Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, July 07, 2017

South African court rules that anti-Zionist rhetoric is illegal anti-Jewish hate speech

This is a very important story that has not received the attention it deserves.

South Africa's TimesLive reported last week:

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) is standing by for an apology. This comes as the Equality Court on Thursday found that the Congress of SA Trade Unions' international relations spokesperson‚ Bongani Masuku‚ was guilty of hate speech against the Jewish community‚ the board said.

"In his judgment‚ Mr Justice Moshidi declared the impugned statements by Masuku to be 'hurtful; harmful; incite harm and propagate hatred; and amount to hate speech as envisaged in section 10 of the Equality Act 4 of 2000'‚" the board said in a statement.

Masuku and Cosatu were ordered to tender an unconditional apology to the Jewish community within 30 days of the order.

The case has its origins in a complaint lodged with the SAHRC by the SAJBD in April 2009. The complaint related to various statements made by Masuku against Jewish South Africans who supported Israel.

The remarks by Masuku deemed to be offensive included threats that Cosatu would target and cause harm to South African families who had members serving in the Israeli defence force.

"The SAJBD particularly welcomes the fact that in terms of the judgment‚ threats and insults against Jews who support Israel cannot be justified on the alleged basis that such attacks are aimed not at Jews but at ‘Zionists’.

At no point did Masuku say "Jews" - but the ruling noted that his statements were unequivocally antisemitic.

Here are some of Masuku's statements:

“As we struggle to liberate Palestine from the racists, fascists and Zionists who belong to the era of their friend Hitler, we must not apologise. Every Zionist must be made to drink the bitter medicine they are feeding our brethren and sisters in Palestine. We must target them, expose them and do all that is needed to subject them to perpetual suffering until they withdraw from the land of others and stop their savage attacks on human dignity. Every Palestinian who suffers is a direct attack on all of us. Cosatu is a tripartite alliance the ruling ANC party. A vote for the ANC is a vote for Bongani” (10.2.2009)
“Cosatu has got members here even on this campus. We can make sure that for that side it will be hell”
“The following things are going to apply : any South African family, i want to repeat it so it is clear for anyone, any South African family who sends his son or daughter to be part of the IDF must not blame us when something happens to them with immediate effect” (5.3.2009 PSC rally at Wits University)
“Cosatu is with you, we will do everything to make sure whether it is at Wits, whether it is at Orange Grove, anyone who does not support equality and dignity, who does not support the rights of other people must face the consequences even if it means that we will do something that may necessarily cause what is regarded as harm”

This article delves into the details:

Masuku contended his remarks were not hate speech. He was referring to Zionists not Jews, he said; a distinction which in this context the judge was later to describe as having “no merit at all”. His comments were intended only as criticism of Zionism and Israel and were either true or fair comment and thus protected free speech.

The judge ruled that the ‘impugned statements’ were “offensive and targeted at the Jewish community”. Note that this judgment was arrived at despite Masuku not even mentioning Jews specifically.
References by Masuku to “Wits” (a campus with a significant Jewish population) and “Orange Grove” (a predominantly Jewish area) also constituted hate speech again despite the word Jews not being mentioned.
The defence that the comments were true and/or fair comment had “no merit at all” and that Masuku’s stated intentions behind the remarks were “wholly irrelevant” and that these comments were “unequivocally a reference to Jews”.
The judge went on to conclude that what was done by Masuku was “to instill detestation, enmity, ill will and malevolence towards Jews in South Africa. It is distinct advocacy of hatred – nothing else”. Powerful stuff!
And finally for good measure… “the bottom line… objectively assessed… must readily be understood to be concerning Jews” and that the argument advanced on behalf of Masuku “that the statements have nothing to do with Jewish people… is without credence”.

It doesn't take much to realize that there is little difference between what Masuku said and what one can read in anti-Israel sites like Electronic Intifada and Mondoweiss every day.

(h/t SpotlightingSA)

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They keep forgetting to say "Zionists" instead of "Jews"

For several decades, Arabs and Muslims have followed the rule: if you want to avoid being called an antisemite, simply replace the word "Jew' with "Zionist" and your opinion magically changes from naked bigotry into acceptable political discourse.

For example, saying that Jews control the media and the banks and world governments is antiemitic, but saying that "Zionists" have unfair influence over the media and the monetary system and nations is a perfectly valid observation.

But sometimes, people forget the rule.

So for example, yesterday the Kuwait Sheikhs and Preachers Association issued a statement that called against any normalization with Israel. (The fact that they feel compelled to issue such a statement is itself a sign of how much things have changed in the past couple of years.)

"Jews have committed massacres against the Muslims in Palestine and and are hatching plots against the Umma," the statement said, adding that "normalization exceeds the [types of] conciliation stipulated by scholars in their books when they talk about the provisions of the peace with non-Muslims. Normalization with the Jews includes recognition of their rights to claim the land of Palestine and Jerusalem as the capital of the Jews, which [they use to] justify of all the crimes they committed against Muslim peoples. "

Nothing about Zionists. Oops.

Another Kuwaiti, writer Fuad Al - Hashem, referred to Qatar as "the Gulf's Israel," saying that Kuwait will deal with Qatar as if they were the "new Jews."

And how do Arabs and Muslim treat their Jews? That part is obvious to Mr. Al Hashem and to his readers, despite the insistence that Jews were honored members of the Muslim world for centuries.

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07/06 Links Pt2: Linda Sarsour Calls For ‘Jihad’ Against Trump; The UN’s Destructive, and Self-Destructive, Obsession with Israel

From Ian:

WATCH: Women’s March Organizer Linda Sarsour Calls For ‘Jihad’ Against Trump

Linda Sarsour attends a rally to protest the executive order that President Donald Trump signed clamping down on refugee admissions and temporarily restricting travelers from seven predominantly Muslim countries in New York City on January 29, 2017.
Speaking at the Islamic Society of North American Convention last weekend, Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour ripped into the Trump administration and called for “jihad” against Trump. ISNA itself has a long history of ties to Islamic extremism. As Jordan Schachtel of Conservative Review notes, Sarsour began the speech by thanking Siraj Wajjah – a man “listed as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombings.”
It got worse from there.
She ranted: Why sisters and brothers, why are we so unprepared. Why are we so afraid of this administration and the potential chaos that they will ensue on our community?...I hope, that when we stand up to those who oppress our communities, that Allah accepts from us that as a form of jihad....We are struggling against tyrants and rulers not only abroad...but here in the United States of America where you have fascists and white supremacists and Islamophobes reining in the White House.
She concluded, “Our number one and top priority is to protect and defend our community. It is not to assimilate and to please any other people in authority. And our top priority…is to please Allah, and only Allah.”
Sarsour, who was called a “Champion of Change” by the Obama White House, has a long history of speaking kindly of shariah law and terrorists. Sarsour stated that underwear bomber Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was a CIA agent; she supports attacks on the Israeli Defense Force; she stated that “the sacrifice the black Muslims slaves went through in this country is nothing compared to Islamophobia today”; she stated that Brigitte Gabriel and victim of Islamic genital mutilation Ayaan Hirsi Ali didn’t deserve to be called women, explaining, ‘I wish I could take their vaginas away – they don’t deserve to be women.”

The UN’s Destructive, and Self-Destructive, Obsession with Israel

On Tuesday, the United Nations Social, Educational, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) passed a resolution condemning Israel, despite UNESCO’s being an ostensibly apolitical body. This resolution, hardly the first of its kind, typifies the UN’s perverse fixation on Israel, which, as Joshua Muravchik chronicles in a brief history, has existed nearly since the world body’s inception and interferes with its ability to do much else. The story begins with the UN’s approval of a plan to partition Palestine and the Arab world’s response: waging precisely the sort of aggressive war the body was formed to prevent:
Sadly, the UN did nothing to defeat this aggression or others that were to follow in other parts of the world. As a result, the world body grew up devoid of its intended purpose. In its place, member states have pursued a variety of other goals, chief of which have been decolonization, development, peacekeeping, and, remarkably, castigation of Israel. . . .
Daniel Patrick Moynihan wrote that upon taking up his duties as chief U.S. ambassador to the UN in 1975, he was startled to discover that Israel was “the center of the political life” of the world body. Moynihan arrived just months after the first UN appearance by Yasir Arafat, chief of the PLO. The event marked a turning point in the UN’s treatment of Israel that ramifies to this day. . . . The PLO then was a long way from becoming the organization that signed the 1993 Oslo Accords with Israel and joined long-term negotiations toward [an ostensible] peaceful settlement. Rather, it was riding the crest of a campaign of international terrorism carried out not only on Israeli soil but also in skies and airports and streets around Western Europe and the Middle East.

Melanie Phillips: The radical difference between antisemitism and Islamophobia

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Watch me here explaining to Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network what I think is the crucial distinction between antisemitism and Islamophobia.

The official Syrian SANA news agency puts its propaganda out in Arabic, English French, Turkish, Spanish, Russian, Farsi - and Hebrew.

It must crush one's soul to know that the hard work you are doing to push Syria's point of view to Israelis is literally worthless. The people who translate the stories into Hebrew know that no one is reading this stuff except perhaps for amusement.

But they soldier on for their beloved genocidal dictator.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

An elephant in the room is missing here:

The High Court of Justice on Tuesday rejected a petition that sought the demolition of the homes of the Jewish killers of East Jerusalem teen Mohammed Abu Khdeir in 2014.

In response to a petition filed by the victim's parents, the state told the court in September 2016 that homes of three murderers of Mohammed Abu Khdeir need not be demolished, as is common policy with homes of Palestinian terrorists.

The judges determined that house demolitions would be ineffective [as a deterrent – vr] in this case due to the time elapsed since the murder and delay in the family's petition. They stressed, however, that contrary to the state's position, the home demolition policy is valid for both Jewish and Arab assailants.

Abu Khdeir was murdered by Yosef Haim Ben-David and two underage accomplices in an act of revenge for the murder by Hamas terrorists of three Jewish teens, Gil-ad Shaar, Eyal Yifrach and Naftali Fraenkel, that June.

The Court (and the State, in a brief filed in June, 2016), are clear about the fact that the demolition of the homes of terrorists is not a punishment, but an action intended to deter similar acts of terrorism. The State argued that there were far more attacks by Arabs against Jews:

In the letter from the Defense Ministry’s legal adviser to the Abu Khdeir family’s lawyer Muhannad Jbara [in June 2016], the ministry argued that because cases of Jewish terror are so infrequent in relation to Arab attacks against Jews, there is no need to establish a deterrent for future Jewish attackers by demolishing the Abu Khdeir killers’ homes.

The Military Commander “should consider the deterrent effect against potential attackers that will be created by the demolition,” the letter said. “Given the scale of the phenomenon of seriously hostile crimes in the Jewish community, the need to implement this [deterrent] power does not arise.”

Lawyer Jbara argued back, citing the Dawabshe case, that there was a recent increase in attacks by Jews against Arabs, and that therefore there was a need for deterrence. But the court wasn’t convinced at the time, and neither was the Supreme Court on appeal.

Do you see the elephant? It is the fact that neither the infrequency of atrocious crimes committed by Jews against Arabs (or even attributed to Jews without proof, like the Dawabshe case) or the amount of time between the commission of a crime and the demolition of a terrorist’s house should be the most important consideration here. It is that crimes like the Khdeir case are different in a fundamental way from the murders of Shaar, Yifrach and Fraenkel – and even from “lone-wolf” terrorism in which no terrorist organization is directly involved, such as has been endemic in Israel recently.

By saying that the demolition policy could also be applied to Jewish terrorists in some cases, our own Supreme Court is implying that there is an equivalence between Arab terrorism and certain crimes committed by Jews against Arabs. Even the state’s argument that “the [smaller] scale of the phenomenon” of Jewish terrorism is the reason that it is not necessary to demolish perpetrator’s homes implies that the phenomena are similar in kind, although different in quantity. But this is wrong.

The difference, in a word, is that Arab terrorists are sent to do their evil deeds, either by organizations like Hamas, or by the Palestinian Arab culture itself as embodied by friends and relatives, media, schools, mosques and other institutions, including their PA and Hamas governing authorities.

Palestinian Arab terrorists are presented as heroic representatives of their people, role models and exemplars of piety and goodness. Jewish terrorists, on the other hand, are seen as deviants, rejected by most of their society and severely punished by its authorities. Arab media praises their terrorists while Jewish media condemns ours.

Arab terrorists and the families of “martyrs” are not only praised, they are paid for their work by their leadership. Here is a statement on the official Fatah Facebook page (July 2 2017) attributed to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, in response to reports that US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson asked Abbas to stop paying them:

Even if I will have to leave my position, I will not compromise on the salary (rawatib) of a Martyr (Shahid) or a prisoner, as I am the president of the entire Palestinian people, including the prisoners, the Martyrs, the injured, the expelled, and the uprooted. -- [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas.

It is necessary to act against the broad social complex that stands behind Arab terrorists in order to deter future terrorism, and actions like home demolitions are only one element of this. But in the case of Jewish attackers, there is no such social complex, and both the larger society and the leadership condemn their crimes in the strongest possible way. Home demolition would therefore not be a useful response to crimes like the Abu Khdeir murder. Unfortunately, the reasons given to reject it in this case actually support the Palestinian contention that the crimes are similar.

Our government and courts do us no favor by promoting the idea that there is an equivalence between evil acts committed by criminally deviant members of the Jewish population, and systematic terrorism which is inspired, incited and paid for by the PA and Hamas – and which is applauded throughout Palestinian Arab society.

The view that there is such an equivalence is a form of moral inversion, like the false symmetry between Israel’s defensive actions and the aggression of terrorist militias and nations that wish to destroy us. Such inversions have been common in history where anti-Jewish elements have blamed the Jews for the pogroms and mass murders that they inflicted on us.

Moral inversion is one of the weapons of cognitive warfare employed by our enemies. Why do our own courts and officials help them use it?

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07/06 Links Pt1: PA TV: Murdering 22 children is heroic; Israeli-Indian statement ignores two-state solution

From Ian:

PMW: Murdering 22 children is heroic, says PA TV

Recently the PA has emphasized this message to Palestinians by glorifying the Ma'alot massacre - a terrorist attack in 1974 in which Palestinian terrorists took over a hundred Israeli children and their teachers hostage in a school. When Israeli forces tried to rescue them, the terrorists attacked the hostages with guns and grenades, murdering 22 of the children and 4 adults.
Palestinian Media Watch recently reported on the square in Jenin, which was named after Khaled Nazzal who planned the attack. Israel subsequently removed the monument, after which Abbas' Fatah Movement vowed to rebuild it.
In addition to the Khaled Nazzal Square and the monument in Jenin, the Jenin district has now further named a street after terrorist Nazzal in the town of Burqin:
Headline: "In response to the removal of the monument, [the] Jenin [district] names a street after Khaled Nazzal"
"The town of Burqin, which is located southwest of Jenin, yesterday, Wednesday [July 5, 2017], named one of the town's streets after Martyr (Shahid) Khaled Nazzal in response to the occupation authorities' decision to remove and destroy the Martyr Nazzal monument in Jenin." [Wattan, independent Palestinian news agency, July 6, 2017]
Official PA TV has also joined this campaign of praising the murders in Ma'alot. A TV narrator called it "an act of heroism" when she described how a Palestinian prisoner, whom Israel allegedly had brought in to persuade the terrorists to release the hostages, instead encouraged them to continue the attack and "do what they came for." According to PA TV, the act of dying while murdering 26 Israelis meant that the terrorists' "souls would float as Martyrs above the skies of Palestine."

Official PA TV glorifies Ma’alot massacre, praises terrorists who murdered 22 kids

Israeli-Indian statement ignores two-state solution

Thirty years after India became the first non-Muslim state to recognize the “State of Palestine,” Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed off on a joint statement on Wednesday that mentioned the Palestinian-Israel diplomatic process, but made no reference to a two state solution.
The 20th clause of a 21-clause document that was issued following the two leaders’ lengthy working meeting referred to the diplomatic process.
“The two Prime Ministers discussed the developments pertaining to the Israeli-Palestinian Peace Process,” the statement read.
“They underlined the need for the establishment of a just and durable peace in the region. They reaffirmed their support for an early negotiated solution between the sides based on mutual recognition and security arrangements.”
Not only will Modi not be visiting the Palestinian Authority during his 49-hour visit, but the first day and a half of the visit passed without him once publicly referring to the Palestinian issue.
One senior Indian official said it was not his country’s style to engage in “megaphone diplomacy,” or go to other countries and lecture them on what they need to do. He said this is because to a large degree, India does not like it when other countries come to India and lecture it about relations with Pakistan.

Palestinian Authority Feels Slighted by Indian PM Modi’s Decision Not to Meet With Abbas During Israel Visit

Palestinian leaders have expressed disappointment over Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s decision not to visit Ramallah, the political center of the Palestinian Authority (PA), as he continues with his three-day trip to Israel — the first ever by a sitting Indian prime minister to the Jewish state.
“We expected him [Modi] to visit both Israel and Palestine,” Palestinian Deputy Foreign Minister Tasir Jaradat told the Qatari-funded broadcaster Al Jazeera. “To play an important role between the two sides and to be able to spread the message of peace, one should visit both.”
“The PA is talking in terms of surprise, rather than outright criticism, that Narendra Modi has decided not to make time for its president in the course of a three-day visit,” an Al Jazeera correspondent in Jerusalem reported.
Modi last met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in May. Speaking after their encounter in New Delhi, Modi said India’s goal was ”to see the realization of a sovereign, independent, united and viable Palestine, coexisting peacefully with Israel.”
Part of Modi’s approach to enhanced relations with Israeli is based on what Indian analysts have called “de-linking” — engaging in bilateral cooperation with both Israel and the Palestinians and treating the two parties as separate entities.

Al Alam, Iran's state run Arabic media outlet, published an article today saying that the Saudi royal family is Jewish.

If you are interested in the stupid details, here's a Facebook page that describes the theory in English.

Iran, which strenuously pretends not to be antisemtiic, finds that the most effective way to insult its enemies is to call them Jewish.

Of course, the Al Saud family wants to do the same to those it is unhappy with as well. A Saudi prince named Badr Bin Saud, who is also a journalist, tweeted this picture of Turkish president Erdogan along with ISIS members last week.

The tweet said, "Erdogan is the new master in Qatar, he sent five thousand of his soldiers to train the ten thousand soldiers that are the entire Qatari army. He (i.e. Erdogan) is originally Georgian, a Khazar Jew. Not that there is anything wrong with that."

What more proof do you need that the Saudi family is Jewish than that they are quoting Seinfeld?

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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How many times have we heard that Palestinian children turn to violence because they feel hopeless or distraught because of the "occupation"? It is practically a truism in certain circles.

It is also a lie.

Last year, the "United Nations Country Team occupied Palestinian territory " published a 180-page document discussing the challenges UN agencies face in working in the territories.

(There are no fewer than 22 UN agencies that work in the territories, not including another agency that is meant to coordinate the activities of the 22. )

Most of the document, predictably, blames the "occupation" for every problem. But when you dig into it, there are some interesting findings that are never publicized. And buried on page 101 we find this out:

Children suffer a relatively high degree of violence from parents and teachers in the form of corporal punishment. Palestine has one of the highest incidences of reported violent punishment in the Arab region: in 2014, 91.5% of 10-14 year olds reported experiencing psychological aggression or physical punishment during the previous month. In Gaza, 94.5% of children reported having experienced such aggression and punishment.

The footnote says, "In comparison, 79% of children in Iraq (2011), 64% of children in Sudan (2014), 86% of children in Algeria (2012-2013), and 93% of children in Tunisia (2011-2012) had experienced similar violence."

Palestinian children live with constant violence by their parents and teachers, the two sets of people who are supposed to protect them.

This is why so many youths so easily decided to start stabbing Jews a couple of years ago. Violence is in their upbringing.

Of course, the UN agency tries to even blame Israel for that. When it talks about gender-based violence (GBV), the report says

Violence associated with the occupation contributes to GBV, especially against women.Women in Palestine are exposed to both political and settler violence and GBV against women increased largely after the last war on the Gaza Strip.Mobility restrictions, limited access to exiting support services and the escalating frustration related to the protracted humanitarian crises of the Israeli occupation is one of the drivers of GBV against women, specifically intimate partner violence and other forms of GBV.

As we've seen before, people blame Israel even when Palestinian husbands beat their wives and men beat their sisters. And these UN agencies, convinced that they know that Israel is to blame for Palestinian men beating their wives, children and students, don' t bother to fix the problem - because they believe that "occupation" is the alpha and omega of all evils in the world.

And Palestinian kids are the ones who suffer because of the hate that so many NGOs have towards Israel, hate that blinds them to an attempt at a solution.

After all, why even consider that a society that venerates murderers and terrorists might encourage violence?

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Yesterday, Hanan Ashrawi launched a hilarious attack on US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley for being too pro-Israel.

Her full statement is revealing on many levels. It shows that anyone who calls out the obvious anti-Israel bias in the UN is absolutely frightening to the PLO.

For example, here is how Ashrawi described Haley's statement about the recent UNESCO vote to sever any Jewish ties to the second-holiest place in Judaism:

[Haley's] most recent attack only days ago includes sending a letter to the UN Secretary General and the Director General of UNESCO asking the organization to withhold designation of religious sites in Hebron as Palestinian World Heritage Sites In Danger. The letter is consistent with her policy of 'distract and deflect', where she states 'many precious sites – from the Democratic Republic of the Congo to Libya to Iraq to Syria – are under real and imminent threat of destruction today. They urgently demand UNESCO's full and immediate attention, which should not be wasted on this sort of symbolic action.’ This approach has been a consistent means of evasion to exclude and suppress any consideration of Palestinian grievances at the UN. By creating diversions and focusing on other issues, Miss Haley seems to believe that the UN should give Israel a free pass based on the logical fallacy that one injustice negates another.

Yes, Ashrawi is saying with a straight face that a UN that is singularly obsessed with attacking Israel and promoting a terror-supporting Palestinian state is actually being limited in its anti-Israel actions.

Putting the Palestinian issue in context is terrifying to Ashrawi and the PLO.

Through an obsessive and targeted campaign of intimidation and threats, Miss Haley's crusade does not miss an opportunity to put pressure on anyone that seeks to challenge Israeli impunity and persistent disregard for the imperative of civilized behavior. Her tone, language and approach echo those of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Israeli UN Ambassador Danny Danon and the priorities of Sheldon Adelson and his ilk, rather than official US policy.

After decades of being able to attack Israel with no opposition, the PLO has no idea how to handle someone who actually shows that the emperor has no clothes. So Ashrawi and the PLO go back to their old habits of insult - hoping that people still care about their perspectives.

And the amount of people in the world who care is diminishing quickly.

Ashrawi called Haley's opinions a "crusade." Three times she used that term, which is meant ti inflame Muslim passions more than to illuminate the truth.

But perhaps the funniest part of this diatribe is not just the PLO's panic, but Ashrawi's consistent referral to Haley as "Miss Haley." Five times Ashrawi refers to her with that title, rather than calling her "Ambassador Haley" as would be appropriate. In fact, she didn't refer to Haley as an ambassador once.

Haley is married, to Michael Haley, an officer in the South Carolina Army National Guard.

Ashrawi knows English quite well and she deliberately used language to insult Haley as a girl rather than one of the most important diplomats in the world. This reveals, above all, the immaturity of the PLO's own diplomatic corps - they might use the language of diplomacy when they must, but in reality they are filled with nothing but disrespect and hate towards anyone who doesn't follow their own agenda that they have been pushing for nearly fifty years at the UN and elsewhere.

The PLO gravy train is over, and Ashrawi is now reduced to temper tantrums for no longer being treated as a spoiled child.

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07/05 Links Pt2: Indian PM Modi affirms ‘kinship’ with Israel, where he feels ‘at home’; FIFA Supporting Terrorism?

From Ian:

Indian PM affirms ‘kinship’ with Israel, where he feels ‘at home’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke on Wednesday morning of the “kinship” he feels with Israel, hailing the rapidly improving relations between the two countries, and especially the burgeoning trade ties.
Modi arrived Tuesday, making him the first-ever head of India’s government to visit the Jewish state.
“Israel is a real friend and I have really felt that feeling of kinship. I feel absolutely at home here,” Modi said during a meeting with President Reuven Rivlin in Jerusalem. “Your Excellency, you yourself broke protocol and stepped onto the road [at the President’s Residence] to receive me, and this is a mark of respect to the entire Indian nation comprising 1.25 billion people,” he added.
“You have expressed your love and your sentiments for our country. For that, I would especially like to thank you and express my gratitude.”
Rivlin heartily welcomed the prime minister to his residence.
“We have a lot in common, we are doing a lot in common,” he said, praising Modi for understanding the need of fostering both government-to-government and business-to-government relations. “It’s really a pleasure to have as a guest one of the greatest leaders in the world today. Prime Minister, welcome,” Rivlin concluded.

Rivlin hails Modi as one of world's 'greatest leaders of democracy'

President Reuven Rivlin welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to his official residence in Jerusalem on Wednesday, calling him “one of the greatest leaders of world democracies.”
Modi, in turn, noted Israel’s friendship. “Israel is a real friend,” he said. “I have really felt that feeling of kinship. I feel absolutely at home here.”
Commenting on “the warmth that has emanated from everyone that I have met here,” Modi included in his remarks Rivlin’s break from protocol when he came outside to welcome the prime minister.
According to protocol, a president ranks higher than a prime minister, but because Modi is considered to be such a special guest in Israel, Rivlin circumvented protocol and went outside to greet his Indian visitor, as the car carrying the prime minister drove into the presidential compound.
The two briskly traversed the red carpet and mounted a stage at the end of the main reception hall, where Modi signed the guest book. They then went into the president’s office for a 10-minute tête-à-tête before joining Modi’s waiting delegation and representatives of the media in a small reception hall.
Taking up their conversation from where they left off last November during Rivlin’s visit to India, Rivlin, in welcoming Modi, discussed commonalities between their two countries despite the differences in size and demography.
Rivlin told Modi that he could not forget his visit to India, where he had found a really strong nation with strong ideas and strong wishes.

Netanyahu accepts Modi invite to India as leaders ink cooperation deals

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday accepted an invitation from his Indian counterpart Narendra Modi to visit Delhi, as the two leaders signed a raft of agreements aimed at bolstering anti-terror and economic cooperation.
Modi is currently making the first-ever trip by an Indian prime minister to Israel, where he is being feted by Netanyahu for three days as Jerusalem touts its growing ties with the second-most populous country in the world.
At the end of a ceremony in Jerusalem to mark the signing of several bilateral agreements, Modi formally invited Netanyahu and his family. Netanyahu immediately responded: “I accept.”
According to the “India-Israel Joint Statement” that diplomats from both countries issued during the ceremony, Modi extended a “warm invitation” to Netanyahu to visit in India “at a mutually convenient time.”
The visit had already been in the works and Indian officials said last week the trip would likely take place toward the end of 2017.

We love it when truth triumphs. It's why we love Nikki Haley, who seems astonished that she is Israel's heroine for simply telling the truth.

Why should there be such a fuss for saying what is, asks Haley, again and again? But the fact is, a false and evil narrative regarding Israel has held sway for many years. It's frustrating to tell the truth and be called a liar. It feels like the sun shining is on us when Haley does her thing at the UN. It feels like cleansing sunlight. It makes our hearts swell. It makes us feel vindicated, even though we know we are right in our hearts.

Someone understands us! Someone knows the truth.

Prime Minister Netanyahu's office has, from time to time, issued videos of the prime minister telling the truth. Hard truths, that people don't want to hear. He has an impressive gravity in these videos. He's believable. It feels good to watch these videos and they always go viral.

There was his "The bad news and the good news" video about how minorities are treated in Israel. A clip like this draws views because we Jews have a yearning to show the world the basic goodness of Israel and Israeli society. This video helps fills that empty spot where pride wants to be and helps us soldier on.

Then there was Netanyahu's "Ever wonder what fake news is?" video. It ends with him crumpling the new (piece of lying, no good) Hamas document into a ball and pitching it into a wastebasket. Like his bomb diagram at the UN, it's a sight gag, but one that is eminently effective. Here, it seems almost daring, dashing, like he's saying, "Come at me, Bro!" to Hamas, the bad guys, simply by telling the truth!! That one had WAY more views than the bad news/good news clip.

Why is it then, that when it comes to our holiest site and freedom of religion, all bets are off and the truth is swept under the rug? How come we don't see a video about Jewish prayer rights emanating from the PM's office? What's UP with that??

It really should be so simple, so clear. The Israeli High Court has upheld the right to Jewish prayer on the Temple Mount over the years. This although the court does allow the Israeli security forces leeway in preventing Jewish prayer if it will cause disorder (translation: Arabs will riot if Jews' lips move). That loophole has been exploited by security forces to prevent Jews from so much as making a blessing on a drink of water while touring the Mount. And in summer, it gets hot. If you're religious you can't take a drink without making a brocha, a blessing, which means, you can't go on the Mount.

Still, there has been some change for the better, alluded to by Jenni Heltay Menashe, a Temple Mount tour guide, in this recent interview. New people are in charge of security since Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, and they seem to have a more relaxed and positive attitude about Jewish rights on the Mount. Perhaps that's why Tom Nisani and Sara Lurcat dared to very quietly get married on the Temple Mount last week.

As you can see in the above clips, there's neither white gown nor flowers. Just a slipping on of a ring on a finger and a few quietly mumbled words. Because even this is seen as "creating disorder" (translation: Arabs will riot and kill Jews).

But it makes no sense!!!

The point of the High Court's ruling was to grant freedom of religion, and not to make Jews skulk and whisper and pussyfoot around on their holiest site. The Temple Mount is ours, on our sovereign territory. If we do not dare to take ownership, it will be lost to us.

In placating the Waqf, the Muslim religious authority, we infantilize Muslims. We turn them into toddlers experiencing their terrible twos. We dare not do anything that could set them off. Thus, the toddlers rule their parents.

It is clear that Nisani and Lurcat respected the ruling of the High Court. The ceremony was modest and quiet. To a fault, in my humble opinion.

But guess what happens next: the police summon Nisani for questioning, to "clarify the event."

Nissani said no. He's not coming in to be questioned and if they want to arrest him, they know where to find him. He said, "I married my wife on the Temple Mount, which is not a violation of the law. I call upon all couples to ascend to the holiest place in the world to sanctify their marriages, as this is the most natural thing for a Jew to do."

Yosef Rabin, International Spokesman for "The Movement for Temple Renewal" issued the following response to this state of affairs, "We no longer live under British rule, when Jews were arrested by British Police for blowing the Shofar at the Western Wall. It is time for the police force of the Jewish State to cease acting like them and allow full religious rights for Jews on their holiest site, the Temple Mount."

Because the truth is, in a democracy, people have the right to pray or get married where they choose. They have full access to holy sites and the right to pray at these places, whether they are regular, ordinary people or even an MK like Yehudah Glick, whose right to ascend to the Temple Mount has been a monumental tug of war.

The truth is, Israel liberated the Temple Mount in 1967. It is ours. That is the truth.

Why do we not cherish this truth as we do so many others? The prime minister with his truth about how minorities are treated in Israel. His "Come at me, Bro" toss of a crumpled Hamas document into a wastebasket, Nikki Haley beaming sunlight at the UN. Why should our right to prayer on the Temple Mount be quelled and put down, hushed up and kept out of sight?

Why do we pretend to be a democracy with freedom of religion?

Why should Tom Nisani be called in for questioning by the police for exercising his rights as a citizen of Israel? Is this Soviet Russia?

Here is the truth: Jews do not have freedom of religion in the Holy Land. Not because some Jews need an egalitarian prayer space at the Kotel. They already have that. But because no Jews are allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, no matter what the Israeli Supreme Court rules.

What is it that the Israeli leadership fears in granting this, our most basic right as Jews in the Holy Land?

The right to prayer on Har HaBayit, the holiest site in the world.

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Palestinians Cry 'Apartheid' Over Election Of Jew To Lead Israeli Labor (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Ramallah, July 5 - Following the election of a yet another Israeli Jew as the new chairman of the country's Labor Party, Palestinian leaders accused both the party and wider Israeli society of maintaining ethnic segregation aimed at denying Palestinians political and civil rights.

Saeb Erekat, a Fatah official loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas who has served as the chief negotiator with Israel, spoke to reporters Tuesday night at the presidential compound in Ramallah, and characterized the election of a Jew to lead Labor as South-Africa-style Apartheid.

"Labor, the largest party that bills itself as favoring a negotiated two-state solution, the party that glories in its role in the Oslo peace process, has never chosen anyone but a Jew to lead it," charged Erekat. "The racist ethos of the party, and the racism of the society it thus exposes, demonstrate where the fault lies in the failure of effort after effort to achieve a final-status agreement."

Erekat called for international pressure on Israel and its political parties. "It is clear that without drastic measures from the international community we will forever be subject to the Apartheid occupation," he pronounced. "Not a single Palestinian has ever been permitted to submit candidacy for Labor, let alone run for high political office in Israel on the party's ticket."

Labor officials acknowledged Erekat's argument. "It's more or less true," admitted former Labor legislator Dalia Itzik. "Labor has made large strides in the realm of political equality over the decades, including the selection of Golda Meir as chairwoman, who became prime minister in the 1970's, and I served as Acting President of the country for a time. But when it comes to eligibility to vote in the Labor primary, the rules of party exclude those who have not paid membership dues and registered their membership, a requirement that effectively excludes the Palestinians."

She noted that the discriminatory nature of the requirement affects other minority groups. "We don't allow any non-citizens to vote in our elections, and I mean national elections, not just party primaries," she continued. "If you're a Russian citizen, but not an Israeli citizen, you're out of luck when it comes voting here. The same goes for citizens of Japan, Malaysia, Switzerland, Bolivia, Saudi Arabia, and literally hundreds of other countries: if you don't hold Israel citizenship, we don't let you vote here. Of course we discriminate."

Itzik also noted that she, as a non-Palestinian, cannot vote in Palestinian elections, but that fact alone is misleading, as Palestinians cannot vote in Palestinian elections either, having last held them in 2006, and thus Palestinians do not discriminate in that fashion against non-citizens.

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