Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

"The settlements don't endanger Israel's existence - they guarantee it" (Dani Dayan video)

From a January 15th debate at the Royal Geographical Society.

(h/t Yoel)

Life in Lebanon "horrible" for fleeing Syrian Palestinians

Palestinian refugees who fled Syria's war to neighboring Lebanon are living up to 20 in a room with no water, fresh air or electricity, the head of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees said Tuesday.

Donors needed to do more to help at least 20,000 Palestinians who have already come in from Syria and more than 200 who join them every day to endure "horrible" conditions, UN Relief and Works Agency chief Filippo Grandi told Reuters.

He had toured the Shatila Palestinian camp and found "the conditions were horrible" for new arrivals.

"The main problem they have is accommodation. They rent small, cramped, very unsanitary premises without running water, without ventilation, without electricity," he said.

"And sometimes you see rooms in which 12, 15, 20 people live in really substandard conditions." He met one family living in a dark room with only one candle. "I couldn't see who I was speaking to," Grandi said.

Some politicians fear an influx of majority Sunni Muslim Syrians and Palestinians will tip the demographic balance of a country that is still reeling from its own 15-year civil war. More than 400,000 Palestinian refugees already live in Lebanon.

Grandi said Jordan, which already hosts 2 million Palestinian refugees and their descendants from the Arab-Israeli wars, was turning back Palestinian refugees from Syria, though he did not have figures.

Jordan has said it cannot take in more Palestinian refugees.

"I understand the sensitivity of the issue for the Jordanian authorities," Grandi said.

"I would like to appeal to (Jordan) to exercise all humanitarian considerations when Palestinian refugees ask to be admitted to Jordanian territory from Syria," he added.

It is funny how UNRWA is so understanding of Arab nations mistreating Palestinian Arabs. You never hear the UN or the EU condemn Arabs for specifically discriminating against Palestinians.

They save their condemnations for another target.

By the way, three Palestinian Arabs - including a child - were killed today in Syria. It was in all the headlines, wasn't it?

Iran: "If Assad is toppled, the line of resistance against Israel will be broken"

From Iran's ABNA:

Ali Akbar Velayati, adviser to the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei on international affairs, said the fall of al-Assad will damage the resistance front against Israel.

“The main reason behind our focus on the Syrian issue is to prevent the fall of the resistance line against Israel. If Bashar al-Assad, the Syrian president, falls the resistance line against Israel will break up,” Velayati stated.

[Velyati] described his fate as a “red line” for the Islamic Republic.

Westerners who pretend Iran is a rational player need to read this quote over and over again. Iran is stating that its major foreign policy goal is to fight Israel, to the extent of pulling out all the stops to prop up a ruthless, murderous dictator that the entire world agrees must go.

If Iran's hatred for Israel is so irrational, why do people still believe that their desire for a nuclear bomb that would be aimed against Israel is any less monomaniacal?

In a related story, the Times of London reports about Hezbollah's direct fighting for the Assad regime, along with Iraqi Shiites. No doubt this is at Iran's behest as well. As the CSM reports:

An unprecedented and slickly-produced video is being circulated around Shiite areas of Lebanon showing alleged Shiite combatants fighting in Syria. The video's production and open dissemination highlight how fighters outside Syria are jumping into the country's ongoing civil war – and growing more bold about it.

According to Lebanese sources close to the militant Shiite Hezbollah, the combatants seen in the video are a mix of Hezbollah members and Iraqi Shiites, but the video was produced in Iraq.

Hezbollah’s leadership has played down persistent reports that its fighters are helping defend the beleaguered regime of President Bashar al-Assad. But the video, which was clearly made with the consent of the combatants, appears to reflect the growing conviction within Shiite circles in Lebanon that the war in Syria is no longer one between an embattled autocratic regime and a grassroots opposition but a sectarian confrontation against the emerging and increasingly influential Salafi Jihadist groups that view Shiites as heretics and Hezbollah as an enemy.

The conflict in neighboring Syria presents Hezbollah and its Iranian patron with a strategic dilemma. Assad’s Syria represents the geopolitical lynchpin that binds Hezbollah to Iran and is a core component in the “Jabhat al-Muqawama” or “Axis of Resistance,” the pan-regional alliance challenging Israel and Western ambitions in the Middle East. If Assad falls and is replaced by a moderate Sunni regime that turns away from Iran and towards Saudi Arabia and Turkey, Hezbollah could become isolated on the Mediterranean coast and potentially threatened by a Sunni resurgence in the Levant.

Sources in the Syrian opposition, the rebel Free Syrian Army, and Western embassies concur that Hezbollah is participating in some fighting and also training regular Syrian troops in urban warfare tactics and turning the pro-regime Shabiha militia into an effective paramilitary force.

How do you act in your holiest site when it snows?

It is hard to tell the difference between the third holiest place in Islam - and a schoolyard at recess.

Palestinian Human Rights Foundation declares the Holocaust a "myth"

The Palestinian Human Rights Foundation (Monitor) has an article in its website by Dr. Mustafa Ahmed Abul Khair, chairman of its Advisory Council and a professor of international law.

In the article, Khair claims that Israel should compensate Egypt for damages Egypt claims Israel has done to it over the years, up to some $500 billion.

In order to buttress his argument, he says that "the Zionist entity is extorting Germany to get too much financial compensation for the myth of the Holocaust."

I will be speaking at Yeshiva University in Manhattan next Tuesday night.

The topic is "דע מה להשיב: How to answer the 20 most popular anti-Israel libels clearly and concisely."

I will also be speaking about Hasbara in general. In addition, I will be giving out the Hasby Awards for the best examples of Hasbara for past year (although it will be more low-key than I originally planned given I am in mourning, so no song-and-dance routines.)

I don't yet know specifically which building/room I am going to be speaking in.

It is sponsored by the YU Israel Club.

Tuesday links

From Ian:

Study: Allow Gaza population to expand into Sinai By Khaled Abu Toameh
Palestinian study recommends solving “population explosion” by transferring residents to West Bank, setting birth control rules.

"A study published Monday by a Palestinian engineer recommends solving the Gaza Strip’s “population explosion” by allowing the enclave to expand into the Sinai Peninsula.The study also recommends transferring some of the Gaza Strip’s residents to the West Bank and setting rules for birth control as a way of solving the problem.
The study was prepared by engineer Mustafa al-Farra and published in the daily Al- Quds newspaper."

France marches on Mali, and the Left's anti-war fervour falls silent. Is liberal interventionism back on the agenda?

"Surely it is only a matter of time before the righteous legions begin their counter-march. The demands for a boycott of French produce. The recall of our Ambassador from Paris. Soon the Mall will echo to lusty cries of “Pas en mon nom!”, while lawyers begin to draw up papers for the arrest of the 24th president of the Republic.
Then again, perhaps not. It may just be me, but the anti-war movement seems to have been a little slow off the mark when it comes to France’s latest bout of international adventurism. Seamus Milne has been strangely silent. A search of Google uncovers no condemnation from venerable anti-imperialist John Pilger. Even George Monbiot doesn’t yet appear to have found a pipeline with which to explain and expose Hollande’s true motives."

Caroline Glick: Bye-bye London

"At another point, I was asked how I defend the Nazi state of Israel. When I responded by among other things giving the Nazi pedigree of the Palestinian nationalist movement founded by Nazi agent Haj Amin el Husseini and currently led by Holocaust denier Mahmoud Abbas, the crowd angrily shouted me down.I want to note that the audience was made up of upper crust, wealthy British people, not unwashed rabble rousers. And yet they behaved in many respects like a mob when presented with pro-Israel positions."

London Review of Books Cheerleads for Hamas

"The London Review of Books is nothing if not consistent in its contemptuous attitude towards the Jewish state. A recent article, "Why Israel Didn't Win" (Dec. 6, 2012), by Adam Shatz is illustrative. Ignoring a litany of violent provocations and repeated proclamations by Hamas leaders that "Palestine is ours from the river to the sea," Shatz grasps at the disingenuous figleaf of a "temporary truce" offered by Hamas in order to cast Israel as the villain responsible for last November's intensification of violence. Shatz's argument is shoddy, transparently reversing cause-and-effect. It typifies the diminished quality of analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict coming from The London Review of Books."

BBC outsources coverage of Israeli elections to writer for far-Left magazine

"+972 magazine showcases the opinions of a tiny fringe on the far Left of Israeli politics which is alien to mainstream Israeli opinion. As its Editor himself admits, its English language format is intended to appeal primarily to foreign readers, with the aim of securing “dramatic pressure from abroad” in order (rather undemocratically, some might think) to influence the internal Israeli political process.
The BBC’s decision to outsource some of its election coverage to a contributor to such a forum is the equivalent of its publishing analysis of British elections by a writer for the ‘Socialist Worker’. One doubts very much that the BBC would dare to try that one at home."

Quick-Thinking Security Officers Head Off Arab 'Fire Libel'
Arabs who set several fires in central Samaria may have been trying to smear area Jews for the destruction of an Arab olive grove

Egyptian soccer referee threatens boycott of Israel

‘Israel is a cancer and we must fight it,’ official says, decrying upcoming European championships in Israel
“This Zionist Entity is planted, like a cancerous tumor, in the body of the Arab and Islamic nation. We must tear it out and, until we do, we must fight it as much as we can,” Nasser Sadeq Abdel Naby said in an interview on Egyptian television earlier this month that has been translated by MEMRI."

Syrian government has pattern of attacking bakeries, bread lines

"After a week without bread, people in the small central Syrian town of Halfaya got word two days before Christmas that a shipment of flour had arrived at the main bakery, prompting several hundred to queue up for the staple of life in the war-ravaged land.
For the Syrian air force, it was a moment of lethal opportunity. Soon, a Sukhoi-22 ground attack plane flew over the bakery and dropped eight bombs, each filled with cluster bomblets. The first struck 150 feet from the bakery, but the second was a direct hit on the bread line, killing at least 68 people, witnesses said."

Reports: Saudi commutes sentences of death-row inmates who agree to fight 'Jihad' in Syria
Reports claim that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has been commuting the death penalty for those willing to fight against Bashar Al-Assad in Syria

UN chief blames Israel for Arab world stagnation

‘Conflict, injustice, occupation’ — and especially the Israeli-Palestinian stalemate — have prevented progress, says Ban; our conflict is not the core Arab issue, Israel responds

Hungarian lawmaker to speak on ‘Zionist threat’

"A lawmaker from Hungary’s Jobbik Party who recently called for listing Jews as a “security risk” reportedly is planning a lecture tour about the “Zionist threat."

Ethics board summons Belgian doctor over Israel boycott

Order of Physicians holds hearing to discuss efforts to block sales of Teva pharmaceuticals
"Gorissen, a veteran anti-Israel activist, is a member of GVHV, a group providing free medical services as part of an initiative started by the Marxist Belgian PvDA party."

Upgraded Iron Dome intercepts medium-range missile
Rafael and the Defense Ministry successfully test improved version of rocket interception system

Tel Aviv Ranked Seventh Best Beach City Worldwide

"Tel Aviv, known as the “White City,” placed seventh in the Lonely Planet’s review of top beach cities behind top-ranked Barcelona. Tel Aviv beat cities such as its Middle Eastern neighbor Dubai, Miami, as well as Brighton and Hove in Great Britain on the list."

New EU Marie Curie Prize goes to Israeli woman
Israeli biomed engineering researcher Sarit Sivan received the European Commission’s new prize for innovation and entrepreneurship.

Sui generis - int'l law only for Israel (Robbie Sabel - video)

Robbie Sabel, professor of international law at Hebrew University, gave this brief talk last summer that is worth watching. He is discussing how many seeming international laws are"sui generis" for Israel - meaning they apply to Israel and no one else.

(h/t Dave Gold)

PLO puzzled that it wasn't invited to Obama inauguration

From The National: (UAE)

With its pomp and ceremony, a US presidential inauguration is frequently touted here as an inspiring example for less fortunate countries of peaceful and orderly transitions of power.

But one diplomat from a people long denied statehood, in some ways as a direct result of US policy, had no seat at the festivities yesterday.

"You know it's a funny thing," said Maen Rashid Areikat, the Palestinian envoy to Washington, about not receiving an invitation to Mr Obama's swearing-in. "Technically we are not on their diplomatic list because we are not recognised as a full-fledged state.

"When we checked last they told us that because we changed addresses and emails," he said, his voice trailing off. "It could be technical, it could be logistical. But I don't feel angry."

...Mr Areikat, in the face all facts to the contrary, believes that Middle East peace is still a core US interest and that Mr Obama's second term holds glimmers of promise.

John Kerry's nomination for secretary of state is promising because he is an advocate of a strong US role in the Middle East and in resolving its conflicts, he added. "But presidential involvement in any effort is crucial."

Mr Areikat also sees opportunity in the US policy of engagement with the new democracies of the Middle East, especially Egypt.

But was the PLO invited to the 2009 ceremony?

(h/t AR)

Hamas earning its bad Freedom House score

In the annual Freedom House report on how free various countries and territories are, Gaza received one of the worst rankings - 6 for political rights and 6 for civil liberties (7 is the worst.) It did beat out Syria, though, which was scored 7 and 7.

Hamas seems hell-bent on hitting the Syrian rankings, though, as Palestine Press Agency reports that Hamas started a new campaign of arresting journalists.

Hamas detained one radio journalist's family in order to get him to come to security headquarters this morning so they could arrest him.

Two others were arrested yesterday, including the managing director of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate. Yet two mores were detained on Sunday.

The West Bank under the PA was not much better than Hamas, with scores of 6 and 5.

Israel was ranked the only free country in the Middle East, with scores of 1 and 2.

Egyptian "expert" says Jews stole Star of David from Muslims; Menorah symbol stolen from Romans

Al Ahram quotes an Egyptian "antiquities expert" as saying that the Star of David and the Menorah symbols of Judaism are stolen from other cultures.

Dr. Rahim Rihan, who we have seen recently as claiming that there were no Temples in Jerusalem and that Israel is using super-secret chemicals to dissolve the Al Aqsa Mosque, is apparently going to keep on making things up as long as the Arabic media quotes him seriously.

He says that the Star of David as a Jewish symbol has its roots in Prague in 1648. A Jewish army contingent was defending the city and the Emperor of Austria, Ferdinand III, suggested the star as the symbol of the Jewish troops, using the Greek Delta (triangle) character and doubling/inverting it to symbolize David. In fact, says Rihan, it is an ancient Islamic symbol.

This is a very nice story, but it doesn't explain why the Leningrad Codex Hebrew Bible of 1008 has this on its cover:

Or why a 3rd century synagogue was decorated with this:

It is true that other cultures used a six-pointed star and it wasn't seen as being exclusively Jewish until relatively recently, but it clearly predates Islam.

Rihan doubles down with his discussion of the menorah symbol. He says that it is really a Roman symbol, and that the Biblical description of the menorah is really from the Romans - who lived quite a few centuries later.

Here's a menorah on a Hashmonean coin circa 40 BCE, already a clear Jewish symbol:

Dr. Rihan is clearly enjoying making things up and being taken seriously by the Egyptian media. And the Egyptian media is happy pushing his lies.

So we can expect to see many more of them.

Abbas won't save Palestinian Arab lives - on principle!

Yesterday there were reports that implied Mahmoud Abbas might allow thousands of imperiled Syrian Palestinians to enter the West Bank, as opposed to what had been reported last week.

Last night, however, Abbas made it very clear that he will not act to save the lives of these people in danger - because of the principles involved.

Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina repeated on Monday evening that President Mahmoud Abbas rejected Israel's condition to allow up to 150,000 Syrian Palestinians to the relative safety of the PA.

Israel said it would allow them to come to the West Bank if the immigrants would sign that they are giving up their claim to move to Israel itself.

Abu Rudeina said that Abbas rejected this condition "categorically." He said "The issue of Palestinian refugees and the right of return are final status issues, and one may not act against international resolutions providing for their return to their homeland and their homes, which they fled, in particular resolution 194, which provides for the right of return of Palestinian refugees."

You see? They must die because the principle of misinterpreting a non-binding UNGA resolution and to avoid "final status" issues in a moribund "peace process" is more important than human lives!

Note also that Abbas is not giving the Syrian Arabs of Palestinian descent even the option of making their own decision in this matter. He is dooming perhaps hundreds more to death, because to him and other Arab leaders, their entire utility is to act as pawns to pressure Israel on the bogus "right of return" - and if they are not acting as these pawns, they might as well just die.

People say that Abbas is taking pages out of the Zionist playbook in trying to build a state, but the contrast between how Zionists were willing to compromise on their state in order to save Jewish lives and how callously Palestinian Arab leaders act towards their "people" could not be starker.

(Remember when the world media breathlessly reported that Abbas was softening on the "right to return" a couple of months ago? Yet another example of wishful thinking trumping explicit Palestinian Arab statements? Good times.)

Four more Palestinian Arabs were killed in the past few days in Syria. Their families should send a "Thank You" card to Mahmoud Abbas.

Latest nutty Arab rumor: US ambassador says Jews are real owners of Egypt

Arabic media is in an uproar over alleged statements from US ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson.

According to the story, Patterson told Ma'ariv that Jews are the real owners of Egypt, since they were expelled after they built the Pyramids and that DNA analysis showed that King Tut was of Jewish origin.

Moreover, the ambassador is alleged to have said that "Israel will no longer be threatened by Arab barbarians who want to destroy it."

Poverty and eventual bankruptcy in Egypt will push the Egyptians to famine, and then Jews will return again to the land of Egypt to enslave the Egyptians and feed them and save them from starvation and poverty, according to the bizarre rumored interview, which seems to be based on the biblical story of Joseph.

Patterson is then supposed to have stressed that by the end of 2013 all of Egypt will be under the control of the Jews, perhaps through an all-out war with NATO, the US and Great Britain.

One Egyptian politician has already called for Patterson to be expelled from the country because of these supposed statements.

The US Embassy in Egypt issued a strong denial that any such interview took place, and of course, there is no such interview in Ma'ariv or anywhere else. They posted the denial on their Facebook page in Arabic and English:

Statement on Falsehoods in the Media

Online and media reports claiming that the U.S. Ambassador to Egypt, Anne W. Patterson, made statements to the website of the Israeli newspaper Maariv asserting that Israel has the right to Egyptian land are completely false. The Ambassador has never conducted an interview with Maariv and never made any of the reported statements. We encourage journalists to call our press office (which is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week) to check the facts about U.S. Government policies, activities and statements before publishing stories about the United States

Arabic media is endlessly amusing.

Hamas starts new campaign against immodest clothing, hairstyles

Al Ahram and other media are reporting that Hamas has started a new campaign against "Western-style" clothing in Gaza, both for men and women.

The campaign is titled "Upholding values and virtue."

Hamas is especially cracking down on low-hanging pants that reveals undergarments, tight jeans, immodest abayas and "puffy" hairstyles.

Preachers will emphasize the issue in their Friday sermons, and webpages and Facebook pages are being set up to teach Gazans how to dress in ways that do not reflect negatively on the sector that happens to be run by terrorists.

Yes, MLK really did say the quote that anti-Zionism is anti-semitism

It is always a pleasure to read the work of Martin Kramer, a real scholar, doing real research. This comes from last March:

“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” —Martin Luther King, Jr.

Aptly quoting Martin Luther King, Jr. is a common way to make a point or win an argument, and it’s no surprise that his new memorial in Washington includes an “Inscription Wall” of quotes carved in stone. It’s also no surprise that the quote about critics of Zionists didn’t make the cut for inclusion in the memorial. Still, it’s been put to use on many an occasion, most recently by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last year, in his address to the Knesset on International Holocaust Remembrance Day. A few years back it even cropped up in a State Department report on antisemitism. So I was perplexed to see it categorized as “disputed” on the extensive page of King quotes at Wikiquote—for better or worse, the go-to place to verify quotes. Indeed, as of this writing, it’s the only King quote so listed.

The attempt to discredit the quote has been driven by politics. In particular, it’s the work of Palestinians and their sympathizers, who resent the stigmatizing of anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism. Just what sort of anti-Zionism crosses that fine line is a question beyond my scope here. But what of the quote itself? How was it first circulated? What is the evidence against it? And might some additional evidence resolve the question of its authenticity?

King’s words were first reported by Seymour Martin Lipset, at that time the George D. Markham Professor of Government and Sociology at Harvard, in an article he published in the magazine Encounter in December 1969—that is, in the year following King’s assassination. Lipset:

Shortly before he was assassinated, Martin Luther King, Jr. was in Boston on a fund-raising mission, and I had the good fortune to attend a dinner which was given for him in Cambridge. This was an experience which was at once fascinating and moving: one witnessed Dr. King in action in a way one never got to see in public. He wanted to find what the Negro students at Harvard and other parts of the Boston area were thinking about various issues, and he very subtly cross-examined them for well over an hour and a half. He asked questions, and said very little himself. One of the young men present happened to make some remark against the Zionists. Dr. King snapped at him and said, “Don’t talk like that! When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!”

For the next three-plus decades, no one challenged the credibility of this account. No wonder: Lipset, author of the classic Political Man (1960), was an eminent authority on American politics and society, who later became the only scholar ever to preside over both the American Sociological Association and the American Political Science Association. Who if not Lipset could be counted upon to report an event accurately? Nor was he quoting something said in confidence only to him or far back in time. Others were present at the same dinner, and Lipset wrote about it not long after the fact. He also told the anecdote in a magazine that must have had many subscribers in Cambridge, some of whom might have shared his “fascinating and moving” experience. The idea that he would have fabricated or falsified any aspect of this account would have seemed preposterous.

That is, until almost four decades later, when two Palestinian-American activists suggested just that. Lipset’s account, they wrote, “seems on its face… credible.”

There are still, however, a few reasons for casting doubt on the authenticity of this statement. According to the Harvard Crimson, “The Rev. Martin Luther King was last in Cambridge almost exactly a year ago—April 23, 1967″ (“While You Were Away” 4/8/68). If this is true, Dr. King could not have been in Cambridge in 1968. Lipset stated he was in the area for a “fund-raising mission,” which would seem to imply a high profile visit. Also, an intensive inventory of publications by Stanford University’s Martin Luther King Jr. Papers Project accounts for numerous speeches in 1968. None of them are for talks in Cambridge or Boston.

---
When King was assassinated, the Crimson, Harvard’s student newspaper, did write that he “was last in Cambridge almost exactly a year ago—April 23, 1967.” That had been a very public visit, during which King and Dr. Benjamin Spock held a press conference to announce plans for a “Vietnam Summer.” War supporters picketed King.

But in actual fact, that wasn’t King’s last visit to Cambridge. In early October 1967, when news spread that King would be coming to Boston for the Belafonte concert, a junior member of Harvard’s faculty wrote to King from Cambridge, to extend an invitation from the instructor and his wife:

We would be anxious to be able to sit down and have a somewhat leisured meal with you, and perhaps with some other few people from this area whom you might like to meet. So much has happened in recent months that we are both quite without bearings, and are in need of some honest and tough and friendly dialogue…. So if you can find some time for dinner on Friday or lunch on Saturday, we are delighted to extend an invitation. If, however, your schedules do not permit, we of course will understand that. In any case, we look forward to seeing you at the Belafonte Concert and the party afterwards.

Two days later, King’s secretary, Dora McDonald, sent a reply accepting the invitation on King’s behalf: “Dr. King asked me to say that he would be happy to have dinner with you.” King would be arriving in Boston at 2:43 in the afternoon. “Accompanying Dr. King will be Rev. Andrew Young, Rev. Bernard Lee and I.”

Who was this member of the Harvard faculty? Martin Peretz.

...It was against this background that King came to dinner at the Peretz home at 20 Larchwood Drive, Cambridge, in the early evening of October 27, 1967. A few days later, King’s aide, Andrew Young, thanked the couple

for the delightful evening last Friday. It is almost too bad we had to go to the concert, but I think you will agree that the concert, too, proved enjoyable but I am also sure a couple of hours conversing with the group gathered in your home would have been more productive.

In fact, the evening’s significance would only become evident later, after King’s death. For the dinner was attended by Peretz’s senior Harvard colleague, Seymour Martin Lipset, and it was then and there that Lipset heard King rebuke a student who echoed the SNCC line on “Zionists”: “When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You’re talking anti-Semitism!” Peretz would later assert that King “grasped the identity between anti-Israel politics and anti-semitic ranting.” But it was Lipset who preserved King’s words to that effect, by publishing them soon after they were spoken. (And just to run the contemporary record against memory, I wrote to Peretz, to ask whether the much-quoted exchange did take place at his Cambridge home on that evening almost 45 years ago. His answer: “Absolutely.” )

It is worth reading the whole thing.

And yet, even today, anti-Israel activists are casting doubt that the quote is accurate. For good reason: they know it is, and the idea that MLK was probably a Zionist drives them crazy.

(This tweet was deleted after I responded, but her sarcastic response is still up.)

More on MLK and Israel, between Kramer and Yaacov Lozowick, here.