Monday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Israel at 65: Success still plagued by uncertainty

In 65 years, Israel has surpassed the dreams of its founders, emerging as the Middle East’s strongest military force, a global high-tech powerhouse and a prosperous homeland for the Jewish people.
Yet it remains a divided society, and its most intractable problem — peace with its Arab neighbors — has yet to be resolved.
On the eve of the 65th anniversary of its creation, the Jewish renaissance in the Holy Land remains a work in progress.

‘We will not give in or surrender,’ PM says as nation remembers fallen

A two-minute siren brought the country to a halt at 11 a.m. Monday, as Israel continued its Memorial Day events in remembrance of 25,578 war and terror victims.
Speaking at the official state ceremony for Israel’s fallen, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who lost his brother Yoni in the 1976 Entebbe raid, said he had been asked how to cope by children he met recently who had lost parents in wars or terror attacks.

Torch lighters to illuminate start of Independence Day

When Memorial Day draws to an end on Monday evening, 12 torches will be lit by Israelis during an annual ceremony at the Mount Herzl military cemetery to mark the beginning of Israel’s 65th Independence Day.

Druse participate in Israel's joy and sorrow

Three hundred and ninety two Israeli Druse have been killed while serving in the IDF; have served in all of country's wars.

Pamela Geller: Dangerously rewriting history

Today we are at a point where history and facts must be “erased” and rewritten, because truth is racist-Islamophobic-anti-Muslim bigotry. Historical revisionism has taken on a new life, as history is scrubbed and manufactured Muslim myths are presented as fact.
Pioneering historian Bat Ye’or recently visited the British Museum and found that “Palestinian propaganda and its cohorts of EU bowdlerizing troops have also visited the Museum – which is why all the information notes pertaining to the artifacts that mention the history of the Kingdoms of Judea and Israel now also mention the word “Palestine” – even 3,000 years B.C. – while the name was only given to the land in 135 A.D. by Roman Emperor Hadrian when he incorporated it into the Roman Empire.”

Bieber wishes Anne Frank were a fan

Teenage pop star Justin Bieber faced a barrage of derision on Sunday when news broke that he had visited the Anne Frank House in Amsterdam and wrote in the visitors’ book at that he hoped the young Jewish author, who died in the Holocaust at 15, would have been a fan had she survived World War II.
“Truly inspiring to be able to come here,” Bieber, 19, wrote on Friday after touring the iconic building where Frank and six others spent two years hiding out from the Nazis. “Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a Belieber.”

Jewish Actress Emmy Rossum Slams Justin Bieber for Anne Frank Remark

Emmy Rossum, a Jewish actress and singer, tweeted: “Anne Frank suffered WW2 and Justin Bieber hopes she would have been a fan? I have no words.”

Israel’s first flyboys soar again in celluloid

Some 65 years after a band of foreign volunteers took to the skies to ensure Israel’s birth and survival, filmmakers are racing to bring their exploits to the screen before the last of the breed passes away.

Original 1917 Balfour Declaration to be displayed in Israel

The original document setting out Lord Arthur James Balfour’s 1917 declaration, stating Britain’s support for the establishment of a national home for the Jewish people in Palestine, will be placed on display at the Independence House in Tel Aviv for a limited period in two years’ time. The document, which is nearly one hundred years old, currently resides at the British National Library and has never left British soil.

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Child terrorist wannabes on Hamas TV

More child abuse, lovingly captured on a kids' show in Gaza. From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from a children's show on Umm Nidal Farhat, which aired on Hamas's Al-Aqsa TV on March 29, 2013:

Child presenter: Iman, you are the daughter of the martyr Nidal. What did your father do to help liberate Jerusalem?

Iman, who is sitting alongside other grandchildren of Umm Nidal Farhat: He produced missiles.
Child presenter: He produced the first missile, and it was called "Qassam," right? When he was making missiles, was your grandmother there with him?
Iman: No. 

Child presenter: Did she encourage him to do so?

Iman: Yes, of course.
Child presenter: Iman, are you proud to have Umm Nidal Farhat as your grandmother?
Iman: Yes.
Child presenter: Are you proud that your father is a martyr?
Iman: Yes.
Child presenter:Would you like to follow in their footsteps? 

Iman: Yes.

[...]
Veiled child presenter: Jinan, you told me that the great mother, Umm Nidal Farhat, saw her sons in a dream before she died, right? Tell us that story.
Janin: When she was in Egypt, she was already ill.
Veiled child presenter: She was in Egypt before she came here, right?
Janin: Yes. Allah be praised, she got a little better before she died, and she saw her martyred sons in a dream, coming to her and wanting to take her. They missed her a lot, just like she missed them. Imad 'Aqel, Allah's mercy upon him, also came to her in a dream. It was a day before she returned to Gaza. He wanted her to go with them. He wanted her to meet them in Paradise.
Veiled child presenter: She understood that she was going to them, right?
Janin: Yes. She said to my uncle: I want to go to Gaza.
Veiled child presenter: She didn't want to die in Egypt. She wanted to die on her land. She insisted on departing from this life in her own bed, right?
Janin: Yes. 

[...]

Granddaughter of Nidal Farhat: I call upon all Muslim mothers, daughters, and sisters – Al-Aqsa Mosque expects us to be the next generation to march toward it. Do not spare us the commanders, the soldiers, and the martyrdom lovers. Al-Aqsa Mosque expects us to be the next generation to march toward it. Do not hesitate [to sacrifice] commanders, soldiers, and martyrdom-lovers. The mothers send their sons to victory or to Paradise, Allah willing.
The children in the studio sing in unison: Jihad bestows pride and glory upon you when you become a martyrdom-seeker.
Jihad bestows pride and glory upon you when you become a martyrdom-seeker.
Oh explosive device of glory – with her blood she created freedom.
Oh explosive device of glory – with her blood she created freedom.
Ask [suicide bomber] Fatima Al-Najjar how one should live a life of pride.
Ask [suicide bomber] Fatima Al-Najjar how one should live a life of pride.

Presenter in chicken costume: Let's have a round of applause.

[...]
Veiled child presenter: We should sacrifice our lives for the sake of the homeland, so we can please God and liberate Palestine and Jerusalem. What we learn from her example is that we should follow in her footsteps.
Child presenter: She raised her children from an early age on love of martyrdom for the sake of Allah, as well as on love of the homeland and its defense. We should learn from them. We should wage Jihad and persevere, in order to liberate this land. When one of us is martyred, we say that his life is precious, yet it is a cheap price to pay for the liberation and defense of the homeland.
Veiled child presenter: The lives of all the martyrs are precious, but no price is too high when it is paid for the sake of the homeland.

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So why are Israelis so damn happy, anyway?

Tiffanie Wen at Open Zion is perplexed:

By now everyone in Israel has read the results of the study published earlier this month that showed Israelis ranked among the happiest people among the Western nations, despite an extensive laundry list of problems in their country.

Israel ranked low in terms of income, housing, education and security for example—all things we would typical associate with contentment. As an Asian-American who hails from San Francisco, I could add a few of my own complaints to the list: lack of ethnic food, the outrageous cost of imported goods, the raging summer heat, the marginalization of minorities and refugees, and the famous Israeli frankness that has me constantly fielding questions about why I pay so much for my apartment and my (ever so subtle) fluctuation in weight (Up or down? Eating cakes or working out?), chief among them.



So then why—if they probably can't find a job or afford the apartment that they live in—are Israelis so damn happy?

War has quite a bit to do with it.
The fact is that Israel has been in a perpetual state of war—or under the threat of war—since David Ben-Gurion declared independence in May 1948, the only Western country in the world in which this is the case.



Even during periods of "peace," there still seems to exist, at a minimum, a potential intifada brewing in the West Bank, or chemical weapons making their way into the hands of Hezbollah, or rockets being lobbed into the country from Gaza.

And this has created a fascinating psychological paradox, one that has been studied extensively by Professor Zahava Solomon of Tel Aviv University. On one hand, as she told me in a recent phone interview, the culture of conflict has made Israelis constantly aware of their potential demise; on the other it has made them virtually fearless.
Think about it. 
How would you act if you woke up every morning thinking that this day could be your last? Or at least took a moment to imagine how you would be eulogized at your funeral? (An exercise that Stephen Covey recommended in his wildly popular “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,” although admittedly “live in a war zone” did not make the list.)


The point is this: you'd enjoy the day you had.
 And if you continued to survive until the next morning, this daily exercise might develop into a mantra for how you lived your life. And you might bother to take that beach day, or spend more time with your family. You might grow a pair and launch that startup you've been thinking about (Boom: Silicon Wadi) or stop a beautiful woman on the street and insist that she have lunch with you, or park on the sidewalk if there was no other parking within a five-block radius. You might climb a mountain, or go scuba diving or backpack in South America for a year. All things that Israelis do in droves, and that, in my opinion, probably lead to a more fulfilling existence.



If constant war or threat of war makes people happy, then people in Iraq and Lebanon must be ecstatic!

Ms. Wen and her TAU professor) is completely clueless.

Haaretz was even more flummoxed:

It’s not clear why Israelis are so happy, despite a relatively poor showing on measures such as housing, income, job security, community support and education. It could be that what makes the average Norwegian happy doesn’t do the trick in Israel. Or maybe Israelis try to appear happy even when they’re not and respond to pollsters accordingly.

Yeah, they are just pretending to be happy to pollsters!

The answer is not such a mystery, and it sheds more light that you might expect.

Happiness comes from many sources, but a critical one is a sense of belonging.

Israelis don't just think of themselves as citizens of a state, of a random set of people with nothing in common except an accident of where they were born. They think of themselves as a family. (This mostly applies to Jews, but not exclusively.)

This is why they can be rude to each other - because there is a knowledge that, just like in your family underneath that rudeness is love. That's why bumping into someone in the store is a lot less likely to escalate into a gunfight. You can yell and threaten and curse - but deep down you know that you are all one people.

There is a second criteria for happiness, especially obvious in the workplace. It is that one must has a sense of accomplishment, of doing something important, and of fulfilling one's responsibility.

Here, again, Israeli Jews share that idea. Just by living in Israel they are making a statement to the world that they are in their home. By sharing the burden of serving in the IDF they know they are defending their people from those who want to kill them. They aren't just anonymous citizens of a state. Everyone is important, because everyone depends on each other.

This is why Ms. Wen doesn't get it. She lives in Israel but only as an outside observer, not as an Israeli. She cannot fathom the sense of fulfillment that comes from these twin senses of belonging and of accomplishment at fulfilling your responsibilities towards those you love.

Ha'aretz, the TAU professor and many of those who live in the Tel Aviv "bubble" are also clueless - because to them Israel is just an abstraction, a land to be analyzed and criticized but not one to be viscerally involved with. To them, the emotional ties of Jews to the land of their forefathers is a silly superstitious myth - and they cannot fathom how it is the source of Israeli happiness and contentment.

This survey, unwittingly, reveals more about Israel's critics than it does about the subjects of the survey itself.

(h/t Ian)

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Monday Links Part 1

From Ian:

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The ‘Disabled’ Terrorist Stood Up to Attack IDF

There is some other information that Maan did not report. For example, he was arrested in a hideout, not in his home.
And the “handicapped” man “threw at the soldiers everything he could get his hands on,” such as hammers, said a military spokeswoman. “I won’t say he does not have a disability, but he can walk,” a spokesman added.
For a man who supposedly cannot walk on his own, he must have had an angel helping him because he walked down the stairs from the second floor, where soldiers nabbed him, and then tried to grab a soldier’s rifle.

Special Report: Canada's University of Manitoba Students' Union becomes first in North America to ban IAW

The University of Manitoba Students Union (UMSU) has become the first in North America to vote to ban Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) on campus and strip the group Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA) of official student group status.

Investigation: Jewish Students Were Unjustly Evicted from Brooklyn College BDS Event

After a two month investigation into the circumstances surrounding the expulsion of four Jewish students from a BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) event aimed at Israel at Brooklyn College in February, a report has been issued that states that a “plausible inference can be drawn that the removal of the four students was motivated by their political viewpoint.”
The event featured anti-Israel activists Judith Butler and Omar Barghouti, and gained considerable attention in the press when it was discovered that the school’s Political Science Department was a sponsor.

Lawsuit Threatened if Major Equities Fund Goes Through With Boycott of Israel

The Israel Law Center (Shurat HaDin) is threatening legal action against the Teachers Insurance and Annuity Association – College Retirement Equities Fund (TIAA-CREF) if it chooses to adopt a resolution boycotting Israeli firms and investments.

PMW: "To war that will... destroy the Zionist's soul" - Girl recites poem on PA TV
"To war that will... destroy the Zionist's soul" - Girl #2 recites poem on PA TV
Abbas to appoint PM or head gov't himself By Khaled Abu Toameh

He added that none of the candidates on the short list to replace Fayyad were viable reformers. “Whether Mohammad Mustafa, [former PA public works and housing minister] Azzam al- Ahmed or even Rami Hamdallah, it is significantly less likely that the new prime minister challenges Abbas on matters of transparency and reform,” he said.

German event with Iran envoy ‘legitimizes evil’

A German government ministry and an evangelical church academy provoked outrage in the US and Germany by inviting the Iranian ambassador – allegedly involved in the massacre of Kurds – to speak at a conference slated for this week in Lower Saxony state.

Father of Israeli Hi-Tech, Efi Arazi, Dies at 76

Arazi began his career in the United States. While he was a student at MIT in 1969, he built the camera the Apollo 11 crew used to broadcast the first pictures of the moon. NASA continued to use his camera until 1995.

Report: Germany Prefers Israeli Over US Drones

Germany is in talks with Israel to buy weaponized drones for its military that are seen as more technologically advanced than US ones

The Israeli medical device Steve Jobs would have liked

For the first time, an Israeli company has been accepted into a prestigious program run by GE Healthcare, one of the biggest health-tech companies in the world. Oxitone, located in Ashkelon, was selected for GE Healthcare’s Start-Up Health Academy Entrepreneurship Program, a three-year arrangement where start-ups enter as fledgling businesses and emerge ready for prime time.

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Guess who's upset at Erdogan?

Azzam Al-Ahmad, member of the Fatah Central Committee, criticized the announcement by Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan that he intends to visit the Gaza Strip, and said that this further divides the Palestinian Arabs.

Ahmad told the official "Voice of Palestine" radio that Mahmoud Abbas will visit Ankara within days to discourage Erdogan from the planned visit.

He added: "Any official visit to the Gaza Strip without coordination of the legitimate Palestinian leadership supports and deepens the divide between the West Bank and Gaza."

It is indeed noteworthy, but not surprising, that Erdogan is publicly siding with the Hamas terrorists.

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Al Qassam members "escape" from Hamas prison

Palestinian Arabic media are reporting that three members of the Al Qassam Brigades escaped from a prison in Gaza last night.

All three had been convicted of murder.

Given that the majority of police and security services in Gaza also moonlight for the Al Qassam Brigades, and both organizations ultimately report to the same people, I have a feeling that this prison break didn't involve any tunneling or dramatic hiding in the laundry truck. It was probably more like, "Hey, Guard Ahmed, we're going to leave tonight, OK?"

"Okey-dokey!"

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Hamas damages ancient harbor for terrorist training

From Al Monitor:

Earlier last month, amid overwhelming criticism from public figures and nongovernmental organizations, the military wing of the Islamic movement of Hamas, Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, bulldozed a part of the ancient Anthedon Harbor in northern Gaza along the Mediterranean Sea. The Brigades damaged the harbor in order to expand its military training zone, which was initially opened on the location in 2002, according to Ejla.

The Anthedon seaport, which dates back over 3,000 years to the Mycenaean era, is considered one of the most important sites in the Middle East and is the oldest harbor in Gaza. It was designated an international heritage site by UNESCO in 2012. The location was discovered in 1997 on the space of 180,000 square meters. It contains mosaic floors with historical pillars from the Roman, Byzantine and Islamic ages.

In a press statement, the Hamas-run Ministry of Tourism said that it is the only responsible authority over the location, and it would not permit harm to the monuments.

“Due to rising population in the region, the ministry appreciates the urgent need for using new pieces of land. This is why the ministry has agreed with the different responsible parties on using a limited part of the location temporarily in a way that won’t harm the underground monuments there in any way,” the statement read.

But Deputy Minister of Tourism in Gaza Muhammad Khela told Al-Monitor that the location was taken for military use and not demographic purposes.

“We can’t stand as an obstacle in the way of Palestinian resistance; we are all a part of a resistance project, yet we promise that the location will be limitedly used without harming it at all,” Khela explained.

UNESCO describes the harbor as a tentative World Heritage site, and it says that it qualifies because "Anthedon exhibits an important interchange of human values, over important periods of time that relate to the main trade route crossing the Holy Land from Egypt to the Fertile Crescent and linking Africa and the Middle East to Europe."

UNESCO has not issued any statements condemning Hamas' destruction of this site.

That description was submitted by the PA, in part of its effort to flood UNESCO with heritage sites. Indeed, it appears to be an important archaeological site - yet today much of it is under the "Beach refugee camp" which was set up by - the UN!

Adjoining to the site is another important archaeological site, Blakhiyya, unearthed by the French between 1995 and 2005, but since then Hamas has built a police station, a parking lot and other structures directly on top.

Most telling, however, is that the deputy tourism minister of Hamas admits that terrorism is more important to the government than tourism!

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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NC professor illustrates Deir Yassin with Nazi concentration camp photo

A blog entry by Omid Safi, a professor of Islamic Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, talks about the "massacre" of Deir Yassin in the 1948 war.

He quotes an article about the event from Counterpunch that is filled with lies - even Safi admits that the article he quotes is probably wrong when it says that 250 people were killed, but he shows no skepticism about the rest of the article, such as saying many of the bodies were stuffed down wells, or that the Jews threatened another massacre in Jaffa with loudspeakers when in fact the Arab leaders at the time led the flight from Jaffa...there are dozens of such lies. And that article was also written by a professor.

But as bad as it is for academics to engage in flat-out lies, Safi goes further. He illustrates the "massacre" with a photo of victims of the Nazis!

In fact, this photo is of the Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp, part of the Buchenwald complex, and the dead bodies were victims of a Royal Air Force bombing raid in April 1945.

The Religion News Service, which sponsors this blog, claims:

RNS strives to meet the highest standards of public service journalism. Through our work, we report, write, compile, record and post news, features, photos and video.

Our goal is to promote civic engagement and discourse on religion. We strive to inform and challenge our readers, out of a conviction that religious literacy is a necessary component of effective citizenship.

I didn't know that outright lies were considered "highest standards" of journalism.

Hat tip to Tundra Tabloids, who has more. A much more accurate description of what happened in Deir Yassin, and how both Jewish and Arab leaders used exaggerations and lies about the event to further their own aims, can be seen here.

UPDATE: Safi removed the photo.

UPDATE 2: But he replaced it with this:

EoZ reader Irene looked at this and noticed the plastic bags - were plastic bags widely available in 1948?

In fact, this image is associated  on the Internet more with the Sabra and Shatila massacres done by Christian Phalangists against Muslims than with Deir Yassin. 

Yes, the esteemed professor Safi cannot even do a decent job in basic research skills. He saw the photo at an anti-Israel site a sbeing "Deir Yassin" and believed it wholeheartedly. 

Religion News Service must be so proud to host this person who, apparently, adheres to the "highest standards of public service journalism."

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"Created in Israel" video - Happy Yom Ha'atzmaut!

What's not to love?

(h/t Yaacov Lozowick)

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Jordanian family threatens to kill 10 Israeli tourists in "revenge"

From Arabs Today, April 7:

Last week policeman Ibrahim al-Jarrah, aged 27, had been accompanying Israeli tourists to the Ma’in hot springs, close to the Dead Sea, shortly before he was found dead at the site.

Al-Jarrah’s brother, Joseph, told Arabstoday: “We want a full explanation of the death of our brother, who remained in sulphuric water for 40 hours.”
Relatives have claimed al-Jarrah was killed by criminals.

Security sources have meanwhile denied reports of foul play circulating on social networking sites, amid claims al-Jarrah was killed after receiving a blow to the head while escorting 21 Israeli tourists to Ma’in.

“There is no criminal suspicion here,” sources told Arabstoday.

Video of Harrah's body being recovered makes it appear likely that he simply slipped and hit his head in the rocky spring.



But if Jews were around, naturally the Arabs will want to blame them.

Angry Jordanians burned an Israeli flag on Friday to protest what they are convinced is Jewish involvement in Jarrah's death.

On Thursday, Jarrah's brother Yusuf Mohammed threatened to kill or kidnap up to ten Israeli tourists who enter Jordan as of this past Saturday until an investigation is completed to the family's satisfaction.

An op-ed in allofjo.net written by a Hizb ut-Tahrir spokesman lashes out against the very idea that Jarrah was accompanying the hated Jews to begin with calling them brothers of monkeys and saying that Jarrah's blood wa smade worthless in order to stay away from blaming the Jews. Moreover, the op-ed describes the murderer of seven Israeli schoolgirls as a hero, and is disgusted that Jordan's King Hussein apologized to mere Jews for their deaths, calling it a disgrace to Jordan's armed forces. He wails that Jordanians are serving the Jews, enemies of Allah.

This hasn't hit the media yet, but Israeli tourists to Jordan should be extra careful.

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Happy Birthday Israel video (Fountainheads)

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Gilad Atzmon reveals that Jewish anti-Zionists are part of the Jewish conspiracy!

Iran's PressTV publishes Jewish anti-semite Gilad Atzmon's latest ramblings:

Surprisingly enough, an attempt to examine our contemporaneous controlled opposition within the Left and the Progressive reveal that it is far from being a conspiratorial. Like in the case of the Jewish Lobby, the so-called ‘opposition’ hardly attempts to disguise its ethno-centric tribal interests, spiritual and ideological orientation and affiliation.

A brief examination of the list of organisations founded by George Soros’ Open Society Institute (OSI) presents a grim picture - pretty much the entire American progressive network is funded, partially or largely by a liberal Zionist, philanthropic billionaire who supports very many good and important causes that are also very good for the Jews. And yet, like staunch Zionist Haim Saban, Soros does not operate clandestinely. His Open Society Institute proudly provides all the necessary information regarding the vast amount of shekels it spreads on its good and important causes.

...As with Orwell’s Big Brother that frames the boundaries of dissent by means of control opposition, Soros’ Open Society also determines, either consciously or unconsciously, the limits of critical thought. Yet, unlike in 1984, where it is the Party that invents its own opposition and write its texts, within our ‘progressive’ discourse, it is our own voices of dissent, willingly and consciously, that are compromising their principles.

...We may have to face up to the fact that the progressive discourse effectively operates as Israel’s longest arm - it certainly acts as a gatekeeper and as protection for Zionism and Jewish tribal interests. If Israel and its supporters would ever be confronted with real opposition it might lead to some long-overdue self-reflection. But at the moment, Israel and Zionist lobbies meet only insipid, watered-down, progressively-vetted resistance that, in practice, sustains Israeli occupation, oppression and an endless list of human rights abuses.

Instead of mass opposition to the Jewish State and its aggressive lobby, our ‘resistance’ is reduced into a chain of badge-wearing, keffiyeh-clad, placard-waving mini-gatherings with the occasional tantrum from some neurotic Jewess while being videoed by another good Jew. If anyone believes that a few badges, a load of amateur Youtube clips celebrating Jewish righteousness are going to evolve into a mass anti-Israel global movement, they are either naïve or stupid.

...For the Jewish progressive discourse, the purpose behind pro-Palestinian support is clear. It is to present an impression of pluralism within the Jewish community. It is there to suggest that not all Jews are bad Zionists. Philip Weiss, the founder of the most popular progressive pro-Palestinian blog was even brave enough to admit to me that it is Jewish self -interests that stood at the core of his pro Palestinian activity.

Yes - the anti-Zionism of Mondoweiss is really an expression of evil Jewish tribalism, and meant to stifle the truly radical and moral voices like Gilad Atzmon's!

Atzmon himself, however, is hiding the fact that he is part of the Jewish problem as well. After all, he was born a Jew, and by definition he cannot escape that calamitous tribal membership. He has not yet publicly called for the mass extermination of Jews worldwide, proving he is not as independent as he pretends. Indeed, if you think about it clearly, Atzmon's cause is also part of the long arm of Israel - because his over-the-top characterization of all Jews as part of a grand tribal conspiracy can only serve to make him the butt of jokes and strengthen Jewish tribalism even more!

He is another tool in the circles within circles of the vast, overpowering Zionist world domination. We invented him to make the other anti-Zionist voices seem sane by comparison, and we are fully supporting those anti-Zionists with billions of dollars - in order to marginalize them! It makes so much damned sense!

It takes a true genius to see through all the conspiracies that we Jews are up to. But no Jew can properly reveal them, because he is part of them. We've brainwashed Atzmon so much that he doesn't even realize he is our puppet (and that his jazz playing  is pretty bad as well!)

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Sunday Links

From Ian:

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Seeds of violence
Little has changed in the hostile atmosphere in the Gaza or the West Bank since the days of the second intifada.

In the end, if the Palestinians truly want to continue negotiations with Israel, Western states must make certain that the intentions of the Palestinian government similarly reflect peace. When we have a Palestinian budget which spends a bulk of its donated funds on armaments, there is impeccable evidence that ending the conflict with Israel is not an intention. Until that time comes the West must stop bankrolling Ramallah’s corrupt and terror-ridden bureaucrats.

Archbishop Tutu, revisit Israel!

THE LAST time Tutu visited Israel was way back in 1989. At the time, he offended many by insensitively saying about the Holocaust during a visit to the Yad Vashem memorial, “We pray for those who made it happen, help us to forgive them and help us so that we in our turn will not make others suffer.”
To say these words at that place in the heart of the Jewish state was deeply hurtful. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Simon Wiesenthal Center called it “a gratuitous insult to Jews and victims of Nazism everywhere.”

IDF arrests 3 Hamas members in West Bank

IDF troops arrested three prominent Hamas leaders in the West Bank village of Jalqamus on Sunday morning, according to the Palestinian news agency Ma’an.

Islamist Children's Festival on Temple Mount

The festival was sponsored by the Al Aqsa Foundation and the Institute for Development of Al Aqsa and the Holy Sites. The theme was the strengthening of ties to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the commitment to its "liberation" from "the Israeli occupation."

Honest Reporting: Thoughts on “The World’s Largest Outdoor Prison”

When you get right down to it, Gaza’s Islamist overlords remain committed to perpetuating their control of the strip, their division with Fatah, and their agenda to destroy Israel. Dawber’s violin just sounds tinny and broken.

Hamas Arrests 'Collaborators' Following Amnesty Period

Hamas forces in Gaza have begun arresting suspected "collaborators" with Israel following a month-long period of amnesty.

Egypt's Coptic Christians live in fear of Islamic extremists

"I feel unsafe," said Samir, a high school philosophy teacher with a cross tattooed on her wrist. "The Islamists want war. They want strife. But this is our land too. It is a country blessed by God, and there's no way we'll leave it to them."

Four Copts arrested for complicity in Cathedral clashes

The Coptic Maspero Youth Union announced that Michael Morqos was arrested on Friday alongside three other activists. The union condemned his arrest, calling it an escalation against Coptic youth and likening it to Mubarak’s violations against Copts where “the violator is free and the victim gets jailed and humiliated”.

Report: Turkey nixes NATO meeting with Israel

An initiative to bring Israel and six Arab countries’ ministers together under NATO’s Mediterranean Dialogue group for the first time since 2008 has been nixed by Turkey and Egypt, Turkish daily Hurriyet reported Saturday.
Ankara and Cairo reportedly said “it was not the right time” for such a meeting.

Genocidal Muslim Country Warns of Genocide if Europe Doesn’t Accept Muslims

Turkey not only committed genocide against Christians, but it still lies about it and locks up its citizens who even mention the genocide. It’s also violently anti-semitic under its current Islamist government.
So that means the time is right for its government to hypocritically warn Europe that the failure to accept Muslim immigrants could lead to another Holocaust.

Swedish Social Democrats Oust Chairman of Islamic Association

Islamiska Förbundet has invited to Sweden speakers with known anti-Semitic views. The Swedish anti-racism magazine Expo revealed that one speaker invited by Mustafa, Egyptian Salah Sultan, had previously slandered the Jewish community in an interview with al-Jazeera by saying they kill Christians on Easter.

Judea Pearl to light memorial candle for slain son

Prof. Judea Pearl, the father of slain journalist Daniel Pearl, will light the memorial flame at the Jewish Agency’s annual Remembrance Day ceremony on Monday to commemorate Jews slain in terror attacks and in anti- Semitic incidents abroad.

Doctor who Fought Libel joins IDF Despite Cancer

David showed up for reserves duty during Pillar of Defense even though he is suffering from cancer.
“Physically it was very difficult,” he said, “but spiritually it was extraordinary. It’s very powerful to be part of the most important thing going on – protecting soldiers in the Israel Defense Force.”
David fought for years against an Arab story, widely published in the world media, accusing Israeli soldiers of shooting and killing a terrified Arab child, Mohammed al-Dura. He revealed in 2007 that he had treated the father, Jamal al-Dura, for wounds sustained in an Arab gang attack – injuries that al-Dura later claimed had been inflicted by the Israeli army.

Israeli medical start-up prepares to build a better bone

Make no bones about it: A one-of-a-kind factory is going up in northern Israel.
Scientists at the Haifa facility there will manufacture bones for use in bone grafts, and they’ll do so using a new technique — taking live fat cells from patients by liposuction –which, according to its inventor, Dr. Shai Meretzki, will significantly change the way doctors relate to orthopedic problems and bone repairs.

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Israel nervous that UNDOF will abandon Syria

Maariv reports:

Jerusalem is concerned that the Austrian troops of the UN force in Golan Heights, which are its largest contingent, will leave the area soon and will effectively cause the dissolution of power. In a situation like this there is a reasonable possibility that opposition Islamists will take over the Golan border positions, including the Syrian Hermon post.

In the coming weeks the arms embargo imposed by the EU on all sides in Syria should expire. It is believed that Britain and France will start to arm some rebel groups fighting Assad, but Austria has threatened in that case to consider pulling its soldiers....Austrian Foreign Minister Michael Sfindlgr, currently visiting Israel, expressed during his meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu his fears of possible arming the rebels, ...saying that arming the rebels would bring the government to seriously consider the evacuation of the Golan Austrian battalion.

The UN had hinted that this might happen over two weeks ago:

The United Nations peacekeepers in the Golan Heights have reduced their activities in response to the presence of armed groups from the Syrian conflict, the world body’s peacekeeping chief said today, calling for respect for the safety and security of UN personnel.

Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous told journalists in New York that the UN Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF) has had to “adopt a posture which is somewhat more static” and take additional security measures, which include the use of more armoured vehicles.

“We have had to reduce somewhat the footprint of UNDOF in the Golan Heights in the area of operation,” Mr. Ladsous said after briefing the Security Council behind closed doors on actions taken since the seizure and safe release of 21 blue helmets earlier this month. In the days following, UNDOF vacated two positions which were particularly exposed to gunfire.

He thanked the countries contributing troops to the region and said he very much hopes that they will stay the course on this “very important mission.”

Ambassador Vitaly Churkin of Russia, which holds the presidency of the Council for this month, told reporters that the armed groups are being “provocative” in the area where the peacekeepers operate, but the blue helmets do not have the mandated authority from the Council to stop them.

(h/t Yoel)

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Ha'aretz forced to issue another correction for Gideon Levy's fantasy statistics

From CAMERA:

CAMERA's staff in Israel has prompted corrections in Ha'aretz today, in both English and Hebrew, on a March 31 Gideon Levy column which falsely attributed a figure for Palestinian combatant deaths during Operation Cast Lead to Amnesty International. As first noted yesterday in our Snapshots blog, Levy erred in claiming:

One can argue ad nauseam about the numbers, but even the official IDF records − 1,166 killed, including 709 "terrorists," 89 children and 49 women − leave no room for doubt. Amnesty International, for instance, enumerated only 92 Palestinian fighters among the dead.

(Emphasis added.)

As Snapshots reported, contrary to Levy's claim, Amnesty International's lengthy report on Cast Lead does not indicate that "only 92 Palestinian fighters were among the dead...

While Amnesty acknowledges it did not have "the time and resources to verify all the reported deaths," it nevertheless somehow concluded that there were 1,400 Palestinian casualties, including 300 children, more than 115 women, some 85 men over the age of 50, and some 200 men under 50 they say took no part in hostilities -- a total of 700 uninvolved civilians, and an additional 250 Hamas policemen they say were not involved in hostilities when they were killed. According to Amnesty's own calculations, that leaves 550 unclassified Palestinian casualties out of 1400. Though Amnesty does not say so explicitly, presumably they are combatants. In any event, nowhere in its Cast Lead report does the organization cite only 92 Palestinian fighters killed.

It is no surprise that Gideon Levy lies - he has been doing that for years.

What is amazing is that Ha'aretz continues to refuse to fact-check his columns and publishes his lies despite his amazingly bad track record.

(h/t Yoel, Ian)

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