Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, September 07, 2020

09/07 Links Pt2: How to Dismantle the Distorted Western Discourse on Israel; Ideology Binds And Blinds; Jewish Voice for Peace and BADIL Team up to Downplay Terrorism and Promote BDS

From Ian:

Amb. Alan Baker: How to Dismantle the Distorted Western Discourse on Israel

Israel's critics often follow misconceptions and flawed assumptions that indicate an inherent lack of seriousness and lack of intellectual honesty.

Claims that "Zionism is a settler-colonial, ethno-nationalist project" ignore the long-term historical evidence of Jewish presence in the land and Israel's valid historical, legal, and political claims to its sovereign territory and land. To single out and condemn Zionism in such a manner is tantamount to singling out the Jewish People and denying them a fundamental right that is possessed by all other national peoples.

Israeli settlements that were established since 1967 were in full compliance with customary international norms, on land that was not privately owned by any local Palestinian. Residents of Israel's settlements were neither forcibly nor illegally transferred into the area in violation of international conventions.

Israel is faced with ongoing aggression and terror, including periodic, massive rocket fire against its cities and villages, and offensive tunnels into its sovereign territory in order to enable infiltration by terrorists intent on committing attacks against its population. Israel's actions in responding to aggression and acts of terror are fully compatible with its international rights to defend itself against such acts.

There exists no such thing as "internationally recognized Palestinian land" or "Palestinian territory," either politically or legally. There exists no binding, authoritative international determination that recognizes Palestinian statehood or Palestinian land. There are only a plethora of non-binding, politically-generated resolutions initiated by the Arab states in the UN, expressing nothing more than the "wishful thinking" of those states.

The State of Israel was not established as a colonizing entity in place of an Arab state. Rather, it was established as a fruit of decolonization of the former Turkish Ottoman Empire together with other independence movements in the region in the 20th century. Israel always intended to exist together in peace with an Arab state in the area of Mandatory Palestine. This constitutes a founding principle of Israel's Declaration of Independence.

And we're live… "How a Zionist views Islam" with @JassemTamim https://t.co/iz6yO4YTDj
— Israel Advocacy Movement (@israel_advocacy) September 6, 2020

Dore Gold: Legal Rights Scholar Justus Reid Weiner Dies at Age 70

On Sep. 5, Justus Weiner, an international lawyer at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, passed away at the age of 70 after a long illness. Weiner was a human-rights lawyer who exposed the persecution of Christians in the territories under Palestinian jurisdiction.

He was most noted for an extremely courageous article he published in the September 1999 issue of Commentary, in which he exposed the Palestinian polemicist Edward Said, who had grown into being one of Israel's most formidable intellectual adversaries. A Columbia professor, Said served as the main author of Yasser Arafat's 1974 address to the UN General Assembly.

The article was entitled "'My Beautiful Old House' and Other Fabrications by Edward Said." Weiner proved that in pursuit of the truth, he was prepared to defy conventional wisdom. That was a secret source of his strength.

A key part of Weiner's story related to Said's house in Jerusalem, including the legal title the Said family supposedly had to the house. By initiating a title search in Jerusalem, Weiner disclosed that the house that had been so pivotal in Said's writings and speeches never had the name of the Said family on it, punching a huge hole in Said's argument claiming rights to the land. Said sued Weiner in court after the article appeared - and lost.

Iranian media is particularly amusing in wake of the Israel/UAE lovefest.

This article is typical - and hilarious:

The United Arab Emirates’ decision to normalize ties with the Zionist regime has increased the vulnerability of Abu Dhabi in the region and would allow Israel to carry out its plot to split up the UAE, a senior adviser to the Iranian parliament speaker said.

In an interview with Al-Alam, Iranian parliament speaker’s adviser for international affairs Hossein Amir Abdollahian said the UAE’s wrong decision and strategic mistake to normalize ties with Israel reveals that Abu Dhabi is under the influence of the US and cannot make independent decisions.

“The American and Zionist pressures caused the UAE to suffer such humiliation and commit this treason against the Palestinian nation and cause,” he added.

The Iranian official also warned that Israel’s main objective behind normalization of ties with Arab states is to have access to Arab and Islamic countries to carry out a major plot for disintegration of the region.

The American-Zionist plots entail disintegration of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, Amir Abdollahian said, adding that Israel plans to partition even a small country like the UAE and create seven separate states or emirates.

The Iranian adviser warned the Emirati officials that playing in the field of the US and Israel would increase their vulnerability in the region. “It means that insecurity in the region will escalate, and escalation of insecurity could have inappropriate impacts on all regional countries, including the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

He went on to say that the Emirati rulers have been thrown into great political confusion and have adopted wrong policies on the basis of trial and error, adding, “If the UAE does not rethink its ties with the Zionist regime and its policies on neighbors and the region, the Zionists who have come under the guise of peace today will push them back for tens of years.”

Iran sure knows a thing or two about disintegrating the region when getting involved in the affairs of other countries. Look at what happened to Iraq, Yemen and Lebanon when Iran is allowed to meddle in their affairs! Israel couldn't do more damage if it tried.

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Sotal Iraq (Voice of Iraq) has been one of the most consistently antisemitic news sites in the Arab world.

It is absolutely shocking to see an article that is not only conciliatory towards Jews, but also to potential normalization between Iraq and Israel, published there.

Hamed Shehab writes first about the history of when Jews left Iraq:

Many Jewish men and their merchants had remarkable roles in the history of Iraq, with all Iraqi sects feeling their national belonging, and viewing the Jewish citizen is part of the fabric of Iraq...

These days, some Jewish personalities say they would like to preserve their Jewish heritage and property in Iraq, and that they would like to have contact, but without returning, and they are directing appeals through the international community and the United Nations...they wish to maintain a state of connection with their national heritage in Iraq, their synagogues, religious relics, manuscripts and documents of Jewish history, so that they can communicate with Iraqis through them, and they have a political legacy in Iraq.

Things get interesting as writes a tribute to Kol Yisrael radio in Arabic that morphs into a sense of desperation about the Arab world altogether:

We were in the seventies listening carefully to “Voice of Israel Radio” in Arabic, which devoted many of its programs to broadcasting the wonderful Iraqi songs and monologues, prepared by the Iraqis in the era of civilized Iraqi openness and its original creativity...There are cynical programs from the tendencies of some Iraqi politicians and their frequent repetition of the saying that the Jews should be thrown into the sea, fanning the flames of wars. Many Iraqis listened to the [Kol Yisrael] programs in the sixties and seventies; they allocated a full hour per day at noon to Umm Kulthum’s famous songs, and other hours to Arab singers, many of them Egyptians, Syrians and from Gulf states, and these songs were presented in a way that makes you feel the value of the original Iraqi Arab heritage, at a time when Arab radio stations were busy with the clamor of battles and their military manifestos and their incitement to fight the Israeli enemy and how those wars witnessed victories and were then followed by defeats, in which the Arabs lost a lot, especially after the 1967 war, and that year produced a setback, rather a setback, until 1973, when Egypt managed to return the Sinai Peninsula to Egyptian sovereignty in the October War, which the Arabs used to sing about that it restored some hope to them that they could recover the rest of the lands, but this hope has subsided and diminished, and this dream is no longer possible, after years of war preoccupation with their internal and external wars their countries have broken up into entities divided on themselves, and instead of preserving the unity of Iraq and the unity of Arab countries, our countries were divided into states and sub-states, and the dream of regaining what remains of occupied lands is gone, never to return !!

And then comes the part that would have been inconceivable to be published in any Iraqi media a month ago:

These days, the discussion of the possibilities of "normalization" between Iraq and Israel began as if it were a conversation that establishes a "preparatory" stage. The state of popular rejection has begun to diminish, especially after the neighboring countries started tampering with the capabilities of Iraq and dominating its people, and want to turn it into a village or province affiliated with them. And everyone wants to devour the Iraqi body, according to its national and religious components, so that they will be able to dominate its capabilities, and the situation of the Iraqi components continues to suffer from paralysis, tensions and political strife, as if the Iraqi sects have turned into pawns in the hands of politicians, everyone wants to drag his audience to the camp closest to him religiously or nationally. The talk about “normalization” as if it was a normal matter might find its echo in the next few years, because “normalization” is no longer a “taboo”. ...How many Iraqis wished to establish relations with various countries of the world, including Israel, if that relationship gives them back some of their prestige? They may prefer to seek the help of the foreigner, even if it is counted from the enemies, against those who try to break the will of the Iraqi citizen and violate his dignity, and they find in establishing a relationship with Israel and America, which can reduce the weight of the interference of neighboring countries, and they find Western support of Israel what can provide safe havens for the Iraqis, away from the hustle and bustle of wars, their sick language and their broken records, where these voices find nothing but the alienation, sickness, and even disgust of many Iraqis, and they are on the side of those who help them against those who target their dignity and those who want to shed the blood of the people of the country, to employ it in his dirty wars, on his behalf, so that the Iraqis would be fuel for those wars in which they have no interest.

Perhaps the Kurdistan region was the forerunner in establishing communication relations with Israel, and those relations have existed since the fifties, and the Kurds found in Israel that it is the one who facilitates the task of separating from Iraq and establishing a Kurdish state....The matter of thinking about “normalization” with Israel is no longer regarded as impossible, or falling within “taboos”. Rather, “normalization” and even establishing semi-normal relations may be closer than many imagine!!

This is absolutely mind-blowing.

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09/07 Links Pt1: The end of the Arab-Israeli conflict; Top Dubai police official: Abbas not arbiter of who can have ties with Israel

From Ian:

The end of the Arab-Israeli conflict

The only Arab Islamists presently engaged in the fight against Israel are those that derive patronage from actors outside the Arab world (primarily Iran) and operate in failed-state environments where that patronage can be readily converted into political and economic power. Hamas and Hezbollah are the most notable cases, but even they have carefully modulated their “resistance” to Israel to achieve other goals (e.g., overturning the decades-long political dominance of the Palestine Liberation Organization and controlling the Lebanese government, respectively). Outside of Iran’s patronage networks, even the most radical and violent Arab Islamist groups—notably Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (ISIS)—have largely ignored Israel in favor of other fish to fry.

Nevertheless, popular hostility to Israel in the Arab world is still strong enough that, all else being equal, few of its despotic rulers would be inclined to normalize relations with Israel were there not increasingly much to gain. For many Arab states, the strategic benefits of cooperation with Israel have vastly increased amid the rising threats posed by Iran and Turkey and American disengagement from the Middle East. The Obama administration’s accommodation of Iran’s nuclear ambitions and refusal to act forcefully against Iranian aggression in Syria led to widespread recognition that Arab regimes are on their own in confronting Iran’s bid for regional hegemony. For all of the Trump administration’s anti-Iranian bluster, its disengagement from Syria and weak response to Iranian provocations in the Persian Gulf last year left staunchly pro-American Arab governments in the lurch.

Under these circumstances, Israel’s growing military, economic and diplomatic strength, hands-on experience fighting Iranian proxies and zero possibility of disengaging from the region have made it an increasingly indispensable ally in combating Iran’s regional ambitions.

Far-reaching, multifaceted sub-rosa security cooperation between Arab leaders and Israel has been underway for years and was bound to eventually result in diplomatic normalization. As Gwynne Dyer explains, these hitherto furtive alignments with Israel become a “much more convincing deterrent” against Iran if Arab and Israeli leaders are “actually seen together in public occasionally.”

Now that the UAE has broken the Arab taboo against normalization with Israel, other Arab states will be inclined to do so in ways consistent with their interests. Some, like the UAE (which just reinforced its alignment against Turkey by deploying four F-16s to Crete), will become full-bore allies of Israel. A few, like Syria and Houthi-ruled Yemen, will remain openly hostile. Most will run the gamut between these extremes. As the remaining 19 Arab League member states reach various degrees of accommodation with Israel, at least some of world’s 12 non-Arab states that don’t recognize Israel (nine of them majority Muslim) will reassess their boycott of the Jewish state.

How the collapse of Arab solidarity against Israel will affect the pursuit of a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is hotly debated. Insofar as fear of global isolation has fueled Israel’s willingness to compromise with the Palestinians, it’s not going to sweeten the pot. However, while Michael Oren’s claim that Israel will be more likely to make concessions if it is “secure in its newfound relations with the Arab world” is far-fetched, it’s not inconceivable that Israel’s “newfound” relations will increase the willingness of Palestinian leaders to accept the legitimacy of the Jewish state and drop their demand for the so-called “right of return”—the biggest stumbling block in past negotiations.

The most likely scenario, however, is that Palestinian leaders continue on the rejectionist path with support from the likes of Iran, Turkey and the militantly anti-Zionist global left. Anti-Semitism, Islamic supremacism and authoritarianism will continue to make the world a dangerous place for its lone Jewish state long after the end of the Arab-Israeli conflict ends with a whimper, but the danger will be more manageable.

Bahraini social media activist talks UAE deal, says Jews part of Middle East

Loay Alshareef, a social media activist and linguist from Bahrain, was interviewed by i24NEWS on Sunday, in which he discussed the recent Israel-UAE normalization deal, Israel and the Jewish people's role in the Middle East and the future of Arab-Israel ties.

Beyond praising the recent deal, Alshareef highlighted an important shift in perception among Middle East Arabs, particularly in the Gulf states, regarding perceptions toward Israel specifically and Jews in general. The activist noted that views among the populace of the UAE in regard to the agreement are rooted in stabilizing the Middle East, while adding that "now the awareness is becoming more clear to many people that the Jewish people are not foreign colonialists in the Land of Israel: They are part of this land, and they are part of our region.

He added that "the Jewish people belong here, they have nowhere else to go... so it's really becoming very obvious that the existence of the Jewish people in the Land of Israel is not only historical, but it's a fact – and we can do many things together for prosperity, security and peace for the region."

When asked about the Bahraini position and the UAE, Alshareef said that the latter has taken a principled position of encouraging a stable Middle East, in addition to noting that those who don't want a stable region are the ones opposed to an Arab-Israeli rapprochement.

In a clear reference to Iran, Alshareef said that "Israel is not a threat to its neighbors, but what is a threat to its neighbor is a country that writes in its constitution to export revolution, to exports its sect and to believe in what they believe in." He also noted that Judaism itself is not a proselytizing religion, something that not so many people know in the Arab world.

Saudi Gazette: Palestinian Politicians Have Sabotaged Negotiations to Keep the Aid Funds Flowing

It is regrettable to see the plight of Palestinian brothers whose politicians have traded their cause for more than 60 years. These politicians saw to that the issue remained alive and did not reach any settlement. They sabotaged negotiations and rejected all peace initiatives, whether those presented by the Israeli side or those by other international parties.

The Palestinian politicians did this at the expense of their cause and their people so as to gain from the situation, which has remained as is till date. The intransigent attitude that they pursued for decades was the only guarantee for their survival with donations pouring in and aid funds boosting their treasuries and accounts in the European banks from all sides, especially from the countries of the Arab and Islamic worlds.

Today, things have changed, and the peoples who used to sympathize with the Palestinian cause are fully aware of this game by people with vested interests. The Palestinian issue means the death of the issue in the minds of millions of people, because it is the inevitable result of six decades of lying, trickery and collection of money in the name of a crisis whose owners do not want it to be resolved.

A few days ago, the courageous Emirati step to normalize relations with Israel came and that delivered an explicit message to the Palestinian political leaders: “The time has come to confront between yourselves and those who are deceived by you... the time for playing and jumping the ropes as well as trafficking with the concerns of the Palestinian people is over.”

As for serving the interest of the Arab people in Gaza and the West Bank, it requires the intervention of rational Arabs to negotiate with the Israeli side and work to establish comprehensive peace in the region away from gangs who eye only political gain.

Roger Waters claims he has never spoken an antisemitic word in is life. Yet he quotes Nazi antisemitic literature.

The Jerusalem Post reports:

Former Pink Floyd singer and bassist, Roger Waters, claimed in an interview on August 29, with Hoda Abdel-Hamid, Al Jazeera English’s senior international correspondent, that he has never spoken an antisemitic word in his entire life, putting the blame of his bad image on Israel’s government for investing millions of dollars into demonizing whoever is trying to defend Palestinians.

The Post goes on to list some counterexamples:

During a concert he held in 2013, an inflatable pig marked with a Star of David was featured.
In a 2013 interview with the left wing website Counterpunch, he suggested that some artists don’t take controversial positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict partly because “the Jewish lobby is extraordinary [sic] powerful” in the US music industry. He also claimed that the “right wing rabbinate” is responsible for promoting bigotry against non-Jews among Israelis.
In 2017, Waters compared the Israeli government to Nazi Germany, said there were no harsher regimes in the world – and then contradicted both himself and facts several times in an hour-long live video chat on Facebook.
Earlier this year, he called Jewish philanthropist Sheldon Adelson “the puppet master who is pulling the strings of Donald Trump, [Secretary of State] Mike Pompeo, and what’s his name…the ambassador, Greenberg, I think his name is,” Waters said, and went on to describe Adelson as a “right-wing fascist racist bigot.”

All of these examples are valid, even though Waters would argue that they are merely anti-Zionist.

But the real proof of Waters' antisemitism comes from that last Hamas TV interview where he discussed Sheldon Adelson and described him as the "puppet master" behind Trump:

Waters apologized over part of what he said:

After speaking with Palestinian and Jewish colleagues and friends, I’ve come to understand that some remarks I made during a recent TV interview, about Palestinians suffering under decades of Israeli military occupation and apartheid, have caused some deep offense. Naturally, this is the last thing I would ever want to do, particularly within a justice movement which I care about so passionately.
During the Interview, in expressing my total solidarity with and support for the Palestinian people, when referring to Sheldon Adelson’s support for the racist policies of both Trump and Netanyahu, I used words that evoked metaphorical imagery which, my friends said, were “harmful to Jewish people and to the movement for Palestinian rights” – and for this, I’m very sorry.
At the time, I had no idea that I was evoking an antisemitic trope. I regret any harm or hurt my use of words caused Jewish people, and also any ways it may have reinforced damaging lies about Jews. Nothing could have been further from my intentions. I have only respect and compassion for my Jewish brothers and sisters in our collective struggle for a more just and peaceful world.

But he didn't apologize over the most offensive part - the part that proves his antisemitism beyond any doubt.

In that interview, Waters said, "Sheldon Adelson believes that only Jews – only Jewish people – are completely human. That they are attached in some way…and that everybody else on Earth is there to serve them."

There is no source that Adelson believes anything remotely resembling this. Waters didn't read anywhere that Adelson believes this. He is quoting neo-Nazi websites that falsely say that the Talmud teaches this and he is applying that Nazi antisemitic thinking to a rich, believing Jew.

Let me be clear: the only place that Waters could have been exposed to the lie that Jews believe that non-Jews are subhuman is from far right, neo-Nazi (and some right-wing Christian) sources. There are thousands of sites and videos that say these lies. Typically:

Even Arab antisemitic sites don't generally say this.

Roger Waters reads, believes and happily parrots the most disgusting Nazi antisemitic lies. And he didn't apologize for it.

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Around 1959, Israel and Iran built gas and oil pipelines from the Red Sea at Eilat to the Mediterranean Sea at Ashkelon, Ashdod and Haifa ports. Known at the time as the Eilat-Ashkelon Pipeline Company, it was mostly used as an alternative for shipping oil from Shah-era Iran to Europe, bypassing the Suez Canal which Egypt's Gamal Abdel Nasser could arbitrarily restrict.

When Iran severed ties with Israel during the 1979 Iranian Revolution, it stopped this arrangement of sending oil through Israel on to Europe.

The pipeline is still in use, fully owned by Israel and under a new company name - the Europe Asia Pipeline Co. Parts of it are bidirectional and oil from Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan is being sent to tankers in Eilat for transport to China, South Korea and other Asian countries.

For Gulf countries like the UAE, peace with Israel could save them huge amounts of money now spent for shipping through the Suez Canal. Supertankers that can dock in Israeli ports have a capacity of double the size of oil tankers that can fit through the Canal, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars per shipment to Europe and North America. Right now this is very difficult because of the Arab boycott - any company that publicly used Israel for oil transport would be banned from business in the Gulf so existing users keep a very low profile and the EAPC's financial records are considered a military secret by Israel.

The current pipeline is 42 inches for crude oil, with a parallel 16 inch pipeline for gasoline or diesel.

The UAE ending its Israel boycott opens up billions of dollars of business to send oil through Israel to the Mediterranean and to make Israel a major energy transportation hub.

There is an interesting wrinkle to the story of the EAPC. At the time of the Iranian resolution, there were hundreds of millions of dollars worth of oil that were already in Israel that hadn't been paid for, and Iran and Israel have been suing each other for the past 25 years in international courts for the lost business. In 2015, Iranian media reported that a Swiss court had ruled that Israel owed $1.1 billion to Iran, but Israel has shown no interest in actually paying especially in light of its countersuits. Perhaps in response to the UAE deal, Iran is again requesting payment of the alleged $1.1 billion from Israel. Iran has little recourse to force Israel to pay to its sworn enemy, however.

(h/t Yoel)

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PLO Secretary General is losing whatever tenuous grasp on reality he ever had.

His latest tweets are big on hyperbolic lies and short on any facts.

Palestine will sever its relations with any country that will move or open its embassy to Jerusalem.We urge all nation states to abide by international law ,including security council resolutions 478 and 2334 . Violating int. law is a sign of weakness not strength
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020

Has the PLO severed all relations with the US?

Does Erakat actually think that his threat would sway anyone?

The PLO is so used to threatening other countries with terror if things don't go their way. But the Arab world no longer follows the PLO lead. These threats aren't scaring anyone, and meanwhile Israel keeps adding diplomatic victories.

International law specified occupation by force of other people’s territory is the highest form of terrorism . Enough lies and blackmail . No one can normalise Israeli settlements, annexation and occupation
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020

Really? The "highest form of terrorism?" This coming from the people who made international terrorism what it is today?

Of course, nowhere in international law does it say that occupation is terrorism. In fact, it is not even illegal - which is why there are so many laws concerning the conduct of belligerent occupiers.

And exactly whose territory was Judea and Samaria in 1947? 1949? 1967? 1988? What was the exact date that it supposedly became Palestinian territory according to the international law that Erakat pretends to be so interested in?

My home town Jericho is 11000 years old , the mother of all cities , the oldest inhibited city on earth ,and getting younger we are still here and we will be for at least another 11000 years . This is a promise. Abandon the lies and the blackmail , try justice and fairness .
— Dr. Saeb Erakat الدكتور صائب عريقات (@ErakatSaeb) September 6, 2020

The earliest people to live in Jericho who still exist today are Jews, over a thousand years before the Arab invasion and colonization of the Holy Land and over two thousand years before Erakat's family came from Transjordan and Arabia to Palestine.

In fact, Erakat himself admitted that he was a Jordanian and Bedouin, and the only thing that makes him "Palestinian" was where he happened to be born, not where his family was from.

It's funny that any Zionist points are dismissed as "hasbara" but no one points out the obvious lies from the Secretary General of the PLO.

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Crisis Group podcast lies about Israel, settlements

This is based on a thread by Inquisitive Native:

It is sad but not surprising that @CrisisGroup chose to launch its new podcast with this unabashed BDS propaganda, falsehoods and very weak analysis by an "expert" who's main paradigm just collapsed colossally. Here are some nuggets so you don't need to listen to this stuff.

Let's start with the lies.

@NathanThrall unabashedly recycles one of the vilest and most extensively-refuted lie that Israel builds separate roads for Palestinians in the West Bank "so they're removed from the main roads for Israeli settlers" (14:30).

Dispelling the myth of ‘Jews-only roads’ in the West BankThe claim that religiously exclusive roads exist in the West Bank needs to be debunked, suggests Adam Levick.https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/yourview/arid-30856339.html

Israel indeed builds new roads in the 60% of the WB it fully controls according to Oslo (PA does it in the rest), which serve both populations. Should't Palestinians also enjoy new, safer highways? Should those be closed for Jews? There's no coherent moral stance to be found.

He later (29:10) claims that days after the UAE deal "they discussed" (who?) plans to increase settler population by 100,000s, including one to add 100,000 settlers in the Ramallah area alone. It proves the "rabid acceleration of de-facto annexation". Only none of it is true.

Where'd he get it? Maybe from a 27 Aug article on one road which mentions those numbers as either aspirations of settlers or speculations of anti-settlement activists. For him that's enough to claim they're government plans that are being discussed.

Maybe he meant the meeting on 12 Aug of the Civil Admin where 2 plans for roads were approved which, like the rest of them, will serve Jews and Arabs alike. Even if you consider Israel an "occupying power" in Area C, it has every right, and actually a duty to build roads there.

An honest analyst would tell his listeners that in fact there's been a de facto freeze in promoting housing units in settlements for over 6 months now, which is why settler leaders are angry. But that'd spoil the narrative which he lays out clearly:

Israel is "expanding eastwards and totally eliminating any possibility for a normal life for the indigenous people, restricting them into smaller and smaller enclaves" (20:55), so the only moral option is to boycott it. This was too much even for @Rob_Malley who cut him off.

If Thrall's description of current Israeli policies is true he should be able to prove that, say in the past decade:
1. land used by settlers expanded more than land used by Palestinians in Area C.
2. settler population in Area C or E. Jerusalem grew faster than Palestinian

He can't. If anything, available data points the other way. But Thrall won't let anything stop him from describing Israel as a colonial power (31:05) bent on placing Palestinian in reserves like native Americans. Yes, in those very words. Loved to see Malley's face there.

I can understand Thrall's frustration. He's been one of the main voices lobbying for massive external pressures on Israel, and must be hard to realise how wrong he was. Or as his former boss tells him fatherly, it's ok as a personal moral view but not a political strategy.

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09/06 Links: Israel-UAE normalization to be given peace treaty status; Richard Grenell: Serbia-Kosovo agreement results from Trump's different brand of diplomacy; Malawi to open embassy in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Richard Grenell: Serbia-Kosovo agreement results from Trump's different brand of diplomacy

Friday’s agreement reflects President Trump’s long-held vision for Kosovo and Serbia to focus on economic development, job creation and industrial development as prerequisites to the permanent resolution of political disputes. His belief from the start has been that trust is built first in the process of creating opportunities and futures for young people, rather than in the settlement of scores, symbolism or the righting of historical wrongs. The U.S. will spend the next year implementing these new agreements, and the people and governments of Kosovo and Serbia have the full trust of the U.S. government to carry them forward.

As a demonstration of good faith from the two parties toward the U.S., Serbia and Kosovo also committed Friday to cooperate with certain key U.S. policy priorities in the region. Both parties pledged to protect and promote freedom of religion, including renewed interfaith communication, protection of religious sites, and continued restitution of Holocaust-era heirless and unclaimed Jewish property. Both agreed to designate Hezbollah in its entirety as a terrorist organization and fully implement measures to restrict Hezbollah’s operations and financial activities in their jurisdictions. Both agreed to work with the U.S. government to decriminalize homosexuality in the 69 countries where it is currently illegal. And, perhaps most importantly of all, Serbia has pledged to move its embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, while Kosovo has agreed to mutual recognition with Israel.

Following on the heels of the Aug. 13 peace agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates, Friday’s agreement between Kosovo and Serbia to take steps toward economic normalization and an eventual peaceful coexistence demonstrates the achievements of President Trump and his administration’s sound engagement throughout the world. When the U.S. government prioritizes diplomacy over force, and understanding over threats, the world stands to benefit.

.@RichardGrenell on the historic Kosovo and Serbia agreement: “the only way that this agreement could’ve happened is from an outsider.” pic.twitter.com/HXhQuHrn9h
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) September 4, 2020

David Collier: The Jew-hating shame of Scotland and their lazy media

Lazy reporting

There is a right to protest and a high level of freedom must be granted. The people who are really letting everyone down on this issue are the media. It takes just a few hours of research into any of the demonstrating groups to realise they are extremists, racists, antisemites, Holocaust deniers and terrorist supporters. Much of this research has already been done and the information is publicly available. Yet media such as the ‘Daily Record’ report it simply as a ‘pro-Palestinian’ protest, even quoting the rancid Mick Napier and having time to introduce an Apartheid comparison.

Heather Carrick in the Glasgow Times put together a montage of pictures for the ‘pro-Palestine protest‘, mentioning criticism of Israel’s record, but failing to point out the relevance of both the Iranian and Pakistani flag captured in her photos. She did make sure however, that ‘black lives matter’ was given a prominent place.

Caitlin Hutchison of the Scottish Herald was probably the worst offender. Her report laid out the extremist case word for word, including the Apartheid smear and a full description of the content of leaflets being handed out. Hutchinson even praised the ‘social distancing’ demands of the organisers. Her readers would not have a clue that she was describing the activity of antisemites, terrorist sympathisers and rancid extremists. She is a hack.

The BBC had the protest as a backdrop to an interview, giving them plenty of unnecessary publicity. It is unlikely the BBC bothered to tell anyone this was a band of extremists.

Only the Scottish Sun, correctly identified the protest as being ‘anti-Israel’ and was responsible enough to balance out their reporting with allegations of antisemitism and criticism of the protestors.

A group of extremists and antisemites gathered outside to protest the arrival of a football team from the Jewish state. That is the news story here. If it should be shared it should be done to show people just what type of people are supporting the boycott Israel movement. That failure to report the truth – the news – is the central reason why anti-Israel hate has been spreading for decades. Instead of being researched and identified, the media is giving these racists and extremists sympathetic publicity. They are openly spreading hate.

Qanta Ahmed: As a Muslim American Trump admirer, I say to Joy Reid and Ilhan Omar: Shame on you!

Omar — like all Islamist sympathizers — seeks to silence any who dare criticize, examine or analyze Islam, Muslims, our institutions, our leaders, or any aspect of our societies.

Was Reid’s utter stupidity offensive? Perhaps. But more than offensive, Reid’s remarks were revelatory of her own rank ignorance. But were Reid’s remarks an assault on Islam? Hardly.

Stretching Reid’s remarks to anything close to anti-Muslim xenophobia (which is despicable in a liberal secular democracy where all minorities are protected and celebrated), Reid could be accused of xenophobia against Muslims, but this is not Islamophobia.

Islamists and their allies (including the left) recall that Omar met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2017 when she was a member of the Minnesota House of Representatives. Erdogan is the modern godfather of the Muslim Brotherhood — the mothership of Islamism.

Islamists and their sympathizers wield Islamophobia as a political and judicial shield against criticism and scrutiny of ideological Islamism. Omar seeks to silence not only the stupidity of Reid’s remarks, but any rights Reid might have to examine Muslims.

This does not excuse the dumb and dumber exchange we were all subjected to. But it does reveal in the left’s alliance with Islamism — whether Muslim Islamist sympathizers or a recognized far-left political commentator — how it demeans and devalues Muslims everywhere.

To Reid and Omar I say: shame on you both!

The Los Angeles Times reported on Thursday:

When he announced a potentially historic deal last month in which Persian Gulf nation United Arab Emirates said it was preparing to recognize Israel, President Trump predicted other Arab states would quickly follow suit.

But after two trips through the region by senior Trump advisors to build on what they hoped would be momentum from the Emirates deal, no other Arab nation has said it is willing to take the long-shunned leap to accept and recognize Israel as a legitimate Mideast neighbor, at least not until Israel resolves its conflict with Palestinians.

Did Trump say that other Arab countries would "quickly" follow the UAE?

Not that I can find. In the official transcript of his statements on August Trump merely says, "Now that the ice has been broken, I expect more Arab and Muslim countries will follow the United Arab Emirates’ lead. And I want to just thank them for being — it’s not surprising, knowing Mohammed so well. It’s not surprising. They are in that lead position. And normalize relations with Israel. We are already discussing this with other nations — with very powerful, very good nations and people that want to see peace in the Middle East. So you will probably see others of these, but this is the first one in more than 25 years."

Nowhere did Trump predict other Arab nations following the UAE within weeks. But the LA Times pretended he did - just so they can gleefully say that he could not follow through on a promise he never made.

It takes time for a nation to completely change its policy towards a former enemy. This should be obvious. But the LA Times is so tied to its narrative that it needs to do everything it can to downplay the historic accord.

One can only imagine how different, and celebratory, the LA TImes' coverage would have been if this was announced by Obama or Biden.

Beyond that, the LA Times article makes things up:

Kushner used his four-day trip to the Middle East to try to entice additional Arab countries to join the Emirates in moving to normalize relations with Israel. That follows a similar sojourn last month by Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, who traveled to five countries in the region. Both officials came up empty-handed.

How does the LAT know this? Normalization isn't a switch that is turned on or off - it involves lots of moving parts. It took over a decade of secret ties between Israel and the UAE before this announcement with lots of intermediate steps, like allowing Israeli athletes to compete under the Israeli flag in the UAE.

And we know that a lot has happened in the three weeks since the Israel/UAE agreement was announced.

For example, both Saudi Arabia and Bahrain announced that El Al flights would be able to fly over their territories en route to the UAE - that isn't exactly nothing. Saudi media and officials - as well as clerics - have changed the tenor of their official statements away from being anti-Israel to being more conciliatory.

Most importantly, the PLO demanded an Arab League session denouncing the UAE, and nothing happened. Gulf countries outside the UAE are no longer willing to publicly oppose peace with Israel.

This is a sea change in the attitudes between powerful Arab states and Israel - all happening since mid-August.

And this all remains unreported in the pages of the Los Angeles Times.

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Pure antisemitic cartoon from Hamas

Palestinian Media Watch recorded this Hamas TV cartoon showing Jews - religious and non-religious - "defiling" the Temple Mount. They are then literally cleansed.

The video is also inaccurate - Jews do not visit the Dome of the Rock, Jews cannot wear tefillin on the Mount, Jews cannot loiter when they do visit and they must keep moving around the periphery of the Mount, and the video implies that Israeli soldiers drink alcohol while there which is certainly absurd.

This is pure incitement to terror and it is pure antisemitism.

But don't hold your breath waiting for the left-wing self appointed arbiters of what antisemitism is to denounce or condemn this video.

(h/t Yoel)

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The New York Times usually refers to Hamas as an "Islamic militant group" that Israel "regards as a terrorist organisation."

It had rarely referred to Hamas as a terrorist organization without caveats as far as I can tell.

Suddenly, that changed on Friday.

The Justice Department on Friday charged two American citizens with ties to a far-right extremist group with trying to support the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas — a case that shows that extremists have sought to turn protests against racism into opportunities to commit violence, but that also runs counter to President Trump’s assertions that those extremists are predominantly on the far left.

Michael R. Solomon, 30, and Benjamin R. Teeter, 22, who were taken into custody on Thursday evening in Minneapolis, say they are members of a group called the Boogaloo Bois and of a subgroup called the Boojahideen. The groups are part of a loosely connected movement that seeks to bring about a second civil war to overthrow the United States government.

John C. Demers, the head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said in a statement that Mr. Solomon and Mr. Teeter met with people they believed to be members of Hamas in order to “join forces and provide support, including in the form of weapons accessories,” to the terrorist organization.

When the NYT wants to associate Hamas with a right wing American group, Hamas magically transforms into a terrorist organization!

This is a remarkable example of media bias. The mainstream media goes through lots of apologetics when writing about Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Hezbollah, careful not to describe those groups as terror organizations because "one man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter." ISIS is described as terrorist on multiple occasions in the NYT but not groups that only target Israeli civilians.

However, a tenuous connection between a fringe right-wing group and people they thought were Hamas is enough for the New York Times to change their style book from a progressive-friendly Hamas militant group that shares the same goals as BDS to a right-wing linked terror group.

The real story, ignored by the NYT, is that antisemitism is the glue that holds extremist groups together, whether Right, Left, Black, Arab or otherwise. White supremacist groups will happily quote left-wing anti-Zionists. In this case, the Boogaloo Bois were attracted to Hamas' antisemitism in wanting to partner with them.

In fact, the Boogaloo groups started off sounding as much like today's progressive extremists as they sound like white supremacists. According to the ADL, the groups associated with that name are anti-government and even anti-police. "Boogaloo" refers to a coming civil war, which is not far off what we are seeing in far-Left protests. A song lyric from the group quotes by the ADL says "Plug a pig, and then a Yid" - which makes them sound as much like Black Lives Matter as they sound like the KKK. Hate does not fit in neatly in Right/Left categories, and journalists who insist on categorizing them that way are doing a disservice to their readers.

(h/t FirstOneThrough)

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