Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 05, 2018

12/05 Links Pt2: What PBS got right — and so wrong — about the Jews of Iran; France gives human rights award to BDS organization with terror ties; Dubai’s Jewish community steps hesitantly out of the shadows

From Ian:

From Jerusalem, Marc Lamont Hill’s ‘river to the sea’ comments hit too close to home

Unfortunately, if you were to base your understanding of why CNN fired Hill on the international media coverage of the row, and tweets by Hill’s defenders, you’d come away with the false impression that he was let go merely for criticising Israel and calling for a “free Palestine.”

In fact, he was fired because his speech included a call for a future Palestinian state “from the river to the sea,” and a thinly veiled justification for Palestinian terror.

Regarding the "river to the sea" comments, Hill denied that it was a call for Israel's destruction.

However, there is simply no question that, among Western pro-Palestinian activists and -- especially -- terror groups like Hamas, calling for a future Palestine “from the [Jordan] river to the [Mediterranean] sea” is code for the rejection of the continued existence of a Jewish state within any borders. In fact, Hill himself, in a recent tweet, acknowledged that he holds this view.

Hill’s support for the Palestinian right to engage in terrorism seems clear in several passages from his speech, including his evocation of the American slave revolts, which he described as equally important to attaining freedom as non-violent methods, adding that “true solidarity” with the Palestinians “must allow them the same range of opportunity.” He also spoke of the alleged “right of an occupied people to defend themselves,” and rejected what he termed the “narrow politics that shames Palestinians” for engaging in this kind of “resistance.”

Moreover, it’s important to note that Hill’s apparent support for violence isn’t a one-off. He has previously advocated on behalf of convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh, appeared to justify the kidnapping and murder in 2014 of three Israeli teens by Palestinian terrorists, and, in 2017, labeled the call for Palestinians to reject hatred and terrorism “offensive and counterproductive.”

Temple University Reviewing Whether Marc Lamont Hill Can Be Reprimanded After Israel Remarks, Board Chair Says

Temple University is determining whether it can reprimand Marc Lamont Hill, a faculty member whose contract as a CNN commentator ended after he made comments denounced as antisemitic.

Hill, a tenured professor of media studies and production, came under fire from Jewish groups after speaking at the United Nations last Wednesday, where he endorsed the boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel in pursuit of “a free Palestine from the river to the sea” — a call typically used by Arab nationalist and Islamist groups to advocate for the establishment of a Palestinian state from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea, in place of Israel. The BDS campaign itself is often criticized for rejecting the Jewish people’s right to self-determination and denying Jewish indigenity to the Levant.

In his speech, Hill also did not rule out violence as a means of Palestinian “resistance,” suggesting that as “black resistance to American apartheid did not come purely through Gandi and nonviolence … we must allow the Palestinian people the same range of opportunity and political possibility.”

His comments were quickly condemned by local and national Jewish groups including the Anti-Defamation League, Simon Wiesenthal Center, Zionist Organization of America, National Council of Young Israel and Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia, with the latter rebuking Hill’s remarks as “anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.”

Jews from Islamic countries are migrants of the clash of civilizations

Islam decolonized itself with an anti-Semitic ethnic cleansing whose very existence has been denied by the West. These Jews had been confiscated of everything: wealth totalling hundreds of billions of dollars. they were prevented from practicing religion, they were kicked out of their homes, they were massacred in the streets, they were robbed also of their own history.

And they became invisible.

But their sufferings didn't come to an end with their flight. In France it continues today. Most French Jews, in fact, are the sons and the grandsons of those who fled the Arab world: Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt. And these Jews are targeted again by the Islamists.

“I'm scared for the future of my baby here”, say the French Jews in a chilling series that appeared on CNN. Nathaniel Azoulay, a boy from Paris attacked with a saw, tells his story: “He saw the kippah”. Azoulay and his brother started running as fast as possible. “He started to launch anti-Semitic insults, 'f*** Jew, you will die on this street'. He hit my brother with the saw. He shouted to the others: 'Let's beat the Jews, come, let's hit them'. I cut my fingers with the saw”.

Yonatan Arfi, vice president of Jewish communities, speaks of “hundreds of attacks” like this from 2000 to today.

Islamicized France, outside the Macrononian bubble, can become a war zone for the Jews, exactly as it was in Cairo, Marrakesh, Baghdad, Damascus, Aleppo and Beirut at the time of the Jewish Nakba, the real one.

What PBS got right — and so wrong — about the Jews of Iran

In fact, the discrimination goes considerably beyond this. Under Iran’s sharia law code, different penalties are laid out for Muslims and non-Muslims for a variety of violations, almost always disfavoring the non-Muslims. The government also insists that each of the Tehran Jewish community’s five schools must be run by a Muslim principal — a requirement that the head of the Jewish community bluntly, and courageously, condemned on the record as “insulting” in my 2015 interview with him. If a Jew murders a Muslim, the proscribed penalty is death. If a Muslim murders a Jew, the payment of blood money is an option.

To be sure Jews, along with Christians and Zoroastrians, are recognized as “people of the book” in the Islamic Republic, with a legitimate place as tolerated minorities in Muslim society. The physical security of Jews as a community in Iran is even buttressed by a religious fatwa forbidding harm to the community that was issued by the Islamic Republic’s founding leader, Grand Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, soon after he took power. But taken in total, the legal and social discrimination under which Iran’s Jews (and Christians and Zoroastrians) live leave them as basically well protected second-class citizens.

For Jews, the impact of these conditions is reflected in a basic statistic found nowhere in the PBS report. Before the 1979 revolution, 80,000 to 100,000 Jews lived in Iran. Today, only 9,000 Jews live there, according to census figures, where Iranians are obliged to list their religion. Those numbers make a big statement about what most Iranian Jews think about living under the conditions “News Hour” describes more or less accurately, if incompletely.

Much of the emigration took place in the years immediately after the revolution, when the ability of Jews to make reasonable lives for themselves was far less clear. Just months after the installation of Khomeini’s first post-revolution government, Iran’s execution of one of the community’s major leaders and leading businessmen, Habib Elghanian, for “contacts with Israel and Zionism” shocked many Jews into flight. The charge was one that could be applied easily to many Iranian Jews. To this day Iranian Jews, many of whom have family in Israel, must be discreet about those ties. But today, the government often looks the other way when Iranian Jews quietly visit Israel via third countries. (h/t Zvi)

Chanukah video night 4 - 30 Chanukah puns in 60 seconds + Old City Chanukah lightshow

And this is VERY cool:

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Love him or hate him, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is just a ball of charisma. The force of his personality, when you share a space with him, is like a full frontal assault. It hits you like that.

At last week’s Jewish Media Summit, I had the honor of what was my second audience with Netanyahu. The first was also during a Jewish Media Summit, the first ever held in Israel. That was some years ago, yet I still remember sitting in the front row and feeling as though he were speaking only to me, a private audience. He seemed to gaze into my eyes as he spoke, though I knew it wasn’t possible. Apparently, he’s just that good.

And then there was the phone call.

It was an election year and Netanyahu was calling random voters to chat them up and persuade them to give him the vote. But he did it for a couple of days before it made it into the news, so that I was clueless when my landline rang. I went to the phone, expecting it to be a charity asking for a donation or perhaps a survey. Actual humans don’t use landlines anymore. If it’s someone I know, they call my cell.

So anyway, I pick up only to hear Bibi say, “Hello.”
“Goodbye,” I said, hanging up, thinking: Election. Robocall.

And then, of course, the next day I find out it probably really WAS Bibi and I’d had the chance to kvetch to my heart’s content and hash it out with him. Only I’d blown it.

Bummer.

So there I was at the Knesset last week when the head of the Government Press Office, Nitzan Chen, told us that Bibi would try to answer as many questions as we had, as soon as he arrived, and he was due to arrive any minute. I wasn’t going to squander another opportunity, so I began to think what I would ask him. I wrote it all down on my yellow lined notepad to get my questions into tip-top form. I wasn’t going to hem and haw, or make a speech. I was going to articulate the perfect question.

The problem was that I came up with three questions and couldn’t decide between them. Which one should I choose, I agonized. Most controversial? Least controversial?

As it turns out, my need to choose was soon moot. All of us in that room were the media, in one form or another. So we all had our hands shooting up the minute Bibi paused to take a breath. But rather than let Bibi choose whom he’d call on to ask a question, Chen handpicked those he favored, which meant: foreign media.

After all, this whole summit was really about impressing the foreign media, wooing them, wining and dining them and making them think that Israel’s a wonderful place. I was there almost by accident, a token Israeli.

It had been a wonderful week and this was the final day. I’d made amazing contacts. And met Daled Amos, for instance.

When Daled Amos met Judean Rose

But it seems that Bibi and I are destined to be like two ships passing in the night. I would not be chosen to ask any of my questions that afternoon. Not that it matters. It’s easy enough to guess how he would have answered them.

Which is why I decided I’d share my carefully crafted questions here (they should go to waste?) and tell you how I think Bibi would have responded.

1) How can you have transparency when so much is unknown to the public? How can we be informed citizens and voters? We are being asked to “trust.” How can we even claim to be a democracy?

What Bibi would have said: Israel has a robust democracy. But of course, every country’s leadership has access to important intelligence that the average joe does not have and uses it to protect its citizens. The voters put their trust in my leadership and this is well warranted by dint of my experience in office and by my actions at the helm of this great country which have kept the people both safe and prosperous.

2) Who can replace you when your time is over? Are you grooming/mentoring younger MKs for this purpose?

What Bibi would have said: Apparently you’ve come to bury, not to praise me! But don’t kill me off just yet (pause for laughter). (Turns serious) We have several good and capable people in the Likud party any number of whom could be depended upon for leadership should the need arise. The people of Israel are in good hands.

3) “Annexation.” Isn’t it unnecessary? Can’t we, in theory, declare sovereignty and end the state of martial law in Judea and Samaria? We settlers feel marginalized, even demonized. This lack of support by the Likud, which is supposed to be the Greater Israel party, leaves us feeling abandoned. There is total lawlessness on our roads, because traffic laws are not enforced. We pay taxes, but it’s taxation without representation. Our sons serve in the Israeli army, but we are not even “in Israel.”

What Bibi would have said: No one has a greater affection for and understanding of the settlers and their sacrifice for all of us by securing our inheritance, our ancestral lands. But the situation is complex and tensions must be taken into account both with local actors and those abroad. Relations with Europe, the UN, and the U.S. are just some of the factors we must take into account in determining our policy in Judea and Samaria, and so we must tread carefully and not make any hasty decisions.

While I didn’t get to ask my questions—once again having missed out on an opportunity to confront Bibi, when I thought about it after the fact, I realized I hadn’t missed out on anything at all. As you can see from the little exercise above, it’s easy to figure out what Bibi, the slick and accomplished politician, might have answered. There would have been no great revelations on this or any other day.

And at least I didn’t embarrass myself, which is more than I can say for the female blogger who chased after the prime minister’s entourage as he left the room, crying, “Bibi, I LOVE YOU. I am behind you always! AM YISRAEL CHAI!”

So. Embarrassing.

But like I said, he’s got this magnetic charm. And some of us are more susceptible than others.

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Netanyahu Critics Say New Corruption Probe Just To Distract From Old Corruption Probes (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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Jerusalem, December 5 - Political opponents and rivals of Israel's prime minister accused him today of orchestrating the latest round of bribery and breach of trust allegations against himself and his wife in order to divert attention from the previous episodes in which the prime minister or his wife stand accused of bribery, breach of trust, and other abuses of power.

Police officials recommended indictment of Binyamin and Sara Netanyahu this week on bribery charges stemming from a multi-year investigation, alongside several other ongoing probes. Senior figures in the political Opposition, and some right-wing rivals of the premier, called attention today to what they termed suspicious timing of the announcement, coming as it does on the heels of other news involving alleged Netanyahu corruption, and suggesting the possibility that the police recommendation plays a part in a longtime Netanyahu strategy to distract from his corruption with other charges of corruption.

The decision whether to indict the prime minister rests with the Attorney General, who is expected to issue a decision in the next several months.

"I urge the public and the media not be taken in by this subterfuge," admonished MK Avi Gabbay, current head of Labor, the largest Opposition party. "We must not lose focus on Bibi's unsuitability for the office of prime minister, as demonstrated by his constant involvement in unsavory, and apparently illegal, activities, which he is attempting to obscure with other stories demonstrating his unsuitability for the office of prime minister." Gabbay called for Netanyahu's immediate resignation.

Gabbay's ally MK Tzipi Livni, chief of the HaTnuah Party and Gabbay's partner at the head of the Zionist Union faction in the Knesset, laid some blame at the media's feet. "It's irresponsible to cover these new corruption developments so intensively when there are so many older ones we haven't milked for all their political worth yet," she stated. "Netanyahu is basically exploiting the press's tendency to glom onto the most recent thing, which sometimes has its benefits, but in this case doesn't allow the public to really absorb to the fullest extent how corrupt Bibi is before getting sidetracked by other evidence of how corrupt Bibi is. A little journalistic responsibility, please."

Sources close to Netanyahu Likud rival Gidon Saar, who declined to be identified by name, voiced a different concern. "This is all Bibi getting attention, when you come down do it," warned one. "I think it's time we impose some socialism on the system, namely by assigning a certain level of coverage to which every aspiring elected official is entitled, and that way you don't have one guy hogging it all - at least until our guy gets into power and does the hogging, which would be ok because it's not Bibi."

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12/05 Links Pt1: The mole inside the Hezbollah tunnel; PA TV poem: "The Dark-Eyed [Virgins] yearn for me"; Stop Iran's violations of UNSC resolution 2231

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel and the U.S. Have Common Interests in the Middle East

The root of Israel’s enduring significance to the U.S. is found in the fact that the Jewish state shares all of America’s core interests in relation to the region.

The first U.S. core interest in the Middle East is to prevent any competing superpower from taking over. The U.S. does not want China or Russia to supplant it as the preeminent superpower in the region, both because such an event would harm the U.S. economically, and because it would make America’s rivals significantly stronger and the U.S. significantly weaker.

Israel shares this U.S. interest. Israel can develop close ties with both Russia and China on a transactional level based on episodic common interests. But unlike the U.S., Russia and China do not share Israel’s permanent perception of its interests the way the U.S. does.

Along these lines, the second permanent U.S. interest in the Middle East is to prevent local powers from dominating the region, proliferating weapons of mass destruction, or acquiring intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Israel’s acute concern with all of these issues has caused it to develop intelligence agencies second to none in gathering and acting on intelligence relating to all of these issues — not only in Israel, but worldwide. Israel’s Mossad’s seizure of Iran’s nuclear archive in Tehran this past January is a testament to Israel’s capabilities.

The Middle East remains the world’s largest incubator for terrorism and the largest exporter of terrorists. Israel’s unhappy distinction is that it has been fighting these forces since before it was established. The U.S. and Israel share a key interest in destroying terror groups operating in the Middle East to prevent them from attacking in the region and throughout the world.

Israel’s intelligence capabilities have foiled Iranian terror attacks around the world and have exposed Iranian agents engaged in purchasing dual-use technologies to advance Iran’s nuclear work.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: The mole inside the Hezbollah tunnel

This week, for the first time, Israel made public its discovery of the tunnel constructed by Hezbollah and reaching into Israel's sovereign territory. This brought to an end a long period during which a large number of Israelis living in communities adjacent to the Lebanese border reported hearing sounds of digging as well as feeling tremors in the walls of their homes.

Attack tunnels are intended to allow for significant numbers of armed infantry bearing weapons, artillery and supplies, to traverse them within a minimal time span, avoiding Israeli lookouts and thereby gaining the element of surprise. An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians. That fact allows for sudden forays and kidnapping.

However, the discovery and neutralization of the tunnel that Hezbollah dug into Israel's sovereign territory is a technological, operational and intelligence network accomplishment, for additional reasons:

1. Hezbollah based its plans for future wars on these tunnels. Nasrallah has not made a secret of his plans to take over the Galilee in the next war, but because Hezbollah has no means of air transport, it cannot land sufficient numbers of armed forces in Israeli territory, and the tunnels were intended as the substitute for an airlift. By discovering the first tunnel, Israel has eliminated the immediate use of this strategic method, but the IDF believes there are additional tunnels.

An underground passage grants attackers protection from Israeli bombs, while it also means that the war begins on the Israeli side of the border, in the midst of areas populated by civilians.

2. The discovery of the tunnel has proven to the entire world that Hezbollah is acting in flagrant violation of the Security Council Resolution 1701 which brought the 2006 Second Lebanon War to an end. This resolution forbids Hezbollah any presence in southern Lebanon, but now it has become clear that not only is the terrorist organization in that region, it is also violating Israeli sovereignty. It is obvious once again that UNIFIL has neither the ability nor the interest to carry out the mission it was given by the Security Council and Israel has no reason to assume that the international community will act to ensure its security. This violation of a Security Council decision provides Israel with justification, vis a vis the Israeli public and the world, to attack Hezbollah.

PMW: "The Dark-Eyed [Virgins] yearn for me" - poem on official PA TV

The ideal of dying as a "Martyr" continues to be promoted regularly by the Palestinian Authority and Abbas' Fatah party. Palestinian Media Watch has documented that "Martyrs" have cult-like status in the PA.

Following a recent terror attack in which the terrorist stabbed and wounded 4 Israeli policemen, a host on official PA TV read a poem in the terrorist's honor. The poem glorifies Martyrdom-death in battle and states that the 72 "Dark-Eyed" Virgins in Paradise who the Martyr marries according to Islamic tradition, are "yearning" for the Palestinian Martyr:

Official PA TV host: "About the Jerusalem Martyr Abd Al-Rahman Abu Jamal (terrorist, wounded 4 -Ed.) we say:
I am the Palestinian lion cub
I was planted in my land, like the olive and fig tree
My roots reach Canaan
The blood of the Martyrs flows in my veins,
I am like a lion in the fields [of battle]
If the drums of war call
I harvest the souls in the fields
I guard the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] and the [Dome of the] Rock
My eyes will not close, and my head will not bow
I am the Palestinian lion cub
The armies of treachery fear me
The Dark-Eyed [Virgins] yearn for me
I have not sold my homelands, and have not given up my assault rifle
Today I carry my shrouds, and in my heart my faith strengthens
Because victory and liberation are coming at the hands of the lion cubs
[Official PA TV, Good Morning Jerusalem, Nov. 23, 2018]

It should be noted that the terrorist was 17 years old and that the term "lion cub" repeated in the poem is the name for boys in Fatah's youth club, which is named "Lion Cubs and Flowers." The "lion cubs" - children of similar age or younger than the 17-year-old terrorist who is being honored in the poem and who the Dark-Eyed virgins yearn for - are being urged to kill - to "harvest souls" in the battle field.

A host on official PA TV read a poem which glorifies Martyrdom-death and states that the 72 "Dark-Eyed" Virgins in Paradise who the Martyr marries according to Islamic tradition, are "yearning" for the Palestinian Martyr.
Read more here: https://t.co/hGFoGvPetV pic.twitter.com/xd2AJSefxu
— Pal Media Watch (@palwatch) December 5, 2018

Where Was UNIFIL While Hezbollah Was Digging Its Terror Tunnel? (Daled Amos)

by Daled Amos

The IDF provides an aerial photo showing the path of the tunnel that necessitated Israel's Operation Northern Shield:

And where was UNIFIL all this time?
In the image below, the UNIFIL watchtower is indicated by the white circle, just hundreds of meters from where the tunnel ended.

Clearly, Hezbollah is not afraid of UNIFIL.
And why should they be?

On August 30, 2018 the UN Security Council passed Resolution 2433 extending the mandate of UNIFIL in southern Lebanon:

Reaffirming its commitment to the full implementation of all provisions of resolution 1701 (2006), and aware of its responsibilities to help secure a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution as envisioned in the resolution

And it goes further, explicitly calling on Israel to support the ceasefire:

4. Reiterates its call for Israel and Lebanon to support a permanent ceasefire and a long-term solution based on the principles and elements set out in paragraph 8 of resolution 1701 (2006);

Oddly enough, though, Resolution 2433 which renews the mandate does name Lebanon, but does not mention Hizbollah (UN's spelling).
At all.
Not this year, nor last.

That might seem a bit odd, considering the fact that the Hezbollah attack in 2006 is what made this expanded mandate for the already existing UNIFIL necessary.

Thankfully, Hizbollah is mentioned in Resolution 1701 which created this mandate:

Expressing its utmost concern at the continuing escalation of hostilities in Lebanon and in Israel since Hizbollah’s attack on Israel on 12 July 2006, which has already caused hundreds of deaths and injuries on both sides, extensive damage to civilian infrastructure and hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons, [emphasis added]

In his article, Hezbollah Ritually Humiliates the UN, Tony Badran describes just how little Hezbollah terrorists think of UNIFIL, and the UN:

On August 4, following a well-established modus operandi, Hezbollah orchestrated an attack on a UNIFIL patrol in the town of Majdal Zoun, north of Naqoura. “The locals”—a Hezbollah tongue-in-cheek euphemism—spotted the Slovak unit taking pictures and surrounded it and obstructed its path. When the patrol tried to escape, the Hezbollah “locals” attacked it, damaging its vehicles. As the patrol moved on, Hezbollah operatives in nearby villages cut it off again, attacked it, confiscated some of its weapons, its cameras and equipment and set fire to their vehicle near the headquarters of the Italian contingent. Later on, Hezbollah “negotiated” the return of the equipment through the LAF, clarifying precisely the role the LAF plays in Lebanon, that of Hezbollah errand boys.

Still, you would have thought that Hezbollah would have had more respect for UNIFIL.
After all, in the past UNIFIL has a history of being helpful to Hezbollah in their fight against Israel.

During that war in 2006, the "neutral" UNIFIL played a decidedly one-sided game

throughout the recent war, it posted on its website for all to see precise information about the movements of Israeli Defense Forces soldiers and the nature of their weaponry and materiel, even specifying the placement of IDF safety structures within hours of their construction. New information was sometimes only 30 minutes old when it was posted, and never more than 24 hours old.

Meanwhile, UNIFIL posted not a single item of specific intelligence regarding Hezbollah forces. Statements on the order of Hezbollah "fired rockets in large numbers from various locations" and Hezbollah's rockets "were fired in significantly larger numbers from various locations" are as precise as its coverage of the other side ever got.

The cooperation of the UN and UNIFIL with Hezbollah goes even further back:

On October 7, 2000, Hezbollah forces illegally crossed the Israeli border with Lebanon through a UN patrolled area and kidnapped three Israel Defense Force soldiers, Adi Avitan, Binyamin Avraham, and Omar Souad. UNIFIL peacekeepers videotaped the incident; however, the United Nations denied possessing any such videotape for almost nine months. On July 6, 2001, The UN admitted, contrary to their earlier denials, that they had possession of the tape as of 18 hours after the incident occurred.

At the time, David Kopel of The Volokh Conspiracy noted how the UN coverup of the gross negligence by UNIFIL went a long way:

One soldiers (sic) said that the brigade should arrest the Hezbollah, but the brigade did nothing.

According to the Indian soldier, the UNFIL brigade in the area "could have prevented the kidnapping."

"I'm very sorry about what happened, because we saw what happened," he said. Hezbollah "were wearing our uniforms and it was too bad we didnâ€™t stop them."

It appears that at least four of the UNIFIL "peacekeepers," all from India, has received bribes from Hezbollah in order to assist the kidnapping by helping them get to the kidnapping spot and find the Israeli soldiers. Some of the bribery involved alcohol and Lebanese women.

The Indian brigade later had a bitter internal argument, as some members complained that the brigade had betrayed its peacekeeping mandate. An Indian government investigation sternly criticized the brigade's conduct.

There is evidence of far greater payments by Hezbollah to the UNIFIL Indian brigade, including hundreds of thousands of dollars for assistance in the kidnapping and cover-up.

The UN cover-up began almost immediately.

Kopel continues with a full description of how the UN not only withheld evidence from Israel, it also destroyed evidence as well.

And it's not as if fear of Hezbollah is the only motivator for UNIFIL to betray their neutrality. Wikipedia reports on an incident in 1992 based on an article in YNet News how UNIFIL helped 2 Lebanese terrorists who escaped from an Israeli prison:

A 2010 book published by Norwegian journalist Odd Karsten Tveit revealed that the Norwegian Army was complicit in the escape of two Lebanese men who were arrested by the Israeli Army and being held in Khiam prison. According to the book, in 1992, two detained Lebanese men escaped from Khiam prison [in Southern Lebanon]. Fearing that they would face torture or execution if caught by the Israel Defense Forces or South Lebanon Army, the soldiers dressed the detainees in UN uniforms, and placed them in a UNIFIL convoy which left Southern Lebanon through Israeli roadblocks. Shortly afterward, Israeli Army commander Moshe Tamir visited the Norwegian battalion's camp, and accused Norwegian commander Hagrup Haukland of "sheltering terrorists". Immediately after the confrontation, the Lebanese men were smuggled onto a bus used by Norwegian peacekeepers on leave, which took them to Beirut.

The long history of UNIFIL incompetence in enforcing its mandate to keep southern Lebanon clear of weapons and Hezbollah terrorists is not surprising, considering its lack of the most basic integrity and failure to fulfill its obligations and neutrality.

The fact that Hezbollah was able to tunnel into Israel without UNIFIL being tipped off by any tremors from just a few hundred meters away speaks for itself.

Badran writes that unlike last year, this year US Ambassador Haley did not even bother attending the UN vote to extend the UNIFIL mandate and did not issue a statement afterward either.

Clearly, there are no words to describe the failure of one more organization of the UN.

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"Don't piss off Muslims" is official EU security policy

Back in 2006, I wrote an essay called "Diplomacy of Fear: The Muslim Way" where I pointed out:

For decades, the Arab world specifically and the Muslim world in general has used threats as its main leverage to get the West to bend to its will. The threats aren't usually direct; most often they take the form of "if you don't do what we want, the Arab street will erupt" or "the terrorists will have an excuse." In other words, if Arab thugocracies do not get what they desire from the West, then they will be powerless to stop the irrational forces within their borders from damaging Western interests.

...European Mideast policy is almost wholly driven by fear of upsetting Arabs and Muslims. Those who claim to be seeking "peace" make the assumption that asking Arabs for concessions is useless and could ignite some sort of negative response - so is makes more sense to pressure Israel into making even more concessions.

How many times have we seen a variant of this recent pronouncement from Mahmoud Abbas:

Mr Abbas said the freeze was causing hardship to ordinary people and would lead to further instability.

"Instability?" We all know what he means by that - he means violence and terror, which is apparently a natural reaction in the rules of Arab physics. If the West doesn't give Palestinian Arabs more and more money, well, hey, he sure can't control his people from the spontaneous inevitable violence (remarkably similar to the violence they seem to have perfected when they had a billion dollars a year coming into their coffers.)

Mahmoud Abbas threatens the Western world and no one bothers to call him on it.

This climate of fear is so endemic that fundamentally irrational and immoral acts by the Muslim world are accepted by the West with little question - to challenge it could put you in the same category as a Salman Rushdie or a Danish cartoonist, and who needs that hassle?

In a speech given this week at Harvard University, High Representative/Vice-President Federica Mogherini shows that fear of irrational responses by Muslims indeed is what drives official EU security policy:

Strategic autonomy for us is about responsibility. It's about being grown-ups and stating what we believe is right, what we believe in is in the interest of Europeans but also of our transatlantic friends....

I know that many people here in America, including in Washington D.C., understand this perfectly well: that our security is tied; that our destinies are connected more closely than we often admit.

So, I don't want to underplay the breadth and the depth of our disagreements with the current U.S. administration: they're there and they're self-evident. Sometimes they are so self-evident that they hide all the rest and this is a shame.

But it is true that on Iran or on Jerusalem we believe that this administration has taken decisions that run counter to our collective interest and to our collective security: our European one but also the US' interest and security.

Any country can move their embassy to any city they choose, with no worries about security. But moving an embassy to Jerusalem suddenly becomes an issue for both European security and, we are condescendingly told, for American security as well.

What is the threat from moving an embassy? The threat is that Muslims will get pissed off.

And the top politicians in the EU have incorporated the fear of irrational Muslims into their foreign and security policies.

So Angela Merkel has personally intervened with European countries to not move their embassies:

The founding director of the European Coalition for Israel in Brussels, Tomas Sandell, announced in a shocking video message on Thursday that German Chancellor Angela Merkel waged a campaign to prevent central and eastern European countries from moving their capitals to Jerusalem to preserve the Iran nuclear deal.

Speaking from the European parliament, Sandell said, “What we have found out, something I heard for quite some time already, from central and eastern European countries that would have an inclination to move their embassy to Jerusalem, this is the natural thing for them to do, is that they have received phone calls from Berlin, from Angela Merkel, the chancellor. Basically, this cannot happen under any circumstances.”

Muslims have cultivated this Western fear of them going crazy for over a century, as this 1899 article shows.

This willingness to outsource security decisions to adhere to whatever the Muslim world is threatening today is so much a part of European thinking that they don't even realize how this is a violation of their own principles. It is outrageous that right after that Mogherini claims that the EU policy is about responsibility and being grown-ups and stating what they believe is right, she openly says that all of these high sounding principles are consistent with cowering in fear and buckling under Muslim threats of irrational violence. And then she self-righteously claims that those who do not believe that political decisions must be approved first by the Muslim world are the ones who are acting immaturely.

Letting Muslim threats drive policy makes the world less safe, not more secure. It shows that fear of Muslims, not lofty principles, are the most important drivers for European policy.

A proud state or group of states would not act this way, let alone justify cowardice as a security imperative. But the EU is doing exactly that - and they brag about it!

(h/t Irene)

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Radio Free Asia:

On Tuesday, Scott Busby, the deputy assistant secretary in the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at the U.S. Department of State, said there are “at least 800,000 and possibly up to a couple of million” of Uyghurs and others detained at re-education camps in the XUAR without charges, citing U.S. intelligence assessments.

Citing credible reports, U.S. lawmakers Marco Rubio and Chris Smith, who head the bipartisan Congressional-Executive Commission on China, recently called the situation in the XUAR “the largest mass incarceration of a minority population in the world today.”

One would think that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation would be in the forefront of the issues being discussed at their conference occurring right now in Istanbul.

But, no, two million Muslims being incarcerated was not even mentioned in the OIC Twitter feed for the conference. The words "China" and "Uyghur" are not used at all in any human rights context.

But guess what topic was number one at the conference?

OIC SG: Since the #Palestinian issue is the core & main issue on the agenda of the Organization, I take this opportunity to commend efforts made by various OIC Institutions to implement the resolutions on #Palestine & Al-#Quds Al-Sharif. #OICACMOI #Palestineday #Jerusalem 1/ pic.twitter.com/gh92wKDCFR
— OIC (@OIC_OCI) December 4, 2018

Palestinians take up all the air in any international gathering. That insistence on prioritizing the Palestinian issue over actual serious human rights abuses actually hurts people.

Just ask the Uyghurs.

(h/t Petra)

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Blood libel: Marc Lamont Hill also accused Israeli Jews of poisoning Palestinian water

SJPLeaks has audio of Marc Lamont Hill saying in September that the pro-Palestinian movement must not "fetishize non-violence", essentially saying that he supports violent "resistance" to Israel - which all Palestinians understand to mean attacking Jewish civilians (and only Jewish civilians.)

This is interesting but not new, since he made the same point in his UN speech.

What is new is that in this audio, Hill accuses Israel of poisoning the water of Palestinians.

The slander that Jews poison the water of non-Jews is a classic antisemitic blood libel that Jew-haters have been pushing since the Black Death of 1348.

Hill is not only accusing Jews of poisoning the water but also of deliberately murdering Palestinian children.

If a far-right personality would say these things, the Left would be merciless on how this is absolute proof of antisemitism. Guess what? This is bona fide proof of Marc Lamont Hill's antisemitism.

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12/04 Links Pt2: Why Does America Spend So Much on Israel?; Anti-Normalization with Israel Is a Failed Policy that Only Hurts the Palestinians; Is the New Israel Fund anti-Zionist?

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Crazy world Iran, France, nationalism

Crazy world: why are the Europeans determined to continue to pour money into the coffers of the most lethal terrorist state in the world, which has been waging a self-declared war against the west for four decades, threatens Israel with extermination and is hell-bent on building nuclear weapons?

Why is the French president Emanuel Macron posturing against western national identity, declaring America to be an enemy and presiding over the disintegration of his country’s internal security while his own citizens are rioting on the streets of Paris against his high-handed policies that treat them with such contempt?

Why has the desire to be part of a shared national identity in the west based on a common culture become tarred as a form of hateful, racist nationalism which threatens minorities – when in fact the opposite is the case ?

Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Unwired differences in strategy over Iran, Paris burning down and the nationalism/patriotism debate.

Jason Greenblatt: Anti-Normalization with Israel Is a Failed Policy that Only Hurts the Palestinians

Over the past 22 months, we have focused on a comprehensive peace plan for the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. However, irrespective of the plan, Palestinians deserve better lives than they currently have.

We know that the Palestinians are not interested in mere economic peace. Their leaders believe that if Palestinians get too comfortable economically, they would lose interest in the Palestinian cause.

Palestinians are living next door to one of the most technologically successful societies on the planet, yet the Palestinian leadership refuses to engage with Israel for the benefit of ordinary Palestinians. But the Palestinians need economic help now - with or without a peace agreement.

Months ago, in co-ordination with Palestinian, Israeli and American businesspersons, we developed a concept to bring hundreds of high-paying jobs to the West Bank. But the Palestinian leadership blocked the initiative - it's normalization, they say.

This damaging Palestinian policy clouds all economic interaction between Palestinians and Israelis. It directly contradicts what Palestinians agreed to in Oslo. This anti-normalization policy has got Palestinians nowhere and continues to leave them further behind. Palestinians deserve better than calcified positions that have failed to bring peace and failed to bring jobs and opportunity.

Let's be real - 136,000 Palestinians commute to work with Israelis every day because the opportunity is there. Anti-normalization is a failed policy that only hurts the Palestinians.

Why Does America Spend So Much on Israel?

Chanukah video night 3: Technion's Rube Goldberg Chanukiah Lighting Device

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There seems to be a lot of confusion about Hanukah - to the point where it appears to be deliberate.

Let’s begin with what it’s not about.

1) It’s not a Jewish Christmas

In many circles Hanukah seems to have become an imitation Christmas – a holiday of food, lights, decorations and gifts. This is a sad considering that although both holidays fall in December, Hanukah has nothing to do with Christmas and perhaps even more ironically, without Hanukah, Christmas would not exist at all.

All Jewish holidays feature food, but the food is only a symbol, a reminder of the miracle of the holiday.

Hanukah is a holiday of lights but that too is a symbol, to help us remember and proclaim the miracle of the holiday.

Gift giving on Hanukah is not a Jewish tradition at all, only a habit adopted by Jews living near Christians, so that their children would not become jealous of the gifts Christians receive on their holiday. Giving children Hanukah “gelt”(=money) is a Jewish tradition. There are different explanations for this. The Rambam discusses the need to incentivize children to do what will be expected of them as a grown up thus it is appropriate to provide children an example of giving in order to teach them to give to those who have less. Additionally, as the Greek oppressors took Jewish property, giving children money is a symbolic way to celebrate that we have the freedom to choose what to do with what is ours (with the emphasis on using money to support spiritual causes rather than selfish gain). Another explanation is that as even the poorest Jew is supposed to have candles to light for the holiday, in order to prevent shame from children begging for their families, it became a tradition to give money to all the children in the community. Whatever explanation is the correct one (and possibly all are correct to some extent), the goal of Hanukah gelt is the antithesis of the Hellenistic desire towards personal enrichment, but rather being enriched spiritually by using money well.

2) Which miracle?

On Hanukah children play with dreidels marked with letters designed to remind them of the miracle of the holiday. This teaching tool differs depending on location. In the diaspora the dreidels are marked with four letters that say: “A great miracle happened there.” In Israel the last letter is different, signifying that: “A great miracle happened HERE.”

As an American child I didn’t really comprehend the significance. I knew the word “miracle” from storybooks. I knew that “there” meant Israel, a place I had visited as a child. But “there” was far away and had very little to do with my American life.

Without a concrete explanation of what we were commemorating the symbols of the holiday loomed larger than the message they are designed to convey. This opens the door to many unfortunate misunderstandings.

On the Jewish educational site Judaism 101 it says about Hanukah: Note that the holiday commemorates the miracle of the oil, not the military victory: Jews do not glorify war.

Excuse me?

Of course, the miracle of the oil is center to Hanukah but that could not have occurred without the military victory. War isn’t something to be glorified - it’s ugly, painful and results in grief and anguish but from there to the idea that Hanukah doesn’t celebrate the military victory is a huge leap.

From Josephus we learn that the first years following the victory of the Maccabees there were Hanukah celebrations that did not including Hanukah lights. The celebration was of victory – of the small band of warriors against the powerful Greek army, of the small stubborn tribe who clung to their traditions and religion and did not succumb to the compelling allure of the predominate Hellenistic culture.

The Hanukah miracle is the miracle of warriors of the body and spirit who refused to give up their identity and, in their stubbornness, won. THAT is glorious!

The miracle of light, the oil that burned for eight days when it only should have sufficed for a single day is a symbol for the miracle of retaining identity against all odds - a physical manifestation of the victory of body and faith over the powers of assimilation.

When the light of our People should have died out, through faith and hard work, determination and willingness to suffer for a greater good, it did not. The light is important because it is a testament to Jewish faith and that, in return, God grants us miracles. Light without faith would not exist. Light without the military victory would only be a dramatic folk story, easily dismissed and quickly forgotten.

It is the combination of light and victory that makes the miraculous story of Hanukah complete.

3) Without God there is no victory

Matitiyahu, father of the Maccabees, was a Cohen, a priest in the Temple. He was also a warrior, as were his sons.

In an attempt to erase Jewish culture and ensure the dominance of the Greek culture, Antiochus erected a statue to Zeus in the Temple in Jerusalem and demanded the sacrifice of pigs on the altar. It was Matitiyahu, the priest, who set the standard of unwavering Jewish faith. When the Seleucid Greek government demanded the sacrifice to the Greek gods, Matitiyahu not only refused to do so, but slew with his own hand the Jew who had stepped forward to do so. He then killed the government official that required the act. It was his sons who led the revolt against the oppressing government and, against all odds – regained Jewish sovereignty and religious freedom.

Faith is not a sentiment that can remain in the realm of theory, it calls for action. Similarly, victory does not occur due to the actions of man, alone.

In the Torah, before battle, the priest is supposed to tell the Nation (Deuteronomy - Chapter 20):

"Hear, O Israel, today you are approaching the battle against your enemies. Let your hearts not be faint; you shall not be afraid, and you shall not be alarmed, and you shall not be terrified because of them.		גוְאָמַ֤ר אֲלֵהֶם֙ שְׁמַ֣ע יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל אַתֶּ֨ם קְרֵבִ֥ים הַיּ֛וֹם לַמִּלְחָמָ֖ה עַל־אֹֽיְבֵיכֶ֑ם אַל־יֵרַ֣ךְ לְבַבְכֶ֗ם אַל־תִּֽירְא֧וּ וְאַל־תַּחְפְּז֛וּ וְאַל־תַּֽעַרְצ֖וּ מִפְּנֵיהֶֽם:
For the Lord, your God, is the One Who goes with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.		דכִּ֚י יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹֽהֵיכֶ֔ם הַֽהֹלֵ֖ךְ עִמָּכֶ֑ם לְהִלָּחֵ֥ם לָכֶ֛ם עִם־אֹֽיְבֵיכֶ֖ם לְהוֹשִׁ֥יעַ אֶתְכֶֽם:

Jewish faith says that God walks with us into battle, to fight for us and save us. This is not a figurative description but a very literal one. The Maccabees must have heard this prayer before battle as do IDF soldiers today. This clip is from Israeli News (Channel 2) at the time of Operation Cast Lead (Gaza Dec 27, 2008 – Jan 18, 2009). It opens with the IDF Chief Rabbi Rontzki reciting the prayer before battle.

The Hanukah song, Maoz Tzur, acknowledges this truth as it appears over and over throughout Jewish history. In the time of the Maccabees, the exile to Babylon, from Haman’s attempt at genocide and slavery under Pharaoh – each time the Jewish people were in danger of being wiped out, physically or through cultural extermination (assimilation) and each time, in different ways, God saved us from our enemies.

Without God there is no victory. Miracles are not a thing of religious fantasy, they are a tangible experience, the deciding factor between life and death, a nation victorious or a nation lost.

4) Holiday, not a holy day

Part of the confusion surrounding Hanukah is that it is a holiday but not a holy day. The story of Hanukah is that of an event in Jewish history and is not part of the Torah. The ritualistic elements of Hanukah center around the Hanukah lights, how they are lit, what prayers are said, not working during the time they are burning and not doing actions connected with mourning.

Hanukah is a celebration of Jewish nationalism (which does not exist without God) and not a holiday of religious holiness although there are some prayers that are specifically associated with Hanukah. It similar to celebrating Israel’s Independence Day which also commemorates the victory of a tiny group of stubborn Jews fighting for sovereignty and freedom, against an enemy much more powerful and well equipped and – by the grace of God – WINNING.

5) The fight for Judea

King Arthur and Camelot are part of a glorious but fictitious story about a King creating a better, kinder reality for England. In contrast, the Maccabees were real people who fought for Jewish freedom and the sanctity of the Temple on the Temple Mount in the heart of Jerusalem.

The Maccabees lived and died in the land which gave the Jewish People our name – Judea.

Today the Jewish fight for Judea continues, it is only the methodology and field of battle that have changed. It is no longer a conquering army but a battle fought with terminology designed to create a new reality, attempting to influence public perception in order to affect political policy. International organizations, companies like Airbnb, the BDS movement and individual Jew-haters call Judea the “West Bank”, a term that is not geographical but political in nature (it would be similar to calling Texas, “North Mexico”). - designed to associate that area of land with Jordan, disconnecting Judea from Zion, as if Zion would exist without Judea.

Modern day fiction cannot change Jewish history however it can change Jewish future. Forgetting our roots enables the fictitious to root itself and become “alternative facts” which are already being used to wipe us off the map – literally.

Jews are from Judea. (And Arabs are from Arabia). It really is that simple.

6) Two front war

The Maccabees fought a battle on two fronts:

· The physical battle against the army of Antiochus who tried, by force, to eliminate Jewish identity – occupying the land, refusing its occupants the right to live and worship as Jews, defiling the Temple in the heart of Jerusalem.

· The spiritual battle against assimilation, necessitating confrontation even with other Jews who found Hellenistic culture alluring and were willing to give up Judaism, to assimilate with the Greeks, forgetting Jewish uniqueness for the ease of becoming like everyone else.

What difference is there between the battle of the Maccabees and the fight of Jews today, particularly Israeli Jews? Today, as in the time of the Maccabees, it seems it would take a miracle to retain Jewish identity and freedom in the face of the modern forces hell-bent on eliminating the Jewish State and Jewish willingness to assimilate in the hope of becoming “like everyone else.”

In a time when many view nationalism, borders and uniqueness to be evils that must be expunged from the world, it is convenient to forget what Hanukah is all about. It is less threatening when Hanukah becomes a trivial imitation of Christmas, a holiday of lights and doughnuts.

Over the centuries fear has led Jews to put their heads down and weather the storm of whatever discrimination or violence was directed at the community: “We survived Pharaoh, this too shall pass.” Living under oppression led Jews to turn within, to focus on spirituality, rituals and theories. Destruction of the Temple, exile and disconnect from the land which gave us our name led Jews to set aside the physicality of Jews life.

We forgot that we come from a nation of warriors.

The re-establishment of the Jewish State led Jews around the world to once again raise their heads in pride. In theory this was pride in prophesy actualized. In actuality this was pride in Jewish identity once again becoming complete. The spiritual Jew, reconnected with the physical Jew. The warrior once again, free in the land from which our people sprang.

This, of course, revived an even greater wave of Jew-hate and subsequent Jewish fear. It is easy for the world to accept the meek Jew, to go through the motions of sympathy for the dead Jew. Strong Jews who can reach their arm across the globe to pluck Jews out of the hands of their enemies are a completely different story. Warrior Jews who refuse to give up, refuse to die and refuse to become like everyone else are threat to a world that demands that all nations relinquish identity, uniqueness and borders.

Frightened Jews, still believe that returning to meekness will appease the haters. If only the Jewish State was less Jewish maybe the hate would die down. If only individual Jews would set aside their Jewish identity, they could become like everyone else and no longer be hated… Fear makes people irrational and unable to learn from the past.

Hanukah is the story of Jewish nationalism. An indigenous people, fighting for their ancestral homeland and tribal rights AND WINNING.

This is the same Jewish nationalism that was objected to when the Jewish State was declared in 1948. The same nationalism that was recently defined by the Nation State law, defining that the Jewish People are the only People who have the right to self-determination as a nation within the State of Israel. All citizens have the right to individual self-determination but only the Jewish Nation has the right to the Jewish State.

No wonder the Hanukah is being minimized and trivialized. Nothing is scarier than a Maccabee.

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