Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Oh, Egypt shoots at Gaza fishing boats too. Now why haven't we heard that?

There have been many reports about how Israel terrorizes Gaza fishermen, enforcing the 6-nautical mile limit off the coast by shooting warning shots towards them.

But in the most recent weekly UN OCHA report, we see that Egypt shoots at them as well:

[O]n two occasions, Egyptian naval forces opened warning shots towards Palestinian fishing boats approaching the Egyptian border; no injuries or damages were reported.

Is this the first time this happened? Not at all. From February 22:

An Egyptian naval ship fired warning shots at a Palestinian fishing boat early Saturday, officials said. No injuries were reported.
The incident happened off the southern coast of the Gaza Strip within Palestinian territorial waters, Nizar Ayyash, spokesman for the union of Gaza fishermen, told the Palestinian Ma'an News Agency.

Last August:

Egyptian naval police shot and wounded two Palestinian fishermen and detained five off the Gaza Strip on Friday, medics said, an incident that hinted at increased tension between Gaza's Islamist Hamas rulers and Cairo.

These were reported, but no NGO seems to have bothered writing up reports about this.

What a mystery.

03/20 Links Pt2: Boston Jewish Leader Appalled By Arafat Visit; SJP’s underhanded tactics at Loyola U

From Ian:

Boston Jewish Leader "Appalled and Offended" By Arafat Visit

The director of Aish Campus Boston, Rabbi Chananel Weiner, was sickened to hear that Boston donors helped support a trip to Yasser Arafat’s grave: "I am appalled and offended by the visit to Arafat’s grave funded by Boston’s Jewish community for the Harvard Trek to Israel.
For Boston’s Jewish community’s funds to go toward the lionizing of Arafat strikes me as a turn of events that will stain our community beyond recognition.
As someone who lived in Israel from 2000-2005 and witnessed first hand the destruction of lives, buses, cafes, property, and much more I cannot stand for this revisionist history and allocation of funds for the next leaders of our world."

Hillel on Harvard Student Arafat Grave Visit: No Big Deal

David Eden, Chief Administrative Officer at Hillel International, provided a statement in defense of the Harvard College Israel Trek 2014. The trip made a stop at Yasser Arafat's grave and posed for a picture. His statement is quoted in full: "A photograph of Harvard Israel Trek participants at the tomb of Yasser Arafat in Ramallah is causing understandable concern. That image is not what this trip is about. This morning the Trek was up north on the Syrian border touring an elite Israeli defense post and receiving an update from a senior IDF general on the current security situation there. So much of the trip is in that vein."

Some student Israel-hate from France.

Friday 14 march, the president of Paris VIII University threw out 10 Israeli students, who had actually been invited to a debate. In Saint-Denis the pressure from radical, ideologically anti-israeli students is so strong that the “president” found nothing better than to publicly humiliate these young Israelis to calm the anger of these students.
One of the 10 israeli students, Nicolle Perle, has written a witness letter to the students of France
France's hatred is rife in Paris VIII! (French)

The video below appears to be a group of anti-Israel students who, on top of having public demonstrations where the make their hatred of all things Israeli as public as possible, also demand that no one take their picture or video the demonstration.(h/t Yenta Press)

More reports about the same incident:
Hebrew: Israeli students bullied out of Paris8 university
French: University of Paris 8 Saint Denis removes the Hebrew day license for the event "APARTHEID ISRAEL!"

Argentina has a very "Zionist" basketball team

Currently in fourth place in the Argentina National Basketball League A are:

The Parana Zionists!

So far I haven't been able to figure out how they got that name. But to make it funnier, their mascot is an...ape.

Just goes to show you the truth of the Koran!

(h/.t Ezequiel)

Fatah and PA TV again say they want to destroy Israel

One of the many questions that no Western politician or reporter ever bothers to ask Mahmoud Abbas is whether he controls the party, Fatah, that he leads, and the official TV station that the PA runs.

Because if he doesn't, then that means that he cannot even lead his own party, let alone a nation.

If he does, then that means that he supports destroying Israel.

Palestinian Media Watch shows a screenshot from a cartoon in official PA TV, as well as a similar entry in Fatah's official Facebook page.

Official PA TV broadcast a cartoon last month that showed a math teacher pointing to a map of "Palestine" as an example of "a number that is indivisible." The map included both PA areas and all of Israel.

Text on blackboard under map: "Palestine: A number that is indivisible." [Official PA TV, Feb. 21, 2014]

Fatah also continues to promote this idea. Fatah's Facebook administrator recently stated that before teaching them "to read and write," Palestinians teach their children that "Palestine" is indivisible, so that they "will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided":

"We educate our children on the national anthem every morning. They will memorize the anthem of 'return'; they will engrave the four-colored [Palestinian] flag on their hearts; they will learn the foundations of the revolution before they learn to read and write; they will only agree to one rule, which cannot be added to, subtracted from, or calculated: that Palestine cannot be divided."
[Facebook, "Fatah-The Main Page," March 5, 2014]

The text was accompanied by a photo of a teacher pointing to a map of "Palestine" replacing all of Israel drawn on the blackboard, with the explanatory text rejecting Israeli jurisdiction over Israeli cities: "Acre, Haifa, Jaffa, Ramle, Safed, Beit Shean, were and will remain Palestinian cities."

Just some more inconvenient truths that must be hushed up by the Western media and politicians.

It's all psychology. People are emotionally invested in the idea that peace is possible. It has been a centerpiece of US foreign policy for decades. Countless books and articles have been written to try to find a solution.

But the underlying assumption - that both parties really want peace - is not true. There is virtually no peace camp on the Palestinian Arab side, as we saw yesterday from someone who passionately is looking for one. Yet people who are emotionally invested in peace simply refuse to accept that the other side is not like them.

To the Palestinian Arabs, the word "peace" means something completely contradictory to its meaning in English. "Peace" is a weapon, a keyword that melts Western hearts from which they can achieve political and military goals without effort.

Have you ever once heard Abbas or Erekat or Ashrawi talk about how they want to see relations with Israel look like the day after an agreement is signed? Have any of them waxed poetic about Jews and Arabs working together on education, medicine, construction, investments, about Jews and Muslims being able to freely visit holy sites in the other country, about joint economic and business ventures? They never do. "Peace" does not mean peace, it means "get as much land as we can now and use it to gain more land later until Israel is gone." Day One of the "peace agreement" will not usher in anything remotely resembling real peace.

It will begin the next phase of a long war.

We know this. We've proven it hundreds of times, using the very words of PLO and Fatah officials, of their official media and social networking sites. Not random people in the street, not stupid people on Twitter - we are talking official, well-thought out stated positions that are said explicitly in Arabic by Palestinian Arab leaders, officials and PA-paid pundits. And surveys prove that the poisonous bile being told to the people have made them even more radical compared to their Arab neighbors.

Unfortunately, empirical proof is not enough to convince people who are emotionally tied to a lie. Hell, even a violent uprising involving suicide bombings that was planned and directed by the PLO leader wasn't enough to convince Westerners that Palestinian Arabs aren't interested in real peace. Even their dancing and celebrating on 9/11 and their making Bin Laden into a hero didn't convince Westerners of their real intentions. It is impossible to convince someone of something when they don't want to know the truth.

Especially when they don't have to pay the price for being wrong.

03/20 Links Pt1: Talk is cheap, releasing convicted terrorists just to talk is not; Obama and the Fatwa

From Ian:

Melanie Phillips: The Failure of the Mideast 'Peace Process'

In Israel, there is bewilderment that it alone is being held responsible for the absence of peace.
After all, while Mr. Netanyahu has accepted the prospect of a Palestinian state alongside Israel, Mr. Abbas has said repeatedly that the Palestinians will never accept that Israel is a Jewish state.
He also continues to insist on the right of every Palestinian "refugee" to immigrate not just to Palestine but also to Israel, which would destroy it as the Jewish national home.
In addition, despite President Obama's statement this week that Mr. Abbas has "consistently renounced violence," the Palestinian Authority continues to incite hatred against Israel through its educational materials and regime-controlled media, and permits and glorifies acts of terrorism by the al Aqsa brigades and others.
Yet the U.S. and U.K. hold only Israel's feet to the fire. Why? An important part of the answer lies in the inherent nature of the "peace process" itself.

Clifford May: Middle East future shock

The Palestinians have evolved into a two quasi-state non-solution. One state is in the West Bank, where Mahmoud Abbas' Palestinian Authority maintains control, only thanks to Israeli assistance — a fact not discussed in polite diplomatic company.
Mr. Abbas clearly has no intention of ending the Palestinians' conflict with Israel. Even if he did, he has no mandate: He's now in the ninth year of a four-year term as president. Mr. Abbas also knows that were he to sign a deal, he'd be painting a bull's-eye on his back — one that every jihadist in the region, Sunni and Shi'a alike, would be eager to draw a bead on. One more thing: Why would Mr. Abbas' successor see himself as bound by anything Mr. Abbas agreed to?
Gaza is the second Palestinian quasi-state. Mr. Abbas dares not even set foot there. Hamas took power eight years ago, promising good governance and the continuation of the fight to "liberate" every inch of Israel from the despised Jews. Today, Gaza's economy is crumbling and Hamas' ability to wage war is limited.

Abbas asks Obama's help to free jailed Palestinian leader Barghouti

Any move to free such a high-profile figure as Barghouti would probably ignite a political fire storm in Israel. By the same token, it would shore up Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas's standing at home and help give him domestic cover to carry on the as-yet unproductive talks with Israel.
A Palestinian official said Abbas had written to the United States asking them to bring about the release of ill prisoners, female inmates and minors, as well as Barghouti and two other high-profile leaders - Ahmed Sa'adat and Fouad Al-Shobaki.
"The president renewed his demand during the recent meetings in Washington," said Qadoura Fares, chairman of the Palestinian Prisoner Club, referring to Abbas's trip to Washington this week to discuss the shaky peace process with President Barack Obama.
An Israeli court sentenced Barghouti to five life sentences and 40 years in jail in 2004, finding him guilty of orchestrating ambushes and suicide attacks during the Palestinian Intifada, or uprising, that was raging at the time.

Al Arabiya and Maan again show they have no journalistic integrity

From Al Arabiya:

Several ancient archeological sites were “destroyed” after the Israeli Antiquities Authority conducted controversial digs in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in East Jerusalem, a Palestinian news agency reported Wednesday.

The West Bank and East Jerusalem are part of the Palestinian territories, which have been internationally recognized since 1967.

Maan News reported the Palestinian al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage as saying that Israel started the final stage of archaeological excavations at the site, which is located in the Wadi Silwan area only 20 meters from the walls of the Old City.

The dig reportedly destroyed a cemetery that dated back to the Abbasid caliphate and damaged relics that date back to the Jebusite Canaanite era in the second millennium BC, according to the Palestinian al-Aqsa Foundation.

So without any critical thinking, Ma'an reproduces a press release by an organization known to make things up, and Al Arabiya re-reports it - so now within a day we may see Reuters or AFP making the same report.

What evidence does the Al Aqsa Foundation have? None. Their website shows some photos of the area taken from a distance. No photos of graves, no quoting of experts who have seen this supposed "destruction," no evidence of the artifacts supposedly destroyed - nada.

In the past, this same foundation has stated flatly that every single piece of archaeological evidence of Jews in the area in Biblical times is fake. They've claimed that potholes and small landslides from heavy rains are really the result of Israeli digs - and brought those charges to the UN. For years they have charged that Israel plans to destroy the Al Aqsa mosque, often giving dates that have come and gone.

Not one Arab media outlet has ever, to my knowledge, pointed out that the Al Aqsa Foundation is simply an Islamist organization, associated with infamous Sheikh Raed Salah, that makes things up and issues press releases daily about supposed Israeli crimes.

Quoting an organization with a long track record of provable lies, without mentioning that fact, is not journalism. It is incitement, and it is deliberate.

Whenever Bibi Netanyahu visits the White House, every word and gesture and demeanor is micro-analyzed to find indications of friction or combativeness or discomfort.

Yet three days ago Mahmoud Abbas visited President Obama and said some outrageous things that were roundly ignored by the media.

I would also like to affirm what you have said, that we are working for a solution that is based on international legitimacy and also the borders -- the 1967 borders so that the Palestinians can have their own independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital and so that we can find a fair and lasting solution to the refugee problem.

Obama said none of what Abbas claimed he said.

This is an old Abbas trick - to twist any conciliatory words said with respect to his pseudo-nation into what he wants to have been said. But since the original words were meant to be friendly, it would be undiplomatic to complain about how he is lying. So the national leaders let it slide and Abbas can give the impression that everyone agrees with his side.

We don’t have any time to waste. Time is not on our side, especially given the very difficult situation that the Middle East is experiencing and the entire region is facing. We hope that we would be able to seize this opportunity to achieve a lasting peace.

Abbas has never acted like a person for whom time is running out. Quite the contrary.

Abbas has been stonewalling against negotiations for years. He has said that he has plenty of time to wait for the international community to pressure Israel. Here his lie is meant to do the same - to pretend that he feels a sense of urgency when his intent is to make the West panic and pressure Israel more.

Since 1988 and into 1993, we have been extending our hands to our Israeli neighbors so that we can reach a fair and lasting peace to this problem. Since 1988, we have recognized international legitimacy resolutions and this was a very courageous step on the part of the Palestinian leadership. And in 1993, we recognized the state of Israel.

Int 1993, at the same moment that the PLO sid it recognized Israel, it also stated that they have given up on armed conflict and will exclusively use negotiations to deal with Israel. That was shown to be a lie during the deadly intifada. In other words, their words are meaningless, and provably so.

Mr. President, we have an agreement with Israel, that was brokered by Mr. Kerry concerning the release of the fourth batch of prisoners and we are hopeful that the fourth batch will be released by the 29th of March because this will give a very solid impression about the seriousness of these efforts to achieve peace.

This may be the most offensive thing of all.

Israel released over 75 convicted terrorists, the majority of whom have been involved in murders of civilians. This was because of pressure from the US in order to even bring Abbas, kicking and screaming, to the table. Abbas, meanwhile, treated these murderers as heroes and gave them well-paying jobs simply because they killed Jews.

And now Abbas is lecturing Israel that it is not serious about peace unless it releases more murderers to be honored by Abbas?

These statements are disgusting. They would be considered scandalous had any other world leader tried to say them to the President's face.

But Abbas - the Holocaust denying, terror cheerleading, corrupt dictator - is regarded as being above public criticism by the US and the mainstream media.

And if he can get away with these appalling and untruthful statements in the White House, then what incentive does he have for keeping any of his promises to Israel?

"Relationship between PLO and Egypt at all-time low"

Egypt's antipathy towards Palestinian Arab leaders is not limited to Hamas.

A senior PLO official who is close to Abbas admitted to Al Jazeera that relations between Egypt and the PLO are at an all time low.

The latest issue that upset the PLO was a nearly three hour interview on Egypt's DreamTV with Mohammed Dahlan, where he hurled accusations at the PA leadership.

Dahlan accused Abbas and other Fatah leaders of treason, murder and corruption.

The PA embassy in Egypt attempted to give a response on the same TV show, and it was denied.

Abbas plans to visit Cairo to patch things up. He announced that he received numerous phone calls of support from Egypt after the Dahlan interview, which means that he is quite nervous.

Donate to EoZ!

It is time for my quarterly appeal and review of things that have happened on the blog since my last roundup. .
A week or so ago, I wrote the 19,000th post in this blog.

My most popular post over the past quarter was, hands down, my updated poster page for "Apartheid Week." Over 50,000 views for that page alone, showing that many people were looking to counter the Israel-haters and found these posters to be among the most effective debunking of the myth.

Among the other popular posts were my exposure of the lies behind the St. James Church wall stunt in Piccadilly, the Meltdown Girl post, the PLO minister admitting "If Jews have a history in the land - then we don't," my Great news from the Arab World post, my Sodastream poster which went viral, my proof that Saeb Erekat's family came from Howeitat, not Palestine, "I was wrong. There really were a Palestinian people," and the secret ASA conference at NYU.

On my sidebar are three additional posts that my readers voted as being among my best this year: Why HRW is racist, Belgium's new poet laureate not happy I called him an antisemite, and "Zionists trying to hide Canaanite-Palestinian civilization."

Of course, I also made posters, infographics and videos, including one I copied from Facebook that went viral.

I was reprinted or quoted in The Jewish Press and the Algemeiner many times, The Blaze a few times, The Forward, The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Golden Gate Express, JTA, Jweekly, Commentary, and others. It looks like a version of this post from last night may be published in a Boston Jewish newspaper as well.

I also have over 6500 followers on Twitter now.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the superb job Ian does with the linkdumps every day. The blog is worth reading just for that; no one puts together as good a collection of daily articles like he does.

I also want to thank the quarters' occasional guest posters. Zvi always has a great perspective and "Bob Knot" did an amazing job of investigative journalism that no "real" reporter bothered to do, debunking a libel that was widely reported.

The blog takes lots of time and some money. But it gives a lot more than it gets. I get emails regularly from people who say that they use this blog often to show people the truth about Israel and her neighbors.

If you find value in EoZ, please donate or consider a monthly subscription. PayPal is the easiest (click buttons in upper corner of the webpage, or just at the end of this post) but you can also email an Amazon gift card if you prefer.

Thanks again for your support, your comments, your emails, your FB Likes and your retweets!

03/19 Links Pt2: The Problem with Judith Butler; Two Year Anniversary of the Toulouse Murders

From Ian:

The Problem with Judith Butler: The Political Philosophy of the Movement to Boycott Israel

When American Studies Association President Curtis F. Marez gave his absurd “one has to start somewhere” answer to a New York Times reporter’s question as to why one should single out Israel’s universities for a boycott, one might have thought he had set the gold standard for empty boycott advocacy. But soon a still more vacuous contestant arrived. At the pro-boycott session on January 9 at the Modern Language Association’s 2014 annual meeting, University of Texas professor and panelist Barbara Harlow offered her own concise answer to the “Why boycott Israel?” question: “Why not?”
With advocates like these, one might think the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel would need no opponents. Certainly the public image of the humanities is not enhanced by remarks of this sort. But in truth many boycott supporters do not look for adequate reasoning. They want their existing passions inflamed still further. Palestinian BDS entrepreneur Omar Barghouti, who lectures regularly on US campuses, is adept at generating moral outrage in susceptible audiences. But the BDS movement also has more sophisticated spokespersons at its disposal. Judith Butler, who has become the movement’s premier philosopher and political theorist, is perhaps the foremost among them. Her work, which carries significant authority among humanists, helps us get to the heart of the movement’s guiding principles. The critique I will offer thus addresses the theoretical framing of the whole BDS movement by way of Butler’s approach to Israel and the Arab-Israeli conflict. She has complained that pro-BDS arguments do not receive detailed analysis. I will make every effort to provide that here.

Zionism is moral and necessary

Finally, Mahmoud Abbas also wants a nation-state, for the ‘Palestinian people’. It’s pretty clear that, like Jordan and Saudi Arabia, there would be no Jews in ‘Palestine’. The proposed constitution for Palestine states that “Islam is the official religion of Palestine.” I have never heard Levy or anyone else on the Left object to this, or compare the Palestinians to Nazis. Even the usual concerns for human rights (don’t forget women, gays, etc.) are elided where the Palestinians are concerned.
The Left’s vision of a borderless world in which every nation is a “democratic state of all its citizens” is being tried now, in Europe, and it is failing badly, economically, socially, and — most important — demographically, with native fertility rates far below what’s needed for the society to survive. Israel’s Jewish fertility rate is a healthy 2.8, well above the replacement rate of 2.1. Perhaps Israel’s social and economic vitality has something to do with the national pride and religion that still exist there, despite what is written in Ha’aretz?
Without Jewish nationalism, that is, Zionism, there would be no Israel, and no reason for one — which is why psychopathic Jew-hater Gideon Levy advocates against it.

Leaked report: Israel acknowledges Jews in fact Khazars; Secret plan for reverse migration to Ukraine (satire)

Followers of Middle Eastern affairs know two things: always expect the unexpected, and never write off Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who has more political lives than the proverbial cat.
Only yesterday came news that Syrian rebels plan to give Israel the Golan Heights in exchange for creation of a no-fly zone against the Assad regime. In an even bolder move, it is now revealed, Israel will withdraw its settlers from communities beyond the settlement blocs—and relocate them at least temporarily to Ukraine. Ukraine made this arrangement on the basis of historic ties and in exchange for desperately needed military assistance against Russia. This surprising turn of events had an even more surprising origin: genetics, a field in which Israeli scholars have long excelled.

Blonde hair and pink clothes nearly cause riot at Cairo U

From Al Arabiya:

A video of a young Egyptian woman with long blonde hair being aggressively sexually harassed by a group of university law students has sparked country-wide controversy.

In the video, the female university student can be seen with long, platinum-blonde hair wearing a pink top, matching pink shoes and fitted jeans, quickly attracting the attention of scores of male students.

While the woman appears to be walking fast to get away from the growing group of men following her, a shot of her face is not available.

Cairo University guards escorted the student off campus after she hid in the toilets from the dozens of male students who were allegedly trying to remove her clothes.

The bellicose harassment at one of Egypt's largest universities sparked outrage after the video went viral on social networking sites and was picked up by local media.

Fathi Farid, found member of the anti-sexual harassment group “I saw harassment,” said male students had verbally attacked the woman and attempted to undress her, AFP reported.

Last year an actor dressed up as a woman to see how bad sexual harassment in Egypt really was.

03/19 Links Pt1: Kerry: I Was for a Jewish State Before I Was Against it; Yaalon: US Projecting Weakness

From Ian:

Obama Setting Israel Up to Take the Blame

Abbas’s refusal to take the steps necessary to make peace is nothing new when you consider that he and his predecessor Yasir Arafat have already turned down three Israeli offers of peace and statehood. This has been a consistent pattern for the PA. As the Washington Post’s Jackson Diehl noted on Sunday, Abbas thinks he can get away with this because the Obama administration has no intention of pressuring him or holding him accountable for Palestinian incitement, terror connections, or diplomatic intransigence.
If the president were genuinely interested in pursuing peace he would be hammering the Palestinians for their behavior and making it clear they would pay a high price for saying no to Kerry’s framework. Instead, he has given Abbas carte blanche to maintain the same obdurate stance he has taken since he took over the PA from his longtime boss Arafat.
What will this accomplish? It won’t advance the cause of peace. But it will make it easier for Israel’s critics to blame Netanyahu for the inevitable collapse of Kerry’s effort and serve to rationalize the violence and the boycotts the secretary threatened the Jewish state with. All Obama is doing is setting up Israel to take the fall for a fourth Palestinian “no” to peace.

Caroline Glick: Do Palestinians Really Want to Live Next to Israel? (Starts 1:50) (h/t Daphne Anson

J.J. Goldberg Attempts To Bully Caroline Glick- J Street Chimes In

On March 17th, J.J. Goldberg opined in The Forward that Caroline Glick's appearance at Hillel violates the National Hillel Guidelines for Campus Israel Activities due to her right-wing views on Israel. In an article titled “N.J Hillel Hosts right-wing views of Israel 1-Stater. Relax, She’s Right-Winger,” he labels Glick as a “militant one-stater” who is a “fiery right-winger.”
After labeling Glick and portraying her as extreme, Goldberg attempts to argue against her new book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East:

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.