Virgin stores respond to Mein Kampf issue - with lies (updated)

Yesterday, I reported that Virgin Megastores in both Qatar and Bahrain had featured an  Arabic version of Mein Kampf as "recommended" books to read for their customers.

The UAE-based National picked up on the story, and received a statement from Virgin in Doha:

Virgin Megastore Middle East is a regional leader in retail entertainment, offering our customers a wide range of products in many languages, genres and interests to satisfy the demand of our consumers across CDs, DVDS, electronics, gadgets and toys, multimedia games and accessories and books.

Each Virgin Megastore in the Middle East is responsible for the merchandising of products within its respective store and is not merchandised via a planogram from headquarters.

Recently, one of the region's Virgin Megastores included in its book section the Arabic translation of Mein Kampf, by Adolf Hitler, a title available worldwide in major bookstores and online.

For one day, the book was included in the recommended section. The recommended tag was not an endorsement of the book's author or its content. In response to a customer, we removed the title from the display. Commentary in the public domain was also taken seriously by Virgin Megastore and our policy is always to listen and respond immediately.

This is a very offensive statement filled with provable lies.

It wasn't only one store, but at least two (and possibly three - a commenter here saw Mein Kampf featured in an airport bookshop in Saudi Arabia, but did not recall if it was a Virgin store.)

How on earth can they say "The recommended tag was not an endorsement of the book's author or its content"? That's what the word "recommended" means!

It was not only in the Recommended case for a single day. Here is a photo from a tweet on November 5:

Here's the picture from the tweet I noted yesterday, dated November 23rd. Note that one of the "Recommended" books has changed in the meantime:

And while I don't know if it had been in the "Recommended" section earlier, someone complained about the book being sold at Gulf stores as long ago as April. (h/t Israellycool)

The Bahrain post I linked to was from a year ago.

In all those cases the customer complained, and it does not appear to have helped. I know I tweeted the company and received no response.

And moreover, how offensive is it that Virgin's response says that defends their decision to prominently and repeatedly display incitement to genocide as merely "a title available worldwide in major bookstores and online"?  You can bet that they wouldn't stock anything offensive to Islam, even if those books were "available worldwide in major bookstores and online."

Virgin ME is trying to squirm out of this, without any hint that it is even aware that it did anything wrong.

UPDATE: The Middle East Virgin stores are owned by The Azadea Group, not Virgin itself, except for Morocco.

However, Virgin seems to consider itself the lead company anyway. From its website:

Once a Virgin company is up and running, several factors contribute to making it a success. The power of the Virgin name; Richard Branson's personal reputation; our unrivalled network of friends, contacts and partners; the Virgin management style; the way talent is empowered to flourish within the group. To some traditionalists, these may not seem hard headed enough. To them, the fact that Virgin has minimal management layers, no bureaucracy, a tiny board and no massive global HQ is an anathema. But it works for us! The proof of our success is real and tangible.

Our companies are part of a family rather than a hierarchy. They are empowered to run their own affairs, yet the companies help one another, and solutions to problems often come from within the Group somewhere. In a sense we are a commonwealth, with shared ideas, values, interests and goals.

If they take credit, they must also take responsibility. (h/t Silke)

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Hamas denies its members are fleeing Syria

UPI reports:

Iran has threatened to cut off funds and arms to Hamas if its officials vacate their Damascus headquarters and leave Syria, Palestinian sources told Haaretz.

Hamas officials involved in raising funds for the organization's military wing and some members of the political leadership have already left Syria with their families for Gaza, Lebanon, Sudan and Qatar, the sources said.

The sources told Haaretz "second- and third-ranking" Hamas activists are leaving but senior leaders such as Khaled Masha'al will remain in the Syrian capital.

Hamas denies it:

The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) on Monday categorically denied media reports about the departure from Damascus of families of the movement's leaders. According to these reports, these families have secretly left to the Gaza Strip amid the violent events taking place across Syria.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said in a statement on Monday, "the movement (headquarters) are still in Syria, and continue to work as usual, following the Palestinian issues, without any significant change." According to Barhoum, the reports about Hamas leaders leaving Syrian territory are just a "failed and miserable attempt to create the strained relationship between the movement and the Syrian regime," pointing out that Hamas has not taken any decision on this matter until this moment.

The Hamas official stressed that the movement is not looking for an alternative to host its leadership.

I would be very surprised if Iran would cut Hamas off even if it did leave Syria. Hamas is hardly strengthening Syria and its utility to Iran is its terrorism against Israeli Jews, not its presence in Syria.

So while I believe that some Hamas members are fleeing Syria, I doubt that Iran made any threats, except maybe as a form of posturing.

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Doublethink in action as Saudi Arabia says it may seek nukes

From AFP:

Saudi Arabia may consider acquiring nuclear weapons to match regional rivals Israel and Iran, its former intelligence chief Prince Turki al-Faisal said on Monday.

"Our efforts and those of the world have failed to convince Israel to abandon its weapons of mass destruction, as well as Iran... therefore it is our duty towards our nation and people to consider all possible options, including the possession of these weapons," Faisal told a security forum in Riyadh.

"A (nuclear) disaster befalling one of us would affect us all," said Faisal.

Israel is widely held to possess hundreds of nuclear missiles, which it neither confirms nor denies, while the West accuses Iran of seeking an atomic bomb, a charge the Islamic republic rejects.

Riyadh, which has repeatedly voiced fears about the nuclear threat posed by Shiite-dominated Iran and denounced Israel's atomic capacity, has stepped up efforts to develop its own nuclear power for "peaceful use."

Israel is widely assumed to have had nuclear weapons capacity for over four decades.

Yet Saudi Arabia never made any indications of interest in acquiring nuclear capabilities until Iran started its own nuclear program.

If Saudi Arabia was ever really frightened that the warmongering Zionists would shoot atom bombs at Riyadh, why wouldn't they have started their nuclear program in the 1970s?

This is how Orwell's doublethink is working in the Arab and anti-Israel world, today.

Every intelligent person, like Prince Turki, knows that Israel is a rational player with morality and an instinct for self preservation. Every intelligent person also knows that the current Iranian leadership is irrational, unpredictable and more interested in macho posturing than in the well-being of its people, and that they are endangering the entire world with their reckless pursuit of weapons of mass destruction.

But no one is allowed to actually say it as it is.

So all we see and read are pro-forma denunciations of Israel, the pre-requisite to any other statement. The media, in this case AFP, dutifully reports the doublespeak without blinking an eye or noting the obvious counter-proof I mentioned above.

Turki is not worried about Israel at all. All his fears are towards Iran. But he must lie to maintain his standing in the viciously anti-Israel universe he inhabits.

This relatively small news story combines with thousands of others with similarly irrational slams against Israel, as every Arab, Muslim and far-leftist is required by their own peculiar mindset to frame everything in terms of "Zionist aggression." Even though they know that it is nonsense, it is hardwired in their collective psyches.

Millions of readers see stories like this and believe that a rational, ethical Israel is worse than an unstable Islamist regime who actively wants to start a new world war to bring the messianic Mahdi closer to Earth. They also see many, many similarly illogical stories blaming Israel for every ill without even unbiased  reporters caring enough (or even smart enough) to point out the obvious.

Generations of such news consumers are not exposed to the fact that they are being fed lies and naively believe wholeheartedly the lies they have been fed since they started to watch TV. They become the next generation of reporters and pundits, without even the ability to look at Israel fairly - and without even the language to do so.

It all ends up being a tsunami of lies and hate, an area so dark that candles here and there cannot make a dent in the deepening blackness of falsehood.

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Newspapers speculate on Iran, come up with different theories

The New York Times says:

It is still unclear what caused the explosion, with American officials saying they believe it was probably an accident, perhaps because of Iran’s inexperience with a volatile, dangerous technology. Iran declared it an accident, but subsequent discussions of the episode in the Iranian news media have referred to the chief of Iran’s missile program as one of the “martyrs” killed in the huge explosion. Some Iranian officials have talked of sabotage, but it is unclear whether that is based on evidence or surmise after several years in which Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated on Tehran’s streets, and a highly sophisticated computer worm has attacked its main uranium production facility.

Both American and Israeli officials, in discussing the explosion in recent days, showed little curiosity about its cause. “Anything that buys us time and delays the day when the Iranians might be able to mount a nuclear weapon on an accurate missile is a small victory,” one Western intelligence official who has been deeply involved in countering the Iranian nuclear program said this weekend. “At this point, we’ll take whatever we can get, however it happens.”

The Los Angeles Times says:

However, many former U.S. intelligence officials and Iran experts believe that the explosion — the most destructive of at least two dozen unexplained blasts in the last two years — was part of a covert effort by the U.S., Israel and others to disable Iran's nuclear and missile programs. The goal, the experts say, is to derail what those nations fear is Iran's quest for nuclear weapons capability and to stave off an Israeli or U.S. airstrike to eliminate or lessen the threat.

"It looks like the 21st century form of war," said Patrick Clawson, who directs the Iran Security Initiative at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a Washington think tank. "It does appear that there is a campaign of assassinations and cyber war, as well as the semi-acknowledged campaign of sabotage."

Or perhaps not. Any such operation would be highly classified, and those who might know aren't talking. The result is Washington's latest national security parlor game — trying to figure out who, if anyone, is responsible for the unusual incidents.

The Daily Mirror is more dramatic:

Sleeper agents in Tehran received coded signals and moved on their targets.

Their weapons were bombs made from household substances.

The result was more than a dozen fire-bomb attacks on the homes and offices of some of Iran’s leading nuclear scientists.

The message was clear. Agents working for Israel’s Mossad were telling Tehran: “Stop the nuclear weapons programme. We know where your key people are.”

The attacks would have been carried out not by Israelis but Iranian ­dissidents, ­probably trained by Mossad. Today the Mirror ­spotlights the secret war against Iran that has been going on for months.

Last week’s bombings were in response to threats by Tehran against Israel and the state-sponsored storming of the British embassy by demonstrators in Tehran.

And it goes on from there:

Within a fortnight we may see an all-out American air strike on a dozen key targets in the Islamic republic.

According to our sources, if the strike on Iran does take place, it will be US-led. British signals operators are likely to help monitor Iranian communications from a listening station in the Mediterranean. An ­intelligence source revealed: “There are UK experts nearer the region in places such as Cyprus who may assist in ­intercepting communications.

“And British warships will, of course, be in the Indian ocean – ostensibly helping the anti-piracy mission – but they will be able to provide aid.”

Almost hourly briefings are taking place between America’s most senior war ­planners in a bomb-proof bunker at US Central Command, called CentCom, in Tampa, Florida.

CentCom also has an office at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, in the Gulf, where staff help with the ­planning of an attack.

A new generation of super accurate missiles could be used to destroy bunkers up to 200ft underground. The US’s Massive Ordnance Penetrator, dubbed the Big Blu, was designed for targets in Iran.

B-2 Spirit stealth bombers will deploy the six-metre GPS-guided rocket, fitted with 2.5 tons of explosives.

They will be used to smash open bunkers and tunnels suspected of containing weapons of mass ­destruction. The £700million bombers are the most costly warplanes the world has seen.

They would fly a 13,000-mile-plus round trip to Iran from Whiteman air force base in Missouri or 12,500 miles there and back from Andersen US Bomber Forward Operating Base on the Pacific Island of Guam. If President Obama gives the go-ahead for a strike, Tomahawk cruise missiles are likely to be fired by US submarines in the Indian Ocean. They would slam into more than a dozen key targets.

Hellfire missiles unleashed by Unmanned Aerial Vehicles flying 40,000ft above Iran would target its nuclear labs in precision attacks.

Israel is committed to stopping Iran’s nuclear weapons programme but only the US has the resources to wipe out the suspect sites.

Barack Obama knows the longer he waits to give the go-ahead the greater the chances that Israel would launch an attack – with the possibility that they might not complete the job.

In the end, very few people actually know anything, making it easy to find experts willing to say anything.

(h/t Yoel)

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Evil Israeli army helps Gaza farmers

From the IDF:

IDF holds conference supporting Gaza flower export

The Erez Crossing Coordination Liaison Offices (CLO) at the Gaza Strip held a flower cultivation conference for 24 Palestinian representatives in response to the recent carnation export. The conference focused on protecting crops during the winter and the export process in general.

"There is not natural border between Israel and the Gaza Strip," explained (CLO) agricultural coordinator, Ori Madar. "Diseases and other infections can pass from the Gaza Strip to Israel and vice versa." He added that approximately 8% of the Gaza agricultural product is exported.

Israeli authorities and the IDF are essential in the Gaza flower export and follow international standards. "The CLO is also in charge of water systems as well as ground and product inspections, and provides Palestinian farmers with the necessary agricultural tools and support," explained Madar.

Such educational programs are held monthly, this particular conference dealing with American Carnation crops that are in high demand in markets in Holland. This year, over 20 million flowers are to be exported from the Gaza Strip, as well as strawberries, peppers and tomatoes.

"The participants are thirsty for knowledge. They are seeking innovation and we can provide them with it. We help them with marketing and optimize their export," explained Joseph Moshe who lectured at the conference.

"This is about our income," said one of the Palestinian farmers. "The information and support we get from the CLO is extremely beneficial. The flowers' quality is the most important component affecting our income. I learned a lot about packaging, and most of my work is based on information I acquired from Israel throughout the years.

I can't wait for "peace activists" and "human rights activists" put out any press releases praising this initiative between Israel and Palestinian Arabs as a shining example of peace and cooperation. After all, this should be an example as to how things should work, so no doubt these activists will be thrilled to learn about it. Otherwise, people might start to wonder whether they really care about peace at all.

And I found this news at an Arab website!

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Syria test-fires Scud B, other missiles - but betrays its fears

From UPI:

Syria test-fired at least one Scud B missile and other missiles "with accuracy" near the Iraqi border, officials said.

State television released footage of the tests, which SANA, the country's official news agency, said were aimed at proving the military's capability "to defend the homeland."

The test-firings "all achieved their goal with accuracy," the report said.

Israeli television reports said Scud B missiles have a range of about 190 miles. The reports said other surface-to-surface missiles, with a range of up to 124 miles, were also fired in the tests.

The WaPo adds:

[T]he combination of missile tests as well as air and ground troops indicate the maneuvers were of a higher-level than the military’s usual annual war games.

A telling detail comes at the end of official Syrian news agency SANA's report on the exercises:

Gen. Rajiha stressed that the armed forces, under the leadership of President Bashar al-Assad, will remain loyal to the homeland and will defend the interests of the Syrian people.

An unprompted assertion like that would never be stated by a nation confident in its own armed forces.

Syria's leadership is very nervous.

(h/t Yoel)

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Quartet irritated by Palestinian Arab actions

From Ha'aretz:

The U.S. government has asked senior Palestinian officials to refrain from leaking details of talks that took place recently between Middle East Quartet envoys, Israeli representatives and the Palestinian Authority.

According to a senior U.S. official, the Quartet agreed with Israel and the Palestinians that the content of the talks would remain confidential.

“Quartet members and parties have agreed to preserve confidentiality in their discussions. So frankly, we're somewhat disturbed by the fact that many of these details have appeared in the press,” the official said.

The Palestinians presented the Quartet with two documents relating to the borders of a future Palestinian state and security arrangements with Israel in November, but the Quartet told the Palestinians that the documents would not be passed to the Israelis, according to the official.

Quartet representatives told Saeb Erekat, head of the Palestinian negotiating team, that the proposals he presented were not relevant, because they had not been presented in direct talks with Israel, the official said.

The Americans have expressed displeasure with the Palestinians in part because of their refusal to engage in face-to-face talks with Israel. The Obama administration sees the Palestinian strategy of presenting proposals to the Quartet without engaging in direct talks as an attempt to change the rules of the game.

On December 13 and 14, Quartet envoys will once again hold separate meetings with Erekat, and Israeli negotiator Isaac Molho.

Haaretz reported on Thursday that Erekat presented Quartet representatives with two documents on November 14 that contained the Palestinian proposals. One document proposed the borders of a Palestinian state based on 1967 lines,but also indicated a willingness to swap 1.9 percent of West Bank territory with that of Israel.

The second document dealt with security arrangements and included the Palestinians' consent to an international peacekeeping force on the Israeli border and in the Jordan Valley. It also committed the Palestinians to refrain from forging military alliances with countries hostile to Israel, and also to the demilitarization of the West Bank. The proposal, however, would permit the Palestinians to have limited weaponry.

The Palestinian proposal was submitted in the context of a timeline suggested by the Quartet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York on September 23, just a short time after Netanyahu delivered a speech to the assembly. The Quartet's timeline called for the Palestinians and Israelis to submit proposals on borders and security issues by January 26 of next year, to serve as opening positions for subsequent negotiations.

The recent comments from Howard Gutman and especially Leon Panetta indicate that despite soothing words the Obama administration has hardly tilted towards Israel.

However, it is fascinating that Palestinian Arabs have managed to irritate three White House administrations in a row that had started off very supportive of them.

Clinton did more than anyone to turn Arafat from a terrorist into a respected politician, only to be rebuffed and insulted during negotiations in the final months of his presidency.

George W. Bush started out quite sympathetic towards Palestinian Arabs, but Arafat's lies to him during the Karine-A incident made him publicly call for a change in the PA leadership.

And now it appears that the White House, years after Obama told his friend Rashid Khalidi that he would tilt the US' policy towards Arab positions, is showing unhappiness towards the PLO leadership as well. And, more amazingly, so is the Quartet - which includes the UN.

The PLO will always pocket their gains given by successive US leadership, but it does not make them any more flexible or amenable to peace - on the contrary, it makes them more arrogant.

The lesson, that no Western leader seems to learn until it is too late, is that coddling Palestinian Arab leadership is counterproductive to peace.

If only that knowledge would transcend an election cycle.

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Exclusive: EoZ interview with Danny Ayalon

I interviewed Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon at the Bet El dinner on Sunday night. It was a noisy room so the sound quality isn't the greatest but for the most part it is understandable.

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More details on Shalit

YNet has some interesting new details on Shalit as a hostage in Gaza:

On Sunday Yedioth Ahronoth revealed that the kidnapped soldier decided to stop eating while captive and reached a point of malnutrition that put him in a life threatening situation.

According to the report, Shalit's hunger strike advanced his release as Hamas senior officials feared for his life.

An intelligence source said that "there were those in Hamas who feared that the extreme conditions under which Shalit was being held would mean they could not offer him the help he needed and he would die on them," and so they compromised over the details of the prisoner exchange deal.

The report also reveals that Shalit was injured from shrapnel during the kidnapping which just barely missed his vital organs. The wounds eventually healed.

I found this particularly interesting:

The news of Shalit's abduction led to a flurry of activity in Israel in a bid to find out which organizations were behind the attack and a great deal of effort was invested in trying to locate the place where Shalit was being held.

At a certain point Israel believed the intelligence efforts would bear fruit. Information that reached Israel claimed that the captive soldier was being kept in a northern Gaza house surrounded by a wall. Israel exerted many efforts in trying to find out exactly what was going on in the house and was even considering the possibility of a rescue mission.

Luckily, they found out that Iran and Hamas were "feeding" the information to Israeli intelligence: The house was in fact empty and booby trapped. The scheme set up by Iran and Hamas was to lure the Israeli rescue forces into the house and then blow it up with the forces inside.

And more:

Shalit was guarded by four Hamas members who were brought in from abroad especially for the secret mission. The foreign operatives were not replaced at any time during Gilad's captivity. "The four guards basically sentenced themselves to the same conditions in which Gilad was being incarcerated," the Israeli intelligence source noted.

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Now it is time for - Hunger-washing!

From YNet:

A majority comprised of 133 states voted at the United Nations General Assembly Friday in favor of an Israeli proposal to make farming technology more accessible to developing African nations. Arab countries, who opposed the measure for political reasons, led a group of 35 nations who abstained from the vote.

The measure proposed by the Jewish state is expected to aid the Arab world among other regions, and is in line with the UN policy to eradicate hunger and poverty.

Here's the good part:

Iraq expressed objection to the proposal on behalf the Arab states, claiming that Israel is exploiting the developing world's needs to make political gains and to mask "illegal and destructive" policies.

Sounds like they have been reading Sarah Schulman!

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Sunday links

Barry Rubin lets the Obama administration have it.

Take the Palestine Quiz!

The IDF's Mona Lisa - an Arab woman enlists in an elite IDF counter-terror unit.

From Bucharest to Jerusalem at Jewish Ideas Daily

Moderate PA envoy: "Israel never had any shred of right to exist"

Here's a photo from Israel's Terror Watch showing an Iranian protester throwing a stone at the British embassy while police just watch him.

(h/t Jewess, Yoel)

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France doesn't want to lead UNIFIL next year

From Naharnet:

France has renounced leading the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon fearing that its contingent would be a possible target of attacks if the situation on the border deteriorated, according to a report published in Le Figaro Newspaper on Saturday.

“It is better to stay in the shadows when the French diplomacy is taking a major role in the campaign on the Syrian regime,” military sources told the newspaper.

The sources said that France gave up its command role according to the rotation principle between the three European countries that have the wider participation in the UNIFIL, which are Italy, Spain, and France.

The command of the UNIFIL will be vacant in early 2012.

Le Figaro reported that the French step indicates the country’s decision to move away from the spotlight, as the UNIFIL peacekeepers “might be possible targets to be taken hostages if the situation in southern Lebanon deteriorates.”

On July 26, 2011, a roadside bomb hit a French convoy in the southern city of Sidon, wounding five French peacekeepers.

The newspaper added that the rocket attack from southern Lebanon into northern Israel on Tuesday indicates that any military intervention in Syria will “affect the whole region.”

According to Le Figaro France gave up leading the UNIFIL leadership without any media fuss and without announcing the step.

France considers that the UNIFIL mission is “incapable of carrying out its tasks … due to the reduced freedom of movement and the humiliation of the soldiers” in the south, the newspaper said.

Yeah, when they signed up to be patrolling a region dominated by a terrorist group sworn to destroy its neighbor to the south they had no idea that it might actually be dangerous!

If you didn't realize that UNIFIL was a joke before....

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Gutman's speech even worse than reported

The speech of US ambassador to Belgium, Howard Gutman, that I mentioned earlier today is online.

And it is even worse than what YNet reported.

There is and has long been some amount of anti-Semitism, of hatred and violence against Jews, from a small sector of the population who hate others who may be different or perceived to be different, largely for the sake of hating. Those anti-Semites are people who hate not only Jews, but Muslims, gays, gypsies, and likely any who can be described as minorities or different. That hatred is of course pernicious and it must be combated. We can never take our eye off it or just dismiss it as fringe elements or the work of crazy people, because we have seen in the past how it can foment and grow. And it is that hatred that lawyers like you can work vigilantly to expose, combat and punish, maybe in conjunction with existing human rights groups.

I have not personally seen much of that hatred in Europe, though it rears its ugly head from time to time. I do not have any basis to think it is growing in any sense. But of course, we can never take our eye off of it, and you particularly as lawyers can help with that process.

So in some sense, that is the easy part of the analysis.

Let’s turn to the harder and more complex part.

What I do see as growing, as gaining much more attention in the newspapers and among politicians and communities, is a different phenomena. It is the phenomena that led Jacques Brotchi to quit his position on the university committee a couple of months ago and that led to the massive attention last week when the Jewish female student was beaten up. It is the problem within Europe of tension, hatred and sometimes even violence between some members of Muslim communities or Arab immigrant groups and Jews. It is a tension and perhaps hatred largely born of and reflecting the tension between Israel, the Palestinian Territories and neighboring Arab states in the Middle East over the continuing Israeli-Palestinian problem.

It too is a serious problem. It too must be discussed and solutions explored. No Jewish student – and no Muslim student or student of any heritage or religion – should ever feel intimidated on a University campus for their heritage or religion leading to academic leaders quitting in protest. No high school or grammar school Jewish student – and no Muslim high school or grammar school student or student of any heritage or religion – should be beaten up over their heritage or religion.

But this second problem is in my opinion different in many respects than the classic bigotry – hatred against those who are different and against minorities generally -- the type of anti-Semitism that I discussed above. It is more complex and requiring much more thought and analysis. This second form of what is labeled “growing anti-Semitism” produces strange phenomena and results.

Thus for example, I have been received well by Belgians everywhere in this country. I always get polite applause and sometimes more.

But the longest and loudest ovation I have ever received in Belgium came from the high school with one of the largest percentages of students of Arab heritage. It was in Molenbeek. It consisted of an audience dominated by girls with head scarves and boys named Mohammed, standing and cheering boisterously for a Jewish American, who belongs to two schuls and whose father was a Holocaust survivor. Let me just share a minute or two with you of a video clip from that visit....

These kids were not anti-Semitic as I have ever thought of the term. And I get a similar reaction as I engage with imans, at Iftars, and with Muslims communities throughout Belgium.

And yet, I know and I hear at the same time that the cheering occurs for this Jew, that within that same school and audience at Molenbeek, among those at the same Iftars, and throughout the Muslim communities that I visit, and indeed throughout Europe, there is significant anger and resentment and, yes, perhaps sometimes hatred and indeed sometimes and all too growing intimidation and violence directed at Jews generally as a result of the continuing tensions between Israel and the Palestinian territories and other Arab neighbors in the Middle East.

This is a complex problem indeed. It requires its own analysis and solutions. And the analysis I submit is not served simply by lumping the problem with past instances of anti-Jewish beliefs and actions or those that exist today among minority haters under a uniform banner of “anti-Semitism.”

It is I believe this area where community leaders – Jewish, Muslim, and third parties—where diplomats and religious leaders, where lawyers and professionals from both communities, where mothers and fathers, where university leaders and school administrators, can make the most difference by working to limit converting political and military tension in the Middle East into social problems in Europe. But it is the area too – both fortunately and unfortunately -- where the largest part of the solution remains in the hands of government leaders in Israel and the Palestinian territories and Arab countries in the Middle East. It is the area where every new settlement announced in Israel, every rocket shot over a border or suicide bomber on a bus, and every retaliatory military strike exacerbates the problem and provides a setback here in Europe for those fighting hatred and bigotry here in Europe.

I said that it is both fortunate and unfortunate that the largest part of the solution for this second type of problem – too often lumped under a general banner of anti-Semitism – is in the hands of Israel, the Palestinians and Arab neighbors in the Middle East. It is fortunate because it means that, unlike traditional hatred of minorities, a path towards improving and resolving it does at least exist. It is crucial for the Middle East – but it is crucial for the Jewish and Arab communities in Europe and for countries around the globe – that Mid-East peace negotiations continue, that settlements abate, and that progress towards a lasting peace be made and then such a peace reached in the Middle East. Were a lasting peace in the Middle East to be reached, were joint and cooperative Israeli-Arab attentions turned to focus instead on such serious, common threats such as Iran, this second type of ethnic tension and bigotry here in Europe – which is clearly growing today – would clearly abate. I can envision the day when it disappears. Peace in the Middle East would indeed equate with a huge reduction of this form of labeled “anti-Semitism” here in Europe.

It is at the same time somewhat unfortunate that most of the cause and thus most of the solution for tension and hatred in Europe, for growing problems at Belgian universities, for epithets in the streets, rest with governments and people a continent away. For, in some respect, citizens, parents, religious and community leaders here in Europe can simply try to promote understanding and patience, while ensuring law enforcement serves its mission, without being able fully to address the most root causes and most efficient cures.

It is a challenge for us all. I hope it is one you will address in this conference.

Thanks so much and all the best.

Howard Gutman is a credulous, gullible idiot.

If his theory was correct, that Israeli actions cause Arab Jew-hatred and that diplomacy would reduce it, then the least amount of Jew-hatred in the Arab world must be seen in Egypt and Jordan, who have peace treaties with Israel.

But the exact opposite is the case - those are the states with the most hatred of Jews!

How can Gutman explain that?

Is it because Jordanians and Egyptians love Palestinian Arabs so much? But in fact they discriminate against their Palestinian residents?

He can't explain it. Chances are, he isn't even aware of it.

Yes, Arabs and Muslims  pretend that their modern version of anti-semitism is completely political - or at least they have been making that claim since 1967, or since 1948. But in fact the Jew-hatred, which has been richly documented in this site as well as many others, is exactly that - against Jews. Ask the hundreds of thousands of Jews who have been forced out of Arab lands whether they lost their homes because they were "Zionists." Ask the Jews of Hebron in 1929 if their "Zionist" activities is what caused the riots that killed scores of them.

Just because the excuses they use for their modern Jew-hatred is couched in terms of human rights and Palestinian Arab nationalism does not mean that it is true, any more than Nazi claims that Jews were "declaring war" on them in 1933 was true.

The Arabs have learned that Westerners are  more amenable to arguments using human rights and liberal terminology, so that is what their current manifestation of Jew-hatred resembles.

Gutman, and far too many other stupid, gullible American Jews, actually believe the words of soft-spoken Arab leaders wearing suits in Western media interviews, when they are saying the exact opposite in Arabic to their real audiences. A quick glance at Palestinian Media Watch shows literally hundreds of examples, and MEMRI fills in the rest from the larger Arab world.

Amazing, mind-blowing idiocy. From a US ambassador.

The Wikileaks memos have shown that most State Department employees are pretty bright and have a good grasp on what they are doing. There are some great analyses to be seen there.

But political appointees who get plum jobs because of their fundraising activities are not exactly the same, are they?

(h/t CHA)

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Abbas has no strategy - and another type of media bias

A rare wire-service article critical of Mahmoud Abbas, from AFP:

The Palestinian bid for membership of the United Nations, launched amid fanfare in September, has hit a dead end and left the major powers wondering if president Mahmud Abbas has a strategy.

The Palestinian leadership shows no sign of calling for a vote on the application for full membership at the UN Security Council and after getting acceptance by UNESCO there has been no followup to other international agencies.

Abbas told the UN General Assembly how the bid for international recognition of a Palestinian state was born out of frustration at what he considers Israel's deliberate blocking of the peace process.

But many experts call the campaign a failure.

"They did not get the ... votes at the Security Council and so I think that bid basically has failed," said David Makovsky, director of the peace process project at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, a think tank.

The Palestinians had to get nine votes from the 15 Security Council members, but too many said they would abstain or oppose the bid. Even if they had succeeded, the United States had made it clear it would veto the bid.

The Palestinians may be holding back because they do not want to further risk their relations with President Barack Obama's administration, Makovsky told AFP.

Philip Wilcox, a scholar with the Middle East Institute and former US diplomat with special responsibility for Middle East affairs, also called the Palestinian a "failure" -- for now.

"I don't think they will ask for a vote unless they are sure to get nine votes," Wilcox said.

The Security Council's new members committee could not agree on a united recommendation on the Palestinian application and for the past month the Council has been waiting for a sign from the Palestinian leadership on their next move.

Abbas could also decide to seek a super-observer status at the UN General Assembly where a majority is virtually guaranteed but the prize would have much less status than full membership.

Palestinian diplomats at the United Nations say they are waiting for instructions from Ramallah. Western envoys at the UN say they have been told not to take any action until Abbas decides.

"We are really not sure what the Palestinian strategy is and whether they have one," one senior Western diplomat said.

Vitaly Churkin, Russian envoy to the UN and president of the Security Council for December, indicated that he too is in the dark, when asked at a press conference on Friday.

It is a good article, showing a side of the PA that we rarely see.

And that is the problem.

Even though this article was released by AFP last night, I found it only at two news sites: Asia One and Univision. (I only noticed it at all because it was mentioned prominently in Jordan's Al Ghad in Arabic, where the readers presictably rated it "bad.")

Wire services send out articles to their client newspapers and other media. The editors at the media outlets decide whether to include these stories in their collection of articles or not.

This article is nearly invisible on news sites that choose hundreds of other articles a day from AFP.

The reason? It seems to be because it contradicts the prevailing narrative of an ascendant Palestinian Authority with its inevitable march towards statehood and respectability.

Journalists are lazy. They have a pack mentality that all but ensures that original reporting and analysis is suppressed in favor of following easy-to-understand snapshot narratives.

But even more lazy are editors. When given a chance to show an alternative to the ever-present memes, they will very often choose to ignore it. It is too hard to explain, it might bring in complaints, it contradicts the other narratives that they so lovingly embrace. Who needs the headaches?

Abbas bet his people on statehood. He lost. He has no Plan B. But the media which has portrayed him as a moderate, pragmatic hero cannot bear to explain to their readers that they were wrong and that Abbas is more interested in stunts than negotiations and compromise.


Only when events occur that they cannot ignore will editors start to accept a new narrative. But it has to be easy to understand, with a clear hero and a clear villain, or else they fear their readers will run away. Short of an Abbas sex scandal, it is easier to just let the statehood story die, and keep the image of a peaceful and moderate Abbas pristine for the next time he butts heads with the intransigent, hardline Israeli leader.

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Virgin Megastore recommends Mein Kampf to its Arab customers

A Twitter user has a photo of a book display at a Virgin Megastore in Qatar:

Yes, that is Hitler's Mein Kampf prominently displayed as a recommendation for Virgin's Arabic-reading customers!

And it is not only in Qatar. This blog post from Bahrain shows that the Virgin store there also recommends Mein Kampf.

So this does not look like it was the decision of the local store manager, but of Virgin Megastores for the entire Arab region.

What does Richard Branson think?

You can tweet him at @richardbranson or you can complain to the Virgin Megastores Middle East at @VirginMegaME.

UPDATE: Virgin responds - with lies.

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