Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, December 16, 2016

You'll never believe why these photos of beautiful Israeli women are in an Arab news site

At first glance, this series of photos of beautiful Israeli women looks like an ad for tourism in Israel.

But in fact they are what accompanied an article about women in the Mossad in Arabic Cedar News.

(Yes, my headline is clickbait. Might as well take a chapter from "fake news". Shabbat Shalom!)

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.

12/16 Links Pt1: Glick: A Trumpian Israeli initiative; France Humiliated by Abbas but Israel Remains Focused

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: A Trumpian Israeli initiative

Then of course, there is Jerusalem. Since 1948 the US has refused to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital – or even as part of Israel. This policy of nonrecognition – embodied by the US refusal to transfer the US Embassy to Jerusalem – has been maintained by a bipartisan consensus despite the fact that for the past 20 years, US law has required the State Department to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and move the embassy to Jerusalem.
When Trump promised to move the US Embassy to Jerusalem, his words were greeted with cynicism.
But then this week his senior adviser Kellyanne Conway said Trump is serious about moving the embassy to Jerusalem.
In one fell swoop, the 68-year-old consensus is gone.
Thirty-five years ago, on December 14, 1981, Israel took a Trump-like step. Israel took a wrecking ball to received wisdom.
That day, the Knesset passed the Golan Heights Law. Then-prime minister Menachem Begin decided on the initiative the day before. In less than 24 hours, the law went from an idea in Begin’s head into the law books.
The Golan Heights law canceled the Military Government and Civil Administration that had governed the area since 1967 and replaced them with Israeli law and administration.
The Reagan administration was livid. Begin had neither asked Ronald Reagan for permission nor given Reagan a head’s-up on what he was about to do.
Begin was clearly operating on the basis of the “It’s better to ask for forgiveness than for permission” protocol.
In the event, the Americans weren’t really mad.
Reagan prevented the UN Security Council from sanctioning Israel for its action.
The Syrian regime did nothing. The Arab world yawned.
Israel was spared international condemnation in large part because of the way Begin explained the purpose of the law.

Israel Thrives: Obama’s Post-Newtown Release of Child-Murderers from Israeli Prisons

Early in 2013, when the nation was still in shock over the December 14, 2012 Newtown massacre, President Obama decided that one of his administration’s top priorities would be to pressure Israel to release scores of convicted terrorists, including the killers of children. The result would turn out to be a grotesque foreign-policy “success” that the media virtually ignored.
While political leaders, including presidents, are expected to flip-flop occasionally, this might be the first administration in history to flip-flop on the issue of child massacres. The first anniversary of the Newtown killings was preceded by two other noteworthy anniversaries of child murders that the Obama administration reacted to in chillingly conflicting ways, apparently based on the victims’ nationality and religion.
To observe the 50th anniversary of the 1963 firebombing murders of four African-American girls in Birmingham, President Obama solemnly paid tribute to the victims, who were also posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for “major achievement in the recipient's field.”
One month later, Israel marked a similar tragic milestone—the 25th anniversary of the firebombing murders of the nine-months pregnant Rachel Weiss, a 26-year-old second-grade teacher, and her sons—Netanel, 4; Rafael, 2; and Ephraim, 21 months. Israeli soldier David Delorosa also died in a heroic attempt to save them. Israel considered imposing the death penalty for the first time since Adolf Eichmann was put to death in 1962.
Unfortunately, the Weiss brothers did not look like Obama’s own imagined sons; and unfortunately, they and their mother (a victim of a real war on women) were citizens of the nation Obama’s mentor Jeremiah Wright referred to as “that dirty word.” And so, using Secretary of State John Kerry as his point man, Obama began pushing for the release of their killers, along with scores of other terrorists convicted of murder or attempted murder.
The two perpetrators of the 1988 bus firebombing and their fellow terrorists were apparently freed simply because Palestinian officials requested it—reportedly the same reason Obama’s Internal Revenue Service began persecuting pro-Israel organizations.

J-Street sinks into irrelevance, one outraged statement at a time

J-Street tweeted:

Trump's pick of Friedman for Israel Amb is anathema to values that underlie US-Israel relationship. We'll fight this with all we've got.
— Jeremy Ben-Ami (@JeremyBenAmi) December 16, 2016

And what, exactly, does J-Street have?

They no longer have a White House that artificially boosts them up deliberately to split the US Jewish community and make it appear that far more Jews oppose Israel's policies than actually do.

All they have are the anti-Israel members of Congress that they gave money to that happened to win despite J-Street's attempts to make the Iranian nuclear deal a positive reason to vote for them.

I was struck by this statement that J-Street made in reaction to the appointment of John Bolton as Deputy Secretary of State:

Bolton has shown little understanding for the challenges that Israel faces if it is to remain a secure and democratic homeland for the Jewish people.

If resistance to a pro-terror Palestinian state at the expense of hundreds of thousands of Jews who live in their ancestral homeland is an example of "little understanding," then J-Street must also believe that Benjamin Netanyahu's understanding of Israel's challenges, and the understandings of most of the Knesset, are also woefully inadequate compared to the genius of Jeremy Ben Ami.

This isn't reasoned argument. This is J-Street lashing out as it is sinking in a sea of its own irrelevance.

I imagine that Ben-Ami also believes that the vast consensus of Israelis who want the US to move its embassy to Jerusalem - which J-Street opposes - are also lacking in understanding of Israel's challenges. Only Americans like Ben Ami understand Israel (plus, of course, Meretz voters and Haaretz columnists.)

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.

The Palestinian group which fought with Assad, Hezbollah and Iran in Aleppo

As the world looks on in horror at the horrid attacks on civilians in Aleppo, and as UNRWA tries to portray Palestinians in Syria as innocent victims of the civil war, there are a number of Palestinian militias who are enthusiastically supporting the atrocities of Assad, Hezbollah and Iran.

Liwa al Quds was created in 2012 made of Palestinians who lived in two UNRWA camps near Aleppo. As this March 2015 profile states,

A new organization has appeared alongside the Syrian army in Aleppo fighting the armed takfiris, for after the entry of Hezbollah onto the line of battle and the appearance of ‘Quwat al-Ridha‘, which is considered the core of Syrian Hezbollah, in addition to the National Defence Forces and the Iraqi military formations, a Palestinian faction has appeared fighting under the banner of the Syrian state.

Information indicates that the new formation adopted the name of the Palestinian capital al-Quds as its banner, while it is formed of Palestinian fighters who have lived and live in Syria, having expressed their support for the Syrian state and its army.

The formation, which was established in October 2013 by the engineer ‘Muhammad al-Sa’id’ who is considered its real leader, held the bond of silence and thus its activities were not advertised in media, until the recent battles of north Aleppo countryside where an important military role for them became apparent.

Here is a poster recruiting members from the age of 15:

The Liwa al-Quds leadership announces the opening of a military session: physical fitness, military tactics, martial arts and self-defence, blitz. The length of the training session is 30 days. All who wish to register from age 15 and above should head to the Liwa al-Quds base in the al-Nayrab camp and register from 6 p.m. till 9 p.m., beginning from Wednesday 24 April.

Iranian propaganda has used this Palestinian group and others as proof that Assad is not anti-Sunni, in this report from September when the battle for Aleppo was starting:

The Palestinian pro-Assad, anti-Takfiri Resistance group Liwa al-Quds is among the fighters in Syria that have debunked the myth and propaganda against the Syrian Army is a predominantly Alawiite force. This group has been operating in Aleppo and has been to deal a major blow to Takfiri terrorist groups especially ISIS.

The presence of Liwa al-Quds in the recent victories at Handarat Refugee Camp and al-Kindi Hospital as well as the rapid, lightning-like advancement in other key Aleppo City districts, has dispelled enemy propaganda that the Bashar al-Assad government is anti-Sunni.

Indeed, apart from Liwa al-Quds, other Sunni Palestinian groups are also active in the battlefield against foreign-backed Takfiri terrorist groups. Some of the groups here include Qouwat al-Jalil, the PFLP-GC, Fatah al-Intifada, the Palestine Liberation Army (Palestinian wing of the SAA) and the Palestinian members of the NDF.

Another pro-Assad group is Jaysh al-Tahrir al-Falastini:

Jaysh al-Tahrir al-Falastini is the ‘Palestinian Liberation Army.’ This militia in Syria is led by one Muhammad Tariq al-Khadra’, who characterizes the civil war in Syria as follows: “The vicious barbaric international conspiracy against Syria and the Arab nation aims to redivide and repartition this nation to form weak madhhabist, sectarian and racist entities in conflict with each other, to justify the establishment of the racist entity on the Jewish foundations of the Zionist state, dominating over the Arab nation.”

To be sure, not all Syrian Palestinians support Assad; Hamas famously left Syria when it refused to support him. But there are plenty who not only support Assad's atrocities, but enthusiastically participate in them.

It is worth a reminder that PA President Abbas had the opportunity to save thousands of Palestinians in Syria nearly four years ago, when Israel said they would be allowed into the West Bank, as long as they don't demand to move to Israel itself. Abbas responded coldly, "It's better they die in Syria than give up their right of return."

So far, over 3300 Palestinians have indeed died in Syria, most of them innocent, but hundreds of them fighting with Assad.

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.

In the same interview where Hamas leader Fathi Hammad offered to give rockets to Arab countries to attack the Jews, he said:

Gaza was liberated under the watch of Hamas, through the Jihad of Hamas, with its men, its plans, and its leaders. Gaza has become the first Palestinian area to be liberated in this era, Allah be praised. (Hamas) has proven itself through its rule - the Jihadi, political, progressive rule of Gaza. Allah be praised, nobody has died of hunger or anything. On the contrary, following the liberation of Gaza, our Jihadi, 'Izz Al-Din Al-Qassam units have become an army, Allah be praised

Gaza is "liberated" and he contrasts it with the PA-controlled areas, which he would obviously consider to be occupied."

The UN, ICRC, Amnesty and HRW all claim, falsely, that Gaza is still occupied - when even its own leaders brag about how they are completely independent and liberated.

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.

The US Embassy in Jerusalem and proleptic dhimmitude

Professor Richard Landes coined a wonderful phrase, "proleptic dhimmitude." It refers to the actions of Westerners who take what they believe to be pro-Muslim positions in anticipation of supremacist Muslim threats and demands.

Real dhimmis under Muslim rule live in fear that their Muslim leaders will target them if they do not act in a subservient manner. Proleptic dhimmis act as if Muslims are their leaders, too, and they go beyond Muslim demands in their zeal to appease them ahead of time.

There is no better example of proleptic dhimmitude than the gnashing of teeth over the possibility (which seems more and more likely) that Donald Trump will move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

MSNBC's Chris Matthews sputtered on Tuesday:

Why are we moving the embassy to — to Jerusalem at a time that the whole place over there could blow up? Why do we something that's right in the face of the Palestinians, right in the face of the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Egyptians. The one thing they say is leave you know, the Dome of the Rock alone, leave are — the hopeful capital of a Palestinian state alone. Don't desecrate it by saying it's the capital of Israel at this point?

Matthews is not arguing that there is a legal reason not to move the embassy. He is not arguing that such a move would violate even Islamic law.

In fact, Matthews is showing incredible ignorance because any embassy move would occur in the part of Jerusalem that was under Israeli control since 1948.

(The only possible argument against it is if you accept the fiction that Jerusalem would become an international city in a final peace agreement, which was the official - if absurd - US position for the past 68 years. But Muslims cannot hold that position, because it would mean that they would not have control over Jerusalem either.)

Matthews, and other critics of the idea of moving the embassy, are not basing their objections on any rational reason. They are anticipating that Muslims will act like crazed animals if the US does this, and they want to appease these subhuman Muslims who cannot control themselves (by their estimation, not mine) ahead of time. They want to head off what they believe would be the inevitable Muslim riots and terror that would result from the US respecting Israel's right to define its own capital, a right that every other nation has.

I just did a quick search in Arabic news sites to see if there is any anger over this possible move of the embassy. There is very, very little. For the most part, this is not even a story, although some Arab news outlets are covering it dispassionately.

Of all the things for Arabs and Muslims to worry about in an impending Trump administration, moving the US embassy from one part of Israel to another part within the Green Line is not even on their radar.

But some Americans like Chris Matthews are proleptic dhimmis. They are worried about what they think Muslims might do, and therefore they are held hostage by their own predictions, even when there is precious little evidence that they are right.

However, the Muslims are very attuned to this phenomenon of Western anticipatory dhimmitude. If an American rants on TV about how angry Muslims are going to be when someone does X, then this creates an environment where some Muslims feel compelled to protest X - otherwise they lose political power. Muslim supremacists are being handed a gift by these dhimmis. Their power in the West is due in no small part to the constant threat of terror when they don't get their way, and if the West is willing to give them leverage with that fear, they would be stupid not to take advantage of it. (Westerners have had a fear of Muslim jihad for a very long time.)

Matthews and those like him, without realizing it, are creating the exact situation that they believe they are trying to avoid. They treat Muslims like they are irrational, crazy people who must be handled with kid gloves or else they will turn deadly - and too many Muslims embrace that role because it gives them power over the dhimmis.

This same logic is used by some Western leaders to demand that Israel act in certain ways - because of the anticipatory violence of Muslims against Western targets if Israel doesn't adhere to the proleptic dhimmi demands. Don't build in Jerusalem, don't enforce zoning laws, don't perform archaeological digs - all of these are demands on Israel by proleptic dhimmis of the West in far greater volume than by Arab leaders in recent years.

And there are no dhimmis as dhimmified as proleptic dhimmis.

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.

12/15 Links Pt2: Chris Matthews Claims Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem Will 'Desecrate' Capital and Future 'Palestinian State'

From Ian:

Chris Matthews Claims Moving U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem Will 'Desecrate' Capital and Future 'Palestinian State'

Chris Matthews is deeply concerned that moving the U.S. Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem will "desecrate" the holy city and "hopeful capital of the Palestinian state."
Speaking to Democratic Senator Chris Murphy, Matthews fretted over President-elect Donald Trump's vow to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem as a symbol of America's recognition that an undivided Jerusalem is and will remain the eternal capital of the Jewish State. Matthews couldn't possibly understand Trump's motivation here, and expresses as much in the following segment, via Newsbusters:
Why are we moving the embassy to — to Jerusalem at a time that the whole place over there could blow up? Why do something that's right in the face of the Palestinians, right in the face of the Jordanians, the Saudis, the Egyptians. The one thing they say is leave you know, the Dome of the Rock alone, leave our — the hopeful capital of a Palestinian state alone. Don't desecrate it by saying it's the capital of Israel at this point?
Murphy attempted to explain that Trump could go the way of George W. Bush and decide not move the embassy upon taking office. However, Matthews wasn’t buying it: “But you don't do it. You say you're going to do it to pander a little bit. Fine, that's politics. But you don't actually do it. Doesn't Trump know this?”
At another point in the program, Matthews spoke with talk radio host Hugh Hewitt about Trump's choice for Secretary of State, Rex Tillerson, whom Matthews fears will be too pro-Israel and work too well with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (God forbid, right?):

Michael Lumish and Cinnamon Stillwell: Trump terror within Middle East studies

Nowhere was the hysteria, panic, and fear-mongering attending Donald Trump’s win in the 2016 presidential election felt more strongly than on college campuses – and Middle East studies academics were no exception. Rather than acknowledging that justified concern over increasing terrorism in the U.S. was a strong factor, they dismissed Trump voters as angry, fearful, ignorant, “Islamophobic” white supremacists.
This despite Trump’s receiving more minority votes than did Mitt Romney in 2012, and the support of the same white working-class population that twice voted for biracial President Barack Obama.
It was not millions of American voters, but the professors themselves who exhibited bigotry, fear, and anger.
Admitting that the “segment of society” who voted for Trump “frightens me,” Muqtedar Khan, director of the University of Delaware’s Islamic Studies Program, ascribed his win to “myopia” and “cultural insecurity.” Accordingly, he announced that he was “frightened for the future of minorities in this country.” No word on whether Khan is frightened of his own shadow.

Honest Reporting: EXCLUSIVE: HR Exposes Accredited Journalist as BDS Activist

Did Loewenstein gain his official press card by claiming to be a Guardian writer? If so, then it looks like this may be one avenue that could be cut off. HonestReporting contacted The Guardian directly, pointing out that hiring Loewenstein was the equivalent of hiring a corporate lobbyist to be the newspaper’s business correspondent.
Did Loewenstein misrepresent himself at the FPA event to Yair Lapid as working directly for The Guardian? Given the reactions of both Peter Beaumont and Harriet Sherwood, has Loewenstein just been caught dishonestly burnishing press credentials in an effort to present himself as a credible journalist?
This could well be the case. The Guardian’s Head of International News Jamie Wilson responded to HonestReporting by stating that Loewenstein was contracted to write comment pieces for Guardian Australia and remains an occasional comment contributor but he “is not a news correspondent for the Guardian in Israel.” It was also relayed to us that Loewenstein has now been told to in future make sure he does not reference The Guardian at press conferences unless he is working on a direct commission.
HonestReporting Managing Editor Simon Plosker said:
The Guardian’s distancing itself from Loewenstein is a welcome development. We now call on the Foreign Press Association to revoke his membership of the organization as his BDS activism is incompatible with reporting on Israel in a professional manner. Having been exposed as a BDS activist, Loewenstein’s Government Press Office accreditation should be immediately revoked and questions asked as to how a BDS activist was able to acquire a press card in the first instance.
Ultimately, the exposure of Loewenstein is a wakeup call for the mainstream media when it comes to journalistic ethics and the use of freelance reporters. All too often the grey area between journalist and activist is ignored and professional and objective reporting on Israel is the victim. This time, there is a clear line and Antony Loewenstein has crossed it.
We await responses from those involved as well as further developments concerning Loewenstein’s status. We will, of course, keep our readers updated.

A few months ago I was asked permission by Likud Netherlands to use a graphic I once made for a book they were preparing called 150 Palestinian Tales. I of course gave them permission, asking to see the book when it was released (and translated to English.)

I just received my copy, and it surpassed my expectations.

You can see it for yourself. Here is a preview of the book, a mini-encyclopedia of answering anti-Israel lies.

Preview of 150 Palestinian Tales

This book is an invaluable reference. It should be handed out to every student going to college. If Jewish Federations want to make a real impact, they would order thousands of these and provide them to local Hillels.

Buy it.

By the way, the graphic they used of mine was this one:

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.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

I have avoided writing about Amona until now. This is because the legal issues surrounding the notion of land ownership in Judea and Samaria are so arcane that one legal scholar (email correspondence) wrote that “the number of people who have a good understanding of West Bank property law can be counted on one hand.” And I don’t want to add to the noise by writing yet another amateur legal brief about it. There are, though, some things that are clear and worth saying.

First of all, let me state my prejudices: I do not believe Jews living in Judea and Samaria are an “obstacle to peace,” nor do I think that Jewish communities there are illegal or even “illegitimate,” whatever that means. Indeed, I think that Jews settling anywhere in the land of Israel are performing a religious and Zionist mitzvah, and I’m all for it. Those who find this position offensive can stop reading now.

The last time I mentioned Amona, someone took me to task for advocating “land theft.” It’s private Palestinian land, he said. What more do you need to know? Well, actually there is a great deal to know. Some of the complexities are discussed here. It’s worthwhile reading if you care about more than slogans.

My take on the legal part is that the draconian decision by the Supreme Court to destroy all of Amona and uproot its residents because of what turned out to be a claim on about one half acre of the 125 acres on which it is built, and which ultimately rested on the illegal actions of the Jordanian king, was highly unjust.

How does it happen that a Jewish court would punish Jews for settling in the land of Israel? How does it then happen that alternatives to expelling these families from their homes are opposed by the Court and the government’s legal advisor (who is hand-picked by the Court)?

The answer isn’t legal, but is connected to international politics. Israel is the only country in the world whose real estate laws and transactions are scrutinized by the US State Department, the UN and the European Union’s Foreign Ministry. The Obama Administration, for example, recently weighed inopposing an attempt to move the Amona families to a nearby unused location that was listed as property abandoned by Arabs in 1967. And the EU opposed the Regularization Law (as did the UN), which is intended to legalize outposts built on land claimed by Palestinians by compensating the claimants.

I should add that the EU seems to see nothing wrong with directly financing illegal Palestinian construction in the territories, while vehemently opposing any Israeli building there – all this in “Area C,” which under the Oslo accords is supposed to be under full Israeli control. But their concern for legality apparently doesn’t include obeying Israeli laws.

The Palestinians who claim ownership of the land on which Amona was built didn’t decide to sue the state by themselves. Indeed, the petition to the Supreme Court was filed on their behalf by an “Israeli” NGO called Yesh Din (“there is justice”), an organization which claims to work on behalf of “human rights in the Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT),” which it does by

collecting and disseminating reliable and updated information regarding systematic human rights violations in the OPT; conducting public and legal advocacy in order to pressure Israel’s authorities to cease violations; and raising public awareness to human rights violations in the OPT.

I put “Israeli” above in quotation marks because although its staff and directors are mostly Jewish Israelis,  the organization receives almost all of its funds from foreign sources. According to NGO Monitor, which examines annual reports filed by Israeli-registered NGOs, 93.5% of its funding from 2002 through 2014 came from foreign sources. Total donations between 2002 and 2016 were about 18 million Israeli Shekels, or about US $4.73 million. Sources (see link above for a breakdown) include individual European countries and the EU, and the US-based New Israel Fund.

When Yesh Din is not petitioning the Supreme Court to throw Jews out of their homes, it is falsely accusing the IDF of war crimes. How patriotic.

I think it’s safe to say that the  international community, led by the Obama Administration, the UN, and the EU, with the support of the great majority of the world media and its academic establishment, wish to force Israel to abandon Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. It is also an article of faith of the international “progressive” movement – including the Israeli Left – that “The Occupation” is the greatest source of evil in the world. This is shown by the fact that far more effort and money appears to be expended on combating it than on fighting Da’esh or nuclear proliferation.

I won’t speculate what the next step would be if Israel were to leave the territories. But I doubt that would be the end of the pressure.

There are historical reasons that we find ourselves in opposition to so much of the world: Oil, the KGB, victim-blaming from European Holocaust guilt, cowardice in the face of Arab terrorism, Stockholm syndrome, anti-nationalism, Arab grants to educational institutions, bribery of politicians and public figures, old-fashioned Jew-hatred, and our own anti-genius for public relations all had a part in it.

On our side, too, there is a huge expenditure – of effort and money (how much time have the Knesset and ministers spent on issues connected to Amona?), but also of national spirit. How many times can we send our police and soldiers to drag Jews out of their homes in the middle of the night? How many times before we lose our national soul?

To be honest, I think the answer is “no more times.” We spent all we could afford at Yamit and Gush Katif.

It’s time to decide.  Do we care about Judea and Samaria and the Jews that live there? If so, we need to commit, to act as though we truly are the sovereign power; as Annika Rothstein wrote, to make a marriage and not just an extended engagement. Zionism demands it.

If not – well, I don’t want to think about the alternative.

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.

12/15 Links Pt1: PA: US cut off all aid in 2016; Samantha Power’s Powerlessness

From Ian:

PMW: PA: US cut off all aid in 2016: "No shekel or dollar has been paid"

PA: US cut off all aid: "No shekel... or dollar has been paid"
PA: In total, all foreign aid to PA dropped 62% - 70%
PA: Only 3 donors have given "their aid": the European Union, Saudi Arabia, and Algeria
PMW's exposure of the PA's incitement and misuse of funds led to US legislation prohibiting direct funding of the PA unless "the PA is acting to counter incitement"
According to Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah, the United States has completely stopped funding the Palestinian Authority's general budget:
"2016 is about to end, no shekel or agora, or dinar or dollar has been paid."
[Facebook page of PA PM Rami Hamdallah, Dec. 8, 2016; Interview with Voice of Palestine Radio]
This corroborates a statement made by US Assistant Secretary of State Anne Patterson earlier this year. At a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee of the US Congress following the release of PMW's report The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud, Patterson was challenged by committee chairman Ed Royce as to why the US was funding the PA given documentation that the PA was still paying salaries to terrorist prisoners.
Patterson responded:
"None of our money goes to this [salaries to prisoners]. It's not fungible in that respect. Our money goes essentially to pay PA debts to Israel and to other creditors."
[House Foreign Affairs Committee YouTube Channel, April 13, 2016] (h/t Yenta Press)

PA PM Hamdallah: The US has not paid one dollar in aid to the PA in 2016

Samantha Power’s Powerlessness

When Samantha Power demanded to know at a meeting of the Security Council yesterday whether Russia, Iran and the Syrian government were “incapable of shame,” America’s United Nations ambassador crystallized the horror of the world about the siege of Aleppo, in which the Assad regime and its foreign allies are committing unspeakable atrocities against civilians. But her question could be just as easily posed to her boss, President Obama. If those carrying out the slaughter in Syria are unimpressed by her eloquence, it is because they know they would not be in a position to wipe out Aleppo were it not for Obama’s acquiescence to their actions.
Power’s Pulitzer Prize winning book, A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, outlined the “responsibility to protect” doctrine, or R2P, in which she put forward the idea that the world had an obligation to step in to prevent the kind of mass murder that was committed in the former Yugoslavia or Rwanda. The fame that followed its publication led eventually to a post on Barack Obama’s Senate staff, then to his National Security Council and finally to the UN.
The ascension of Power to high office was, in theory, an opportunity to put into practice the R2P principle that she had championed. But yesterday’s speech was a requiem for R2P. Obama and Power have not merely flopped on the world stage; the catastrophe of Libya and the subsequent refusal to act on Syria as the worst human rights disaster of the 21st century unfolded has completely discredited a doctrine that was never even implemented.

IsraellyCool: Know Your History: James Bryce’s Impressions Of Palestine (National Geographic, Mar 1915)

A series where I use history to debunk common misconceptions about the Middle East conflict.
In March 1915, National Geographic featured an article by James Bryce, former British Ambassador to the United States, on his impressions of what was then known as Palestine.
As usual with these old articles, it provides valuable insights, before political correctness and false narratives started to dominate reporting and discourse about this land. Note in particular:

Bryce’s constant references to Jewish history in the land

The map reference to Judea and Samaria (now referred to as the so-called “West Bank”)

His observations as to how poor in natural resources the land was (making Israel’s achievements since then even more amazing)

Nowhere is the word “Palestinian” mentioned, only Muslims/Mussulmans (you can work out why)

The references to the Muslim conquest of the area and Muslim vandalism

The mention of the demographics of Jerusalem at the time (40,000 Jews, 13,000 Christians and 7,000 Muslims)

Note: I cannot provide a link to the full article since it is only available to those who have purchased a National Geographic subscription. But I have provided screenshots below. As usual, click on the screenshots to enlarge.

HRW hires another anti-Israel activist as a "human rights researcher"

Human Rights Watch is nothing if not consistent.

For years, HRW has been hiring anti-Israel activists to work in its Middle East division.

If they cared about human rights and transparency, these people should be specifically assigned to work anywhere else. Human rights expertise can be used anywhere in the world, the fact that HRW has consistently hired people whose anti-Israel political positions have been obvious specifically to work on reports about Israel is proof positive that HRW is not interested in fairness or transparency.

Now, NGO Monitor has discovered that they have done it again:

In October 2016, Human Rights Watch (HRW) hired Omar Shakir to serve as its New York-based “Israel and Palestine Country Director.” Shakir is a consistent supporter of a one-state framework and advocate for BDS (boycotts, divestment, sanctions) tactics, fitting the longstanding HRW practice of hiring anti-Israel activists to serve in key positions relating to Israel:

Shakir’s overt anti-Israel activism is exemplified by his May 2010 presentation at UC Irvine, “Apartheid IsReal.” In his talk, Shakir called for abandoning the two-state model as a way to eliminate Israel as the Jewish state: “Ehud Olmert is telling us where we need to go….that ‘If the day comes when the two-state solution collapses and we face a South African style struggle for equal voting rights, then as soon as that happens, the State of Israel is finished’.” (emphasis added)

Similarly, in his speech Shakir called on the Palestinian Authority (PA) to end its goal of “self-determination,” a euphemism for promoting the replacement of a Jewish State with a binational state. He also rejected the idea of a negotiated solution to the conflict, saying that negotiations “will do nothing but institutionalize injustice.”

Shakir compared Zionism to “Afrikaner nationalism,” and added that “It’s also an honor to be speaking at the campus that made a statement heard around the world, and the campus that officially said that we have no place here for a war criminal” (an apparent reference to the (illegal) disruption of the February 2010 campus appearance of Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren, emphasis added).

HRW's consistency in hiring anti-Israel activists, together with its anti-Israel bias in its reports, shows yet again that the organization has zero credibility when it comes to reporting about Israel.

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.

Hundreds of thousands of counted Palestinians don't exist

Makor Rishon did a story on Palestinians who are counted by the Palestinian Authority as residents - but who really aren't.

Reporters went to Palestinian villages and found that in many of them, many or most residents - even those who own huge mansions - have relocated to the US or Latin America, and at best visit once a year. Towns are half-empty, with homeowners hiring caretakers for their houses to stop squatters from taking them over.

A lot of Palestinians marry unsuspecting American women to get citizenship. One local said, "Many young Palestinians want to get married to get a visa. They do not care if the woman is ugly, fat or stupid - especially when they get a green card and US citizenship. After they reach the United States, they leave the same girls and move on."

Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who live abroad have no intention of ever returning, except for some token visits to instill in their children the idea that they are still Palestinian. Some of the pretend citizens are already in the second generation of those who left.

No one is counting the number of Palestinians who leave and don't come back. Israel does not even count the number of Arabs in Area C, under its control, and that number has been exaggerated by the media trying to pretend that hundreds of thousands of Palestinians are suffering under Israel's control.

The reporters looked at the other side, of how many people the Palestinians claim to have under their control. Israel depends on the PA's numbers. And there is no way to know how accurate they are.

Today, the Palestinian authority claims 2.9 million people live in the West Bank, but Israel's Civil Authority said that the number was 1.8 million in 1997, which makes the increase impossibly high.

Demographer Sergio DellaPergola estimates that the PA is exaggerating the number of residents in the West Bank by a half million. And he is one of the more conservative demographers, arguing with others who claim that Palestinians exaggerate their numbers by much higher amounts.

(h/t Yoel)

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.