Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 19, 2018

02/19 Links Pt1: The Gaza Escalation: A Message from Iran; Gaza Health Crisis: WHO’s to Blame?; Are Russia and Israel on a Collision Course Over Syria?

From Ian:

JCPA: The Gaza Escalation: A Message from Iran

Is Iran Involved in the Recent Clash with Gaza?

Because Iran is behind this escalation, things might deteriorate in the future. What we know is that the Iranians, actually General Qassem Soleimani, commander of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who is in charge of the terror activities of Iran in the Middle East, is in direct contact with the leaders of the military wing of Hamas and Islamic Jihad. He is trying to escalate the situation in order to send a message to Israel not to carry out any further attacks on Syria.

Is This a Severe Escalation with Gaza or Simply a Temporary Threat?

The message Iran is sending is that if Israel continues to hit Syrian targets, it will find itself fighting on a new front, in Gaza. This way, Israel will find itself fighting on two fronts at the same time, in both Gaza and Syria. This is the message of the Iranians, and their intention is to continue and escalate the situation, especially because President Trump is planning in the future to publish his new peace plan for the Middle East. The Iranians, together with Hamas and Islamic Jihad, are working together to sabotage this peace plan by terror activities from the borders of Gaza and Syria. So, Israel has to watch the borders very carefully and be ready to retaliate whenever a new attack is planned because the intention is to escalate and not to calm things down.

Gaza Health Crisis: WHO’s to Blame?

Fifty four Palestinians died in Gaza while awaiting a medical travel permit from Israel.

This is according to a joint statement issued last week by several NGOs (non-governmental organizations): Human Rights Watch (HRW), Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, Amnesty International, and Physicians for Human Rights Israel (PHRI), that slams Israel for a 54% decrease in medical travel permits to residents of Gaza.

Except on closer examination, it appears that in most cases relevant to this 54% decrease, Israel didn’t deny the permits: the Palestinian Authority did.
Joint statement

The joint statement statement purports to be based on a report by the UN’s World Health Organization (WHO).

The NGOs (including the WHO) placed blame primarily on Israel, as in the following statement from HRW:
Israeli authorities approved permits for medical appointments for only 54 percent of those who applied in 2017, the lowest rate since the World Health Organization (WHO) began collecting figures in 2008. WHO reported that 54 Palestinians, 46 of whom had cancer, died in 2017 following denial or delay of their permits.

Yet what the statement leaves out is that the WHO numbers are actually related to permit denials by the Palestinian government.

The New York Times Says Gaza Poverty Causes War With Israel. Sorry, That Doesn’t Make Sense.

One of the ways the New York Times demonstrates bias in news reports from the Middle East is with unstated, and unquestioned, assumptions.

In two recent articles, the assumption is that if economic conditions worsen in the Gaza Strip, the result will be attacks on Israel.

An example comes in this paragraph from a Times dispatch over the weekend:

Already beleaguered by Israel’s decade-old blockade of the strip, Gazans were made to suffer even more last year when the Palestinian Authority, run by Fatah, imposed harsh new restrictions in a power struggle with Hamas, its archrival. An attempt at reconciliation between the two last fall has since bogged down, and a standoff over salaries and revenue has sent the territory’s economy into free-fall, with many expecting a war with Israel as a result.

A front page Times report from earlier this month, also under the byline of the Times’ Jerusalem bureau chief, David Halbfinger, sounded some similar notes. It appeared under the print headline, “Gaza Is Near Financial Collapse, Prompting Fears of Violence”:
whether out of bluster or desperation, Gazans both in and out of power have begun talking openly about confronting Israel over its blockade in the kind of mass action that could easily lead to casualties and escalation…

One way or the other, “an explosion’s coming,” said Mr. Abu Shaaban, the cash-strapped Palestinian Authority pensioner. “We have only Israel to explode against. Should we explode against each other?”

The barely unstated assumption here is that economic difficulties in Gaza cause war with Israel.

Yet there are at least two big holes in this logic that the Times might discover if it probed more skeptically.

I noted yesterday that the official government run Palestinian Authority news agency Wafa liked to use the term "Talmudic" to describe anything that they didn't like that Jews were doing, as a dog whistle to incite Jw-hatred among their people.

Going through the archives of Wafa, I see over 150 mentions of "Talmudic" over the years, some quite absurd. Besides the "Talmudic clothing" mentioned yesterday (which they have done before,) we can find:

Temple Mount visitors performing "silent Talmudic rituals."

Reference to Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur and Sukkot as "Talmudic holidays"

A replica of the menorah in the Temple as a "Talmudic candlestick"

An archaeological park near the Temple Mount referred repeatedly as a "Talmudic park" or "Talmudic gardens."

Visitors to the Mount referred to as "students at Talmudic seminaries."

Israel lighting up the walls of Jerusalem with "Talmudic pictures"

Nearly all of these articles have the word "Talmudic" in the headline.They regularly get picked up and reprinted, verbatim, in Palestinian and other Arab media.

The implication is that anything "Talmudic" is sinister and satanic. Yet all of normative Judaism is to some extent "Talmudic" from Chanukah and Purim to how to blow a shofar and the entire Passover Seder text.

This is pure, official antisemitism on the part of Israel's supposed peace partner, the "moderate" PA.

Those who have suddenly become hyper-aware of right-wing antisemitism continue to be silent on official Arab antisemitism.

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From Russia's TASS news agency:

Russia condemns Tehran’s remarks that Israel should be wiped off the map and also believes that solving any regional problems should not be viewed through the prism of a conflict with Iran, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Monday.

Tensions between Israel and Iran are escalating and there are historical reasons for that, Lavrov said at the opening of the Valdai International Discussion Club’s conference "Russia in the Middle East: Playing on All Fields."

"We have stated many times that we won’t accept the statements that Israel, as a Zionist state, should be destroyed and wiped off the map. I believe this is an absolutely wrong way to advance one’s own interests," Lavrov stressed.

Russia has previously criticized Turkish president Erdogan's stance on Israel as well.

Certainly, Russia wants to be seen as an honest broker and power player in the Middle East - the name of the conference "Russia in the Middle East: Playing on All Fields." makes that clear.

But for those of us who remember the attacks against Israel by the Soviet Union - which was instrumental in passing the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution at the UN - it is still jarring to hear Russia criticize anyone for anti-Israel statements.

Part of the credit for this must go to Netanyahu, who has been in close contact with Vladimir Putin for years now.

Lavrov did try to be even-handed in his criticism:

"By the same token, we oppose attempts to view any regional problem through the prism of fighting Iran," he noted. This is happening in Syria, Yemen and even the latest developments around the Palestinian issue, including Washington’s announcement of its decision to recognize Jerusalem as the Israeli capital, are largely motivated by this anti-Iranian stance," Lavrov emphasized.

It is pretty clear, though, that Iran is indeed attempting to create a Shiite Muslim "crescent" from the Gulf to the Mediterranean, even if Russia doesn't like seeing people frame things that way.

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Reports: Erdogan trying to topple Israel

The Shin Bet issued a press release last week:

On 1 January 2018, a Turkish citizen, Cemil Tekeli, a lecturer in law, was arrested on suspicion of aiding Hamas terrorists in Turkey. On 21 January, Dara'am Jabarin, an Israeli citizen and resident of Umm al-Fahm was also arrested.

During the investigation it was learned that the two had been recruited in Turkey by senior Hamas terrorist Zaher Jabarin, who was released in the Shalit deal. He is responsible for Hamas' budget and promotes ramified terrorist operations in Judea and Samaria on instruction from Salah Aruri, who serves as the deputy chairman of the organization and head of its operations in the West Bank.

In Tekeli's investigation, it was learned that Turkey contributes to the military strengthening of Hamas via – inter alia – the SADAT company that was established at the behest of Adnan Basha, an adviser who is close to Turkish administration officials. The company was founded to assist – with funds and war materiel – the creation of the 'Palestine Army', the goal of which is to fight Israel. One of its employees even helped senior Hamas officials to visit a 2015 weapons show in Turkey, during which they expressed interest in UAVs.

During the investigation It became clear that Hamas is in direct contact with Turkish authorities via Jihad Ya'amur, a terrorist who was involved in the abduction of IDF soldier Nahshon Waxman and was released in the Shalit deal.

The investigation showed that, in 2012, Tekeli was asked to help Hamas terrorists who had gone to Turkey become personally and economically established. Most of the terrorists in question had been released in the Shalit deal and were involved in attacks that claimed Israeli lives. Tekeli assisted them in obtaining visas that allowed them to stay in Turkey, in purchasing and renting commercial and residential properties, in purchasing luxury vehicles and in becoming established in business via the registration of companies in their names.

The founder of SADAT, Adnan Taniverdi is not only "close to Turkish authorities." He is a senior military advisor to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

And Cemil Tekeli is close to Taniverdi, as this photo from the SADAT website itself shows them next to each other (the two on the right.)

Makor Rishon, which uncovered the photo, says that Sadat is no longer just a security consulting company. Beyond its Islamist agenda, it is considered one of the centers of power in Turkey. Erdogan's opponents treat it as his private militia.

Now the Shin Bet has exposed that it appears that Hamas is also an integral part of its activity.

Makor Rishon reports:

Tekeli revealed in his interrogation that Hamas was operating in Turkey with close ties to the top echelon of the regime. He revealed that senior officials in the Turkish government are contributing to Hamas' military buildup through SADAT, which is helping funds and weapons to establish a "Palestinian army" to fight Israel.

The Sadat Company (SADAT) was established five years ago by General Adnan Taniverdi, former head of the special forces of the Turkish army, inspired by Erdogan. The Islamist Taniverdi, who was ousted in 1997 from the Turkish army because of his Islamist activities, later became one of Erdogan's closest advisers. The two have since had a deep ideological affinity and mutual trust.

Taniverdi knew exactly what he wanted. ...From the start the company was much more than a defense consulting company - it had a mission. In a manifesto on the company's website, Taniverdi wrote that "Sadat was established to help the Muslim world reach heights that match its status and realize its destiny among the great powers." At the core of this mission is a struggle against the State of Israel and the Taniverdi manifesto includes a detailed plan "How to conquer Israel in ten days." The program is based on the military and political cooperation of the Islamic countries. "The Islamic countries must give the Palestinians bases in their territory, from which they can demonstrate military power against Israel and produce a sea corridor to Gaza and an air corridor to Ramallah through Islamic geography."

A reader of the manifesto may erroneously think that it is an Islamist fervor, and that any connection between it and reality is strictly coincidental. This is not the case. In recent years, the company has operated in accordance with its principles. Including Libya, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Yemen. Now, it turns out, Hamas too.

Turkey is actively working to topple Israel through its ties with Hamas.

(h/t Yoel)

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Hezbollah threatens Israeli gas fields

Iran's Abul Bayt News Agency reports:

Hezbollah Secretary General His Eminence Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah delivered on Friday a speech in which he tackled various regional and local topics.

Sayyed Nasrallah viewed that Lebanon must speak today from a strong position and away from any weakness. "We are strong and we must negotiate from this strong position. We are able to threaten "Israel" as it threatens us. If the American warns that "Israel" will attack us, tell him to accept our demands or Hezbollah will respond," he said.

"The Lebanese must not allow the devils to sow discord among them, and by devils I mean the Americans," Sayyed Nasrallah warned.

His Eminence went on to say: "Today the oil resources that are present in the south and across Lebanon are for all Lebanese. The Lebanese people that are suffering from a debt that might reach $100 billion and their only hope might be in the oil and gas that is present in the coast and land."

"Does Block 9 belong only to the South? No, it is that for all Lebanon," he added.

In a sounding message to the apartheid "Israeli" entity, the Resistance Leader said: "Lebanon is strong and "let us try". If the Lebanese Defense Council took a decides that the "Israeli" oil extraction positions must stop working, we [Hezbollah] are ready to stop it within couple of hours."

Background from Oil and Gas Journal, February 9:

Adding to the company’s Mediterranean operations in Cyprus and Egypt, Total SA has signed exploration and production agreements for Blocks 4 and 9 offshore Lebanon. The consortium includes Total as operator (40%), Eni SPA (40%), OAO Novatek (20%).

Lebanon’s Cabinet approved both licenses in December (OGJ Online, Dec. 19, 2018).

Despite several false starts, Lebanon’s offshore looks poised to enter the country’s long-awaited exploration phase, however, Block 9 continues in controversy due to an ongoing maritime border dispute with neighboring Israel.

Just last week, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman referred to Labanon’s Block 9 award as “challenging and provocative conduct.” Israel claims part of Block 9 and both blocks awarded are on trend with deepwater gas discoveries off Israel

Here is a map of the different blocks, showing the area of dispute between Israel and Lebanon:

In an excellent Jerusalem Post backgrounder, a salient fact is mentioned for the disputed Block 9:

Israel reminded all involved third parties, i.e., apart from Lebanon itself, that any activity "that would violate Israel's sovereign rights or otherwise involve them in non-consensual or unauthorized economic activity in this maritime area…would expose them to significant liability." On February 9, 2018, Total announced that it and its partners are aware of the conflict and therefore would not operate within 25 km of the disputed area.

Israel is not unilaterally drilling on its side of Block 9, so Nasrallah's warning is either complete hot air or it is an indication that Hezbollah might be pushing Lebanon to claim a much larger area that would include existing Israeli gas fields.

This is something that must be watched closely.

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Safa reports:

The Education Sector in the Palestinian NGO Network and the Palestinian Educational Coalition warned of the deterioration of the educational situation in public schools in the Gaza Strip due to the lack of an operating budget for 397 schools.

A joint statement by the two institutions said on Sunday that the lack of such a budget for schools would negatively affect the quality of educational services provided to more than 250,000 students and the possibility of increased dropout rates.

The statement called on all Palestinian parties to exclude the educational process from any conflicts as a result of political division. He called on the Ministry of Education to find effective mechanisms to ensure the necessary financial and logistical support for the continuation of the educational process in all public schools in the sector.

We already knew that the PA hasn't been paying custodial workers for hospitals. And they have been limiting medicines to Gaza. And that while they cut payments for electricity to Gaza last year, they didn't resume it because of an agreement with Hamas but because Israel threatened them.

The story of how the Palestinian Authority has been systematically blocking basic services to Gaza - even after supposed reconciliation with Hamas last year - has not been reported by anyone.

Compare the huge worldwide outcry to the US reducing aid to UNRWA with the complete silence to the Palestinian Authority cutting medical and educational services to the exact same population in Gaza.

There is no upper limit to hypocrisy when it comes to Palestinian Arabs.

(h/t Irene)

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02/18 Links: PM threatens direct military action against Iran; 4 IDF soldiers wounded after IED detonated near Gaza border; Polish Jews stunned, scared by eruption of anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Waving piece of downed drone, PM threatens direct military action against Iran

Brandishing a fragment of an Iranian drone downed over northern Israel a week ago, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday warned that Israel could strike the Islamic Republic directly and cautioned Tehran not to “test Israel’s resolve.”

“Mr. Zarif, do you recognize this? You should, it’s yours. You can take back with you a message to the tyrants of Tehran — do not test Israel’s resolve!” proclaimed Netanyahu at the Munich Security Conference, which was also attended by Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.

The Iranian drone, which entered northern Israel from Syria near the Jordan border last Saturday, was shot down by an Israeli attack helicopter. In response to the drone incursion, Israeli jets attacked the mobile command center from which it was operated, the army said last week.

During the reprisal raid, one of the eight Israeli F-16 fighter jets that took part in the operation was apparently hit by a Syrian anti-aircraft missile and crashed. The Israeli Air Force then conducted a second round of airstrikes, destroying between a third and half of Syria’s air defenses, according to IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus.

The flareup on the northern border marked the first direct confrontation between the Israeli air force and the Iranian regime on Israeli territory. Israel has warned of growing Iranian entrenchment in neighboring Syria and has said it will not abide an Iranian military presence on its borders.

“Through its proxies — Shiite militias in Iraq, the Houthis in Yemen, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza — Iran is devouring huge swaths of the Middle East,” said Netanyahu.

“Israel will not allow Iran’s regime to put a noose of terror around our neck,” he added. “We will act without hesitation to defend ourselves. And we will act if necessary not just against Iran’s proxies that are attacking us, but against Iran itself.”

US Calls for Action to Halt Iran’s Growing ‘Network of Proxies’

US National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster called on Saturday for more forceful action to halt Iran’s development of what he said was an increasingly powerful network of proxy armies in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iraq.

McMaster accused Iran of escalating a campaign to increase its influence in the Middle East by building and arming “Hezbollah-style” proxy armies in Iraq, Syria and elsewhere as it has done in Lebanon.

The goal was to weaken Arab governments and turn the proxy forces against those states if they pursued policies that ran counter to Tehran’s interests, he said.

“So the time is now, we think, to act against Iran,” he told the Munich Security Conference, calling on US allies to halt trade that was helping underwrite the expansion of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, the most powerful military and economic force in the Islamic Republic.

The United States deems Lebanon’s Hezbollah a terrorist organization.

“What’s particularly concerning is that this network of proxies is becoming more and more capable,” he said.

Iran has denied accusations that it meddles in the affairs of its Middle East neighbours and has dismissed suggestions it stop supporting groups such as Hezbollah.

Iranian foreign minister: Israel's 'myth of invincibility' has crumbled

Iran's Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Sunday the shooting down of an Israeli jet after bombing an Iranian site in Syria had shattered Israel's "so-called invincibility", reacting to a critical speech delivered earlier by Israel's premier.

"Israel uses aggression as a policy against its neighbours," Zarif told the Munich Security Conference, accusing Israel of "mass reprisals against its neighbours and daily incursions into Syria, Lebanon."

"Once the Syrians have the guts to down one of its planes it's as if a disaster has happened," Zarif said.

He was responding to Benjamin Netanyahu's address to the conference hours before, in which the Israeli prime minister, holding a piece of what he said was an Iranian drone, accused Iran of trying to impose an "empire" across the Middle East.

Zarif described Netanyahu's address to the conference as a "cartoonish circus."

"The entire speech was trying to evade the issue... What has happened in the past several days is the so-called invincibility [of Israel] has crumbled," he said of the February 10 downing of an Israeli jet.

Last week, it was widely reported that Iran accused the West of spying on Iran with special lizards:

Western spies used lizards which can 'attract atomic waves' to spy on Iran's nuclear programme, the former chief-of-staff of the nation's armed forces has claimed.

Hassan Firuzabadi, senior military advisor to supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said he did not know the details of the cases, but that the West had often used tourists, scientists and environmentalists to spy on Iran.

Firuzabadi was responding to questions from local media on the recent arrest of environmentalists.

'Several years ago, some individuals came to Iran to collect aid for Palestine,' he said.

'We were suspicious of the route they chose. In their possessions were a variety of reptile desert species like lizards.

'We found out that their skin attracts atomic waves and that they were nuclear spies who wanted to find out where inside the Islamic republic of Iran we have uranium mines and where we are engaged in atomic activities,' he added.

LiveScience actually took the time to debunk this, which i think is pretty cool:

Though "atomic waves" are not a real thing, perhaps Firuzabadi was referring to gamma radiation — the waves with the smallest wavelengths in the electromagnetic spectrum — that would be emitted from radioactive isotopes during uranium mining.

Regardless, it turns out that the bizarre claim is ridiculous, two reptile experts told Live Science.

"This is pure and simple BUNK," Eric Pianka, a zoology professor at the University of Texas at Austin (who sometimes goes by the name The Lizard Man), wrote in an email to Live Science.

The idea that lizards could somehow attract "atomic" waves doesn’t make sense, because lizard skin is made of the exact same proteins as human skin: keratin, Pianka said. The scutes, or scales that cover lizards are made up of two types of keratin proteins: keratin A and B. Neither has any special ability to detect uranium or other radioactive materials.

But what about other spying techniques? Perhaps the lizards somehow sense radioactivity found in uranium mines and are drawn to it?

Again, nope: The idea that lizards could be drawn to uranium mines flies in the face of all logical data, said Barry Sinervo, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Caifornia, Santa Cruz, who goes by the name of Dr. Lizardo.

For one, lizards, which are cold-blooded and seek warm spots to hang out, would have no incentive to venture deep into cold uranium mines, Sinervo told Live Science in an email. Sinervo's past research has shown that lizards learn the location of toasty spots and then seek them out — the opposite of uranium-mine seeking.

As for one of the specific types of lizards mentioned by Firuzabadi, chameleons (which are lizards in the family called Chamaeleonidae) live in trees and therefore have no incentive to leave their home base on twigs to go crawling around on rocks in a uranium mine, Sinervo said.

"So, the claim, based on what we know about lizard learning and motivation, is absurd," Sinervo said.

Of course, this is no proof. Those Zionists could have bred special spy chameleons, just like they have bred wild board that only attack Palestinian crops and they train sharks and birds and pufferfish and cows and sheep....

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Dog-whistle antisemitism in the official Palestinian Authority news agency

When is the world going to wake up to the fact that the official Palestinian Authority news agency is using the word "Talmudic" as a means to incite hatred by their people against religious Jews?

This pure, unadulterated antisemitism is published weekly in official Palestinian media. And today that hate reached new heights of absurdity with this article:

105 settlers, most of them wearing traditional Talmudic clothes, stormed the Al-Aqsa Mosque, during the period of morning incursions on Sunday, through the Moroccan gate while guarded by special forces of the occupation.

Here are the photos I could find that seem to have been taken today of these "Jews in Talmudic clothes:"

Do I have to mention that the Jews in Talmudic times didn't wear anything that looked like this?

The Palestinian Arabs know that saying that they are against "Jews" contradicts their message of tolerance that they want to tell the world, and themselves. But being against Jews who perform "Talmudic rituals" in "Talmudic clothes" - meaning, any Jew who does anything Jewish -is OK.

Here is a glaring example of the worst kind of dog-whistle politics, where everyone knows what the official Palestinian position is towards Jews - but no one wants to say it out loud.

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I have not yet seen Black Panther, but I was struck by a cover article in Time magazine about the movie and its place in black America.

The history of black power and the movement that bore its name can be traced back to the summer of 1966. The activist Stokely Carmichael was searching for something more than mere liberty. To him, integration in a white-dominated America meant assimilation by default. About one year after the assassination of Malcolm X and the Watts riots in Los Angeles, Carmichael took over the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee from John Lewis. Carmichael decided to move the organization away from a philosophy of pacifism and escalate the group’s militancy to emphasize armed self-defense, black business ownership and community control.

In June of that year, James Meredith, an activist who four years earlier had become the first black person admitted to Ole Miss, started the March Against Fear, a long walk of protest from Memphis to Mississippi, alone. On the second day of the march, he was wounded by a gunman. Carmichael and tens of thousands of others continued in Meredith’s absence. Carmichael, who was arrested halfway through the march, was incensed upon his release. “The only way we gonna stop them white men from whuppin’ us is to take over,” he declared before a passionate crowd on June 16. “We been saying freedom for six years and we ain’t got nothin’. What we gonna start sayin’ now is Black Power!”

Black Panther was born in the civil rights era, and he reflected the politics of that time. The month after Carmichael’s Black Power declaration, the character debuted in Marvel Comics’ Fantastic Four No. 52. Supernatural strength and agility were his main features, but a genius intellect was his best attribute. “Black Panther” wasn’t an alter ego; it was the formal title for T’Challa, King of Wakanda, a fictional African nation that, thanks to its exclusive hold on the sound-absorbent metal vibranium, had become the most technologically advanced nation in the world.

The people cheering the romantic era of the Black Power movement and its current Wakanda fictionalization in the Black Panther movie should really love Israel.

The idea of an enlightened world accepting Jews as equals, which sounded so wonderful for most of the 19th century, was torpedoed by the Dreyfus affair, and Zionism was born with the idea that Jews should control their own destiny rather than trust the world to treat them fairly.

Jews didn't have to make up a fictional Wakanda where they could be in power - they built a real state. A state that is more impressive than Wakanda.

Israel has none of the fictional "vibranium" - or, until recently, barely any natural resources to build its economy and citizens. The Jewish state had nothing but brains and bravery. There was little Jewish history of farming, and yet the Jews learned to be excellent farmers. There was little Jewish history of city planning, yet Tel Aviv was built from scratch. There was little Jewish history of military excellence since Bar Kochba, but the Jews managed to defeat combined armies sworn to its destruction.

Unlike Wakanda, Israel was surrounded by enemies from the start - and now its power, a direct analogy to Carmichael's Black Power, has helped make it the most stable country in the region. It deals with the world from a position of power, not of begging for help. It achieved technological excellence through hard work and investing in brainpower, not through a fictional super-substance. And as far as I can tell, Wakanda doesn't have to deal with enemy neighbors and a large minority population that may not share its national myths.

By any measure, the real state of Israel is far more impressive than the idealized, fictional nation of Wakanda.

The white people who are celebrating Black Panther should be even more enamored of the real-life Jewish state, a nation that changed the Jewish people from being eternally discriminated against into a people who must be respected.

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Palestinians upset: UAE textbook says their capital is Ramallah

This photo, apparently from a UAE textbook, has been going around social media:

Hezbollah mouthpiece Al Manar angrily writes:

It seems that the United Arab Emirates has gone farther than Saudi Arabia in normalization with the Zionist entity, and even in adopting the occupation regime’s rhetoric.

Weeks after US President Donald Trump recognized Al-Quds (Jerusalem) as the Zionist entity’s capital, and as Riyadh has been emerging as the spearhead of normalization moves, activists on social media shared a photo showing that Abu Dhabi recognizes Ramallah as the ‘capital of Palestine’.

The photo, shared by Lebanese journalist Ali Mourad, shows a paper- reportedly a part of an Emirati book- that identifies the capitals and currencies of Arab countries. According to the photo, the capital of Palestine is ‘Ramallah’, while the currency there is the ‘Jordanian Dinar’.

“UAE teaches school children that Palestine’s capital is Ramallah! (A country) which falsifies its own history and geography in order to create glory and culture for itself, won’t slacken to falsify other countries’ history and geography in a bid to please Zionists,” Mourad, who is specialized with Gulf affairs tweeted on Saturday.

Al-Manar contacted Mourad, who confirmed that the photo is taken of a part of an Emirati book, clarifying that he obtained the image from “a Palestinian who lives in UAE.”

Meanwhile, the Lebanese researcher noted that the photo was also shared on social media by several Palestinian activists.

Taking a look on some Palestinian accounts on social media, especially on Facebook, it was clear that the same photo was shared by several Palestinians who were warning, in their posts, against dangers of such move on the Palestinian cause.

This last sentence is something that most journalists and pundits don't get, and it is terrifically important to understand.

The truth isn't important to people who were raised in an honor/shame culture. Only appearances are.

Whether or not Ramallah is the capital of the PA in reality (you know, where the seat of government is) is not at all relevant to the discussion. The only relevant factor is what people say out loud, because saying the truth out loud can hurt the cause - and cause a serious backlash.

Westerners, and this includes Israelis, care about the truth, so they will look at all sides of an issue. Palestinians and other Arabs will only say out loud what they are allowed to say out loud to avoid being shamed.

Which is why you don't see too many Arabs violating the unspoken rules of what one is allowed to say or not allowed to say.

This schoolbook is meaningless, but Arabs, highly attuned to symbolism, see in it a harbinger of the world turning against them on Jerusalem. They must hit back fast and hard to ensure that no one else violates the unwritten rules of what is allowed to be said out loud.

Western journalists are usually too lazy to dig beneath the surface in interviews with Arabs and Palestinians, unlike how they treat fellow Westerners. They accept whatever is said at face value. And that is a big reason why the Palestinian narrative has so often won over the truth that even Palestinians know themselves.

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02/16 Links Pt2: Justice for Oxfam’s Anti-Israel Bigotry?; Is Refusing Israeli Help Worth a Drought?; Phillips: Poland unleashes its own inner demons

From Ian:

Justice for Oxfam’s Anti-Israel Bigotry?

Minnie Driver has stepped down from her role as Oxfam Ambassador because of allegations that staff for the charity — in Haiti and other countries — paid vulnerable people for sex.

In 2014, Oxfam threw Scarlett Johansson under the bus because of her association with SodaStream, an Israeli company that employed hundreds of Palestinians and served as a bellwether for peaceful co-existence between Palestinians and Jews.

Johansson refused to be bullied, and likewise stepped down from her Oxfam position. I am proud to have worked directly with Scarlett’s people during that fiasco.

A bit of justice for Oxfam? Perhaps. But no justice for Haitians who were abused — or for Palestinians who lost jobs and friends they treasured.

Is Refusing Israeli Help Worth a Drought?

Akoob claims that maybe South Africa can learn from Israel while simultaneously boycotting Israel — simply by taking Israeli design specifications, but never interacting with Israeli scientists or engineers.

Again, Akoob gets it wrong: according to a whole range of scientists, experts, and engineers (as summarized in this report from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs), there is simply no substitute for working together when it comes to water.

Based on all these misstatements of fact, Akoob concludes:

South Africa does not need the help of Israel to solve our drought.

And just to make her point, Rumana Akoob is — apparently — willing to bet the very safety of the South African people on her views.

Melanie Phillips: Poland unleashes its own inner demons

If Poland wants to demonstrate it really did have nothing to do with the Holocaust, it’s going a mighty strange way about it.

A new law passed by the Polish parliament criminalizing any suggestion that Poland was involved in the Holocaust has produced a crisis in Polish-Jewish relations described as the most serious since the fall of communism in 1989.

Poland is well known for its sensitivity to the false description of Nazi concentration camps on its soil as being “Polish camps.” But the new law goes much further.

It makes it a criminal offense for anyone to accuse Poland of being “responsible or complicit in the Nazi crimes committed by the Third German Reich... or other crimes against peace and humanity or war crimes...”

This is in effect to criminalize telling the truth about Polish history. For there is ample evidence of Polish complicity in the extermination of the Jews.

Poles often shopped Jews to the Nazis; the historian and survivor Emanuel Ringelblum has noted that Polish police “played a most lamentable role in the extermination of the Jews of Poland... [and were] enthusiastic executors of all the German directives regarding the Jews.”