Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, September 04, 2014

Abbas brags about how little he cares for Palestinian "refugees"

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has rejected an Egyptian proposal to resettle Palestinian refugees in a large tract of land in the Sinai Peninsula to be annexed to the Gaza Strip.

Speaking to a gathering of his Fatah party in Ramallah Sunday, Abbas said that an unnamed senior Egyptian official recently approached him and suggested settling Palestinians in an area 1,600 square kilometers (618 square miles) large adjacent to Gaza, reviving an idea originally proposed by former Israeli national security adviser Giora Eiland.

“They [the Egyptians] are prepared to receive all the refugees, [saying] ‘let’s end the refugee story’,” Abbas was quoted by Ma’an news agency as saying.

The Palestinian leader noted that the idea was first proposed to the Egyptian government in 1956, but was furiously rejected by Palestinian leaders such as PLO militant Muhammad Youssef Al-Najjar and poet Muin Bseiso who “understood the danger of this.”

“Now this is being proposed once again. A senior leader in Egypt said: ‘a refuge must be found for the Palestinians and we have all this open land.’ This was said to me personally. But it’s illogical for the problem to be solved at Egypt’s expense. We won’t have it,” Abbas said.

1600 square kilometers is over four times the size of the Gaza Strip today, perhaps the annexed part would look like something like this:

I have no idea if any Egyptian official really floated this idea to Abbas. Countries generally don't offer their land for free (with the glaring exception of Israel,) even if that land has a major terrorist problem.

But the important part of the story isn't whether the offer is real or fictional. The important part is that Abbas is bragging about rejecting a solution to the "refugee" problem.

Which proves that Abbas doesn't care about the "refugees" but only about destroying Israel.

When the PLO talks about the fictional "right of return" the West usually scoffs and says that they aren't being serious and that they really want a two-state solution. But the idea of flooding Israel with Arabs and making it into another Arab state is the keystone of Fatah's plan to destroy Israel in stages, and it has never changed.

We've seen PLO officials say that any "refugees" that come from Arab countries to "Palestine" would not become citizens. We've seen Abbas reject saving the lives of Syrian Palestinians unless they keep their "right" to move to Israel. We've seen Abbas insist that Lebanese Palestinians must not become citizens of the country they were born in, but must remain stateless instead.

And now Abbas is bragging about rejecting free land to house these poor, stateless "refugees." (Without consulting them, of course.)

Abbas' position is clear: The "refugees" only exist in order to ultimately destroy Israel. They must remain stateless and miserable or else they are useless to him. Actually helping the "refugees" is his lowest priority; cynically using them for political ends is his highest priority.

The point of a Palestinian Arab state is not to alleviate the suffering of stateless Palestinians. If it was, Abbas would embrace all of these plans - to naturalize them in Arab countries if they want, to bring them in to areas under his control to be protected, and certainly to provide them with land he doesn't have so they have room to live.

Yet Abbas consistently chooses to increase the misery of the people he supposedly leads rather than help them.

Mahmoud Abbas' position is clear: any solution to the so-called "refugee' problem must come at the expense of Israel. The Palestinian Arab leadership priorities have not changed in the slightest since Yasir Arafat founded Fatah in the 1950s: destroying Israel is far, far more important than helping Palestinian Arabs, the everlasting pawns of the Middle East.

(h/t Ian)

The Fatah-oriented Palestine Press Agency has a scathing article about how Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar denies that Hamas attacked Fatah members during Operation Protective Edge.

The newspaper lists the names of 11 Fatah members who were beaten, had bones broken or were shot in the legs.

It also lists 59 Fatah members in Gaza who were placed under house arrest by Hamas.

Fatah also accuses Hamas of confiscating food aid that was shipped in during the war and prioritizing the delivery to its own people as well as Islamic Jihad and unaffiliated Gazans in order to gain support.

In addition, Fatah accuses Hamas of physically enforcing an 11 PM curfew, not allowing cars or even ambulances to travel while under Israeli fire, although Hamas vehicles traveled freely overnights.

Moreover, the newspaper says that Hamas militants opened fire on civilians during the Israeli bombardment and forced them not to leave their homes, according to witnesses.

Ken Roth of Human Rights Watch said repeatedly and wrongly that "human shields' are only considered such when the people are forced to stay in an area that they want to leave. Here we see accusations that Hamas used human shields even according to the narrow definition of HRW. (Why a "human rights" organization tries so hard to minimize human rights culpability for Israel's enemies is anyone's guess.)

But if history is any guide, Roth will do what he can to reduce Hamas' culpability as much as he can, even as he repeats false reports that condemn Israel.

U of Calgary still requiring textbook that pushes anti-Israel lies and excuses for Bin Laden (UPDATE x2 - no)

In January, I reported about a textbook, called "Culture of Prejudice: Arguments in Critical Social Science," that was being used at the University of Calgary. The textbook was filled with anti-Israel distortions and even (false) excuses for Osama Bin Laden's terrorism.

The book claimed to be prompting readers to think critically - while feeding them lies meant to brainwash them!

In March, protesting organizations in Calgary were informed that the book would be removed from the shelves for the coming school year.

Well, that isn't true.*

This photo was taken Wednesday at the UC bookstore:

The yellow card says:

It is a required textbook for Sociology 205, Canadian Society, taught by Annette Tézli. This is the same course and same teacher that used the book last year.

I found a half dozen lies in a single paragraph of this book.

Here is a paragraph where the book describes the mass murder of thousands of Palestinian Arabs by Jordan's King Hussein as ultimately being Israel's fault:

So Jordan can be excused for annexing the "Jordanian" West Bank, King Hussein can be excused for mass murder, but the only real crimes are Israel's. Arabs are ultimately not responsible for their actions, according to the esteemed sociologists who wrote this book - and who teach with it.

The book attacks fundamentalist Christians and Jews - but not a word about fundamentalist Muslims.

This isn't critical thinking. It is propaganda.

As I asked at the time:

How many hundreds of distortions and lies are in this book being given to clueless university students? How can universities allow books that don't have a modicum of fact-checking? Why are the authors not today despised and blacklisted in the world of academia for their horrendous use of lies to push their own political agendas under the cover of "fighting prejudice"?

Isn't using lies to demonize an entire people the very definition of "prejudice"?

Truth seems to be optional at this university.

If the University of Calgary had promised to take this textbook off the shelves and yet it remains a requirement for the same course now, then we can add another lie to the list.

(h/t Sarah)

*UPDATE: The card on the books says "Winter 2014" which would have been last winter. Her webpage says she is teaching the course again in Winter 2015 but the syllabus is not yet available. So perhaps these books are leftover, although it is still strange that so many are being displayed if they will never be used again. (h/t Jordan)

UPDATE 2: We have confirmed that the book is not being used at UCalgary this semester and that the bookstore displayed them in error.

09/03 Links Pt2: 'These 6 million will not go gently into the night'; Golda Meir Was Right; France’s Toxic Hate

From Ian:

Isi Leibler: Candidly speaking: Déjà vu: Jewish renegades spewing vitriol against their people

The more naïve bleeding-heart fellow travelers display a softer version of anti-Israelism, ignore the criminality of Islamic fascism, and emphasize that they are motivated by humanity and acting in the best interests of the Jewish people. History will judge them even more harshly than the liberals who embraced Stalin and refused to recognize the reality of the evil empire as constituted by the Soviet Union. Many of them today are also academics, like their predecessors who were promoting the “peace camp” during the Cold War, which effectively amounted to advancing Soviet foreign policy objectives.
The liberal and left-wing media, exemplified by The New York Times and The Guardian, which provide extensive coverage and editorial endorsement for these demented views, will be judged even more harshly than for their previous unconscionable defense of the Soviet Union. Although New York Times Jerusalem correspondent Jodi Rudoren is far from being an anti-Zionist renegade, some of her reports about Gaza are reminiscent of Walter Duranty’s reports of the Soviet Union during the 1930s in the Times, which became notorious for understating Stalin’s criminal behavior.
In summary, the manifestation of Jewish renegades in our times comes with a sense of a déjà vu. Its influence feels magnified due to the impact of electronic media and social networking. We must remind ourselves that we live in democratic societies in which people are free to deceive. Our legitimate source of regret is that these one-dimensional Jewish anti-Semites achieve so much media exposure.
We must constantly challenge their attempts to portray themselves as mainstream, and emphasize that they represent a minuscule component of the Jewish world, which despises them.

'These 6 million will not go gently into the night'

The Middle East is burning. Barbaric Islamist hordes are slaughtering innocent civilians by the tens of thousands. Women and children are raped, killed and sold to slavery. Others are beheaded and their heads put on display.
The scope of this savagery boggles the mind. Meanwhile, the president of the United States curtails arms shipments to Israel, a staunch U.S. ally and the only democracy in the region. Without verification, the administration accepts Palestinian ‘civilian’ casualty claims and chooses to punish Israel.
Israel used precautions unheard of in the history of warfare to minimize non-combatant casualties in its defensive war against Hamas, a terror organization that committed a double war crime: firing at Israeli civilians and using Palestinian civilians as human shields. The fact is, Palestinian reporting cannot be trusted.

Douglas Murray: How can Jews oppose Muslim anti-Semitism without being ‘Islamophobic’?

Well, no less a witness than the left-wing Muslim firebrand Mehdi Hasan has said that ‘anti-Semitism isn’t just tolerated in some sections of the British Muslim community; it’s routine and commonplace’. Just last year Hasan wrote: ‘Any Muslims reading this article – if they are honest with themselves – will know instantly what I am referring to. It’s our dirty little secret.’ He went on: ‘To be honest, I’ve always been reluctant to write a column such as this. To accuse my fellow Muslims of being soft on the scourge of anti-Semitism isn’t easy; I feel as if I am “dobbing in” the community… [But] as a community, we do have a “Jewish problem”. There is no point pretending otherwise.’
Now this causes a problem, doesn’t it? Because the claim made by most Jewish and non-Jewish mainstream voices is that the Muslim extremists constitute a tiny proportion of the Muslim population in Britain and other Western countries. They maintain that the ‘vast majority’ are overwhelmingly ‘moderate’ and opposed to all such extremist views. Yet when it comes to Jews it would appear – as Hasan implies – that a very large proportion of Muslims, perhaps a majority, are anti-Semitic. So how do Jews oppose Muslim anti-Semitism without being ‘Islamophobic’?

Douglas Murray: "Dangerous Laws"

It has become increasingly plain in recent years that there are areas of our country in which different rules apply. When the former Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, said that there were areas of Britain which were effectively "no-go areas" for non-Muslims, he was ridiculed and dismissed as a scare-monger by much of the media and the political class.
Earlier this year, the Chief Inspector of Constabulary, Tom Winsor, was condemned in the same way and by the same forces when he said that there were areas of the country which constituted no-go areas for the police, and inside which minority communities administered their own forms of justice.
In Rotherham and many other places this analysis -- far from being untrue -- rings true with a dreadful clarity. There were local norms which the wider country might not recognize, but which were certainly recognized in Rotherham and elsewhere in Britain. Here were places where religion and ethnicity, and the fear of accusations of "racism" and "Islamophobia," trump everything -- including women's rights and, it is now clear, even children's rights.
This parallel set of "laws" was not instituted officially of course. The Rotherham report simply shows that these new, unofficial laws of behaviour were instituted informally. Thousands of members of the local Muslim Pakistani community must have understood them to have existed. And thousands of non-Muslim, white British, Sikh British and other groups must have understood them to exist as well. The officials of Rotherham certainly understood them to exist.

Another graphical comparison of jihadist groups

A lighthearted followup to this post:

From Times of Israel:

Israel signed a memorandum of understanding with Jordan Wednesday, under which it will supply the Hashemite Kingdom with $15 billion worth of natural gas from its Leviathan energy field over 15 years.

The new deal is the largest collaboration with Jordan to date, and will make Israel its chief supplier, according to the Globes business news website.

According to Globes, the US was involved in the negotiations. Representatives of the Delek Group Ltd. and Nobel Energy Inc. were in Jordan to sign the agreement.

In February, Israel signed a deal with Jordan to supply $500 million worth of gas to the Hashemite kingdom from the Tamar natural gas field in the Mediterranean.

Israel decided last year to export 40 percent of the country’s offshore gas finds, and has since signed a 20-year, $1.2 billion deal with a Palestinian firm, and in June signed a letter of intent to supply energy to an Egyptian facility as well.

Globes adds:

Jordan's total natural gas consumption is estimated at 4.5 BCM annually, and as of now, it must use diesel fuel and fuel oil as a substitute for gas. Jordan formerly imported 2.5 BCM from Egypt through the Arab Gas Pipeline (AGP). The shortage of gas in Egypt and the problems and sabotage in Sinai, however, eventually caused an almost total halt in the flow of gas to Jordan.

Isn't it interesting that when Arab entities like Egypt, Jordan and the PA need fuel, they aren't getting it from their fellow Arabs but are forced to buy it from Israel?

Jordan shares a long border with Saudi Arabia, yet they couldn't come up with a way for their fellow Arabs to help them out. And Egypt's gas surplus has turned into a deficit.

Israel is the most stable, reliable energy supplier in the Middle East. Imagine that.

Not that Jordan is keen to advertise this deal. Here is the entire story from Jordan's official news agency Petra. See if you can see what proper noun is missing from the article:

The Jordan National Electric Power Company (NEPCO) announced on Wednesday that it has signed a US-sponsored non-binding Letter of Intent with US-based Noble Energy to provide the Kingdom with natural gas from the eastern Mediterranean basin.

A NEPCO statement said that the US company had already signed similar letters of intent with two Egyptian companies and two agreements to sell natural gas to the Arab Potash Company and Jordan Bromine Company, as well as to the Palestinian National Authority.

More from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Also, check out their new Facebook page.

Jerusalem, September 3 - Police investigators have announced their intention to formally recommend indicting every single Israeli citizen for various crimes including corruption and breach of trust, in order to simplify the inevitable.

Commissioner Yohanan Danino called a press conference this morning to advise the public of the impending move, and stressed that the public should be advised not to undertake any action that might further obstruct or compromise ongoing investigations. The list of defendants now stands at approximately 5.7 million, representing every Israeli citizen over the age of 14.

The police recommendation does not bind the prosecution, which makes it own determination, but the results of a police investigation generally indicate the direction the prosecution will take. In this case, Danino explained, the investigators came to the conclusion that mounting evidence increasingly points to the involvement of every single Israeli in one or more acts of theft, extortion, bribery or attempted bribery, embezzlement, breach of trust, obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence, or a host of other offenses that carry mandatory prison sentences and hefty fines.

Israelis under the age of 14 are involved to the same degree as their elders, said police spokesman Matan Shochad, but the limits of the criminal justice system capacity drove police officials to prioritize the cases against the senior cohort. "We expect that defendants under the age of 18 will be tried as minors, unless the evidence indicates a level of sophistication and maturity congruent with an adult sense of right and wrong," he said.

Included in the roster of potential defendants is the entire police force and prosecutorial apparatus, a matter that threatens to complicate tens of thousands of cases. Danino said he had already appointed a committee to review that problem, and the committee's preliminary deliberations have already produced some practical recommendations, including simply closing the investigations against all senior figures in the police and government.

"It's a matter of efficiency," he said curlty, briefly looking at three burly men in dark sunglasses at the back of the room. "And if the burden on the prosecution is still excessive, we can pare down the caseload by closing other investigations, such as, oh, I don't know, maybe high-profile attorneys accused of trying to bribe law enforcement officials to overlook rampant corruption at the port of Ashdod."

09/03 Links Pt1: Murdered Journalist Sotloff Was Israeli; What Really Happened At Wafa Hospital

From Ian:

Murdered US Journalist Was Actually Israeli

Heroically maintaining Judaism under captivity
Sotloff reportedly made sure to fast in secret during Yom Kippur and even prayed in the direction of Jerusalem, as is customary in Jewish prayers, despite the risk he faced if his Islamist captors never found out he was Jewish.
One of Sotloff's fellow captives, who was subsequently released, told the paper that he feigned illness in order to escape his captors' suspicions.
"He told them he was ill and didn't want to eat, even though they brought us eggs that day," the witness told Yediot Aharonoth, "It looked like he was praying in a hidden way towards Jerusalem. He noted what way the Muslims were praying in and changed his direction slightly."

Steven Sotloff, killed by Islamic State, had deep roots in Israel

Steven Sotloff, the American journalist whose gruesome beheading was confirmed in a video released Tuesday night by Islamic State terrorists in Syria, first came to know Israel as an optimistic government student at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya. On Wednesday afternoon, the Foreign Ministry cleared for publication the fact that he held Israeli citizenship.
Sotloff, a Jewish native of Miami and the grandson of Holocaust survivors, came to Israel in 2008 to pursue his undergraduate degree at the IDC. He wasn’t starry-eyed about the Jewish state, a former classmate said last week. In fact, while he clearly loved Israel, his views on the country were as complicated as the region itself.
“Like most of us, he came here and he became very critical of the government,” said Hillary Lynne Glaser, who studied conflict resolution, international relations and counter-terrorism alongside Sotloff.
“I’m not so sure it was about the Israeli-Arab conflict, I think it was more how they treat their own people. But he still came back to visit,” she said, noting that Sotloff was in Israel as recently as last year to celebrate the wedding of a former IDC roommate.

Khaled Abu Toameh: Big Media Ignores Hamas's "Ugliest Crimes"

Armed Hamas militias committed the ugliest crimes. It was the Palestinians who made this charge.
Hamas militiamen confiscated food and medicine sent to the Gaza Strip from the West Bank and some "friendly countries," the Fatah leaders disclosed. "Hamas distributed some of the aid among their men through the mosques or sold it on the black market," they said.
It is hard to believe that the journalists did not hear about the Hamas crimes. But it is still not clear why journalists and human rights advocates continue to ignore the story. Is it because such stories are lacking an anti-Israel angle?

Israel Intelligence Minister Says Middle East Armies Created by U.S. ‘Failed’

Steinitz, speaking just prior to the implementation of Operation Protective Edge, and the metastasis of ISIS/ISIL – the so-called Islamic State – throughout much of Syria and Iraq, contended that “in the Gaza Strip, too, the Palestinian police forces were beaten by Hamas in 2007, and now the same thing is happening in Iraq.
“The substantial military forces the USA had established there are being defeated by Islamist forces, who use the exact same methods Hamas had used – including mass executions.
“It is equally clear that no future Palestinian policing force operating in the Judea and Samaria region (West Bank) may be relied upon, even if it were trained and equipped by the USA.
“If Israel does not control that area, the Islamist forces will be able to dominate the territory there, too,” said Steinitz, who, in previous years chaired the influential Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and held the Finance Ministry portfolio. In his current role he supervises the Mossad, the Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) and the Israel Atomic Energy Commission.

Seen on Twitter:

This touches my heart, let the world see how courages our men are, and how much love they have for our children. pic.twitter.com/GlzQv8MDsI
— Yasmine (@Nightingale4evr) September 2, 2014

When someone pointed out to her that this is a bit incongruous, she replied "Many children are orphans. With this they show that they honor their parents and those who helped them to peace."

These aren't just different "narratives." Most Palestinians have a concept of morality that is completely and utterly at odds with the civilized world. (As usual, there are no Arabs who are criticizing this tweet.)

But it is extremely politically incorrect to point out that different societies have different moral standards. This tweeter sees no contradiction between this photo and this other tweet of hers:

pic.twitter.com/SrpdDAGXbq
— Yasmine (@Nightingale4evr) September 2, 2014

To have peace, both sides need to have some basic minimal moral language that they can agree on. And that is simply not happening.

(h/t Abe Bird)

From Iran's Tasnim News Agency:

Iran’s Amir Sarkhosh will not compete against Zionist regime athlete Shachar Ruberg in the 2014 6-Red World Championship.

He is scheduled to face Shachar Ruberg on Wednesday but will not compete against the Israeli athlete.

The 2014 Six-Red World Championship is underway in Bangkok, Thailand.

It seems past time for international competitions to require competitors to sign a form saying that they will not forfeit any matches for political reasons - and to exclude countries whose members cannot sign it.

Israeli officials on Arab media have raised the ire of the Palestinian Journalists Syndicate.

The PJS just issued a call for Arab media to stop interviewing Israelis like Avichay Adraee, IDF Arabic spokesman, and Mordechai Kedar, professor at Bar-Ilan University.

They are saying that their demands should be met because the BDS movement doesn't allow contacts with Israeli Jews, but it seems clear that they are more worried that Arabs are listening to the Israeli viewpoint.

Adraee has over 100,000 Twitter followers and over half a million Facebook "Likes" on his Arabic-only pages.

Hilariously, the PJS couches their demands to destroy free speech with an appeal to liberal values:

The principles of journalistic ethics and professional commitment to provide all opinions excludes views that promote hatred, racism and racial discrimination, being the antithesis of pluralism, democracy and human rights....representatives of the occupation who appear on some Arab satellite channels exploit it as a platform for the defense of war crimes and crimes against humanity and for the promotion of racism, hatred, murder, and even raping mothers and sisters of Palestinian militants, such as Professor Mordechai Kedar, who was a frequent guest in the past on some satellite channels.

Kedar has been widely misquoted as promoting rape of Arabs, which is absurd.

Of course, when the PJS says it wants Arab stations not to interview Israelis, they mean "Israeli Jews." They would have no problem with an interview with Haneen Zoabi or any of the other anti-Israel Arab Knesset members.

This shows that anyone who considers Palestinian Arab journalists to adhere to any kind of journalistic standard of objectivity and fairness is hopelessly naive.

The real question is whether reporters like Fares Akram, who writes for the New York Times as well as Al Jazeera, are members of the PJS and support their position.

Today's fake Palestinian "civilians"(updated)

PCHR reported on August 1:

At approximately 09:00, medical crews were able to recover bodies of 2 civilians who were killed by Israeli forces in al-Shuja'iya neighborhood in the east of Gaza City: Ismail Zuhair Mohammadain, 26; and Mo'ammar Fadel Shamali, 35.

Here is a photo of the "civilian" Mo'ammar Fadel Shamali when he was alive:

Shamali was a leader of an elite Qassam Brigades unit.

UPDATE: Ismail Zuhair Mohammadain was also a Qassam Brigades member identified as a civilian above, here seen holding his civilian weapon (h/t Bob Knot):

In July 21, PCHR identified this person as a "civilian:"

Ali Mahmoud Jundiya, 26, was killed by an Israeli artillery shell that hit [his] house.

Jundiya was also a member of Hamas' Qassam Brigades, and here's his photo:

We have quite conclusively proven the "human rights" organizations' counting of "civilians" is not only flawed but must be knowingly deceptive.

Previous articles on this subject:

Fake civilian of the day (8/1, 1 "civilian")
The terrorist in the "righteous gentile" family house (8/17, 1 "civilian")
Terrorist listed as a 13-year old civilian by "human rights" orgs (8/19, 9 "civilians," 2 child terrorists and one adult categorized as a child)
Another fake "civilian" - and another family used as human shields (8/25, at least one "civilian")
Fake civilian of the day (8/29, 1 "civilian")
Fake Palestinian Civilians of the Day (8/31, 4 "civilians")
The Islamic Jihad Terror Ambulance (9/1, 3 "medical workers")

"Cultural genocide" alert: Ali Abunimah accuses NYT of couscous-washing! Tzipi Livni dances the "Dabke!" (video)

Ali Abunimah, founder of Electronic Intifada whose ridiculous pro-terror tweets during the war have shown the world that he is firmly against human rights, was very upset at the New York Times on Sunday. After a food writer published a recipe that involved "Israeli couscous," Abunimah tweeted:

.@martharshulman By calling maftoul "Israeli couscous" you participate in Israel's ethnic and cultural cleansing of Palestine of its people.
— Ali Abunimah (@AliAbunimah) September 1, 2014

Only one problem: What people call "Israeli couscous," which is called "ptitim" in Israel, is not maftoul. It is not even couscous! And it is very Israeli:

"Ptitim" was invented during the austerity period in Israel (from 1949 to 1959).[1] Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, asked Eugen Proper, one of the founders of the Osem food company, to quickly devise a wheat-based substitute to rice.[1] Consequently, it was nicknamed "Ben-Gurion's rice" by the people.[1] The company took up the challenge and developed ptitim, which is made of hard wheat flour and roasted in an oven.[1] The product was instantly a success, after which ptitim made in the shape of small, dense balls (which the company termed "couscous") was added to the original rice-shaped ptitim.

Abunimah doesn't even know the cuisine of his own supposed people!

Meanwhile, Arabic sites are buzzing about another terrible appropriation of "Palestinian" culture - the "Dabke" dance - by Tzipi Livni, who attended a wedding in a Galilee village and danced with the bride:

The Arabs are complaining that it is inappropriate for Livni to ever be happy for any reason whatsoever when Israel has attacked Arabs who were firing rockets at it.

09/02 Links Pt2: Holocaust deniers in B'Tselem; The Twitter Hypocrisy of Kenneth Roth

From Ian:

Ben-Dror Yemini: Holocaust deniers in B'Tselem

B'Tselem is the main supplier of factual background material thanks to researcher Atef Abu a-Rub who is also a Holocaust denier. The man is responsible for dozens of "researches" and reports about the Israeli abuse in the territories. He is so good at his job that when foreign reporters calls B'Tselem to visit the territories, it is Abu a-Rub who is sent to serve as their tour guide and shows them the area through his eyes.
Member of B'Tselem public council Hussein Abu Hussein described Israel as a "big monster that attacks us on a daily basis and nibbles through our flesh… we all feel like crushing its head, but just talking will not help, therefore everyone has a role. Atef Abu a-Rub has a role. He is responsible for a flowing supply of "information" to describe Israel as a monster.
How much Abu a-Rub's information is worth? According to him, the mountains adjacent to the Jordan Valley used to be green until the Jews came and stole the water beneath them. In addition those Jews "kill dozens in their sleep and tell everyone it's because of the resistance". But the Jews, he said, manage to hide their evil deeds because they have a strong media. Yes, that is the man's opinions and the world is fed with B'Tselem "researches".
This diabolic propaganda is fascinating, because it succeeds in turning the tables. Holocaust surviving Jews become part of Hamas' propaganda mechanism that wishes to continue the work of those who were engaging in extermination of the Jewish people. Abu a-Rub and other "human rights" activists like him, succeed in creating one of the biggest scams of recent decades.

The Twitter Hypocrisy of Kenneth Roth

What is going on here?
For several years now, critics of Human Rights Watch—including the organization’s co-founder and chairman emeritus, Robert Bernstein—have pointed out that it directs a disproportionate amount of critical attention to Israel, a country that, unlike most others in the Middle East, has a large and flourishing civil society and human-rights sector of its own. HRW has usually batted away that claim by pointing out that other countries in the Middle East have been the subjects of as many or more HRW “reports.” This is a disingenuous response, because the overall amount of material put out on Israel, measured by words and pages, is strikingly out of balance and because HRW’s reports on Israel are uniquely accompanied in almost every case by high-profile press releases and press conferences. As its executive director, Roth has devoted much of his letter writing and public work to alleged Israeli crimes, to the exclusion of other matters. And he has taken his conduct to Twitter.
It is not only the frequency of his Israel-related tweets that leaves little doubt that the Jewish state occupies a special, preeminent place in Roth’s pantheon of villains. It’s also what he chose to tweet. He jumped on any and every critical piece in the papers. Moreover, the sneering tone of many of his tweets rather undermines his claim that he has no special animus against Israel and was just giving that human rights–abusing, international law–breaking country the critical scrutiny that it so obviously deserve.Roth’s pleasure was apparent when he tweeted a New York magazine blog post that claimed that an Israeli spokesman had admitted that the kidnapping of three Israeli boys that ignited the current fighting had not been perpetrated by Hamas: “Remember when #Israel insisted Hamas was behind kidnap-murder of three West Bank teens. Oops, turns out it wasn’t.” That article and its claim were later discredited; Roth did not see fit to tweet that correction of fact.

UN Watch: Richard Falk: UN Watch harmed my academic career

Richard Falk, the infamous 9/11 Truther and author of the New York Times 1979 classic op-ed “Trusting Khomeini,” has not received a moment of our attention since his 6-year term as the UNHRC’s special investigator of “Israel’s violations of the bases and principles of international law” expired, at long last, in June of this year.
Yet the former committee member of Human Rights Watch, expelled by Ken Roth 24 hours after we protested his role at the global NGO, continues to evince a profound bitterness to UN Watch, the only human rights group at the United Nations that dared to expose his toxic mix of pro-Hamas appeasement, anti-Western invective, support for 9/11 conspiracy theorists and demonization of Israel.
Our allies in condemning Falk’s poison included UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, the U.S., the UK, Canada — and the Palestinian Authority, which famously tried to fire him. For a glimpse into Falk’s numerous statements supporting terrorism against America, the West and Israel, click here.
While we stopped watching him after he left the UN, it seems the man is bitter. Here is Falk’s latest tirade against UN Watch, from his essay yesterday on the alleged misuses of anti-Semitism:

An Insider’s Guide to the Most Important Story on Earth Dennis Prager Matti Friedman

Obama's Curious Rage (Bret Stephens)

From Bret Stephens in WSJ:

Barack Obama "has become 'enraged' at the Israeli government, both for its actions and for its treatment of his chief diplomat, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. " So reports the Jerusalem Post, based on the testimony of Martin Indyk, until recently a special Middle East envoy for the president. The war in Gaza, Mr. Indyk adds, has had "a very negative impact" on Jerusalem's relations with Washington.

Think about this. Enraged. Not "alarmed" or "concerned" or "irritated" or even "angered." Anger is a feeling. Rage is a frenzy. Anger passes. Rage feeds on itself. Anger is specific. Rage is obsessional, neurotic.

And Mr. Obama—No Drama Obama, the president who prides himself on his cool, a man whose emotional detachment is said to explain his intellectual strength—is enraged. With Israel. Which has just been hit by several thousand unguided rockets and 30-odd terror tunnels, a 50-day war, the forced closure of its one major airport, accusations of "genocide" by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, anti-Semitic protests throughout Europe, general condemnation across the world. This is the country that is the object of the president's rage.

Think about this some more. In the summer in which Mr. Obama became "enraged" with Israel, Islamic State terrorists seized Mosul and massacred Shiite soldiers in open pits, Russian separatists shot down a civilian jetliner, Hamas executed 18 "collaborators" in broad daylight, Bashar Assad's forces in Syria came close to encircling Aleppo with the aim of starving the city into submission, a brave American journalist had his throat slit on YouTube by a British jihadist, Russian troops openly invaded Ukraine, and Chinese jets harassed U.S. surveillance planes over international waters.

Mr. Obama or his administration responded to these events with varying degrees of concern, censure and indignation. But rage?

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Now think about what, specifically, has enraged the president about Israel's behavior. "Its actions and its treatment of his chief diplomat."

Actions? Hamas began firing rockets at Israel in June, thereby breaking the cease-fire it had agreed to at the end of the last war, in November 2012. The latest war began in earnest on July 7 when Hamas fired some 80 rockets at Israel. "No country can accept rocket fire aimed at civilians," White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the next day, "and we support Israel's right to defend itself against these vicious attacks."

On July 15 Israel accepted the terms of a cease-fire crafted by Egypt. Hamas violated it by firing 50 rockets at Israel. On July 17 Israel accepted a five-hour humanitarian cease-fire. Hamas violated it again. On July 20 Israel allowed a two-hour medical window in the neighborhood of Shujaiyeh. Hamas violated it. On July 26 Hamas announced a daylong cease-fire. It then broke its own cease-fire. On July 28 Israel agreed to a cease-fire for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Fitr. The rocket attacks continued. On Aug. 1 Israel accepted a 72-hour cease-fire proposed by the U.S. Hamasviolated it within 90 minutes. On Aug. 5 Israel agreed to Egypt's terms for another three-day cease-fire. Hamas violated it several hours before it was set to expire, after Israel announced it would agree to an extension.

If Hamas had honored any of these cease-fires it could have saved Palestinian lives. It didn't. Mr. Obama is enraged—but not with Hamas.

As for Israel's supposed ill-treatment of Mr. Kerry, the president should read Ben Birnbaum's and Amir Tibon's account of his secretary's Mideast misadventures in the July 20 issue of the New Republic. It's a portrait of a diplomat with the skills and style, but not the success, of Inspector Clouseau. Mr. Obama might also read Haaretz columnist Ari Shavit's assessment of Mr. Kerry's diplomacy: "The Obama administration," he wrote in July, "proved once again that it is the best friend of its enemies, and the biggest enemy of its friends."

Both Haaretz and the New Republic are left-wing publications, sympathetic to Mr. Obama's intentions, if not his methods.

Still, the president is enraged. At Israel. What a guy.