Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 04, 2017

New Zealand's new FM wants to walk back UNSC 2334

Last December, New Zealand was one of the major players pushing for an anti-Israel resolution at the Security Council. Israeli PM Binyamin Netanyahu reacted furiously , telling New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully that this was a "declaration of war" and withdrawing Israel's ambassador to New Zealand.

Israel officially downgraded its relations with New Zealand in February.

Now, the new Foreign Ministe rof New Zealand wants to repair relations:

New Foreign Affairs Minister Gerry Brownlee has revealed he has moved swiftly to try to restore diplomatic relations with Israel.

Soon after receiving his ministerial warrant on Tuesday, he wrote to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding out an olive branch.

"I've sent a letter to Mr Netanyahu yesterday firstly congratulating them on their national day but expressing a desire for the Israeli-New Zealand relationship to get back on track and to do that by recognising that we've got synergies and innovation and agriculture and various other things like that."

Brownlee told the Herald this morning that he expected that the letter would enable the respective foreign ministries to start discussion with a view to re-establishing diplomatic connection.

Mr Browlee said New Zealand should not "pronounce" how either party involved in Middle Eastern policy should behave, beyond condemning terrorism.

When asked whether his view contradicted the substance of the resolution, Mr Brownlee said in the end the solution to conflict in the Middle East would be achieved by the people who live there - "that's my view".

"The value of any resolution is in how much support it gets and the willingness of the parties who are having the resolution imposed upon them to accept what's in it.

"I think it's just premature."

When questioned further about that statement, Mr Brownlee said when a country was looking at a resolution that was "demanding an outcome", it was important to know an outcome was possible.

"So I'm not going to make a statement about whether we were right or wrong ... what we have got is a relationship with Israel which is an important country in that part of the world for stability in that part of the world."

With the notable exception of the premiership of Menachem Begin, Israel has for too long acted as a beggar in world politics, pleading to be treated as any other nation. The recent moves by Netanyahu, such as this one and his refusal to meet the German FM after finding out he was to meet with anti-Israel NGO Breaking the Silence, is a welcome change to that policy.

This new, more aggressive foreign policy is paying off.

No other nation, let alone a military and scientific powerhouse, would allow itself to be treated with the disrespect that Israel has. The usual reaction had been to ignore the slights, downplaying the importance of international politics as mostly hot air. But Israel is finally realizing that there are long-term consequences to allowing itself to be treated with disrespect.

More importantly, Israel does not lose leverage with other nations when it exercises its diplomatic options - instead, Israel's new muscularity in foreign affairs is paying off, we see in New Zealand and as even the new UNESCO resolution guaranteed to pass garnered far less support than previous ones.

Israel is finally pushing Western nations to stop their reflexive support of what are often Arab-sponsored libelous resolutions. And the Western nations are responding. The situation is completely different than only a couple of years ago. Haaretz and +972 might whine, but the world doesn't respect a nation without self-respect.

Nice guys really do finish last, and it is well past time for Israel to be the only nice guy in the Middle East.

(h/t Zvi)

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Arab nations continue to promise much, give little to Palestinians

The World Bank keeps a running total of how much the nations who pledged to give to rebuild Gaza in 2014 have actually paid.

Nearly all of the $1.5 billion of pledges (as of the end of 2016) that have never been paid comes from Arab countries.

It seems likely that those pledges will never be paid.

Arab nations keep saying they support Palestinians - but they don't follow up.

The Arabs have been at the forefront of reneging on their pledges to the Palestinians for years.

In the first decade of this century, Arab nations paid only about 40% of their pledges to the PA.

In 2010, there was a big story that the Arab League pledged a half billion dollars to "defend Jerusalem." The amount paid? Zero.

However, Arab nations consistently tell Western leaders that "Palestine" is the major issue for them. This deception ends up fooling even otherwise smart diplomats and generals who assume that when it is the top agenda item in every meeting, it must really be important to the Arabs.

As always, the importance of "honor" is not realized. The Arabs find the Palestinian situation - corrupt leaders, refusal to make peace, the bitter split between Hamas and Fatah - to be an embarrassing and shameful reflection on the Arabs as a whole. They must try to convince the West that the issue is important to them because they want to minimize the embarrassment.

Appearances is what matters in an honor/shame culture, not reality. Pledges fulfill the appearances.

It is interesting that South Africa, which is very vocal in its support for the Palestinian Arabs, pledged almost a token $1 million - and hasn't paid a dime.

Here is the list of countries who pledged to rebuild Gaza, sorted by how much they still owe (and will never pay.)

Donor	Support to Gaza	Disbursement of Support to Gaza	Disbursement ratio of Support to Gaza	Shortfall
Qatar*	1000	216.06	22%	783.94
Saudi Arabia*	500	90.41	18%	409.59
Kuwait*	200	48.93	24%	151.07
UAE	200	59.08	30%	140.92
Turkey	200	139.48	70%	60.52
European Union1	348.28	296.73	85%	51.55
Italy5	23.68	4.69	20%	18.99
Spain	22.8	14.6	64%	8.2
Germany	63.32	60.67	96%	2.65
Bahrain*	6.5	5.15	79%	1.35
South Africa	1	0	0%	1
Estonia	1.27	0.63	50%	0.64
Greece	1.27	0.63	50%	0.64
Slovenia	0.19	0.127	67%	0.063
Croatia	0.4	0.35	88%	0.05
Serbia	0.05	0	0%	0.05
USA	277	277	100%	0
World Bank	62	62	100%	0
Algeria*	61.4	61.4	100%	0
Japan4	61	61	100%	0
UK	32.16	32.16	100%	0
The Netherlands	15.31	15.31	100%	0
Canada	14.66	14.66	100%	0
Denmark	14.46	14.46	100%	0
Australia	13.18	13.18	100%	0
France7	10.13	10.13	100%	0
Finland	9.31	9.31	100%	0
Russia	8.74	8.74	100%	0
Belgium8	7.92	7.92	100%	0
Austria9	5.22	5.22	100%	0
India	4	4	100%	0
Ireland	3.17	3.17	100%	0
Brazil10	2.46	2.46	100%	0
South Korea	2	2	100%	0
Mexico	1.1	1.1	100%	0
Chile	0.25	0.25	100%	0
Hungary	0.16	0.16	100%	0
Poland	0.1	0.1	100%	0
Malaysia	0.1	0.1	100%	0
Singapore	0.1	0.1	100%	0
Bulgaria	0.06	0.06	100%	0
Slovakia	0.05	0.05	100%	0
Romania	0.05	0.05	100%	0
Portugal	0.03	0.03	100%	0
Sweden	10	11.37	114%	-1.37
Switzerland	65.28	66.96	103%	-1.68
Norway2	144.98	173.91	120%	-28.93
	3,395	1,796		1599.243

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With the PLO flag at the White House, Trump hands Palestinians a YUUUUGE symbolic victory

January 2011 was the first time the US allowed the Palestinian flag to officially fly in Washington, DC:

The Palestinian flag was flown for the first time outside PLO diplomatic offices in Washington today, in a symbolic step that officials said shows momentum towards creation of an independent Palestinian state.

Ambassador Maen Areikat unfurled the red, green, white and black banner from a balcony above the office entrance to a round of applause from supporters. He hailed the moment as historic.

Areikat praised the Obama administration for a small, if symbolic, gesture that reflects improved diplomatic relations and a U.S. commitment to help promote the goal of a Palestinian state.

"It means the administration is serious," he said of the U.S. permission to fly the flag. "What we are urging them now is to translate their support for a Palestinian state into concrete action."

In September 2015 the US opposed raising the Palestinian flag outside the UN:

After Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas ramped up rhetoric toward Israel Wednesday, the United Nations raised the Palestinian flag above its headquarters in New York as part of a ceremony that the world body’s leader said represented a “day of hope.”
The United States opposed the move, asserting that Palestinian statehood must be reached through a negotiated peace with Israel.

Wednesday, the Palestinian flag flew at the White House itself.

Inexplicably, President Trump was positioned in front of the Palestinian flag and Abbas in front of the American flag:

And Fatah supporters celebrated photos like this, claiming that it was an implicit recognition of the "State of Palestine" by the US:

It seems unlikely that the White House intended to give such a gigantic symbolic victory to the Palestinians to get nothing in return.

To Western eyes, symbolism may not be meaningless but it is not of overarching importance. But to Palestinians, it is everything. The honor/shame system ensures that appearances are more important than reality. A smart US policy would use this divergence between the shame culture of the Arabs and the guilt culture of the West and trade symbols from the US in exchange for tangible concessions from the Palestinians.

A good dealmaker wouldn't just give away what is the most valuable to one side without ensuring something significant for the other. As of this writing, we are not aware of any such deal. The likelihood is that this was cluelessness, not cleverness.

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Video: Gazans burn, hang, and beat Abbas in effigy

Unity is just around the corner.

(h/t Yoel)

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05/03 Links Pt2: Abbas To Trump: 'Palestinian' Children Raised In 'Culture Of Peace'; Media Goes Kumbaya For Hamas

From Ian:

Abbas To Trump: 'Palestinian' Children Raised In 'Culture Of Peace' (not satire)

“We are raising our youth, our children, our grandchildren on a culture of peace,” said Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday, during a joint presentation alongside President Donald Trump.
Watch the segment below, or watch the entire event here.
Speaking Arabic due to insufficient fluency in English, Abbas described the “Palestinian people” as something other than regional Levantine Arabs. “Palestinians,” he continued, constitute a distinct nation entitled to self-determination and independence via statehood on Israeli and disputed territories.
Abbas spoke of “occupation” while describing “Palestinians” as a people:
“Mr. President, it’s about time for Israel to end its occupation of our people and of our land. After fifty years, we are the only remaining people in the world that still live under occupation. We are aspiring and want to achieve our freedom, our dignity, and our right to self-determination and we also want for Israel to recognize the Palestinian state just as the Palestinian people recognize the state of Israel.”
A future “Palestinian” state, said Abbas, must be built upon disputed territories east of the 1949 Armistice Lines, which he referred to as “the border of 1967.” Its future capital city, he added, must be “East Jerusalem” in accordance with the “two-state solution.”
Abbas described “Palestinians” as “suffering,” later attempting to link Islam with Judaism and Christianity via grouping of “the three great monotheistic religions.”
Islamic terrorist groups such as the Islamic State (ISIS), said Abbas, have nothing to do with “noble religion” of Islam.

10 Things You Need To Know About Mahmoud Abbas

Donald Trump is hosting Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas today, in the Palestinian leader’s first official visit to the White House under the new administration. In honor of the meeting, we collected a number of important facts on the work of the PA Chairman in the past and present. The following facts, should they arise during the meeting, will likely cause a great deal of discomfort on the Palestinian side.
1. Mahmoud Abbas was an active terrorist.
Abbas was one of the planners and primary funders of the massacre of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes in Munich 1972. One of the planners of the horrific slaughter, Abu Daoud, testified that Abbas was responsible for funding the massacre. Not only does the Palestinian leader not regret his role in the murder of the Israeli athletes — he brags about it. Last September, the official Facebook page of the Fatah movement, headed by Mahmoud Abbas, described the murderous attack as an “heroic operation”, and described it as a demonstration of “the meaning of the courage and power of the Palestinian resistance fighter and his self-sacrifice for the homeland and for the cause.”
3. Abbas is a Holocaust denier.
In his doctorate, called The Other Side: The Secret Ties Between the Nazis and Zionism (Arabic), Abbas questions the historical truth of six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust. He noted in his thesis that “there are rumors” that the number of victims reached six million. However, Abbas claims, no-one can confirm this number: “The number of Jewish victims might be six million, and it might be much smaller, perhaps even less than a million.”
Furthermore, Abbas is deeply invested in conspiracy theories about an alleged Zionist-Nazi collaboration, and writes that the heads of the Zionist movement “granted legitimacy to every racist in the world, and especially Hitler, to do as they wish with the Jews in their power with the long-term aim of those Jews immigrating to Palestine.”
It should be noted that it was Haj Amin al-Husseini, considered the leader of the Arabs of the Land of Israel in WWII, who closely collaborated with Hitler — with the aim of exterminating the Jewish population in the Land of Israel and throughout the Middle East. These solid facts do not of course appear in Abbas’s false doctorate.

There’s a reason UNESCO just disavowed Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem and it’s not what you think it is.

It has nothing to do with antisemitism. Nope. Not a thing.

It does, however, have everything to do with FEAR.

That would be the fear of Israeli leaders.

Israeli leaders, you see, are afraid to speak the truth. They may see things with complete clarity, but when they go to act on that truth, they let their fear do them in.

If it’s a statement they need to make, for instance, they end up couching their words in some sort of nebulous PC fog. If it’s a court ruling, they’ll rule righteously then reverse the ruling. If it’s a law that needs creating, they create the law and then fail to apply it 100% of the time.

And the thing is, if you let the enemy see your fear, you’ve lost. Plain and simple.

Look what happened with this UNESCO resolution. We knew it was coming down the pike. It was going to happen on Israeli Independence Day (and did). Therefore, it was incumbent on the Israeli prime minister to issue a statement on the subject. And what better place could a prime minister smack UNESCO’s hand for its planned disavowal of Israel’s sovereignty over Jerusalem than in Jerusalem? At the yearly bible quiz, no less.

Here is how the Jerusalem Post paraphrased Bibi’s remarks: “Netanyahu said there was no nation in the world to whom Jerusalem was more holy than to the Jewish people.”

No, Bibi. Wrong. You let your fear do you in; do us in.

Jerusalem is not MORE holy to the Jews. It is ONLY holy to the Jews and you needed to say that.

Jerusalem was holy to the Jews before Jesus was born.

Jerusalem was holy to the Jews before Mohammed was born.

When Christians and Muslims say or even believe Jerusalem is holy to them, it’s only because it is holy to the Jews and their religions are replacement religions: designed to make Judaism obsolete.

This is the truth and EVERYONE knows it. UNESCO passes these resolutions to rewrite the truth. UNESCO DOESN’T NEED YOUR HELP to do so.

UNESCO knows as well as we do that Jerusalem is not mentioned even once in the Quran. UNESCO knows as well as we do that Jerusalem has always been in Jewish thoughts and prayers. This body knows we’re the indigenous people of this territory. It knows we fought a defensive war and have full rights to the city both according to birthright AND international law.

But UNESCO also knows that Bibi is going to give lip service to the idea that Jerusalem is holy to three peoples, therefore meeting its sneaky intentions halfway. And once Bibi does that, the entire tower of logic begins to disintegrate. People see or hear Bibi’s remarks and they say, “Even HE admits Jerusalem is not the sole province of the Jewish people!” and so the cookie crumbles.

And UNESCO’s resolution gains strength and momentum.

Embed from Getty Images

Look what happened earlier in the week regarding the UN compound in the Armon HaNetziv neighborhood of Jerusalem. There’s all kinds of illegal construction going on there. Regavim demanded that Israel force the UN to return the property to the state. So what did the State of Israel do?

It asked Regavim to hold off on demanding a response until such time as the Foreign Ministry could be in touch with UN officials and officially request a tour of the compound.

Which screws up the whole point of what Regavim was righteously trying to do, namely to show the UN that Israel is sovereign and if the UN will not obey Israeli law, they will have to turn the property over to its rightful, lawful owner, the State of Israel.

Instead, Israel sniveled and made itself little, came CRAWLING, “Oh, please Mr. Powerful UN, will you let us tour our own property (in which we so kindly HOST you and in which you have egregiously ABUSED our hospitality???)?”

UNTSO Headquarters, South View, 1986

Now one Israeli government official did stand up and show her mettle. That would be Culture and Sports Minister Miri Regev (you go, Girl!). "Fifty years to our sovereignty in the city, there is no need for the presence of UN observers. They were given the opportunity to use the compound to supervise the ceasefire agreements of the Six Day War—agreements that are no longer relevant. This saga must end,” said Regev to Channel 2 News, Tuesday evening.

“I intend to approach the Foreign Ministry and other relevant parties in order to return the compound, in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in the heart of Jerusalem, to the State of Israel,” she said.

Unfortunately, this is a little like closing the barn door after the horses have escaped. Plus, Regev isn’t terribly powerful in the hierarchy of the Israeli government and though the words are great, they’re just words.

This should have been taken care of before the UNESCO vote. And without big brave empty words. Either it’s our property or it’s not. And it won’t be if we don’t have the gumption to claim it for ourselves.

Another recent example of how our leaders let fear hamper them and suck our power away was the mishandling of the visa for Human Rights Watch staffer Omar Shakir. Israel turned down his request for a work visa because Human Rights Watch isn’t a real human rights organization. It’s an organization dedicated to bringing down the State of Israel.

NGO Monitor summarizes things nicely for us (please do visit the website for further details): “Human Rights Watch is a powerful NGO, with a massive budget, close links to Western governments, and significant influence in international institutions. Its publications reflect the absence of professional standards, research methodologies, and military and legal expertise, as well as a deep-seated ideological bias against Israel.”

At any rate, Israel’s Foreign Ministry wrote a letter explaining the denial of Shakir’s work visa:

“For some time now, this organization’s public actions and reports have focused on politics in service of Palestinian propaganda while falsely raising the banner of ‘human rights.’”

So what did Shakir do then? He applied for a TOURIST visa.

This too, was (correctly!) denied.

But you know what happened next, don’t you? I know. You’re cringing. And you’re right: a hue and cry was raised on SOCIAL MEDIA and so Israel caved. Completely.

They gave Shakir a WORK visa (and not a tourist visa).

We’d all been cheering the Foreign Ministry for turning the guy away. And then it caves!

It’s an awful feeling to watch your representatives cave on the most important issues—on the issues that really matter.

They let in this potential terrorist to craft all sorts of plans to hurt Israel from within. All funded, of course, by Germany and other Western Jew-haters.

It’s unbearable.

What’s the solution? People say, “Don’t vote Likud.”

But no one else, at this point in time, has the qualities of leadership that Bibi has. He’s what we’ve got. He’s all we’ve got. And he’s no good at speaking the truth.

He stood up to Sigmar Gabriel—told him if he meets with Breaking the Silence and B’tselem, he wouldn’t meet with him. But then he called him to iron things out after the fact, giving Gabriel a SECOND chance to snub him: Gabriel refused to speak to Bibi.

And now Bibi has caved on the UNESCO thing with his politically correct statements.

It’s sickening. It could make a person lose hope.

Unfortunately, there may not be more to do than outline the problem whenever it happens, to underscore the PC caving, the weakened statements and actions. We can speak of these things until our leaders get the point. This is something we all can do. If so, if this is ALL we can do for now, please consider this blog post as my opening salvo.

You can trust there will be more to come.

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