Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Sunday, March 15, 2015

Why did AP, B'Tselem and Amnesty ignore this house destroyed by Israel?

Recently, Richard Behar and Gary Weiss wrote a masterly destruction of an AP investigation showing how many mistakes and violations of journalistic ethics could be found in an article.

"The New York-based news agency examined 247 airstrikes on homes—interviewing witnesses, visiting attack sites and compiling a detailed casualty count. Its probe determined that out of 844 dead from those strikes, 508 (or just over 60 percent) were children, women and older men, 'all presumed to be civilians.'"

This is very similar to an Amnesty report on Israeli airstrikes of houses that I addressed here.

The organization that decided to do this type of analysis originally is B'Tselem, which even during the war started compiling lists of houses that had been hit by Israel and their casualties.

There is an additional problem with all of these "investigations" - they consciously exclude airstrikes on homes that the NGOs know were being used to shield fighters.

If you only count houses that used women and children as human shields, yes, it will appear that Israel showed disregard for the lives women and children (which is not by itself proof of violations of international law, as I have shown in my Amnesty piece.)

B'Tselem has the most comprehensive list of family homes hit by Israel published (AP did not expose its full list.) Yet one obvious family house is not listed: the home of the Al Skafi family of Shujaiyya.

I already mentioned that two of the al-Skafis were 17 or 18-year old twins who were proud members of Islamic Jihad.

But most of the other victims of that airstrike were also terrorists.

Abdel Skafi:

Ahmed Skafi, in front of the Hamas flag:

Mujahid al Skafi, in his martyrdom video:

Ali Skafi:

Now, it is true that their 63-year old father Akram was killed along with this jihadist family. Presumably he was not an active militant.

But AP, B'Tselem and Amnesty did not bother to list the al-Skafi family house as one of those that were targeted by Israel, because counting that house - and who knows how many others - would reduce their ratio of civilians to terrorists killed by Israel.

In other words, these organizations cooked the books to make Israel look bad.

It is inconceivable that all three are not aware of the al-Skafi home - it was prominently mentioned in "Humanize Palestine" and other sites that list the dead.

Yet since it was obvious to these organizations that the al-Skafi family home was mostly inhabited by fighters, that house is excluded from these supposedly objective analyses.

How many other such houses filled with jihadists from the same family were excluded?

All of the other criticisms of these reports still apply, of course, Without these organizations knowing what the targets were, they cannot know whether the IDF commanders who ordered the strikes violated the primciples of distinction and proportionality, and any assumptions of those violations based on the proportion of civilians killed are inherently flawed.

But the Al Skafi home proves that the entire purpose of this "research" is not to calculate how effective the IDF was, but rather to cherry-pick the examples that they believe prove their point.

It is lying with statistics, and it is reprehensible.

(h/t Thomas Wictor)

Jordan denies rumor that school maps will show Israel

Israel's Channel 10 was reported to have stated yesterday that Jordan decided to allow the word "Israel" to appear on maps in geography classes at schools. The news was accompanied by analysis by "experts" about how this means that Jordan is trying to show it is moderate to the West, or that it is trying to de-emphasize the Israel-Arab conflict in the face of the threats from ISIS.

The rumor was instantly denounced by Arabic media. Jordan's Ad Dustour called to tear out any mention of Israel from the books and "place them where they belong, in the dustbin of history."

Today, Jordan's education ministry flatly denied the story. The Education Minister said it was completely untrue and that Israel does not appear in any Jordanian school materials at all.

Whew!

It turns out that Jordan's education ministry did do something last year that was almost as controversial.

A school textbook called "Jews Do Not Honor Charters and Covenants" was pulled from school libraries, eliciting protests from Jordan's Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups.

03/14 Links: Col.Kemp responds to Anti-Israel riot; Senate probes Obama funded anti-Netanyahu drive

From Ian:

Letter from Colonel Richard Kemp to Vice Chancellor USYD

On the basis of my observations, as I have mentioned, Associate Professor Lynch and Dr Riemer sought to incite and encourage the student protesters. Can it be right that members of your university staff should indulge in such disgraceful action?
Peaceful and reasonable demonstration, such as handing out leaflets, chanting dissenting views or holding placards with messages of opposition to the views of a speaker, is of course acceptable. Indeed, such a peaceful demonstration was under way outside when I entered the room for my lecture. I was offered and accepted a leaflet, which I read and I briefly engaged in discussion with a protester. However the type of racially‐motivated aggression, intimidation and abuse that occurred at this event is wholly unacceptable. Also unacceptable in any respectable university is the curtailment of an invited and approved speaker’s freedom to speak and engage in legitimate academic discourse such as I experienced at your university.
I urge you to investigate this incident and to take action against the students and staff members who were responsible for the behavior that I have described. If you fail to do so then you will be failing to discourage such action in your university in the future. You will thus be failing in your duty to ensure that your students, visitors and guest speakers may take part in debate within the precincts of the University of Sydney without fear or
concern for their own safety.
I would add that you have a particular responsibility in respect of the racist, anti‐Semitic nature of this protest. As you know anti‐Semitism is a rising phenomenon in the world. Jews in many places live in increasing fear and concern that they will be singled out and discriminated against. Only by taking firm action against anti‐Semitic abuse and hatred whenever and wherever it occurs can this situation be reversed. Sydney University has the opportunity here to set an example to other academic institutions that lack the moral courage to face up to the modern scourge of anti‐Semitism.

Sydney University investigating after associate professor waves money in the face of a Jewish woman at a recent protest on campus

SYDNEY University will investigate an incident in which Associate Professor Jake Lynch was filmed waving a five dollar bill at an elderly Jewish woman enraged by anti-Israel protesters at a lecture.
Dr Lynch — Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies — claims he was threatening to sue the woman after she kicked him “in the meat and two veg”.
Colonel Richard Kemp, a retired British military officer, was delivering a lecture on the ethics of armed conflict at the university on Wednesday when several students stormed the room and began chanting anti-Israel slogans.
Within minutes of their entry, Associate Professor Lynch began filming the fracas.
He was involved in a confrontation with a woman, believed to be 75 years old, with the two taunting each other.
Mr Lynch then reached into his breast pocket, pulled out a $5 note and began waving it in the woman’s face.
Dr Lynch said his actions were intended to represent a threat to sue the woman.
In a video viewed by The Saturday Telegraph, Dr Lynch can be seen arguing with the woman before she throws out her right arm at him.
Colonel Kemp, who witnessed the incident, said in his opinion the actions of associate professor Lynch suggested an anti-Jewish prejudice.

Source: Senate panel probes whether Obama administration funded effort to oust Netanyahu

A powerful U.S. Senate investigatory committee has launched a bipartisan probe into an American nonprofit’s funding of efforts to oust Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the Obama administration’s State Department gave the nonprofit taxpayer-funded grants, a source with knowledge of the panel's activities told FoxNews.com.
The fact that both Democratic and Republican sides of the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations have signed off on the probe could be seen as a rebuke to President Obama, who has had a well-documented adversarial relationship with the Israeli leader.
The development comes as Netanyahu told Israel’s Channel Two television station this week that there were “governments” that wanted to help with the “Just Not Bibi” campaigning -- Bibi being the Israeli leader’s nickname.
It also follows a FoxNews.com report on claims the Obama administration has been meddling in the Israeli election on behalf of groups hostile to Netanyahu. A spokesperson for Sen. Rob Portman, Ohio Republican and chairman of the committee, declined comment, and aides to ranking Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, of Missouri, did not immediately return calls.
The Senate subcommittee, which has subpoena power, is the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs’ chief investigative body with jurisdiction over all branches of government operations and compliance with laws.

03/13 Links Pt2: At UCLA, a culture of equating 'Israel' with 'guilty'; Jews attacked in Marseille

From Ian:

At UCLA, a culture of equating 'Israel' with 'guilty'

UCLA is a campus that has allowed Middle East history to be taught by instructors who demonize Israel, and has permitted its Center for Near Eastern Studies to be directed and co-directed by BDS supporters. It is a culture where a student can come to class wearing an "Israel Kills" T-shirt, yet any mention of Muslim symbols is sure to trigger the heaviest gun of political correctness, "Islamophobia!"
It is a culture where pro-coexistence students, especially in the social sciences, prefer to keep silent rather than risk mockery and social estrangement. Most importantly, it is a campus overrun by soft-spoken BDS propagandists who managed to hijack the student government's agenda with repeated proposals for anti-Israel resolutions, the purpose of which is one: to associate the word "Israel" with the word "guilty."
Coming from this culture, it is quite natural for a council member to assume that Rachel Beyda, as a Jew, is likely to have a built-in reluctance to joining the never-ending orgy of Israel indictments. Especially indictments authored by a movement like BDS, which openly denies one of Jews' most deeply held convictions – Israel's right to exist.
I am purposely using the generic term "as a Jew" here, in its most inclusive, people-based sense. I do so because a great many Jews do consider Israel the culmination of their millennia-long history. Likewise, I follow the observations of Hillel's leadership, who repeatedly assures concerned parents and outraged donors of its commitment to the Zionist dream, and to pro-Israel education.
So why all the outrage about the misuse of the inclusive term "Jewish?" Roth's mistake was not that she probed into Beyda's faith as a Jew, but that she implied that Jews can only gain social acceptance and student government credentials by joining the "indict-Israel" circus, as some of their professors have chosen to do.

Ayaan Hirsi Ali Condemns Anti-Semitism, Champions New Film

On Wednesday in Brookline, Massachusetts, women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali headlined an event revolving around the rise of anti-Semitism. Her remarks followed the Boston premiere of the Jerusalem U film, Crossing the Line 2: The New Face of Anti-Semitism on Campus, directed by Shoshana Palatnik, who also attended.
Hirsi Ali pulled no punches, offering scathing commentary regarding the anti-Semitism around the world. She offered these statements:
It is appalling that only seventy years from the Holocaust, crowds in Europe chant "Hamas, Hamas, Jews to the gas." It is even more appalling that 10,000 soldiers in Paris are needed to protect Jewish sites. That is the continent that promised never again. The men and women who were in the concentration camps, who are tattooed, some are still here. And it is happening again.
Watching Crossing the Line 2: the New Face of Anti-Semitism on Campus, was like having a bucket of ice water being poured over my head. I saw the film last week. And I watched it again last night. And I couldn't sleep. The more we pretend that this is happening somewhere far away, the more hopeless and helpless we feel. But this is not happening far away. This is happening on American campuses, British campuses, Canadian campuses. The filmmakers who made this film made it because it is important that we listen to this message while it is at a smaller stage.

Jewish teens attacked in southern France

Two Jewish teens in France were robbed and beaten after leaving their Marseille synagogue.
The teens were attacked on Tuesday by two assailants who they described as youth “of African origin,” according to the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA.
According to the victims, the assailants said, “Dirty Jews, we will exterminate all of you,” before they were robbed and beaten. The Jewish teens required medical attention.
One of the victims told BNVCA that he recognized the attackers.
The bureau called on police in the southern French city to “do everything possible to identify and question the attackers,” and for the assailants to be severely punished to act as a deterrent to future attacks.

Turns out some Gazans are rebuilding houses: friends of Hamas

Yesterday I quoted far-left NGO Gisha as saying that not a single destroyed house had been rebuilt in Gaza, despite over 50,000 tons of construction material (now known to be actually 88,000 tons.)

A Danish journalist visited Gaza last week and he did see that some homes were being rebuilt - but not for just anybody.

Gaza 2015 is anything but uplifting. There is sluggish renovation work. In the northern city of Beit Hanoun families started to quarrel, because Hamas has provided money to those who support the movement. Their houses destroyed by the war are soon completed. Other families who do not openly support Hamas have not received a penny, and their houses are just as flat and bombed as when Israeli missiles hit them for more than six months ago. The families feel both failure and anger, but most of them do not dare stand up and criticize Hamas publicly for fear of ending up on the movement's blacklist.

..."Anything is better than war and the time that has passed since. It has been the longest six months in Gaza's history, "said one of the residents of Beit Hanoun who is not a Hamas supporter. His house, a pile of rubble, remains the first sight that meets him every morning.

Since Hamas controls the money, they can largely control who gets the cement!

Perhaps this is something people should #AskHamas?

(h/t Dina Grossman)

ISIS victim's father says he is loyal to Israel

From JPost:

As video of their son played on their big-screen television, moments before it showed an armed child shooting him dead, Muhammad Said Musallam’s mother, Hind, averted her eyes. His father, Said, stared icily at the screen.

Sitting in the wood-paneled family room of their modest apartment in Jerusalem’s primarily Jewish Neveh Ya’acov neighborhood on Wednesday, Said watched as his son, clad in an orange jumpsuit, stated that he was an Israeli spy.

The video, released on Tuesday, shows the 19-year-old kneeling in an empty field, with a man and a boy brandishing a pistol standing behind him. The boy, wearing camouflage fatigues, shoots Muhammad in the head, then fires three more rounds into his lifeless body.

...Despite his son’s decision to join the terrorist organization, Said emphasized that he and his family stood with Israel.

“My loyalty is to Israel, because my family lives in Jewish neighborhoods and no one gives us any trouble or complications,” he said.

“We believe that we are family. We have the same father, Abraham."

This confirms that the family live in Neve Yaakov, as I mentioned earlier this week - so they really are Israeli "settlers."

(h/t Alexi)

03/13 Links Pt1: Glick: Israel’s next 22 months; IDF prepares for multi-pronged terror attack from Sinai

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Israel’s next 22 months

Yet as Obama has made clear both throughout his tenure in office, and, over the past week through Malley’s appointment and Menendez’s indictment, Obama holds sole responsibility for the deterioration of our ties with our primary ally. And as his actions have also made clear, Herzog and Livni at the helm will receive no respite in US pressure. Their willingness to make concessions to the Palestinians that Netanyahu refuses to make will merely cause Obama to move the goalposts further down the field. Given his goal of abandoning the US alliance with Israel, no concession that Israel will deliver will suffice.
And so we need to ask ourselves, which leader will do a better job of limiting the danger and waiting Obama out while maintaining sufficient overall US support for Israel to rebuild the alliance after Obama has left the White House.
The answer, it seems, is self-evident.
The Left’s campaign to blame Netanyahu for Obama’s hostility will make it all but impossible for a Herzog-Livni government to withstand US pressure that they say will disappear the moment Netanyahu leaves office.
In contrast, as the US position paper leaked to Yediot indicated, Netanyahu has demonstrated great skill in parrying US pressure. He agreed to hold negotiations based on a US position that he rejected and went along with the talks for nine months until the Palestinians ended them. In so doing, he achieved a nine-month respite in open US pressure while exposing Palestinian radicalism and opposition to peaceful coexistence.
On the Iranian front, Netanyahu’s courageous speech before Congress last week energized Obama’s opponents to take action and forced Obama onto the defensive for the first time while expanding popular support for Israel.
It is clear that things will only get more difficult in the months ahead. But given the stakes, the choice of Israeli voters next Tuesday is an easy one.

Sarah Honig: Buji and the Bomb

Now there’s the rub. How things turn out even for the most well-intentioned statesmen doesn’t always depend on their own much-touted goodwill but on their antagonists’ good faith or lack thereof.
So far, Herzog must concede, Obama’s record on dealing with Iran’s despots has been far from confidence-inspiring. Whether we deem Obama complicit with a rogue’s gallery of regional bad-guys or see him as merely a jinxed serial bungler, the outlook under his stewardship is far from promising.
No sooner did Obama take over at the West Wing than it became clear for those who didn’t avert their gaze that the end is near for the Mideast’s precariously-enduring remnants of delicate equilibrium. Obama ushered in chaos via what he hyped as a trailblazing new departure by the Muslim world’s surprise soul mate. The result was the mega-disaster Obama applauded as the “Arab Spring.”
But that was only the beginning of a tortuous path on which Obama seemed incapable of dodging any pitfalls. Obama consistently betrayed allies and quasi-tolerable hangers-on but was incredibly hands-off toward the true villains of the Mideastern piece.

Michael Lumish: In the Eye of the Whirlpool

Those of us who care about the well-being of Israel and of the Jewish people are in a very curious moment.
The Speech has come and gone and the resultant anti-Netanyahu hysteria seems to be winding down a tad, but nobody is quite sure what we are facing going forward.
There are three major questions in the air at this moment and we will not know how things are shaping up until the outlines of the answers to those questions become clear.
Those questions are concerned with the upcoming Israeli elections, ISIS, and a potential Iranian nuclear weapon.
Until we begin to see the answer to these questions, we are sort-of bobbing in the eye of a political whirlpool.

An Arab Zionist from 1913

Elias el-Ayoubi was born in Acre in 1874.

He moved to Egypt where he was appointed the Director of the Department of Translation in the Senate.

Egypt held a competition for who could write the best history of Egypt under Ismail Pasha (ruled 1863-1879) and Elias won with a two part book "The history of Egypt during the Reign of Khedive Ismail." That book ended up being used as a textbook in Egyptian schools.

Ayoubi died in Egypt in 1927.

He also wrote a history of Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali.

But one early work of his seems to be nearly lost to history.

In 1913, Ayoubi wrote a book called "Voice of Freedom: In defense of the Jewish Nation."

I can only find a single copy of this book, in the Iraqi National Library. (His other two books are at the University of Chicago Library and elsewhere.)

Most biographies of him nowadays do not mention this obviously Zionist book.

Maybe some researcher can track down and translate a copy. It may be very illuminating.

The Pallywood bulldozer (update)

This photo has been going around social media; I saw it on the Fatah Facebook page:

Yeah, sure. No soldiers, no buildings, just an unarmoured bulldozer driver shaking his fist in frustration at those brave Arab women.

All the world might not be a stage, but all of "Palestine" most certainly is.

UPDATE: This appears to be from 1995, as Israel was allegedly clearing land adjacent to Neve Daniel. I can't find any news of Neve Daniel being expanded in 1995. Another photo:

The acting is still acting, though.

(h/t Bob Knot)

The PLO believes that Israel and Hamas are working together to officially create a Hamastan in Gaza as a separate political entity than "Palestine."

The rumor is that Israel and Hamas are working on a plan where Hamas agrees to a five year truce "above and below ground" in exchange for building an airport and seaport from which Hamas can establish independent diplomatic relations with the rest of the world.

PLO member from the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine Rabah Muhanna claims that they received this information from UN representative Robert Serry.

Walid Awad (People's Party) expressed deep concern , saying "the scheme will cut off the road to the establishment of an independent Palestinian state."

Secretary General of the Arab Liberation Front, Mahmoud Ismail, said this is part of the (Zionist/Western) plot to break apart Arab nations, as is happening in Syria, Iraq and Yemen and Libya.

Fatah spokesman Ahmed Assaf spoke of the danger of Hamas negotiating with Israel unilaterally, bypassing the PA, saying, "It does not matter how it was negotiating, directly or indirectly, or through international mediators; each are just as dangerous. It's been a goal of separating Gaza from the West Bank, and it ends our goal of an independent Palestinian state and Jerusalem as its capital, and the other problem is that it (undermines) the PLO leadership as the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people,"

"This shows us now why Hamas wriggled from the implementation of the national reconciliation agreement, they are betting on the support of Israel and other regional powers to establish their own political entity in the Gaza Strip, and therefore they have prevented the government of national reconciliation from exercising their responsibilities and functions in the Gaza Strip."

The Secretary General of the Palestinian Liberation Front Abu Yousef said that "the national project is the establishment of a Palestinian state on the borders of June of 1967, with its capital in East Jerusalem, with the right of return for Palestinian refugees, it is clear that [Hamas] is trying to detract from this project and principles and commits a national crime can not be tolerated \."
.
Of course, the idea that Israel is going to reward Hamas - which is as weak as it has ever been - with its own means to import weapons through the sea and air, in exchange for a promise of a five year truce when most of its truces last hours, is absurd.

It was only a couple of years ago that Hamas did enjoy its political independence, its leaders traveling through Egypt to the Muslim world as if they were their own nation.

Social media hashtag #AskHamas off to a hilarious start

From World Bulletin:

Hamas media coordinator Taher al-Nounou said the group would launch a weeklong interactive campaign starting Friday on social media under the hashtag #AskHamas.

"The campaign is aimed at rejecting the labeling of the Palestinian resistance as 'terrorists'," al-Nounou told.

Al-Nounou said the campaign would primarily target western audiences, especially in the EU, in hopes of encouraging the EU to remove Hamas from its list of "terrorist organizations."

Through the #AskHamas campaign, group members – including senior leaders – will answer questions by western social media users in order to "clarify Hamas' true positions."

I contributed a couple:

#AskHamas Please rank in order of importance: 1. Healthcare 2. Housing 3. Social services 4. Defeating Fatah 5. Tunnels to kill Jews
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) March 12, 2015

#AskHamas Do you import the Israeli flags you burn, or do you manufacture them yourselves? pic.twitter.com/BX7DIyAjqU
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) March 12, 2015

But there are lots of otherslike these from @UKMediaWatch::

#AskHamas how did the audition go for the next Star Wars movie? pic.twitter.com/Lq3N2BHPAz
— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) March 12, 2015

#AskHamas what deficiency do you think this Hamas terrorist is trying to make up for? pic.twitter.com/mYL2iXqzzU
— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) March 12, 2015

And more:

#AskHamas my wife wants to change my rocket launching room into a room for our stupid baby. How should I honor kill her?
— AntiDouchebagIsraeli (@NotAntiSemitic) March 12, 2015

It's just starting, and it's going all week!

03/12 Links Pt2: Rasmea Odeh gets 18 months in prison; Friedman’s Adelson Derangement Syndrome

From Ian:

Rasmea Odeh sentenced to 18 months in prison

Immigration fraudster who concealed Israeli bombing conviction also has U.S. citizenship revoked and will be deported.
Rasmea Odeh was convicted in Israel of the 1969 bombing of the Super Sol supermarket in Jerusalem, in which Hebrew University students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner were killed, in addition to the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.
Rasmea served 10 years of a life sentence before being released in a prisoner exchange in 1979 for an Israeli soldier captured in Lebanon. Rasmea later immigrated to the United States, where she has made Chicago her home since the mid-1990s.
In November 2014, Rasmea was convicted in federal court in Detroit of falsely procuring naturalization, by concealing her Israeli convictions and incarceration.
The evidence supporting both the Israeli and Detroit convictions is overwhelming and from multiple sources, as I demonstrated in Rasmea Odeh rightly convicted of Israeli supermarket bombing and U.S. immigration fraud. Rasmea’s claim that she confessed to the bombing only after several weeks of sexual torture was contradicted by the fact that she confessed one day after arrest, and by corroborating evidence including a filmed interview years later with a co-conspirator. (h/t Bob Knot)

University of Southampton Conference: How to be openly antisemitic in England (satire)

UK Media Watch has obtained the “official”* (*Satire), never-before-seen original program for a three-day conference in mid-April at the University of Southampton examining whether Israel has the right to exist. Though it’s currently titled “International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism“, the “original” version of the program (below) was evidently titled “How to be openly antisemitic in England: International Law and the State of Israel: Legitimacy, Responsibility and Exceptionalism”. (h/t Yenta Press)

Richard Millett forced to turn off camera at Parliament event with Jenny Tonge & David Ward

Last night I went to Parliament for an event staged by the Arab Organisation for Human Rights in the UK. The event Gaza: Life in an occupied and besieged strip was obviously only concerned with the human rights of one group of Arabs.
It was chaired by the Liberal Democrat David Ward MP and the main attraction was Baroness Jenny Tonge who once said “Israel won’t be here forever”.
Tonge complained that “the Palestinians had been denied democracy because the wrong side (Hamas) won” and that Israel defies international law by denying the right of return to anyone who is not a Jew.
Her main complaint was about “the Israel lobby” which, she said, “has its claws in this country” and she claimed nothing was being done about Israel out of fear of being called anti-Semitic.
She called for a total boycott of Israel, said that Jews had led the struggle against apartheid in South Africa

Former "Donald Duck" parlays his Israel-hate into hosting X-Factor Arabia

Remember Wael Mansour?

He caused a stir as year ago with this tweet:

Here is the tweet that lead Disney to end my role as Donald Ducks official voice in Arabic dubbed cartoons in the ME pic.twitter.com/ZLdpN1NrMF
— Wael Mansour (@WaelMansour0) February 6, 2014

Upon further research, we saw that Mansour's original tweet was from six months earlier, and he was never employed by Disney - he was a third party contractor.

In other words, Mansour made up a story about being fired from Disney for hating Israel - and got lots of publicity for the lie.

His stunt just paid off in spades.

Wael Mansour was just named the host of X-Factor Arabia. The headlines about this story all note that he is an important anti-Zionist. It is his main claim to fame!

So there you have it. Saying you hate Israel, and making up a story about how it hurt your career, is a great way to get ahead in the Arab world.

(h/t Shawarma News)

Vic Rosenthal's weekly column:

Some 47 Republican senators led by Tom Cotton of Arkansas have written an open letter to Iranian leaders which points out that according to the US Constitution,

…we will consider any agreement regarding your nuclear-weapons program that is not approved by Congress as nothing more than an executive agreement between President Obama and Ayatollah Khamenei. The next president could revoke such an executive agreement with the stroke of a pen and future Congresses could modify the terms of the agreement at any time.

Like the Iranian missile program, Democrats have gone absolutely ballistic. Fresh from groping the wife of the new Secretary of Defense on camera (see also here), dignified Joe Biden thundered that the act was “beneath the dignity” of the Senate. The New York Daily News’ headline screamedthat the Republican senators were “traitors.”

But not only is the letter entirely correct from a constitutional point of view, there is a recent example of the US reneging on a similar executive agreement, in that case concerning commitments made to Israel.

In 2004, President Bush wrote a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in which he made two significant statements, which the Israeli government interpreted as commitments:

It seems clear that an agreed, just, fair, and realistic framework for a solution to the Palestinian refugee issue as part of any final status agreement will need to be found through the establishment of a Palestinian state, and the settling of Palestinian refugees there, rather than in Israel.

And

As part of a final peace settlement, Israel must have secure and recognized borders, which should emerge from negotiations between the parties in accordance with UNSC Resolutions 242 and 338. In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949, and all previous efforts to negotiate a two-state solution have reached the same conclusion. It is realistic to expect that any final status agreement will only be achieved on the basis of mutually agreed changes that reflect these realities.

But by 2008, even before Bush left office, the State Department was waffling on the latter commitment. National Security Advisor Stephen J. Hadley said in January 2008 that,

The president obviously still stands by that letter of April of 2004, but you need to look at it, obviously, in the context of which it was issued.

The "context," of course, was that at the time the letter was written, the administration wanted Sharon to withdraw from Gaza and some of Samaria, and it would help support that move.

By the time Obama made his Cairo speech in June 2009, the Bush letter had been rendered completely inoperative. Obama insisted that any construction across the Green Line, even within settlements in those areas that were expected to remain in Israel’s hands, was unacceptable. “Settlements must stop,” said Obama, without qualification. Shortly thereafter, instead of “secure and recognized borders,” the concept of an agreement “based on” the 1949 armistice lines was introduced. And the refugee question was now considered a “final status issue” that would need to be negotiated.

On June 1, 2009, Deputy State Department Spokesperson Robert Wood was asked (copied here) by a reporter whether the Bush letter was binding on the Obama Administration. Wood simply would not give a straight answer, no matter how hard he was pressed.

Elliott Abrams, who was National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and North African Affairs at the time (the position recently given to anti-Israel activist Robert Malley), recalled that both sides considered that binding commitments were made, and these commitments were documented in writing. But

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stated on June 17 [2009] that “in looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements. That has been verified by the official record of the administration and by the personnel in the positions of responsibility.”

Abrams, who was certainly in a “position of responsibility” and should know, disagreed. Plenty of documentation exists that there were mutual agreements, he said. But how would Israel “enforce” an agreement that the US had reneged on, he wondered? I suppose you have us there, Ms. Clinton!

So, dear Iranians, here is an example of what a commitment from the President of the United States is worth: take it to Starbucks with three bucks and buy yourselves a latte.

Vic Rosenthal lives in Israel and blogs at abuyehuda.com.

03/12 Links Pt1: Fatah: ‎“Collect your body parts and leave!”‎; The Fatal Myth of Appeasement

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah to Israelis: ‎“Collect your body parts and leave!”‎

Fatah took pride in the terror attack, calling the terrorists “heroes,” and posting a photo of the destroyed bus in which terrorist Dalal Mughrabi and other terrorists killed 37 civilians and wounded over 70 in 1978. As in another post glorifying the attack yesterday, exposed by Palestinian Media Watch, Fatah exaggerated the number of Israelis they murdered as “exceeding 80 casualties” in order to make the attack seem more lethal:
“Collect your body parts and leave!
On this day, March 11, in 1978, Dalal Mughrabi and her companions declared the birth of the Palestinian Republic in the heart of the occupied territories (i.e., Israel). The enemy admitted the death of 30 Zionists in the operation, yet according to the reports the number exceeded 80 casualties. Through this, Fatah heroes retaliated against the Verdun Operation (i.e., Israeli operation against PLO leaders, see below), following the retaliation by the Savoy [Hotel operation] members. Retaliation after retaliation and the windstorms will not subside.” [Fatah’s Facebook page, “Fatah - The Main Page,” March 11, 2015]
The Palestinian Authority and Fatah have turned Dalal Mughrabi into a role model for Palestinians.

Fatah Central Committee Member to PA TV: Dalal Mughrabi, Female Suicide Bombers, Are Our Role Models

In an interview on the official Palestinian Authority TV channel to mark International Women's Day, Fatah Central Committee member Amal Hamad said that Dalal Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road terrorist attack in Israel, and female suicide bombers Wafa Idris and Rim Al-Riyashi were "role models." The interview aired on March 8, 2015.

Jake Lynch: A study in ‘Peace and Conflict’

Professor Jake Lynch, the director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and an ardent opponent of Israel, shouted in the faces of students, including at a senior officer of the Jewish student union. He then proceeded to stand on chairs and film attendees. Lynch screamed that attempts to remove the protestors was a violent attack on freedom of speech by security guards. When another academic suggested that he ask a question, Lynch responded that was not what this is about, only later opting to ask a question when invited by the Colonel.
One student commented that Kemp “hadn’t even mentioned Israel or Palestine” in the time he had to talk. Another student mentioned that she did not have strong views on either side of this issue, was studying international relations and had come expecting a talk, not an ambush.
After about 20 minutes of shouting, the protestors were finally removed from the hall, having objected loudly to their treatment by the security guards and some others present. Kemp, resuming as if nothing had happened, continued to speak on engagement with non-civilian groups in armed conflict. Concluding his talk, Kemp briefly addressed what he termed a “commercial break.”
“This protest was about my perspective on the IDF… I was in Israel during the 2014 summer conflict and I do believe that the IDF in their attack on Hamas in Gaza… were doing everything they could to protect civilians… People have told me I am wrong, but no one has told me what more steps Israel could take to minimize civilian casualties.”
Students, academics and other interested people had come from all over to hear an expert speak on a topical and important subject.

Anti-Zionist-Not-Antisemite Jake Lynch Needs To Explain This

You may recall last year Shurat HaDin Israel Law Centre sued Australian academic Jake Lynch for racial discrimination for his BDS activities. My friend Andrew Hamilton was the lawyer involved. Unfortunately, Shurat HaDin dropped the case and Lynch walked away.
At the time, Lynch denied his BDSholing was racially motivated against Jews.
So let him explain this.
That’s Lynch at a disruptive protest against Colonel Richard Kemp at the University of Sydney, holding money to the face of a Jewish student.
So Mr Lynch, I invited you to explain yourself. I mean, surely this was not an antisemitic gesture, right? Perhaps you just wanted change. Because your actions against Israelis are not racially motivated. I mean, you said so.