Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Tuesday, February 03, 2015

02/03 Links Pt1: New Chair Can’t Salvage UN Gaza Travesty; Captain Kangaroo Covers His Behind

From Ian:

New Chair Can’t Salvage UN Gaza Travesty

It should be recalled that the UNHRC’s investigation of the 2008 war in Gaza—the Goldstone Commission—was a travesty that was focused almost entirely on delegitimizing Israeli self-defense while largely downplaying the actual war crimes committed by the Hamas rulers of Gaza. Ultimately Judge Richard Goldstone, the South African Jew who had been appointed to chair that commission, repudiated its findings. But that recantation came too late. The damage was already done. Whereas the UNHRC thought to put a more acceptable face on its Star Chamber investigation of Israel with Goldstone, naming Schabas showed it no longer thought it worth the bother to even put up a pretense of objectivity.
That’s why Schabas’s withdrawal changes nothing about the UNHRC’s prejudice or its methods. No one who is likely to be named to this post would be objective and anyone who was would quickly discover, as Goldstone eventually did, that the UNHRC’s staff has one objective with respect to Israel and it is not fairness or the truth.
But rather than focus solely on what is, in effect, a pro forma effort that will produce a raft of slanders and distortions no matter what evidence is presented to the panel, observers should be directing their attention to the UNHRC itself. Despite efforts to reform it, this agency remains one of the worst examples of UN bias against Israel and the Jews. Rather than helping to stem the rising tide of anti-Semitism around the world, the UNHRC is aiding and abetting it. Rather than wring its hands about the likelihood of an unfair attack on Israel about the Gaza war, the United States ought to be pulling out of the UNHRC and leading efforts to isolate it so as to prevent the world body from doing even more damage. But since the Obama administration is led by a president who is infatuated with the UN and often enraged by the temerity of Israel’s leaders to both defend their country and to urge others to speak out against threats to its security—such as the Iranian nuclear threat—don’t expect common sense or courage from Washington on the UNHRC.
In the meantime, decent persons both here and elsewhere should be denouncing the UNHRC’s latest attempt to smear Israel, no matter who is at its head.

UN Watch: Backstory: Schabas quit UN inquiry following growing pressure from colleagues

Why did William Schabas finally step down as chair of the UN inquiry on Gaza?
The latest revelation that he was paid by the PLO for legal advice in 2012 was the last straw, but the decision came in wake of a sustained campaign by UN Watch starting from the day of his appointment, which included videos of Schabas calling for the indictment of Israeli leaders, a formal UN Watch legal brief demanding his recusal that was submitted to the UN in an official filing, and UN Watch op-eds urging legal scholars to speak out against the absurd appointment of Schabas. Many did so.
Over the past several months of the campaign, some of the world’s most prominent international lawyers and human rights activists around the world—jurists well known to Schabas because he cites them as authorities in his works, or they are professional, faculty or law review colleagues—called for him to step down.

Hillel Neuer argues before U.N. plenary: "Schabas must step down"

NGO Monitor: Schabas Resignation: What Else Has Not Been Disclosed?

The revelation that Schabas previously did legal work for the PLO raises numerous questions, which should be publically and transparently addressed by the UNHRC.
- What other conflicts of interest did Schabas not disclose?
- What connections and consultancies did Schabas have with politicized NGOs such as Amnesty International and what role did these NGOs have in the UN “investigation”?
- How did the UN’s vetting process fail? According to news reports, Schabas “was not asked to detail his consultancy work when he was appointed.”
- If UN officials were previously aware of Schabas’ connections to the PLO, why was this information not disclosed earlier?
Journalists also have a responsibility to pursue these avenues of inquiry.
“Before there is further embarrassment, the Commission should disband immediately,” continued Prof. Steinberg. “From the beginning, the Commission’s mandate was part of the campaign to single out of Israel through the exploitation of human rights and international law. The Human Rights Council failed to learn the lessons from Judge Goldstone’s denunciation of his own pseudo-investigation in 2009.”

Independent (UK) calls Netanyahu "sinister" in his "Bibi-sitter" ad

Let's review and insult an Israeli TV campaign ad without knowing a thing about the context!

Here's a real description of this ad meant for a non-Israeli audience from Arutz-7:

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is getting excellent reviews from commenters following the release of his latest campaign video.

The video features a young couple that is about to leave for a night out when the baby-sitter knocks at the door. “You asked for a babysitter? You got a Bibi-sitter,” says Netanyahu.

"Look, it's either me or Tzipi [Livni] and Buji [Herzog],” he explains to the bewildered couple. The couple immediately protests that their children would need to babysit Herzog, and not the other way around. In addition, “by the time we return we'd have no house... he'd even hand over the carpets” – a play on the Hebrew words “shtichim” (carpets) and “shtachim” (territories).

As for “Tzipi” – the woman says she doubts that she would stay in the same place for two hours, and Netanyahu agrees she would probably have gone over to the neighbors' by the time they returned. This, of course, is a swipe at Livni's frequent migration from one political party to another.

At one point in the video, Netanyahu can be seen sitting in the couple's living room, watching Likud's earlier, banned campaign video, which featured Netanyahu as a kindergarten teacher trying to control rowdy children, who played the roles of Livni, Yesh Atid's Yair Lapid, Jewish Home's Naftali Bennett and Yisrael Beytenu's Avigdor Liberman. The video was banned because of the illegal use of child actors, but it seems the new video is a spin-off of sorts.

When the couple returns and greets him with the word "Shalom" - hello - but also the word for "peace", Netanyahu responds "but not at any price."

Here is how the clueless Independent describes it:

Few sights are as unnerving as seeing a giggling Benjamin Netanyahu throwing popcorn into his mouth under a duvet as he watches a video of himself shouting at children.

According to the Israeli Prime Minister, this is what constitutes as child care, at least in the context of the new political party advert he posted on Facebook ahead of Israel’s general election in March.

In it, he plays mildly sinister babysitter, who turns up at one couple’s house entirely uninvited.

They are delighted, but panicked, presumably as they’d expected a 16-year-old wearing loose-fitting jeans and expression of mild disdain and instead got a grey-haired 65-year-old in a loose-fitting suit wearing an expression of mild lunacy.

He then announces to the pair that he is the “Bibi-sitter” – the only one in the nation who can look after the country’s children – while Zionist Camp Party leaders Tzipi Livni and Isaac Herzog, his political opponents, are not to be trusted.

“This election, vote for who will care for your children,” he says to camera.

The parents leave, only to return to their house moments later to find Netanyahu nesting on the sofa and their children no-where to be seen.

“Shalom (Peace)!” they shout with glee.

“Not unconditionally,” Netanyahu replies

Here's the actual video with English captions.:

Nah, no media bias there!

William Schabas has linked to his letter of resignation from his blog.

His spin is interesting enough:

On 13 January 2015, the Jerusalem Post reported that attempts to discredit the Chair will be part of Israel’s campaign against the Commission of Inquiry on the Gaza Conflict. Two weeks later Israel made a formal complaint to the President of the Human Rights Council calling for my removal. On 2 February 2015, the Bureau of the Human Rights Council, which operates as its executive or standing committee between regular sessions, decided to examine the complaint and to request a legal opinion from United Nations Headquarters in New York.

The complaint concerns the fact that in October 2012, I prepared a legal opinion for the ‘Negotiations Affairs Department/Palestinian Negotiations Support Project’ of the Palestine Liberation Organisation. The legal opinion was to consider the consequences of a UN General Assembly resolution upgrading Palestine’s status to that of a non-member state on the declaration that was lodged by Palestine with the International Criminal Court in January 2009. It also addressed whether accession should include acceptance of the amendments to the Statute adopted at Kampala and how the territorial jurisdiction of the Court might be applied. These are matters on which, as one of the academic specialists on the subject of the Rome Statute, I have frequently expressed myself in lectures and in publications. A 7-page opinion was provided on 28 October 2012 and I received remuneration of $1,300, as previously agreed. I have done no other consultation and provided no other opinions for the State of Palestine, the Palestinian Liberation Organisation or any other related body.

The complaint about my brief consultancy, as I understand it, is not about the content, which is of a technical legal nature, but the implication that in some way I am henceforth beholden to the Palestine Liberation Organisation. Perhaps there is also the suggestion that I might tailor my opinions in one direction in order to generate more such consulting for remuneration. If I were indeed motivated by financial gain, it would be hard to explain why I would have accepted the position as Chair of the Commission of Inquiry, to which I have gladly devoted several months of work and for which there is no remuneration whatsoever.

THis is dripping with his condescending attitude. Schabas cannot even allow that being paid by one of the parties under investigation, no matter how small, is enough to disqualify any judge; instead he pretends that his using the commission as a platform to attack Israel is simply a humanitarian gesture on his part.

His claim that his lack of remuneration proves that his motives are pure is as close to hogwash as one can imagine. His consultancy business would be expected to soar after a high profile UN commission of inquiry, and his fees for public speaking would easily go up by a factor of ten.

This part of the letter alone proves how little Schabas cares about truth and fairness. In a sane world, this in itself should be enough to ensure that his opinions are tainted forever more. Israel didn't discredit Schabas; he discredited himself.

But the most telling part of his letter actually isn't what it reveals about him, but what he unwittingly reveals about the UN Human Rights Council:

In early August 2014, when I was asked if I would accept a nomination to the Commission of Inquiry, I was not requested to provide any details on any of my past statements and other activities concerning Palestine and Israel. Of course, my views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public. My curriculum vitae was readily available indicating public lectures and writings on the subject. My opinions were frequently aired on my blog. This work in defence of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks which, if Israel’s complaint is to be taken at face value, will only intensify in the weeks to come.

Can you imagine hiring anyone for any position where objectivity is a key component of the job, and not even asking a single question about such conflicts of interest?

On the contrary. Schabas' description of how he was chosen implies that the UNHRC chose him because of his well-known attitudes towards Israel, not in spite of them!

In other words, instead of his resignation letter showing that he is unfairly being attacked as he intends, it shows that the criticism of both him and the entire commission is more than justified. Schabas' letter proves not only his own unsuitability for the job; it shows UNHRC's bias that underlies the entire idea of a commission of inquiry to begin with.

Of course, the anti-Israel world will look at this differently. Schabas will still get his speaking gigs at CAIR dinners and at SOAS lectures. He will be a welcome guest on Al Jazeera and he will parlay this bit of supposedly pro-bono humanitarian work into a cash bonanza, now as a martyr that was mercilessly attacked by the Israel lobby.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

UPDATE: Israel's letter that caused this chain of events:

Al Hayat al Jadida, which is an official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper, published a cartoon of Mohammed this week.

The cartoon was complimentary, showing Mohammed on top of a globe spreading "seeds of love."

Mahmoud Abbas sprung into action, ordering an immediate investigation. He emphasized the need to take deterrent action against offenders , stressing respect for sacred religious symbols.

Al Hayat al Jadida panicked and issued an immediate apology, saying it had created an inquiry into the matter and saying that the point of the cartoon was to emphasize Islam's love of peace.

The artist, Mohammed Sabanneh, a Muslim, said he meant no harm. Backtracking from the caption of the cartoon, he wrote on Facebook that it was not a picture of Mohammad but "a symbol of humanity enlightened by what the Prophet Muhammad brought."

His life is becoming a living hell because of his attempt to show a message of how peaceful Islam is.

UPDATE: We've discussed this cartoonist before. He was arrested for taking money for Hamas in Jordan, but he told the world he was arrested by Israel because of his cartoons. This might get interesting... (h/t Vandoren)

The Schabas fiasco

From Reuters:

The head of a U.N. inquiry into last summer's conflict between Israel and Gaza said on Monday he would resign after Israeli allegations of bias due to consultancy work he did for the Palestine Liberation Organisation.

Canadian academic William Schabas was appointed last August by the head of the United Nations Human Rights Council to lead a three-member group looking into alleged war crimes during Israel's military offensive in Gaza.

In a letter to the commission, a copy of which was seen by Reuters, Schabas said he would step down immediately to prevent the issue from overshadowing the preparation of the report and its findings, which are due to be published in March.

Schabas' departure highlights the sensitivity of the U.N. investigation just weeks after prosecutors at the International Criminal Court in The Hague said they had started a preliminary inquiry into alleged atrocities in the Palestinian territories.

In the letter, Schabas said a legal opinion he wrote for the Palestine Liberation Organisation in 2012, for which he was paid $1,300, was not different from advice he had given to many other governments and organisations.

"My views on Israel and Palestine as well as on many other issues were well known and very public," he wrote. "This work in defence of human rights appears to have made me a huge target for malicious attacks (...)."

Everyone knew Schabas was biased. He referred to Zionists as "enemies." He participated in a kangaroo court against Israel. Even he admitted he was biased, but he claimed that he - unlike every judge on the planet - would be objective despite his having already formed his anti-Israel opinions.

This attitude was widely criticized by prominent lawyers, as are listed at UN Watch.

However, the sheer nerve that he shows here takes the cake. He finally decided to step down after Israel was ready to show evidence that he was paid by one of the sides that he was supposedly investigating. Instead of apologizing for hiding this very salient fact about his history when he was appointed to the commission, Schabas instead lashes out at those who exposed his utter contempt for the concept of impartiality.

Who just happen to be his "enemies."

The late-date move is a farce anyway. The commission has already written the majority of not the entire report by now. All of the evidence and testimony has already been slanted by Schabas' anti-Israel bias. If anything, his taking his name off of the commission might end up giving the slanted report a little more credibility after he has already poisoned it.

Here's one final question: If Schabas had planned from the beginning to be a new Richard Falk, and to use this UN commission to do everything possible to demonize Israel while paying lip service to the idea of fairness, would he have acted any differently than we have seen him act?

02/02 Links Pt2: German judge rules: Anti-Zionism is code for anti-Semitism

From Ian:

German judge rules: Anti-Zionism is code for anti-Semitism

The wheels of justice move slowly, but they are inching forward in Germany. In a unprecedented case heard half a year after these violent anti-Israel demonstrations, last week in Essen, German Judge Gauri Sastry convicted 24-year-old Taylan Can for incitement against an ethnic minority for events at a July 18, 2014, anti-Israel demonstration in the town.
Eyewitness accounts report hostile anti-Israel chants and stones thrown from the anti-Israel camp to the smaller group of Israel supporters. According to the Anti-Defamation League, a breakaway group headed toward a local synagogue, intending to attack it.
A YouTube video of the demonstration shows fields of Palestinian flags and Turkish flags, and a motley group of young men running and chanting “Adolf Hitler” and “Death to the Jews.” In the video, popular Essen Muslim rapper Sinan-G speaks to the camera explaining this is a counter-demonstration against the Jews. “The Jews insulted us, man, this is crazy stuff,” he said.
Despite the large police presence, the crowd was clearly out of control. According to Die Welt, police arrested 49 protesters. Forty-five cases were dismissed in December.
Born in Germany to a Turkish family, Can is well-known for his anti-Israel activism. According to Die Welt, Can was caught on tape at a Copenhagen protest shouting into a borrowed police megaphone, “Death to the Jews,” “Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas chamber.”
At his Essen hearing this winter Can was prosecuted for his use of the term “Zionist” as incitement against a minority.
During the hearing, Can claimed he was not an anti-Semite and had nothing against the Jewish people but only against the Zionist state. In response, Judge Sastry is quoted by Die Welt saying, “‘Zionist’ is the language of anti-Semites, the code for ‘Jew.'”

Getting Anti-Semitism Wrong at the United Nations

You have to hand it to the United Nations, I guess. It’s hard to think of another body that would organize a special meeting on the subject of rising anti-Semitism with anti-Semites not just in attendance, but making speeches as well.
For good measure, Levy also expertly dispensed with some of the myths that surround the current debate on anti-Semitism, notably the contention that Jew-hatred would go away if only the Palestinians had a state of their own. “Even if the Palestinians had a state, as is their right—even then, alas, this enigmatic and old hatred would not dissipate one iota,” Levy declared, as the assembled delegates scratched their heads in puzzlement and, one might add, a degree of nervousness.
But did Levy’s message—essentially, that anti-Zionism, the denial of the right of national self-determination to the Jewish people, is the principal pillar upon which today’s anti-Semitism rests—get through?
Sadly, it didn’t. After Levy left the podium, we were treated to a seemingly endless stream of anodyne statements from the various delegations, with a couple of noble exceptions—Israeli Ambassador to the U.N. Ron Prosor, who had the guts to say that anti-Semitism “can even be found in the halls of U.N., disguised as humanitarian concern,” and American Ambassador to the U.N. Samantha Power, who reminded those delegates sitting in the General Assembly that Holocaust denial remains a staple of official media across the Middle East and North Africa.
The lasting impression, however, was left by Arab and Muslim delegates, most of whom pushed the insidious—and deeply stupid—myth that because the Palestinians are “Semites,” they cannot be anti-Semitic. As far as I’m aware, no one countered these remarks by pointing out that first, there is no such nationality or ethnicity as a “Semite,” and second, that the term “anti-Semitism” was devised by anti-Semites to give their loathing of the Jews scientific respectability.

NGO Monitor: NGO Monitor to UN "Schabas Commission": Adhere to Fact-Finding Standards

In a report submitted to the UN Human Rights Council's Commission of Inquiry on the 2014 Gaza Conflict ("the COI"), NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, warned the COI of the implications of failing to apply the principles of objectivity, non-selectivity, balance, and universality, and the history of the HRC's disregard for legal and ethical standards. The submission also noted that the UN projected a $3 million budget for the politically motivated investigation of Israel. William Schabas, the head of the Commission, in alliance with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the Palestinian Authority, seek to use the CIO as part of the campaign seeking to exploit the International Criminal Court (ICC) for "lawfare" attacks against Israel.
"While the Government of Israel has justifiably decided not to participate in another biased UN pseudo-investigation, as members of Israeli civil society we have a duty to communicate our concerns to the UN," said Anne Herzberg, NGO Monitor's Legal Advisor. "Our submission is a forceful reminder to the Schabas Commission: In order to avoid the abject failures of the past, particularly the 2009 Goldstone Report, the principles of impartiality, objectivity, and transparency must be applied. Unfortunately, we have no evidence or reason to expect that this COI will be any different from its predecessors in these core dimensions."
NGO Monitor's 79-page analysis documents numerous violations by NGOs and UN bodies of fact-finding standards and best practices. By design, UNHRC missions almost exclusively focus on the actions of Israel, while repeated and major violations committed by Palestinian actors or against Israeli citizens are all but ignored. Moreover, few, if any, mechanisms exist within the HRC (and the other UN) frameworks to verify and evaluate the allegations proffered by participating NGOs, resulting in a contravention of impartiality, objectivity, and non-selectivity.

Haaretz can't believe some West Bank Arabs prefer Israeli rule

Amira Hass in Ha'aretz is incredulous:

H., 24 years old, works at the SodaStream plant in the Mishor Adumim industrial zone. We met at his family’s home in a village near Ramallah. Nine people live off his salary (the Israeli minimum wage, nearly $1,200 a month).

His brother Abed was there too; he’s once again looking for work in the industrial zone that’s part of the Ma’aleh Adumim settlement bloc – even though he doesn’t understand why his salary slip always listed a higher amount than what he had actually been paid.

L., from a village in the western West Bank, is around 20 and did six months in an Israeli prison after being caught two or three times working without a permit in Israel. He now works in a store in Ramallah for one-third the (low) salary he made in Israel. He fantasizes about ways to return.

M., in his 50s from the village of Deir Istiya, is sorry he no longer works in the settlement supermarket where he worked for many years. Toward the end of the second intifada the rules were changed, Palestinians were not permitted to work there, so he found work in Israel.

It is good work, relatively, a bit more than the minimum wage. But he now has to leave home at 3 A.M. to make it through the checkpoint and arrive on time, while for the settlement he could leave at 6:30 A.M. and get to work in 15 minutes.

And the owner was nice, he stresses. He still calls – and they don’t rehash the anger over the land the settlements stole. Young people in the family work in the industrial zone of the settlement of Barkan.

As M. puts it: “Without Israel I couldn’t support my family and achieve what I’ve achieved” – a house, education for his children, a plot of land for his son to build a house on, and so on. ...

H., because he is only 24, says: “If only the [direct Israeli] occupation would return. It was better before the PA – there was freedom of movement.” He can’t remember how it was back then.

But for Israel’s convenience, he – like many others – is mistaken and blames the closures on the PA, not on Israel. An Israeli official told me this week (and, it seemed, took pleasure in the telling) that this is what he hears from Palestinians – that they miss Israeli rule. I can say to both of them that in Romania there are people who miss Ceausescu.

How come in this article Hass identifies all of the people only by their initials?

Because if they say their pro-Israel opinions publicly under that benevolent Arab rule, they could get killed!

Hass unknowingly proves their point for them - Israeli rule, even if they are not citizens, is better than Arab rule.

Chris Gunness trolling for dead babies to star in Pallywood production

Check out this tweet from UNRWA's Chris Gunness:

Can anyone put me in touch with a family in Gaza where a child died of hyperthermia? Thanks. @ChrisGunness
— Chris Gunness (@ChrisGunness) February 2, 2015

(That's hypothermia, not hyperthermia, Chris. You're welcome.)

There have been reports of a few children who "froze to death" in Gaza this winter. Their real causes of death are not so clear; for example a two-month old was diagnosed with COPD which is aggravated by cold weather but not caused by it. The specific causes of death for the other infants were not released so it is hard to know whether they died from hypothermia or something else.

Gunness is not interested in such trivia. He wants a dead body and crying parents. Gunness wants to use dead babies for fundraising.

This tweet sounds like pre-production for the next UNRWA Pallywood production.

Don't believe me? Check out this ridiculously staged video that UNRWA released three days ago on the topic of cold (in this case, in Syria):

Yeah, that doesn't look or sound staged at all!

It is also really interesting that the UNRWA spokesperson cannot locate any UNRWA employee in Gaza to find the appropriate dead baby props for him. He must have tried before resorting to using Twitter to find the dead infants. Because so many Gazans in freezing temperatures are still plugged into Twitter.

02/02 Links Pt1: Palestinian students honor terrorist Dalal Mughrabi who murdered 37

From Ian:

WP Editorial: Sharing the blame for Gaza’s tragic cycle

International donors — above all, the Arab states — have meanwhile held back the reconstruction funding they pledged. The result was that the U.N. refugee relief agency in Gaza was forced to suspend payments to families last week. Its director, Robert Turner, issued a statement saying that “people are desperate and the international community cannot even provide the bare minimum — for example a repaired home in winter — let alone a lifting of the blockade, access to markets or freedom of movement.”
U.N. officials, like much of the rest of the world, are quick to blame Israel for this horrific situation, even though Egypt’s border “blockade” is tighter. It’s certainly striking that while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is said to consider the danger of Iran so serious that it justifies his violation of diplomatic protocol to address a joint meeting of Congress, he appears to have no policy for Gaza — the source of the most lethal attacks on Israelis in recent years.
Israel, however, can hardly be expected to facilitate Hamas’s relentless preparations for more war, to which concrete and other reconstruction materials have been diverted in the past. An Israeli official told Mr. Booth that Gazan workshops were “assembling new rockets as fast as they can” and that the strip’s militias would be fully rearmed and trained within months. Sadly, that is likely to be the next time the world pays heed to Gaza — when war with Israel again erupts.

Hamas, not Israel, is responsible for suffering in Gaza

Oregonian guest columnists Ned Rosch and Maxine Fookson write a plaintive cry on behalf of Palestinian civilians in Gaza, describing Gazans heart-wrenching situation, suffering the consequence of this past summer's Hamas-Israel conflict — the third since 2009. They blame Israel for the terrible situation of these Palestinians. But Israel is no more to blame for the suffering of the Gazans than the Allies were to blame for the terrible suffering of civilians in Nazi Germany as they bombed German cities, or for the suffering of Serbian civilians when the United States bombed Serbia to stop the attempted genocide in Bosnia.
Hamas kidnapped three Israeli teens this summer and then began firing waves of missiles into Israel, targeting Israeli civilians. In the week after the teens' murdered bodies were found, Hamas fired 180 missiles at Israeli towns and cities, including Tel Aviv, and attempted twice to invade Israel through tunnels it built into Israel. For the third time in six years, Israel was forced to protect its citizens by force.
Hamas' elected term ended five years ago. The U.S., European Union and Japan all recognize it as a terrorist organization. Jordan bans its leaders. Its charter calls for the murder of Jews everywhere and the "obliteration" of Israel through "jihad."

Iran may already have its bomb, but it is not nuclear

Thanks to events over the past weeks, Yemen’s Houthi rebels, aligned with Iran and supplied and trained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, have seized the Red Sea port of Hodeida, a mere 30 kilometers from Djibouti. For the first time Saudi Arabia’s archrival now has the ability to control the Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and Indian Ocean. Iran now is as close as it has ever been to controlling the strategic link between the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean. Through it, three million barrels of oil pass daily.
Straits in the Middle East are more than geographical features. They are nothing less than lifelines for the region’s countries. The blocking of the Straits of Tiran by Egypt triggered the 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors. Iran has in the past threatened to block the Straits of Hormuz if it was attacked by the West. The access to the Red Sea by Iran’s allies makes the threat of an effective use of sanctions against Iran smaller. Iran is poised to push back the West in the nuclear negotiations.
President Obama’s strategy of focusing on Iran’s nuclear ambitions ignores Tehran’s overall objective of asserting itself as the regional superpower. Failure to deal with the threat of an Iranian takeover of Yemen has now contributed to vastly increasing the cards that the Iranian regime can play. Further complacency will make it even more difficult to tackle this ever-increasing threat to regional and global stability.

Palestinian students admire terrorist Dalal Mughrabi who lead killing of 37

Dalal Mughrabi, the terrorist who led the most lethal attack against Israel, in which 37 people were murdered in 1978, was born in January and her date of birth has been celebrated and honorably noted by Abbas' Fatah movement and others.
Awdah TV, whose General Supervisor is Fatah's spokesman Ahmad Assaf, broadcast at length from a party celebrating the terrorist's birthday. Fatah's logo was displayed on stage.
"Martyr Dalal Mughrabi raised the Palestinian flag from the heart of occupied Palestine," stated the Awdah reporter. "On her birthday we renew the promise to her and its fulfillment. Martyr Dalal Mughrabi will remain a path for the next generations to follow." [Fatah-run Awdah TV and Awdah TV Facebook, Jan. 3, 2015]

Fatah TV broadcasts video celebrating terrorist Dalal Mughrabi on her birthday

Mahmoud Abbas embraces a mass murderer, no one cares

From Reuters, January 30:

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (L) greets Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir at the opening ceremony of the 24th Ordinary session of the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union (AU) at the African Union headquarters in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, January 30, 2015.

Bashir is the only current head of state for whom there is an arrest warrant by the ICC on counts of war crimes (pillaging and intentionally directing attacks against civilians) and crimes against humanity (murder, extermination, forcible transfer, torture and rape).

Mahmoud Abbas, that well-regarded peacemaker, has absolutely no problem with literally embracing a war criminal who has been accused by the US of being involved in genocide.

This happened three days ago, and no media outlet felt that this is newsworthy. Which goes to show how much the media bends over backwards to give Mahmoud Abbas a pass, in order to keep alive the fiction that he is a moderate, peace-loving leader.

(h/t Ido Daniel)

Muslim women harass Jew for drinking water on Temple Mount (video)

This is happening more often:

I wonder if they would react the same for a presumably Christian diplomat, from, say, Great Britain, if he wanted to drink water? Is this only an anti-Jewish thing? Or would they allow the diplomat to drink because they know that he is probably on their side in making the Temple Mount free of Jews?

A Facebook page called "Liberate Stamford Hill" is holding a rally in London, ostensibly against a Jewish Neighborhood Watch-type group:

LIBERATE STAMFORD HILL:
Against Anti-White Oppression

Sunday, March 22nd (1400-1600hrs): Assemble at Clapton Common in Stamford Hill, Hackney.

We are demonstrating against the illegal and unlawful Shomrim Police that are enforcing talmudic law on British streets. These armed thugs are impersonating our police yet they have not been arrested in doing so, in fact, they are supported by the Metropolitan police. In Stamford Hill, Whites are openly spat at in the street and made to feel as if they are Second-Class citizens in their own country, we say ENOUGH White Man, It's time we fightback!

Recently, signs were placed around Stamford Hill that told Women to walk on the opposite side of the road to men, this form of Talmudic law is worse than Sharia law and yet nobody is confronting it!

Join us on March 22nd, 2015 at 1400 Hours where we will demonstrate against the Shomrim Police of Stamford Hill.

Shomrim members are trained by and cooperate with the London police. There is nothing secretive about them and in the wake of the HyperCacher massacre they have stepped up their patrols - to protect Jews against the very people who are now demonstrating against them.

(The signs they are referring to were put in place during a Jewish celebration and were not meant as a demand for the general public to adhere to.)

Even though this Facebook page pretends that they have some legitimate grievances against Shomrim, the other posts there and comments show that this is nothing but pure hatred of Jews.

Neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer (not linking to it) makes that clear:

The yids are flipping their lids over a planned anti-Jew rally next month in London, and as of right now attendance is required for all Daily Stormer readers who live within striking distance.

On March 22nd, in the highly Jewed-out neighborhood of Stamford Hill, those fed-up with the Jew control of the once-proud nation of Britain will meet to stand against the parasite and demand he leave the country.

The protest is being organized by the heroic Jew-fighter Joshua Bonehill.

Bonehill is a proud Jew-hater:

I want to draw your attention to the on-going foreign occupation of a White district in London. Stamford Hill, a district of London, based in North Hackney under the parliamentary control of prolific Labour Party Racist, Diane Abbott, has been taken from the White man and occupied by the foreign Jewish enemy. Stamford Hill was once an ancient Anglo-Saxon settlement where the White man flourished in his rightfully owned lands, now today we see an occupation force of approximately 50,000 Jews occupying this land. If the sheer number of Non-White immigrants was not bad enough, the Jewish occupiers of Stamford Hill have now established their own Police Force to which is known to them as the “Shomrim Police”. This undemocratic and false police force wear uniforms supplied to them by the Metropolitan Police, they receive training from the Metropolitan police and are supported by the Labour Party MP, Diane Abbott.

The Shomrim Police enforce their own evil Talmudic Jewish Law...

Due to the Jewish program of Eugenics, the Jews of Stamford Hill are breeding at an alarming rate, further expanding their criminal territory into other London boroughs. There have been reports of White people having to sell up their homes and move out of London because the Jews have harassed them, with allegedly Anti-White campaigns of hatred and racism. I use Stamford Hill as an example of the Jewish Problem, but one must understand that this is repeated up and down this country, in every major city and town.

I just checked the calendar, and, yes, this is 2015.

(h/t O)

Photo of PA prime minister with Israeli beverages upsets PalArabs (update)

A photograph of Rami Hamdallah, prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, has created controversy - because it includes Israeli water and juice:

Hamdallah was visiting the courthouse at Yatta, south of Hebron, and the photo was published on the website of the Supreme Judicial Council.

Social media users slammed Hamdallah for consuming Israeli products. They also accused him of hypocrisy because evidently the "unity government" attacked Hamas for allowing Israeli products into Gaza a few days ago.

The Supreme Judicial Council website then replaced the photograph with another that did not show the offending beverages. I cannot tell if the bottles were removed before this image was taken or if they were Photoshopped out. My bet is Photoshop since if this second image was available when the article was written they would have used it. Also, the new image was created 8 hours after the initial image was.

Looks like a very good image editing job, though.

UPDATE: Video (h/t Bob Knot)

UNESCO study confirms Arab nations - and many others - don't teach the Holocaust

UNESCO just published a report on how textbooks teach, or don't teach, the Holocaust in countries worldwide.

The summary map showing the level of Holocaust education in each country is here:

Areas that did not even mention the Holocaust even implicitly (light beige) include Angola, Antigua & Barbuda, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Bahrain, Benin, Bolivia, Brunei, Cameroon, Dominica, Egypt, Fiji, Ghana, Guyana, Iceland, Micronesia (Federated States of), Iraq, Jamaica, (Kosovo)**, Lebanon, Nepal, New Zealand (!), "Palestine," Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Seychelles, Thailand, and Zambia.

Nations that only mentioned World War II or Nazism without mentioning the Holocaust (light orange)include Algeria, Bhutan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Burkina Faso, China, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Côte d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Gambia, Georgia, Honduras, India, Indonesia, Japan, Kenya, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mauritius, Morocco, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Republic of Korea, Rwanda, Scotland, Senegal, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Switzerland (Jura, Lausanne), Tunisia, Uganda, Ukraine, United Arab Emirates, United Republic of Tanzania, Uruguay, Yemen, Zimbabwe.

Many Muslim nations that probably do not teach the Holocaust did not submit textbooks for this study (white), including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, , Iran, Jordan, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria and many others.

Interestingly, the US state of Maryland is the only one called out for not teaching the Holocaust as its own topic and instead only as part of a more generalized human rights curriculum.

Introducing the First International Ayatollah Khamenei Cartoon and Poster Contest

(As a response to this...)

I am pleased to announce the First International Ayatollah Khamenei Cartoon and Poster Contest.

The goal of the contest is to make fun of the Supreme Leader of Iran in as original (and preferably offensive) way as possible.

Any theme is fair game. Artwork that has a high likelihood of giving him a fatal heart attack will have the best chance of winning. (But try to ensure that it could be shown on a family blog.)

First prize winner will receive $50, second prize $25.

Here are examples I quickly made up:

I encourage people to take their favorite submissions and to spam Khamenei's Twitter, Facebook and other social media accounts.

Deadline for submission is February 28.

Submit your artwork by linking to it from the comments of this post.