Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 19, 2013

Congratulations, we have achieved peace. Don't ruin it with a "peace plan."

Today, the Israeli-Arab conflict is the least violent it has ever been.

This year, only one Israeli has been killed in a terror attack. Less than 15 Palestinian Arabs have been killed (B'Tselem says 11, and OCHA-OPT says 13), most of whom were involved in rock or firebomb attacks.

The lowest number of Israeli deaths in any year since 1948 has been six (2009 and 1982) according to this chart.

While this isn't the year with the lowest Palestinian Arab casualty count (1999 had only 8 deaths), it is the second-lowest since 1987.

In other words, this is (so far) shaping up to be the least-violent year since the beginning of the first intifada and quite probably since the founding of modern Israel in 1948.

We have achieved just about the best we can ever hope to achieve. Things were far worse in the years before the State of Israel was reborn, they were worse in the 1950s with the fedayeen attacks and the 1960s with the "commando" attacks and the 1970s with the more modern terrorist attacks. During all of those periods, Israel responded quite furiously, so both sides lost many people.

This is what peace looks like. The status quo is not perfect, but compared to everything else in the past hundred years, it is damn good. Call it a detente, call it a standoff, it doesn't matter - Arabs and Israelis have come close to stopping killing each other.

Even in Gaza, Israeli policies have made Hamas and Islamic Jihad think twice about shooting rockets into Israel. Rocket fire hasn't ended but life is getting close to normal in Israeli communities in the Negev.

And as long as there is no aggression against Israel, Israel is helping make the lives of Palestinian Arabs get better and better. As I noted recently, some 28% of the money being paid to West Bank Arabs is coming from Israeli employers. The Israelis are granting more work permits, paying better wages (roughly double what Palestinian Arabs are paying,) with better benefits.

At least some of this can be credited to Netanyahu with his much derided concept of "economic peace" as a basis for real peace moving forward.

If you want to compare the situation against perfection, which is the standard tool in the anti-Israel playbook, yes, things fall short. But if you want to compare the situation against any other time period, the situation is the best it has ever been - and possibly the best it ever can be. Compared to the rest of the region, Israel's peace is even more striking.

Why is there peace now? Very simply, because the leaders of the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza (as well as Hizballah in Lebanon) have a lot to lose by fomenting violence. That is the key to peace - creating a situation where the downside of attacks is much greater than the upside of what could be accomplished by violence. Choosing violence (on a macro level) has nothing to do with "justice" or "rights" or anything like that - it is a simple cost/benefit analysis of what can be gained versus what can be lost.

Is this year an anomaly? I don't think so. While there is certainly an element of luck involved, the fact is that the situation makes it more "expensive" to attack Israel than to keep still. Of course one cannot predict the future perfectly - if Hamas comes up with a new way to kidnap an Israeli it seems likely they will try it out; if Hamas gets into a fight with Salafist groups then they might shoot more rockets over, if Islamic Jihad gets Iranian money while Hamas is hung out to dry, things might change drastically in Gaza. But for the foreseeable future, calm is in everyone's interest.

And "peace" isn't. The idea of a new push in the long moribund "peace process" is being pushed from the outside, not from the parties themselves.

What would be the real-life consequences if there was a "peace agreement," no matter what its parameters?

Just this month, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs crossed into Israel -visiting the beach, shopping - during Ramadan, without incident. If the "peace process" is successful, that will be an international border and crossing will be much more difficult in Ramadans to come.

Today, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs work, happily, for Israeli employers, with decent wages. If "peace" would break out, this would all but disappear and the PA economy would be in even worse shape than it is today.

Palestinian Arab exports to the West would be more difficult.

And, without a doubt, the terror groups who find the idea of formal peace with Israel to be anathema will work overtime to prove their relevance - by shooting rockets and planning suicide bombings, to reclaim their former glory.

Peace will not bring friendship. Anyone who believes that only has to look at how Egypt and Jordan regard their peace treaties with Israel. They have been respecting the treaties but they have not stopped their incitement; arguably in recent years anti-Zionism and antisemitism in those two countries has gotten worse.

Unless you are wedded to the idea of an impossible peace where Israel and the PLO are allied, you should realize that today, we have real peace.

After any agreement is signed, we will see more deaths on both sides, guaranteed.

Efforts should not be put into a fantasy peace plan. Instead, we need a dose of realism. The factors that can destabilize the current peace are the ones that need to be neutralized.

This means doing real work to integrate Palestinian Arabs into Arab countries as full citizens. This means working towards a Syria that is neither Assad nor Al Qaeda, but one that gives its people hope and weakens both Hizballah and Iran. This means a policy that truly supports liberal, democratic forces in Egypt and Tunisia and elsewhere. It means working towards a Middle East that resembles more closely the de facto peace currently enjoyed by Israel and Palestinian Arabs, where the cost of war is much higher than the status quo.

None of this is easy. But none of it is fantasy, either, which is what the "peace process" has been from the start.

Tamarod Gaza gaining steam; releases video slamming Hamas

I had mentioned the Tamarod Palestine Facebook group that was making Hamas so nervous.

That group was against both Hamas and Fatah. But Tamarod Gaza is only against Hamas, and they are growing, now with over 30,000 Facebook "Likes."

They are pushing for a major anti-Hamas rally in Gaza on November 11, and just released a video slamming Hamas for its actions.

The video says that Hamas practices "murder, torture, vandalism and bullying, bribery, smuggling, as if they were one of the gangs in the Middle Ages, but it's shameful shameful that they practice [these crimes] in the name of religion and the homeland and the resistance..."

The group misses the old Hamas, the one that fought only against Israel. "The Hamas of today is not the Hamas of Yassin," they say.

Tamarod Gaza's message ends by saying "All our options are open, but we disagree with you as to the choice of weapon. We are not raising arms against our brothers, but you are; we are after bloodshed but you are; we do not drag bodies in the streets, but you do; we will not kill children and men, women and young people, but you do; we do not demolish mosques, but you do; we understand Palestine and its people and their will, their pride and dignity but not you."

Hamas has said that Fatah is behind this group and has started a crackdown on suspected members.

Arabic media is off the deep end; impossible to puzzle out the real story anymore

Usually, one can figure out what is going on in an Arab country by reading the propaganda and spin on different sides of the story and boiling it down to something approximating truth.

Right now, for Egypt, this is impossible.

Rumors and pure hate are far more in evidence than actual facts. We are seeing possible Pallywood situations, such as this one where Al Jazeera apparently accidentally showed a fake dead person, who had no wound and then moved his leg:

But we have real Western reporters who have seen real deaths, without any doubt, of hundreds of MB members, so even if this one is fake, this video turns from Pallywood into - anti-MB propaganda.

Make no mistake - the Egyptian leadership and many other Egyptians loath the Muslim Brotherhood. Nothing says "hate" in Arabic like calling your opponents Jews. Here is a fake MB logo going around:

The Brotherhood is doing the same; I had mentioned the rumor that Sisi is really Jewish, and that is now being accepted as fact by Islamist websites without any skepticism.

Last month a rumor started that the Muslim Brotherhood met secretly in Islanbul to plan the next stages of their plan to take over Egypt again. The "leaked minutes" of the supposed meeting have gotten bigger and bigger over several weeks, until now the meeting is said to have determined to put women and children in the rallies, to hold demonstrations constantly to exhaust Egyptian security, to start a campaign of suicide bombings in Egypt, to encourage Hamas and Takfirist groups to fan throughout the Sinai and attack the Suez Canal, to earn a billion dollars from arms smuggling and then use those arms to destabilize Egypt.

While the MB is capable of doing this stuff, it is all fantasy from their opponents. Constant rumors in Egypt about Hamas attacks in the Sinai are similarly unlikely.

And this is the problem - one literally cannot believe a thing one reads in the Arabic media. Even Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are being shown to be unreliable as they report on their side of the story above all.

This is the worst I have ever seen, even worse than the Shiite/Sunni media wars over the Syria situation.

Freedom Tower, now

It's been a while since I posted a photo of Lower Manhattan. Last time (I think) was two years ago, when the new World Trade Center was under construction.

Previously, as in 2008, I had done entire panoramas of the area.

Here is what the new World Trade Center looked like last week.You can see a number of new buildings built since 2008, making it a completely different skyline to what it was.

Daughter of SA activist talks about demonization of Israel

Esther Meshoe, daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian, Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes false allegations of apartheid on the part of Israel.

((h/t IsraDocuMentalist)

El Al plane turns around for 11-year old cancer patient who lost passport

From The Daily Mail:

An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient.

All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

Tears in their eyes, everyone said good bye to the devastated young girl after a half hour search aided by airline staff and passengers failed to turn up the girl’s passport, according to Haaretz.

‘El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar’s passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha’ Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline wrote in Yeshiva World News. ‘What a horrible experience for an 11 year old girl.’

Minutes after the doors closed and the plane taxied away from the gate, a fellow camper looking through another girl’s backpack found Chomsky’s passport and told flight attendants, according to Haaretz.

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11.

The plane’s pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote.

Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. 'The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,' Maimon told the paper. 'They told me they had never seen such a thing.'

‘Planes rarely return to the gate after departing, read an El Al statement, continuing that ‘after consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar.’

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared ‘Inbar’s happiness and excitement,’ and calling it ‘one of the greatest moments’ he has ever witnessed.

Located in the Catskill Mountains roughly two hours north of New York City, an area long-popular with Jewish tourists, Camp Simcha is a summer camp meant to uplift the spirits of children living with cancer and other similar medical problems, according to its website. Campers are medically supervised and take part in sports, carnivals, talent shows, helicopter rides and other activities.

Bayard Rustin and black civil rights leaders' support for Israel in the 1970s

As the US gets ready to mark the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous March on Washington, it is a good time to remember one of the organizers of the march, one of King's colleagues, and an indefatigable supporter of civil rights, Bayard Rustin, who will be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rustin was not only a famous supporter of civil rights, but he also supported gay rights, was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, and a staunch supporter of Israel. As the book "Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement" notes:

Rustin always wrote and spoke against anti-Semitism. In the summer of 1967, the SNCC Newsletter published a pro-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), anti-Israel article, which Rustin was quick to denounce....

Rustin was a strong supporter of Israel. As in the SNCC Newsletter, black anti-Semitism often took the form of opposing Israel and supporting the PLO as representing victims of imperialistic "Zionism." Rustin, in contrast, saw the Jewish state as a social democratic island surrounded by theocratic dictatorships. In supporting Israel, he was supporting a cause important to most Jews and, by implication, showing that the much publicized anti-Semitic statements of black militants did not represent a broad black viewpoint. In June 1970, the A. Philip Randolph Institute ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, "An Appeal by Black Americans for United States Support to Israel." The ad expressed support for "the most democratic country in the Middle East." It was sympathetic to the plight of Arab refugees but argued that continued conflict did them more harm than good. In its last line, the text urged that the United States provide Israel "with the full number of jet aircraft it has requested."

This was an astonishing statement for someone who had once been a pacifist.

In his column, Rustin frequently spoke out for Israel. Here is his column about the Yom Kippur War:

Rustin was also the director of BASIC, the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee, which published this remarkable full page ad in the New York Times when the UN was about to vote on the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution. Here is the entire ad, with the notable African Americans who signed it (including Hank Aaron, Harry Belafonte, Vernon Jordan and others) formatted to you can read it here:

See also Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers and Gil Troy.

(h/t Faith M.)

8/18 Links: PA Radio - "One day" no Israel, Coptic Tragedy in Egypt, Sherlock in Jerusalem

From Ian:

Obama clogged up in the ‘heart of the Arab world’

In June 2009, President Barack Obama made a landmark speech setting out a new US policy toward the Middle East — and the world. To deliver it, the newly elected president traveled to Egypt, which his then-press secretary Robert Gibbs described as “a country that in many ways represents the heart of the Arab world.”
Four years later, the Cairo streets through which Obama traveled are burning. The past week’s violence in Egypt may finally push the US toward a conclusive decision — propping up or cutting off Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s military-controlled interim government.

Merkel: Anti-Semitism a threat to democracy in Europe

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said anti-Semitism and racism remain a threat to democracy in Europe almost 70 years after the end of World War II.
Merkel cited the ongoing trial of five alleged neo-Nazis over the killing of 10 people between 2000 and 2007, and the fact that Jewish schools and synagogues still require police protection, as evidence of the problem in Germany.

George Mason U. Student: “Jews had their golden age under Muslim rule”

With such iconic conservative luminaries like Walter E. Williams associated with George Mason University, one assumes students are generally well-informed and reasoned in their opinions.
So this video of one of its scholars from the school’s Students Against Israeli Apartheid group may be shocking:

College students shout down Israeli speaker then claim their free speech was violated

This is what we’ve come to.
A group of anti-Israel students showed up at a talk from an Israeli speaker, heckled and shouted him down, then claimed that their free speech rights were violated when the school disciplined them.
No wonder Florida Atlantic University ranks dead last for college life.

Anti-Semitic Slurs by Morsi Protesters on the Temple Mount (VIDEO)

Another group chanted and accused Abdel Fattah el-Sisi guilty of treason and they questioned, "Are you a Jew or what?"
The pro-Morsi Muslims carried banners that said, "Sisi: hypocrite, traitor, working for the Jews," as well as, "Murderer, agent, traitor, criminal, butcher."
There were others in the crowd who compared Sisi to Adolf Hitler. Under the pictures of Hitler was written: "I killed the Jews for my people and for my flock." Under the picture of el-Sisi was written: "I killed the children of my people and my flock for the Jews."

PA radio: "One day" there will be no Israel

Radio announcer: "Greetings to all our listeners and happy holiday to you, our people in occupied Palestine (i.e., Israel), 1948 Palestine, the 1948 territories (i.e., Israel, created in 1948)... Greetings to our people in Acre, Nazareth, Tiberias, Haifa and Jaffa (all Israeli cities)... May your Palestinian identity be rooted in your hearts and minds. Allah willing, one day Palestine will be Palestine again!"
[Voice of Palestine (official PA radio), Aug. 8, 2013]

Hussein Aboubakr: Coptic tragedy in Egypt

There once lived a great Jewish community in Egypt that has been lost forever. Just as 80,000 Egyptian Jews were abused and fled, today Coptic Christians are facing similar religious persecution, yet they don’t have any other home country to turn to. Today, the world is preoccupied with the current political turmoil in Egypt, while ignoring the ongoing catastrophe faced by an indigenous Middle Eastern Coptic Christians. One of the churches burned by Muslim Brotherhood supporters, was the Prince Tadros Church in Al Minya – a 4th century church which contained ancient manuscripts on Orthodox theology. Is the West ready to accept such a loss? Are power and money more important than human life and history?

Egypt's Christians Attack Western Media Coverage

The Egyptian Coptic church has released a statement backing the country's military-backed government, and slamming the western media for its coverage of the violence in Egypt, which has killed more than 600 people.
Referring to perceived sympathy for the Muslim Brotherhood by western media outlets, the statement, translated by Al Arabiya, called on the West to "read objectively the facts of events, and not give international and political cover to these terrorists and bloody groups."

Tamarod movement calls on Egyptian government to cancel Camp David peace treaty

The Tamarod ("Rebellion") movement in Egypt has joined a campaign calling to stop US aid to Egypt, and to cancel the 1979 Camp David peace treaty with Israel, Daily News Egypt reported on Saturday.
The campaign is in response to "unacceptable" US interference in Egyptian political affairs, after US President Barack Obama decided to cancel a joint drill with the Egyptian military in response to the outbreak of violence in the country earlier this week.

Report: Israel Assured Egypt that U.S. Aid Won't be Cut

Israel has been pressuring the United States not to stop the military aid that it provides to Egypt, fearing the fate of the peace between the countries, the New York Times reported Saturday, citing diplomatic sources.
According to the report, Israel and Egyptian Defense Minister General Abdel Fatah al-Sisi have been in close contact throughout the latest crisis in Egypt. The diplomats told the New York Times that Israel assured Egypt it did not have to worry about the U.S. threat to cut its enormous aid package to that country.

American al-Qaida militant calls for attacks on US diplomats

Adam Gadahn, a California-born convert to Islam with a $1 million US price on his head, appealed to wealthy Muslims to offer militants rewards to kill ambassadors in the region, citing bounty set for killing the US ambassador to Yemen, Washington-based SITE monitoring group said.

IDF retaliates after mortars fired from Golan Heights

The IDF fired a Tamuz missile at a Syrian military post in the Golan Heights after several mortars were fired from the Syrian side of the border into Israel earlier Saturday.
According to the IDF, the missile destroyed a Syrian cannon which had fired artillery at Israel.

Iranian nuke chief says country’s nuclear program has 18,000 centrifuges

Tehran has a total of 18,000 centrifuges for uranium enrichment, Iran’s outgoing nuclear chief said Saturday. The number is higher by a third than is publicly known.
Uranium enrichment is a process that can be a pathway to making nuclear weapons.

Toronto marks anniversary of anti-Jewish violence

It was August 16, 1933, less than seven months after Hitler’s rise to power in Germany, and a Protestant youth team from St. Peter’s Church was playing against Harbord Collegiate, a mostly Jewish squad that included some players of Italian background.
Toronto, at that time, was dominated by its white, Protestant majority, and both Jews and Italian immigrants faced discrimination by the establishment. Like their American and European counterparts, Canadian Jews were restricted from certain professions and social clubs, and faced quotas at academic institutions. Signs in store windows and in the city’s Beaches neighborhood read “No Dogs or Jews Allowed,” and a “swastika club,” inspired by the new regime in Germany, was even parading its hatred on the shores of Lake Ontario, proudly bearing the symbol of Hitler’s aggressive new Reich.

Menachem Begin: His legacy, a century after his birth

Menachem Begin, Israel’s sixth prime minister, was born 100 years ago today. A century after his birth, and more than two decades after his death, it behooves us all, regardless of our political stripes, to take a moment and reflect on the profundity of his contribution to the Jewish people.
That claim will undoubtedly strike many as strange, since more than half a century after he helped rid Palestine of the British, Begin is still disparaged by many of the very same Jews who see in the American revolution a cause for genuine pride.

2,700 year old Hebrew inscription uncovered in City of David

Thousands of fragments of pottery, candles, ceramics and figurines dating to the end of the First Temple were discovered during archaeological excavations in the City of David in Jerusalem, located on a narrow spur south of the Temple Mount, surrounded on all sides by valleys, near the Gihon Spring and the Arab village of the Silwan.
The findings were discovered during excavations conducted by the Israel Antiquities Authority, the most important of which being a ceramic bowl with a partially-preserved Hebrew inscription, possibly containing the name of a Biblical figure.

Spaniards to Play Jewish Slaves in Upcoming Film 'Exodus'

Thousands of Spaniards in the depressed southern region of Andalusia lined up on Friday morning to play the role of slaves in film-maker Ridley Scott's Biblical epic "Exodus", hoping for a way out of unemployment, AFP reported.
In a region with unemployment at 35 percent, the prospect of work as an extra with a daily wage of 80 euros ($107) has sparked a rush in Almeria where casting is being held for the story of Moses and the Jewish exodus from Egypt to the promised land.

Benedict Cumberbatch voices new documentary on Jerusalem

He might be instantly recognizable as Sherlock Holmes in the critically acclaimed BBC remake about the famous London detective, but Benedict Cumberbatch has doffed his deerstalker to narrate a new documentary about Jerusalem.
The 45-minute film traces the history of the city, following three of its young residents - a Jew, a Christian and Muslim.

Nasrallah says he'll go to Syria to fight if necessary. Let's hope so!

Hizballah's leader Sayyed Nasrallah made another of his ramblling Friday speeches where he spouted about Israel, America, "Takfiris" and other groups that he is upset at this week, all the while pretending that he is defedning his beloved people of Lebanon that he is dragging into the Syrian war.

In reference to the massive car bomb in the Hezbollah-controlled section of Beirut last week, he said:

One of our responses to such explosions is: If we had 1000 fighters in Syria, they will become 2000, and if we had 5000, they will become 10 000, and if the battle with those terrorists required that I go with all Hezbollah to Syria, we will all go for the sake of Syria and its people, Lebanon and its people, Palestine and Al-Quds, and the central cause.

We put an end to the battle, and we set a time for this battle to end, and as we triumphed in all our wars with Israel, if you wanted us to enter a fierce battle with you, I assure to everyone that we will triumph against Takfiri terror. The cost of the battle will be high, but the least cost is being slaughtered like ewes and waiting for the murderers to come into our house.

Throughout the speech, as in this section, he tries to pretend that he is fighting Israel and defending Lebanon against Israel, claiming that all of the attacks against Hizballah are controlled by the "Zionists."

Meanwhile, Lebanese politicians are increasingly critical of Hizballah's adventurism:

Former Prime Minister and Future Movement leader MP Saad Hariri blasted on Saturday Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah’s recent speech and said it threatened to further involve Lebanon in the Syria war.

“Nasrallah’s speech did not contribute to defusing tension in Lebanon on the contrary it served as an escalation of Lebanon’s involvement in the Syrian fire.” Hariri said adding: “Sedition is the essence of terrorism, and the most dangerous kind.”

Free Patriotic Movement leader MP Michel Aoun said Hezbollah’s participation in the Syrian war is not part of his agreement with the militant group and stressed that he is against any intervention outside the Lebanese territory.

“This is a private initiative for Hezbollah, there is no agreement between us and them in that matter. We are against any intervention outside the Lebanese territory,” Aoun said in an interview with Al-Hayat newspaper which was published on Saturday.

Hezbollah has been widely criticized by Lebanese and Arab leaders for supporting the Alawite-dominated Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad against the mostly Sunni Syrian rebels who are trying to overthrow the 40 year old dictatorship.

BBC will take out gratuitous reference to "Israeli apartheid" at Proms broadcast

From Al Arabiya:

The BBC is due to cut comments made by violinist Nigel Kennedy about “apartheid” in Israel when it broadcasts his concert, performed with Palestinian artists as part of the Proms musical festival, on British television channels next week.

The concert, held at London’s Royal Albert Hall last week, featured 17 musicians from the Palestine Strings, the troupe performed Vivaldi’s Four Seasons alongside Kennedy.
Kennedy likened the situation in Israel to apartheid in South Africa.

“Ladies and gentlemen, it’s a bit facile to say it but we all know from experiencing this night of music tonight that giving equality and getting rid of apartheid means there's a chance for amazing things to happen," said Kennedy.

The decision to cut Kennedy’s comment was made due to “editorial reasons,” they removed because of “the way it fitted in with the program, ” a BBC spokesperson told Al Arabiya English.

“Nigel’s comment to the audience at his late-night prom on August 8 will not be included in the deferred BBC 4 broadcast on August 23 because it does not fall within the editorial remit of the proms as a classical music festival.”

Kennedy dedicated his performance at the Proms to Palestinians, according to his introduction.

“The concert tonight is very emotional, because I am performing for people who are imprisoned, to give them two hours of fun and show them that the world has not forgotten about them,” he said.

Dressed in popular Palestinian garments, the players from the Palestinian orchestra played a specially-curated fusion of classical work with Arab and folk music alongside the celebrated violinist.

Al Arabiya's headline calls this "censorship."

You can hear Kennedy's comment about "apartheid" starting at about 1:05, and it causes a 30 second ovation from the British audience:

The snippet of the video released so far by the BBC sounds like it was an interesting concert despite Kennedy's hate, as their version of Vivaldi's Four Seasons added some "Eastern" influence.

To my untrained ear, the violin that is meant to sound Arabic sounds surprisingly like Eastern European Jewish music as well.

Remember that two years ago, Israelis performing at the Proms were interrupted by protesters and the BBC broadcast was stopped.

As far as I can tell, no one called to boycott these young Palestinian Arab musicians, there were no heckles or yelling interrupting their performances, and there were no crowds outside yelling at attendees for supporting a group that represents those who celebrate murderers of Jews.

US State Dept. upset at Israel releasing murderer of an American

From Eli Lake at The Daily Beast:

For decades, the United States has urged foreign governments not to free prisoners who have killed Americans. But a man who murdered an American was freed this week by Israel in a prisoner-release deal encouraged by Secretary of State John Kerry.

Among those released Tuesday as an inducement to the Palestinian Authority to return to peace negotiations was Al-Haaj Othman Amar Mustafa, a Palestinian convicted in 1991 of killing Frederick Steven Rosenfeld, who the Philadelphia Inquirer at the time of his death reported was a former U.S. Marine and U.S. citizen.

Mustafa was sentenced by an Israeli military court to life after he and two other assailants murdered Rosenfeld in 1989, 21 years after the former Marine emigrated to Israel. According to an Associated Press account of Mustafa’s trial before a military court, Mustafa and two others met Rosenfeld as he was hiking near the settlement where he lived in Ariel. At first, the three men befriended Rosenfeld and even posed for a photo. “Minutes after the picture was taken, the three stabbed Rosenfeld and left him for dead, according to their confession,” the AP dispatch said.

Today Mustafa is a free man, one of 26 Palestinians released from Israeli jails on Tuesday, the first group of a total of 104 prisoners Israel has promised to free in exchange for Palestinian participation in a new peace process. The list of prisoners was negotiated with the Palestinian Authority, at the urging of Secretary Kerry.

Marie Harf, deputy spokesperson for the State Department, told The Daily Beast Thursday, “The State Department conveyed the administration’s concerns regarding the release of this prisoner to the government of Israel, while recognizing the victim was a dual national of Israel and the United States.”

Harf said the Israeli side “acknowledged our views, but it was ultimately their decision to determine which prisoners to release. This is a very difficult situation for all involved, and further highlights the importance of making these negotiations successful.”

Hold on.

The US Secretary of State pressured Israel into releasing 104 terrorists, the first batch of which contained only murderers and accomplices to murder. The position of the State Department's leader is clearly that releasing murderers is essential to the peace process (against all logic.)

But now that one of the victims is found to be American, this thought process is suddenly flawed?

“As I understand the facts, there are only two possibilities,” said Elliott Abrams, a deputy national security adviser in the George W. Bush administration and a scholar at the Council on Foreign Relations. “It was a very bad screwup by the State Department not to demand that he remain incarcerated or it is a silent change of policy. I believe the policy has always been that we oppose the release of anyone who has committed terrorism against Americans.”

Abrams pointed to U.S. public statements in 2005 after Germany freed Mohammed Ali Hammadi, a member of Hezbollah who participated in the murder of U.S. Navy diver Robert Stethem during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. When Hammadi was released in 2005, a State Department spokesman said, “We’re going to make every effort to see that he stands trial in the United States for what he did and face justice.”

It isn't a change of policy - it was a mistake.

There is only one possible explanation.

The position of the State Department is that murderers of Americans must never be released, but murderers of Israelis must be released.

The US must never negotiate with terrorists, but Israel must.

The US must track down and attempt to arrest any terrorists who murdered Americans who do get released from prison, but Israel must promise not to do that.

In short, US policy is "Do as I say, even if it is the polar opposite of how I act."

You see, because it is for "peace."

PA TV praises translator of the "Protocols"

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Ajaj Nuwahid was born in Lebanon in 1897, then moved to Syria. After the French took over Syria he decided to move to Jerusalem to fight against the British rule over Palestine and the Zionist movement. He was friends with the antisemitic Mufti of Jerusalem. He also had a role in having Jordan occupy and illegally annex the West Bank, because Palestinian Arab nationalism wasn't really what he was interested in after all. He then moved to Amman and then back to Lebanon in 1959.

Since he lived in British Mandate Palestine in 1948, he was considered a "Palestinian refugee." However, since he moved back to his hometown, he might have successfully appealed to regain his Lebanese citizenship, as a number of "Palestinian refugees" managed to do in the 1950s.

His book about the Protocols of the Elders of Zion seems to have been more than just a translation, but indeed a full anti-semitic screed written in 1967 and expanding on the themes of the Russian forgery to apply them to modern Zionism. It has been through at least four editions.

The PA is praising, and claiming as one of their own, a full blown Jew-hater and inciter.

(h/t Ian)

8/17 Links: Netanyahu - key issue is Recognition of Jewish state, Totten - the Truth About Egypt

From Ian:

Israel Hayom poll: 80% of Jewish Israelis skeptical on peace talks

Some 79.7% of respondents said the talks would not end with a permanent peace accord that would resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Just 6.2% said such an agreement would be reached, and 14.1% said they had no opinion.
In a similar poll in July, 73.1% said negotiations would not lead to a peace agreement, while only 5.3% said the talks would conclude with a deal, and 21.6% had no opinion.
On the question of whether Israel should have agreed to release prisoners as a goodwill gesture alongside the talks, 77.5% said they opposed the move, while 14.2% said they supported the gesture and 8.3% had no opinion.

Netanyahu: Recognition of Jewish state is key issue in peace talks

Netanyahu made the comments during a press conference at the start of a meeting with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is visiting the country to support recently restarted peace talks.
“We have to get to the root cause of the problem and the root cause was and remains the persistent refusal to recognize the Jewish State in any boundary,” Netanyahu said, speaking in English. “It doesn’t have to do with the settlements – that’s an issue that has to be resolved, but this is not the reason that we have a continual conflict.”

Jewish Virtual Library: Myths and Facts 34: "If Israel Ends the Occupation There Will Be Peace"

PA Foreign Min. Wants EU to 'Protect' Negotiations With Israel

"If you want to go with good faith into the resumption of talks... you do not go and announce publicly that you insist on building further illegal settlement units in the Palestinian occupied territories," Maliki said.
PA officials and their supporters have expressed anger at the plans, despite having been made aware of them prior to the start of talks, and despite the fact that the planned construction is to take place in areas which the PA has previously agreed would remain "part of Israel" in the "Two State Solution" they claim to support.

Israel faces bias at UN, Ban acknowledges

“Unfortunately, because of the [Israeli-Palestinian] conflict, Israel’s been weighed down by criticism and suffered from bias — and sometimes even discrimination,” Ban told the group, YNet reported. He was responding to a student who claimed Israelis felt their country was discriminated against at the UN.
“It’s an unfortunate situation,” Ban said, adding that Israel should be treated equal to all the other 192 member states.

Ban in Ramallah: Happy to Visit 'Palestine'

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, who arrived in Ramallah on Thursday to meet PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted by AFP as having said upon his arrival that he was pleased "to visit the state of Palestine."

Will Norway help Palestinian NGO destroy ICC?

...recent developments, through the efforts of a group known as the Palestinian Center for Human Rights (PCHR), whose activities are funded by Norway, may lead the new ICC prosecutor to capitulate on this complex issue. In April 2013, PCHR issued a public statement demanding that the Palestinian leadership join the ICC for no reason other than to prosecute Israeli officials.
If the ICC bows to this pressure and begins proceedings against Israelis based on double standards and false claims, this will end its moral mission and turn this body into yet another political battleground.

Manhattan Jewish Community Center Official Advocates Boycott of Israel

In a blog post published Thursday an official at the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan wrote that “the importance of the use of boycott” to pressure “Israel to end the occupation is unquestionable”— as long as it’s not his film festival being boycotted.

CiF Watch prompts correction to false BDS victory claim by Irish Times

Despite this victory, the Irish Times article in question is still an atrocious example of ideologically driven activist journalism, and we intend to continue monitoring the paper and holding them accountable when they engage in similarly false or misleading allegations.

Gaza jihadists call for 'jihad' against Egypt's el Sisi

Abu Hafs al Maqdisi, the leader of the Gaza-based Jaish al Ummah (Army of the Nation), today called on Egyptians to wage "jihad" against Egyptian army commander General Abdul Fattah el Sisi. Al Maqdisi, who was released from a Hamas prison in December, also called on Egyptians to overthrow "the tyrant" (el Sisi) and establish an Islamic state. In addition, al Maqdisi said he hoped that one of el Sisi's bodyguards would kill him.

Egyptian authorities arrest Sinai al-Qaeda chief

Egyptian authorities have arrested the brother of al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahri, a security official said Saturday.
He said Mohammed al-Zawahri, leader of the ultraconservative jihadi Salafist group, was detained at a checkpoint in Giza, the city across the Nile from Cairo.

Michael Totten: The Truth About Egypt

I recently interviewed Eric Trager, a scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. He’s a real expert on Egypt and has been more consistently right than just about anyone. He called out the Muslim Brotherhood as an inherently authoritarian organization while scores of other supposed “experts” falsely pimped it as moderate. And contrary to claims from the opposing camp, that the army “restored” democracy with its coup, he saw the recent bloody unpleasantness coming well in advance.
I spoke to him before this week’s massacre happened, but it’s clear from his remarks that he suspected something like it was coming.

Egypt considers disbanding Muslim Brotherhood

Spokesman Sherif Shawki said Egyptian Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi assigned Ministry of Social Solidarity to study the legal possibilities of dissolving the group. He didn’t elaborate.

Muslim Brotherhood says leader’s son killed in clashes

The group’s political arm, the Freedom and Justice party, said on its official website that Mohammed Badie’s son Ammar,38, was killed Friday. That’s when the Muslim Brotherhood took to the streets in a “Day of Rage” — ignited by anger at security forces over clearing two sit-in camps protesting the ouster of President Mohammed Morsi, leaving hundreds dead.

Ashton Asks EU to Agree on 'Measures' Against Egypt

Ashton said responsibility for the "tragedy" taking place in Egypt in the last days "weighs heavily on the interim government, as well as on the wider political leadership in the country."

Venezuelan president: Israel, US behind Morsi ouster

Venezuela’s president accused Israel and the United States of conspiring to oust former Egyptian president Mohammed Morsi and stirring unrest in Syria, the AFP news agency reported on Saturday.

Hezbollah chief says he’s ready to fight in Syria himself

“If the battle with these terrorist Takfiris requires for me personally and all of Hezbollah to go to Syria, we will go to Syria,” he said, drawing thunderous applause from thousands of supporters gathered in a village in south Lebanon bordering Israel. The crowd watched him speak on a large screen via satellite link.

‘Hitler was right,’ reads graffiti at Madrid bullfight

According to Spanish media reports on Thursday, the words “Adolf Hitler was right,” accompanied by a large red swastika and the Nazi leader’s date of birth and death, were plastered across a section of the barrier surrounding the bullring.

Argentina urged to remove anti-Israel official

The Simon Wiesenthal Center called for the removal of an Argentinian government official for participating in an Al Quds Day ceremony.
The center wrote to the Argentinian minister of agriculture, Norberto Yauhar, seeking the ouster of acting Undersecretary of Family Agriculture Emilio Persico for attending the Aug. 2 ceremony at the At-Tawhid Mosque in Buenos Aires.

ADL likens persecution of Russian gays, Soviet Jews

The Anti-Defamation League called for a new version of the Jackson-Vanik amendment to pressure Russia to improve its treatment of gays.
Jackson-Vanik was a provision of the 1974 Trade Act that denied favored status to nations that restricted emigration. The amendment was used to pressure the Soviet Union to loosen its restrictive emigration policies.

Across the Jerusalem divide, a life saved

Haim Attias, a resident of the Mitzpe Yericho settlement and volunteer at the “Hatzalah” emergency medical organization, and Haitham Azloni, an Arab resident of East Jerusalem, met Thursday for the first time since Attias saved Azloni’s life last week.
Azloni was somehow electrocuted while sitting next to a stall in the Arab bazaar near the Old City’s Damascus Gate. His heart had stopped beating and “he was dead,” a local Arab man who witnessed the scene recalled. “I couldn’t bear to look. I walked away.”

Hamas: "Hitler killed Jews for his people; Sisi killed his people for Jews" (UPDATE: photo)

Arab media is reporting that there was a Hamas rally on the Temple Mount on Friday.

Hamas led the rally, which was against the current Egyptian government.

One of the banners that they were carrying included a slogan that is spreading through Facebook and other media.

"Hitler killed the Jews for his people, al-Sisi kills his people for the Jews."

So in one tiny slice of time, we have Arab justification of the Holocaust, antisemitic conspiracy theories, and a desecration of the Jews' holiest place with people who want to ethnically cleanse all Jews from the region.

In other words, it is barely worth reporting in the media.

UPDATE: Photo:

(h/t Sara)

Economist editorial, filled with lies, says Israel releasing ONLY 26 murderers is an insult

This Economist editorial is completely bat-sh*t crazy anti-Israel.

AS A measure of the seriousness of negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians, the number of Palestinian prisoners released on the eve of talks, say pessimists, is a gloomy barometer. When the two sides sat down to negotiate two decades ago, after signing the Oslo accords in 1993, Israel freed 2,000 Palestinians in a single year. For the next couple of years it released, on average, around 1,000 a year. In later years that number slumped to a few hundred. Now, to coincide with the fresh round of talks that started in Jerusalem on August 14th, Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has freed just 26.

26 murderers!

By the way, I am not certain about these numbers. In the wake of Oslo, Israel released many prisoners, but Israel also released 900 in 2005, 400 in 2007, and several hundred more in 2008 to entice Abbas to make peace; nothing positive resulted from those "goodwill" prisoner releases.

Why doesn't the Economist mention those more recent gestures - and their lack of response?

Even this has provoked an outcry in Israel. Many of the 26 were convicted of crimes of violence, including murder, against Israeli civilians. Relations of the victims have carried black banners, accusing Mr Netanyahu of truckling to terrorists.

No. Every single one was found guilty of either murdering someone or was complicit in murdering someone. Every single one.

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president who is leading negotiations for his side, has had an even rougher time trying to persuade his people that the Israelis earnestly seek a peace deal.

The Economist couldn't be bothered to mention that Abbas has been the one torpedoing peace talks for the past five years. Despite previous releases of thousands of prisoners to help him burnish his image.

Indeed, many Palestinians deride Mr Abbas for winning freedom for so tiny a share of the 5,071 Palestinians said to be behind bars for politically motivated acts of violence or subversion.

I haven't seen any such criticism in the Arab press. Not saying it doesn't exist, but from the tone of the article, this seems to be The Economist's opinion, not the average Palestinian Arab's.

Few issues stir Palestinian emotions as fiercely as the fate of prisoners. Almost every Palestinian has a relative in jail—or has been there himself. Human-rights groups estimate that 750,000 Palestinians have passed through Israeli prisons since the West Bank and Gaza were conquered in 1967.

This 750,000 statistic is a risible lie, obvious to anyone who knows basic arithmetic. The Economist believes these ridiculous statistics (from Addameer and others).

But as we have seen, fact checking doesn't exist when the writer is predisposed to believe the lies.

Some 2,300 Palestinians were detained in the first six months of this year alone.

I have no idea where this statistic comes from. I can say that PCHR tracks every arrest and lists the names of those arrested. The average has been about 40 arrests a week from some quick sampling, less than a thousand arrests in 7 1/2 months. And most of those do not go to prison, as B'Tselem's statistics on prisoners this year have been holding steady at about 4700 almost every month through June.

But catching The Economist lying- despite its pretense of objectivity above all - is old news here.

What Palestinians want as a sign of good intent, is the release of thousands, not scores, of their compatriots. The Israelis hint that they will see how the talks proceed—and let more prisoners trickle out if things go well.

Israel has said (against all logic) that they will release 104 prisoners, and these 26 were just phase 1. The Economist is implying here that Israel is not going to release them if the talks go nowhere. I would be happy if that was the case, but it isn't - they are as good as released, their names have been published, the US has put the pressure on, and the cabinet voted on it. The Economist knows this and pretends otherwise.

So this is just another heavily biased, chockful of lies, anti-Israel tirade in The Economist.

(h/t Elliott)