Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, May 11, 2019

05/11 Links: Former Miss Iraq Dismisses Anti-Israel Tirade by Roger Waters: ‘Use Your Power for Good, Bring People Together’; 12 fun facts about Israel and the Eurovision Song Contest

From Ian:

Former Miss Iraq Dismisses Anti-Israel Tirade by Roger Waters: ‘Use Your Power for Good, Bring People Together’

Former Miss Iraq Sarah Idan on Friday shot down an anti-Israel rant by ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters in which he urged the boycott of the Eurovision song contest being held next week in Tel Aviv.

“An artist has power to inspire. Make sure you use your power for good and to bring people together,” Idan, 29, said in a series of Twitter posts. “I never understood artists who boycott an entire country, you’re singing for people not for governments.”

The former beauty queen’s comments were in response to an article, posted on Twitter by the blog Israelycool, about the latest anti-Israel video uploaded onto Facebook by Waters, who is an avid supporter of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.

Idan, the founding CEO of the organization Forward Humanity, was attacked on social media in 2017 and received death threats for taking a selfie with Miss Israel Adar Gendelsman at the Miss Universe pageant in Las Vegas. At the time, she refused to delete the photo despite pressure from her Iraqi sponsors, including the director of the Miss Iraq Organization, and out of fear, Idan and her family fled Iraq. She now lives in New York.

Jared Kushner’s Peace Plan Would Be a Disaster

Soon to become Israel’s longest serving Prime Minister, Netanyahu’s longevity owes to a combination of ruthless political skill and innate aversion to risk. No democratic leader today matches his natural talent for figuring out how to win elections, even if victory involves skating perilously close to the political, legal, and moral edge. And no leader on the world stage today has registered his success in combining bold, creative diplomacy with restrained, judicious use of military power to improve his country’s strategic position.

Under normal circumstances, the last thing Netanyahu would want is for the President of the United States to propose a detailed plan for the permanent resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He is a champion of incrementalism, step-by-step diplomacy that tests both the other side’s true intentions and the political flexibility of his own core supporters—and he has been right to shy away from big, “Made in America” ideas about what’s best for Israel.

Why, then, does Netanyahu appear sanguine about the coming peace plan? Why does he seem willing to legitimize a dangerous strain of know-it-all American solutionism and welcome, even encourage, Trump to propose precisely what he has long opposed?

There are many possible explanations. After Trump’s decisions to move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, to scuttle the detested Iran nuclear deal, and to recognize Israeli sovereignty on the Golan Heights, perhaps Netanyahu views the Trump presidency as a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to enshrine the Administration’s pro-Israel inclination as official U.S. government policy. Perhaps Netanyahu is confident that Abbas will flub the leadership test and that Palestinian miscues will open the door for Israel to annex key parcels of West Bank territory without triggering either outrage in Washington or much opposition in the wider Arab world. Perhaps Netanyahu is so deeply burdened by his own legal woes that he views the “deal of the century” as a political life preserver.

Whatever the rationale, I hope that “Bibi the strategic thinker” wins out over “Bibi the political tactician,” and that he uses whatever tools at his disposal to abort the Kushner plan in the few weeks left before Trump releases it as his own. This may demand a direct appeal to the President. Alternatively, it may require enlisting the support of someone the President respects—prominent Republican donor Sheldon Adelson or Trump-whisperer Lindsey Graham come to mind—to make an appeal on his behalf. For Israel and its friends, the key point remains: The only way to protect the long-term viability of the best aspects of the Kushner plan is to kill the plan.

Former Obama Friend, Catholic Priest Invites Louis Farrakhan to Speak at Church

A radical Catholic priest and former adviser to Barack Obama invited Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan to speak at his Chicago parish.

Farrakhan was kicked off Facebook last week for his long history of hateful comments, including denouncing "wicked Jews." In response, Father Michael Pfleger invited Farrakhan to speak at St. Sabina Church on Thursday to defend himself from charges of anti-Semitism.

"I have been and always will be a defender of free speech as I believe we must all continue to defend," Pfleger told a local news station after the event.

In a statement, the Archdiocese of Chicago indicated they were not aware of the event and were not sponsoring it.

"There is no place in American life for discriminatory rhetoric of any kind," the archdiocese said. "At a time when hate crimes are on the rise, when religious believers are murdered in their places of worship, we cannot countenance any speech that dehumanizes persons on the basis of ethnicity, religious belief, economic status, or country of origin."

05/10 Links Pt2: Holocaust survivor pities anti-Semites who ‘waste life’ hating; Israeli-American Professor Judea Pearl Given Award for Courage; Netta Barzilai drops a new single

From Ian:

Holocaust survivor pities anti-Semites who ‘waste life’ hating

Facing a world where anti-Semitism is resurgent again, Holocaust survivor Edith Eger, who watched her mother be marched to the gas chamber, said she pities those who “waste” their life hating.

Seventy-five years after arriving at Auschwitz, where she was forced to dance for the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, Eger told AFP that she of course felt sorry for the victims of rising hate speech and violence.

But the 91-year-old said she was especially distressed by those consumed by bigotry who really “do not acknowledge that [they] are one of a kind.”

You should “not really waste your life hating,” she said in an interview on the sidelines of a conference on compassionate leadership at the IMD business school in Lausanne.

Eger certainly knows what hatred can lead to.

The practicing clinical psychologist, professor and author was just 16 when she and her Jewish family arrived at the Nazi death camp.

Islamophobia - A Weapon to Silence Our Freedom of Speech

Anti-Semitism and Islamophobia are often framed as equivalent phenomena and equal dangers. But these are two very different phenomena and should not be lumped together. A phobia is a strong, irrational fear of something that poses no real danger. Judeophobia is an irrational fear of Jews. Islamophobia is an irrational fear of the Islamic religion or Muslims generally. Anti-Semitism is a race-based ideology rooted in stereotypes - not based on fear, but ancient hatred.

Islamophobia became prominent in 1989 when Ayatollah Khomeini issued a fatwa, following the publication of Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses, which imposed a death penalty on Rushdie and also criminalized all the publishers and translators of the book. Since then, the Islamophobic label has been used increasingly to deter any scrutiny of any groups or individuals who happen to be Muslim, even when they are advancing radical or harmful ideas.

The sword of Islamophobia is wielded to deliberately chill discourse and narrow the public marketplace of ideas. Today, the unfortunate reality is that any time somebody is brave enough to critique a dangerous ideology, the government of a Muslim country or even a terrorist network, they're silenced, shut down and stigmatized for engaging in Islamophobia.

Book excerpt: Israel's mission to destroy Syria's nuclear reactor

In 1998, George W. Bush made his first trip to Israel. He had just been reelected governor of Texas – the first governor to win back-to-back terms in the Lone Star State – and he was already plotting his presidential bid.

During the visit – together with a few other Republican governors – Bush made the standard gubernatorial stops: a meeting with then-prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a tour of the Knesset, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the Western Wall. He then took a helicopter ride up to the Golan Heights. His guide for the flight was none other than Ariel Sharon, the fabled IDF general who was serving at the time as Israel’s foreign minister.

Little did the two know that in just three years they would meet again, although this time as president and prime minister. The helicopter ride sparked a mini-crisis between Israel, the US and the Palestinians. Sharon wanted to land the helicopter in the West Bank to show Bush the reality on the ground, but the Palestinians objected.

They feared that Israel would use the visit to try legitimizing the settlement enterprise, which Sharon had long championed. In the end, Israel compromised. The helicopter didn’t land but it flew low enough for Bush to see Jerusalem’s ancient rooftops, the ridges overlooking the Jordan Valley, the red-roofed stucco homes in the Israeli settlements and the densely populated Palestinian cities. Sharon and Bush wore headphones so they could communicate over the noise made by the Black Hawk helicopter’s rotors.

The former IDF general shared with the Texas governor his own personal story, pointing along the way at hills and valleys where he had waged battle in past Israeli-Arab wars. When Sharon told Bush that at its narrowest point Israel was just 10 miles wide, the future president joked that some driveways in Texas are longer.

We already knew that Mahmoud Abbas is a dictator. Apparently, he wants to learn from the best.

Just like Chairman Mao essentially forced every Chinese citizen to own a copy of the "Little Red Book" containing hundreds of his aphorisms, PA president Mahmoud Abbas is publishing a book of his own sayings to be distributed to all schools under his control. Paltoday reports:

The initiative came in order to teach students in schools in Palestine these quotations in order to "highlight the national identity and bring about the desired development and change," according to the initiators of the initiative .

Minister of Education Marwan Awartani said that the ministry is committed to printing this booklet and distributing it to all schools in the country, adding that teaching students these quotations is an important initiative to develop their creative skills to highlight the national identity and bring about the development and change desired.

A member of the Fatah Central Committee Azzam al-Ahmad said that the booklet was printed by a decision of President Mahmoud Abbas and distributed to all educational institutions in the country.

People are complaining on social media - because they assume that the quotes will support peace rather than war. The terrorist groups see Abbas as someone who cooperates with Israel and who, occasionally, condemns terror attacks against Jews, so they don't want their kids to be influenced by someone like that.

Another said she didn't want her kids to learn from someone who gave up on returning to his birthplace in Safed.

It should be fun to see how this plays out.

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05/10 Links Pt1: Melanie Phillips: Doing what comes naturally – the West’s suicidal animus; To whom does the land of Israel belong? Ask Robert F. Kennedy

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: Doing what comes naturally – the West’s suicidal animus

As around 700 rockets rained down on southern Israel last weekend, leaving four Israelis dead and many more wounded, many in Western media were doing what comes naturally to them – suspending the normal rules of journalism to distort, twist or lie.

The usual, fundamental errors littered their reports – such as that Gaza was “occupied,” regardless of the fact that Israel pulled out of Gaza in 2005.

There was the usual reversal of aggressor and victim, with sly implications of moral equivalency between Arab attack and Israeli defense.

There was the usual eagerness to believe the propaganda produced by the attackers, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), and a corresponding unwillingness to believe the factual claims by their Israeli victims.

A number of British media outlets led their reports with the false accusation that a pregnant Gazan woman and her 14-month-old baby had been killed by the Israeli strikes. In fact, as PIJ eventually admitted, they were killed by a malfunctioning rocket fired from Gaza.

Some outlets corrected this error; others did not. None, though, pointed out that these particular casualties furnished graphic evidence that the Gazan warmongers weren’t only targeting Israeli innocents but using their own Gazan people as human shields by putting missiles in and around civilian homes – thus committing war crimes twice over.

In the United States and the United Kingdom, politicians on the Left were doing what comes naturally to them – either ignoring this latest, murderous onslaught from Gaza against Israeli civilians, or bashing Israel for its own victimization.

In the US, while President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence tweeted their support for Israel’s defense of its citizens and condemned the attacks by Hamas and PIJ, not one Democratic presidential contender saw fit to condemn the attacks from Gaza.

While some Democrats did back Israel, there was no party censure for their two Muslim congresswomen, who typically chose to defame Israel even as its citizens were being bombarded by Arab missiles.

To whom does the land of Israel belong? Ask Robert F. Kennedy

Robert F. Kennedy wrote a clear explanation of this despicable behaviour against Israel. In excerpts of his articles written in1948, while in his early twenties when he was in Israel working for the Boston Post, he gives examples of this collusion. He warned America that Jewish Rights in Israel were being trampled upon by both the British and the Arabs.

Robert F. Kennedy wrote that he grew to admire the Jewish inhabitants of the Land. When he became a Senator in 1965 he became a strong supporter and advocate for Israel until his assassination during his Presidential Campaign in June 5, 1968, exactly twenty years after he had published his June 5, 1948 articles favouring Israel. The assassin was a Palestinian terrorist who disapproved of Robert Kennedy’s support for Eretz Israel. Robert F. Kennedy died 26 hours after being shot.

I found Robert F. Kennedy to be a far more honourable man than I had thought, he stood on solid moral ground in his defence of a Jewish Eretz Israel. I think that he should be considered to be among the “Righteous of the Nations."

Examples:
Boston Post- Headline – “British Position Hit in Palestine. Kennedy says they seek to crush the Jewish Cause because they are Not in accord with it."

“Once again the land of Israel was desolate and underdeveloped before the Jewish migration. (By Robert F. Kennedy June 5, 1948.)"

American Jews must never forget the execution of Habib Elghanian

As President Trump today announced the U.S. withdrawal from the 2015 Iran Deal, May 9th will mark a very painful day for many Iranian Jews worldwide who will remember the unjust execution of their community leader, Habib Elghanian 39 years ago at the hands of the current Iranian regime. While many American Jews may not remember or even know who Elghanian was, for my community of Iranian Jews, he was a remarkable leader whose execution sparked a mass exodus of Jews from Iran. Elghanian’s brutal execution has left a painful scare in the hearts and minds of countless Jews who fled Iran after the current Islamic regime took power in the country. After more than 2,500 years of living in Iran we, the Jews were suddenly and violently uprooted in massive numbers after receiving news of Elghanian’s execution by the new regime of the Ayatollah Khomeini. With many of America’s Ashkenazi Jews supporting former President Obama and other prominent Democrats who backed the disastrous Iran Deal three years ago, the time has long passed for the American Jewish community to wake up and realize that this regime in Iran is seeking a second mass genocide of the Jewish people. The time has come for us as American Jews to remember Elghanian’s shameful killing by the Iranian regime and see it as the best example of the regime’s undying hatred for Jews and that it cannot be trusted with nuclear technology nor nuclear weapons.

Habib Elghanian was among the most affluent industrialists in Iran and the leader of the Jewish community in Iran. He, along with his business savvy brothers, pulled themselves up by their own boot-straps out of the poverty-stricken Jewish ghetto in Tehran to become successful captains of industry in the country. He was not only a proud Jew but an even more proud Iranian nationalist who believed in helping the nation of Iran grow and prosper during its 20th century age of modernizing. He not only built the first modern high-rise in Iran in the early 1960s, but hired thousands of Iranians of all faiths in his many industrial companies. Along with his business success, Elghanian was quite philanthropic towards Iran’s Jews and non-Jews. He even contributed financially to the building of a mosque in Tehran which was in the midst of construction and the builders had run out of money! For nearly two decades I have interviewed scores of friends, family members and colleagues of Elghanian who swore that he had an unconditional generosity to anyone who sought financial help from him for a worthy cause or a person in need.

The importance of Swiss petitions, according to Roger Waters

I've been making fun online of this insane video released by Roger Waters where he makes a complete idiot of himself, looking like a homeless drunk. I hope everyone watches it.

Anyway, the main point he is pretending to make is that, supposedly, 136,000 Swiss citizens signed a petition against having Eurovision in Tel Aviv.

I couldn't find any verification of this story anywhere. One worldwide petition gathered 42,000 signatures, but I didn't see any Swiss ones. Switzerland will of course participate in the contest.

As I was looking for the Swiss petition, though, I found another Swiss petition regarding Eurovision in 2007.

The Eidgenössisch-Demokratische Union (EDU) submitted their petition against the Swiss Eurovision Song Contest entry Vampires are alive this Tuesday. As previously reported by esctoday.com, the small political party, which holds only two seats on the federal level of the Swiss government, feels that the song's lyrics promote Satanism and the occult. The party gathered a total of 49,082 signatures over a two week period on their petition condemning the song [in two weeks.]

A minuscule Swiss party managed to get more signatures against a song about vampires in two weeks, in Switzerland alone, than the BDS movement managed to get worldwide in several months.

Which goes to show that petitions mean very, very little except to the people pushing them. There is no shortage of idiots who will sign anything out of ignorance.

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Canary Mission's shaming of people spouting hate prompts some of them to apologize

Canary Mission is possibly the most reviled pro-Israel organization out there.

Combing through social media posts, it exposes antisemitism and rabid anti-Israel opinions to the world. Everything that Canary Mission discovers is well-documented and verifiable. All it does is shine a light on social media posts that are public already anyway - it doesn't hack into anyone's email or invade anyone's privacy. Blaming the Canary Mission for publicizing the public words of Israel haters and antisemites just means that the haters are hypocrites.

The Canary Mission's backers and workers are anonymous, which enrages the anti-Israel crowd even more, since their methodology is to smear people and avoid discussing ideas and facts. The Forward is more obsessed over finding out who these "shadowy" people are than the rabid antisemitism it exposes.

Some of its exposes have been spectacular, including the doctor who had tweeted she would purposefully give Jews the wrong medications.

It turns out that The Canary Mission website has a section on "ex-Canaries" which is fascinating. A number of people that it exposed were embarrassed - but then looked at what they had written from a different perspective and realized how hateful their words were.

Twenty people so far are listed on this section of the site. The Canary Mission takes screenshots of their confessions and their regret.

I don't think The Forward will want to write about these people who have realized that they were wrong to join Jewish Voice for Peace or Students for Justice in Palestine.

Canary Mission is truly engaged in "tikun olam," improving the world, by showing people that the anti-Zionists are truly haters and racists - and prompting some of them to turn their lives around.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

During the Q&A session of my Yom Haatzmaut talk (which I didn't put on video,) someone asked me about BDS and whether its failure to hurt Israel economically was a miracle as well.

My answer was that the goal of BDS is not to boycott Israel. The goal is purely to demonize Israel, the make the world associate Israel with "apartheid" and "occupation" and to dissociate it from anything positive like Israel's many accomplishments and its liberalism in the face of enemies who want to destroy her. In that sense, BDS has been very successful, especially on college campuses but also in the left wing of the Democratic Party, the British Labour party.

BDS wants to make the very idea of Israel, and indeed the very word "Israel," toxic.

Which brings us to what happened in Berlin this week.

From the Jerusalem Post:

German Palestinians violently attacked the Israeli clarinetist Daniel Gurfinkel in Berlin in the first week of May, according to a YouTube video that surfaced on Thursday.

The YouTube video caption reads: "Germany: Man attacked at Palestinian event for allegedly yelling 'Israel.'"

According to a report on by the German reporter Ulrich W. Sahm on the website of Audiator, “A dozen hateful Palestinians can be seen beating up Daniel Gurfinkel at an event on a large square.”

Gurfinkel said in a statement: “I walked through Hermann square and saw that there was a demonstration against Israel. I am a resident of the State of Israel. The attack began immediately when I began to support my country with a single word. I've been struck on the head and I'm in pain so far. I was in total shock. "

When a mob attacks someone for saying the word "Israel," and the police are sort of blase about it, it shows how successful BDS is at demonization.

Already in 2009, police in a German city broke into an unoccupied apartment and removed Israeli flags from the window to appease a crowd of anti-Israel protesters who were angered by the sight of the flag and started throwing rocks.

In 2015, also in Germany, police told Jewish fans of an Israeli player at a soccer game to remove the Israeli flag they were showing, due to fear of violence by Muslims.

In Austria this past December and again in March, students were actually fined by police for waving Israeli flags during anti-Israel demonstrations - because the very presence of an Israeli flag was considered a "provocation." At the very same time the anti-Israel protesters were screaming "Death to Israel" freely.

Only this week, an American college student council rejected an application to form a pro-Israel group on campus, even though such a rejection has never happened before.

How soon will it be before college classrooms post "trigger warnings" before classes that happen to mention Israel, or put stickers on books that show Israel on the map, to avoid haters from going berserk?

The BDS movement wants the very word "Israel," used in any way besides as a profanity, to be banned in public life.

The scary thing is that they are making inroads in doing exactly that, with a combination of threats of violence and claims that the very word is so upsetting to certain people that they must be protected from even hearing or reading it.

The vitriol is reserved only for Israel, and the only precedent that can be found for such a level of hate is historical Jew-hatred. It is no coincidence. The idea that one has more of a right to attack people saying the word "Israel" than the people have of saying that word is nothing less than the mainstreaming of antisemitism - and even the celebration of antisemitism.

This is a full frontal assault on free speech, happening in Western countries under our noses.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

05/09 Links Pt2: With flags unfurled, jets overhead, and grills galore, Israel marks 71 years; Why Progressive Anti-Semitism — and Why Now?; Soviet Anti-Zionism and Contemporary Left Antisemitism

From Ian:

With flags unfurled, jets overhead, and grills galore, Israel marks 71 years

Hundreds of thousands of Israelis were flocking to beaches and parks, lighting grills, waving flags and craning their necks for a glimpse of Israel’s fighter jets to mark the country’s 71th Independence Day on Thursday.

After a night of fireworks, concerts, parties and an emotional crossover from Memorial Day to Independence Day, most Israelis were spending the day, a national holiday, celebrating the country’s birthday.

Celebrations in Jerusalem kicked off Thursday morning at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem where President Reuven Rivlin hosted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, IDF chief Aviv Kohavi and others for a musical ceremony honoring 120 soldiers receiving commendations for excellence.

Speaking to the soldiers, Rivlin said that for Israelis, “everything that is a challenge becomes an opportunity for us.”

The annual international Bible Quiz competition finals took place after the ceremony in Jerusalem and saw Israeli teenager Yonatan Weissman, a Jerusalem native, win the top prize. He beat out American candidate Benjamin Colchamiro of New Jersey’s Kushner yeshiva high school.

The IDF also opened its bases to the public, displaying jeeps, tanks and other equipment throughout the country.

On Wednesday night, the mournful and somber speeches of Memorial Day gave way to joyful celebrations as Independence Day officially started.

The juxtaposition of the two days is a key element of Israelis’ experience of national independence, ensuring that no commemoration completely excludes the achievement wrought by the sacrifice of the fallen and their families, and that the elation of independence is never far removed from an awareness of its cost.

Jewish People’s Story Is One of ‘Against All Odds,’ Knesset Speaker Says at Israeli Independence Day Celebration

The story of the Jewish people is one of “against all odds,” said Israel’s Knesset speaker at the official torch-lighting ceremony on Mount Herzl in Jerusalem on Wednesday to mark the country’s 71st Independence Day.

Noting that many other peoples were larger and more powerful, Yuli Edelstein asked, “What do we have? We have a story.”

“A story of a slave people who were liberated and became free men, and brought to the whole world a new hope of freedom, a new message of peace, and a new destiny of justice,” he said.

“And though this nation was scattered all over the world,” he continued, “it gathered into one small, magnificent land, and swore that its children would grow up on this land, and that its dreams would be fulfilled on this land.”

“This is our story,” Edelstein said. “A rebellious, striving, daring, insolent people, which has one motto: ‘Against all odds.’ They struck us — and we rose again. They preyed upon us — and we went on. They exiled us — and, against all odds, we always returned to our homeland.”

In a video message, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke of Israel’s historic accomplishments, saying, “We have achieved something that no other people has achieved. We are the only people who live in the same land, with the same name, speak the same language, and have the same faith as we had 3,000 years ago.”

“Yes, we still have antisemitism; yes, we still have those who slander us,” he said, “but more and more people around the world see the truth about our achievement, about our freedom, about our hope.”

Video project tells tales of American Jews who helped fledgling Israel take wing

It’s often the most regular folks who find themselves at the crossroads of history, and that is true as well of those who lent their assistance in minor or major ways to the establishment of the State of Israel.

That is the theme behind Toldot Yisrael, a nonprofit project that is interviewing hundreds of people, many of them now elderly, all of whom were part of the effort to create the Israeli nation.

The organization is releasing 20 videos made from footage of interviews with American Jews for Israel’s 71st Independence Day Wednesday night.

The 150 Americans interviewed include World War II veterans; industrialists who bankrolled the purchase of ships; the grandson of Rabbi Shalom Zvi Davidowitz, who helped write Israel’s Declaration of Independence; even Norman Lamm, the former chancellor of Yeshiva University who was a chemistry student in 1948 and volunteered to help develop the bombs for the Davidka mortar that was used in battle.

It is difficult to fathom how much time the United Nations spends on its anti-Israel activities.

Next month, the UN will hold a conference in Geneva with the Orwellian title "Preserving the cultural and religious character of Jerusalem.”

It blames Israel for "Judaizing" Jerusalem.

The Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP), with support from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), will convene the International Conference on the Question of Jerusalem “Preserving the cultural and religious character of Jerusalem” on 27-28 June 2019 at the United Nations Office at Geneva (UNOG).

The Conference will address the issue of Israel’s policies and measures aimed at changing the character of Jerusalem, which have significant political, legal and socio-economic ramifications, including the threat of derailing prospects for a peaceful solution to the Question of Palestine. The Conference will seek to formulate concrete actionable recommendations and ways forward among the relevant stakeholders for the preservation of a City, considered sacred by three religions.

The Conference will bring together Palestinian, Israeli and international experts, representatives of the diplomatic community and civil society to discuss viable and practical strategies to (1) stem efforts to alter the demography and character of the City, (2) provide viable alternatives that preserve the religious and cultural character of the City, and (3) ensure that all its Palestinian inhabitants enjoy their inalienable rights.

This is an annual conference; last year it was held in Rabat, Morocco. You can see a synopsis of the discussions here.

Of course, no one in history has preserved Jerusalem's historic, cultural and religious character more than Israel has. A look at how Jordan destroyed every single synagogue in 1948 and almost banned Jews from visiting for 19 years (not Israelis - Jews!) is all you have to know about how well Jerusalem was "preserved" under Arab rule for Jews.

Even Christians were oppressed under Jordan's rule, forcing many of them to leave.

In 1953, Jordan restricted Christian communities from owning or purchasing land near holy sites, and in 1964, further prohibited churches from buying land in Jerusalem...In order to counter the influence of foreign powers, who had run the Christian schools in Jerusalem autonomously since Ottoman times, the Jordanian government legislated in 1955 to bring all schools under government supervision. They were allowed to use only approved textbooks and teach in Arabic.Schools were required to close on Arab national holidays and Fridays instead of Sundays. Christian holidays were no longer recognised officially, and observation of Sunday as the Christian Sabbath was restricted to Christian civil servants.

Under Israeli rule, Muslim, Christians and Jews have simultaneous rights in Jerusalem for the first time in history.

Yes, we all know the UN is a joke, but it is worth being reminded every so often.

(h/t Irene)

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Israel haters just make things up, examples 3298 and 3299: The library and cute girl martyr that don't exist

Besides the hyena story referenced earlier, there have been a lot of other anti-Israel stories floating around that are simply made up.

For example this tweet from someone anonymous received over 20,000 retweets already:

The only part of this that has any truth is the National Cultural Center, which was bombed last August (not last weekend) because it also housed Hamas offices. It also had a library but that it not what the tweeter is referring to.

A building that was meant to be the Palestine National Library was never completed. Instead, the partially-built structure became a Hamas training camp and tunnel hub, which was bombed last July.

The only Azhar Library I can find in Gaza is the library at Al Azhar University. It was never bombed.

Here's another made up story:

I have searched high and low for any Arabic or English news story that mentions Fatmah Hjazi. There were two protesters killed last Friday, none of them had her name. No stories in Arabic news about any girl shot in the head. I see a number of pictures of this girl holding a flag, but none of her injured (which would normally be featured prominently.)

But I found lots of other tweets that repeated the lie, often followed with tweets about how inhumane Israel is to do such a thing.

These Israel haters literally make things up. They lie as easily as they breathe. And the thousands of people who are so anxious to believe them are either idiots, antisemites or both.

We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.

05/09 Links Pt1: The Middle East Anti-Peace Movement; Col Kemp: Trump is right – the Iran deal is dead, and it's time to contemplate the unthinkable

From Ian:

A Looming Crisis in the Mideast

After raining down some 600 rockets that killed four Israelis this past week, the Netanyahu government responded with overwhelming force, deploying jet fighters to carry out multiple air strikes, killing 23 Gaza residents including a pregnant woman, according to Palestinian Authority officials. (The pregnant women and her child, however, are now confirmed as having been killed by a Palestinian rocket that feel short.)

And, so, the cycle of violence makes another cruel revolution. What makes the events of the past week different from earlier rockets-and-retaliation episodes? The reaction of Arab intellectuals and other thought leaders in Muslim world.

Consider the tweet of Dr. Turki Al-Hamad, a well-known Saudi author and thinker. He tweeted: "It's a repeating loop: rockets [are fired] from Gaza into Israel, Israel bombs [Gaza], someone or other mediates, the fighting stops – and the common Palestinian folks pay the price. This is 'resistance,' my friend. Iran and Turkey are in trouble, and the Palestinians are paying the price."

Note his use of scare quotes around resistance and his willingness to blame Iran and Turkey, two Muslim-majority nations, instead of the Jewish state. This marks a real rhetorical change.

And many influential Arab voices echoed the thoughts of Dr. Al-Hamad.

Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, a frequent contributor to the Saudi daily Al-Jazirah, tweeted: "The Persian ayatollahs have instructed their servants, Hamas, to escalate [the conflict] with Israel, and they obeyed. The result is seven Palestinians dead, versus one Israeli wounded. [The death toll increased after his tweet.] The Persians are tightening the pressure on the U.S. and Israel in retaliation for Trump's decision, and the victims are the people of Gaza."

Khaled Abu Toameh: The Middle East Anti-Peace Movement

[The Jordanian mayor] went on to say that he believes in the "liberation of Palestine, from the [Mediterranean] Sea to the [Jordan] River" – meaning that he supports the elimination of Israel.

The campaign against the Jordanian mayor is the direct result of anti-Israel incitement in Jordan and most of the Arab and Islamic states. While some of the leaders of these countries may appear to be relatively moderate in their views towards Israel, their people continue to reject any form of normalization with the "Zionist enemy."

For decades, Arab and Muslim leaders have been radicalizing their people on a daily basis against Israel. They have delegitimized Israel in the eyes of their people to a point where they can no longer be seen talking to or making peace with Israelis.

One is left wondering how any Arab leader would accept any peace plan with Israel when a mayor is being widely condemned and shamed for being caught on camera in the company of Israelis.

In order to achieve peace with Israel, Arab and Muslim leaders need to start preparing their people for peace, and not inciting them against Israel.

The War for the Golan Heights

When Syrian and Egyptian forces launched simultaneous attacks on Israel on Yom Kippur of 1973, the IDF found itself woefully unprepared. The high command, just ten days before the war began, finally acted on repeated warnings of imminent war and ordered Colonel Avigdor Ben-Gal to move his tank brigade from the Sinai to the Golan Heights; the last units were still arriving when the fighting began. Even with Ben-Gal’s tanks, Israel had a single, understrength division on the Golan, which faced an onslaught from three battle-ready Syrian armored divisions. Abraham Rabinovich tells the story of how Ben-Gal’s troops held the line:

The Syrians calculated that Israeli reserve units could not reach the Golan in less than 24 hours. Damascus expected to capture the Heights before then. Until Israel’s reserves joined the battle, the main burden of holding the enemy at bay would fall upon young conscripts—draftees—and their regular army commanders.

Informed by [his superiors] at 10 a.m. on Yom Kippur of the warning [that Syria would attack], Ben-Gal summoned his battalion and company commanders by radio to a meeting at the main army base in the northern Golan, Nafakh. . . . The officers would meet again at 2 p.m., by which time the situation might be clearer. With that, the brigade commander drove to the front. . . . The officers were just arriving for the 2 p.m. meeting when MiGs dropped bombs on the camp. “Everyone to your tanks,” Ben-Gal shouted. A sentry already lay dead at the gateway. . . .

After days of [intense fighting], Ben-Gal’s control was unraveling as officers were hit and orders not passed on. There appeared to be no alternative but to have the tanks fall back. Even if they managed to outrace the Syrians to a new line, however, they would not be able to hold it for more than half an hour, he estimated, in the absence of proper defensive positions. He decided on a last desperate bid to shore up the collapsing line. . . .

The bid worked, and the remnants of the brigade managed to hold the northern Golan for five days, at which point reinforcements arrived and the Syrians retreated. Three-quarters of Ben-Gal’s tank crews were killed or wounded; he managed to get the survivors a one-day respite before beginning a counterattack.

Hyenas join the Zionist Attack Zoo

It's been a while since I added a new animal to the Zionist Attack Zoo, but Palestinian propaganda is nothing if not creative.

From Stop The Wall (h/t Israellycool):

The Israeli occupation forces together with the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority have this week set wild thirty hyenas in the northern Jordan Valley that are attacking the farmers and Palestinian communities in the area.

The animals have started attacking the communities and are a threat to the farmers and especially their families and children.

More often than hyenas, Israel uses the placement of wild boars so they destroy the crops and attack poultry and even people.

While wildlife protection, including the protection of the striped hyena would be a laudable act, using these animals as part of a systematic strategy to ethnically cleanse people from their homes is despicable.

There have been no reports even in Arab media about anything close to this. It appears that the Israel haters have decided not to bother with twisting stories, and instead make them up from scratch. Why not? Their fans will retweet even the most insane stories by the thousands before anyone can even begin to fact check.

The only recent hyena-related story was when an Arab from Hebron says he found an injured hyena, chained him up in a dirty warehouse and posted proud photos on social media. Israeli authorities found out and confiscated the animal.

The reason they confiscated the hyena proves that the absurd story is wrong. Hyenas are a protected species, and the Israeli Nature and Parks Authority receive word about once a month about Palestinian Arabs abusing hyenas, so they attempt to save them when they can and nurse them back to life. Apparently there are some superstitious Palestinians who believe that hyenas can hypnotize people so they try to run them over or torture them.

The Zionist Attack Zoo now includes eagles, wild boars, lizards, dolphins, rock hyraxes, storks, "super rhinoceroses," vultures, puffer fish, dogs, jellyfish, sharks, sheep, cows, lions, wolves, rats, squirrels and pigeons in addition to hyenas. A fairly impressive menagerie!

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