Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Saturday, December 06, 2014

Bassam Eid: "If I start an anti-Israel organization I'd get $500K from Sweden tomorrow"

Palestinian human rights champion Bassam Eid was interviewed by Ishai Friedman for an Israeli magazine, and the interview was published on his blog (Hebrew).

Here are some highlights:

Bassam Eid is a Palestinian resident of East Jerusalem and perhaps the most uncompromising critical voice today against the Palestinian Authority and Hamas. During Protective edge his name was often seen in the Israeli media after a strong article published against Hamas in which he accused the terrorist organization of working to kill its own citizens. The article received hundreds of thousands of shares on social networks.

You are not afraid to publish criticism against Hamas, accusing them of murdering the people of Gaza?
"Yes, but it's true and it hurts. I even think that Hamas would like to have had at least 5,000 dead. T... I have a friend from Khan Yunis, he said one night, at midnight, four Hamas gunmen came and knocked on the door and told everyone to leave the house. He told them that he had ten children sleeping here. They demanded that he take them all out because they want to fire missiles from the roof. He declined sharply. The next day masked men beat him half to death, and threw them all out...

Do Gazans support Hamas today?
"Look, if the question of whether Gazans want revenge? The answer is yes. Are they supporters of Hamas? I do not think so. For one thing, people in Gaza are afraid to talk, the person who speaks is considered a collaborator and were shooting them in the biggest city square in Gaza".

And why are not you afraid? Aren't you afraid they'll hurt you? Or your children?
"No, on the contrary. Every time after I write, the reactions I get are 'good', 'You're right.' The criticism stems from the belief and perception that we Palestinians can establish a truly democratic state but For this to happen it must not be like the surrounding Arab ir Islamic regimes. If these regimes are the choice, it would be better to live under the State of Israel ".

The Palestinian Authority is corrupt?
"Yes. But say this: there is financial corruption of embezzlement Public funds. And political corruption. Political corruption is a government that Palestinian public know nothing of what is happening in it. If I want to know something about the negotiations I have to call international media or media in Hebrew. Arabic media have nothing except martyrs and house demolitions and align themselves with Abbas. I do not buy Arab media. When people call me an Arab media interviews it means I'm abroad " .

Israel also has media outlets close to the government.
"Yes, but permission is like an orchestra. Israel has much more freedom for journalists. During Protective Edge the Israeli media came out against Netanyahu and the government and the media in the Palestinian spoke of victories. Thousands of people were killed but they had celebrations. In Israeli media there is competition, [in the PA] there is no competition. "Competition" is only a beautiful picture of Abbas published on the front page. If I publish an article against Hamas it has no chance. "

A few weeks ago Eid attended a Zionist Organization conference at Bar Ilan University. There, too, Eid surprised the crowd when he ridiculed Palestinian organizations that declared a boycott on Israel. "The Palestinians are the last who can declare a boycott of Israel. Let's see what happens if all Palestinians are boycotting Israel, settlements factories, all, what happens?"

Well, what happens?
"Abbas will not feed them and won't provide them jobs. After Protective Edge, it was agreed to put another 5,000 workers from Gaza to Israel so this they boycott? I beg you you to give me more jobs then demand a boycott? And even if they prohibit selling Palestinian produce to Israel your economy will not hurt. Who would hurt are those Palestinians who earn four or five times in Israel than in the territories. "

And the Authority's statement about boycotting the settlements?
"It shows you the disconnect between the public and its leaders. That there is no boycott. There is one "hero," Mustafa Barghouti, who is a very corrupt. He stole money from Saudi Arabia meant to buy them ambulances. He states that he invented the boycott of Israel, and he tours across Europe and talks about a boycott of Israel. Every other day he is in Sweden and they listen to him but let him go and declare a boycott in Ramallah and the refugee camps. "

So the whole story is a bluff?
"This is a big hoax on the part of the Palestinians. What, Arabs from the territories do not work and buy from Rami Levi in Gush Etzion? It is not enforced and can not be enforced. Bir Zeit buys Strauss Ice Cream. Grocery store there, the seller hung a sign, this place sells purely Israeli products."

You were a researcher for B'Tselem, you've won a prize when there. How do you rate B'Tselem today?

"When I worked in B'Tselem, it was a greatly appreciated organization in Israel. I do not think the intensity of the anger that Israel today has against B'Tselem was in the past. Things have changed, also B'Tselem has changed. For the Israelis 'B'Tselem' is not considered a human rights organization. In my opinion, a human rights organization has to fight against all human rights violations no matter what happens. At the time I conducted a comprehensive investigation on the Palestinian suicide bombers and I contacted B'Tselem and asked them if they wanted to issue a joint report. B'Tselem did not like the idea and I was angry. Today all organizations Israelis and Palestinians, all of them deal with Israel. No one opens his mouth about the Palestinian Authority, the torture, administrative detentions. "

You also left the organization and started one that was critical against the PA.
"Indeed, we had a financial problem. I think our organization's policy is not consistent with the foreign policy of Europe. Sweden, for example, never gave me a penny, [because] That I am critical of the PA and they like the PA and are against Israel."

They want you to leave the PA alone and focus on Israel?
"If I want to establish an anti-Israel NGO, I promise you tomorrow I would get a half a million dollars from Sweden. Check. But the money does not interest me. I just do not understand the difference between European human rights organization that protects "Ahmed Israeli" but doesn't want to protects the human rights of "Ahmed Palestinian Authority."

Would you prefer to live under Israeli rule as an Israeli?
"I want a democratic Palestinian state. If I can't, I have no problem to live in peace under Israeli occupation. I have been to most Arab countries saw what that prisons really are, what is torture really is, there's no way I want to be part of it and I'll tell you a secret: 80% of Palestinians in East Jerusalem certainly think so."

(h/t Yenta)

12/05 Links Pt2: How the World Turned Against Israel; Prosor: Jewish Refugees Deserve Justice

From Ian:

Here's How the World Turned Against Israel

Joshua Muravchik is a fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute of the Johns Hopkins University School for Advanced International Studies and a contributor to this magazine. He is also author of 11 books, including the recently published Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel. I spoke with Muravchik about how Israel went from underdog to pariah, and the chances of that changing back anytime soon.
Lee Smith: Is there any way for Israel to turn it around and win the world's affection again? Or, would it be different if Israel was led by a left-wing rather than a right-wing government?
Josh Muravchik: An Israeli government of the Left would be cut more slack than the current one, but the difference would not be large. The second intifada erupted in 2000 during the premiership of the Labor Party’s Ehud Barak. Yet this was the moment at which the decisive turn against Israel became manifest, with harsher criticism being directed at Israel for self-defense than at the Palestinians for their terrorist war of aggression. The 2008-09 Gaza war that occasioned the infamous Goldstone Report was conducted by the Olmert administration, not of the Left but not of the Right either. And in this summer’s Gaza war, Netanyahu took no steps that were not supported by the main Israeli parties of the Left. In other words, with a government of the Left, Israel might be more restrained in regard to settlements and thus evoke less condemnation on that score, but at any moment that Israel felt impelled to act in self-defense—and those moments recur with heartrending frequency—it could count on the world’s opprobrium whoever was in office in Jerusalem.

Prosor at the UN: Jewish Refugees Deserve Justice

To a thronging crowd in the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) Chamber in the UN’s headquarters in New York City, Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Ron Prosor declaimed Wednesday that the 850,000 Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries who fled in the aftermath of Israel’s creation in 1948 “deserve justice – and we [Israel] will not rest until they get it."
In what has become an annual event, the Israeli government sponsored a special event entitled: “The Untold Story of 850,000 Refugees, The Tale of Ancient Jewish Cultures in Arab Countries.”
Prosor went on to state:
"Eight hundred and fifty thousand Jews were forced to flee from Arab lands – and while they went on to raise families and have successful careers and give to their new communities – they never forgot the pain and humiliation of being torn from their homes.
“From this podium, in the heart of the Family of Nations, I call on the Secretary-General to appoint a Special Representative to establish a center of documentation. Collect the evidence to preserve history, document their firsthand accounts, and tell the story of the 850,000 Jews who were persecuted and expelled at the hands of the Arab nations.
“The United Nations cannot erase the pain and humiliation endured by the Jewish refugees, but it can help to make amends.”

UN Watch Watchdog urges U.N. chief and Samantha Power to investigate UNRWA for breach of neutrality agreement

According to Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, “UNRWA’s call to boycott an Israeli newspaper is a markedly political act that is inconsistent with the neutrality requirements applicable to all humanitarian agencies, and specifically negates provisions of UNRWA’s just-signed agreement with the U.S. State Department.”
“UNRWA’s boycott call also stands in stark contrast to its utter silence in the face of genocidal anti-Semitism published by Hamas and PA media, not to mention its inaction in regard to the anti-Jewish online postings of its own staff.”
In the 2015 UNRWA-U.S. Framework for Cooperation, an agreement just signed on November 17th between UNRWA commissioner-general Pierre Krahenbuhl and the U.S. State Department, the agency committed to “ensure adherence to principles of neutrality,” and specifically “the neutrality of UNRWA’s staff.”
Under the new agreement, UNRWA is obliged to complete a checklist confirming its adherence to obligations under the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act, including the staff’s “appropriate behavior consistent with UNRWA’s neutrality rules/regulations,” and the “prompt initiation of investigations upon receipt of credible information about alleged staff/personnel misconduct.”

"The Supreme Leader's Speech in Meeting with Participants of International Congress on Takfirism."

From the official English transcript:

You should not allow the issue of Palestine, Holy Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque to be consigned to oblivion. This is what they want. They want the world of Islam to ignore the issue of Palestine. You can see that the Zionist regime cabinet has recently announced that Palestine is a Jewish country. It announced that Palestine is a Jewish country. They have been pursuing this issue from long ago. Now, they are openly declaring it. By pursuing the ignorance of the world of Islam, the masses of the people and Muslim nations, they are after occupying Holy Quds and al-Aqsa Mosque, and weakening the Palestinians as much as they can. We should pay attention to this.

All peoples should ask their governments to pursue the issue of Palestine. Islamic ulama should ask their governments to pursue the issue of Palestine. This is an important and major responsibility. We thank God that in the Islamic Republic, the government and the people share this belief. From the beginning, the Islamic Republic government and our magnanimous Imam announced and raised the policy of supporting Palestine and showing enmity towards the Zionist regime. This policy has continued until today. It is 35 years now that we have not deviated from this line and our people too are supportive with complete eagerness.

Sometimes, a number of those youth whose requests are not granted in this regard write a letter to me and say in an insistent manner, "Allow us to go and fight against the Zionist regime in the front lines". Our people love fighting against the Zionists and the Islamic Republic has proved this as well. By Allah's favor and grace, we have passed through the barrier of denominational discord. We helped Hezbollah of Lebanon - which is a Shia group - in the same way that we helped Hamas and Islamic Jihad and we will continue to do that [audience shout "Allahu Akbar"]. We did not become a prisoner of denominational limits. We did not differentiate between Shia, Sunni, Hanafi, Hanbali, Shafi'i and Zaidi denominations. All Palestinian areas have to become armed.

We looked at our main goal and we offered help. We managed to strengthen the fists of our Palestinian brothers in Gaza and by Allah's favor, we will continue to do that. I announced- and this will definitely happen- that the West Bank should be armed like Gaza and be prepared for defense [audience shout "Allahu Akbar"].

But besides supporting terror attacks against Jews from the West Bank - a theme that Khamenei has been openly espousing for a couple of months now - Iran's leader also explained how the West was weak and how Iran will eventually take over the world, as the remainder of his speech shows:

I will tell you dear brothers that America's splendor should not intimidate you. The enemy has become weak. The enemy of Islam - which is arrogance - is weaker now compared to all other eras during the past 100, 150 years. Take a look at colonialist governments in Europe. They are faced with economic, political and security problems. Today, these governments have all sorts of problems. America is worse than them. It is faced with moral, political and serious financial and monetary problems. It is faced with disgrace and damage to its superpower status everywhere in the world, not just in the world of Islam.

...The problems of the enemies of Islam are many. The enemies of Islam were frustrated in Iraq, Syria and Lebanon. They were frustrated in different areas and their goals were not achieved. As you saw, in order to confront the Islamic Republic on the nuclear issue, America and colonialist countries in Europe gathered and used all their power so that they could bring the Islamic Republic to its knees on this matter, but they failed and they will continue to fail [audience shout "Allahu Akbar"].

This is the weakness of the other side. But by Allah's favor, you will become stronger on a daily basis. The future belongs to you and "Allah has full power and control over His affairs" [The Holy Quran, 12: 21] [audience shout "Allahu Akbar"].

Greetings be upon you and Allah's mercy and blessings.

A national leader is directly threatening not only the West but is planning to take over the world.

And instead of telling him where to go, Western nations are meekly following his playbook - and negotiating ways for him to get technology that would allow him to do exactly that.

Because they delude themselves that he really is only threatening Israel, not London and Paris and Washington.

(h/t David G)

12/05 Links Pt1: Abbas Shuts the Door to Negotiations with Israel; ISIS in Gaza

From Ian:

JCPA: Abbas Shuts the Door to Negotiations with Israel

In his speech Abbas, who claimed there was no longer an Israeli partner for a political settlement, set forth the other components of his plan. They include: the “state of Palestine” joining international conventions and organizations, particularly the International Criminal Court in The Hague and a conference of states parties to the Geneva conventions, where one of the resolutions would be to declare the conventions applicable to the state of Palestine;” requesting the United Nations to provide protection to the Palestinian people; and a diplomatic effort to convince additional states to recognize the “state of Palestine.”
Abbas’ political plan shuts the door to any possibility of reaching a political settlement through negotiations with Israel. Whereas Abbas conveys to the world at large that he remains committed to the path of negotiations, the conditions he has presented for resuming them entail imposing terms on Israel with no reciprocity from the Palestinians in the context of a political compromise.
Abbas says Palestinian conditions for renewing the talks include: ending construction in the settlements, freeing the fourth group of Palestinian prisoners (terrorists who are Israeli citizens and are serving prison sentences), withdrawing IDF forces from parts of Area A in the West Bank that are supposed to be under the Palestinian Authority’s full security control, and Israeli agreement to negotiate with the Palestinians on making the 1967 lines the border between the state of Israel and the state of Palestine.

Khaled Abu Toameh: ISIS in Gaza

When One Radical Group Believes Another Is Not Radical Enough
Now almost everyone is talking about the Islamic State threats in Gaza against poets, writers and women. The leaflets mention the poets and writers by name — a move that has created panic. The leaflets also include an ultimatum to Palestinian women to abide by Islamic attire or face the Islamic State style of punishment — presumably being stoned to death.
Of course, all this is taking place while Hamas continues to insist that that the Islamic State is not operating in Gaza. Those who are taking the threats seriously are the writers and women whose names appeared in the leaflets.
Islamic State flags can already be seen at football stadiums, on windshields of vehicles, mosques, educational centers and wedding invitations.
It is also clear that if and when the Hamas regime collapses, the Gaza Strip will not fall into the lands of the less-radical Palestinians.
It is important to keep in mind that the counties in Europe now voting for a Palestinian state may effectively be paving the way for a takeover by Islamic State.

Richard Millett: I confronted the Palestinian “ambassador” over Har Nof killings.

On Tuesday night in Parliament I asked Manuel Hassassian, the unofficial Palestinian ambassador to the UK, why in the speech he had just delivered in which he accused Israel of “war crimes” he made no mention of Palestinian violence, specifically the recent murders by two Palestinians of four Rabbis and a Druze policeman at a west Jerusalem synagogue.
He answered me directly but when he said that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas had condemned the killings I reminded him, as you can see in the clip below, that Abbas had incited the murders in the first place with his violent rhetoric including imploring Palestinians to use “all means” to stop Jews visiting the Temple Mount. Here is our confrontation:
Meanwhile, a woman had just told the room that the Palestinians were suffering a fate worse than that of Anne Frank.
What she said was bad enough but the most chilling aspect was the warm applause she received from both Hassassian and ex-Labour MP Martin Linton, now chairperson of Labour Friends of Palestine, as well as from the others present.

In a pledging conference for UNRWA this week, UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Margot Ellis stated a flat-out lie.

Referring to the Gaza war at the UN General Assembly, Ellis said, "This summer, around 2,200 civilians were killed in 50 days."

If 2,200 civilians were killed, then Israel didn't kill a single Hamas or Islamic Jihad or Fatah member!

Of course, the latest research indicates that roughly half of those killed were terrorists, an amazing ratio for urban warfare. Even official UN statistics admit that Israel killed hundreds of terrorists.

But UNRWA officials have no problem lying to the General Assembly in claiming that they are all civilian.

This lie is now enshrined not only at the UNRWA website but also at the UNISPAL archives.

Will UNRWA issue a correction? Given their track record at not admitting mistakes, it seems doubtful.

UNRWA's fascinating 1950 report (repost)

In 2010, I analyzed the first three UNRWA reports, documenting the history of how that organization devolved from one that genuinely tried to help genuine refugees into the bloated, self-perpetuating mess it became only a few years later.

Here's a repost of the first article, plus some additional comments:

UNRWA's first report on its progress, A/1451/Rev.1, is a fascinating document on many levels. It describes its progress in the first six months of its existence.

Here are some excerpts:

HISTORY

6. When UNRPR was set up by the General Assembly, it was presumably with the idea thatthe problem would be resolved in a matter of months. During the summer of 1949 it became obvious that some other approach was needed, and the United Nations Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East was dispatched to study and report on conditions and to make recommendations concerning future activity. After three months of exhaustive study in the field, the Mission's interim report to the General Assembly in November 1949(1) recommended the creation of a new agency, which would not only carry out relief on a diminishing scale, but would inaugurate a works programme in which able-bodied refugees could become self-supporting and at the same time create works of lasting benefit to the refugees and the countries concerned. The recommendations of the report were embodied in resolution 302 (IV) which provided for the setting up of UNRWAPRNE. The final report signed in Paris in December covered the subject comprehensively and has been accepted by the Agency as its guide.2

UNRWA did not intend at first to be a permanent agency. It really tried to provide jobs for the Palestinian Arabs and to work with Arab governments to help integrate them. The Arabs' recalcitrance is the single major reason we still have so many "refugees" today, and after a few years UNRWA gave up and turned into a giant, self-perpetuating welfare system.

NUMBERS OF REFUGEES

16. The Agency has accepted as realistic the figures set forth in appendix B of the first interim report of the United Nations Economic Survey Mission, but recognizes that the numbers have increased in conformity with the extremely high birthrate of the refugees. There is reason to believe that births are always registered for ration purposes, but deaths are often, if not usually, concealed so that the family may continue to collect rations for the deceased.

17...The figures for Lebanon (128,000) are confused due to the fact that many Lebanese nationals along the Palestinian frontier habitually worked most of the year on the farms or in the citrus groves of Palestine. With the advent of war they came back across the border and claimed status as refugees. Only an exhaustive and expensive census, now under way although ardently opposed by those concerned, will divide worthy from false claimants.

18. The former Trans-Jordan and the portion of Palestine remaining in Arab hands and now annexed to the Hashimite Kingdom of the Jordan received the greatest influx of refugees of any of the countries adjacent to Israel -- probably more than half of all the refugees. For various reasons, the largest number of fictitious names on the ration lists pertain to refugees in this area. All earlier attempts at a close census of those entitled to relief have been frustrated, but a comprehensive survey, now under way, is achieving worthwhile results in casting up names of dead people for which rations are still drawn, fraudulent claims regarding numbers of dependents (it is alleged that it is a common practice for refugees to hire children from other families at census time), and in eliminating duplications where families have two or more ration cards. The census, though stubbornly resisted, will eliminate many thousands from the lists of refugees now in receipt of rations.

19. Unauthorized movement between camps, and sometimes across international boundaries, as well as deep-rooted reluctance of refugees to reveal personal information to census-takers, make it very difficult to obtain accurate statistics concerning them.

As far as I know, the census was never completed and the problems of exaggerated numbers of refugees remain, even today. A sense of entitlement will turn many people into lazy opportunists, and if they have no disincentive to act that way this behavior gets passed on to the next generation, and the following ones as well.

MORALE

26. Strangely enough the general morale of the refugees is higher than might be expected after spending more than two years in exile under most trying conditions. Real trouble-makers are confined to a very small proportion of the total number of refugees, and food strikes and work stoppages are generally considered to be the result of organized pressure groups.

27. During August, a campaign of bitter criticism of the Agency, its motives and personnel, was carried on in a large section of the Arab Press. The rather unvaried monotony of the charges gave indication of central inspiration. An organized series of work stoppages occurred in Lebanon in early September wherein small groups threatened the workers in such a manner that they declined to work for a time. The Syrian office of the Agency, located in Damascus, was destroyed by explosives and a bomb was thrown at a truckload of workers in Lebanon. Threats of violence have been made against individual employees of the Agency. It seems likely that the two campaigns--denunciations in certain sections of the Arab Press and violence--are closely related and spring from the same source which fostered the food strikes in the early days of the Agency.

Arab governments in general considered UNRWA the enemy, and they did everything possible to thwart any chance of solving the refugee crisis, instead wanting to use the refugees as pawns to pressure Israel. This attitude has not changed in sixty years.

REFUGEES IN ISRAEL

30. In Israel, the Agency has provided relief to two types of refugees, Jews who fled inside the borders of Israel during the fighting, and Arabs in most instances displaced from one area in Palestine to another. Jewish refugees at first numbered 17,000 but, during the current summer, all but 3,000 of these have been absorbed into the economic life of the new State. Arabs on relief were first numbered at 31,000 but many have been placed in circumstances in which they are self-supporting, so that it was possible to reduce the number to 24,000 at the end of August 1950.

31. Recent discussions with the Israel Government indicate that the idea of relief distribution is repugnant to it, and the Agency was informed that already many of the 24,000 remaining refugees were employed and that all able-bodied refugees desiring employment could be absorbed on works projects if they would register at the government registry offices for that purpose. It was stated that they all have status as citizens of Israel and are entitled to treatment as such. It was claimed that after cessation of relief, aged and infirm refugees would be cared for under the normal social welfare machinery of Israel. The Agency was requested to share financially in a programme of re-establishment of displaced Arabs now within the boundaries of Israel.

How great a contrast is there between how Israel treated its Arab refugees and how the Arab nations did! Within a short time after the war, Israel managed to fully integrate every single Arab refugee as citizens (and they eventually allowed tens of thousands more to come into Israel for family re-unification.) Not only did Israel inform the UNRWA that its services would not be needed for long, but said that the very idea of an outside agency taking responsibility for its Arab citizens is repugnant!

So while the number of Arab claimants for UNRWA services went down from 31,000 to zero in a relatively short time, in every Arab country those numbers only increased.

Fully half of the report deals with specific works projects that were attempted to allow the refugees to find jobs. As we now know, most of these projects went nowhere because of fears by Arab countries that their Palestinian Arab brethren would want to actually stay in their countries as equal citizens.

The appendix of charity organizations and NGOs that contributed to help the Palestinian Arabs does not mention a single Muslim charity.

In those days, UNRWA indeed tried hard to "reintegrate" - their word, used multiple times - Palestinian Arabs into the economic life of the countries they were in, namely Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria. The point was for them to become self-sufficient and no longer need aid, and they would then no longer be called "refugees."

That never happened. Arab governments resisted any moves to allow Palestinians to become citizens, except for Jordan.

The use of the word "reintegration" as opposed to "integration" says volumes. It means that UNRWA knew quite well that many of the refugees were in fact citizens of Lebanon or Syria and had merely returned to their countries of origin. Moreover, UNRWA knew that the chances of "return" to Israel were close to zero and that Arabs still considered all Arab lands to be essentially one virtual nation as they were only a few decades earlier under Ottoman rule. To UNRWA officials at the time, it was self-evident that Arabs should re-integrate into Arab countries to solve the refugee issue, and they didn't count on how little Arab leaders cared about their Palestinian brethren

Back to Jordan: Jordan hosts some 41% of all "refugees" today. Nearly all of them are Jordanian citizens. One must wonder, why there are still refugee camps in Jordan 66 years after 1948? Yet, because UNRWA is now a mere self-perpetuating technocracy, Jordan has no incentive to integrate these citizens into its population even today - 60 years after Israel did exactly that.

Good news! "14,000 occupiers stormed Al Aqsa mosque this year"

The Al Aqsa Heritage Foundation has released what it considers alarming statistics showing that more Jews have already visited the Temple Mount this year than in all of 2013.

According to the rabidly antisemitic group, so far this year 13,757 "occupiers" have "stormed Al Aqsa" of which 11,507 were "settlers" and the remainder were Israeli security forces who are there to protect the Jews from being lynched by the peaceful Muslims.

Last year, the numbers were 8,697 "settlers" out of 12,771. (Jews visiting from outside Israel are also considered "settlers.")

More alarming is that the number of Jews visiting is increasing as the year goes on. Over October and November, 2,708 "grave attacks" were done on Al Aqsa. They even mention two members of the Israel Antiquities Authority who visited in October. (One would think that the IAA would visit the holiest spot on the planet, routinely desecrated by the Waqf's earth moving equipment, a little more often than that.)

The biggest days were during Sukkot, October 12-14; 258 on Monday and 307 Tuesday, with the number going down to 109 on Wednesday because the Muslims started rioting.

The report also lists when prominent Israeli politicians visited, and the group congratulates itself on stopping even more Jews from visiting by instigating riots. But on the downside, awful things are happening like Israel putting up new signs that call the area the "Temple Mount," another unforgivable crime.

Just by way of contrast to the horrendous number of 14,000 Jews visiting over the year, some 40,000 Muslims visited in a single day, November 14.

One side asserts the right to worship peacefully in a sacred spot. The other demands that the entire area is cleansed of Jews.

And human rights groups refuse to condemn the would-be ethnic cleansers while Western governments only call for "both sides" to keep tensions down.

All of this just goes to show that fear of Muslim violence is the dominating factor of how most of the Western world makes its decisions vis a vis the Middle East. And the Al Aqsa Foundation's open endorsement of violence to keep the Temple Mount Judenfrei is a conscious policy to take advantage of Western fears.

After Palestinian insults, Royal Institute of British Architects reverses call to ban Israel

In March, the Royal Institute of British Architects joined the anti-Israel parade with a call for the International Union of Architects to expel their Israeli member organization, because, you know, "settlements" and "international law."

Of course, like all the other members of the anti-Israel bandwagon, Israel was the first and last of the nations to be subject to these sanctions.

RIBA has now decided, after a fact-finding mission to the region, that they really have no business making ignorant, anti-productive political statements.

The RIBA’s resolution to suspend the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA) has been overturned by the insitute’s council today

According to the institute, the motion calling for the IAUA’s suspension, was beyond ‘the powers of [RIBA] council’ and ‘was not in furtherance of the chairtable objects of the RIBA and should not have been placed before RIBA Council’.

The news comes just a month after an RIBA taskforce led by Sumita Sinha and Peter Oborn – RIBA’s vice-president of international – travelled to the region and held talks with both the IAUA and the Association of Architects in Palestine.

Delivering his findings from the taskforce’s trip, Oborn said: ‘The RIBA motion was beyond the powers of council. It should not have come before the members of council.’

‘This is not the forum for these issues.’

Earlier today (4 December) council voted in support of the taskforce’s report and its recommendations - one of which included revoking the original motion.

RIBA president Stephen Hodder said: ‘I’m keen that architects engage positively with this issue. RIBA Council has an important role to play in engaging with difficult and controversial issues. However it is a widely held view that the resolution passed in March concerning the IAUA did not make a constructive contribution to the current situation.

‘For the Institute to have engaged in this issue in a confrontational way - by seeking suspension of the Israeli Association of United Architects from the UIA - was wrong. These recommendations supersede the previous council resolution of 19 March 2014 and as a result that policy is now rescinded.’

He added: ‘We got it wrong.’

Hodder admitted the fallout had damaged the RIBA’s reputation and ‘had a financial impact’ on the institution, but wouldn’t expand on how much it had cost.

Perhaps one reason that RIBA changed its position is because of the criticism that the Association of Architects in Palestine hurled at RIBA for even meeting with the Israelis:

Ahmed Edaily, the chairman of the Engineers Association Jerusalem Centre and which includes the Association of Architects in Palestine on its letterhead, has now written to RIBA president Stephen Hodder to tell him that the visit was “planned as a tool to divert the RIBA motion and strip it of its spirit and agenda”.

He said the visit “is accepting and appearing to condone a group of architects involved with grave misconduct, breaches of international law and participating in war crimes… our resistance to the Israeli occupation is not a ‘civil conflict’ as you wrongly put it; it is a longstanding, brutal military occupation”.

In his letter this week, Edaily added: “The architects of the IAUA are practising within this situation without protest or comment and should be suspended from the UIA, not engaging with the RIBA.”

In a statement, the RIBA defended the visit. It said: “As chair of the working group it was appropriate for Peter Oborn to visit and hold talks with both the Israeli Association of United Architects and the Association of Architects in Palestine.

Similarly, there were starkly different reactions that another British architect delegation has received ahead from the IAUA and the AAP on their upcoming visit to the area:

Israeli and Palestinian architects are split over a forthcoming United Kingdom Trade & Investment (UKTI) trade mission for British architects to the region

The trip, revealed in last week’s AJ, will include visits to both the Association of Architects in Palestine (AAP) and the Israeli Association of United Architects (IAUA).

IAUA head of foreign relations Itzhak Lipovetzky welcomed the news, saying: ‘We are informed of the UKTI’s architects trip to Israel and we are taking part in it.’

But the AAP complained that it was not notified of the delegation, and claimed it illegitimately ‘aims at normalising’ relations with its Israeli counterparts.

Speaking on behalf of the AAP and the Engineering Association - Jerusalem Center (EA-JC), architect Nadia Habash, said: ‘This market visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories is totally rejected and not welcomed by the Palestinian architects and their representative bodies.

‘Although we appreciate having professional relationships with our British [counterparts], this trip does not recognise and support our national and legitimate rights. On the contrary it equalises between the criminal and the victim.’

She added: ‘We welcome a visit that is an eyewitness on the destruction of Gaza and the threat of the religious holy places, but we don’t welcome a visit that aims at normalising [relations] between Palestinian and Israeli architects.’

British architects have been rudely reminded that one side, and only one side, wants to live in peace. The other side wants revenge and will not be happy until their "peace partners" are destroyed.

Nothing has changed since the first partition proposal in 1937 that Jews accepted and Arabs angrily rejected. It is possible that RIBA belatedly realized that by rewarding the rejectionist side, it only increases their obstinacy.

It is a shame that European leaders cannot figure out this simple fact for themselves.

Of course, one can see which side is against peace by simply by looking at the website of the parent body of the AAP, the Palestinian Engineering Association Jerusalem Center. They have a cartoon that shows them toppling part of the security barrier on top of a fat, sweaty, kipah-wearing Jew in an attempt to crush him to death.

Wouldn't it make more sense to expel the architect group that openly calls for murder? Is such bloodlust part of RIBA's professional standards?

Expelling the AAP would be far more effective in bringing peace. Because if RIBA and the IUA would demand that Palestinians act like adults, that they accept a two-state solution and true peace that includes allowing a Jewish state to exist, then they might not so flippantly publish cartoons and openly denounce "normalization," meaning accepting the other side as normal human beings.

It would be even better if world governments acted that way, instead of embracing the opposite, idiotic position of punishing the peaceful and honoring the hateful.
.
(h/t Elihu)

12/04 Links Pt2: The Jews tolerated by Islam; The Priceless Treasures on the Temple Mount

From Ian:

The Jews tolerated by Islam

Al-Habbash also has interesting insights on what the “peace process” means to him, to his boss, and to Islam in general. On 19 July 2013, he delivered a sermon in the presence of Mahmoud Abbas, a sermon that was broadcast on PA television. In it, Al-Habbash explained that when the PLO signed the Oslo agreements with Israel, it did so in order to walk "the right path, which leads to achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Muhammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah." The Hudaybiyyah peace treaty was a 10-year truce that Muhammad signed with the Quraish Tribe of Mecca in 628 AD. Two years after signing the truce, however, Muhammad attacked and conquered Mecca. Al-Habbash stressed that Muhammad’s agreeing to the Hudaybiyyah treaty was not "disobedience" to Allah, but rather "politics" and "conflict management." He added that in spite of the peace treaty (or, rather, because of it), Muhammad did eventually conquer Mecca. The Hudaybiyyah agreement, Al-Habbash emphasized, is not just past history but a religiously permissible deceit for lack of a better option.
This is the man who was invited by BGU to talk about “religious tolerance.” Like Muhammad in 628, the PLO today is blessed with an unlimited number of useful idiots, especially in academia – both in Israel and in the United States. In the past few years, Hillel (the Foundation for Jewish campus life in the US) has opened its gates to the most anti-Israel organizations, supposedly to encourage “dialogue” under the euphemism “Open Hillel.” In December 2013, the Hillel branch of Swarthmore College became the first Open Hillel by declaring that it would no longer abide by the organization's “Standards of Partnership,” which bar Hillel from hosting speakers who support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) movement against Israel, or demonize or delegitimize the State of Israel. Other Hillel chapters have followed suit, such as the one at Berkley. This trend is encouraged, and often funded, by J-Street and by the New Israel Fund.
What Al-Habbash means by “religious tolerance” is that Islam’s enemies can be tolerated only after being subjugated or eliminated. And if the enemy is willing to cooperate with his own demise, blessed be the useful idiots.

The 'New Anti-Semitism' Comes of Age - And How to Deal With It

In the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States, internationally acclaimed author, lecturer and Arutz Sheva columnist Prof. Phyllis Chesler walked over to her computer and typed the sentence: "Now we are all Israelis."
It was then, she says, that she understood that a new kind of anti-Semitism had been declared, and it was then that she began her research for the original version of "The New Anti-Semitism: The Current Crisis and What We Must Do About it", published in 2003.
Over the last decade, the alarming escalation of global anti-Semitism has taken on a new and much more pernicious tone, leading Prof. Chesler to devote much of her time over the last year to expanding and revising the original book, whose updated version has just been released by Gefen Publishers.
Arutz Sheva sat down with Dr. Chesler to find out what factors informed her decision to re-release her book and to hear her analyses of the crisis that touches us all.

JPost Editorial: Prisoner of Zion in the US

The US government’s justification for denying parole to Jonathan Pollard after nearly 30 years in prison is a lie, eight senior American officials, fully versed in the classified file, recently revealed.
The government’s claim that the information Pollard provided to Israel “was the greatest compromise of US security to that date” is “patently false” and “not supported by any evidence in the public record or the classified file,” they write in a letter to President Barack Obama. Yet the government used this “fiction” to deny parole.
The unjust, “deeply flawed” parole hearing that their letter describes joins a long list of failed legal processes that have denied justice to Pollard for three decades.
Over the years, there were only two occasions when Pollard came close to freedom – at the Wye Plantation talks in 1998 and last spring. In both instances, Pollard was a bargaining chip played by the US as a quid pro quo for the release of Palestinian terrorists. Both deals fell through and Pollard remained in prison.
In his book The Missing Peace (2004), senior US diplomat Dennis Ross explains that while Pollard’s sentence is excessive, he is apparently too valuable as a bargaining chip to be released simply as a matter of justice.

From Al Arabiya:

Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants have released a new recipe on the internet for pancakes - with the stated intention of “extend[ing] the energy and power of the Mujahideen (fighters).”

The instructions were released by al-Zawra, an ISIS wing claims to “prepare sisters for the battlefield for jihadists” and uses social media to guide wives of ISIS militants in domestic work such as sewing and cooking, medical first aid, Islam, Sharia law and weaponry.

The recipe - which is accompanied by pictures - includes one egg, a cup of flour, four tablespoons of sugar, one tablespoon of oil, 4 teaspoons of salt and one cup of milk. According to the instructions, the pancakes should be served with honey and are suitable for breakfast and dinner.

The new recipe follows the publication of animated video cartoon last month, containing domestic tips for the wives of ISIS militants, including a recipe for ‘quick and simple’ date balls, are made by mixing dates, flour and butter together.

The recipe page seems to assume that the women reading it are illiterate or idiots, because it illustrates literally every step. Like take one egg:

And one cup of flour:

And so on.

Security company Cylance released a paper detailing "Operation Cleaver," a major, worldwide Iranian computer hacking operation. And although the scope of their discovery is massive, they believe that it is only the tip of the iceberg.

Since at least 2012, Iranian actors have directly attacked, established persistence in, and extracted highly sensitive materials from the networks of government agencies and major critical infrastructure companies in the following countries:

Canada, China, England, France, Germany, India, Israel, Kuwait, Mexico, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, and the United States.

Iran is the new China. [in cyber warfare - EoZ]

Operation Cleaver has, over the past several years, conducted a significant global surveillance and infiltration campaign. To date it has successfully evaded detection by existing security technologies. The group is believed to work from Tehran, Iran, although auxiliary team members were identified in other locations including the Netherlands, Canada, and the UK. The group successfully leveraged both publicly available, and customized tools to attack and compromise targets around the globe. The targets include military, oil and gas, energy and utilities, transportation, airlines, airports, hospitals, telecommunications, technology, education, aerospace, Defense Industrial Base (DIB), chemical companies, and governments.

During intense intelligence gathering over the last 24 months, we observed the technical capabilities of the Operation Cleaver team rapidly evolve faster than any previously observed Iranian effort. As Iran’s cyber warfare capabilities continue to morph,2 the probability of an attack that could impact the physical world at a national or global level is rapidly increasing.

Their capabilities have advanced beyond simple website defacements, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, and Hacking Exposed style techniques.

With minimal separation between private companies and the Iranian government, their modus operandi seems clear: blur the line between legitimate engineering companies and state sponsored cyber hacking teams to establish a foothold in the world’s critical infrastructure.

The targets included "Networks and systems targeted in critical industries like energy and utilities, oil and gas, and chemical companies; Assets (both cyber and physical) and logistics information were compromised at major airline operators, airports, and transportation companies; Various global telecommunications, technology, healthcare, aerospace, and defense companies; Confidential critical infrastructure documents were harvested from major educational institutions around the world."

Here are the specific industry targets for each country. Not surprisingly, the US is the major target of Iran's cyber-war.

And here's the scariest part - of what we know:

Perhaps the most bone-chilling evidence we collected in this campaign was the targeting and compromise of transportation networks and systems such as airlines and airports in South Korea, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan. The level of access seemed ubiquitous...Fully compromised VPN credentials meant their entire remote access infrastructure and supply chain was under the control of the Cleaver team, allowing permanent persistence under compromised credentials. They achieved complete access to airport gates and their security control systems, potentially allowing them to spoof gate credentials. They gained access to PayPal and Go Daddy credentials allowing them to make fraudulent purchases and allowed unfettered access to the victim’s domains. We were witnessed a shocking amount of access into the deepest parts of these companies and the airports in which they operate.

Could the airport information be merely to enhance espionage - or is it meant to support terror attacks?

What is crystal clear is that Iran is already at war with much of the world. The question is whether the world is prepared to react appropriately.

UPDATE: Bloomberg News suggests that one airport terror attack may have already used tis stolen data:

They also accessed details about computer systems at major Middle Eastern airports, including Pakistan’s Jinnah International Airport in Karachi, McClure said. Armed Taliban militants disguised as security staff workers stormed the airport in June, killing more than 30 people. The report doesn’t link that to the hack but McClure said some information stolen was related to a gate where the attack began.

Does anyone doubt that Iran would work together with major terror groups when it is convenient for them?

(h/t David G)

12/04 Links Pt1: Supermarket owner says he won’t let terror attackers win; Britain's Terror Addiction

From Ian:

UK: Britain's Terror Addiction

In Britain, declarations of disgust for specific acts of terrorism often seem designed merely to shroud tolerance for pro-terror views. The Guardian, for example, condemned the synagogue murders in Israel and described Hamas's celebrations of the attacks as "depressing"; but a mere four days before the terror attack, the newspaper published an opinion piece by Hamas official Ahmed Yousef, which set out to defend the Hamas charter, a document that explicitly calls for the eradication of not only Israelis but Jews.
Meanwhile, Ahmed Brahimi's PPDP has entertained members of the House of Lords; Interpal enjoys the support of parliamentary motions signed by dozens of British MPs and is painted as a victim of Islamophobia by prominent newspaper journalists; and the PFLP, addressing crowds of supporters in London, is considered a heroic bulwark against Western "imperialism."
Debates between politicians and commentators over the causes of radicalization and extremism in Britain invariably focus on how to tackle support for groups such as ISIS and Al Qaeda. But why is it that Hamas and PFLP are deemed moderate, regardless of how many civilians they murder?
One enormous factor in the spread of Islamic extremism surely must be the networks of charities that seem to support Palestinian terrorist organizations – networks that include groups such as Interpal and the PPDP. Will these organizations ever be shut down?

Frenchman sentenced to 5 years for Israeli hit-and-run killing

Zeitouni’s parents flew to France to attend the trial and both burst out crying during the deliberations, Ynet reported. Friends of the young woman and supporters from the local Jewish community also went to the trial but were not let into the courtroom, according to the report.
“We have an opportunity to tell the world that justice can be served, and people cannot run away from it,” said Peled.
The victim’s family would have preferred the trial to have taken place in Israel, their lawyer said.
“But this is better than nothing and they have arrived with confidence,” added the lawyer, Gilles-William Goldnadel.
He described Robic as a “habitual road criminal” who showed “rare cowardice” in deciding to flee the scene.

Enough is enough

People died that day. They were people with families, histories and legacies. Yet for every story about their lives I have seen 20 about what someone else may think about them, about us, or whatever response we choose for the slaughter of our citizens in our streets. That is simply slave mentality.
We house our own killers, provide for our attackers, save the world, protect the weak and invent the uninventable, and we stand there begging for the world to see that hey, it's kind of hard to make peace with someone who insists on chopping us up, running us over, and bombing our citizens into permanent post-traumatic stress disorder.
Well, I'm done. Seriously. I will never again give that shpiel. I will not discuss what may or may not be necessary force or hand out cookies in the hope they may lay off. Nah.
Instead I will learn what I can about Advanced Staff Sgt. Maj. Zidan Saif and Rabbis Kalman Zeev Levine, Moshe Twersky, Aryeh Kupinsky and Avraham Goldberg, may God avenge their blood, and I will know their stories and pay respect to their lives. I will not give a pound of flesh to the wolves at our door and I will not, ever again, be a public relations machine for the deaf.
Enough.
Enough.
Enough.
We have survived too much to recommit to slavery. We have too much to lose to be locked up in this prison of our own making.
Enough.

Burqa-wearer stabs American nursery teacher to death in Abu Dhabi (update)

Random killings by Arabs aren't just happening in Israel.

From Al Arabiya:

Police in Abu Dhabi are investigating the death of an American teacher stabbed in a shopping center toilet by a suspect wearing a Muslim veil, official media reported Wednesday.

The motive for Monday's attack in Boutik Mall was unclear.

Witnesses said the 37-year-old American woman, who worked at a nursery school in Abu Dhabi, was stabbed by a person wearing a black robe, black gloves and a niqab -- a Muslim veil that conceals the face except for the eyes.

"The victim was stabbed with a sharp object following an argument in the ladies toilets," the head of Abu Dhabi's police criminal investigations department, Colonel Rashid Bourscheid, was quoted by The National daily as saying.

"Police are still trying to determine the reasons for the attack and the identity of the suspect, who fled the scene," he said.
...
The stabbing took place on the same day as a recording attributed to IS spokesman Abu Mohammed al-Adnani urged Muslims to attack Westerners by any means, even if only to "spit on their faces".

Violent crime is relatively rare in Abu Dhabi although there have been attacks on foreigners elsewhere in the region.

In Saudi Arabia on Saturday, an assailant stabbed and wounded a Canadian while he shopped at a mall in Dhahran on the Gulf coast.

Last month a Danish national was shot and wounded in the Saudi capital Riyadh -- an attack that IS on Monday claimed was carried out by its supporters.

It sure sounds like the many attacks on random Israelis lately simply because they are Jewish. The burqa as a means to disguise the murderer is a nice touch, though, and it is even causing some Arab nations to question the wisdom of allowing so many people to walk around in disguise.

Once again, Palestinian Arabs re in the forefront of terror fashion and tactics. I think that we need more European countries rewarding them with symbolic recognition to make sure that they learn the lesson that they have no responsibilities whatsoever.

UPDATE: The stabber was caught, after she attempted to bomb the home of an Egyptian-American doctor.

The police say that she was targeting Americans.

(h/t Bob K)

UPDATE 2: My guess was right. ISIS is asking Muslims to do "lone burka" attacks against Westerners.

I quoted a devastating op-ed by Palestinian human rights leader Bassam Eid blasts UNRWA as working against Palestinians, not for them.

While Chris Gunness of UNRWA can try to ignore my many revelations about his organization, he cannot ignore Eid, who is the founder of the founder and director of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group - and who was kicked out of B'Tselem because he wanted them to look at Palestinian human rights violations.

Gunness went into full meltdown mode on Twitter as he tries mightily to counter Eid's fully accurate piece.

@Jerusalem_Post which employs pro-Jewish terrorism journo has article accusing UNRWA of supporting Jihad.I was not asked for quote of course
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Ultra-right @Jerusalem_Post carries anti-UNRWA garbage boycotting me ie no quote. Ask @stevelinde y Boycott the JPost! Don't read their lies
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Since when do op-ed pieces require requesting quotes? Gunness is sounding more like a spoiled child than an official spokesperson.

Unbalanced journalism @Jerusalem_Post which carries rabid anti-UNRWA piece without quoting @ChrisGunness. Ask editor @stevelinde why. RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Gunness doesn't want to call attention to the author Bassam Eid, whose reputation is quite good. So instead he tries to divert by attacking the Jerusalem Post and its editor, hoping Eid's article can be tarnished that way.

@Jerusalem_Post with Jewish terror supporting staff accuses UNRWA of Jihadism. Utter rubbish which we reject. Shame on @stevelinde RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Really? Because I have proven it, using the actual words on UNRWA websites that support jihad and antisemitism - and I have asked Gunness to respond.

His response? To cover up the evidence and delete the websites.

What a hypocrite.

I passionately believe in freedom of the press but I am equally passionate about fair and balanced journalism, which I will always demand RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

It is an op-ed. The journalistic standards that op-eds have to abide by are not to lie. They do not have to be balanced. Gunness knows this, and he's the one lying.

Ask @Jerusalem_Post editor @stevelinde why his Diaspora Affairs Corr, depicted here http://t.co/LJbX7MQpMH supported Jewish terrorism RT
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) December 4, 2014

Now Gunness is trying to attack the paper by claiming that it is pro-terror. The hypocrisy is stunning, not only because he is quoting a fringe website to try to associate the paper with terror.

The hypocrisy is because Gunness shows no such problem when his own staff explicitly supports terror. Not just one person, but many of the teachers who UNRWA trusts to teach their children. They supported the massacre of Jewish worshippers in Jerusalem as well as other terror attacks. They admiringly quote Hitler and support his goal of exterminating all Jews.

This isn't guilt by association as Gunness is trying to smear the Bassam Eid opinion piece with. These are actual UNRWA teachers openly espousing hate, and as we've shown, teaching it to the Palestinian children that UNRWA is supposedly supporting.

Gunness cannot bring himself to even mention Bassam Eid's name in his multi-tweet meltdown. Because he knows that Eid is speaking the truth.

After all, Eid grew up in a UNRWA camp and attended UNRWA schools himself!

Gunness also ignores 99% of the op-ed, focusing only on the "jihadism" charge - which is true nonetheless, as I've documented UNRWA websites with stories extolling children who go on jihad missions (after asking their parents - because they are moral). Another website had the phrase "God grant us martyrdom for the sake of Jihad" in another essay. There was a poem at another UNRWA school website about how Zionists "raped" Palestine and how they will return to Jaffa by force of arms, calling Palestine "the land of jihad and martyrdom."

All of this is documented in the copies I made of now-deleted UNRWA school websites.

Bassam Eid is telling the truth, and Chris Gunness is once again shown to be a liar, defending an organization that is a major cause of hate and incitement in the Middle East.