Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, March 09, 2011

A Facebook call for a third intifada

Recently I mentioned that the Ma'an newspaper was taking tiny Facebook campaigns with fewer than a couple of hundred people and it was trying to make them sound much bigger and impressive. Ma'an is evidently trying to position Palestinian Arabs as being innovative in non-violent protests against Israel.

But there is another Facebook campaign that Ma'an has ignored...perhaps because it is not quite as non-violent as Ma'an prefers. Too bad, because this campaign already has over 44,000 members, and is adding them at a rate of a thousand an hour.

This campaign is to start a new intifada against Israel.

Sounds just like Martin Luther King, doesn't it?

Afternoon links

Eli Lake in TNR finds that the US does have a checkered diplomatic history of dealing with Islamists.

Gaddafi calls Qaradawi a "jurisprudent dervish." There's a celebrity death-match I'd love to see.

A Palestinian Arab child dies in Lebanon, because of Lebanese apartheid.

Palestinian TV on how the Jews love money. And grabbing land, of course.

Women might not yet have as many upper-management jobs as men in Israel, but Israel is way ahead of almost every other Western country in that regard.

Apartheid alert: The first female Bedouin in Israel to earn a doctorate.

An op-ed in Asharq Al Awsat looks at the dangers confronting the Arab world. Israel isn't mentioned once.

Israeligirl reminds us that the BDS movement that it is illegal for US companies to boycott friendly countries.

Is it possible for the UN Human Rights Council to be even more of a joke than it already is? Well, yes. Syria is running for a seat.

Now, this is politically incorrect - and funny. From a Carnival parade in Dusseldorf, Germany:

(h/t Nevet, Yerushalimey, Zvi, UN Watch, Serjew. Apologies for the missing hat tips.)

The map that lies - and one that doesn't

Anti-Israel (and now other*) organizations are fond of showing the following graphic on their websites:

This map is a lie.

The first panel has the biggest lie:

While I presume that the white sections are indeed the land that was privately owned by Jews, the land in green was not privately owned by Arabs.

Only a tiny percentage of land in Palestine was privately owned. The various categories of land ownership included:

Mulk: privately owned in the Western sense.

Miri: Land owned by the government (originally the Ottoman crown) and suitable for agricultural use. Individuals could purchase a deed to cultivate this land and pay a tithe to the government. Ownership could be transferred only with the approval of the state. Miri rights could be transferred to heirs, and the land could be sub-let to tenants. If the owner died without an heir or the land was not cultivated for three years, the land would revert to the state.

Mahlul: Uncultivated Miri lands that would revert to the state, in theory after three years.

Mawat (or Mewat): So-called “dead”, unreclaimed land. It constituted about 50 to 60% of the land in Palestine. It belonged to the government. ...If the land had been cultivated with permission, it would be registered, at least under the Mandate, free of charge.

By the early 1940s Jews owned about one third of Mulk land in Palestine and Arabs about two-thirds. The vast majority of the total land, however, belonged to the government, meaning that when the state of Israel was established, it became legally Israel's. (I believe that about 77% of the land was owned by the government, assuming 6 million dunams of private land as shown in this invaluable webpage on the topic from which I got much of this information.)

To say that the green areas were "Palestinian" land is simply a lie.

Now the next one:

While this is an accurate representation of the partition plan, it has nothing to do with land ownership. The entire purpose of this map is to make it appear that Israel has been grabbing Arab land consistently, to serve as a bridge between maps 1 and 3. What is not said, of course, is that Israel accepted the partition and the Arabs did not, so as a result Israel in 1949 looked like it does in map 3.

Map 3 is still a lie, however, because in no way was the green land "Palestinian" at that time. Gaza was administered by Egypt and the West Bank annexed by Jordan. No one at the time spoke about a Palestinian Arab state on the areas controlled by Arab states - only in Israel.

In other words, this progression of maps is a series of lies meant to push a bigger lie, and it is tragic that a lot of people believe them to be the truth.

Here is a small attempt on my side to show a more accurate picture of Israel's giving land it controlled up for peace since 1967:

This map shows that Israel gave up control of the Sinai, Gaza, Southern Lebanon and much of the West Bank over the years. Rather than falsely accusing Israel as a land-grabbing rogue state, it accurately shows Israel as perhaps the only state in history that has voluntarily given up more than two-thirds of the areas it controls in exchange for nothing more than a paper agreement - or sometimes not even that. All at the risk of serious security concerns for her people, no less.

This is all because Israel wants, desperately, to live in real peace with her neighbors. This desire is not reciprocated by those neighbors, unfortunately.

The real map shows the truth of Israel's incredible concessions in the often vain hope for peace.

*I saw this one at a Colin Firth fan-site, as he is planning to star in a movie about The Stern Gang.

Roger Cohen's Hypocrisy (NewsRealBlog)

My latest article in NewsRealBlog takes apart Roger Cohen's self-righteous piece in yesterday's New York Times.

See how wise Cohen is? Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas are the good, democratic choice for the Middle East! Hezbollah, which has had a crucial role in turning Lebanon from a cosmopolitan and tolerant society into an Iranian satellite state armed to the teeth against Israel, is the model for all Arab states. Islamist Hamas, which chose to shoot rockets into Israeli communities after Israel withdrew every single resident and soldier, should be propped up with Western gifts and recognition. Arabs need to learn about free and fair elections from Iran. Hateful rhetoric against Jews and Israel are mere words, but Roger Cohen enjoying coffee with Islamic fundamentalists prove they are really the good guys. As he wrote, “Perhaps I have a bias toward facts over words, but I say the reality of Iranian civility toward Jews tells us more about Iran – its sophistication and culture – than all the inflammatory rhetoric.”

Cohen’s thinking is simple: Western-backed authoritarian governments=bad. Iranian-backed Islamist authoritarian governments=good.

Read the whole thing.

A quote from the Arab mayor of Jerusalem, 1899 (updated)

I came across this partial quote by Yusuf Diya al-Khalidi, the mayor of Jerusalem, in 1899: "Who can challenge the rights of the Jews in Palestine? Good Lord, historically it is really your country."

By doing a little research, and playing some games with Google Books snippet view, I was able to find the full quote:

The idea itself is natural, fine and just. Who can challenge the rights of the Jews in Palestine? Good Lord, historically it is really your country. What a wonderful spectacle that will be when a people as resourceful as the Jews will once again be an independent nation, honored and complacent, able to make its contribution to needy humanity in the field of morals, as in the past.

He wrote this in a letter to Zadok Kahn, the chief rabbi of France.

When Benny Morris quotes it in One state, two states: resolving the Israel/Palestine conflict, he distinguishes this quote as an exception to the Palestinian Arab denial of Jewish claims that rose concurrently with the idea of Palestinian Arab nationalism. It is not an exception, however, since the quote pre-dates popular Palestinian Arab nationalism by at least a couple of decades.

But Morris does make a good point:

An apt indication of this denial was provided by the Jerusalem Christian Arab educator Khabil al-Sakakini, when he fulminated in 1936 that the British Mandate's new radio station referred to the country in Hebrew as "eretz yisrael" (the Land of Israel), "If Palestine [falastin] is eretz yisrael, then we, the Arabs, are but passing strangers, and there is nothing for or to do but to emigrate," al-Sakakini jotted down in his diary.

In other words, denial of history is an integral part of Palestinian Arab nationalism. The movement is, to a great extent, predicated on a very basic lie.

Arabs like Khalidi knew Jewish history in the Land of Israel very well, but it became virtually forbidden to acknowledge this history a mere three decades later, because that very fact helps to undermine the entire Palestinian Arab national enterprise.

Yet the British did not have that sensitivity, as the initials for Eretz Yisrael could be seen in Mandate-era coins and stamps in Hebrew even before Sakakini noticed it:

UPDATE: Elder of Lobby tracked a more complete version of the Khalidi quote, from Morris' "Righteous Victims," showing that the mayor was hardly happy about the prospect of Zionism:

"It is necessary, therefore, for the peace of the Jews in [the Ottoman Empire] that the Zionist Movement ... stop.... Good Lord, the world is vast enough, there are still uninhabited countries where one could settle millions of poor Jews who may perhaps become happy there and one day constitute a nation.... In the name of God, let Palestine be left in peace."

Abbas hints, yet again, at resigning

From Ma'an:

President Mahmoud Abbas hinted Tuesday that he would resign if an independent Palestinian state was not established by September.

Abbas' remarks came at a joint press conference with British Foreign Minister William Hague in London.

Ma'an doesn't mention that this is at least the 16th time that Abbas has threatened to resign.

Must be a nice job where you can threaten to resign without any intent to actually do it...and no one calls you on it.

Two important articles from Commentary

From Evelyn Gordon:

In an interview in today’s Wall Street Journal, Ehud Barak announced that Israel might ask Washington for another $20 billion in aid due to the unrest now sweeping the region. As an Israeli, I’m cringing in shame.
The U.S. currently faces a massive deficit that threatens the country’s very future, and Congress is slashing ruthlessly in an effort to curb it. Almost nothing has been spared the ax — with one glaring exception: a sweeping majority of Congress still opposes any cut to the annual $3 billion in American aid to Israel, because at a time when Israel is facing an unprecedented international delegitimization campaign, Congress doesn’t want to do anything that might imply faltering support for America’s longtime ally.
It’s an extraordinarily generous gesture, and as I’ve written elsewhere, the only proper response would be for Netanyahu to do what he did during his first term as prime minister 15 years ago: announce a phased, multi-year cutback in aid at a joint session of Congress. Precisely because it is such a tangible expression of American support, American aid sends an important message to Israel’s enemies; thus, eliminating it altogether might be unwise. But Israel’s economy is certainly strong enough to cope with a cutback, and if it were an Israeli initiative, it wouldn’t imply faltering American support. On the contrary, it would strengthen the relationship by showing that it’s not a one-way street, that Israel is also sensitive to America’s needs.
Instead, as if he were blind, deaf, and dumb to everything that’s happened in America over the past few years, Barak declared that he wants to seek an increase in aid. As if America were nothing but a cash cow, with no urgent monetary needs of its own. This is a public-relations disaster, one guaranteed to alienate even Israel’s strongest supporters in Congress unless Netanyahu makes it immediately and unequivocally clear that his defense minister’s proposal is unacceptable.
But it’s also a strategic disaster.

And from Rich Richman:

[I]n July 1977, when Zbigniew Brzezinski presented Begin with a draft statement regarding the just-concluded U.S.-Israel meeting[,] Begin told Brzezinski that the draft was acceptable — “except for two sentences.” Brzezinski asked what they were:

“Please delete ‘The United States affirms Israel’s inherent right to exist.’”

“Why so?”

“Because the United States’ affirmation of Israel’s right to exist is not a favor, nor is it a negotiable concession. I shall not negotiate my existence with anybody, and I need nobody’s affirmation of it.”

Brzezinski’s expression was one of surprise. “But to the best of my knowledge every Israeli prime minister has asked for such a pledge.”

“I sincerely appreciate the president’s sentiment,” said Begin, “but our Hebrew Bible made that pledge and established our right over our land millennia ago. Never, throughout the centuries, did we ever abandon or forfeit that right. Therefore, it would be incompatible with my responsibilities as prime minister of Israel were I not to ask you to erase this sentence.” And then, without pause, “Please delete, too, the language regarding the commitment to Israel’s survival.”

“And in what sense do you find that objectionable?”

“In the sense that we, the Jewish people alone, are responsible for our country’s survival, no one else.”

Read them both, now.

Egypt's hate for Israel is hurting - Jordan

Egypt has not resumed pumping gas to Israel since last month's sabotage of the gas line that goes to Israel and Jordan.

Yesterday, a Jordanian official said that Egypt would be raising its price of gas to Jordan to be more in line with the going rate. Egypt was selling the gas at reduced rates to both Israel and Jordan under existing agreements.

An Egyptian source is quoted as saying that the Egyptians cannot resume pumping gas to Jordan and not to Israel without causing an international incident. Therefore they are preferring not to pump gas to Jordan altogether - just to hurt Israel!

Jordan is now losing $2.4 million a day by the loss of Egyptian natural gas.

Work accident! Plus - Beauty salon bombing!

From Ma'an:

Hamas' armed wing the Al-Qassam Brigades announced the death of a fighter on Tuesday, saying in a statement that the 20 year old was killed in a "jihadist mission in the Rafah district."

The young man was identified as Abed Al-Hamid Naser Abu Ghali from the Rafah refugee camp. A statement from the brigades said Abu Ghali joined the group in 2007, at 16, and would be buried following a funeral procession on Wednesday.

Israeli news site Ynet reported Wednesday that a tunnel between Egypt and Gaza collapsed overnight, killing one man.

The man killed in the tunnel collapse was not the same.

Notice that he joined the Al Qassam Brigades at 16 - something that is not unusual, as we documented 22 of the "civlian children" killed in Gaza during Cast Lead were in fact fighters.

Also at the same Arabic link, someone bombed a beauty salon in Gaza City. Because women looking good is a major threat to the morals of society.

As many as 6 Copts killed in Egypt

From Bikya Masr:

Conflicting reports are coming out of Egypt on Tuesday evening concerning violence and death in a Cairo neighborhood between Coptic Christians and religious conservatives who allegedly attacked a peaceful demonstration.

According to eye witnesses in the Manshiyet Nasr area – a poor shantytown on the outskirts of the city – at least 6 people have been killed, and over 200 injured from live ammunition and blasts that caused bricks to fall on people.

One eye witness, Talaat Ibrahim, told Bikya Masr that the army was responsible for the shooting and killing of Coptic demonstrators.

However, Masrawy news website, reported that the military intervened to end the clashes, which are still ongoing, between what they called “Salafist young people” and the Copts.

The exact details remain murky, but the violence and deaths have been confirmed.

The army has been reported to say that the situation is “under control.”

“At least 12 vehicles and four homes have been burned, all Coptic homes, by the angry Muslims,” said Ibrahim.

Egypt’s Copts took to a main thoroughfare that connects downtown with suburbs late in the afternoon, blocking the road. The army then arrived and told them that they could not block the Autostrad.

The Coptic demonstrators agreed to the order and unblocked the road to allow millions of Egyptians passage. The protest, however, continued.

“In less than 45 minutes a group of young people from areas such as Abagiya, the Cairo Citadel, Sayyeda Aisha and Basateen, began arriving,” Ibrahim continued.

These groups of young people, he said, began with around 500 people, but within an hour had grown to nearly 3,000. They began to attack the Copts with glass and bricks, forcing the military to intervene.

While the army was closing in on the protesters, it began attacking the protesters with live ammunition, Ibrahim said he witnessed.

As CAMERA asks, how long will it take before these escalating attacks start getting real coverage?

Update on my "Apartheid" posters

I've been getting good feedback for my "Apartheid?" posters (and the video I made from them.)

I had an interesting phone call yesterday with a director of the Northwest branch of Stand With Us, which is probably the best organization anywhere for teaching people about Israel's point of view. He really loved the posters, which was very nice to hear.

But he had never heard of this blog.

I like to think that I am well-known, but in fact, outside the Jblogosphere and a tiny slice of the Internet, this blog is still small potatoes. Certainly the 4000-5000 hits I've been receiving daily is nothing to sneeze at, but that is still really minuscule compared to the audience I need to reach. And the thought that even a well-known hasbara organization had never heard of me (the exact words were "Okay, first, who the heck are you? The posters are great!") is sobering, and a reason to think about how I can more effectively get the message out. The blog goes only so far.

Anyway, I just spent an hour doing something slightly unethical. I went to the Hillel site and figured out a way to harvest the email addresses of every officer at every Hillel on North America. I then spammed them all with a link to the posters, so they could use them during these Israel Hate Weeks. We'll see what the feedback is from that, and if some pro-Israel activists will then use my blog as a resource for their own programs and initiatives. After all, while it is not as well organized as I like (it is a blog, after all) I do have a lot of material at this site - enough to fill an encyclopedia.

Early indications are that the recipients of the email are clicking; I just got about 100 hits on that page in the past half hour, and so far it has received over 3300 hits and climbing fast.

Oh, I also got some rare hate mail today. I don't usually get them probably because I tend to write in a low-key, non-confrontational manner, but someone did take the time out to call me an "imbecile." He then gave the links to two sites that couldn't be more different, but were both anti-Israel (a Neturei Karta site and a hip-hop radio station.) I was amused.

Might as well make this an open thread....

Maldives opposition says government is "implementing Jewish policy"

From Minivan News (Maldives):

The opposition’s coalition partner, the People’s Alliance (PA), has publicly accused the Maldivian government of trying to implement the agenda of “Zionist Jews”.

In a statement published in Dhivehi on the party’s website, the PA, led by the half brother of the former President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, Abdulla Yameen, claimed that “the UK, France and the US are selecting individuals from Islamic countries, whom they want to be the ruler, and are training them to implement Jewish policy.”

Unfortunately, I do not have a translator for Dhivehi to see if the actual document (presumably this) is worse than what is being reported.

NPR gets stung by fake Muslim Brotherhood "donors"

From NPR:

NPR's then-senior vice president for fundraising Ron Schiller is seen and heard on a videotape released this morning telling two men who were posing as members of a fictitious Muslim Action Education Center that:
— "The Tea Party is fanatically involved in people's personal lives and very fundamental Christian — I wouldn't even call it Christian. It's this weird evangelical kind of move."
— "Tea Party people" aren't "just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."
— "I think what we all believe is if we don't have Muslim voices in our schools, on the air ... it's the same thing we faced as a nation when we didn't have female voices." In the heavily edited tape, that comment followed Schiller being told by one of the men that their organization "was originally founded by a few members of the Muslim Brotherhood in America." There's no sign in the edited tape that Schiller reacted in any way after being told of the group's alleged connection to an Islamic group that appeared to be connected with Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood.
— That NPR "would be better off in the long run without federal funding," a position in direct conflict with the organization's official position.
Schiller is also heard laughing when one of the men jokes that NPR should be known as "National Palestinian Radio."
NPR, as you'll see below, has called Schiller's comments appalling.
The video comes from Project Veritas, and is another in political activist James O'Keefe's undercover exposes (he most prominently took on ACORN — the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now). In the video, Schiller and NPR institutional giving director Betsy Liley are at lunch in Washington with two Project Veritas "investigative reporters" identified as Shaughn Adeleye and Simon Templar, who posed as "Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik." They were allegedly interested in having their organization donate $5 million to NPR. O'Keefe's organization says the recording was made on Feb. 22.

The video is fascinating, as the NPR executives joke about how racist Republicans are, how newspapers are owned by Jews, and lots of other similar stereotypes.

Commentary has more.

Ben-Dror Yemini's open letter to Roger Waters

Washed up rocker Roger Waters from Pink Floyd has been obsessed with Israel's separation fence, perhaps thinking that his album "The Wall" was somehow prophetic.

Anyway, Waters has come out in favor of BDS, using the usual pretentious and absurd arguments we are all too familiar with.

Ma'ariv's Ben Dror Yemini has a nice rejoinder:

Support for the boycott campaign against Israel in effect is support for the prolonging of the occupation and suffering of the Palestinians. An open letter to the rock star who is calling for a boycott of Israel.

To Roger Waters, Greetings.

Look Mr. Waters, the Jewish People is already used to blood libels. From using the blood of children for baking Passover matzah, to directing world Communism, to directing world capitalism, to controlling the media, and in the last generation, committing genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. A generation passes on and a generation arrives, and the number of blood libels forever exist.

Israel, Mr. Waters, is not exempt from any criticism. We're the world champions of self-criticism. There isn't another nation in which, in every field - not just the Israel-Palestinian conflict - there is so much biting, roiling criticism - often false and vicious. But even to this we've grown accustomed. Usually we're proud of our democracy, even when it's biting. But sometimes, Mr. Waters, we're fed up. We've simply had it. Not from the criticism; it's essential for every community, every society, every nation, like air to breathe.

We're fed up with the lies. For most of us - if you can read a little beyond the slogans - were fed up with the occupation. So if that's your thing you would find lots of partners in Israel - most Israelis. But that's not the story - not for BDS, of which you've become a great supporter, and not for the Hamas in Gaza, which only a year ago you announced your support for those who went there to cheer them - another campaign of useful idiots.

Let's start with the occupation. Only in the last decade Israel announced its willingness to end it, again, again and again. Completely. This began with the Camp David talks. The Palestinians backed away from a serious discussion. Then Clinton offered his proposal, which would have granted the Palestinians a state on 95% of the territory. They decided to say"no". Right after that, at the Taba talks all the giants of the the Israeli Left showed up. They went another big step towards the Palestinians, but even that didn't help. Two years ago another generous offer was made by Prime Minister Olmert. He didn't even get a reply from Abu Mazen.

Back to the BDS. Listen to the leaders of the campaign. Read their manifesto. They don't want two states for two peoples. Not the end of the occupation, but the end of Israel. You can hear it in their own voices. Yes, there are Israels among us who support this campaign. That's how we are. Runaway democracy. Everything goes. So instead of marvelling at our unparalleled democracy, you take advantage of the fact that Israeli democracy allows demonstrations like this, and you go and join the gang that is fighting against the very existence of the national home of the Jewish People. That's the position of Ahmadinejad, Al Qaida and Hamas. Is that your position? Have you gone crazy?

Are you in the peace camp, Mr. Waters? Here's a simple test for you. Very simple. Ask your friends in the BDS one question: "Do you support an agreement of two states for two peoples?"

We've got news for you: They oppose it. They don't want a Palestinian state alongside Israel, they want a Palestinian state in place of Israel. That's what's written in the manifesto of BDS. Read it, it's in English. They write in it, "Right of Return", which, loosely translated means "Destruction of Israel". To remove any doubt, they have the right of return--to a Palestinian state alongside Israel, not in place of Israel.

You and your ilk, Mr. Waters, are simply prolonging the suffering of the Palestinians. You are encouraging the peace refuseniks among them. You are encouraging their illusions.You are creating a new chapter of the Palestinian disaster. Who knows, if it were not for this support - by so many useful idiots - the Palestinians would have emerged from their position of refusal. But when they see you, and you join up with them, they continue to refuse peace.

So this is an opportunity for you, Mr. Waters, to prove that you're a humanitarian and human rights activist. It's not complicated. Tell the Israelis and Palestinians and BDS people one thing: the end of the conflict will come only if the two sides recognize the two-state solution. The side that refuses is the side that must be pressured, even boycotted. Only when you say this simple thing to both sides will you truly be in the peace camp. If you continue to support BDS, you are supporting refusal and the continuation of occupation and suffering.

A reply from you Mr. Waters, will be greatly appreciated.

(h/t אורי פלג)

"Eighth International Conference on Al Quds" - FAIL

The Eighth International Conference on Al Quds took place on Sunday and Monday in Khartoum. I had posted about Khaled Meshal's opening speech, calling for Jihad against Israel.

The Director of Information at Al-Quds International Foundation, Hashim Yagoub, said in a press conference held at SUNA regular news forum that representatives of 28 countries would take part in the conference along with representatives of the civil society organizations.

As lofty as this sounded, in reality it appears that the conference was a bust.

The keynote speaker was supposed to be Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the popular Qatar-based sheikh - but he bowed out at the last minute. Hurriyet Sudan noted this, saying his snubbing of the conference "raises questions."

As far as I can tell, only three speakers have been publicized: Meshal, Sudanese president Bashir (who said "What is going in the region is a prelude to the battle for Jerusalem"" and Gaza Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar who gave the closing speech.