Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 13, 2019

05/13 Links Pt2: Trump joins GOP chorus rebuking lawmaker Tlaib for Holocaust comments; Petra Marquardt-Bigman: Anti-Israel bias at Human Rights Watch; Madonna set to arrive for Eurovision

From Ian:

Eurovision Contestants Walk the Orange Carpet in Tel Aviv

Contestants from 41 countries walked an orange carpet in Tel Aviv’s “Culture Square” on Sunday for the opening ceremony of Eurovision 2019, brushing aside security concerns and calls for a pro-Palestinian boycott.

The 64th Eurovision Song Contest holds semi-finals in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and Thursday ahead of the grand final on Saturday.

Instead of the traditional red carpet, an orange carpet, matching the logo of a company sponsoring the international song fest, was rolled out at the Tel Aviv square that houses Israel’s Habima national theater and the Israel Philharmonic.

“Everyone is excited in my team. I’m really happy to be here,” said Cypriot singer Tamta, the first artist to stroll the walkway flanked by visiting photographers and reporters.

The four members of Poland’s Tulia gave a quick sample of their folk singing style called “śpiewokrzyk” or “scream singing” to the crowd’s enjoyment.

Finish DJ Darude said artists behind the scenes of the festival were “slapping high-fives and having a good time.”

Concerns had been raised that the contest could be disrupted by a surge in cross-border violence between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza. But a ceasefire that went into effect a week ago has been holding.

Madonna set to arrive for Eurovision, but gig still in air

Pop superstar Madonna will land in Israel on Wednesday morning, accompanied by an entourage of 135 people, ahead of her planned performance during the Eurovision finals on Saturday night.

But on Monday, Eurovision executive producer Jon Ola Sand said her performance was not yet confirmed, since the European Broadcasting Union does not have a signed contract with her team.

Disagreements apparently remained regarding the EBU’s broadcasting rights for the performance, as the union is demanding all member networks be granted full rights to the materials.

“If we don’t have a signed contract, she can’t perform on that stage,” Sand said at a Monday night press conference at the Tel Aviv Expo. “We’re negotiating that now.”

Earlier Monday, the public relations team for Sylvan Adams, the Canadian-Israeli philanthropist, who is reportedly funding a large portion of Madonna’s $1.3 million fee and bringing her to Israel on his private jet, stated that preparations for Madonna’s performance were already taking place.

Daniel Benaim, the CEO of the Comtec Group, an Israeli events producer that is handling the singer’s production in Israel, stated in a press release that her performance was a complicated one with demands and standards similar to those of other international performers.

StandWithUs counters Breaking the Silence with alternative ‘dream’ tour

The pro-Israel NGO StandWithUs has purchased and will erect a massive vertical billboard over the Ayalon Highway in protest to a campaign by the left-wing NGO Breaking the Silence, daring Eurovision visitors to “dream of peace, security and coexistence.”

Breaking the Silence put up a billboard on Sunday in Tel Aviv contrasting an image of Tel Aviv with the security barrier, and offering visitors the opportunity to take a tour of “occupied Hebron” and see “the reality of everyday life in the occupied territories.”

The StandWithUs billboard will offer counter-tours to Gush Etzion, the Gaza periphery and Haifa.

“As soon as we found out about this campaign, we acted,” said StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein, who is currently visiting Israel. “Within an hour, we had plans to promote our own tours on a giant billboard. We have never, and we will never, leave the playing field to those who tell lies about Israel.”

On the Gush Etzion tour, visitors will meet with local Israelis and Palestinians, and participate in conversations about their efforts to “create a brighter future together,” according to the StandWithUs tour website. On the Gaza periphery, participants will get a glimpse at life on the border under constant threat of rockets. The Haifa tour will focus on coexistence through the eyes of the city’s diverse population.

Billboard Wars!

Terrorists wear masks even when giving out dates and water for Ramadan

Palestine Today shows photos of Islamic Jihad and Hamas terrorists - in masks - giving out water and dates to people in Gaza for Ramadan.

Because they are so humane.

Wouldn't you feel good seeing these people reaching into your car?

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I recently encountered the term titling this piece in the comments section of an article about how an organization become politicized when leaders of the group started taking stands on controversial matters. When some members protested, these same leaders recruited enough like-minded new members to confirm their authority over the organization.

The term “entryism,” which describes such institutional takeovers, originated in the early 20^th century to describe Communist partisans trying to get a foothold, and eventually take control of, labor organizations or political parties that were left leaning but did not subscribe to this or that flavor of Marxism.

While past labor groups and left-but-not-Marxist parties historically found the means and backbone to kick out those who had join with ulterior motives (the most notable example being the expulsion of the Trotskyite Militant Tendency from the UK’s Labour Party in the 1980s), the end of global Communism did not spell an end to entryism. In fact, the democratic spirit reignited with the fall of the Soviet Union had the ironic effect of bringing a tactic once embraced by only a small conspiratorial fringe into the mainstream.

One could actually look at the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) “movement,” if not the entire anti-Israel project, as entryism turned up to eleven, dwarfing any version that has come before in both its scale and success.

When student governments rejected divestment measures earlier this decade, proponents of those measures simply ran for office with the sole purpose of turning those “No’s” into “Yes’s”. On the surface, this might seem like a democratically elected majority doing what it was elected to do, but in many of these elections pro-BDS candidates deliberately hid their divestment priorities during their campaigns for office, meaning their real goal for obtaining student council seats was hidden from voters. In other words, they successfully took advantage of a political situation (in this case, student council elections with very low voter turnout) to practice a bit of entryism.

The way BDS has played out in other communities, such as churches and academic associations, has followed a similar entryist pattern, with members who are anti-Israel activists first, Presbyterians or American Studies professors second, taking leadership positions and forcing the organization to take stands that reflect their preferred views, the spiritual or professional needs of the organization be damned. And when internal protests against those decisions erupted, steps were taken to limit the number of voices who could participate in discussions of those choices, or new members were found to shore up the power base of anti-Israel voices in charge.

Entities not bound by democratic politics have been even more ripe for entriest-style infiltration. For example, the descent of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) ostensibly dedicated to human rights into Israel-hating madness reflects a pattern in which every organization from Human Rights Watch to the United Nations, has been targeted for successful takeover by anti-Israel forces, dramatically limiting their ability to engage in genuine human rights practice anywhere in the world.

With regard to NGOs, problems of entryism can be seen in the category as a whole as hundreds of freshly minted anti-Israel “human rights” groups have formed (or been created, with financial support from the world’s great human rights abusers) creating a “community” in which horrific displays of anti-Jewish animus (like the 2001 Durban conference where BDS was born) became the sea in which once noble and effective groups like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International must swim.

Unfortunately, our side lacks the ability to meet fire with fire. There are not, after all, 50 Jewish states able to exert control over bodies like the UN or finance the creation of hundreds of NGOs dedicated to smearing our enemies. We also lack what is needed to turn the entire human rights project into a weapon to be pointed exclusively as our enemies. But this might be a source of strength for our side, rather than weakness.

This is because the tendency of entryism to cripple an organization can impact even the organizations practicing entryism against others. The most illustrative example of this is the Palestinian Solidarity Movement (PSM), a group that led divestment efforts in the early 2010s. Because their efforts earned them such a high profile, they became a target for takeover by every political and religious faction involved with left-leaning and Middle East politics. After years of fending off such hostile takeovers, they eventually shut their doors, unable to both do their work and keep entriest forces at bay.

It would represent justice if other groups like Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) met a similar fate. But it would be even more preferable if today’s progressive organizations found the spine their progenitors exhibited when they kept infiltration by yesterday’s enemies of freedom and democracy at bay.

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05/13 Links Pt1: Happy Nakba Day!; Believe Iran’s threats; Israel TV: US won’t oppose extension of Israeli law to all WB settlements; How Palestinian Leaders Punish Patients

From Ian:

Happy Nakba Day!

Most Israeli Jews celebrated Israeli Independence Day (according to the Hebrew calendar) a few days ago. Meanwhile, thousands of Israel’s Arab citizens decried the “Nakba” (The Catastrophe), namely the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, with a day of protest and mourning.

Many more Israeli Jews will have fun, less than two weeks from now, on Lag B’Omer. Israel’s Arab community probably will riot, protest and mourn again, on May 15th (the general calendar date), when the British Mandate was officially terminated, and the State of Israel came into being.

Its also been announced that Arabs in the Gaza Strip plan to stage a general strike on Wednesday to mark Nakba Day. In a statement, the National Authority for Breaking the Siege, also called on “Palestinians” to mark the occasion by taking part in planned demonstrations in Gaza, i.e. riot at the fence. It also warned “the Israeli enemy” against “committing follies against peaceful demonstrators: - aka those trying to attack Israeli soldiers or launch incendiary balloons into Israel.

That says everything...

So while the Jews were happy and dancing, on Independence Day, and then will dance again, on the anniversary of Rabbi Shimon Bar Yochi’s death (hundreds of thousands flock to his grave in Meron annually), the Arabs are crying this time of year over what they see as a tragedy.

Happy Nakba Day!

JPost Editorial: Believe Iran’s threats

US President Donald Trump’s policy toward Iran appears to be working.

Sunday morning, President Hassan Rouhani told political activists in Tehran that Iran is facing “unprecedented” pressure from the international sanctions that were re-imposed by Trump; that Iranians must prepare for difficult times resulting from those renewed sanctions; and that they have led to worse economic conditions than Iran faced during the country’s 1980-88 war with Iraq.

“During the war, we did not have a problem with our banks, oil sales or imports and exports – and there were only sanctions on arms purchases,” said Rouhani. “The [current] pressures by enemies are a war unprecedented in the history of our Islamic revolution... But, I do not despair and have great hope for the future, and believe that we can move past these difficult conditions, provided that we are united.”

His comments come amid rising tensions with the US. John Bolton, Trump’s national security adviser, announced a week ago the deployment of the USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and its strike group over “troubling and escalatory indications and warnings.”

The Lincoln passed through the Suez Canal on Thursday, according to the US Central Command. Alongside the carrier are three destroyers: the USS Bainbridge, USS Mason and USS Nitze, as well as the guided-missile cruiser USS Leyte Gulf and a Spanish frigate, the ESPS Mendez Nunez.

In addition, B-52s from the 20th Bomb Squadron have landed in recent days in Qatar and elsewhere in “southwest Asia” – possibly the United Arab Emirates. And on Friday, the Pentagon announced it would be returning a Patriot missile battery to the wider Mideast, as well as sending the USS Arlington, an amphibious warship carrying marines, to join the Lincoln.

All these moves are a response to a possible threat to US forces in the region by Iran, according to the White House, which did not specify what that threat is. Iran dismissed the claim as nonsense, but Bolton warned the Islamic republic that any attack on American interests or allies would face “unrelenting force.”

UN Middle East envoy warns of war between Israel, Hamas

The U.N. envoy to the Middle East says it’s the “last chance” to prevent an all-out conflict between Israel and Gaza militants.

Nickolay Mladenov said on Monday that the “risk of war remains imminent,” a week after a cease-fire between Israel and Gaza’s Hamas rulers ended the worst fighting since Operation Protective Edge in the summer of 2014.

The spate of violence killed 25 Palestinians, including 10 terrorist operatives, and four Israeli civilians.

Mladenov, inaugurating a solar power plant for a Gaza hospital, said parties must “consolidate the understandings” of the cease-fire.

The deal, mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the U.N., promises to let in fuel and humanitarian aid and ease the movement of people from the blockaded territory.

I saw this forwarded from Al Awda News (a closed mailing list), which can be seen at the blog of the idiot professor who wrote it. It is too absurd not to share:

The “Best” Restaurant in America?—An Analysis (12 May 2019) by Lawrence Davidson

We are having one of those “official” Orwellian moments. You know, a moment when one thing stands in for its opposite, like “war is peace” or more to the point here, “ignorance is truth.”

It’s “official” because it is being asserted by an organization with authority in its field. The organization is the James Beard Foundation, which states its mission as follows: “to celebrate, nurture, and honor chefs and other leaders making America’s food culture more delicious, diverse, and sustainable for everyone.” In order to achieve its mission, “the foundation is guided by the values of respect, transparency, diversity, sustainability, and equality. We believe that in order to achieve our mission, it is expected that everyone who works in and with the foundation shares similar values and operates with integrity.”

OK. That is admirable. One of the ways the James Beard Foundation does its job is by making a yearly award for what it considers to be the “best restaurant in America—open ten years or more.” It should go without saying that in order to bring this off with any authenticity, those making this selection have to know something about the cuisine served by the restaurant they are honoring. They have to make sure that the restaurant is offering that cuisine with, to use the foundation’s term, “transparency.” If it does not, the foundation runs the serious risk of misrepresenting one cuisine for another.

This year the foundation has honored the Philadelphia restaurant Zahav as “the best restaurant in America.” Zahav is a self-described Israeli restaurant where, according to its website, “modern techniques elevate a traditional Israeli menu.” That the James Beard Foundation appears to have taken this claim at face value suggests that its staffers did little or no research into the history of “Israeli” cuisine. Their lack of awareness suggests a sloppy selection process that negates all the hype it has generated.

First of all, it is problematic that there is anything “traditional” about “Israeli” cuisine. Zahav’s menu offers, among others, hummus, tehina, fried cauliflower, kibble, kebabs and other “shishliki” dishes, none of which is actually “Israeli.” Sometimes Zahav does introduce European touches to its dishes. For instance, it offers something labeled “Romanian beef kebab and (oy vey iz mir!) “grilled duck hearts” with “fried cippolini.” But then there is the suggestion that its food is a gateway to the “Israeli soul.”

The truth is that most of Zahav’s dishes are variations on the traditional food of the Palestinians. But for reasons explained below, the Zahav folks might be reluctant, at least in public, to admit that these dishes have a Palestinian, as well as Syrian and Lebanese origin and character. As a result the customer looking for authenticity can eat much of Zahav’s basic fare a lot cheaper and just as tasty (albeit within a different ambiance) at Philadelphia’s Manakeesh Cafe Bakery and Grill, and other authentic Middle Eastern restaurants in the area.

...To demonstrate just what is going on here, I reproduce below my August 2018 essay on the seriousness of Israeli appropriation of Palestinian food. It is hard to believe that the owners and staff at Zahav are not aware of this less-than-honest dimension of their business. The rest of us—those of the James Beard Foundation in particular—should as well be aware of what is happening if only to avoid complicity in a nasty bit of theft.

Food Appropriation as a Form of Cultural Genocide—An Analysis (6 August 2018) by Lawrence Davidson

Zahav does not claim that there is no Levantine influence - it revels in it, as its webpage says:

Zahav offers a small plates menu that encourages guests to sample the large variety of cultural influences on the cuisine of Israel - from Eastern Europe to North Africa and from Persia to the Eastern Mediterranean.

It isn't that Israeli restaurateurs are trying to steal anyone else's cuisine - it is that people who hate Israel are claiming that there is no such thing as Israeli cuisine, which is a fusion and update of the others. Those critics are the liars, not the Israelis.

If a Palestinian Arab wants to open a five star restaurant and call the food Palestinian cuisine (which never existed as a separate cuisine) and get an award from James Beard and they call it "Palestinian cuisine," no one would give a damn. The Lebanese and Syrians and Egyptians who actually created the cuisine won't care.

What is going on here is not defending Palestinian culture, such as it is. It is demonizing Israel and everything Israeli. It is a sick attempt to tag everything Israeli with the "genocide" label. It isn't righteous anger, but pure hate.

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.@UNRWA admits that Arabs teach their kids hate

As UNRWA tries to justify its existence, it reveals a lot about the people it defends.

From a letter to Jewish Journal by Elizabeth Campbell, Director, Washington Representative Office, UNRWA, in the context of teaching Palestinian children:

UNRWA is a humanitarian institution. The agency’s mandate, as determined by the U.N. General Assembly, is to provide essential services — including health, educational and humanitarian assistance — to promote the well-being and human development of Palestine refugees until there is a just and lasting solution to the conflict. If UNRWA isn’t there to teach Palestine refugee children, and instill key values of neutrality, human rights, tolerance and nondiscrimination, who will be?

Keep in mind that the Palestinian Authority has a school system. Every child who is a citizen can go to their schools. There is no reason that UNRWA needs to have an entirely parallel school system - paid for by the world. (There is also no reason why Palestinian Arabs should be in "refugee camps" when they live in a land that is administered by their own leaders in what they consider their own land.)

UNRWA knows this, so they try to justify their massive school system - by saying that the Palestinian school system teaches hate and intolerance and antisemitism, and therefore UNRWA is necessary to counteract that for the kids who are falsely considered "refugees."

There are a number of problems with this excuse. First of all, UNRWA uses the same textbooks as the Palestinian Authority. UNRWA promised to use supplemental materials that teach human rights and other values, but they were never implemented. So, today, there is no difference in what the kids are taught.

Secondly, we know from the amazing work by David Bedein, UNRWA students are still taught violence and to destroy Israel.

But the important thing is that UNRWA is not only admitting, but basing their argument on, the fact that 25 years after the Oslo process, the Palestinian government is teaching their kids to hate Jews in schools funded by the international community.

Shouldn't state-sanctioned antisemitism - admitted by an UN agency - be a red flag in funding the PA altogether?

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More on the "civilians" killed last weekend

Gaza NGO PCHR's weekly report went through all the the major Israeli attacks in Gaza last weekend, of course without mentioning the hundreds of rockets shot towards Israel.

Besides the people I already mentioned who it incorrectly called "civilian" in its daily report, there were another couple of anomalies that show that Western NGOs and reporters can never trust PCHR to say who a "civilian" is.

This paragraph is self-contradictory:

At approximately 13:10 (May 5), an Israeli warplane launched a missile at a group of Palestinian civilians, who were in the east of al-Sheja’eya neighborhood, east of Gaza City. As a result, Bilal Mohammed Abdul Banna (29) and Abdullah Nofal Mohammed Abu al-‘Ata (21), members of the Islamic Jihad Movement, were killed.

If Israel shot at a group of civilians, how can it be that the only people killed are terrorists?

At approximately 14:45, Israeli warplanes launched a missile at a car driven by Hamed Ahmed Abdul Khudari (34), from al-Tuffah neighborhood, east of Gaza City. The targeting was in the vicinity of al-Sedrah area in the abovementioned neighborhood. As a result, al-Khudari , who works in Currency Exchange, was killed.

Here is that currency trader, who also happened to be a field commander for the Al Qassam Brigades and had a terrorist since 2003.

Also, Hamas had an event to celebrate the deaths of two of its members the previous Friday, which included these disturbing photos showing what is presumably one of their sons in full terrorist gear.

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The Siege of Tel Aviv - the novel and the insane backlash (review and meta-review)

Hesh Kestin, an award-winning author, wrote a book called The Siege of Tel Aviv which was released by small, prestigious publisher Dzanc Books.

Immediately thereafter, a furor arose, mostly from people who never read the book, calling it "Islamophobic" and demanding that the publisher pull the book. After a week of stonewalling, Dzanc did exactly that.

Most critics based their assumptions of Islamophibia on the blurb on the book jacket:

What, exactly, is Islamophobic? According to the critics, two things: One, saying "Iran leads five Arab armies in a brutal victory over Israel" implies that Iran is Arab, they say, which isn't true. In fact, the book makes clear that Iran is not Arab, so this is a problem with the person who blurbed the book, not the contents.

Secondly, they claim that the spelling of the word "Moslem" is offensive. Apparently, when the "S" is pronounced like a "Z", it means "One who is evil or unjust" so Muslim groups have been pushing the alternate spelling since the 2000s. Yet it cannot be that offensive, given that there are many Muslim charities in America that continue to use the older spelling.

Based on the initial backlash, it appears that none of the critics actually read the book before pushing Dzanc to drop it.

Dzanc's initial response was a little strange:

The Siege of Tel Aviv, with blurbs from Stephen King and others, addresses the tragic situation in the Middle East. It is a book that weds absurdism with satire with social commentary. It is not in any way meant to be read literally as an Islamophobic text. That the material presents itself as problematic in this regard troubles me deeply. I hoped readers would understand the intent of the novel, the over-the-top absurdist narrative, drawing attention to—not championing—the ridiculous ways in which we, as a universal community, see one another and fail in our interactions. That the novel has been viewed as otherwise is our failing.

The novel isn't a satire, although parts of it are a bit absurd and there is social commentary.

If publishing this novel is an error, then we will listen to the complaints and pull it from the market. I am opposed to censorship, but we are living in fraught times and listening to the public is important. I truly thought readers would grasp the literary objective of the novel. The novel was acquired three years ago, before Trump's election and the dynamic shift in American politics.

Is this guy really a publisher? Why would it matter whether a book is read before or after the 2016 elections? If he is opposed to censorship, then why is he willing to pull a book less than a week after publication and before most critics even bothered to read it?

This is a story of censorship and political correctness. It is not a serious discussion about a book.

I read The Siege of Tel Aviv over the weekend.

The first half of the book describes a nightmare scenario where, as the Arab League announces that it is ready to negotiate for peace with Israel without preconditions, it is secretly working with Iran to launch a series of sneak attacks to destroy Israel.

In the preface to the book, Hesh Kestin describes his life at the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War. In that context, it is obvious to anyone who read the book and who knows history that the first half of the book is essentially an updated version of that war - a sneak attack that could have easily destroyed Israel if it hadn't improvised hasty defenses, if the Syrians hadn't been incompetent, if the US hadn't sent over weapons.

The second half of the book describes how the Israelis, without any weapons to speak of and starving to death in besieged Tel Aviv with no communication with the world, manage to miraculously fight back and win.

Kestin did no small amount of research for the book, and parts are very entertaining - if one can be entertained at the prospect of hundreds of thousands of dead Jews and the rest starving.

The characters are not much more than cartoon stereotypes. The Russian Jewish mobster, the American president with an (affected) Southern accent who speaks nicely but only cares about winning the next election, the Arab leaders who fight among each other on how to divide up the land, the Iranian mastermind who studies Hitler to know how to best exterminate the Jews, the vapid attractive CNN reporter - we don't learn anything about them because we already know the characters, and they don't change. So if the book is Islamophobic, it is antisemitic and anti-American as well. In reality, it is none of those things. In fact, one major character is an Israeli Bedouin who is one of the "good guys."

Kestin's view of the Middle East looks like it hasn't changed much since 1973. Jordan and Egypt and Saudi Arabia are as implacable foes of Israel as Syria and Iran are. Egypt doesn't flinch at attacking an aid flotilla and a BBC helicopter.

The underlying worldview is one dimensional, but not that inaccurate. If Iran could devise a plan to actually destroy Israel, pretending that this was 2010 or so, would the Arab world have signed on? I think so. Would the Arab world ignore the Palestinians altogether in their dismantling of Israel? Probably, although not immediately.

That being said, The Siege of Tel Aviv is entertaining. How the Israelis win is a absurd but fun. The new world order that is ushered in by the ultimate Israeli victory is wishful thinking to the extreme.

Unfortunately, the most notable thing about this book isn't the plot. It is how it exposed how so many self-defined liberals are actually not interested at all in free speech. While Kesten laughs this off, as all publicity is good publicity and he wants to sell books, the saga of The Siege of Israel is really about the continued fall of American liberalism into what is closer to fascism. The attempted censorship of a novel that is no more offensive than thousands of other international thrillers because it is pro-Israel should make all serious people feel a bit queasy.

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05/12 Links: Eurovision: Israel Fights BDS with ‘Beautiful, Diverse, Sensational’ Campaign; American Jewry forgot the main lesson of the Holocaust; Antisemitic hate walks through London once more

From Ian:

Eurovision: Israel Fights BDS with ‘Beautiful, Diverse, Sensational’ Campaign

Ahead of next week’s Eurovision Song Contest, Israel is countering the anti-Israel boycott movement, or BDS, on social media and the internet with its ‘Beautiful, Diverse, Sensational’ campaign.

The move comes after Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs exposed a coordinated campaign by the BDS movement calling for the boycott of the Israeli-hosted international music event. As David Gerstman reported for Legal Insurrection earlier this month, the BDS movement had “deployed hundreds of bots to promote a campaign to boycott this year’s Eurovision Song Contest.” The online campaign was backed by several Palestinian groups, including designated terrorist groups Hamas, the PFLP, and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, David wrote, citing an official Israeli report.

“Instead of believing in culture as a tool to unite, Israel’s detractors try to use it to divide,” Israel’s Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan said recently. “Israel is a vibrant democracy which provides a safe-haven of freedom in the Middle East for its wide mix of cultures, people and religions. I call on all artists of the world to reject BDS’s hate-filled and bigoted campaign and continue to unite the world with their music.”

Israeli news website Ynetnews reported:
israel has launched a PR campaign to counter calls for a boycott of the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest final in Tel Aviv, using Google ads which refer to the boycott but lead to a glossy website extolling Israel. The international Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement dismissed the tactic as “crude propaganda”. (…)

Internet advertisements on Google featuring the words “boycott” and “Eurovision” encourage searchers to click on a link that, in fact, leads them to a pro-Israel website which – in a play on the BDS initials – extols Israel as “Beautiful, Diverse, Sensational”. (…)

Minister of Strategic Affairs, Gilad Erdan, said the advertisement, which features high quality photographs and videos, was intended to “show Israel as it really is, a diverse, beautiful and sensational place, while at the same time, successfully dispelling the lies BDS spreads.”

כאן מציגים: מחזמר האירוויזיון הרשמי של ישראל, ארץ זבת חלב והרבה שווארמה. הצטרפו אל לוסי ואליה והסבירו פנים לתיירים #כאן_אירוויזיון ⏰ 4 ימים לחצי הגמר הראשון! pic.twitter.com/ABuizHNZnQ
— כאן (@kann) May 10, 2019

Eurovision boycott activists are opposed to Israel's right to self-determination

Regrettably, there is a small group of extremist activists who have tried very hard over the past year to prevent the Eurovision happening this year or at least to stop Ireland’s state broadcaster RTE from airing the event.

These people like to call themselves ‘pro-Palestinian.’ Actually, they are not.

Their activism, their hatred, their negative calls for boycotts, and their aggressive intimidation of people who support Israel do not do anything to improve the life of a single Palestinian but show that their only agenda is an anti-Israel one.

They pretend that the Jewish people have no right to live in the places where they were born and where their history, religion and culture are deeply rooted since ancient times.

They ignore that since the 1990s continuous attempts to reach a peace agreement have been rebuffed and have been met with more and more Palestinian terrorism.

Only last week, Israeli civilians once again became the target of more than 600 rockets fired indiscriminately at towns and cities in southern Israel.

Hamas, the Palestinian terrorists who carried out those attacks, have committed a double war crime. They are intentionally targeting civilians in Israel while also using their own civilian population as human shields for their military assets and rocket launching sites.

In essence, all of this is being backed by those extremist boycotters.

While debate over Israeli policy, like a debate of any country’s policies, is, of course, legitimate, the extremists constantly try to bash and defame Israel by abusing terms and descriptions hijacked from other agendas, places and times.

The most extreme of those false allegations come dangerously close to being covered by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) working definition of antisemitism, adopted by representatives of 31 countries – including Ireland.

These include, for example, denying the Jewish people’s right to national self-determination; describing Israel as a racist state; dehumanising and demonising Israeli Jews. (h/t Zvi)

Is Eurovision Racist?

PA demands Israel remove Jerusalem from Eurovision promo videos

The Palestinian Authority called Saturday for Jerusalem to be cut from videos promoting Eurovision, accusing Israel of “propaganda” ahead of Tel Aviv hosting the international song contest.

The Kan public broadcaster aired a clip Friday aimed at tourists traveling to the country for Eurovision, which features a shot of East Jerusalem’s Temple Mount compound, the holiest place in Judaism, referred to as the Noble Sanctuary by Muslims, where the Al-Aqsa Mosque stands.

The video also refers to Jerusalem as “our beloved capital.” Palestinians claim the eastern sector as the capital of their future state.

East Jerusalem was captured by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War and later annexed in a move never recognized by most of the international community. The US recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital in December 2017, and moved its embassy to the city last May.

The PA’s foreign ministry said Israel was using the song competition to “entrench its colonial occupation by effectively normalizing the global acceptance of its unlawful conduct.”

Hamas can prevent the Eurovision Song Contest in Israel, warns Hamas TV editor

In Arabi21, an Arab writer Zahrat Khadaraj writes about how Israel has supposedly destroyed hundreds of mosques.

The article centers on the Hassan Bek (or Bey) Mosque in Jaffa. But she doesn't expand on its use as a place of prayer. She concentrates on how it was a military site!

We already knew that the minaret of the mosque was used to shoot Jews in 1947, forcing the Yemenite Jews to become the first refugees of the war - before the Partition plan.

The minaret was used in 1948 as a sniper position as well, documented in the Palestine Post and confirmed by Khadaraj:

She writes, "The mosque has a tall minaret used by the Mujahideen as a sniper station during their defense of the city against the Zionist occupiers. "

How dare the Jews damage a sniper position!

Moreover, Khadaraj alleges that the minaret was built for a military purpose to begin with! She says that it was built during Ottoman times "because of the conspiracies planned by the Jews of the Ottoman Empire and their constant attempts to smuggle arms from the sea through Manshiyeh [Jaffa.]"

I had never heard of Jews arming themselves during Ottoman rule, and this sounds completely made up. But it shows that to the Muslims of Jaffa, there was no difference between a religious site and a military site, and indeed the military dimension of the site makes it more important religiously.

Instead of razing this terrorist sire to the ground, Israel allowed it to be rebuilt and it remains in Jaffa today. Yet the Arabs are using it as an example of Israeli hatred of Muslims.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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This is unreal:

Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib said she “loves the fact” that her “Palestinian ancestors” were part an attempt “to create a safe haven for Jews” after the Holocaust, although the role “was forced on them” and took place “in a way that took their human dignity away.”

Tlaib referred to the recent commemoration of Holocaust Remembrance Day when asked about her decision to support a one-state solution, becoming the only Democratic member of Congress to buck her party’s position in favor of two states.

“There’s always kind of a calming feeling when I think of the tragedy of the Holocaust, that it was my ancestors — Palestinians — who lost their land and some lost their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence, in many ways, has been wiped out … in the name of trying to create a safe haven for Jews, post-Holocaust, post-tragedy and the horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time. And I love the fact that it was my ancestors that provided that in many ways,” said Tlaib.

Let's be clear: Palestinian Arabs were complicit in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Jews, at the very least.

If it wasn't for their rioting against Jewish immigration during British rule, the British wouldn't have limited that immigration in in 1930 and then drastically reduced in in 1939, right when European Jews needed it the most.

Moreover, the Mufti of Jerusalem was a notorious antisemite who colluded with the Nazis and tried to ethnically cleanse Jews from Palestine - and yet remains a Palestinian hero today.

Uncountable numbers of Jewish men, women and children could have been safe and alive instead of gassed and burned by the Nazis if it wasn't for the actions of the Arabs of Palestine.

After the Holocaust, the main people who were responsible for "horrific persecution of Jews across the world at that time" were Tlaib's fellow Arabs, both in Palestine and throughout the rest of the Arab world.

Tlaib's words go beyond mere whitewashing these historic facts. She is not only claiming that Palestinians deserve credit for helping Jews after the Holocaust. She is also saying that Palestinians were Holocaust victims themselves, by giving up "their lives, their livelihood, their human dignity, their existence" for Jews to have a place to go.

This is simply obscene from anyone, let alone a member of Congress.

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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."