Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 15, 2016

The "you are pro-Israel" accusation has lost its sting among Muslims

There was a fascinating report in MEMRI this week:

Over the past month, the Saudi press has featured a number of highly unusual articles harshly critical of the antisemitic discourse in Arab and Muslim society, and calling to avoid its generalizations regarding the Jews. The articles argued that Koranic passages against the Jews only applied to specific groups during specific time periods, and should not be applied to Jews in general. They added that blind hatred of Jews everywhere has prevented Arabs and Muslims from learning the lessons of Jewish experience and advancement.

It should be mentioned that these articles came against the backdrop of a heated debate in Saudi Arabia over the issue of normalizing relations with Israel, which erupted after a July 2016 visit to Israel by a Saudi delegation headed by Maj.-Gen. (ret.) Anwar Eshki, chairman of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal Studies in Jeddah, and the publication of photos of the delegation with Israeli politicians. While Eshki claimed that he represented only himself and that "official Saudi elements did not know of the meeting in advance, as it was of a personal nature" and was the result of an invitation by the Palestinian Authority, he stressed that "the kingdom does not prevent anyone from holding such visits." He also did not rule out indirect Israeli-Saudi intelligence cooperation as part of efforts to combat terrorism.[1]

The visit, which was seen as a Saudi step towards normalizing relations with Israel, sparked harsh criticism inside and outside the kingdom. Several hashtags attacking the visit were launched on social networks, including "Saudis Against Normalization."[2] Likely as a response to the criticism, the Saudi Foreign Ministry distanced itself from Eshki, arguing that "people like Anwar Eshki do not represent us, have no ties to any governmental elements, and do not reflect the positions of the Saudi government."[3]

However, despite this statement, and despite the Saudi regime's denial that the visit heralded normalization with Israel, the publication of Saudi articles attacking antisemitic discourse specifically at this time is no coincidence, and is likely meant to lay the groundwork for public acceptance in the country of normalized relations with Israel.

The article goes on to include lengthy quotes from the Saudi articles attacking antisemitism.

Perhaps more fascinating is that Iran's state run Al Aram news agency decided to quote the MEMRI article nearly in full - in order to try to discredit the Saudi regime for being too pro-Jewish and too pro-Israel.

Accusing other Muslims of being pro-Israel is a standard weapon in the Islamic arsenal when trying to discredit a political opponent. Funny thing though: it no longer works.

You'll still see it here and there - Fatah and Hamas accuse each other of "collaborating" with Israel, Hezbollah will still use that rhetoric, and some Egyptian or Moroccan papers might show pictures of their rivals with Israelis, and Malaysian politicians still embrace that theme with gusto.

But the Sunni hate and fear of Shiites, and Iran in particular, is far more potent than their antipathy towards Jews and Israel nowadays. I

In a very real way, when Iran trots out its "you are pro-Israel" card, they are in fact pushing their Muslim enemies into wanting to be more pro-Israel! At this time, Israel represents security when the Arab world has little, it represents a consistent political position when the US has become flaky, and it represents an anti-Iran bulwark when the Sunni world is scared silly of Iran.

Although they have no love for the Jewish state, the Gulf states are no longer frightened of being labeled pro-Israel by Iran. And that is a really major change that occurred in only the past couple of years.

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08/15 Links Pt2: Be ready to defend Israel on campus; Friends Don’t Let Friends Vote for Jill Stein

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Soros Documents Highlight Irresponsible and Unaccountable Funding to Political NGOs

On August 14, a number of leaked documents from the Open Society Foundations – a political framework funded by George Soros – were posted anonymously on the DC Leaks website. The material covered many different aspects of this activity around the world. For background information on OSF and other Soros funding mechanisms, see Bad Investment: The Philanthropy of George Soros and the Arab-Israeli Conflict (How Soros-funded Groups Increase Tensions in a Troubled Region), Alexander H. Joffe and Gerald M. Steinberg, NGO Monitor, 2013.
OSF’s declared objective is “to work to build vibrant and tolerant democracies whose governments are accountable and open to the participation of all people.” This is the basis for OSF’s often intrusive activities in both closed and democratic societies, including large scale funding of political NGOs.
A number of these as yet unverified documents deal with OSF’s grants to political NGOs through its “Arab Regional Office (ARO) – Palestinian Citizens of Israel” department. Headed by Ammar Abu Zayyad, the ARO is one of a number of funding mechanisms for Israeli and Palestinian NGO’s in the OSF network.
The secrecy and lack of transparency inherent in the OSF’s activities is highlighted in the ARO documents: “For a variety of reasons, we wanted to construct a diversified portfolio of grants dealing with Israel and Palestine, funding both Israeli Jewish and PCI (Palestinian Citizens of Israel) groups as well as building a portfolio of Palestinian grants and in all cases to maintain a low profile and relative distance—particularly on the advocacy front.”

Soros email hack reveals plans to fight ‘racist’ Israeli policies

Hacked emails show that the Open Society Foundations led by Jewish billionaire George Soros have as an objective “challenging Israel’s racist and anti-democratic policies” in international forums, in part by questioning Israel’s reputation as a democracy.
The documents are available on a website, reportedly backed by Russia, that uses anti-Semitic stereotypes to attack Soros.
They reveal that Open Society, which was founded and is chaired by the hedge fund billionaire and philanthropist, gave nearly $10 million since 2001 to groups advancing the rights of Arab Israelis, with an emphasis in recent years on countering what one document says are Israel’s “restrictive measures” against minorities.
“In recent years the radicalization of public opinion and consecutive Israeli right-wing governments have resulted in more restrictive measures against Palestinians within Israel,” a Sept. 1, 2015 review of Open Society’s Arab Regional Office’s work said.
It cites as an example the Jewish Nation State bill, advanced by its sponsors to entrench Israel’s Jewish status, but decried by some Arab Israelis as further marginalizing non-Jewish minorities. The bill has yet to pass.
Among achievements listed in the document, the Arab Regional Office includes increased advocacy by “Palestinian citizens of Israel,” or PCI, in international forums, challenging Israel’s “racist” policies in the face of its reputation as a democracy.

George Soros funds Ferguson protests, hopes to spur civil action

There’s a solitary man at the financial center of the Ferguson protest movement. No, it’s not victim Michael Brown or Officer Darren Wilson. It’s not even the Rev. Al Sharpton, despite his ubiquitous campaign on TV and the streets.
Rather, it’s liberal billionaire George Soros, who has built a business empire that dominates across the ocean in Europe while forging a political machine powered by nonprofit foundations that impacts American politics and policy, not unlike what he did with MoveOn.org.
Mr. Soros spurred the Ferguson protest movement through years of funding and mobilizing groups across the U.S., according to interviews with key players and financial records reviewed by The Washington Times.
In all, Mr. Soros gave at least $33 million in one year to support already-established groups that emboldened the grass-roots, on-the-ground activists in Ferguson, according to the most recent tax filings of his nonprofit Open Society Foundations.

Two more Hamas martyrs over the weekend. Pass the candy!

Over the weekend, this 22 year old Hamas member, Ibrahim Hamada Majaydeh, supposedly died of "natural causes."

On a beach in Khan Younis.

Healthy young man hanging out ar the beach and dropping dead. Sounds perfectly kosher to me.

Also over the weekend, this upstanding Hamas member electrocuted himself in a terror tunnel.

Mohammed Khamis Shalluf was 26 years old and died from electric shock in a tunnel in Rafah, which probably means that Hamas is still trying to smuggle weapons from Egypt.

If all deaths are tragic, these are a bit less tragic than the others.

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When Max Blumenthal exposes an antisemite… (Petra Marquardt-Bigman)

As you all probably know, Max Blumenthal is an award-winning author – sort of: in 2013, he made the Simon Wiesenthal Center list of the “Top 10 Anti-Semitic/Anti-Israel Slurs” in the category “The Power of the Poison Pen.” It was a well-deserved award for his book “Goliath,” which presents Israel as the Nazi Germany of our time. Just as the Nazis were convinced that “the Jews are our misfortune,” Blumenthal and his fans are convinced that the world’s only Jewish state is our misfortune. So it’s no coincidence that Blumenthal has fans wherever there are Jew-haters.

But of course, Max Blumenthal has long complained that it is terribly terribly unfair to consider his writings antisemitic, and he was therefore no doubt enormously pleased last week when he could finally show the world – or at least his Twitter followers – who the real big bad antisemitic wolves are: isn’t it a dreadful scandal, and definitely a groise shanda, that Max Blumenthal caught “digital McCarthyite @JGreenblattADL favoriting an anti-Semitic account that defends him”?!?!?!?!

So yes, this would be Anti-Defamation League (ADL) Director Jonathan Greenblatt palling around with antisemites – but no, most definitely NO, Max Blumenthal doesn’t get sarcasm when it comes to his own antisemitism … In fact he knows so little about antisemitism that he doesn’t even realize that antisemites are not in the habit of defending the ADL. But perhaps Max Blumenthal thought the ADL is paying antisemites to pretend being all for the ADL??? You know, sort of like the “pro-Israel lobby” bought Congress and would LOVE to buy Black Lives Matter in order to muzzle them???

Incidentally, the article on the “hate site” Mondoweiss that Blumenthal linked to attacks the ADL, and in particular Greenblatt. And it just happens to be written by the very same “professional poker player and dog trainer” who not that long ago valiantly defended Max Blumenthal’s vilification of Elie Wiesel.

But back to the image that provided Blumenthal his gotcha moment. It was posted by Twitter user Randy Barnes – who describes himself in his Twitter bio as a Zionist Jew and has “עם ישראל חי” in it (something few antisemites really like). From this alone it should have been quite obvious that Barnes meant to mock Blumenthal’s own world view. After all, Blumenthal is one of the leading anti-Israel activists who try to connect pretty much everything that can be criticized in the US to Israel in a desperate attempt to piggyback on social unrest that has nothing whatsoever to do with Israel. (That’s in addition to being convinced that the “pro-Israel lobby” is on a shopping spree in the US…)

In any case, Barnes eventually got back to Blumenthal, telling him: “I consider myself honored to be at the receiving end of one of your FactFree™ smears, Max. כל הכבוד!” Blumenthal – who can’t really afford to admit that he made an embarrassing mistake because such a habit would take a really big chunk of his time – responded: “Glad to have confirmation that @JGreenblattADL approved of you appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose apartheid.”

Sometime somewhere we can now probably look forward to a book, or an article, or at least a presentation in which Max Blumenthal will claim that ADL Director Jonathan Greenblatt approves of “appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose apartheid.” Barnes really was on to something when he mentioned Blumenthal’s “FactFree™ smears,” because this is exactly how Blumenthal proceeded when he was smearing Ayaan Hirsi Ali, or, for that matter, Elie Wiesel. “FactFree™ smears” is actually an excellent description of Max Blumenthal’s modus operandi.

What’s a bit strange is that Max Blumenthal now seems to regard himself as a ‘Jew who opposes apartheid.’ Makes you wonder what happened: Blumenthal was so proud of all his hard work demonizing the world’s only Jewish state as the Nazi Germany of our time, and soon afterwards, as the Jewish version of the Islamic State (ISIS) terror group – and now we’re back to calling Israel just an apartheid state?!? Or maybe Max Blumenthal felt it just wouldn’t have sounded so good if he tweeted: “Glad to have confirmation that @JGreenblattADL approved of you appropriating Nazi propaganda to harass Jews who oppose Nazi-ISIS-Israel”???

Could it be that Max Blumenthal is worried about exposing himself as an antisemite?

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08/15 Links Pt1: Ten False Assumptions Regarding Israel; Malaysia Loses FIFA Event Over Israel Ban

From Ian:

PMW: Kids play “Zionist jailers” executing Palestinian prisoners, in Fatah camp named after terrorist

As part of the closing ceremony of a summer camp for Palestinian children organized by the Palestinian National Committee of Summer Camps and the Fatah Movement, Palestinian children performed a play showing the alleged "cruel attitude of the Zionist jailer towards our [Palestinian] heroic prisoners." [Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Aug. 12, 2016]
Photos from the play at the summer camp show children apparently playing the role of Palestinian prisoners, kneeling blindfolded and handcuffed in a row on the floor, while other children portraying Israeli prison guards stand aiming guns at them. In one photo, three children are lying on the floor, after having been "executed" by the children playing "Zionist jailers.".
The summer camp was named after terrorist Muhammad Al-Shubaki, who stabbed and wounded an Israel soldier at the entrance to the Al-Fawwar refugee camp on Nov. 25, 2015. The terrorist's father spoke at the closing ceremony of the summer camp, expressing his "pride and thanks for the gesture of memorializing the heroic Martyrs."
The children's play repeated the PA libel that Israel abuses Palestinian prisoners and kills them in cold blood, often documented by Palestinian Media Watch. Other educational activities for Palestinian children have repeated additional libels. Just a few months ago, PMW reported on a high school play showing Israeli soldiers planting knives on innocent Palestinians and then murdering them in cold blood. In an elementary school play, Palestinian children enacted the "execution" of an Israeli soldier.

Malaysia Loses FIFA Event Over Refusal to Issue Visas to Israelis

Malaysia has relinquished the rights to host the 2017 FIFA Congress, a sports official said Monday after the predominantly Muslim country refused to issue visas to Israeli delegates.
“We were advised by the government to withdraw from hosting the congress due to security issues,” Affandi Hamzah, deputy president of the Football Association of Malaysia, told AFP.
Affandi declined to elaborate on the “security issues” but said the move was tied to comments by Deputy Prime Minister Zahid Hamidi over the weekend.
Zahid had said Malaysia was unable to provide visas to Israeli officials because it did not have diplomatic ties and could rile up local sensitivities.
“Some of the conditions of hosting the event include placing the (Israeli) flag on the table during the congress,” he was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times online.
“After comparing the benefits and the risks, it is better for Malaysia to avoid playing host.”

Amb. Alan Baker: Ten False Assumptions Regarding Israel

Israel is inundated with one-sided international resolutions, declarations, “peace plans,” and advice from governments, international organizations, leaders, pundits, and elements within the Jewish, Christian and Muslim communities.
Most of the above rest on widely-held, false and mistaken assumptions regarding Israel, its leaders, government, policies, and positions held by the vast majority of the Israeli public.
These false and mistaken assumptions need to be addressed:
1. “Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank territories (Judea and Samaria) will provide Israel with security and international acceptance.” Wrong.
Prior to Israel’s entry into the territories in the 1967 war, the Arab states made every effort to attack and weaken Israel militarily and diplomatically.
The Arab and Iranian attempts today to challenge Jewish history in the Biblical land of Israel and in Jerusalem and the legitimacy of the State of Israel as a Jewish state still resonate in the international community, most recently in UNESCO.
The Palestinians are committed to eventually establishing their state over all of mandatory Palestine and they indoctrinate their children this way.

From the New York Daily News:

City pols are blasting City Council candidate Thomas Lopez-Pierre for his latest inflammatory comments about “greedy Jewish landlords.”

Lopez-Pierre, who ran a fringe campaign for an uptown Council seat in 2013 that drew attention for his racist and anti-Semitic rhetoric, is now running against incumbent Mark Levine.

He blasted out a fund-raising e-mail earlier this month with the subject line “SAVE HARLEM from Greedy Jewish Landlords.”

“Greedy Landlords and NYC Council Member Mark Levine are working together to push Black and Hispanic tenants out of Harlem!” he wrote, going on to charge that Levine, “the only Jewish person in the race,” only won in 2013 because there were eight black and Hispanic candidates running against him.

City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito, Controller Scott Stringer, Public Advocate Letitia James, Rep. Jerry Nadler and others penned a letter to Lopez-Pierre demanding he apologize.

“Such rhetoric has no place in our society, and certainly does not belong in a political campaign,” they wrote.

“Your repeated references to ‘greedy Jewish landlords’ in your most recent email play on a long-established anti-Semitic trope,” the group of 14 elected officials wrote.

“Your reference to your opponent as the ‘only Jewish candidate in the race’ and frequent depiction of him in religious garb amount to gratuitous targeting of him based on religion.”

Lopez-Pierre's webpage doubles down on the accusation, citing a Forward article about Jewish landlords as evidence that "fighting Jewish landlords isn't anti-semitic." He chooses a photo of Mark Levine in a yarmulka for his site even though Levine does not normally wear one.

It is true that there are many corrupt Jewish landlords in New York. There are also many corrupt non-Jewish landlords and many Jewish landnords who care deeply about the people in their buildings. Lopez-Pierre is using black and Hispanic antisemitism as his main campaign theme to run for office.

I had a feeling that the Daily News was downplaying Lopez-Pierre's antisemitism, and sure enough, I found this open letter he wrote in 2013 to a local journalist during his previous campaign where he he tried to explain exactly why he isn't antisemitic - because he enjoys sleeping with Jewish women:

Let me use this email to state as plainly as possible my views on Jewish people without you interrupting me.

I have dated some very sexy Jewish women, I just love Jewish women; the sex was always good if not at times great.

The truth is that as I am sure you must know, Jewish women have great oral skills - they really know how to communicate their interest to Black men - smile.

And if it's NOT your birthday, you can forget all about Black women………………..trust me I know, I dated my fair share of Black women.

As you may know, Jewish women just love them some big Black men (yes, the stereotype is true - do NOT hate - trust me, take my word for it or ask any Black women who also dates Jewish men - she will tell you how small Jewish guys are compared to Black men)!

Forgive me, I digressed.

As I was saying, I have the greatest respect for Jewish women and I am honored to call many Jewish males, friends.

...My people [Blacks and Hispanics] are angry and scared and they fear that they will be next to be pushed out of their homes by White/Jewish landlords.

And the sad truth is that today, in Upper Manhattan we have Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials who have taken campaign funds from White/Jewish landlords to look the other way while thousands of thousands of Black and Hispanic tenants were pushed out of their apartments for people who would pay higher rents (mostly White/Jewish people who were priced out of the rental market downtown).

As a candidate for the 7th NYC Council District, I believe it is very important for me to fight for those Black and Hispanic tenants being pushed out of their homes by White/Jewish landlords.

I want Black and Hispanic voters to know who is behind the ethnic cleansing in Upper Manhattan and it is White/Jewish landlords with the help of Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials.

My opponent is Mark Levine, a White/Jewish upper middle class, Harvard educated, son of a doctor, political opportunist who has taken thousands of dollars of campaign money from greedy White/Jewish landlords - and lives outside of the 7th NYC Council District with his wife and children in a high-end condominium apartment

...I fear that Mark Levine, the White/Jewish candidate will steal the election because of the long history of White/Jewish people in Upper Manhattan supporting their own people.

I have to tell you that I have the greatest respect for Jewish people. Jewish people are never ever afraid to take political and economic power from other racial groups even if their numbers do NOT warrant such a power grab.

One of my political role models is NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind; a Democrat who endorsed Republican candidate Michael Bloomberg for mayor against a member of his own political party - why? Because Michael Bloomberg is Jewish and gave his people a better deal.

The Uncle Tom Nigger Black and Hispanic elected officials in Upper Manhattan have a lot to learn from NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind.

NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind is never ever afraid to put his people and the State of Israel before the interests of the United States.

I, Thomas Lopez-Pierre have the greatest respect for NYS Assembly Member, Dov Hikind.Let me end by saying that I am sorry if I hurt your feelings by saying bad things about White/Jewish landlords.

Yeah, I'd say I'm on safe ground to call Lopez-Pierre an antisemite.

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Hamas terror training video shows how "crowded" Gaza is

Here is the latest propaganda video from Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades.

Notice that you can barely find any towns in any of the scenes. Hamas has plenty of room in "the most crowded place on Earth" for military training exercises.

But beyond that is that Hamas doesn't ever fight the IDF in the open - but in the crowded cities of Gaza, hiding in their extensive networks of tunnels and bunkers as well as hiding in residential houses and buildings, where they use the population as human shields.

So this is propaganda on two levels - one to show off their supposed military might to their people, but also to pretend to the same people that they are defending them, rather than using them for military advantage.

NGOs like HRW and Amnesty bend over backwards not to accuse Hamas of endangering the population, but they try to find excuses by claiming that Hamas doesn't have a choice but to fight in urban areas.

This video is exhibit A that this is a lie.

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Masralarabia.com is one of the most popular news sites in Egypt, ranked #23 for that country (for comparison, in the US MSN.com is #23 and the New York Times website is ranked #24.).

On Saturday, Masralarabia published video and text of interview with "Israel affairs expert" Dr. Ahmad Hammad, a professor of Hebrew at Ain Shams University.

In that interview Dr. Hammad claimed that Nazi gas chambers were a myth, saying that the only reason the Europeans go along with the "fairy tale" is because they are afraid of being labeled antisemitic. He said that it made no economic sense for Germany to build gas chambers to kill Jews and they would have been far less efficient than simply shooting Jews. At any rate, Nazi Germany didn't single out Jews but all minorities for persecution.

Hammad claimed that Hitler only wanted to expel Jews from Europe, not murder them, and he colluded with Zionists on that mission.

Surprisingly, he said that the concept for "greater Israel" had nothing to do with a Zionist state between the Nile and the Euphrates, but instead refers to something far more insidious: "economic colonization" and "colonization of minds" of Arab states which he says he has warned about for decades.

According to Hammas, the Arab media is sometimes more Zionist than Zionists are. As an example, he derided Arab media for referring to Israel as the Jewish state, claiming that the people in Israel have nothing to do with actual Jews.

Despite the closer ties between Israel and Egypt, antisemitism in Egypt remains embedded in the fabric of that society, and antisemitic articles like this can be found weekly in major Arab media.

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Another Olympic-sized lie

Mondoweiss pretends to do some reporting:

Last month we interviewed Mary al Atrash, a 22-year-old swimmer from Beit Sahour in the West Bank who was part of the largest delegation Palestine has ever sent to the Olympic Games.

She told us about her difficulties to train in a swimming pool that does not match the Olympic standards, and explained that although she technically lives close to Jerusalem, where such swimming pools, exist, she could not go there to train.

After our story was published, a controversy started: Israeli authorities explained that Mary never applied for a permit to train in Jerusalem.

After COGAT –the Israeli Ministry of Defense organization coordinating civil affairs between Palestinians and Israelis in the Palestinian territories- published a statement saying Mary al Atrash never applied for a permit to train in Jerusalem, we contacted Mary and the organizations that supervise her training such as the Palestinian Swimming Federation and the Palestine Olympic Committee.

Indeed, it seems that Mary never applied for a permit, and neither did a lot of other Palestinian athletes. They explain this situation by emphasizing their movement restrictions. They say they can be stopped at any point while going from one place to another and therefore don’t feel safe moving from one city to another. They also mention that roads or checkpoints are sometimes closed which implies a chance of wasting time that they could use to train.

The Palestinian Swimming Federation stressed “the difficulties, that all the athletes face, to enter Jerusalem for training” and that “permits are for a limited time” and that athletes still have to go “through checkpoints” even if they have a permit to train in Jerusalem which makes their situation unstable and puts them at risk of wasting their training time.

So that is the new narrative - that Palestinian athletes all decided that it is too risky to train in Israel because of the chance that they will be delayed?

Somehow, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs manage to enter Israel every day, work for an average of 7 hours, and go home. But if you are to believe this article, Palestinian Olympic hopefuls don't have the same drive to succeed as the average construction worker.

Too bad that Mondoweiss didn't bother reading, or actively ignored, the tweet from Reuters' Luke Baker where he said explicitly that Palestinian (leaders) oppose letting athletes train in Israel.

I would point to the tweet itself, but it has been deleted. Apparently the narrative of the Palestinians as only victims and without any responsibility for their own destinies was too strong for a Reuters reporter to admit otherwise, even though that admission was to defend a story that implied that Israel had banned the al-Atrash, not her own people.

However, looking at the Palsport.com webpage for all Palestinian sports news, one can see that the idea of "normalization" with Israel is a very big taboo. For example, this article rails against any attempts by Israeli sports federations to work together with Palestinians. There are no articles that argue that Palestinian athletes should cooperate with Israelis in any form.

Jibril Rajoub, the head of the Palestinian Olympic Committee, has said himself that "there will be no normalization - will not normalize with Israel because we are under occupation and the Israelis do not recognize the Palestinian sports entity ....We defend our national cause and will not relent...The occupation is the enemy number one of Palestinian sport....the occupation seeks to besiege our people including by preventing movement of the athletes..."

How can Rajoub keep saying that if Israel allows his athletes to train in Israel? Much easier to ban his athletes from training and then blaming Israel for it!

To Rajoub, Mondoweiss is a reliable propaganda outlet that will parrot, without any skepticism, the idea that Israel is the reason why Palestinians cannot train in Israel. It is simply not true. Reuters knows it, Rajoub knows it, and Mary al Atrash knows it. But that narrative simply doesn't fit the agenda of Reuters, the PLO and Mondoweiss.

The deleted Reuters tweet also says volumes about how Reuters prefers narratives to truth.

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For those who think Neturei Karta represent Judaism because they dress in black...

This video is going around of a couple of Chassidim, probably Israeli, who are so angered by the anti-Israel chants and signs from two Neturei Karta protesters that they take two signs from them.

It looks like this happened in New York.

A lot of people who hate Israel love to point to Neturei Karta idiots and, since they dress in traditional Jewish garb, pretend that they must somehow be more authentic Jews than other Jews are. NK actively supports this lie with their literature. Yet NK represents only a tiny part of even the haredi ("ultra-Orthodox") Jewish community; most of the other religious Jews consider them sick impostors.

And here, a couple of them prove it.

By the way, remember that Neturei Karta has in the past (and possibly today) been paid by the Palestinian leadership to pretend that they are somehow more legitimate than the hundreds of thousands of religious Jews who consider them anathema.

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08/14 Links: Soros Leaked Files Show Millions Contributed to Anti-Israel Causes; 'Nasrallah hides in a bunker while Israeli children play outside'

From Ian:

DC Leaks Publishes George Soros’ Files Showing Millions Contributed to Anti-Israel Causes

Jewish Hungarian-American business magnate George Soros, whose company files were hacked by the same outfit that in June hacked the DNC computers, was a major contributor to anti-Israel and anti-Zionist causes, as appears from an archive of leaked documents of the DC Leaks website.
Soros, one of the 30 richest people in the world, is known as “The Man Who Broke the Bank of England” in 1992 with his short sale of $10 billion in British pounds, which made him a profit of $1 billion and brought Black Wednesday upon the UK currency, has a special spot for groups that fight Israel and Israelis on multiple levels.
The list of groups hostile to Zionism and to the Jewish State that received funds from Soros is very long:
Adalah – The Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, received a $400,000 grant in 2014-15 and 14 additional grants since 2001 totaling $2,688,561. The recently released document under the banner of the Movement for Black Lives, labeling Israel as an “apartheid state” and accusing Israel of committing “genocide” against Arabs, is the handiwork of Nadia Ben-Youssef, Adalah’s US representative, which the document lists as an “author and contributor.”
Incidentally, according to NGO Monitor, Adalah’s promotion of BDS directly contravenes the stated policies of its funder, the New Israel Fund (NIF). NIF’s position on BDS states that it “will not fund global BDS activities against Israel nor support organizations that have global BDS programs.” Nevertheless, from 2008-2015, NIF donated $1,975,826 to Adalah.
And, lo and behold, NIF is also listed as a recipient of Soros’ support, 9 grants totaling $837,500 since 2009. One of these grants, for $60,000, was given in 2015 to the Herman Schwartz Human Rights Law Fellowship, to “strengthen the capacities of young Palestinian legal professionals in legal advocacy by undertaking an LL.M. degree in human rights law in the US along with internships opportunities in Israel.”
Talk about Tikkun Olam…

Douglas Murray: Islamic Islamophobia: When Muslims Are Not Muslim Enough, What Does It Promise for the Rest of Us?

Of course, if Mr Shah's murderer had been a non-Muslim, there would be a concerted effort by the entirety of the media and political class to find out what inspirations and associations the murderer had. Specifically, they would want to know if there was anybody -- especially any figure of authority -- who had ever, for instance, called for the murder of Muslim shopkeepers. Yet when a British Muslim kills another British Muslim for alleged "apostasy," and local religious authorities are found to have praised or mourned the killers of people accused of "apostasy," the same people cannot bother to stir themselves. There is talk of being "taken out of context" or there are warnings not to "generalise" or be "Islamophobic" or any number of other fatuous get-out clauses.
What happened this week in court when Tanveer Ahmed was found guilty and sentenced for the murder of Asad Shah was even more revealing. After the judge read out the sentence, Tanveer Ahmed raised his fist and started shouting in Arabic "There is only one prophet." Supporters, who made up around half the people in the public gallery, joined in with his cries. All of which made it understandable that the family of Mr Shah had been too terrified to turn up in court during the trial of their relative's murderer, and are apparently planning to leave Scotland.
Then, outside the court, a news reporter from LBC Radio confronted some of the murderer's family members. The video is worth watching. "Did Asad Shah deserve to die?" he asks the killer's family as they head to their car. They refuse to comment.
When another supporter is asked whether he thinks it was "respectful" for the killer to do the chanting he did in the dock, he becomes threatening and says, "Yeah, he's respecting his prophet. He's saying 'I love my prophet'. What's wrong with that?" Asked if he thinks the sentence was fair, the man replies "No." Asked in what way, he replies, "No comment."
It is, of course, a good thing that the criminal justice system has done its job and done it swiftly. Asad Shah's murderer has been brought to justice and been given a suitably long sentence. But this case should have provided a learning moment for politicians, the media and wider society to finally understand the full threat to our society that this type of fanaticism poses, as well as a realistic awareness of how widespread that fanaticism actually is. Instead, on glimpsing for a moment how deeply this problem goes, it seems that the UK has decided once again to turn away and avert its gaze, for fear of what it might otherwise find out.

Palestinian woman attempts to stab IDF soldiers in northern West Bank

A Palestinian assailant was arrested Sunday evening after she stabbed and lightly injured a female soldier at a checkpoint in the northern West Bank, Israeli officials said.
The Palestinian woman emerged from a car at a checkpoint near the settlement of Shaked, west of Jenin, then pulled a knife out and lunged at the soldiers, the army said.
The troops at the scene subdued the attacker and placed her under arrest, without the use of force. The wounded soldier, who suffered a very mild injury to the shoulder, was treated at the scene.
The assailant was taken for questioning by security forces.

The Muslim world was still upset over the Egyptian judoka loss to an Israeli on Friday, where Islam El Shahaby refused to shake hands with Israeli Or Sasson after his defeat.

So they have made up a story of Olympic revenge to restore Muslim honor.

Egyptian, Palestinian and other Arabic media are reporting that the Muslim world exacted revenge on Israel for this loss by inflicting a humiliating defeat on another Israeli judoka. 112th ranked Mathews Punza defeated 6th ranked Israeli judoka Golan Pollack in a huge upset (video), and Pollack could not believe that he lost, cradling his head in his arms afterwards.

Two problems with this story of supposed revenge.

The first one is that the Pollack/Punza match occurred five days before the Sasson/Shahaby match.

The second is that I have no evidence that Punza is a Muslim. Zambia is an overwhelmingly Christian country, and a name like "Mathews" sounds more Christian than Muslim. While it is possible that Punza is Muslim, it seems unlikely.

Once again, it is all about honor, and the narrative of a Muslim humiliating a Jew as revenge is not only an irresistible story for Arabs, but a necessary one because they simply couldn't live with themselves otherwise. They had no other opportunity for vengeance and the idea of being a good sport about losing to a Jew is simply impossible for them to accept.

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