Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

An Israeli leftist's lonely search for a moderate Palestinian Arab

From Einat Wilf in Al-Monitor:

I was born into the Israeli left. I grew up in the left. I was always a member of the left. I believed that the day that the Palestinians would have their own sovereign state would be the day when Israel would finally live in peace. But like many Israelis of the left, I lost this certainty I once had.

...But one of the most pronounced moments over the past several years that has made me very skeptical toward the left were a series of meetings I had with young, moderate Palestinian leaders to which I was invited by virtue of being a member of Israel's Labor Party.

I had much in common with these young Palestinian leaders. We could relate to each other. However, through discussion, I soon discovered that the moderation of the young Palestinian leaders was in their acknowledgement that Israel is already a reality and therefore is not likely to disappear. I even heard phrases such as, "You were born here and you are already here, so we will not send you away." (Thank you very much, I thought). But, what shocked and changed my approach to peace was that when we discussed the deep sources of the conflict between us, I was told, "Judaism is not a nationality, it's only a religion and religions don't have the right to self-determination." The historic connection between the Jewish people and the land of Israel was also described as made-up or nonexistent.

Reflecting on the comments of these "moderates," I was forced to realize that the conflict is far deeper and more serious than I allowed myself to believe. It was not just about settlements and "occupation," as Palestinian spokespeople have led the Israeli left to believe. I realized that the Palestinians, who were willing to accept the need for peace with Israel, did so because Israel was strong. I realized that, contrary to the leftist views in Israel, which support the establishment of a Palestinian state because the Palestinians have a right (repeat: right) to sovereignty in their homeland, there is no such parallel Palestinian "left" that recognizes the right (repeat: right) of the Jewish people to sovereignty in its ancient homeland.

...So, it was somewhat ironic when, just several months ago, I received an email from the Israeli-Palestinian meeting's organizer to write a response to one of the program's core funders as to whether the program had an "impact on anything or anybody." I was asked to "reflect back a few years" and to write whether the program "had any impact on you — personally, professionally, socially, politically … " Naturally, I responded. I wrote that the program had a "tremendous impact on my thinking and I continue to discuss it to this day in my talks and lectures." I shared the above story with the organizer, recognizing that "it is probably not a perspective you want to share with your funders."

In response, the organizer sent me an email saying that there are "many, not one, grass-roots and political Palestinians who truly believe that Jews have a right to part of the land." I responded enthusiastically that meeting even "one Palestinian who believes that the Jewish people have an equal and legitimate claim to the land would be huge for me," and that "I've been looking for someone like that ever since I participated in the program many years ago."

...I was then asked to write precisely what would convince me that we have a true partner for peace in the Palestinians. So, I drafted the following phrase:

"The Jewish people and Palestinian people are both indigenous to the Land of Israel/Palestine and therefore have an equal and legitimate claim to a sovereign state for their people on the land." I added that this sentence could be expanded to say, "Both the Jewish people and the Palestinian people around the world have an equal and legitimate claim to settle and live anywhere in the Land of Israel/Palestine, but given the desire of both peoples to a sovereign state that would reflect their unique culture and history, we believe in partitioning the land into a Jewish state, Israel, and an Arab state, Palestine, that would allow them each to enjoy dignity and sovereignty in their own national home." I would also add here that it should be clear that neither Israel nor Palestine should be exclusively for the Jewish and Palestinian people respectively and both should accommodate minorities of the other people.

The organizer promised to get back to me. Weeks and months passed, and I was about to publish this piece, opening up the conversation, hoping to find partners who share my belief, so that I could rekindle my hope that peace is possible. At the last minute, I was contacted by professor Mohammed S. Dajani Daoudi, the head of American Studies at Al-Quds University and founder of the Palestinian centrist movement, Wasatia. All he asked was to change the word "claim" to "right," and "partition" to "sharing," saying that "right" was more positive, and "partitioning" had in the deep psyche of the Palestinians the negative connotation of the 1947 UN partition plan recommendation. He emphasized that 67 years later, he hopes that Palestinians would realize that sharing the land by a Jewish state and a Palestinian state, as envisioned by the UN resolution, was "the right thing to do" in 1947, since both people do have a legitimate right to the land, and remains "the right thing to do" today. I found these changes wholly acceptable and welcome. So the statement we share now reads as follows:

"The Jewish people around the world and Palestinian people around the world are both indigenous to the Land of Israel/Palestine and therefore have an equal and legitimate right to settle and live anywhere in the Land of Israel/Palestine, but given the desire of both peoples to a sovereign state that would reflect their unique culture and history, we believe in sharing the land between a Jewish state, Israel, and an Arab state, Palestine, that would allow them each to enjoy dignity and sovereignty in their own national home. Neither Israel nor Palestine should be exclusively for the Jewish and Palestinian people respectively and both should accommodate minorities of the other people."

Who else will join us in our journey to find true partners on both sides?

So after months of searching, Wilf found a single Palestinian Arab willing to concede that Jews have a right to live in the land. At that rate, with no natural growth in the Arab population, it will only take 250,000 years to gain a significant minority who believes in real peace.

Wilf is not stupid - she recognizes the prevalence of the Israeli "self-flagellating left" and she is a member of NGO Monitor's advisory board (an infraction that led to her being banned from speaking at the Peace Now conference last year.) And there is nothing wrong with trying to find real Palestinian Arab partners for peace and to encourage them. It would be wonderful if European governments would fund Wasatia rather than the BDS-supporting NGOs they seem to favor.

But the Wasatia movement that Daoudi founded in 2007 gets essentially zero coverage in the Arab media. The existence of Daoudi (and his brother) is not an encouraging sign - it is a clear indicator that probably more than 99% of Palestinian Arabs disagree with the idea that Jews have rights.

Finding a dollar bill after searching for months in a ton of manure is not exactly a cause for celebration. It means that it may be time to re-evaluate the best way to spend one's time.

Jordanians warn that "Jordan option" for Palestinians already being implemented

Al Monitor shows yet again how much Jordanians hate their Palestinian majority.

A delegation from the Jordanian Council on Foreign Relations visited Lebanon from March 9-11. The delegation, comprising representatives of a number of leftist, secular and nationalist parties in Jordan, visited Lebanese officials, before heading to Damascus where they met with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The delegation then returned to Beirut to voice its concerns and raise the alarm: Jordan, as an independent state, is facing an imminent risk. The displacement of Palestinians from the occupied Palestinian territories has indeed begun and is auguring an impending change in the region’s map. What information and facts have led them to raise the alarm?

Al-Monitor met with the members of the Jordanian delegation, among whom were representatives of political parties, former members of parliament, retired officers, academics and unionists. According to them, Jordanian identity may be threatened by a "Jordan option" that may already be in process. The country’s population is 6.5 million people. According to official figures, while the inhabitants are Jordanians, 43% of them are of Palestinian origin. This phenomenon is the result of the historical intertwining between the Emirate of Transjordan and neighboring historical Palestine. Since this first started, half of the population of Palestine developed a different identity and national cause as the result of the loss of their territories and homeland. Yet, they practically became citizens of the Jordanian state.

"Practically"? They have been full citizens since 1949! Yet they are still considered to be second-class citizens even though they have lived in Jordan since it was renamed Jordan.

After the establishment of the Jordanian state, and notably after the Arab-Israeli wars that took place from 1948 to 1967, the displacement of Palestinians in Jordan continued, until Jordan was hosting around half a million Palestinians who are not included in the statistic of 43%, as mentioned above. This means they were not official Jordanian citizens and were placed in camps built on Jordanian territory.

This is flat-out wrong. The Palestinians who decided they didn't want to live under Jewish rule in 1967 were already Jordanian citizens, except for tens of thousands - not close to half a million - Gazans who were not given citizenship. Jerash camp is the most well-known and it only has 24,000 people.

They noted that all information and facts indicate that the process of transforming Jordan into an alternative homeland for Palestinians has started. They believe that the principle of Israel as a Jewish state is now being carried out at the expense of Jordan as a state. The members of the delegation affirmed that Jordanian official statistics showed that a regular displacement from the occupied Palestinian territories to Jordan has been registered over the past few years, at a rate of 70,000 displaced Palestinian per year, due to economic hardships and the attempts of Palestinians to find jobs and make a living. According to the members of the delegation, there is a far worse and more dangerous scenario, which is the systematic and clandestine Israeli-Jordanian plan to move all Arab citizens of Israel — who number 1.4 million Palestinians — into Jordan in the coming years.

I don't know about the 70,000 Palestinians moving to Jordan a year. Even if it is true, saying that this is part of an Israeli conspiracy is lunacy.

But even crazier is the idea that Israel and Jordan are colluding to move Israeli Arabs into Jordan. Yet Jordanian "representatives of political parties, former members of parliament, retired officers, academics and unionists" are making this bizarre claim.

What is their proof of this conspiracy?

In this context, the representatives of the Jordanian parties revealed what they deemed dangerous indications of the implementation of this plan. The first indication is the new measure ratified by the Jordanian government a week ago, allowing those who live in Jordan and do not have the Jordanian nationality to be granted temporary passports for five years. According to the delegation, this measure underlines a silent and gradual process of nationalizing and settling Palestinians in Jordan. The second indication is adopting new measures facilitating the process of Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians granting the Jordanian nationality to their children knowing that this measure, which has a humanitarian aspect, means granting nationality to a large number of Palestinians. The third indication is the talks about passing new laws for municipal and parliamentary elections, which are observing the possibility of granting non-Jordanian residents and those who have temporary passports certain electoral rights. This means that they would have new civil and political rights, which would eventually turn them into official citizens.

Jordan has stripped citizenship from thousands of Palestinian Jordanians in recent years. There is zero chance that they will offer citizenship to additional Palestinians.

The delegation is also lying about the proposed law for Jordanian women married to Palestinian Arab men. The law would provide limited rights to their children, but not citizenship.

The hate that "native" Jordanians have of Palestinians is built into Jordanian society. It is real apartheid, as Palestinian Arabs make up the majority of Jordan's citizens according to many estimates.

But since there are very few Jordanians who are campaigning for Palestinian rights - and the ones that do are threatened by the king himself - no one talks about this.

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.