Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, May 12, 2014

05/12 Links Pt1: Palestinian Authority: Combatants Against Peace; Oren- Spy Claims are Baseless.

From Ian:

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian Authority: Combatants Against Peace

Palestinian peace activists have come under fire for attending a Memorial Day Ceremony in Tel Aviv for Palestinian and Israeli victims of violence. The ceremony was attended by some 2700 people.
The event was organized last week by Combatants For Peace, a movement that (according to its website) "was started jointly by Palestinians and Israelis who have taken an active part in the cycle of violence; Israelis as soldiers and Palestinians as part of the violent struggle for Palestinian freedom."
Organizers have hailed the ceremony as a great success and "another positive step toward peace and reconciliation" between Israelis and Palestinians.
But the Palestinian Authority [PA] leadership and many Palestinians obviously don't share this view. In fact, they see the participation of Palestinians in an event commemorating Israeli victims of violence as an act of treason.
The PA government in the West Bank -- who do not miss any opportunity to tell Westerners that they remain committed to peace and coexistence with Israel -- even went as far as disbanding the Palestinian branch of Combatants For Peace in June 2013.

Oren: Claims the FBI warned Israeli diplomats about spying are baseless

Oren told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday that Israel’s intelligence relationship with the United States was unparalleled, and that claims of Israelis being scolded by the FBI were baseless.
Oren was responding to the second article in a week that appeared on the Newsweek magazine website Thursday alleging rampant Israeli spying on the US.
Oren, a historian of the US-Israel relationship, said that when it has gone through periods of tension in the past, stories frequently appear in the US media citing anonymous sources leveling stinging criticism of Israel.
The ambassador, who dismissed the Newsweek stories as groundless, said the important questions to ask are about what the motivation is behind them, and why “somebody is making an effort to leak this stuff and give it prominence.”

Behind Newsweek’s anti-Israel canard

Last week, Newsweek’s Jeff Stein ran a sensationalist story detailing alleged Israeli spy activities in the United States. Stein, citing dubious sources, claimed that Israeli spies attempted to monitor Al Gore’s bathroom activities (an image too frightening to imagine) while drugs and women are routinely employed by Zionist spies to entice U.S. officials into handing over information of value. The sources for these and other absurd allegations contained in the article were mainly anonymous with one notable exception, an obscure ex-intelligence character and former CIA employee named Paul Pillar.
One look at Pillar’s past articles, publications and speeches puts the Newsweek screed in proper context. Pillar is a rabid Israel basher. In March 2014, he spoke at the so-called “National Summit to Reassess the U.S.-Israel ‘Special Relationship’” where he attacked Israel on everything from its defensive military operations in Gaza to its concern over Iran’s procurement of nuclear weapons. He even attempted to downplay Iran’s threat to wipe Israel off the map claiming that it was a mere mistranslation. Pillar took his place at the summit alongside miscreants such as Cynthia McKinney and Alison Weir, whose radical views on the Jewish state veer uncomfortably into David Duke territory.

From Nicola Nasser, a Palestinian Arab journalist, in the Asia Times:

Israel is carving economic inroads into Asia which could be deep enough to compromise traditional Asian political support for Arabs. If this trend continues, growing economic Israeli-Asian relations will develop into political ties that neutralize Asia in the Arab-Israeli conflict.

Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu's official visit to Japan from May 11-15 is not an historic breakthrough per se in bilateral relations that date back to 1952.

Neither is the normalization of relations in "a matter of weeks" between Israel and Turkey, which was the first major Muslim country to recognize the State of Israel in 1949, as was promised by the Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan on April 27.

However, both events highlight a breakthrough Israel has discreetly achieved in pivoting to Asia, which was once an reservoir of support for Arabs in their conflict with Israel over Palestine.

"For the first time, in 2014, Israeli exports with Asia will exceed trade with the US, pushing it from second to third place (behind the EU)," director of the Foreign Trade Administration at Israel's Ministry of the Economy, Ohad Cohen, was quoted as saying by Israeli "Globes" on April 27.

While opening more trade attache offices in Asia, the Israeli Ministry of the Economy has closed a number of European trade offices in Austria, Hungary, Finland and Sweden "in order to refocus on emerging markets," Cohen explained.

"Today we have five offices in China, three in India, and we have added attaches in Vietnam and an office in Manila," he added.

US President Barack Obama visited Asia in April trying to demonstrate that his promised strategic "pivot" to the region was seeing progress real. However, the Israelis seem to be making more secure progress in a similar direction.

"'Pivot to Asia' is a term that might be applied to Israel," Roger Cohen wrote in The New York Times on April 24, citing a boom in its trade with China to more than $8 billion in 2013. Israel's military and technological cooperation with China had once created a crisis in the US-Israeli relations.

Cohen noted that while the US and Europe continue to "huff and puff" about the illegal Israeli colonial settlements in the occupied Palestinian West Bank "Asia does business. India has already bought sea-to-sea missiles, radar for a missile-intercept system and communications equipment from Israel."

India could be a case study for Israel. According to the website of the Embassy of India in Egypt, "Much of our external trade passes along the Suez Canal, the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden," all almost exclusively Arab sea routes, and "Our total bilateral trade with the Arab countries is over US$ 110 billion and the region is home to 4.5 million Indians and caters to 70% of our energy imports."
...

Yet, despite its vital ties with Arab nations, India is now also the largest customer for military equipment and the largest Asian economic partner of their arch-enemy - Israel. By courting India and China, Israel can neutralize Asian pro-Arab and pro-Palestinian influence in the region.
...
Writing in Forbes on May 14 last year, professor at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies at the University of Denver, Jonathan Adelman, and the acting executive director for Scholars for Peace in the Middle East (SPME), Asaf Romirowsky, gave a controversial explanation for Israel's apparent breakthrough in Asia.

Historically, "Asia largely lacks the anti-Semitism that was so prominent in Europe" and "Israel was like most Asian states ... a new state born after World War II after a struggle with a Western colonial power, in this case Great Britain," they said.

"Geographically, Israel is in West Asia, only four hours by air from India and 11 hours by air from China. Historically, Israel, like most Asian states, is a new state born after World War II after a struggle with a Western colonial power, in this case Great Britain. ... Economically, Israel's rapid transition from Third World power to First World 'start-up nation' echoes the great transformation underway in such Asian countries as India, China and the Four Tigers."

The authors add: "In intelligence matters, which are so critical to many developing countries, Mossad, with its strong human intelligence capabilities, is attractive for helping these countries overcome foreign threats to their rise to power."

In the full article Nasser attempts. poorly, to paint these developments as disastrous for peace and as wrongheaded for the Asian nations that are already reaping benefits from their relationship with Israel. She even claims that it makes more sense for Asian nations to cooperate with Arab intelligence agencies than with Israel in fighting Islamist terror!

Which indicates that Palestinian Arabs are panicking at the prospect of Asia becoming more pro-Israel. Even more insulting is that they themselves are being treated as irrelevant, as the world gets more tired of their whining and stunts and blaming all of their problems, past and future, on Israel.

Azzam al-Ahmad, a member of the Fatah Central Committee in charge of reconciliation with Hamas, says that the "unity" government with Hamas does not have to recognize Israel.

Ahmad says, correctly, that the Palestinian Authority was set up under the Oslo Accords to be a strictly domestic government, with all foreign relations tasks remaining with the PLO. As such, he claims, the PA never recognized Israel, and the planned unity government has no obligation to do so.

In reality, the PA does have official talks and communications with Israel all the time, for example to request permission for sick people to leave Gaza. The PA reports to the PLO which officially does recognize Israel

This indicates that Fatah is attempting to fudge the facts however it can to clear the path for Hamas to enter the government. Whether this means that the PA will no longer deal directly with Israel after a new government is formed is an open question.

There is another aspect of this theater: Internally, and to the UN, the PLO says that the PA no longer exists and it is all part of the "State of Palestine" that the PLO represents at the UN. Now it is telling Hamas that this isn't true. But it will also tell the US and the Europeans that there is a separate PA, when it suits the PLO's purposes. As it has done since its founding, the PLO will put on a completely different face depending on who it is talking to, and the world happily goes along with this charade because it is a lot easier than admitting that the entity that it honors so much is nothing but hot air.

Hamas, for its part, has said that recognition of Israel is a "red line" that it will never cross, no matter what some idiotic Western analysts say.

Al-Ahmad also said that no independent militias would be allowed under the unity government, which contradicts Hamas' insistence on maintaining its terrorist-military Al Qassam Brigades not to mention the many other terrorist organizations - including Fatah - that maintain their own military/terror wings.

It sounds like the "unity government" will be based on a foundation of lies. Which is pretty much how the existing PA works anyway.

In related news, the PLO has just joined the UN's "anti-corruption" convention, which would be hilarious if we hadn't already seen the UN do things that are far more egregiously inconsistent with its original intent.

Palestinian families attack Red Cross offices in Nablus

A couple of weeks ago, a lot of Palestinian Arab prisoners went on a hunger strike to protest Israel's practice of administrative detention.

Outside a few Arab news sites and limited coverage in Israel, the hunger strike has not been covered by the media. The hunger strike stunt has been used a few too many times and the media is clearly no longer impressed.

So, it is time to up the ante.

Last Thursday, more prisoners staged a one-day solidarity strike where they skipped a single meal.

Families in Nablus closed down the Red Cross offices there on Sunday because, they say, that organization did not visit the prisoners who were supposedly on the strike. They threatened to escalate their attacks on international NGOs if they don't get some...coverage? A statement? It is unclear.

Israel has fewer than 200 prisoners in administrative detention. Jordan detains over 10,000 every year. The US, UK, Ireland, and Australia all use administrative detention for reasons of public safety, in much higher numbers than Israel does.

Another brilliant Israeli invention

From NoCamels, April 30:

A truly mind-blowing technology that was presented less than 24 hours ago on Kickstarter, with a goal to raise $200,000, has already shattered all expectations.

With $218,000 already raised and more dollars flowing in every minute, we think it’s fair to say SCiO will turn out to be one of Kickstarter’s epic success stories.

SCiO is a tiny handheld scanner that can tell you whether an apple you want to bite into is fresh, what’s in the pills your doctor prescribed, how many calories are in your meal, or whether your plant needs more water.

“Smartphones give us instant answers to questions like where to have dinner, what movie to see, and how to get from point A to point B, but when it comes to learning about what we interact with on a daily basis, we’re left in the dark,” says Dror Sharon, CEO of Consumer Physics, the Israeli company behind SCiO.

SCiO works using a molecular scanner, which uses optics to identify the unique “fingerprint” of the molecular composition of any of matter. While molecular scanners are used in labs around the world, they are bulky pieces of equipment that are not mass-market oriented.

Consumer Physics has taken the same technology and designed SCiO from the ground up to be mass-produced at low cost. When infrared light is shined on a sample, it excites the molecules and makes them vibrate in a unique way. The wavelength-dependent light absorption of the molecules creates optical signatures according to an object’s chemical composition.

SCiO transmits that information to the cloud using Bluetooth technology, where the sample is analyzed and a reading is sent back to the users within seconds – displaying it on their smartphone.

The company’s vision is somewhat Google-esque: aiming to map the chemical makeup of the world around us, creating the world’s first database of matter, and putting the means of discovering it in the palm (and pocket) of the user’s hand. “We designed SCiO to empower explorers everywhere with new knowledge and to encourage them to join our mission of mapping the physical world.”

Backers of the Kickstarter campaign will receive the sensor this fall, which can be used on pharmaceuticals, fruit shakes, cheeses and sauces. The company encourages developers to use its kit and as more people use the device, the database will grow richer.

Here's a demo shown at TechCrunch last week:

How 85 Jews captured 9000 Italian troops in Bardia, Libya in WWII

Most histories of World War II describe the following incident very tersely:

The British drove the Italian Tenth Army from Egypt and achieved a major victory on 3 January 1941 at Bardia, just inside Libya.

In January, Bardia fell to the British, prompting the Italians to withdraw to Tripolitania...I just read The Forgotten Ally, a 1943 book by Pierre Van Paassen. I hope to write a review soon but this is a great story.

Australians also take credit for the fall of Bardia.

The details are a lot more interesting.

This comes from "The Forgotten Ally" by Pierre Van Paassen, a 1943 book (out of print now) that I hope to review soon.

"Just as soon as we start the big push," said General Montgomery, "I want to create a little diversion behind Rommel's lines. I would like to take one of his supply depots on the Libyan coast. I had thought of the town of Bardia, that is the nearest to us. I do not think we could hold it for any length of time, for the place is strongly held by an entire division of Italians who have German artillery support. But holding on to Bardia is not the first essential at the present stage of the game, although permanent seizure would, of course, be a big help. For the moment I would be satisfied with raising hell there for a few hours, blowing up the munition dumps and the petrol supply which is stored in the caves near the shore, wrecking the tank and aviation repair shops, and ruining the harbor. What do you say? Do you think it can be done?"

The words were addressed to Commander Osterman-Averni, chief of a Jewish "suicide-task force" from Palestine serving with the Eighth Army. Commander Osterman-Averni has told the story in the Hebrew daily newspaper Hamashkif, which is published in Jerusalem and I have verified it from other sources.

"Three days after General Montgomery called us to headquarters," he writes, "we were inside Bardia. But we did not go alone. I mean my task force was joined by another Jewish suicide commando. Together we went in. I wouldn't be surprised if the Italians of the Bardia garrison, who are now nearly all prisoners of war, were still trying to solve the riddle of how we got there. Actually, the answer to their puzzle is extremely simple.

"We were put aboard two destroyers in the late afternoon. As usual, the men were not told in advance of their destination. They imagined that our task would be one of those routine 'behind-the-line' actions: the demolition of a bridge, the destruction of a water supply line, or some similar task. They did not have any particular reason to devote much speculative thinking to the task ahead. . . .

"When we were nearing land, I told the men that we were going to land at Bardia and that, if possible, the town was to be taken in a general assault at dawn. I told them it would not be an easy job and emphasized that strict discipline and group spirit alone could insure success. I said it was the most important task entrusted to us thus far and that the honor of the Palestinian 'suicide forces' was at stake. 'If we come through,' I said, 'I am authorized to promise each of you an additional stripe.'

"'If the honor of the force is at stake, we will be in Bardia tomorrow morning,' spoke up a sergeant.

"We approached the Libyan shore in Stygian darkness," Commander Osterman-Averni goes on to write. "The destroyers scarcely moved as the rope ladders were let down by which we slid into the rowboats that were to set us ashore. These boats advanced stealthily. Nobody spoke. The oars barely skimmed the waters. Not a speck of light showed in Bardia. In fact, we could not even see the coast. The scraping of the boats on the rocks was the first intimation we had that we had reached our destination.

"In deepest silence we waded ashore. A patrol was sent forward immediately. We waited an hour. From the distance came the thunderous roll of our artillery. We could hear the metallic steps of the Italian sentries on the quays. When the patrol returned, reporting that they had established the exact position of the spot where we had landed, the British sailors from the warships whispered 'good luck' and dipped their oars in the water. Then we were on our own. The last contact with the Eighth Army had been broken. . . .

"We were eighty-five men in all. We had ten machine guns which required the services of twenty men. The rest of us were armed with tommy guns and knuckle-duster daggers. We had one signalman and one medical man with us.

"We advanced in the dark. Some scouts went ahead, their daggers ready for instant action. We lost all sense of time. Every minute was like an eternity. We reached the road at last, stopped, and lay down to await the report of the scouts. In this neighborhood we knew there should be an Italian guard post. Our machine guns were at the ready, to meet all eventualities. But we also knew that we must not fire yet, for it would have betrayed our presence. And that, considering that we were eighty-five men against a division, would have meant our certain annihilation.

"Forty-five minutes we waited. I was growing anxious about our scouts. Then the sound of a shrill low whistle came to us in the dark. A scout came running back. The Italian post had been taken. The scouts had carried out a 'silent job'. As we stepped up I noticed several bodies on the ground. I could not tell whether they were corpses or just stunned or tied. Nor did I care.

"Ten lorries then rumbled past over the road. They did not even dream of stopping to examine the isolated guard position. Then we advanced, the machine guns in front. Dawn was breaking. As we marched along the road into Bardia, another caravan of trucks passed by, going in the same direction as we. Our main danger was that the drivers might offer us a ride. But to our luck, all the trucks were heavily loaded, and nobody bothered with us hitchhikers. It did not seem to enter the drivers' heads that an enemy party was marching along right in their midst.

"So we kept walking until we saw our chance and made off across a field. Several blockhouses were dealt with. Their small garrisons were given 'silent treatment.' We managed to advance to a well-built concrete blockhouse. The garrison was still asleep. We quickly dispatched all of them while they lay on their cots. Then we made ourselves comfortable, set up our machine guns, and waited.

"When an hour after dawn a deafening roar heralded the artillery barrage of our own guns, indicating that the British 'push' was on, we heard the signals all around us, calling the blockhouse garrisons to the defense. Italian soldiers streamed out of them and ran forward. And we opened fire on them.

"One officer, thinking that his men were being fired on by mistake, shouted at us, but we continued to fire. After a while it dawned on the Italians that something was wrong. Two companies appeared, cautiously approaching our position. When they were quite near, we hurled a well-aimed mass of hand grenades at them. They dispersed in panic.

"Fire was opened at us by their machine guns from all directions, but it was ineffective since we were in a good position of concealment. They got their artillery to open fire on us too, but their fire was misdirected, since their own men were all over and they could not easily pick out as a special target the one blockhouse we occupied.

"But now shells of our own guns began falling dangerously near. Realizing that we were no longer an unknown quantity, we flashed signals to our own observers overhead and in the general direction of where our main forces might be. After an hour or so we knew that we had been seen, for the shells of the British artillery outside Bardia began giving our blockhouse a wide clearance.

"We then redoubled our fire on the Italian rear, and their officers, believing themselves surrounded by superior forces, hoisted white flags on the blockhouses. The town of Bardia was ours. But we did not leave our blockhouse except to occupy a few more of the neighboring pillboxes, where we manned the captured Italian machine guns. We could not very well show the enemy how few we were, for in that case he might well have regretted his surrender and turned on us. By mid-afternoon the first wave of British infantry and the motorized units moved into Bardia without firing a shot.,

"We did not raise hell in Bardia, it is true. We did better: we captured everything intact and nine thousand enemy prisoners to boot ...."

05/11 Links: Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Boko Haram and the Kidnapped Schoolgirls; Lana Del Rey to tour Israel

From Ian:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali: Boko Haram and the Kidnapped Schoolgirls

I am often told that the average Muslim wholeheartedly rejects the use of violence and terror, does not share the radicals' belief that a degenerate and corrupt Western culture needs to be replaced with an Islamic one, and abhors the denigration of women's most basic rights. Well, it is time for those peace-loving Muslims to do more, much more, to resist those in their midst who engage in this type of proselytizing before they proceed to the phase of holy war.
It is also time for Western liberals to wake up. If they choose to regard Boko Haram as an aberration, they do so at their peril. The kidnapping of these schoolgirls is not an isolated tragedy; their fate reflects a new wave of jihadism that extends far beyond Nigeria and poses a mortal threat to the rights of women and girls. If my pointing this out offends some people more than the odious acts of Boko Haram, then so be it.

The Rock and Roll Boycott of Israel

Efforts at a cultural boycott of Israel begin with attempts to pressure artists to avoid performing in Israel or to cancel appearances once they are scheduled. There is of course a significant difference between statements by artists that they will not play Israel as a matter of principle, and the cancellation of a scheduled performance. While the former is often nothing more than an empty statement, the latter resonates loudly with Israelis.
Despite these efforts, the musical boycott of Israel appears to have failed. The biggest names in the world of music continue to frequent Israel, including Alicia Keys, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Rihanna, Madonna, Depeche Mode, Moby, the Pet Shop Boys, Aerosmith, Celine Dion, Lady Gaga, Justin Timberlake, Barbra Streisand, and many others. Israeli music fans recently received another vote of confidence with the announcement that the Rolling Stones are scheduled to play in Israel in June 2014.
The list goes on. Once one scratches the surface of any given concert cancellation, one quickly comes to the conclusion that ideology, conscience, and support for the Palestinians have very little to do with it. The true factors leading to a cancellation are usually online bullying, threats of damaging an artist’s sales, disrupting concerts, sabotage letters, deceit, and explicit death threats. Further boycott tactics include picketing concerts and shows by Israeli artists abroad, and attempts to disrupt performances via shouting, sign-raising, and general misconduct.
More often than not, it becomes evident that the so-called “success’’ the boycott movement has enjoyed never happened. Just because a pro-boycott site claims that an artist or band has boycotted Israel doesn’t necessarily mean that this is true. For example, several boycott websites have explained that “Jon Bon Jovi was asked not to play in Israel. Thus far, boycott efforts have been successful.” According to this logic, anyone who has not been to Israel is automatically a boycott supporter. In an interview with the BBC’s Jo Whiley, rocker Jon Bon Jovi reveals Israel is the one place in the world he would like to play that he hasn’t yet.

A large part of the Long Arab War against the Jews of the Middle East is the delegitimization and erasure of Jewish history. In the Arab-Muslim world this delegitimization and erasure is almost entirely complete and it has a significant influence in the way that westerners, including Jewish westerners, discuss the conflict.

The question of language in propaganda should be of central concern to those of us who care about the Jewish people and the Jewish state. Obvious examples of the way that Jewish history is erased include the erasure of the ancient names of Judaea and Samaria from the western lexicon in favor of the recent Jordanian term "West Bank." Another example is the relatively recent replacement of the word "Palestinian" to refer to Jews from that region with the word "Palestinian" to refer to Arabs. This bit of rhetorical, ahistorical ju-jitzu provides the basis of Arab claims to Jewish land. It is, in fact, part of the effort to simply replace the Jews with the small subsection of local Arabs who now claim to represent an ancient and distinct people persecuted by foreign Jewish invaders.

Interestingly enough, there is no historical record whatsoever of any ancient "Palestinian" people of Arab descent on that land whatsoever. In this way the "Palestinians" become a people with a secret history that they simply make up when it is politically convenient to do so.

The erasing of Jewish history through, for example, denying that contemporary Jews are in anyway related to our ancestors in ancient Israel, or through denying that any Jewish temple ever resided on the Temple Mount, is accompanied by a replacement of Jewish history with the so-called "Palestinian narrative." Thus, Jesus becomes the "first Palestinian shaheed" (martyr), thereby taking a significant Jewish figure in world history and simply converting him into an Arab-Muslim. Another example is the attempt to appropriate or equate the Holocaust with al-Nakba. The obvious significance of the Nakba story is to suggest that while the Jews may have suffered a Holocaust, the "Palestinians" also suffered a holocaust at the hands of the murderous Jews. They even sometimes use the term "Nakba denial" in order to parallel and create an equivalence to "Holocaust denial" and thereby an equivalence between the Arab efforts to complete the Holocaust directly after World War II and the Holocaust, itself.

This fabrication and distortion of Jewish history, and the effort to replace it with "Palestinian" history, is aided by what historian Richard Landes calls "Pallywood." Just as the Nazis told lies about the Jewish people in order pave the way for slaughter, and spread those lies on film, so the Palestinian-Arabs tell lies about the Jews in order to justify aggression towards us, an aggression that is thereby further justified by their malicious "progressive" allies in the West. The foremost example of Pallywood is the al-Durrah affair in which a faked interpretation of a video by French "journalists" was spread around the world endeavoring to show murderous Jewish malice toward Palestinian-Arab children. This video, an example of the blood libel, is partly responsible not only for the thousands of dead during the Second Terror War against the Jews at the turn of the millennium, but for the betrayal of the Jewish people by western leftists who went along with the notion of Jewish malice and abuse toward a largely innocent "indigenous" population.

Finally, the most significant aspect of the attempt to rob Jewish people, not only of our security but of our very history, is through the recent social construction of Palestinian national identity. The politically motivated construction of "Palestinian" identity emerged for most local Arabs during the end of the twentieth century solely for the purpose of countering Jewish claims to historically Jewish land. Throughout most of the twentieth-century the term "Palestinian" referred to Jewish people living on that land. The local Arabs only took on the attribution "Palestinian" after the Jews of the region gave up the term in favor Israel.

Israel, of course, being one of the ancient names for the Jewish people, more generally.

The erasure and confiscation of Jewish history by the so-called "Palestinians" is one of the most insidious tactics in the Long Arab War against the Jews. It is also one of the most effective and least discussed, but it is fully consistent with the history of Islam. Islam, unlike Judaism, is an expansionist, imperial religion that throughout its history has consistently replaced non-Muslim holy sites with mosques and retroactively turned significant non-Muslim historical and religious figures, such as Abraham, Moses, and Jesus, into Muslims.

If we acknowledge that the Jewish minority in the Middle East are a people under siege, and are, in fact, the minority victims of an ongoing Arab-Muslim majority aggression, then we need to acknowledge and discuss the theft of Jewish heritage by that aggressive and hostile majority.

Well-meaning Jewish intellectuals and academics in the West often tend to downplay historical Arab-Muslim aggression against the Jews of the Middle East for the very best reasons. They are, as the late professor Barry Rubin might say, lying for peace, whether they recognize that or not. The hope is that if smart westernized Jews are nice to smart westernized Arabs then maybe those Arabs will prevail upon their brothers and sisters in the Middle East to end the long, unjust, unnecessary, and Koranically-based war against us.

I simply do not see it happening.

Michael Lumish writes for the Israel Thrives blog as well as Times of Israel and Jews Down Under,

The Lebanese, and now anti-Israel Palestinian Christians, continue their uproar over the planned visit of Maronite Patriarch Beshara al-Rai to Israel to welcome the Pope that I mentioned last week.

Ma'an reports that the rabidly anti-Israel Kairos Palestine issued a statement (not on their website yet) denouncing the trip:

Palestinian group Kairos released a statement on Friday warning Patriarch Beshara al-Rai that his plans to accompany the Pope on a Holy Land visit May 24-26 could be misused by Israeli authorities to "whitewash" the occupation.

"We as Christian Palestinians are eager to see and meet with our religious guides and leaders," the statement said, but it stressed that the group would prefer to meet with him in "prayer of the spirits, and not in the presence of the Israeli occupation."

The group also expressed its desire to "prevent the formation of any moral, ethical, or religious cover" for the occupation, highlighting their fears that Israeli authorities would misuse the patriarch's visit to distract attention from crimes perpetuated against Palestinians.

"This step may delight the occupation state, not because it believes in the right of religions to express themselves and to practice their rituals, but because it serves its policies and whitewashes its face," the statement continued.

Mahmoud Abbas disagrees, but of course insists that "normalization" with Israel is an unspeakable evil:

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas praised on Wednesday evening the Maronite Patriarch's anticipated visit to Jerusalem, considering that it contributes to “strengthening Muslim-Christian coexistence as well as the Arabic identity” of the occupied Palestinian territories.

"We highly appreciate, respect and welcome Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi's visit to the Holy Land and meeting with the city's people,” Abbas said in a telephone call with Patriarch Beshara al-Rahi, according to a statement published on the state-run National News Agency.

"This visit contributes to preserving the Arab identity and the resistance of Jerusalem and Palestine,” he expressed.

He continued: “We welcome Palestine's great visitor, the head of the Maronite Church which has a history of preserving Arabic language and culture.”

Addressing al-Rahi, the Palestinian leader said: "We welcome you in your second country. Your visit is not a normalization (with Israel) as those with personal agendas are claiming. They seem to be surrendering to reality by rejecting your visit to Palestine and Jerusalem, explaining that these territories are under occupation.”

"This is your city and that of besieged Palestinians. Our hearts and homes are open to welcome you, hoping that we pay the Lebanese back some of their favors in hosting hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees, and in supporting the sacrifices of our people.”

Israel haters express the fear that Israel will politicize the visit, but Abbas using it as a weapon against Israel doesn't seem to bother anyone!

The Patriarch is, so far, standing by his decision:

Al-Rahi had however reportedly defended his decision to accompany Pope Francis to Jerusalem and hinted that he would not change his mind, saying that as Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, it is his duty to welcome the Pope in any country in the region.

"I am the Maronite Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, of regions expanding from Turkey to Mauritania, Saudi Arabia and to Iran,” he stated upon his arrival at Rafik Hariri International Airport coming from France on Tuesday afternoon.

"It is my duty to welcome the Pope in any country in these regions,” he explained.

And to those against his visit, the patriarch said they don't have "to accept it."

You can be certain that two of the great truths of the Middle East will not be mentioned once by Beshara or by any Palestinian Arab leader who greets him.

One is that the Christian population in the Middle East, including under Palestinian Arab rule, has been declining rapidly, and it is all because of Muslim anti-Christian sentiment.

Bethlehem was 60% Christian in 1990, under Israeli rule. Now the percentage of Christians there has plummeted to below 20% today under PA rule. It cannot be because of Israeli policies, because the Muslim population in Bethlehem has been increasing dramatically.

Another is that Christians have been fleeing Lebanon for decades as well. While they used to be roughly one third the population there, those days are long past. However, Christians refuse to allow a new census for fear they would lose the political power they have there by law.

Finally, another salient fact that no one will mention: Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon are treated worst of all, and are discriminated against by law, with severe restrictions on where they can live and work. These "guests" that Abbas says are being so graciously hosted by Lebanon have been fleeing as well; some 200,000 of them have emigrated even while UNRWA still claims them as "refugees" that they are helping.

No, the real problems of Christians under Palestinian and Lebanese rule, and Palestinians under Lebanese rule, will not be the subject of a single statement by Mahmoud Abbas and Patriarch Beshara. All they will talk about is about how Jerusalem and "Palestine" are Arab - and how Jews, from whom the entire claim of Christians and Muslims derive, have no rights in their ancestral homeland.

How inclusive of them.

(Yesterday's Torah reading included Lev 25:38: "I am the LORD your God, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your God." Such a simple, straightforward verse like this causes Christian antisemites who deny any Jewish connection to the land to jump through hoops to explain how you cannot take God's Word at His word.)

The Tower reports:

President Barack Obama was honored Wednesday by the University of Southern California (USC) Shoah Foundation. Filmmaker Stephen Spielberg, who created the foundation, presented the president with the Ambassador for Humanity award.

In his remarks, the president condemned the official anti-Semitism of foreign governments such as Iran.

"And that includes confronting a rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world. We’ve seen attacks on Jews in the streets of major Western cities, public places marred by swastikas. From some foreign governments we hear the worst kinds of anti-Semitic scapegoating. In Ukraine, as Steven mentioned, we saw those disgusting pamphlets from masked men calling on Jews to register. And tragically, we saw a shooting here at home, in Overland Park in Kansas.

"And it would be tempting to dismiss these as isolated incidents, but if the memories of the Shoah survivors teach us anything, it is that silence is evil’s greatest co-conspirator. And it’s up to us — each of us, every one of us — to forcefully condemn any denial of the Holocaust. It’s up to us to combat not only anti-Semitism, but racism and bigotry and intolerance in all their forms, here and around the world. It’s up to us to speak out against rhetoric that threatens the existence of a Jewish homeland and to sustain America’s unshakeable commitment to Israel’s security.

Though he did not mention the country by name, Iran has a long record of “rhetoric that threatens the existence of a Jewish homeland.”

No, Mr. President. The worst examples of antisemitism are not in Overland Park or among ascendant right-wing groups in Europe or the Ukraine or even Iran.

The worst antisemitism today is in the Arab world.

The blood libel is alive and well in Egypt and Jordan and in the areas ruled by the PA. Holocaust denial is endemic. There have been antisemitic TV mini-series based on the "Protocols of the Elders of Zion," a forgery which is accepted unquestioningly as fact. The biggest insult any Arab gives to his enemies is to say that they are secretly Jewish.

But Obama cannot mention Arab antisemitism for fear of upsetting our Arab "friends." For Obama, it is much easier to talk about isolated incidents, especially done by extreme rightists, than to deal with the most obvious and explicit Jew-hatred on the planet.

If Obama wants to truly fight antisemitism, he can't ignore its worst instances. By doing so, Obama's words ring very, very hollow.

PETA compares slaughtered pigs to Holocaust victims

A new PETA poster from Germany:

"Never forget that everything Hitler did in Germany was legal" - MLK

On their Facebook page, they write:

In the past, many events were considered legal, which are cruel and wrong from today's perspective. It was wrong to burn witches. It was wrong to own slaves. It was wrong to kill Jews. It is just as wrong, that over 1,000,000,000 animals are killed for the meat industry each year (in Germany alone.)

Just as wrong.

This is what passes for morality nowadays.

Hitler (although no one knows why he became a vegetarian) probably believed that slaughtering pigs was worse than slaughtering Jews. So PETA is a hair more moral than Hitler.

(h/t Slava)

05/10 Links: Chloe Valdary: Dear J Street, Time to End the Hypocrisy; Indyk’s Amoral Kiss-and-Tell

From Ian:

Chloe Valdary: Dear J Street: Time to End the Hypocrisy

So J Street will not tolerate “harassment” from a student who disagrees with its viewpoints but it will indulge a soft tyrant who has oppressed his people, embezzled billions of dollars, and dictated that selling land to a Jew is punishable by death.
For J Street, engaging in civil discourse over relevant issues is apparently reflective of “consistently and consciously cross[ing] that line” that must never be crossed, yet investing billions of dollars into a propaganda campaign that broadcasts to Arab children descriptions of Jews as apes and pigs elicits no such outrage.
According to its website, J Street has no problem engaging with Hamas since “one makes peace with one’s enemies not one’s friends.” Thus, J Street is willing to engage in dialogue with a genocidal Islamist internationally recognized terrorist organization that calls for the annihilation of all Jewry, hangs homosexuals in the public square, and perpetrates human rights abuses against women. But God forbid people should ever speak to a 21-year-old junior at Brandeis University who commits the egregious crime against humanity by blogging about politics.
The absurdity would be comedic if it wasn’t so morally reprehensible.

Source for Newsweek’s ‘Dreyfus Affair’ Article Accusing Israel of Spying on U.S. Also Supported Anti-Israel ASA Boycott

Paul Pillar, a retired CIA intelligence officer and the main named source in this week’s Newsweek article, ‘Israel Won’t Stop Spying on the U.S.,’ which was rejected by Israeli officials, is also an outspoken supporter of the American Studies Association boycott of Israeli universities, according to an article he wrote for The National Interest.
“As a matter of intent, justice, legality, and morality, the recent decision by the American Studies Association to boycott Israeli academic institutions is a righteous action,” Pillar wrote in December.
The ASA boycott was condemned by over two hundred university presidents and many human rights organizations around the world.
In his article supporting the ASA boycott, Pillar said, ”The government of Israel, while paying lip service to the idea of a Palestinian state, occupies indefinitely, and continues to colonize, land that Israel conquered in a war it initiated 46 years ago and is home to Palestinian Arabs, and in so doing is depriving Palestinians not only of self-determination but of most of their political and civil rights as well as keeping them in economic subjugation.”

Stop the War Coalition supports the war (against Israel’s legitimacy)

The ‘Stop the war coalition’ ran a blog a couple of days ago entitled:
Time to go to war with Israel as the only path to peace in the Middle East
I have left this headline in bold because I figure if people misinterpret what the actual article says from this ridiculous headline then so be it – it is their fault for putting such a stupid headline up in the first place.
You see, by going ‘to war with Israel’ what they actually meant was (and again I quote) ‘a legitimacy war’ with Israel. Crystal clear? No not exactly.
It takes quite a dedicated reader though to get to the last few paragraphs of this article where it finally explains what it means by ‘war’ and then ‘legitimacy war’. Most people will come away from this article thinking one of two things:
1) Stop the war now backs a one off war against Israel
2) Stop the war now wants a ‘peaceful war’ against Israel’s legitimacy (right to exist).

05/09 Links Pt2: BDS Movement: Barbarians Inside the Gates; J Street's false martyrdom

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: A sad Independence

Israel is the most extraordinary collective achievement of the Jewish people in thousands of years. It is the embodiment of the dreams, faith, blood, sweat and tears of the Jewish people today and throughout time in both spiritual and physical terms.
Israel is something that every Jew should celebrate and be thankful not only on Yom Ha’atzma’ut, but every day of the year.
Israelis know this and that is why we are so content and optimistic.
It is J Street’s purpose to hide this truth from the American Jewish community. So it is the task of the American Jews to build on the decision of the Conference of Presidents and ensure through education, travel to Israel and aliya that J Street goes down in time as the great failure it deserves to be. Doing so will ensure that next year, instead of being reduced to the sad spectacle of “a bunch of kids eating cake,” Yom Ha’atzma’ut celebrations worldwide will be the unbridled expressions of joy that they are in Israel.

Imam Pushing to Sanitize 9/11 Museum Slurs Jews

A Muslim religious leader who helped spearhead a push to get the National September 11 Memorial Museum to censor references to Islam in a short film about al-Qaeda has said Jews “killed the Prophets and Messengers” and are a “cancer … in every generation as they get in power.”
Mustafa Elazabawy, imam at Masjid Manhattan, made the remarks in a December 2008 khutbah, or sermon, called “Children of Israel.” A recording of the sermon remains on the mosque’s website.
Elazabawy wrote a letter to museum leadership last month, complaining that the 6-minute film about al-Qaeda’s rise “would greatly offend our local Muslim believers as well as any foreign Muslim visitor to the museum,” if it is not changed. “Unsophisticated visitors who do not understand the difference between Al Qaeda and Muslims may come away with a prejudiced view of Islam, leading to antagonism and even confrontation toward Muslim believers near the site.”

Isi Leibler: J Street's false martyrdom

It is surely undeniable that J Street is in fact canvassing and promoting anti-Israeli initiatives while castigating and seeking to undermine the policies of the democratically elected government of Israel. The idea of accepting J Street's self-description as "pro-Israel" seems to be taken directly from the pages of "Alice in Wonderland."
Jacobs says that there should be "no litmus test of ideological orientation" applied to candidates for the Conference of Presidents. Under such terms, Jews for Jesus and Neturei Karta would presumably also qualify for membership.
Rather than sanctimoniously castigating the majority of organizations that voted to reject J Street, Jacobs and Schonfeld should consider reviewing their own educational programs, which seem to lead many of their rabbis towards supporting anti-Zionist leftists who demonize the Jewish state. They should concentrate on educating youngsters about the values and achievements of the Jewish state and its central role for the future of the Jewish people.

Israel Hayom has a nice survey on the state of archaeology along the Western Wall, and it adds this new information:

The recent discovery is fascinating at the very least: a single stone that is different in appearance from the others and raises quite a few questions. It is completely smooth, lacking the cut margins at the edges that we know well from the other stones of the Western Wall.

Where did that stone come from? Why is it there, and why is it different from the stones around it? All the foundation stones of the Western Wall are Herodian stone, also known as ashlar stone, with cut margins and a raised center, called a boss. Even though Herod's stonemasons finished these stones rather coarsely, these stones still bear a close resemblance to the familiar stones of the Western Wall, the ones that are above ground. Of all the stone blocks used to build the Western Wall, only this one is completely smooth, lacking recessed margins and a raised boss.

Eli Shukron explains it with an interesting theory. "This stone came from the Temple Mount, from the surplus stones that were used in the construction of the Temple itself. Those stones were high-quality, chiseled and smooth, like this unusual one, which was discovered among the Western Wall's foundations. This stone was intended for the Second Temple, and stones like it were used to build the Temple -- but it was left unused. The builders of the Western Wall brought it down here because it was no longer needed up above -- and this is how the other stones of the Temple looked," he says, adding, "Anyone who passes a hand gently over this stone feels a slightly wavy texture, just like the Talmud describes."

Shukron presented his theory at an informal meeting of leading archaeologists in Jerusalem that takes place every month or two. Most of the archaeologists did not rule out the possibility that Shukron might be correct, but there is no solid proof.

Dr. Eilat Mazar recently completed the project of documenting the walls of the Temple Mount, which took three years (and was sponsored by the Shalem Center). As part of the project, every single of the walls of the Temple Mount was photographed, researched and numbered. Dr. Mazar confirms Eli Shukron's statements. "Yes -- there is not even one other smooth stone like it among all the stones of the Temple Mount walls. All of them have chiseled margins," she says. Still, Mazar says, "It is hard to construct a theory on the basis of a single stone. If another stone or two like it should be found in the future -- and that could happen -- that will be a somewhat stronger basis for Shukron's theory that the stone came from a surplus that had been intended for the Temple of the type that had been used to build it." Meanwhile, Mazar says, "This is a worthy and interesting idea, but we need to be cautious."

Jordanian paper publishes antisemitic conspiracy theory - in English

From Jordan's Ammon News:

Could gaining control of the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran (CBI) be one of the main reasons that Iran is being targeted by Western and Israeli powers?

...Some researchers are pointing out that Iran is one of only three countries left in the world whose central bank is not under Rothschild control. Before 9-11 there were reportedly seven: Afghanistan, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Cuba, North Korea and Iran. By 2003, however, Afghanistan and Iraq were swallowed up by the Rothschild octopus, and by 2011 Sudan and Libya were also gone. In Libya, a Rothschild bank was established in Benghazi while the country was still at war.

..The Rothschilds exert powerful influence over the world’s major news agencies. By repetition, the masses are duped into believing horror stories about evil villains. The Rothschilds control the Bank of England, the Federal Reserve, the European Central Bank, the IMF, the World Bank and the Bank of International Settlements. Also they own most of the gold in the world as well as the London Gold Exchange, which sets the price of gold every day. It is said the family owns over half the wealth of the planet—estimated by Credit Suisse to be $231 trillion—and is controlled by Evelyn Rothschild, the current head of the family.

Objective researchers contend that Iran is not being demonized because they are a nuclear threat, just as the Taliban, Iraq’s Saddam Hussein and Libya’s Muammar Qadaffi were not a threat.

What then is the real reason? Is it the trillions to be made in oil profits, or the trillions in war profits? Is it to bankrupt the U.S. economy, or is it to start World War III? Is it to destroy Israel’s enemies, or to destroy the Iranian central bank so that no one is left to defy Rothschild’s money racket?

It might be any one of those reasons or, worse—it might be all of them.

The article was written by Pete Papaherakles, a right-wing antisemitic conspiracy theorist. However, Papaherakles is usually careful not to mention "Jews." He'll just emphasize things like "George Soros' birth name is Schwartz" (wink, wink.)

His readers know exactly what he means.

The funny thing is that this article was written at least a year ago at the nutty site American Free Press. Here is the illustration for that version. Note the Star of David on the book.