Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, June 29, 2014

In Praise of The Progressive-Zionist (RIP) (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.

I have tended to be rather tough on my progressive-left Jewish friends and colleagues.

I have criticisms and often they do not appreciate those criticisms.

I complain that there is a tendency within the diaspora Jewish left to whip up hatred toward those bad Jews who live where Obama and Abbas do not want them to live. I fret over the fact that we almost always play defense, with this venue as one significant exception. Out of an overblown sense of moral superiority, perhaps, we tend to fall for the moral equivalency canard. We are almost entirely ignoring Jewish history prior to 1948 in our consideration of the conflict. And we have tendency to befriend our enemies and spit malice at our friends.

{In fact, there might be one or two people who think that I do precisely that, myself.}

However, my main criticism of progressive-left Zionism is in the disinclination to speak out against political Islam. There is the desire to be fair to a fellow religion from the Levant despite the fact that this fellow religion embedded genocidal Jew Hatred directly into its primary sources, such as the Koran and the Hadiths.

But every now and again I am surprised when people who I think are in ideological ruts jump their vehicle out of those ruts.

There is was a small blog out there in the world, originally published by Jon Segall called the Progressive Zionist which,I suppose, was a rival blog to Israel Thrives. Certainly I knew Jon from Daily Kos and we had mutual partners for discussion, once upon a time. We both stood in favor of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people and, in fact, I organized a panel discussion with Segall and Michael Harris of Stand With Us at the Commonwealth Club in San Francisco a few years ago.

Just as I was intending to praise the new editorship, because the Progressive Zionist awakened from its vegetable torpor by finally speaking out against the foremost enemies of the Jewish people, which is political Islam... Segall shut the blog shut down!

The former new editor - who I suppose edited the Progressive Zionist for a grand total of two weeks, if that - went by the moniker "fizziks" and is someone who would not be entirely unfamiliar to the regulars here. He wrote a piece which I was intending to quote in order to show how sometimes people can emerge from what I call ideological blinkertude, when just now I discover they shut the joint down.

OK.

This being the case, I have to say that a rivalry is not necessarily a bad thing. Certainly rivalries can turn ugly, and I very much enjoyed the History Channel mini-series Hatfields & McCoys... so long as you guys associate me with the Hatfields!

But rivalries can also incline people to think in fresh ways.

I wanted to give "fizziks" credit for being smart enough and open-minded enough to think independently and to, therefore, expand the ideological boundaries of his little magazine even if Segall did shut it down.

In a certain kind of way fresh thinking is its own reward.

And make no mistake, what we are doing on these blogs, when it is done well, comes out of the twentieth century New York City tradition of the "little magazine." Some of them still survive, such as Commentary and the New Republic, although since the departure of Marty Peretz from the New Republic the New Republic is no longer the New Republic... if it ever really was.

So, I guess that I feel like I am writing an obituary.

Jon Segall meant well, much of the time - I suppose - but he loathed "conservatives" which he apparently defined as those nefarious creatures who sometimes disagreed with him. "Fizziks" is more open-minded and I hoped could steer the Progressive Zionist into a direction that actually addresses the significant questions and problems facing the Jewish people and the Jewish State of Israel today.

But ultimately it does not much matter where the ideas come from, so long as helpful ideas get out.

I cannot speak for the Jewish community as a whole - I cannot, right? - but I think that it is reasonable to say that we have every right to be concerned about the rise of political Islam and we should not demonize those of us within the Jewish community, diaspora or Middle Eastern, who express that concern.

We do not need to spit flames and fire - we do not need to send out the Third Fleet for Chrissake - but we should be able to have an honest conversation on what is, to my mind, the foremost problem facing the Jewish people today.

From Ma'an:

Israel has dropped hundreds of anti-Hamas lollipops in two of the West Bank's largest cities, in a renewed attempt to incite Palestinian popular opinion against the Islamist political group.

Palestinian residents of Nablus and Ramallah noticed on Sunday morning that hundreds of lollipops had been dropped in the streets and alleyways of the city, decorated with the phrase "Ramadan Kareem … Some sweets, after Hamas has made life in the West Bank bitter."

Witnesses in Nablus told Ma'an that they saw Israeli soldiers throwing the lollipops in the streets.

Onlookers Ma'an spoke to believed that the passing out of the lollipops is part of a "psychological warfare" by Israeli occupation forces to incite the Palestinian people against Hamas, which it accuses of having "kidnapped" the three Israeli teens.

Others, however, said that they thought the "strange behavior" indicates that the Israeli military operation in the West Bank has failed to find a clue about the missing Israeli teenagers, and are hoping to reach out for potential information.

The lollipops are not the first anti-Hamas "gifts" Israeli forces have passed out in the West Bank in recent days.

During a military raid in Nablus on Thursday, Israeli forces dropped match boxes in the streets with a phrase in colloquial Arabic reading "Beware! Hamas is inflaming the West Bank."

But are the lollipops kosher?

Worse, were they manufactured in a settlement?

I received a very interesting email from a staunchly Zionist Reform rabbi:

I'm living in the twilight zone. Arik Ascherman of "Rabbis for Human Rights" is having issues with Presbyterian Church USA's vote, publicly asking why PCUSA didn't at least propose positive investment as an alternative. The J Street contingent almost seems beside themselves in bewilderment. John Rosove, J Street's Rabbi Mouthpiece, of all people, wrote a pretty good article about PCUSA talking about a friend stabbing a friend in the back.

This resolution was unfair, biased, shameful, ignorant, and a misguided slander of the Jewish people and state of Israel, pure and simple....True friends of the Jewish people would not have passed such a resolution. True friends would have come to Israel to learn first-hand about the reality in which Israelis live. True friends would have toured other countries in the region to understand context. True friends would not have permitted the publication of that propagandist anti-Israel and anti-Semitic screed and would remove it immediately from its website. True friends would have joined with the American Jewish community to support efforts to help Israel and the Palestinians resolve their conflict. True friends do not stab each other in the back.

That is what the Presbyterian Church (USA) did, all disclaimers aside – and it hurts!

Meanwhile my movement's rabbis are having a conniption all of a sudden about Zionism Unsettled. I'm not sure that Rick Jacobs wasn't channeling Bibi on the URJ's conference call about the vote Thursday and said that Zionism Unsettled was anti-Jewish and the worst thing he'd seen since the infamous Zionism=Racism UN resolution in the 1970s. Add to that the numerous Reform rabbis quoting Bibi, actually quoting Bibi, about Christians in other nations in the region. I've seen this quoted a half dozen times by very left leaning Reform Rabbis in the past couple of days alone, "Let them come and visit Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East, the only country where Christianity is growing and see for themselves what is going on. Then let them take a bus tour to Libya, or Syria. I have two suggests for them, 1) make sure the bus is armored plated and 2) don't tell them you are Christians."

Strange things happen when friends stab you in the back, I guess.

I would add that strange things can also happen in the non-Jewish world when people who claim to represent Judaism all but abandon the Jewish state, publicly and repeatedly. Say what you want about Muslims but the number of Islamic leaders who publicly criticize Arab countries are tiny, because they understand the importance of a public united front.

Jew-haters laughably claim that Jews have an all-knowing, highly cohesive secret conspiracy that works behind the scenes to undermine everyone else, but the opposite is the case - and the Jewish "leaders" who publicly berate Israel are a large part of the reason that the world can criticize Israel so breezily. They give those criticisms a veneer of respectability, and haters like the leaders of PCUSA are very happy to quote so-called "rabbis" to justify their own antisemitism.

PCUSA's antisemitic moves come in no small part because they are exploiting the divisions in the Jewish world about Israel.

An Iranian cleric has accused Israel of using "jinn" to spy on Iran and its allies.

Iranian TV has broadcast a segment where Waliullah Naqi Borfer, an expert in the supernatural jinn of Arab mythology, said that Jews have long experience in manipulating jinn and Israel has tried to use the creatures to perform espionage on Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas.

The Israelis were unsuccessful in their attempts, however, according to Borfer.

He did not give details.

UPDATE: Here is the new, subtitled video.

(Alex noted this in the comments a couple of days ago, I had missed it.)

06/28 Links: Gaza Rocket hits Sderot factory; Peace Process Gets a Boost: Indyk Quits

From Ian:

Rocket fired from Gaza slams into Sderot factory

A rocket fired from the Gaza Strip slammed into a factory in the southern city of Sderot on Saturday evening, setting the building ablaze.
Emergency services were on site to battle the fire.
Three employees were reportedly inside the factory at the time, but managed to escape unharmed. One person was lightly injured and was being treated at hospital.
Another rocket likely landed in open territory, according to initial reports.

Gaza surveillance cameras pick up Israeli strike on terrorists

The footage shows a vehicle driving along a coastal road before being struck. Passersby remain seemingly unharmed.
Israel confirmed carrying out the targeted killing of Osama Hassumi, 29, and Mohammad Fatzih, 24, on Friday, charging that they were involved in a cell responsible for repeated rocket fire on Israel’s southern cities over the past several weeks and were planning terror attacks on Israeli civilians.
“Militants, like Hassumi and Fatzih, attacking Israel from Gaza, are not safe, do not have immunity, and will not be free to plan, plot and operate. We will continue to strike the instigators and agitators with patience, determination and precision. Gaza rocket terrorism does not pay,” said IDF spokesperson Lt. Col. Peter Lerner on Friday.

Israel strikes Gaza in response to rocket barrage

Residents of the coastal enclave reported multiple explosions, and the IDF said in a statement that it targeted “two terror activity sites and a weapon manufacturing facility in the central Gaza Strip, and a weapon storage facility in the southern Gaza Strip.” The Israeli military confirmed direct hits.
Saturday’s pre-dawn Israeli Air Force hits on the Gaza Strip came amid an escalation of hostilities along Israel’s southern border with the Palestinian enclave as IDF troops scour the West Bank for three missing Israeli teenagers. Israel has accused Hamas of carrying out the June 12 abduction of the teens.
Earlier on Friday evening, Israel’s Iron Dome system intercepted two rockets launched at southern Israel from the Gaza Strip following the targeted assassination by Israel of two Gaza operatives the Israel Defense Forces said were responsible for recent rocket fire and attacks on civilians.

IDF Targets Gaza Terror Sites in Response to Ongoing Rocket Attacks

"The Jewish News" promotes anti-Israel blood libel

The editorial claims that "six Palestinians have been killed" as a result of what it implies is Israel's disproportionate response in attempting to find the kidnapped boys. In particular, it says this includes a "3-year-old Palestinian girl". There is no reference to such an incident in the paper itself, but it is almost certain it refers to the case covered here (by Elder of Ziyon) in which even the Palestinian propaganda agency Maan confirms a 3-year-old girl was killed on 24 June 2014 by a Hamas rocket targeted at southern Israel but which fell short. The implication that Israel killed the 3-year-old in response to the kidnappings is therefore a clear blood libel.
It is also interesting to note that the newspaper provides no evidence to support the implication about the other 5 Palestinian deaths. In fact, two of these reported deaths were of Hamas operatives involved in firing rockets from Gaza, and so are also completely unconnected with the kidnappings (except in the sense that Hamas has increased the number of rocket launches since the kidnappings). The other three reported deaths were all of Palestinians involved in violent clashes with Israeli security forces.

06/27 Links Pt2: Pollard’s release is a matter of justice; Obama seeks $500M to arm Syrian rebels

From Ian:

Alan Dershowitz, Irwin Cotler: Pollard’s release is a matter of justice

US President Barack Obama’s response to President Shimon Peres’s request for executive clemency for Jonathan Pollard was to refer the matter to US Attorney-General Eric Holder.
Indeed, as it happens, a group of American constitutional and criminal law scholars and practitioners, including six Harvard law school professors, Obama’s alma mater, have written to the president (full disclosure – we are two of the signatories and organizers of the letter) requesting the commutation of Pollard’s sentence to time served. In our letter we argue that “such commutation is more than warranted if the ends of justice are to be served, the rules of law respected and simple humanity secured.”

Lib Dem Friends of Palestine promote Atzmon

Even though Gilad Atzmon’s vile views have been widely condemned by anti-racists, including many pro-Palestinian activists, Lib Dem Friends of Palestine have promoted his racist attack on Ed Miliband’s speech to the LFI on their Facebook page.

"As the Brits were expressing their disapproval of ‘Red Ed’ and his clumsy politics, the Labour leader found the time to socialise with the Jewish Lobby. The following is Ed Miliband’s speech to LFI (Labour Friends Of Israel), the same Zionist Lobby group that funded Blair’s government as it drove Britain into a criminal war in Iraq.
In his speech, Ed Miliband affirms his deep Zionist affiliation. The verdict on his reign is clear, Miliband should never have been the leader of a major British political party. He would have been better suited for a position as a local Rabbi or a part time job as an Israeli consular.
…
Britain doesn’t need a ‘Friend of Israel’ in Number 10 Downing Street. It needs friend of the British people, an ally of truth and justice and not a Zionist merchant. It needs a humanist and a universalist, instead of an imbecilic tribal operator who sees the world from a kosher perspective driven by the primacy of Jewish suffering.
The following speech serves to convince every proud Brit that the time is ripe to cleanse British public life of Zionists and Jerusalemites. Britain needs to search for its path back to Athens, ethics and the universal so that it can reminds itself its greatness and its role in Western civilization."
This is the kind of statement one would expect to be endorsed by neo-Nazis, not Liberal Democrats. Lib Dem Friends of Palestine have now removed the link, and weakly apologised for ‘any offence caused’. This is not good enough. Who posted this and how will they be dealt with?

Give this Israeli soldier in America a round of applause

November 21st of 2012, Hen Mazzig was walking down Shaul HaMelech street in the heart of Tel Aviv when an ear splitting explosion ripped through the air. The gut wrenching sound echoed across the apartment and office buildings for several seconds soon to be replaced by sounds of agony, then sirens. A Dan commuter bus, No. 142, was running its usual route when at twelve noon Muhammad Mafarji used his cell phone to detonate an explosive device packed with nails and shrapnel. Hen was a block away. Hen knows the value of peace.
Honorably discharged in June of 2012 Hen was not ready to settle down just yet, so when he was offered a job to serve as a Seattle based Shaliach for the Israel advocacy group StandWithUs, he jumped at the opportunity.
This new assignment was an eye opener for a self described left of center Israeli. In just the first few months on the job Hen had been called every name imaginable, had been verbally assaulted, physically threatenedand was asked by the sponsors of an event to leave a venue out of fear for his safety. Hen details some of these experiences in his viral Times of Israel (over 22,000 shares) “An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: Wake up!”.

Dress Codes: Revealing the Jewish Wardrobe at the Israel Museum

From Irene, since I cannot appreciate this as much as she does:

Imagine wearing a wedding dress made of velvet so fine and fabulously embroidered, that when you die, it will be unstitched and reworked to make a Torah ark curtain.

http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/memo.html

Imagine a young mom, adorned with pearls and wearing a special dress finely embroidered with silver thread, showing off her first baby, knowing that she will wear that same garment to celebrate each of her babies, and will wear it a final time as a shroud when she meets her Creator.

http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/memo.html

She will protect her children by stitching little shells onto their clothes in asymmetric patterns with red thread to protect them from small pox and other diseases. She may “confuse the evil forces intent on harming young boys by dressing them in girls’ clothing.”http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/child.html

Imagine a young woman, preparing for her marriage to a man whom she will probably outlive, including in her trousseau the scarf she will wear when she mourns him and a second scarf she will wear when the children she creates with that man die before their fifth birthday . http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/memo.html

Dress Codes: Revealing the Jewish Wardrobe,

http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/home/ an exhibition at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem promises, “From India to Tunis, New York to Baghdad: dresses, suits, wedding outfits, undergarments, and children’s clothing: a spectacular range of 19th to 20th century Jewish garments from around the world, offering a multi-cultural view of dress, its significance, and its influences on the styles of today.

Quite aside from the fashion, the exhibition records much about Jewish life. For example, the description of a late 19th century ikat-dyed brocaded silk coat from Bukhara, Uzbekistan notes, “Due to its strong smell, the use of ikat was initially considered repugnant, and was exclusively a Jewish practice; however as the process was perfected it came to be a highly esteemed specialty.”

http://www.imj.org.il/exhibitions/2014/dresscodes/en/hidden.html

The website of the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted a nice article about the exhibition. http://mfa.gov.il/MFA/IsraelExperience/Culture/Pages/Dress-Codes-Revealing-the-Jewish-Wardrobe-24-Feb-2014.aspx

Newest conspiracy theory from Iran

Perhaps the "*-washing" meme has hit its limit:

Tehran’s provisional Friday Prayers Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ahmad Khatami underlined that the US and Israel have created and supported the terrorist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) to sow discord among Muslims.

Addressing a large and fervent congregation of the people on Tehran University campus on Friday, Ayatollah Khatami said, "The US and Israel are supporting the ISIL with the purpose of disintegrating Iraq and create differences among Muslims."

He reiterated that what is currently going on in Iraq is not a fight between the Shiites and Sunnis because the Shiite and Sunni religious authorities have on several occasions condemned the ISIL and its crimes.

The provisional Friday prayers leader said the US and the Zionist regime are plotting to introduce Islam as a tough religion in a bid to allow Israel continue its crime against Muslims.

In similar remarks last week, another provisional Friday Prayers Leader of Tehran, Hojjatoleslam Kazzem Seddiqi said the recent attacks by the ISIL in Iraq are a new plot by the West, specially US, to distract the international community's attention from Israel's atrocities in the Middle East.

"The enemy wants to deprive the Muslim World of unity in a bid to make them forget Israel's dangers," Hojjatoleslam Seddiqi said.

So Israel and the US created a group to murder thousands of people in order to distract the world from noticing Israel going after terrorists.

It used to be that Israel would do good things to distract the world from its crimes, but now it is doing atrocities to distract the world from its crimes!

I think that whenever an Israeli kid climbs onto a school bus, people from Iran and Mondoweiss and the Presbyterian Church USA all say, "Look at how that child is trying to act normally to distract the world from Israel's crimes!"

06/27 Links Pt1: Ari Lesser - Bring Back Our Boys; Netanyahu: Break up unity pact with Hamas

From Ian:

A mother’s plea for ‘prayer, positive energy, whatever it takes’ to find kidnapped teens

The Times of Israel interviewed Rachelle Fraenkel on Thursday afternoon, in a quiet garden near the family home at Nof Ayalon, two weeks after her son Naftali, 16, was kidnapped along with Gil-ad Shaar, 16, and Eyal Yifrach, 19.
We had contacted her because she has been saying that she wants the world in general, and the Jewish world in particular, to do more, to do whatever it can, to help ensure the safe return home of the abducted trio of Israeli teenagers. We thought we would be able to help her get that message disseminated.

Fathers cry too

"We have six children -- five girls and Gil-ad. He is my only son. That was the first thing I thought about when I realized that he was kidnapped: I cannot lose my only son. The bad thoughts are there. I can't erase them. So I tell them: Move aside for now. I clear room in my head for doing things. I focus on being productive for myself and for Gil-ad. I try to control the thoughts, tire myself out with tasks, just to avoid a single moment of quiet. When it is quiet I can hear Gil-ad calling me for help."
Ophir Shaer, 43, is the last person you would ever imagine in a situation like this: standing in front of television cameras, walking red carpets at the President's Residence. He is a lawyer and an accountant. He is shy. He hates being interviewed. But this isn't really an interview; I have already disclosed my personal relationship with the Shaer family. We are neighbors. We have known each other for years. I accompany Ophir and Bat-Galim Shaer, parents of kidnapped teen Gil-ad Shaer, to the Knesset. I am there as a friend of the family. On the way, we converse. It is not an interview.

Ari Lesser - Bring Back Our Boys

What does Quneitra have in common with UNRWA camps?

Yesterday was the 40th anniversary of Israel agreeing to give the village of Quneitra to Syria in the cease fire negotiations following the Yom Kippur War. Syria is celebrating:

The 26th of June, 1974 marks a day of pride for Syrians across the country on which the Israeli occupation of the southern city of Quneitra was brought to an end.

The city of Quneitra, located in the Golan Heights, came under Israeli control on 10 June 1967, the last day of the Six-Day War. It was briefly recaptured by Syria during the 1973 War, only to once again fall in the Israeli occupation forces’ hands.

It was largely demolished by the time Syria, under the leadership of late President Hafez al-Assad, liberated it from occupation In 1974.

Up to this day, Quneitra stands a living witness to the barbarity of the Israeli occupation which deliberately inflicted the ugliest forms of savagery on almost everything in the city, leaving churches, mosques, hospitals, schools and facilities flattened even after a ceasefire was announced.

The exalted day of victory against the Zionist enemy continues to send the Syrians’ spirits soaring high over increased confidence in notching up a renewed victory against Syria’s new-old staunch enemies who have constantly been in trouble to subvert the Syrian state operating their terrorist tools all across the country to that effect.

As the people of Golan commemorate the liberation day, their hearts, as those of all the Syrians around the world, brim with hope to “liberate each and every inch of the usurped soil of the occupied Golan.”

What does Quneitra look like today, after 40 years of Syrian control?

Exacty the same as it looked in 1974:

It has been kept as a museum of sorts of "Zionist atrocities."

The city has often been used as a stop for foreign VIPs, ranging from the Soviet foreign minister Alexei Kosygin in June 1976[46] to Pope John Paul II in May 2001.[47] Only a handful of families now live in the town, making a living by providing services for the United Nations troops patrolling the demilitarized zone. According to The Times, "the carefully preserved ruined city has become a pilgrimage site for a generation of Syrians."

The city can be visited by tourists, but a permit from the Syrian Ministry of the Interior is required, and sight-seeing is supervised by a military guide. The principal sights on the standard tour are the remains of Quneitra's hospital, mosque and Greek Orthodox church. A "Liberated Quneitra Museum", displaying artifacts from the city's ancient and medieval past, is housed in the former Ottoman caravanserai in the city centre.

There has been no rebuilding. The residents have to live elsewhere, permanently. Quneitra's value to Syria is purely symbolic, and they use that symbolism to the hilt, just to try to hurt Israel. The propaganda is worth far more to Syria than the rights of the former residents to return and rebuild.

This is a theme in the Arab world vis a vis Israel. After all, just as the only reason Quneitra remains in ruins is as an anti-Israel museum, the only reason that "refugee camps" still exist in the Arab world, and especially in PA and Hamas controlled areas, is to create a different kind of museum - a museum where human beings are told they must stay in the camps for their own good, and where Western NGOs and politicians can be taken to view suffering that could have ended decades ago.

They aren't camps - they are zoos, where Israel-haters can "tsk, tsk" about how awful those Zionists are for forcing the people to live in camps that the Arabs themselves are forcing them to live in.

The Western world is not tuned in to the importance Arabs give to symbolism. Especially Americans cannot understand how Arabs consider symbols to be more important than life itself, and how people can be sacrificed so easily for symbolism. But Quneitra, and UNRWA camps, show true Arab priorities every single day.

There are a number of interesting passages in "The Inner Life of Syria, Palestine, and the Holy Land: From My Private Journal, Volume 1" by Lady Isabel Burton, who was the wife of explorer Richard Francis Burton.

At the holy places, Damascus and Jerusalem, religion is the one thought for pugnacious sentiment, as politics used to be in the days when they rose so high in England, that the dearest friends whose opinions differed could not speak. In Damascus, Christian and Moslem are as Guelph and Ghibeline, Montagu and Capulet, Whig and Tory of the olden time. At Jerusalem the fourteen Christian sects wrangle over the Holy Places, except, of course, those who doubt the truth of the sites, and who have come to teach us better. Meanwhile, the Moslems stand over them to flog them into order. If one unhappy Jew were to risk crossing the court of the Sepulchre during Holy Week, the fourteen would for once unite to tear him into threads.

The Palestine Moslems are considered by Thomson, and those who have made researches into their history, to have come from Egypt. My husband says they are a collection of all races, and that the Crusaders drew them from every part of the East.
The Maronites claim to be descended from the ancient Syrians.
The Ansariyyeh, also called Nusayri, are also made to spring from the Canaanites, but the fact is we know nothing about them.
The Metawalis are emigrants from Persia, as their physique proves.
The inhabitants of the Lebanon may be off-shoots from the original Phcenician owners.
The Druzes are Arabs from the eastern confines of Syria, settled partly in the Lebanon and Anti-Lebanon, and partly in the mountains to the east.

Thomson truthfully says:—

"No country in the world has such a multiplicity of antagonistic races. They can never form a united people, nor combine for any important purpose. They will therefore remain weak and incapable of self-government, and exposed to the invasions and oppressions of foreigners—a people trodden down."

This state of affairs results from and perpetuates a Babel of tongues. English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish are the languages imported by the foreign Consulates. Turkish is the official tongue, and Arabic the national; Persian, Hindostani, and Greek are also common. The Consul has to converse every day with Jews, Maronites, Arabs, Turks, Bedawin, Druzes, Kurds, Afghans, Persians, and Algerines; and he must, or rather he should, understand all their religions and customs.

...These various religions and sects live together more or less, and practise their conflicting worships in close proximity. Outwardly you do not see much, but in their hearts they hate one another. The Sunnites excommunicate the Shiahs, and both hate the Druzes; all detest the Ansariyyehs; the Maronites do not love anybody but themselves, and are duly abhorred by all; the Greek Orthodox abominate the Greek Catholics and the Latins; all despise the Jews. It is a fine levelling school, and teaches one, whatever one's fanatical origin or bigoted early training may have been, to respect all religions, and to be true to one's own.

Except the Bedawin, the Druzes, and the Jews (especially the Samaritans), only a few families can pride themselves on tracing their origin to any antiquity. We must, of course, except all those descended from the Prophet, and especially Abd el Kadir, who is an exile here.

The part about sectarian divisions was quoted in a conference held in Lebanon on how the media fans sectarian divisions of the country.

The Israeli Embassy of New Zealand issued this press release:

Hamas has published three versions of a kidnapper's handbook, guides that provide practical and doctrinal information for carrying out attacks. The following analyses of the handbooks are based on open-source materials.

1. On 23 February 2010, the Palestinian Information Center, run by Hamas, reported the distribution of the first edition of a 200-page book entitled, “An Inside Perspective of the Resistance (Al-Muqawama).” The book deals extensively with the subject of the abduction of Israelis as a means to securing the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli prisons.

A report on the book was also published on 5 March 2010 by the Islamic Bloc at Al-Quds University in Jerusalem, a group of students identified with Hamas.

The book was written by Muhammad Arman, a senior Hamas member imprisoned in Israel. Arman was the commander of the Silwan Squad, which carried out horrific terrorist attacks during the Second Intifada (including the attack on the Moment Café, an attack in Rishon Lezion and the attack on the Hebrew University in Jerusalem). He was arrested in August 2002 and sentenced to 36 life sentences. Due to the severity of his crimes and the danger he posed, Israel refused to release him as part of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange.

In the book, Arman offers detailed operative suggestions, including on kidnapping, together with an analysis of the processes and the difficulties facing the “resistance” (the Palestinian code-word for terrorism). In general, he lays out the recommended combat doctrine for the “resistance” in the West Bank. For example, he recommends firing rockets and mortar shells towards Israeli targets from the West Bank. He also advises how to exploit the various communications mediums (cell phones, the Internet, etc.), while taking the necessary precautions.

Arman also elaborates on the subject of the abduction of “Zionist soldiers” in order to exchange them for Palestinian prisoners. His instructions constitute a detailed combat doctrine on the subject of kidnappings. Among the wealth of operative tips that he lays out in his book, Arman states, for example:

• That it is definitely possible to hold an Israeli abductee on the West Bank for long periods of time (years), as long as the kidnappers use common sense and plan the operation meticulously;

• That the kidnappers must be “sleeper” Hamas activists, that have been secretly nurtured from a young age without being exposed to [Palestinian] collaborators with Israel;

• That it is worthwhile to kidnap certain kinds of Israeli soldiers in order to increase the effectiveness of the abduction. According to Arman, the desired characteristics of a soldier that it would be worthwhile to abduct are: an Ashkenazi Jew, married, the father of children, whose parents are alive;

• That an underground hideout should be prepared well in advance (such as a pit that is prepared as a room to hold the abductee), far away from houses. Alternatively, it is possible to place the hideout in the vicinity of houses whose residents are not known to be collaborators and neither are they suspected, from the security point of view, by the enemy [Israel] so that there is no reason to believe that they will be arrested or their homes and surrounding areas searched.

2. On 28 April 2013, Dr. Adnan Abu Amer, a lecturer at the Al Ummah University Open Education, published an article on the Arabic language Al Monitor media website called “The Countdown to the Next Abduction against the Israeli Army.” The Al Monitor English version of the article is entitled "Is Hamas Planning to Kidnap More Israelis?"

3. Abu Amer, who also publishes opinion articles in Palestine, the mouthpiece of the Hamas movement, writes in his article that in 2013 the Hamas leadership - from Khaled Mashaal overseas down to the leaders of the movement in the Gaza Strip - disseminated many more messages than is usual to the terrorist arm of the movement. The terrorists had been given a free hand in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip to again force Israel into a prisoner swap. The article presents a few examples of these messages.

According to Abu Amer:

• Khaled Mashaal, the head of the Political Bureau of Hamas, declared at that time that the only means to release Palestinian prisoners was by forcing Israel to exchange prisoners.

• Ismail Haniya, till recently the prime minister of the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip, gave Hamas' Izz al-Din al-Kassam Brigades a free hand in one of his speeches during that same period to bring the suffering of the Palestinian prisoners to an end. He gave the Gilad Shalit kidnapping case as an example.

• Hamas' Ahmad Bahar, deputy speaker of the Palestinian parliament, called on the “armed factions” to set in motion their options to secure the release of the prisoners by all means.

• Atalla Abu-al-Sabah, the Hamas Minister of Prisoner Affairs, also emphasized the need to activate the "resistance option" in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.

4. Abu Amer also states that Hamas distributed, amongst the Izz al-Din al-Kassam Brigades, an 18-page booklet entitled “The Kidnapper’s Handbook,” containing the combat doctrine of the field of abductions.

Reportedly, the manual details methods of conducting kidnapping operations. Among the recommendations:

• The kidnappers should learn Hebrew until they speak it fluently;
•
• They should target a soldier with a weak physique;
•
• The vehicle used in the operation should be immediately replaced.
•
5. It is important to note that a 16-page Kidnapper’s Handbook, similar to that mentioned by Abu Amer, had already been distributed in 2002.

It appears that over the years Hamas has been systematically engaging in the abduction doctrine. This while improving and honing its operative aspects pursuant to the lessons learned from actual abductions and attempted abductions, expending efforts to introduce this combat doctrine into the consciousness of the activists and motivating them to act when the need arises.

[It should be noted that although references were made in the handbooks to kidnapping operations targeting Israeli soldiers, the 12 June kidnapping of three Israelis involved two 16-year-old high school students and a 19-year-old seminary student. Hamas has made many efforts to falsely portray these teenagers as soldiers, including in the June 23rd Al-Jazeera interview with Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal.]

Hamas' Al Qassam Brigades mentions the "Guide for Kidnapping" in an article they published after the abductions, but that article was taken down. In the cached version they go into more detail of the booklet:

Perhaps the most important success of the fighters in the capture of the soldier, is to get him out of the battlefield "alive and kicking", thus opening the floodgates for scenarios ranging from the serious and the least dangerous, and the costly! ...

The success of any kidnapping coming to a soldier or settler depends primarily in the management of what is considered a "war of nerves" with Israel, straining hearts of the leaders of the army, which would show hunger for any information no matter how small, and in time Israel, which will launch threats and warnings, will fold...

If Hamas is considered to be an essential part of success in the conclusion of the exchange deal next is the ability to access the heart of Israel's public opinion, and the creation of public differences among the pillars of military and security establishment, to exchange the generals and ministers accusations of negligence that enabled the Palestinians to carry out their operation, they know that the successful conclusion of this deal will be a great tool to pressure the Israeli government to be repeated in future cases, even if it included a hefty price tag for Israel...

...

The Kurds and Israel continue to strengthen their relationship

From i24News:

As the Iraqi state takes what appears to be its last breath, Iraq’s Kurds continue to gain momentum. Taking over oil-rich Kirkuk a few weeks ago symbolized the beginning of a new era for Iraqi Kurds, who have been demanding for years that Baghdad establish a proper profit sharing system for the black gold. Now the Kurds have to wait no more, given that patience in today’s Iraq is not a virtue, but a flaw. They followed the takeover of Kirkuk with the exporting of oil to interested customers – and according to Reuters, the first batch of Kurdish oil ended up in Israel's Mediterranean port of Ashkelon.

Those who monitor Kurdish-Israeli relations were not surprised. The ties between Israel and the Kurds began in the early 1960s, when Israeli intelligence agents operated in Iraqi Kurdistan and helped local authorities. The level of cooperation increased significantly after the fall of Saddam Hussein, with Israeli contractors and companies entering Iraqi Kurdistan and routine reports in Iraqi media about Israeli commandos training the Kurdish peshmerga.

However, official ties were never established, partly because of the Iraqi Kurds’ relations with Iran, an important regional actor that doesn't favor a Kurdish rapprochement with Israel. This is perhaps the reason for the furious denials published by the Kurdish ministry of natural reserves of the report about oil sales to Israel. "We have never sold oil to Israel, directly or indirectly," a source in the ministry told the Kurdish media network Rudaw. Israel, too, has been reluctant to publicize the relationship so as not to endanger its relations with Turkey. However, now that geopolitical circumstances have changed significantly, both sides might reconsider.

...Many Kurds draw close parallels with Israel, also a non-Arab nation encircled by enemies who oppose its independence. Israel’s technological prowess, its well-armed military and the dynamic nature of Israeli society are all major draws for the Kurds, who had never stopped dreaming about an independent Kurdish state. The supporters of rapprochement with Israel believe that they also have something to offer the Jewish state – a close partnership based on mutual interests as well as values. This partnership, some say, could create a new balance of power in the Middle East and would be highly beneficial to Israel.

In this context it might be interesting to examine the situation in Syrian Kurdistan, where the Kurds are also trying to carve out an autonomous region. A draft constitution that was presented by the ruling Kurdish party doesn't view the sharia as a basis of legislation, unlike the constitutions in Arab countries. While radical Islamic organizations such as "The Islamic State in Iraq and Levant" (ISIL) gain popularity among Sunni populations in Syria and Iraq, the Kurds are generally drawn to much more moderate versions of Islam and strive to a modern state where women have equal rights.

However, Israel is neither the closest nor the most important ally for any future Kurdish state. Economically, Iraqi Kurdistan depends on Turkey – Kurdish oil is piped to the Turkish port of Jihan. Turkey is both the largest market for any Kurdish production and one of the largest importer of its goods. Iran is also important to the Kurds in Iraq, both as an immediate neighbor and a country with a significant Kurdish population. Kurdish leader Masoud Barazani visited Iran recently to discuss the insurgency of the ISIL jihadists in Iraq and possible measures to counter it. Iran has an interest in containing the Kurds in Iraq to dampen any nationalistic fervor it its own Kurdish-populated areas. The Kurds in Iraq strive to achieve independence but would like to avoid a direct clash with such a serious regional power like Iran.

What effect will these considerations have on relations between the Kurds and Israel? For now it seems that the parties will increase the volume of their ties. However the clandestine nature of relations will remain. If Iraqi Kurds finally achieve independence, their state, at least in the beginning, will be too weak and vulnerable to establish official relations with Jerusalem, so for the time being an Israeli embassy in Kirkuk – the city known as Kurdish Jerusalem – is unlikely.

Support for Kurdish independence came from a seemingly unlikely source:

'The Kurds of Iraq can decide for themselves the name and type of entity they are living in." With those lapidary words, a spokesman for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan formalized a historic shift in Turkish policy. For the past five years, Turkey has been investing in Iraq's increasingly autonomous Kurdish region and even opened a consulate in its capital, Erbil. The Turkish writer Mustafa Akyol recently noted that Ankara, long fearful of Kurdish political ambitions at home and abroad, now regards Iraqi Kurdistan—and perhaps its Syrian counterpart—as a force for regional stability and security.

...[T]he Kurds are a distinct people. They have their own language, culture and history. They have been oppressed by every country in which they have languished as a minority. They were promised independence in 1920, only to have that promise rescinded three years later. They have made wise and patient use of the autonomy they have gained in Iraq. It is hard to think of a people who more deserve their own state.

The case for Kurdish independence is more than moral. Despite persistent corruption in Iraq, the Kurds there have governed themselves effectively and have attracted significant foreign investment. Their army has proved to be disciplined and effective. With the Kurds' recent takeover of Kirkuk, they have what they have long regarded as their true capital, their Jerusalem. And the Iraqi Kurds' entente with Turkey allows them to export oil without Baghdad's cooperation, securing their economic independence.

As Ofra Bengio, head of the Kurdish Study Program at the Moshe Dayan Center in Tel Aviv, recently noted in the Jerusalem Post, this appears to be the Kurdish moment in the Middle East. Syria is "neutralized by its own struggle for survival" and "will not . . . raise a finger against the Kurds." It is hard to imagine that Jordan, Saudi Arabia or Kuwait would do so either. Turkey is willing to accept an independent Iraqi Kurdistan, and its control of the oil pipeline would give the new Kurdish state incentives not to meddle with Turkey's Kurds. As for Iran, says Mr. Bengio, Tehran is "up to its neck with business and relations with the Kurds."

06/26 Links Pt2: As Europe slides into a Dark Age, Jews must review their future; Z Street and the IRS

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: As Europe slides into a Dark Age, Jews must review their future

Recent developments signal that the prospect of Europe sliding into a new Dark Age is now a horrifying reality. It is as though all the elements negating the open society have been blended into a witches’ brew to undermine Europe’s liberal cultural ethos.
First in line to suffer are the Jews, attacked from all sides, isolated, friendless and unable to adequately defend themselves. Their greatest threat is the rabidly anti-Semitic Muslims supported by anti-Semites from the far Left. This unholy alliance of religious and secular extremists employs radical anti-Israelism as a surrogate for traditional anti-Semitism and is now a fixture at Hezbollah and anti-Israeli demonstrations, where they wave placards and shamelessly accuse Israelis of emulating Nazis.

A Pro-Israel Arab Londoner At A Palestine Solidarity Campaign Meeting (video)

Here's the indefatigable young Arab supporter of Israel who calls himself Orim Shimshon; he introduces the video thus:
"I went to a meeting by Hamas/Palestinian supporters in a conference room in the British Library. No longer shall I wait for Q and A to speak. I decided to resort to different tactics. Rather than heckling the director (Sarah Colborne, who was at the podium speaking as I went up; she is the director of the Palestinian Solidarity Campaign), I brought signs instead, so people can read and respond rather then talking over each other!"
Note the repetitive question he's asked by PSC heavies as he's escorted out; note too the racist insults that he's been subjected to on this video's YouTube page. (h/t Yenta Press)

Palestinian supporters shocked by one supporter of Israel at a Hamas meeting

The Universal Answer: Boycott Israel

Since virtually everything that is wrong in the world is Israel’s fault, we have no choice but to boycott Israel or at least follow those brave Presbyterians and disinvest. Reading the world media, I have to believe that Israel, like Professor Moriarty from Sherlock Holmes, is a spider weaving an immense and complex web of evil and criminality. Okay, if that seems just a little over the top, how about the premise that the suffering and death in the Muslim World is directly attributable to Israel’s policies and existence?
Take Black September when nearly 15,000 Palestinians were slaughtered. A true moral outrage. The world’s response? Hate Israel. But the killing was done by King Hussein of Jordan and his Hashemite Bedouin army. Still, that doesn’t fit the narrative, so boycott Israel.

A year ago, I decided to fire Spongebob Squarepants from his job hanging out on my former sidebar logo. It was a difficult decision, as he had been an honored member of the team for many years. I even protected him from a fatwa on his life. But it was a decisionI felt I had to make, and when you run the world, sometimes you have to make difficult decisions.

Soon after, I awkwardly ran into Spongebob as he was panhandling on the Las Vegas Strip. However, I pulled a few strings in the smoky backrooms of Elders Central and got him a good gig at Sabra Hummus, the hummus that Israel haters love to hate.

I didn't keep in touch since then, assuming that he was as happy as ever, but then I was stunned to read this story:

SpongeBob SquarePants fans alert! A real life version of the Krusty Krab, the iconic fastfood restaurant that SpongeBob works at in the Nickalodeon cartoon is set to open up in Ramallah, on the West Bank in Palestine.

The family restaurant has been designed to be an exact replica of Mr Krabs' establishment in Bikini Bottom, from the fixtures outside the building to the Krabby Patty burgers on the menu.

(The Facebook page for the restaurant is here.)

Poor Spongebob! He was apparently so furious with me that he decided to defect! And I couldn't tell because of that damned smile of his!

On the other hand, I always knew there was something fishy about him...

It seems doubtful that the restaurant has permission from Nickelodeon to build this, so if I really need to, I can always pull some Hollywood and legal strings to take care of this. (I of course have the military option too, but the IDF doesn't like when I ask them to bomb non-terrorist targets.)

(h/t Ian)