12/01 Links: Israel, the Pilgrims and the Maccabees, The truth about Christians in Bethlehem

From Ian:

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Caroline Glick: Israel, the Pilgrims and the Maccabees

So too today, Israel is castigated by Obama and his supporters in Washington, Europe and the media as a warmonger for realistically foreseeing the consequences of last weekend’s nuclear deal with Iran. Even worse, they are portraying Israel as a rogue state that will be subject to punishment if it dares to militarily strike Iran’s nuclear installations. In other words, rather than threatening Iran – the leading state sponsor of terrorism, led by a regime that is pursuing an illicit nuclear weapons program while threatening Israel with annihilation – with military strikes if it refuses to cease and desist from building nuclear weapons, the world powers are threatening Israel.
British Foreign Minister William Hague made this projection of Iranian criminality onto its intended victim the explicit policy of the world powers on Monday during his appearance before the British Parliament.
Promising that Britain will be “on its guard” to prevent any state from threatening the agreement with Iran, Hague said, “We would discourage anybody in the world, including Israel, from taking any steps that would undermine this agreement and we will make that very clear to all concerned.” In other words, as Hague, Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry see things, Iran needs to be protected from Israel.

Iran is happy. Next up: The Palestinians

I think the expectation that Obama will give Israel time to salve its wounds is misguided. This is a president who came to office determined to weaken the influence of the pro-Israel community, and "rebalance" Israel's relationship with its neighbors, Iran and the Palestinians. Rebalancing of course, can be defined here as weakening Israel's strategic position, since Israel's relative strength is perceived to be unfair and some of its power (and wealth) needs to be redistributed.
The president, a narcissist to the end, may think he is on a roll in the Middle East. His press clippings are certainly better these days on this front than for his health care reform. So with a bit of momentum, he may well think now is the time for him to slam down the hammer on the so-called "peace process," or rather, slam it down once again on Israel. And if he needs a workman to do the job, he can count on John Kerry, who, once again, will be "reporting for duty."

Examining the BBC’s track record on Jewish refugees from Arab lands

On November 30th 2013 the BBC News website’s home page and Middle East page both promoted a feature titled “In pictures: Early years of Palestinian refugees” which showcases images from the newly digitised archives of UNRWA – currently being promoted by that organization within the framework of its permanent public relations campaign.
Quite how the promotion of campaigning material produced by politically motivated organisations can be considered part of the BBC’s remit or in adherence to its editorial guidelines on impartiality is a (big) question in itself, but it is notable that the captions to the photographs showcased by the BBC adhere diligently to the UNRWA script, with the text accompanying the final photograph, for example, reading:

“There are now four generations of Palestinian refugees. The “right of return” to their former homes in what is now Israel remains one of the thorniest issues in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.”

But of course the issue of Palestinian refugees is only half the story. The other half – that of Jewish refugees from Arab lands – has no dedicated UN refugee agency to document its history, no hereditary refugee status, no UN sponsored ‘Solidarity Day’ and no UN funded committee to champion its ‘inalienable rights’.

The Israeli Left and the Myth of ‘Palestinian’ Susiya

A legal battle over a historic site in the Hevron Hills continues, with Israeli far-left groups joining the Palestinian Authority in accusing Israel of “forced displacement” of Arab villagers in Susiya. They have won support from several international left-wing groups and media outlets as well.
The problem: the “Palestinian village” that Israel is supposedly uprooting never existed.
Tzviki Bar-Hai, the head of the Har Hevron regional council, explained the issue in an interview with Arutz Sheva. Bar-Hai has seen the development of the archaeological site at Susiya – which is home to the remains of an ancient Jewish village - from day one.
Not only did “Palestinian Susiya” not exist in the 1800s, as has been claimed by the far-left group B’Tselem, but it did not even exist in the 1980s, he reported.

Bereaved Father’s Disgust: ‘Just Free all Terrorists Now’

If the government is planning to release dozens more convicted terrorist killers, it should simply free them now rather than dragging out the process, bereaved father and anti-terrorism activist Ron Kerman has argued.
“Why wait nine months? Just release all the terrorists today already,” Kerman told Arutz Sheva.
Kerman’s suggestion came in response to reports that Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is planning to end negotiations with Israel as soon as the terrorist release is complete. Abbas has openly declared that his goal is to free all PA terrorists from Israeli prisons, and that he does not plan to compromise on a single issue in negotiations.

Israeli officials: Obama gave Iran right to enrich, destroying sanctions

Unnamed Israeli officials denounced US President Barack Obama on Friday night for presiding over failed negotiations with Iran under which, they said, the sanctions pressure on Tehran is collapsing and the Islamic Republic has been granted the right to enrich uranium. The entire wall of sanctions, painstakingly constructed over years, is already crumbling and “will collapse within months,” the officials were quoted as saying.
In comments reported by Israel’s Channel 2 news and attributed to unnamed senior Israeli officials and official sources in Jerusalem, Obama was castigated for ostensibly showing he “will do anything to avoid a situation in which he will have to resort to force” against Iran.

Netanyahu orders Mossad to expose Iranian breaches of interim deal

Mossad, as well as the IDF’s Military Intelligence Directorate, have been told to dig up evidence of Iranian duplicity ahead of Obama’s push to win support for the deal in Congress and thus head off legislators’ demands for further sanctions against Iran, the Sunday Times reported, citing Israeli defense sources.
“Everyone has his own view regarding the Geneva agreement,” an Israeli intelligence source was quoted as saying. “But it is clear that if a smoking gun is produced, it will tumble like a house of cards.”
If Israel does produce evidence that Iran is flouting its deal with the world powers, the agreement could prove a tough sell for Obama in Congress.

Rouhani says Iran will intensify nuclear work

Not only is Iran not going to dismantle any of its nuclear facilities as part of an effort to reach a long-term agreement to limit its nuclear development, it will also construct a second nuclear reactor at Bushehr, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in comments over the weekend.
Addressing provincial managers and officials of Bushehr province on Saturday night, Rouhani said "Based on our estimates, the second nuclear power plant will be built in the same province and I hope that we can use the facilities of this province," Fars News reported. According to the report, Iran has identified 34 locations throughout the country where new nuclear facilities could be built.

Obama has accepted a nuclear Iran

The more facts that come to light from the negotiations in Geneva, the more the agreement appears to resemble Swiss cheese. There are many holes in the agreement as well as some serious vagueness. Barack Obama and John Kerry are not persuading the average American that this was any kind of achievement. They simply assume that most of the American public are willing to have their leaders deceive them. This is what the fight is about on Capitol Hill. In the present round, Israel is not holding back its criticism of the agreement, but neither is it taking steps against the While House.
Analyzing the administration's conduct leads to the conclusion -- for which there is yet no proof -- that Obama has made a decision to reconcile himself to Iran's nuclearization. Perhaps full nuclearization, perhaps stopping at a point where Iran is a threshold country that can assemble four nuclear bombs in a very short period of time. There is no "smoking gun" to prove this circumstantial belief, but the evidence is getting stronger by the day.

Iranian, Turkish spy services working in 'close collaboration'

Ambassador Alireza Bikdeli, speaking at a conference in Ankara, said the Iranian Intelligence service MOIS was working in "close collaboration" with Turkey's National Intelligence Organization (MİT).
Speaking to the Turkish daily Hürriyet, Bigdeli said the intelligence cooperation between the two countries were at a level that should be between strong neighbors, which bothered Western powers as well as Israeli authorities.

Erdogan's problems with his neighbors

What went wrong? Dubbed “neo-Ottomanism” by various analysts, the AKP Party’s foreign policy sought to establish Turkey as a model state for the Arab world, at a time when the Arab Spring continues to reshape the political landscape. A romantic in nature, Erdogan envisaged a renaissance of Turkey’s soft power – with him at the helm – that would push the ideas of democracy, modernism and peaceful reconciliation in a troubled region.
As a non-Arab actor, however, Erdogan found religion, rather than national identity, to be the common value to appeal to the Arab masses. As a selfdeclared “conservative democrat,” he guided his party members to voice support for free elections in all Arab states, while allying themselves with the Islamist-leaning and populist political movements, with whom they share common ideological roots.

Find your way around the mall with Mally

The idea was developed by Issa, a Christian Arab woman from the Haifa area, with a Spanish partner. The new app is already installed in a mall in Toledo, Spain, and two more malls are coming on board next. It is currently available in English, Hebrew, Spanish and Catalan.
“We are closing a deal with a shopping center’s administration agency, which is holding 47 malls in Spain. They all have Google Indoor [Google Maps on Android devices] already, but are totally unsatisfied with it,” she says.
“To map the malls around the world isn’t easy,” she continues. “We give the whole experience. When you enter, we not only help you navigate but also give you content and information — what offers are being made right now.“

‘Like sending back art Nazis looted’: Iraqi Jews who fled persecution fight to stop U.S. from returning stolen artifacts to Baghdad

Set against the historical backdrop, the impending return of the Iraqi Jewish archive to Iraq has angered an ex-patriot community scattered by tragic circumstance. American and Iraqi Jews worldwide are urging the U.S. government to return the Jewish items to the Iraqi Jews. A petition signed by 47 members of Congress was delivered to Secretary of State John Kerry on Nov. 13, asserting that the “Government of Iraq has no legitimate claim to these artifacts,” echoing earlier statements from New York Senator Chuck Schumer.
Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, John Baird, added his voice to his American counterparts in an email to the National Post Friday. “It is unfortunate that Iraq is simply not prepared to openly chronicle this tragic history as a monument for the people of Iraq, towards a meaningful reconciliation, or towards the historical preservation of archives and other items that document the ancient heritage of Iraqi Jewry,” the minister wrote. (h/t AlexandreM)

Netanyahu heads for Rome to meet Pope, Italian PM

Netanyahu is expected to invite the pope to Israel.
The meeting will be the prime minister’s first with the current pope, who met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in October at the Vatican and with President Shimon Peres in April. Netanyahu met with the previous pope, Benedict XVI, in 2009, as well as with Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Six government ministers are joining Netanyahu on the trip and will meet with the Italian government.

With song and remorse, an unlikely Amish group comes to Israel

The group, which flew out of Israel early Sunday morning, is unique in the traditional Amish world. Brought to the country by Keshet, an Israeli educational tourism company, its members were on their third Reconciliation Mission to Israel to Israel to build bridges with the Jewish people and show remorse for what they called the Amish community’s apathy at generations of Jewish suffering.
“We, the Amish and Anabaptist people turned away from the Jewish nation, while they were in their darkest hour of need,” reads the group’s mission statement. “We hardened our hearts against them, we left them — never lifting our voices in protest against the atrocities that were committed against them. We want to publicly repent of this and acknowledge our support of Israel.”

Repressing Christians through an Islamised Jesus

Time and again, Muslims, especially those in Egypt, project Islamic thinking onto Christians: thus the Coptic church has been accused of smuggling and storing weapons in its churches to take over the nation (when in fact mosques are regularly exposed housing illegal weapons for the jihad).
It has been acused of kidnapping and torturing Coptic girls who convert to Islam (when in fact Muslim converts to Christianity -- apostates -- are regularly beaten, imprisoned, and sometimes killed); and even of supporting suicide-attacks when the church speaks of Copts being martyred (because in Islam being “martyred” so often means actively sacrificing one’s life in “holy war”).

The truth about Christians in Bethlehem (a repost from 2012)

Facts overlaid in top of a propaganda video made by the Palestinian Authority for Christmas 2012. They don't want you to know that Christians are fleeing Palestinian-ruled areas because of harassment and discrimination.

Israel Defense Forces assemble in ‘menorah formation’

How do members of the Israel Defense Forces wish a Happy Hanukkah? By assuming “menorah formation,” of course. (h/t MtTB)

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Today's "storming" of the Temple Mount

JPost reports:

Clashes broke out between Jewish and Muslim worshipers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Sunday morning, prompting police to close the site to Jewish worshipers.

According to Army Radio, a group of Jewish worshipers visiting the Temple Mount began singing Hanukka songs and demonstratively praying despite police instruction against such activity.

Several dozen Muslim worshipers responded by attacking the Jewish worshipers. Police broke up the clashes, detaining two Jewish worshipers and two Muslims in the process.

So the worst that Jews do is - sing.

Once again, as they do every day, Arab media is condemning "Jewish extremists storming" the Temple Mount.

Let's look at the video made by the Al Aqsa Foundation of today's events, slightly edited:



Arab media is also saying that a planned Chanukah lighting ceremony this week at the Kotel will be a "desecration of the Buraq Wall by Netanyahu" as "settlers perform Talmudic rituals."

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Egypt may revoke citizenship of Gazans who are MB - and maybe Hamas - members

In 2011, Egypt started allowing Palestinians who had Egyptian mothers to become citizens. Tens of thousands of Gazans applied for citizenship, and hundreds received it.

The episode exposed one of the biggest lies of the Middle East, a lie that has been espoused by UNRWA from the beginning of its existence - that Palestinian Arabs do not want citizenship in Arab countries, and would prefer to remain stateless in anticipation of "return."

One of the most prominent to receive citizenship in Egypt was none other than Mahmoud Zahar, a prominent Hamas leader.

Now, it looks like Egypt may be having second thoughts.

According to reports, new Egyptian citizens who live in Gaza are receiving notices that their citizenship could be revoked if they are affiliated with any political party that is banned in Egypt. And the current Egyptian regime has banned the Muslim Brotherhood.

Hamas is of course an offshoot of the MB.

The reports say that many Gazans seeking to enter Egypt are being harassed at the Rafah crossing if their political views are considered suspect. Egyptian authorities have responded that naturalized citizens are not allowed to belong to any political party for five years after becoming citizens.

When Zahar became an Egyptian citizen he said explicitly that he wanted to vote for the Muslim Brotherhood in elections.

I have still yet to see a single major human rights group insist that Palestinians who wish to become citizens of Arab countries have that right. Not one.

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You mean those "civilians" really were jihadists?

According to a Ma'an editorial:

Immediately after Israeli forces murdered Mahmoud al-Najjar, Mousa Makhamra and Muhammad Nayroukh in Yatta on Tuesday, Israel started a large media campaign claiming the three men were planning to found an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in the West Bank.

The campaign was very fast, very large and prepared in advance. Media outlets in the Arab world and in Palestine bought the Israeli argument to a certain extent by quoting reports about the incident from Israeli sources.

The absence of an official Palestinian account, and the fact that Palestinian factions and security services remained silent, helped circulate the Israeli account and even give it some credibility. ...The world has almost forgotten that Israeli forces carried out a predetermined, well planned military attack against young men in the prime of their youth driving a civilian car.

PCHR described it this way:

On Tuesday evening, 26 November 2013, Israeli forces killed in 2 separate attacks of an extra-judicial execution and excessive use of lethal forces 3 Palestinian civilians in the vicinity of Yatta, south of Hebron.

In a new crime of extra-judicial execution, Israeli forces killed 2 Palestinian civilians in Hebron by targeting their vehicle near Zaif area, north of Yatta, south of the city. ...

Half an hour later, in an excessive use of force, Israeli forces killed a Palestinian in the south of Hebron. ....

After examination of the crime scene, it was found that Israeli forces had opened fire randomly at al-Najjar while he was walking near the house, due to which, he was hit by a number of bullets causing his death before he was taken to the hospital.

The IDF's version of events and Palestinian corroboration was all but ignored in Arab media:

Thousands of mourners attended the funerals Wednesday of three suspected Palestinian militants who were killed in an Israeli army raid in the West Bank the day before.

The three were jihadi Salafis, or followers of a militant stream of puritanical Islam, and had planned attacks on Israelis and on the Palestinian Authority, the Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank, said Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, an Israeli army spokesman.

Lerner said the group had started putting together a terrorist infrastructure, including assembling weapons and explosives. He said the cell was the "first substantial indication" of violent activity by jihadi Salafis in the West Bank.

A Palestinian security official said jihadi Salafis in the West Bank are a cause of concern, but declined to give an estimate on how many there are.

Lerner said Israeli special forces stopped the car the three were riding in and shot out the tires. He said the men in the car acted suspiciously and that soldiers opened fire, killing two, while the third escaped on foot. The fugitive was later killed in a hideout several kilometers (miles) away, Lerner said.

Palestinian security forces previously had attempted to arrest the three, but they escaped, said Nairouh's brother Obeidallah and al-Najjar's uncle, Taleb.

Palestinian police have arrested 22 suspected jihadi Salafis in Hebron and the West Bank cities of Nablus and Jenin in the last three weeks, the Palestinian security official said. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to brief reporters.

Obeidallah Nairouh said his brother had served six years in an Israeli prison for Hamas-related activities. In prison, Mohammed quit Hamas and drifted toward the Salafis, his brother said.

He said his brother was upset with Hamas for not imposing Shariah law in Gaza and spoke frequently about the need to engage in jihad, or holy war.

Today, an Al-Qaeda group admitted that these three were jihadists:

An al-Qaeda-linked group said three militants killed in the West Bank by Israeli forces last week were its members, and that their presence there showed that the Islamist network had taken root in the Palestinian territory.

"By the will of God Almighty, the global jihadi doctrine has reached the bank of pride, the West Bank, planting its foothold after all attempts to thwart its presence," said a statement posted by Majles Shura al-Mujahideen, or Holy Warriors' Assembly, on an Islamist web forum.

In its online statement, Majles Shura al-Mujahideen denounced the peacemaking efforts and threatened attacks on Israel and the PA.

"We call on every sincere person to cut off what is called 'negotiations', which causes one's nose to turn away with its foul stench of collaboration," the statement said. "We are serious about fighting the aggression against religion by the blaspheming Jews and the hypocritical collaborators."

Now let's return to Ma'an's editorial. After downplaying the idea that these were jihadists, it said that even if they were, they shouldn't be attacked - they should be respected - just like the IDF engages in dialogue with Haredim!

Fighting Jihadist Salafist ideologies and radicalism shouldn't be through targeted assassinations of supporters of these ideologies, simply because, violence begets violence. The right way to do that is through the withdrawal of the occupation on one hand, and through dialogue between Palestinian organizations and Salafists on the other. Those people should be invited to dialogue sessions to listen to their thoughts and obsessions.

There will never be any solution except through education, reflection, dialogue and participation. Israel has been trying for years to get religious people to do military service through dialogue with those people and through listening to their demands.

Yes, Ma'an believes that al-Qaeda and black-hatted Jews are the same thing - and that jihadists just want to talk about their feelings. the poor people are just troubled by the moderation of Hamas and the PA, and only want to be heard.

Their violence is a cry for help!  The poor mujahadeen are so vulnerable and alone.

We should be sending social workers to Pakistan and Afghanistan, not drones!

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11/30 Links: Bloodlust and lies, International "law" as the anti-Zionist Bible, French BDSers Fined

From Ian:

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Sarah Honig: Bloodlust and lies

Thus started the Nazi-financed, three-year Arab revolt – an uprising that was every bit as deformed as the misnamed Arab Spring. Haj-Amin’s ambitious undertaking cost thousands of lives, but paradoxically it fortified the emergent Jewish state, which would achieve independence 12 years later.
Haj-Amin wasn’t the odd-man-out. He gave expression to his people’s overwhelming vehemence. Already in 1937 Josef Goebbels praised Arab “national and racial awareness,” noting that “in Palestine they hoist Nazi flags and deck their homes with swastikas and portraits of Hitler.”
Arabs were among the first to latch onto Nazi ideology. Undisguised fascist parties proliferated – from Syria’s Nationalist-Socialists headed by Anton Saada to Ahmed Hussein’s Young Egypt. Haj-Amin was the kingpin.

Israel and Creation Myths

Had there been no war, there would have been no dispossession, and yet, there still would have been a thriving Jewish State in former Palestine. Arab property was neither coveted nor needed before the war, although occasionally it was plundered and appropriated afterward. (But the same is true for thousands of Jewish homes and property that ended up in Arab-controlled Palestinian areas, i.e, the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza, not to mention the millions of Jews plundered in Arab countries in revenge for the “Naqba.”)
To conclude, many currently existing nation-states, besides the US, “willed” themselves into existence often by throwing off the rule of a foreign power (e.g. Greece, India, Pakistan) or were born out civil war (e.g., South Korea, Eritrea). Israel is no different, and has no less of a right to exist than any of those nations. And all of the claims that somehow Israel is an artificial entity with no right to exist is just a myth.
The world has been sorely remiss in remaining silent in or acquiescing to the blatant lies the anti-Israel forces spread. The issue is not simply historical accuracy and fairness. Palestinian Arab hatred, intransigence and violence is fueled by this false narrative of Israel’s illegitimacy. Peace will only be possible when Palestinian leadership and its supporters are forced to confront and acknowledge the truth: The Palestinian Naqba was self inflicted. It’s time for Palestinians to own up to that fact, to put an end to their “righteous” warfare, and for them to live in peace with their Israeli neighbors.

International "law" as the anti-Zionist Bible

Consider the latest parallel case when Israel was slammed for violating international law on occupation while Morocco, another "occupier", came away with a handshake and a deal.
The slammer and the deal maker was the European Union. Lawyers advised that no law stopped Europe making a fisheries deal with Morocco over occupied waters in Western Sahara. Allowing European companies to drill for oil in those waters, despite a UN legal opinion that it would violate international law, was also no problem. ‘Thank you very much,’ said the fatcats of Brussels. Morocco was happy too; the EU offered to pay a royalty for access to the occupied zone.

Hillel Neuer: Reports that Israel joined the UN Human Rights Council’s Western group are premature

Contrary to several news reports, admission to WEOG in Geneva does not mean membership on the 47-nation council. Israel like every other UN member state automatically has the status of an observer state at the council. Whether a state is one of the 47 voting members of the council, or one of its 146 observer states, all (except Israel) essentially belong to one of the five regional groups.
Contrary to exaggerated reports in the Israeli media, the country’s admission to WEOG would have zero effect on the Arab states’ continued ability to target Israel through excessive, one-sided and disproportionate resolutions, urgent sessions, and the special agenda item that focuses on Israel at every council meeting.

Amer Studies Assoc May Boycott Israeli Univs, Reveal Ignorance

In other words, all those who blathered on, urging the ASA to approve the resolution to boycott Israeli academic institutions presumably would prefer that there were no Palestinian Arab institutions of higher learning.
Because not a single one of the 19 degree granting institutions serving the Arab Muslim population of the “West Bank” or Gaza existed before 1967.
Several universities were established in the 1970′s, including the University of Palestine, which is located in Gaza, and was founded in 1972. Prior to the “Occupation,” Egypt controlled Gaza and maintained the Palestinian Arab population living there under unrelenting military rule.

French court fines boycott-Israel activists for discrimination

A French court imposed a $1,300 fine on members of an anti-Israel group who called on supermarket shoppers to boycott Israeli products.
The Court of Appeals of Colmar near Strasbourg fined each of the group’s 12 members individually on Wednesday for their participation in a pro-boycott activity in 2009-2010, which the court qualified as “provocation to discrimination.” The court also gave the activists a suspended jail sentence, according to a report by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities.

Mother of 2-Year-Old Victim of Rock Throwing Attack Speaks Out

The mother of a two-year-old toddler was still in shock on Friday, as Avigail Ben-Zion recovered in a Jerusalem hospital from injuries sustained by rocks thrown at their moving car by four Arab teenagers on Thursday evening on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.
“Avigail will be fine,” Shirin Ben-Zion told Channel 2. ”She has a fractured skull, and we wait. I never thought that something like this could happen. Initially, I thought it was an accident, but then I realized very quickly that what crashed into us wasn’t any vehicle.”
Referring to her assailants, Ben-Zion was at a loss for words: “I can not talk about them as people – those figures who decided to hurt kids, I have nothing to say about them.”

Toddler injured by stone-throwers in Jerusalem not news for the BBC

The BBC’s Jerusalem Bureau is some eleven minutes’ drive from the location of the incident in which Avigail was injured. Twenty-four hours later, no report on the attack has appeared on the BBC News website. Readers of the website can, however, instead learn all about Orthodox beauty salons in Jerusalem.

Abbas: We'll Never Give Up on a Single Demand

While no official ceremony was scheduled Friday in the PA to mark the November 29, 2012 vote of the UN General Assembly, in anniversary comments published a day earlier, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas pledged to do everything possible to establish a Palestinian state with its capital in eastern Jerusalem.
The comments were published by the official PA news agency Wafa and quoted by AFP on Friday.
Abbas said that he would "never give up an ounce of the Palestinians' demands nor sign a peace agreement that failed to meet the aspirations of the people."

PMW: Song glorifying violence at PA Arafat memorial

Palestinian Media Watch has documented that the Palestinian Authority often chooses this song to be performed at official events. Recently, it was performed at an event under the auspices of Abbas. The song was also recently performed in a historical context at an event celebrating Palestinian musical folklore arranged by the PA Ministry of Culture.

Sunni, Shi’a Strife Brings Uncertainty to Israel

“Once the Geneva agreement is signed, the military option will be back on the table. The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs,” an anonymous source told the Sunday Times.
“Most of the Middle East has an interest in preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons. At the moment it seems the world powers, led by America, are going to cave in to Iran. So you don’t really have a choice, you need to cooperate with the ‘devil’ as you see it,” Karsh told JNS.org.
“When Netanyahu is campaigning against Iran’s nuclear weapons, while America has this romance with [newly elected Iranian President Hassan] Rouhani, many Arabs are saying right now, ‘Well thank God someone is doing it,’” Ajami said.
Fueled by Iran’s desire for regional hegemony, the Sunni and Shi’a battles are unlikely to abate anytime soon, forcing Israel look for unlikely new partners, covertly or not, to confront its most dangerous enemies.
“Israel and Saudi Arabia agree on most things, they could almost have a silent partnership. They don’t have to acknowledge it. You won’t be seeing the Star of David flying in Riyadh anytime soon, but I think strategically, in view of the Iranian assault, there is a covert understanding between Saudi Arabia and Israel on what this region should look like,” Ajami said.

Obama Sides With Putin, Assad, and Khamenei

The outlines of a deal emerged: Assad would stay, Iran’s coffers would be refilled and its nuclear project continued in most of its important aspects, and Russia would have a partner. And President Obama would get his deal. Not a perfect deal. Not a “this justifies the Nobel Peace Prize” deal. But a deal.
Oh, yes, and the Iranian regime would be safe from military action as long as the conversation continues. Indeed, at least one report indicates that the White House made clear to Israel and Saudi Arabia, who have been huddling in the corner a lot of late, that military action against Iran will not be tolerated.
Thus has the United States become the guarantor of the Iranian and Syrian regimes, and of Russian interests in the Middle East. How far we’ve fallen.

‘Secret talks with Iran led Obama to shelve strike on Syria’

The issue of Assad’s chemical weapons use came up in the secret US-Iran contacts held in recent months in Oman, Israel’s Channel 2 news reported Friday, and it quoted unnamed Israeli intelligence and security sources asserting Obama’s change of heart was affected by those contacts.
The report speculated that Iran persuaded Assad to agree to dismantle his chemical weapons capability in return for Obama not carrying out the intended attack.

‘US freed top Iranian scientist as part of secret talks ahead of Geneva deal’

The secret back channel of negotiations between Iran and the United States, which led to this month’s interim deal in Geneva on Iran’s rogue nuclear program, has also seen a series of prisoner releases by both sides, which have played a central role in bridging the distance between the two nations, the Times of Israel has been told.
In the most dramatic of those releases, the US in April released a top Iranian scientist, Mojtaba Atarodi, who had been arrested in 2011 for attempting to acquire equipment that could be used for Iran’s military-nuclear programs.

Iranian Nuclear Envoy Slams Israeli 'Aggression'

Iran’s envoy to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) slammed Israel on Friday, accusing the Jewish state of attacking its neighbors and committing atrocities.
"Israel, sitting on 200 nuclear warheads all of them targeted at Muslim cities ... is crying wolf about nuclear proliferation,” the envoy, Reza Najafi, told the UN nuclear agency.

US offers to destroy Syrian chemical arms offshore

The US has offered to help destroy some of the most lethal parts of Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile at an offshore facility, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical weapons said Saturday.
The international organization’s director-general, Ahmet Uzumcu, said in The Hague, Netherlands that the US government will contribute “a destruction technology, full operational support and financing to neutralize” the weapons, most likely on a ship in the Mediterranean Sea. The weapons are to be removed from Syria by Dec. 31.

Watchdog says Syria most dangerous country for journalists

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said on Tuesday that the civil war in Syria posed the greatest danger for working reporters in conflict areas.
“Syria remains the most dangerous country in the world for journalists,” CPJ said. “At least 55 journalists have been killed covering the conflict since 2011, with local journalists comprising 90 percent of the fatalities.”

Swiss lawmaker excluded from party after saying Israel is "on path of carbonization"

Swiss lawmaker Denis Menoud was excluded from the populist Geneva Citizens' Movement (MCG) on Friday after commenting that Israel was "on the path of carbonization" following the signing of the interim nuclear deal with Iran, AFP reported.
His comments, written on his Facebook page on Tuesday, caused an uproar in the party, leading party president Roger Colay to condemn his words and demanding him to resign.
Johanne Gurfinkel of CICAD, a Swiss group that monitors anti-Semitism, called on Menoud to “publicly apologize for his statement.” Gurfinkel also asked Menoud’s rightist MCG party to take a stand against “this type of hateful comments.” (h/t Bob Knot)

Swiss alderman seeks ban on Hanukkah ceremony

A city council member from Geneva has warned his municipality against allowing a public Hanukkah event, which he said would violate Swiss law.
“I’m not afraid of being called anti-Semitic, because my request is not directed at a religious community [but at] the authorities, which do not comply with the law by issuing an authorization for this event,” council member Pierre Gauthier is quoted as telling the Tribune de Geneve daily newspaper this week.

BBC does a makeover on Hannukah

Readers celebrating Hanukkah may be rather surprised to learn that, according to that article, that they are in fact marking the rededication of the Temple after the “victory of the Maccabees against the Syrians”.
Where did Lewis glean that curious piece of information? It appears to have been taken from the source to which he links in that section of his article: a page titled ‘Hanukkah’ on the BBC Schools website. There, teachers and students seeking information (presumably factual) from a site which is self-promoted as “educational resources from the BBC” are told that:

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Two stories from Switzerland

From Global Post:

From LaLiberte

A local deputy from Switzerland's populist Geneva Citizens' Movement (MCG) was excluded from the regional party on Friday for appearing to support the destruction of Israel.

Denis Menoud wrote on his Facebook page Tuesday that following Iran's historic nuclear deal with the West, "the key thing is that Israel is on the path to being incinerated."

His words caused an immediate outcry, with the Swiss Jewish rights group CICAD demanding the party "make a stand regarding this type of despicable remark."

Menoud, who later deleted the post from the page, told the Swiss newspaper Tribune de Geneve his remarks had been taken out of context.

"The point was the agreement with Iran... Israel is the loser, strategically and politically, from this plan. Anything else is a toxic and abusive interpretation," he said.

From Times of Israel:

A city council member from Geneva has warned his municipality against allowing a public Hanukkah event, which he said would violate Swiss law.

“I’m not afraid of being called anti-Semitic, because my request is not directed at a religious community [but at] the authorities, which do not comply with the law by issuing an authorization for this event,” council member Pierre Gauthier is quoted as telling the Tribune de Geneve daily newspaper this week.

In a letter to the mayor, Gauthier, who is the secretary of a not-for-profit called “Geneva Secular Coordination,” cited Switzerland’s Law of Foreign Worship, which states that “no celebration of worship, procession or any religious ceremony is allowed on public roads.”

He urged the mayor’s office to cancel a public candle-lighting event on Mollard Square scheduled for Dec. 3. The organizer of the event, Rabbi Mendel Pevzner of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, told the Tribune, “This is not a religious event but a moment of sharing, open to all faiths. Since 1991, we have never encountered a problem.”

(h/t Bob Knot)

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Chanukah video post #4: The Maccabeats "Burn"

Continuing our series....

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11/29 Links Pt2: The Two-State Delusion, PA: We Stay in Negotiations only to Release Prisoners

From Ian:

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The Two-State Delusion

While Israelis consistently poll in support of a Palestinian state, the reasons for abandoning the idea have multiplied over time. Palestinian nationalism with its malignant and rogue features remains committed to destroying Zionism. The Fatah media and school curricula indoctrinate the Palestinian people and youth to disparage Jews as "evil" and Israel as a "cancer." Palestinian military forces train for the possibility of future fighting with Israeli military forces, and Palestinian diplomacy, like the recent failed attempt to get the U.N. to grant it unconditional statehood, remains the stuff of wily bazaar bargaining in a diplomatic war of attrition. It is clear that the Palestinian public has never really accepted the two-state solution as a final end to the conflict. This was given vivid expression in the last interview by the late Faisal Husseini, the prominent PLO leader, who infamously compared the Oslo process to a Trojan horse that would bring about Israel's demise. More recently, Abbas Zaki, Fatah Central Committee member, confessed that "it's not acceptable to say we want to wipe Israel out … It's not [acceptable] policy to say so. Don't say these things to the world. Keep it to yourself." (h/t NormanF)

Hold the phone. Who are you calling a Palestinian?

The word “Palestinian” has always been difficult to define. For a start, there has never been a state called “Palestine”, so how can you define Palestinians? There has never been a Palestinian currency, monarch, capital city or defined international border.
In fact, at the end of the Ottoman empire in 1918, Arabs living in the area now covered by Israel and Jordan preferred to be known as Syrian. It was the incoming Jews who were calling themselves “Palestinian”, following the name of the area under British mandate control.

In Israel, an Arab village builds mosque with Chechen help

Bankrolled largely by Chechnya and named after its former leader Akhmad Kadyrov, who was slain by Islamist militants in 2004, the glimmering shrine tells of this small Israeli Arab community's historical ties to the restive Russian province.
Abu Ghosh residents say their forbears were Chechens who came five centuries ago to then Ottoman-ruled Palestine. With the advent of modern Zionism, the villagers were quick to forge an alliance with the Jewish state founded in the war of 1948.

Failure of the Two-State Solution: A Reply to Ian Lustick

Blaise Pascal once noted, “The first moral obligation is to think clearly.” In his “Two-State Illusion” (New York Times Sunday Review, Sep. 15), Ian Lustick provides proof that Pascal was right. By getting most of his details just wrong enough to inform sloppy thinking, Lustick reaches conclusions that are profoundly immoral. Since Obama’s and Kerry’s thinking on the issue resembles Lustick’s, it should be helpful to see where Lustick goes wrong.
Two “dirty secrets” lie at the root of the failure of the “two-state” solution, one on the Palestinian side and one on the Israeli. People involved with the discussions are aware of them, but because they identify the fundamental flaws with the Oslo “peace process,” much of academia and the media go to great lengths not to mention them, and Lustick certainly doesn’t.

Salah: Knesset Has No Right to Discuss the Temple Mount

Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the radical Islamic Movement in Israel, says that the Israeli Knesset has no right to discuss matters pertaining to the Al Aqsa Mosque and the Temple Mount, and that all of its decisions on the matter are null and void.
In an interview published Wednesday in Hamas publication Falastin, Salah said that "we will continue to monitor all of the Israeli plans that have as their goal the city of Al Quds [Jerusalem - ed.] and the Al Aqsa Mosque. The Knesset's intervention in the matters of Al Aqsa is null and void, and anything that stems from something that is null and void, is null and void itself."

Shaath: 'We Will Stay in Negotiations Just to Release Prisoners'

Nabil Shaath, one of the senior officials in the terrorist organization Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), has declared in a Maariv interview Friday that the PA will remain in talks until all of their terrorist "prisoners" are released - despite admitting that talks have tanked.
"We have committed to negotiations for a period of 9 months, and by then we hope to see all 104 of our prisoners released," Shaath claimed. He also noted that if not for the release of the more terrorists, PA negotiators would have left the peace talks entirely - just as they threatened to do earlier this month.

MK Shaked urges Tel Aviv mayor to pull plug on Nakba film festival

Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman MK Ayelet Shaked implored Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on Thursday to cancel an upcoming film festival focusing on the Nakba, the Arabic term meaning "catastrophe" that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs use to describe the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem during Israel's War of Independence.
"I was shocked to discover that Tel Aviv Municipality was helping produce an anti-Zionist film festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. A review of the event's line-up clearly shows that the films represented at the festival are of an anti-Zionist nature," said Shaked.

Poll: Majority of Israelis Believe Settlements to be Legal

A strong majority of Israelis believe Jewish settlement in the West Bank to be legal under Israeli law, a new poll shows.
The survey, conducted by New Wave Research on behalf of Regavim, found that 60 percent of Israelis view the settlements to be legal, while only 16 percent consider them to be illegal. 24% were unsure.

‘Turkey’s ban on Israeli flights could bring down El Al’

Air traffic between Israel and Turkey has soared by over 150 percent since the 2010 Gaza flotilla episode sent bilateral ties hurtling into the abyss. But only Turkey is benefiting from the increase: The total number of Turkish airline flights out of Ben Gurion Airport each week has reached a staggering 112. The total number of Israeli airline flights on the route: zero.
For reasons Jerusalem blames squarely on Ankara, Israeli airlines have been unable to fly to any destination in Turkey since 2007 and are locked out of the market. As first reported by The Times of Israel, Shkedy on October 22 sent a letter to Netanyahu in which he demanded Israel preclude Turkish airlines from flying to Israel as long as Ankara prevents Israeli airlines from competing, or at least halt the expansion of Turkish companies.

Honest Reporting: Oborne Back to Bashing the “Israel Lobby”

Oborne is clearly not the right person to comment on the dangers of the Iranian nuclear program and even less so when this gets mixed in with his obsession with the image of an all-powerful lobby even when this holds no water. Even Oborne himself concluded in his 2009 program that he hadn’t found anything even faintly resembling a conspiracy.
Fast forward to 2013 and all Oborne will find is the very legitimate fears of Israel when it comes to the Iranian nuclear threat and the very legitimate right of Israel and its supporters to express those fears to the international community.

Kanye West defends Obama, saying he lacks Jewish connections

Speaking on "The Breakfast Club" morning radio program on New York Hip Hop and R&B station Power 105.1, West said: "Let me tell you something about George Bush and oil money, and Obama and no money. People want to say Obama can't make these moves, or he's not executing. That's because he ain't got those connections. Black people don't have the same level of connections as Jewish people. Black people don't have the same connections as oil people. You know we don't know nobody that got a nice house. You know we don't know nobody with paper like that, that we can go to when we're down."
The incident did not mark the first time that West had made comments which raised eyebrows among Jews. In 2011, he was booed at a concert in England after comparing himself with Adolf Hitler.

FIFA upholds Ukraine sanctions for Nazi salute

FIFA said Wednesday that its appeals committee confirmed Arena Lviv is barred from staging qualifiers for the 2018 World Cup. The stadium hosted three matches at the 2012 European Championship.
Ukraine must also play its first home qualifier on the 2018 program in an empty stadium.

Lone Soldiers celebrate ‘Thanksgivukkah’ together in capital

According to the IDF, there are presently approximately 5,000 Lone Soldiers, or Diaspora Jews who volunteer to serve in the IDF without having their parents living in the country. While the soldiers are assigned surrogate families, many face challenges acclimating to a starkly different life in Israel.
“I knew this would be challenging,” said Adam Ota, 19, a soldier from Japan, who celebrated his first Thanksgiving.
“I miss my family, but we frequently Skype, so I still see them all the time.”
Ota, the grandson of Holocaust survivors on his mother’s side, said he joined the IDF because he was inspired by his grandfather, who fought in the War of Independence after being liberated from Hungary.

Wounded Soldier Honored at Lighting Ceremony for Jewish Unity

On Thursday, Rabbi Menachem Kutner, Director of the Chabad Terror Victim's Project (CTVP) and former IDF soldier Kfir Levi lit the candles together in a special program by Jewish unity organization Korov Lalev (lit. Close to the Heart).
Rabbi Kutner explained to Arutz Sheva that the soldier, who was badly wounded in Gaza in 2002, demonstrates the modern epitome of light and life in the spirit of the Hanukkah holiday.

IDF Blog: The Miracle of Hannukah Finds New Meaning in the Lives of IDF Soldiers

In honor of the miracle-inspired holiday of Hannukah, we bring you a series of stories from around the IDF – stories of soldiers that, in keeping with the holiday, are truly miraculous. Check back throughout all eight nights of Hannukah for more enlightening stories.

Largest European Menorah Lit in Berlin's Victory Gate

Norbert Lammert, President of the German Bundestag (parliament), spoke at the ceremony, reminding that "recently we marked 75 years since the (Nazi) pogrom 'night of broken glass' (Kristallnacht). In those times Germany left the cultured world for several years, and in those times many people had a good reason to believe that those events indicated the beginning of the complete end of Jewish life in Germany."
Lammert added "today, not for the first time, but for the tenth time, we are celebrating the holiday of Hanukkah here in Berlin...in the most central square of Berlin. It's a great expression of the changes that Berlin has seen since the Nazi regime."

Russia: Publicizing the Miracle of Hanukkah in Moscow

Chabad Rabbi Berel Lazer, fulfilled the commandment to publicize the miracle of Hanukkah in a big way Wednesday night: by lighting a giant hanukkiah outside of Moscow's Red Square in Russia.
Lazer made the blessing over the miracles "in those days and in these times," a traditional Hanukkah blessing over the candles, in front of a symbol of the modern miracle for Soviet Jewry: the downfall of the USSR.

Report: Pope Francis to visit Israel in May

A senior unnamed Israeli source quoted by CNN said that the papal visit has been tentatively set for May 25-26.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is scheduled to travel to the Vatican next week and meet with Pope Francis. He will extend an official invitation to the pontiff to visit the Holy Land.

Israeli wins jiujitsu world junior championship

Almog competed in the under-87 kg (192 lbs.) category for youth. Before entering the finals, he prevailed against an opponent from Romania in a mere 20 seconds. This was the quickest match of the entire championship, earning him a special trophy.
In the semifinal and final, Bretsch encountered rivals from Turkey and defeated them. Two years ago, Almog won the European championship for his age group.
He says that one of the most significant moments was when they played the Israeli national anthem. "When I heard Hatikvah sung from the podium it was an amazing feeling."

New Movie Shows Brave, Tragic History of Gush Etzion

Kfar Etzion was the decisive battle. Mothers and children had been evacuated to Jerusalem when the defenders realized that the beleagured Hagana could not send forces to defend them. They never saw their fathers and husbands again. After a heroic battle - a day before Israel's independence was declared - the surrendering defenders of Kfar Etzion were killed in cold blood by the Arab forces, despite their raising a white flag. Only 4 survived.
Now residents of the region have created a new memorial for the 21st century: a professionally produced film that portrays the region’s history, including the Jewish settlement in the 20th century, and the brutal destruction of that settlement during the war.

Why Isn’t the World More Thankful to Israel?

This is only a sampling of Israel’s many humanitarian missions over the years. There have been more including sending a team to Cameroon in 1986 after a poison cloud emerged from a lake killing hundreds of villagers and a group of medical professionals to Central America in the aftermath of the devastating Hurricane Mitch. I could also mention that while the world fiddles around with Syria, over 100 Syrians have temporarily escaped the ravages of war there and gotten treatment in Israel. In recent weeks two Syrian babies were born in Israel too.

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Chanukah video post #3: "Jew Direction - "Chanukah Makes You Jewtiful" ✡D

Gotta try to keep up with what the kids are listening to nowadays...

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"Zionist goal is to kill all the Muslims"

From World Bulletin:

Zionists are responsible for all the bloodshed in the Islamic world and Turkey's role is critical to resolve the problems in the region, head of the the International Compound for Proximity of Islamic Sects Ayatollah Sheikh Mohsen Araki, told press members in Istanbul on Thursday.

"Acting together of all the Muslims in the world is a duty of our religion. When the Zionist state had entered into our region for the first time, their goal was not only to slaughter Palestinians, but also to kill all the Muslims and destroy all the moral and material sources of them," Araki told.

He continued by giving examples, "Zionist enemies make every kind of plans to create hostility among us. There are their hands in every war, in every bloodshed. They are again responsible for what has happened in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan. They are behind the plots laid in Egypt. We see the same thing in Libya and Bahrain. They want us to conflict and wage war all the time. They don't want us to resolve our problems by ourselves."

Araki is the head of the World Forum for Proximity of Islamic Schools of Thought.

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11/29 Links Pt1: Bibi vows to banish the ‘darkness’ of Iranian nukes, Kerry Legitimizes Arab Terror

From Ian:

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Bayit Yehudi's Ben-Dahan: Kerry giving legitimacy to terror, not a worthy mediator

Bayit Yehudi deputy minister Eli Ben-Dahan lashed out at US Secretary of State John Kerry on Thursday night, saying that he had given legitimacy to terror and was not worthy to serve as mediator to Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The deputy religious services minister made the comments at the consecration of a new synagogue in the West Bank settlement of Etz Efraim. His remarks followed a suspected terror attack in Jerusalem on Thursday evening in which a two-year-old girl was wounded when her family's vehicle was pelted with stones.
"Earlier a girl in Jerusalem was hurt by stones from a terrorist," Channel 2 quoted Ben-Dahan as saying. "John Kerry, who warns us of an intifada does not understand the Middle East and he is not worthy to be a mediator when he goes back to his country. His words give legitimacy to this terrorism."

Baby Seriously Injured in Muslim Rock Ambush

A two-year-old baby was seriously injured Thursday when Muslim terrorists hurled rocks at the car she was in, at the entrance to the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in southern Jerusalem.
A Magen David Adom (MDA) team gave the baby initial medical care and took her to Hadassah Ein Kerem hospital. She suffered a serious head injury.

PM Vows to Catch 'Criminals' Who Injured Baby

"I am always moved by being here, in the place where Jewish history was formed, to large extent. This is the Zion that we dreamt of returning to, and this is Zion that we have returned to. Since then, we have been busy building our land and our state, and we are always under challenge."
"The first thing that I'd like to do this evening is to send wishes of speedy and full recovery to the small baby girl who was wounded by criminals here in Jerusalem," he said. "We will find these criminals and we will bring them to justice. We will safeguard our city."
"I think that you must have noticed in the last few days that our security forces are focusing on finding the perpetrators of evil. They succeed in this, and they will succeed in this case, too."

Four arrested in Jerusalem stoning attack that injured toddler

The suspects, Arab men aged 15 to 20, were brought for a remand extension before the Jerusalem District Court Friday morning, police said. The court extended their remand until Monday.
The four, residents of the Arab neighborhood of Sur Baher, are suspected of hurling rocks at the vehicle in which two-year-old Avigail Ben Zion was traveling with her parents in Armon Hanatziv, a predominantly Jewish Jerusalem neighborhood just over the Green Line.

'I Hoped Adelle Would Be the Last' Injured Infant

Adva Bitton, mother of the infant Adelle who was nearly killed in March by a rock thrown at the family's car near Ariel in Shomron, said the similar rock attack in Jerusalem Thursday night brought her right back to the day of the attack.

Islamic Jihad Leader Calls for Rebellion Against PA

The Islamic Jihad terrorist group has called on "the Palestinian people" to rebel against the Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, and urged them not to respond to summons for questioning by PA police as an act of defiance.
The Iranian-backed Islamist group has harshly criticized the PA and its security forces over a series of "political arrests", as the PA - which is dominated by Mahmoud Abbas' secular Fatah party - has sought to consolidate its control over Judea and Samaria by rounding up members of rival factions.

UN Distributes Fuel to Gaza in Midst of Crisis

Robert Serry, UN Middle East special coordinator, said Thursday that fuel "purchased by UNRWA (UN Relief and Works Agency) and distributed by the UN" is coming in through the Kerem Shalom crossing from Israel.
Serry added that while the amount "doesn't resolve the fuel crisis in Gaza, ...it does provide a safety net, we hope, for the coming two to three months for those critical installations here."

Al-Aqsa TV Filler Tallies Terror Attacks by Hamas

In a 2-minute TV filler broadcast by Al-Aqsa TV, Hamas dramatizes various types of attacks, giving a tally: 38 stabbings, 487 shootings, and so on.

Iran
Netanyahu vows to banish ‘darkness’ of Iran nuclear program

Speaking at the Western Wall for a Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony, Netanyahu compared Iran’s nuclear program to a darkness that would be forced out by Israel, referencing a popular children’s song for the holiday.
“We came to drive out the darkness, and the largest darkness that threatens the world today is a nuclear Iran,” he said. “We are bound to do all we can to prevent this darkness. If possible we will do this diplomatically, if not we will act as ‘a light unto the nations’.”

'Washington Post': White House omitting facts about Iran nuclear deal

In other words, according to the Post's Editorial Board, "the United States and its partners have already agreed that Iranian enrichment activity will continue indefinitely. In contrast, a long-standing US demand that an underground enrichment facility be closed is not mentioned."
According to the editorial, the most troubling aspect of the Geneva interim deal is that it provides for a "sunset clause" in the comprehensive agreement, meaning even the long-term deal would not be finite, and Iran could return to uranium enrichment and plutonium production at some point in the future after sanctions have been removed.

You know it’s a bad deal when...

You know the accord reached in Geneva last weekend between the P5+1 and Iran is a bad deal when the US Secretary of State, John Kerry, proclaims that the accord does not recognize Iran’s “right to enrich” uranium, and five minutes later the Iranian foreign minister, Mohammad Javad Zarif, says it does.
Woe to us that Zarif speaks with more credibility than Kerry. Officials in Washington have now confirmed the Iranian interpretation by commenting on the record that it is “not realistic” to expect, even in a further accord, that Iran will agree to zero enrichment.

Dem to Obama: Don't fix Iran's airplanes

A senior Democrat is lashing out at a provision of the nuclear deal with Iran that could make it easier for the country to repair its aging fleet of civilian aircraft.
A little-noticed provision of the deal paves the way for U.S. companies such as Boeing and General Electric to inspect and repair Iran's American-made planes inside Iran. But Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Calif.), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs panel and a hawk on Iran, says the planes could be used to promote terrorism and support Syria's Bashar Assad.

Iranian FM: Tehran won’t attend nuclear talks if ‘Zionist regime’ present

A report by the country’s official news agency IRNA quoted Mohammad Javad Zarif as saying that Islamic Republic “would not attend a meeting in which the Quds [Jerusalem] occupying regime participates.”
“We consider the Zionist regime as the biggest danger to the region and the world,” Zarif told the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB), according to IRNA.

Amidror: Iran Deal a ‘Failure, Not a Triumph, of Diplomacy’

In a New York Times Op-Ed, Yaakov Amidror, the former head of the Israeli National Security Council, slammed the outcome of the Geneva deal with Iran, as “a failure, not a triumph, of diplomacy.”
Entitled, “A Most Dangerous Deal: The Iran Agreement Does Not Address the Nuclear Threat,” Amidror wrote, “The agreement represents a failure, not a triumph, of diplomacy. With North Korea, too, there were talks and ceremonies and agreements — but then there was the bomb. This is not an outcome Israel could accept with Iran.”

North Korea 'Restarting Its Reactor'

IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told the agency's 35-member board Thursday that North Korea's Yongbyon nuclear complex appears to have re-started its reactor. But the agency says without access to the site, IAEA inspectors cannot draw a definite conclusion.
North Korea destroyed the cooling tower at Yongbyon in 2008 as a confidence-building measure in talks with South Korea, China, the United States, Japan, and Russia.
But in September, a U.S. research institute said satellite imagery of the site showed activity that could mean North Korea is reviving the reactor.

How sloppy US diplomacy is empowering Iran

Dr. Michal Yaari, an expert on Saudi Arabian foreign policy from the Open University and Bar Ilan University, said that Riyadh’s greatest concern is that the US will to ignore Saudi Arabian interests and focus on Iran. “Outwardly, they have been relatively cordial. They did not attack the Geneva agreement outright, they only hinted at their objections,” he said. “But beneath the surface, Riyadh understands that Washington may choose to proceed in a way that conflicts with Saudi Arabian interests, causing a crisis.
Iran, she clarified, “is their greatest enemy. On the religious front, there’s the hostility between the Sunnis and the Shiites. On the ethnic front, there’s the Arab-Persian conflict. From a security perspective, since Iraq disintegrated, no power has been able to stand in the way of Iranian hegemony in the Persian Gulf. And politically, there are the Iranian attempts to weaken the monarchies in the region. They see an Iranian threat everywhere they turn. So while Tehran may not have the upper hand in all of the conflicts in the region, it certainly is not losing its battles.”

UK PM Cameron to Britain’s Jews: ‘I Share Your Skepticism Over the Iran Deal’

UK Prime Minister David Cameron told Britain’s Jewish community at a Chanukah reception, “I share your skepticism over the Iran deal.”
“An enemy of Israel’s is an enemy of mine… but in my judgement this is the right step to take,” Cameron said, after lighting Chanukah candles with the UK Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak at a reception held at 10 Downing Street, the UK’s Jewish News reported on Thursday.
“I know there will be great skepticism, I know there will be great worry,” the prime minister said. “All I will say to you tonight is that I share your skepticism, I share your worry. I don’t have any starry-eyed view about what this Iranian regime offers. We only got to where we are because of the very tough sanctions.”

BBC WS fails to disclose Iranian regime connections of ‘expert panel’ member

So there we have it: undiluted Iranian regime propaganda broadcast to tens of millions of listeners around the world by the ‘reputable’ BBC World Service in the guise of an “expert” opinion, and with complete abandonment of the editorial obligation to make the connections of that “expert” known to audiences.

‘Israel spied on embassies in Lebanon,’ says Hezbollah MP

A Hezbollah member of the Lebanese parliament on Thursday accused Israel of tracking the movements of UNIFIL members and international ambassadors in the country, allegedly using a chain of surveillance positions along its border with Lebanon.
At a special meeting hosted by the parliament’s media and telecommunications committee, and which was attended by the ambassadors of 27 countries and UNIFIL representatives, the head of the committee MP Hassan Fadlallah said Thursday that “[an] attack on a sovereign country in this way goes beyond international resolutions and conventions, as it includes an assault on freedoms and privacies [sic],” according to Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV.

Report: Hezbollah Policing Lebanon Streets

Hezbollah operatives have set up checkpoints to inspect every car entering the Dahieh district controlled by the armed political organization. Since the double bombing of the Iranian embassy on November 19 that killed 25 people, Hezbollah has been wary of further attacks on Iranian institutions in Beirut. Responsibility for the attack was claimed by Abdullah Azzam brigades, a Lebanon-based Al-Qaeda affiliate.
“Young people are walking around with radios, checking every car that wants to enter the Dahieh quarter, and there are whole streets closed to traffic due to security concerns,” Lebanese sources were quoted as saying by Asharq Al-Awsat.

Saudi Cleric: Women Driving Ban Protects Against Evil

Sheikh Abdul Aziz bin Abdullah al-Sheikh, in a speech delivered Wednesday in the western city of Medina, said the issue of giving women the right to drive should not be "one of society's major concerns."
The kingdom's most senior cleric called for "the matter to be considered from the perspective of protecting society from evil" which, according to him, included letting women drive.

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Video of Al Qaeda public execution in Syria - of other rebels

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, this video shows an Al Qaeda group in front of a large crowd in Alatareb in the northern Idlib province.

The Islamist group, which apparently is from Iraq, executed the leader of a rival, apparently moderate Syrian opposition faction along with six of his men.

The crowd is very happy.

The execution begins at about 1:38.

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WaPo notices the many shortcomings of the Iran nuclear agreement (update)

This is a rather good summary of the problems with the Iranian nuclear deal. The best part, however, is that since it is in the Washington Post, it cannot be ignored by the White House.

THE FACT sheet distributed by the Obama administration about the nuclear agreement with Iran is notable for its omissions. The 2,000-word document, like President Obama’s televised statement Saturday night about the deal, stresses Iran’s pledge to cap its enrichment of uranium, delay the completion of a plutonium-producing reactor and accept additional inspections — measures that will guard against an attempt to produce a bomb while negotiations continue.

What the White House didn’t report is that the text of the accord makes several major concessions to Tehran on the terms of a planned second-stage agreement. Though White House officials and Secretary of State John F. Kerry repeatedly said that Iran’s assertion of a “right to enrich” uranium would not be recognized in an interim deal, the text says the “comprehensive solution” will “involve a mutually defined enrichment program with mutually agreed parameters.” In other words, the United States and its partners have already agreed that Iranian enrichment activity will continue indefinitely. In contrast, a long-standing U.S. demand that an underground enrichment facility be closed is not mentioned.

Mr. Obama and other U.S. officials have spoken about a six-month time frame for completing negotiations, but the agreement says the six-month arrangement can be renewed “by mutual consent” and that “the parties aim to conclude negotiating and commence implementing [in] no more than one year.” It also states that “there would be additional steps in between the initial measures and the final step,” including “addressing the U.N. Security Council resolutions.” Those resolutions order Iran to suspend uranium enrichment, but the agreement does not say whether those demands will be enforced.

The most troubling part of the document provides for what amounts to a sunset clause in the comprehensive agreement. It says the final deal will “have a specified long-term duration to be agreed upon,” and that once that time period is complete, “the Iranian nuclear program will be treated in the same manner as that of any non-nuclear weapon state party” to the Non-Proliferation Treaty. Iran thus could look forward to a time when there would be no sanctions and no special restrictions on its nuclear capacity; it could install an unlimited number of centrifuges and produce plutonium without violating any international accord.

Administration officials say they regard Iran’s agreement to the words “long-term” in the sunset clause as a significant concession. In theory, this might mean 15 to 20 years. Iran, however, has proposed a far shorter period; we are told it was three to five years. Whatever the final compromise, it would be dangerous to allow this Iranian regime to have an unrestricted nuclear program at any time — and it surely would be unacceptable to Israel and Iran’s Arab neighbors. The United States should retain the ability to block the expiration of controls with its veto in the U.N. Security Council.

The interim arrangement, as we have said, is worthy because it checks Iran’s progress toward a bomb and is far preferable to the military action that otherwise might have been necessary. But the agreement leaves the United States and its partners at a disadvantage in negotiating the comprehensive settlement. The concessions made to Iran will have to be balanced by a major rollback of Iran’s nuclear infrastructure — with no automatic expiration date.

Meanwhile, Iran is acting as if their international isolation is history. AFP reports:

Iran and the United States are to establish a joint chamber of commerce within a month, with direct flights also planned, an Iranian official said Wednesday in a newspaper report.

“Iran-U.S. chamber of commerce will be launched in less than one month,” Abolfazl Hejazi, a member of Iran’s Chamber of Commerce, Industries, Mines and Agriculture, told the English-language Iran Daily.

In the wake of a historic accord on Sunday between Tehran and major powers on Iran’s controversial nuclear program, Hejazi also said his country was ready to start direct flights to the United States.

After the 1979 revolution in Iran, Washington severed diplomatic relations with Tehran following the seizure of its embassy in Tehran, during which Islamist students held 52 U.S. diplomats hostage for 444 days.

According to Hejazi, the project which he said had already been registered in the United States would allow the two countries to work towards restoring ties.

Hejazi also said the government has authorized the private sector to launch joint activities and that Iran was ready to establish direct flights to the United States.

Actually, a US-Iran Chamber of Commerce had already been announced, as a private American businessman launched it in early November, in cooperation with the Iranian mullahs:

Mr. Manafzadeh says the idea for the chamber was hatched during a September meeting in New York City with Iranian President Hasan Rouhani and his chief of staff, Mohammad Nahavandian, who were visiting for the United Nations General Assembly.

"During our meeting," Mr. Manafzadeh says, "I proposed to Mr. Nahavandian that under his auspices I should register such an organization, in my office, at my expense, to work together with the Iranian-American business network to . . . advance trading with Iran." Before becoming Mr. Rouhani's chief of staff, Mr. Nahavandian served as president of the Iran Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Mines, based in Tehran.

Mr. Manafzadeh's company website shows a photo of him embracing Mr. Rouhani and "presenting a very special copy of the Holy Quran to Mr. Rouhani which was brought from the city of Mecca."

UPDATE: See also Times of Israel.

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Morocco party pushing bill to outlaw "normalization" with Israel

From Bladi.net:

Any Moroccans who would visit Israel could receive a sentence ranging from two to five years in prison and a fine ranging from 10,000 to 100,000 euros, according to a proposed bill criminalizing the normalization of relations with Israel.

The bill created a strong controversy in Parliament, dividing the political elite and Moroccan organizations defending human rights. Some believe that this "bill is unconstitutional and influenced by Nazi tendencies ".

Others argue that this text is a clear violation of international covenants and treaties on human rights, denouncing a bill "sterile", which would undermine the image of Morocco that supports pluralism. "

The originally proposed text, by the Moroccan Observatory Against Normalization with Israel, is supported by five political groups, including the Justice and Development Party (PJD), currently in power.

The bill condemns all forms of normalization with the Jewish state ,whether economic, political, artistic, or cultural.

A report earlier this month said that Morocco bought over $51 million worth of goods from Israel in the first ten months of this year, much more than last year. Morocco also exported some $4.2 million of goods to Israel in the same time period, a slight decline over the same period in 2012.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

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UNRWA lies (and accidentally tells the truth) to the New York Times

From NYT:

There is one picture of Palestinian children studying around a small table by the dim light of gas lamps in the Beach Camp in Gaza, and another of children peeking over a sandy dune, with rows of small, uniform shacks of a desolate refugee camp in the background. In a third, a family walks across the Allenby Bridge, the father carrying two bulging suitcases, a young son clutching a white ball, heading east over the Jordan River.

These are a few of the black and white images, many of them powerful and haunting, that will eventually constitute a digital archive compiled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, the first part of which was unveiled Thursday at a gallery in the Old City here. Together, they capture the Palestinian refugee experience from the 1948 war onward, giving form to a seminal chapter in Palestinian history, identity and collective memory.

And how much context is given for these haunting photographs?

I couldn't find the specific photo of the family crossing the Allenby Bridge mentioned (update) but I found this one with its caption:

Homeless? Were their homes destroyed? Did Israel drive them out? The answer in the vast majority of cases is "no" and "no." Most arabs fled the West Bank because they didn't want to be under Jewish rule, not because Israel forced them out. This was a voluntary exodus, evidenced by the fact that tens of thousands ended up returning and that most of them stayed. These people are not "refugees" by any reasonable definition, even UNRWA's.

But this photo exhibition is not designed to tell the truth or give any context. It is designed to pull the heartstrings and - explicitly or implicitly - to blame Israel for the continuing refusal of Arab nations to take care of their Palestinian Arab population.

UNRWA's quotes in the article do reveal something, though:

“This is an important piece of work,” Filippo Grandi, the agency’s commissioner-general, told reporters at the opening in the Old City. “It is a contribution to building a national heritage for the Palestinians.”

“Everyone has a right to understand, to study and feel a part of their history,” [UNRWA spokesman Chris Gunness] said. “Are we supposed to engage in denial of the events of 1948? The refugee experience is an essential part of Palestinian identity.”

It is actually the formative part of Palestinian identity - meaning that UNRWA officials know very well that there was no Palestinian Arab national identity before 1948!

Indeed, UNRWA is what has pushed this artificial nationhood, which is now enshrined as fact - helping UNRWA stay in business.

If the Arab world had been pressured to integrate the 1948 refugees as every other nation has integrated refugees over the centuries, there would be no national identity for Palestinian Arabs today. It is an artificial construct that was created deliberately by Arab leader decisions to discriminate against Palestinians - a discrimination that exists today and is almost completely ignored by the world. UNRWA is part of this shocking coverup of the facts, not a force to fix them.

Christopher Gunness, an agency spokesman, said its mandate was to help the refugees and to advocate for their rights until all sides to the conflict negotiated a just and durable solution.

“What is perpetuating the refugee problem,” he said, “is the failure of the political parties to resolve it.”

Mr. Gunness added that the Palestinian refugees would have the same rights and status under any United Nations agency.

This has been a consistent lie that Gunness has given to gullible reporters for years. Here's proof that it is a lie: the UNHCR, which is responsible for all non-Palestinian refugees worldwide, has an entire group dedicated to resettling refugees in other countries. UNRWA doesn't. UNHCR has specific criteria for deciding how refugees can lose their status as refugees (for example, becoming citizens of a state.) UNRWA doesn't.

UNRWA perpetuates a bizarre situation where Palestinian Arabs living under Palestinian Arab governments in the West Bank and Gaza are still considered refugees! UNRWA perpetuates a situation where they are still living in camps even though there is no sane reason for a single refugee camp in the West Bank, Gaza or (for the most part) Jordan.

I've given many other reasons why UNRWA should be abolished in the past - like its tacit support of terrorism and  jihad. But the NYT isn't going to mention them.

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