Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 03, 2011

Who's lying - Ban Ki Moon or the PLO? (Or both?)

JPost reports:

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Thursday voiced his support for the establishment of a Palestinian state, but said that the matter is in the hands of the UN General Assembly, Palestinian Authority officials quoted him as saying.

The officials said that the secretary-general, who met with PA President Mahmoud Abbas in Rome, also expressed hope that members of the UN would show understanding for the Palestinian statehood bid.

The UN website says:

The Secretary-General met today with H.E. Mr. Mahmoud Abbas, President of the Palestinian National Authority.

The Secretary-General expressed his concern at the lack of progress in the Middle East peace process, but said that he had been encouraged by the vision laid out in U.S. President Obama's recent speech on the Middle East.

President Abbas briefed the Secretary-General on efforts to form a new Palestinian Government. The Secretary-General noted that Palestinian reconciliation should be based on PLO commitments and Quartet principles. He said the reconciliation effort should be given a chance.

The Secretary-General said achieving the goal of an independent, viable Palestinian state was long overdue. The Secretary-General thanked President Abbas for outlining Palestinian thoughts and plans on working toward statehood and on what was required for a return to negotiations.

The Secretary-General stressed that now, more than ever, it was important that the Palestinians and Israel engage in real, genuine and meaningful negotiations. The Secretary-General said he knew it was the Palestinian National Authority's priority to return to negotiating table.

So did Ban Ki-Moon say that "the matter was in the hands of the UN General Assembly"? The UNGA cannot establish a state and it seems unlikely that Ki-Moon would say otherwise. The UN press release certainly says nothing of the sort.

On the other hand, Ki-Moon is clearly lying when he says that it is "the Palestinian National Authority's priority to return to negotiating table." This entire UN exercise is their attempt to avoid going to the negotiating table.

Furthermore, the UN press release implies that the PNA has been doing negotiations, when in fact it is the PLO that has been - the PNA is strictly limited to domestic governing, not foreign affairs. When Abbas meets with internationals, it is as a representative of the PLO, not the president of the PA.

So to answer the question - both of them are liars.

(h/t Mike)

The best one-state solution (Andrew Klavan)

Give the entire Middle East to Israel!

Funny - and yet true:

If this goes viral, Arabs will believe that this is a real plan. Should be fun.

(h/t guy)

Links

Slate: The Persistence of Hate

Video: The rabbi and the paratroopers (taking care of soldiers during the Lebanon war)

Lots of blogs have been following the ban on Israeli books in the Scottish town of West Dunbartonshire. Israellycool has had a bunch of posts, The Muqata is organizing a counter-boycott of Scotch whiskey, and the idiotic comments of one of the council members made it into YNet.

Spengler on the upcoming Arab economic meltdown.

A long and depressing article in Commentary by Daniel Gordis on how young rabbis are being "even-handed." When the supposed leaders of a people cannot see the difference between their own people and the enemy, we are in serious trouble.

Hamas' leader again makes some comments that are hardly peaceful. But, then again, Fatah isn't much different.

The IDF holds races. The real, running kind.

After lots of criticism, an LGBT center in New York decides not to host any groups who deal with the Israeli/Palestinian conflict.

(h/t Cheryl and lots of people whose names I didn't save, sorry)

"Peace" protesters proud to call themselves "warriors"

The month-long saga of the Malaysian "aid" ship to Gaza is finally winding down...but not without one more illuminating fact.

Although the Perdana Global Peace Foundation (PGPF) Malaysia failed in its mission to send humanitarian aid right to the people of Gaza, it is proud of having broken Israel's illegal seige of Gazan waters.

PGPF chairman Tan Sri Norian Mai said this success was meaningful for PGPF, apart from the spirit and courage of those onboard the cargo ship MV Finch carrying the humanitarian aid, regarding them as warriors.

"Although this mission cannot be said to be 100 per cent successful, it managed to break Israel's illegal seige as the ship managed to enter the Gazan waters before being stopped by the Israeli navy," he told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, here, Wednesday.

Dr Siti Hasmah said her husband, former premier and PGPF president Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was proud of all the mission volunteers and thanked them for their sacrifice.

"Dr Mahathir is unable to be present here to welcome home the heroes today, but he wishes to congratulate and thank them for their sacrifice....he's very proud of these warriors.

"Peace" activists proudly calling themselves "warriors"?

It's also funny how no matter what happens, these anti-Israel agitators will pretend to have won. If Israel had stopped the ship further out to sea, they would claim "piracy." When done closer in, they claim "victory."

(h/t Mike)

Egyptian town wants to stop Jewish pilgrimage to rabbi's grave

From The Egyptian Gazette:

Residents of el-Behira Governorate in the Nile Delta vowed Thursday to prevent thousands of Jews, who arrive en masse at the tiny village of Demito near Damanhour City, 50 km southeast of Alexandria, every year during the last week of each December to attend the birthday celebrations of Abu Hasira, a Moroccan Jewish holy man, who was buried there some 150 years ago.

"After the January 25 revolution, which toppled over the Hosni Mubarak regime, the Jews will not be allowed to enter Demito any more and endanger the public morals and hurt the feelings of its 5,000 residents," Moustafa Rasslan, a lawyer, said.

He called on the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which has been ruling the country since February 11, to enforce a 2001 court ruling that compelled the Culture Ministry, responsible for the site where the annual gathering takes place in late December and early January, to cancel the Abu Hasira celebrations all together.

"If the SCAF does not enforce the ruling, Damito residents will not allow the Jews come to their village to attend the week-long Abu Hasira Mulid (festival), where they used to behave in a way that contradicts Islamic traditions and public morals under the very nose of security officials of the ousted regime," he said.

Although Damityoo residents insist that they have nothing against Jews , they insist that the Jews and Israelis should feel ashamed of themselves to visit their village while they are oppressing the Palestinians.

A female residents said that the Jews drink alcohol, which is forbidden in Islam, to be blessed as part of their veneration of the rabbi.

"The Jewish visitors usually get drunk and engage in obscene dancing during the celebrations," the woman, who asked not to be identified, said, demanding that the Abu Hasira festival should be cancelled after the revolution and the deposing of Mubarak, whom she dismissed as Israel's friend.

Damito dwellers, led by lawyer Rasslan, have officially requested the SCAF to stop the festival because of their discontent about the Jews' misconduct.

They have also demanded that the Essam Sharf Government to move Abu Hasira's remains to Israel and change the name of their village from Damito to Mohamed el-Dura, the Palestinian young boy whom Israeli forces shot to death in cold blood during the second Intifada eleven years ago.

It's not like they don't like Jews, Allah forbid. They just to ban them from their town. You can't call that anti-semitism!

Here's a video of the "drunken" revelry and "obscene dancing" that they are complaining about, that was embedded on Arab sites last January:

And then, as an afterthought, the article says:

Recently, there has been an unconfirmed report that the secret Egyptian security agents have foiled a bid by some anti-Israel activists from vandalizing the Abu Hasira Shrine.

No security official was immediately available to confirm or deny this report.

In fact, Shorouk News reported two weeks ago:

Hundreds of students from the University of Damanhur and a coalition of youth on Saturday held a peaceful march to the tomb of Abu Hatezira to denounce the Israeli occupation of Gaza and the West Bank, and to show solidarity with the third Palestinian Intifada, and the rejection of the establishment of the alleged birth of Abuhetzeira in Damanhour.

The march began in front of the college at the University of Damanhur and then walked around the streets, and stopped at the bridge leading to the Abu Rish Dmitoh village is located the tomb of Abu Hatzeira, and afterwards security forces prevented them from entering the village.

The students burned the Israeli flag, and carried a sign saying "The Zionists will not enter," in reference to repeated visits by Israeli tourists each year to the shrine of Abuhatzeira. The students chanted slogans condemning the Israeli occupation of Palestine, and calls for halt attacks on the Gaza Strip, and unify the Arab countries to restore the occupied Arab territories, and stop the various forms of normalization with Israel including natural gas, and the expulsion of its ambassador from Egypt.

So Egyptians decide to protestagainst Israel's existence at a shrine that has nothing to do with Israel and only has religious significance. A shrine that they want to remove from their midst.

But don't say they hate Jews!

(h/t Vicious Babushka)

Watch out for those "artificial quakes"!

From Iran's FARS "news" agency:

A prominent Palestinian activist cautioned on Wednesday that the Zionist regime of Israel is likely to attempt to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque through an artificial earthquake, and urged all Islamic countries to show an immediate and strong reaction to the Israeli plans against the first Muslim Keble.

"The Zionist regime authorities may find control over the Al Aqsa Mosque or issue the order for its destruction through an artificial quake which now seems to be the case, given the Zionists' continued diggings and excavation operations under the Al Aqsa Mosque," Khater noted.

You would think that they could come up with something more original. Aftrall, the "artificial quake" threat has been around for years.

In 2009, an "expert on Israeli affairs" said that Israel was going to create an earthquake in the Negev or the Red Sea in order to destroy Al Aqsa.

And a Hamas MP made the same accusation in 2007.

Come on, Arabs, come up with something more imaginative!

Maybe the Egyptian sharks can grow legs from Israeli genetic engineering and strap on bomb belts when they come to visit the mosque disguised as tourists? Or Israel might release Zionist gophers to eat away at the foundations of the mosque. Maybe some super-secret Joo-Rays are being shot, right now, at the Dome of the Rock with the intent to burn a six-pointed star into the dome which will turn it into a synagogue!

Recycling the old 'artificial earthquake" story? I'm deeply disappointed.

A thorough explanation of UCU's latest attempt to legitimize Israel bashing

The British University and College Union (UCU) last week voted to reject the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia definition of anti-semitism.

The EUMC working definition includes specific ways that criticism of Israel is in fact anti-semitic.

Working definition: “Antisemitism is a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

In addition, such manifestations could also target the state of Israel, conceived as a Jewish collectivity....

Examples of the ways in which antisemitism manifests itself with regard to the State of Israel taking into account the overall context could include:

Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.

Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.

Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.

Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.

Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.

However, criticism of Israel similar to that leveled against any other country cannot be regarded as antisemitic.

The virulently anti-Zionist UCU rejects this definition:

Congress notes with concern that the so-called 'EUMC working definition of antisemitism', while not adopted by the EU or the UK government and having no official status, is being used by bodies such as the NUS and local student unions in relation to activities on campus.

Congress believes that the EUMC definition confuses criticism of Israeli government policy and actions with genuine antisemitism, and is being used to silence debate about Israel and Palestine on campus.

Congress resolves:

that UCU will make no use of the EUMC definition (e.g. in educating members or dealing with internal complaints)

that UCU will dissociate itself from the EUMC definition in any public discussion on the matter in which UCU is involved

that UCU will campaign for open debate on campus concerning Israel's past history and current policy, while continuing to combat all forms of racial or religious discrimination.

Even though the EUCM was careful to distinguish between legitimate criticism of Israel and anti-semitic criticism of Israel, the UCU rejects that distinction - it claims that all criticism of Israel is in fact legitimate, no matter the context.

Ben Gidley at Dissent Magazine goes into great depth on why unions needs to define concepts like racism and anti-semitism - and why the UCU is completely wrong (and disingenuous) in its attempt to pretend that it is impossible for criticism of Israel to be anti-semitic.

The entire article is worth reading. Its conclusion:

For the union to disassociate itself from the working definition in any public discussion of anti-Semitism is beyond ridiculous. It means insisting that all of the organizations that do take the working definition seriously—the Community Security Trust (CST), which monitors anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom; the NUS; the Union of Jewish Students; the Fundamental Rights Agency; the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe—are dismissed in advance. It undermines their work on anti-Semitism, and it undermines their vital work on anti-Roma racism, Islamophobia, and other racisms.

In the workplace, as the CST’s director writes, this “will serve to (even) further alienate Jews from the union; and it will make it (even) harder for anti-Semitism to be raised there as a matter of concern....[I]t carries the implication that people who complain about anti-Semitism in any Israel-related context are likely to be a bunch of liars, dancing to a pre-ordained tune.”

As an academic who studies racism, I find it bizarre that my union cannot accept that there is even the faintest possibility that institutional racism might exist in our own ranks, even after a series of clearly documented incidents and a shocking number of resignations by Jewish members who perceive it as such. This motion, if passed, [it was passed - EoZ] will in fact legitimate racism in the union and stop any allegation of anti-Semitism—in debates or in the workplace—from being taken seriously. That the motion will be tabled in a session entitled “Campaigning for equality” is ironic, but the irony tastes bitter indeed.

(h/t Adam and Zach N. via Facebook)

A great loss for the JBlogosphere

Yaacov Lozowick is retiring from blogging, as he is about to start a new job as Israel's State Archivist.

Yaacov is a brilliant blogger - insightful, thought-provoking, original - and an excellent writer as well.

At least he will continue to put up some notes for all of us to see at a new site.

I wish him good luck in his new - and very impressive! - position, but the Zionist blogosphere will be much poorer without him.

"Naksa Day" - Will the Lebanese army stop the protests?

From Ya Libnan:

Fatah leader in Lebanon Munir Maqdah said on Wednesday that all Palestinians including Fatah and Hamas groups will take part in the Naksa Day rally scheduled for June 5.

“All Palestinian factions will participate in the event, including institutions from Lebanon’s civil society,” he told the Central News Agency.

“The May 15 clashes are a ball of fire that will keep on growing until it burns the occupier until the Palestinians are granted their right to return to their homeland,” he added.

Palestinian sources told the news agency that the demonstrators are planning on marching to the Lebanese-Israeli border on June 5, where they will set up tents at Maroun al-Ras and at the Khiyam prison.

They added that preparations and contacts are underway with Lebanese authorities, Hezbollah, and other parties in order to stage Sunday’s rally.

Security sources told Kuwaiti newspaper al Anbaa that the Lebanese army won’t allow a repeat of the al Nakba day protests that took place in Maroun al Rass. The sources stressed that the army will not allow Israel any more excuses for more killings

One source told the daily that the army recently succeeded in foiling an attempt to fire a rocket towards Israel … the person was detained just before firing the rocket.

For some reason, even though everyone knows that the Lebanese army fired at demonstrators on May 15, everyone says that all of the dead were killed by Israel.

Ethiopian Jew sings Arabic song on Israeli TV talent show

An amazing performance on Israel's "A Star is Born" talent show by Hagit Yasou, a 21-year old from Sderot. She is singing in Arabic.

Those racist Israelis!

(h/t SA)

Reports: Syrians kill 43, destroy mosques, dump bodies at sea (UPDATED)

From CNN:

Dozens of people have died in clashes with troops in western Syria, where government forces reportedly shelled homes in one town, protest organizers and a human rights official said Thursday.

At least 43 people have been killed since Sunday when government forces entered Homs province to end protests against government rule, said Rami Abdel Rahman, president of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

A witness in Rastan, who identified himself as a protest organizer named Abu Abdullah, said there was heavy artillery fire and that shelling had destroyed about 20 homes and several mosques.
Abdullah said the fighting has been nonstop since troops cut off the town on Sunday.

Abdullah said he carried the body of a 16-year-old boy killed in the attack on the city.
"He was just walking in the street when he was shot," he said.

I bet that the mosques has quite a few Korans that were destroyed, too.

Meanwhile:

Belgian newspaper “Die Presse” has reportedly confirmed on its website that the Syrian intelligence services has resorted to a new and innovative way to get rid of the bodies of the protesters that were killed by packing them into well locked metal containers and dumping them into the sea making sure they don’t float and expose the crime.

The decision of dumping into the sea was reportedly taken in the wake of the scandal over the mass graves that were discovered not long ago and embarrassed the regime.

The paper quoted unnamed observers as saying that the number of bodies that were dumped so far into the sea are at least two hundred and some of them were killed under torture.

UPDATE: There is a video that appears to show the dead bodies in a refrigerated truck. (h/t Joel)

UN resolution proves Gaza not occupied (JPost)

An op-ed in the Jerusalem Post shows that even the UN agrees that Gaza is not occupied by Israel! Well, it would if it applied a consistent standard to the definition of "occupation."

The argument for occupation has been that since Israel maintains “absolute authority over Gaza’s airspace and territorial sea [it is] manifestly exercising governmental authority in these areas,” in the words of Prof. Iain Scobbie. Others claim that border control amounts to “effective control” of the interior. But prior blockades, like that of Cuba by president John F. Kennedy, were never considered occupations. Moreover, border controls are typical along every international frontier, even among the friendliest of nations.

...The recent UN Security Council resolution authorizing force against Libya provides an excellent experiment in whether the legal arguments widely made about Israel are also applied in parallel cases. In March, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1973 in response to Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s violent crackdown on anti-government rebels. The resolution authorized military action, delineated a no-fly zone across all of Libya, froze Libyan assets, and authorized the extensive use of force against Libyan troops.

Yet Resolution 1793 specifically rules out any “occupation” of Libyan territory. This was not stray language. The prohibition of occupation has helped secure the support of several skeptical nations.

At the Council meeting, Lebanon’s delegate stressed that the resolution would not result in the occupation of “even an inch” of Libyan territory.

SO we now have confirmation from the Council that a broad embargo, no-fly zone and months of constant aerial bombardment do not constitute an “occupation.” Certainly these activities have considerable effect on Libya, and “control” much of what happens there. Obviously Israel’s much less comprehensive and invasive measures against Gaza do not constitute an occupation by this standard.

Of course, the Libya resolution proves nothing new; the arguments that Gaza remained occupied after 2005 were always quite surprising.

The obviousness of the above principles when applied anywhere but to Israel should give pause to those who think that even a full withdrawal to pre-1967 lines will lead to Israel’s international legitimacy, or preclude the fabrication of new pretextual claims.

(h/t Greg, Menachem)

Iranian media can't decide who controls whom: US or Israel?

A couple of days ago, Iran's FARS "news" agency reported "Zionist Lobbies Thwart Improvement of US Ties with Iran."

On Wednesday, however, Ahmadinejad said that

These elements (Zionists), which have … formed a government in occupied Palestine today, are marionettes that are playing their parts on stage while the actual politics and actual stage is in the control of the United States.

So who controls whom?

The answer, of course, is that we Elders control the leaders of the US who in turn control the Israeli marionette government.

But we also control Iran, mostly through our Shi'ite division.

And Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood answers to our Sunni wing.

And the banks, of course, have always been controlled by us.

And the media, especially the FARS News Agency.

And professional bowling. (Well, Elders have to start somewhere!)

Afternoon links

Another good video for Jerusalem Day:

JPost has a video and story of a soldier returning to the Wall 44 years after an iconic photo was taken of him there.

Ben Dror Yemini takes apart Abbas' lies in his NYT op-ed.

Anti-semitism keeps increasing in Venezuela.

Melanie Phillips - The Floating Theatre of Jihad

Sultan Knish - The great error of Israeli normalization

The last surviving "righteous gentile" who saved Austrian Jews during the Holocaust

Having money problems? Jihad is the answer! Just kidnap people and ransom them - it is a wonderful Islamic money making machine!

(h/t Menachem, T34, Jed, Cheryl, Jack, Silke)

Seventy years ago: The Farhud

The BBC recalls the Farhud, the pogrom against Baghdad's Jews in 1941:

On 1 June 1941, a Nazi-inspired pogrom erupted in Baghdad, bringing to an end more than two millennia of peaceful existence for the city's Jewish minority. Some Jewish children witnessed the bloodshed, and retain vivid memories 70 years later.

Heskel Haddad, an 11-year-old boy was finishing a festive meal and preparing to celebrate the Jewish festival of Shavuot, oblivious to the angry mob that was about to take over the city.

Thousands of armed Iraqi Muslims were on the rampage, with swords, knives and guns.

The two days of violence that followed have become known as the Farhud (Arabic for "violent dispossession"). About 800 Jews were killed, spelling the end for a Jewish community that dated from the time of Babylon.

"On the first night of Shavuot we usually go to synagogue and stay up all night studying Torah," says Haddad, now a veteran ophthalmologist in New York.

"Suddenly we heard screams, 'Allah Allah!' and shots were fired. We went out to the roof to see what's happening, we saw fires, we saw people on the roofs in the ghetto screaming, begging God to help them."

The violence continued through the night. A red hand sign, or hamsa, had been painted on Jewish homes, to mark them out. Families had to defend themselves by whatever means they could.

...In a nearby street in a mixed Jewish and Muslim quarter, Steve Acre lived with his widowed mother and eight siblings in a house owned by a Muslim.

Acre, now 79 and living in Montreal, climbed a palm tree in the courtyard when the violence began. He still remembers the cry "Cutal al yehud" which translates as "slaughter the Jews".

"Later lots of men came outside and set the house on fire. And the men were shouting like from joy, in jubilation holding up something that looked like a slab of meat in their hands.

"Then I found out, it was a woman's breast they were carrying - they cut her breast off and tortured her before they killed her, my mother's best friend, Sabicha."

The BBC still downplays the Jew-hatred that caused this event:

Until the Farhud, Baghdad had been a model of peaceful coexistence for Jews and Arabs. Jews made up about one in three of the city's population in 1941, and most saw themselves as Iraqi first and Jewish second.

So what caused this terrible turn of events?

A month earlier, a pro-Nazi lawyer Rashid Ali al-Gilani, had overthrown Iraq's royal family, and started broadcasting Nazi propaganda on the radio.

But when an attack on a British Air Force base outside Baghdad ended in humiliating failure, he was forced to flee. The Farhud took place in the power vacuum that followed.

So whenever there is a temporary power vacuum, one must expect residents who lived peacefully with Jews for generations to rise up and massacre them?

Obviously, even though Jews had integrated into Iraqi life and even though there were some Iraqi Muslims who saved Jews, there was still a strong undercurrent of Muslim anti-semitism in Iraq. While the BBC calls it a "Nazi-inspired pogrom" it was enthusiastically performed by Muslims - not Nazis - the very neighbors of the Jews who they lived in harmony with.

This indicates that Islam itself is the problem, not the Nazis or the "power vacuum" or anything else. If in the absence of a strong government the Muslims could be easily incited to slaughter their Jewish neighbors, it means that it was anything but a "model of peaceful co-existence" - and by the BBC saying that, it implies that the natural order of the world is for people to want to slaughter Jews but they suppress that desire because of external factors.

More Farhud articles and links at the Point of No Return blog.

(h/t Aparatchik)