Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, February 11, 2011

Gilbert Achcar and Shlomo Sand: Peas in a pod

Gilbert Achcar asked me to leave last night’s talk at SOAS given by Shlomo Sand. If I didn’t he said he would call security.

The talk was called On the Nation and the ‘Jewish People’, although it was all taken from Sand’s The Invention of the Jewish People.

For an hour I bit my lip while Sand tore into the idea that the Jews had any connection with Israel. He said there had never been an exile of the Jews under the Romans and so, as there was no exile, there could never be a return.

But all Israeli school textbooks spoke of this mythical “exile” he said.

He claimed the Jews were merely a religious phenomenon and as they came from all over the world, and so had no connection with each other, they could not be described as “a people”. Sand is an Israeli Jewish atheist.

Today’s Jews, he said, are just descendants of converts from African tribes i.e. the Khazars and the Berbers. These tribes had simply converted en masse to Judaism.

Zionists had only recently taken Jewish myths and cultured them into a nationalist ideology.

But Jews had never wanted to originally go to Palestine. Only after 1924, when America closed the gates, and eventually the British too, did they finally set sail for Palestine....

Then, after defining Nazi Germany as an ethnocentric state, he said he was against Israel being defined as a Jewish state because “I am sure it will finish with the massacre in the Galilee, because 20% are non-Jews in this state”.

What is the point of an unopposed two hour verbal attack on Israel and the Jewish people at a British university? No one learns a thing apart from more anti-Israel propaganda.

During the Q&A I asked Sand what is the problem with the Jews calling themselves “a people” if they wanted to. He might not like it but most Jews think of themselves as being part of “a people”. That is how nationalism works.

I challenged him on whether Jewish history really spoke of the Jews being “exiled” by the Romans. Instead, the Jews had lost sovereignty to the Romans and many Jews left the area to become the Jewish diaspora. Therefore, Jews have a historical right to return.

What about “Next Year in Jerusalem” and the ancient religious festivals when Jews look to return to Israel and Jerusalem one day? Was that all made up by Zionists?

Anita Shapira’s destruction of Sand’s book is good on this.

Sand answered that 93% of the Jews living under the Romans were peasants and so they couldn’t leave. And diaspora Jews had only ever thought of Israel as a “Holy Land”, not as a “Home land”. “Israel” is a theological notion, not a political one.

Jews felt that the land did not belong to them, but to G-d and Jews went to Palestine only to die, not to live, so they could be the first to be resurrected when the Messiah came.

I understood the religiousness of the “Holy Land” point he was making but Sand wasn’t answering my main question: What is wrong with Jewish nationalism?

I called him a coward for not answering that question, which eventually spurred him into action.

“The Jews only came to Palestine because the doors to America and Britain were closed,” he screamed at the audience.

Even if that were true it still doesn’t preclude Jews from recognising themselves as “a people” and calling for a Jewish state.

It is not too disimilar from what the Palestinians have done. Many of them are not indigenous to what is now Israel and the Palestinian territories either, but came to the area when Jews started arriving from Europe. But they are also demanding a state.

I continued to try to question Sand but he just mocked me for being a Zionist who can’t speak Hebrew and who doesn’t even live in Israel like he does.

By then Achcar was out of his chair and bearing down on me insisting that I leave or he would call security.

I refused to leave but sat there, silent, like a good boy for the rest of the Q&A.

On the way out I was surrounded by people wanting to lecture me, including one woman who insisted that I apologise to Sand for calling him Shlomo, instead of Mr Sand, and a coward.

I already exposed Achcar as an academic fraud in his book.

As far as Sand goes....Saturday afternoon prayers ask G-d rhetorically, "Who is like the people of Israel, a unique nation in the world?" These are not Biblical words but words written during Rabbinic times - after the Diaspora began.

That's just one tiny example of how Jews always considered themselves a nation.

Their desire to return to Israel is not only mentioned in the annual recitations of "Next Year in Jerusalem" but also multiple times in daily prayers.

Not only that, but non-Jews universally recognized Jews as a nation, as I mentioned recently.

If a group of people call themselves a nation and the world agrees (and even admits where that nation's land is), its hard to argue that there's no nation there.

Sand's postulating the discredited Khazar theory shows he has no intellectual integrity at all. But since I cannot resist demolishing arguments, here are a couple:

Some Jews are descendants of Aaron (Kohanim) and Levi (Leviim.) Kohanim and Leviim have different roles in the religion and that status gets handed down from fathers to sons. If all Jews are converts from Khazaria, how did many of them turn into Kohanim and Leviim?

Moreover, there is a continual written record of Jewish legal issues from the Mishna through the rest of the Talmud through the Geonic period, Rishonim and later. If there was an influx of a huge number of converted Jews coming out of Khazaria, it would have engendered many new questions and legal rulings regarding their status as Jews. Where are they?

Not only that, but to get to the level of expert legal knowledge required by leading rabbis is a long educational process. How could a large group of new converts gain such expertise so thoroughly that they could be accepted by the existing Jewish communities without any record of them attending any existing institutions of Jewish study? Jewish law is nothing if not complex.

Finally, as to Sand's point that Jews did not go to Israel to live but to die, there are a host of prominent Jews who moved to Israel far before the First Aliyah. Speaking of, that event also predates Sand's bizarre claim that Jews didn't move to Israel until 1924. By 1924 there was already a nascent Jewish political infrastructure in Palestine.

Two liars, pretending to be academics, sharing the platform at an anti-Israel event, where an idiotic audience eats it up. This is a sick world.

"An Israeli conspiracy that never existed" (Arab News)

Abdulateef Al-Mulhim, retired commodore of the Royal Saudi Navy, writes a surprising op-ed in Arab News, whose op-eds usually argue the exact opposite:

I have, since childhood, been hearing about an invisible thing called the Israeli conspiracy.

It is always said that Israel did this and Israel did that. What is worse is when I hear that Israel is planning to do that. So, if we already know what Israel is planning to do, then why not either stop it or avoid it. The biggest conspiracy I heard regarding the Arabs and the Israelis is the humiliating defeat of June 1967. The Egyptians blamed everybody but themselves for the defeat. They insisted on speaking about why some planes came from the north and not from the east. They insisted that they were American Navy planes attacking Egypt. Did not the military analysts hear about evasive maneuvers, or did they expect the air force to fly like commercial airlines by taking the shortest and direct routes.

It turned out that the Egyptian forces were commanded by Gamal Abdel Nasser who only held the rank of major. Hours before the Israeli attack, all air defense sites were told to be on hold because Field Marshal Abdulhakim Amer’s plane was in the air. So, it was not an Israeli conspiracy that defeated the Egyptians, it was the poor planning and having a tired army coming back from Yemen tasked to go to a war that even Nasser did not know how to manage.

That was Egypt in 1967, but what about the Egyptian uprising of 2011? Was it the Egyptians or outside forces? The Egyptian leadership used to call Al Jazeera the match box. The channel’s media center in Qatar is so small that people used to wonder why regional leaders were worried about such a small media building, one that is small as a match box. It turned out that the Egyptian authorities had Al Jazeera on the top list of places to close. There was also no Israeli media center and Israel has no interest in seeing an unstable Egypt. Thomas Friedman once said that Al Jazeera should have been established in Egypt, not Qatar.

Egypt is a country whose media should have been at the front of providing information. However, Egyptians living inside the country and abroad are glued to foreign news outlets. Let us not doubt the Egyptians in their sincere request for change. We cannot accuse 80 million Egyptians of being toys in foreign hands.

To this day, I see Arabs blaming Israelis for young Arab drug addicts, their poor education, the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, bad roads, corruption, lack of democracy, unemployment, 9/11, the division of Sudan, the upheaval in Tunisia and the unrest in Egypt. If Israel can do all these things, then the Israelis are either super humans or we simply enjoy blaming others for our failings.

Read the whole thing.

Hollywood loves Israeli Druse "soap" star

From Israel21c:

When Israeli supermodel Bar Rafaeli comes to Israel for a visit, she makes sure to stock up on Gamila's soaps for her glamorous friends around the world. She and other celebrities like Justin Timberlake, Rihanna and Angelina Jolie swear by the stuff, according to Fuad Hiar, the eldest son of Israel's most lucrative soap maker the 70-year-old Gamila Hiar.

Gamila is adept at the role of traditional soap maker. She's traditionally dressed, and as one would expect from an iconic grandmother figure, she has inherited her family's ancient "soap wisdom" from prior generations, using recipes from her grandfathers, and herbs from their gardens around the Galilee village of Peki'in.

For more than 40 years now, Gamila has been making and selling soap - concocted into small bars worth their weight in gold - at about $35 each. Called Gamila's Secret, about 100,000 of them are shipped every month to 23 countries around the world.

The secrets aren't in the choice of oils Gamila publicizes widely: Olive, almond, avocado and lavender. They are in the 15 secret herbs and plant extracts native to the Galilee that give the soap its special restorative properties.

18th century anti-semitism in Palestine - and Italy

Giovanni Mariti wrote "Travels through Cyprus, Syria, and Palestine; with a general history of the Levant" in the late 18th century, and it was translated into English in 1792.

In the book he describes some everyday anti-semitism in Palestine. for example:

The Jews have also a small synagogue here [in Acre], which they are not permitted to enlarge; as the governor requires that they should be contented with the small portion of ground which he has given them.

But this section, about his entering Jerusalem, was more interesting for its footnote:

One of the interpreters in the service of the convent appeared very much surprised to see me arrive without notice being sent to these good monks by the governor. Having told him in what manner I had entered, he informed me that I must return without the city; because Europeans who came from Jaffa are forbid to pass through any other gate than that of Damascus. The infraction of this law would have exposed the monastery, and perhaps myself, to some disagreeable exaction. This unlucky accident was very distressing to a fatigued traveller; and I silently murmured against the fanaticism of the Mahometans, which delights to torment, by ridiculous customs, those of a different religion from their own. There was, however, no remedy; and I said, why blame the superstitious Mussulmans? They only behave to Catholics in the same manner as the Catholics behave to the Jews. What plausible reason can the Italians have for compelling these children of the Hebrews to wear yellow caps on their heads, which exposes them to the derision of the populace*? We, nevertheless, boast of being enlightened by philosophy.

The footnote:

* They are banished into the filthiest corners of our cities where the avarice of government is continually studying how to plunder them. But it is above all in the dominions of the Pope that they are exposed to the greatest oppression.

They have purchased at a very dear rate, and particularly at Avignon, the right of having synagogues. The nuncios do not blush to make them renew their payments four or five times in a year. When they want money, they cause the synagogues to be opened an hour later: this is sufficient to inform the Jews of their intention. These unhappy proscribed people must then hasten to make a contribution. It may be readily guessed that the nuncio is not visible when they carry it to him: they deposit the offering on one of the tables of his apartment; and if it is judged sufficient, the doors of the synagogue are forthwith, opened.

Palestine Papers: Arguments about "two states for two peoples"

In the preparation for Annapolis, the Israeli and Palestinian Arab negotiators discussed what a joint statement might look like. Tzipi Livni wanted to say that the end-game is two states for two peoples - and the Palestinian Arabs objected, for reasons that they themselves detailed.

Here are some sections of the discussion:

Tzipi Livni: Two states is the ultimate goal of the process. But also part of the TOR [Terms of Reference document they are drafting.] Each state is the answer to the natural aspirations of its people.

Saeb Erekat: [Raises roadmap language regarding unequivocal duty to accept each state as is. Reads from the roadmap.]

TL: To say the idea that two nation states contradicts the roadmap..…

SE: [But we’ve never denied Israel’s right to define itself.]
If you want to call your state the Jewish State of Israel you can call it what you want. [Notes examples of Iran and Saudi Arabia.]

TL: I said basically that our position is a reference to the fact that each state is an answer to the national aspirations of their people.

Akram Haniyeh: There was an article in Haaretz saying that Palestinians would be stupid if they accept this [i.e. the Jewish state].

TL: Someone wrote the Palestinians?

Ahmed Querei [AA]: I want to say two state solution living side by side in peace security stability and prosperity, Palestinian democratic state independent with sovereignty, viable with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Tal Becker: That’s all? [Sarcastically.]

AA: Yes that’s our position. Two state solution living side by side in peace security stability and prosperity, Palestinian democratic state independent with sovereignty, viable with East Jerusalem as its capital. This is what we want to have. This small sentence.

TL: I just want to say something. ...Our idea is to refer to two states for two peoples. Or two nation states, Palestine and Israel living side by side in peace and security with each state constituting the homeland for its people and the fulfillment of their national aspirations and self determination...

AH: This refers to the Israeli people?

TL: [Visibly angered.] I think that we can use another session – about what it means to be a Jew and that it is more than just a religion. But if you want to take us back to 1947 -- it won’t help. Each state constituting the homeland for its people and the fulfillment of their national aspirations and self determination in their own territory. Israel the state of the Jewish people -- and I would like to emphasize the meaning of “its people” is the Jewish people -- with Jerusalem the united and undivided capital of Israel and of the Jewish people for 3007 years... [The Palestinian team protests.] You asked for it. [AA: We said East Jerusalem!] …and Palestine for the Palestinian people. We did not want to say that there is a “Palestinian people” but we’ve accepted your right to self determination.

AA: Why is it different?

TL: I didn’t ask for something that relates to my own self. I didn’t ask for recognizing something that is the internal decision of Israel. Israel can do so, it is a sovereign state. [We want you to recognize it.] The whole idea of the conflict is … the entire point is the establishment of the Jewish state. And yet we still have a conflict between us. We used to think it is because the Jews and the Arabs… but now the Palestinians… we used to say that we have no right to define the Palestinian people as a people. They can define it themselves. In 1947 it was between Jews and Arabs, and then [at that point the purpose] from the Israeli side to [was] say that the Palestinians are Arabs and not [Palestinians – it was an excuse not to create a Palestinian state. We'’ve passed that point in time and I'’m not going to raise it. The whole conflict between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea is not the idea of creating a democratic state that is viable etc. It is to divide it into two.] For each state to create its own problem. Then we can ask ourselves is it viable, what is the nature of the two states. In order to end the conflict we have to say that this is the basis. I know that your problem is saying this is problematic because of the refugees. During the final status negotiations we will have an answer to the refugees. You know my position. Even having a Jewish state -- it doesn’t say anything about your demands. …. Without it, why should we create a Palestinian state?

...There is something that is shorter. I can read something with different wording:
That the ultimate goal is constituting the homeland for the Jewish people and the Palestinian people respectively, and the fulfillment of their national aspirations and self determination in their own territory.

The joint declaration at Annapolis did not include any wording about the Jewish people, but afterwards President Bush said "The [final peace] settlement will establish Palestine as a homeland for the Palestinian people just as Israel is the homeland for the Jewish people...The United States will keep its strong commitment to the security of the State of Israel and its existence as a homeland for the Jewish people."

By the way, the Guardian definitely saw this memo, because it was the one that they and Al Jazeera misquoted as saying that Livni said she was against international law. (She didn't.)

Syria re-instates Facebook, YouTube access

From Asharq al-Awsat/AFP:

For the first time since 2007, Syrians can directly log onto Facebook and YouTube without going through proxy servers abroad, Internet users said on Wednesday.

The authorities issued no statements regarding the development, but Syria's leading media and technology entrepeneur, Abdulsalam Haykal, told AFP that the request to lift the block "had reached internet service providers."

"The process of lifting the ban will take time and may extend for hours or days, according to the supplier," he added.

Al-Watan, a newspaper close to the government, quoted analysts as saying that lifting the firewall on Facebook and YouTube demonstrated "the government's confidence in its performance and that the state did not fear any threat coming from these two sites nor others."

But they noted that some websites remain blocked, including selected blogs, the Arabic version of Wikipedia, and a number of foreign and Arab media.

It is an interesting move on Assad's part.

Palestine Papers: PLO denies that there is a "Jewish people"

My latest Palestine Papers scoop can be seen at NewsRealBlog.

You'll like it.

Reports that Hamas is arresting Islamic Jihad rocketers

Palestine Press Agency quotes Asharq al-Awsat is reporting that Hamas arrested 10 members of Islamic Jihad's Al Quds Brigades, to stop them launching rockets into Israel.

They also arrested three members of small Salafist groups for the same reason.

The article says that Hamas has been stepping up their patrols near the border and are searching for smuggled rockets.

The reason given is that Hamas does not want to give Israel an excuse for an invasion.

Wikileaks: Egypt opposition's frustration with US

A quite timely Wikileaks cable from January 2010:

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights Executive Director Hossam Bahgat urged the U.S. to "practice what it preaches" on human rights by closing the Guantanamo Bay prison. ... Bahgat asserted that many Egyptians believe the GOE has interpreted the current administration's relative "silence" on human rights and political issues as a signal of support.

Director-General of the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies Bahey Al-Din Hassan said he was unsure of what current U.S. human rights policy is. He expressed concern over lack of U.S.
public criticism of Syria for human rights violations, and U.S. support for Yemeni President Saleh while he represses his people. Hassan expected increasing GOE repression leading up to the 2010 parliamentary and 2011 presidential elections. Hassan said he was initially optimistic when the Forum for the Future was launched that it would strengthen partnerships between Arab governments and civil society. Instead, Hassan asserted, government-controlled NGOs have dominated the Forum. Hassan noted that because of this phenomenon, he has not participated in the Forum since 2005.

...Human rights lawyer Tarek Khattar asserted that U.S. support for the GOE encourages it to repress the Egyptian people. He contended that President's Obama June 4 Cairo speech has not
produced "any positive results" in Egypt. Women's rights activist Mozn Hassan criticized the President's speech for "equating women throughout the region with each other," instead of recognizing their differences. Human rights lawyer Atef Hafez complained that the U.S. denied him entry to the Guantanamo Bay prison to visit a prisoner he was trying to represent. Hafez also complained that the Guantanamo prison is still open despite President Obama's commitment to close it. Activist Mohammed Zarea called for the U.S. to urge the GOE to make significant changes to open up political life.

Noting widespread dissatisfaction with political leaders on all sides, "April 6" leader Ahmed Salah said the 2010 and 2011 elections represented the only opportunity for change, and pressed for more immediate action. He called for greater internal and external pressure on the GOE to increase freedom of assembly and expression, lift the State of Emergency, improve election procedures with electronic voting, and allow registration with national identification cards.

Regarding U.S. democracy promotion, the group called for continued support to civil society and "principled" pressure on the GOE. However, Sadat noted sensitivities over "outside interference" in both the regime and opposition camps. Al-Ghad Party Vice-President Wael Nawara suggested that external criticism should be matched with primarily economic "incentives" to encourage the government to commit to concrete democratic reforms.

In a separate meeting, Al-Ghad party founder Ayman Nour said Egyptians were ready for change and seeking leadership. "I'm banned from participating in the coming elections, but I will be part of the political fight," Nour asserted. Nour opined that the GOE's prevention of a liberal alternative to Gamal Mubarak strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood. He underlined the impact of the security services' interference with opposition political activity, and advocated increased U.S. pressure to highlight GOE restrictions. Nour urged A/S Posner to press the GOE to restore his own personal rights by allowing him to resume his work as an attorney or journalist, travel abroad and sell his assets. Nour thanked A/S Posner for the Department's November 6, 2009 public statement expressing disappointment at the GOE's decision to prevent him from travelling to the U.S.

The US had plenty of time to read the signals and work to reform Egypt in a safe way.

Report: Jewish woman gives birth in Ramallah hospital (updated)

Ma'an Arabic has a story (picked up by other media, including the PA's Ministry of Health) saying that a Jewish woman (last name Nasreen) was shopping in Ramallah with her husband and went into labor.

She refused to go to an Israeli hospital, and insisted to give birth at the local hospital instead.

The baby was premature, a boy weighing 2.3 kg.

Palestinian Arab plain-clothes police were in the delivery room.

It appears that Mrs. Nasreen is an Arabophile. She was born in Haifa as she lives in the Israeli-Arab village of Sakhnin with her (presumably Arab) husband, which would explain how she could go shopping in Ramallah to begin with.

Not only that but she expressed her desire for the child to get Palestinian Arab citizenship.

As a result, her hospital stay was free and Mahmoud Abbas sent her a bouquet of flowers, as the PA tries to use this episode as an opportunity to show that they love Jews who happily embrace their second-class dhimmi status.

UPDATE: Aussie Dave notices that she had converted to Islam.

Israel dismantling Huwwara checkpoint

From Ma'an:

Nablus Governor Jebrin Al-Bakri was informed by PA liaison officials that the Israeli military will begin immediately the removal of infrastructure for the Huwwara and Beit Furik checkpoints.

Al-Bakri told Ma'an that the news came early Thursday morning, and that the deconstructions would include the removal of dozens of concrete blocks and barriers. He said restrictions at the Za’tara checkpoint south of Nablus would also be eased.

The announcement came after what Al-Bakri said was eight months of negotiations with Israeli officials, saying that without freedom of movement through the northern West Bank, economic development would be impossible.

The Huwwara checkpoint has stopped terror attacks, including the 16 year old would-be suicide bomber seen in this CBS video, which mentions that the same checkpoint had stopped another child from bringing explosives into Israel the week before.

UN agency supports Arab media campaign that idolizes a terrorist (updated)

From PMW:

As part of a TV campaign to "support women's issues" in the Arab world, a TV clip presenting several "model women" was broadcast on more than 50 Arab TV stations including Palestinian Authority TV. One of the women promoted as role models for Arab women today is famous for her terrorist attack that killed dozens, and another is famous for celebrating the Martyrdom deaths of her children.

The clip was broadcast as part of the "White Hands Campaign - The largest media campaign to support women's issues," which is organized "by the Arab Producers Union for TV (APUTV) in cooperation with the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)," according to the campaign's English website.
[accessed Feb. 9, 2011, http://www.whitehandsc.com/en/component/content/72.html?task=view]

Entitled The Model Woman, the clip honors different Arab women of the past, assigning to them various virtues and accomplishments. Dalal Mughrabi, who in 1978 led the most lethal terror attack against Israel, in which 37 civilians were killed, was venerated in the clip as a role model for "Martyrdom" and "victory over enmity". Al Khansa, a 7th century Arab poet, who celebrated her four sons' Martyrdom deaths in battle was praised as an example of "resolve" and "Martyrdom and giving".

The campaign's English website also states that "APUTV works under the umbrella of the Arab League, and through the Arab Ministers Information Council." And that "APUTV's official headquarters are in Cairo- Egypt."

UPDATE: The UN disavowed the commercial (h/t Samson)

Hasbara 2.0, part 2: What is good hasbara?

Part 2 of my series on hasbara is now up on NewsRealBlog.

Check it out!

UPDATE: It looks like the videos that were supposed to be embedded in the story did not make it in. Here they are:

Arabs to uproot 3000 trees - because they are too Jewish

From JPost:

The developer of Rawabi, a new Palestinian city being built in the West Bank, said he will remove some 3,000 trees donated by the Jewish National Fund and replace them with indigenous olive trees, Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported Tuesday.

Bashar al-Masri said that the city's identity is meant to be Palestinian and that Israeli elements are trying "to manipulate the issue," according to the report.

Masri's move came in response to a scathing op-ed published by Ma'an a day earlier by Jewish Israeli-born convert to Islam and member of Fatah, Uri Davis. In the op-ed, he slammed the decision to accept the trees from an organization whose mission "is the 'redemption' of lands in 'Eretz Israel,' including Israel, the West Bank, Jerusalem, Gaza and beyond for Jewish settlement."

Davis further criticized the species chosen to be planted by the JNF. Non-indigenous pine trees, he said "add insult to injury." "Rather than plant indigenous" trees, he added, "the tree saplings planted by the JNF in the area designated for the Rawabi projects are typically political-Zionist pinera (conifers)."

Interestingly, there have been conifers in Israel since the Jurassic era. I think that might qualify as "indigenous."

The Gharqad tree is the Koran's "tree of the Jews" that will protect them when all the other trees and stones tell believing Muslims where Jews are hiding so the Jews can be slaughtered according to the will of Allah. Some identify it as a boxthorn.

But it appears that Davis believes that this heretical tree is the conifer.