Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, January 20, 2014

A Hebron anecdote (video)

The Christian Peacemaker Teams, an NGO that hangs around Hebron to catch Jews doing bad things, recently published an article about how they can understand how teenagers want to throw stones at Israeli soldiers:

Years ago in our Hebron apartment, we had a foam cushion insert on which someone had drawn a smiling face. Dubbed “Happy Foam Square,” we would throw it at a wall when our work got frustrating, and doing so was surprisingly cathartic.

So in a small way, I understand why throwing stones feels good. I also understand, when I see the posters of small boys throwing stones at tanks, that their actions are brave. I understand why the narrative of an occupied people resisting one of the most technologically advanced militaries in the world with rocks and Molotov cocktails is a source of pride in some circles.

They have endless stories about alleged abuses by IDF soldiers in Hebron, even as they are being bombarded with these innocent stones.

It reminded me of a video I took a while back, which got lost when a YouTube account of mine was closed. I just made a quick updated version:

When the people who are telling you something have an agenda, see how honest they are about incidents that contradict their stories.

I'm not saying ugly things don't happen in Hebron sometimes. But it is not the way these NGOs say it is, and there are plenty of violent incidents against Jews in Hebron that these NGOs will never, ever talk about. Because their funding, quite frankly, depends on demonizing Jews, not reporting the truth.

(h/t Bob Knot and Calev Ben Yefuneh)

01/20 Links Pt1: Abbas calls murderers "heroes" four times, Hanan Ashrawi criticizes Aust FM

From Ian:

Abbas' terror glorification continues as he calls murderers "heroes" four times in same speech

In December 2013, Israel released 26 Palestinian terrorist murderers from prison. In his speech at the PA event celebrating their release, Mahmoud Abbas welcomed the terrorists and called them "heroes" four times during his speech:
"[The release of our prisoners] is a day of joy for our nation, for our people, for our heroic prisoners... There will be more groups of heroes who will come to us... They [the Israelis] postponed these heroes' release by 24 hours... we congratulate you and ourselves for the [release] of these heroes." [Official PA TV, Dec. 31, 2013]

Terrorist murderers are "heroes," Abbas says four times in speech

David Singer: History and Geography Can Unblock Deadlock

Agreement that Jordan comprises 78% of historic Palestine would greatly enlarge the territorial field within which the Jewish-Arab conflict can be resolved – making the conflict much easier to settle.
To achieve this end result Kerry could instruct his State Department to prepare a questionnaire for Israel, the PLO and the Arab League to complete by a specified date.
The questionnaire could possibly include these questions:
1. When was “Palestine” first so named and by whom?
2. Was the name of “Palestine” prior to its change “Eretz Yisrael”? (h/t Bob Knot)

UNRWA's Role in Middle East Peace

UNRWA has not led to the economic development that was supposed to occur, but conversely, has implanted a culture of permanent dependency.
Even though UNRWA is supposed to be an objective organization, because of the anti-Israel bias evident since its creation, through anti-Israeli textbooks, for example, or naming facilities after terrorists, it appears unwilling to encourage Palestinians to find any peaceful solution of the conflict -- not to mention what a peaceful solution would mean to its own "job security."
It would be more productive for genuine peace in the region if the office of the High Commissioner for Refugees took over the function of assisting the Palestinians as it has so ably done for all other refugees.

Pro-Syrian paper blames Palestinians for starving themselves to death in Yarmouk

Al Akhbar English, a pro-Syrian, pro-Hezbollah Lebanese paper, has a fascinating article that says that the only people to blame for Palestinian Arabs starving and dying in the Yarmouk camp are Palestinians themselves.

The reason it is fascinating is because it reveals the mindset of Hezbollah and Syria and how quickly they turn on the very PalArabs that they pretend they want to defend.

Today, the unfolding events are 100 percent a Palestinian responsibility. This is a fact, and those who deny it should present us with evidence, not slogans. They should admit that Palestinians in Syria enjoyed advantages that their counterparts were deprived of in every corner of the world – advantages not even enjoyed in Gaza and the West Bank. In Syria, Palestinians were citizens.

Um, no, they weren't, although they were treated better than they were in Lebanon and Egypt.

Naturally, Palestinians endured oppression, tyranny, and misery like all Syrians. They also suffered from the practices of some Palestinian forces that took advantage of their relations with Damascus. But what happened to Yarmouk today? What made it a target? What pushed Palestinians in this camp to believe in toppling Bashar al-Assad?

In mid-2011, Yarmouk came to be at the heart of the Syrian crisis. No one imagined it would remain neutral, but no sane person ever figured that much of the camp would raise their weapons in the face of Syria.

The camp witnessed interior clashes, then some residents “rebelled” and took over large areas in the interest of “the Syrian revolution.” They refused to let the Syrian army in, and turned the camp into a haven for opposition armed groups.

This is sort of true, but I don't think it was as widespread as the author says. After 18 months or so of witnessing Syrian atrocities, many Palestinians in Yarmouk were more sympathetic to the rebels, although in general my impression is that most tried to stay neutral in the hope that they'd be left alone.

The Syrian army bombarded the camp. Militants and civilians were killed. This was followed by the great exodus. Those who stayed are the ones who refused to go through a new displacement, as well as members of armed groups and their families. In a few months the camp was transformed into a haven for groups like the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and al-Nusra Front.

The camp’s most prominent group is Aknaf Bayt al-Maqdis Brigades (Brigades in the Environs of Jerusalem), formed by members of Hamas, including a bodyguard of Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Meshaal. Hamas claims the group leaders are no longer within its organizational structure, but still refuses to condemn their actions. Some of these militants provided assistance to armed groups outside the camp and even outside Damascus countryside.

Meanwhile, the Syrian army has not entered the camp, and it doesn’t intend to. This is a decision made by Syrian authorities and well known by all parties, including the camp’s armed groups. No real solution will ever be reached unless the Palestinians themselves force the militants out and decide to distance the camp from any interior Syrian tumult.

The Syrian army has not let food or medicine into the camp since mid-2013, people are starving to death, they regularly bombard it with missiles and barrel bombs, and this columnist is praising them for not entering!

Now, the writer notes that dozens of jihadists from Gaza have fought in Syria, and therefore concludes that Palestinian Arabs are collectively guilty of opposing the Assad regime, and therefore get what they deserve:

Why is a Palestinian youth from the 1948 territories, the West Bank, or Gaza ready to travel to Syria to blow himself up when he can walk a few miles and blow himself up against occupiers of his land? There are a number of facts that indicate Palestinians are contributing to the war in Syria.

According to a December 2013 BBC report, 30 Palestinians from Gazan were killed in Syria, while an estimated 70 Palestinians left Gaza to join the war in Syria. Prominent Salafi leader in Gaza, Abdullah al-Maqdesi, told France 24, “About 27 jihadis left to fight in Syria, some of them came back, some were martyred, some injured and others are still there or left Syria to another country.”...

What are these Palestinians doing? Why are they doing it? Who can stop them or convince them that their battle is elsewhere? Palestinian refugees are the ones called to conduct an overall review.

The one who seeks to liberate Palestine doesn’t join a bunch of murderers who work under US command to serve one occupier and one criminal: Israel.

There are also pro-Syrian Palestinian groups, like the PFLP-GC, in Yarmouk. In an incident in 2011, the PFLP-GC shot and killed 14 Palestinians who were angry at their pro-Assad position and burned down their headquarters in Yarmouk.

Since then, many PFLP-GC members have defected to the other side.

Here is the context for this article.

The Palestinian Arab press in recent weeks has woken up to the dire situation in Yarmouk and has become more anti-Assad. This is clearly making Hezbollah nervous, because Hezbollah pretends that it is a major defender of Palestinian Arabs, and the majority of Palestinian Arabs are against Hezbollah's supporting Assad. Therefore, Hezbollah must declare that Palestinians are anti-Palestinian, and the only parties who really care about them are - Hezbollah, Iran and Syria!

(h/t Yoel)

Mahmoud Abbas' plan to destroy Zionism

In 1977, Mahmoud Abbas wrote a book called "Zionism: Beginning and End." It was republished in 2011 and is available to view, today, on his website.

This article describes one of the strategies Abbas spells out in the book for destroying Zionism and asserts that Abbas kept his philosophy years afterwards.

Zionism is based on racism, which carry the seeds of failure in itself, but more importantly is that the Zionist community in occupied Palestine is based on the marginalization of Sephardic Jews who are forced to submit to the elite Western "Ashkenazim." Abu Mazen lists movements and organizations emerging in the Zionist society that are resentful of state policies, motivated by contradictions with the Zionist idea, or justifications as a result of marginalization and social exclusion. Abu Mazen offers the idea of building bridges with the out-of-power and marginalized groups in the Zionist society, to strengthen their positions, and widen the gaps in the Zionist entity. This vision is the philosophy behind the efforts of meeting with the leftist forces of Zionism and the anti-government personalities of the Israelis themselves. He kept these meetings in eastern and western European capitals quiet, before the news gradually floated to the surface.

Abbas continues this strategy today. The PLO issued a detailed 56-page strategy document at the end of 2012 and the PLO has been following the plan slavishly. But one of the points mentioned was "to develop a strategy to work with Israeli society, particularly with the forces that supported the principle of two states on the 1967 borders, especially since it is not expected that the Government Israel will fulfill their obligations, particularly with regard to halt settlement activity or the release of prisoners or accept the principle of two states on the 1967 borders."

All those peace-loving Israeli leftist groups who enthusiastically meet Palestinian Arab officials (until the smart ones see the truth) are unwittingly part of the plan to divide and destroy Zionism, and eventually the Jewish state.

It seems apparent that the "American Jewish leaders" that Mahmoud Abbas met in September, who were so proud that they were meeting with him that none of them thought to ask him a single difficult question, were essentially unwitting dupes in this 2012 plan. They were clearly handpicked to be the people who would swoon over Abbas the peacemaker.

Hamas reportedly deploying to stop Islamic Jihad rocket fire

Palestine Press Agency (which is anti-Hamas) reports that Hamas security forces are being deployed throughout Gaza in an attempt to stop any rocket firing by Islamic Jihad.

A warning by Binyamin Netanyahu reached Hamas through Egypt saying that Israel would escalate reprisals if rocket fire continued.

Last week, several rockets were fired towards Ashkelon. Israel identified an Islamic Jihad terrorist as being responsible and seriously injured him yesterday in an airstrike on his motorcycle.

Hamas wants to stop Islamic Jihad from retaliating for the attack, and is meeting with PIJ leaders, deploying forces near the Gaza border and searching cars of suspected rocket launchers.

Pro-Fatah media like to publish stories of Hamas stopping attacks, because they believe that this undermines Hamas claims to be leading military attacks against Israel and instead shows them to be "collaborators."

PLO foreign minister: If Jews have a history in the land - then we don't

From an interview in Asharq al-Awsat of Palestinian Arab Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki:

Q: You said that there are a number of contentious issues. Which is the most intractable?

This is the issue of recognizing the Jewish nature of the Israeli state. This is a sharply contentious issue. It would be dangerous to recognize this because this would mean our acceptance of the dissolution of our own history and ties and our historic right to Palestine. This is something that we will never accept under any circumstances.

Isn't that interesting? The Palestinian position is that if there is any Jewish history in Israel, then Palestinian Arab history goes *poof*.

So they must deny history in order to maintain their bogus claims!

Now, it is true - there is no particularly Palestinian Arab history to speak of before the 20th century. No one identified themselves as Palestinian, there was no particularly Palestinian cuisine or dress or culture (although some towns did have their own specific costumes and crafts.) But this answer betrays how flimsy Palestinian Arab ties to the land are (as a people.)

Imagine if a US official said that he or she could not recognize Native Americans as being their own peoples - because to do that would be to deny American history. It makes no sense because there is an independent American history that occurred over the past 250 years, some concurrent with Native American history. Indigenous American history is not much of a threat to American history.

Yet PLO officials cannot accept a Jewish people or Jewish history! They know that their own ties to the land are superficial and recent compared to the Jews. Their history begins with the advent of Zionism; without Zionism they would never have become a people in any way. They'd be Syrian or Egyptian of Jordanian today. Anyone using the word "Palestinian" today would use it roughly the same way we use the word "Levantine" - there are no "Levantine people" even though plenty of people have been born in the Levant.

History is not the Palestinian Arabs' friend. Any honest look at history shows how shallow their claims on the land are. And every single PLO official knows this fact very well.

This is why they expend enormous efforts to change history. That is why they promulgate crackpot Khazar theories and adore idiots like Shlomo Sand. That is why they insist that there were never a Jewish people.

But if you want to know the full reason why Palestinian Arabs can never accept historic fact, just read this 2011 article by former PLO negotiator Ahmad Samih Khalidi from the Institute of Palestine Studies I quoted a few years ago:

[I]f Israel is the homeland of the Jewish people, then the lands that it occupies today (and perhaps more, for there are as yet no borders to this “homeland”) belong to this people by way of right. And if these lands rightfully comprise the Jewish homeland, then the Arab presence there becomes historically aberrant and contingent; the Palestinians effectively become historic interlopers and trespassers—a transient presence on someone else’s national soil.

This is not a moot or exaggerated point. It touches on the very core of the conflict and its genesis. Indeed, it is the heart of the Zionist claim to Palestine: Palestine belongs to the Jews and their right to the land is antecedent and superior to that of the Arabs. This is what Zionism is all about, and what justifies both the Jewish return to the land and the dispossession of its Arab inhabitants.

Clearly, this is not the Palestinian Arab narrative, nor can it be.

Even in this passage, there is a Freudian slip that shows that Khalidi knows the truth: he correctly refers to Jewish immigration into Israel as a return to the land!

The Palestinian Arab position is that they cannot claim the land unless history itself is changed. And that is exactly what they are doing.

(h/t @WarpedMirrorPMB)

EoZ poster site

I started a blog with my posters, comics and infographics. I still have plenty to post there but you might want to check it out at Middle East Posters and Cartoons. (Some might like this view better.)

(I'm still considering whether to post others' posters as well....but for now, let me finish mine.)

Israeli flags seen in Lebanon!

Maariv reports:

For the first time since the Second Lebanon War, Israeli flags are flying again over Lebanon, but this time it is not that IDF forces retook southern Lebanon, but the Lebanese are filming a movie about the period before the Israeli withdrawal.

Dozens of military vehicles, armored personnel carriers, soldiers in olive uniforms, guard posts and checkpoints were set up over the weekend in southern Lebanon, all with IDF markings and Israeli flags. The scenes will soon be on Lebanese TV screens, but the photos are bringing quite a few curious people on the Lebanese side and the Israeli side rubbing their eyes in amazement, not understanding what the IDF is doing a hundred meters deep in Lebanese territory.

I imagine that this movie will be as accurate as the Hezbollah theme park in Southern Lebanon is.

New poll of Muslim attitudes

This comes from a University of Michigan study released recently. I'm highlighting only some of the results; others shows somewhat more tolerance.

01/19 Links: Netanyahu to UN: The Truth Won’t Hurt Talks, Laser-Based Rocket Interceptor!

From Ian:

UK parliament launches inquiry into funding for UNRWA, Palestinians

The British parliament has formed a committee of inquiry to probe the flow of funds used by the international refugee agency UNRWA to support the Palestinians, according to an exclusive report first revealed on Saturday by The Jerusalem Post's Hebrew-language sister publication, The Post.
According to the report, the British government contributes 90 million pounds annually in aid to the Palestinians. A third of that sum is earmarked for UNRWA – the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees.
The parliamentary committee was formed in response to heavy lobbying by pro-Israel organizations and with the encouragement of former Israeli Labor MK Einat Wilf. The committee is due to submit its recommendations to parliament soon.
"UNRWA is perpetuating the notion that the descendants of refugees are themselves refugees, and it is based on this principle that the Palestinians are demanding the right of return, something that will not happen in any future agreement," Wilf said. (h/t Bob Knot)

US, Canada urge UNESCO not to postpone exhibit on Land of Israel

“UNESCO’s decision is wrong and should be reversed,” said US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Power on Friday. “The United States has engaged at senior levels to urge UNESCO to allow this exhibit to proceed as soon as possible.”
”UNESCO is supposed to be fostering discussion and interaction between civil society and member states, and organizations such as the Wiesenthal Center have a right to be heard and to contribute to UNESCO’s mission,” said Power.
In spite of her harsh rebuke, the US had opted not to sponsor the exhibit, which bore the sponsorship seal of only three countries, Canada, Israel and Montenegro.

Netanyahu slams UNESCO for scrapping Israel exhibit

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a scathing criticism of the UN’s cultural agency at his Cabinet meeting Sunday, for indefinitely postponing an exhibit on Jewish connections to the Holy Land.
“It would not harm the negotiations,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “Negotiations are based on facts, on the truth, which is never harmful. But what does harm the negotiations is the automatic summoning of Israeli ambassadors in certain countries regarding matters of no substance, while significant violations by the Palestinian Authority pass without a response.

British MP calls Israeli flag "Nazi"

From Grahame Morris, British Labour Party politician, and Member of Parliament for Easington, on Twitter:

@ynkutner - Nazis in my village do you see the flag they fly http://t.co/J9v8CCoz5Y pic.twitter.com/2a0W2gLGkG
— Grahame Morris (@grahamemorris) January 18, 2014

In case he deletes it...

I guess the next step in his career will be to write for Iran's PressTV.

(h/t Randy)

UPDATE: He deleted the tweet, but here is the screenshot.

The University of Calgary (and maybe many others) is using a textbook called "Culture of Prejudice: Arguments in Critical Social Science," (2003, 2008) by Judith C. Blackwell, Murray E. G. Smith, and John S. Sorenson.

Here is part of the blurb for the book:

Contesting the putative "even-handedness" of many introductory social science texts, this innovative book presents strong and provocative arguments on contemporary social issues that will stimulate readers to think critically. The principal theme of the book is that social science is at its best, and most exciting, when it confronts and refutes "cultures of prejudice"—intricate systems of beliefs and attitudes that sustain many forms of social oppression and that are, themselves, sustained by ignorance and fear of the unknown and the unfamiliar. Such a critical social science, it is argued, can make an important contribution to promoting human freedom and extending human capacities.

As we will see, the book does the the exact opposite of its stated purpose.

Here are two passages:

Often, nationalist ideologues propose a mystical attachment with certain territory. Where nationalism is aligned with or defined by religious identity, it may even be asserted that the group has been given the right to this territory by the authority of a supernatural being. Thus, a Chosen People will need to inhabit its Holy Land in order to fulfill its divine covenant, with unfortunate consequences for any other populations who may inhabit the territory but who are not considered part of the nation. For example, European invaders and their descendants imagined they had a Manifest Destiny to acquire the Americas and nearly exterminated the indigenous population in the course of taking possession. More recently, supernatural sanctions have been invoked by Israelis who violently dispossessed the population of Palestine. As Israel came to be defined as a Jewish state, promised to them long ago by a supernatural being, most of the Palestinian population was expelled; approximately 4.5 million still live there as refugees. Millions of Palestinians remain under military occupation, under constant surveillance and regular attack by Israeli forces, including tanks, fighter planes, and helicopter gunships. Their houses and land have been destroyed or expropriated and given to hundreds of thousands of armed settlers. Former Israeli prime minister Golda Meir simply dismissed their suffering by asserting that “Palestinians do not exist." While international media audiences are well informed about the dreadful attacks by Palestinian suicide bombers, the far higher rate of Palestinian deaths and casualties is defended as retaliations or self-defence. The 1993 Oslo peace process simply gave an extremely constrained form of power to Yassir Arafat's corrupt regime, while allowing the occupation to continue.

How many inaccuracies and baldfaced lies are in this single paragraph? Zionists did not historically invoke the "Chosen People" phrase to justify their desire to return to their ancestral lands; indeed one has nothing to do with the other. (That part alone is borderline antisemitic.) It is a lie to say that most of the Arabs were "expelled." There are not 4.5 million "refugees" living in the borders of British Mandate Palestine even by the bizarre UNRWA definitions. Palestinian Arabs are not under "regular attack." None of their houses have been "given" to "armed settlers." Golda Meir never said the phrase "Palestinians do not exist." (The authors quote it twice in this book.)

This is a college textbook, being used, today, where I can count at least 6 lies in a single paragraph.

Here's another passage:

One thing leads to another. Osama bin Laden and his al Qteda terrorist organization presented three conditions for ending their “holy war” against the United States both before and after the events of September 11, 2001: first, that Israel retreat from the territories that it occupied in 1967 and that an autonomous Palestinian state be recognized; second, that the trade sanctions imposed upon Iraq that have cost the lives of over one and a half million people, most of them children, over the last decade be lifted; and third, that United States military bases established in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War of 1991 be closed. An overwhelming majority of humankind would likely sympathize with these demands, even as they would condemn bin Laden's methods and reject his program of establishing repressive, fundamentalist theocratic states throughout the “Islamic world.” At the same time, most inhabitants of the Third World-and a great many people elsewhere-would consider the terrorist methods of al Qaeda no more “evil” (to use President George W. Bush's favoured term) than the methods employed by the US and other major powers in maintaining a global order that serves the interests of huge transnational corporations while perpetuating the grinding poverty of billions of people.

Did Bin Laden demand that Israel withdraw to 1967 lines? Did he demand a Palestinian state be recognized? Did he ask that trade sanctions be lifted? (For that matter, did 1.5 million Iraqis die because of these sanctions? )

No. His "letter to America" after 9/11 stated "The creation of Israel is a crime which must be erased." His fatwas before 9/11 were to kill every single American and its allies: "The ruling to kill the Americans and their allies -- civilians and military -- is an individual duty for every Muslim who can do it in any country in which it is possible to do it, in order to liberate the al-Aqsa Mosque and the holy mosque [Mecca] from their grip, and in order for their armies to move out of all the lands of Islam, defeated and unable to threaten any Muslim."

The "letter to America" had, in fact, seven demands, not three, and they do not correspond at all with what this textbook says:

The first thing that we are calling you to is Islam.

The second thing we call you to, is to stop your oppression, lies, immorality and debauchery that has spread among you.

What we call you to thirdly is to take an honest stance with yourselves - and I doubt you will do so - to discover that you are a nation without principles or manners, and that the values and principles to you are something which you merely demand from others, not that which you yourself must adhere to.

We also advise you to stop supporting Israel, and to end your support of the Indians in Kashmir, the Russians against the Chechens and to also cease supporting the Manila Government against the Muslims in Southern Philippines.

We also advise you to pack your luggage and get out of our lands. We desire for your goodness, guidance, and righteousness, so do not force us to send you back as cargo in coffins.

Sixthly, we call upon you to end your support of the corrupt leaders in our countries. Do not interfere in our politics and method of education. Leave us alone, or else expect us in New York and Washington.

We also call you to deal with us and interact with us on the basis of mutual interests and benefits, rather than the policies of sub dual, theft and occupation, and not to continue your policy of supporting the Jews because this will result in more disasters for you.

His second fatwa mentioned three of America's "crimes" and, again, nothing about Israeli "occupation" - he wanted Israel destroyed.

These are only two paragraphs in a book of 359 pages, looking at subjects I know something about. And the anti-Israel rhetoric doesn't end there: on page 330 we are told that while Jordan's killing of thousands of Palestinian Arabs in 1970 was "ghastly" they wouldn't have been there if it wasn't for Israel, on page 61 the same point about Jews claiming the land because of proimises by a "supernatural being" is repeated, on page 67 it says that the US has provided weapons to Israel to "kill large numbers of Palestinians," on page 90 it says that the Mossad uses torture regularly, on page 69 Israel is explicitly called a "terrorist state."

How many hundreds of distortions and lies are in this book being given to clueless university students? How can universities allow books that don't have a modicum of fact-checking? Why are the authors not today despised and blacklisted in the world of academia for their horrendous use of lies to push their own political agendas under the cover of "fighting prejudice"?

Isn't using lies to demonize an entire people the very definition of "prejudice"?

And how many other textbooks are being given to college students in the West that are just as filled with lies and distortions?

To say this is outrageous is an understatement.

(h/t Calgary United With Israel)

The Great Kuwait Zionist Potato Scare

From Gulf News:

The highly offensive potatoes

Kuwait’s commerce ministry has launched an investigation into reports that Israeli potatoes were being sold in cooperative societies.

“The ministry is currently coordinating with several parties to reach a conclusion about the allegations and ensure that they are not malicious,” ministry sources told local daily Al Kuwaitiya.

“The ministry has a zero-tolerance policy towards the import and sale of Israeli products and if there are Israeli potatoes in the stores, there will be stringent action against those involved,” the sources said.

Khalid Al Subai, the deputy head of the Consumer Protection Society, was quoted by the Kuwaiti daily as saying that Israeli potatoes had been sold in several cooperative societies and that he held the commerce and industry ministry and the country’s customs responsible.

“The product has been spotted in several places and I would like to know how those in charge of monitoring the import of foreign products allowed it into the country,” he said.
However, Abdul Aziz Al Samhan, the head of the Cooperative Societies Union, has denied the existence of any Israeli products in Kuwait’s cooperatives. “This is definitely a red line that no one is allowed to cross under any name,” he said in a statement.

“We do deplore the allegations by some people and the accusations they levelled at Al Nassem Cooperative claiming that it was selling potatoes in bags with an Israeli label,” he said.

The Customs have denied the claims about the sale of Israeli products in Kuwait and insisted that the potatoes being sold in cooperatives were from Jordan, he added.

Al Samhan called for an end to the “electoral manoeuvres” and “the fabrication of unsubstantiated accusations, slander and falsehoods.”

“We in the Union do know that putting a false label on the product bags is an indication of bankruptcy or a way of having fun at the expense of others. Such acts have unfortunately sparked an online debate and raised questions about the authenticity of the news,” he said.

For Al Samhan, placing an Israeli label on the product does not make sense at all.

“Will selling Israeli products increase sales? We will not tolerate this fabrication and there will be serious questioning. We will find out who is behind this attack on Al Naseem Cooperative, especially that we know that it has a clean record,” he said.

The story is all over Kuwait media even though it apparently started on Twitter.

Sale of Israeli goods is a violation of Law 21 of 1964. There is an entire office in Kuwait dedicated to the boycott. One newspaper said "there are tight customs procedures to prevent Jewish products from leaking to the market."

The Jeleeb website comments, "This is a calamity if it is true."

A calamity!

If you want to stop any Arab economy dead in its tracks, all you need is an inkjet printer and a blank white label sheet.The Arabs will do the rest themselves.

(h/t Bob Knot)

Joniversity takes on "two Arab chicks"

Once you get past the snark, sarcasm, profanity and side-jokes, this is a remarkably accurate and well-referenced debunking of the Arab response to Danny Ayalon's "Truth about the West Bank" video.

(h/t Bob Knot)

01/18 Links: 134 Congressmen sign anti-boycott letter, Canadian PM Harper’s moral leadership

From Ian:

134 House Members sign letter against academic boycott of Israel

A total of 134 Members of the House of Representatives have signed a letter, organized by the offices of Reps. Peter Roksam (R) and Ted Deutch (D) condeming the academic boycott of Israel passed by the American Studies Assoction. The effort was truly bipartisan, with 65 Republicans and 69 Democrarts signing. The full list of signatories is at the bottom of this post.
As previously reported, the congressional organizers were hoping for 50 signatures, so the response was better than expected. Gathering signatures on short notice was difficult, one of the staffers explained to me, because of the press of House business before members left today on break.

Report: Soccer Club Sponsor Delivers Ultimatum Over Anelka ‘Reverse Nazi Salute’

The shirt sponsor of British soccer club West Bromwich Albion (WBA) has threatened to immediately axe its multi-million pound deal with the club over the growing furor surrounding one of its star players, who recently used a quenelle “reverse Nazi salute” after scoring a goal, the UK’s Marketing Week reported.
Zoopla, an online property portal, which is concerned that its brand is being tarnished, reportedly told WBA that if the offending player, Nicolas Anelka, plays in an upcoming match against Everton on Monday its threat will go into immediate effect. Zoopla is co-owned by Jewish businessman Alex Chesterman.

British City of Liverpool Overwhelmingly Rejects Anti-Israel Motion

The city council of Liverpool, England, has rejected a motion that condemned Israel for “human rights violations,” voting it down 74 to two, the UK’s Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.
The JC said the motion was tabled by two members of Britain’s Green Party ahead of the Liverpool International Festival for Business 2014, in June and July, when Israeli investors and businesses are expected to come to Liverpool to take part in the business networking event. The motion urged the council to “distance” the city from “condoning or tolerating the human rights violations, of some participating countries,” including Israel, Russia and China.