Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

UNRWA official implies that Israel should be forced to buy goods from Gaza

The Huffington Post published an article a few days ago by Robert Turner, Director of UNRWA in Gaza.

He makes the incredible claim that Gaza is not getting enough media coverage. Turner admits he wants the media coverage of poor Gazans in order to raise more money:

It is impossible not to be touched by the apocalyptic scenes emerging from the Palestinian refugee camp of Yarmouk in Damascus, besieged and cut off for months. The images are at once epic and personal....While the cameras have followed the conflict as they ever do, aid budgets have followed the cameras. International funding abhors a news vacuum. Donors like their cash to be in the news headlines and so UNRWA's appeal to the international community to fund our emergency work in Syria to the tune of over 400 million U.S. dollars, has found a generous response among donor governments. That's the relatively good news and we are grateful.

The bad news is that UNRWA works in other places where, like Syria, there are emergencies that have become protracted, but from where, unlike Syria, the cameras have moved on. Gaza is one of those places.

Google News search for the past month finds Yarmouk mentioned about 5000 times in the media. Gaza is mentioned 128,000 times.

...While there are no images from Gaza as compelling as those from Yarmouk -- nor is the situation that desperate -- the people here having been living under siege-like conditions for more than six years.

Yes, Turner is trying to compare Gaza with Yarmouk.

You know...the Gaza that we can see in this video from two weeks ago:

Turner isn't interested in the truth, of course - he wants to grab a larger chunk of limited worldwide aid money, money that would otherwise go to people who are really starving, who are really being slaughtered, people who are truly poor.

Besides the obvious lies, Turner says something that reveals a bit more about how anti-Israel NGOs like UNRWA think:

Until the blockade is lifted and access to Gaza's traditional markets -- the West Bank and Israel -- is secured, any sustainable recovery of the local economy remains elusive.

Turner is saying that Gaza cannot be economically viable unless it is allowed access to Israel and the WB markets.

I don't have numbers from Gaza specifically, but in 2005, Israel was by far the PA's biggest market - some 88% of all PA exports went to Israel. It can be safely assumed that the vast majority of Gaza goods were sold to Israel then, and the amount of trade between Gaza and the WB was probably limited.

Israel, of course, decided that buying goods from Hamas -ruled territory is not in its best interests.

But UNRWA seems to be saying that Israel must buy Gazas' strawberries, tomatoes and other produce - goods that Israeli farmers also grow - if Gaza is to become economically viable.

He's not saying Egypt or Jordan or France must buy Gaza goods - but Israel must!

The demands on Israel by NGOs and governments and the media have always been out of whack compared to anywhere else. But this is a new one.

Boston Jewish organizations sponsor student trip to Arafat's grave

The Boston Jewish community sponsored a tour of Israel for Harvard University students called Israel Trek:

The inaugural Harvard College Israel Trek (Spring Break, March 14th- 23rd) will bring 50 Harvard undergraduate students to Israel in hopes of facilitating a nuanced first encounter with the country, its history, narratives, culture, politics and people. Student participants represent diverse religious, national, and cultural backgrounds, and are all leaders in various capacities on campus.

The Trek is being led by a dynamic team of Israeli undergraduates, and will draw on the narratives of its participants and leaders, placing a special emphasis on fostering meaningful personal relationships. This component will add a unique and personal dimension to this particular Israel experience.

Students will learn about Israeli history, culture, and politics. Some of the topics explored will include the hi-tech industry, the emerging cultural landscape, questions regarding religion and state, the peace process and Israel’s geopolitical position in the region.

Israel Trek is made possible by the generous contributions of a number of family foundations and Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies. The Trek is supported by Harvard Hillel.

Sounds great, right? It is wonderful to give students the opportunity to see the side of Israel that they wouldn't otherwise be exposed to. The students are led by Israelis - Arabs and Jews - who know the country. The students who are on the trip are a very diverse group of undergraduates.

So why the hell did this trip, sponsored by Jewish organizations and Harvard Hillel, take the students to pose at the grave of a mass murderer of Jews?

Its wonderful to expose people to both sides of the story, but it is stupid to embrace the side of the story that wants to see you gone. Israel Trek could have arranged for a few hours with an Arab tour guide in Judea and Samaria, or they could have given students a free day, or any number of other options. But to have supposed Jewish organizations arrange for a visit to a terrorist who was responsible, directly or indirectly, for the gruesome murder of thousands - and to take a photo of students smiling in the presence of such disgusting filth - is beyond belief.

News bulletin: People respect you more when you have some self respect. Telling the students that they are free to do what they want, but that the leaders of the trip find the idea of paying respects to a terrorist is repugnant, is far preferable to promulgating the "all narratives are equally valid" idiocy that passes for enlightened opinion nowadays.

This is a sickness.

(h/t Daniel Mael at TruthRevolt)

03/18 Links Pt2: Israeli Arabs debunk apartheid myths; Purim Obama hoax fools Dutch media

From Ian:

Israeli Arabs help to debunk apartheid myths

Bader, a 23-year-old Tel Aviv University student studying for his bachelor’s in computer science and economics, said he met a number of people at U of T who were shocked to learn that Arabs live in Israel.
“I said, ‘I’m living proof,’” he said, going so far as to converse with them in Arabic to convince them further.
“I’ve travelled a lot, and I’ve been called [names] when they learn that I’m from Israel,” said Bader, a member of Israel’s 125,000-strong Druze community.
“I see how Israel is misrepresented in the media… They’re accusing Israel of apartheid… and you know it’s not true, but if you don’t stand up and say it’s not true, a lot of people are going to believe these lies.”
Heeb and his fellow WordSwap participants attended an IAW event last week at U of T, where he said he witnessed first hand that IAW organizers aren’t interested in dialogue.
“I asked them a lot of questions, but they didn’t answer any of them. They wanted to boycott Ben-Gurion University, so I said, ‘Listen guys, Ben-Gurion University has the most Arab girls, Bedouin girls, studying there, more than [schools in] Arab countries.’ I told them I was from the University of Haifa. I’m Arab. I’m doing my master’s, and my faculty would not be able to exchange the knowledge that we have. But they didn’t answer [me],” Heeb said.

Judy Feld Carr: If Jews Hadn’t Left Syria it Would Have Been a Slaughter

Canadian humanitarian Judy Feld Carr, recognized last year in The Algemeiner’s ‘Jewish 100′ list for her work in rescuing Syria’s Jewish community, told the Daily Beast that if Jews were stuck in Syria today, they would have been slaughtered.
“If they were there now, what would have happened? I know what would have happened. It would have been the slaughter of the Syrian Jewish community, that is for sure,” Feld Carr said in an interview published on Monday.
For 28 years, Feld Carr worked secretly to smuggle some 3,228 Syrians out of the country to freedom. In addition to her operation, there was an airlift in 1992 organized by New York’s Syrian Jewish community, with as many as 5,000 Syrian Jews flown out of Syria secretly. Feld Carr said that by 2001, when she concluded her work, there were only about 30 Syrian Jews left in the country; today that number is believed to be 11.

Former Lebanese President: Mideast Christian Exodus ‘Approaching Biblical Proportions’

Gemayel, a Maronite Christian who served as president from 1982-1988 after taking over for his brother Bashir, who was assassinated during the bloody Lebanese Civil War—said at a speech sponsored by Christian Solidarity International that Middle East Christians in particular are fleeing the region “in an exodus approaching biblical proportions.”
Specifically, Gemayel highlighted “church burnings, physical assaults and killings” in Egypt, “an onslaught of murder” in Iraq, and “a bloody-minded reign of terror” from “ultra-radical Islamists in regions of Syria where they have imposed their rule.”

Comparing Israel's and "Palestine's" national anthems (Zvi)

From Zvi, as a comment to this post:

It's very easy to see the difference between how Israelis / Jews and Palestinian Arabs feel about Israel, Jerusalem, the holy sites, freedom, democracy, humanity, hope and hatred.

Simply consider the two national anthems.

Israel's national anthem is Hatikva, The Hope. It contains the words (rough translation),

As long as in the heart,
a Jewish soul still yearns,
and on toward the east
an eye still looks toward Zion,
our hope is not lost,
the hope of 2000 years,
to be a free people in our land,
the land of Zion and Jerusalem.
…
Go, my people, return in peace to your land.
The balm in Gilead, your healer in Jerusalem,
your healer is God, the wisdom of His heart.
Go, my people, in peace; healing comes.

This song expresses the factual - historical and modern - personal, national, and spiritual relationship between Jews and the Land. It expresses this deep relationship, almost as a love song, rather than expressing a desire to harm others. It enshrines the desire to be "a free people in our land", to come in peace, to heal. It says nothing about preventing others - Druze, Arabs or others - from standing with Jews as free people in the land. It says nothing about weapons, and is not about war.

The Palestinian "national anthem" is entirely different. It is called "Fida'i", or "My Redemption". It contains a lot of violent nonsense. For example:

With my determination, my fire and the volcano of my vendetta
[a vendetta is "a very long and violent fight between two families or groups" or "a series of acts done by someone over a long period of time to cause harm to a disliked person or group"]
With the longing in my blood for my land and my home
[Actually, a huge flood of Arabs came as illegal immigrants during the British mandate, after the influx of Jews had begun to revive the local economy. They became squatters on land to which they did not have real titles, regardless of whether they have found a key somewhere. Many who claim "my land" and "my home" have little or no association with either.]
I have climbed the mountains and fought the wars
I have conquered the impossible, and crossed the frontiers
[This is silly, murderous nonsense. What mountains did the Palestinian Arabs ever climb? What have they conquered? The Palestinians have been on the losing side in ever single war that they fomented and in every single war in which they joined as junior partners. The only frontiers that Palestinian gunmen have ever crossed have been frontiers of morality: airplane hijacking, suicide bombing, bare-faced baby murdering and so on. ]
With the resolve of the winds and the fire of the weapons
[More violent nonsense. Notice that again, it's all about killing other people. The land itself means nothing, except as a prize to be gained. It is simply an endless battlefield, not a place to live in as free people, not a place to love, to heal, to bring to life.]
And the determination of my nation in the land of struggle
Palestine is my home, Palestine is my fire,
[Palestine is your delusion, your suicide bombing, your work accident. It is the altar on which you hysterically worship death. It is the place where you shoot Grad rockets at Israeli hospitals, even as these hospitals are working hard to heal Syrian, Jordanian and Palestinian Arabs. It is the place where you send men to murder babies, where you throw rocks at ambulances as they speed to save Arab lives, where you commit every sin in every holy book of every people on earth and then try to blame it on the Jews.]
Palestine is my vendetta and the land of withstanding.[Again with the vendetta. And withstanding? ]

The Palestinian national anthem is not about loving the land, not about building a state, not about olives growing or waters flowing or craftsmen working or builders building. It is about destroying the Jews because you hate the Jews. Without the Jews, the land has no value to you.

Why do you hate the Jews so much? Because the Jews - with love of life, with love of land, with an ancient lineage and modern skills, with a democratic government and a flourishing country, with a strong arm and a strong sense of ethics, with a love of healing and a love of truth, with real honor built from the ground up and respect long-earned among the wise - the Jews hold up a mirror to the worthless, violent, twisted, death-worshipping, terror-loving, libelous, corrupt, kleptocratic, ineffectual, hate-mongering, bigoted, vendetta-based, dishonorable society that you have built, step by step, over the last few decades under the leadership of some of the worst and most disgusting terrorists in the modern world. It's no wonder you, the Palestinians, prefer puffed-up fiction; you don't like to face the reality that every one of your travails stems from your vendetta, the fact that instead of loving the land and seeking ways to heal it, you hate the Jews and seek ways to murder us.

Your obsession is evil, and everything that grows from it will be evil, and any society founded upon this obsession will become more and more evil, from one generation to the next. Stop this madness, before it rips you apart. The Jews cannot rescue you from yourselves.

"Madonna flirting with the Jews from the toilet" - Arab media

For Purim, Madonna had dressed up as the Mother of Dragons from 'Game of Thrones" on Instagram with the message "Happy Purim!!!!! All Hail All Queens! ##certainty".

It seems to have gone over the heads of some people.

From Erem News:

A Picture of Madonna Flirting with the Jews from the Toilet

The American singer dresses up in strange clothes on the Jewish festival of Purim and published her picture on Instagram.
The global(ly famous) American singer Madonna flirted with her Jewish and Israeli fans with a picture on her personal account on Instagram, dressed up in strange clothes while sitting on the toilet.

...Strangely enough, that image impressed the media, especially the Jewish media, considering it a new idea that reflects the significance of their festival, as she offered her thanks to congratulate them on their holiday.

No, "toilet" was not a mistranslation of "throne."

Other Arab media copied the story as well.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

03/18 Links Pt1: Obama’s M.E. fallacy; Obama: Abbas Has ‘Consistently Renounced Violence’

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Why Obama will not change gears

Since its inception, the Iranian regime has been at war with the US. It has carried out one act of aggression after another. These have run the gamut from the storming of the US Embassy in Tehran and holding hostage US diplomats for 444 days, to the use of Lebanese and Palestinian proxies to murder US officials, citizens and soldiers in countless attacks over the intervening 35 years, to building a military presence in Latin America, to developing nuclear weapons.
And from its earliest days, the same Iranian regime has been courted by one US administration after another seeking to accommodate Tehran.
A similar situation obtains with the Palestinians. Like the Iranians, the PLO has carried out countless acts of terrorism that have killed US officials and citizens.
From the 1970 Fatah execution of the US ambassador and deputy chief of mission in Khartoum to the 2003 bombing of the US embassy convoy in Gaza, the PLO has never abandoned terrorism against the US.
No less importantly, the PLO is the architect of modern terrorism. From airline hijackings, to the massacre of schoolchildren, from bus bombings to the destabilization of nation states, the PLO is the original author of much of the mayhem and global terrorism the US has led the fight against since the 1980s.

Obama’s Middle East fallacy

In short, Netanyahu has resigned himself to the likelihood that the U.S. framework will include provisions he’s not ready to endorse. Abbas has not. “There is no way. We will not accept,” the Palestinian news agency quoted him as saying of the Jewish-state principle on March 7. Two days later, Abbas persuaded the moribund Arab League to adopt a resolution backing him up. He’s said much the same about Israeli troops on the border.
Why does Abbas dare to publicly campaign against the U.S. and Israeli position even before arriving in Washington? Simple: “Abbas believes he can say no to Obama because the U.S. administration will not take any retaliatory measures against the Palestinian Authority,” writes the veteran Israeli-Palestinian journalist Khaled Abu Toameh. Instead, Abbas expects to sit back if the talks fail, submit petitions to the United Nations and watch the anti-Israel boycotts mushroom, while paying no price of his own.
Perhaps Obama will disabuse him of that notion at their meeting Monday. If not, another “peace process” breakdown is surely coming.

Obama: Abbas Has ‘Consistently Renounced Violence’

Obama omitted all references to Palestinian terrorism and last week’s rocket attacks, many of which were claimed to have been launched by a militant branch of Abbas’ own Fatah political party.
Obama also did not mention Abbas’ efforts to honor Palestinian terrorists and more recent remarks by his senior adviser calling on Allah to kill the Israelis.
The meeting comes at a critical time in the Middle East peace process, a priority for Secretary of State John Kerry.

The Fatah intrafada heats up

Internal divisions within Fatah, always simmering beneath the surface, came out in the open last week. From Al Monitor:

On March 5, most of the 77,000 Palestinian Authority (PA) employees located in Gaza received their February salaries, but about a hundred returned from their banks empty-handed. They weren’t paid because of an official decision by the PA against supporters of Mohammed Dahlan, a member of the Legislative Council and a dismissed leader from Fatah, who differs with the PA’s general policy. The decision to stop payment on the salaries has worsened the crisis between Dahlan and President Mahmoud Abbas.

The reactions to the decision came quickly. On March 8, those who didn’t receive their salaries held a sit-in in Gaza, which Al-Monitor attended, and strongly criticized the decision. They demanded that Abbas immediately reverse the decision in light of the difficult economic conditions in Gaza and threatened to set up a protest tent in front of the homes of Fatah’s higher leadership in Gaza.

Al-Monitor received a copy of the letter sent from the unpaid workers to Fatah. They said that they are not against Abbas and don’t follow a particular person, but that they support Dahlan’s idea of regulatory reform. They accused the Fatah leadership in the West Bank of marginalizing Gaza and its people at all organizational levels of the Central Committee and the Revolutionary Council.

Sufian Abu Ziyade, a high-level Fatah leader in Gaza and one of Dahlan’s most prominent allies, described the decision as a “heinous crime” committed against Fatah members, demanding that Abbas rescind the decision in his capacity as president of all the Palestinian people.

The toughest response came from Rashid Abu Shabak, the former commander of Preventive Security and Dahlan’s right arm, who called for taking up arms against the PA, a call that drew sharp criticism from Fatah as it may lead to bloodshed and will have serious repercussions that will complicate the problem further.

Al-Monitor learned from a Fatah figure from Gaza who currently lives in the West Bank that not paying salaries has caused a number of Dahlan supporters to leave Ramallah for fear of punishment from Abbas. The figure said that they went to Jordan, Dubai and other places abroad, and that their departure reflected a state of extreme tension between the two Fatah camps.

Then Abbas publicly accused Dahlan essentially of collaborating with Israel in assassinating his rivals:

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas hinted that a former top Fatah official and several of his cohorts had assisted Israel against the Palestinians over a decade ago, igniting a storm among Palestinians.

Abbas’s hour-long laundry list of accusations, including the charge of spying, against former aide Mohammed Dahlan — delivered to a closed-door meeting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council Monday but released publicly on Wednesday — signaled that the battle over who will succeed the 79-year-old Palestinian president is heating up.

Abbas also claimed that complaints had been filed to the president’s office that Dahlan, a former security head for Fatah in Gaza, was mixed up in the Gaza assassination of Salah Shahadeh, the leader of Hamas’ military wing who killed by an Israeli airstrike in 2002.

In response, Dahlan and senior Hamas figures slammed Abbas and demanded that he open an inquiry into the issue.

Today, Dahlan's supporters seem to have hit back, as gunshots were reportedly fired at the home of Fatah's Jibril Rajoub in Ramallah.

At the same time, Fatah official Nabil Shaath claimed that Dahlan had destroyed Yasir Arafat's medicine bottles when he was flown to Paris for treatment. He also accused Dahlan of being behind other assassinations of Fatah officials, including Kamal Medhat in Beirut in 2009.

During yesterday's Fatah rallies, photos of Dahlan were burned.

For his part, Dahlan gave an interview to Egyptian TV where he accused Abbas of nepotism, hiring his nephew for a job to do nothing. He also implied that Abbas has taken over $1.4 billion for an investment fund that no one knows anything about. He added a litany of charges and implications, even saying that Arafat refused to meet with Abbas when he was sick.

An Arab woman was killed by a Gaza rocket last week

I briefly mentioned that there was a "mysterious explosion" that killed an older woman and injured several others last week in Beit Hanoun. There were reports when it happened and then scattered reports when the women died. But no news report mentioned the cause of the blast.

PCHR finally issued a press release, and the cause of the explosion was a (probable) Islamic Jihad rocket falling on their house.

At approximately 19:10 on Thursday, 13 March 2014, a home-made rocket landed on a house belonging to the family of Isma'il Abdul Fattah Mohammedin (35) on al-Wadi Street in Beit Hanoun town in the north of the Gaza Strip. The rocket made a hole whose diameter was one meter in the southeastern wall of the house and exploded inside. As a result, Aisha Atiya Mohammedin (52) sustained shrapnel injuries and amputation to the right hand, and she died because of the serious injuries at approximately 00:30 on Friday, 14 March 2014, at Shifa Hospital in Gaza City.

Additionally, another 5 civilians, including 3 children, living in the house were injured.

Remember that Islamic Jihad claimed to shoot 130 rockets at Israel (and other terror groups, mostly Fatah, about 20 more) but Israeli officials only counted 60 rockets reaching Israel. In other words, some 60% of the rockets fired apparently exploded on the ground or fell short.

In a two week period in January, 37% of rockets fell short. I counted an 83% failure rate for two weeks from February 20-March 5.

Even though more Gazans than Israelis have been killed by Gaza rocket fire, no one is protesting how dangerous Gaza rockets are - to Gazans.

Mavi Marmara updates

The Free Gaza mailing list sent out a curious message claiming that there were major anti-Israel moves afoot in Turkey to prosecute Israel and Israelis for defending themselves from Turkish terrorists on the Mavi Marmara in 2010.

On March 7, 2014, the Turkish NGO, Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) joined the referral to the International Criminal Court (ICC), requesting the ICC Prosecutor initiate an investigation into the crimes committed by Israeli commandos and officials into Israel's raid on Freedom Flotilla I bound for Gaza.

Eight Turks and one Turkish-American were murdered on the Mavi Marmara, some of them assassinated at close range. Several other pro-Palestinian human rights defenders/passengers were also wounded when Israeli commandos stormed all six boats in the early morning on May 31, 2010.

Two important proceedings are taking place in Istanbul, 1. a criminal proceeding on March 27 against four Israeli officials (in absentia) who ordered the attack on the Flotilla. Free Gaza board members, Audrey Bomse and Greta Berlin, along with several FG passengers, will attend that proceeding, and 2. a legal conference on the search for justice in both international and domestic forums on March 25.

I don't see any media coverage of either of these events.
However, I do see media that makes the pro-terrorist Hamas fans of Free Gaza seem to be on the losing side of thing.

Hezbollah's Al Manar reported in February:

Lawyers representing the victims of a fatal 2010 Zionist raid on an aid flotilla said they have been denied visas to the Netherlands on their way to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

"They are not issuing us visas although we have made it clear that we are lawyers and we represent the victims of the flotilla raid," Cihat Gokdemir told Turkish Anadolu news agency.

Two members of the legal team, Gokdemir and Ramazan Ariturk, were not granted extensions to their three-year visas, which expired in November, despite informing Dutch officials that the ICC Prosecutor's Office - based in The Hague – had invited them for a meeting on legal action against high-ranking Zionist officials.

Trend.az reported last week:

Israel wishes to restore the diplomatic relations with Turkey, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said, Turkey's Anadolu agency reported on March 11.

Israel wants the relations between the two countries to return to the level of early 2010, according to Netanyahu.

And Turkish news outlet Milliyet reported on Monday that negotiations between Israel and Turkey on compensation for the (Turkish) victims are almost finalized. Compensation is only one of Turkey's demands, so it is unclear how the other negotiating tracks are faring.

What's really going on is anybody's guess.

Meanwhile, Free Gaza called Scarlett Johansson a "dumb blond" on Twitter. For that usage of the term, they spelled "blonde" wrong.

Terrorists complain that Jews love Jerusalem more than they do

From Times of Israel:

Jewish love for Jerusalem drew unexpected praise from the head of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization, who told religious leaders in Tehran that the Jews show their love for the city more than Muslims do, and quoted in Hebrew from an inspirational Israeli ballad to prove the point.

Addressing a clerical conference in the Iranian capital, Ramadan Shalah lamented that Palestinians and other Muslims showed insufficient love for Al-Quds, the Arabic name for Jerusalem, according to a recording obtained Monday by Israel’s Army Radio.

Shalah contrasted the inadequate Palestinian and Muslim love of the holy city with the heartfelt attachment of the Jews, and — speaking in Hebrew and Arabic — quoted the famous Israeli ballad “Jerusalem of Gold,” penned by Zionist songstress Naomi Shemer.

“What is the meaning of Jerusalem for us?” Shalah, who leads one of the most extreme terror groups in the world and is on the FBI’s most-wanted terrorists list, asked the assembled clergy last week. “Learn from the Jews, from that accursed entity [Israel]. They love Jerusalem not just as a military matter, but as a cultural one,” he declared.

“They have a song in the Israeli entity that their army sings on June 7, when they conquered the Al-Aqsa Mosque and Haram al-Sharif [the Temple Mount, in the 1967 Six Day War],” he added, and went on to quote part of the chorus of “Jerusalem of Gold.”

“Jerusalem of gold. Jerusalem of bronze. Jerusalem of light,” he chanted, saying each phrase in both Hebrew and Arabic.

“Every Israeli child and every accursed Israeli soldier says this song in their heart,” Shalah told the crowd.

The ballad, one of the most popular Hebrew songs ever, was composed for a music festival in Jerusalem that was part of the May 1967 Independence Day celebrations. The song employs ancient references, including from the Book of Lamentations and the Mishnah, to lament that Judaism’s holiest places – especially the Temple Mount – were closed to Jews by the Jordanian authorities who controlled the eastern half of the city at the time.

The song begins by describing a desolate Jerusalem, with a “wall” in her heart, a reference to the border wall dividing the Israeli and Jordanian parts of the city.

Within weeks of the song’s publication to widespread acclaim, the Six Day War broke out and Israeli forces were able to capture Jerusalem’s ancient Old City, leading Shemer to write a fourth, triumphant stanza that begins, “We returned to the water cisterns, the marketplace and the square / A ram’s horn blows at the Temple Mount in the ancient city.”

Keep in mind that Arab leaders have made a conscious effort to make Jerusalem a central feature of their worldview since the 1920s, when the Mufti started raising money to fix up the decayed and broken down Al Aqsa Mosque and Dome of the Rock. They have made numerous pronouncements and declarations, they put posters of the Dome of the Rock everywhere they can - but they still admit that they really don't love the city. In this case, Shallah even implies that to him it is merely a "military" matter.

Yet he still doesn't get it. Jews don't love Jerusalem because of a beautiful song; they love the song because it reflects how they feel about Jerusalem. (Of course, marginal Jews like those who write in Haaretz are doing all they can to sever the relationship between Jews and Jerusalem, because to them stripping the heart and soul of a people would help bring "peace.")

This video of mine seems appropriate:

Saudi cleric confirms that sun revolves around the Earth

His logic is impeccable:

In a recent interview, Saleh Al-Fawzan, a member of the Saudi Council of Senior Scholars, said that there is no doubt that the sun revolves around the earth. The interview aired on Saudi Channel 1 and was posted on the Internet on January 23, 2014. Following are excerpts:

TV host: Allah says in a Koranic verse: "And the sun runs towards its stopping point. That is the determination of the All-Powerful, the All-Knowing." Does the sun revolve around the earth?

Saleh Al-Fawzan: There is no doubt about it. The Koran says: "The sun runs…" Nevertheless, they say that the sun stands in place and the Earth moves. This contradicts the Koran.

[…]

Ignoring the Koran and adopting modern theories is not something a Muslim can do. A Muslim must follow the Koran.

And Allah knows best.

03/17 Links Pt2: The Goal of The Boycott Movement is Not Peace; The Esther Award goes to...

From Ian:

The Goal of the Boycott by Russell A. Berman

The goal of the boycott movement is not peace: it is the elimination of the State of Israel. This is the logical implication of all its arguments. Its supporters refrain from spelling out this endgame in order to avoid scaring off moderates who would reject the eliminationist agenda, but the end of Israeli sovereignty altogether is the clear purpose of the movement. It will fail in this pursuit, and Israel will survive, but the radicalism of the boycott movement is succeeding in poisoning debate on the Middle East.
The boycott movement bases its animosity toward Israel on the twin claims that it is a colonialist state and that it relies on an apartheid system of racial segregation. These are not arguments but slurs, and an examination of the historical record shows that they are falsehoods.
The boycott movement ostensibly dodges the question of the political future of the region, claiming agnosticism between the two-state and one-state solutions. In fact its arguments subvert the possibility of a two-state solution — a secure Israel next to a sovereign Palestine. In its de facto opposition to the two-state solution, the boycott movement stands outside the mainstream of the political discussion about the future of the region.

The Esther Award goes to...

It is easy to spot Haman in today’s world. The Iranian mullah’s with their destroy-Israel infatuation, a few European NGOs who back killers under the slogan of human rights, a Palestinian Authority which teaches its children to hate Jews and to detest life, to name a few.
But who is this year’s Esther? My vote is with Scarlett Johansson.
Scarlett, a world-renowned actress, and hidden Esther-like Jew, stood up against EU and UN-types when she said goodbye to Oxfam in favor of the Israeli SodaStream. There was an element of Purim-like turn around when Oxfam tried to pressure Scarlett to drop SodaSteram; it was they who got the cut.

Isi Leibler: Putin, Ukraine and the Jews

The international crisis created by Putin’s military incursion into Crimea has also served to highlight, again, Russia’s relationship to the Jews. The Russian president has included radical nationalism and anti-Semitism in the Ukraine as major justifications for his intervention.
I have personal experience of the feral anti-Semitism which pervaded the region from my direct dealings with senior Soviet authorities in the campaign to free Soviet Jewry, which was the central focus of my public life for many years. I have no doubt that both in the Ukraine and Russia, a substantial proportion of the population continues to hate and fear Jews.
Yet today it is almost surreal, particularly when recalling the major contribution of Soviet Jewish dissidents toward the downfall of the Evil Empire, to observe President Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian former KGB official, displaying overt friendship toward Jews and Israel.

The IDF has some very loud noisemakers for Purim

Here is how some IDF troops listen to the Megillah on Purim:

(h/t Ruchie)

If you want to drive Israel haters crazy - do something good for Israeli Arabs

Nothing gets under the skin of Israel haters more than Israel acting in ways that contradict the principle by which they live their pathetic little lives.

And when that happens, they have to twist theire brains into geometrically improbable shapes in order to pretend that Israel's actions to end discrimination are really actions to enforce discrimination.

A wonderfully convoluted post at Electronic Intifada by Yara Sa'di is today's example:

The phony pluralism of Israel’s universities

Palestinian students at Israeli universities are likely to notice an increase in the number of scholarships they can apply for in the coming months. Various websites for academic institutions will also be translated into Arabic.

These changes are the result of a government decision to allocate some $82 million over the course of six years for integrating “minorities” into the higher education system.

At first glance, it may appear that Israel has undertaken a U-turn in policy following decades of discriminatory and exclusionary practices against Palestinian students.

Yet when deeper questions are asked, it becomes obvious that whatever intentions those who drafted this policy had, standing up for the rights of Palestinian citizens of Israel was not one of them.

The new policy was devised as part of a project to boost “pluralism” in Israeli universities by ensuring greater access for minorities.

The Israeli Council for Higher Education, the body behind the project, has identified the minorities targeted as “Arabs, Druze and Circassians.”

So if Israel making a serious investment to help minorities is not really to help minorities, what is it for?

Israel has realized that its policies towards Palestinians holding Israeli citizenship were having an adverse effect on its image abroad.

Ah, it is the Arab student equivalent of "pinkwashing!"

And in case you don't make that connection...

[This logic,] for example, underpins the “pinkwashing” campaigns undertaken by Israel, which depict Israel as a defender of gay rights in order to divert attention away from the occupation of Gaza and the West Bank.

Sa'di goes crazy over a little seen (and excellent) video that Israel's Council for Higher Education released last year. Thanks to her, now far more people will get to see this video showing how Israel is helping its minorities than the 150 who had seen it up until now:

The video frankly acknowledges that Israeli Arabs have a harder time than Israeli Jews to reach their academic and career goals, for various reasons, and it shows how things are changing for the better. With Israeli Arabs taking center stage.

Isn't that horrible? They must all be brainwashed by the Zionist propaganda machine!

Not only that, but the video is guilty in "its refusal to acknowledge that Palestinian citizens of Israel live under a system of apartheid." It's also guilty of not acknowledging that the Earth is flat.

Of course, being Electronic Intifada, it takes as a given that Israel institutionalizes racism at all levels, and the many other initiatives being done to improve Arab education and career growth are ignored. Because they don't fit the narrative. When the evidence becomes too overwhelming, then they are dismissed as mere public relations - PR that costs tens of millions of dollars and directs hundreds of people to act towards a goal of eliminating discrimination. Yeah, that makes sense!

Sa'di ends off with:

So long as Israeli universities remain committed to Zionism, no amount of money will lead them to become “pluralist.”

So unless Israel dismantles itself, it has no right to help Arabs, because that help doesn't really help.

Sa'di proves that she is the one who is bigoted against Arabs, not Israel.

For bigots like Sa'di, it is better that Arabs don't have any opportunities to improve their lives rather than work within a system that she believes is immoral to begin with.

Israel helping Arabs is immoral because it makes the Arabs less miserable and less likely to spend their entire lives with the same hate that she has.

This is the same racist logic that says that Palestinian Arabs in Arab countries must remain in misery as long as Israel exists, so they can be pointed at to prove Israel is at fault.

And Yara Sa'di is a "postgraduate student and activist from Haifa." Yet seeing other Israeli Arabs trying to reach new heights in this video fills her with anger and bile.

If that isn't bigotry, what is?

03/17 Links Pt1: Why Abbas thinks Jewish state is a ‘delusional myth’; Saudi Cleric Bans Buffets

From Ian:

PMW: Why Abbas thinks Jewish state is a ‘delusional myth’

Abbas’s denial of Jewish history and refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state are the ideological foundations for the PA teachings that the existence of the State of Israel constitutes a theft by “Zionist gangs” and that Israel’s existence is temporary. This is not PLO rhetoric from the pre-Oslo days. This is current PA education and indoctrination and remains a most severe impediment to a genuine peace process.
Netanyahu’s demand and the PA’s refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state are clearly not just a quibble over semantics, and Netanyahu’s demand is in fact a minimalist request. Any PA recognition – if it is to impact at all on peace – must include recognition that Israel is the continuation of thousands of years of Jewish history and therefore Israel has a right to exist. Furthermore, in order for these declarations to be more than mere embellishments to yet another insincere agreement, they must be immediately integrated into PA children’s education and public discourse. Without this, Abbas’ recognition of the Jewish state would be like Arafat’s recognition of Israel in 1993: a meaningless ornament to a deceptive peace process that is cited regularly by the PA to create a façade of sincerity.
PA public recognition and education of its citizens to see Israel as a Jewish state with a history and right to exist are absolute necessities if there is ever to be a Palestinian population that accepts Israel as a neighbor and truly seeks peace. For now, while Abbas’ recognition on the diplomatic level would certainly not be enough to affect this change, it is nonetheless a necessary first step in the right direction. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Abbas defined Jewish history in Jerusalem as a "delusional myth"

Amb. Alan Baker: Arafat and the Jewish State: Setting the Record Straight

Kerry opined that he views Israel’s position “as a mistake,” considering that the “Jewish State” issue was “sufficiently addressed by UN General Assembly Resolution 181 of 1947, which recommended the establishment of independent Arab and Jewish states in Palestine.”1 He said there are “more than 30–40 mentions of a ‘Jewish state’” in the resolution, and added that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat “confirmed that he agreed it [Israel] would be a Jewish state” in 1988 and in 2004.
It would appear that once again, as with previous one-sided and pre-judgmental statements, Secretary Kerry has either been ill-advised or is deliberately engaged in an effort to neutralize the “Jewish State” issue in the current negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He is doing so by attempting to determine that the question of Palestinian support for a Jewish state was already resolved by PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1988, and is therefore redundant and unnecessary.

The debate is about our right to exist

This is what you found? A murmured response to the question by PLO leader Yasser Arafat in 1988, and an additional hum directed toward Haaretz journalists? And after this, they'll be angry that people talk about U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in terms of messianic obsession.
Why should it be necessary to search high and low for Palestinian recognition of a Jewish state? Because there is none. One can read the declarations of the Palestinian Authority and its leaders over the past 20 years. Indeed, opposing recognition of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people is more important to the Palestinians than land, since this is the true heart of the conflict, rather than the other territorial nonsense that the Left has been selling for years. It's not about territory and not about settlements and not about refugee rights, not at all. (h/t Bob Knot)

Are the Palestinians Prepared for Peace?

The Israelis remain hesitant and with good reason. It is unclear how long Mahmoud Abbas will remain in office; his presidency may easily be ended by a coup that will extend Hamas's power from the Gaza Strip to the West Bank.
Unfortunately, whenever Mahmoud Abbas speaks he contradicts himself, increasing Israel's reservations. The Palestinians are brainwashing the younger generation with hatred and hostility, and preparing them for continuing the conflict. We all understand Abbas's manipulations: talk about peace and prepare the Palestinians for the next war with Israel.