State Department wants cooperation with Iran - right after saying Iran supports terror

From USA Today:

U.S.-Iranian military cooperation to stem advancing Sunni extremists in Iraq moved a theoretical step closer Monday after Secretary of State John Kerry said Washington is "open to discussions" with Tehran over the idea and would not rule anything out.

"I think we are open to any constructive process here that could minimize the violence, hold Iraq together, the integrity of the country and eliminate the presence of outside terrorist forces that are ripping it apart," Kerry said in an interview with Yahoo! News. He said President Obama was vetting "every option that is available," including drone strikes.

My how things change. It seems only yesterday that the State Department was ferociously accusing Iran of supporting terror in Iraq.

But it wasn't yesterday. It was six long weeks ago, when it released its 2013 State Sponsors of Terror report.

Designated as a State Sponsor of Terrorism in 1984, Iran continued its terrorist-related activity, including support for Palestinian terrorist groups in Gaza, and for Hizballah. It has also increased its presence in Africa and attempted to smuggle arms to Houthi separatists in Yemen and Shia oppositionists in Bahrain. Iran used the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Qods Force (IRGC-QF) and its regional proxy groups to implement foreign policy goals, provide cover for intelligence operations, and create instability in the Middle East. The IRGC-QF is the regime’s primary mechanism for cultivating and supporting terrorists abroad.

...
Despite its pledge to support Iraq’s stabilization, Iran trained, funded, and provided guidance to Iraqi Shia militant groups. The IRGC-QF, in concert with Hizballah, provided training outside of Iraq as well as advisors inside Iraq for Shia militants in the construction and use of sophisticated improvised explosive device technology and other advanced weaponry. Similar to Hizballah fighters, many of these trained Shia militants then use these skills to fight for the Asad regime in Syria, often at the behest of Iran.

On January 23, 2013, Yemeni authorities seized an Iranian dhow, the Jihan, off the coast of Yemen. The dhow was carrying sophisticated Chinese antiaircraft missiles, C-4 explosives, rocket-propelled grenades, and a number of other weapons and explosives. The shipment of lethal aid was likely headed to Houthi separatists in Northern Yemen. Iran actively supports members of the Houthi movement, including activities intended to build military capabilities, which could pose a greater threat to security and stability in Yemen and the surrounding region.

Iran remained unwilling to bring to justice senior al-Qa’ida (AQ) members it continued to detain, and refused to publicly identify those senior members in its custody. Iran allowed AQ facilitators Muhsin al-Fadhli and Adel Radi Saqr al-Wahabi al-Harbi to operate a core facilitation pipeline through Iran, enabling AQ to move funds and fighters to South Asia and also to Syria. Al-Fadhli is a veteran AQ operative who has been active for years. Al-Fadhli began working with the Iran-based AQ facilitation network in 2009 and was later arrested by Iranian authorities. He was released in 2011 and assumed leadership of the Iran-based AQ facilitation network.

Iran remains a state of proliferation concern. Despite multiple UNSCRs requiring Iran to suspend its sensitive nuclear proliferation activities, Iran continued to violate its international obligations regarding its nuclear program. For further information, see the Report to Congress on Iran-related Multilateral Sanctions Regime Efforts (November 2013), and the Report on the Status of Bilateral and Multilateral Efforts Aimed at Curtailing the Pursuit of Iran of Nuclear Weapons Technology (September 2012).

So now the State Department is interested in allying with a state that has helped Sunni terrorists from Al Qaeda in order to...fight Sunni terrorists in Iraq. While at the same time it arms Shiite terrorists. Because they are so much better. The state terrorists are now wonderful people, because Shiites - like Hezbollah - are so much nicer than those mean Sunnis. Don't be overly concerned about the unintended consequences of supporting Shiite terrorists, just like you shouldn't worry about the unintended consequences of abandoning a nation before it had a chance to learn how to deal with terrorists.

And to be fair, Iran was only considered a state sponsor of terror from 1984 until, um, late April 2014. That was a long time ago.

Now that Iran's support of Shiite terrorists is in fashion, maybe the US will award them with less restrictions on building a nuclear weapon.. After all, you have to reward bloodthirsty jihadists when their interests appear to temporarily coincide with yours, don't you? It's the decent, human thing to do.

(h/t TIP)

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06/16 Links Pt1: Abduction Roundup: News, Support, Sherri Mandel, #BringBackOurBoys

From Ian:

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#BringBackOurBoys

Obviously, we know that posting pictures and news updates with the hashtag #BringBackOurBoys ISN’T going to bring back our boys. But it is going to do SOMETHING: In an online environment where so many people condemn Israel, where major international newspapers send out alerts about a freaking golf tournament (seriously) and NOT about these 3 kidnapped boys, where so many people are separated by continents and oceans and are longing for some kind of community as we wait and we wait and we wait, this hashtag helps.
And apparently, the parents of these boys notice, too, and they receive some measure of comfort from it. And that should be reason enough.

#Bringbackourboys goes viral

Israel’s digital diplomacy has already had an amazing success. Initiated by graduates of the University of Haifa’s Ambassadors Online program, the “Bring Back Our Boys” online campaign on behalf of the three kidnapped teenagers has attracted global attention.Over 79000 people have :liked” their facebook page.

Israeli Celebrities Join BringBackOurBoys Campaign to Free Kidnapped Kids

Popular singer Shai Gabso also joined in, posing with a photo of himself, hold his hand up with each of the words written with a marker on his fingers, adding the word “#peace.”
Legendary studio guitarist Avi Singolda posted a photo of himself with the hashtag written on a piece of paper stuck between the strings of his guitar.
Israeli basketball player, Omri Casspi, of the Houston Rockets, posted an Israeli flag with the hashtag and a sign reading “Am Yisrael Chai!” (“The people of Israel live!”) on his Facebook page. He also added a traditional ancient Hebrew prayer for the release of captives in text below the photo.

Watch: Israeli Hollywood Star Protests for Teens in Times Square

Israeli Hollywood actress and internationally renowned model Moran Atias protested in New York's landmark Times Square on Sunday, calling for the return of the three Israeli yeshiva students who were kidnapped by terrorists last Thursday night from Kfar Etzion, Judea.
Atias stood alone in Times Square, holding a sign with "three Israeli teens kidnapped from their homeland" written on it, with their names Eyal (Yifrah), Naftali (Frenkel) and Gilad (Sha'ar) written below.

Australian Jewry rallies for kidnapped teens

Jewish community members “felt something needed to be done and were looking for ways to help,” Rafi Lawrence, the head of Sydney’s Bnei Akiva branch, told the Times of Israel. “While it’s hard to bridge the physical gap between us, we can still try and help on a spiritual level.”
“All movements, madrichim [leaders] and chanichim [participants], as the active face of Zionism in Australia, are invited to attend and participate. This issue is very close to home — the people kidnapped are the same age as our chanichim,” he wrote in an email. The movements’ plight didn’t fall on deaf ears.

Watch: Kidnapped Teen Sings at Cousin's Wedding

A heart-wrenching YouTube video shows Eyal Yifrah, the 19-year-old yeshiva student who was kidnapped along with two other students last Thursday by terrorists, in happier times.
Yifrah can be seen in the video playing the guitar and singing at the April 10 wedding of a cousin of his. The video was posted to YouTube two days after the wedding as a present to them, and shared on Facebook on Monday by David Ha'ivri, a local activist and resident of Kfar Tapuach in Samaria.

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Why peace is impossible, reasons #8270 and #8271

An image of a young Palestinian Arab boy celebrating the kidnapping of three Jewish teens:

That's not why peace is impossible.

The reason peace is impossible is because you cannot find any public voices of disgust in the Arab world at images like these. 

While there is no shortage of Westerners, and Israelis, who will empathize with people who declare themselves to be the enemy, the number of Arabs who empathize with innocent people on the other side is essentially zero. There is an utter lack of ability to see things from the perspective of the other side.

Even worse, there is no desire to do so.

Without empathy, there can be no understanding or compromise. Peace is literally impossible.

The same Facebook page, of the Quds News Network, shares "The last picture of the kidnapped, two minutes before the abduction" - showing a stock photo of three dogs.

That's really the difference. To Israelis, Arabs are human beings who they desperately want to make peace with and to work with in the future as part of an integrated Middle East. They will protect themselves when necessary but they pray for the day when it is not necessary.

To Arabs, Jews are nothing more than dogs. 

And almost no one - not "moderate" Arabs, not human rights groups, not "enlightened" Europeans and Americans - is willing to denounce the sickening hate that is at the root of the Arab world.

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PLO says IDF attempts to #BringBackTheBoys are racist pretexts to oppress Palestinians

The Executive Committee of the PLO issued a statement saying that everything the IDF is doing to find the three boys kidnapped by Hamas in the West Bank is just a smokescreen for the real Israeli purpose of making life miserable for Arabs.

The official Wafa news agency reported it this way in English:

The Executive Committee of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) condemned, in a statement Sunday, the “racist” campaign, led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, against the Palestinian people and their leadership, under the pretext that ‘the three settlers, who disappeared on Thursday, were kidnapped’.

The committee, during a meeting headed by president Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, rejected Nentyahu’s ‘foul accusations’, which it stressed aim to cover up his failure.

It warned of Israel’s clear intentions to expand settlements in the West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem, under the pretext of ‘intra-Palestinian reconciliation and the alleged kidnapping of three settlers.’

In Arabic, their statement goes further.

This is the method of Netanyahu government, to divert attention from the real reason behind the cycle of violence and their sponsorship of actual acts of terrorism carried out by "price tag" gangs and other killings and land grabbing, cutting of trees and plantings, and ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, and the violation of holy sites , especially the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque.

The Palestinian Authority does not give up its duties and responsibilities, but she refuses to be cast on the responsibility of the occupation crimes and violations practiced by including a poisoned atmosphere, through state terrorism which the occupation continues on our land in an unprecedented way.

You see, Israeli Jews are always looking for flimsy excuses to perform massive, expensive operations in hostile territory, simply because they hate Arabs that much. Kids scrawling graffiti on mosques (which the statement claims is Israeli policy) are the real terrorists - kidnapping a few Israeli boys isn't. If the boys were even kidnapped to begin with.

From reading bizarre statements like these, there is only one conclusion: Reality is just another enemy of the Palestinian people, and it must be fought tooth and nail.

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Wiesenthal Center will boycott PCUSA conference, and their "tough love" of Israel

From the Wiesenthal Center website:

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, one of the largest Jewish human rights organizations, is urging the rank and file of the U.S. Presbyterian Church (PCUSA) flocking to Detroit this weekend for the group's national meeting to defeat the leadership's embrace of extreme anti-Israel positions, including a report that called Israel racist and Illegal.

"We are severing all dialogue with PCUSA, because of a pattern of malicious behavior on the part of church administration," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, Associate Dean of the Center, pointing to Zionism Unsettled, a 74-page document released in December and sold on PCUSA's website. "This demonization of an entire nation and its supporters around the world is an outrage that makes further conversation with this church impossible. Zionism Unsettled does not merely attack Israeli policies, but calls the quest for a Jewish State racist and illegal. This invokes memories of the UN's notorious 'Zionism is racism' resolution of 1974—which was repealed in 1991 – but this time PCUSA has substituted theological language to dismiss the Jewish people's 3,500 year presence in and association with the Holy Land," Cooper added. "The long-standing protocols of interfaith dialogue have always demanded that no partner attack the core beliefs of the other. This document, and the cynical response of church leaders to criticism of it from other Presbyterians, is a frontal assault on the central place of the Jewish State in Jewish life and thought," the rabbi said.

From Yitzchak Alderstein and Abraham Cooper in JPost:

We will be sitting it out not because we wouldn’t be welcome. The laity and clergy of this church – whether they’ve agreed or disagreed –always welcomed us as observers, and we’ve been enriched by our dialogue. This Church’s administration has been quite a different story.

PCUSA was, in 2004, the first mainline church to adopt a resolution calling for divestment from Israel.

Immensely unpopular with the people in the pews, it was undone in 2006, but the minority pledged never to give up the fight. So every two years Jewish organizations squandered months of time, beating back the latest anti-Israel resolutions encouraged by the salaried and agendized “insiders” at corporate headquarters in Louisville. The good ordinary folks of the denomination, whatever their views on Israel/Palestine, were dismayed by the investment of valuable time on resolutions that didn’t bring the Middle East closer to peace, but alienated Jews and Presbyterians from each other.

Other denominations got it, and avoided incendiary moves. PCUSA’s leaders chose not to. After each defeat at a biennial General Assembly, they raised the ante, backing the anti-peace Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement that openly seeks the eradication of the Jewish state – even though it flies in the face of the decades-long stated policy of the church. At each GA they pushed for ever more outrageous resolutions, forcing Jewish organizations to debate not Israel’s policies, but her very existence.

Enough! For years before, we tolerated double crosses, broken deals, deception. We watched as church officials had to resign after visiting with terrorist leaders. We participated in midnight meetings that brokered new “understandings” – only to learn weeks later that words were cheap to these church leaders. We saw crucial committees stacked with supposedly neutral but always pro-Palestinian “resource personnel” who were allowed unlimited time to testify (while we had 60 seconds to testify on the most complex conflict on the globe).

We saw real, unadulterated anti-Semitism on the webpages of the Israel-Palestine Mission Network (IPMN) – one of the radical groups behind the incessant anti-Israel resolutions. When we pointed this out, church leadership denied that IPMN spoke for the church – even as it continued to link to them from its own webpages and provided their IRS charitable organization status.

We recently witnessed a chairman of the committee scheduled to debate anti-Israel measures, a person known for his fairness and neutrality, summarily asked to resign because he had visited Israel on a Jewish-sponsored tour. No matter that the church pushes its own, carefully designed pro-Palestinian tours. We watched in disgust as they trotted out “Jewish voices” to allege that Jews themselves were now completely divided about Israel, despite the fact that those spokespeople were as representative of the Jewish community as flatearth advocates are of geographers.

The entire piece is possibly the best, single-article indictment of the PCUSA's actions.

Meanwhile, Israel-haters within and outside the church are pretending that the church leadership's antisemitism and single-minded hate for Zionism is merely "tough love."

Oh, so this is love?

Larry Grimm, a leading Presbyterian advocate of boycotting Israel, wrote a Facebook message that shows his "tough love" immediately before endorsing that article. He was quoted as saying "Come home to America, Jewish friends." He then followed up by saying "America is the Promised Land. We all know this. Come to the land of opportunity. Quit feeling guilt about what you are doing in Palestine, Jewish friends. Stop it. Come home to America!"

The irony of an American with a name that indicates German ancestry advocating that Jews should abandon their historic homeland and occupy Native American territory is apparently lost on most Presbyterian Church leaders.

Luckily, within the PCUSA there are prominent members who disagree with the direction the church is heading:

AS PASTORS AND LEADERS, we are deeply disturbed by the escalating conflict within the PC(USA) over the Church’s policies toward Israel/Palestine. Conflict over these issues, of course, is nothing new; what is new is the focus and tone of that conflict. For decades, the PC(USA) has argued passionately over how best to express our opposition to the 1967 Israeli occupation of Palestinian land. But through all that time, we have consistently maintained that we oppose the occupation, not Israel.

This has now changed. With the publication of Zionism Unsettled, a “study guide” on Zionism produced by the PC(USA)’s Israel/Palestine Mission Network, and a series of overtures pending before the 2014 General Assembly that reflect its arguments, we are no longer debating how the occupation should end, but whether Israel should exist. Zionism Unsettled announces this shift from its opening section, saying: “put simply, the problem is Zionism.” It makes no distinction between different forms of Zionism, arguing that any form of Zionism is inherently discriminatory. Some forms of Zionism have been violent and exclusionary; the same is true of any form of nationalism (American, British, Chinese, Palestinian, etc.). But to argue that any Jewish desire for any form of statehood within their historic homeland is inherently discriminatory is not only patently false but morally indefensible. And the conclusion is obvious: if Zionism is the problem, then ending Zionism (i.e., Israel) is the solution.

It is telling that one of the earliest and loudest affirmations of Zionism Unsettled was by David Duke, perhaps the most notorious white supremacist and anti-Semite in the United States today, who said: In a major breakthrough in the worldwide struggle against Zionist extremism, the largest Presbyterian church in the United States, the PC(USA), has issued a formal statement calling Zionism “Jewish Supremacism” — a term first coined and made popular by Dr. David Duke.

The reality that David Duke would endorse a Presbyterian study guide available for purchase on the PC(USA) website is sickening to us, and should give all Presbyterians great pause in considering the arguments and language of this document and Zionism Unsettled’s ideological relationship to the overtures coming before the General Assembly.

Of course, they are being shouted down (and their points completely ignored) by those who pretend to want "peace" but are silent when Jews are attacked.

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Arabs, and Israeli far-leftists, mystified by thousands of Jews praying for kidnapped boys

Arab media have been covering the massive prayer vigils at the Kotel and in synagogues, especially fascinated by the idea of so many people crying for the safety of three kidnapped teenagers:

Apparently, praying for the welfare of others is an alien concept to these Arab newspapers. The impression is not so much that they are gloating over the Jews' tears as that they are surprised.

Interestingly, the Arab papers refer to all the people praying as "settlers."

But they are not alone. This tweet from +972 writer and Haaretz news editor Mairav Zonszein seems to be also ill at ease over the idea that so many Jews care so much as to pour their hearts out to God:

Israelis praying in Tel Aviv and Western Wall for return of kidnapped teens. With all due respect, they should pray that government wise up
— Mairav Zonszein (@MairavZ) June 15, 2014

The spaghetti logic of Israeli leftists is sometimes hard to decipher, but I think she is saying that if only the government would finally move back behind those safe 1949 armistice lines, nothing bad would ever happen, since Arabs don't hate Jews but only "settlers." Because Israelis before 1967 were not endangered one bit.

So why pray, when you can implement her brilliant plan to save so many Israeli lives? Hamas would be finally satisfied, right? Islamic Jihad would lay down their weapons in joy! The Salafists would move out to find other infidel countries to fight! Fatah's Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigades would finally be dissolved!

Yup...Zonszein is just as clueless as the Arabs are.

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Interview with African American Zionist Dumisani Washington

Dumisani Washington is the founder of IBSI, the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel.

From Mida:

IBSI was formed in July 2013 as a pro-Israel group that focused on cultural issues not always addressed in other organizations.

This includes emphasizing:

Israel’s ethnic diversity: The fact that the Jewish people are ethnically diverse, and that some 90 nations are represented in Israel (Jew and non-Jew) is important to many Black people. Diversity and inclusion are signs of a healthily pluralistic society. Seeing people living, working, thriving in Israel that look like people from all over the world helps combat the Israel racism/apartheid lie.

Israel’s historical work in African nations: People aware of Israel’s history (or the history of Zionism) are aware of Theodor Herzl’s vision to help realize the “redemption of the African”. That vision has been a major part of Israel’s history since her rebirth in 1948. Long before she was Israel’s first female Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Golda Meir was so active on the Continent that Tanzania’s president, Julius Nyerer called her, “the mother of Africa.”

As my friend and colleague, Professor Gil Troy said in his book “Moynihan’s Moment”, "by the early 1970s, Israel had diplomatic ties with thirty-two African countries, more African embassies than any country other than the United States.” To this day, Israeli organizations continue to partner with African nations bringing technologies of every kind, while empowering the people to build strong infrastructures.

The oppression of the Palestinian people by their own leaders: One of the greatest tragedies of anti-Israel propaganda is the focus that is removed from the true plight of the Palestinian people. The people of Gaza and the West Bank are suffering human rights abuses replete throughout the Islamist world, yet the media is dominated by story after story of Israel’s “crimes against humanity”. Since the 1960s, no weapon has been used more frequently in bludgeoning Israel than racism; and no people have been more exploited in the campaign than Africans or African-Americans.

I wrote an article in Times of Israel entitled, “7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis & the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike”. I will expound on it in my upcoming book, “Zionism & the Black Church: Why Standing With Israel Will be a Defining Issue for Christians of Color in the 21st Century.”

We have colleagues and associates across the US as well as in Israel, Kenya and Nigeria. In Nigeria, we are very proud to be working with author, attorney and leader within the Igbo community, Remy Ilona. Remy is doing a wonderful work among the Igbo Jews that have been discussed more and more in the news. His seminal work "The Igbos and Israel: An Inter-cultural Study of the Oldest and Largest Jewish Diaspora” is a must read for anyone interested in the topic.

IBSI has no official membership numbers as we have not begun formal enrollment. We plan to open our first American field offices this fall.

Read the whole thing.

Washington has some very nice videos on YouTube.

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"Peace" Imam at Vatican said "Grant us victory over unbelievers"

A controversy, which some call "Imamgate," has erupted over the official Vatican translation and video of the interfaith summit at the Vatican with Shimon Peres and Mahmoud Abbas.

From Novus Ordo Watch:

Don’t you hate it when that happens? You’re hosting a big interfaith peace event with Jews, Muslims, and “Christians”, and then the Muslim imam ad libs the text he had previously submitted and adds a prayer for “victory over the infidels.” Bummer!

Is this what happened on Pentecost Sunday in the Vatican Gardens?

We’re not entirely sure. A controversy has erupted in Europe over this. According to Egyptian-German political scientist, historian, and author Hamed Abdel-Samad, who could be described as the Modernist version of a Muslim, the Islamic clergyman who offered the “prayers for peace” in the Vatican on Sunday did not stick verbatim to the prepared text of the prayers as published beforehand, but instead ended with a quotation from the last verse of Sura 2 in the Koran, which reads, “You are our protector, so give us victory over the disbelieving people”. The “disbelieving people” can alternatively be rendered “unbelievers” or “infidels.” In any case, what is meant is victory over people who are not Muslim.

Practically no one in the Vatican understands Arabic, but, not unexpectedly, Vatican Radio has already denied Abdel-Samad’s claim. “Fr.” Bernd Hagenkord, SJ, editor at the German-speaking offices of Vatican Radio, says the claim that the Muslim cleric ended his prayer with a quote from the Koran or with a petition against infidels is “nonsense” (source here — in German but further down includes English translation of all prayers “verbatim as prayed”, allegedly).

A commenter at Gates of Vienna confirms this:

I do understand Quranic Arabic very well. I also know Quran itself rather well. I am an ex-Muslim. This link that you have posted was cut! The full recitation from the Quran by this imam that I watched on the Al Arabiya channel two days ago had his recitation up until the final verses, and without a shadow of a doubt he recited the second sura Al Bagharah’s last few verses till the very end where he did say, “and pardon us and forgive us and have mercy on us, you are our guardian, so make us victorious over the tribe of disbelievers [or ‘deniers’, as the word kafir really means]”.

Now the question is: who chopped this video to take out the controversial part out of it? It is cut literally in the middle of the verse where the controversial part starts, and jumps to the imam’s prayer in his own words, which are not controversial. You can recognize the end of recitation and beginning of his own prayer by the fact that he stopped singing and start speaking normally. If you pay attention you will notice the place where it was cut. It is noticeable.

They kept his recitation until the end of the of “forgive us and have mercy on us.” But the last two clauses — “you are our guardian, so grant us victory over unbelievers” was neatly and in very Stalinesque fashion airbrushed out!

I also confirmed this with a friend who knows Arabic well.

After being shown the evidence, Radio Vatican admitted that the Imam did call for victory over unbelievers, but they then quoted Father Felix Körner, a Jesuit who teaches at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, who tries to contextualize it!

We must put ourselves in the early period of Islam, here we are perhaps still in Mecca or in the early years in Medina; Islam is a small group that is persecuted by polytheists, pagan groups who want to get rid of Muhammad and his followers. Disbelief in this case means people who do not recognize the one God. Therefore, in this Koran instead of the unbelievers is mentioned, against which we will ask for help to God, not the Jews nor the Christians who clearly, of course, recognize the oneness of God!

...This verse, perhaps spontaneously chosen by someone who then recited the Koran by heart, actually fit very well into the overall context of the peace prayer! There were always three steps in the three religions. We know the Creator and praise him, we acknowledge our sins and confess them, and we ask for the gift of peace. And all this comes in these three Quranic verses which are still very beautiful. You, God, know everything. We repent of our sins and ask for forgiveness. And we need your help, so that peace and justice may arise. This is the content of these three verses, so that was an understandable choice - Perhaps made ​​spontaneously, but in any case a good choice.

Wow! Dhimmitude is an understatement!

In a similar vein, when the Pope visited Jerusalem, he met with Mufti Mumannad Hussein:

Here is what Hussein says about Jews - you know, one of those groups that the Vatican is convinced is embraced by Islam:



(h/t Maria, IronyDome)

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06/15 Links: Three Teens, One an American. We are All Israelis; IDF: Kidnapped Teens, Alive in Hevron

From Ian:

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Phyllis Chesler: Three Teens, One an American. We are All Israelis

They are: Gil-ad Shaar, Naftali Frenkel, and Eyal Yifrach. It has been confirmed that one of these students is also an American citizen; we have not been told who that might be. Two are students at Makor Chaim yeshiva. The third is a student at Shavey Hevron yeshiva in Hebron. Perhaps the IDF hopes that releasing this information will help witnesses come forward or that humanizing the boys may lead to sympathy for them.
Last night, hundreds prayed for them at the Western Wall. Their fate was discussed at every Sabbath table including my own and in many synagogues around the world.
Since 9/11, truly, we are all Israelis. What used to happen only to Jews or mainly to Israeli Jews (hijackings, suicide/homicide bombings) remained unchecked by the world and now that same style of hatred and violence has increasingly been unleashed against civilians everywhere. We are all at the mercy of merciless, maniacal Jihadists.
When an Israeli civilian—essentially a teenager--is kidnapped, it is always an act of evil, a statement of vulgar anti-Semitism, and a rejection of the entire Western enterprise. Please bear in mind that Israel lives in a neighborhood that has exiled Jews from Arab lands, has denied that this is the case, and wishes to exterminate Jewish Israel. Read the Hamas charter, it is quite chilling.

Netanyahu: We ‘know for a fact’ Hamas behind abduction

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday afternoon dismissed Hamas’s denial of involvement in the abduction of yeshiva students Eyal Yifrach, Naftali Frenkel, and Gil-ad Shaar, saying Israel knew “for a fact” that Hamas was responsible.
“Hamas denials do not change this fact. And this attack should surprise no one because Hamas makes no secret of its agenda. Hamas is committed to the destruction of Israel and to carrying out terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians – including children,” he said.
Netanyahu had announced Sunday morning that Hamas was behind the kidnapping of the three teenagers in the West Bank on Thursday night, allegations that were swiftly shot down by a spokesman for the Gaza-based organization as “stupid” and “designed to break Hamas.”

IDF: Kidnapped Teens Are Alive and in Hevron Area

A senior IDF official told reporters Sunday afternoon that in the army's estimation, the three kidnapped teenagers taken Thursday night by still-unidentified captors are still alive, and are being held somewhere in the Judean Hills.
“We are not acting blindly and without guidance,” the official said. “The IDF is thoroughly familiar with Hamas' infrastructure in Hevron. Those involved in the kidnapppings were prisoners in Israeli institutions and were released,” which gave Israeli authorities insights and information on their terror activities.

Kidnapped teen’s parents ‘optimistic’ he will come home

The parents of one of three Israeli teenagers kidnapped while hitchhiking in the West Bank Thursday expressed optimism Sunday that their son and the two other captives would return home safely.
“We are optimistic, with God’s help, He will see the combined effort of the prayers and solidarity, and we will embrace Naftali, Eyal, and Gil-ad here,” Racheli Frenkel, mother to 16-year-old Naftali Frenkel, said outside her Nof Ayalon home Sunday afternoon.

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Return of the Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism (Michael Lumish)

Michael Lumish, of the Israel Thrives blog as well as a regular blogger at Times of Israel and Jews Down Under, continues his weekly column here at EoZ.

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When I look at my numbers over at Israel Thrives I see that the material that received the most attention within the last few years is my Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism series.

According to Google stats, The Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism: Political Islam, has been the most popular individual piece of writing at Israel Thrives with over 5,000 unique readers

I have to say, I find that gratifying.

It is important to know, and to acknowledge, the failure of the progressive-left to speak up in favor of the plight of women in the Middle East, the plight of Gay people in the Middle East, and the plight of all non-Muslims in the Middle East.

The Jews are under siege, but are holding up nicely, thank you very much.  Christians throughout the region are under the gun and being run out entirely.  Gay people stand no chance unless they remain firmly in the closet.  And, frankly, women are merchandise and it is one of the great shames of the western left today that it refuses to speak up for its own alleged values, as professor Phyllis Chesler, one of the pioneers of Women's Studies, would certainly argue.

I write within a niche within a niche and understand that 5,000 views for a bit of writing is a "spit in the ocean," as my dear old ma might have said, but I take my small victories where I can gather them and hope to convince people that my point of view has some merit.

As a Jewish apostate from the progressive-left, my initial criticisms are toward the left, itself, but also secondarily, toward the Jewish left.  Those criticisms are the ones that receive the most backlash.

The Elder of Ziyon has been kind enough to offer me a little bit of his Sunday afternoon real estate which, I have to tell you guys, I appreciate very much.  As someone who has been laboring in the backwaters of the Jewish blogosphere - lo, these many years - there is no question but that the Elder's home represents a clearing house for information that no one who cares about the Jewish people, or the Jewish State, can ignore.

I think that so long as he is willing to indulge me, I want to go back to my roots because, as I have always insisted, the entire point of writing about the Arab-Israel conflict (or the Long War Against the Jews of the Middle East) is to meditate upon what we have gone through as Jews and as friends of Jews and to figure potential paths forward.

Our criticisms must start with ourselves.

Thus I want to argue that diaspora Jewry, particularly of the left-wing variety, of which I am one, has made a number of significant mistakes since the Six Day War and the rise of the New Left in the post-Vietnam Era of American politics.

The first of those big mistakes is outlined in the brief piece below and is, quite simply, the failure of progressive-left Jewry, including myself not that long ago, to stand up clearly and directly in opposition to political Islam.

The Failures of Progressive-Left Zionism: Political Islam

The first way in which progressive-left Zionism is failing is in its ostrich-like reluctance to acknowledge, and seriously discuss, the rise of the Jihad throughout the Muslim Middle East. This failure is exceedingly dangerous because the Jews of the Middle East represent something like 1/70th of the total population there and much of that total is moving toward genocidal Islamism. Just as progressive diaspora Jews were basically silent during the rise of Nazi Germany, so they are silent now. We cannot know what the rise of political Islam will mean to the Jewish people in the long term, but we do know that this particular trend is anti-Semitic, and genocidal, to the core.

The failure of progressive-left Jews to address this issue represents a very dangerous form of cowardice and / or ideological blinkertude.

Throughout the 1990s and the Bush II era, I did not give much credence to Republican or conservative concerns about terrorism or, as they might say, "Islamofascism." During the Clinton years I assumed that Islamist terrorism was a bogey-man and during the Bush years I resented what I took to be the using of the so-called War on Terrorism to cynically move funds in various directions and to bolster the political careers of prominent conservatives and Republicans.

It is this, by the way, which represents the backdrop for progressive Jewish unwillingness to understand that times have changed. And times have changed. When I was still a Democrat, the radical Jihad was pretty much limited to Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, Qaeda, and the Taliban. One country and a number of fringe organizations, one of which gave us 9/11.

Now we have Iran, Hez, Hamas, Qaeda, the Taliban, and increasingly, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Bahrain, Nigeria, and Sudan. When progressive-left Jews ignore the Jihadi fruits of the so-called "Arab Spring," or explain it away as "the blessings of democracy," as Obama does, they are veiling the fact that the entire Middle East is going through an Islamist awakening, not a democratic one. The Muslim Brotherhood, an organization with an historical provenance that goes to Nazi Germany, is finally taking over Egypt.

The American president does not mind and, sadly, neither do progressive-left diaspora Jews.

I would suggest that this is a major problem, but the question is "why?" Why do progressive-left diaspora Jews absolutely refuse to acknowledge, and seriously discuss, what is perhaps the foremost geo-political happening since the demise of the Soviet Union? How is it possible that, just as with the rise of Nazi Germany, progressive-left Jews are failing to acknowledge what is before their very eyes? The answer is cowardice and ideological blindness. They are afraid to say anything, or even really think anything on this question, not out of fear of Jihadis, but out of a social fear of their fellow progressives for whom any reference to political Islam is taken as a form of "Islamophobia."  The Jews of the Middle East are increasingly surrounded by a vicious political movement which would see them dead, yet progressive-left diaspora Jews close their eyes and turn away because they do not want to be called mean names by their fellow progressives.

They are, in a sense, swapping Political Correctness for the well-being of the Jewish people. The best that they will do is go after safe, but largely irrelevant, targets like fringe-right Skin-heads or Klansmen, wherein their fellow non-Jewish progressives will give them a nice kitsel behind the ear.

This represents the first, but not the only, sad failure of contemporary progressive-left Zionism. 

{They might as well be mutes.}

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Muslims freak over music video calling for Jews to pray on Temple Mount

This music video, released last week by Orit Arfa, is making waves on Muslim websites.



Islamic Jihad's Palestine Today, quoting the Waqf, describes the video as "calls for intensifying the storming of the Al-Aqsa Mosque to perform Jewish prayers and Talmudic rituals in it. ...The song includes clips from break-ins, and movements and dances in different parts of the compound."

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Official Palestinian and Fatah media praise kidnapping of Jewish teens

This cartoon was published in Al Hayat al Jadida, the official daily newspaper of the Palestinian Authority. It modifies the World Cup Brazil logo to show the three hands holding three people, with the caption "Khalil" - Hebron.

This image, from Fatah's official Facebook page, evokes both the two-finger "Victory" sign and the Muslim Brotherhood's four-finger gesture, with the caption "For your interpretation." The commenters understood it quite well.

H/t Palestinian Media Watch, which also notes that the PA has long supported a hostage-taking strategy.

The Ministry of Information of the PA says that the IDF actions in Hebron to retrieve the boys are a "flimsy pretext" to continue "aggression on our people" and that Israel has "kidnapped an entire people."

Good to know that the "unity government" of ineffectual, harmless technocrats happens to support terror.

Israellycool has a large collection of cartoons and photos and tweets showing Palestinian Arab glee at the war crime.

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Silence of the hypocrites

You know how anti-Israel activists love to claim that Israel is immoral because they claim it is violating international law?

Have you seen even one of them condemning the kidnapping of three Jewish teenagers yet?

You know...kidnapping which is flatly prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention art. 34,.

So how are the anti-Israel activists stacking up?

As this JPost article shows, they are positively giddy over the idea of kidnapping minors. (Some are now backtracking, pretending that they didn't know they were minors when the news came out, which is ridiculous because the initial news stories said that explicitly.)

This cartoon by Omar Radwan turning the boys into vermin is getting play on Facebook - including Fatah's official Facebook page.

And, of course, some Palestinians are handing out sweets in celebration.

More damning than the reported happiness is the complete absence of any Arab or anti-Israel activist voices condemning the kidnappings. Not on message boards, not on Facebook, at least as far a I could find. On the contrary, Palestinian Arabs are being told to actively hinder any Israeli attempts to investigate, by destroying evidence.

And the world blames Israel for the lack of peace?

Besides the glee from the overt Israel haters, we are hearing nothing but silence from the more covert haters. While Amnesty, Human Rights Watch and other organizations closely monitor and immediately condemn Israel for perceived wrongs - even before any evidence is in - they haven't yet said a word about the kidnappings that occurred over 48 hours ago.

Apparently, "international law" only applies to certain people, and only in certain ways.

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06/14 Links: The kidnapping is a casus belli; Australian lesson for US; UNESCO’s missing ‘hot potato’

From Ian:

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The kidnapping is a casus belli

This kidnapping is a casus belli. Those who quote Rabin’s remark that “peace is made with enemies” leave out something important. Peace is made with defeated enemies, because undefeated ones are trying to kill you, or worse, your children. That’s what an enemy is.
Those who think that the whole idea of enmity is outdated and atavistic, an ugly remnant of tribalism that the human race should leave behind may be right, but if you have to deal with people who live in that world, you can’t ignore them. You can’t unilaterally disarm, physically and psychologically. If they are trying to kill you, you can’t stand above it and look down tolerantly on those people who are not as advanced as you are.
You have to fight them and kill them. When you have killed enough of them, they’ll give up. Then you can start making peace.

Gaza residents celebrate at news of missing Israeli teens

Residents of Gaza celebrated the presumed kidnapping of three Israeli teens, after Hamas slammed the Palestinian Authority for cooperating with Israel to find the youths.
Led by families of Palestinian security prisoners, candies were handed out in a protest tent set up in Gaza by families to express solidarity with prisoners serving time for security related offences in Israel, and residents praised the "operation in Hebron", calling for additional kidnappings. (h/t Jewess)

Melanie Phillips: Australian lesson for US

The mendacious charge that Israel is in ‘illegal occupation’ of east Jerusalem and the territories is constantly levelled by the UK and European governments (the US uses a more weaselly form of words). It underpins the equally mendacious and poisonous suggestion that Israelis have no right to live in these areas.
This in turn has fed the monstrous campaign against Israel, which has seen it demonised and delegitimised for exercising its legal rights to land it is fully entitled to settle but which Arab propaganda has falsely persuaded the west (including many Jews) belongs en bloc to the Palestinians.
Now the Australians have raised the banner of truth, what’s needed is for other friendly leaders to follow suit by stating loud and clear that Israel stands for law, justice and historical reality which its enemies are trying to destroy – and in doing so, to put Obama to shame.

Palestinian diplomat summoned to Ramallah over Jewish state recognition

In an article published Thursday in Fathom, a quarterly devoted to Israel and the Middle East, Manuel Hassassian, the Palestinian ambassador to the UK, wrote that in order to truly achieve a lasting peace agreement, the Palestinian leadership must officially recognize Israel as a Jewish state and heavily revise current demands for a full-fledged right of return for Palestinian refugees. But he said Friday that he had been “tricked” over the article.
“Ramallah was very angry with this statement,” Amal Jadou, the head of the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry’s European desk said, according to the Daily Telegraph. Jadou said Hassassian would have to clarify his stance on the matter.
Hassassian said that his views had been misunderstood and that the article had been published before he had a chance to review its final version. (h/t cisjew)

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06/13 Links Pt2: Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburger; Dershowitz: BDS is an immoral movement

From Ian:

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Ryan Bellerose: Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburger

Last year, I wrote an article about the indigenous status of the Jewish people. At first, a lot of Native people were really upset, because for almost 47 years they have been told that the Arabs are the indigenous people AND NOBODY EVER CHALLENGED IT. You see, for the Left, and this includes most indigenous people, men like Chomsky and Said have been Sacred Cows. They were glib, well read, and could turn a phrase very well. So nobody ever delved very deeply into their claims of Jews being settler colonists from Europe who were stealing Arab land. I was actually told by one Indian “Dude, Chomsky says the Arabs are indigenous, you are just an Indian from Paddle, you can’t argue with people like Chomsky.” I laughed and then brought out the big guns. First I asked that person if white people were indigenous to Canada because they have been here for almost 5 hundred years now. Of course he said “No of course not.” I then asked him if his people were no longer indigenous because they were not actually from the far North but had been transplanted there and thus displaced from their own ancestral lands. He responded “No, being displaced doesn’t remove our rights as indigenous people NO MATTER HOW LONG WE ARE DISPLACED FOR.” It was at that point I simply said “If people do not lose their indigenous status through being displaced, and people do not subsume indigenous status through conquering indigenous people and “replacing them,” then the Arabs are not indigenous to the ancestral lands of the Jewish people. Jews have been there for three thousand years and everything that makes them Jews began there.” It was an epiphany for him because he now posts and reposts stuff supporting the Jewish state of Israel, because he realizes that the same arguments used to attack the indigenous rights of Jews, are the same arguments used to attack ours.

'Muslims are the new Jews' is Another Excuse for Islamists by HuffPo's Mehdi Hasan

On May 29th, Huffington Post UK 'Political Director' Mehdi Hasan published another piece about Islamophobia. It came in the wake of alarming gains made by far-right parties in the European elections. As acknowledged by its author, it also came in the wake of a shooting at a Jewish Museum in Brussels in which an Israeli couple and a Belgian woman were shot dead. A fourth victim, critically injured during the shooting, succumbed to his injuries as I was drafting this post.
The only suspect in the shooting, an Islamist jihadi and French national named Mehdi Nemmouche, was not identified and arrested until the day after the publication of Hasan's article. However, similarities to the shooting carried out by Mohammed Merah at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 were already apparent, as was the attack's probable anti-Semitic intent.
Nevertheless, Mehdi Hasan thought that now would be good time to say this:
"In some respects, Muslims are the new Jews of Europe. The vile shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on 24 May, in which three people were killed, might make this statement sound odd. Anti-Jewish attacks are indeed on the rise in Europe, which is deplorable and depressing, but thankfully anti-Semitism is now taboo in mainstream political discourse in a way in which Islamophobia isn't. These days, most anti-Semitic attacks are carried out by second-generation Arabs and are linked to anger over Israeli policies."
For whatever it's worth, I do not believe that Mehdi Hasan is himself an Islamist. By which I mean that I have seen no evidence that he wishes his own freedom to be subject to the demands of State-imposed Islamic Law of any kind. That said, he displays a disturbing readiness to endorse Islamist arguments and talking points, the chief function of which is to re-describe the victimisers as victims.

Alan Dershowitz: BDS is an immoral movement.

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