The issue of Jewish refugees has been brought up to the UN before

From JPost:

Israel on Friday called on the international community to recognize the suffering of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and their material claims the same way it acknowledges the plight of displaced Palestinians.

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor and World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder presented the recently launched diplomatic campaign in a special gathering at the UN before Israeli officials, foreign diplomats, activists and journalists.

“Today’s event is about the past but more importantly about the future,” said Prosor.

“Our purpose is clear and simple: To give justice for one million Jews whose stories have been hidden and left untold.”

He added: “For 64 years the history has been distorted and whitewashed in the UN. Arab countries have never taken responsibility for creating more than 800,000 refugees.

Yet not a single syllable – and listen to this – can be heard in any of the 1,888 UN resolutions on the Mideast.”

Israel was founded on the ethos of being a safe haven for Jews in their historic homeland as a response to the persecution of Jews throughout history and the horrors of the Holocaust in Europe in particular.

The story of its citizens who left, fled or were expelled from Arabic-speaking countries while the Israeli-Arab conflict flared has been relatively neglected, a fact Ayalon acknowledged in his speech.

“For some reason this issue was never raised, never discussed, and without too much mea culpa, this was wrong,” Ayalon said. “But it’s never too late.”

Arabic media have been hysterical over this conference for the past month, with scores of Arabic articles have been written only in the past day. They are uniformly critical of the conference, claiming that there is no such thing as a Jewish refugee, or that any compensation to Jewish refugees is against international conventions, or even that "Zionist terror" is what caused Jewish refugees to flee Arab countries.

But mostly they are claiming that this is a brand-new, contrived attempt to take attention away from Palestinian refugees.

So here is a brief survey of times that Israel or Jews brought the topic up to the attention of the UN:

1951:

The plight of the Arab refugees was the direct result of the hostilities launched by the Arab themselves against Israel to crush her out of existence at birth. The real claim of the refugees lay against the Arab Governments which had sent their armies to invade Israel, in cynical violation of their international obligations. For its part, the Israel Government was willing to make a contribution to the resettlement of the refugees, provided that such an arrangement be mutual. Israel had taken in some 200,000 Jewish refugees from the Arab Governments concerned. His delegation was willing to embark upon a discussion of the question with the Arab States, with a view to finding a constructive overall solution.

Israel was also willing to take up the question of blocked accounts, subject likewise to the understanding that any discussion would include the blocked accounts in Iraq and Jews who had left that country and been admitted to Israel.

1987:

Mr. RAMIN (Israel), speaking in exercise of the right of reply, said that the representatives of the Sudan and the United Arab Emirates had referred to only one side of the refugee problem. A study published by the United Nations Department of International Economic and Social Affairs, entitled Trends and Characteristics of International Migration since 1950, dealt with the Palestine refugees as part of the broader phenomenon of international migration. According to that study, as a result of the partition of Palestine, about 700,000 Palestinian Arabs had left the territory that now constituted the State of Israel, while a large proportion of the Jewish population of the Arab States of Asia and North Africa had moved to Israel, the latter migration extending well into the 1960s. The study indicated that 578,000 Jewish immigrants from Arab-speaking nations had been received by Israel. Both the Palestinian Arabs and the Jewish refugees from Arab countries were dealt with in the study under the same heading.

In an article published in May 1975 in the Lebanese daily paper Al-Nahar, a well-known Palestinian Arab scholar had stated that the Jewish refugees from the Arab States had been displaced in the most brutal manner after their property had been confiscated, and that their migration to Israel had had a very direct impact on the Palestinian problem. Lastly, in his memoirs published in Beirut in 1973, a former Prime Minister of the Syrian Arab Republic had admitted that the Arab leaders themselves had encouraged the Palestinians to leave their homes and lands, something which had had disastrous results for 1 million Palestinian Arab refugees.

Also 1987:

That war had caused a large-scale movement of Arabs out of Israeli territory and an increased exodus of Jews from the Arab States where their families had lived for centuries. At that time, there had been about 1 million Jews in the Arab countries, the majority of whom had since found refuge in the Jewish State and within a relatively short time had become self-supporting citizens. With the acquiescence of the Arab Governments, there had been a virtual exchange of population between Israel and the Arab countries, somewhat similar to that between Greece and Turkey in the 1920s and between India and Pakistan in the late 1940s. The search for a possible settlement could not be based on reversing those two parallel movements of large masses of people but must be guided by the successful integration of refugees in other parts of the world.

There had been no discussions in the United Nations about the plight of the Jewish refugees and no relief agencies established to help in their rehabilitation. The Arabs who had left Israel had also found refuge among their own kin, the great majority merely moving from Jewish-controlled areas of Palestine to those under Arab control. Yet they had become wards of the United Nations, and UNRWA had been set up to assist in their rehabilitation. The most striking difference between the treatment of the two groups of refugees, however, had been the attitude of the Arab Governments towards their own brethren. Their misery was to be perpetuated and exploited in the campaign of unabated political and military hostility against Israel. Development plans to resettle them and provide work had been rejected by the Arab Governments, which had also barred emigration to receptive third countries. Attempts by refugees to become self-supporting within the host countries were discouraged. Those facts had been recognized in the January-March 1957 bulletin of the Research Group for European Migration problems, which had stated that the Arab Governments were seeking to prevent any sort of adoption and integration because the refugees were seen as a political means of pressure to obtain the greatest possible number of concessions. A former head of UNRWA in Jordan had said in 1958 that the Arab States wanted to keep the refugee problem as an affront to the United Nations and a weapon against Israel.

1991:

Significantly, the sponsors of this resolution have not suggested at any time that similar steps be taken regarding the confiscated Jewish property in Arab countries. As a result of the 1948 War, approximately 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries were resettled in Israel. The property left behind by these Jewish refugees (estimated to be worth billions of dollars) was expropriated by the governments of the Arab countries in which they lived. There can be no difference in law, justice or equity between the claims of Arab and Jewish property owners. By doing so, the sponsors of resolution 45/73 H are suggesting that Israel's sovereignty is limited or restricted by some provision that does not apply to other Member States of the United Nations.

2001:

DAVID LITTMAN, of the World Union For Progressive Judaism, addressed the question of Jewish refugees from Arab countries in 1947. After the proclamation of independence of the State of Israel, the armies of five Arab countries, with the support of the Arabs of Palestine under British mandate, had invaded the new State. This war was a pretext for the intensification and legitimization of a settling of accounts in Arab countries. The leaders of these countries had forced Jews to abandon their homes and property and take the path to exile. The State of Israel constituted a natural refuge for the great majority of these refugees from the Arab world. These Jewish refugees had been the victims of waves of pogroms and humiliation. These refugees, unlike the Arab refugees of Palestine, did not receive any compensation from the international community, and had not even requested any compensation.

2003, written statement submitted by World Union for Progressive Judaism to the UN:

During the first half of the 20th century thousands of Jewish men, women, and children, the young and the old, were brutally massacred in Arab countries in North Africa, Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Aden — even under French and British colonial rule — and also in Palestine by lawless gangs soon after the British conquest in 1918, and throughout the Mandate period.

Already in Iraq (1936, and especially the Baghdad farhud of 1941), Syria (1944, 1945), Egypt and Libya (1945), and Aden (1947), murderous attacks had killed and wounded thousands. All these events occurred before Israel’s independence. Here is a description from the official first-hand report in 1945 by Tripoli’s Jewish community president Zachino Habib on what happened to Libyan Jews in Tripoli, Zanzur, Zawiya, Casabat, Zitlin on 4-5 Nov. 1945: “The Arabs attacked Jews in obedience to mysterious orders. Their outburst of bestial violence had no plausible motive. For fifty hours they hunted men down, attacked houses and shops, killed men, women, old and young, horribly tortured and dismembered Jews isolated in the interior.... In order to carry out the slaughter, the attackers used various weapons: knives, daggers, sticks, clubs, iron bars, revolvers, and even hand grenades.” (6)

A recent example of such terrorist acts was perpetrated on 11 April 2002 when the jihadist bombing of the ancient al-Ghariba synagogue of Djerba in Tunisia killed 17 and badly wounded many others, most of them elderly German tourists. A spokesman for Al-Qaeda claimed responsibility for the bombing. Tunisia’s remaining Jewish community of about 1,000 — a remnant of an indigenous community with roots in the country’s Phoenician past — will probably soon seek security in Israel and elsewhere, as have 99 percent of their co-religionists since the late 1940s.

In 1945 about 140,000 Jews lived in Iraq; 60,000 in Yemen and Aden; 35,000 in Syria; 5,000 in Lebanon; 90,000 in Egypt; 40,000 in Libya; 150,000 in Algeria; 120,000 in Tunisia; 300,000 in Morocco, including Tangiers – a total of roughly 940,000 (and approximately 200,000 more in Iran and Turkey). Of these indigenous communities, less than 50,000 Jews remain today – and in the Arab world their number is barely 5,000, one-half of one percent of the overall total at the end of the Second World War.

Pogroms and persecutions — and grave fears for their future — regularly preceded the mass expulsions and exoduses of these indigenous Jews, whose ancestors had inhabited these regions from time immemorial, over a millenium before the successive jihad waves of Arab invaders from the seventh century. Beginning in 1948-49, more than 650,000 of these Oriental Jewish refugees, stripped of everything, were integrated into Israel's sparse area of 20,000 km2 – even as the new State was being threatened with extinction by neighbouring Arab States. A further 300,000 or so Jewish refugees found asylum elsewhere, in Europe and the Americas.

About half of Israel's 5.2 million Jews — from a population of about 6.5 million, of whom roughly 20% are Arab, Druze, and Bedouin Israelis — is composed of these forgotten refugees and their descendants, who received no humanitarian aid from the United Nations and did not ask for it. It was Israel alone, with the help of Jewish communities just emerging from the Shoah, which achieved their humanitarian survival and integration into a nascent society.

Similar statement from WUPJ to the UN, 2010:

The transfer of populations on a large scale has been a characteristic of human history, particularly in the Orient – deportations, expropriations and expulsion of dhimmis (Jews, Christians and other indigenous peoples) was a constant factor over a long history of dhimmitude – after the Arab jihad-wars of conquest, expropriation and occupation. This policy continues, while a historically-flawed memory systematically spotlights only Arab refugees from a part of Mandatory Palestine as a result of war while forgetting others – particularly dhimmi Jews in their ancestral homeland, expropriated and expelled over the centuries, and their numerous brethren in the Arab-Muslim dar al-Islam. Jews were forbidden to reside in Arabia since the advent of Islam (except for Yemen and a part of the Gulf region), and in the eastern part of Palestine since 1922, when it became the Hashemite Emirate.

The hardship endured by the great majority of these indigenous Jewish refugees from Arab countries has never been examined by UN bodies, nor the loss of their inestimable heritage dating back two and three millennium – nor their vast personal and property rights. This great injustice should be addressed at the United Nations and elsewhere, all within the context of an equitable global solution for a peaceful, international recognition of a two-State solution. A noteworthy document – with references to specific references to Jewish refugees by both President Jimmy Carter and President Bill Clinton was adopted by the U.S. House of Representatives as Resolution 185 on 1 April 2008.

...It should also be allowed under international law for Jews to live in the whole League of Nations area of Palestine (within both the Arab Kingdom of Jordan and the future Arab State of Palestine), just like Arabs, Druze and other non-Jews do in Israel, either as Israeli citizens or foreign residents.

It isn't that the issue of Jewish refugees has never been mentioned at the UN before. The issue is that for 65 years, the issue of Jewish refugees was deliberately ignored by the UN.

By the way, here is a chart of the disappearance of Jews from Arab countries since 1948:

	1948[1]	1958	1968	1976	2001
Aden	8,000	800	0	0	0
Algeria	140,000	130,000	1,500	1,000	0
Egypt	75,000	40,000	1,000	400	100
Iraq	135,000	6,000	2,500	350	100
Lebanon	5,000	6,000	3,000	400	100
Libya	38,000	3,750	100	40	0
Morocco	265,000	200,000	50,000	18,000	5,700
Syria	30,000	5,000	4,000	4,500	100
Tunisia	105,000	80,000	10,000	7,000	1,500
Yemen	55,000	3,500	500	500	200
TOTAL	856,000	475,050	72,600	32,190	7,800
	(Roumani 83)	(AJY 58)	(AJY 69; Yemen: AJY 70)	(AJY 78)	(AJY 01;  AJY 88)

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[1] Estimates based on UN document “Trends and Characteristics of International Migration since 1950 – Refugee Movements and Population Transfers” (UN Department for Economic and Social Affairs, Demographic Study No. 64 ST/ESA/Ser. A/64).

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Report: Spy device at Fordo caused August explosion

From YNet:

Iranian troops uncovered a monitoring device disguised as a rock near the underground nuclear enrichment plant at Fordo, according to western intelligence sources.

The Sunday Times quoted the sources as saying that the fake rock exploded when Revolutionary Guards who were on a patrol last month to check terminals connecting data and telephone links at Fordo tried to move it.

According to the British newspaper, Iranian experts who examined the scene of the blast found the remains of a device capable of intercepting data from computers at the nuclear plant, where uranium is being enriched in centrifuges.

The Sunday Times said it is feared a significant source of intelligence may have been lost for the West, which believes Iran could be preparing to use enriched uranium to make a nuclear bomb.

The report said the Iranians initially kept news of the explosion secret. But last week Fereydoun Abbasi, the country’s vice president and head of its nuclear energy agency, revealed that power lines between Qom and the Fordo plant had been blown up on August 17.

Early reports suggested the explosion was meant to cut power supplies to the plant and damage the centrifuges. However, inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), who visited Fordo the day after the explosion, made no mention of any damage or disruption in their report.

The Sunday Times said intercepting the computer and phone lines from the plant would have enabled western analysts to estimate the output from the centrifuges.

Israel has been suspected of using similar booby-trapped devices to intercept voice and data transmissions from Hezbollah in Lebanon.

This report seems more plausible than the idea that the West would arbitrarily send a message to Iran by noisily destroying power lines that could be easily replaced. However, the initial reports said that power lines to Natanz were also destroyed in a separate explosion.

Were power lines also being monitored? I can imagine that Western intelligence can estimate the number of centrifuges being placed on line by watching how much power is being used incrementally at Fordo.

All of this is guesswork, of course, as no one is going to tell the full truth. Perhaps this alleged device was a critical piece in harvesting intelligence at Fordo. But for all we know there is a huge infrastructure of dozens or thousands of similar spy and sabotage devices sprinkled around Iranian nuclear facilities and Iran itself.

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NYT lies, says Israel violating Camp David

Here's a blatant lie in the "newspaper of record" in its interview with Mohamed Morsi:

On the eve of his first trip to the United States as Egypt’s new Islamist president, Mohamed Morsi said the United States needed to fundamentally change its approach to the Arab world, showing greater respect for its values and helping build a Palestinian state, if it hoped to overcome decades of pent-up anger.

...He also argued that Americans “have a special responsibility” for the Palestinians because the United States had signed the 1978 Camp David accord. The agreement called for the withdrawal of Israeli troops from the West Bank and Gaza to make way for full Palestinian self-rule.

The bolded text is written as if it is a known fact that Israel is violating Camp David. It is not quoting Morsi - it is a straight statement written by the New York Times.

And it is a flat-out lie.

Camp David called for the withdrawal of the military government and of Israeli troops from the parts of the West Bank and Gaza that were going to be governed by Palestinian Arabs - which is far different. From the text of the accords:

West Bank and Gaza
Egypt, Israel, Jordan and the representatives of the Palestinian people should participate in negotiations on the resolution of the Palestinian problem in all its aspects. To achieve that objective, negotiations relating to the West Bank and Gaza should proceed in three stages:

* Egypt and Israel agree that, in order to ensure a peaceful and orderly transfer of authority, and taking into account the security concerns of all the parties, there should be transitional arrangements for the West Bank and Gaza for a period not exceeding five years. In order to provide full autonomy to the inhabitants, under these arrangements the Israeli military government and its civilian administration will be withdrawn as soon as a self-governing authority has been freely elected by the inhabitants of these areas to replace the existing military government. To negotiate the details of a transitional arrangement, Jordan will be invited to join the negotiations on the basis of this framework. These new arrangements should give due consideration both to the principle of self-government by the inhabitants of these territories and to the legitimate security concerns of the parties involved.

* Egypt, Israel, and Jordan will agree on the modalities for establishing elected self-governing authority in the West Bank and Gaza. The delegations of Egypt and Jordan may include Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza or other Palestinians as mutually agreed. The parties will negotiate an agreement which will define the powers and responsibilities of the self-governing authority to be exercised in the West Bank and Gaza. A withdrawal of Israeli armed forces will take place and there will be a redeployment of the remaining Israeli forces into specified security locations. The agreement will also include arrangements for assuring internal and external security and public order. A strong local police force will be established, which may include Jordanian citizens. In addition, Israeli and Jordanian forces will participate in joint patrols and in the manning of control posts to assure the security of the borders.

* When the self-governing authority (administrative council) in the West Bank and Gaza is established and inaugurated, the transitional period of five years will begin. As soon as possible, but not later than the third year after the beginning of the transitional period, negotiations will take place to determine the final status of the West Bank and Gaza and its relationship with its neighbors and to conclude a peace treaty between Israel and Jordan by the end of the transitional period.

Camp David does not say that there will necessarily be a Palestinian Arab state in the West Bank and Gaza. It most certainly says nothing about a full Israeli withdrawal from the territories, only that its final status (and, by implication, its borders) will be up for negotiation after a transition period. And it explicitly says that there will be a redeployment of Israeli security forces - in order to ensure security for Israel - into locations that can only mean in parts of the territories, or else it would have just said "withdrawal of remaining Israeli forces," period.

Moreover, Israel is acting both according to the letter and spirit of the Camp David agreements, as opposed to the New York Times' falsification of history. The IDF and the military authority is not to be found in areas Israel handed to the PA. Israel did withdraw, as it said it would, from areas under full PA control.

It is fascinating that the reporters and editors of the New York Times are so intent on determining the accuracy of statements by some American politicians but are willing to allow Islamist lies to go unchallenged without even doing a modicum of fact checking.

(h/t Omri)

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Saturday night links

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Column One: Obama’s dangerous consistency

The neoconservative policy of supporting the democratization of Muslim societies adopted by President Barack Obama’s predecessor George W. Bush has failed. And the appeasement policy adopted by Obama has also failed.
"The behavior of the Egyptian government, Qaradawi and the Salafis also makes clear that Obama’s policy of appeasing the Muslim world has failed completely. Whereas Bush believed the source of Muslim hatred was their political oppression at the hands of their regimes, Obama has blamed their rage and hatred on America’s supposed misdeeds.
By changing the way America treats the Muslim world, Obama believes he can end their hatred of America. To this end, he has reached out to the most anti-American forces and regimes in the region and spurned pro-American regimes and political forces."

Collapse of the Cairo Doctrine by Charles Krauthammer

"Never lacking ambition or self-regard, Obama promised in Cairo, June 4, 2009, “a new beginning” offering Muslims “mutual respect,” unsubtly implying previous disrespect. Curious, as over the previous 20 years, America had six times committed its military forces on behalf of oppressed Muslims, three times for reasons of pure humanitarianism (Somalia, Bosnia, Kosovo), where no U.S. interests were at stake."

Sarah Honig: Another Tack: To the shores of Tripoli

Powwowing won’t lead to a change of heart among Islam’s supremacists. The showdown is inevitable. The Barbary War’s rallying call was: “Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute.”
"Nothing has changed since these supremacist sentiments were sounded to American emissaries Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, who were dispatched to London in an attempt to reason with the proto-al-Qaida leaders of their day."

UN hosts conference on Jewish refugees

Despite strong Arab opposition, United Nations officials and Western ambassadors attend first-of-its-kind event calling for justice for Jewish refugees who fled Arab countries

UNWatch Sun News TV: UN Watch's Hillel Neuer interviewed on The Source (video)


MEMRI Prominent Salafi-Jihadi Cleric Issues Fatwa Sanctioning Killing Of U.S. Ambassadors, Including Chris Stevens

Pat Condell A word to rioting Muslims (video)


War with ‘cancerous tumor Israel’ will eventually happen, says Iranian general
Commander of Revolutionary Guard Mohammad Ali Jafari claims Iran will ‘destroy the Jewish state’

Clinton, UN chief urged to cancel Ahmadinejad talk

Iranian president’s ‘incendiary incitement’ should land him ‘in the docket of the accused rather than at the UN podium,’ says former Canadian justice minister Cotler

Assad’s a Jew, claims Egypt TV guest

Dictator’s family descends from Iranian Jewish origin, so-called expert asserts, in interview on station that also first broadcast Arabic-dubbed clip of anti-Islam film

Syria fires into Jordan, sparking clashes
Syria moves its Golan Heights brigade to the Jordanian border

Egypt intends to use chemical weapons in Sinai, says report
Government plans to ‘smoke out’ terrorist elements, Egyptian security sources tell Kuwaiti media outlet [I saw this yesterday and don't believe it; Kuwait's media often makes things up - EoZ]

Bill Clinton to Host Egypt President Morsi in NYC

Marine Le Pen: Wearing kippot should be banned

WH Silent Over Demands to Denounce ‘Piss Christ’ Artwork

Religious groups are blasting President Obama for not condemning am anti-Christian art display set to appear in New York City and one Republican lawmaker said he is “fed up with the administration’s double standard and religious hypocrisy.

326 Turkish officers convicted of plotting coup

EU Parliament committee certifies Israeli pharmaceuticals for safe import

European Friends of Israel calls the vote ‘a major step in improving the life of European consumers’
"The European Council approved the agreement in March 2010, but its implementation has been blocked amid protests by pro-Palestinian organizations. The agreement was part of the of the 1995 EU-Israel trade contract, and is not a part of the upgrade in relations which Israel is seeking."

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Weekend administrivia

This ended up being the biggest week the blog ever had - even though I didn't post at all for the two days of Rosh Hashanah!

It seems that my initial post of the Charlie Hebdo cartoons went viral, and that became my most-read post ever - 34,000 hits so far and counting. A popular Persian-language site linked to it, accounting for a large number of those hits. I banked on the media not publishing them, and there was a huge desire by people worldwide to see what the big fuss was about. (My previous record post was only from last month, but this tripled it. And it even surpassed the 27,000 that have read my "Apartheid Week" posters so far.)

My other big post of the week was the photo of masked Hamas terrorists with their message of peace which also got picked up in a number of popular websites.

Other popular posts were my piece on Romney and the PLO (which got linked to at The Daily Beast,) my own original Mohammed cartoon, and Juan Cole's libeling me as an accessory to murder. (Nothing says you've arrived like having a third-rate truth-challenged professor slander you.)

And it is almost the first day of autumn, which means I will be asking for donations again next week. Hey, everyone else is sending you tons of solicitations for the holidays...

I'm going away for Shabbat so this will be my last post until very late Saturday night, at least.

Shabbat shalom!

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Friday links

From Ian:

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LATMA: Obama's reality perception advisor explains his Iran policy


Where Are the Muslim Protests for... ? by Khaled Abu Toameh

They are driven by their blind hatred for the US and all non-Muslims.
"Where are the street protests against human rights and media violations in the Arab and Islamic countries? Aren't most of these violations and abuses being committed in the name of Islam?
Most of the Muslims who have been protesting the defaming of Islam and Prophet Mohamed in the Arab and Islamic countries have most likely not even seen the film; they are driven by their blind hatred for the US and all non-Muslims."

Why are the Palestinians so desperate to avoid peace talks?

Palestinian rejectionism showcased again as their leaders go the extra mile to avoid peace talks with Israel
"Why are the Palestinians so intent on getting someone else to set the terms of peace negotiations for them? Israel, after all, is practically begging them to sit down and talk directly, without preconditions. Why are they so desperate to avoid this?
Whatever Erekat says, the Palestinians, more than anybody, must know that efforts to set the terms of any negotiations through the UN make meaningful talks much less likely, if not impossible. So what is their game?
Depressingly, it all smacks of the same old rejectionist strategy that the Palestinians have adopted since refusing a two-state solution all those decades ago. If there’s an opportunity to be missed, they miss it. If there’s a diversion to be found, they find it.”

PMO: PA's UN statehood bid violates Oslo process

"The Prime Minister’s Office warned Thursday that a Palestinian unilateral statehood bid at the UN, along with attempts to set the territorial boundaries of the conflict through a General Assembly resolution, would be a “mistake” and “a blow to the peace process.”

CIFWatch: When Israelis can’t be blamed: Tens of thousands of dead Syrians & ‘humanitarian’ flotillas not sent

"Remember the 2010 Gaza Flotilla? Who doesn’t.
Well, another “Humanitarian” flotilla is on its way to Gaza (from Sweden) while Damascus is dying ."

How the West is losing the cognitive war with Islamism and its death cults by Richard Landes

"And the most terrible thing is, Obama lost face not only in the eyes of foes so deadly even he will admit they’re “the enemy,” but also to bystanders.
If you want to know who the strong horse is in the eyes of people around the globe, now in our twelfth year since 9/11, do not look to any Western figure. Our champions, like Judith Butler and Noam Chomsky, score own-goals, and we cheer them on. If this were merely a war of words, it might not be so bad, but the purpose of their war or words is to better position to strike on the battlefield. This is not a war we who treasure freedom can afford to lose."

How Orientalism Shaped Obama

The White House’s response to the anti-Islam video is proof of the enduring influence of Edward Said’s ideas
"He would have been wrong. The truth is that there are lots of people in the region who are disdainful of Said’s paternalism, his eagerness of find offense everywhere in order to protect Middle Eastern sensibilities. Rather, they want exactly what Americans have, the right to criticize anything we like, including or especially religion. The Obama Administration failed them as well as Americans when they missed an opportunity to make a robust defense of America’s universal values. Instead, it was trying to placate a bloodthirsty mob by observing the intellectual strictures of an English professor."

Palestine: Romney Recognizes Reality – Rejects Arab Revanchism by David Singer

"Replacing fiction and falsehood with historic, geographic and demographic facts is the ball that Mr Romney needs to pick up and kick downfield – should he become America’s next President.
Come to think of it – President Obama should do exactly the same thing if he is returned to the White House for another four years. Recognizing reality and rejecting Arab revanchism is certainly the only way to now score a goal."

Jpost Editorial: Iran’s deceit

Iranian leaders have not shied away from extraordinary honesty of late. The same sort of bluntness and candidness should be employed by the West.

Ahmadinejad: Anti-Islam film an Israeli ploy

Iranian president slams Israel as military parade displays Shahab 3 missile, which it claims can reach Tel Aviv.

National Iranian American Council confirmed as front group for Iran's bloody Islamic regime

"The case reached national prominence when Parsi's e-mails (produced during discovery) not only confirmed his ties to the mullahs but also that he has delivered lectures to the CIA, briefed Secretary Hilary [sic] Clinton and visited the Obama White House starting in 2009. As recently as this past July, he was hosted by Senior Adviser to the President Valerie Jarrett."

West accuses Iran of shipping arms to Syria

United Nations ‘can’t be complacent’ about Tehran’s nuclear ambitions, US ambassador says
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The four Western powers trying to rein in Iran’s nuclear program are accusing Tehran of shipping arms to Syria in violation of United Nations sanctions and ignoring demands from the UN to open key nuclear facilities to its inspectors.

Iranian militias ‘pose threat to U.S.’

Hamas worried as Egypt closes tunnels
Zahar calls for Gaza to become a free trade zone with Egypt after the shutting down of smuggling tunnels.

Germany postpones posters aimed at countering radical Islam

Kotel - Yom Kippur 1904

Germany's Interior Ministry has postponed at the last minute a poster campaign advertising a hotline aimed at countering radical Islam because of fears it could have incited violence by extremists.

Israel Daily Picture: Yom Kippur 100 Years Ago -- Or More:
Photographic Treasures from the Library of Congress from Jerusalem, New York and a French Battlefield

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Also:
UC Student Association secretly passes anti-Israel resolution

On Saturday, September 15, a resolution was passed condemning HR 35, a California State Assembly resolution at UC Berkeley. Accusing Israel of “racism,” the UCSA urged the UC Board of Regents to divest from companies aiding Israel in alleged human rights violations. The planning of the initiative was kept secret until the day of. No agenda was published in advance. With no engagement from Jewish and other campus groups, there was no way for opponents of the measure to have their voices heard. Meanwhile, leaders of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) were given an opportunity to convey their message at the meeting.

'Most Israeli gays are right-wing, mediocre and boring, and want a husband and children'

Moderates or Manipulators? Tunisia’s Ennahda Islamists by Oren Kessler

Real Jerusalem Streets looks at Arabs in Jerusalem somehow not living in fear for their lives before a major Jewish holiday.

The LA Times still refuses to release the Obama/Khalidi dinner videotape. Because, you see, they are ethical.

(h/t StopBDS, Yoel)

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Another batch of funny Hamas posters

People keep sending them in! (For older posters, see here, here and here.)

From the beautiful and talented DoZ	From EZ
MW3	MW4

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Obama in November 2007: "The Day I'm Inaugurated..."

I had missed this from a few days ago:

I truly believe that the day I'm inaugurated, that not only does the country look at itself differently but the world looks at America differently....If I’m reaching out to the Muslim world, they understand that I’ve lived in a Muslim country and, I may be a Christian, but I also understand their point of view... I’m intimately concerned with what happens in these countries and the cultures and the perspectives that these folks have, and those are powerful tools for us to be able to reach out to the world....I think that the world will have confidence that I am listening to them and that our future and our security is tied up with our ability to work with other countries in the world. That will ultimately make us safer...

But he does have a Nobel Peace Prize, so the Norwegians are much less likely to attack Americans now.

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Islamists attack Israel from Sinai. Again. (UPDATE)

From YNet:

An Israeli soldier was killed and another was lightly to moderately injured when terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula opened fire on an IDF patrol in the Mount Sagi area, on the Israel-Egypt border, at around noon Friday. Heavy exchanges of fire ensued, during which the terrorists were killed.

According to an initial investigation, three terrorists approached the border with Israel near the Carmit outpost, situated south of Mount Sagi, at a point where the border fence remains incomplete. The terrorists were equipped with explosive belts and assault rifles. The three opened fire on Artillery Corps soldiers who were securing civilians building the new border fence. Soldiers from the Caracal Battalion, in which both male and female combat soldiers serve, rushed to the scene and killed the terrorists, but not before a large explosive device the terrorists were carrying was detonated.

The terrorists were also carrying a rocket-propelled grenade, the army said.

Challah Hu Akbar is live-blogging.

UPDATE: The terrorists took advantage of IDF soldiers being nice to African migrants.

According to the inquiry, the terrorists had gathered intelligence and followed the group of 15 African infiltrators. When the infiltrators arrived at the border, several soldiers left their post to offer them water.

The terrorists then emerged from their hiding spot, approached the four fighters who remained at the post and opened fire, killing Netanel Yahalomi.

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Games Palestinian Arabs Play

From the NYT:

One year after the Palestinians’ high-profile failure to win United Nations membership through the Security Council, they are returning to the General Assembly next week seeking largely symbolic “nonmember state” status, with a subdued campaign that many analysts see as a long-shot effort to win back the waning attention of the world.

The delegation heading to New York this weekend is half the size of last year’s. And there are no concerts or street parties planned this time around President Mahmoud Abbas’s Sept. 27 speech to the General Assembly; instead, it comes after days of unrest across the West Bank focused more on the Palestinian Authority than its Israeli occupier.

It has been a year without peace talks. And it has been a year in which economic conditions for Palestinians have deteriorated, Israeli settlements in the West Bank have expanded, and promised reconciliation between Mr. Abbas’s Fatah faction and the more militant Hamas that rules the Gaza Strip has failed to materialize.

“A lost year” is how Nabil Shaath, the Palestinian commissioner of international relations, put it in an interview this week. “We have wasted a whole year, and that waste cost us a lot in the circumstances of our people, in the support of our people. The frustration is unequaled. This stalemate, this closed door, this impasse cannot stay.”

In 2009, the PLO told frustrated American negotiators that their stance has changed and that they will stop negotiating with Israel without a freeze on all Jewish activity in the territories - a drastic change from before.

Since then, the PLO tried a UN stunt that crashed and burned spectacularly, Fatah and Hamas announced a fake unity but are now further apart then ever, Arab nations continued to renege on financial pledges to the PA,and the world realized that the status quo is really not so terrible for Palestinian Arabs.

In comparison with the real news from the Arab world - the revolutions, the rise of Islamism and the violence in Syria - the Palestinian Arab issue is now regarded, correctly, as a joke. Arab leaders pay it lip service and some Western leaders still do the same, but the world has recognized what Mahmoud Abbas said in 2009, that "in the West Bank we have a good reality . . . the people are living a normal life."

What the New York Times doesn't realize is that world leaders, Arab and non-Arab alike, are sick of Palestinian Arab intransigence. The decision to walk away from talks was stupid and counterproductive, and no one has sympathy with people who keep whining about how awful their lives are but who choose publicity stunts over actual decision making. The PLO, caring more about pride than substance, sticks to its guns.

And then they choose to continue to try even more stunts:

While there is broad support for the United Nations bid among Palestinian leaders and on the street, there are also growing calls for a far more drastic move: abandoning the Oslo agreements that have governed Palestinian-Israeli relations for nearly two decades, or dissolving the Palestinian Authority. After two evenings of sometimes-heated meetings this week, according to participants, Mr. Abbas told the leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization that within 10 days of his return from New York he wanted a decision either to walk away from Oslo or to hold national elections and replace him.

Experts on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict see this more as posturing than serious policy making, and they warn that a vacuum could provide opportunity for extremists. “Supposing now you scrap Oslo — then what?” Tony Blair, the representative of the so-called quartet — the Middle East peacemaking group made up of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia — asked in an interview on Wednesday. “If you burn the house down on the basis that somebody’s going to have to build you something new, you might just be left with a burned house.”

They are not scrapping Oslo, they are not dissolving the PA and Abbas isn't stepping down until he is dead. We've seen this play before.

It is another stunt to frighten the world. Like a child having a temper tantrum, the Palestinian Arab leadership is acting more to regain the spotlight than to do anything constructive.

And now that the world has seen the real upheavals in the Middle East, no one is really in the mood to coddle a spoiled brat.

(h/t DM)

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Late Hamas poster contest entries

OK, got some more good ones, so we can have another poll:

Adam	AH
MW1	MW2

online survey

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