Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, June 04, 2015

The bizarre sight of the State Department defending Iran's cheating under the JPOA

On Tuesday, the New York Times wrote a mildly critical article about how Iran's nuclear stockpile is growing, contrary to its agreement with the West:

WASHINGTON — With only one month left before a deadline to complete a nuclear deal with Iran, international inspectors have reported that Tehran’s stockpile of nuclear fuel increased about 20 percent over the last 18 months of negotiations, partially undercutting the Obama administration’s contention that the Iranian program had been “frozen” during that period.

But Western officials and experts cannot quite figure out why. One possibility is that Iran has run into technical problems that have kept it from converting some of its enriched uranium into fuel rods for reactors, which would make the material essentially unusable for weapons. Another is that it is increasing its stockpile to give it an edge if the negotiations fail.

The extent to which Iran’s stockpile has increased was documented in a report issued Friday by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United Nations organization that monitors compliance with nuclear treaties. The agency’s inspectors, who have had almost daily access to most of Iran’s nuclear production facilities, reported finding no evidence that Iran was racing toward a nuclear weapon, and said Tehran had halted work on facilities that could have given it bomb-making capabilities.

This is seriously understating what Iran is doing. As summarized by Omri Ceren at The Israel Project:

The NYT article cites two policy papers from last week: one, the most recent IAEA report and two, a paper by the Institute for Science and International Security (ISIS Nuclear) commenting on the IAEA report. Those respectively live at http://www.isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/iaea-iranreport-05292015.pdf and http://www.isis-online.org/uploads/isis-reports/documents/ISIS_Analysis_IAEA_Report_May_29_2015_Final.pdf
Other findings from the report. The bottom 3 haven't been reported out as far as I know.

-- There's been no progress on getting the Iranians to meet IAEA concerns - Iran is currently under sanctions and they're still jamming up the IAEA. It's not quite clear why the administration thinks the Iranians would be more forthcoming once sanctions are lifted.

-- Somehow 12kg of Iran's enriched uranium is unaccounted for - Open up the ISIS Nuclear report and do a Ctrl-F for "could not explain". I don't think the administration has even been asked about this. Maybe they know where it is, and it's actually a nonissue.

-- Iran is deepening R&D on how to recover 20% enriched uranium scrap and convert it for further enrichment - This one is wonky and it's part of a much broader debate happening on the sidelines. The short version is that the administration is - inexplicably - leaving out various parts of Iran's 20% stockpile in order to get to a 1 year breakout. They're not counting either 20% enriched fuel rods or 20% enriched scrap. The ISIS Nuclear folks are kind of in disbelief at how brazen the move is, because all of that stuff can be recovered and enriched if the Iranians wanted a quick breakout. They’ve written about the fuel rods issue elsewhere (it was in their Lausanne postmortem) but now the scrap part of the stockpile is also becoming an issue. The IAEA discovered, and this is in the recent report, that Iran is deepening its research into how to recover usable, enrichable uranium from scrap. I genuinely can’t imagine what the administration’s answer to this might be from a breakout perspective. Especially because the report also reveals that…

-- The Iranians are creating an ever-growing stockpile of 20% scrap available to reconvert – They’re supposed to be turning parts of their 20% stockpile into fuel rods. Instead most of what they're supposed to be making into fuel is ending up as scrap, which - again - they're researching new ways to ever-more-quickly convert into material that can be enriched to weapons grade levels.

The State Department reacted furiously over even the limited NYT issue. The Tuesday press briefing showed Marie Harf attacking the article:

Harf then doubled and tripled down, with a series of tweets yesterday attacking the article and then with a 15 minute tirade at yesterday's press briefing, an excerpt of which is here:

Besides the facts, which make it fairly clear that Iran is highly unlikely to end up in compliance with the JPOA by the end of this month, opposite of what the White House and State Department have been claiming.

Harf says "I'm not trying to downplay" what Iran is doing, but that is exactly what she is doing, over and over and over again.

It is far more serious than she says.

QUESTION:
Marie, I'm sorry, I just can't -- I don't understand why this isn't more of a concern. If we're only 28 days or so away from a deal, wouldn't you be expecting the Iranians to be reducing their -- their stockpiles to get in line with what they might eventually -- what -- what eventually is the...
HARF:
I mean, Matt, our nuclear experts tell me, and again don't take it from me; you can take it from them, that this is just been the normal course during the JPOA; that what we have built into these negotiations, the fact that on June 30th they have to be back to 7650. And what really matters is how to get that down to 300.
I mean, what people are losing sight of here, and I think this is actually an important point, is that Iran has already agreed to go from that huge number, to reduce that -- what? -- 96 percent, to 300 kilograms. So we can talk about what they're going to do for the next 28 days or what their stockpile looks like now versus two weeks ago. But if we can get a comprehensive joint plan of action, they're going to take that stockpile and reduce it hugely down to 300 kilograms.
So, in terms of the overall stockpile, I just think that's an overall sort of meta-point that people aren't -- aren't paying maybe enough attention to.
QUESTION:
Yeah, but we would -- I mean, if I was engaged in a negotiation with someone and they were supposed to reduce their amount within 28 days, and instead in the previous month or so, they were increasing it, I think that would be a cause for concern.
HARF:
Well, that IAEA number, though, is a snapshot of one day in time. It fluctuates before or after. So that's, I would say...
QUESTION:
So it may not be the same?
HARF:
... it might not be the same today. It probably isn't. And the point is on June 30th, they have said they are going to be where they need to be. They always have been in the past.
Again, I'm not -- if they're not on June 30th, I'm happy to have that conversation.

But if Iran is shown to be cheating under the JPOA, why on Earth would the administration be so convinced that they will not cheat under the JCPOA - when the sanctions will have been at least partially lifted?

Besides the technicalities, the idea that the administration is so strenuously defending Iran instead of using this as a means to pressure Iran for lying - during the negotiations - is the biggest issue. It shows that Iran can cheat with no concern over supposed "snapbacks" or indeed any significant US response.

In fact, President Obama has now explicitly taken the military option off the table - something he had stated in the past was always going to remain on the table. as John Podhoretz notes:

As the June 30 deadline for the Iran nuclear deal approaches, President Obama is putting all his cards on the table — by announcing he is keeping no cards in his hand.
In an astonishing interview with Israel’s Channel 2, the president declared that “the best way to prevent Iran from having a nuclear weapon is a verifiable, tough agreement.

“A military solution will not fix it, even if the United States participates. It would temporarily slow down an Iranian nuclear program, but it would not eliminate it.”

Why is this astonishing? Because Obama is publicly eliminating any American possibility that we will bomb Iran’s nuclear sites even if the deal in which he has invested so much collapses.

Despite his declaration at a Washington synagogue last week that “Iran must not, under any circumstances, be allowed to get a nuclear weapon,” the president is in fact making it very clear Iran will go nuclear, and with his implicit assent.

Period.

There are no sticks in the US posture towards Iran. The US is defending Iran's cheating as noted by a pro-Obama, liberal newspaper. it is ignoring other instances of Iran's actions being problematic. The "snapbacks" are a joke that everyone knows. Iran has been spitting in the face of the West in direct proportion to the White House's public weakness. Iran has also been treating the IAEA wtith utter contempt.

And in the end, Iran will get nuclear weapons because it will do everything it can to cheat on this deal, secure in the knowledge that no one will no anything to stop it except Israel - and the US will do everything it can to stop Israel from acting unilaterally.

The entire situation is unreal, yet it is unfolding before our eyes.

06/03 Links Pt2: Netanyahu: ‘We Have No Better Friend Than Canada’; Time to Fight the Jew Haters

From Ian:

Israelis ‘Believe We Have No Better Friend Than Canada,’ Netanyahu Says

Upon hosting Canadian Foreign Minister Robert Nicholson in Jerusalem on Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israelis believe the Jewish state has “no better friend than Canada.”
Netanyahu cited recent instances of “international hypocrisy,” including the passage of a motion to boycott Israel by the United Kingdom’s National Union of Students “less than a year after they refused to support a boycott of ISIS (Islamic State)” as well as seeing “Turkey and Iran vote to give Hamas affiliate status” at the United Nations.
“I stress these points, Rob, because Canada stands out so clearly and so powerfully against these distortions of truth and distortions of justice, and I want to express the feeling of the people of Israel that we believe we have no better friend than Canada,” Netanyahu told Nicholson. “We value that partnership. It was exemplified last week, two weeks ago, in the vote of Canada, alongside the United States and Great Britain, in rolling back the attempt to single out Israel in the NPT (Non-Proliferation Treaty on nuclear weapons) votes. That is deeply appreciated here.”
Netanyahu also said that the Canadian-Israeli friendship “is a model of the partnership between two democracies, exemplary democracies.”
“Israel values the support, unstinting, unfaltering, of Canada in an international environment that is often marked by cynicism and double talk,” he said. “Canada, led by Prime Minister [Stephen] Harper, is always stalwart and tells the truth. And we think that this is a refreshing wind in an increasingly hostile environment, hostile to the truth.”

Hamas entryism at the UN

As readers may be aware, on June 1st the UN Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations approved the application of the London-based Palestinian Return Centre for UN accreditation.
This vote, however, is only the first stage in the process.
“The 54-nation ECOSOC, which meets in July, has the power to approve or reject the committee’s recommendations and to make the final decision.”
The Palestinian Return Centre has been an illegal organization in Israel since 2010 because of its connections to Hamas. PRC activists and staff regularly crop up in connection with assorted delegitimisation projects and are active in other organisations too – as anyone monitoring and documenting anti-Israel activity well knows. Below, for example, is a photograph from a 2011 visit by British parliamentarians to Lebanon which was jointly organised by the Palestinian Return Centre and the Council for European Palestinian Relations and which included in its itinerary a meeting with Osama Hamdan of Hamas.
Among the PRC’s current projects is a campaign to have Britain apologise for the Balfour Declaration. Previous initiatives have included a public relations campaign on behalf of Palestinian terrorists imprisoned in Israel which was launched at a conference organized by the PRC in 2012. As was noted on our sister site UK Media Watch at the time:

Israel boycott rejected by British university umbrella group

An umbrella group representing Britain’s universities on Wednesday distanced itself from a decision by the country’s student union to boycott Israel a day earlier, saying it was “firmly opposed” to the embargo on the grounds that it contradicts the
principle of “free exchange of ideas.”
Universities UK, which represents 133 British universities, said in a statement that it wanted to make clear its rejection of the boycott passed by the UK National Union of Students, joining official London in speaking out against the vote.
“Given the reported perception in Israel that UK universities support an academic boycott, the board of Universities UK wishes to confirm its previously stated position that it is firmly opposed to any academic boycott of Israeli universities,” the statement read.

Egypt's National Center for Translation has just released an Arabic translation of the Torah.

To be precise, they converted Rav Saadia Gaon's 10th century translation of the Torah to Judeo-Arabic into Arabic itself. (Judeo-Arabic is mostly Arabic with Hebrew letters.)

The Egyptian scholars who published the book emphasize that R' Saadia was born in Egypt (in Fayoum, identified by R' Saadia himself as the Biblical Pitom) and that his philosophy and translations were heavily influenced by Islam. They even claim that he borrows Quranic texts in some of his translations to Arabic.

They don't emphasize that R' Saadia moved to Eretz Yisrael when he was in his teens, to study in Tiberias. Yes, he was a Zionist! (He ended up heading a major academy in Babylonia.)

This article is quite positive towards R' Saadia, and it part of a change in tone in Egyptian media towards Jews in recent months. (This story itself was mentioned in several newspapers.)

I've briefly mentioned a new Ramadan TV series called "Jewish Quarter" that looks back nostalgically at when Jews lived in Egypt.

There was another article today that sadly relates that Egypt's Jewish community, which numbered 80,000 in 1947, has dwindled down to only seven elderly women.

A recent Egyptian museum lecture was entitled "One God, three religions" and included the Jewish woman who leads the Egyptian community along with prominent Islamic and Coptic leaders.

It seems likely that this new attitude towards Jews is related to President Sisi's administration.

It takes a while for attitudes to change but, at least with Egyptian media, this change is noticeable.

Arab League Instructs Palestinians To Put Lotion In Basket (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Cairo, June 3 - The League of Arab States admonished the Palestinian nation to apply the lotion to its skin and return the lotion bottle to the basket, or else suffer the hose again, League officials reported Wednesday.

The Arab League has held the fate of Palestinians hostage almost since its inception in 1945, exploiting Palestinian statelessness and dependence to distract from internal problems among the other 21 members. Palestinians have since 1948 been restricted to a deep pit in the League's basement from which they cannot climb out, and remain at the mercy of the other 21 League members. With some frequency, the League lowers a basket on a long rope, containing a squeezable bottle of skin lotion, which the Palestinians are ordered to apply.

"It rubs the lotion on its skin," said the League. "It puts the lotion in the basket."

Palestinians have grown loath to raise objections to their treatment at the hands of their fellow Arabs, which involves keeping them imprisoned in squalid conditions, rather than leaving them to determine their own future. Each time the Palestinians have resisted, they have been doused in cold water.

"It rubs the lotion in its skin or it gets the hose again," the League said.

Matter-of-fact threats, however, do not always suffice to get the Palestinians to comply. On one recent occasion the threat prompted not a placing of the lotion in the basket, but pleading for mercy and wanting to be let go. That outpouring of pleading sparked a harsh vocal response from the League.

"Put the lotion in the basket!" it yelled, uncharacteristically addressing the Palestinians in the second person and emphasizing the demand with profanity. Under normal circumstances, the League refrains from addressing them in the second person, which carries associations of humanity and selfhood, so as to avoid confronting the misery its policies and attitude wreak on the very real, very human Palestinians. Since, however, for its own purposes the League needs the Palestinians to apply the lotion and put it back in the basket, it cannot absolutely abandon the second person and is occasionally forced to break with the policy of employing the pronoun "it." When that happens, the League can be seen to briefly struggle visibly with pain and self-doubt, but those are quickly dispelled by the shouted assertion of dominance.

Outside international efforts to rescue the Palestinians have so far come to naught, as the League members and their allies in the UN control the conditions under which the Palestinians are kept. The League continues to ignore requests by Palestinians to determine their own future and enjoy the benefits of freedom that citizenship in an actual state confers, instead subjugating Palestinian fate to the precious domestic and political needs of other League members.

Experts do not expect the situation to improve without a real transformation of the league. According to political analyst Dr. Hannibal Lecter, a genuine metamorphosis must take place if the Palestinians are to be removed from the dry well, which is not currently in the interests of the League as it sees them.

06/03 Links Pt1: Britain’s student union refused to boycott ISIS, yet passed motion boycotting Israel.

From Ian:

Netanyahu pans UK students for boycotting Israel but not IS

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu hit back at the UK’s National Union of Students hours after it passed a motion to boycott Israel, calling the group hypocritical for singling out the Jewish state while it rejected an earlier motion to condemn the Islamic State group.
“They boycott Israel but they refuse to boycott ISIS. That tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement. They condemn Israel and do not condemn ISIS; they condemn themselves,” Netanyahu said Wednesday, using acronyms for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement and Islamic State, the radical terror group that has established a self-styled caliphate in Syria and Iraq.
“Israel has an exemplary democracy. We have academic freedom, press freedom, human rights. ISIS tramples human rights to the dust,” he said in remarks delivered alongside visiting Canadian Foreign Minister Robert Nicholson.
“It burns people alive in cages and the national student groups in Britain refuse to boycott ISIS and have boycotted Israel. It tells you everything you want to know about the BDS movement,” he said.
Netanyahu also took a swipe at Turkey and Iran for working to legitimize Hamas, the terror group that rules the Gaza Strip, at the United Nations.
“At the same time, in the UN, we’ve seen Turkey and Iran vote to give Hamas affiliate status – Hamas. Hamas fires rockets on our cities while hiding behind Palestinian civilians, hiding behind Palestinian children. It tells you about international hypocrisy a lot,” Netanyahu said, referring to a United Nation decision to support the Palestinian Return Center, which Israel alleges is linked to the Gaza Strip’s Hamas leaders.

Britain’s student union votes to boycott Israel

The NUC is the UK’s umbrella student organization for some 600 higher education institutions representing 7 million students.
The motion “condemns Israeli military presence in the West Bank and Gaza,” and calls on students to “co-ordinate a nationwide student day of action to commemorate UN Palestine Solidarity Day on 29 November,” the Jewish Chronicle reported.
“Justice for Palestine” also included amendment 518a, a provision proposed by the student union of the School of Oriental and African Studies in London formally aligning the student organization with the BDS initiative. After a heated debate, 19 Executive Council members voted in favor of the provision, 14 against and one abstained.
The Jewish Chronicle reported that the vote took place through a secret ballot, and was originally scheduled to take place at the NUC’s annual conference in April, but was postponed until June due to lack of time to debate the issue.
An Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesperson said the decision had “little practical implications, since this body has already voiced anti-Israel opinions in the past.”
“Instead of expressing hatred, British students would benefit from studying history and understanding that the distance between conveying hate language and prejudice to committing despicable crimes is not that great,” the spokesperson said.
In the wake of the vote, the British Government restated its firm opposition to calls to boycott Israel.
In a statement, the deputy British ambassador to Israel, Dr. Rob Dixon, said: “We are deeply committed to promoting the UK’s trade and business ties with Israel, as part the flourishing partnership between the two countries. The reality is one of rapidly strengthening links between British and Israeli universities in science and academic cooperation.
“As David Cameron has said, the UK Government will never allow those who want to boycott Israel to shut down 60 years worth of vibrant exchange and partnership that does so much to make both our countries stronger,” the statement added.

'It's not politically correct to be anti-Semitic, but it's super-in to be anti-Israel'

The boycott, divestment and sanctions movement is the new anti-Semitism and wants to destroy Israel, Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked said Wednesday, in response to a motion to the agenda from coalition and opposition MKs calling to fight those who seek to delegitimize Israel.
The discussion was marked by shouting matches over whether BDS is an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic movement or simply seeks to bring an end to Israel's presence in areas liberated in 1967.
"BDS opposes Israel as the Jewish state. It wants to blacken us and destroy us as a Jewish and democratic state," Shaked explained. "The boycotters don't talk about Judea and Samaria, they talk about the state of Israel."
According to Shaked "it's not politically correct to be anti-Semitic today, but it's super-in to be anti-Israel," and as such, "people used to delegitimize the Jews and now they do it to our state."
"BDS is anti-Semitism in new clothes," she added.
Shaked called to fight back against BDS and "boycott the boycotters" and listed the many government ministries, including hers, that are taking part in the efforts to fight delegitimization, bringing MK Bassel Ghattas (Joint List) to interject: "It won't work."
"Israel will continue to be a light unto the nations," Shaked vowed.

Britain’s student union refused to boycott ISIS, yet passed motion boycotting Israel. #BeyondParody

The NUS executive council passed a motion put forward by the School of Oriental and African Studies students union just yesterday to boycott Israel, and voted to align themselves with the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign – a movement whose leaders explicitly call for the end of the Jewish state.
(NUS has previously passed resolutions condemning UKIP and former Education Minister David Lammy)
Per Foxton, it seems clear that the ‘progressive’ student leaders at NUS who were concerned that condemning ISIS (the most barbaric movement on the planet) would stigmatize Muslims, yet evidently were unburdened by fears that their decision to single out the only Jewish state (and the only progressive democracy in the Mid-East) would stoke antisemitism – racism against Jews which reached record levels in the UK in 2014.
Though NUS’s boycott motion will have little if any effect on Israel, the impact on British Jews – the overwhelming majority of whom identify strongly with the Jewish state – may be significant. Such stunningly hypocritical campaigns which single out Israel – and only Israel – for condemnation are in effect telling Jews that they identify with a morally odious movement, an association which places them on the wrong side of history.
As we’ve argued previously, the moral distinction between the statements “Zionists are our misfortune” and “Jews are our misfortune” is increasingly meaningless, insofar as the lives of actual Jews are concerned.

Fatah Facebook page seems to have been taken down

The Fatah Facebook page disappeared sometime in the past day.

It's associated Twitter account is silent but it mentioned a number of new photos posted yesterday so the page still existed then.

The official Fatah webpage still points to the Facebook page.

This page has published pure hate and antisemitism in the past,

It has consistently and explicitly supported terror since it was started in 2012.

It has featured images of Fatah dragging the body of a Jewish soldier through the streets of Lebanon in 1982,

And last year it featured this image of peace and love:

For Palestinians, even car collecting is an anti-Israel hobby

Khaled Hodali, 56, of Ramallah, collects old cars. He has three classic cars in his collection: a 1942 Vauxhall a 1953 Mercedes and a 1963 Mercedes.

He rents them out to the people in Ramallah for special occasions.

But he tells people that he collects cars to remember the Nakba.

Hodali claims that his mother owned this exact Vauxhall before 1948, and that he painstakingly tracked it down to an elderly Israeli owner who refused to sell it, but when he died he bought it for $25,000 from his son.

1938 Vauxhall 10-4

He says "this treasure holds the history of our people who have been displaced from their country by the criminal Zionist gangs at the time, as well as the historical legacy that it tells the story of the people lived before the Nakba."

Hodali hopes to "return" to his mother's village in Israel with this car.

As far as I can tell, Vauxhall did not manufacture any cars in 1942, having retooled to build armored vehicles for the war. The chances that this car was driven by his mother seem remote indeed.

But the chances that Palestinian Arabs can politicize literally anything to make an anti-Israel statement is very close to 100%.

Perhaps someone can compile a list of other places that Westerners give billions of dollars of aid that have people with the time and cash to collect vintage cars - or even the time and money to rent them.

FIFA updates, including Jibril Rajoub's latest lies

From AFP:

Palestinian football chief Jibril Rajoub on Tuesday said he took full responsibility for an 11th-hour decision to withdraw a bid to have FIFA suspend Israel from the world footballing body.

The surprise decision was announced by Rajoub on Friday at the annual FIFA congress in Zurich minutes before the vote, reportedly sparking jubilation in Israel but deep-rooted frustration among the Palestinians, some of whom have demanded his resignation as head of Palestinian Football Association (PFA).

"I take full responsibility for this matter," he told reporters in Al-Bireh near Ramallah, insisting that the resolution had not been dropped but only suspended.

"From the start, I said this was about sport, not politics."

AFP, of course, swallows that line whole.

Even though Rajoub has said the exact opposite in the past.

In fact, even later in the same interview he contradicted himself:

He said that cornering Israel over its actions both on and off the pitch putting was "a historic and important milestone in the history of Palestinian sports."

Yes, the most important milestone in Palestinian sports is - political!

He defines sports as politics!

Rajoub also said that not only would his bid to ban Israel not reach the 75% majority needed, but that he couldn't muster half the votes necessary:

Rajoub admitted the PFA had come under a lot of pressure from fellow associations as well as from UEFA chief Michel Platini to back off from the move.

"Most of the football associations told us they would vote against us if we presented the motion as it was," he said.

"We modified the motion and froze the suspension until FIFA is able to investigate."

Some readers were skeptical about whether Rajoub's amended resolution, that passed with 90% of the FIFA vote, really included language calling Israel "racist" as I had reported based on a Haaretz article.

I still cannot find the text on the FIFA site, but the Palestinian football Association published what they said was the text of the resolution, and according to them it most certainly does:

Amendment to the Proposal Presented by the Palestine Football Association for Approval During the 65th FIFA Congress

In order to end the suffering and discrimination of our Palestinian football family at the hands of the illegal and racist occupation of our land, we have presented a proposal for a final solution. After several meetings with Mr. Blatter, Mr. Valkce, and representatives from different confederations and associations, with the aim to facilitate the feasibility and implementation of our proposal, we have made the following clarification.

The proposal stipulates 3 main concerns of the PFA in regards of IFA violations of FIFA Statutes, including:

1. Restrictions of Palestinian rights for the freedom of movement. Players and football officials both within and outside the borders of the occupied State of Palestine, have been systematically restricted from their right to free movement, and continue to be hindered, limited, and obstructed by a set of unilateral regulations arbitrarily and inconsistently implemented. This constitutes a direct violation by IFA of Article 13.3 of the FIFA Statute, specifically in relation to Article 13.1 (i) and its correspond articles in UEFA rules;

2. The continued racism and discriminatory behaviour of IFA officials and clubs in direct violation of not only the principles of FIFA, (including FIFA's no-tolerance policy against racism and discrimination) but specifically in violation of Article 3 of the FIFA Statute and corresponding UEFA rules; and

3. The grave concern over at least five Israeli clubs located in illegal settlements in the occupied State of Palestine. The presence of the Israeli clubs, located in territory recognized by the international community as part of the State of Palestine, constitutes a direct violation of Articles 83 and 84 of the FIFA Statutes, including relevant UEFA rules.

As a viable and effective resolution to the above issues and violations of FIFA Statutes, it is proposed that:

· FIFA will appoint a multi-lateral monitor group to work directly under the rules of the FIFA Ethics, Legal, and Discrimination committees, and will be composed of International Observers;

· The monitor group will ensure the freedom of the PFA to develop its activities at the highest level possible, and be in accordance with FIFA requirements and standards, with special attention to Article 3 of FIFA Statutes and under FIFA's objectives as described in article 2 of the said Statutes;

· The monitor group will supervise the possible infringement of FIFA rules by IFA and their clubs, with special attention to Article 3 of FIFA Statutes;

· The Congress, if approved by a majority as established under Article 27.6 of FIFA Statutes, and based on its prerogatives under article 14.1 of the said Statutes, will act in accordance with Articles 83.2 and 84 of FIFA Statutes. If shown to be true that these Israeli teams discussed are based on, and playing out of occupied Palestinian lands, the Israeli Football Association will face the consequences of Article 14.1 in relation to Articles 13.1 and 13.2,; and

· In order to prove the territorial issue, which will be the basis for any measures implemented by FIFA statutes, FIFA will request the United Nations to officially notify FIFA of UN General Assembly Resolution 67/19.

There are two published at the site, and they aren't the same, so it is possible that the text changed before the actual vote, but at least one phrase that is here was quoted by AFP verbatim as being part of the resolution. AFP also wrote that the committee was charged to investigate "Israeli racism."

And the person heading this committee happens to be the person that Rajoub recently hosted on a biased tour of "Palestine," Tokya Sexwale of South Africa.

Hamas/Salafi intrafada heats up - and Hamas sets up checkpoints!

No, I am not referring to this story from earlier today.

Yesterday, IMEMC reported:

A group claiming allegiance with ISIS issued a statement, Sunday, claiming responsibility for assassinating a senior Hamas commander in the Gaza Strip, by detonating his store in Khan Younis.

The group, calling itself Supporters of the Islamic State in Beit al-Maqdis, said it assassinated Saber Siam for what it claimed, “participating in the heretical war against the Mujahidin," and called on Hamas to “end its war on religion in Gaza, or face the consequences.”

The group also warned the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip to stay away from government-run offices and facilities, and all Hamas-run security or military centers, in the coastal region. Hamas officials and Hamas-run websites did not comment on the attack.

Earlier the month, the group fired shells into a training center for the Al-Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas in Khan Younis, Agence France Presse said.

The attack is believed to be related to an alleged attack by Hamas on a mosque, reportedly “frequented by ISIS supporters plotting against the government,” in Deir al-Balah.

And today:

A suspected Salafist gunman was killed by Hamas security officers in the Sheikh Radwan neighborhood of Gaza City on Tuesday morning, security sources told Ma'an.

Sources said that officers arrived at the house of 27-year-old Yussef al-Hatarman with the intention of arresting him because he was keeping "illegal" weapons.

"The officers asked him to turn himself in, but he refused and threatened to blow himself up," they said.

They said that security officers then clashed with the gunman, "and managed to hit him before he could blow himself up."

Witnesses reported seeing an ambulance remove a second casualty from the building following the gun battle, though this was not confirmed.

Here's the weapons stash Hamas claims to have found in Hatarman's home:

See? Hamas is a moderate force fighting ISIS terrorists! We're practically allies!

But the best part is this, from FT:

Night-time security checkpoints have gone up around Gaza City over the past month — the most visible sign of a crackdown by the ruling Islamist movement Hamas on local followers of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (or Isis).

Checkpoint? Aren't they the worst possible thing anyone can do to anyone else? Aren't they a basic violation of the fundamentals of human rights? Aren't checkpoints a war crime?

Oh, sorry. It all depends on the context.

(h/t Yoel, Adam L)

06/02 Links Pt2: Yes Peter Beinart Anti Zionism is Anti Semitism; How low can the UN sink?

From Ian:

Yes Peter Beinart Anti Zionism is Anti Semitism

Zionism, the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, brought about the establishment of the State of Israel, and views a Jewish, Zionist, democratic and secure State of Israel to be the expression of the common responsibility of the Jewish people for its continuity and future.
Therefore to be Anti-Zionist is to declare that the Jewish people, unlike every other people does not have the right to self determination, Being anti Zionist means viewing the creation of the Jewish state, as an “injustice and historic error” that should be reversed . It is anti-Semitism pure and simple.
One would have hoped Mr. Beinart would be far more than “worried” about the trends he describes among young American Jews. Mr. Beinart is self-proclaimed believer in a Jewish state alongside a Palestinian democratic state, calling out Anti Zionism for what it Isanti Semitism it is an imperative to do this at every opportunity…and regardless one’s position on current Israeli policy to aggressively challenge it at every opportunity.
In his article Beinart notes the following:
Omar Barghouti declared late last year at Columbia University: “We’ve got to give credit to Netanyahu. Without him we could not have reached this far.
But Barghouti is not an opponent solely of “settlement” nor does he share Beinart’s 2 state solution and his definition of occupied Palestine stretches from the “river to the sea” it doesn’t stop at the Green Line. Barghouti is gloating that he has succeeded in a giant shell game gaining support for a policy opposed to the existence of Israel by manipulating opponents of the occupation into supporters of BDS. Yet Beinart puts the blame on current Israeli policies with regards to areas over the Green line not Baarghouti’s anti-Semitic denial of the right of Jews to self-determination. And his reaction to this is limited to “worry”.
How much better would it be if Mr. Beinart a self-proclaimed advocates of a two state solution with two democratic states and the young students he describes to ask the Mr. Barghouti and his followers 2 questions. 1. Please draw a map of what you consider to be occupied Palestine? 2. In your envisioned outcome would Jewish citizens have exactly equal rights to all other citizens anywhere in Palestine/Israel?

How low can the UN sink?

But the UN’s next move against Israel is already being planned: according to a Y-Net report, the “UN secretary-general’s envoy for Children and Armed Conflict recommended this week to include the IDF on a blacklist of countries and organizations accused of regularly causing harm to children. The blacklist includes terror organizations like al-Qaeda, Boko Haram, the Islamic State, and Taliban, as well as African countries such as the Republic of Congo, the Central African Republic and others.”
As the report notes, the UN is “facing heavy pressure from the Palestinians, their supporters and human rights organizations to include the Israeli army on the list.” However, few people know that this kind of “pressure” is in part generated by the UN itself, which sustains “a whole network of anti-Israel institutions ” that were built up in the wake of the infamous “Zionism is Racism”-resolution of 1975. Even though the resolution was repealed in 1991, this “network of extremely well-funded UN structures and offices” continues to exist to this day.
Needless to say, those who love the Nazi-slogan “Die Juden sind unser Unglück” in its 21st-century version “The Jewish State is our misfortune” are excited about the prospect to have the IDF equated with terror organizations like al-Qaeda and the Islamic State (IS) – and as was only to be expected, Max Blumenthal tweeted the Y-Net report adding the hashtag JSIL, which he popularized to associate Israel with the terror group Islamic State (once known as ISIL, i.e. Islamic State in the Levant) as “Jewish State in the Levant” (JSIL).
If the UN will once again please Jew-haters everywhere with yet another bigoted condemnation that puts the IDF on the same level as savage terror groups like IS remains to be seen. But in the unlikely case that the UN actually cares about the welfare of Palestinian children, Leila Zerrougui, the Special Representative for Children and Armed Conflict, could highlight the longstanding abuse of Palestinian children as child-soldiers – indeed, campaigning against this kind of child abuse is supposedly an important part of her work. While all Palestinian factions have used children to fight, nowadays mostly Hamas and other Gaza terror groups openly boast of providing military training to children; one of the most recent examples is a “graduation ceremony” in a Gaza kindergarten. (h/t Alexi)

'Catch a Jew' Reveals Surprising 'Tribe' Fueling Hate (h/t zozosophie)

When it comes to Middle East peace, the world often asks what prevents Israelis and Palestinians from making it work. A new book blames a hidden party for fueling the hate between the two.

In view of some current publicity about the Farhud of 1941 and the latter’s ripple-like repercussions for the Jews of the Arab world, I’ve decided to focus in this week’s column on the pogroms that occurred in Libya in November 1945.

Born in northern England, the son of Lithuanian-born rabbi and scholar M. H. (Moshe Zvi) Segal, who made aliya in 1926 and became a renowned professor at the Hebrew University – Judah Benzion (Ben) Segal (1912-2003) would himself become a distinguished academic.

His knowledge of Arabic ensured that at the outbreak of the war young Segal, with the rank of lieutenant, was appointed to British Intelligence in North Africa; he served, as a captain, at the general headquarters of the Middle East Force from 1942-43, and in 1943 helped to achieve the surrender to the Allies of the Italian garrison at Derna, the second largest city in Cyrenaica, a feat for which he was awarded the Military Cross. From 1945-46 he served as Education Officer in the British Military Administration in Tripolitania.

‘It was 9.30 on Friday morning, a holiday for the Moslem members of my department,’ he would recall regarding events that erupted in Tripoli in the first week of November 1945 and spread.

‘But none of the Christian officials had arrived either. There was an ominous silence in the air. I realised suddenly that there was no traffic on the roads. Ill at ease, I brushed aside my correspondence, and went out into the crisp sunshine. I saw that one, then another, and finally a succession of the concrete houses of the New City carried on their walls the freshly painted legend “Italiano.”

The message was clear.

If I had not understood I was to be enlightened soon enough. A low growl could be heard from the distance. Suddenly they appeared – young hoodlums in their hundreds, sweeping along the road some ten or fifteen abreast screaming “Yahud, Yahud”…’

Standing firm on the spot – owing not to any feelings of bravery but to sheer amazement at what met his eyes and ears – Segal, evidently appearing stern and resolute in his captain’s uniform, was unmolested by the mob. The yelling procession snaked around him, single-mindedly intent on causing havoc in the Jewish quarter: ‘Then the looting started, shop windows were smashed, and doors battered down.’

Jumping into his military vehicle, Segal

‘visited the Jewish schools in the ghetto area. There was little panic. The children who lived nearby had been sent home; they had nothing to fear, for the Jewish district was too densely populated to be penetrated by even the most daring of the mob.

The staff, mostly Italian Jews, stood in a little knot, speaking in whispers, making their plans calmly with their leader, a professor from Rome, a small ungainly woman with an aquiline nose and nervous smile. I put some children on my lorry and returned them to their mothers in the New City.’

Then,

‘From a remote building I heard moaning. In the bare courtyard, an old Jewish woman in Arab dress sat on the ground, her face streaked with blood, swaying to and fro, keening rhythmically.

Some yards away a man lay wrapped in his coat; his head had been battered like the cheap pans beside him.

Where had the mob gone? Where had they entered here? It was useless to question the woman; God had given and God had taken away.’

Knowing that the police and the military had been alerted, Segal drove back to headquarters:

‘In the palatial villa of the mess everything appeared normal. The fountain played in the sunshine, deck chairs were set out, as usual under the arches, aperitifs stood on the table. The servants reminded me that the Brigadier [Temple] had gone on leave to Cairo. And only a few hundred yards away murderers were hunting down their victims’.

He later wrote:

‘It was the unsuspecting Jews of the outlying villages who were helpless, and the killings were many – in all, I think, more than 130. We could chart on the map the progress of murder, rape and looting passing from Tripoli across the countryside – east, west and south, like a well-organised contagion.

At some points it needed only one or two men to halt the onset – as at Homs where a brave British officer and a Jewish doctor from Alexandria stood at the entrance to the Jewish quarter and threatened to blow out the brains of the first rioter to approach.

Everywhere the bloodshed continued for two days. Jewish refugees were brought to a hastily constructed camp in the capital, I escorted a cortège from Zawiya – one lorry heaped with the bodies of the dead, others with their relatives and friends, some wounded, all dazed and silent, clutching their mean bundles. There was no passion, but submission to the inevitable.’

Reported The Times (8 November 1945):

‘Reports up to yesterday gave totals of 74 Jews and one Arab killed, and 183 Jews, 36 Arabs, and two Italians injured.…

The disturbances began on Sunday night, and were repeated the next night when the mob attacked the Jewish quarter in an eastern suburb. It was here that the heaviest casualties were caused, 40 Jews being killed and scores wounded. The Tripolitanian provinces generally remained quiet, but in the eastern provinces there were riots at Cussabat and Zliten…

Stern measures have been taken to prevent further outrages, including a curfew, intensive patrolling by troops and police, who have orders to shoot all looters and to open fire, if necessary, to disperse groups of more than five persons.

The curfew at first was from 9 p.m. to 5 a.m., but was confined to the city of Tripoli, but yesterday it was extended throughout Tripolitania and prolonged till 6 a.m. Plundering has been proclaimed an offence punishable by death, and the British administration has publicly announced that it will not hesitate to increase its measures until peace is restored…

Brigadier Temple, the British military commander in Tripoli, yesterday received the members of the Arab Advisory Council, headed by the Grand Cadi, and informed them that they must exercise their influence and authority to re-establish law and order.’

The following day the paper advised:

‘The death roll in the Tripolitania riots is now over 100. A statement received in Cairo tonight from the public information office at Tripoli says that though the city is quiet further attacks against Jews are reported from the provinces. On Tuesday night rioting occurred at Zliten, in the eastern province, and at Zavia and Zanzur, in the western province.

There was a particularly brutal assault in the Jewish quarter of Zanzur, where Arabs looted and set fire to houses and a synagogue. Over thirty Jews, including children, were killed in this attack.

At Zavia six Jews lost their lives. Troops were forced to open fire on the mob several times …’

It added:

‘The Governor of Cairo today called on the Grand Rabbi and expressed the Government’s regret at the attacks on Jews in Cairo last Friday [instigated by the Muslim Brotherhood and rightwing nationalists, apparently trying to whip up anti-Jewish feeling on the anniversary of the Balfour Declaration]. He said that the Egyptian Government had decided to rebuild at its own expense the [Ashkenazi] synagogue that was looted and burned by the rioters.

An official statement issued last night forbids the holding of meetings and demonstrations on November 13, the Egyptian national day.’

The murders, sexual violence, looting, and incendiarism in Libya subsided as the British restored order.

To quote Ben Segal:

‘After a couple of weeks, the situation – in the words of the Army authorities – was under control. The Governor had returned to his post at Tripoli. I suppose there was an official inquiry – there usually is. Arab extremists who had been detained after the outbreak of the riots were released. And within a few months (was it by coincidence?) three Jewish officers in the Military Administration had been transferred to duties outside Libya – the major responsible for the municipality (who had been outstandingly successful in his dealings with Arab officials), a doctor, and myself.’

Some 700 Muslims in all were arrested for taking part in the disturbances, which in addition to taking Jewish lives, left hundreds of Jews injured, caused panic among Libya’s non-Muslim minorities, and triggered a refugee crisis.

Reflected Segal:

‘From 1949 the Jewish community of Libya – even the ancient settlement of cave-dwellers at Tarhuna – virtually ceased to exist. Many emigrated to a new life in Israel. Only a handful remained in Tripoli and Benghazi to become the target of anti-Israel malice after the Six-Day War.

The Jews of Libya had never played an important part in the life of their country – they were no more than a pawn in a sinister game of politics. We need not point the finger at the fanatical ignorant Moslem mob. But it should be part of the training of every Foreign Office official and of every responsible journalist to witness at first hand the violence of a rampaging mob – and to learn how fanaticism and violence are manipulated.’

His account was printed in the Jewish Chronicle of 13 November 1970, when he was a prominent academic covered with honours. For since 1946 he had lectured in Hebrew and Aramaic at the School of Oriental Studies (Professor of Semitic Languages from 1961) – that constituent of London University which (as SOAS) is now notorious for rampant hostility to Israel – retiring in 1978, and serving from 1982-85 as Principal of Leo Baeck College.

An echo of the events of November 1945 in the form of the Libyan pogrom of June 1967 was provided to the Jewish Chronicle of 21 February 1969 by a non-Jewish New Zealander, Miss Joanne Holland, who had in December 1968 returned to London from Libya, where she had worked as a secretary since 1966 and where she got to know a number of Jews.

The pogrom she described entailed harrowing murders and the burning to the ground of Jewish homes and businesses. Armed police, she said, stood idly by while Jewish-owned shops were broken into, looted, and set alight. Such premises included a restaurant-cum-liquor store; Arab rioters ran up and down the street swigging the drink from the stolen bottles, and going back for more, while four armed soldiers with grins on their faces looked on. A family of Jews who barricaded themselves in their apartment for over a week were shocked when their Arab neighbours, whom they'd lived alongside for 30 years, attempted to gain entry and set the place ablaze.

Children as young as eight were among the mob, and Joanne Holland was "horrified to see women, under normal circumstances never seen, except occasionally peeping out from behind their veils, standing by and watching the destruction and murder with apparent glee".

She herself was several times surrounded by Libyan crowds, and spat at, and once, when visiting a Jewish family, she was almost killed by Arabs wielding iron bars and knives.

She recalled that one Jew, who having hidden in his house for about a week, ventured outside to discover the fate of the shop he owned. Arabs recognised him and gave chase, so he ran towards a police car, expecting assistance. Instead of rescuing him, the police ran him over.

One evening, a jeep-load of armed police led by a colonel took two Jewish families – comprising a total of thirteen persons including two young children – from their home on the pretext of taking them to the airport so that they might reach safety. The families were, however, driven out into the desert, and put to death.

The murderous colonel later explained that he had "wanted to avenge my Arab brothers" (i.e. for Israel's victory in the Six Day War). However, this appears somewhat disingenuous. To quote Lucky Nahum, in an observation to me:

‘I am one of the 6,000 Jews in Libya that suffered through the pogrom of 1967 and ultimately exiled. [T]he pogrom was not in reaction to Israel's victory in the Six Day War; if so, it would have started at the war's end. The pogrom began on the very first day of the war, a typically sunny day in Tripoli that turned out to be the beginning of the last pogrom in Libya. [S]ince this was not a reaction to the humiliating defeat of the Arab nations by Israel, it needs to be re-evaluated. I have heard many "excuses" for the pogrom of 1967 (and those before), none that are worthy of consideration. Nasser and his Pan-Arab dreams had fed the beast that desired to not only see Israel destroyed but clearly all Jews.’

The Libyan authorities had finally permitted Jews to leave Libya on temporary travel documents, which prohibited them from taking their belongings or more than £20 with them and would not permit them to return after being away for four months. Those that departed were herded together at dawn by armed soldiers in the forecourt of a hotel, and were surrounded by hostile Arabs shouting and swearing.

What particularly struck Joanne Holland during the pogrom was the unwillingness of westerners stationed in Tripoli to intervene and try to help the Jews being harassed and hunted. What also shocked her was the apathy of contacts in London, to whom she recounted what she'd witnessed. "[T]hey seemed bored and showed no interest," she said. "Many Britons still had some romantic concept of the Arabs. How wrong they were."

Al Aqsa sheikh preaches blood libel from the Temple Mount

From Palestinian Media Watch:

Sheikh Khaled Al-Mughrabi, teaches Islam twice a week in the Al-Aqsa Mosque:

"The Children of Israel have more than one god... They say that our god is number ten. It's an internal [secret] matter of theirs...

They have smaller gods, from one to nine, and they have gods who are stronger than Allah, from 11 to 34. Devil or Satan is number 11 for them. If you look at history, my brothers, you'll see that the number 11 is holy for the Jews, and 666 is also a holy number, three times six signifies the Devil.

These two numbers, 11 and three times six, are holy numbers. Everything they wish to happen, or that they want to do and succeed at, they try to make happen on the 11th of the month... Therefore, notice the attacks on America (i.e., 9-11 attack on World Trade Center) that took place. When were they? On the 11th of the month. Why? Because who was behind them? ... It's known that the Jews were behind them. The evidence discovered afterward points to the fact that the Jews were behind the attack...

I will show you the ways of Satan, through which he deceives the Children of Israel... The first way is the promise of eternal life... The American film industry is owned by the Children of Israel. Among the most notable film [themes] that this film industry focuses on is the idea of eternal life. You can see films, all of which are about vampires. On what is this idea based? On the fact that if you killed a human being and drank his blood in a certain way, you would attain eternal life. Why did Satan put this in their minds? To cause them to spill each other's blood. One will kill the other and drink his blood, and thus attain eternal life...

The Children of Israel had the holiday of Pesach, what is now called Passover. Every holiday, every group would look for a small child, kidnap and steal him, bring a barrel called the barrel of nails... They would put the small child in the barrel and his body would be pierced by these nails. In the bottom of the barrel they would put a faucet and pour the blood... The Devil or one of the big gods, demanded it of them as a condition for fulfilling their wishes, that they eat [matzah] bread kneaded with the blood of children.

On the holiday of Passover it is forbidden for them to eat regular bread. They prepare their matzahs. These matzahs were not kneaded in the regular way, but rather with the blood of children. When these stories were exposed, the Children of Israel were expelled from all of Europe and the tragedy of the Children of Israel began in all Europe. In the end it reached the point where they were burned in Germany, because of these things, because they kidnapped young children. These stories are known. There is proof of them. They are in court files. There were a lot of trials against the Children of Israel in these matters. You can see a long list of these stories. Even though there is a news blackout about them, they are on the internet. Write: "Jews' bread" in Google, "Jews' bread" or "Jews' matzah" ... You will see all of these stories, and for all of them there is proof and evidence, with dates and police files in which the material is found...

The Freemason lodges are witchcraft gatherings of the Children of Israel. One of the ceremonies, for instance if someone wants to be accepted as a new member, or rise in rank... he has to somehow bring one of his sons or daughters, or his wife or one of his male or female relatives, and put them on the table and slaughter them with his own hands as a sacrifice to Satan, in order to rise in the ranks of the Freemasons. My brothers, this exists until today."

[Al-Msjed Al-Aqsa YouTube channel, May 29, 2015]

Jews controlling Hollywood, Jews behind 9/11, the medieval blood libel and the Jews slaughtering their own families for Satan. Not bad for a single lecture.

Even more obscene than the fact that Muslim leaders teach their students this hate is that they are doing it from the holiest spot in Judaism.

And there will almost certainly not be a peep of protest from a single Muslim Arab who lives in the Middle East. There will be no denunciations. There will be no Arab leaders distancing themselves from these words,

No, this is mainstream, and that is a fact that the West refuses to believe.

06/02 Links Pt1: PLO Prepares to Face Israeli Lawsuits at ICC; Saudi Arabia's First Gaylord Party

From Ian:

UN Watch to Appeal to 54-Nation Body to Overturn NGO Status for Hamas Front

UN Watch announced that it will contest yesterday’s “incomprehensible” decision by a UN committee to recommend NGO status for a group intimately linked to the Hamas terrorist organization, by appealing for it to be overturned by the 54-nation ECOSOC when it meets in July to consider the application.
At UN headquarters in New York yesterday, the 19-nation Committee on NGOs yesterday voted in favor of the application by the Palestinian Return Centre, a Hamas affiliate in Europe, by a vote of 12 to 3.
Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by the European Union, Canada, Israel, Japan, and the United States, and, its armed wing is designated a terrorist organization by Australia and the United Kingdom.
Voting for the Hamas-linked group were committee members China, Cuba, Iran, Venezuela, Nicaragua, South Africa, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Guinea, Turkey, Pakistan and Mauritania.
The USA, Uruguay and Israel opposed the application, while India, Russia and Greece abstained. Burundi was absent.

Gold: World media misled by Hamas version of summer war

Last summer’s war with Hamas in Gaza presented a case of dueling narratives that Israel is still fighting to this day, ambassador Dore Gold told a press briefing at his Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs think tank on Monday.
Gold, a confidant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will be temporarily leaving his post as the head of the JCPA as he assumes his role as the director-general of the Foreign Ministry.
“Part of Israel’s challenge in all these conflicts is when ideas and conclusions are asserted even though they can’t be checked, they become the lingua franca on the nature of the conflict,” he explained.
As an example, he cited unchecked figures from officials, such as then-UN commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay’s assertion that 74 percent of the casualties in the Gaza Strip were civilians.
“You can’t blame the whole UN. It’s one official who decided to go public with a figure that can’t possibly be true,” Gold said, adding that it was impossible to verify such a claim while the war raged and it could only be checked once the dust settled.

Trailer Forthcoming Explosive “War Crimes In Gaza” Documentary

Pierre has said this is now coming very soon! Some top names are interviewed in there such as Col Richard Kemp and Matti Freedman. Pierre Rehov has a long history of making excellent documentaries and I became aware of him after he made the Road to Jenin.

War Crimes In GAZA

Unique Palestinian definition of "refugees" now extends to "displaced persons"

A recent "Nakba" story, published in Palestine News Network, includes this factoid:

Palestinian refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) are the largest and longest-standing case of displaced persons in the world today. There are at least 7.7 million displaced Palestinians including 360,000 IDPs in Israel, representing 66 percent of the entire Palestinian population (12.1 million) worldwide. Among them are 5.0 million who are registered with and assisted by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA).

We've debunked the idea of 7 million Palestinian Arab refugees dozens of times, pointing out that no other group's refugee status is inherited forever.

But doing the same for "internally displaced persons" is new for me.

There were about 30,000 Arabs displaced by the War of Independence in 1948. Now, there are supposedly 360,000 IDPs in Israel, who won't have "justice" until the villages they lived in are rebuilt brick by brick and they can all move back.

It turns out that groups that have created this new category of "displaced persons" have been around since at least 1995. The Association for the Defense of the Rights of the Internally Displaced in Israel (ADRID) won a "human rights" award and $75,000 from the skin care company The Body Shop. This NGO has no website, no known board members, yet based apparently only on its name it can get tens of thousands of dollars from supposed "human rights" experts.

A similar group was started as far back as 1995.

The BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency & Refugee Rights has research papers on this topic.

If you accept the absurdity that "internally displaced persons" is hereditary, then even Palestinian Arabs who "return" to Israel would still be considered IDPs unless they move to their ancestral homes. Since there are far more of them today than in 1948 and they couldn't physically fit in their homes even if they exist, then they are doomed to be "IDPs" forever.

Although, if Jews would be nice enough to evacuate the entire country, then perhaps they will reconsider their status as unending victims.

Jews should create a similar organization for people who were expelled from Gush Etzion and Jerusalem in 1948 along with their descendants and apply for funding. The rejection letters could make an entertaining book.

There are real IDPs and it is a real problem. Redefining Israeli Arabs as IDPs is another attempt to make Palestinian Arabs into the ultimate victims in every context.