Thursday, September 08, 2016

  • Thursday, September 08, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon
I just joined Patreon, a crowdfunding site that allows you to give money every month for those who create content that you love (videos, blogs, art, games...) Patrons get rewards based on their level of giving.

Some sites are getting tens thousands of dollars a month. I see one idiotic anti-Israel blogger manages to get $1200 a month!

If you are a fan of EoZ, you know that I work hard to bring you news that you wont see elsewhere. I also want to give more to the columnists and others who contribute to the blog.

More than that, I would love to do this full-time and build EoZ (or an offshoot, probably with a different name) into an entire organization that goes way beyond the blog to actual newsletters to distribute to pro-Israel churches and synagogues, lesson plans to help teach students about the issues before they go to college, more formalized review of textbooks for anti-Israel bias, and many more initiatives. Some of the ideas I have are listed on my Patreon page.

Why should you become a patron? Well, let me show you:



Become a patron of EoZ and help us defend Israel with facts.




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  • Thursday, September 08, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon
Palestinian textbook teaches how to pray
I reported on Monday that Palestinians were complaining that their new textbooks, released with much fanfare late last month, included many mistakes on maps and implied that Ramallah was the capital of "Palestine."

The Palestinian Education Ministry responded by claiming that Israel created these textbooks and somehow infiltrated them into Palestinian schools!

The Palestinian ministry of education Wednesday condemned the issuing of fake Palestinian history school books that contained false information on Palestine.

The ministry said in a statement that Israel issued school books that resembled official Palestinian school books, but included false information such as Jerusalem being the capital of Israel, adding that the move was an attempt to distort the Palestinian national identity.

However, it was unclear if there was a specific Israeli company that was behind the publishing of the books.

The ministry warned against using the Israeli-issued copies of the Palestinian school books, while calling on all schools in Jerusalem, teachers, parents, and students to be aware of the falsified school books.
So those nefarious Jews spent hundreds of hours and tens of thousands of dollars to create fake Palestinian textbooks!

What makes this even more interesting is that the minister of education, Tharwat Zaid, originally blamed the mistakes on editing and printing errors, and said that the same thing happens in other countries, and that it would be corrected. But as the complaints piled up, he apparently decided that saying that Israel was behind the problem is a better response.

The ministry of education did teach an important lesson to its students: when faced with a major embarrassing mistake, blame the Jews.

The new curriculum is not only being criticized for its allegedly Zionist content, but also because it is misogynist:

Women are depicted in first- and second-grade Islamic Education textbooks as witches and sorceresses -- and this is really catching flak.

One image features a witch under the Quran verse that reads: "I seek refuge with Allah from Satan, the accursed." Another image of a witch is accompanied by a verse from the Quran that refers to the "evil of malignant witchcraft."

Critics say that associating women with witchcraft is extremely disrespectful and offensive towards Palestinian women.

"Children in grades 1 and 2 are being taught that women are witches or hags," they protested. "The lesson they are being taught is that the first half of society is Muslim, while the second half is infidel."
It is unclear whether this is being blamed on Israel as well.

It is also worth emphasizing that the Palestinian Arab curriculum mandates "Islamic education" in public schools, and UNRWA teaches Islam in its schools when it uses this curriculum, violating its own UN standards by hiring Islamic studies teachers and teaching Islam.





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  • Thursday, September 08, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon

In Nazareth Illit, three Muslim women beat a Christian woman in their building because her son serves in the Border Police.

The Muslims, who are sisters, have also abused the Christian in other ways. They poured acid on the boy's uniform while it was hanging outside, emptied trash by the door of their apartment and cursed the mother repeatedly.

Two weeks ago the mother filed a complaint with the police after the three sisters entered her house and started beating her.

The lawyer for the Christian woman, Eyal Peltak, says that other Christians who decide to serve their country have also suffered from abuse from their Muslim neighbors. There have been inquiries and recommendations made but nothing has been done.

In 2014, there were some 300 Christians in the IDF, 1500 Christians in the police and over 100 in the Border Police. Increasing numbers of Christians have been choosing to serve even though they are not obligated to under the law. Christian and Muslim Israelis who join the police or military are subjected to intense pressure and insults from many of their Muslim neighbors as well as from Palestinian Arabs who regard them as traitors.

(h/t Yoel)




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Wednesday, September 07, 2016

  • Wednesday, September 07, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon

Arutz-7 reports:
A ban on Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount has been extended to the Muslim Quarter of the Old City, police officials say, justifying the series of recent arrests of Jews praying outside of entrances to the Temple Mount.

After a number of arrests of Jews praying outside of the gates of the Temple Mount, police justified the arrests during a court hearing on Monday, claiming that the ban on Jewish prayer is not limited to the Temple Mount, but extends to the areas around the entrances to the holy site and even to the Muslim Quarter as a whole.

Police representatives Safi Sarahan and Roei Avrahami explained the ban in court, following questioning by an attorney from the Honenu organization representing several girls arrested for praying in the vicinity of the Temple Mount.

The officers revealed that prayer by Jews anywhere near the Temple Mount or even in the Muslim Quarter was considered “disturbing the peace”, except where coordinated with the police in advance.

“Prayer is permissible anywhere in the Jewish Quarter, but the moment you come without permission and pray in the Muslim Quarter, that causes a public disturbance. Inside the Muslim Quarters and the entrances it is forbidden to pray.”

When pressed by the Honenu attorney to cite the law which prohibited Jewish prayer in the Muslim Quarter, the police represents said the matter was within the discretion of the police, under their general responsibility for “keeping the peace”.
NRG broke the story, and followed up,. Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel said it is a discriminatory policy by the police. "If a Jew prays, it can anger the Muslims, then they will breach the public peace, that makes a riot, they run wild, so Jews are not allowed to pray. Everything is upside down. After all, somewhere in Tel Aviv, if a Muslim wants to pray, he has no problem, he takes the prayer mat in the middle of Tel Aviv, the middle of Safed, the middle of each location in Israel - there is no one to bother him about it. We respected him. Would one of us dare to raise a hand against him?! To mock him ?! No, he is respected."

Effectively, Muslims are being rewarded for antisemitism and rioting. By the police in the Jewish state. The police are agreeing with the Muslims that prayers are "provocative" and violence in response to those so-called provocations are fine.

Will Jews need special permission to pray at the Kotel HaKatan, or the Ohel Yitzchak synagogue, both of which are in the Muslim quarter?

All Muslims have to do to rid the quarter of Jews is to start riots, and the police will do what the Muslims want accomplished.

Amnesty and HRW have a dilemma. Do they support the Jews who want to exercise their human right of freedom of worship, or do they support the Israeli police? I think that these brave "human rights" workers will stay out of this issue because they can't support either side.




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From Ian:

Fighting Israel’s Battle Online An Interview with Influential Blogger: ‘Elder of Ziyon’
On March 1, “Elder of Ziyon” – the anonymous author behind www.ElderofZiyon.blogspot.com – posted a map from a McGraw Hill college textbook purporting to show “Palestinian loss of land 1946 to 2000.” Considering that Jews were often called “Palestinians” before 1948, and that Palestinian Arabs – as a “nation” – never owned any territory until Israel carved out autonomous regions for them in 1993, the map was highly misleading.
Elder of Ziyon demanded that McGraw Hill “be held accountable for pushing such propaganda in college classrooms” and called on his readers to e-mail the publisher. Remarkably, within a week, McGraw Hill had removed the book from circulation and promised to destroy all remaining copies.
It is victories like these, and many smaller ones, that motivate Elder of Ziyon – the name is “meant to be ironic,” he says – to continue blogging daily, as he has for over 12 years.
The Jewish Press: Why do you blog under an alias?
Elder of Ziyon: I’m not worried about death threats or anything like that. The main reason is professional. I work in a high-tech industry and it doesn’t help my career potential to use my real name. For any future jobs, people would see my name and think I’m not doing any work – that I blog all day.

Mamet on movies
David Mamet does not answer questions directly.
A linear Q&A would be too boring for the actor, director and playwright, who enjoys and revels in the art of storytelling.
Ask him a question about casting, and he launches into a joke about St. Peter at the pearly gates. Ask him the best way to direct a movie and he explains that the art of film is essentially a long con game with the audience, where deception is key.
But ask him about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, and he’s surprisingly frank. “It’s an obscenity. The BDS movement is an absolute obscenity,” the Pulitzer prize winning writer and director lamented in a discussion at the Jerusalem Ma’aleh school of television, film and arts last week.
“It’s just another example of anti-Semitism, and in America it’s been accepted. The Jewish contribution is great and vast, but nobody likes us. Young kids would ask ‘why?’ and I’d say, ‘you don’t have to answer that.
That’s not your problem,’” he said bluntly.
Mamet lays the majority of the blame for the movement’s popularity on liberal Reform Jews in the US who he says have lost sight of the religion and focus too much on mitzvot or good deeds.
“The BDS movement is an outgrowth of a pseudo- religious consciousness. A liberal, Western Jewish consciousness divorced from religion,” he explained.
Amb. Danny Danon: Taking the Fight Against Anti-Semitism to the United Nations
For all of its good intentions, the United Nations is an institution full of contradictions.
The organization’s founding charter in 1945 stated it would hope to “achieve international co-operation in solving international problems of an economic, social, cultural, or humanitarian character and in promoting and encouraging respect for human rights and for fundamental freedoms for all without distinction as to race, sex, language, or religion.”
Yet all too often, the UN has been manipulated by dictators and despots who place little importance on these values.
At a special gathering Wednesday, “The High Level Forum on Global anti-Semitism,” Israel, the United States, Canada and the nations of the European Union will come to together and work toward a true fulfillment of the UN’s vision. Some of the world’s leading academics, diplomats and experts from the private sector will conduct an honest assessment of the current damage inflicted on humanity by anti-Semitism and plan concrete steps the international community can take to minimize, and eventually eliminate, this particular form of hate.
The United Nations wasn’t founded in a vacuum. It was established after the horrors of World War II and the terrible tragedy of the Holocaust. Despite the raison d’etre for its existence, until 2005 the United Nations didn’t officially mark a Holocaust remembrance day, nor did it seek to educate its member-states about it.
The institution hasn’t been immune to anti-Semitism. All too often Israel has been singled out, boycotted and treated differently for no reason other than it is the world’s only Jewish state. Israel has been accused of being modern-day Nazis by some at the UN, and at its depth of hypocrisy, the world’s nations passed a resolution in the General Assembly in 1975 equating the national movement of the Jewish people, Zionism, with racism.

  • Wednesday, September 07, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon
There was an uproar earlier today when Prime Minister Netanyahu visited the parliament in the Netherlands and one of the MPs refused to shake his hand.



Many people protested Netanyahu's visit because, you know, he is just so immoral.



One of the protesters is Amin Abu Rashid, who put this video on his Facebook page specifically to protest Netanyahu's visit:



Rashid is a major Hamas figure in the Netherlands.

And as this video shows, he has full access to the parliament, with no protests.




He posts antisemitic cartoons.



Yet he can walk into the parliament without anyone batting an eye.

The Dutch are in serious trouble.

(h/t Mark)




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Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory

Check out their Facebook page.


BBCSafed, September 7 - The British Broadcasting Corporation is holding off on production of a segment on injured Syrian civilians receiving medical treatment in Israeli hospitals until a sufficiently dark portrayal of the policy can be worked into the broadcast.

Thousands of Syrians have been spirited across the Syrian frontier with the Golan Heights to institutions such as Rambam Hospital in Haifa and Sieff Hospital here in Safed, in clandestine coordination between the Israeli military and various Syrian groups fighting the Assad regime. Pro-Assad media and institutions refer in blanket terms to the patients in Israel as terrorists, but BBC editors are looking for an angle that preserves the wounded Syrians' innocent humanity while highlighting Israel's cynical exploitation of the situation.

"It has to be just credible enough - we do have some journalistic standards," explained Ann T. Semitt of the Jerusalem bureau. "It doesn't fly anymore with much of our audience to explicitly parrot the propaganda of a genocidal dictator such as Assad, so we have to find a different approach to smearing Israel in an article about something good Israel is otherwise doing. "

Semitt said the bureau and BBC headquarters in London had held extensive discussions of options for framing the Israeli medical treatment in negative terms, but had yet to hit on a compelling formula. "We couldn't find a convincing way to shoehorn mention of Palestinian suffering into the clip without it seeming contrived, and the best we've come up with so far is overstating the plight of Druze residents of the Golan Heights, and emphasizing that Israel's annexation of the area has never been internationally recognized. But that doesn't spark the emotion the way, for example, charges of organ-harvesting might. We're still basically at the drawing-board stage."

Other possible angles included a focus on mishaps that may have taken place during the course of the treatment, or the not-so-veiled implication that the Syrian patients were brought to Israel against their will. However, specifics on the Syrian cases were difficult to obtain, and it soon became clear that every Syrian patient was brought at his or her own request, or that of family. Semitt, however, expressed confidence that the BBC would soon arrive at the right anti-Israel formulation, at which point the video segment could be produced.

"We always get there in the end," she promised. "As some historical figure once said, 'If you will it, it is no dream.'"



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From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: Israel’s Rights in the Territories under International Law
Israel Is Not an “Occupier”
International law defines “occupation” as one power occupying the lands of a foreign sovereign. In Israel’s case, Israel is not occupying any foreign sovereign’s land; Israel entered the area known as the West Bank in 1967 and took over the authority to administer the land from Jordan, which was never considered to be a sovereign in the area.
“Palestinian Territories” Is Not a Legal Term
The international community’s constant referral to the “Palestinian territories” is a complete fallacy and has absolutely no legal or political basis. There has never been a Palestinian state, as such, and therefore the territories never belonged to any Palestinian entity. There’s no international agreement, there’s no contract, there’s no treaty, and there’s no binding international resolution that determines that the territories belong to the Palestinians.
In actual fact, even the Palestinians themselves, in the Oslo agreement that they signed with Israel, acknowledge the fact that the ultimate permanent status of the territory is to be determined by negotiations. Therefore, even the Palestinians accept the fact that this is not Palestinian territory, its disputed territory whose status is yet to be settled.
The Settlements Are Not Illegitimate
There’s one other point, the issue of settlements is a negotiating issue. The Palestinians have agreed with the Israelis that the issue of settlements is one of the issues on the permanent status negotiating table. Therefore, anybody who comes along and claims that Israel’s settlements are illegitimate – whether it’s the EU, whether it’s individual governments, whether it is the secretary of state of the United States, who said so specifically, or the spokesman of the State Department – they’re prejudging a negotiating issue, which is clearly incompatible with any negotiating principle.
There’s No Such Thing as 1967 Borders
There’s no such thing as 1967 borders. A border is a line between two sovereign entities. In 1967, there was a ceasefire line that had existed since the 1948-1949 war between the Arab states and Israel and after Israel declared its independence. The Jordanians insisted on inserting in the Armistice Agreement of 1949 a provision which says that the armistice demarcation line is not the final border. Final borders can only be determined in peace negotiations between the parties. So “1967 borders” is a non-existent term and anybody using this term – again, including the U.S. administration and the EU – are simply being misled.

Elliott Abrams: Obama: See No Evil, See No Enemies
What has been the American response? What has the White House decided? To do nothing, and to tell the Navy to bob and weave and duck. The administration remains committed to its nuclear deal above all, and is willing to allow these dangerous and humiliating maneuvers against the Navy without reply. It is engaged in covering up Iran’s violations of the nuclear deal, denying them, and allowing secret exemptions. Meanwhile Iran increases its presence and activity in Iraq and Syria and uses the nuclear deal to build its economy.
It would be easy to show the Cuban regime, and the Cuban people, that we care more about freedom than Jet Blue; all that was required was a visit to Guillermo Farinas. Still, the administration won’t do it, refusing to undermine its message that Cuba is changing and is our new friend. It is not so easy to show the world that we are not cowed by Iran and that our Navy will not be abused by the Iranian Navy; that will actually require sinking an Iranian vessel. But here again, the administration will not undermine its message that the nuclear deal will bring peace and moderation.
So it will be up to our next president to distinguish between friends and enemies. If he or she wants to send the world a message that the Obama era is over and America is back, visits to Cuban dissidents like Farinas and one sinking of an Iranian ship that is illegally and dangerously harassing a U.S. Navy vessel would be the best and likely the cheapest ways to do so.
Will Obama roll the dice on the Middle East one more time?
Barack Obama took office in 2009 with two big personal priorities in foreign policy: the limitation of nuclear weapons and the cause of Palestinian statehood. This summer the president has been weighing a flurry of possible last-minute actions to cement his legacy on nukes, including a U.N. resolution that would ban testing. That raises an obvious question: Will Obama also launch an 11th-hour Mideast gambit?
The possibility has been debated in and outside the White House ever since Secretary of State John F. Kerry’s quixotic effort to broker an Israeli-Palestinian deal collapsed in 2014. All along, the assumption has been that Obama might wait to act until after the presidential election, so as to avoid creating problems for Hillary Clinton. There’s plenty of precedent: Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush all bid for a Middle East legacy during their final months.
Not surprisingly, the prospect of an Obama initiative — which could take the form of a speech, or at its most ambitious, a U.N. resolution — is producing “high anxiety in the Netanyahu world,” as one former administration official puts it. That would be Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu, the Israeli leader who has haunted and taunted Obama since he took office — and absorbed in return more White House animus and abuse than any other U.S. ally. In the end, Obama’s final decisions on the Middle East may be driven by another drama: the Barack and Bibi endgame.

  • Wednesday, September 07, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon

Professor Radwan Amr, who is the director of manuscripts department at the Al Aqsa mosque, says that a group of "settler" held a formal wedding ceremony on the Temple Mount, guarded by police and special forces.

This story was reported as fact by the official Wafa News Agency of the Palestinian Authority.

Needless to say, the screaming "worshipers" at the site didn't manage to take any photos or video of this event.

Jewish visitors who were peacefully visiting the site were reported to be creating an "extremely tense atmosphere" with their "provocative incursions."

Since Wafa reported it, other Palestinian media followed suit.

Which means that Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada may not be far behind.

It's funny, because they won't report the very obvious lies and accusations in Palestinian media, because it would make them look bad when they are debunked, but they happily report any accusations that they feel are true.




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Varda Meyers Epstein's weekly column:




It's hard to understand why someone like Sarit Michaeli, the spokesperson for B'Tselem, the so-called human rights organization, continues to live in Israel, considering the fact that she sees Israel as an "occupier" of its Arab minority. I mean, if she thinks she's guilty of a crime, why doesn't she leave? 

At the same time, it's even more difficult to understand why anyone gives her a platform to spew her nonsense. Still, Alan Mendoza of JTV acquitted himself well in his interview of Michaeli.

He at least tried to pin her down, to make her admit that, for instance, Hamas, the ruling power in Gaza, is a terrorist organization. He asks her once, twice, three times. But that comes later.

The interview begins with an overview of B'Tselem history and how the org has morphed from being all about the "occupation," all the time, to sometimes noticing that the other side isn't exactly playing fair. You know how it goes: gotta look balanced or no one takes you seriously. Especially since you got caught giving out cameras to people in Hebron to take that little film clip of Elor Azaria in which you MUTED THE SOUND.

Soon enough, thank God, Mendoza cuts off her blather:

Alan Mendoza: Okay, so the original goal was informational, and to bring to light human rights abuses. What's the goal today?

Sarit Michaeli: So I think over the years, the situation has changed on the ground and I think our understanding as well of the inflation of our role in the broader picture is also evolved.

(Take a deep breath. Not really, but this is going to be long.)

Sarit Michaeli: If in the past, it seemed like information is enough in order to spur Israelis on to action, to get them to oppose the Israeli occupation—which we do as the pure problem of human rights violations of Palestinians living under it—now of course we're much more nuanced I think in our understanding and we know that this isn't simply going to change purely by providing this information, but information and research is still, for the basic building block of our work but on top of that we do a lot of advocacy with Israel, with the international community, with the Israeli public, talking about the reality on the ground, talking about what it means, you know, we're actually only just a week following the 49th anniversary of the occupation, actually half a century, entering a 50th year of the occupation, and one of the key things for us is trying to explain the reality on the ground all Palestinians living under the occupation today. . .

(Someone, anyone, please write the McWhirter brothers. Surely that's a sentence worthy of a Guinness record?)

Alan Mendoza: I get you want to explain what's happening on the ground. Where do you want that to go to? What's your end point in this?

Sarit Michaeli: I mean, for us I think the key issue is that the Israeli occupation needs to end. B'Tselem doesn't say. . .

Alan Mendoza: Is that a two-state solution or a one-state solution?

Sarit Michaeli: B'Tselem doesn't provide a blueprint as to how to end the conflict. It's far beyond the limits of our mandate. Our mandate is to look at the current situation and to you know, influence Israelis and Palestinians to reach a decision on how to end the conflict between them and how to resolve it, you know, in whatever way that of course, appears to work for both sides, but also to force it to benchmarks, to human rights benchmarks.

Alan Mendoza: I understand that. You speak of human rights benchmarks. Of course it's important those are kept to. What about benchmarks on the Palestinian side? It doesn't appear you have any interest in Palestinian rights and we know, we've had many reports from Palestinian human rights activists about what happens under the Palestinian Authority. Torture, murder, things like that. Where's your comment on that?

Ooh. SNAP.

Sarit Michaeli: Well absolutely, so our website of course includes critique, not just theoretical critiques, but also information and data on the most egregious human rights violations under the Palestinian Authority but also under the Hamas regime in Gaza. We certainly view human rights as a universal issue and of course it would be completely absurd not to relate to these kinds of violations. What we try to also do is we work out what we would be effective in doing, so when it comes to the recent, for example, execution in Gaza by Hamas, to torture and various forms of denial of freedom of speech by the PA, of course we've made very clear statements about this. We've also made statements and we denounce in very categorical terms Palestinian attacks against Israeli civilians are not just a violation of the rights of the Palestinians by other Palestinians, but also a violation of Israelis by Palestinians.

Say what?

Sarit Michaeli: However, as it is really an Israeli organization, the bulk of our research and our work and our effort goes at self-criticism so looking at our own government, our own army. . .

Here it comes. The big question. First time:

Alan Mendoza: Let's look at one issue. Is Hamas a terrorist organization?

Sarit Michaeli: Hamas engages in clear terrorist acts when it bombs Israeli civilians. We have denounced these actions clearly, I mean if you're referring to the attempt by a former Israeli Member of Knesset to basically smear B'Tselem's director, in order to place us in a position, to present a false image, as if B'Tselem is somehow, in any way, in support of attacks against civilians, it's simply incorrect and it is simply, basically a form of political attack against us then what can we do. . .

Second time:

Alan Mendoza: Are you prepared to call Hamas a terrorist organization? That's what I'm asking you.

Third time:

Alan Mendoza: Are you prepared to call Hamas a terrorist organization?

Sarit Michaeli: As I said, we denounce the terrorist acts perpetrated by Hamas military. We have stated that again and again. Again what you're referring to is a clear attempt by Israeli politicians, to try and present us as if we are terrorists . . .

Alan Mendoza: It's a very simple question. . .

Sarit Michaeli: . . . and of course this is simply unacceptable. . .

Alan Mendoza: . . . and you're not answering it.

Sarit Mendoza: I answered it.

Alan Mendoza: Well, it seems that you believe that Hamas is not a terrorist organization. . .

Sarit Mendoza: We have said that Hamas attacks Israelis, attacks Israeli civilians, and it bombs Israeli civilians. We've denounced these acts, clearly.

Alan Mendoza: It's a terrorist organization part of the time.

Sarit Michaeli: I've answered your question.

Actually, no. You haven't.

Sarit Michaeli: You're trying to basically present our, you know, our attitude and approach to this issue based on the framing of you know, presented by an Israeli extremist right-wing Member of Knesset when he was a radio reporter. This is the backdrop to what we're talking about. I think this notion of somehow like smearing us as like terrorist sympathizers, it's just simply unacceptable. B'Tselem has a very clear record of condemning this type of violence.

Alan Mendoza: I'm afraid that's all we've got time for. Thank you for joining us.



So as a mother of 12 kids, what this reminded me of most is the theory that you never call a child "bad." Rather, you say his actions are bad. "Jimmy, it is a bad thing to bite Susie" but never , "Jimmy, you are a bad boy for biting Susie."

In other words, B'Tselem views Hamas as an unruly child to be tamed with psychobabble. Michaeli won't characterize Hamas as a terrorist organization. She has no compunction, on the other hand, about characterizing Israel as an "occupier."

Just another example of the soft bigotry of low expectations, brought to you by B'Tselem.


(h/t Natan Epstein)


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  • Wednesday, September 07, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon


Last night, armed supporters of Mahmoud Zahar surrounded the home of rival Hamas official Ghazi Hamad over comments he made.

A couple of days ago, Zahar - who is close to the Al Qassam Brigades - said that he was against any reconciliation between Hamas and Fatah, and that if any agreement would let Fatah back in Gaza he would leave Hamas and create an alternative party.

Speaking to a Turkish newspaper, Hamad answered that Hamas would not allow an alternate party to be set up in Gaza, and that Hamas does not make its decisions on dictates from Tehran. Zahar has close ties with Iran.

Zahar's supporters in the Al Qassam Brigades held a tense face-off for several hours with Hamad's own armed guards, and only intense behind-the-scenes negotiations averted gunfire between the sides.

There is other drama in the ranks of the Hamas leadership, as Khaled Meshal is ending his second term as Hamas' political leader, and Gaza Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh is jockeying for position to replace him. This all depends on Haniyeh's ability to leave Gaza, and the stories say that he plans to leave Gaza under the pretense of going on the Hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia but really to be available to take over Meshal's position.



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Tuesday, September 06, 2016

  • Tuesday, September 06, 2016
  • Elder of Ziyon


Wine Spectator magazine is putting Israeli wines on its front cover for its October 15 issue.

You can see how they rate over a hundred Israeli wines here.

I wondered if the higher-priced wines would tend to be of better quality. So I ran the numbers:


There was an extremely weak correlation (0.081) between price and score.

The best bargains would be the Barkan Chardonnay Judean Hills Special Reserve 2012, with a score of 91 for $25, and the Tzora Judean Hills White 2014, with a score of 92 for $30.

It is notable that the best wines tend to come from the Judean Hills - in other words, in areas that the world wants Jews to abandon to people for whom drinking wine, by and large,  is considered a sin.

UPDATE: Tzora Vineyards is actually on the west side of the Green Line (h/t Danny). Others are as well (h/t Ron.)



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