Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, December 09, 2014

4 out of 5 Palestinians support stabbing random Jews in Israel

The Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research just released their latest poll on Palestinian Arab attitudes.

Here is one of their findings:

80% support and 20% oppose attempts by individual Palestinians to stab or run over Israelis in Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.

The pollster pretends that this is partially a result of another big finding:

An overwhelming majority (86%) believes that al Haram al Sharif is in grave danger: 56% believe that Israel intends to destroy al Aqsa Mosque and the Dome of the Rock and replace them with a Jewish temple.

The two are related, but not in the way the pollster claims.

Both of those findings as a result of Mahmoud Abbas and his state-run media, not to mention the incitement from Hamas and other terror groups and plenty of social media, that constantly lie about Jews "desecrating" and planning to destroy Al Aqsa, as well as inciting people to defend it "by any means necessary." Arabic media has been in a frenzy over, literally, nothing and the broad-based support for murder comes directly from this incitement at both the political and media levels.

More proof comes from this other finding, also a direct reflection of what the Arabic media has been trying to push:

56% support return to an armed intifada...Three months ago, support for a return to armed intifada stood at 50% and six months ago at 41%.

Israeli policy hasn't changed. The amount of incitement in Arabic media and from "moderate" politicians, on the other hand, has increased a great deal.

And through some strange freakish logic, many Europeans and "progressives" use these sorts of findings as a reason to give the would-be murderers more and more, in the hope that they will be appeased.

12/09 Links Pt2: Max Blumenthal: Too Extreme for German Commies, Just Right for the NYT

From Ian:

Jewish Group Accuses New York Times of “Crossing Red Line” By Publishing American Anti-Semite Max Blumenthal

Less than one month after being indefinitely banned from entering the German parliament following an attempted violent assault on Gregor Gysi, the parliamentary leader of that country’s Left Party, the American anti-Semitic propagandist Max Blumenthal has been handed an opportunity to rescue his sullied reputation by no less than the New York Times – a move decried by a prominent American Jewish leader as “breaching a red line.”
In an article for the Times’ “Room for Debate” section on the proposed “Jewish State bill” that is being energetically discussed in Israel, Blumenthal attacks the “Zionist project” as an inherently racist endeavor.
But in an indication of Blumenthal’s contempt for accurate reporting about Israel, the paper was forced to publish a correction within hours of the piece appearing, after Blumenthal falsely claimed that the Prawer Plan – a bill that would have regulated the settlement of Beduin in the Negev area, but which was shelved last December – had been implemented.
Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, blasted the New York Times for “insulting” those on the Zionist left in Israel who are opposed to the bill by selecting Blumenthal, “who believes that Zionism is racism,” to make the case against it.
Cooper told The Algemeiner that he welcomed a “healthy, multi-layered” debate about the bill. “But when you invite someone who conflates the illusory crimes of Israel with the Holocaust, then a red line has been crossed,” he said.

Max Blumenthal: Too Extreme for German Commies, Just Right for the New York Times

How bad is the New York Times?
A party of East German Commies gave Max Blumenthal the boot for being a bigot. The left-wing Forward called his book the “I Hate Israel” handbook. His colleague at The Nation said it could have been put out by “The Friends of Hamas Book Club.”
One of Blumenthal’s smears about Israel was picked up by the Neo-Nazi gunman responsible for the Kansas City Jewish community center shootings.
But the influence of Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal is still strong enough to get his racist son in at the New York Times. (hat tip to Jamie Kirchik for the link and headline)
Blumenthal rants about how far “rightward” Israel has gone. That’s an ironic accusation coming from a man so far to the left that even German Communists find him extreme and even critics of Israel consider him anti-Semitic.
Max Blumenthal has called for the destruction of Israel. So maybe the New York Times should have looked a little closely at his claims about Israel.

Rolling Stone Apologized. Will the Times?

Have you heard the one about the major news organization that published an abominable piece by a contributor who made no real effort to obtain a thorough account and ran instead with an impassioned story that sounds plausible and moving just as long as you don’t bother looking at the actual facts? I’m not talking about Rolling Stone’s disastrous UVA piece; I’m talking about the New York Times. This morning, the paper of record ran an opinion piece by Max Blumenthal, lambasting Israel for being perpetually predatory to its minorities and neighbors.
Let’s not mince words here: Blumenthal is an anti-Semite. He’s been labeled as such by the Simon Wiesenthal Center, as well as by the leader of Germany’s Left opposition party, who cancelled a talk Blumenthal was scheduled to give in the Bundestag. The snub provoked Blumenthal to harass the politician, which got Blumenthal banned from entering the parliament building in the future.
The New York Times editors who invited Blumenthal to contribute, then, knew exactly what they’d get. They must have known, if they’ve ever read anything by or about Blumenthal, that they’d be in for nothing more than a hysterical, slanted, nonsensical account that obliterates all nuance in an effort to convince that Israel is a singularly awful nation—racist, violent, murderous—and therefore has little or no right to exist.

What It’s Like to Be an Atheist in Palestine

Waleed Al Husseini spent 10 months in Palestinian prison for being an atheist blogger. He asks why non-believers like himself are abandoned by the world.
Like many non-religious people around the world, I use the Internet to express my thoughts. It provides a relatively safe way of speaking freely, especially in a country where the vast majority believe in one religion and do not like to hear criticism. Or so I thought.
I used to run a blog in Arabic called “Nour Alakl” and ran a satirical Facebook page under the pseudonym “Allah.” But in October 2010, Palestinian security forces stormed into an Internet cafe and arrested me. Until then, I had been under the impression that I had a right to freedom of speech and to the freedom of belief. But in jail, I was told that my online statements about religion and Islam were illegal. I was told that society didn’t accept such criticisms.
I was beaten by prison guards who demanded to know who had made me write against Islam. In their minds, I could only say these things as the result of some plot, some conspiracy. The idea that I might simply want to express my independent thoughts was alien to them.
The 10 months I spent in Palestinian prison were the worse of my life. I faced constant pressure to retract my statements. I was told they had removed my blog and that I must apologize for publishing it. Even once I was freed, I was told I should never again use the Internet, nor meet with the media. (h/t Effect)

Belly dancer video causes "furor" in Egypt

From Al Arabiya:

Controversial Egyptian belly dancer Sama al-Masry sparked controversy once again this week after appearing holding underwear in her latest video clip.

In the clip, called “Ahmed, el shebsheb daa” or “Ahmed, I lost my slipper,” the singer appears in provocative clothes and holding underwear in her hands.

After the release of the video clip, many social media users reacted to the scenes.

“The only terrorism act is Sama al-Masry being on television,” one user wrote on Twitter.

The article didn't link to the video, so here it is.

It is certainly suggestive, as the dancer washes her undergarments on a rooftop in front of a weight-lifting macho Egyptian man.

The video itself is pretty horrendous, but it doesn't show anything that wouldn't be on the Disney channel. I think that Egyptian cinema in the 1960s was more risque.

You can expect to see larger than usual crowds of Muslims visiting the Temple Mount on Chanukah.

Arab media are buzzing about calls from Jewish groups to visit the Temple Mount on the eve of Chanukah next Tuesday and during the holiday as well.

So the Al Aqsa Foundation is calling on all Muslims to show up and block the Jews from coming on those days.

It is always interesting to see that the biggest incentive they have to convince Muslims to visit their "holy site" is to prevent Jews from visiting their holy site.

Well, maybe I'm no being fair. Here is a video taken last weekend showing young devout followers of Islam taking classes in the Al Aqsa Mosque compound on how to show their devotion to Allah more keenly.

12/09 Links Pt1: Israeli Stabbed at Brooklyn Synagogue; Palestinian sought Obama assassin

From Ian:

US calls on UNRWA to ‘uphold neutrality’ after call to boycott ‘Post’

The State Department is calling on personnel at the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East to “uphold its stated policy of neutrality,” after its spokesman, Chris Gunness, called for a boycott of The Jerusalem Post last week.
“Our position on UNRWA and its important humanitarian role is very clear,” State Department spokesman Edgar Vasquez told the Post. “It is imperative that all sides respect the humanitarian and development role of UNRWA. And we expect UNRWA personnel to uphold its stated policy of neutrality so that it can carry out its critical mandate.”
Gunness claimed impartiality in an article published by the Post last week, reacting with a series of tweets critical of the newspaper and its staff. The article was an op-ed, written by Palestinian human rights activist Bassam Eid.
One of those tweets called for a “boycott of JPost,” interpreted by the newspaper as a breach of its commitment to neutrality.
“We have been in touch with Chris Gunness, who has made clear that, in his tweets, he was not calling for a boycott against any media outlet but instead was making his objections to a single article that we all find problematic,” one UN spokesman said, responding to the incident.

Jennifer Rubin: What is a U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees doing in D.C.?

The U.N. Transparency, Accountability, and Reform Act of 2011 included provisions to deal with longstanding concerns about UNRWA’s use of anti-Israel textbooks, anti-Israel rhetoric, association with Hamas members and employment of some 31,000 “refugees” (“presenting a clear conflict of interest”).
But a new issue is taking center stage. As Right Turn reported:
"Early last year it set up a D.C. “liaison” office. With whom is it liaisoning? Mostly Congress, it turns out. U.S. law forbids the United Nations from lobbying Congress, but as we learned with Newt Gingrich “lobbying” or a “lobbyist” is in the eye of the beholder. UNRWA employs two full-time staffers in D.C., both of whom have loads of experience on Capitol Hill. Chris McGrath is a former aide for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.); his boss, Matthew Reynolds, worked in legislative affairs for the State Department. I was assured no “lobbying” goes on, but they do meet virtually nonstop with lawmakers — appropriators are key — to answer questions about how taxpayer dollars are spent, why UNRWA’s work is important and how it makes sure money isn’t going to terrorists.
It seems American tax dollars are going, in part, to fund this office that in effect makes sure Congress doesn’t get fed up and cut off the money flow."

Palestinian sought to recruit Texas man to kill Obama last year, Israel Police say

An unnamed Palestinian man sought to recruit a US citizen to assassinate Barack Obama when the US president visited Israel and the West Bank in March 2013, Israel police said on Tuesday.
The American, Adam Livix, was indicted in Tel Aviv on Tuesday on a separate matter, for charges that include an attempt to buy plastic explosives from Israeli soldiers with the apparent intention of harming Muslim holy sites.
Israel Police said that Livix, who lived in Hebron and Bethlehem in 2013, was asked at that time by a Palestinian operative if he could assassinate Obama with a sniper’s rifle during the president’s visit, but he refused to do so. No reference to this allegation was made in the charge sheet released Tuesday.
Livix, a Christian from Texas who pretended to be a Navy Seal, is wanted in the US for questioning regarding drug violations and has been in Israel Police custody since November 19, the police said.
The investigation of Livix in recent weeks was carried out in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

In Amnesty's latest hack job on Israel, they describe their methodology:

Amnesty International has been unable to send a delegation of researchers to visit the Gaza Strip since the beginning of the conflict. The Israeli authorities have refused, up to the time of writing this report, to allow it and researchers from other international human rights organizations to enter the Gaza Strip through the Erez crossing with Israel, despite the organization’s repeated requests since the beginning of the conflict to do so. The Egyptian authorities have also not granted Amnesty International permission to enter the Gaza Strip through the Rafah crossing with Egypt, again despite the organization’s repeated requests to do so.

Amnesty International has consequently had to carry out research remotely, supported by two fieldworkers based in Gaza who were contracted to work with the organization for periods of several weeks. They travelled extensively within the Strip, visiting every site described in this briefing, interviewing victims and eyewitnesses of every case recorded and taking photos and videos of the sites. Amnesty International studied relevant documentation produced by UN agencies, Palestinian, Israeli and other non-governmental organizations, local officials, media, and others who monitored the conflict, and consulted with them as needed, before writing the report. The organization also consulted on the interpretation of photos and videoswith military experts and extensively reviewed relevant statements by the Israeli military and other official bodies.

Amnesty hired local Gazans - people who live under Hamas rule and who have witnessed Hamas executing "collaborators" in the street - to objectively investigate the circumstances of events during the war.

What a surprise that they couldn't not find any evidence of terrorist targets in these buildings!

All those interviewed by Amnesty International said that they did not expect the whole building and its contents to be destroyed. Riad al-Holi said:

“We thought they would hit a floor or two, without bringing down the whole building. I think Israel is targeting the infrastructure. There are no resistance fighters in this complex; there are no open spaces for them to fire anything from. If the tradespeople had suspected anything, they would not have kept such large stocks in their shops.”

I was unaware that the Al Qaassam Brigades and Al Quds Brigades put signs on the doors of their command and control centers with their logos so the surrounding businesses would know to evacuate the premises.

Amnesty lists the names of companies in that building, but has no idea what some of them are:

On the third floor, there was an engineering company belonging to someone called Tayseer Abu Jarad...On the fourth floor, there were several offices, including those of three companies named al-Ruwaq, al-Uthman and Abu Shamal.

If Hamas had a weapons manufacturing facility in the "engineering company," Fatah a communications hub in "al-Ruwaq" and Islamic Jihad a command center in "Abu Shamal," would Amnesty know that based on this incredible remote investigation?

Amnesty is the blind man next to the elephant, confidently announcing its conclusions on topics it doesn't even know enough to research properly to begin with.

I have said before that I am not happy with how long it takes Israel to respond to these charges and to explain the evidence that they have of why they target specific locations. But the idea that Israel was wantonly targeting civilian structures for no reason except to put "pressure" on Gazans to insist that Hamas stop the war - something which has never happened - is insane.

As usual, Amnesty knew what it was going to "report" ahead of time. The contractors were hired not to find facts but to find confirmation of Amnesty's pre-existing bias.

Even the title of the report, "Nothing is immune," is deceptive. Here is the section where Amnesty quotes it:

On the same day, Israeli news media reported that the Israeli security cabinet had decided to intensify the army’s operations by expanding their aerial attacks against a broader range of areas. An Israeli security official was quoted saying: “Areas from which rockets are being launched will be targeted in a severe and massive manner, even if this includes buildings with the assistance of which the attacks were being carried out.”9 Another security official reportedly stated: “Nothing is immune, even if a 14-story building has terrorist activity, the building will be damaged and will collapse.”
A senior military officer speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed that Israel had adopted a “policy of striking at buildings containing Hamas operational centres or those from which military activities are launched. There is now a widening of locations that the military can target.” The official reportedly added: “Each strike requires prior approval from military lawyers and is carried out only after the local population is warned.”

What this means is that Israel was voluntarily holding back on hitting targets that were fully valid within international law up until that point, and decided to widen the scope - but still within the law. Amnesty cannot find any real evidence that Israel violated international law; instead it makes assumptions about proportionality and distinction that it is not in a position to make without mind-reading.

Notice how Amnesty uses the word "reportedly" here. In the original Independent article, the same official is quoted for all the things he says, none of his quotes are any less accurate than any other, but since he is saying something that exonerates Israel from the charge of violating international law, Amnesty has to add a qualifying statement that was not in the original.

If lawyers are consulted before each major airstrike - and there is no reason to assume they are not - then that means that the lawyers have far more information than Amnesty has in determining the value of the target and the methods allowed to hit it. Amnesty wants to cast doubt in the reader's mind about this very point, so it adds the dismissive "reportedly " (IDF lawyers also know international law far better than Amnesty does.)

And then, based on this highly skewed version of half-facts, Amnesty announces that Israel is guilty of war crimes.

In short, this shoddy, amateurish report is what we expect from Amnesty when reporting on Israel - bias over facts and slander over research.

On Friday, AP reported on a US document that listed the concessions that Iran supposedly gave to extend the nuclear negotiations:

The authenticity of the document was confirmed by three U.S. officials and congressional aides familiar with closed-doors discussions in recent days that have included top U.S. nuclear negotiator Wendy Sherman and Jake Sullivan, formerly Vice President Joe Biden's national security adviser.

The U.S. says Iran will further limit its development of new technology for enriching uranium that could be used for energy generation, as Tehran says is its objective, or for use in a nuclear warhead, which Washington and its international partners fear may be Iran's ultimate intent. It also seems to patch up what critics of last year's interim nuclear agreement described as loopholes on Iran's research and development of advanced centrifuges.

For one centrifuge model Iran has been working on, the U.S. says Tehran won't be able to pursue the industrial-scale operation needed for any "breakout" effort toward producing enough material for a nuclear weapon. For other models in the pipeline, Iran won't be permitted to feed the centrifuges with uranium gas or begin testing on a cascade level, which are needed steps in their development.

Iran also has agreed to turn 35 kilograms of higher-enriched uranium oxide stocks into fuel, making it unusable in the event Iran tries to secretly reach nuclear weapons capacity. That amounts for almost half of Iran's remaining stockpile of material that could in theory be converted into a form that is close to weapons-grade uranium.

In addition, the administration says Iran will grant international inspectors expanded access to its centrifuge production facilities, allowing the U.N. nuclear agency to double the amount of visits it makes to sites and to undertake unannounced or "snap" inspections. The monitoring aims to deter Iran from producing centrifuges for any covert facility.

Lastly, Iran will refrain from any other forms of enrichment, including through the use of laser technology. Last year's agreement halted Iran's progress on its gas centrifuge program, but U.S. officials feared the Iranians could experiment with other technology designed to do the same thing. Iran has attempted laser enrichment in the past, the U.S. believes, but now has committed to refrain from exploring it any further.

One other point, though:

There is no proof Tehran has agreed to or will follow through on the steps outlined,

Now, Iran is denying everything in the report:

In response to the AP’s initial report about the White House’s claims, a top Iranian official said that no further concessions have been agreed to by Iran.

“The conditions for extending the nuclear negotiations to July 1, 2015, were like the conditions reining the extension of the previous deadlines and no new undertaking has been added to it,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, the spokesman for Iran’s Atomic Energy Organization (AEOI,), told the country’s state-run media over the weekend.

Other Iranian officials also rejected the terms of the deal as presented to Congress by the White House.

“A source close to the Tehran-powers negotiations said that ‘this is not true at all and the trend of R&D on enrichment is moving along its natural track at the AEOI,’” Iran’s Fars News Agency reported.

So, who do you believe?

NewsMax reports something that, if true, makes the answer pretty clear:

Reza Kahlili (pseudonym for a former CIA operative inside Iran’s Revolutionary Guards) wrote in The Daily Caller that Tehran has adopted a policy of "elongation" of talks with the United States and five other international powers (Russia, China, Britain, France, and Germany) in which it prolongs the talks "as it develops nuclear weapons."

He quoted Alireza Forghani, a prominent strategist with ties to Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who explained in his blog last week that the negotiations with the six nations were "never supposed to be brought to a successful conclusion … whether positive or negative."

Forghani warned that soon he will promote the slogan "nuclear weapon is [sic] our definite right," and that there will be people in the streets demanding a nuclear-armed Iran. He hinted that these events would lead to the destruction of Israel, adding that this "is exactly what Almighty God wants."

He declared that soon the world will face "a nuclear Iran that not only has nuclear power, but also is equipped with nuclear weapons. Hence, Tehran will not negotiate with Washington anymore."

(h/t TIP)

The first sentence of an article in Ma'an by Nora Lester Murad, the founder of Palestinian NGO "Dalia Foundation," , pretty much sums up how Palestinian Arabs feel they must be treated:

"Palestinians have a right to request international aid, and donors have an obligation to provide it."

See? The world is obligated to throw billions of dollars to Palestinians, without question. Why? Because they have a right to it!

One part of the aid that they get rankles these NGOs.

"The policy of non-confrontation with Israel regardless of its actions conveys international acquiescence and contributes to Israeli impunity."

What does that mean? Look at the Dalia Foundation's petition where it mentions a numbers of issues that they have with international aid, among of which are:

"Anti-terrorism certification is unacceptable."

Meaning, when Westerners give their billions, they must not demand that their money is not used to kill Israeli civilians. Killing Israeli women and children is a human right, and by limiting funding to worthless things like peace and women's rights and feeding children, these donors are violating the basic Palestinian human right to murder.

And don't think I'm exaggerating. The Palestinians truly believe that they have the right to murder Jews. Their major proof is UN General Assembly Resolution 33/24, which says it "Reaffirms the legitimacy of the struggle of peoples for independence, territorial integrity, national unity and liberation from colonial and foreign domination and foreign occupation by all available means, particularly armed struggle."

Oh, and by the way - these same people claim that Israel doesn't have the right to defend itself, a position echoed by this writer when she asserts that US funding for Iron Dome is a violation of international law.

In short, Arabs have the right to kill Jews with impunity, and Jews have no human rights whatsoever, according to this NGO founder (who, of course, gets funded from European sources.)

The outrage is that these positions elicit no outrage.

UNRWA refuses to correct "2200 civilians killed" lie (UPDATE: Cover-up!)

On Friday, I noted that a speech given by UNRWA Deputy Commissioner-General Margot Ellis contained a major falsehood in a speech she gave.

Referring to the Gaza war, she said "This summer, around 2,200 civilians were killed in 50 days."

Perhaps she misspoke and she meant to say "people" instead of "civilians." Even that is problematic, because it would be equating the lives of the innocent and the terrorists in an attempt to inflate the seeming callousness of the IDF towards human life.

However, it is increasingly hard to give that benefit of the doubt. For one thing, this is the transcript of the speech as written, and one would expect that an official giving a major speech in front of a UN committee would be very careful with her words.

Moreover, UNRWA has refused to correct this.

I emailed to two UNRWA spokespeople on Friday. I tweeted spokesperson Chris Gunness multiple times as well.I know some of my readers also emailed about this. But the lie is still on the UNRWA webpage.

A newspaper would usually correct such an egregious error quickly, because newspapers want to appear to care about the truth.. If a UN organization refuses to issue such a clear correction, it appears as if they actually want to tell the world the lie that Israel only kills civilians.

When a UN organization is so willing to allow a anti-Israel lie be spread, and it does nothing to fix the lie, that goes a long way towards explaining why Israel can never trust the UN, and UNRWA specifically, to be fair.

UPDATE: In classic UNRWA fashion, they changed her remark to "people" it - but without admitting that they made a mistake to begin with.

Which means, of course, that they will never apologize for libeling Israel in the actual speech. Because why should a record of the speech reflect what was actually said to UN officials? Easier to change history and pretend that you never did anything wrong, just as UNRWA has done before.

This is the level of transparency that UNRWA has. And it is outrageous that an organization funded to the tune of over a billion dollars a year is allowed to act as if it has no obligation to truth and transparency.

(UNISPAL archives continue to include the offensive phrase.)

12/08 Links Pt2: Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle; JPost Responds to UNRWA’s Shocking Boycott Call

From Ian:

Zionism, An Indigenous Struggle: Aboriginal Americans and the Jewish State

In 1968, Palestinian terrorists hijacked an El-Al plane, and got away with it. They used the tactic repeatedly after that, with varying degrees of success. The most infamous incident was the forcing of Air France plane to Entebbe, Uganda, and Israel’s successful rescue of the hostages.
More such rescue operations are required these days, but not of aircraft. The Palestinians and their Islamist allies have taken to hijacking peoples and causes. For example, in nineteen seventy five Betty Friedan, a feminist trailblazer, led the American delegation to an International Woman’s Year World Conference. She was stunned by the conference’s anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism. A 1980 Women’s Conference in Copenhagen had a huge portrait of Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini, a man at the forefront of the oppression of women, decorating the conference chamber.
Although Israel is the only place in the Middle East where homosexuals are legally protected from persecution, Toronto’s annual gay pride parade has frequently featured the participation of “Queers Against Israeli Apartheid.” That homosexuals would promote a movement that brutally oppresses them points to the effectiveness of Palestinian hijacking techniques.
The collection of articles in this publication examine the relation between Native American and Jewish issues, focusing on the perceived attempt to hijack the Native American struggle for rights and recognition into the framework of Palestinian suffering. Native Americans are viewed as the quintessential victims, having suffered genocide, theft of lands and consequent marginalization. This fits into the casting of the Palestinians as victims of colonialism and oppression.

Israeli Paper Responds to UNRWA’s Shocking Boycott Call

In a response which is now posted on his Facebook page, Linde wrote that Gunness’s campaign against the Post “represents an unacceptable breach of protocol and neutrality he is supposed to uphold.”
“An attack of this kind by a senior staff member of a UN body that employs as many as 30,000 people and provides aid to millions of Palestinians is unbecoming,” Linde said.
An op-ed is not a news article. It is an opinion piece written by someone with either expertise or other first-hand knowledge or is credible and has a view not widely covered elsewhere in the media.
The Post‘s op-ed editor, Seth Frantzman, shot back at the petulant claim that Gunness was boycotted simply because he was not quoted – in an op-ed.
“We have a long track record of publishing op-eds from diverse voices on a wide range of issues and will continue to subject all groups to robust critique, despite this intimidation,” Frantzman wrote. “UNRWA’s call for a boycott over an article published by a Palestinian activist who critiqued UNRWA contravenes the concept of open debate and has a chilling effect on free speech.”

NGO Monitor Accuses Amnesty of Faulty Data over Gaza War

Amnesty International's data on Operation Protective Edge in Gaza is "faulty and incomplete," the head of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor organization noted Monday - and organizations and journalists should not use Amnesty as a source.
"By Amnesty's own admission, its methodology in Gaza is faulty and incomplete," said Prof. Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor. "The 'evidence' is internally contradictory, and cannot sustain the accusations of 'war crimes' and the recommendations of legal warfare and sanctions against Israel."
NGO Monitor adds that Amnesty has no direct access to Gaza, and is relying on data fed to them by anonymous sources with questionable credibility.
In addition, according to Steinberg, "The individuals who determine Amnesty's Israel activities reflect a highly ideological agenda, as demonstrated in our research."
NGO Monitor also notes that Amnesty's string of publications attacking Israel, including a similar report from November, reflects an intensification of activity before the Schabas Commission delivers its report in March 2015.

Standing athwart lies: Why I left Open Hillel

Those who lie about themselves are not in a position to judge others.
I used to serve as Campus Outreach Co-Coordinator for Open Hillel – an organization committed to abolishing the Hillel International’s Standards of Partnership. These standards preclude Hillel branches from partnering with groups that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. Besides that, Hillels typically welcome groups on both the left and right ends of the spectrum.
While Open Hillel’s stated aims are open dialogue and inclusiveness—worthy goals—the organization in actuality has something else in mind. The people who claim that Open Hillel’s main objective is to garner support for the BDS movement may not realize just how right they are.
Many Open Hillel leaders have no problem with advocating exclusion and alienation within Open Hillel, even as they preach the virtue of inclusiveness to the Jewish community. While demanding that the pro-Israel community tolerate pro-BDS groups that they find offensive, many Open Hillel leaders are intolerant of pro-Israel voices that they dislike.

Lebanon, without evidence, accuses Israel of stealing their natural gas

From Albawaba:

While political factions are distracted with the upcoming dialogue between Hezbollah and the Future Movement, and the Lebanese government is struggling to resolve the issue of the kidnapped soldiers and counter the threat of terrorist groups on the Syrian border, Israel is stealing Lebanese gas from the deep sea off the Lebanese southern coast, Al-Akhbar learned Monday.

Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri told Al-Akhbar that he received information a few days ago confirming that Israel has started stealing Lebanese gas, expressing his surprise over the government’s lack of interest in the matter.

Berri said “he will personally push the pressing issue early next year,” adding that the Israeli move will force Lebanon to sign two designated decrees that would allow it to start digging for gas and ensure new revenues for the Lebanese economy.

Lebanon is located in the heart of the Levant basin, where seismic surveys indicate the presence of huge oil and gas reserves, but has so far failed to impose itself as a regional player in this area, as neighboring states greedily fight for its resources.

In July 2013, an Israeli company found Karish, a gas field 75 kilometers from the coast of Haifa. The new field is sufficiently close to Lebanon’s maritime borders to allow Israel access to Lebanon’s own reserves. It is evident that Israel is pressing ahead with exploration and production while Lebanon’s own energy plans falter.

At the time, then-Energy and Water Minister Gebran Bassil addressed these concerns in a press conference. “Theoretically…Israel is now able to reach Lebanese gas and that is a very grave situation,” he said.

“We cannot yet say that a disaster has happened, but the new Israeli discovery may indeed lead to one, especially if Lebanon’s efforts continue to be plagued by delays.”

“If Israel drills horizontally in Karish – made possible thanks to US technology – it may be able to reach up to 10 kilometers north into Lebanon’s reservoirs. If Israel drills vertically, it would still be possible for Israel to syphon off Lebanese oil and gas, if the Israeli and Lebanese fields overlap,” Bassil added.

From what I can tell, there is nothing new here. Last year I reported on Gebran Bassil sounding the alarm that Israel could drill horizontally (even though the Karish field is 20 km south of the border that Lebanon claims.) As I noted at the time, quoting from a Now Lebanon article:

Enzo Zappaterra, a geologist with PetroServe International, noted that it would not make sense for a company to employ horizontal drilling to blindly move from one reserve in search of another.

Drilling companies, he said, “are capable of anything, but it wouldn’t be a practice, just sending a probe up for nothing.”

Noble, it should be noted, has not bought access to seismic surveying of Lebanon’s waters and therefore likely has very poor knowledge of where Lebanese reserves are potentially located.

It appears that this is an attempt by a Lebanese politician to get the country moving on offshore gas and oil exploration, but the government has been deadlocked because of Hezbollah.

Scaremongering about the Jews is a time honored way for Arab nations to provide incentive to get things done.

(Part 1, part 2)

Continuing on the phenomenally dishonest performance of UNRWA's Chris Gunness when interviewed by Melanie Phillips on Voice of Israel, Melanie asked Gunness about the UNRWA workers' union being controlled by Hamas as proof that Hamas is exerting influence in UNRWA schools.

Gunness disputed the idea that most UNRWA workers are Islamists, and his response (which was quite condescending towards Phillips) is pretty much that the claim that Hamas dominated the last union elections in 2012 is a myth created by anti-UNRWA people. He claimed, without providing proof, that whenever there are allegations of UNRWA employees violating UNRWA's neutrality policy, "they are always investigated and disciplinary action is taken up to and including dismissal."

In regards to the union elections, Gunness asserted, "I hear this bandied around, and let me tell you, I have seen the ballot papers for staff union elections, and there is nothing whatsoever on that that has any indication of party affiliation...We police the union process and there is nothing on the ballot paper that gives any indication of political affiliation."

Let me quote from the pro-Hamas al-Resala newspaper right before the September 2012 UNRWA union elections: "It is noteworthy that Hamas has controlled the UNRWA staff union in the elections since its inception, particularly the teachers sector in [the union], but the electoral system cannot list it to prevent [official] partisan affiliations of UNRWA employees."

Al Quds, a Fatah-leaning paper, wrote after the elections "According to multiple sources within the Election Commission..., that the "Professional" slate of Hamas won 25 seats out of 27, divided by 11 seats out of 11 in the teachers' sector and 6 out of 7 in the labor sector elections, and 8 seats out of 9 in the services sector election."

Everyone knows quite well that the "Professional" slate of candidates is Hamas, period. Hamas calls itself "Professional" in order to skirt the letter of the law where UNRWA does not allow "partisan" parties. It is a sham that every Palestinian, and every UNRWA employee, and UNRWA itself - including Chris Gunness - knows quite well and accepts.

Chris Gunness is invoking this legal fiction to argue that Hamas really doesn't dominate the union!

Is there any more evidence necessary of how little Gunness cares about the truth, and how much he tries to twist the facts in his interviews, by assuming that no one will check him on it?

12/08 Links Pt1: Two Hezbollah members killed in airstrikes on Syria, anti-aircraft missiles destroyed

From Ian:

PA Minister of Religious Affairs ‎continues to fuel conflict in Jerusalem

Contrary to remarks by Palestinian Authority officials that Abbas wants to calm the atmosphere in Jerusalem and prevent violence, Abbas' own Minister of Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Ida'is continues to fuel the conflict by repeating the libel that Israel plans to "take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque,destroy it and build the alleged Temple":
"All that Israel wants is to Judaize the Holy City, take over the Al-Aqsa Mosque, destroy it and build the alleged Temple. Under Jerusalem there is a city of tunnels belonging to Israel. Yesterday, I was told that Israel has an underground market beneath the Jaffa Gate, which draws many [Palestinian] residents who shop there." [Official PA TV, Dec. 3, 2014]

PA Minister voices libel that Israel seeks to destroy Al-Aqsa Mosque and build "alleged Temple"

Hezbollah drones, anti-aircraft missiles destroyed in alleged IAF attack, says Syrian opposition

Syrian opposition sources told Arab media on Monday that the airstrikes near Damascus that were alleged to have been carried out by Israeli warplanes destroyed a storage facility housing anti-aircraft missiles as well as drones belonging to Hezbollah.
While the Lebanese Shi’ite group has yet to officially comment on the attack, Channel 2 is citing a report in the Hezbollah-affiliated newspaper Al-Akhbar which said that “the Israeli action was intended to preserve the rules of the game.”
The newspaper claimed that the IAF struck weapons caches “that belonged to Hezbollah.” These arms are considered to be “capable of tilting the strategic balance,” namely threaten Israel’s ability to act freely in the skies above Lebanon.
The IAF has struck Syria several times since the start of the three-year conflict, mostly destroying weaponry such as missiles that Israeli officials said were destined for their longtime foe Hezbollah in neighboring Lebanon.
Last week, the Lebanese Daily Star reported the army said it had fired anti-aircraft guns at an IDF drone flying low over the eastern part of the country.
“The Israeli enemy committed aggression against Syria by targeting two safe areas in Damascus province, in all of Dimas and near the Damascus International Airport,” state television said, adding that there were no casualties.

Two Hezbollah members said killed in airstrikes on Syria

One of the slain was a senior official from the Lebanese group, the report said.
Syrian state TV, which accused Israel of carrying out airstrikes on the Damascus International Airport and an airfield near the town of Dimas on the Syrian-Lebanese border, had maintained that there were no casualties in the attacks.
The power supply to the airport has been cut off since the attack, the report said, citing Syrian rebel sources.

After Syria Strikes, Israel Reiterates: No Arms for Terrorists

Israel stressed on Monday that it has a policy of preventing arms transfers to terrorist groups, a day after Syria accused the Jewish state of bombing two targets near the Syrian capital, including Damascus airport.
Israel has launched a series of strikes inside Syria since the armed uprising erupted there in 2011, including raids reportedly targeting weapons bound for Damascus ally Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz refused to comment directly on Sunday's incident, as was also the case with Israeli officials questioned in the aftermath of previous strikes.
"We have a firm policy of preventing all possible transfers of sophisticated weapons to terrorist organisations," Steinitz told public radio in response to a question about the strikes, and apparently referring to Hezbollah.

(Part 1)

The second major topic that Melanie Phillips brought up in her audio interview with UNRWA's Chris Gunness is about the curriculum being taught at UNRWA schools, and she brought some examples of where students are taught jihad and martyrdom.

Gunness neatly sidetracked the discussion away from the things UNRWA is teaching its students and he only addressed the textbooks. He said (correctly) that UNRWA must use the textbooks of the host country and therefore any problematic material must be dealt with from that angle. Furthermore he claims that UNRWA works with the host countries to eliminate any problematic materials from their official curricula.

However, he didn't address what I discovered: that UNRWA teachers (certainly in Gaza) are teaching hate outside the textbooks. Official UNRWA school websites included essays and poems praising jihad and martyrdom. That cannot happen unless the topics are being taught within the schools.

As I showed last week, Arab teachers in Jerusalem are bragging that they teach their students to hate Israel and to seek its destruction. This is even though the schoolbooks are approved by Israel.

Teachers impart a lot of information to students that are not in the textbooks. I once showed that even UNRWA's website showed that their schools were decorated on the outside with pictures of famous terrorists, like this one of master bombmaker Yahya Ayyash.
.

And it is not only individual schools, because I revealed that the Gaza-wide "human rights" UNRWA website included antisemitism.

In this case Gunness didn't lie, but he obfuscated the issue by concentrating on one aspect of UNRWA's curriculum without mentioning that schoolbooks aren't the whole story.

UPDATE: I found more proof that UNRWA schools have their own curricula separate from the host country's textbooks. From an independent 2010 study of UNRWA schools in Jordan:

Despite the fact that UNRWA schools, similar to other public and private schools, apply the Jordanian curricula that is imposed on them by the ministry of education, it was noticed that they heavily value their “hidden curricula”. These curricula are based on enrichment plans prepared by teachers to emphasize the Palestinian identity, whether by celebrating national occasions such as Al-Nakhba (1948) and Al-Naksa (1967) or by opening discussions about key political issues.

And it turns out that the authors of the study didn't make up this term - it was referred to as such by the UNRWA head teachers themselves!

Finally, it can be concluded that all stakeholders are involved in the process of enriching the curricula. However, since the core subjects are imposed on them by the Ministry of education, their role in that regard becomes limited to developing what was referred to by head teachers as “The Hidden Curricula”.

So when the UNRWA Human Rights website included a document that said that Jews have no concept of human rights, or when their "respect and discipline" site says to students that they should keep clean unlike the Jews, this was part of UNRWA's "hidden curricula." Even though these sites have now been taken down after I exposed them, there is no indication that the "hidden curricula" behind them has been changed one iota.

Preacher at Al Aqsa calls to slaughter all Jews, "most evil of Allah's creations"

Even among all the crazy, antisemitic stuff that MEMRI finds being promulgated in the Arab world, this is something:

Highlights:

I wonder if Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International would consider this to be "incitement."

Notice also that there is no fear of pushback from his audience against praying for a new Caliphate.