Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

Former Egyptian Mufti claims Jews planted Gharqad trees in Red Sea resort (update)

Former Egyptian Mufti Ali Gomaa invented a novel theory.

As most readers of the blog know, there is an Islamic hadith (that is enshrined in Hamas' charter) that says "The last hour would not come unless the Muslims will fight against the Jews and the Muslims would kill them until the Jews would hide themselves behind a stone or a tree and a stone or a tree would say: Muslim, or the servant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me; come and kill him; but the tree Gharqad would not say, for it is the tree of the Jews."

Ali Gomaa said on TV that the Egyptian Red Sea town of Hurghada was named after the "gharqad" tree, which was planted by Israelis during their occupation of the Sinai, so they would be protected by that tree.

There are a couple of problems with his theory.

For one, Israel never controlled Hurghada, which is on the other side of the Red Sea past Sharm el-Sheikh.

For another, Hurghada has been around for about a hundred years and was named way before Israel was reborn.

The residents of Hurghada are angry at Gomaa's comments, saying that they defended their city from the Jews (which seems doubtful.)

The city actually was named for the tree, incidentally, which is reportedly common along the coast and were used by Red Sea fishermen as meeting places.

UPDATE: MEMRI translation of most of the video:

12/24 Links Pt2: Khaled Abu Toameh wins 2014 Daniel Pearl prize for journalistic courage

From Ian:

Abu Toameh wins 2014 Pearl prize for journalistic courage

Khaled Abu Toameh, a reporter for The Jerusalem Post who has covered Palestinian and Arab affairs for the past three decades, is the recipient of the 2014 Daniel Pearl Award.
The award, named for Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, who was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan in 2002, recognizes courage and integrity in journalism.
“Khaled Abu Toameh has been telling us, with courage and objectivity, what life is like in the West Bank and Gaza,” said Judea Pearl, father of the dead journalist. “Rarely has a reporter been so successful in penetrating a conflict so complex and remaining consistently and definitively on the side of truth.”
Abu Toameh, an Arab Israeli, studied at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem. In addition to the Post he has worked for many media outlets, including the BBC, Voice of America, Wall Street Journal and US News & World Report. He also serves as a distinguished fellow with the New York-based Gatestone Institute.

Parents of beheaded reporter honor victims of Pakistan school massacre

Judea and Ruth Pearl could not turn down the invitation Tuesday to show their support and sympathy for 148 people - 132 children - slaughtered by the Taliban in the same lawless nation where their son was killed more than a dozen years ago.
The Dec. 16 attack at a military school in Peshawar, a city about 75 miles from the country's capital, Islamabad, has torn the mostly Muslim nation apart, but it brought a sadly familiar feeling to the Pearls, whose journalist son was killed in what would eerily foreshadow a decade of mindless brutality that engulfed much of the Middle East.
"Today, we are in worse shape than we were 12 years ago," Ruth Pearl told Pakistani officials and members of an interfaith group that attended the event at the Los Angeles Pakistani consulate. "Let’s hope that can be changed."

JCPA: Unmasking BDS: Radical Roots, Extremist Ends

In Western circles, BDS is commonly misunderstood. It is generally viewed as a progressive, nonviolent campaign led by Palestinian grassroots organizations and propelled by Western human rights groups, who call for boycotting Israeli goods produced in the “occupied” or “disputed” Golan Heights and West Bank territories captured from Syria and Jordan respectively in the 1967 war.
It is also widely assumed that the global BDS movement is further limited to boycott and divestment aimed at Israel’s presence over the 1967 Green Line, resulting in international actions led frequently by the Palestinian Authority at the United Nations, at the UN-affiliated International Court of Justice, as well as petitions made to the International Criminal Court.
However, a closer investigation of the BDS movement reveals a starkly different picture. BDS is more accurately described as a political-warfare campaign conducted by rejectionist Palestinian groups in cooperation with radical left-wing groups in the West. BDS leaders and organizations are also linked to the Palestinian Authority leadership, the radical Muslim Brotherhood, other radical groups, terror-supporting organizations, and in some cases even terror groups themselves such as Hamas.
BDS boycott campaigns have effectively misled trade unions, academic institutions, and even leading international artists and cultural icons, with seemingly earnest calls for “justice” entailing the establishment of a Palestinian state living beside a Jewish state. These BDS supporters have been led to believe that the combined pressure of boycotts, divestment, and sanctions will force Israel to withdraw to the 1949 armistice lines, otherwise known as the 1967 Green Line, enabling a resolution of the ongoing Palestinian-Israeli conflict. However, as some commentators – including the New York Times’ Roger Cohen and Professor Norman Finkelstein – have pointed out, the BDS movement seeks to eliminate Israel even before addressing the Palestinian issue.

Muslims slam plan to renovate the Tomb of Samuel

Israel's Civil Administration recently announced that it will renovate Samuel's Tomb, which has some severe safety problems, such as very steep stairs to reach the underground synagogue at the site, as well as poor lighting.

To get an idea of what it looks like now, and how tiny it is, here's some video I took about two years ago.

Naturally, Muslims are upset at any move to improve a Jewish holy place, calling it "racist persecution.".

The Minister of Awqaf and Religious Affairs Sheikh Yusuf Adeiscalled the planned renovation "religious persecution," which is being practiced by the Israeli government on the Islamic and Christian holy sites in Palestine.

Adeis added that it is purely an Islamic place Israelis are trying to trying to falsify history, geography and culture.

The Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs said it make every effort to return the buildings ownership to the Islamic Waqf in Palestine, and will go to all the world cultural and religious institutions to complain of "this new assault on the sensibilities of Muslim believers in Palestine and throughout the world."

There really is a mosque there as well, above and much larger than the synagogue, as as I recall there is even a small food store in the "holy mosque."

The planned improvements will help the Muslims as well, since they include better roads to access the site, but if Jews gain, then they are against it.

Interestingly, the Muslims also say that this is Samuel's tomb. Just they claim that Samuel was a Muslim prophet.(He is never mentioned in the Koran.)

The first time I visited the Tomb of Samuel in 2007, it was right after local Arabs broke into the synagogue, damaged many sacred objects and stole a Torah. Outside of Yeshiva World News, no one reported that story of Muslim desecration of a Jewish shrine.

Ancient Jews Conspired To Legitimize Modern Settlements (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Shiloh, Occupied West Bank, December 24 - Archaeologists have unearthed a vast conspiratorial effort by ancient Israelites to make Jews living in Palestine 3,000 years later look indigenous, scholars are reporting.

Over the last century and a half, diggers have discovered a plethora of artifacts, structures, texts, and other ancient relics of Israelites putting together and conducting a civilization just to undermine the later, more legitimate claim that Muslims have to Palestine. The results were so convincing, in fact, that other ancient peoples took for granted that the Israelites - later known as Jews - were actually connected to the land they inhabited.

The result in modern times, say the scholars, is that millions of Jews have "returned" to Palestine with claim based largely on that ancient conspiracy, as if all the artifacts, structures, texts, and other evidence of Jewish civilization actually represents a civilization that predates the arrival of Palestinians.

"I cannot help but admire the ingenuity of it all," says Bir Zeit University archaeologist Dahab Diggr. "In order to undermine the future entity of Palestine, Jews of the second millennium BCE and onward developed a language, culture, political structure, religion, agriculture, commerce, towns, cities, and even armies. The clever ruse made it seem even to contemporary observers as if those Jews had developed an actual civilization, when in fact the whole time it was all just a conspiracy to deprive Palestinians of the pedigree necessary to make an exclusive claim to the land."

As an example, Diggr cited the use of the names "Israel" and "Judea" in inscriptions, documents, and texts long before the emergence of "Palestine" as the term of choice in the second century of the Common Era. "Given the prior use of the Jewish terms, one might assume that Jews were in Palestine before Palestinians. We always have to be on guard for such phenomena."

He also pointed to the almost exclusive use of Hebrew names for places in Palestine before the arrival of Islam 1300 years ago. "The fact that even the Arabic place names appear to be mere translations or corruptions of 'earlier' Hebrew names was a masterstroke," concedes Diggr. "By taking the future Arabic names, giving them a meaningful Hebrew version, and applying them for more than a thousand years before Arabic became current, the Jews make it seem natural that they have some connection to Palestine."

The effort has been so convincing, say scholars, that not only do most people believe Jews had a civilization in ancient Palestine, but even Jews themselves have forgotten it was all a fraud, and maintain the lore, traditions, and liturgy of longing for a "return" to "Jerusalem" and "Zion," ideas nefariously developed several centuries before the Common Era as a way to establish a spurious prior claim to the later, legitimate Palestinian one.

"I'm sure some of the Jewish leaders in their inner circle of Elders still know it's all a put-up job," says Middle East scholar Reza Stinq. "But the rank-and-file probably has no idea their whole history is fake, so they go on sincerely yearning, and in many cases actually implementing, a 'restoration' of 'ancient' Jewish settlement in Palestine."

"It's a difficult perception to defeat," he notes. "Even Muhammad seems to have accepted it."

12/24 Links Pt1: IDF soldier seriously injured in Gaza border incident; ISIS captures Jordanian Pilot

From Ian:

IDF soldier seriously injured in Gaza border incident

Palestinians opened fire on an Israeli patrol late Wednesday morning along the southern Gaza Strip. One soldier from the Bedouin Reconnaissance Battalion was shot in the chest and severely injured. He was evacuated to a hospital, the IDF said.
The patrol was operating on the Israeli side of the border near Kibbutz Kissufim when it came under sniper and machine gun fire.
Palestinian sources said that a heavy exchange of fire ensued, with IDF tank fire striking a target east of Khan Younis. The air force also fired on Gaza targets.
Palestinians said that the commander of Hamas’s surveillance unit in the area was killed in the IDF response, Israel Radio reported. Hamas fighters were abandoning positions across the Strip, the report said.
Medical sources said Tayseer al-Ismary, 33, died after being hit by a bullet fired by the IDF, while Hamas sources confirmed he was a member of the movement’s military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.
“This attack, the second of this week, is a lethal violation of the relative quiet along the Gaza border and is a blatant breach of Israel’s sovereignty,” said IDF spokesman Peter Lerner. “The IDF will continue to use all necessary means in order to maintain the safety of the citizens of southern Israel and will not hesitate to respond to any attempt to harm IDF soldiers.”

'Bomb One Hamas Building For Every Shot Fired' Demands Danon

Likud Central Committee Chairperson MK Danny Danon responded to the sniper fire from Gaza terrorists targeting IDF soldiers on Wednesday morning, in which one soldier was reportedly wounded and a Hamas terrorist leader was killed.
"For every shot from Gaza, we must take down a Hamas building," demanded Danon, after soldiers guarding workers rebuilding the security barrier in southern Gaza came under fire.
"In light of the fact that Hamas has launched a war of attrition against Israel, we must stop all transfer of goods to Gaza to return the strength of deterrence," said Danon. "It is unthinkable that at a time when in Gaza they're firing at us, Hamas receives cement and concrete to be used against us."

Residents in south: Hamas digging near Gaza border

Sightings of what appear to be massive excavation operations along the Gaza Strip border fence have raised serious concerns among residents of the south, following reports that Hamas flags were placed by local Palestinians atop mounds of dirt at the digging sites.
Over the past several days, residents of Netiv Ha’asara, a cooperative agricultural community located near Israel’s border with the Strip, reported a number of instances where bulldozers and trucks were spotted conducting heavy excavation activity close to the security fence, according to Israel Radio.
The residents further reported that a 200-meter-long dirt mound had been raised in the area, with Palestinians workers periodically raising emblems of the Islamist terrorist group above it.
According to the residents of Netiv Ha’asara, which is just 50 meters from Israel’s border with the Strip, the recent digging is the first such operation to have taken place since the conclusion of this summer’s war between Israel and Hamas.

UN Watch: UN Gaza inquiry issues Arabic calls for submissions — but not Hebrew

Although the UNHRC’s Schabas Commission on Gaza has insisted that it cares about hearing from Israeli victims, and although they have a budget of more than $2 million, the following call for submissions was sent out in English and Arabic — but not in Hebrew. The UN inquiry’s website similarly has only the Arabic translation. The procedure for submissions is listed at the bottom.

Reading between the lines in AFP "Christmas in Gaza" story

From AFP:

For most of Gaza's tiny community of some 3,500 Christians, 85 percent of whom are Greek Orthodox, they must make do with celebrating at home after failing to obtain the small slip of paper issued by Israel which would have allowed them to leave the enclave and travel the 70 kilometres (43 miles) to Bethlehem.

Abdullah Jakhan is one of them.

He and his fiancee Janet applied to celebrate Christmas in Bethlehem, but they were both turned down. Now they will have to make do in Gaza.

Just four months after the end of the war, it would be inappropriate to engage in too much celebration, Jakhan says.

"We want a joyful celebration, but the blood of the martyrs which flowed during the war is still fresh. Because of this we can't be completely happy," he tells AFP.

Somehow, the memory of the "blood of the martyrs" didn't stop Hamas from holding a huge anniversary celebration.

This is the tenor for most of the article. Then, at the very end:

But other concerns also feature at the top of their prayer list.

George, 38, who prefers not to give his family name, is praying for an end to Islamic extremism and attacks on Christians.

"Even if there aren't many of them, like those in the Islamic State movement, they don't want us to celebrate our Christian feasts," he says.

"And they wouldn't hesitate to attack us, as they have already done," he adds, referring to an incident in February when unidentified attackers left an explosive device inside the compound of the Church of the Latin Convent in Gaza City.

AFP wrote an anti-Israel piece where they threw in some information about how Hamas isn't very Christian-friendly as a lame attempt at "balance."

But note that the people who blame Israel are quite proud to use their names, while those who want to talk about how Hamas and Muslim extremists are singling out Christians for persecution refuse to bw identified.

Which means that when Gazans speak to reporters, they will overwhelmingly say only things that Hamas wants them to say. And the coverage will reflect that, as it does in this story.

Any journalist who doesn't try to compensate for this simple fact when reporting from Gaza, and instead allows Hamas intimidation to drive the focus of his or her stories, is not a journalist.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

From TOI:

In the run-up to the French parliament’s vote urging the government to recognize Palestine on December 2, Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius announced a two-year deadline for the successful conclusion of peace negotiations, after which France would recognize a Palestinian state.

“We do not want a symbolic recognition of a virtual state,” Fabius told French lawmakers on November 28, just days before the vote. “We want a real Palestinian state.”

This is happening immediately after Abbas told France to go to hell in its attempt to make the doomed UN resolution more palatable to the EU:

The draft as the Palestinians submitted it last Wednesday, via the Jordanians, is so far from the international consensus on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that the Americans will have no choice but to veto it. The spokesperson of the US State Department, Jen Psaki, made plain last week that Washington will not support the draft as it currently reads. Even the French would not back this text, the European diplomat said.

“The Palestinian text is absurd,” the diplomat opined. “It’s purely a Palestinian wishlist — it doesn’t fly at all.”

France, Germany and Britain — the so-called E3 — offered to work with the Palestinians on a draft that would be acceptable to them and that could have ostensibly garnered American support as well. “The French,” who are leading the E3 effort, “wanted to give the Palestinians something, so they wrote a resolution that everyone could get on board with,” the diplomat said.

But the draft the Palestinians submitted last week is “very different” from the E3’s text, the diplomat noted.

It also comes as more details come out on how Abbas torpedoed the last negotiations:

On March 17, in a meeting in Washington, President Obama presented Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, with a long-awaited American framework for an agreement that set out the administration’s views on major issues, including borders, security, settlements, Palestinian refugees and Jerusalem.

Livni considered it a fair framework, and Netanyahu had indicated willingness to proceed on the basis of it while saying he had reservations. But Abbas declined to give an answer in what his senior negotiator, Saeb Erekat, later described as a “difficult” meeting with Obama. Abbas remained evasive on the framework, which was never made public.

This, in Livni’s view, amounted to an important opportunity missed by the Palestinians, not least because to get Netanyahu’s acceptance of a negotiation on the basis of the 1967 borders with agreed-upon swaps — an idea Obama embraced in 2011 — would have indicated a major shift.

Still, prodded by Secretary of State John Kerry, talks went on. On April 1, things had advanced far enough for the Israeli government to prepare a draft statement saying that a last tranche of several hundred Palestinian prisoners would be released; the United States would free Jonathan Pollard, an American convicted of spying for Israel more than 25 years ago; and the negotiations would continue beyond the April 29 deadline with a slowdown or freeze of Jewish settlements in the West Bank.

Then, Livni said, she looked up at a television as she awaited a cabinet meeting and saw Abbas signing letters as part of a process to join 15 international agencies — something he had said he would not do before the deadline.

She called Erekat and told him to stop the Palestinian move. He texted her the next day to say he couldn’t.

The French are telling Abbas that he can act however he wants; he can even disrespect them - they will reward him anyway.

What great incentive he has to negotiate!

(h/t David G)

Jordanian Fatwa Department condemns sheikh who said Jews should worship on Temple Mount

A few days ago, as MEMRI reported, Jordanian preacher Sheik Yassin Al-'Ajlouni said that Jews should be given a place of worship on the Temple Mount.

Sheikh Yassin Al-'Ajlouni: I have given a lot of thought into what I am about to say, because I know that it is the most important issue of our times, and that whoever talks about it is likely to face severe criticism, and will be accused of generating controversy and maybe even strife. Do the Israelites have the right to pray in Beit Al-Maqdis? Is it permissible to allocate a place of worship in Beit Al-Maqdis for the Israelites?

When Omar Ibn Al-Khattab entered Beit Al-Maqdis, he encountered a place of worship dedicated for those Israelites who were Christians. This place, called the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, was built in the days of Emperor Constantine. Omar left this place, in which the Christian Israelites prayed, intact. He did not take it away from them.

[…]

The place where Omar Ibn Al-Khattab prayed was named the Al-Aqsa Mosque, but the truth is that the Al-Aqsa Mosque is not the Mosque of Omar, but the entire area within the old walls, which is called Beit Al-Maqdis. I call upon the Islamic world and upon the Hashemite sovereign to allocate for the peaceful among the Jewish Israelites a house of prayer within Beit Al-Maqdis.

Beit Al-Maqdis is the place sanctified by Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, as well as by Jesus son of Mary and by the Muslims. There should be a special place of worship for the Jews among the Israelites under Hashemite and Palestinian sovereignty, and in agreement with the Israeli regime. Guarding the place and the comings and goings will be under Hashemite control and sovereignty. This by no means entails the harming the Al-Aqsa Mosque or the Dome of the Rock. Part of the courtyard, where there are trees, will be allocated for the prayer of the Israelites.

I officially call upon the religious ruling authorities in Palestine and Jordan to issue a fatwa that will clarify their religious position regarding the building of a place of worship dedicated for the Israelite Jews. Allah's prayers and blessings upon the Prophet Muhammad and his companions.

Well, they clairified their position all right.

The Jordanian Iftaa Department (yes, there is such a thing) slammed al-'Ajlouni in no uncertain terms, without deigning to mention his name. It said that his ruling was "issued by a person with no legitimacy, and does not represent any legitimate viewpoint, nor has any consideration of all Islamic sects" and called him "ignorant." It stressed that the entire Temple Mount and surrounding area (including, of course, the Western Wall and its plaza) were all equally sacred to Muslims and all considered to be part of the Al Aqsa Mosque complex.

The fatwa added that Omar bin Khattab had a history of mercy and justice and fairness towards non-Muslims, but at the same time safeguarded the Islamic Waqf not to add any places of worship for non-Muslims in it, while he magnanimously allowed existing churches to remain at that time on their own non-Waqf soil. (If you had a pre-existing Temple or church on soil that Muslims afterwards claim as holy, then their idea of tolerance towards you evaporates quite quickly.)

The statement concludes that al-'Ajlouni's statement has "has no value from the legal, religious or historical perspective" and that they will take legal action against him.

This response has been published in dozens of Arab newspapers.

Chanukah night 8 bonus video: It's Chanukah Night! Lenny Solomon and Etan G

12/23 Links Pt2: The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards; Why the Gaza War Correspondents Won

From Ian:

The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards

Scarlett Johansson’s brave stand against Israel-bashers seems so long ago. With three teenagers kidnapped and murdered, a Gaza war, violence in Jerusalem, an escalating tug of war over the Temple Mount, and unilateral PA efforts in the UN, Israelis will be glad 2014 is over.
Don’t forget the rise of ISIS, Iranian tensions, and frayed ties with the US.
For the first time, we decided to set aside the readers’ choice for the 2014 Dishonest Reporter. We believe readers will agree. More on that below.
We thank everyone for sharing their thoughts on the roller coaster that was 2014. And so, without further ado . . .
The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards
1. The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Award Winner: Gaza War Correspondents
2. Dishonest Reporting Award (People’s Choice): New York Times
3. Most Infected Medical Journal: The Lancet
4. Worst Video: Channel 4, Jon Snow
5. Biggest Op-Ed Train Wreck: Sydney Morning Herald
6. Most Dishonest Photo: Jim Hollander, European Pressphoto Agency
7. Worst Blurring of Journalism and Advocacy: Haaretz
8. Most Insensitive Cartoon: The Guardian
9. Most Memorable Gaffe: CNN

The 2014 Dishonest Reporting Awards: Why the Gaza War Correspondents Won

What It All Means
Media coverage of Operation Protective Edge contributed to dramatic spikes in anti-Semitism in Europe, Australia, US campuses, South Africa, and South America. Britain alone saw a 500 percent increase.
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement has been making a comeback as well.
And Israel refuses to cooperate with a UN inquiry led by William Schabas, a Canadian professor of human rights and international law who has his own axe to grind with Israel.
As 2014 draws to a close, all the players are drawing conclusions and moving forward. Hamas is already reconstructing terror tunnels, holding military exercises, and re-arming. The top US military leader, Gen. Martin Dempsey said the Pentagon was learning from the IDF how to minimize civilian casualties and deal with terror tunnels. And among other things, the IDF concluded that Hezbollah has probably dug cross-border tunnels.
Only time will tell what, if anything, Big Media has learned.

BBC chief: Anti-Semitism makes me question Jews’ future in UK

The director of BBC Television said rising anti-Semitism has made him question the long-term future for Jews in the UK.
Speaking at a conference in Jerusalem on Sunday, Danny Cohen said the past year had been the most difficult for him as a Jew living in the United Kingdom.
“I’ve never felt so uncomfortable being a Jew in the UK as I’ve felt in the last 12 months. And it’s made me think about, you know, is it our long-term home, actually. Because you feel it. I’ve felt it in a way I’ve never felt before actually,” he said in a conversation with Channel 2’s anchor Yonit Levi.
Cohen went on: “And you’ve seen the number of attacks rise. You’ve seen murders in France. You’ve seen murders in Belgium. It’s been pretty grim actually. And having lived all my life in the UK, I’ve never felt as I do now about anti-Semitism in Europe.”
Cohen, who grew up and went to school in London — including to a Jewish elementary school — is a TV whiz kid. Still only 40, he was previously the controller of BBC1 TV, the youngest appointee to that post, before taking over a director of BBC Television last year. (h/t Elder of Lobby)

Chanukah video night #8: Aimee Mann, Susanna Hoffs and Ted Leo - "Nes Gadol Haya Sham"

From Heeb:

Readers of Heeb probably know that we’re not overly fond of Hanukkah song parodies. That said, we’ll give Bangles guitarist Susanna Hoffs a pass since, in this case, she’s both parody’er, as well as the parody’ee.

At a recent performance by The Both (that would be Ted Leo and Aimee Mann), Hoffs joined her gentile pals onstage, adding some seasonally appropriate Jewishness to Leo and Mann’s Christmas Music tour. Sure, her reworked “Nes Gadol Haya Sham” lyrics to the Bangles’ “Walk Like An Egyptian” are kinda corny, but it’s damn near impossible not to crack a smile when Susanna starts to dance.

The article also links to an earlier 2007 NSFW performance by Hoffs as the rapping Chanukah fairy.

On December 20, A UK group called "Friends of Al Aqsa" started a campaign to boycott Coca Cola, with the hashtag "#NotInMyFridge," because it allegedly supports Israeli crimes, or something.

Their timing was exquisite.

From Reuters, December 22:

With Israel's approval, Palestinians began importing machinery on Monday to equip the Gaza Strip's first Coca Cola (KO.N) plant for an anticipated 2015 launch of operations.

Emad al-Hindi, director-general of the Palestinian National Beverage Company which produces the soft drink in the occupied West Bank, said 10 truckloads of machinery had arrived in Gaza via a crossing with Israel.

Israel confirmed it had allowed nine truckloads from Jordan to reach Gaza for an enterprise it hoped would provide jobs for hundreds of people in the coastal territory.

Hindi said he expected more equipment to be shipped from Germany and Turkey and hoped the machines would be installed at a location in central Gaza by March "so that we can launch operations before the end of 2015."

"The factory building is ready, lines of produce are ready," Hindi said, adding "we hope to be able to conclude all the stages without any obstacles."

Hindi estimated total investment would come to $20 million and hoped the factory would employ 360 Palestinians by 2016 and more at a later stage

This is not the first time that BDS proponents are acting contrary to what Palestinian Arabs actually want. Besides being against Sodastream, which employed 850 Arabs in the West Bank, we have seen BDSers call to boycott agricultural goods farmed by Palestinians and exported to Europe. Hell, Gazans even eagerly buy and eat Israeli Chanukah chocolate coins!

BDS proponents want to ensure that actual real Palestinians in the territories are jobless, poor and miserable. They are against anything Israel does to help ordinary Arabs in the WB and Gaza to prosper.

Why do they hate Palestinians so much?

Because real Palestinians are a roadblock to the BDS desire to destroy Israel!

To the BDS crowd, happy Palestinians are the enemy. Happy Palestinians don't blow themselves up to kill a couple of Jews. Happy Palestinians don't want their neighbors to shoot rockets to Israel. Palestinians who just want to work and to raise their families in dignity do not contribute the the overall goal of destroying the Jewish state.

Only angry, miserable Palestinians are assets to these haters. Because, to the BDS leaders, the only purpose Palestinians serve is as cannon fodder, as pawns to be manipulated. They are not human beings. Nothing makes the BDS crowd happier than photos of dead Palestinian kids because of the PR value.

So they raise money to supposedly help the Palestinians when in fact they want them all to die for their cause, preferably on camera.

This is why "win/win" is not in their vocabulary. If Israel gains, then by definition the people who are psychotically against Israel's existence lose.

And that goes double when both Israel and Palestinians win, as with the Gaza Coke plant - an initiative that Israel approved, that Hamas has no problem with, and that the "friends of Al Aqsa" bitterly oppose.

From Tehran Times:

The Palestinian ambassador to Tehran has underlined his countrymen’s enthusiasm for the materialization of the instructions given by Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei to arm the West Bank meant to intensify fight against Israel.

“I would like to stress that the remarks of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution need to be materialized,” Ambassador Salah al-Zawawi said on Tuesday, the Fars news agency reported.

He said all Palestinians wish their land be equipped with weapons in a bid to be able to free the occupied territories from the hands of the Zionist regime, underlining that “arming the West Bank is of high priority”.

Zawawi said the Zionist regime is well aware that the countdown has started for its extinction. “The Zionist regime is an aggressor and a cancerous tumor which should be annihilated sooner or later.”

Mahmoud Abbas has said multiple times (in English) that he is not interested in an armed uprising and only wants "popular resistance" (which seems to include rocks thrown at car windshields, firebombs and small incendiary rockets.)

So either Abbas will sack al-Zawawi for insubordination, or he will continue to allow his diplomats to say what the real positions of the "state of Palestine" are while he continues to fool the Western world with his pretenses of non-violence.

Given that this is not the first time.that Zawawi has said words that seem at odds with Abbas' positions, that proves which of the two options Abbas has chosen.

12/23 Links Pt1: A Maccabean solution; PA officials: “Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours”‎

From Ian:

Jailed Palestinian leader blasts UN statehood bid

Jailed Palestinian leader Marwan Barghouti sharply criticized the Palestinian Authority on Monday and called to reword the bid submitted to the UN requesting recognition of a state and an Israeli withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines by 2017.
In a letter sent from Israeli prison, Barghouti said he supported the unilateral move to go to the UN but slammed the current bid as an “unjustified fallback which will have a very negative impact on the Palestinian position,” Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported.
The senior Fatah leader said any mention of land swaps with Israel must be removed and that the bid should focus on the major issues of settlement expansion, Jerusalem, and the blockade on Gaza.
“We must stop negotiating with ourselves uselessly,” he added.
Barghouti also said the Palestinian prisoners issue should take central place in the document. (h/t Elder of Lobby )

Khaled Abu Toameh: Palestinian voices show dissent over statehood resolution at UN

The Palestinian National Initiative, an independent political movement led by Dr. Mustafa Barghouti, said the draft resolution includes “dangerous lapses” that compromise Palestinian demands.
The movement claimed that the PA leadership presented the draft resolution so as to have an excuse to avoid joining the International Criminal Court.
The movement criticized the resolution for “equating between Palestinians and Israel, ignoring the fact that one part has been occupying and repressing the other for the past 66 years.”
It also rejected the reference to Jerusalem as the capital of two states. This would pave the way for Israel to take most parts of the city and turn the Palestinian presence into a symbolic one, the movement said.

PA and Fatah: “Jaffa, Acre, Haifa, and Nazareth are ours”‎

The Palestinian Authority and Fatah continue to deny Israel's right to exist and present Israeli cities as "Palestinian." Recently, Fatah Central Committee member Tawfiq Tirawi emphasized on Lebanese TV that "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth are Palestinian," and this "despite" the opinions of "the Americans and the Israelis":
Fatah Central Committee member, Tawfiq Tirawi: "Don't you dare think there is even a single Palestinian, whether he supports the two-state solution or another path, who would agree to these settlements being part of Israel, and that Haifa, Jaffa and Acre are not Palestinian. No. Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth are Palestinian, despite the Americans and the Israelis."
[Al-Mayadeen TV (Lebanon), Dec. 14, 2014; posted on Tirawi's Facebook page]

Fatah official: Israeli cities "Haifa, Jaffa, Acre and Nazareth are Palestinian"

Arab League claims Israel spending $17b to "Judaize" Jerusalem

From Egypt Independent:

Israel has earmarked US$17 billion for the Judaization of Jerusalem, the holy city which both Palestinians and Israelis insist on as the capital of their states, an Arab League official said Monday.

“The attack on Jerusalem is very overwhelming ... Israel is in control of prayers at al-Aqsa Mosque,” Mohamed Sobeih, Assistant of the Arab League secretary general for Palestinian affairs, told Palestinian Al-Ray news agency. He urged for the immediate application of Jerusalem-related resolutions in consecutive Arab, Islamic and UN summits.

Just to give some perspective, the entire budget of Israel's government is about $70 billion.

The budget of Jerusalem's municipality is less than half a billion dollars.

You could give every man, woman and child in Jerusalem $20,000 and still have more left over than the current Jerusalem budget.

Too bad that there does not seem to be a single Arab who is willing to publicly call this guy an idiot. Because in a normal, healthy society, lies like this have consequences; but in the Arab world, they are swallowed whole.