Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, November 06, 2014

11/06 Links Pt2: Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘They try to rewrite history'; Massacre on J Street

From Ian:

Benjamin Netanyahu: ‘They try to rewrite history': Full text of Netanyahu’s speech on 19th Rabin anniversary

Yitzhak Rabin said it shortly before his murder, the prime minister tells the Knesset: ‘Jerusalem was ours, it is ours and it will remain so forever’
Distinguished guests, over the past several months, and especially over the past several days, we have witnessed a campaign of wild incitement against the State of Israel led by Abu Mazen and his Hamas partners. Hamas terrorists carry out terror attacks and Abu Mazen sends them condolence letters. Well, I wish to convey my condolences from here to the family of Officer Jedan Assad of the Border Police, and wishes for a speedy recovery to the injured.
This front of hatred is directed at all of us. It seeks to run over all of us. When faced with this front, there are some people who try to find the guilty among us. Instead we must stand together and say clearly and without apology: Unified Jerusalem is our capital and it will remain so. We are in a battle for Jerusalem. It may be a prolonged battle. I am certain we will be victorious. For some people, the issue of Israel’s sovereignty in Jerusalem is an instrument of political struggle. Our presence in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish people for 3,000 years, is called a provocation. They simply want to uproot us from here. They try to rewrite history, deny our brave affinity for Jerusalem and claim that we are trying to change the status quo on the Temple Mount, spread lies that we want to harm or destroy the Al-Aqsa Mosque or change the prayer arrangements for Muslims on the Mount.
There is no greater falsehood than this. This is slander from extremists and it must be viewed against the backdrop of what is happening today in the Middle East. Various parties in the region that are contaminated by terror or who aspire to establish an Islamic caliphate in some version or another, they are the first to fan the flames of incitement. And the most absurd thing is that they complain about Israel? The only country that, out of principle, methodically protects the ritual sites of all the religions – they complain about us? I mean, who is protecting and who is destroying? We saw this in the past in Afghanistan when the Taliban destroyed holy sites and we see it today in Syria and Iraq when ISIS fanatics destroy mosques wholesale. In these countries, any place holy to other religions or even to different sects faces the same fate – destruction.

Massacre on J Street

Political candidates backed by the controversial Middle East advocacy group J Street were trounced at the polls on Tuesday, with J Street’s endorsees losing in almost every competitive race.
J Street scrambled to save face on Wednesday after two candidates that the group described as must-wins were defeated by their Republican opponents.
While J Street spread its money across 92 races around the country—the majority of them uncompetitive contests—J Street candidates locked in tight races were repudiated by voters.
Analysts say this is further proof that voters are increasingly likely to embrace more hawkish pro-Israel candidates over the dovish views characteristic of J Street and its allies in the Obama administration.
Democrats Mark Udall (Colo.) and Bruce Braley (Iowa), both of whom lost yesterday, received repeated endorsements and cash from J Street, which claimed that both candidates would counter “dangerous, neoconservative ideas” in the Senate. (h/t MtTB)

West has succumbed to madness over Israel, Phillips says

The West has succumbed to madness when it comes to Israel, declared British journalist, author and commentator Melanie Phillips at a recent lecture at Adath Israel Congregation co-sponsored by StandWithUs. This madness takes the form of demonizing Israel despite the fact that the country occupies the moral high ground in the fight against Islamic terrorism.
Phillips opened her remarks with a joke.
“I feel at home here,” she said. “The weather, the objective media, the acts of terrorism.”
However, the global situation is no laughing matter.
“Israel and the Jewish people are under an attack of delegitimization,” Phillips said. “The rest of the world is falling for Muslim rhetoric. The puzzle is that people are falling for this.”
During this summer’s Operation Protective Edge, anti-Israel and anti-Semitic rallies took place across the globe. “People in Canada and Britain bought into Hamas falsehoods,” Phillips asserted. “They accepted the claims pumped out by the media as unchallenged fact. It wasn’t surprising that there were demonstrations against Israel after seeing pictures of dead Palestinian babies.
“You would think that political leaders would have the decency to stop this,” Phillips remarked. “On the contrary, virtually nothing was said.”

Ha'aretz' anti-religious math

Antisemites like to pretend that kosher certification is a "kosher tax" that hard-working gentiles have to pay against their will for their food to fund nefarious Jewish and Zionist causes.

Ha'aretz apparently does, too.

Israeli hotel rooms are among the more expensive in the world, according to various economic indexes. The first reason is that the cost of living in Israel is sky-high, and the hotels pay about the same for cottage cheese and electricity as everyone else. The second reason is that unlike hotels anywhere else, hotels have to be kosher. And being certified kosher is expensive.

The writer then goes through many of the time consuming kashrut issues, like checking for bugs in leafy vegetables. But these are done by the kosher inspectors, who are paid to be there anyway.

Here are all the costs mentioned in the article:

Aside from the inspector, hotels pay an annual fee for their kashrut stamp of approval. This costs 7,250 shekels (just under $2,000) a year for hotels with more than 250 rooms. Lior Avi, CEO of the Isrotel chain, says the company spends around $3 million shekels a year (some $800,000) on inspectors alone for their 17 hotels, not including the fee.

OK, let's do the math.

17 hotels paying $800,000 annually comes out to $47,000 per hotel; add the certification fee and we are at about $50,000. If each hotel has 250 rooms, that comes out to $200 per room per year, or, at a low 55% occupancy rate, about a dollar per room per night.

The only other expense mentioned is that the kosher supervisor brings his family on Shabbat and holidays and they get a free room. At most, this adds about another 50 cents per night per room to the hotels expenses.

The additional sets of dishes and cutlery for dairy and meat are not annual expenses, but there is no way they add more than 20 cents more per room per night if they are replaced every five years. The cost of Passover dishes are certainly paid for by the exorbitant increase in hotel fees during that holiday.

So Ha'aretz is blaming Jewish dietary laws for what would account, at the very most, $2 extra per room per night in hotel expenses.

Now, how much would Israeli hotels lose in business if they decide not to be kosher? A lot more than that.

How is this Ha'aretz article any different from the antisemitic canard of kosher taxes?

UNRWA's union officially denies the Holocaust

In 2010, UNRWA announced that it would take top students to the USA where they would visit the site of the 9/11 WTC attacks as well as the US Holocaust Museum.

At the time, Hamas reacted strongly against the idea,

What wasn't reported was that UNRWA employees also denounced the plan - and engaged in Holocaust denial.

Here is the statement from the Gaza UNRWA union from February 2011:

Peace, mercy and blessings of God

From the premise that everyone has responsibilities, and so as not to repeat the tragedies and mistakes made, we tried through continuous communication with UNRWA management to demonstrate the enormity of what they are doing with the latest travel delegation of our excelling students to go on a trip to America and visit the Holocaust Museum in New York [sic] for the so-called "Holocaust" and try to feed students concepts and ideas about the fake injustices suffered by the Jews. But it seems that the Agency's management did not understand the message well and insisted on the repetition of such trips. They are today preparing for the new journey with the same goals and they have been promised large sums of money in addition to the upcoming initiative to build a curriculum on so-called human rights, which will include passages about the alleged Holocaust.

Based on the above we emphasize the following:

First: the rejection of such trips and this alleged curriculum. We will work with all to raise our voices to stop this unacceptable behavior, which is contrary to our religion and patriotism and humanity.

Secondly, we appeal to parents to take caution and vigilance and not to send their children to dive in the mud and to deal with such fake trips which will certainly affect the ideas of these outstanding students.

Third: We appeal to our fellow teachers not to deal with these trips.

Fourth: We demand the management of the agency [UNRWA] to reconsider its accounts in advance and take advantage of this exorbitant money to build schools and improve the classrooms that cannot accommodate our students and the provision of basic needs for the success of the educational process.

Our colleagues are our colleagues, God willing, we will remain watchful and defend our rights.

Deputy Chief of Staff Union

Essam Da'las

By the way, Essam Da'las was in the news more recently. He is now a senior Hamas official who has been accused of diverting cash away from Gazans and to Hamas and al Qassam leaders. His house was targeted by Israel over the summer.

Here he is with Hamas Gaza leader Ismail Haniyeh:

As we've mentioned, Hamas controls UNRWA's union, which means that many UNRWA teachers aren't teaching UN ideas on human rights and coexistence - but Hamas'.

And if the union leaders explicitly say Holocaust is a plot devised by the Jews - what do you think the students are learning about Jews? Not only are they Holocaust deniers, but they are saying that to even learn about it is against their religion and humanity itself!

I've been going through UNRWA teachers' Facebook pages. Many of them are certainly dedicated teachers. But it seems that there is no effort by UNRWA to root out the explicit hate and denial of history that is poisoning the classrooms through teachers for whom basic values like truth and peace simply do not exist.

Today's UNRWA teachers are themselves the products of UNRWA schools. There is no way to get out of this cycle without a major restructuring of the educational part of the agency itself. And this cannot happen as long as the teachers themselves are trained to reward ignorance and hate.

UNRWA ended up caving and didn't teach about the Holocaust to kids in their schools, and chances are that it wasn't because of Hamas threats, but from threats of their own teachers.

All UNRWA posts here.

11/06 Links Pt1: Thousands attend funeral of Border Police officer; Liberman: PA a 'Terrorocracy'

From Ian:

Thousands attend funeral of slain Border Police officer

Thousands attended the funeral Thursday for slain Israeli Border Police officer Jedan Assad, in the northern Druze village of Beit Jann.
“An entire life was cut short because of terror and its cruelty,” Internal Security Minister Yitzhak Aharonovitch said at the ceremony. “This murderous terror, that originated with the Palestinian Authority and the leaders of Hamas and of the Islamic Movement, succeeded in reaching Beit Jann.”
“It is with pride and honor that officers like Jedan serve in the Israeli police,” police chief Yohanan Danino added. “It’s a credit to the state and a credit to society that these are their police officers.”
Assad, 38, was a father to a three-year-old son, and his wife is five months pregnant.

Yehuda Glick Begins to Communicate with Family Members

Yehuda Glick's medical condition continues to improve Thursday.
The activist for Jewish rights on the Temple Mount has been hospitalized at Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem for a week, since an Arab terrorist tried to assassinate him last Wednesday.
Army Radio reported, and Glick's son Haggai told Walla! News that Glick had begun to communicate with relatives. "My father replied with nods of 'Yes and No' to questions last night and this morning," he said.
However, the activist is still on a respirator and his condition continues to be defined as serious. Additionally, because of the intense pain he is in when awake, doctors have increased dosages of anesthetic.

Terror Victims Medical Updates

Following yesterday’s multiple terror attacks, here is an update on some of the wounded who are still in the hospital.
Shimon HaTzadik platform attack: Five wounded are still in the hospital.
Three wounded still hospitalized at Shaarei Tzedek hospital. One is in serious condition, two are in moderate condition.
Two wounded are still hospitalized at Hadassah Ein Karem Hospital. One is in moderate condition. He underwent surgery yesterday, and is now conscious and his health has significantly improved. The second is in critical condition.
Gush Etzion Attack: Three wounded are still in the hospital.
Three wounded are being treated at Hadassah Ein Karem. One is in light condition. The second is in moderate to serious condition. The third is in serious condition.
Refuah Shleimah to all our injured.

PLO to sue ancient Christian and Muslim scholars for using term "Temple Mount"

From the PLO Negotiations Affairs Department:

Concern over the use of the inaccurate term “Temple Mount” to refer to Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound in Jerusalem

Al-Aqsa Mosque Compound, sometimes referred to as the Noble Sanctuary (“Haram al-Sharif ” in Arabic), is the compound that contains Al Aqsa building itself, ablution fountains, open spaces for prayer, monuments and the Dome of the Rock building. This entire area enclosed by the walls which spans 144 dunums (almost 36 acres), forms the Mosque.

...Today, many settler leaders, with the support of the Israeli government, continue to incite against this sacred site, and consequently provoke Palestinian fears and anger. Israel, the occupying power, has failed at stopping settler extremists from entering the Mosque and this constitutes a violation of the Waqf ’s custodianship and its obligation as an occupying power to maintain public order and civil life in the occupied territory.

All international media representatives are advised to adhere to international law and correct any other existing terminology used. The Al-Aqsa Mosque compound is not a disputed territory and all other terms, therefore, are null and void.

Subsequent to this demand that no one use any term for the place that the alleged Jewish Temples stood other than the official PLO nomenclature, the organization has decided to take legal action against anyone using the offensive term "Temple Mount" that is clearly associated only with storming settler extremist zealots.

First up is Dr. Leonhart who visited the Levant in the 17th century and visited what he scandalously called the"Temple Mount. " Clearly, even though he was a Christian, he was also a Zionist settler supporter and his use of the term is disturbing to all Mohametans worldwide.

A cease and desist order is being prepared right now.

Next on the hit list is Briani Waltoni, who published the Latin work "Biblicus Apparatus" in 1673. He also prints the offensive phrase, apparently quoting that renowned Muslim scholar Maimonides:

Finally, the PLO will be going after 15th century Islamic scholar Shams al-Dîn Muḥammad b. Aḥmad Suyûṭî, who wrote a huge tome about the alleged Jewish Temple in Jerusalem. Suyuti wrote these thoroughly despicable and offensive words:

Al Makatil observes, In the land of the Baitu- l-Mukaddas did God call David and Solomon (peace be with both !) unto repentance. In the Baitu-l-Mukaddas God sent his angel to Solomon ; in the Baitu-l-Mukaddas God announced joyful tidings to Zacharias and to John ; in the Baitu-l- Mukaddas the angels showed a descriptive paint ing of the Tower to David ; in the Baitu-l-Mukad das God put all that walked the earth, or flew in the air, under subjection to David ; in the Baitu-l- Mukaddas, the prophets (God's peace and blessing be with them !) offered sacrifice ; upon the Baitu- l-Mukaddas the angels (peace be with them!) descend every night ...

Now we are told by Ibn Almubarak, from Othman, When God commanded David (with whom be peace !) to build this Temple, he said, O Lord, where shall I build it ? Who said, Where thou shalt see the angel with a drawn sword. David then did see the angel in that place. David there fore fixed the corner-stones of its foundation, and raised the walls ; but when the walls were raised, they were pulled down again. David then said, O Lord, thou didst command me to build a house for thee ; and now that I have raised the walls, thou dost pull them down. Then he said, O David, it is because I have not appointed thee my vicegerent among created beings; nor must thou alienate the place from its possessor without a price. As to that building, a man of thy sons shall construct it. Again, it has been said that the meaning of the building being pulled down after it had been raised, was, that the place belonged to the whole community of the children of Israel, every one of whom had a right in it.

It's a wonder that Siyuti wasn't stoned by his fellow Muslims on the spot back then.

But the PLO will try to rectify that.

The first paragraph of the Office of the Prosecutor of the ICC report about the Mavi Marmara incident released today describes the purpose of the report:

The Office of the Prosecutor (“Office” or “OTP”) of the International Criminal Court (“Court” or “ICC”) is responsible for determining whether a situation meets the legal criteria established by the Rome Statute (“Statute”) to warrant investigation by the Court. For this purpose, the Office conducts a preliminary examination of all situations that come to its attention based on statutory criteria and the information available. Once a situation is thus identified, article 53(1)(a)-(c) of the Statute establishes the legal frameworkfor a preliminary examination. It provides that, in order to determine whether there is a reasonable basis to proced with an investigation into the situation, the Prosecutor shal consider: jurisdiction (temporal, territorial or personal, and material); admissibility (complementarity and gravity); and the interests of justice.

This is not an investigation, it is not a determination of legal culpability. It is a preliminary analysis to see if there are reasons not to bring the case before the ICC.

One of the questions that the OTP needed to answer is whether the ICC has jurisdiction over the matter to begin with, meaning whether the incident was considered part of an international conflict. Here, the OTP shows its reasoning about whether Israel occupies Gaza for the purposes of this determination:

16.Jurisdiction ratione materiae: The hostilities between Israel and Hamas at the relevant time do not meet the basic definition of an international armed conflict as a conflict between two or more states. However, as acknowledged by the case law of the Court, the ICC Elements of Crimes clarifies that the applicability of the law of international armed conflict also extends to situations of military occupation. While Israel maintains that it is no longer occupying Gaza, the prevalent view within the international community is that Israel remains an occupying power under international law, based on the scope and degree of control that it has retained over the territory of Gaza following the 2005 disengagement. In accordance with the reasoning underlying this perspective, the Office has proceeded on the basis that the situation in Gaza can be considered within the framework of an international armed conflict in view of the continuing military occupation by Israel.

17. The analysis conducted and the conclusions reached would generally not be affected and still be applicable, if the Office was of the view, alternatively, that the law applicable in the present context and in light of the Israel-Hamas conflict is the law of non-international armed conflict. Given the crimes of possible relevance to the present situation, which are substantially similar in the context of both international and non-international armed conflicts, it is not necessary at this stage to reach a conclusive view on the classification of the conflict. Additionally, as the protection accorded by the rules on international armed conflicts is broader than those relating to internal conflicts, it seems appropriate, for the limited purpose of a preliminary examination, in cases of doubt, to apply those governing international armed conflicts.

No determination is made. It even allows that there is a doubt about the matter. (Its legal reasonings towards believing Israel occupies Gaza are flawed as well, but that doesn't matter for the purposes of whether there is doubt on the issue.)

Inevitably, Israel haters will cherry pick portions of this report to pretend that the prosecutor determined that Israel is guilty of war crimes. But the OTP says explicitly what the parameters of this report are:

It should be recalled that the Office does not enjoy investigative powers at the preliminary examination stage. Its findings are therefore preliminary in nature and may be reconsidered in the light of new facts or evidence. The preliminary examination process is conducted on the basis of the facts and information available. The goal of this process is to reach a fully informed determination of whether there is a reasonable basis to proceed with an investigation. The ‘reasonable basis’ standard has been interpreted by Pre-Trial Chamber I (“PTC I”) to require that “there exists a sensible or reasonable justification for a belief that a crime falling within the jurisdiction of the Court ‘has been or is being committed’”. In this context, PTC I has indicated that all of the information need not necessarily “point towards only one conclusion”. This reflects the fact that the reasonable basis standard under article 53(1)(a) “has a different object, a more limited scope, and serves a different purpose” than other, higher evidentiary standards provided for in the Statute." In particular, at the preliminary examination stage, “the Prosecutor has limited powers which are not comparable to those provided for in article 54 of the Statute at the investigative stage” and the information available at such an early stage is “neither expected to be ‘comprehensive’ nor ‘conclusive’”.

The OTP did not receive any evidence from Israel (nor from Turkey,) so it made its determinations based on incomplete and public information. On that limited basis it found reason to move forward on three specific charges, one more if the blockade is not considered legal, and it also found no reason to go forward on four additional charges.

In the end, the OTP decided not to move forward with the case:

The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the Court’s jurisdiction have been committed ...The Office emphasises that these conclusions are solely based on the assessment of the information available at this stage and in accordance with the ‘reasonable basis’ standard. Not having collected evidence itself, the Office’s analysis in this report must therefore not be considered to be the result of an investigation.

However, on the basis of information available, the Office considers that the potential case(s) that would likely arise from an investigation into the situation would not be of sufficient gravity to justify further action by the Court and would therefore be inadmissible pursuant to articles 17(1)(d) and 53(1)(b) of the Statute.

Official PA newspaper calls all recent terrorists "martyrs" as more car murderers are recruited

An op-ed in Al Hayat Al Jadida today by Hassan Kashef praises as "martyrs" the murderer of Chaya Zissel Braun, the shooter of Rabbi Yehuda Glick and yesterday's murderer of Jidaan Asad.

He doesn't describe exactly what they did, only saying that every Wednesday the praiseworthy Jerusalem Arabs are erupting in anger over Israeli crimes.

Needless to say, there is no condemnation of the series of terror attacks.

Elsewhere, Jew-haters are actively recruiting more terrorists, as in this poster:

The text says "The Heroes of Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque" with a Quranic verse 33:23 praising those who go out for jihad, some of whom were "martyred," who have remained faithful to Allah.

Another recruitment method is through Twitter, with the hashtag "#Drive4AlAqsa" encouraging more people to drive their cars into crowds of Jews.

Posters encouraging more targeting Jews by automobile are popping up all over:

There have been no condemnation of this string of attacks from any "moderate" Palestinian as far as I can tell.

(h/t Bob Knot, Ibn Botrous, Malka)

ICC drops "Mavi Marmara" case; IHH lies about it

Peace activists preparing to greet their guests

First came the lies:

Turkey's Humanitarian Aid Foundation (IHH) issued a statement on Tuesday saying that the Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) finished its investigation into the Mavi Marmara case and concluded that Israel is guilty of "war crimes" for attacking a Turkish aid ship bound for Gaza in May 2010.

Um, no. The prosecutor did not mount an investigation and did not conclude that Israel is guilty of anything, as we will see.

Now that we have that out of the way, Reuters reports the story this way:

International prosecutors believe Israeli soldiers may have committed war crimes during a raid that killed nine Turkish activists in 2010, but have decided the case is beyond their remit, according to court papers seen by Reuters.

The move by lawyers at the International Criminal Court is likely to enrage Ankara which accused its erstwhile ally Israel of mass murder after the commandos abseiled onto a flotilla challenging an Israeli naval blockade of the Gaza Strip.

"The information available provides a reasonable basis to believe that war crimes under the Court's jurisdiction have been committed in the context of interception and takeover of the Mavi Marmara by IDF (Israeli Defence Forces) soldiers on 31 May 2010," read the paper seen on Wednesday.

But the lawyers decided the crimes in question were not of sufficient gravity to fall under the court's jurisdiction, the papers added.

Prosecutors added they had reached these conclusions on the basis of publicly available information.

"Not having collected evidence itself, the Office’s analysis in this report must therefore not be considered to be the result of an investigation," the paper read.

Without seeing the actual paper, it appears that the prosecutors read some newspaper accounts of the incident, decided that in theory there is enough evidence based on biased and third-hand sources to go ahead to a trial, but did not do any kind of investigation. Their only decision was that the case is not appropriate for the ICC.

In other words, the IHH lost, big time, and they did what Islamists often do when they lose: they claimed victory.

(h/t Bob K)

11/05 Links Pt2: Israel slams Amnesty report; Friedman: ‘No Idea’ if Palestinians Are Peace Partners

From Ian:

Tom Friedman Admits: ‘No Idea’ if Palestinians Are Peace Partners

Noted New York Times columnist and author, Thomas Friedman, in an interview with Israel Army radio aired Tuesday, admitted that he has “…no idea whether Israel has a Palestinian partner for a secure peace.”
He added, however, that, despite the uncertainty, and, “given Israel’s predicament, it should be doing everything it can to test, test, test, and test again, whether it has such a Palestinian partner…”
Friedman did not mention any of Israel’s recent confidence-building gestures towards the Palestinians, including a nine-month settlement freeze, and a host of other civil and political offers to ease daily life and restart talks.
Nor did he mention ongoing Palestinian Authority (PA) – backed terrorism, and rejectionism of efforts to restart talks, vitriolic incitement in official Palestinian media against Israelis and Jews, and simply sidestepping direct negotiations in order to exploit the United Nations as a bludgeon against the Jewish state.

Israel slams Amnesty ‘war crimes’ report

Israel has rejected claims by Amnesty International that its army committed war crimes in the latest Gaza conflict, alleging that Amnesty “serves as a propaganda tool for Hamas and other terror groups”.
The Israeli Embassy in London condemned Amnesty for its “extreme bias” and for “producing no evidence” to back up allegations in a new report, entitled ‘Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes’.
The 47-page dossier focuses on eight attacks by the IDF which Amnesty said caused the deaths of “at least 104 civilians, including 62 children”. The NGO said that “several of the attacks directly and deliberately targeted civilians or civilian objects, which would constitute war crimes.”
Philip Luther, Amnesty’s Middle East director, said: “Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes [and] displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused.”
An Israeli spokesman called the report “a narrow, decontextualised report [which] restricts its capability to advance positive change”.
As well as questioning Amnesty’s evidence, the embassy also pointed out that the report “does not mention the word ‘terror’ in relation to Hamas or other armed Palestinian groups, nor does it mention tunnels built by Hamas to infiltrate Israel and perpetrate terror attacks.” (h/t Bob Knot)

Senior Amnesty International official compares Israel to Islamic State on Twitter

Campaigns Manager Kristyan Benedict uses hashtag '#JSIL' in Tweet; Israeli embassy in London slams use of 'ugly, hateful term with anti-Jewish connotations.'
The campaigns manager for Amnesty International UK, Kristyan Benedict, published a Tweet on Wednesday comparing Israel to the Islamic State, using the contentious hashtag #JSIL.
The hashtag has been used by extreme anti-Israel groups to draw a parallel between Israel and the Islamist organization infamous for beheading its captives, including several Western hostages.

UNRWA teachers really love terrorists

This is a photo that is on the Facebook page of the group "UNRWA Teachers."

Someone holding a disintegrating Israeli flag is sinking into a sewer, with the text "Gaza won."

What do you think that these UNRWA teachers are telling their students? Are they preparing them for a future where they would live side by side with Israel? Or are they just teaching hate?

UNRWA is not supposed to be a political organization, and it claims to teach tolerance and coexistence. As we have seen repeatedly, the exact opposite is the case.

The Facebook page of the UNRWA teacher I mentioned who had lots of pro-terrorist posters was taken down. But he is hardly the only such teacher. Another teacher has pro-Hamas images like these:

And this UNRWA teacher in Lebanon celebrated today's terror attack, calling the terrorist a hero:

He once took an educational trip to the Hezbollah Museum:

See how pedagogic he is?

Israeli Left, Avatars Of Democracy, Reconsidering Democracy (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tel Aviv, November 5 - Leading proponents of Israeli democracy are beginning to have second thoughts about the inclusion of democracy in their matrix of core ideological values, a new paper from a left-wing think-tank argued this week.

In an analysis published in its quarterly journal, the organization Social Theorists And Leaders In Navelgazing (STALIN) observes that an increasing number of otherwise committed Liberals are finding it difficult to square their love for democracy with their absolute knowledge that they know better than hoi polloi what is good for the country and the world. As a consequence, many of those who have hitherto supported a robust democracy in Israel no longer find it as appealing as they once did. STALIN claims to represent 99% of Israeli leftists.

The development, says the STALIN article, has long been an undercurrent in leftist circles, but only in recent years have the political implications become so fraught, and the consequences for Israeli democracy so stark. With the political Right more or less in control of the government since the early years of last decade, STALIN's target audience finds itself more and more on the sidelines of legislation and policymaking, a consequence of processes with their roots in democratic principles. The People, whose rights STALIN claims to represent, have consistently and democratically rejected the policies advocated by the Left, a phenomenon that now raises doubts among STALIN adherents as to the value of democracy if it does not dovetail with what might be more important values such as erasing any notion of national identity, or providing the country's sworn enemies with rhetorical or political ammunition. As in one prominent case from the 1990's, the ammunition has sometimes been literal.

The arenas in which leftist ambitions have been thwarted by erstwhile leftist values are not restricted to defense or national security. "Our constituency expresses no reservations when politicking, horse-trading, and backroom deals take place in the context of legislation or policy development," notes the article, "but when the identical activities are conducted by political opponents, the phenomenon suddenly becomes dangerous." It cited myriad examples of religious parties such as Shas promoting the interests of its voters through thoroughly democratic means, thus sparking the ire of STALIN members over religious coercion. Foisting the ideological preferences of the Left on Israeli society, however, can only be seen as beneficial - but the majority of voters have repeatedly thwarted those noble attempts by choosing representatives from the Right.

The cumulative disillusionment has many STALINists arguing in favor of jettisoning democracy unless and until it better serves their purposes, which appears unlikely in the short or medium term, a utilitarian approach with precedent in 1933 Germany.

11/05 Links Pt1: Bibi: Terror attack due to Abbas & Hamas partners' incitement; Latma Returns!

From Ian:

Caroline Glick’s Latma Returns

It only took three years, but the popular Internet satire program, Latma, has signed a contract with Israel Channel 1, and will be going on the air in February, as first reported in Kipa.
Latma, created by Caroline Glick, was a right-wing satirical response to Israeli political and social current events.
The show was privately funded, and ran for 4 years, until the fundraising work involved became too time consuming for Glick to maintain.
In the interim, Glick negotiated for years with Channel 1 to get the show onto Israeli TV, but Channel 1 always pulled the plug at the last minute.
Until now, political satire programming on Israeli TV has pretty much only been left-wing satire targeting the right and the religious.
It only took a major reform in Israeli broadcasting by Communications Minister Gilad Erdan, the closing of the Israel Broadcasting Agency (IBA), and Knesset Sports and Culture subcommittee discussions to finally get a non-left-wing satire show on the air.
We look forward to seeing it again.

Netanyahu: Jerusalem terror attack the result of Abbas and his Hamas partners' incitement

Speaking at the annual state remembrance ceremony honoring the slain prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, the premier condemned the vehicular terrorist attack which killed a Border Police officer and injured over a dozen others.
“In recent days we have witnessed the growing incitement of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, who sent a condolence letter to the family of [Yehuda] Glick’s [shooter] and who has tried to prevent Jews from going up to the Temple Mount,” Netanyahu said.
This kind of incitement impacts results on the ground, Netanyahu said.
“The vehicular terror attack today in Jerusalem, is the direct result of incitement by Abu Mazen [Abbas] and his partner Hamas. We are in a prolonged battle for Jerusalem and I have no doubt that we will win it. We are employing all the necessary powers to restore quiet and security to the city,” Netanyahu said.

Netanyahu points finger at Abbas for terror attack

A Jerusalem terror attack that left one person dead and several more injured was the direct result of incitement from Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu charged Wednesday.
A Border Police officer — Jedan Assad, 38, from the Druze village of Beit Jann — was killed and 14 more people were injured after an Arab man plowed his van into pedestrians on the seam line between East and West Jerusalem just after noon Wednesday, the latest in a string of terrorist vehicular assaults in the capital.
The attack was the “direct consequence of Abu Mazen’s [Abbas's] incitement and that of his Hamas partners,” Netanyahu declared, speaking at a memorial ceremony marking 19 years since prime minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated. “We are engaged in an ongoing battle in Jerusalem. I have no doubt that we will prevail,” he added.

Abbas threatens to go to Security Council to defend "Al Aqsa" against this (UPDATE)

PA "news" agency Wafa quotes Mahmoud Abbas spokesperson Nabil Abu Rudainah saying "the Palestinian leadership has decided to go immediately to the Security Council against the Israeli escalation in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, and began the rapid planning in this regard."

Abu Rudeineh said in a press statement "the Israeli government systematically continues its violations of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, and pays settlers to storm the mosque, violating all norms and international law and international consensus, confirming that their government wants to escalate things in order to divide the Al-Aqsa Mosque. we have warned them repeatedly that this is a red line that will lead to a situation that can not be tolerated internally and regionally, and will force the Arab and Islamic nation and the world to make serious decisions'.

Here are the people who were so violently "storming" the "Al Aqsa Mosque" today, obviously on Israel's payroll.

I remember the massive amount I was paid to go up and make a video tour of the area.

UPDATE: More proof that the PA is behind incitement to violence. From PMW:

A cartoon showing an Israeli soldier about to rape the Al-Aqsa Mosque portrayed as a woman in jail was posted today by the National Security Forces of the Palestinian Authority. A woman is weeping in a prison cell while an Israeli soldier is undoing his pants outside the cell, saying: "Come on, sweetheart." The woman is wearing a headdress shaped as the Dome of the Rock. The cartoon appeared with the text: "Daily cartoon: Al-Aqsa is being raped."

Would the Security Council be interested in that?

PA says terror attack was a car accident and all victims were "settlers and soldiers" (video, update)

Here is how the official Wafa "news" agency is describing this morning's terrorist attack in Jerusalem:

A young Jerusalem man, Ibrahim Akkari, of Shuafat in central Jerusalem, was shot dead by Israeli soldiers in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of downtown Jerusalem, when his car went out of control and collided with a number of soldiers and settlers; the condition of three soldiers is described as serious.

For its part, the Israeli police and some Hebrew media were quick to claim that the incident was a terrorist action before it was clear what the incident was.

In reality, the terrorist aimed at two sets of people and then started attacking more with a crowbar. And Hamas claimed responsibility, calling it a "heroic operation."

At least one was killed, and there are unconfirmed reports of more who succumbed.

Here is video of the first part of the attack:

And during (graphic):

The last terror attack at the light rail station was also initially described as a car accident by the PA.

Here's the crux of Amnesty's latest hit job on Israel:

Families under the Rubble: Israeli attacks on inhabited homes details eight cases where residential family homes in Gaza were attacked by Israeli forces without warning during Operation Protective Edge in July and August 2014, causing the deaths of at least 104 civilians including 62 children. The report reveals a pattern of frequent Israeli attacks using large aerial bombs to level civilian homes, sometimes killing entire families.

“Israeli forces have brazenly flouted the laws of war by carrying out a series of attacks on civilian homes, displaying callous indifference to the carnage caused,” said Philip Luther, Director of the Middle East and North Africa Programme at Amnesty International.

“The report exposes a pattern of attacks on civilian homes by Israeli forces which have shown a shocking disregard for the lives of Palestinian civilians, who were given no warning and had no chance to flee.”
The report contains numerous accounts from survivors who describe the horror of frantically digging through the rubble and dust of their destroyed homes in search of the bodies of children and loved ones.

In several of the cases documented in the report, possible military targets were identified by Amnesty International. However the devastation to civilian lives and property caused in all cases was clearly disproportionate to the military advantages gained by launching the attacks.

“Even if a fighter had been present in one of these residential homes, it would not absolve Israel of its obligation to take every feasible precaution to protect the lives of civilians caught up in the fighting. The repeated, disproportionate attacks on homes indicate that Israel’s current military tactics are deeply flawed and fundamentally at odds with the principles of international humanitarian law,” said Philip Luther.

I have discussed in detail the real definition of "disproportionate" under international law, and it is clear that Amnesty is more interested in damning Israel with war crimes charges than with the truth.

As we saw from the case of NATO in Yugoslavia, the lives of 15 civilians are not considered a disproportionate price to pay for taking out a communications system for a couple of hours under international law.

In this case, Amnesty allows that there were terrorists in many of the houses whose bombing they researched. I found the same.

But Amnesty stops it analysis there.

In February, Amnesty’s Secretary General Salil Shetty admitted, “We are not an expert on military matters. So we don’t want to, kind of, pontificate on issues we don’t really understand.” (source here, the original quote does not seem to be at the Al Jazeera website anymore, video of the interview is not available in the US.)

What might Amnesty not understand about what happened in Gaza last summer?

Amnesty admits that terrorists, usually only one or two, were sprinkled among many family homes in Gaza. It also seems to admit that the IDF was not bombing Gaza houses randomly, because given the number of militants in Gaza and the number of buildings, you would not expect the average building to have a terrorist.

In a normal war, the combatants don't spread out like that. This was not a normal war. So why would Gaza combatants be in so many houses?

Because, as we now know, houses were sitting on top of tunnel entrances. And on top of command and control centers. And on top of weapons caches. And it makes sense to have one person to be located at military objects like these.

In the entire 50-page Amnesty report, the word "tunnels" isn't mentioned once. Neither are the phrases "weapons caches" or "command and control" or "rocket launcher." It never even occurred to Amnesty that Israel had any physical military objectives in Gaza!

Israeli officials from Netanyahu down the line said explicitly and repeatedly that they were targeting tunnels and underground bunkers. Yet Amnesty, whose main charge of Israeli war crimes depends on knowledge of the military value of the targets (as well as what IDF commanders knew when they chose their targets,) cannot even fathom that tunnels were being targeted to begin with.

How can Amnesty pretend to be able to make a blanket statement that Israel acted with disproportionate force when Amnesty has no clue what the military targets were -and makes no attempt to investigate that question? Their field workers went to Gaza not to investigate the targets of Israel's attacks, but rather to interview surviving family members who all give utterly irrelevant facts like that there was no fighting in the area at the time of the strikes. They make the bizarre assumption that the combatants themselves were the targets - but they do not have the slightest military knowledge to even ask the question of what the militants were doing in these houses to begin with!

Amnesty is making a statement about international law without knowing the bare minimum of information needed to make that determination, namely what the military objective was. Given that Israel's attacks weren't indiscriminate by Amnesty's own admission, then it seems obvious that the IDF felt there were military targets within those houses. Amnesty doesn't even know enough to ask the question, and makes bizarre assumptions based on nothing but its researchers' own ignorance of military matters combined with their clear anti-Israel bias.

It gets worse, though.

Amnesty is going out of its way to excuse Hamas' use of the people in these houses as human shields.

It writes:

Warring parties have obligations to take precautions to protect civilians and civilian objects under their control against the effects of attacks by the adversary. As with precautions in attack, these rules are particularly important when fighting is taking place in areas with large numbers of civilians.

Each party to the conflict must, to the extent feasible, avoid locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas.67 The authoritative commentary of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on this provision explains that the use of the term “feasible” is used to illustrate “the fact that no one can be required to do the impossible. In this case it is clear that precautions should not go beyond the point where the life of the population would become difficult or even impossible.” And it notes: “Moreover, a Party to the conflict cannot be expected to arrange its armed forces and installations in such a way as to make them conspicuous to the benefit of the adversary.”

The only reason Amnesty would choose to quote these parts of the ICRC manuals (which are not under the "human shield" section) is to exonerate Hamas for purposefully placing military objectives directly next to and under civilian objects. They want to make it look like Hamas has no choice - that it really wants to take precautions to protect civilians, but, by golly, they can't because Gaza is too darn crowded. This is absurd, given that we know that Hamas deliberately built not only tunnels under civilian homes but also booby-trapped homes and fake military clinics, plus it shot rockets from civilian areas and in some cases told civilians not to evacuate from areas that were about to come under fire. In no way is this permitted under international law, but Amnesty is taking Hamas off the hook - for the very thing that caused so many civilians to die. (Indeed, the ICRC specifically instructs combatants to remove civilians from military targets as much as possible, and Hamas did the opposite - another Hamas war crime which Amnesty ignores.)

Not to mention that it didn't choose to quote parts of the ICRC documents such as "State practice indicates that an attacker is not prevented from attacking military objectives if the defender fails to take appropriate precautions or deliberately uses civilians to shield military operations." No, it only quotes the parts of the laws that it can use to damn Israel, and only the parts that excuse the terrorists.

Isn't it interesting that a supposed "human rights" organization goes out of its way to ignore Hamas violations of the human rights of Gazans?

Amnesty's report once again proves not that Israel violated international law. It proves that Amnesty International again twists international law and again ignores evidence that contradicts its predetermined agenda. Amnesty's anti-Israel bias is so strong that it spills over into a pro-terrorist bias.