Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

02/23 Links Pt1: Glick: The lie of pro-Palestinian activism; Israeli Self-Defense Isn’t Debatable

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The lie of pro-Palestinian activism

For them, the Palestinians whose rights they claim to champion are nothing more than means to another end.
Indeed, how dare he teach people who claim to care about the Palestinians about the Palestinians? How dare he say that Palestinians are people, and are not driven only by their collective hatred of Israel and rejection of its right to exist? How dare he mention that Palestinians have the right to work wherever they want and that Jews in Judea and Samaria aren’t inherently evil and actually provide livelihoods for thousands of Palestinians who work with them? How dare Eid come to University of Chicago and mention that neither Fatah nor Hamas have built governing institutions built on the notion that Palestinians have the right to freedom, but rather they have built institution geared toward forcing the Palestinians to seek Israel’s destruction, while trampling their human rights? How dare he not bow and scrape before SJP and accept its positions as a condition for speaking on campus? And so, once again, last Thursday we learned the big lie at the heart of the supposedly pro-Palestinian movement. None of its members – whether from SJP, J Street, or any of their comrades – care about the Palestinians or their rights.
All they care about is attacking Israel.
None of this is new information. It’s been obvious for several years now that the pro-Palestinian movement is merely a means to demonize Israel and its supporters. The only real question at this point is what is it going to take for US law enforcement bodies, legislatures and university administrations to finally take action against these hate groups, to the benefit of Palestinians, Israel and the cause of human rights?

Richard Millett: Israelis accused of rape and organ harvesting at SOAS.

Last night SOAS lecturer Rafeef Ziadah hosted SOAS’ first “Israel Apartheid Week” panel event in front of 300 students and it wasn’t long before the sickening propaganda started flying.
Sahar Francis of Addameer, a prisoner support group, said that Palestinian hunger striker Islam Hamed was threatened with rape by his guards and that Israel’s prison authorities hoped he would die so the courts would implement a “forced feeding bill”.
She continued that Israel has been rumoured to harvest organs from its own car accident victims and from dead Palestinians. However, she said, she couldn’t confirm this (search Israel Advocacy Movement on Facebook to see the video of Francis).
Steven Salaita, an American author, who was once hired and immediately fired by an American university was also on the panel. He claimed last night this was because his course, in which he would humanise indigenous Americans, was too emotional for Americans to cope with.
He spent most of his 20 minutes last night viciously attacking those who support Israel. He asked what a student should do when someone expresses a visceral attachment to Israel. He answered:
“Allow a Zionist’s internal conflict to exist. Exacerbate it!”
He said that “humanising Palestinians undermines the Zionist project” and so Zionists associate Palestinians with Hitler and “have a fear of binationalism which is actual democracy” (this drew huge applause and cheers).
He continued that “Israel directs so much of its violence at children and takes more Palestinian land for water and agriculture”.

Douglas Murray - Highlights 'Defeating ISIS'

Fatah logo designer dies. He was Syrian.

This is the logo of the peaceful, moderate Fatah movement:

It shows three weapons superimposed on the map of British Mandate Palestine, clearly indicating that the desire of this organization is to militarily destroy Israel.

This has remained the logo of Mahmoud Abbas' "moderate" Fatah party through the decades - even after Oslo, even after supposedly accepting Israel's right to exist, even after its former leader Yasir Arafat declared the end to armed attacks.

I have never seen a single Palestinian suggest that this logo be changed to reflect the new, peaceful nature of the supposedly former terror group. I haven't seen any Arabic articles about how offensive this logo is or how inappropriate it is to maintain a logo of destruction after accepting peace.

Keeping that logo says far more about the platform of Mahmoud Abbas' party than any number of interviews broadcast on CNN.

The designer of the logo was Nazir Nabaa. Nabaa died yesterday at the age of 78.

And he was from Syria.

This is appropriate, since the pioneer of fake Palestinian nationalism, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem Amin al-Husseini, only came to that idea after his original intention of an Arab Palestine becoming part of Syria fell through by the Sykes-Picot agreement.

Just like the Palestinian flag - based on a design by the same British Colonel Sykes - even Palestinian symbols aren't Palestinian.

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Why can't the media even attempt to understand Israel's side? A former IDF soldier does what the media won't

Last week a viral video was released showing Israeli security forces violently prevent a wheelchair-bound man from approaching a woman who was shot trying to stab an officer.

The Daily Telegraph wrote:

An Israeli police officer was filmed tipping a disabled Palestinian man out of his wheelchair during a confrontation in the West Bank city of Hebron.

Mobile phone video shows the officer knocking Majed al-Fakhouri backwards and sending him sprawling into the street as a crowd looks on.

The incident took place moments after a 14-year-old Palestinian girl allegedly tried to stab an Israeli police officer on Sunday afternoon.

The girl was shot by Israeli forces and Mr al-Fakhouri, who lost his left leg in a car crash a decade ago, said he was trying to reach her to give her first aid.

"I saw blood coming out of her arm and side and I thought she was going to bleed to death," Mr al-Fakhouri told The Telegraph.

"I tried to help her but a police officer stopped me and ordered me to go back. Then he turned me over and my head hit the ground."

Mr al-Fakhouri, 53, was taken to hospital but was not badly injured. The girl, Yasmin Rashad al-Zarou, was seriously wounded and taken to hospital by Israeli forces.

Really? A man in a wheelchair was going to give first aid to a girl lying on the ground?

In fact, she is a 21 year old and her real last name is Tamimi - meaning that she is likely to be related to the "non-violent" darlings of Western media. Arab media reported that she was killed, but she was being treated for her injuries in an Israeli hospital.

There have been lots of angry articles in the Arab media, spilling into the mainstream media, about how Israeli security supposedly doesn't allow any medical help to approach in situations like this. But I have not once seen any media try to find out about what Israel's procedures are meant to be for terror attacks, whether they make sense, and whether they are violating their own procedures. Without that information, no one can evaluate what is really going on.

A former IDF soldier, Robert Stark, wrote up exactly how and why soldiers are supposed to act in situations like these:

This was not a "crime scene" this is the scene of a terror attack. A still active scene which began only seconds before. At the moment the woman was laying on the ground, alive but neutralized, her bag was identified nearby and hadn't been checked yet. By protocol, this bag is immediately suspected to contain a bomb.

The security perimeter is set up for a few different reasons:

A. The fact there is one terrorist gives reason to suspect another one, an attack that is not yet finished. So, the perimeter protects the soldiers, and the civilians they are guarding.

B. The possibility the female terrorist's bag is a bomb can't be checked until the bomb-disposal unit arrives to investigate. Hence, no one can enter the area lest they die. That includes Arab neighbors taping this on their phones. Its for their own protection.

C. The scene has a wounded woman in danger of losing her life, the last thing she needs is a crowd of Arabs around her, who could try to "help" her which would interfere with the trained professionals including the near by medic from administering life saving first aid treatment.

D. The entry of any civilians, even just 1 unauthorized person, and especially the agitated Arabs, would defeat the purpose of A, B, and C, as well as create danger for the soldiers who would soon either have to be separated by the crowd of people who would likely also be tempted to storm in as well like a wave, or the soldiers would have to restore the integrity of the perimeter by shooting the Arabs who could be part of the terrorist attack. And then you would be bitching here about a video of IDF soldiers shooting at Arabs at close range with a death toll of who knows how many.

(After all, they are storming/confronting a security perimeter during an already started attack)

Now on top of all that, all of these suspicions and dangers, comes brazenly strolling in this man on a wheel chair. Of all times and of all places and of all scenarios, its THIS ONE, he decides to confront soldiers. He becomes the biggest suspect for "here is terrorist 2", simply because of how out of place he is at this moment. It would be crazy even for a man with fully functioning appendages to approach a security perimeter like this one, yet this guy has no qualms about it at all. In fact, he refuses to obey any kind of commands from men with guns, and is very adamant about getting inside.

So, worst case scenario, he has a bomb strapped under him or under his chair. Best case scenario, he is an idiot, and if he gets through, the perimeter is compromised -which means everyone is in danger and especially the woman on the ground who needs treatment. -because the other Arabs could follow him in.

I don't know any other country in the world where people feel brazen enough to stroll up to the face of soldiers and violate simple rules like "this is a crime scene, you can't enter" let alone "this is the scene of a terrorist attack". That in itself is evidence of how confident the Palestinian-Arabs are of NOT having their rights abused by Israeli soldiers.

Yet, here you are, talking about these soldiers corroded by "occupation" as if what happened was a man in a wheel chair was just strolling along not causing any trouble when an IDF soldier deliberately approached him and shoved him until the man fell.

I'm offended. Mostly because, it is common sense, that in any other country it is likely this man in the wheel chair would have been shot on approach by any other security force. Just like anyone who approached a closed security perimeter around an already commenced terror attack.

While it is true that tipping over the man might not have been necessary, the need to keep the scene empty was. And that basic fact is what was missing from coverage of this and similar stories.

It is true that the Telegraph asked for an official response from the Israeli police, but none of the media even considers the simple fact that their readers (and reporters) are completely clueless about military matters, and attempt to judge based on pure ignorance. Israeli officials don't help matters by not making this information easily available.

Even so, the lack of interest in balance by the media shows that this is just another form of anti-Israel bias.

(h/t Barbara)

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There were many new checkpoints set up today that severely restricted Palestinian movement - but they weren't set up by Israel:

Palestinian security forces set up checkpoints outside major West Bank cities early on Tuesday to prevent public school teachers from attending a major demonstration in Ramallah.

Palestinian security checkpoints were installed on all roads outside the cities of Ramallah and al-Bireh. Officers at the checkpoints stopped all vehicles travelling to Ramallah for inspection and turned back buses carrying teachers to the city.

A large numbers of security officers were deployed around government buildings in Ramallah, where teachers were planning on protesting.

An estimated 20,000 Palestinian teachers demonstrated in Ramallah last week to call for the implementation of a 2013 agreement guaranteeing teachers' rights.

Near the southern West Bank city of Bethlehem, Palestinian security checkpoints near the Beit Jala junction and the town of Dar Salah on the main road towards Ramallah, turning back vehicles carrying several hundreds of teachers who were heading to the demonstration.

Palestinian security checkpoints were also erected outside Tulkarem in the northern West Bank for the same purpose.

“We are not opposing a policy or a regime; all we want is to be able to eat our bread in dignity,” a representative of Bethlehem-area teachers told Ma’an, adding that Palestinian security officers seized the driving licenses and identity documents of bus drivers.

Teachers in Bethlehem say that after security officers stopped their buses and ordered them to turn back, many teachers tried to travel in private vehicles, only to encounter more checkpoints further along the road.

In the northern West Bank city of Nablus, witnesses told Ma'an that Palestinian police officers threatened to revoke the licenses of taxi drivers who carried teachers to Ramallah.

Another source, who requested anonymity for safety reasons, told Ma'an that Palestinian security in Nablus also threatened to punish bus companies if they took teachers to Ramallah for the demonstration.

This is a good indication of how liberal and free an independent "Palestine" would be when there are no Israelis in the area at all. The PA went to extraordinary lengths to limit the number of teachers that could attend a protest - what other repressive things would they do? It's not as if the teachers are throwing stones and Molotov cocktails at the police - from all indications the only thing that the protesters were doing that irritated the PA is that they were protesting against the PA.

Hamas, of course, is much worse that even the PA, violently breaking up any anti-government demonstrations.

Anyone who thinks that a Palestinian state would be a wonderful place for Palestinians to live is fooling themselves.

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02/22 Links Pt2: An Open Letter to the Anti-Israel Left; Stop using apartheid for your own agenda

From Ian:

ECAJ [Australia]: An Open Letter to the Anti-Israel Left

This letter is addressed to that small fraction of the political Left which not only criticises Israeli government policies or practices but also demonises and denigrates Israel at every opportunity and thus denies its legitimacy.
We see you, we hear you, day after day, making your ignorant, bigoted and malicious accusations against Jews and Israel. You claim to be speaking for human rights and for justice, but your words and actions betray you. You are haters, liars and bullies.
You presume to define our Jewish identity to suit your own sensibilities and convenience. You assert that Zionism has nothing to do with Judaism. You say we are only a religious group and deny our 3,500 year old history as both a national and a faith community. In short, you presume to tell us who we are – a liberty you would not dare to take with any other group – and you are wrong.
You say you have nothing against Jews. You say you are only against Zionists. You categorise us into “good Jews” who oppose Israel and “bad Jews” who support Israel. This is your cynical, sinister way of offering acceptance only to those Jews who are so lacking in knowledge or moral fibre that they are willing to embrace your hollow caricature of what it means to be Jewish. You are against the millions of Jews, the overwhelming majority, who are proudly Jewish and support Israel’s right to exist as the State of the Jewish people.

Stop using apartheid for your own agenda

There is a difference between somebody who is exposed and someone who is informed. I recently took part in an educational tour to Israel and Palestine. This was a remarkable exposure trip, co-ordinated by South African Israel Forum.
I am now in a good space to distinguish between the Israeli and Palestinian narratives and I realize that the aim was not to make me (and fellow young leaders) pro-Israel, but rather for us to be more exposed to a narrative that is not often heard in South Africa.
Like many other colonized countries, Israel was liberated in 1948 from the British system. However, from the year of liberation onwards, there have been severe conflicts between Israel and its neighboring countries, and in later years, between Israel and the Palestinian Authority. I was surprised to find that Israel has made peace with most of its former adversaries; however, the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations have proven to be very challenging and complex for both parties.
In summary, “variety is the spice of life,” thus I believe that people should not rely on what is portrayed and projected by the media, because, when it comes to Israel, it presents one-sided information and propaganda. I recommend that other South Africans take the time and make the effort to ensure that they visit Israel and Palestine, or at least make the effort to investigate both sides, before making decisions about Israel.
I decided to write this article because I, personally, will no longer allow other people to use our tragedy, as the survivors of apartheid, for their own agenda.
Knowledge is power and instead of being a victim of misinformation, I intend to be an ambassador of peace in this very complex and difficult conflict.
Your sense of solidarity should be informed. And the problems between Israel and Palestine should never be compared to South African Apartheid; the current conflict is completely different: it is not a racial conflict and from my perspective, it is far more religious than it is political.

Roger Waters in Stable Condition after Gaza Tunnel Collapse (satire)

Famed singer/songwriter/activist/dick Roger Waters is in serious but stable condition after getting caught in the collapse of a tunnel southeast of Gaza City earlier today. The Daily Freier was at the scene when a representative from the Palestinian Red Crescent briefed the assembled press. “It was approximately 3:00 PM when the Zionist Entity and its Egyptian lackeys triggered a cave-in of the tunnel, trapping 3 of our pious and motivated young tunnelers, as well as our bizarre but helpful friend Mister Roger Waters.”
When asked by MSNBC how rescue workers were able to find Mr. Waters, the spokesperson explained. “The tunnel was impassable to humans at this point, so we brought in Farfour the Mouse. He was able to find our friend by homing in on the intense scent of bitter self-righteousness that emanated from his body even when he was unconscious. Incidentally, this was exactly how we found Jimmy Carter after he accidentally wandered into the Sand Dunes last year during Ramadan.”
For his part, Roger Waters was insistent that he had done nothing wrong. “I know that the Zionists and their friends in the press will try to spin this in some negative light, but I was merely in the tunnel for its acoustics. You see, I’m recording a new single “Indigenous Olive Oil Can Flow Through Any Wall”, and I really needed just the right sound. But I think the vibrations from the snare drum may have set off a tremor and destroyed the tunnel.”
When the Daily Freier pointed out that since the tunnels go under the border, that he may have inadvertently stepped into Israel, he got really upset and his catheter fell out.

(h/t Bob K)

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According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the number of Palestinians working in Israeli settlements jumped significantly in the fourth quarter of 2015, with 26,300 workers compared to 22,100 in the third quarter, or an increase of 19%.

Even more interesting is that the number of Palestinians working for Israelis altogether only increased by 2,000 in the quarter, indicating that the numbers of workers within "Green Line" Israel actually decreased by about 2,200 and the shortfall was more than made up by an increase of workers in the settlements.

This means that about 2.5% of all Palestinian workers are working for and paid by Israeli settlers. Given that the average daily wage for those working for Israelis is more than double those who work domestically in the West Bank (200.6 shekels vs. 93.6 shekels) it means that over 5% of total Palestinian wages are dependent on the settlements!

My back of the envelope calculation is that Palestinians working in settlements contribute $300 million annually to the Palestinian economy.

In other words, if somehow the PA would make good on its promises to crack down on people working in the settlements, the loss of income would cause an immediate recession and unemployment in the West Bank would soar from 18.5% to 21%.

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02/22 Links Pt1: BDS illegally put Anti-Israel propaganda in 500 London trains; Kerry and the Game of Obfuscation

From Ian:

Hundreds of London tube trains plastered with anti-Israel ads

Millions of Londoners were exposed Monday to a series of anti-Israel posters on the underground network to mark the beginning of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement’s 12th annual Israeli Apartheid Week.
Transport for London, which is responsible for the tube service, said this was “an act of vandalism,” the ads were not authorized and staff members were working to take them down, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
The posters, designed in the style of BBC reports, attacked the UK broadcasting organization [which is frequently criticized for pro-Palestinian leanings] for biased pro-Israel reporting and claimed Israel used British arms to “massacre Palestinians” during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
A third poster criticized the global security company G4S for working in Israel, while a fourth, titled “Apartheid is Great….Britain,” alleged that more than 100 UK companies continue to supply military equipment to the Jewish State.
The Jewish Chronicle estimated that the ads appeared in some 500 trains.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Kerry and the Game of Obfuscation

This "intifada" is simply a further phase in a larger plan to destroy Israel. When the plan began officially, with the establishment of the PLO in 1964, there were no "settlements" -- not until after the June 1967 War -- so what exactly were the Palestinians planning to "liberate"?
The current conflict is not about "defending" any mosque from being contaminated by the "filthy feet" of Jews: it is about seeing Israel forced to its knees. Abbas and others seek to reap delicious political fruits from this "intifada."
Here is a novel idea: Kerry could put pressure on the Palestinian and Jordanian leadership to cease anti-Israeli incitement and indoctrination. Now that would be pressure well applied.
Abbas is expected to become a partner in the fight against ISIS and radical Islamist groups. All well and good. Why then is he not expected to stop cheering on and glorifying young Palestinians who attack Jewish Israelis?

Why Israeli Rule of Golan Is Lawful -- and Wise

Israel’s territorial claim arises in part from the principle of “effective occupation,” which provides that territory can be acquired through the exercise of sovereign power on a peaceful and extended basis. Israeli law has applied to the Golan for almost 35 years and Israel has exercised authority in a manner that suits all the residents of the territory.
Moreover, public international law favors stability, order, and peace; it aims to avoid resolutions that expose individuals to death or injury. Accordingly, it should prefer Israeli sovereignty over the Golan to the grim alternatives for the Golan Druze: the tyrannical rule of Shiite Islamist Iran’s puppet Assad, or the tyrannical rule of Islamic State Sunnis.
The international consensus that the Golan belongs to Syria no longer fits the facts and the law. Nor does it coincide with America’s interest in checking the spread of Islamist violence throughout the Middle East and in bolstering a democratic ally. At the first opportunity—unlikely to come before the next president’s inauguration in January 2017—the United States should affirm Israel’s lawful and just exercise of sovereignty over the Golan Heights and urge the international community, particularly U.S. allies in Europe and the Middle East, to do the same.

There have been meetings recently between the Israeli and Palestinian finance ministers. But that it about all that the Israeli and PA media agree on.

Times of Israel reports it this way:

Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon has met several times with his Palestinian counterpart Shukri Bishara in recent weeks to hammer out a plan for boosting economic assistance to the Palestinians, according to a Sunday report.

Kahlon is now slated to bring a raft of new initiatives to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for approval in the coming days, Channel 10 reported.

The plan is the result of a series of meetings between senior officials in the Israeli and Palestinian finance ministries, over the last several months, despite spiraling street violence. The last bilateral meeting of the finance officials took place last week.

The proposal focuses on both knowledge-intensive industries such as healthcare and high-tech, as well as expanding Israeli-Palestinian economic integration in the construction sector.

Officials in Israel said the measure is intended in part as a gesture to the Obama administration, after Netanyahu promised US President Barack Obama last November to expand efforts to reinvigorate the Palestinian economy.

But it is also seen in Israel as key to tackling lowering tensions in recent months amid the collapse of peace talks and a wave of Palestinian terror attacks since October.

Under the new plan, Palestinian doctors will reportedly be invited to train in Israeli hospitals, especially in medical fields relevant to the recent wave of violence, which has claimed 166 Palestinian lives, about two-thirds of them attackers attempting to kill Israelis at the time of their deaths, and 31 on the Israeli side, including three foreign nationals.

In what may be a significant boost to the Palestinian tech sector, Kahlon is also expected to propose new study and internship opportunities for Palestinian tech entrepreneurs and engineers in Israel’s world-leading high-tech industry.

Palestinian construction companies and contractors will also be allowed to operate in Israel, expanding access to the Israeli market from the current situation in which only Palestinian day laborers are allowed into Israel to work for Israeli companies.

There was no immediate Palestinian confirmation of the initiative.

The Palestinian media reported this completely differently. It says that Bishara denies the report about any discussion of cooperation in high-tech or allowing Palestinian construction companies to work in Israel. He claimed that the meetings were entirely about Israel paying money that is reportedly owed to the PA and adjustments to the costs of energy and tariffs that Israel charges the PA.

The idea of cooperation and normalization with Israel is kryptonite to the Palestinian leadership even as they know that their power and their people's livelihoods depend on such cooperation. But instead of telling their people the truth that Israel is here to stay and they need to work together, they tell them that Israel is their implacable foe and the only thing that is worth negotiating with Israel is its capitulation to their demands and eventual surrender. But under the radar they work together. (Which mirrors how much of the Arab world deals with Israel.)

The divergence between what Palestinians are being told by their leaders and the truth is getting only wider, and that is a major reason for the current wave of attacks. When the only information the people get about Israel is incitement, all they will want to do is kill Jews. Which means that any economic cooperation must be tied to a significant reduction in incitement in official PA and Fatah media. Otherwise, bringing in workers who have been fed a steady diet of antisemitism is going to result in more terror attacks, not less.

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It is raining in Gaza, and you know what that means.

Rumors started spreading in Palestinian social media that Israeli officials formally told their Palestinian counterparts that they plan to open up those dams that don't exist so Gaza can be flooded. As usual, these rumors were accepted as fact.

The mayor of Deir al-Balah issued a statement that there is fear that Israel already opened up those dams, because that is the only possible explanation for flooding during rains.

The director of civil defense in Gaza says that he was informed that Israel planned to open dams of its reservoirs if they filled up, and that he was in touch with the Red Cross to keep tabs on the matter.

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Palestinians fear irrelevance more than anything else

There is nothing that upsets Palestinian Arabs more than the idea that they are really not the center of the universe.

Their "nakba" is trivial next to what is happening in Syria. Their "Gaza genocide" is nothing compared to the number of Arabs killed by fellow Arabs in Libya and Yemen. The worst things to happen to Palestinians in the past two years - the horrific death of the Dawabshe baby and the murder of Muhammad Abu Khdeir - happens every single day in Iraq.

They used to enjoy worldwide coverage as if they were the most important people on Earth.

Using Time magazine covers as a barometer, the Gaza wars of 2014 and 2012 (as far as I can tell) did not make the cover of Time; the 2009 war only made the cover in its European edition. The last time Palestinians were on the cover of Time, in a sense, in the US is arguably ten years ago.

Like children, they can't stand that they are no longer the center of attention. They feel that they are the main victims of the Arab Spring - because it showed how little they matter in the Arab world, let alone to the world at large.

And like children, Palestinians will do anything they can - from meaningless symbolic stunts to threatening and igniting violence, their equivalent of a temper tantrum - to get the attention they crave.

Their entire strategy is based on fooling the world into believing that they hold the key to world peace and that as long as they cannot get their demands, the world will forever be held hostage to the prospect of new outbreaks of Arab violence.

That prospect is happening without them. Egypt fighting in the Sinai, and Libya's bloodshed, and Lebanon's periodic flareups, and Syria's multiple warring factions, and Saudi Arabia's bombing Yemen, and Iraq's disintegration have nothing to do with them.

But they cannot even imagine changing tactics - to, say, compromise for peace and move on with their lives.

The latest pathetic example of Palestinians trolling for attention comes from the Wafa news agency, in a story that will be rightly ignored by the world.

Saeb Erekat, speaking in Amman, said that Palestinians are in the forefront of battling ISIS-type religious extremism. No real evidence is offered, and none exists. If ISIS is where the news is, Erekat wants to make it look like the PLO is part of the fight against them.

The contrary is closer to the truth.The PLO is in talks yet again to unify with the Hamas terror group, which admittedly fights against Salafi-type extremism in Gaza that threatens its rule but which also seems to be helping ISIS in the Sinai, if Egypt is to be believed.

But Erekat also says in his little talk that the Palestinians are fighting another form of terrorism. Of course, he is referring to Israel. And his examples are - drumroll, please - Khdeir and Dawabshe, two events that sickened Israelis as intensely as the daily stabbing and shootings of Jews are celebrated by Erekat's people.

Erekat ended off his talk with the main theme that Palestinians desperately want the world to believe again:

Our struggle is not religious but political, and therefore we say to the world, if you really wanted to fight terrorism and defeat Daash, be aware that it will not be in isolation from draining the swamp of the Israeli occupation and establishing an independent Palestinian state on the '67 borders and Jerusalem as its capital.

There you have it. As long as there isn't a Palestinian state, groups like ISIS will be beheading civilians, according to Palestinian officials. It is almost like they want extremist Muslims to do unspeakable acts just so they can pretend to be relevant.

This isn't the only example of the PLO's tone-deafness. Look at the last two press releases from the PLO's Negotiations Affairs Department. One is a bitter complaint that the EU had the audacity to refer to stabbing random Jews to death as terror attacks and that it didn't 'include the mantra of "1967 borders" in a statement. Another is an extended whine about British legal guidance against public institutions boycotting Israeli products.

Both these press releases were roundly ignored by the world.

The world is sick of being blackmailed with lies like the idea that world peace is linked to giving in to all Palestinian demands. The Arab world long ago realized that Palestinians are nothing but an irritation that wastes resources and time, and for years they have only paid lip service to this supposedly central cause. They want the Palestinians to finally accept peace, shut up and move on with their lives.

The West is slowly catching up with that viewpoint, as the thesis of "linkage" that was so popular a few years ago has died a timely death for everyone outside Ramallah.

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J-Street's curious stance on Soviet refuseniks

J-Street sent an email to its supporters about three members of Congress that they want to replace, and mentioning credentials of those they want instead.

What’s better than unseating one Congressman who voted to block the Iran deal? Unseating three.

And what’s even better than that? Replacing them with three pro-diplomacy women with strong ties to the Jewish community.

Replace Carlos Curbelo with J Street endorsee Annette Taddeo in South Florida (FL-26).
Replace Bruce Poliquin with Emily Cain in the largest district east of the Mississippi (ME-2).
And send Mike Coffman packing by electing Morgan Carroll in Denver (CO-6).

This is real. The DCCC just added all three of these endorsees to their "Red-to-Blue" program, meaning their numbers are showing a high chance of these seats flipping. Given that Obama carried each district in 2012, we're liking the odds too.

We're also loving the candidates. It's not just that they support the Iran agreement while their opponents tried (or are still trying) to sabotage it. Morgan Carroll lived on a Kibbutz and traveled to the Soviet Union with her mother to support Refuseniks. And, if elected, Annette Taddeo would be the first Hispanic Jewish Member of Congress.

According to J-Street, supporting Soviet refuseniks is a great metric for establishing one's Jewish bona-fides.

But there is something a little jarring about using that fact to help elect a woman who stands for what most former Soviet Jews in Israel would bitterly oppose.

Natan Sharansky, the most famous of all refuseniks, has passionately campaigned against the Iran deal.

Ida Nudel was against the disengagement from Gaza.

Yuli Edelstein is a member of Likud and against a Palestinian state that could endanger Israel.

Perhaps Morgan Carroll could give a little more respect to the actual opinions of the people she and her mother fought to free, rather than spit in their faces by supporting giving hundreds of billions of dollars to those who want to destroy the nation that these people risked their lives to live in.

To J-Street, the refuseniks are not heroes to be emulated, but pawns to be used to gain political points.

Carroll's opponent, Mike Coffman, on the other hand, has unquestioned pro-Israel credentials. He was part of a rally supporting Israel during the 2014 Gaza war.

J-Street was nowhere to be found at that rally as far as I can tell.

He has said, "Being a supporter of Israel in Congress means that I will fight those who believe that Israel should return to its ‘67 borders. Only Israel can determine what borders it needs for its own security and the United States should never dictate to Israel what its security requirements are.”

J-Street disagrees.

There is one thing that is unquestioningly Jewish about J Street, though. It has the chutzpah to claim that those who want to go around Israel's democratically elected leaders are "pro-Israel" and those who support them are anti-Israel.

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