Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, December 14, 2014

Fisking an UNRWA hack on Twitter in real time

In 2012, Jennifer Rubin reported in WaPo:

Early last year [UNRWA] 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. Kirk might want to find out just how much liasioning is going on and whether the letter and spirit of the ban on lobbying are being strictly adhered to.

This paid political hack Chris McGrath has been actively - and absurdly - defending UNRWA on Twitter.

So, for example, after Chris Gunness spent a day hysterically going after the Jerusalem Post and calling for everyone to boycott it using the words "Boycott the JPost," McGrath tweeted:

#UNSG spox noted @ChrisGunness “was not calling for a boycott against any media outlet” rather 1 misleading article in JPost 1/2
— Chris McGrath (@mcgrathc) December 8, 2014

You may recall that the reason Gunness and UNRWA were up in arms was a devastating op-ed piece by Palestinian human rights leader Bassam Eid slamming UNRWA. On Friday, Chris McGrath tweeted:

#UNRWA has examined Bassam Eid’s Dec. 1st op-ed in @Jerusalem_Post and found 21 errors; #FactsMatter
— Chris McGrath (@mcgrathc) December 12, 2014

As I waited to read details on these supposed 21 errors, I had fun with the hashtag #FactsMatter:

.@UNRWA's website misrepresents UNHRC's policy towards refugee descendants http://t.co/aj53rKqO3r #FactsMatter @mcgrathc @Jerusalem_Post
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

.@ChrisGunness lied about @UNRWA's definition of refugee being made by UNGA http://t.co/iI95TZwiGU @mcgrathc @Jerusalem_Post #FactsMatter
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

.@UNRWA official lied, told UNGA meeting that 2100 civilians killed in Gaza http://t.co/cEOMCXBI3K @mcgrathc @Jerusalem_Post #FactsMatter
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

Sorry, @mcgrathc, but if #FactsMatter, why does @UNRWA keep lying? @Jerusalem_Post
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

Finally, McGrath started listing four of the 21 "errors." Here's the first:

4 biggest errors in Bassem Eid op-ed in @Jerusalem_Post show lack of basic understanding of #UNRWA #FactsMatter (1/5)
— Chris McGrath (@mcgrathc) December 12, 2014

Eid op-ed error: UNRWA runs camps; FACT: #UNRWA only provides services, no such thing as “UNRWA refugee camp” #FactsMatter (2/5)
— Chris McGrath (@mcgrathc) December 12, 2014

Eid didn't say that UNRWA runs the camps. However, he did refer to "UNRWA refugee camps." Guess who else does?

Lobbyist @mcgrathc says "no such thing as '@UNRWA refugee camp.'" Their website disagrees @stevelinde #FactsMatter pic.twitter.com/IgjTStRPbo
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

Here are his other "errors" and my responses:

.@mcgrathc This is the only one I don't think can be proven. I'll give you that. But your salaries do buy weapons pic.twitter.com/O8mc0pJg5q
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

.@mcgrathc Then point me to the publication showing specifically how UNRWA spends its money. Like how much they pay you.
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

.@mcgrathc He didn't say there were no audits. He called on full audits. #FactsMatter #pathetic
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) December 12, 2014

McGrath's arguments that UNRWA is fully audited and transparent is truly a joke.

Anyway, I am still waiting for the remaining 17 supposed "errors" in Bassam Eid's piece. There is more fun to be had.

12/13 Links: Huckabee: 'US Should Fund Jewish Construction in Judea-Samaria, Not Gaza'

From Ian:

The Israeli Future

Here in Israel, thinking on such matters is generally clearer due to the proximity of the country to its mortal enemies. For all that the Palestinians and Gaza occupy the moral imagination of the international left, they are at best a secondary, and probably more accurately a tertiary concern in the hierarchy of Israel’s security issues. The prospect of an Iranian nuclear bomb looms over everything here, and with it the threat of a new holocaust.
Even if Iran were to get the bomb but not use it preemptively, the outcome—a regionally hegemonic neo-Persian Empire—would still be unacceptable to Israel, not to say most Arabs. So Israel will have to act, if the United States and the international order will not. The consequences of such a campaign are unclear—perhaps, yet another broad regional war caused by the recent weakness of the international order.
Such a prediction may seem panicky and fevered to those in the United States, where it is harder to picture the severity of the threats to the Western model of governance and civilization, because those threats are relatively distant. Israel is effectively our front line. Europe is embarrassed by the legacy of the West—with its whiteness and colonialism and capitalism—and probably would be happy to see Israel disappear or change its character in such a way that the Jewishness of the Jewish state is certain to disappear.
But Europe itself is faltering. At an event I attended this week, Natan Sharansky–the former Soviet dissident and Israeli author and politician–made the following observation in response to a query about resurgent anti-Semitism: “People always ask me, is there a future for Jews in Europe? But I’m more worried about the question, Is there a future for Europeans in Europe?”
He concluded: “But of course they can come here. There will always be a future for Europe in Israel.”

Congress passes resolution denouncing use of human shields

Congress passed a resolution denouncing the use of civilians as human shields by terrorist groups, calling it a violation of international humanitarian law.
The resolution was passed by both houses of Congress without objection on Wednesday.
“The United States Congress stood resolved in condemnation of the despicable actions of the terrorist group, Hamas, and its use of children, women and men as human shields. While Israel went to extraordinary lengths this summer in Gaza to protect innocent civilian lives, Hamas placed the Palestinian people directly in harm’s way by using them as human shields and placing its rockets near densely populated areas and near schools, hospitals and mosques,” according to a joint statement from Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) and Ted Deutch (R-Fla.)
Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), who cosponsored the resolution on the Senate side, said in a statement: “The Senate has sent a united signal that we denounce Hamas’ barbaric tactics and unequivocally support Israel’s right to self-defense.”
The resolution calls on the international community to condemn Hamas’ use of human shields and places responsibility for the rocket attacks from Gaza against Israel on Hamas and other terrorist organizations. It also condemns the United Nations Human Rights Council’s biased resolution establishing a commission of inquiry into Israel’s Gaza operation.

Douglas Murray: Why are we abandoning the Middle East's Christians to Isis

All the congregation I spoke to agreed on several things. One is that although the situation has been bad for years and has peaked before, there has never been a year as bad as this. A year, as the Archbishop tells me, that Iraq’s Christian’s faced a genocide.
They do not understand why the world is ignoring them, nor why a historically Christian country like Britain has been so unmoved by the near-complete eradication of Christianity in the continent that gave it birth. As one points out, the Yazidis lived with them for hundreds of years. They were their neighbours and friends. So why was the world spurred to action by the effort to commit genocide against the Yazidis and not the genocide against the Christians?
Their families cannot go to Syria and they are not allowed into Turkey. The lucky ones are living in tents in the Kurdish areas. The luckiest — like the lady who took the call from Isis — had a family member in the UK and a visa which was still valid. All of which naturally brings up the issue of asylum. Alongside the amazement at the world’s indifference comes a question: why can’t Iraq’s Christians all get sanctuary in the West? If most EU countries took in 10,000 Iraqi Christians, they could all live in safety.
Is this not self-defeating, I ask them? Would this not simply speed up the end of this ancient church and ancient community? A woman looks at me straight and says simply, ‘It is the end anyway.’

Look how crowded Gaza is!

Last summer, when some news agencies started realizing belatedly that Hamas was firing rockets from civilian areas, Hamas answered them:

But Hamas says it had little choice in Gaza's crowded urban landscape, took safeguards to keep people away from the fighting, and that a heavy-handed Israeli response is to blame for the deaths of hundreds of Palestinian civilians.

"Gaza, from Beit Hanoun in the north to Rafah in the south, is one uninterrupted urban chain that Israel has turned into a war zone," said Ghazi Hamad, a senior Hamas official in Gaza.

AP didn't challenge the obvious lie.

Amnesty International also seemed to buy that Hamas line, even giving it the primatur of international law!

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

Yes, Amnesty justified terrorists' use of human shields by claiming that they it would be "impossible" to do otherwise..

Here are some photos of an Islamic Jihad military exercises taken today, from areas in Gaza that are obviously controlled by the terror group and from which they could have easily fought from. See if you can find any civilian homes in any of these photos:

So crowded!

UPDATE: I originally said this was a Hamas exercise, thanks to Judge Dan for correcting me.

12/12 Links Pt2: Fury over Israel ban at Shoah memorial; Putting Lipstick on the BDS Pig

From Ian:

Fury over Israel ban at Shoah memorial

Organisers of a national Holocaust memorial event have banned any mention of Israel.
The trustees of Holocaust Educational Trust Ireland (HETI) have instructed the host of the country's main Shoah memorial event in January "not to refer to the Jewish State or the State of Israel during any part of the ceremony".
The ban follows a similar bar imposed just days before this year's Holocaust Memorial Day in Ireland, when long-standing host Yanky Fachler was told to avoid mentioning Israel.
He reluctantly complied when his objections fell on deaf ears but, afterwards, complained in writing to the organising body, HETI - only to be told the rule will again apply at January's event at Dublin's Mansion House.

Palestinian human rights activist implores Malala: No money to Hamas, UNRWA

Palestinian human rights activist Bassem Eid is asking Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Malala Yousafzai to keep her promise to share her award money with the children of the Gaza Strip but to prevent the funds from falling into the hands of Hamas. In an “Open Letter to Malala” Eid shared with The Media Line, the noted activist told the young Pakistani laureate that “Hamas acts according to the principles of radical Islam, not of the UN principles.”
"I appreciate your decision to contribute your prize money to the children of Palestinian refugees in Gaza, because they really need your help. Yet, I must advise you that if you want to make such a donation, please come here to do so in person and not through UNRWA - the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.
If you send funds through UNRWA, Palestinian refugee children will never benefit from it, because UNRWA funds in Gaza wind up in the hands of radical Islam." (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Clarifications required for BBC reports on Shati incident

As we noted here the other day, the Israeli Military Attorney General (MAG) has published the findings of some of the investigations conducted into incidents which occurred in the Gaza Strip during Operation Protective Edge.
One of the incidents investigated was the deaths of ten civilians on July 28th at the Shati refugee camp, along with an alleged attack on Shifa hospital on the same afternoon. The findings are as follows:Tweet Shifa
“Various media reports alleged that on 28 July 2014, an incident occurred involving a strike on medical clinics belonging to the Al-Shifa Hospital, as well as a strike on a park where children were present in the Shati Refugee Camp, and as a result of which ten persons (including nine children) were killed and tens injured. Some of these reports alleged that the strikes were carried out by the IDF. As a result, and in accordance with the MAG’s investigation policy, it was decided to refer the incident for examination by the FFAM [Fact Finding Assessment Mission – Ed.].
Following a thorough review conducted by the FFAM, such a strike by IDF forces could not be identified. However, Israel’s technical systems recorded in real-time the path of a salvo of missiles fired from within the Gaza Strip, seemingly by Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which landed in the medical clinics and in the Shati Refugee Camp at the time of the alleged incident. Under these circumstances, and in light of the fact that the strike on the hospital was the result of rocket fire from Palestinian terrorist organizations, the MAG ordered the case to be closed.”

Hamas burns a religious Jew - and the Temple - in effigy during rally (update)

Today Hamas held a rally in Gaza City celebrating its anniversary.

Here was one of the featured events:

The "coffin" that he is being burned on has a picture on the side:

It is a representation of the Second Jewish Temple!

Nah, they're not antisemitic. They are pretending to murder religious Jews and destroy Jewish holy places because of, you know, settlements.

Maybe next rally they can burn a fake Torah, too. Even if they did, enlightened Westerners will not admit that Hamas has anything to do with Jew-hatred.

UPDATE: Coffins had different "decorations" including this celebration of murdering 4 religious Jews. (h/t Bob Knot)

12/12 Links Pt1: Caroline Glick demolishes Danish Ambassador's hypocrisy and feeble excuses

From Ian:

Danish ambassador, JPost's Caroline Glick exchange verbal blows over EU attitude toward Israel

Glick was particularly struck by Vahr’s reference to a common culture between Israel and Europe.
“We have this whole common culture, I mean really? We respect international law. You guys make it up,” she said.
In 2001, the United Nations Security Council approved a binding resolution that bars UN member states from funding or supporting terrorist organizations, Glick said.
That resolution, she said, has not stopped Europe from “funneling billions of euros into rebuilding terrorist-controlled Gaza.
“This is in contravention of binding international law that you signed onto,” she charged.
But when it comes to Israel, Europe simply invents international law, Glick said. Europe acts as if it is required by law to sanction Israel for activity over the pre-1967 lines in West Bank settlements and Jerusalem, even though there is no such binding international legislation, she said.
“There is no such binding law. You guys are funding settlements in Western Sahara. (h/t Bob Knot)

Caroline Glick tells off Danish ambassador

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinians Flee Hamas, Ask Israel to Imprison Them

Hamas claims that there is no phenomenon of Palestinians fleeing to Israel. A spokesman for the Hamas-controlled Interior Ministry said that security forces in the Gaza Strip were working to prevent Palestinians from crossing into Israel.
But what Hamas is not prepared to admit is that it is responsible for the misery of the Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. More than three months after the military confrontation with Israel, Hamas has failed to offer the Palestinians any hope.
"Hamas has destroyed the dreams of young Palestinians," remarked a veteran Palestinian journalist in the Gaza Strip. "Hamas has destroyed the future of young people here."
Not only is Hamas unwilling to accept any kind of responsibility, but it continues to hold everyone else but itself responsible for the tragic situation in the Gaza Strip. Hamas continues to hold Israel, the Palestinian Authority and UNRWA responsible for the grievances of the Palestinians.
Instead of working to improve the living conditions of its people, Hamas is continuing to prepare its next war against Israel. In recent weeks, Hamas increased its rocket and mortar firing tests out to sea, according to an Israeli military source.
The tragic case of the two Palestinian youths who said they prefer Israeli jail to life in the Gaza Strip shows that some Palestinians are no longer willing to tolerate Hamas's deadly adventures and oppression. That is why the coming weeks and months could see a rise in the number of Palestinians knocking on Israel's door and asking to be imprisoned rather than return to the Gaza Strip.

Palestinian attacks family of five with acid in Gush Etzion

A family of five, including young children, were lightly wounded in the West Bank Friday afternoon when a Palestinian man hurled acid into their car, before being shot and seriously wounded.
The attack occurred near a checkpoint between the Gush Etzion settlement of Beitar Illit, where the family is from, and the Palestinian village of Husan, southwest of Jerusalem.
Palestinian news agency Ma’an identified the man as Jamal Abd al-Majid Ghayatha, 45, from the West Bank village of Nahalin. Media networks affiliated with Hamas said the man was a former Palestinian prisoner in Israel jail, Israel Radio reported.
The father of the family, in his 50s, was said to have been hit in the face with the liquid, causing burns to his eyes. He was evacuated to Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem in Jerusalem for treatment. The mother and three girls aged 8 to 10 were taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in the capital with light injuries.
Ghayatha was being treated at Hadassah Hospital Ein Kerem as well.
Police said the Ghayata approached the family’s car, posing as a hitchhiker, and hurled the chemical substance inside. He reportedly held a screwdriver in his hand, and there were conflicting reports as to whether he attempted to attack people with it or tried to flee the scene. An armed civilian shot Ghayata, seriously injuring him. He was then apprehended by Border Police.

Ahlam Tamimi, JMI "Success Model"

On Wednesday I reported about the Jordanian Media Institute, how it is well-funded from major Western governments and corporations - and how it celebrates a terrorist as its finest example of a "journalist." A photo of Ahlam Tamimi, the murderer of 15 people in the Sbarro pizza shop bombing, is on every page of the "JMI Journalists" webpage as a "success model."

Arnold Roth, father of Malki Roth who was murdered by Tamimi, has been putting together a list of contacts for the various donors to the NGO, so we can politely ask them if they support the aims of an organization that supports terrorists. I added a couple of details.

Please email/tweet/contact the appropriate contacts and ask them if they want to continue to fund an organization that considers a terrorist to be a role model.

Organization	Contact points
Anna Lindh Foundation	Twitter: @annalindh info@euromedalex.org
Embassy of Germany in Jordan	https://amman.diplo.de/Vertretung/amman/ar/Kontakt.html info@amman.diplo.de Fax +962-6-5901282
European Union via the European Commission Delegation in Jordan	Delegation of the European Union to the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan Delegation-jordan@eeas.europa.eu Princess Basma St., North Abdoun P.O. Box 852099, Amman 11185, Jordan Telephone: +962-6-460-7000 Fax: +962-6-460-7001
International Development Aid agency of Australia	Australia Embassy in Jordan 41 Kayed Al Armouti Street, PO Box 35201, Abdoun, Amman 11180 - Telephone: +962 6 580 7000, Facsimile: +962 6 580 7001
International Development Aid agency of Canada	Canadian Embassy in Jordan amman@international.gc.ca
Jordan Media Institute	info@jmi.edu.jo Fax: +962-6-5733183
Journalists for Human Rights	Canada office: information@jhr.ca
Netherlands Embassy in Amman	Paul van den IJssel - Ambassador Fax +962 6 5930161 amm-info@minbuza.nl
Norwegian Institute of Journalism	firmapost@ij.no
Orange - Commercial brand of France Telecom Group	France Telecom Group (“Orange”) press contacts orangegroup.pressoffice@orange.com (London) service.presse@orange.com (Paris) Head of the Press Office: Jean-Bernard Orsoni (Paris) London Press Office: Vanessa Clarke, +44 7818848848 and Nicole Clarke, +44 7811128457
Orange - Jordan Telecom Group
PricewaterhouseCoopers Jordan WLL	Fax +962-6-461 0880 Michael F. Orfaly, Country Senior Partner michael.orfaly@jo.pwc.com Tel: +962 6 500 1300 [jo.linkedin.com/pub/michael-orfaly/22/801/260]
PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP	PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 7 More London Riverside, London, SE1 2RT. Fax: +44 (0) 20 7212 7500 · Ian Powell Chairman and Senior Partner [ [ian.powell@uk.pwc.com] · Javier H. Rubinstein - Vice Chairman, Global General Counsel · Stephanie Hyde, Head of Regions [try stephanie.t.hyde@uk.pwc.com ] · Warwick Hunt, Chief Financial Officer and Head of Operations [try warwick.hunt@uk.pwc.uk] · Mike Davies, head of PWC Global Public Relations – via this contact form or mike.davies@uk.pwc.com
Reporters Without Borders	Middle East Desk : middle-east@rsf.org Americas Desk : Americas@rsf.org Europe Desk : europe@rsf.org Press & Communications: presse@rsf.org Press Freedom Index: index@rsf.org Fundraising: mecenat@rsf.org Administration: administration@rsf.org
Saatchi & Saatchi	anyquestions@saatchi.com
The Swedish Institute	si@si.se
UNESCO	Twitter: @UNESCO Contact page: http://en.unesco.org/feedback/contact-us
United Kingdom government	UK Embassy in Amman cons.amman@fco.gov.uk British Ambassador in Amman is Peter Millett @PeterMillett1 (Twitter)

UPDATE: The "JMI Journalists" site is down.

One of the criticisms of UNRWA is that it, uniquely among refugee agencies, confers refugee status on all descendants of refugees through the male line forever.

UNRWA has answered this by saying that the UNHCR has similar standards to give refugee status to children. That is what Chris Gunness said to Melanie Phillips in the Voice of Israel interview this past weekend that I had dissected (Part 1, part 2, part 3)

Phillips followed up on that in an article in the Jerusalem Post:

I interviewed UNRWA’s spokesman Chris Gunness for my show on Voice of Israel, the new English-language radio station. Wasn’t UNRWA’s definition of a refugee indefensible? Uniquely, it is extended to all descendants through the male line of those who were displaced by the Arab war against Israel between 1946 and 1948. More than 60 years on, many of these “refugees” are not only still in refugee camps but their number has accordingly multiplied by more than 600 percent.

Not unique at all, replied Gunness. The UN refugee agency, the UNHCR, applied precisely the same definition which conferred refugee status on descendants while political conflict remained unresolved.

Really? I rang the UNHCR. Were there circumstances, I asked, in which it automatically transferred refugee status to the descendants of actual refugees? No, said the UNHCR spokesman. Refugee status was only granted when either governments or the UNHCR itself assessed a specific individual as a refugee. Refugee status might cover the applicant’s dependents, but not any descendants. “It’s not an inherited status as such,” she said. So much for what Gunness told me.

I decided to look into this a little more. Gunness has a detailed answer to this question on UNRWA's website in a page called "Exploding the Myths: UNRWA, UNHCR and the Palestine Refugees."

It is often said that UNRWA perpetuates the Palestinian refugee problem by granting refugee status through the generations and that handing the refugees over to UNHCR would not allow this. Is this the case?

This is not the case. As I have already noted, Palestine refugees are entitled to a just and lasting solution to their plight. In the absence of -- and pending the realisation of -- such a solution, it stands to reason that their status as refugees will remain.

Questions raised about the passing of refugee status through generations stem from a lack of understanding of the international protection regime. These questions serve only to distract from the need to address the real reasons for the protracted Palestinian refugee situation, namely the absence of negotiated solution to the underlying political issues.

UNHCR‘s Handbook on Procedures and Criteria for determining Refugee Status provides in paragraph 184: "If the head of a family meets the criteria of the definition, [for refugee status] his dependants are normally granted refugee status according to the principle of family unity."

In effect, refugee families everywhere retain their status as refugees until they fall within the terms of a cessation clause or are able to avail themselves of one of three durable solutions already mentioned -- voluntary repatriation, local integration or resettlement in a third country.

Also, Chapter 5 of the UNHCR publication, Procedural Standards for Refugee Status Determination under UNHCR’s Mandate is very clear that in accordance with the refugee’s right to family unity, refugee status is transferred through the generations. According to Chapter 5.1.2 "the categories of persons who should be considered to be eligible for derivative status under the right to family unity include:" "all unmarried children of the Principal Applicant who are under 18 years."

Chapter 5.1.1 makes it clear that this status is retained after the age of 18. It states "individuals who obtain derivative refugee status enjoy the same rights and entitlements as other recognised refugees and should retain this status notwithstanding the subsequent dissolution of the family through separation, divorce, death, or the fact that the child reaches the age of majority."

While Gunness is quoting the UNHCR Handbook correctly, he is purposefully misinterpreting it.

UNHCR defines two classes of people eligible for help: refugees and derivative refugees. Derivative refugees can claim the same benefits as refugees - but they are not defined as refugees themselves. Which means that their own dependents cannot be considered derivative refugees as well. There is no concept of "twice derivative refugees*."

If a child is born as a refugee, then when he or she grows up and has kids they are considered derivative refugees (as long as the parent is still a refugee, which is not automatic either.) But for children born after the parent is a refugee, then the children have derivative refugee status and their children will not be considered refugees.

Amazingly, this gross misinterpretation of UNHCR rules is published on the official UNRWA site,

It appears that Gunness knows that he is lying about this, because he adds this caveat: "UNRWA is not in a position to speak for UNHCR and does not purport to speak for UNHCR. However, responses to your questions require reference to documents that are posted on UNHCR’s website and are available to the public. My responses are based on UNRWA’s understanding of the plain meaning of these documents as well as the Agency‘s own appreciation of its mission and its knowledge of the system of international law and practice that govern the protection of refugees globally."

So now that UNHCR itself has made it clear that Gunness' interpretation of its documentation is completely wrong, we can assume that UNRWA will correct that article, right?

*UPDATE: Rex Brynen, a professor at McGill, tweeted to me that there are some UNHCR third generation derivative refugees (he says Afghans in Pakistan, I think there may be from Somalia as well.) Even if true, it doesn't mean that they are considered full "refugees" under UNHCR's definition, as UNRWA's are, and by default UNHCR tries to remove their refugee status, while by default UNRWA tries to maintain it.

The US Navy storms the Al Aqsa Mosque! (1922 video)

If Jews peacefully strolling around the perimeter of the Temple Mount is called "storming to Al Aqsa Mosque," then US Navy sailors going into the mosque itself in 1922 must be a full scale invasion, right?

And the Muslim man is even helping them!

While we are at it, here we can see some British troops "storming the mosque:" without anyone objecting at 0:25:

Waqf again says Jewish Temples are fiction, contradicting what they said in 1950

Panet reports that the Al Aqsa Foundation has released yet another statement warning about dastardly Israeli schemes to destroy the Al Aqsa Mosque.

It ended off by saying that "the myth of the alleged temple is only a figment of the imagination, which does not match the reason and religion; we stress that the entire Al-Aqsa Mosque area - including the Western Wall - is an Islamic Mosque and will remain so, and the Jews have no right to one speck of its soil."

This is as good a time as any to show the Waqf's Guide to Al Haram al Sharif of 1950, which is the last edition of that guide to flatly state that Jewish Temples were there before the Al Aqsa Mosque.

You can read it all here, with reference to King David on page 2 and Solomon's Temple as well as the temple during Josephus' time mentioned on page 3.

Saudi men caught in cybersex blackmail trap

From Saudi Gazette:

There is an increasing number of cases involving citizens from the African continent blackmailing young Saudi men for large sums of money by threatening to post footage of them performing cybersex, Al-Hayat newspaper reported.

The blackmailers, mostly from Morocco and Algeria, impersonate attractive women on Facebook and contact Saudi young men.

They then develop the relationship to include Skype chats and cybersex. The blackmailers save the video chats and use them to blackmail the victims for huge sums of money by threatening to post the videos on YouTube.

Some of the victims, who preferred to remain anonymous, said their intention was just to have fun and enjoy their time with what they thought to be women. Some even paid the ransom.

The article doesn't have any quotes from the Saudi religious police about what would happen if they report the blackmail to their local authorities.

But it does give advice on what to do if their Saudi readers find themselves in that predicament.

12/11 Links Pt2: Syrian vs Palestinian Refugees; Why a student switched to anti-BDS; Zohar Argov!

From Ian:

New York Times "Correction" Fails to Correct Blumenthal Error

After publishing Max Blumenthal's anti-Israel rant, The New York Times unsurprisingly had some errors to correct. But at least one of the corrections failed to redress the error, and only served to put the newspaper's own fingerprints on Blumenthal's misinformation.

3) After correspondence with CAMERA, a third "correction" was made to Blumenthal's article.

Original: Marzel is a leader of Lehava, a group funded in the past by the Israeli government that campaigns against romantic relationships between Jews and Arabs.

Amended: Marzel is a leader of Lehava, a group indirectly funded in the past by the Israeli government that campaigns against romantic relationships between Jews and Arabs.

Editors updated the correction line to note: "Correction: An earlier version indicated that the Prawer Plan had been fully implemented and that Lehava had been directly funded by the government."

But the Israeli government has never funded Lehava, either directly or "indirectly." It has funded Hemla, a separate organization with a separate mandate, and the funding was earmarked for a specific project at Hemla related to "treatment, support and personal and social rehabilitation" of at risk girls staying at the hostel.

MELANIE PHILLIPS: The ‘humanitarian’ weapon of war

The reality is that UNRWA simply could not operate in Gaza without mutual cooperation with the Hamas administration. And Gaza’s children are being indoctrinated into hatred and war by Hamas supporters teaching in UNRWA schools.
Mamoun Abunaser is a deputy principal at an UNRWA school in Syria. His profile picture on Facebook says: “When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.” Luay Shehab is a UNRWA school principal in Nablus.
He shows photographs of Israelis in burial shrouds and coffins on his Facebook page, with a caption reading: “Oh Allah, make the number of their dead as [every time a Muslim says] “Amen”! And several UNRWA teachers are known to be highly connected Hamas supporters.
Gunness says UNRWA guards its neutrality.
Yet enraged by an article in this paper by Bassam Eid, Gunness last week tweeted a call to boycott The Jerusalem Post. Clearly, he employs as creative an approach to the word “neutrality” as he does toward the word “refugee.”

Rising above personal attacks, the time has come to examine UNRWA policy

Gunness categorically states there is no evidence that Hamas terrorists are on the payroll of the UN. Yet successive reports of the US Congressional Research also show that UNRWA, which receives $300 million per year from the US government, reports that UNRWA has never vetted its staff to see if UNRWA employs members of Hamas.
Meanwhile, the European Parliament funded a study that documented Hamas’s takeover of the UNRWA unions in March 2009. The pro-Hamas al-Resala newspaper, right before the September 2012 UNRWA union elections stated that, “It is noteworthy that Hamas has controlled the UNRWA staff union in the elections since its inception....”
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.”
Gunness states 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.”
Yet in March 2013, in my presence, Gunness told staffers of the US Congress that Hamas leader Suhail Hindi, head of the UNRWA teachers’ union in Gaza, had been dismissed.
However, Hindi was suspended for less than a week. Hindi functions in his capacity to this day.
So much for removing Hamas on staff.

Syrian Refugees Get Resettled But Not Palestinians

Though UNRWA operates as if it is a humanitarian agency, its purpose has always been primarily political. The population of Arab refugees from the former Mandate of Palestine was created by the war waged by those acting in the name of those Arabs to strangle the State of Israel at its birth. Rather than accepting the UN partition of the land into what were explicitly called Jewish and Arab states, the Arab and Muslim world chose to wage war to prevent the creation of any Jewish state, no matter how small its territory. With a few exceptions, several hundred thousand refugees fled because of the spread of the war as well as the explicit instructions from some Arab leaders that they flee in order to ease the path of invading Arab armies. When the War of Independence ended with the new Jewish state alive, albeit existing in truncated and unsafe borders, the tactics of Israel’s opponents shifted. From that point on, their efforts sought to highlight the plight of Arabs who had fled in order to promote a military or diplomatic attempt to continue the war. Indeed, even as Syrian refugees in camps in neighboring nations are allowed to resettle elsewhere, Palestinians still stuck in Syrian refugee camps remain in place unable and unwilling to budge from the site of their misery.
The result of this policy was not merely to render all efforts to make peace between Israel and the Arab world impossible; it also ensured that the Palestinians would live in misery in increasing numbers and growing squalor. At the same time, a nearly equal number of Jews were forced to flee their homes in the Arab world as pogroms and discrimination made their plight intolerable. But while UNRWA kept the Palestinians in place to suffer, Jewish groups ensured that their refugees would not suffer in this manner and all were resettled in Israel or the West.

Earlier this week there was a dispute between the PA and Hamas about the price of cooking and domestic gas that Israel pumps into Gaza.

A dispute between Gaza's Ministry of Finance and the Palestinian Authority's General Directorate of Petroleum has led to a gas shortage in the coastal territory, local unions said Tuesday.

The petroleum directorate has allegedly refused to provide gas stations with fuel to protest a four-shekel ($1) tax imposed by the finance ministry on every 12-kilogram gas container, head of the union of gas station owners Mahmoud al-Shawwa said.

As a result, Gazans could not get cooking gas (which many also use for their converted cars and heaters.)

The crisis escalated until an agreement on Thursday.

Normally, Israel closes Kerem Shalom on Fridays, which would mean that the Fatah/Hamas dispute would hurt Gazans all winter weekend without domestic gas.

But on the same day that the PA announces that they will be stopping security coordination with Israel, Israel announced that it will open Kerem Shalom on Friday for the pumping of cooking gas and diesel.

Once again, Israel shows that it cares more about the welfare of people in Gaza than Hamas or the PA. An once again, a story like this will never be covered by the mainstream media.

(Yes, I hear the snickering, and I am serious.)

An amazing story from Arutz-7: (condensed version)

Among the many new Knesset hopefuls looking to run on the staunchly nationalist [Jewish Home] party's Knesset list is a somewhat surprising face: Anett Haskia identifies as proudly Zionist, pro-"settlements"... and a Muslim Arab.

Haskia realizes that her chances of running as a Jewish Home MK this time round are relatively slim; party members who wish to stand in the primaries have to have been members for at two and a half years, while Haskia herself is only now in the process of joining.

"But I'm still hoping for a Hanukkah miracle," she quips, and thinks there is an outside chance that Bennett - who as part of the new party rules can unilaterally select every fifth seat on the party list - could see in her precisely the kind of candidate to simultaneously reach out to new pools of support, while still remaining committed to the party's ideology.

Indeed, Haskia is an avowed Zionist, whose children enlisted voluntarily to the IDF with her encouragement (apart from the Druze, Israeli Arabs are not included in the mandatory military draft). She has long campaigned against extremism within the Israeli Arab community, while arguing for more Arab inclusion and participation in wider Israeli society. She says there are a growing number of Israeli Arabs who think like her - a phenomenon which has been making headlines periodically in recent years, particularly, though not exclusively, regarding Israel's Arab-Christian minority.

But there are plenty of Muslim Arabs who also support the state, serve in the army (like many Bedouins) and, most importantly for Annett, do not feel represented by any of the current Arab MKs. It is that part of the "Arab voting public" she says she is fighting for.

But still, why specifically join the Jewish Home? Why not one of the left-wing parties, or the Arab parties?

This clearly strikes a chord with Haskia, who has a bone to pick with the notion that "only the Left" or the existing Arab parties can look after the interests of the wider Arab-Israeli public. Instead, she describes an Arab community trapped between two camps claiming to have their best interests at heart, but who are really only interested in "using" them to serve particular ideological agendas.

"For 65 years the Arab parties have harmed the Arab sector," she laments, emphasizing that while discrimination does exist - a problem that is high on her list of priorities - the Arab parties are in fact largely to blame.

"They stigmatized us" by taking radical anti-Zionist positions and even supporting terrorism, she fires, while claiming to speak for the entire Arab public. At the same time, they spend most of their energy and resources engaging in political grandstanding, instead of actually tackling bread-and-butter issues facing the constituency they claim to represent.

In particular, she accuses Arab MKs of conniving with the Education Ministry to effectively abandon the Arab education system - leaving the curriculum open for extremists to indoctrinate young Arabs to perceive the state as their enemy. "The Education Ministry doesn't bother with the Arab sector - they don't even know what's going on in the schools... the children don't know anything about rights and obligations (to the state). They learn about the 'nakba' instead of Independence Day!"

"They have done a deal with the Arab MKs - at our expense. For how long should I pay the price for their actions?"

Many of her friends feel the same way, she says, and while a lot of them do not necessarily support the Jewish Home they have been supportive of her ambitions.

"Then there's the Left, Labor and Meretz, etc., who for many years have 'ruled' the Arab sector. They 'loved' the Arab sector the most, they were the 'good Jews'," she says sarcastically.

Yet she accuses that very same "Left" of presiding over a system which directly contributed towards the "widening gap" between Jewish and Arab Israelis. Through compromises with terrorists and a softly-softly approach towards the extremists within her own community, extremist elements have only become emboldened and more vocal, alarming many Jewish Israelis and drowning out moderate Arab voices like her own.

Instead, she calls for tougher anti-terror measures to target the bad apples, while addressing the grievances of ordinary Israeli Arabs.

"It can't be that a terrorist goes to jail and gets five-star treatment!" she exclaims. "It can't be that someone goes to join ISIS - an organization even more murderous than Hamas - and then when he comes back they give him just 22 months (in prison)! That says that the state allows them to do that, gives them the legitimacy to go."

"Why even let him come back?" she asks. "Remove his citizenship!"

"A terrorist who carries out an attack - destroy his house! Why just destroy a single room?" she continues, noticeably exasperated, listing the restraints placed on the IDF due to pressure from leftist groups.

"If when a terrorists goes to jail he gets five-star treatment, sits on his butt all day and can finance his family - do a degree, a masters, receive a salary from the Palestinian Authority - what's bad about that? Why shouldn't more people do it?

"Then people say: 'the Arabs are terrorists.' No! Stop blaming the Arabs of Israel. The Jews need to open their eyes; there is such a thing as law and order. Toughen the laws and things will change quickly."

Ironically, Haskia says the only serious negative reactions to her intentions to join the Jewish Home party have come from left-wing Jews, not her fellow Arabs. She cites that backlash as proof that left-wingers are only interested in giving Arabs freedom of expression when it suits their own ideological agenda.

"One of them told me: 'If Bennett comes to power, you'll be first to the gas chambers!' Is there anything more disgusting than that? And it was a Jew who told me that - that's the Left for you. Why can't I choose? I never shook hands with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), so they attack me.

"I remember when I was growing up they told us the Likud was racist, that they wanted to kill the Arabs. But then what happened? The Likud began accepting Arabs and has had Arab MKs and that stigma went away.

"There is no reason why I shouldn't join Bennett's party. It's not a party that says 'let's kick all the Arabs out'... I want to change this way of thinking."

Another perception she is looking to change is one held by many Israelis, and others around the world, regarding the Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria.

"Regarding the so-called 'settlers.' These are people, from all over the country, who live there (in Judea and Samaria) and are a human line of defense. They risk their lives to protect the state's borders, to cover our backs, because without them the terrorists will be at our front door. We saw after the Disengagement (from Gaza) what happened - so many attacks...

"I don't want another disengagement, so I stand with the 'settlements'. And it is my honor to do so."

Whenever there is a story like this, I always wonder how many other Arab Israelis really think like this. But her perspective is certainly fresh and welcome, and she is exactly right - if Israel cracks down on the terrorists the way they should, then the law-abiding Arabs will be better off.