Thursday, September 10, 2015

09/10 Links Pt2: PA schools named after terrorists; Why you can’t sue the UN; Stephen Colbert voices Waze

From Ian:

PA schools named after terrorists by PA Ministry of Education

Dozens of Palestinian schools are named after terrorist murderers. The official Palestinian Authority news agency WAFA now reports that the naming of state schools "is under the authority" of the PA Minister of Education. [WAFA, Aug. 25, 2015] "The naming of schools and changes are the responsibility of the Minister of Education, by a direct decision of the Ministry or the Name Committee," the independent news agency Ma'an added. Palestinian Media Watch documented 25 schools named after terrorists in its recent report Palestinian Authority Education: A Recipe for Hate and Terror.
Terrorist Dalal Mughrabi:
Three Palestinian Authority schools are named after Dalal Mughrabi - the terrorist who led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, known as the Coastal Road massacre. She and other Fatah terrorists hijacked a bus, killing 37 civilians, 12 of them children, and wounding over 70, in 1978.
Terrorist Shadia Abu Ghazaleh:
Two Palestinian Authority schools are named after Shadia Abu Ghazaleh - a terrorist who was active in the PFLP (Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine) terror organization and involved in many attacks against Israel. While she was preparing a bomb for an attack in Tel Aviv in 1968, it accidentally detonated and killed her.
Terrorist Abu Jihad:
Three Palestinian Authority schools are named after Abu Jihad - a founder of Fatah and deputy to Yasser Arafat. He headed the PLO terror organization's military wing and also planned many deadly Fatah terror attacks. These attacks, which killed a total of 125 Israelis, included the most lethal in Israel's history cited above.

Norwegian Councilor: Sever Ties with 'Terror-Honoring' Shechem

A member of the Stavanger city council in Norway has called on the municipality to sever ties with sister city Shechem (Nablus) following a report that yet another central square in the city had been named after a terrorist murderer.
According to councilor Mats Danielsson, "the cities we partner with need to share values, norms and practices common to our people. This is proof of the opposite. Our sister city Nablus honors terrorists."
Danielsson made the remarks in an interview with Norwegian newspaper Roglands Avis, after Palestinian Media Watch reported the Palestinian Authority had named a square in Schechem after terrorist Naif Abu Sharah.
Abu Sharah has been involved in numerous terrorists attacks targeting Israelis, including a double suicide bombing in Tel Aviv in 2003 which killed 23 people and injured dozens more.
According to PMW, a memorial built in honor of Abu Shahar in the square is in the shape of a map of "Palestine" including areas controlled by the PA as well as all of Israel.
The monument's design, clearly touting the desire to erase the existence of Israel altogether, also outraged the Norwegian city councilor.

JPost Editorial: The ANC’s stand

The South African Jewish groups are unsure about how deep support for Bapela’s controversial move runs – whether it is merely the pet project of ANC extremists or it is countenanced by wider ANC circles including President Jacob Zuma. The lack of clarity further diminishes Jewish South Africans’ sense of security.
South Africa’s Jewish community is less than half its size of 40 years ago and its today are leery of criticizing the government much, lest they be accused of racism.
Hence, in fairly restrained tones, the Jewish organizations argue that “this unfortunate political grandstanding by Bapela is motivated by his own narrow understanding of the Middle East conflict, which is based on religious fundamentalism and the BDS lobby within the ANC, and we would hope that it in no way reflects the views of the ANC. This is not the first time that Bapela has attacked the Jewish community and its leadership.”
The groups accused Bapela of displaying “classic anti-Semitism” by questioning South African Jews’ loyalty and belligerently agitating against Jewish businesses.
But it is not only Bapela. The degree to which the ANC has departed from its traditions is disheartening. The irony is that Jews were always liberal as no other whites in South African politics, especially in the Progressive Party and the ANC, whose liberation manifestos they helped author.

An Arab taxi driver had a flat tire right next to Ba'kaot checkpoint in the Jordan Valley.

He wasn't able to loosen the wheel bolts by himself so
an IDF soldier from "The Jordan Lions" (a new unit which has both female and male soldiers) came to help him.

A female soldier covered them while the tire was being changed.

A truck driver named Noah who passed by took photos.

"The media in Israel and around the world constantly show our soldiers in unpleasant and difficult situations and it was important for me to stop and photograph this event for all to see how troops are amazing...The truth is I was very excited. I approached the soldier and I said, 'good for you!.'"

The anti-ISrael crowd knows better, however. They know that every good thing ever done by an Israeli Jew for an Arab is a highly staged photo-op to distract the world from IDF crimes and the occupation and the genocide and the ethnic cleansing and the torture and all of the other things that everyone knows Israelis do every day.

(h/t Yenta)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Does Iran really think it can defeat the US?

How could it? The US is the greatest military power the world has ever known. Its nuclear arsenal is enough to turn any possible enemy into ionized plasma multiple times over. Its ICBMs can reach any corner of the globe. One nuclear aircraft carrier (and the US has 11 of them) can deliver enough high explosive to – you know the story.

But America is drawing back into itself. Its military has been severely weakened by budget cuts and ‘sequestration’, equipment has been used and abused in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and not replaced. Morale in the armed forces is low as the gains won at great cost in Iraq are given up as a result of the decision to withdraw regardless of consequences. Even funds for medical treatment of veterans are lacking.

Other countries like China and Pakistan have been spending large amounts of money modernizing and building up their nuclear forces. The US has basically abandoned its program, depending on weapons built decades ago. Can we even be sure they would work if needed? Apparently the theory is that with the end of the Cold War, all nuclear threats disappeared.

The opposite is true. Arguably the most serious nuclear threat of all – because it is made by America’s greatest enemy, one that has demonstrated its enmity by killing Americans almost since its inception in 1979, and which swears every day to destroy her – is from the Islamic Republic of Iran.

As I write, it has just been determined that President Obama has at least the 41 Senate votes he needs to sustain a veto if the Congress passes a resolution disapproving of the nuclear deal with Iran. There is a lot of discussion of how we got here, when it is clearly a treaty which should require 67 votes for ratification, but regardless of what the Congress does at this point, the deal is already a tremendous diplomatic defeat for the US.

It asserts that as soon as the IAEA confirms that Iran has taken certain specific actions (called “Implementation Day”), all sanctions on Iran – 6 UN Security Council resolutions going back to 2006 and others imposed by the US and the EU – will be removed. Much of the 159-page documentconsists of lists of organizations and individuals from whom sanctions will be removed. Details of how IAEA will perform its job are mostly hidden in a secret addendum to the agreement, but some disturbing ones have leaked out, for example that Iran itself will provide the IAEA with soil samples from its facility in Parchin. There are many additional serious issues with inspections, etc., which are discussed here.

The actions Iran is required to take before Implementation Day are all either easily reversible or difficult to verify. Although the deal calls for Iran to limit some nuclear activities for a period of 10 or 15 years, all sanctions will be removed on Implementation Day. Any attempt to re-impose sanctions are grounds for Iran to cancel the entire deal, and existing contracts are exempted from any new sanctions. Companies and nations are already behaving as though sanctions have been removed, sending missions of businessmen and diplomats to make trade arrangements. There can be no “snap-back.”

As soon as Implementation Day arrives (in early 2016) and sanctions vanish, Iran can simply proceed as though there were no restrictions placed on her by the deal. At that point she will have nothing to lose.

At the same time, she will get a windfall of about $150 billion in frozen funds to help pay for her worldwide subversion and terror operations, and of course her nuclear program.

Despite America’s international backing and massive military and economic superiority, the process of negotiation comprised one US capitulation after another.

The main reason seems to be that Obama never gave more than lip service to the military option. Only a credible military threat could have made Iran’s regime back down from what it sees as its most important military/political initiative since 1979, the one that will make it a regional hegemon and facilitate the establishment of a Shiite caliphate throughout the Middle East. But Obama would sooner see a nuclear armed Iran that carry out such a threat.

Two years ago Obama signaled his lack of resolve when he threatened to use force in Syria after Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against anti-regime forces, and then backed down in humiliation. At this point, the Iranians realized that they could dictate terms of surrender to the US (and at the same time Israel and the Sunni Arabs realized that they could no longer depend on America).

So what Obama has accomplished is to clear the way for America’s most resolute and implacable enemy to build nuclear weapons, while at the same time destroying the credibility of the US deterrent!

In terms well understood in the Middle East by both enemies and allies, he surrendered the honor of the United States.

Why did he do this? I think that he believes deeply that the West in general and the US in particular have historically oppressed ‘people of color’, and Muslims count as such. His sense of justice requires a sort of international ‘affirmative action’ in which formerly oppressed or colonized peoples are favored over their oppressors. The use of force or coercion is one of the main crimes of colonial oppressors and must always be avoided. He has in the past apologized for it, and now he is putting his contrition into action.

In addition, he believes that American society can’t deal with the side effects of war. They won’t accept the casualties or the cost. He believes that war in itself is always bad, even when the alternative is sub-optimal. Better to live on your knees than die on your feet.

Unfortunately, some of the ex-oppressed are not interested in justice. They are interested in being oppressors themselves, building empires and establishing caliphates. And they are not stupid. They understand the principles of ‘cognitive warfare’. The best way to defeat an opponent is to convince him not to fight you in the first place. So they appeal to Western post-colonial guilt on the one hand and to anti-war sentiment on the other.

The Iranian plan is not to face those 11 aircraft carriers – at least not for a long time. Meanwhile, step by step they will accomplish their intermediate goals, like the conquest of Iraq, the destruction of Israel, the building of a massive nuclear strike force based on ICBMs.

One day the United States will find itself on the receiving end of coercive diplomacy from Iran. But by that time, the balance of power will have shifted to the point that it won’t pay to try to defend itself. And that is what defeat will look like.

09/10 Links Pt1: Netanyahu: Tyrant Khamenei is wrong, Israel is here to stay; Anti-Bibi UK rally

From Ian:

Netanyahu: ‘Tyrant’ Khamenei is wrong, Israel is here to stay

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday dismissed comments by the Iranian supreme leader that Israel will have ceased to exist in 25 years, vowing the Jewish state is here to stay. The prime minister said remarks by the “tyrant” supreme leader left no “room for illusion” for supporters of the nuclear deal.
“Khamenei is not giving supporters of the agreement any room for illusion. He has made it clear that the US is the Great Satan and that Iran intends to destroy the State of Israel,” Netanyahu said after landing in London for talks with British Prime Minister David Cameron. “This will not happen. Israel is a strong country and it will become even stronger.”
The prime minister said the international community must band together to fight Iran’s “terrorism and aggression.
“However, the conclusion that arises from the remarks of the tyrant in Tehran is that all responsible countries must cooperate in order to stop Iran’s terrorism and aggression which, to my regret, will only increase as a result of the agreement,” said Netanyahu.

House Republicans will move to stop Iran deal vote clock

House Republicans have agreed on a new strategy to stop the clock on Congress' review period for the Iran nuclear deal.
Instead of proceeding with a resolution disapproving of the deal— certain to pass the House but facing procedural hurdles in the Senate— the GOP will now try to prevent implementation of the deal on legal grounds.
On Friday, September 11, the caucus will express a 'sense of the House' resolution asserting that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action— the formal name for the agreement— was not fully submitted to Congress by the Obama administration back in July. If accurate, this would stop the clock, as Congress' review period only begins once all documents related to the deal have been submitted.
"The House is going to make it very clear that without the [International Atomic Energy Agency] disclosures, the clock hasn't started," Rep. Peter Roskam, Republican from Illinois, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday evening, referring to agreements tangential to the JCPOA between the UN nuclear watchdog agency and Tehran.
Speaker of the House John Boehner, Republican of Ohio, has agreed to the plan, Roskam said.
With this new strategy, Roksam said, "the president is denied the ability to say that he's fully complied under the law."

Anti-Semitism in London, absolutely shameful

It is 09/09/2015. In the Middle East, millions are oppressed by their own leaders, hundreds of thousands of people have been killed, and untold numbers are still making their escape. Today the democratically elected leader of the only nation in the Middle East that provides freedom and protection for all its citizens came to visit the UK, and in London, at the very heart of the British democratic system, there was a protest. This protest was not about Syria, nor Iraq, it was not about ISIS, Libya, Yemen or Iran. It was a protest that waved the flags of Hizbullah and Hamas, the flags of proscribed terrorist organisations; this was a protest against the democratic State of Israel.
The people behind this protest are from groups like the PSC (Palestine Solidarity Campaign) and the ludicrously named ‘Stop the War coalition’, the backbone of BDS in the UK; these are the activists, the hard core; these are the ones handing out leaflets, trying to persuade others to join, disseminating disinformation on campus and whipping up the hatred against Israel. And they come to London with Hizbullah and Hamas flags in their hand. When the mask slips, it is important to memorise what you saw behind it.
If anyone is in any doubt, it is worth viewing some of the footage taken from the protest.

Today is the 100th birthday of one of the most popular Arab writers in history.

I'm talking about Egyptian writer Mohammed Khalifa Tunisi, allegedly the first translator of the perennial Arab best seller, The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.

Tunisi said "Jews seeking to demolish the governments in all countries, and replace them with authoritarian Jewish governments ...They say that they alone are 'God's chosen people' and they act in ways that are dictated them the Torah and the Talmud and rabbis and leaders."

The article notes that some people believe that the work is not authentic and that there is "controversy" over the issue, but the rest of it assumes that it is accurate.

The Protocols have been reported to be bestsellers in many Arab countries. Saudi textbooks quote them as authentic. Smash TV series have been created in the Arab world based on that book.

The US Holocaust Museum says that there was an Arabic translation in the 1920s, so it appears that Tunisi wasn't the first translator of the antisemitic forgery, but perhaps his translation was the most popular.

UNRWA staffer trivializes the Holocaust

From the Facebook page of UNRWA Training Coordinator Mohammad R. El Madhoun:

Saying that Palestinian Arabs are suffering a "Holocaust" is antisemitism, pure and simple.

Madhoun actually lives in Gaza. Here is a photo of him in a ghetto taken within a few weeks of the end of the Gaza war. Notice his emaciated body.

And here are his kids being transported to the death camps to be gassed and cremated:

Not to mention that he posts a somber video of Gazans gathering in stunned, tearful memory of this terrible genocide on the morrow of the Gaza war.

Calling anything that ever happened to Palestinian Arabs a "Holocaust" is meant to trivialize the real Holocaust and to convey the message that Jews are Nazis. It is a pure example of antisemitism.

And UNRWA teaches their kids this perverted inversion of reality.

How do I know?

Because Mohammed learned his hate from his mother, who was a head teacher at UNRWA as well.

Yet Chris Gunness, UNRWA's spokesperson who has his own issues with Jews, keeps telling every reporter that calls him (including one from yesterday) that UNRWA takes all credible reports of violations of neutrality seriously and condemns all forms of racism. (I'm fairly certain he always adds the word "credible" as an excuse to ignore my documented proof of UNRWA staffers' hate by pretending that this blog is not credible.)

When will a reporter follow up and ask him about the scores of examples that I have been publishing daily for the past several weeks, plus additional ones I've been tweeting? When will someone rub his lies in his face so the world can see what a sickening, hateful organization UNRWA has turned into?

Israel finally cracks down on the racists on the Temple Mount

From Arutz-7:

Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon signed an order Wednesday declaring the groups of Islamists who regularly harass Jews on the Temple Mount – the male “Murabitun” and female “Murabitat” – as illegal organizations.

The activists regularly riot on the Mount, curse, shout, and throw various objects at the Jews who ascend the Mount, and sometimes attack police as well.

Yaalon signed the order upon the recommendation of the Israel Security Agency and the Israel Police, after he became convinced that it was necessary for preserving the public peace and security of the nation.

“The activity of the Murabitun and Murabitat is a central element in creating the tension and violence on the Temple Mount in particular and in Jerusalem in general,” said a statement issued by Yaalon's bureau. “This is dangerous and inciting activity against tourists, visitors and worshipers at the site, that leads to violence and could cause loss of life.”

The declaration was signed after it received the approval of the Attorney General, and it means that anyone participating in Murabitun/Murabitat activities, organizing or funding it, is carrying out a crime and is likely to face prosecution.

A lawyer associated with the Waqf declared this a "war on the rituals of Islam" and they declared this "religious persecution."

Here's one of many videos of the Muslims performing their Islamic rituals.

Of course, there are other Islamic rituals performed, like soccer and karate and parkour.

AFP's version of this story is ridiculously biased.

BDS-holes freak out over Stephen Colbert's Sabra Hummus joke

These guys really have no lives.

A comedic product placement for Sabra hummus near the start of Stephen Colbert’s first episode as host of “The Late Show” on Tuesday night earned him praise from marketing experts, but catcalls from supporters of a movement to boycott Israeli-owned companies.

In a segment that simultaneously mocked paid endorsements and was one, Mr. Colbert explained to viewers that he had made a deal with a demonic amulet, which gave him the chance to host the show but required “certain regrettable compromises,” like endorsing Sabra-brand hummus.

While most of Mr. Colbert’s viewers were quite likely unaware of any political implications of the tongue-in-cheek endorsement, fans who support a Palestinian-led campaign to pressure Israel through boycotts, divestment and sanctions, or B.D.S., were dismayed by the gag. The hummus, which is produced in the United States, has been subject to calls for a boycott because it is made in a joint venture between PepsiCo and the Strauss Group, an Israeli food company that has provided financial support to the Israel Defense Forces’ elite Golani Brigade.

While the brand responded to the plug by playing along on Twitter...

.@colbertlateshow Well done Stephen! Your shameless plug of our hummus is pleasing unto his Reptilian Majesty. #LSSC pic.twitter.com/ngbljSztRG
— Sabra (@Sabra) September 9, 2015

...advocates of the boycott campaign expressed their disappointment on the social network during the broadcast.

Ugh do not buy blood hummus #BDS https://t.co/IKAbLYI4t6
— Peter Feld (@peterfeld) September 9, 2015

Boo.. #TheLateShow just disappointed me with that #Sabra bit.. Don't buy Sabra. #BDS #FreePalestine
— Jaime Rafael Puente (@JaimeRPuente) September 9, 2015

.@colbertlateshow you know Sabra supports Israeli occupation and destruction of Palestinian culture, right? #corporatesocialresponsibility
— Adham Sahloul (@adhamsahloul) September 9, 2015

Very disappointed in the Sabra plugs on the first night of Colbert's show. Booooo.
— Lila Yomtoob (@lilabird) September 9, 2015

So, what's up with the endorsing a company that supports a brutal and racist occupation on your first night, @StephenAtHome? #sabra #bds
— Syjil Ashraf (@thedailysyjil) September 9, 2015

So sad that these brave fighters for justice had to endure a comedy skit. This was clearly a microaggression and CBS must be sued for making these poor people have to live through the trauma of watching Stephen Colbert eat hummus that they don't approve of.

(h/t alyssa)

09/09 Links Pt2: A hero acts, and Hebron gets a lesson in humanity; Golda Meir Was No J-Streeter

From Ian:

A hero acts, and Hebron gets a lesson in humanity

For an unarmed man to save five intended victims from a frenzied mob takes remarkable courage under any circumstances. When the rescuer is a Palestinian Muslim in an all-Arab neighborhood and those he saves are strangers in conspicuously Jewish garb, the moral valor he displays is extraordinary — and a heart-lifting reminder of the goodness that people are capable of, however poisonous the atmosphere that surrounds them.
Jewish tradition famously teaches: “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” That teaching is so famous, in fact, that it is quoted in the Koran.
No society in history — not even the most decent — has ever wholly uprooted the lust to kill and terrorize. Israel comes closer than most; Muslim tourists who inadvertently take a wrong turn into a Jewish neighborhood will not find themselves under attack by a mob bent on slaughter. But the Jewish state has its savages as well, such as the arsonists who torched the home of the Dewabsha family in the village of Duma on July 31. An 18-month-old toddler, Ali, burned to death in the inferno; his father, Sa’ad, died a week later. On Monday, after weeks in a coma, Ali’s mother, Reham, died of her injuries too.
Israelis across the political spectrum expressed shame and anguish in response to the arson attack. Many are sickened by the realization that such evil could come from within — and outraged that the murderers are still at large. The Palestinian man who saved five Jewish lives, meanwhile, finds himself reviled as a collaborator. Other Palestinians have reportedly threatened to “burn his house down, or cut off his head.”
Heroism comes in different forms, but the greatest is the courage to act in defense of the despised outsider — especially when it would be more prudent to look the other way. Today we use the term “good Samaritan” to mean any charitable person. But 2,000 years ago, when Jesus related his parable about the Israelite who had been beaten and left for dead on the Jericho road, Samaritans and Jews hated each other. Bitterness between the two communities ran deep. Yet it was precisely the Samaritan who saved the wounded Jew, choosing to ignore the stranger’s detested tribal identity, and to see instead a fellow human being.
That Samaritan, like Faiz Abu Hamadiah, would no doubt have denied being a hero. The only difference between them is that the Good Samaritan was a parable. Hamadiah is blessedly, beautifully real.

Brendan O'Neill: Why does the left care more about Islamophobia than anti-Semitism?

The extent to which chattering-class concern for Muslims trumps concern for Jews reached its nadir when four Jews were murdered in a Parisian deli shortly after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. Pretty much every liberal newspaper in Europe continued thundering on about the potential for an ‘Islamophobic backlash’ following the Charlie killings, even as Jews were being killed. On the morning the four dead Jews were being put on a flight for burial in Israel, George Clooney was telling fawning hacks how worried he was about ‘anti-Muslim fervour’ in Europe. It’s surreal. Some people seem more worried about possible attacks on Muslims than by actual attacks on Jews.
And now, a hike in anti-Muslim crimes in London is given greater media prominence than a larger hike in anti-Jewish attacks. This implicit demotion of Jewish problems, this judgement that crimes against Jews aren’t all that serious, needs some explanation. I think there are two reasons for it.
The first is that flagging up attacks on Muslims allows the left to indulge some prejudices of their own, especially about the dumb, tabloid-reading hordes, whom they view as being one iffy Richard Littlejohn column away from organising a demented anti-Muslim pogrom. The liberal elite’s myopic focus on Islamophobia is really an expression of distrust for the insufficiently multicultural, apparently Western-centric masses.
The second reason is that many on the left seem to think anti-Semitism is politically justified. From Karen Armstrong’s insistence that the deli attack in Paris ‘had nothing to do with anti-Semitism’ and rather was ‘about Palestine’ to various commentators’ claims that anti-Semitism in Europe is the inevitable byproduct of Israel’s antics in the Middle East, many very respectable people now view assaults on Jews almost as a form of protest, as political rather than hateful.
That’s the terrifying message of the media and leftists’ implicit downgrading of the seriousness of anti-Semitism. Whether they’re excusing these crimes or simply acquiescing to them, they’re giving a green light to anti-Semitism.

Golda Meir Was No J-Streeter

A deep and permanent rift between Democrats and Israel is inevitable because the Israeli government “has more in common with Dick Cheney than Golda Meir”—or so say s J Street leader Jeremy Ben-Ami, in a front-page story in The New York Times of Aug. 29. J Street’s characterization both misrepresents current Israeli leaders and does a grave disservice to the memory of Israel’s first female prime minister.
Some on the American left harbor a kind of visceral hatred towards former vice president Cheney, and they seem to presume that everyone else does, too. Hence Ben-Ami’s seemingly odd reference to someone who has been out of office in America for more than seven years. He would like to suggest that Democrats (and especially Jewish Democrats) must choose between the hated Cheney and the beloved Golda.
Golda is indeed a revered figure in Jewish history. But she was no J Street-style dove.
Addressing Labor Zionist delegates to a Jewish Agency assembly in June 1971, Golda denounced the slogan “peace for territories” as “superficial and simplistic.” The slogan — and concept — of “peace for territories” has, of course, been the heart and soul of the Israeli and American-Jewish Left since the 1967 war. It is their slogan, their mantra, their very raison d’être. And Golda rejected it.

The Sickening Deification of Rasmea Odeh

Anti-Israel activists creating a Palestinian Mumia Abu-Jamal
In early September 1972, Palestinian “Black September” terrorists seized the Israeli Olympic team at the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. By the time it was over, 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman would be dead.
Before the deadly conclusion, Black September demanded the release of the notorious German “Red Army Faction” terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhoff as well as 234 prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Included on that list was a name that probably meant little to people outside Israel – Rasmieh Odeh.
The name Rasmieh (Rasmea) Odeh meant a lot to Israelis because Rasmea and her co-conspirators were convicted in 1970 of the 1969 bombing of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem, which killed university students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.
A second bomb placed in the SuperSol supermarket timed to go off when first responders arrived, was disarmed moments before it was to explode.
As I reported when I met the families of Edward and Leon in Israel, the SuperSol bombing was scorched into the memories of Israelis because it was the first major post-1967 attack on Israeli civilians, and the funeral was a national event.
Rasmea also was convicted of the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.

UN blames Israel for charging Palestinians for electricity

From a recent report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development:

Electricity importation: Another source of Palestinian fiscal leakage

Importing electricity from Israel is another source of loss of Palestinian fiscal resources and consumer welfare. When Palestinian electricity distributors (municipalities, village councils and distribution companies) fail to pay the Israel Electric Corporation, Israel deducts from the Palestinian National Authority’s clearance revenue and registers any remaining balances as debt owed to the Corporation, to be deducted from clearance revenue at later dates. Such deductions also cover sewage fees and water imports, and are referred to as net lending. They are deducted by Israel without the consent of or verification by the Authority, in a unilateral, non-transparent and unpredictable manner (World Bank, 2014b).

Can you believe it? Israel insists that it gets paid for electricity, water and other utilities being provided, and it will deduct the money it is owed when the PA refuses to pay - all under existing agreements!

Obviously Israel shouldn't ever charge anything for power until the PA is good and ready to pay on its own. Maybe in 2025, maybe in 2050. But the check is as good as in the mail.

(h/t Irene)

Meretz: Ban Bars From Not Hiring Muslims Who Won't Serve Alcohol (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Jerusalem, September 9 - New legislation brought by the left-wing Meretz Party would outlaw what it calls manifestations of discrimination on the basis of religious belief, making it a crime to refuse to hire a Muslim as a bartender simply because his religion forbids him to serve alcohol.

A bill co-sponsored by Meretz MKs Tamar Zandberg and Ilan Gilon was submitted to the Economic Development Committee today, that would make it a misdemeanor for a caterer, restaurant, liquor store, or bar to discriminate against a Muslim applicant because he may refuse to serve alcoholic beverages. The bill sets a NIS 10,000 fine for a first offense, NIS 20,000 for a repeat offense, and six months' imprisonment or two years' community service for anyone who violates the provision.

Zandberg said she was moved to introduce the bill after realizing that despite years of patronizing establishments in virtually all of North Tel Aviv, she had not once spied a bartender in traditional Muslim garb, and concluded that discrimination must be the root cause of that absence.

"We must take down all barriers to gainful employment for all citizens if we are to claim the mantle of a progressive, democratic society," said Zandberg. "Muslims are not to blame for the strictures of their faith, and it is up to our society to accommodate them in any way we can. A bar owner or manager who sees fit to exclude a person simply because that person's religious observance keeps him from performing all the functions of the position engages in religious discrimination and will be penalized."

Gilon told reporters the original draft of the legislation also included more sweeping provisions, but that they scaled back its contents to make the shifts more manageable. "We intend to reintroduce the other elements in separate pieces of legislation later on," he explained. "For example, while the current proposal does not include anything other than the alcohol issue, by January we will tackle other types f discrimination that are just as troubling in a democracy. By way of illustration, currently there is nothing that prevents law enforcement agencies from banning violent criminals from joining the police force. This is a clear violation of those potential police officers' rights, as it unjustly curtails their employment prospects."

"Additionally, we are looking into the practice among academic institutions of only accepting applicants with a certain level of academic achievement," he said. "That is a gross violation of less-accomplished applicants' rights."

Gilon and Zandberg added that the provision to bar religious discrimination explicitly did not include religious Jews, who should know better than to cling to that outdated, barbaric system.

09/09 Links Pt1: Palestinians have become obsessive “tragedy tourists”; Support for Iran Deal Collapses

From Ian:

Ryan Bellerose: Palestinians have become obsessive “tragedy tourists”

Lets get a few things straight. You do not get to claim a genocide when your population has exploded. As someone whose family has gone through one, I am telling you to cut that s*** out, it’s offensive and it’s annoying.
You did not “go through what Native Americans went through.” Nobody forced you to speak an alien language, worship God in an alien manner and steal your sacred places. As a matter of fact THAT’S WHAT YOU DID. You stole sacred places, forced indigenous people to speak Arabic and worship god as Muslims. So seriously cut that out too.
You did not in fact have a civil rights struggle like black people in America. Black people in America didn’t blow up school buses or pizzerias filled with school kids in order to achieve equal rights, and they damn sure didn’t talk endlessly about pushing white people into the sea.
You are not persecuted like gay people, for something that is beyond your control. Nobody throws you off buildings because you love someone you shouldn’t. So again, cut that out, it’s getting old, especially when some of us are well aware that your society not only hates gay people but actively persecutes them. You are the guys throwing them from buildings.
You do not get to keep stealing stories. You stole the identity of what was known as ‘Palestinian’. Before World War II the term meant Jews. But that’s OK, it’s a colonialist term, and I am sure that my Jewish friends don’t want it. They prefer to be called Jews, Hebrews, Israelites or Israelis, so you can take your colonialist garbage and get lost. (h/t Bob Knot)

Caroline Glick: The Republican fall guys

The ayatollahs will ride their nuclear pact with the Great Satan all the way to a nuclear arsenal and regional hegemony, repeating the cycles of brinksmanship, extortion, respite and brinksmanship that they learned from their North Korean teachers.
Obama won’t walk away from his signature foreign policy. He will devote his energies in his remaining time in office to covering up for Iran. That is why he is breaking the law he signed and refusing to hand over the side deals regarding the farcical nature of UN inspections of Iran’s nuclear sites to Congress.
Moreover, after insisting that the deal is the best way to prevent a holocaust or that it is the only way a Jewish mother can protect the homeland of her people, Democratic lawmakers are not going to rush to acknowledge that they are lying. Now that they’ve signed onto the deal, they own it.
Of course, the Iranians are another story. While the Democrats will not abandon the deal no matter what, the Iranians signed the deal in order to abandon it the minute it outlives its usefulness. And that works just fine for the Democrats.
The Democrats know that the Iranians will use any step the Republicans take to try to enforce the deal’s verification regime or condition sanctions relief on Iranian abidance by the deal’s restrictions on its nuclear activities as an excuse to walk away from the deal. They also know the Iranians will remain in the deal as long as it is useful to them.
Since the Iranians intend to hide their nuclear activities, the Democrats assume Tehran will stay in until it is financially and militarily ready to escalate its nuclear activities.
The Democrats believe that timetable will extend well beyond the lifespan of the Obama administration.
Whenever the Iranians leave, they can be depended on to blame US for their decision to vacate their signature. And the Democrats in turn will blame the Republicans for pushing the Iranians over the edge.
You have to give credit to the administration and its Iranian chums. At least they are consistent. They have constructed an agreement that gives them both what they care about most. Iran, as always, wants to dominate the region and develop the means to destroy Israel and its Arab adversaries at will. The administration, as always, wants to blame the Republicans.
Israel and the Arabs understand the game that is being played. It is time for the Republicans to get wise to it.

PMW: Abbas' description of Jewish history as "delusional myths" echoed on PA TV

A narrator on official PA TV stated that the "so-called Temple" is a "myth" and that stories about Jewish history in Jerusalem are "delusions and legends." This historical revision exemplifies the Palestinian Authority's policy of denying Jewish history in Jerusalem and denying the existence of the Temple.
PA TV narrator: "The story of the Temple is nothing but a collection of legends and myths for political reasons. They [Jews] have set Palestine and Jerusalem as their goal, and have used the myths in the service of their declared goals of occupation and imperialism. In the spirit of the delusions and legends, they try to get rid of the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and establish their so-called 'Temple' - the greatest crime and forgery in history." [Official PA TV, Aug. 1, 2015]
This ideology and the use of such expressions come from the top PA echelons. Palestinian Media Watch documented that PA Chairman Abbas, in a speech to leaders of Muslim countries, defined Jewish history in Jerusalem as a "delusional myth" and claimed that Israel is trying to invent a Jewish history "by brute force":