Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, June 06, 2014

06/06 Links Pt1: FM lauds Australia for dropping 'occupied' Jerusalem label; False Palestinian Unity

From Ian:

Miffed by Palestinian criticism, Aussies boost pro-Israel stance

“The Palestinians handled this very badly. Such disagreements are usually handled in private,” the senior Australian source said, adding that the Palestinians’ behavior partially led to Canberra’s announcement this week to no longer refer to East Jerusalem as “occupied.” “Erekat’s letter was quite personal and does not reflect the way senior officials would usually write to each other. Apparently, they don’t put much stock in their relationship with Australia, and don’t really have appreciation for our financial support.”
Canberra also has not welcomed the establishment of the new Palestinian unity government, which is backed by Hamas – as the UN, the EU, and many countries have – but also has not severed ties with the PA, as Jerusalem would have liked. Aid will continue to flow to the new government, and Australian officials traveling to the region will continue to visit their counterparts in Ramallah. At the same time, Australia does not bar officials from meeting Israeli officials in East Jerusalem, as opposed to most other countries. (h/t Yoel)

FM lauds Australia for dropping 'occupied' Jerusalem label

Lieberman lauded Brandis' stance as a "serious approach to the issue," adding that the former's remarks were "free of populism or efforts to kiss up to extreme Islamists, who terrorize anyone who dares tell the truth about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict."
"The territories [in question] have been part of Jewish history for thousands of years and were never a part of any Palestinian state, which never actually existed," Lieberman went on to say.
Lieberman concluded with the hope that "additional countries will find the integrity and courage shown by the government of Australia."

It's time to stop apologizing

Judea and Samaria are not Palestinian land; at the very most there is debate about them. We also demand full ownership of them. Our historic, legal, and religious rights to them are greater than those of Saeb Erekat and Abbas.
The fight to legitimize our hold on the land of our life depends to a large degree on our determined activity and a righteous stance. The government in Australia changed, and along with it the definition of construction in east Jerusalem. It is no longer "occupied territory" but Israeli territory, the Jewish people's only homeland.

Caroline Glick: Ending Abbas’s winning streak

The fact is that Israel has gotten nothing from playing along with American coddling of Abbas. It receives less support from Obama every day. And its willingness to go along to get along has demoralized and angered the Republicans who oppose what Obama is doing. It has given cover to Democrats who are loath to oppose the White House.
The time has come for Israel to stop playing this game, where the PLO gets to materially breach its agreements and so render them effectively null and void, while Israel, the sucker, keeps upholding them.
The time has come for Israel to stop collecting tax revenues for the PA. All of the money Israel collects and transfers to the PA is now serving Hamas directly.
And it isn’t enough to keep collecting, but stop transferring the revenues. The monies always end up being transferred eventually.
The only way to end this is by actually ceasing to serve as the PA’s taxman.
Obama won’t like it. But what’s he going to do? Facilitate Iran’s nuclear weapons program? Blame Israel for Palestinian aggression against it? Recognize and fund Hamas? The only way to get off this train is to get off. And disembarking is also the only way to impact US behavior. No single act by Israel will do more to empower the US Congress to stop funding the Palestinians than that.
And once that happens, a virtuous circle is formed, where at a minimum, Abbas’s winning streak will end.

Arab paper bemoans Church no longer blaming Jews for killing Jesus

A writer for Cairo Portal is upset at Pope Francis' visit to Herzl's grave and the Yad Vashem Holocaust museum, but that is just the start.

This act is a grubby, ugly shame, especially compared to the position of Pope Pius X, at a meeting with Herzl in 1904, and his refusal to strictly to create a state for the Jews, saying his famous statement: "we can not," calling Jews at the same time to convert to Christianity!

After 110, what he's done is a flagrant shame, and it reveals and condemns the attitude of the Catholic Church: the Church deviates from the plan, and does not stop making concessions to the Zionists, at the expense of their faith and beliefs, especially over the past sixty years. The doctrinal starting point for this blatant act goes back to Vatican II (1962-1965), especially to the document "Nostra Aetate" that cleared the Jews of Christ's blood ... and put an end to the prophecy of Jesus about the demolition of the temple and the demolition of corrupt and hateful character of Judaism!

The Vatican II represents an ugly gap can not be bridged in the long history of the Catholic Church, that overthrew-its text and beliefs and heritage in order to exonerate the Jews of the blood of Christ; note that the sentences against the [Jews] are still currently in circulation in the Gospels. Therefore, this institution has lost any credibility with followers....

A final shame: to see the Vatican bend to the wishes of the Zionist Protocols and visit the Wailing Wall, which originally and historically is the Muslim Buraq wall, and put a bouquet of flowers on the grave of Herzl and visit Yad Vashem, the memorial place of the Holocaust..I add that the words "the ugliness of the Holocaust" does not represent anything, does not represent anything at all compared to the murder of an entire people.

In related news, the PA's official schoolbooks for Christian children also say that the Jews were responsible for Jesus' death.

Commenter Irony Dome wrote this brilliant musical spoof of Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. I made slight changes and added a stanza, (and then another one by special request.) And then Irony Dome added another!

We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
A special bunch of ancient Arabs, not some common Libyans
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

Israelis say, or so they claim
That they were here before us
But now we'll put them all to shame
With this, our mighty chorus
We'll tell them how they've got it wrong
And leave them feeling bluish
We'll tell them how we go back long
Before anything was Jewish!

JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
Pretending we're aboriginal American Indians
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

The Neanderthals would grunt at us
'Cause they were clearly mad
That we were here before them
And this made them very sad
We saw the dinosaurs decline
When that rock hit with a clang
We saw the seas start to align
And remember the Big Bang!

JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians
Our history is so lengthy its almost Darwinian
We're older than Cro-Magnon man and anything that's simian
We're JebuCanaanPhilistAmalekNatufistinians!

We tell you all that we are as old as all the ancient geysers
We hope you don't notice that Arabs have been colonizers
Our ancient roots within this land cannot stand any scrutiny
But the world will believe anything - just look at our new "unity"

[chorus]

Our name, we know, it's long and tough
And sounds somewhat atrocious
But if we say it loud enough
They'll never know it's bogus
Where are we from, we do not know
We can't make up our minds
So we just mention settlements
And the rest is left behind!

[chorus]

We can claim with a straight face our people include Jesus
Solomon, Moses and anyone else who would please us
Our history's so flexible that we can't really lose
As long as no one reminds us that those people were Jews

[chorus]

White House ignores fact that "unity" government violates existing agreements

From the WSJ:

The question is whether the U.S. government will continue to fund the PA now that Mr. Abbas has cast his lot with a State Department-designated foreign terrorist organization. U.S. law prohibits dispensing taxpayer money to any Palestinian entity over which Hamas exercises “undue influence.”

Previous attempts at reconciliation had failed in large part because Hamas had refused to subsume its armed wing to the PA. This time Mr. Abbas acquiesced to a partnership with a heavily armed terrorist group. The resulting relationship will likely resemble the one next door between the Lebanese government, with its negligible regular army, and the Shiite terror group Hezbollah, which like Hamas boasts an arsenal of Iranian-supplied missiles.

To hew as close as possible to the letter of U.S. law, the architects of the Hamas-backed interim government have assembled a cabinet of old PA holdovers and technocrats from Gaza with no obvious links to Hamas. The maneuver was good enough for the Obama State Department. “At this point, it appears that President Abbas has formed an interim technocratic government that does not include ministers affiliated with Hamas,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters earlier this week. “Moving forward, we will be judging this government by its actions.”

But that still leaves open the question of the PA’s treaty obligations. The Oslo Accords and its progeny, including the 1998 Wye Memorandum, set very clear limits on the extent and potency of the PA arsenal. Under the Wye Memorandum, for example, the PA is required to “establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of” illegal weapons.

Nobody should count on the aging and calculating Mr. Abbas to exercise meaningful control over Hamas’s arsenal, much less its behavior. And nobody should count on the Obama Administration to apply meaningful penalties to the PA for joining forces with Hamas and flouting its obligations toward Israel. That leaves Congress, which can block funding to the Palestinians until they prove capable of governing themselves as something other than a terrorist enterprise.

Hamas' maintaining its terror wing, the Al Qassam Brigades, is only one of the violations of existing accords that are being flouted by this "unity government." Here is the text of the Wye Memorandum of 1998 showing that all three of the PA's obligations are being explicitly violated:

1. Outlawing and Combating Terrorist Organizations

The Palestinian side will make known its policy of zero tolerance for terror and violence against both sides.

A work plan developed by the Palestinian side will be shared with the U.S. and thereafter implementation will begin immediately to ensure the systematic and effective combat of terrorist organizations and their infrastructure.

In addition to the bilateral Israeli-Palestinian security cooperation, a U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet biweekly to review the steps being taken to eliminate terrorist cells and the support structure that plans, finances, supplies and abets terror. In these meetings, the Palestinian side will inform the U.S. fully of the actions it has taken to outlaw all organizations (or wings of organizations, as appropriate) of a military, terrorist or violent character and their support structure and to prevent them from operating in areas under its jurisdiction.

The Palestinian side will apprehend the specific individuals suspected of perpetrating acts of violence and terror for the purpose of further investigation, and prosecution and punishment of all persons involved in acts of violence and terror.

A U.S.-Palestinian committee will meet to review and evaluate information pertinent to the decisions on prosecution, punishment or other legal measures which affect the status of individuals suspected of abetting or perpetrating acts of violence and terror.

2. Prohibiting Illegal Weapons

The Palestinian side will ensure an effective legal framework is in place to criminalize, in conformity with the prior agreements, any importation, manufacturing or unlicensed sale, acquisition or possession of firearms, ammunition or weapons in areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.

In addition, the Palestinian side will establish and vigorously and continuously implement a systematic program for the collection and appropriate handling of all such illegal items in accordance with the prior agreements. The U.S. has agreed to assist in carrying out this program.

A U.S.-Palestinian-Israeli committee will be established to assist and enhance cooperation in preventing the smuggling or other unauthorized introduction of weapons or explosive materials into areas under Palestinian jurisdiction.

3. Preventing Incitement

Drawing on relevant international practice and pursuant to Article XXII (1) of the Interim Agreement and the Note for the Record, the Palestinian side will issue a decree prohibiting all forms of incitement to violence or terror, and establishing mechanisms for acting systematically against all expressions or threats of violence or terror. This decree will be comparable to the existing Israeli legislation which deals with the same subject.

A U.S.- Palestinian-Israeli committee will meet on a regular basis to monitor cases of possible incitement to violence or terror and to make recommendations and reports on how to prevent such incitement. The Israeli, Palestinian and U.S. sides will each appoint a media specialist, a law enforcement representative, an educational specialist and a current or former elected official to the committee.:

Armed terrorists in the WB before "unity"

Not only is allowing Hamas to maintain its own terror wing a violation of these accords (as has been the allowance of Fatah's Al Aqsa Brigades,) but also the PA must now act to make Islamic Jihad and other armed terrorist groups illegal.

Yet even before this agreement the PA has allowed armed groups to roam around the West Bank, in explicit violation of these signed agreements.

And the White House and State Department allowed that without a peep.

As I've noted before, there is no difference between Hamas and Fatah - both maintain armed terror wings in violation of agreements. The only difference is that Fatah lies about it.

The "unity agreement" makes it harder for the Obama administration to publicly ignore its role in allowing the PLO to steamroll its commitments, but make no mistake - it knows quite well about these violations and has willfully ignored them for years. The :unity government" just adds a new layer of illegality over Washington's existing willful blindness and coddling of the PLO.

Will Congress step in and uphold US law?

(h/t TIP)

Chag sameach!

The holiday of Shavuot, the ultimate joke for lactose intolerant Jews, is upon us.

I will not be blogging until Thursday night or Friday morning.

Have a great holiday!

06/03 Links Pt2: BDS and the Myth of Economic Pressure; The Return of Christian Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

BDS and the Myth of Economic Pressure

The BDS movement is based on a single uber-myth – that economic and political pressure forced apartheid South Africa to fall. And if it can bring down South Africa, it can bring down Israel as well.
It’s a myth, however, because it’s simply not true.
According to research conducted by Ivo Welch, boycotts, divestments, and sanctions had virtually no impact on South Africa. “Individual divestments, either as economic or symbolic pressure, have never succeeded in getting companies or countries to change,” he wrote in the New York Times.
Referring to an initiative at Stanford University to force the administration to divest from coal-mining companies, Welch pointed out that the South Africa model cannot serve as an example for success.

Melanie Phillips: 'Jesus Was a Palestinian': The Return of Christian Anti-Semitism

These malevolent concepts, spreading from Palestinian Christians to churches in the West, are rooted in an audacious strategy adopted by the Palestinian Authority to deny Israel’s right to exist by changing Jewish history to suit its own end. Part of this strategy involves denying that Jesus was a Jew from Judea and turning him into a Palestinian who preached Islam.
Clearly, this is a tall order: Rome didn’t change the name of Judea to Palestine until 136 C.E., and Islam first surfaced in the seventh century C.E. Nevertheless, the Palestinian leadership repeatedly claims that Jesus was a Palestinian.
In his Christmas message last year, the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, described Jesus as a “Palestinian messenger.” In the same month, the PA’s chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, who had described Jesus as “Palestine’s first martyr,” said that Jesus was “the first Palestinian after the Canaanite Palestinians.”

The UNRWA "Peace Ambassador" Who Sings For Terror

Mohammed Assaf, the 24 year old UNRWA resident who won the Arab Idol song competition, has become an overnight and worldwide sensation.
His victory song was entitled “Raise Your Keffiyah”, a PLO anthem and a favorite of Yasser Arafat (before whom he had performed ), and included such incendiary lyrics as “Most precious homeland, O Palestine, how dear it is, oh Arabs...when we were united the stone was very strong...the full moon rises on martyr (sic) may he rest his soul...”
The song has reverberated with UNRWA and the UN, as the former appointed Assaf their first ever “Regional Youth Ambassador for Palestine Refugees” and “Goodwill Ambassador For Peace”. PA President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas called upon Palestinian Arabs to support Assaf in his bid to win the Arab Idol contest and welcomed him as a hero after his victory, hosting him at PA headquarters in Ramallah and designating him an “honorary ambassador”.

So moderate! Iranian TV partially admits Holocaust, says Jews to blame

From MEMRI:

Following are excerpts from an interview with Palestinian-Lebanese researcher Walid Muhammad Ali, which aired on Al-Alam TV on April, 28, 2014:

Walid Muhammad Ali: It is imperative that we uncover the truth about the Zionist movement's role in the crime [of the Holocaust], which was perpetrated against the Jews, as well as against the Gypsies and many other European minorities.

Interviewer: Are you referring to the doubts over the extent of what occurred?

Walid Muhammad Ali: Indeed, this is a matter of research, yet it is considered taboo in the West, because, obviously, the figures are inflated. On principle, we condemn the killing of even a single person, let alone the killing of thousands or millions. But we must expose the way that the Zionist movement has extorted the entire world, particularly the German people, and at the Palestinian people's expense.

[…]

The Nazis perpetrated the Holocaust in collaboration with the Zionist movement.
[…]

Under their agreement, the Zionist movement was meant to help the Nazis to shatter the European and international embargo against them, and in return, the Zionist movement would help expel all the Jews from Germany. The Zionist movement helped run the Nazi camps, and helped guard the convoys of Jews, who were sent to the concentration camps and to the prisons, where the Holocaust took place. In exchange for the Zionist movement's help in breaking the economic embargo the Nazi movement would help the Zionist movement transfer the Jewish funds and Jewish youth to Palestine.

See? They aren't all Holocaust deniers! They are more than willing to admit that Jews were responsible for anything bad that may or may not have happened.

They are so moderate!

PalArab history 101

I saw this poster going around cyberspace, and it is classic:

(h/t SwissYankee)

Arabs upset at French-Israeli singer on The Voice performing in Lebanon

Amir Haddad is a dual French-Israeli citizen who has reached the quarter-finals of the French version of The Voice:

In July, the top eight singers will perform in Fouad Chehab Stadium in Jounieh, Lebanon.

You can predict what happens next.

Al Manar, which is associated with Hezbollah, published a plea to not allow Haddad to "desecrate" Lebanon with his presence.

The article says that he was a soldier in the IDF, and sarcastically adds, "As you know, the service in the army is one of the necessities of beautiful music and peace among human beings ... especially between Israelis on the one hand, and the Palestinians and the Lebanese on the other hand!"

Anyway, this will be an interesting test to see whether the producers cave to Islamic fundamentalists who cannot stomach the idea of an Israeli stepping foot in Arab land - because of their concern for human rights, you know.

06/03 Links Pt1: Palestinian Leaders Don't Want an Independent State; Israel boycotts new PUG

From Ian:

Efraim Karsh: Palestinian Leaders Don't Want an Independent State

For nearly a century, Palestinian leaders have missed no opportunity to impede the development of Palestinian civil society and the attainment of Palestinian statehood. Had Hajj Amin Husseini chosen to lead his constituents to peace and reconciliation with their Jewish neighbors, the Palestinians would have had their independent state over a substantial part of mandate Palestine by 1948, if not a decade earlier, and would have been spared the traumatic experience of dispersal and exile. Had Arafat set the PLO from the start on the path to peace and reconciliation instead of turning it into one of the most murderous and corrupt terrorist organizations in modern times, a Palestinian state could have been established in the late 1960s or the early 1970s; in 1979, as a corollary to the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty; by May 1999, as part of the Oslo process; or at the very latest, with the Camp David summit of July 2000. Had Abbas abandoned his predecessors' rejectionist path, a Palestinian state could have been established after the Annapolis summit of November 2007, or during President Obama's first term after Benjamin Netanyahu broke with the longstanding Likud precept by publicly accepting in June 2009 the two-state solution and agreeing to the establishment of a Palestinian state.
But then, the attainment of statehood would have shattered Palestinian leaders' pan-Arab and Islamist delusions, not to mention the kleptocratic paradise established on the backs of their long suffering subjects. It would have transformed the Palestinians in one fell swoop from the world's ultimate victim into an ordinary (and most likely failing) nation-state thus terminating decades of unprecedented international indulgence. It would have also driven the final nail in the PLO's false pretense to be "the sole representative of the Palestinian people" (already dealt a devastating blow by Hamas's 2006 electoral rout) and would have forced any governing authority to abide, for the first time in Palestinian history, by the principles of accountability and transparency. Small wonder, therefore, that whenever confronted with an international or Israeli offer of statehood, Palestinian leaders would never take "yes" for an answer. (h/t Bob Knot)

12 ways the US administration has failed its ally Israel

What was saddest about Washington’s insistence on accepting Abbas’s paper-thin veneer over his government’s new nature — his “technocrat” ministers were all approved by Hamas — is that it represents only the Obama administration’s latest abrogation of leadership, logic and leverage at Israel’s expense. Rather than rushing to embrace a Palestinian government in which an unreformed Hamas is a central component, what was to stop the US conditioning its acceptance on a reform of Hamas? What was to stop Washington saying that it would be happy to work with Abbas’s new government, the moment its Hamas backers recognized Israel, accepted previous agreements and renounced terrorism? Not a particularly high bar. What was to stop the US making such a demand, one of tremendous importance to its ally Israel? Only its incomprehensible reluctance to do.
Unfortunately, however, such lapses and failures are not the exception when it comes to the US-Israel alliance of late. This administration has worked closely with Israel in ensuring the Jewish state maintains its vital military advantage in this treacherous neighborhood, partnering Israel in offensive and defensive initiatives, notably including missile defense. It has stood by Israel at diplomatic moments of truth. It has broadly demonstrated its friendship, as would be expected given America’s interest in promoting the well-being of the region’s sole, stable, dependable democracy. But the dash to recognize the Fatah-Hamas government was one more in a series of aberrations — words and deeds that would have been far better left unsaid or undone, misconceived strategies, minor betrayals.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah Leaders: Abbas Is A Dictator

The unprecedented verbal attacks on Abbas reflect the deepening crisis in Fatah. Dahlan and the five senior Fatah officials who were expelled by Abbas enjoy widespread support among Palestinians, particularly in the Gaza Strip. And it is obvious that Dahlan and his loyalists do not intend this time to let Abbas get away with his controversial decision.
The renewed tensions in Fatah came as Abbas announced that he has instructed the new unity government to prepare for long overdue presidential and parliamentary elections. He said he is hoping that the elections will be held within six months and that he wants Hamas to participate in the vote, as was the situation in January 2006.
In the wake of the infighting in Fatah, Hamas's chances of winning the elections, when and if they are held, do not seem to be bad at all. In 2006, Fatah lost the parliamentary election due to internal squabbling and tensions, as well as financial and administrative corruption. Eight years later, Fatah appears to be suffering from the same problems and is likely to be defeated once again at the ballot box.

The PLO's Prisoner Payment Ploy

Palestinian Media Watch reports:

The Palestinian Authority has been under pressure from international donors following Palestinian Media Watch's exposure of the PA's policy of rewarding terrorists with salaries. These salaries amounted to a total of $103 million in 2013 and will reach at least $130 million in 2014. Members of US Congress have recently suggested deducting the amount paid in salaries from US funding to the PA. Similarly, Norway and Britainhave been demanding clarifications and changes to their funding of the PA, and the Dutch Parliament passed a motion that its government must do something to stop the salaries.

In order to avoid this international pressure, the PA is planning a ploy to maintain the salaries but transfer responsibility for payments from the PA to the PLO. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas is also the head of the PLO and he will continue to be directly responsible for the payments to the prisoners. (See below)

The PA expects that this ploy will work. The PA daily Al-Ayyam reported that "well-informed sources" stated that "turning the Ministry of Prisoners' Affairs into an authority subordinate to the PLO" "would be a change of name and nothing more, which would in no way affect the roles and duties that the Ministry [of Prisoners' Affairs] fulfilled." [Al-Ayyam, June 1, 2014] Accordingly, US and European donor money will continue to flow to the PA, the PA will pass the money to the PLO, and the PLO will pay the salaries of the terrorists.

Palestinian sources specified that this move was in response to US and EU pressure not to pay salaries to terrorists with their donor money.

"The new situation would make possible the provision of new resources to support prisoners' issues, without allowing forces of the US Congress or some European parliaments to attempt to blackmail the PA or to take steps against it.' Furthermore, these sources predicted that prisoners "would not feel any change," but rather improvement of their situation would be the case, as the PA would be able "to act towards meeting their demands and defending their rights more efficiently and flexibly."

[Al-Ayyam, June 1, 2014]

PMW reported last week on what the PA daily calls "forces of the US Congress," who are against paying salaries to terrorists. During the testimony by Assistant Secretary of State, Ambassador Anne W. Patterson at a congressional Subcommittee Hearing, Congressman Weber asked:

"If the PA is paying for terrorists in prison, we ought to also be willing to hit them with some economic sanctions of that sort?"

Assistant Secretary Patterson answered:

"Frankly, I know that they're going to try and phase that out and we should give them an opportunity to do so." [House Committee on Foreign Affairs' website, April 29, 2014]

At the time, PMW wrote that the PA had never indicated that they would cut back payments to terrorists, and that in fact the payments were increasing in 2014. There had been no evidence of what Assistant Secretary Patterson referred to as the PA "phasing out" their salary payments to terrorists. It may be that this PA ploy - to keep the benefits and salaries at the same level but bypass Congressional pressure by moving it to the PLO - is what the PA presented to Patterson as a "phasing out" of the salary program.

Official PA sources confirmed that the purpose is to avoid pressure from donor countries who don't want to fund terrorists, and they stressed that the change is only cosmetic. PA Deputy Minister of Prisoners' Affairs Ziyad Abu Ein explained on PA TV that the massive funding of prisoners has been increased by PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and that the money for prisoners under the PLO will also be administered by Abbas:

"Who else has elevated the cause of the Palestinian prisoners other than President Mahmoud Abbas? All the laws, the tenfold increase of the budget of the Ministry of Prisoners' [Affairs] - [all this] was done during the tenure of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and according to the wishes of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas...

If we go back to the source, which is the PLO, which will take care of the [prisoner] issue... we eliminate the international pressure and the attempts to tamper with this issue, so sensitive and holy to our Palestinian people. The [Palestinian] leadership wants to keep this holy issue away from the influence of the donor countries, the interference of the donor countries, and the occasional negative influence of the donor countries, by giving it [the prisoner issue] its holiness and assigning it to the leadership of the struggle of our Palestinian people. Who is the leadership of the struggle of our Palestinian people? The PLO... All the authority, all the laws, the budget, the officials and staff will be a part of the Prisoners and Released Prisoners' Authority, which will belong to the PLO, to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and to the Executive Committee of the PLO."

[Official PA TV, June 1, 2014]

Since the PA's budget is pretty opaque, the question is how much of the PLO budget comes from donor dollars earmarked for the PA. Originally, the PLO was funded exclusively by Arab and Muslim countries, but it has transferred many of its responsibilities to the PA which now gets funded by credulous Western governments who turn a blind eye to its support for terror. Chances are very good that now the Western donor dollars are being laundered back through the PA to the PLO. Since no one is talking about a budget windfall from removing $130 million from the PA annual budget. it seems pretty clear that there is no new source for the money to support terrorists and their families.

The "temporal division" of the Temple Mount becomes reality

For years, Muslims have been warning that Israel is planning a "physical and temporal division" of the Temple Mount, similar to how the Cave of the Patriarchs in divided between Muslim and Jewish sections and how at certain times of the year it becomes exclusively either Jewish or Muslim.

Since the idea of peacefully sharing a holy spot with the hated Jews is anathema, Muslims have been closely reading Israeli religious websites for any indication that Jews plan to ascend to their holiest spot and they then call on Muslims to "defend Al Aqsa" - to physically prevent the Jews from stepping foot in the entire area. Sometimes their riots are successful, and they congratulate themselves; other times Israeli police put restrictions on them and the Jews are able to respectfully tour the area without fear.

Tomorrow is the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, and - as usual - Muslims planned to riot to prevent Jews from entering the Temple Mount. This time, in what may be a first, Israeli police banned practically all Muslims from the area to allow the Jews to walk around without being attacked.

In other words, the "temporal division" is actually happening today and tomorrow, in a perfect example of a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The Temple Mount became Jewish again, at least for one day, on Tuesday. Temple organizations reported that about 400 Jews had ascended to the Mount in the morning hours, and that police allowed them in without undue delays.

Most of the gates to the Mount were closed, and Muslim worshippers, who often harass Jews on the Mount, are not being allowed in. This is happening because police and the Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shin Bet) have received intelligence about “malicious intentions” and Islamist incitement calling on Arabs to riot and prevent the Jews from entering.

Only a few elderly Musims could be seen on the Mount, reported Temple activists.

The Temple Mount will be open to Jews on Shavuot in the morning hours of Wednesday, from 7:30 to 11:00 a.m., and again from 1:30 to 2:30 p.m.

Shavuot is one of the three annual pilgrimage festivals on which the Israelites were commanded to come to Jerusalem to celebrate, in Temple times. The others two pilgrimage holidays are Pesach and Sukkot.

Pesach on the Temple Mount was a mirror image of Tuesday's calm. Likud MK and Knesset Deputy Speaker Moshe Feiglin recently called on Prime Minister Netanyahu to investigate riots by Muslim extremists on the Temple Mount, and to take action to put an end to intimidation and violence against Jews on Judaism's holiest site.

Muslim and Arab websites are seething, from the most secular to the religious.

The Waqf is calling an "emergency press conference" soon to bitterly complain about those pesky Jews insisting on basic religious rights.

Cleveland convenience store features antisemitic murals

From Cleveland Action News 19:

At first glance, you may not notice what's painted on the side of Biggie's gas station and convenience store at the corner of E.55th and Cedar.

Amongst other religious and political commentary, is one image that's so disturbing, so grotesque, we have to blur it out in order to post it or use it on TV.

The picture shows a priest engaged in a sexual act with a baby. There's writing on top that says, "Talmudic priests in Church. Sex with minors permitted." It's an image that Biggie's owner Abe Auiad told us - flat out - he stands behind.

"That's a circumcision," says Abe Ayad.

The owner is trying to say that this is actually an image of a priest doing a circumcision on a baby. The problem is that the wording up above says, "sex with minors permitted."

It turns out that this Abe Ayad has been putting up offensive murals for years...and they are often nakedly antisemitic.

The owner of Biggie’s, Brahim “Abe” Ayad, a forty-something Palestinian-American who lives in North Olmsted, once explained to Douglas Guth of the Cleveland Jewish News that the murals represent his “protest against ‘evil-doing Zionists’ who, among other offenses, he claims, took away his Palestinian father’s land to make way for the state of Israel.” Ayad further explained that “[t]he shocking imagery on his walls are his way ‘of fighting fire with fire,’ and that ‘[i]f they want to insult me, they should know how it feels to be insulted.’”

Previous complaints about the murals have gone nowhere.

06/02 Links Pt2: Santa Claus and the Israel Lobby: Samuel L. Jackson at NY Israel Day Parade

From Ian:

Santa Claus and the Israel Lobby

If you believe AIPAC, it’s an incredibly effective organization. If you believe its enemies, AIPAC runs America and parts of Canada. It’s not an accusation that AIPAC denies too hard. Mall Santas don’t deny that they have flying reindeer waiting for them on the roof. AIPAC is a fat man in a rented red suit and fake beard trying to pretend that it can do anything. But AIPAC would have better luck making reindeer fly than countering the dominant power of the anti-Israel left and the Saudi lobby in Washington D.C.
And that’s because it doesn’t even try.
When the Democratic Party’s platform deleted the usual mention of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, removed a call to boycott Hamas and opposition to the “Right of Return” vocal protests came from Jewish organizations.
AIPAC was not one of them.

Israel Thrives: Defining pro-Israel

Before long, the primaries will begin for the campaign to succeed Barack Obama. One of the issues in the upcoming campaign will be who is good for Israel. This assessment might seem simple, but that would be deceiving. The reality is that no viable candidate will claim to be anything but pro-Israel. With everyone vying to claim the pro-Israel mantle, how should we determine who would support Israel when it counts and who would bail out?
One part of this assessment would be a review of Obama's record. For all the legitimate gripes we have about Obama's record on Israel, it is important to note that on any matter of providing military equipment or assistance, Obama has never let Israel down. Is this an attempt to exonerate Obama from the positions he has taken on Israel? No. Rather, this is an effort to bring in all the facts that a view of Obama's record on Israel needs to explain.
What Obama's military assistance to Israel shows is that when the Arabs wage conventional warfare or terror against Israel, Obama has Israel's back. We do not have to ask questions. However, those methods of attempting to destroy Israel are yesterday's war, corresponding to the Arabs' primary modus operandi from 1948-1973 and 1973-roughly 1995. Today's war, which started as far back as the 1960's but became more significant only recently, is the Arab effort to delegitimize Israel and thus gain international support to destroy Israel or at least to change the battlespace enough that they would be able to succeed in destroying Israel on their own through the previous two means. Obama's shortcomings come in his support, or lack thereof, for Israel in today's war.

‘Open Hillel’ Only Promotes Anti-Semitism

In other words, criticism of Israel is welcome at Hillel as long as that criticism does not call for the destruction of the Jewish state, hold Israel to an impossible double standard, or call for the boycott of the only Jewish state.
Therefore, by default, all ‘Open Hillel’ supports is the inclusion of these dangerous anti-Semitic messages at the Jewish student center. Again, this is true because Hillel already allows all other voices.
Delegitimizing and demonizing the Jewish state, as well as holding it to a double standard (which BDS does on a regular basis), is considered anti-Semitic even by John Kerry’s State Department.

From The Pittsburgh City Paper "Blogh":

Three days before the scheduled opening reception, The Mattress Factory abruptly canceled Sites of Passage: Borders, Walls & Citizenship, a show meant as a cultural exchange between artists from Israel, Palestine and the U.S.

According to the museum, the exhibit was canceled because the three Palestinian artists — Bashar Alhroub, Manal Mahamid and Mohammed Mussalam — withdrew their participation.

A statement on the museum's website also read, "The Mattress Factory and guest curator Tavia La Follette would like to make a public apology to all Palestinians everywhere for the misunderstanding of this exhibition."

But the circumstances surrounding the cancellation — and the precise nature of the "misunderstanding" — remain unclear.
...

Possible clues about reasons for the cancellation might be found in additional verbiage on the Filmmakers web page about the exhibit. It read: "Correction: An exhibition description concerning 'Borders, Walls, and Citizenship' was prematurely posted without the agreement or prior knowledge of the artists involved. … All participating artists, and those that withdrew are against racism, against occupation, and in support of self-determination for Palestinians and all people. This show was never intended to be about normalization."

"Normalization" is a controversial topic in Israeli-Palestinian relations; the word refers to the idea that the two states can relate to each other like any two other states. Rejection of that concept has helped fuel activist groups including the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel. On its website, the group defines normalization in this context as "the participation in any project, initiative or activity, in Palestine or internationally, that aims (implicitly or explicitly) to bring together Palestinians (and/or Arabs) and Israelis (people or institutions) without placing as its goal resistance to and exposure of the Israeli occupation and all forms of discrimination and oppression against the Palestinian people."

The Mattress Factory's April press release for the show didn't use the term "normalization." However, it did say, "The artists have been working collaboratively as part of a yearlong exchange that has allowed them to manipulate and respond to each other's work in ways that may be impossible to mimic in real life due to the physical boundaries of the countries of conflict they reside in."

More details here:

The Israeli artists had pulled out of the show one day earlier in order to protect the Palestinians who had been threatened and accused on an Arabic-language Facebook page of “normalizing relations with Israel,” according to Tavia La Follette, the independent curator of the exhibit. La Follette is the founder and director of ArtUp, and an artist-in-residence at Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab.

The trigger for the threats, said La Follete, was the use of the words “collaboration” and “dialogue” within the exhibition’s announcements on the websites of the Mattress Factory and Filmmakers Galleries. But those words were never approved by La Follette or the artists in the exhibition, she said.

“There’s language that was put up on the websites that are words used in the land of art all the time,” she said. “In the art world, ‘collaboration’ and ‘dialogue’ are used all the time. But ‘collaboration’ means something completely different politically. That’s where the problem started.”

But La Follette, who had invited the artists to create works together and individually in response to issues and experiences surrounding the words “borders,” “walls” and “citizenship,” said the shows were “not about normalization and were never about normalization.”

“But we knew the artists would be getting flack at some time because people would be making judgments on what we’re doing,” she acknowledged.

After the Palestinian artists were accused on Facebook of normalizing relations with Israel, all three Israeli artists — Emmanuel Witzthum, Dror Yaron and Itamar Jobani — withdrew from the exhibition to allow the Palestinians to remain in the show, said La Follette, adding that what was supposed to be a celebratory party at her home last weekend, “turned into Camp David.”

“The Palestinian artists said, ‘We can’t be in this show,’ so the Israelis withdrew,” she explained. “The whole idea behind the project was to move it beyond political rhetoric. But we need to protect the Palestinian artists. It shows the integrity of the Israeli artists that they pulled out of the show.”

OK, so the Palestinian artists were threatened because they were working together with Israeli artists on an art project. Horrors!

Having the Palestinian Arabs withdraw because of threats to them by their fellow Arabs would be bad, so to stop that from happening, the Israeli artists offered to withdraw so the Palestinians could continue to participate.

That wasn't good enough.

The museum put out public apology to all Palestinians everywhere - not to art lovers, not to the artists who canceled for what they thought was the greater good, not to people who love to see cooperation and peace between the two groups. No, they apologized to Palestinian Arabs who are against any kind of peace with Israel - the most intransigent, anti-peace people on the planet who will not be happy until Israel is destroyed.

Did that make the Palestinian artists happy? Did they say that they were touched that their anti-Zionist Israeli art partners went to extraordinary lengths, endangering their own careers, to help the Arabs continue to spread their anti-Israel narrative to the world unimpeded, at the expense of their own viewpoint?

No.

One of the Palestinian artists, Mohammed Musallam, in a Facebook post written in Arabic blamed the city’s “Jewish lobby” for the cancellation of the show.

“It became clear to us that what we considered victory, eliminating Israelis from the exhibit, will be harshly used by the media against Palestinian artists, creating accusations against them and fictional accounts,” he wrote. “Because of these developments in the situation and concerned that the exhibit will continue with its Israeli and American participants, and feed additional lies and stories from the Zionist media in this state, we asked the museum’s management not only that we withdraw, which was easy, but strongly demanded the abolition of the entire exhibit, with the understanding that we are willing for future collaborations without any Israeli participation.”

Musallam with La Follette before he ruined her year

Instead of issuing a statement of regret, or saying that he hopes for a peaceful future with his fellow Israeli artists, or apologizing for his role in this mess, Musallam says that he wanted the Israelis to withdraw but decided that the Zionist-dominated press would make the Arab artists look bad for not deigning to exhibit
together with the hated Jews.

How much of this statement is self-preservation in the face of threats and how much reveals the artist's bigotry is unclear. According to comments on his Facebook page, originally Musallam defended the Israeli artists as people who are as pro-Palestinian as could be - before he turned on them.

But what is clear is that no matter how much the Israeli uber-left "peace camp" does to accommodate Palestinian Arabs as equals., no matter how much Westerners grovel to the Palestinian Arab cause, it will never be enough - as long as Israel exists.

It is actually embarrassing to see how much self-respect the Israeli artists and the museum were willing to throw away for the righteous cause of trying to appease the party in the Middle East conflict that has no "peace camp" - and that actively threatens anyone who can even be considered remotely peaceful.