Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, May 24, 2013

Church of Scotland overwhelmingly approves anti-Israel report

THE General Assembly has ignored calls by Scottish Jews to rethink a controversial report on the Israel-Palestine situation.

The Church and Society Council’s Inheritance of Abraham? A report on the Promised Land document prompted a storm of controversy around the world when it was first published.

Although primarily about the treatment of Palestinian people by the Israeli government, it was interpreted by Jewish groups as questioning the assumption that the Bible supported the existence of Israel as the Promised Land for Jews.

The report was criticised by the Israeli government as playing into “extremist political positions” and that it had damaged inter-faith relations.

In the wake of the row, the Kirk entered talks with Jewish groups and revised the report, changing some of the language and adding a preface giving context to the document.

Despite these amendments, the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities (SCoJeC) said that the report’s “unacceptable underlying message remains unaltered,” and hoped that “rather than adopting the report, the General Assembly will refer it back in order to permit a serious and sustained dialogue that will bring our communities together rather than driving us apart”.

During the debate on the report yesterday, the Rev David Randall echoed the SCoJeC’s call and brought a motion for the council to continue its work on the paper to find out “what is troubling the Jewish community” and report back in 2014.

Although she agreed that talks with Jewish communities should continue, the council convener, the Rev Sally Foster-Fulton, rejected the motion, stating that council had been in “good dialogue” with them and had addressed their concerns. But she said that it was “a report for the General Assembly to discuss and debate” and that the central message “was robust”.

A standing vote was taken and Mr Randall’s motion was overwhelmingly rejected, and the report was accepted by the Assembly.

Speaking outside the hall, Mrs Foster-Fulton said: “This is primarily a report highlighting the continued occupation by the state of Israel and the injustices faced by the Palestinian people as a consequence. It is not a report criticising the Jewish people. Opposing the unjust policies of the state of Israel cannot be equated to antisemitism.”

The revised report itself addresses none of the actual problems with the original report. It simply adds an introduction that emphasizes that some Jews weren't thrilled with the ideas in the report, that this wasn't their intention, and that dialogue is a really great thing. And, also:

[T]he country of Israel is a recognised State and has the right to exist in peace and security

However, the report itself makes crystal clear that the Church of Scotland does not recognize that there is a right for a Jewish state to exist.

Saying that Israel has a right to exist, without saying that the Jewish people have a right to self-determination, is not an indication of flexibility - it is an exercise in doublespeak.

The main thrust of the report, and the part that is offensive, remains the same: the Church of Scotland is radically re-interpreting the Jewish Bible to mean something diametrically opposed to what it actually says, multiple times, in very plain language.

Fundamentally, the Church is saying that the Jewish people have no right to their historic land. This means either that the Jews are either the only nation who do not have the right to self-determination, or that the Jews aren't a nation. The Old Testament is nothing if not the story of Jewish nationhood, so either the Church is changing the very essence of its foundational text or it is claiming that it is proper to deny Jews a basic human right.

No amount of hand waving about respect for dialogue is going to blunt the pure malice behind that message.

Beyond its obvious offensiveness to Jews, the report should be offensive to anyone who takes religion seriously. It is true, as I have shown, that logic used in the report is (to say the least) tendentious. Even worse, however, is that the underlying theme of the report is that the foundation of the religion itself, in this case the Bible, is fungible and must be altered in order to accommodate the current politically correct thinking.

If religion's message isn't timeless, then it has no value.

This is not to say that religions cannot and should not evolve to address contemporary issues, but these changes should not be flippant - and the idea that Israel's actions are so abhorrent that the Bible itself must be re-interpreted every couple of years should be offensive not only to Jews but to any believer.

UN official: "Israeli-Palestinian conflict not less important than Syria crisis"

Nice to know that the UN has maintained its sense of proportion.

A senior United Nations diplomat has warned the international community about the danger of focusing on the Syrian crisis at the expense of finding a resolution to Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Robert Serry, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Process briefed the Security Council on Tuesday on the situation in the region.

"Ending the conflict in Syria is a matter of great urgency and must be the top priority of the international community. At the same time, it would be mistaken, and dangerous, to assume that a resolution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is less important."

We can't let our primary UN mission of blaming all the world's problems on Israel be distracted by a mere hundred thousand dead, flattened cities, chemical weapons and millions of displaced persons, can we?

(h/t/ Anne Bayefsky)

Why the Iranian regime pretends to care about Palestinian Arabs

Nice insight from Abdullah Al-Otaibi writing in Asharq al-Awsat:

The stance of the Islamic Republic of Iran towards the Syrian crisis has exposed many slogans that it used to attract political Islamic movements, such as the Palestinian issue, or to attract some idiot Arab nationalists, such as the resistance. It was exposed to a number of Arab writers and intellectuals, but their voices were never heard and their ideas were faulted in a recognized religious and nationalistic demagogy.

I used to think, like others, that Iran used the Palestinian issue as an ideological tool to cover Iran’s internal problems and desires to expand and have greater influence in the Arab region only after the revolution in Iran. However, I discovered while I was reading My Life, the memoirs of former Iranian president and current candidate Hashemi Rafsanjani, that this is an old trick.

Talking about the establishment of the Maktab Tashayyua Shi’ite School, which was part of the clerics’ opposition to the Shah’s rule, Rafsanjani says, “We have benefited from this process in presenting the Palestinian issue, which was forgotten, and we were able, through this process, to find new relations with the outside world and develop them.” It was an issue they adopted for two reasons, according to the former president: one was to “benefit” from it, and the other was to “find relations with the outside world,” meaning it was simply a means adopted to strengthen the position of the clerics who opposed the regime.

He confirmed the issue once again when he talked about Khomeini‘s “desire, from the early years, to adopt the Palestinian issue, and his desire to take the battle to the region, and to the world.” It was, therefore, a weapon used in an internal war that Khomeini wanted to expand through the Palestinian issue to reach the region and the world as a whole.

This historic depth of the Islamic Republic’s policies is useful for shedding light on these policies and their deep objectives, which continue until today. Their use of religion for political aims is known. The exploitation of the Palestinian issue to deceive Muslims was the same, and the deception of Arab nationalists by the resistance slogan is again the same.

These Iranian policies reflect an old, continuous and unchanging strategy, and not just a president’s impulse or the desires of the religious leader. Therefore, the results of the sham Iranian elections, regardless of who wins, will not change much in this strategy—except in the difference between a big, rough stick and a smooth one.

When drawing strategies, making long-term plans and managing crises, each crisis is an opportunity and every event is a weapon. Iran today is no longer satisfied with lifting sectarianism as slogan: it also uses it as a weapon to kill and destroy. It participates with expertise and weaponry, and with personnel and equipment, and with policies in Iraq. It also participates by inciting parties such as Hezbollah, Al-Fadl Bin Al-Abbas Brigades. It even has complicated and unending links to Al-Qaeda— something that contradicts the very foundations of the Islamic Republic.

Guess what? The Arab states care about their Palestinian brethren exactly as much as Iran does.

(h/t Zvi)

Thursday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Who is Really Desecrating Holy Sites?

Those who are now using the visits by Jews to initiate violence and incite violence against Israel and others are hoping that Arab and Islamic armies will launch a war against Israel over its "desecration" of the holy site.
If anyone is desecrating the holy site, it is those who smuggle petrol bombs and stones into the compound to use them against visitors.

London goes the way of Kabul

Last year it was Mohammed Merah, a young Muslim of Algerian decent who was mesmerized by jihadist ideology and started off deciding to kill "traitorous" Muslims who fought alongside the infidels against his brothers in Afghanistan, before cementing his legacy in the murderous terrorist attack on the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school.
London's Woolwich neighborhood bore witness to a jihadist attack on Wednesday. Unfortunately it was not the first of its kind. Youth, enchanted by the jihad, are implementing the methods displayed in the gory videos currently circulating the Web.

“Terror” Only Happens in London

So far as the British media’s concerned, Palestinian suicide bombings, shootings, and knife attacks in Israel are never acts of terror. And the people responsible for the blood and mayhem are never terrorists.
The nine-letter word of choice is militants.
But when British soldier is hacked to death by Muslims in the streets of London — right outside his barracks — UK media uses the six-letter T-word. And correctly so.

Thanks to Kuperwasser al-Dura report, truth is on its way By Philippe Karsenty

For over 10 years, I’ve been fighting, along with many friends, to get out the truth about the al-Dura blood libel.
For many years, the strongest argument of our opponents has been the silence of the State of Israel when my efforts were sometimes undermined by Israeli diplomats. So getting the support of Israeli public diplomacy was an important objective.

Richard Landes: The Al Durah Affair: What Makes Journalists Behave so Badly?

The scandal today is, thirteen years later, the journalists themselves not only have not confronted this outrageous initial failure – dupes of a cheap fake – but their continued refusal to reconsider even as they continue to fall dupe to subsequent hoaxes. On the contrary, the go on practicing the kind of “lethal journalism” that the Al Durah affair epitomizes – injecting the information circulation system with malevolent lethal narratives designed to incite hatred, vengeance and war.

Honest Reporting: Is CNN Lying About al-Dura?

The headline, “Did Israel lie about child’s death?” sets the tone. But the kicker comes midway through the video, when we meet none other than cameraman Talal Abu Rahma, the one who shot the infamous footage of al-Dura and his father cowering behind a barrel broadcast by France 2 in 2000.
Turns out, he now works for CNN.

CAMERA Launches New Website to Aid Pro-Israel Students

“This project grew out of repeated requests by students for a site that would provide them very specific information they need, with campus speakers, films, and books,” Aviva Slomich, CAMERA’s campus director, said in a statement.
The website will be resource for students looking to educate themselves about the complexities of the Arab-Israeli conflict. It includes a “Middle East Issues” section that addresses many hot topics such as Jerusalem, the BDS movement, Israeli construction beyond the 1949 armistice lines, and more.

British 'Animosity' Toward Israel 'Disguised Anti-Semitism'

A senior Israeli minister described the "animosity" shown towards the state by British media, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and academics, as "disguised anti-Semitism", in an interview published in Thursday's Daily Telegraph.

Man Linked to Boston Bomber Killed by FBI

Evidence mounted linking one and then both of the Boston Marathon bombing suspects to the murders, but a developing story today is complicating that narrative. Earlier this morning, 27-year-old Ibragim Todashev, a Chechan man linked to Tamerlan Tsarnaev was shot and killed by the FBI in Orlando, Florida.

Prizes to Samaria, Golan Wineries at International Event

Israeli wineries in the Golan region and in Samaria (Shomron) are among the winners of the 2013 DECANTER competition for wines. A record 14,362 wines from 52 countries were entered in the event.

Bring them together

Stef Wertheimer, an octogenarian Israeli tycoon whose company produces cutting tools and who has financed the project to the tune of $22m, wants to get more Arabs into Israeli high-tech. Start-ups have helped lift Israel’s GDP per person by nearly a quarter in the past decade, to $32,000, and account for two-fifths of its exports.(h/t L.King)

IDF Blog: Safe and Sound: Mauricio’s Journey from Venezuela to Israel

Few people will ever have a life or death experience. This young Venezuelan soldier has already had several in his mere 21 years. Few would be able to overcome the obstacles he went through, but he did it and thrived.
Pvt. Mauricio Glucksmann was born on October 10, 1991 in Caracas, Venezuela. There, he studied at a Jewish school and led a normal life. But normalcy would not last for long.

IDF Captain, One Hand Prosthetic and the Other Paralyzed, Still Yearns to Defend Israel

By supporting FIDF, Komisar and Silverman help Israeli children and families who
have lost a parent or relative in uniform, among other projects. “The FIDF really takes care of the human side of these kids being soldiers,” Komisar said.
Established in 1981 by a group of Holocaust survivors, FIDF supports IDF soldiers through a variety of educational and wellbeing programs, including academic scholarships to former combat soldiers, financial aid to soldiers in-need, help for bereaved families, support for Lone Soldiers with no immediate family in Israel, aid for wounded soldiers, and more.

Repurposed Rock Brings Hope to Massachusetts Church Vandalized with Swastikas

At the Victory Assembly of God Church on Sunday, the rock, which was inscribed with the words of Isaiah 54:17, “No weapon forged against you shall prosper,” became the centerpiece of a renewed and undeterred Jerusalem Day celebration at the church.

Meanwhile, Iran expands its nuclear program

From AFP:

Iran is making significant progress in expanding its nuclear program, including in opening up a potential second route to developing the bomb, a new U.N. atomic agency report showed Wednesday.

The International Atomic Energy Agency’s latest quarterly update said Tehran had accelerated the installation of advanced uranium enrichment equipment at its central Natanz plant.

It also outlined further progress at a reactor under construction at Arak, also in central Iran, which Western countries fear could provide Iran with plutonium if the fuel is reprocessed.

Highly enriched uranium and plutonium can both be used in a nuclear weapon. North Korea used plutonium in two tests in 2006 and 2009, while uranium was used in the “Little Boy” atomic bomb dropped by the U.S. on Hiroshima, Japan in 1945.

The new IAEA report, seen by AFP, said Iran has installed at Natanz almost 700 IR-2m centrifuges and/or empty centrifuge casings, compared with just 180 in February. None was operating, however.

Iran has said it intends to install around 3,000 of the new centrifuges at Natanz – where around 13,500 of the older models are in place – enabling it to speed up the enrichment of uranium.

The IAEA report showed that Iran has produced so far 324 kilos (714 pounds) of 20-percent enriched uranium, 44 kilos more than three months ago, but that 140.8 kilos have been diverted to fuel production, up from 111 kilos.

Experts say that around 240-250 kilos are needed for one bomb.

At the research reactor under construction at Arak, which Iran says will start operating in the third quarter of 2014, the IAEA said that the plant’s large reactor vessel had been received but not yet installed.

The same was true of a number of other major components, it added.

Iran had not provided the IAEA with “urgently required” updated design information for the IR-40 reactor at Arak since 2006, the IAEA added.

“This is important because the reactor could be used to produce enough weapons grade plutonium for one weapon a year,” Mark Fitzpatrick, analyst at the International Institute for Strategic Studies, told AFP.

American stabbed in Egypt exhibits breathtaking willful blindness

Sometimes you just have to shake your head....

Egyptian resentment toward US government policies may be justified – but this doesn't make Egypt a dangerous place for Americans, Christopher Stone, the American scholar stabbed outside the US embassy in Cairo earlier this month, told Ahram Online.

His attacker, Mahmoud Badr, a 30-year-old man from the Nile Delta's Kafr El-Sheikh, told police that he had come to Cairo – motivated by hatred for the United States – in search of an American to kill.

"I fully realise that this was a random act," said Stone, 13 days after the attempt on his life. "I still feel that Egypt is a safe place for Americans to live."

Stone is an associate professor of Arabic and head of the Arabic Programme at Hunter College of New York's City University.

"Many Egyptians are upset with US government policies in the region, as they should be," said the lifelong Arabic-language scholar and defender of the Palestinian cause.

"But I believe, and have always said, that Egyptians are better than most at differentiating between the American government and people," Stone explained, citing numerous examples of warm receptions by Egyptians he had met who admitted to varying degrees of hostility to US policy.

As to his assailant, Stone said: "He's obviously mentally ill to do what he did."

Stone, who has been to Egypt countless times since 1988 as a student and researcher, had come to Cairo in January – with his wife and two children – on a six-month long fellowship with the American Research Centre in Egypt to do research on late Egyptian singer/songwriter El-Sheikh Emam.

Stone, who was admitted to Cairo's Qasr Al-Aini Hospital for three days after the attack, is travelling back to New York on Friday for medical treatment. He is nevertheless determined to come back to Egypt as soon as his health allows to complete his research.

.... The attack took place at noon right in front of the consulate entrance, where he had been waiting to hear about procedures regarding his wife's travel documentation.

A man standing nearby, outside the visa line, had politely asked him if he was American, to which Stone had confirmed – in Arabic – that he was. Less than one minute later, Badr had snuck up behind him and stabbed him in the neck before security guards could react.

"It would be a shame if this incident prevented others from coming to Cairo for work or study," the Arabophile said via Facebook in the wake of the attack. "What happened to me was an exceptional event, and even now I feel very safe – both me and my family – in the country."

If he came with his family in January, chances are very high that his wife has already been sexually harassed by the Egyptians that Stone loves so much.

For some people, the more that they are hated, the more they want to make themselves loved to those that hate them. It is really is a psychological illness, related to battered person syndrome, where some of the victims blame themselves for being abused and redouble their efforts to please their tormentors. In this case, Stone acted like a battered spouse even before he was physically attacked - so much does he want to prove that he is lovable and not at all like the bad Americans.

When an individual acts this way, it is tragic. When an entire group acts this way, it could be catastrophic.

Thursday Links Part 1

From Ian:

Prosor angered by UNRWA’s map of 'Arab Palestine'

Since the photo opportunity in Lebanon on May 3, Prosor has pursued a campaign calling out Dismorr and UNRWA, starting off with a letter to US Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
“Many in the international community doubt UNRWA’s impartiality and motives,” the letter reads. “Israel supports UNRWA’s important humanitarian work; however, actions that encourage incitement, conflict and, ultimately, violence undermine this work.”

UN Health Assembly, Syria, Slam ‘Inhuman Israeli Practices’
Observers of the world body in Geneva said the annual hypocrisy nevertheless reached a new low this year.

“To see the Assad regime point the finger at Israel out of professed concern for the health of Syrians is, frankly, a sick joke,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group accredited to the UN.
“They’ve slaughtered 80,000 of their own people, and are now busy destroying the lives of millions more. The real question is this: Why is the UN allowing mass murderers to deflect attention from their crimes by scapegoating democracies?”

Assad And His Allies Threaten To Open A Front In Golan Heights
Syrian Regime Gives Palestinian Factions Green Light To Operate Against Israel From Golan

On May 5, 2013, Syria's state television reported, citing a regime source, that the regime had "permitted the Palestinian factions to carry out operations from the Golan." This announcement triggered disagreements among the Palestinian factions regarding whether to answer the call and join the Golan resistance.

Report: 70-80% of Palestinians displaced in Syria

"We have registered approximately 530,000 Palestinian refugees. We believe that almost all of them, certainly maybe 70-80 percent, are displaced from their normal homes," UNRWA Commissioner General Filippo Grandi told AFP during a visit to Syria.

CIF Watch: Top 10 warning signs you may be a ‘Guardian Left’ anti-Semite

So, in the spirit of Walt’s mockery of those who ‘unknowingly’ are compromised by a deep-seeded imperialism lurking in their subconscious, here is CiF Watch’s own ‘Top 10 warning signs you may be a Guardian Left anti-Semite‘ – a list, per the links below, inspired by real life Guardianistas!)

BBC wrongly blames Israel for cooking gas shortage in Gaza

So in fact, the shortage of cooking gas in the Gaza Strip actually has nothing to do with “border restrictions imposed by Israel” as claimed by Knell, but it does have rather a lot to do with the policies of the Palestinian Authority.

Israeli Source: Amnesty's 'Balanced' Report 'Ridiculous'

Israeli defense officials say that the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas terrorists from acquiring weapons, which will be used to attack Israeli civilians. “To place Israel's defensive actions in the same context as Hamas' attempts to murder Israeli civilians is ridiculous,” a source in the Foreign Ministry said.

PMW: PA will never compromise, says official PA TV clip

"Let all religions know that I do not make truces"
"Let every person know that I do not compromise"

Rock Attacks Up Threefold, Firebombs Fourfold

The Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee's Subcommittee on Judea and Samaria was told Wednesday that Arab rock attacks on Jews were 2.5 times more frequent in 2012 than in 2011, and that the numbers for 2013 are 3.5 times larger than those of 2011.

Electric Company: PA Residents Not Forced to Pay

Many PA residents do not pay their electric bills. The Electric Corporation is owed a total of 730 million shekels by PA residents.

Barry Rubin: Saudi Arabia/United States: Strange Bedfellows in the Middle East

Among the four principle Saudi enemies, U.S. policy only sees al-Qaida as a total enemy of itself. It views Iran as a big problem that might somehow be reconciled through appeal to what is thought to be its true self-interest. And it has viewed the Muslim Brotherhood—shocking but true—as an ally. In Iraq, the United States helped put Shias into power and President Obama showed a willingness–before the State Department warned him that Tehran would gain–to do the same thing in Bahrain. The United States would be better off if it had the same basic list as Saudi Arabia, with the addition of the Iraqi, Syrian, and other Sunni Muslim radical Islamists supported by the monarchy.

Missing Peace: Will the army return to power in Egypt once again?

Dr Jaques Neriah, researcher at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, wrote an interesting analysis about the ongoing crisis in Egypt.
Chances are high that the current Muslim Brotherhood government will not be able to solve the crisis. As a result the state faces collapse and is on the verge of chaos. A large majority of the Egyptian population now demands that the army retake power.

Two Argentina bombing suspects among Iran presidential hopefuls

Two suspects in the bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires are candidates in Iran’s presidential election.
Mohsen Rezai and Ali Akbar Velayati, who are believed to have planned the 1994 attack, were among the eight candidates approved Tuesday for the June 14 election by Iran’s Guardian Council to succeed Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Senate backs Israel in event of strike on Iran nuclear weapon program

In a show of force, the United States Senate on Wednesday unanimously passed a resolution urging an uncompromising US stance against Iranian efforts to acquire nuclear weapons, calling for Washington’s support should Israel strike the program.

Venezuelan TV personality says Israel faked damning recording

Influential Venezuelan TV commentator Mario Silva accused the Mossad and CIA of manipulating his voice to embarrass his country’s socialist government.
Silva, a late night talk show host and vocal supporter of the Venezuelan Socialist Party responded on Tuesday to the release of a controversial tape featuring the likeness of his voice, saying it was forged by the Israeli and US secret services.

Arab TV series inciting hate against Jews coming in July. Will anyone do anything to stop it?

Excitement is growing in the Arab world over the upcoming TV series Khaybar.

While the series is ostensibly about the battle between Muslims and Jews in the city in 629 CE, the director and writer make it clear that the point of the film is to expose Jews and their evil plots. They explicitly say that they are drawing parallels between the Jews of Biblical times, the Jews of the Arabian peninsula in the seventh century and the Jews of Israel today.

It has an all-star cast.

The only other English-language website I can find that finds this alarming is the ADL blog:

An interview with Yusri Al-Jindy, the writer of “Khaiber,” an upcoming television series commemorating the genocide of Jews in Arabia, reveals both the anti-Semitic and political agenda behind the production.

In an interview with Al-Masry Al-Youm, an Egypt-based daily newspaper, on January 16, Al-Jindy said, “The goal of the series is to expose the naked truth about the Jews and stress that they cannot be trusted.”

Commenting on the recent changes in the region, Al-Jindy described the importance of recognizing the parallels between “the era of the Khaiber battle” and “contemporary times.”

Al-Jindy also seemed to suggest that the series will have a global effect. “I think it is time to expose them [the Jews] even in America itself. I am confident that the United States will realize that it paid a high price for supporting them.”

Predicting that he will be accused of anti-Semitism after the series airs, Al-Jindy added, “The charge of anti-Semitism is an outdated trend, and in fact it is a lie that Jews use against anyone who tries to expose their naked truth and their conspiracies.”

Here is the trailer:

And here is an Arab entertainment TV show segment that interviews the actors and director for "backstage secrets." I don't have a translation but the style of the show mimics that of any highly anticipated Hollywood blockbuster:

There are daily articles in the Arabic press about this TV series, which will be released for Ramadan, this coming July. Hundreds of millions of Arabs will be exposed to antisemitism and incitement.

Broadcasting this TV series would be a violation of international law.

The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights states (20-2):

Any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law.

Egypt is a signatory to this covenant, as is Jordan, Morocco, Iraq, and Tunisia.

Yet there has been silence from human rights groups, and even Jewish groups, except for the ADL.

It is critical that the Arab governments are called to account for broadcasting this incitement before it happens. The time to publicize it is now, and to force the bigots to expose and defend their hate.

Condemning this impending massive hate crime should not be spearheaded by right wing Zionist or Jewish groups. Liberal organizations, those who are most concerned with human rights, should be in the forefront. We should be hearing condemnations from Human Rights Watch, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and even the Palestinian Center for Human Rights and other Arab NGOs who claim to support human rights.

Given that this is a violation of international law, condemnations should also be coming from nation-states as well.

Moreover, even Jewish so-called "pro-peace" organizations such as J-Street, Jewish Voices for Peace, +972 magazine and others should be deploring this attempt to incite hatred against Israel - which would make peace that much further away.

This is not an issue of the Israel-Arab conflict, but a basic issue of human rights and humanitarian law. Every single organization that says it cares about peace, human rights and international law mustbe forced to answer whether they condemn this broadcast of a TV series whose very author brags is meant to stoke the hatred of Jews worldwide.

Now is the time to see if these groups are indeed as concerned about human rights and international law as they claim to be.

UPDATE: I created a Change.org petition.

Will UNRWA schools officially teach terrorism in September?

UNRWA says:

Schoolchildren in UNRWA schools follow the host authorities’ curricula and textbooks. UNRWA supplements these with its own materials on human rights.

The Hamas ministry of education just announced that they will create a new curriculum in the coming school year. Junior high school students will be taught about the "legitimacy of resistance," which is the Hamas word for terrorism.

Since Hamas is the effective host authority in Gaza, this means that UNRWA will be teaching support for terrorism in their schools, even as they add their own modules on human rights.

UNRWA is not likely to censor the official Hamas textbooks.

It will be interesting to see if UNRWA pushes back or if it will embrace the new curriculum.

Keep in mind that UNRWA schools in Gaza have been teaching the virtues of jihad, martyrdom and Jew-hatred based on an examination of their school websites I did in 2010. Since then, those websites have been removed, probably out of embarrassment, but there is no indication that anything has changed in the schools themselves.

Even so, having a school website contain essays on jihad is one thing - but officially teaching the legitimacy of terror attacks as an official part of the curriculum is far worse.

Yesterday I discussed the "Vulture Club" expose where some major journalists and human rights activists actively insult Israel in a private Facebook group.

You can click the graphic at the right to see the entire anti-Israel thread there. The hate for Israel on the part of supposedly unbiased reporters and activists is palpable.

Also yesterday I went into detail on The Economist strenuously denying any anti-Israel bias, even though the article I referenced didn't even bother to pretend to ask Israeli officials for their side of the story and the wording was deliberately slanted to go beyond the evidence mentioned.

I thought I would put together a quiz geared towards journalists and NGO workers who specialize in the Middle East, to see if they are biased against Israel:

1. Do you consider Gaza to be a virtual concentration camp?
2. Do you think that Jewish settlers regularly storm the Al Aqsa Mosque?
3. According to the Geneva Conventions, is Israel illegally occupying the West Bank?
4. Is Gaza under Israeli occupation?
5. Was the second intifada a spontaneous uprising?
6. Do you think that, in general, Jews were treated fairly under Muslim rule throughout history?
7. Are most Jewish residents of the territories from the United States?
8. Does Haaretz represent mainstream Israeli political opinion?
9. Is Benjamin Netanyahu less credible than Mahmoud Abbas?
10. Is Israel's naval blockade of Gaza illegal?
11. Do a majority or significant percentage of settlers support Baruch Goldstein's murders of Arabs in Hebron in 1994?
12. Was the Green Line a national border between 1949 and 1967?
13. Does, or did, Israel have a policy to sterilize Ethiopian women?
14. Does the IDF Spokesperson routinely lie?
15. Is the PA government more desirous of peace than the current Israeli government?

If you are a Middle East journalist or NGO worker, and you answer "yes" to any of these questions, then you most probably have an anti-Israel bias. At the very least you are woefully uninformed about a topic you are pretending to be well-versed in.

Ordinary people could be forgiven for thinking that the answers to some of these questions are in the affirmative - because they only get their news from people who allow their biases to overcome their dedication to accuracy and truth. Middle East "experts" should know better.

Egypt pulls funding for dwindling Jewish community

An official in Egypt's Ministry of Social Affairs has stated that the small annual stipend that Egypt had been spending on the tiny Jewish community has been eliminated in the newest budget.

Suad Makki, head of the Central Department for Financial and Administrative Affairs, told a meeting of the Commission on Human Rights of the Shura Council that the Egyptian government had been paying some $14,000 to the Jewish community almost every year since 1988. After the death earlier this year of Carmen Weinstein, the head of the community, Makki says that there is no longer a liaison.

Egypt has an estimated 20 remaining Jews, all elderly women, according to the report.

Weinstein was officially succeeded by Magda Haroun, and it is unclear why she is not continuing Weinstein's role, or if the cash-strapped Egyptian government is using Weinstein's death as an excuse.

Arab review of Bibi's book: "As dangerous as Mein Kampf"

I am not sure why a Yemen newspaper decided to review Binyamin Netanyahu's 2000 book, A Durable Peace: Israel and its Place Among the Nations, but the review is most revealing.

The reviewer says that the book is filled with "lies and slander as well as hatred and contempt for all that is Arab."

This book does not less dangerous than the book Mein Kampf, Hitler's book, or The Jewish State by Herzl ...

Netanyahu in this book turns historical facts upside down and manipulates geography and history, using excerpts from the lies of the Zionists or scraps of papers of history or words amputated from the mouths of historians to give a historical and legal right in what he calls the Land of Israel to be a national home for the Jews.

He says that throughout 1200 years the Arabs only founded one city in Palestine, Ramle....

Netanyahu claims that Israel's wars with the Arabs were in self-defense and in line with Jewish ethics.

This is a good reminder that Bibi's book is still a very good read.

See this somewhat related post from 2008.

Wednesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

Throw Away That Rusty Key

Palestinians are not "red indians" and Israelis are not colonialists. Quite the opposite. We Jews of the Middle East and North Africa are indigenous—predating Islam in Palestine, and the region, by 1,000 years. Israel is not only the "largest and most successful refugee camp" in the region, but the authentic expression of a native Middle Eastern people.
Both sets of refugees suffered, with one glaring difference: the Arab refugees—and those 10,000 Jews chased out of Jerusalem and "the West Bank" by the Jordanian Arab Legion—fled the horrors of war. But the Jews living in Arab countries were non-combatants, targeted as members of the "Jewish minority of Palestine."

Palestinian Fairytales

It is only really due to the persistence of Richard Landes and Phillipe Karsenty and a few others that fought tooth and nail that we are at the stage we are today, and that the Israeli Government has investigated and officially denounced the incident as fake.
Unfortunately, the damage is done, no matter what court rulings prove that the images were faked, the al-Dura image is forever etched in people’s minds, and to this day is still used in the Arab world to incite violence, and will continue to be.

Fisking Rachel Shabi: How Dare the Israelis Suggest Palestinians Lied!

There is perhaps no society on earth with as dark a history of promoting a child death cult, sacrificing its children, encouraging its children to seek death, praising those who die, than the Palestinians. Any serious investigation here will not go well for the Palestinians, who systematically, indeed ghoulishly exploit the children whose deaths they cause.

Israel’s UN envoy: Palestinian ‘hatred’ threatens talks

Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations, Ron Prosor, accused Saeb Erekat, the Palestinian Authority’s chief negotiator, of lies and incitement, after Erekat said Israel’s policies were worse than those of apartheid-era South Africa.
“Saeb Erekat never misses an opportunity to lash out at Israel on the international stage,” Prosor said Monday. “One would expect that a man in charge of peace negotiations would instill peace, not incitement.”

Jewish Group Blasts 'Electro-Intifada' for Sports Boycott Calls

“The ideological forebearers of today's racists, in Nazi Germany had 'ethnically cleansed' sports, as blatantly demonstrated in the 1936 Berlin Olympics.”
“Jews especially, were the object of boycott as Hitler Youth stormed their stores to the screams of 'Kaufen nicht bei Juden' (Buy not from Jews)! Anti-Jewish boycott has now returned, in the guise of the so-called 'B.D.S.' (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign to delegitimize the State of Israel,” it continued.

Google inflames Gush Etzion residents by situating them in 'Palestine'

Resident of Gush Etzion settlement calls Google's apparent decision to redirect its areas' web users to Palestinian handle "simply outrageous" • Rights group: It's unfortunate Google says Judea and Samaria residents belong to the Palestinian Authority.

Meg Ryan's Publicist: Ryan Didn't Boycott Israel

But in an email to CAMERA, Stephen Huvane, a founder of Slate PR and Meg Ryan's publicist, said "That report is untrue. Meg Ryan never participated in any boycott against Israel." In a follow up email, CAMERA asked Mr. Huvane: "Had she scheduled a 2010 trip to Israel to participate in the Jerusalem Film Festival? If so, what was the cause for the cancellation?"

Detroit Leaders Should Have Spurned, Not Embraced, Farrakhan

During his speech to the congregation at The Fellowship Chapel in Detroit, Farrakhan spewed hateful anti-Semitic invective, referring to “Satanic Jews” and the “Synagogue of Satan” supposedly controlling major institutions. He expressed his love for President Barack Obama, but added that the president “surrounded himself with Satan...members of the Jewish community.”

Belgian party leader stepping down ‘temporarily’ over slur

The leader of a small Belgian party said she would “temporarily step down” after stating that “a few Jewish families that monopolize the banking world” caused the financial crisis in Europe.

Alleged NJ synagogue bombers plead not guilty

Two New Jersey men accused of firebombing several synagogues in the state pleaded not guilty.
Anthony Graziano of Lodi and Aakash Dalal of New Brunswick, both 21, made their pleas on Monday in state Superior Court in Hackensack, The Record reported.

A ‘watch’ that stops unnecessary heart attack deaths

About half of all people at risk of death from heart attacks could gain the chance to live, once Israeli entrepreneur Leon Eisen’s new Oxitone device goes to market in about 18 months.
Using two optical sensors, and another special high-tech tool, he’s developed the world’s first “watch” that can just about tell when your time may be up.

Brazil 2014 Fifa World Cup to be Protected by US Robots and Israeli Drones

Brazilian police will be equipped with advanced facial recognition camera glasses which will enable them to capture 400 images per second.
Brazil has also ordered several Israeli-made drones costing nearly $25m and German-manufactured anti-aircraft tanks.

Exhibit opens on US Jews who helped refugees from Nazis

‘An exhibition opens Tuesday at a museum in Lower Manhattan about efforts by American Jews to bring refugees to the US from Europe during the Nazi era.
The exhibition, “Against All Odds: American Jews and the Rescue of Europe’s Refugees, 1933-41″ will be on view for a year at the Museum of Jewish Heritage — A Living Memorial to the Holocaust, located on Battery Place.

Comedy for Koby Returns for Tenth Run

Proceeds from Comedy for Koby benefit The Koby Mandell Foundation, an organization founded in memory of Koby Mandell, a young teenager who was killed by terrorists while hiking with his friend, Yosef Ishran, near his home in 2001.
The two friends had gone for a walk in Wadi Tekoa. Terrorists bound the boys and beat them to death with stones.

Turkish Armenian sentenced to jail for blasphemy - for anti-hate speech article

From Hurriyet Daily News:

An Istanbul court has sentenced Turkish-Armenian writer Sevan Nişanyan to 58 weeks in prison for an alleged insult to the Prophet Muhammad in a blog post.

The prosecutor had been seeking one and a half years of jail time for Nişanyan on charges of “insulting the religious beliefs held by a section of the society.”

The sentence cannot be converted to a financial penalty, but Nişanyan has the right to appeal.

He was charged with blasphemy after writing a blog post titled, “[We] need to fight hate speech.”

“Making fun of an Arab leader who claimed he contacted Allah hundreds of years ago and received political, financial and sexual benefits is not hate speech,” Nişanyan said in his post last year. “It is an almost kindergarten-level test of what is called freedom of expression.”

On May 22, the day of the sentencing, Nişanyan retweeted his blog post, writing, “Let’s share the article that was sentenced to 13-and-a-half months at the Istanbul 10th Criminal Court for insulting religious bla-bla.”

Yes, in Turkey, defending free speech can be a hate crime.

In his original blog post that got him in trouble Nişanyan also called out Muslim Jew-hatred, saying that Muslim preachers who say that the tiny number of Jews in the world are part of an "abhorrent race" and behind all the evils in the world are "vomiting nonsense" and this is a classic example of a hate crime.

You wouldn't know that by reading the websites of Amnesty and Human Rights Watch.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

HRW official and journalists call IDF liars in private Facebook group

From The Washington Free Beacon:

A “secret” Facebook group of foreign correspondents and human rights activists quickly devolved into an anti-Israel hate-fest on Tuesday following the release of a new Israeli government report that cleared the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) of wrongdoing in the 2000 death of a Palestinian boy.

The Israeli government report contests the claim that the IDF killed a Palestinian boy, Muhammad al-Durrah, in a famous 2000 incident in Gaza that helped ignite the Second Intifada.

Journalists and activists mocked the report, attacked the IDF, and claimed pro-Israel lobbyists were influencing the media coverage, in a private Facebook group for foreign correspondents known as the “Vulture Club.”

Peter Bouckaert, a senior official at Human Rights Watch, dismissed the report as “typical IDF lies.”

“As usual, it takes them a long time to really build up the falsehood,” wrote Bouckaert.

Bouckaert also blasted the New York Times for its coverage of the report.

“It really isn’t good journalism to write this up as if these are credible allegations when it is a pack of lies,” he wrote.

Correspondents from numerous outlets, including the Associated Press and the Agence France-Presse, also piled on.

“[T]he lobby uses all its strength and is able to push anything in majors [sic] English newspapers or in the NYT[imes],” wrote El Mundo reporter Javier Espinosa. “Israeli embassies call their contacts in all those newspapers and they agree to publish that information.”

“That reinforces lack of media credibility and conspiracy theories as we are being used as mouthpieces for propaganda,” Espinosa added.

Associated Press photojournalist Jerome Delay wrote, “The IDF thinks the earth is flat, btw.”

So the anti-Israel media and "human rights" officials get all chummy and reinforce each others' lies, and they say that the IDF controls the media?

(h/t Noah)