposing Jewish political and religious rights in their ancestral homeland. It has become the exclusive province of Muslims, and its place of pride in the Quran was heretofore assumed to represent an original thought. However, if the dating of the Quran fragment indeed reflects an origin from before the birth of Islam's prophet, then yet another achievement of Islam becomes merely a usurpation of earlier material.

Scholars remain divided on the implications, primarily because the dating of the document cannot be pinned down precisely. "There is a range of possible years for the Birmingham Quran piece, extending from several years before Muhammad's birth until close to his death," explained Goril Laswine, who studies the early Islamic period. "Whether or not you see this as a case of divine revelation or yet another thing that Muhammad and his followers unjustly put forth as their own depends, to a great degree, on your assumptions regarding this document." Laswine said he was leaning toward an early date for the document, as such cultural and political appropriation constitutes an essential element of Islam.

Other experts are reserving judgment, given the ambiguity surrounding the date. "I can understand the interpretation that 'Jews are the sons of apes and pigs' was taken wholesale by the early Muslims and presented as Muhammad's original words," said Oren Gutan-Hazir of the University of Haifa. "But I'd be hard-pressed to make a thoroughly convincing case, because it's still quite possible those are Muhammad's own words. The forcible appropriation, distortion, and bloody usurpation of other cultures' territory and output might well have begun slightly later, and only then become characteristic."

At press time, students of the two academics were engaged in a violent, thousand-year-long dispute over the legitimacy of each one's claims.

09/02 Links Pt1: With only one third of Senators voting for the Iran deal, Obama 'wins'

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Losing the war of ideas

We have arrived at the point where the consequences of the West’s intellectual disarmament at the hands of political correctness begins to have disastrous consequences in the lives of hundreds of millions of people.
Speaking last month at the memorial service for the five US marines massacred at a recruiting office in Chattanooga, Tennessee, US Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said, “The meaning of their killing is yet unclear, and what combination of disturbed mind, violent extremism, and hateful ideology was at work, we don’t know.”
US Vice President Joe Biden claimed, the “perverse ideologues...may be able to inspire a single lone wolf, but they can never, never threaten who we are.”
Both men were wrong, and dangerously so.
The meaning of the killings was no mystery.
Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez shot his victims down in cold blood because he was a jihadist. He wrote of his devotion to the Islamic war for global domination on his blog. He downloaded messages from Anwar Awlaki, the American al-Qaida commander killed in a drone attack in Yemen in 2011.
Awlaki’s most prolific follower to date was US Army Major Nidal Malik Hassan who massacred 13 soldiers and wounded 32 in his November 2009 assault at Ft. Hood, Texas. Yet, just as the Obama administration denies to this day that Hassan operated out of devotion to the cause of Islamic global supremacy through genocidal war, so Carter pretended away Abdulazeez’s obvious motive. And Biden stood before those whose lives were shattered by jihad last month and told them that jihad was not a threat to their way of life.

White House wins support for passage of Iran deal through Congress

The Obama administration has secured the support of 34 senators for its landmark nuclear agreement with Iran, ensuring its safe passage through a vote scheduled in Congress this month.
Senator Barbara Mikulski, Democrat from Maryland, announced her support for the deal on Wednesday morning. She followed announcements from two Democratic colleagues, senators Chris Coons of Delaware and Bob Casey, Jr. from Pennsylvania, the previous day.
US President Barack Obama only needs one third of one house of Congress to ensure passage of the accord, because that number is the minimum necessary to uphold a presidential veto. Congress may still vote and pass a resolution disapproving of the deal when it reconvenes next week.
That will be the fight ahead: Over whether a vote of disapproval will take place at all. For such a vote to occur, 60 members of the Senate will have to agree to proceed with debate and break filibuster. Currently, opponents are four votes short of that threshold, with 56 publicly against.

MEMRI: Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei In Mid-August 2015: 'The U.S. Is The Perfectly Clear Embodiment Of The Concept Of The Enemy'; 'We Must Combat The Plans Of The Arrogance With Jihad For The Sake Of Allah'

On August 17, 2015, just over a month after the announcement of the JCPOA in Vienna, Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said in a speech at a conference held by the Iranian Shi'ite Ahl Al-Bayt organization that the U.S. is the embodiment of the enemy of the Islamic peoples and of Iran. It must be fought with military, cultural, economic, and political jihad, he said, adding that Islamic Iran is not interested in reconciling with it. He further claimed that the U.S. is attempting to divide the Islamic world into Shi'ite and Sunni camps that will wage a religious war against each other, and in this way gain it will be able to gain control over the peoples of the region.
Iran, he stressed, stands behind the resistance axis, opposes the division of Syria and Iraq, and will continue to support anyone who fights Israel.
Following are excerpts from a report on the speech that was posted on Khamenei's website (Leader.ir):
"[Khamenei said:] 'We must combat the plans of the arrogance [i.e. the West, led by the U.S.] with jihad for the sake of Allah.' The Leader pointed to 'America's efforts to exploit the results of the nuclear talks and exert economic, political, and cultural influence in Iran' and to the plots of the power-hungry order aimed at sowing conflict and gaining influence in the region. The Leader called for 'adopting the correct plans in order to wisely and consistently fight this plot, in an offense against it and a defense against it.'
"[Khamenei said:] 'Jihad for the sake of God does not only mean military conflict, but also means cultural, economic, and political struggle. The clearest essence of jihad for the sake of God today is to identify the plots of the arrogance in the Islamic region, especially the sensitive and strategic West Asian region. The planning for the struggle against them should include both defense and offense.

The Jerusalem Media and Communications Center, an Arab research group, has released a poll that shows a significant drop in support for boycotting Israel among Palestinian Arabs.

It was clear from the poll that there has been a distinct setback in the level of support for and practice of boycott campaigns of Israeli products in general. The percentage of those who support the boycott of all Israeli projects dropped from 59.2% last March to 49.1% this August. Moreover, the percentage of those who support the boycott of Israeli settlement products only rose from 7.6% last March to 9.4% this August.

In response to a question about their direct practice of boycotting, the percentage of respondents who said they boycott all Israeli products dropped from 48.8% last March to 34.1% this August.

Apparently the Palestinians are interested in boycotting BDS.

UNRWA teachers laugh about Har Nof massacre of four rabbis

Last November 19, the day after Arab terrorists murdered four rabbis with axes and knives as they were praying in Jerusalem,, UNRWA teacher Omar Hussein posted this "joke" on Facebook:

The caption has the Jewish man saying "Oh Lord, let me die (as a result) of a stroke, and not (as a result) of an ax" - which rhymes in Arabic.

The second commenter, Mohammed Abu Amra, said "Amen" and added other methods to kill Jews.

Abu Amra says that he works for UNRWA as well as a technology education manager. He also posted a photo of a young girl with an automatic weapon with the caption "Everything in Gaza is beautiful."

Does UNRWA condone its teachers laughing about the murder of rabbis? Based on their lack of action from the other disgusting Facebook posts I have uncovered, one can only conclude that the answer is "yes."

And their claims to take these charges seriously is nothing but a smokescreen for their underlying antisemitism.

(h.t Ibn Boutros)

"Scandalously dressed women near Al Aqsa Mosque"

Palestine Press Agency is very upset. over "Israeli women dressed scandalously."

Israeli media displayed images of girls wearing revealing clothes near the wall of the old city of Jerusalem.

The photos show the girls as they danced in the vicinity of Al-Aqsa without any objection.

It is so scandalous that the news agency felt compelled to publish several photos:

This is an exercise from JPole Fitness, a Jerusalem-based workout center. They do call it "pole dancing" but it does not have the connotations that the term has elsewhere.

These photos were of course taken outside the Old City walls.

Interestingly, the first Arabic articles about this were copied word for word from a Zionist Arabic website, Al Masdar, and were quite positive about the program, emphasizing that the classes are meant to empower women and are open to all races and religions.

It took a couple of days for Arabic media to decide to be angry at women dancing on poles in Jerusalem.