Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 02, 2016

06/02 Links Pt1: 15 years ago today: Dolphinarium disco bombing murdered 21 young Israelis; Time to truly liberate Jerusalem

From Ian:

A post on the official Fatah Facebook page presents Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a baby killer. The text posted by Fatah in English accompanying the above cartoon, asked the Israeli PM:
“How many Palestinian kids did it take you to kill to win the Israeli votes?
#Asknetanyahu”
[Official Fatah Facebook page, May 12, 2016]
The cartoon shows a rising graph made of dead Palestinian babies as PM Netanyahu walks across, rising in popularity. "#Asknetanyahu" is referring a May 12, 2016 event on Twitter in which PM Netanyahu responded to questions tweeted to him using the "Asknetanyahu" hashtag.
Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the PA and Fatah often repeat the libel that Israel, its leaders and soldiers deliberately target and kill Palestinians for no reason.

Dolphinarium disco: 15 years ago today Palestinian suicide bomber murdered 21 young Israelis

It’s a word that brings chills to those who have lived through or studied the Second Intifada, the murderous suicide bombing campaign targeting Israeli civilians.
Much like the Sbarro Pizza suicide bombing and the Park Hotel Passover suicide bombing, not to mention suicide bus bombings like Haifa Bus 38. Just a few of the more notorious attacks on a very long list of attacks on Israeli civilians starting in 2001.
The carnage only ended after the security barrier was built and Israel launched an intensive military operation in Judea and Samaria (the “West Bank”). And after almost 1000 Israeli civilians died.
You can’t understand the current Israeli political outlook without understanding the Second Intifada. I’ve heard so many times it was the event that soured so many Israelis on the Oslo Peace process. After all, we now know that the Second Intifada was a planned assault launched by Yasser Arafat after he couldn’t bring himself to say Yes to generous peace offers at Camp David an after.
15 years ago, on June 1, 2001, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed 21 young Israelis outside the Dolphinarium disco.

Time to truly liberate Jerusalem

Even as Israel prepares to celebrate the 49th anniversary of the reunification of Jerusalem next week, a shameful incident took place which should serve as a painful reminder that much still needs to be done to strengthen our hold over all parts of our beloved capital.
According to a report in Wednesday’s Yediot Aharonot, a busload of recruit’s to the IDF Paratroopers Brigade were on their way to the traditional military induction ceremony at the Western Wall when police ordered them to close the curtains over the windows, lest Arab onlookers attack as they arrived at the Old City’s Damascus Gate.
Yes, you read that correctly. Israeli soldiers were instructed to hide behind their bus curtains in the heart of Jerusalem.
The paper noted that the soldiers vehemently objected, but were forced by their commander to accede to the order, although not before they began to chant, “The eternal nation does not fear a long road.”
The irony of this incident is so profound, and so bitter, that it simply defies comprehension.
After all, it was none other than a heroic group of paratroopers – the 55th Paratrooper Brigade commanded by Colonel Mordechai “Motta” Gur – which liberated the Old City during the 1967 Six Day War.

One of the advisors for the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel is NYU sociologist Andrew Ross.

It is no surprise to find out that Ross is yet another academic fraud. It took me about two minutes to find this among his writings for an academic labor journal:

The recent ugly backlash against the American Studies Association’s (ASA) decision to join the boycott of Israeli universities should have surprised no one. ...The tactics of intimidation and thuggery deployed by some organized supporters of Israeli policy should remind us of the military violence at the heart of the colonial occupation in Palestine. Indeed, that is the unspoken intention behind these threats. Somewhere behind all of the bullying and verbal posturing lies the metallic decree of armed force.

Yes, this esteemed academic says that if you oppose discrimination against the Jewish state, you are effectively threatening to shoot BDSers point-blank with Merkava tanks.

The funny thing is that Andrew Ross was the editor of Social Text in 1996, when that journal was the victim of a brilliant hoax to prove that people like Andrew Ross have literally no concept of reality.

As Wikipedia notes:

From 1986 to 2000, Ross served on the editorial collective of Duke University's journal Social Text. In 1996 he was one of the journal's editors who published a paper byAlan Sokal professing to show connections between physics and post-modern theory, and which was later revealed by Sokal to be a hoax meant to expose the low academic standards of "post-modernism" (see Sokal affair). Ross was among the editors of Social Text who were awarded the 1996 Ignoble Prize for Literature for his part in being taken in by the hoax.[1]Ross's involvement in the Sokal hoax gave rise to criticism from outside the area of his academic specialisation. In an article in Nature {Published in Nature, 9 July 1998, vol. 394, pp. 141–143} Richard Dawkins said [2] "Ross has the boorish, tenured confidence to say things like, "I am glad to be rid of English departments. I hate literature, for one thing, and English departments tend to be full of people who love literature"; and the yahooish complacency to begin a book on 'science studies' with these words: "This book is dedicated to all of the science teachers I never had. It could only have been written without them."

Sokai wrote:

The results of my little experiment demonstrate, at the very least, that some fashionable sectors of the American academic Left have been getting intellectually lazy. The editors of Social Textliked my article because they liked its conclusion: that ``the content and methodology of postmodern science provide powerful intellectual support for the progressive political project.'' They apparently felt no need to analyze the quality of the evidence, the cogency of the arguments, or even the relevance of the arguments to the purported conclusion.

This is the entire modus operandi of the anti-Israel crowd. They choose the conclusion first - that the Jewish state is a uniquely evil regime - and then they believe or fabricate any evidence, no matter how tendentious, to support their foregone conclusion. This is why you cannot argue with them: facts are inconvenient obstacles to their sacred goals.

It is no wonder that someone for whom opinion trumps truth is someone who is active in attacking the only state in the Middle East with true academic freedom.

(h/t David Abrams)

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I had missed this important interview in RealClearPolitics with Al-Monitor’s Congressional Correspondent Julian Pecquet about the Arab lobby in Washington. Excerpts:

Can you give us a brief overview of Mideast lobbying in Washington?

[Arab nations are] forced to rely on armies of former officials and assorted influence-peddlers and image-makers to get their way. Often times in the Middle East, those goals include preserving the status quo or trying to put some controversy or other to bed rather than seeking any positive development.

That’s what you’re seeing right now with Saudi Arabia’s massive $9 million a year campaign to kill legislation allowing the families of 9/11 victims to sue the kingdom. The Saudis are also working hard to preempt the inevitable negative media coverage from the pending release of a 2002 preliminary inquiry into the attacks.

The same is true of Egypt. Since late 2013, Cairo has been working with the Glover Park Group to shake off the pariah status that followed President Mohammed Morsi’s overthrow, and lift all remaining restrictions on military and economic aid.

The Lebanese, for their part, want to protect their banking industry from new sanctions on the Shiite militant group Hezbollah. And the United Arab Emirates has kept a close watch on the debate over the Export-Import Bank’s reauthorization, which the UAE has relied on extensively to help build its world-beating airline industry.

Other actors want a shot at political power, with interesting regional dynamics. These include the Iraqi Kurds’ bid for more autonomy (which Baghdad has lobbied against) and the Syrian opposition’s efforts to gain support against Bashar al-Assad (with an assist from the Saudi lobby).

Which Mideast country -- or countries -- might surprise the casual American observer for its outsize influence in our nation’s capital?

Morocco has to be one of the most interesting cases. The kingdom spends upwards of $3 million a year on more than a half-dozen lobbying and PR firms -- not to mention a seven-figure donation to the Clinton Foundation -- to project a friendly image. Mind you, we’re talking about a relatively poor country that’s still eligible for Millennium Challenge Corporation grants. All of that lobbying is directed at one main goal: obtaining U.S. approval -- or at least tacit acquiescence -- for its exploitation of the disputed Western Sahara, where Sahrawi activists have long demanded a vote on independence. The campaign has been largely successful, with neither the State Department nor Congress in any great rush to upset the apple cart and undermine a longtime Western ally by ushering in a potentially ungovernable new state on its borders.

Here's his story about the Clinton Foundation taking a million dollars from Morocco from April 2015:

Presidential hopeful Hillary Rodham Clinton is endorsing the illegal exploitation of disputed lands and risks undermining four decades of UN diplomacy by taking money from Morocco, critics say.

Clinton, who's expected to announce her candidacy for the Democratic nomination April 12, has come under fire for accepting foreign contributions to the Clinton Foundation, most recently a $1 million donation from OCP, a fertilizer giant owned by the Moroccan government. Left unsaid in the initial reports: OCP — the Office Chérifien des Phosphates — is a major player in the exploitation of mineral resources from the Western Sahara, a disputed territory known as the “last colony in Africa” that Morocco took over after colonial power Spain abandoned it in the 1970s.

“You’ve heard of blood diamonds, but in many ways you could say that OCP is shipping blood phosphate,” Rep. Joe Pitts, R-Pa., told Al-Monitor. “Western Sahara was taken over by Morocco to exploit its resources and this is one of the principal companies involved in that effort.”

A co-chairman of the Western Sahara Caucus and the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission, Pitts is one of a small handful of lawmakers willing to buck Morocco, a longtime US ally that runs a massive lobbying and PR operation in Washington. On April 10, he sent a letter to the Clinton Foundation, first obtained by Al-Monitor, along with House Foreign Affairs human rights panel Chairman Chris Smith, R-N.J., asking the foundation to refund the money and “discontinue its coordination with OCP.”

A spokesman for the foundation did not return an email request for comment.

Later reports say that OCP gave as much as $5 million to the Clinton Foundation, and Hilary Clinton has been an outspoken advocate for Morocco's position vis a vis the Western Sahara.

Segments of the Arab lobby seems to be quite effective in Washington. Funny how few people talk about it.

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Moroccan BDS activists announced that they managed to intimidate dozens of produce wholesalers in the country to stop selling Israeli dates, especially ahead of Ramadan when the demand for dates is high.

One of the merchants confirmed to the media that the requests by wholesalers to buy Israeli dates have ended "as a result of the success of the pressure campaign."

One activist said, "How can we accept the existence of this product on our plates, especially during the holy month of Ramadan, knowing that what we spend on these dates contributes to the perpetuation of the Israeli occupation and oppression of the people of our beloved Palestine?

This article says that the campaign was kickstarted by a Jewish anti-Zionist who noticed the Israeli goods in markets earlier this year.

This is hardly the first time that the issue has come up. Al Jazeera wrote about the exact same phenomenon of Israeli dates coming to Morocco ahead of Ramadan some nine years ago and I covered the paranoia then.

However, the amount of Israeli goods entering Morocco has been steadily increasing, from watermelons to chocolates to clothing to electronics.

How do these goods enter the Arab nation?

Importers in the autonomous Spanish areas of Ceuta and Melilla are bringing them in from Spain. Thousands of Moroccans flock to the enclaves daily to buy Western-made goods at discount.

One importer started to remove any tags that showed that the goods were from Israel, but consumers demanded to know where they were from. This didn't stop them from wanting to buy them.

One merchant said, "Many people in the beginning rejected (Israeli goods,) but with the passage of time some people began to, and some do not care about the source, even if it is Israeli. When they see quality goods they buy."

Whether the BDSers actually won this battle is hard to know because they are the only ones relaying this news. But they are definitely losing the war, as the amount of Israeli exports to Morocco has been steadily increasing year after year.

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06/01 Links Pt2: Intellectual Antisemites and the Left; Why BDS is antisemitic

From Ian:

Intellectual Antisemites and the Left

A recent example shows just how this works. (There are plenty of others, like professors Puar of Rutgers and Karega of Oberlin, but I’ll focus on a less widely reported example.)
An April article in Tablet tells of a Stanford University professor of Comparative Literature, David Palumbo-Liu. Comparative Literature is a very high-brow field. A generation ago the deconstructionist gospel, inculcating a sophisticated nihilism with leftist inflections, was received there first and remains alive and well. From Stanford’s heights, Professor Palumbo-Liu looked down upon mainstream media’s coverage of Israel and lo, it was not good. He thus told his readers to direct their attention to more reliable sites. “Look at Mondoweiss, the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), the American Friends Service Committee, Electronic Intifada, If Americans Knew,” he wrote.
Okay, let’s look. The first three are fiercely anti-Israel voices of what I guess one must still call the Left. The Electronic Intifada is a straightforward Palestinian propaganda site. But If Americans Knew is something entirely different, namely an “anti-Zionist” website run by a woman named Alison Weir. Weir, as the Tablet Magazine piece explains, is in fact a classic Jew-hater, who even spreads the modern blood libel canards. Palumbo-Liu, soon realizing his tactical error in citing the site, quickly backtracked: “While the organization If Americans Knew, which was previously listed here, provides much useful information from reliable, neutral sources, I disagree with many of the public comments of its director. I have removed the original reference to prevent any confusion.”
Too late, Professor. As always, the gaffe is in telling the truth. This high-brow Stanford professor takes his “reliable information” from a Jew-hating blood-libeler.
Too late, too, it turns out, for Jewish Voice for Peace. In 2015 they published an open letter claiming to dissociate themselves from If Americans Knew, citing good evidence of Weir’s outright antisemitism. But, six months later, as chronicled on the blog Legal Insurrection, JVP cohosted a talk by Weir in Cleveland. So much for the dissociation.
Mondoweiss, for its part, hosted a round-table with various opinions about whether Weir is antisemitic and if so, whether that matters. That roundtable reveals wonderfully how the process of assimilation of Jew-hatred works. Thus, Susan Landau (who proclaims herself vigilantly against antisemitism) still thinks that “Differences within our movement exist; we stifle them to our peril.” And Russ Greenleaf defends Weir outright: when she appears with right-wing antisemites she is only trying to educate them, of course.
For such people, in a word, there’s really no reason not to associate with antisemites.

IsraellyCool: WATCH: Sign The Petition For Speakers Trust

Here’s the introductory video for a petition that has been started over the Leanne Mohamad, Wanstead High School hate speech video.
I know the outcry we’ve started over this 3 minute video is going to mean it’s seen by many more people than would otherwise have seen it. We may end up turning Leanne Mohamad into some sort of minor child star like Shirley Temper. I’m willing to accept that.
The reason I’m doing this and keeping the pressure on is that I see it as a test case. Her 3 minute video contains no new claims. Lies like that are repeated ad-nauseum any time two or three Jew hating BDSHoles are gathered together. Her video was short and to the point and it was delivered by a child, to children with the connivance of a multitude of adults. That’s why it represents a test.
If we can’t make reasonable un-aligned people in the UK understand why this video is so bad, then the UK will continue to become increasingly toxic for Jews. Jews will be forced not just to keep quiet about Israel but to outright denounce the Jewish State over and over again.
We’re fighting a cognitive war to get the truth to displace their lies.

Martin Kramer: The Return of Bernard Lewis

Forty years ago, nobody foresaw the rise of radical Islam—except for the preeminent historian who both predicted and explained it, and much else besides.
As the year 1976 opened, the Middle East hardly seem poised for a great transformation. The shah of Iran remained firmly seated on his peacock throne. Off in Iraqi exile, an elderly Iranian cleric named Ayatollah Khomeini nursed his grievances in obscurity. Anwar Sadat, Egypt’s confident president, had the country under his thumb; the Muslim Brotherhood and its offshoots languished in ineffectual opposition. In Saudi Arabia, a young man named Osama bin Laden finished his education in an elite high school, where he had worn a tie and blazer. Since the previous summer, Lebanon had been roiled by battles, according to Western reportage, between “leftists” and “rightists.” A key player there was the Palestine Liberation Organization under Yasir Arafat, darling of the international left and champion of a “democratic, secular state” in Palestine.
The role of Islam in politics? There wasn’t any to speak of.
Imagine, then, the surprise of the readers of Commentary magazine when the January issue landed in their mailboxes bearing these words on the bright yellow cover: “The Return of Islam.” The byline beneath that sensational headline did not belong to a roving journalist or a think-tank pundit but to Bernard Lewis, the eminent British historian of the Middle East, just recently transplanted to America. Thus did the West receive its very first warning that a new era was beginning in the Middle East—one that would produce a tide of revolution, assassination, and terrorism, conceived and executed explicitly in the name of Islam.

Last year Enrique Iglesias performed in Israel, despite the strenuous efforts by so-called "pro-Palestinian activists" to stop him.

But he just announced that he will be performing in Amman, Jordan in August, and no one is saying a word.

Even though Jordan has been blocking most Gazans from entering its territory since last year.

Even though Jordan refuses to allow Palestinians who entered the country from Gaza in 1967 from becoming citizens, keeping them in "refugee camps." This 2012 article describes how they are treated:

Like visible ghosts, after five decades of living and giving birth in Jordan, their families are not recognized. They cannot work, receive government benefits, have full access to education, own a car, nor travel freely. Unemployment tops at 50 percent, school dropout rates are high and life expectancy is much lower than regional averages.

The health conditions of the residents is horrifying. Volunteers report the presence of many diseases that are easily preventable with access to Western medicine. There are instances of diabetes, nervous disorders, cancers, high blood pressure and others, which go untreated.

Syrian refugees of Palestinian origin are turned back at the border to fend for themselves while Syrian nationals are allowed in.

Even Palestinians who are residents of Jordan suffer from official discrimination, with official limits on their participation in the military and politics.

There is official apartheid against Palestinians in Jordan. Yet no one who pretends to care about Palestinian rights is calling for Iglesias to boycott the country.

It is almost as if the people who call for boycotts don't really care about Palestinians, but have another agenda.

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Brooklyn Co-Op To Aid Syrian People With Shipment Of Kale (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Park Slope, June 1 - A group of socially-conscious, politically-aware Brooklyn residents have decided to help alleviate the suffering of the embattled Syrian people by collecting their excess leafy greens and donating them to relief organizations that will then deliver the foodstuffs to aid organizations assisting the Syrians, a spokeswoman for the group said today.

Humans United with Humans (HUH), a consortium of Brooklyn food co-ops, will begin encouraging members to buy an extra bunch of kale at each purchase and set it aside for shipment to Syria, where a five-year civil war has killed hundreds of thousands and displaced millions more. Sheryl Dunwoody, HUH spokeswoman, told reporters that the members voted to take action after seeing images of the carnage and suffering in Syria via Facebook and news programs and realizing that few Syrians would have access to kale under such conditions.

"We all want to do something about the situation, but it's hard to act from so far away," explained Dunwoody. "Then one of our members hit on the idea of collecting and donating kale, and the proposal immediately fired the imaginations of the membership." She added that while no specific aid organization has expressed willingness to deliver the kale to besieged, bombarded areas of Syria, it is only a matter of time before they identify one.

"We're also thinking of sending a representative with the kale, to present it to the needy Syrians, and maybe discuss with them some recipes for using it," she added. "But we thought better of that idea, because who are we to tell them how to prepare food? That smacks of the worst kind of imperialism. Also, no one volunteered to dedicate several weeks to such an endeavor."

Longtime Park Slope Co-op member Judith Wasserman voiced satisfaction that she and her fellow concerned citizens were finally able to do something to help. "It's been heart-wrenching for us, always hearing the news of the fighting, the killing, the wounded, and the shattered lives," she said. "But now we can address the heart-wrenching feeling with this gesture, and that's what's important." Wasserman, for her part, also wanted people to donate any music CDs they may have sitting unused in their cabinets, but that proposal was voted down after several members reminded their colleagues that CDs are not as authentic as vinyl.

"It's like 9/11 all over again," continued Wasserman. "After the attacks, people everywhere were looking for ways to show solidarity with the victims, and remember how my circle of friends made everything better by baking an American flag cake.

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06/01 Links Pt1: Israel arrests Iran TV reporter for supporting terror; ‘Jerusalem was ours and will remain ours,’ PM says

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians: Sex in Gaza City

A 27-year-old female journalist recounted that a Palestinian official working for the UN Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) in Gaza invited her for a job interview. The official "tried to approach and touch her, but she walked away and left the office... The following day... he offered her the job in return for having sexual intercourse with him."
The victim noted that under Palestinian law, UNRWA officials enjoy immunity from being prosecuted.
Palestinian journalist Amjad Yaghi found that the Palestinian Basic Law does not tackle the issue of sexual harassment in Palestinian society. Meanwhile, the Hamas connections of these criminals will keep them out of jail and in positions of power.
Where are the women's rights organizations now? Where are the European and American overseers of the international human rights organizations in the Gaza Strip? Do they only awaken from their slumber when they smell fresh Israeli meat? How many women will be sexually assaulted while these watchdogs sleep?

Israel arrests Iran TV reporter for incitement, supporting terror

A journalist for an Iranian news outlet was arrested in northern Israel on Wednesday for incitement and supporting terror groups, police said.
Bassam al-Safadi, a 43-year-old resident of the Druze village of Majdal Shams in the Golan Heights, has been accused of “publishing statements in support of terror groups and incitement to violence or terror,” a police spokesperson said.
Safadi is a reporter for Iran’s al-Alam news network, which draws its funding from the state-run Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting company.
On its website, the television channel claimed Safadi was arrested for “no reason,” saying it was likely linked to a report in which he alleged that Israel was “stealing” oil on the Golan Heights — a reference to Israeli exploratory drilling in the Israeli-controlled side of the plateau, which is captured from Syria during the 1967 Six Day War.
According to the Iranian outlet, Safadi’s laptop and camera were also confiscated during his arrest on Wednesday morning.

Zionist activists visit 'hostile' UK Muslim neighborhood

The three activists from the Israel Advocacy Movement (IAM)) - two Jews and one Muslim - who visited Bury Park recently said they did it because they believed Israel's case can be made effectively anywhere, but also to prove a point to pro-Israel activists: there is no reason to fear showing Israeli pride.
While all of those the group spoke to shared many misconceptions and outright falsehoods about the State of Israel, the vast majority were surprisingly willing to engage. Many even expressed appreciation to the group for dispelling the myths they held about the Jewish state.
Arutz Sheva spoke to Israel Advocacy Movement founder Joseph Cohen, who led the initiative, and asked him why his group picked such an unlikely venue for their stall.
"Every British neighborhood with a majority Muslim population is almost certainly hostile towards Israel," Cohen explained. "Nothing is done to challenge the constant disinformation and anti-Israel propaganda that’s propagated in these communities.
"The media tells us that these are no-go areas for Jews, so we avoid them and the anti-Israel sentiment is left to fester. Having watched videos of riots in Bury Park provoked by far right activists, we decided it was the perfect neighborhood to show that Zionists can promote Israel anywhere in the UK without the fear of violence.
"When we arrived there the levels of ignorance (not hatred) truly shocked us, there were so many people that had been spoon-fed lie after lie.

The EU is such an honest broker

From Haaretz yesterday:

The European Union sent a very harsh message to Israel a few days ago regarding the demolition of Palestinian structures in Area C of the West Bank, including some that were built with EU funding. In a meeting with the coordinator of activities in the territories Maj. Gen. Yoav Mordechai last week, the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg Andersen, warned that a continuation of the massive demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank is liable to harm relations between the EU and Israel.

According to international law, Israel has full civil and security control of Area C. In legal terms, this is not under dispute. If you want to build there, there is only a single authority through which you must apply for permits: the IDF. Everything else that is built is illegal, by definition.

The EU is complaining that Israel is upholding the law.

Now, there is nothing wrong with the EU complaining that Israel is applying the law unevenly, or for them to use diplomacy to loosen up the permit program. But Israel is obligated to enforce its laws on building in Area C.

When the EU says that Israel must allow illegal building, they are saying that the Oslo accords and the accords that followed - the only documents in international law that determine who is responsible for the West Bank's day to day affairs - are nul and void. Moreover, they are saying that instead of the final border being determined by negotiations, which is the official position of the Western world, they are saying that much of Area C is already Palestinian territory before the fact.

Israel demolishing a Jewish home in Beit El, July 2015

This goes hand in hand with the French initiative this week. The EU is trying to force a solution on Israel and is more than willing to flout international law to do so.

Interestingly, when the IDF demolished Jewish-owned buildings in Bet El last year, the EU did not consider that action to be illegal. Apparently, the official EU policy is that if a home is built illegally by a Jew in Area C it must be demolished but if it is built by or for Arabs then it must be allowed, without any building permits.

It sounds an awful lot like antisemitism.

I'm sure that they EU has some good reasons why it isn't, though. And also why they can be considered an honest broker in any peace conference.

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The British continue their siege of Gaza

From the Derry Journal:

Local activists have expressed their anger after the UK immigration service denied visas to Palestinian athletes due to compete in Sunday’s Derry marathon.

Gaza-based Nader al Massri and Sami Nateel had been due to arrive in Derry on Friday but their plans have now been halted due to the visa refusal which the Irish Palestine Solidarity Campaign (I.P.S.C.) has branded “inexplicable”.

“We are hugely disappointed and angered at this decision. There was a large group of Palestinians who came to the Derry marathon last year and it was a massive success so we find it inexplicable that the immigration service would deny them the right to travel this year,” said Derry I.P.S.C. spokesperson Catherine Hutton.

“Like everyone who lives on the Gaza strip, Nader and Sami face huge restrictions every day of their lives due to the Israeli blockade. But it is highly ironic that, on this occasion at least, the Israelis were willing to allow them to travel to Derry but it is the UK authorities who have denied them entry.”

Israel isn't blocking the Gaza marathoners from traveling - the UK is.

This local newspaper article is apparently the only place to find out about this ban.

In contrast, in April 2014 Israel didn't allow Nader al Masri from running in a marathon in Bethlehem and that refusal resulted in a prominent New York Times story (as well as a major Al Jazeera story) about how Israel is blocking freedom of movement.

Al Masri ran and won the Bethlehem marathon last year. This year, Gazans were not able to participate in that marathon, but it was because the paperwork to apply for their travel permits was not filled out in time according to Israeli officials.

No articles in the BBC about the British government decision to stop a Gazan from entering. Nothing in the Guardian or Independent.

I wonder why.

UNRWA used to hold an annual marathon in Gaza but quietly dropped it when Hamas insisted that no women run with the men. In that case, they were being respectful to local traditions at the expense of women's rights.

Only certain perceived violations of rights are newsworthy. And by sheer coincidence, a large percentage of those news stories blame Israel.

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68 years of Arabs blaming the Jews for their misfortune has hit paydirt in France

From Haaretz:

The French government wants the foreign ministers meeting in Paris on Friday about an international Israeli-Palestinian peace conference to agree that future negotiations between the two sides will take place within a limited timeframe, according to a document disseminated by the French Foreign Ministry to the countries taking part in the meeting.

According to the document, the French propose that a goal of the discussions starting Friday will be to formulate parameters for a solution to the core issues of a permanent peace agreement. All direct negotiations in the future would be based on these parameters.

Why the rush?

The document surveys the background of the French peace initiative and determines that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the key issue in the Middle East. The conflict “creates precariousness and insecurity. It fuels radical rhetoric and extremist violence. Moving towards its resolution is as urgent as ever,” according to the document.

You hear that? If it wasn't for the stubborn refusal by Israel to give up the Jewish ancestral homeland and turn itself into a country that you can cross three times in a single marathon run, then we wouldn't have any problems in Syria, Yemen, Libya, Iraq or the Sinai. No human rights violations in Egypt or Jordan. Lebanon would be a single, happy, multicultural country.

Ever since 1948, Arab diplomats have told anyone willing to listen that Israel is the cause of al lof their problems. Every single meeting with their Western counterparts began and ended with their insistence that Israel is the cause of all the Middle East's problems. Every speech to their own people blamed their problems on the Jews.

Every article, every UN speech, every public event was another excuse to push the lie that a Jewish nation was an affront to morality, to international law, and mostly to their pride.

In the 1970s they changed the meme a little bit, to saying that the "occupation" was the issue and Palestinians were the ones who were being hurt. The Arab leaders had decades to integrate the Palestinians into their own nations but the stateless people were much more valuable as PR tools. "Refugee camps" were kept open for no reason other than the possibility that one day the swelling ranks of Palestinians would "return."

But the overarching message was relentlessly on point. Israel was to blame for every ill in the Middle East, and if Israel would just go away, things would be great. No terror, no Islamic fundamentalism, no sectarian violence. Just ignore the civil wars that erupted every few years.

Finally, the absurd message started gaining currency in the West. And the irony is that just when the West was starting to accept the ridiculous "linkage" argument, Arab governments started realizing that they have much bigger problems and blaming Israel was no longer the panacea that could push off the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and the resurgence of sectarianism.

France, and much of the EU, is still holding on to the old fashioned thinking of linkage. Rocked by its own terror attacks and the realization that a significant proportion of their own residents are sympathetic to jihadism, France desperately wants to find a way out of a situation that is getting more dire every year. Pretending that Israel's existence (or "occupation") is radicalizing its Muslim citizens is an easy way to push off the hard decisions needed to fight the main battle of the 21st century - against radical Islam. France is acting like Arab nations did from the 1950s through the 1990s, at least.

What is the logic behind saying that the Israeli-Arab conflict is the main driver behind Middle East upheavals (and, by implication, terror attacks in Europe)? There is none. It is fantasy created to pretend that the solution to real problems in the Middle East and beyond can be solved by Jews just conceding more and more.

Those for whom wishful thinking has replaced actual facts and analysis want Israel to be the problem so they don't have to blame themselves.

The clinging to false hopes based on anti-Israel propaganda doesn't end there. The French document also says, "Time is not a neutral factor, given the steady erosion of the two-state solution. An open-ended approach would be oblivious to the reality on the ground and the constant risks of escalation. "

There are practically no more new approved settlements built since the 1990s. There may be many more Jews living in the existing communities of Judea and Samaria but the facts on the ground have not changed. The Clinton parameters and the Olmert proposals are exactly as viable today as they were when they were proposed. Less than 2% of the West Bank were being taken up by Jewish settlements in 1994 and the figure is less than 2% today. The argument that the two state solution is becoming more difficult by the day is simply another anti-Israel talking point that is being used to force Israel, and only Israel, to compromise on its security and its history.

These are the facts. They can be easily checked. "Linkage" and "the erosion of the two-state solution" are not facts, they are fallacies whose only reason for being believed is because they are repeated over and over again.

One would hope that national leaders and diplomats would be smart enough to tell the difference between fallacies and provable facts. Unfortunately, they prefer to stay in the dark, because the actual truth contradicts the most cherished bases for decades of international diplomacy.

Israeli concessions, or Israel's disappearance (which is the next stage after a "peace agreement,") cannot and would not solve the problems of Islamic extremism. Israel has proposed many peace plans that would result in a Palestinian state - somewhat less than what they are demanding but one that would give them 90-98% of what they say they want. It is Palestinian intransigence that is stopping peace, not Israeli actions. And any clear-headed diplomat should realize that the pressure should be put on Palestinians to accept a peace plan and move on with their lives. And the Gulf nations are already starting to realize this.

France, and Europe, choose to be willfully blind rather than looking at the facts.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

05/31 Links Pt2: Some Jew-baiting is more equal than others to the media; The Left vs. Israel

From Ian:

Some Jew-baiting is more equal than others to the media

Mostly anonymous Trump-bots called out, silence when it comes from the Left.
My point here is not to minimize what happened to Weisman at the hands of the alt-right. The truth is that for the most part we don’t know who the alt-right are who attacked Weisman. What we do know is that ugly anti-Semitic tropes have made their way to the mainstream. During last year’s legislative battle over the Iran nuclear deal there was plenty of anti-Semitic trolling going on, and it wasn’t coming from Trump supporters:
Here’s how Tablet Magazine put it:
What we increasingly can’t stomach—and feel obliged to speak out about right now—is the use of Jew-baiting and other blatant and retrograde forms of racial and ethnic prejudice as tools to sell a political deal, or to smear those who oppose it. Accusing Sen. Schumer of loyalty to a foreign government is bigotry, pure and simple. Accusing senators and congressmen whose misgivings about the Iran deal are shared by a majority of the U.S. electorate of being agents of a foreign power, or of selling their votes to shadowy lobbyists, or of acting contrary to the best interests of the United States is the kind of naked appeal to bigotry and prejudice that would be familiar in the politics of the pre-Civil Rights Era South.
This use of anti-Jewish incitement as a political tool is a sickening new development in American political discourse, and we have heard too much of it lately—some coming, ominously, from our own White House and its representatives. Let’s not mince words: Murmuring about “money” and “lobbying” and “foreign interests” who seek to drag America into war is a direct attempt to play the dual-loyalty card. It’s the kind of dark, nasty stuff we might expect to hear at a white power rally, not from the president of the United States—and it’s gotten so blatant that even many of us who are generally sympathetic to the administration, and even this deal, have been shaken by it.
There has been an increasing acceptability towards using anti-Semitic tropes in political discourse. We really saw an increase in it last year in the battle to get support for the deal to legitimize the illicit nuclear program of a regime founded on anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism.
Having read Weisman’s column there’s an air of unreality to his seeming discovery of online trolls who spout anti-Semitism at those they disagree with politically. Of course there were the reactions to the nuclear deal with Iran last year, which Weisman and the Times had a hand in perpetuating.

Daniel Pipes: The Left vs. Israel

Since the creation of Israel, Palestinians, Arabs, and Muslims have been the mainstay of anti-Zionism, with the Left, from the Soviet Union to professors of literature, their auxiliary. But this might be in process of change: as Muslims slowly, grudgingly, and unevenly come to accept the Jewish state as a reality, the Left is becoming increasingly vociferous and obsessive in its rejection of Israel.
Much evidence points in this direction: Polls in the Middle East find cracks in the opposition to Israel while a major American survey for the first time shows liberal Democrats to be more anti-Israel than pro-Israel. The Saudi and Egyptian governments have real security relations with Israel while a figure like (the Jewish) Bernie Sanders declares that “to the degree that [Israelis] want us to have a positive relationship, I think they’re going to have to improve their relationship with the Palestinians.”
But I should like to focus on a small illustrative example from a United Nations institution: The World Health Organization churned out report A69/B/CONF./1 on May 24 with the enticing title, “Health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including east Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan: Draft decision proposed by the delegation of Kuwait, on behalf of the Arab Group, and Palestine.”
The three-page document calls for “a field assessment conducted by the World Health Organization,” with special focus on such topics as “incidents of delay or denial of ambulance service” and “access to adequate health services on the part of Palestinian prisoners.” Of course, the entire document singles out Israel as a denier of unimpeded access to health care.
This ranks as a special absurdity given the WHO’s hiring a consultant in next-door Syria who is connected to the very pinnacle of the Assad regime, even as it perpetrates atrocities estimated at a half million dead and 12 million displaced (out of a total pre-war population of 22 million). Conversely, both the wife and brother-in-law of Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, whose status and wealth assures them treatment anywhere in the world, chose to be treated in Israeli hospitals, as did the sister, daughter, and grand-daughter of Ismail Haniyeh, the Hamas leader in Gaza, Israel’s sworn enemy.