Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

The dishonesty of the anti-settlement crowd

From Think Progress, about the Levy Report that said that the Judea and Samaria are not legally considered occupied:

The difference here, said Israeli human rights lawyer Michael Sfard, who has brought dozens of cases against settlements in Israeli courts, “is that this is a supposedly committee of jurists, and this is a legal position that they are taking,” not just a political position. “It’s one thing to be a politician and to hold certain views about what ought to be. That’s fine and legitimate. It’s a completely different matter to make legal assertions.” Many countries have territorial demands and disputes with other countries, Sfard said, “but they don’t simply ignore the legal consensus about the status of these territories. They conduct their disputes diplomatically in international affairs.”

According to Sfard, while Israel may have legitimate territorial aspirations in the West Bank — “I don’t agree, but it’s legitimate” — it tries to materialize those aspirations though negotiations with Palestinians and other countries. “Holding negotiations is legitimate, and it’s legitimate for a government to say ‘here’s what we want,’” Sfard said. “It’s a different matter to simply deny the legal framework that applies.”

“International law is based on consensus,” Sfard continued, “and if most of the jurists of international law, all U.N. organs, the International Court of Justice, multiple U.N. Security Council and General Assembly resolutions, the International Committee of the Red Cross, all agree that [the West Bank] is occupied territory, it is highly immodest for this committee to say otherwise, and for the government of Israel to even reflect on adopting this, sorry, but bizarre position.”

Upon first glance, this seems reasonable. Isn't international law based on consensus?

Well, yes it is. But Sfard is being deceptive both on the definition of "international law" and on the definition of "consensus."

The Geneva Conventions are "international law." The reason that they are international law is because all the countries at the time got together and hammered them out, sentence by sentence, sharpening or watering down articles and paragraphs until they all agreed. That was the "consensus."

The statement "Israeli settlements are illegal" is not a statement of international law; it is an opinion on applying international law to a specific circumstance.

By definition, "consensus" means that everyone agrees. (There are some specific exceptions, but the statement is generally accurate.)

So Sfard is purposefully misrepresenting international law in order to achieve his own political goal.

As a legal scholar told me:

The "international consensus" about Israeli settlements cannot possibly be a rule of customary international law. Customary international law is the result of common international practice combined with "opinio juris" (the belief that the practice is required by international law). By the nature of things, there cannot be a common international "practice" concerning Israeli settlements. That is something that only Israel can have a "practice" concerning. There can be a customary law about allowing one's citizens to settle in territory one has captured, not one about the specific case at hand.

As to whether there is an international customary law concerning practices of this type, more generally (i.e., allowing one's citizens to settle in territory captured in international conflict), there is not. Many states have allowed citizens to settle in such territory, and even encouraged them to do so. In some cases (e.g., Morocco and Western Sahara), the practices have been considered illegal, and in others (e.g., India and Goa), the practices have been considered obviously legal. There is no principled line on which to draw the bounds of a rule. In any event, in no case has the world reacted the way it does to Israel. For instance, the EU does not discriminate against products from Western Sahara "settlements" in its free trade agreement with Morocco. The international anti-Israel consensus certainly exists, but it is just as clearly not an expression of customary international law. It is not even a principled application of a rule of law. It is very clearly a singular standard applied to the Jewish state.

Another known expert in international law mentioned this:

I would add, the Bush Letter is in tension with the "everyone agrees it is an illegal position."

Indeed, other US statements over the years also confirm that the US position has been that Israel would never be forced to return to the 1949 armistice lines.

Not only that, but the entire Oslo framework is based on the idea that at least some of the land is disputed - if not, what is there to negotiate?

Beyond that, UNSC resolution 242 specifies "secure and recognized boundaries" which means that the Green Line is not what the final borders of Israel should be - the phrase is meaningless otherwise.

Here is one small but representative example about how anti-Zionists will twist facts to fit their agenda. The irony here of course is that it is Sfard who is politicizing the legal process, not the Levy Commission.

I am still trying to get the specific legal arguments advanced by Levy translated into English, but so far I have not seen any substantive arguments against them, just a lot of hand-waving masquerading as real analysis going on the presumption that they must be wrong, even though very few have read them.

Academics pooh-pooh idea that Islamists seek world domination

From CNN Security Blog:

Muslim extremists are more concerned with defending against foreign intrusion than foisting Islam on the world, according to a new study of extremist texts. The study suggests that a Western approach of claiming extremists are seeking world domination is misdirected, and instead should seek to counteract claims of victimhood.

"Continued claims to the contrary, by both official and unofficial sources, only play into a 'clash of civilizations' narrative that benefits the extremist cause. These claims also undermine the credibility of Western voices, because the audience knows that extremist arguments are really about victimage and deliverance," write the researchers, Jeffry Halverson, R. Bennett Furlow and Steven Corman.

The analysis by Arizona State University's Center for Strategic Communication looked at how the Quran was used in 2,000 propoganda items from 1998 to 2011, though the majority were from post-2007, that emanated mostly from the Middle East and North Africa. Among the groups analyzed were al Qaeda and al Shabaab, as well as anonymous postings online.

One result that surprised the researchers, the "near absence" of citations from one of the most extreme passages, the "Verse of Swords," that encourages "all-out war against world domination."

"Widely regarded as the most militant or violent passage of the Quran, it is treated as a divine call for offensive warfare on a global scale," the researchers wrote. "It is also regarded as a verse which supersedes over 100 other verses of the Quran that counsel patience, tolerance and forgiveness."

The study concludes that extremists, at least based on how they quote from the Quran, do not reflect "an aggressive offensive foe seeking domination and conquest of unbelievers, as is commonly assumed. Instead they deal with themes of victimization, dishonor and retribution."

Um, not too many people were claiming that they sought to take over the world militarily, at least not so soon. They aren't idiots who think that homemade bombs will topple the West.

To see how they plan to take over the world, just read what they say. The Muslim Brotherhood is not shy about sharing its blueprint, and it has kept the same plan for many decades:

In a recent sermon, the General Guide of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, Muhammad Badi', set out his vision for his movement and for Egypt in the post-revolutionary era. Citing Muslim Brotherhood founder Hassan Al-Bana, he stated that the movement has two goals. The immediate goal is to prepare the hearts and minds of its members, which involves "purifying the soul, amending behavior, and preparing the spirit, the mind and the body for a long struggle." The second, long-term, goal is to affect "a total reform of all domains of life," which will eventually result in establishment of an Islamic state governed according to Koranic law – first in Egypt and eventually in the entire world.

Badi' stressed that this long-term goal can only be achieved by gradual stages: by "reforming the individual, then restructuring the family, then building society and the government, then [establishing] the rightly guided Caliphate, and [finally achieving] mastership of the world." He also emphasized that this must be achieved through cooperation among all the forces and sectors in Egypt, and without any coercion: "All these purposes and goals... must be realized... through unity of ranks [not division], by persuasion, not coercion, and by love, not by force." Badi' warned against the "attempts to split up the united ranks [of the nation] and drive a wedge between young and old, men and women, Muslims and Christians, and [different religious] schools and groups," saying that the Egyptian nation will need all of its human resources in order to meet the challenges that lie ahead. Finally, he advised his followers not to follow their emotions but to manipulate the circumstances rationally and realistically: "Do not fight the ways of the world because they are overpowering. [Instead], try to overcome them, use them, change their course, and pit some of them against others."

Academics should know that when you ask the wrong questions, you get the wrong answers.

(h/t JS, Yoel)

Hamas summer camp includes "The Prisoner Experience"

Last week I reported on how Islamic Jihad is training the next generation of terrorists in their Gaza summer camps.

Now we can see what Hamas has been up to in theirs:

Narrow hallways, interrogation rooms painted black, isolation cells and handcuffed mannequins – this is all part of the setting of a new summer camp operated by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

The Islamic group has been operating summer camps for children in all cities and refugee camps throughout the Strip. This year, the organizers came up with an original theme – "the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners" – allowing children to experience first hand the daily lives of prisoners held in Israel.

Hytham al- Madhun, one of the camp guides, explained that the mock prison set up for the camp is divided into six rooms, each simulating the incarceration conditions of Palestinian prisoners. The first room is an interrogation cell, which is where prisoners are first led once entering the prison. In this room, Madhun describes to the kids "the prisoners' firm resilience in the face of Israeli interrogators' threats and their refusal to admit the charges ascribed to them."

One of the main heroes of the camp is Ibrahim Hamed, who was the head of Hamas' military wing in Ramallah and is responsible for murdering dozens of Israelis. The guides boastfully tell the children how Hamed, who was recently sentenced to 54 life sentences, has continually refused to give his interrogators any information, including his given name.

In the next room, the children get to see what a prisoner's cell looks like, and the guides warn them of Israeli agents who pose as prisoners, trying to get the Palestinian prisoners to talk and admit to their acts. Other rooms include a solitary confinement chamber, a torture den, a room that simulates a prison hospital, and even a small prison courtyard.

Ahmad Rantisi, one of the organizers of the summer camp, said that its goal is to allow children to get a tangible experience of the suffering of Palestinian prisoners, and strengthen their belief in the protection of Palestinian land and the high price that must be paid.

In addition to the mock prison, the children participate in different activities, including military training, religious studies and walking on boards with rusty nails and knife blades.

Photos from CRI

Interestingly, Hamas has not been keen on photographing their military training in camps as much as they did in previous years, perhaps in an effort to soften their image.

PA loves foreign protesters - until they protest the PA

From JPost:

Anti-Israel foreign nationals living in the West Bank participated in recent protests against the Palestinian Authority, a senior PA official in Ramallah charged Tuesday.

The official told The Jerusalem Post that at least 10 Western activists who came to the West Bank to take part in demonstrations against Israel participated in two anti-PA protests in Ramallah.

“The involvement of Western nationals in protests against the Palestinian Authority is completely unacceptable,” the official said. “We will be forced to cut off all ties with non-Palestinians who incite against the Palestinian leadership.”

The Western activists who took part in anti-PA protests are affiliated with a number of anti-Israel NGOs, the official revealed.

In the past two weeks, Palestinians staged a number of demonstrations in Ramallah in which anti-Israel Western activists were involved.

A PA security source in Ramallah said that a number of Western nationals took part in all three protests.

According to the source, a special commission of inquiry set up by Abbas to investigate the assault on protesters and journalists in Ramallah has discovered that “non-Palestinians” played a role in organizing and leading the demonstrations.

Hundreds of Western activists live in Ramallah and surrounding villages and take part in weekly protests against settlements and the West Bank security barrier.

An entire subculture of Westerners dedicated to destroying Israel live happily in the PA, paid by NGOs that often receive money from the EU and other governments. And the economy of the Palestinian Arab territories is, to a large extent, dependent on these foreign anti-Israel NGOs.

When Israel turns away these inciters at the border or the airport, they scream bloody murder, claim "free speech," and write lots of nasty articles at Electronic Intifada about how Israel hates freedom.

Will we be hearing anything from them if the PA cracks down on them?

(h/t Challah Hu Akbar)

Book Review/Interview: "David & Goliath: The explosive inside story of media bias in the Mideast conflict "

David & Goliath: The explosive inside story of media bias in the Mideast conflict describes in great detail the daily media bias we see every day against Israel.

Shraga Simmons, a former head of Honest Reporting, writes the book as part memoir and part research project, as he goes through the past decade of how newspapers, TV and wire services have been skewing the facts against Israel. We see through his eyes how he discovers the patterns of bias, documents them and holds reporters' feet to the fire when he exposes them.

While any reader of this blog is aware of media bias against Israel, reading about it all at once is a mind-blowing - and often infuriating - experience. We tend to get numbed after a while because we are so used to the daily bias, but that is a mistake - every single example must be called out and the reporter or news service held responsible.

The good news is that complaining to the media actually works. Honest Reporting has been very effective in making reporters and writers more sensitive to the issue and to write things more carefully, and it is heartening to read about how Shraga, leading his mailing list in the early 2000s, managed to prove exactly how CNN was biased against Israel.

It is that personal touch that makes this book so readable. But make no mistake - Simmons goes through the incidents in detail and the cumulative effect is astonishing.

All the major events since 2000 are analyzed - the Jenin "massacre" lie, Hezbollah's bullying of reporters in Lebanon, the "fauxtography" scandals, the Gaza war coverage, and countless smaller incidents, always written in an engaging, first person manner.

My only quibble was that all of the photos and illustrations were in the back of the book, not together with the appropriate text, which would have made it even better.

You can read a sample chapter here. The book webpage is here.

I highly recommend it. It is available in both paperback and Kindle editions.

Disclaimer: I am thanked in the acknowledgements of the book, and my blog is quoted in the footnotes about a dozen times.

I got a chance to interview Simmons last December and feel very bad that I never found the chance to review the book earlier. It is a good interview as Simmons discusses how he started Honest Reporting (plus some stuff about me!)

Here is the interview, done off the cuff in Newark airport last December:

What a surprise: Abbas proven a liar again.

We all knew that Mahmoud Abbas was a liar. We proved it in 2007, we proved it in his speech to the UN, we proved it again and again and again, even quite recently.

And here are two more:

Former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice on Tuesday confirmed the accuracy of her account of a 2008 meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in which he had told her why he couldn’t accept then-Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s terms for a permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace accord. In an interview at the weekend, Abbas had denied that the conversation Rice described and quoted in her memoir had taken place at all.

“Dr. Rice stands by her account of the conversation and what she wrote in her book,” Rice’s chief of staff, Georgia Godfrey, told The Times of Israel.

During an interview with Israel’s Channel 2 news that aired Saturday night, Abbas denied a crucial passage in Rice’s memoirs about his failure to accept Olmert’s peace offer.

In “No Higher Honor,” Rice records making a visit to Ramallah in May 2008, immediately after Olmert had detailed the offer to her, during which she “sketched out the details” of the Israeli proposal, which included an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank with one-for-one territorial swaps, the division of Jerusalem between Israel and a new Palestinian state, and an international trusteeship to control the Old City. Olmert suggested symbolic and practical solutions to the Palestinian refugee issue, and offered to allow a limited number of Palestinian refugees to live in Israel, being the first Israeli prime minister to do so.

Regarding the refugee question, Abbas said according to Rice’s account: “I can’t tell four million Palestinians that only five thousand of them can go home.”

During Saturday’s interview, however, Abbas denied making this statement, adding that no such conversation between him and Rice ever took place. When the interviewer, Danny Kushmaro, asked Abbas specifically about the quote in Rice’s book, he responded: “I absolutely did not say that.”

Was Rice lying, Kushmaro, then asked. “I’m not calling her a liar,” the Palestinian president replied. “I am saying that we never had that conversation.”

In the same interview, Abbas also denied making a statement attributed to him by a senior US journalist. In 2009, the deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post, Jackson Diehl, wrote that he met Abbas and discussed with him Olmert’s 2008 peace proposal and why the Palestinian side turned it down. “The gaps were wide,” Abbas said, according to Diehl’s account at the time.

“I didn’t say that,” Abbas said in Saturday’s interview when Kushmaro asked him about that quote.

But Diehl, like Rice, insists the quotes in his piece were accurate. “I stand behind the 2009 column I wrote about the meeting that my colleague Fred Hiatt and I had with Mahmoud Abbas, and all of the quotations it contains,” Diehl told The Times of Israel.

He may be in inveterate liar, but he's a moderate inveterate liar, so Israel really should give in to his ever-growing list of demands and make an agreement with him. It wouldn't be worth the paper it is written on, but the goodwill of the world towards Israel should last a good three or four days.

(h/t/ Sasha)

Iranian press Zionist conspiracy roundup

Zionists behind Saudi-Bahrain merger scheme

And behind this puppet government, this extremely rich government of course is orchestrated by what I call the new world order which is Zionist-controlled with Israel at its heart and its Israel that are pulling the strings believe it or not through the city of London and through the opposite numbers over the pond in America.

Ahmadinejad: US Exercising Worst Type of Suppression against Americans

"Today the ugliest form of suppression is ruling the US and you see that a group of Zionist capitalists are ruling 300 million American people from behind the stage," Ahmadinejad said, addressing an international conference on Islamic awakening in Tehran on Tuesday.

The rape of Greece by Zionist bankers

As the true architects of the EMU, the Jewish Banking Cartel realized that the euro would create economic problems for SEA member states. But they didn’t tell German and French officials. Instead, they promoted the euro as a gateway to greater economic prosperity for NEA nations in order to gain support from Germany and France.

Americans distrust White House for irrationality over Iran

The Israelis constantly spout hysterics and feign fear, but the leadership in Iran has proven itself much more stable, sane, logical, and peaceful than the Zionist regime that is destroying itself and demonstrating its illegitimacy due to its criminality.

Wow, our ownership of Iranian leaders' brains is successful beyond my wildest imaginings! All they think about is Israel, Zionism and Jews!

It turns out the soccer player really was a member of Islamic Jihad

From AP:

Dozens of Islamic militants fired rifles in the air Tuesday in a rousing homecoming for a member of the Palestinian national soccer team who was released by Israel after being held for three years without formal charges.

The player, Mahmoud Sarsak, 25, had staged a hunger strike for more than 90 days to press for his release, winning support from international sports organizations.

Israel accused Sarsak of being active in the violent Islamic Jihad group, a charge he denied while in custody.

However, senior Islamic Jihad officials were present during a welcoming ceremony for him in Gaza City on Tuesday, and one of the group's leaders, Nafez Azzam, praised the soccer player as "one of our noble members."

Later Tuesday, as Sarsak approached his family home in the Rafah refugee camp, dozens of Islamic Jihad gunmen fired in the air from SUVs and motorcycles. Women waved black Islamic Jihad banners from nearby homes and streets were decorated with huge photos of the player.

By the way, news of Sarsak's release received modest attention in most Palestinian Arab media, but it was plastered all over Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today as well as their terror wing the Al Quds' Brigades newspaper, Saraya, with no fewer that four featured articles in each Islamic Jihad paper.

Now, why would Islamic Jihad be so much happier about Sarsak's release than, say, Hamas?

Here's the Al Quds Brigades poster celebrating Sarsak, in the section of its site dedicated to "Jihadist graphics":

Summer fun for kids in Nitzan: Decorating a bomb shelter

From United With Israel:

If you are in Israel, please join us for this very special event. Two above-ground shelters will be delivered and “dropped down” by a crane in the town of Nitzan. The children of Nitzan along with other children who attend the event, will decorate the shelters with hand-painted murals. A professional mural artist will be on hand to supervise the painting. All of the art supplies will be provided, as well as snacks and drinks!

Nitzan is a community of refugees from the once thriving Jewish communities of Gush Katif (in the Gaza Strip). Nearly 10,000 Jewish residents were forced to abandon their homes during one of the most painful and tragic episodes in Israel’s history, the 2005 Disengagement from Gaza. Instead of leading to peace, the Disengagement led to a sharp increase in rocket attacks into southern Israeli towns.

Many of the Gush Katif evacuees are still living in temporary dwellings. And some, like the families in Nitzan who live in close proximity to Gaza, still live with constant fear of sirens blaring and missiles landing in their communities. While they yearn for the day when they can live in peace with security, the realistic assessment is that attacks will intensify.

In Nitzan, there are two adjacent kindergartens that need shelters immediately. When asked if one shelter could be installed first, the reply was a resounding NO! The children and teachers expressed the incredible emotion that they “would prefer to suffer an attack and die together“, rather than choose which kindergarten would get the first shelter. “They must be installed together, at the very same moment”, we were told.

Back in April 2012, with the help of our strong global community of Israel supporters, United with Israel installed 2 shelters for infirmaries in the towns of Brachia and Hodaya, on the outskirts of Ashkelon. In less than 3 weeks from when the campaign was initiated, new bomb shelters were purchased, delivered and installed.

I wonder if any Arabs are donating so innocent Israelis can be safe from Gaza terror rockets. After all, the official line is that civilians aren't the targets, so we should expect rich Arabs to contribute to these shelter campaigns as well, just like many Jews are happy to donate to Palestinian Arab causes. Everyone agrees that Israeli kids don't deserve to die.

Right?

(h/t ehwhy)

Links!

From Ian:

Something for the history buffs.
Israel’s History - a picture a day

A rare positive story about Israel from Al Guardian.
The Israeli Defence Forces: first for women

“When it comes to gender equality, no armed forces outrank the IDF, says retired brigadier general Yehudit Grisaro”

Lessening UNRWA’s damage By STEVEN J. ROSEN, DANIEL PIPES

“Washington should treat UNRWA as a vehicle to deliver social services, nothing more. It should insist that UNRWA beneficiaries who either were never displaced or who already have citizenship in other countries, although perhaps eligible for UNRWA services, are not refugees. Establishing this distinction reduces a key irritant in Arab-Israeli relations.”

The Negotiation Delusion Iran talks fail again by John Bolton

“In the race between the West’s sanctions/negotiations track and Tehran’s nuclear weapons track, the nuclear effort is much closer to the finish line. Since all other options have failed repeatedly, we must at some very near point face a basic question: Are we prepared to use force at a time of our choosing and through means optimal for us rather than for Iran’s air defenses, or will we simply allow Iran to have nuclear weapons under the delusion it can be contained and deterred? The clock is ticking, and the centrifuges are spinning.”

Iran plans to expand, not suspend, its nuclear program, position paper obtained by Times of Israel says

Camera: Jewish Self-criticism A Weapon in the Hands of Israel Hater, Noushin Framke

"Still, there are reasons to be concerned about what is going on inside the PC(USA) because anti-Israel activists did win a consolation prize – the passage of another overture, this one calling on the denomination to boycott Israeli products produced in the West Bank.
This overture, which passed with a vote of 457 to 180, was approved after Noushin Framke, a prominent anti-Israel activist in the PC(USA) was asked to speak to the assembly by the people moderating the event. Framke told the assembly that Peter Beinart, an American Zionist Jew who is offended by Israeli policies in the West Bank, supports such boycotts."

MEMRI: Hamas MP Sheik Yunis Al-Astal: Allah Punished the Jews throughout History and Will Use the Islamic Nation to Punish Them Again

Pakistan shuns its only Nobel laureate - physicist linked to discovery of 'God particle'

"Praise within Pakistan for Salam, who also guided the early stages of the country's nuclear program, faded decades ago as Muslim fundamentalists gained power. He belonged to the Ahmadi sect, which has been persecuted by the government and targeted by Taliban militants who view its members as heretics."

Gaza Sniper Fire Hits Child Car Seat in Kibbutz Vehicle

Police nab arsonists who caused large fire outside Jerusalem

“Two Palestinians have been arrested for deliberately starting a large forest fire in June that forced the closure of the main road to Jerusalem, police said on Monday.”

Israel’s record tourism year continues

Very different Palestinian asylum-seekers

"Currently being screened in festivals around the globe, Israeli Yariv Mozer’s documentary ‘Invisible Men’ exposes the life of gay Palestinian men in Tel Aviv on the run from death threats"

Anna Wintour: good friends with President Obama, Bashar al-Assad and John Galliano!
Vogue editor Anna Wintour caught on camera in meeting with disgraced designer John Galliano

Also from my Twitter feed:

The Bizarro world of ‪#Iran‬'s PressTV: 'Zionists behind Saudi-Bahrain merger scheme' : http://presstv.com/detail/2012/07 …

Looks like ‪#Saudis‬ lied when they said they would send women to‪#Olympics‬ http://www.bikyamasr.com/72230/report-s …

Early Libyan Results Show U.S.-Educated Academic Beats Islamistshttp://bloom.bg/Ot6fDS via @BloombergNews

#Egyptian‬ couple tries to smuggle newborn into ‪#UAE‬ in hand luggage http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world- …
Writing Jews out of history http://edgar1981.blogspot.com/2012/07/writin …

This article is what JTA was made for / Popularized in America by Jews, pickles pack a punch http://www.jta.org/news/article/2 …

Interesting point - who profits from ‪#BDS‬?http://bdsgb.wordpress.com/2012/07/09/act …

Apartheid? AP seems to think so:

Israel's Cabinet has approved plans to bring in the last of Ethiopia's Jews over the next two years.

More than 120,000 Ethiopian Jews live in Israel after waves of immigration over the past three decades. Advocates say some 2,200 Jews remain in Ethiopia.

They are Falash Mura, members of a community that converted to Christianity under duress more than a century ago but have reverted to Judaism.

Some in Israel have questioned whether the Falash Mura are actually Jewish. Ethiopian immigrants are routinely required to go through a religious conversion process. Once in the country, many face problems assimilating because of cultural differences. Some say they encounter racism.

The government said Sunday in a statement that it will open a $4.3 million absorption center in September to accommodate the newcomers.

Nine sentences in an article about Israel going out of its way to better the lives of thousands of blacks and to accept them as citizens - the only country in the world that would do so - and four of the sentences are negative.

I guess that's AP's idea of "even-handed" reporting.

"Non-democratic America"

From James Taranto in the WSJ's Best of the Web:

The Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg, a left-liberal Zionist, seems to have been bamboozled into accepting one of the major arguments of anti-Israel leftists. Goldberg takes issue with an Israeli government report that suggests classifying Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank, as under Israeli sovereignty rather than "occupied." Goldberg's response:

What this means, if implemented, is simple: The Israeli government would treat West Bank land as if it were land in Israel proper (pre-1967 Israel). Now, of course, if Israel were to treat the land of the West Bank as part of Israel, it would necessarily follow that it would have to treat the people who live on that land as Israeli citizens, extending them full voting rights, just as it extends citizenship to people who live in Israel proper, regardless of ethnicity. So: The natural consequence of this notion, if it is carried through to law, would be to extend voting rights to the Palestinians of the West Bank. This would spell the end of Israel as a Jewish-majority democracy, but the right-wing in Israel seems more enamored of land-ownership than it does of such antiquated notions as, you know, Zionism.
Goldberg errs in assuming that an assertion of Israeli sovereignty over the disputed territories would necessarily be the equivalent of incorporating those territories into "Israel proper." To see why, look at the American example.

The U.S. has several unincorporated territories--insular possessions over which America exercises sovereignty but which are not part of the U.S. They are, in declining order of population (and omitting unpopulated islands), Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Residents of these territories do not have the right to vote in presidential elections. They have no representation in the Senate and only a nonvoting delegate or (in the case of Puerto Rico) resident commissioner in the House.

Because these territories are not part of the U.S., their natives--unlike people born on the mainland or in Hawaii--are not entitled by the 14th Amendment to U.S. citizenship. Congress has enacted statutes granting birthright citizenship to natives of Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands and the Northern Marianas--but not American Samoa.

Natives of American Samoa whose parents are not U.S. citizens have the status of "U.S. national." This gives them rights equivalent to those of a resident alien: They may freely travel, work and live in the U.S., and they may apply for citizenship--but until they become citizens, they are not entitled to vote in mainland elections.

Goldberg and others who repeat this trope need to explain why Israel can't have unincorporated territories if the U.S. can.

Or, as Peter Beinart refers to Judea and Samaria, we can just refer to these territories as "non-democratic America."

(h/t David G)

Pan-Arab papers have sympathetic article about the Jews of Iraq

Al-Arab, a London-based pan-Arab paper, has a surprisingly sympathetic article about the exodus of he Jews of Kirkuk, Iraq. The same article can be found in Asharq Al-Awsat.

While it is not an exact translation of an article from a few months back written for AKnews, it appears to be based on it. So here is the AKnews article:

Kirkuk was not safe from the forced displacement and persecution suffered by Jews in Iraq at the middle of the last century. But the memories of the community that lived in Kirkuk for many years still strong exist among people today.

Having previously lived in relative peace and prosperity, after the beginning of World War II Iraq became a dangerous place for Jews who had lived there most of their lives.

The rise of a pro-Nazi regime after 1941, the 1947 declaration of the UN's Partition Plan for Palestine and regional instability led to the persecution and killing of Jews across the country and the Middle East.

After initially banning travel to Israel, out of fear of strengthening the newly established state of Israel, the Iraqi government allowed Jews to travel on the condition of relinquishing their Iraqi citizenship and property.

The majority of the community emigrated from Iraq between 1949 and 1950, known as "Azra and Nahima". But further migration was prevented at the beginning of the 1950s and out of 135,000 Jews living in Iraq (2.6% of the population), the number had dwindled to just 15,000 (0.1%) by 1951.

In Kirkuk, Jews lived in the famous Archaeological Castle, which remains are still present until now, and their homes could also be found around the castle before leaving them in the fifties.

The castle later became a place of pilgrimage for tourists, who wanted to visit the tombs of three Jewish prophets: Daniel, Hanin and Uzair.

Historical sources indicate that the vast majority of Iraqi Jews lived in cities including Baghdad, Basra, Mosul and Kirkuk, and contributed to the building of Iraq. The first finance minister in the Iraqi government in 1921 was a Jew named Hsagel Sasson.

Najat Hussein, the member of Kirkuk Provincial Council, told AKnews: "Kirkuk is now completely free of Jews. They used to live in the castle and a neighborhood near Beryadi area close to the Kirkuk market was known as the Jews’ neighborhood."

After the "Azra and Nahima" process and after the remaining Jews were prevented from migration, their conditions began to improve after the 1958 coup d'état of the army general Abdul Karim al-Qassim, who eliminated the monarchy and ruled as Prime Minister. He lifted the restrictions on Jews remaining in Iraq and life returned back to normal.

But with the Baath Party coup and Qassim’s death in 1968 and persecution and restriction of Jews by the authorities began once again.

In 1969 a number of traders, most of them Jews, were executed on charges of spying for Israel, leading to the acceleration of the migration campaign of Iraqi Jews which peaked in the early seventies.

After the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 less than 100 Jewish people remained, most of them in Baghdad and the vast majority of whom were the elderly and the infirm.

Sardar al-Jabbari, a history teacher, says the "number of Jews in Kirkuk was not that big if compared to Baghdad, and their presence was limited to the castle in the (Jardaglua) area. Then they migrated and left Kirkuk in the fifties."

"Only the memories are left. How nice would it have been if the Jews stayed in Kirkuk and the city included nationalities and religions to be a city of brotherhood?"

"The Jews contributed to rebuilding Iraq and they were well-known in the trade, music, art, singing, politics and agriculture as well."

Historians say that the late singer Salima al-Murad was Jewish, and Ovadia al-Yosef, Rabbi of the Eastern Jews in Israel and the spiritual leader of Shas for Orthodox Jews was born in 1920 in Basra.

Other famous Iraqi Jews include Benjamin al-Ben-Eliezer, Israel's former defense minister, and the famous economist Mir Basri who wrote several books on the Iraqi economy and society.

The Iraqi Jews, who are famous in the field of music are composer Jacob Ezra, senior musician Saleh al-Kuwaitim, Azori al-Awad, a musician on lute, artist Fulful al-Oaeji and Najat al-Iraqiya who died in Israel in 1989.

Um al-Artan, an elderly woman who speaks Turkmen, spent her childhood with Jews misses them terribly. "We lived in the castle when I was 18 years or less. The Jews who were in Kirkuk were fluent in Turkmen language."

"I had Jewish friends and I was so sad when they left Kirkuk and I wish to see them before I die.

“I don't know why they were deported. They never hurt anyone and the castle witnessed religious coexistence where there was no difference between a Muslim, Jew or a Christian.

As Artan remembers the injustices of the past, she has new fears for the present and future:

"I remember that on the day of farewell, they were standing on the tombs of the three prophets and they were crying. All of us were crying.

“I have fears to cry this time for my Christian neighbors, because they are subjected to the same thing."

While the interview with 85-year old Um al-Artan was in the alArab piece, the last sentence about Christians in Iraq was not published there.

Even so, it is remarkable to see an article like this in Arabic that does not blame Zionists for the Iraqi exodus of Jews.

Jews again "profaning Al Aqsa"

Palestine Today writes:

On Tuesday, Jewish extremist groups continued the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque, arriving via the Mughrabi Gate with special police units of the occupation.

Our correspondent says that the city's Jewish extremists profaned the mosque since the morning hours in addition to a group of uniformed soldiers in military dress, and these incursions are still continuing and are expected to be increased before the afternoon prayer.

He added that the Jewish extremists desecrated the mosque courtyards and squares and facilities in the area between the Dome of the Rock and the Marwani Chapel.

Yesterday, more than 190 Zionist soldiers and about 65 Jewish extremists stormed into the al-Aqsa mosque, accompanied by officers from the Zionist internal security.

Unfortunately, they don't have photos of this "desecration," but luckily Yisrael Medad from My Right Word was one of yesterday's "profaners" and has some pictures:

By the way, if you were wondering what people visiting the Temple Mount look like when they are not "profaning" it according to the Muslims, on Sunday dozens of Arab summer camps took a field trip to the holy spot:

See the difference?

"Profaners" are, by definition, Jews.

A very short essay on Zionism

An email correspondent pointed me to a document put out by the United Church of Canada ahead of their 41st Annual Council next month. The document is called "Report of the Working Group on Israeli/Palestine Policy."

A quick glance at the document shows that while it tries really hard to sound even-handed, it gets many basic facts of history wrong. It is also obviously heavily influenced by anti-Israel propaganda; for example it reproduces the infamously wrong map series the Israel haters use that I deconstructed here.

A friend asked me to respond to some of the "working group assumptions." There was plenty that is problematic about those assumptions, but fisking them all would take more time than I have, so I only responded to the first two sentences:

Israel came into existence following recognition of the horrors of the Holocaust. There was wide support throughout the world for the creation of a Jewish homeland.

The implication is that Israel's history begins in 1947.

My response:

Zionism the the movement for self-determination of the Jewish people.

That Jews are a people is beyond dispute. Jews have been considered a nation by the Jewish people themselves as well as by all of the other nations, whether those nations were friendly or not, since before the days of King David. In 1 Chronicles 17 the Bible itself asks rhetorically of G-d, "Who is like Your people Israel, a unique nation in the world?"

Even before the term Zionism was coined, Jews have been returning to their ancestral lands in the Land of Israel for many centuries. Sometimes individually, often in groups, Jews have risked their lives to return to their Land. Many of them, particularly the communities of Jerusalem and Hebron, essentially never left.

This return to Zion accelerated in the mid-18th century as Jews became more organized in their nationalism. Many Christians supported this movement as well, decades before Theodor Herzl or the First Zionist Congress.

A high point of this nationalist movement came in 1917, when Britain's Lord Balfour declared that the British government "favour[s] the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people." In the following decades, the Jews of Palestine built up all of the institutions of a nation, from literally nothing.

All of this happened before the horrors of the Holocaust.

While the Holocaust may have provided an incentive for the nations of the world to understand why a Jewish state was necessary, it was not what created the state of Israel. Indeed, even the UN resolution that called for a second division of Palestine (the first one occurred when TransJordan, formerly Eastern Palestine, was partitioned from the lands on the western side of the Jordan) was not the legal basis for the state of Israel, as it was not legally binding and the Arab nations did not accept it.

Israel exists today both because of the two millennia longing for the Jewish people to return to Zion and because the Palestinian Jews managed to successfully resist a war of annihilation unleashed by every one of her Arab neighbors. The Jewish state was not created; it was reborn.

So it is very deceptive, and indeed insulting, to describe the beginnings of the State of Israel in terms of the slaughter of six million Jews, It began over three thousand years ago, and return to the land of Israel has been the focal point of every Jew for generation after generation.

The State of Israel is not a state built out of guilt or pity. It is a state built on centuries of dreams, thousands of lives and millions of tears.