Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, February 24, 2014

Who is the State Dept.'s Shaun Casey and why did he visit the West Bank?

The Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives is the State Department’s portal for engagement with religious leaders and organizations around the world. Headed by Special Advisor Shaun Casey, the office reaches out to faith-based communities to ensure that their voices are heard in the policy process, and it works with those communities to advance U.S. diplomacy and development objectives. In accordance with the U.S. Strategy on Religious Leader and Faith Community Engagement, the office guarantees that engagement with faith-based communities is a priority for Department bureaus and for posts abroad, and helps equip our foreign and civil service officers with the skills necessary to engage faith-communities effectively and respectfully. The office collaborates regularly with other government officials and offices focused on religious issues, including the Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom, the Department’s Office of International Religious Freedom, and the White House Office of Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships.

Religion News Service has a little more about Casey:

Amid persistent criticism that the U.S. marginalizes religion and religious people in its foreign policy, Secretary of State John Kerry Wednesday (Aug. 7) tapped ethicist and campaign adviser Shaun Casey to lead the State Department’s new Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives.

Casey is a professor of Christian ethics at Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington and advised President Obama’s campaign and other Democrats on outreach to religious voters.

Kerry praised Casey as someone who understands how the U.S. can engage religious communities around the world to foster peace and development.

“In a world where people of all faiths are migrating and mingling like never before,” Kerry said, “we ignore the global impact of religion at our peril.”

So what has Casey been doing?

The only press release at the website is the announcement of this new office's launch last August.

Yet he did pop up recently - in PA-controlled areas - to speak to Palestinian Christians:

Mr. Shaun Casey, head of the U.S. State Department’s Office of Faith-Based Community Initiatives, visited Bishop Munib Younan and the Lay Preachers Academy on Friday, February 14th, to discuss the peace process and the role of the Lutheran church in peace.

Mr. Casey met Bishop Munib Younan in Jerusalem and asked Bishop Younan to speak on how the church sees its role as peacemakers in the Middle East.

Mr. Casey then traveled to Abrahams Herberge in Beit Jala to speak with the members of the Lay Preachers Academy and ask for their candid opinions on the peace process and to ask how Palestinian Christians view themselves and their community. Mr. Casey spent 90 minutes listening to the Lutheran Christian voices of Palestine on their concerns about the current peace talks and their hopes for the future.

And:

During a meeting [Monday] with the Latin Patriarch, Mr. Casey revealed how John Kerry is aware of the power of faith in the peace process and how he has been attentive to the concerns of Christians in the Holy Land in the design of a peace agreement between the two parties. Kerry hopes even to put in place the framework of the agreement before the Pope’s visit to the Holy Land. “What is certain however is that speaking to the Pope during his next visit to the Vatican will be important to help the two peoples to move in this direction,” noted Shaun A. Casey.

There is nothing wrong with getting input from religious leaders on matters that are important to them involving negotiations.. What is worrisome is that this visit seems to have been done way under the radar; no press coverage and no State Department press releases. We don't know who else Casey visited or even what day he arrived and whether he is still in the region. Did he visit Muslim leaders - and if so, who? Did he visit Jewish religious leaders? Did he arrive via Israel or Jordan? Was there any discussion on matters such as the habitual Muslim usurping of Jewish holy places, as we saw yesterday? Were the Christian leaders he met with forthcoming about oppression by Muslims or did they spend the whole time talking about Israel? Is he in the region to buttress any ideas he already has or to actually learn something?

This lack of transparency from the State Department is troubling.

It is also troubling that Casey was originally hired by the Obama campaign to attract evangelical voters. I know that the tradition to reward people who help get presidents elected with cushy jobs (such as becoming ambassadors to friendly countries) is a common practice, but what little we know of Casey indicates that he may not be the most qualified person to wade into Middle East politics. For example, in 2008 he was quoted to be politicizing the New Testament by saying that "Jesus was an illegal alien."

There are a lot of unanswered questions here, and silently sending someone with unorthodox religious views into the Middle East as an amateur diplomat seems to be a recipe for disaster.

(h/t Donna)

Samantha Power: Getting your head hacked off teaches "individual accountability and reconciliation"

This tweet from the US ambassador to the UN is mind boggling:

Excuse me? A man whose head was sawed off on video, specifically because he was a Jew, reminds us about how to break "cycles of violence?"

This incomprehensible leftist gobbledygook would be worthy of derision of it was spouted by some leftist professor at Berkeley. But for the US ambassador to the UN to publicly write this is breathtakingly naive and, really, offensive to Pearl's family. It is almost as if she is saying that Daniel Pearl would still be alive if he had only been more interested in "accountability and reconciliation" with Al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamists.

Is this what the US has become? Is the official position of the US government that all that is needed for world peace is for Westerners to be more sensitive to the feelings of murderous Islamists?

If Jew-hatred is part of a "cycle of violence" then antisemitism must be partially Jews' fault.

This indicates that the official American position is no longer one of pride and leadership, but one of apologetics and beseeching to be loved by our enemies, who hate us because we just aren't working hard enough at reconciliation.

This is outrageous and scandalous, and in a sane world Power should be forced to resign by the end of the day. No one that says anything this sickening should represent the United States to the world.

UPDATE: See also Israellycool.

Palestinian Arabs hate Americans more than any other people surveyed do

This Pew survey of how people from around the world think about the US and Americans is enlightening.

There's more....

Work accident!

Ma'an reports:

A member of the Islamic Jihad's armed movement al-Quds Brigades has died in a "jihadist mission," according to the group.

Al-Quds Brigades said in a statement that 24-year-old Zidan Muhmmad Fatayer from Deir al-Balah died on Saturday evening fulfilling his "duty."

The statement did not explain the circumstances of his death.

The Islamic Jihad Al Quds Brigades, in describing Futayer's funeral, wrote "The mourners chanted slogans demanding the Palestinian resistance, particularly the al-Quds Brigades, to continue the path of jihad until the liberation of the last atom of the dust of the land of Palestine."

It also said he was "elevated to glory and immortality yesterday evening doing his jihadist duty."

They have lots of photos of his funeral.

May we see thousands more such martyrs.

(h/t Anne H)

Plus another poster in the never-ending series:

(h/t Mida)

02/23 Links: Kerry Oblivious To Demise Of the PA; PLO lose control of Lebanon refugee camps

From Ian:

David Singer: Kerry Oblivious To Demise Of Palestinian Authority

US Secretary of State John Kerry and the US State Department continue to cling to the illusion that the Palestinian Authority still exists – despite PLO insistence that it does not following this Decree on 3 January 2013:
Kerry and the State Department’s inability to appreciate this major change in PLO policy became very apparent following Kerry’s visit to Paris last week to meet “President of the State of Palestine” and “Chairman of the Executive Committee of the PLO” – Mahmoud Abbas.
The State Department web site described Kerry’s visit in these terms:
“In Paris, Secretary Kerry will meet with Palestinian Authority President Abbas to discuss the ongoing negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis.”(h/t Bob Knot)

Letters from the Phantom Anti-Jewish Establishment

Hating Israel has become a small petty club for the wealthy left and the Israel Policy Forum allows assorted obscure figures to assert their status by denouncing things or demanding things under the banner of an organization whose only asset is the wealth of a few private equity backers.
The Jewish Anti-Israel left likes to pretend that it's a grassroots movement whose voice is being squelched by some nebulous Jewish establishment when in reality it is an unelected establishment using its wealth and lingering fame to shout over the majority of American Jews who support Israel. (h/t NormanF)

Arab Despots Puzzled At Ukrainian Refusal To Mow Down Protesters (Satire)

In the wake of a popular uprising in Ukraine that resulted in the deposing of Viktor Yanukovich as president, leaders throughout the Middle East are expressing bewilderment that the authorities in Kiev did not immediately resort to crushing dissent with machine guns, tanks, air strikes, and mass torture.
Following months of protests that turned violent in recent weeks, Yanukovich fled the capital city but insisted he remains the country’s legitimate elected leader despite being deposed by Parliament today. Egyptian, Saudi, Bahraini, Syrian, Turkish, and Iranian officials said they still did not understand why the Ukrainian government allowed the protests to continue after the initial unrest in November.

ASA's president-elect hosting SECRET anti-Israel conference at NYU (Zionists not welcome) (updated)

This flyer was posted to Facebook by Lisa Duggan, the president-elect of the American Studies Association:

The conference will have the usual obscene Israel-bashing that one would expect from the ASA,with speakers from Adalah-NY, Students for Justice in Palestine, and "Jewish Voice for Peace."

Indeed, the entire conference seems to be made up to justify the unjustifiable boycott of Israel voted on by the ASA and condemned by hundreds of colleges and universities.

But Duggan's comments in the Facebook page are more interesting than the conference itself, and reveals how Israel-bashers purposefully choose to live in an echo chamber of their own hate:

PLEASE DO NOT post or circulate the flyer. We are trying to avoid press, protestors and public attention. Feel free to share it with friends, colleagues and grad students though.

So protesting Israel-themed events is free speech (which peaceful, non-threatening and non-intimidating protests indeed are), but the idea of anyone protesting an Israel-bashing conference is awful and must be avoided at all costs!

Is this how the head of an academic association should be acting - as if she is ashamed of her viewpoints, only wanting to spout them to a handpicked audience of people with the same hate?

Well, sorry, Lisa. Your little conference is outed, and now you will have to worry that evil little Zionist spies will infiltrate, not to mention protest. You will be nervous that someone will secretly record the sessions and will post them to YouTube for the world to hear.

It is unclear whether this conference is officially sponsored by NYU itself. The registration webpage says all questions should go to NYU, implying that this is an official university event and not just part of the American Studies Program.

People might want to ask NYU about why they are seemingly sponsoring a conference that they want to keep secret from Zionists.

(h/t StopBDSParkSlope)

UPDATE: To the surprise of no one, the Facebook page disappeared. Not before I took a screen shot, though.

"Khazar" study thoroughly debunked

A year ago, scientifically illiterate media started reporting on a study by Eran Elhaik of Johns Hopkins University that claimed that it proved decisively that Ashkenazi Jews descended from Khazars, and not the Middle East.

I showed then not only that Elhaik's paper was sloppy and that the methodology was problematic, but also that Elhaik was clearly painting the bullseye after shooting the arrow - he intended from the beginning to prove the bizarre Khazar theory before gathering data, the exact opposite of how a scientist is supposed to act.

It turns out that the researchers who gathered the datasets that Elhaik cherry-picked to reach his foregone conclusions have demonstratively debunked Elhaik and his methods.

From their paper, named "No Evidence from Genome-Wide Data of a Khazar Origin for the Ashkenazi Jews":

Abstract. The origin and history of the Ashkenazi Jewish population have long been of great interest, and advances in high-throughput genetic analysis have recently provided a new approach for investigating these topics. We and others have argued on the basis of genome-wide data that the Ashkenazi Jewish population derives its ancestry from a combination of sources tracing to both Europe and the Middle East. It has been claimed, however, through a reanalysis of some of our data, that a large part of the ancestry of the Ashkenazi population originates with the Khazars, a Turkic-speaking group that lived to the north of the Caucasus region ~1,000 years ago. Because the Khazar population has left no obvious modern descendants that could enable a clear test for a contribution to Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry, the Khazar hypothesis has been difficult to examine using genetics. Furthermore, because only limited genetic data have been available from the Caucasus region, and because these data have been concentrated in populations that are genetically close to populations from the Middle East, the attribution of any signal of Ashkenazi-Caucasus genetic similarity to Khazar ancestry rather than shared ancestral Middle Eastern ancestry has been problematic. Here, through integration of genotypes on newly collected samples with data from several of our past studies, we have assembled the largest data set available to date for assessment of Ashkenazi Jewish genetic origins. This data set contains genome-wide single-nucleotide polymorphisms in 1,774 samples from 106 Jewish and non-Jewish populations that span the possible regions of potential Ashkenazi ancestry: Europe, the Middle East, and the region historically associated with the Khazar Khaganate. The data set includes 261 samples from 15 populations from the Caucasus region and the region directly to its north, samples that have not previously been included alongside Ashkenazi Jewish samples in genomic studies. Employing a variety of standard techniques for the analysis of population-genetic structure, we find that Ashkenazi Jews share the greatest genetic ancestry with other Jewish populations, and among non-Jewish populations, with groups from Europe and the Middle East. No particular similarity of Ashkenazi Jews with populations from the Caucasus is evident, particularly with the populations that most closely represent the Khazar region. Thus, analysis of Ashkenazi Jews together with a large sample from the region of the Khazar Khaganate corroborates the earlier results that Ashkenazi Jews derive their ancestry primarily from populations of the Middle East and Europe, that they possess considerable shared ancestry with other Jewish populations, and that there is no indication of a significant genetic contribution either from within or from north of the Caucasus region.

...One recent study (Elhaik, 2013), making use of part of our data set (Behar and others, 2010), focused specifically on the Khazar hypothesis, arguing that it has strong genetic support. This claim was built on a series of analyses similar to those performed in our original study that initially reported the data. However, the reanalysis relied on the provocative assumption that the Armenians and Georgians of the South Caucasus region could serve as appropriate proxies for Khazar descendants (Elhaik, 2013). This assumption is problematic for a number of reasons. First, because of the great variety of populations in the Caucasus region and the fact that no specific population in the region is known to represent Khazar descendants, evidence for ancestry among Caucasus populations need not reflect Khazar ancestry. Second, even if it were allowed that Caucasus affinities could represent Khazar ancestry, the use of the Armenians and Georgians as Khazar proxies is particularly poor, as they represent the southern part of the Caucasus region, while the Khazar Khaganate was centered in the North Caucasus and further to the north. Furthermore, among populations of the Caucasus, Armenians and Georgians are geographically the closest to the Middle East, and are therefore expected a priori to show the greatest genetic similarity to Middle Eastern populations. Indeed, a rather high similarity of South Caucasus populations to Middle Eastern groups was observed at the level of the whole genome in a recent study (Yunusbayev and others, 2012). Thus, any genetic similarity between Ashkenazi Jews and Armenians and Georgians might merely reflect a common shared Middle Eastern ancestry component, actually providing further support to a Middle Eastern origin of Ashkenazi Jews, rather than a hint for a Khazar origin.

The paper also publishes this graphic with this explanation:

Figure 6 reports the mean genomic sharing between Ashkenazi Jews and the 11 population groups, and Supplemental Table 2 gives p-values for tests of the null hypotheses of equal mean IBD sharing with Ashkenazi Jews for pairs of population groups. The greatest level of sharing was observed with Sephardi Jews, considerably greater than with other populations. Substantial sharing with Eastern Europeans was also observed, though at a much lower level. Sharing with most other populations was lower still, and with Caucasus populations, the level of sharing was similar to that observed for the Middle East. In accordance with the results from other analyses, the IBD sharing of Caucasus populations with Ashkenazi Jews was relatively low.

Since this is a scientific paper, they can't say that Elhaik was a hack, but it is clear that his methods - using data from these very researchers - prove how low people will stoop to buttress their biases.

Of course, the media will never give this study (written last year) the same coverage that Elhaik's lies received.

(h/t The Jewish Press)

Abbas' "peace plan" (ElderToon, updated)

An old joke but it still holds up.

I have never heard Abbas rescind the PLO's Stages Plan of 1974. Quite the contrary - his Fatah cronies say it is still in effect, today.

UPDATE: Commenter "Rabbi Burns" suggested that I document the idea in the poster itself, so I did.

Israel haters frightened of my "Apartheid?" posters

During the past 30 days, about 50,000 people have viewed my "Apartheid?" poster series page on my blog. It has gone truly viral in the run up to this year's "Israel Apartheid Week" on college campuses.

And the posters are clearly making the haters nervous.

Ben White, whom I have already exposed as a hypocrite who doesn't give a damn about the Palestinians he pretends to be defending, publishes a spoof of my posters on his Facebook page, using the identical style and font, substituting the word "Democracy?" for "Apartheid?":

Let's forget the fact that every democracy in the world has laws limiting who can become citizens of their countries. Lets' forget the fact that there is no Palestinian Arab "right of return" under international law (despite the sputterings of the haters.) Let's forget the fact that the definition of "refugee" for Palestinians is not the same as the definition of refugee for anyone else in the world.

Let's look instead at where White got this photo from.

It comes from an article in the Euro-Mediterranean Academy for Young Journalists written by Maha Al-Kahef, Marina Ferhatovic and Haneen Aweis.

The article is about how Jordan discriminates against its Palestinian citizens!

A quote from this article:

In total there are between 2 and 3 million Palestinian refugees in Jordan. Matar Saqar, press officer at UNRWA, believes that many of them don’t have equal rights as other citizens: “There is discrimination within certain areas of work. Palestinians don’t always have the same possibility to work within the government, police, security or social services. Our loyalty to the state is always under doubt”.

In other words, the photo that White uses to somehow cast doubt on Israel's democracy was meant to show how Jordanians discriminate against their own citizens who happen to identify as Palestinian!

White proves once again that White is not pro-Palestinian in any sense of the word. He takes a picture meant to expose Jordan's own apartheid and ignore the context to try (poorly) to demonize Israel.

So I decided to correct White's failed attempt at turning the tables on what can only be described as a very successful campaign against Israel haters like him.

White does deserve a hat tip for finding a really great photo to illustrate Jordanian apartheid.

(h/t Daphne Anson)

02/22 Links: Syrian rebel leader thanks Israel for medical help; Israeli Vodka in Oscars Gift Bags

From Ian:

Syrian rebel leader thanks PM for standing by wounded

Speaking from Istanbul, Badie thanked those working to assist the Syrian people in their struggle.
He added that Netanyahu’s pubic[sic] presence near the Syrian wounded was an “important message.”
On Tuesday, Netanyahu spoke at an IDF base where injured Syrians are receiving medical care. He said Israel’s humanitarian efforts to help the Syrian wounded highlighted the difference between Jerusalem and Tehran, which backed Assad. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Chloe Valdary: Judith Butler & our will to survive

Butler states that authentic Jewishness is “itself an anti-identitarian project…” She has the audacity to believe she can speak for all of world Jewry and define something which she claims has no definition. She suggests that an ethnic group is merely a blob devoid of all identity.
The abject irony is that to assert that a people’s identity is meaningless and vile is itself expressing discrimination against that people. It is in essence saying that they as a distinctive people do not matter. That she would try to even speak at a museum labeling itself “Jewish” is to contradict the central premise of her treatise.

Judith Butler scraps museum talk over BDS support

Butler, who teaches comparative literature and critical theory at the University of California, Berkeley, was set to speak at an event on March 6 about the writer Franz Kafka.
But supporters of Israel took issue with the museum’s decision to invite her, the Forward reported Thursday. The opponents cited her support for the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanction movement, or BDS, and harsh criticism of Israel.

02/21 Links Pt2: Oxfam Exec in '67 “Now The Jews Are Going To Get It!”; SodaStream aikido

From Ian:

CLAIM: Oxfam Exec delighted: “Now The Jews Are Going To Get It!” On Eve Of ’67 War

But my Oxfam Moment came one summer’s evening when a senior Oxfam executive invited me to dinner at his sumptuous home in the rolling Oxfordshire countryside. He was cultured, brilliant and cool. Every inch the top Foreign Office diplomat, which had indeed been his previous calling. Before dinner, he suggested we take drinks on the lawn. As an afterthought, he asked the butler to bring out his portable radio so that we could listen to the news. It was, after all, the first day of the Six Day War.
The BBC faithfully reported claims by the Israelis that they had destroyed the air forces of Egypt and Syria on the ground. Then, the newsreader intoned the Arab claims that they had inflicted extensive damage on the Israeli army; that Egyptian tanks were advancing; that they were now 25 kilometres from Tel Aviv.
My urbane host lost his cultivated cool. His elderly body shot into the air, fists pumping at the skies: ‘Now the Jews are going to get it... Now they’re going to get it.’ Remember, Israel occupied no territories, nor had it constructed a single settlement. There could be only one explanation for his jubilation: the prospect of Israel’s imminent destruction. When he recovered his composure, he raised his glass and beamed at me: ‘Wonderful news. Simply wonderful.’ I stared back, shocked, not knowing how to respond. To my shame, I said nothing.

Official PA daily crossword: Haifa is "a port in occupied Palestine"

Palestinian Media Watch has documented numerous examples of the official PA daily's use of crossword puzzles to deny Israel's existence. Cities such as Acre, Safed, Lod and even Tel Aviv have been presented as "Palestinian" or "occupied."
The PA uses the many infrastructures of communication at its disposal to promote the message that there is no Israel, but only "occupied Palestine," and that it is only a matter of time and planning before Israel disappears and "Palestine" returns.

Dutch firm says Israel boycott not factor in port tender (paywall soz.)

A report in TheMarker on Monday stating that at least two foreign companies dropped out of the Israeli government tender to develop private seaports due to anti-Israel boycotts has been disputed by two of the companies involved. (h/t Yenta Press)

From MSN News (via Press Association):

Japanese police are investigating after dozens of copies of Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl and scores of books about the young Holocaust victim were vandalised in Tokyo public libraries.

The damage was mostly in the form of dozens of ripped pages in the books. Librarians have counted at least 265 damaged books at 31 municipal libraries since the end of January.

Japan and Nazi Germany were allies in the Second World War, and though Holocaust denial has occurred in Japan at times, the motive for damaging the Anne Frank books is unclear. Police are investigating.

In the Nakano district libraries, the vandals apparently damaged the books while unnoticed inside reading rooms, according to city official Mitsujiro Ikeda.

"Books related to Ms Anne Frank are clearly targeted, and it's happening across Tokyo," he said. "It's outrageous."

At least one library has moved Anne Frank-related books behind the counter for protection, though they can still be checked out.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga called the vandalism "shameful" and said Japan would not tolerate such acts.

(h/t Angela)

02/21 Links Pt1: Abbas’s intransigence and insolence; Hamas Tests AA Missiles Against Israel

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Rousing the Americans from their slumber

In several key cases, supporting US allies will require fewer, rather than more, US oversees deployments.
For instance, as Israel’s leaders have stated since the founding of the state, Israel has no interest in having anyone else fight its wars for it. All it requires is the strength – military, economic, territorial and political – to defend itself by itself.
Rather than seek to weaken Israel by coercing it to recede to indefensible borders in order to make room for a Palestinian terrorist state in its historic heartland, the US should abandon its support for Palestinian terrorists and ensure that Israel has the power to defend itself in a region marked by unprecedented instability and danger.
A strong Israel will be a force for regional stability and so advance US security while forming the firm foundation of a renewed US alliance structure in the region.

Sarah Honig: Happy days are (almost) here

We have news for Abbas. Jordan and Egypt, unlike the Palestinians, never sought to replace the Jewish state and the UN already granted us recognition, back on November 29, 1947 – when it divided this tiny land into two entities – one Jewish and one Arab.
The Jews rejoiced. The Arabs declared genocidal war to prevent the birth of a Jewish state. All that has transpired since is the continuation of that war and the ongoing conflict still stems from the refusal to abide a Jewish state.
In 1947 the Arab world didn’t want a Palestinian state – it wanted to destroy the Jewish state. It still does. A nondescript state, temporarily called Israel, will forever remain a candidate for Arabization – one way or another. As long as the legitimacy of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people is not accepted, the Arabs will continue to wage their war to do away with what they cannot accept.
That’s why Abbas’s honeyed blandishments and professions of peaceful intent are as convincing as were Hitler’s when he inveigled Neville Chamberlain to choose appeasement at Munich. The “painful sacrifices” of September 29, 1938 – all Germany claimed to be after – hardly sated Hitler’s appetites. On March 16 1939, he invaded the remainder of Czechoslovakia. (h/t NormanF)

US: Peace framework will recognize Israel as Jewish state

US Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro asserted on Friday that the framework peace deal currently being negotiated by US Secretary of State of John Kerry will include Palestinian recognition of Israel as “the nation state of the Jewish people.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence that Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas recognize Israel’s Jewishness has been a sticking point in negotiations, with the Palestinians refusing to accede to a demand that would tacitly do away with Palestinian hopes for a “right of return” for refugees and their descendants.

Arafat accepted Israel as a Jewish State

From Haaretz:

One of the interviewers was Haaretz’s editor in chief, the other the paper’s senior diplomatic reporter. Both were first-class professionals with vast experience, and both were lily-white doves. Nevertheless, the two peace-seeking interviewers dared to ask the high-level interviewee a question that’s currently considered beyond the pale in these parts: Should Israel continue to be a Jewish state?

Surprisingly, the evasive interviewee gave a decisive answer: “Definitely.” The two experienced interviewers doubled-checked: Definitely? “Definitely,” confirmed the interviewee, giving an expansive interpretation of the historic decision made by the Palestine National Council 16 years earlier.

Thus it’s no surprise that Haaretz’s lead headline on June 18, 2004 trumpeted his statement: “Arafat: Israel is Jewish.” On the basis of what the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization told David Landau and Akiva Eldar in Ramallah 10 years ago, the paper declared unambiguously that “Yasser Arafat ‘definitely’ understands that Israel must preserve its character as a Jewish state.”

Veteran journalist Amnon Abramovich says the Israeli media lives by the 90-day rule. Under this rule, any article published in the past can be republished as a fresh scoop as long as it hasn’t been published in the past 90 days. So in line with the Abramovich rule, I hereby seek to revive Haaretz’s dramatic scoop: Arafat recognized Israel as a Jewish state. The leader of the Palestinian revolution, president of the Palestinian Authority and commander of the armed struggle accepted the fact that Israel is a Jewish state, and must continue to be one.

This is sort of amazing.

There have been scores of articles official statements and articles in the Palestinian Arab press, in English and Arabic, explaining why recognizing Israel as a Jewish state is a non-starter, is unacceptable and is even racist.

Yet none of these people would ever disagree with Arafat.

Obviously, Arafat was a terrorist, a murderer, and a liar. The full interview is no longer on Haaretz' website; the synopsis says that Arafat said that the PLO "accepted that openly and officially in 1988 at our Palestine National Council." That is more than a stretch; the UN record of the PLO communique at the time certainly doesn't say that. The closest it says is this:

Despite the historical injustice done to the Palestinian Arab people in its displacement and in being deprived of the right to self-determination following the adoption of General Assembly resolution 181 (II) of 1947, which partitioned Palestine into an Arab and a Jewish State, that resolution nevertheless continues to attach conditions to international legitimacy that guarantee the Palestinian Arab people the right to sovereignty and national independence.

If they are attaching their legitimacy to a non-binding UN resolution that they rejected - which is the very reason it has no legal validity - then perhaps one can say that in 1988 they accepted the concept of a Jewish state on the partition lines. Again, he was a master of deception and this seems more than tenuous.

Nevertheless, his wording in this interview is quite definitive and it did not cause any major firestorm within the PLO as far as I can tell. Indeed, the statement has been wholly forgotten.

Notice also that the liberal Haaretz interviewers are mentioning this as a major issue in 2004 - before Netanyahu was re-elected, before Livni made the same demand in negotiations to be rebuffed by the PLO negotiating team in 2007. It is not a new issue.

It will be most interesting to see how Abbas, Erekat and the gang of liars in charge of the PLO will react to this.